Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

I have to admit; I was somewhat perplexed by the head gear that Ivanka Trump was wearing on her trip with daddy to England last week. I couldn't tell whether she'd suffered a head injury or whether wearing a Maxi-Pad on your head had become a thing among the rich. If it was a head injury, we'll certainly never know, since like every Trump, she never seems very compos mentis even on her good days. Maxi-Pad? I don't know. Maybe it's how rich women display some sort of punk rock attitude or it's just a thing in England.

Maybe, I thought, she was just promoting a new hat made for her Made In China/To Hell With Buying American fashion lines. Maybe "the hat" comes with a matching set of MAGA knee pads. Someone added the Dairy Queen logo to her hat for tonight's meme but I can't see Ivanka working at a Dairy Queen. The job would be too exhausting and far too complicated for such a delicate mind. Then, it hit me! Her head gear was just an expression of solidarity with England's Number One family of idiots! The Gumby family of Monty Python fame. How did I not see this straightaway! The resemblance of her siblings, Don Jr. and Eric to the Gumby's is uncanny. It's obvious, The Trumps=The Gumbys! All they lack is that Hitler moustache, for now. It's even a whole administration of Gumbys, Sarah Huckabee Gumby, Steve Mnuchin Gumby, definitely Kellyanne Gumby and Kushner Gumby! Who could forget Spicey Gumby hiding in the bushes? Just check out the clip. All of them need to see the brain specialist, and I know they'd choose Ben Carson Gumby!

Trump Heads Off To Celebrate England’s Increasing Chaos (And Ours)

by Noah

I know lots of people like England and get all warm and fuzzy just thinking about the place. People who know me well know that I’m not one of those. To me, England is just some bizarre theme park celebration of centuries of drunkenness and inbreeding where thoughtless tradition and odious heritage are lionized on an hourly basis. To me, England is just an island Alabama or Mississippi, with a few castles thrown in for the tourists, along with some decrepit “stately homes” that serve as the physical, social, and moral equivalents of the south’s former plantation homes. At least the south bulldozed whatever former slave quarters survived all the decades of hurricanes. England turned “the help’s quarters” into oh so overly quaint Bed & Breakfasts.

I watched Downton Abbey hoping it would burn to the ground and take its supremely dumbass, ill-educated twit, Lord Crawley, Earl of Grantham, with it. He was the bigoted “stable genius” who thought “that Charles Ponzi fellow in New York has a lot of great ideas for investing money.”

If any of what I’ve said, so far, offends you, ask me how many fucks I give; and don’t expect an answer. I base my feelings about England on personal experience gained both from personally visiting the place and having to step over the endless passed out drunks of all ages on the sidewalks while trying to avoid stepping in endless puddles of beer vomit, watching people openly pee along the highways and, even more so, from working for two different English-owned record companies during my 40+ years of working in the music industry. It's a whole country of Brett Kavanaughs.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the musical and artistic contributions of the English. I count myself fortunate to have been able to positively contribute to the careers of several U.K. musicians, photographers, and other artists but much of their art came about as a reaction to their environment, which it should. Even those who celebrate England in their art usually do so with a pair of jaundiced eyes.

I even have English friends but they all moved here to get away from the place due to feelings that pretty much match mine. My primary ancestors had the good sense to leave as well, hundreds of years ago. They sailed west and south in search of a chance at a less oppressive future and an influx of fresh DNA. They found both.

It took me a while, but I learned to park my own prejudices and realize that, like many of England’s artists, what’s bad about England usually points back to the country’s plague of incessant die-hard upper-class twittery and the frequent attitudes of members of what the uppers look down upon as “lesser classes” who live to present themselves in a mode of upper-class pretensions. I’m reminded of one of my former employers who made a lot of money, bought a manor, ran weekend fox hunts, and sat his fat ass in his office during the week reading a racing form with his bare feet up on his desk while picking at his toes and barking out at anyone who could hear him to get him VHS recordings of horse races. The man had a thing for horses. Say no more! I’ve said enough!

******************

Soooo… The way I figure it. Trump heading off to England on the 3rd for a state visit and, ostensibly, a D-Day celebration at the invitation of the grossly incompetent, soon to be ex-Prime Minister Theresa May (whose name Trump still can’t spell correctly), is a natural even though Trump has criticized May for trying to prevent his and Putin’s beloved Brexit. After all, Trump’s also incompetent and he’s got all the mental illness that inbreeding begets even if his comes from a combo of bad parenting and syphilis. He’s also a natural bigot, and he wants to be a Royal: King Donald The First, and, like the British Royals, he even has plenty of Germanic blood and, like the Queen’s Uncle David (the former King Edward) has a history of holding a special place for Nazis in his heart. Trump will no doubt demand that the English handover Julian Assange for his own nefarious purposes of destruction of the free press and creation of a Trumpist totalitarian regime.

The Untied States-England alliance is now a meeting of the minds of the insane and woefully stupid. We may have different characteristics but everything wrong with England has its equivalent or counterpart here That’s most and best reflected in the dangerous low quality of the people that each country has voted to put into positions of leadership and authority.

While Trump is no doubt up to the standards of those in England who voted for Brexit and considered Theresa May to be Prime Minister material, Trump is not up to Queen Elizabeth’s barely higher standards. She reportedly wasn’t very impressed with Trump the last time he appeared in her midst and that appears, at least on the surface, to separate him from the majority of English voters. He even kept her waiting at their last meeting whichic I’m sure she found scintillating. Keeping the Queen waiting is a big no-no but hey, in Trump’s mind, he had to keep her waiting as a statement of “I’m more important than you and you’re a woman besides.” Her sister Margaret would have just kicked his ass, politely, of course.

This time, Trump requested to stay with his idiot family in Buckingham Palace. A man with his own pretensions, he wanted them to have the whole “Royal Experience.” That, apparently, is not to be. The Queen has turned down his request, conveniently citing “renovations.” Trump is fuming because the Obamas got to stay in the royal headquarters. You know that has to grate on what’s left of Trump’s mind, but he will get to have tea with Prince Charles (the Queen’s version of Trump’s bigly-toothed son Eric) and regale him with tales about “high ratings for his trip” and pussy grabbing ‘round the world.

Queen Liz may not be offering a room at the palace but she is committed to having the Trumps over for dinner. Lordy, I hope it’s Burger King. She can even give him a little greasy Burger King crown.

I’m sure Trump would love a tour of the torture rooms in the Tower Of London but there’s no word as to whether that’s in the itinerary. He’d have pictures taken for I.C.E. and Homeland Security, signed, too!

Many “commoners” have had a much better reaction to the Trump visit than the moldy upper crust types. The man who would be King Donald, his Whore of Slovenia, and whatever other fetid two-legged ooze they bring along to England will get a proper greeting in the form of an estimated over 1.1 million English protestors. Milkshakes are at the ready! The Brits use them the same way we use eggs when it comes to protests. The diaper-wearing “Trump Baby” blimps and balloons are bigger than ever before, inflated and ready to take to the skies of England; Scotland, too, of course. The Scots are not enthused. A statement from the Scottish government reads:  

We will not compromise our fundamental values of equality, diversity and human rights, and we expect these values to be made clear during the president’s visit to the U.K.

 Our Trumpanzee of a president is scheduled to see a bigly military display in honor of D-Day, which will no doubt inspire him to again call for his own military parade when he returns to Washington.

When P.M. May suggested the honorific of some sort of traditional gilt carriage ride for Trump (A gold carriage! Perfect!) and an address to Parliament; that really made waves. Many members of England’s Labor Party launched a petition to cancel the trip altogether. It was ignored of course. The trip was already postponed last year and the Nazi-loving powers that be in England thought hostility to the idea of a Trump visit would have cooled off by now. Nope. In fact, it’s grown. Says Nick Dearden of England’s Stop Trump Coalition:

It’s up to us, again, to say Trump is not welcome, and to make his visit as unpleasant as possible. We’re going to aim for maximum disruption.

Now, there’s a true patriot! How will it all end? Obviously, there will be much noise but eventually Trump will leave and sadly be allowed back in our country. Then, ironically, it looks like England will be finally shedding, or should I say, shredding, some of those old staid pretentions of being upper class, but, unfortunately, that’s coming in the form of Boris Johnson, Trump’s moronic, buffoonish English doppelganger, an asylum escapee poster boy and Putin tool, much like Trump, if there ever was one. I mean, just look at this guy.

Boris (How’s that for a Russian name?) Johnson is England’s Trump. He calls black people pickaninnies. He calls the people of Papua New Guinea “cannibals” and people from the Congo have “watermelon smiles.” Republicans here would adore him!





Boris Johnson looks like the kind of people you see in those photo compilations of Walmart customers. What he says and does is a cornucopia of toxic Trump and Russian-backed destruction. Like Prince Charles, he may look like the end result of the centuries of U.K. inbreeding but his supporters aren’t all of the upper class twit variety. That he is so well thought of by millions of Brits says more about poor education and brain damage caused by malnutrition and years of drinking cheep beer that might as well be turpentine. If he were an American, he’d be a threat to Mitch McConnell for the Republican Senate Majority Leader position at the least. He’d be every bit the darling of the Republican Party as much as Trump. I always maintain that drunk voting should be as illegal as drunk driving but, come to think of it, from what I’ve personally seen, both are not just legal in England but encouraged. England is done. Over. Hitler missed his dream by 80 years. He could have save his bombs.

Lastly, I don’t want you dear readers to think I’d end this post without offering a positive solution, a Grand Solution that could help both England and our country see a slim chance at a better future. I think England’s senile Prince Philip, the Queen’s 97-year-old husband, is the key! We’ve all been reading about is problems driving his cars lately. Reports are that the Queen’s staff has taken away his car keys and his driving license, and they’re keeping a very close watch on him.  He’s reportedly heartbroken that he isn’t allowed to get behind the wheel anymore but couldn’t they please, please, please make an exception for the Trump visit? C’mon! Let Prince Philip take President Trump for a ride, Boris Johnson, too… right off the beautiful and fabled white cliffs of Dover! The Prince could die a hero’s death! As a bonus, someone could stuff Nigel Farage into the trunk, or boot as they say over there. If that were to work, I’d be all for adopting a similar practice here. We have an endless list of trunk-worthy politicos of various stripes right here in the good ol’ USA.

Midnight Meme Of The Day!

-by Noah

Who says we can't predict the future? 50 years ago, British comedy troupe Monty Python's Flying Circus showed us more than a mere prescient glimpse of the daily goings on with the Trump administration and any given hour at today's White House full of mental defectives. The Oval Office? Cabinet meetings? We don't need a taping system like Nixon's. We have the above clip. Monty Python nailed it.

Do you really think that people like Trump and Sarah Huckabee Sanders just appeared out of thin air? Nope. Sooner or later, Sarah, Señor Trumpanzee, DeVos, or any of them are going to be walking around smashing things and saying "My brain hurts" not just in private but on national TV. It's the intent of all of their Bizarro World policies anyway.

With Sanders, it will happen when she finally snaps completely and has to be led out of the press room with a needle in her arm. Maybe it'll even happen to Trump during Tuesday's State Of The Union speech. In a true moment of theater of the absurd, I can see the republican half of the congressional audience responding to everything Trump says by bellowing "My brain hurts" while they cheer and applaud their orange fatted idol. I can see them smashing their desks and chairs, chanting "My brain hurts" just like the poor soul in the clip.

Maybe, instead of repeatedly saying "I take the 5th" while he is deposed by Robert Mueller, Trump will just keep repeating "My brain hurts." Admit it, you can see it. "My brain hurts" should be the subtitle on anything any Republican says now. That's what I see whenever I see a republican try to form words.

I expect that "My Brain Hurts" should become the perfect Republican motto for the foreseeable future.

Meanwhile, until these defectives are gone and piled on the rotting scrapheap of history like so many of their antecedents, they are hurting our brains and willfully trying to crush the spirit of America and humanity itself.

Stormy Times Ahead For The U.K.-- Northern Ireland Particularly

Foster and May: bed news for the U.K.

Jack Bernhardt is a British comedy writer. His stuff for The Guardian is witty and well-worth your time. This week though, his most important writing wasn't in The Guardian, but in a Twitter storm about the Unionists this weekend. Actually, it all did start in a Guardian column, Feeling blue about May’s disaster? Reasons to be cheerful if you’re Tory, where he had some politically incorrect laughs at Northern Ireland's expense. "I know that to most of you," he wrote, "Northern Ireland is just where Jeremy Corbyn’s terrorist friends come from-- but it turns out it’s also a country now! Who knew? Not you guys, certainly, given that under the Conservatives power-sharing collapsed last year and you did sweet strong and stable butts about it, but now it’s suddenly become incredibly important with your new, slightly scary bestie Arlene Foster! And that means you’ll be going over there to see the sights: Titanic Belfast, the Giant’s Causeway, the populace that voted over 60% remain and is becoming increasingly concerned about the prospect of a hard border post-Brexit, and Victoria Square! It’s fancy, it’s got a House of Fraser and everything! Sure, you may have to a deal with some slightly unsavoury members of the DUP, many of whom have some pretty retro ideas about things such as same-sex marriage and abortion, but think of it more like making new friends. Who you have to get along with, and make concessions to, otherwise they’ll fire you from your job. Fun!"

OK, so what's this all about? As you know, Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May managed to lose her parliamentary majority-- down 13 seats to 317 (9 fewer than needed to elect a prime minister). Arlene Foster is the head of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP, or the Unionists), Northern Ireland's biggest party, and they managed to win 10 seats in Parliament Thursday. The party was founded by far right Protestant extremist Ian Paisley, a terrorist, in 1971. Foster took over in 2015. She has agreed to support Theresa May's minority government, something the Daily Mirror commemorated with this memorable front page:

The party is virulently anti-gay and anti-Choice, xenophobic, anti-EU and is riven with climate change deniers and religionist lunatics. Below are a series of Bernhardt tweets that began with this one: "So the DUP's inherent bigotry, homophobia, climate change and evolution denial should disbar them from mainstream politics, full stop. But." And was followed by this eye-catcher:

• I sound like a broken record but please please please can we talk about how powersharing has collapsed in Northern Ireland?

• It's been like this for three months. This crisis dates back to the Cash for Ash scandal involving current head of the DUP Arlene Foster.

• It's a frankly unbelievable story of sleaze at the top of NI politics. It would be difficult for most governments to deal with.

• Add in the inherent sectarian tension in Northern Irish politics, plus heightened fears over a hard border post-Brexit, and it's paralysing.

• Sinn Fein pulled out of the executive in protest at Arlene Foster, triggering elections which eventually gave SF an increased vote share

• They had six weeks after that point to form a government. SF demanded Foster quit as head of DUP, she refused. Again. Things got more tense.

• The deadline for forming government passed. At that point either ANOTHER election had to be called, or you revert to Direct Rule.

• At this point Westminster woke up. The idea of Northern Ireland slipping back to Direct Rule months before Brexit negotiations = NOT GOOD.

• So at the end of March James Brokenshire went over to NI to generally just ask people to get along/be totally useless. It didn't work.

• He said there was no appetite for another election (true) and no appetite for Direct Rule (also true). So they just extended the deadline.

• Keep in mind, this is end of March. We've just triggered Article 50 and we're currently having a totally pointless argument about Gibraltar.

• Should we have been having a discussion about the steady erosion of the peace process in Northern Ireland instead? YEAH MAYBE.

• The deadline is shunted on further. Talks between SF & DUP are going nowhere. But at least the UK government is aware of the problem now.

• Things are tense, complicated and messy. You know what the situation doesn't need? A snap general election.

• Suddenly Northern Ireland is facing the prospect of ANOTHER election, for Westminster this time, while dealing with a constitutional crisis.

• So the deadline gets shunted until after the election. The parties are now negotiating and campaigning at the same time. Great stuff.

• And so to yesterday. SF get 8, DUP 10. The more moderate SDLP, UUP and Alliance fall away. Northern Ireland is more polarised than ever.

• Before today, TM's government has been criminally negligent of Northern Ireland. Think about how little you've heard about NI this election.

• It was only ever brought up in relation to Corbyn and the IRA. There was NO discussion of Stormont impasse, or even the border post-Brexit.

• You'd think we'd have learnt our lesson after the EU referendum and actually thought about the consequences of a Hard Brexit in NI. But no.

• So here we are, June 9th, 10 days before Brexit negotiations, with no Stormont government and mass confusion over the NI Brexit border.

• We have three months of inaction. We have the DUP and SF in a stalemate. The deadline is approaching again. Direct rule looms.

• These problems will only be solved by careful, strategic leadership from Westminster, working with both parties to deescalate the situation.

• What Theresa May has done today has destroyed any hope of that. At one of the most dangerous times in its recent history, May has done this.

• Any pretense that the UK government could be neutral in this is gone. Their entire existence is now dependent on the DUP.

• Direct rule is not an option because the DUP has an unrealistic amount of sway over Westminster. It throws the balance of power totally off.

• Arlene Foster, who should have resigned months ago for her rank corruption, now holds more power over the UK government than...anyone?

• The next deadline, by the way, is June 29th. But now the DUP is in bed with the UK government, will James Brokenshire have any authority?

• Has anyone in gov thought about what happens when THAT expires? Why should Sinn Fein treat the UK gov as a neutral arbiter after that?

• Power-sharing relies on a neutral UK government. If the government is beholden to one side in power-sharing, it is fatally undermined.

• It's hard to see what happens in N Ireland without power-sharing or without direct rule. Either it will float on, pushing that deadline...

• ...or the whole thing is irrevocably damaged and the system implodes.

For what, a two seat majority?

• I may be wrong - there may be some incredible fudge that Tories/DUP/SF have planned. Maybe the DUP are hoping the SF will just accept it.

• I pray TM has a plan beyond "keep the DUP onside, stay in power". If she doesn't, she's thrown Northern Ireland into chaos for nothing.

Meanwhile, Theresa May is working on a new cabinet that will be dealing with Brexit and... oh, all sorts of other important stuff governments do (or don't do, as the case may be):

Thanks, Eric Idle! "Jesus Christ: A Lust for Glory" -- now there's a movie I would have paid to see

Did you know that, "according to one study," "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" -- the weirdly infectious ditty Eric Idle concocted for the climactic cluster crucifixion of Monty Python's Life of Brian, and which he a-sings and a-whistles here in an attempt to cheer up the downhearted Brian (Graham Chapman) -- is "the most requested song at British funerals, edging out 'My Way' "?

by Ken

If we must have our celebrities permanently in motion, on a rotating basis, in an unstoppable international whirligig of media whoring, and apparently we must, then we can at least cherish such moments of grace as this, when one of the lesser whores-of-the-moment is a Python, as is the case now, at least in the Big Apple, where Eric Idle has been preparing to unleash his oratorio Not the Messiah (He’s a Very Naughty Boy), written with John Du Prez and based on the classic Python film Life of Brian, on the New York public, and at no less than Carnegie Hall. A flacking Python, after all, is apt to be way more entertaining than most any other specimen.

If nothing else, it's just nice to see and hear the 71-year-old gadfly. And now I'm inspired to share a story, which you've probably heard but I hadn't, that Eric shares with The New Yorker's Michael Schulman in a "Talk of the Town" interview, "Jester," in the December 22 issue.

The story concerns Life of Brian, which tells the confusing story of a confused lad -- a long, long way from the sharpest tack among the youth of biblical Judea -- who if things had worked out differently just might have been the Messiah. (Well, somebody had to be. But it wasn't Brian.)

To Schulman, Eric owns up that the picture was "my fault."

“We were here opening ‘Holy Grail,’ and a journalist said, ‘What’s your next film?’ And I said, ‘Jesus Christ: Lust for Glory.’ ” After concluding that “you can’t send up Christ,” he went on, the Pythons invented Brian Cohen, a Judean nincompoop mistaken for the Messiah.

It's worth remembering, as Eric does in the New Yorker piece, that when Life of Brian was being rolled out, "The night before it opened in New York, a thousand rabbis came to protest it."

Artistic history is littered with projects that were contemplated and perhaps pursued but never brought to fruition. Somewhere in the upper reaches of that list I'm not slotting in Jesus Christ: Lust for Glory. And somewhat farther down on the list is that epic tale of sectarian protest A Thousand Rabbis.

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Do You Enjoy Reading? Economic Inequality-- (Almost) The Whole Story

Over the weekend, CNN published a crowd-sourced list of the 99-- like in the 99%-- must-reads on income inequality. The titles that are linked are available online or are avilable in the DWT online book store.

1. "The Price of Inequality," by Joseph Stiglitz

2. "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man," by John Perkins

3. "Player Piano," by Kurt Vonnegut (Vonnegut's first novel; according to the back cover, it's a "chilling tale of engineer Paul Proteus, who must find a way to live in a world dominated by a super computer and run completely by machines.")

4. "Economic Growth and Income Inequality", by Simon Kuznets

5. "Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else," by Chrystia Freeland

6. "The Unwinding," by George Packer

7. "A Tale of Two Cities," by Charles Dickens (Heard of him?)

8. "Atlas Shrugged," Ayn Rand ("I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.")

9. "How Class Works," animation, by Richard Wolff

10. "Random Family," by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc

11. "Behind Beautiful Forevers," by Katherine Boo (The Pulitzer-winner explores inequality in Mumbai's "undercity.")

12. "Highly profitable companies..." by Matthew Yglesias, Slate

13. "In Climbing Income Ladder, Location Matters," NYTimes.com map (National map shows a poor kid's odds of climbing to the top of the income ladder, by location.)

14. "A Framework for Understanding Poverty," by Ruby Payne

15. "The Big Sort," by Bill Bishop

16. The Bible (James, Chapters 2 and 5, and the books of Job and John were recommended. From James: "Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, 'Here's a good seat for you,' but say to the poor man, 'You stand there' or 'Sit on the floor by my feet,' have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?")

17. "The Other America," by Michael Harrington

18. "The One Percent," documentary by Jamie Johnson (The Johnson & Johnson heir is pretty good at biting the hand that feeds him.)

19. "Progress and Poverty," by Henry George

20. "Winner Take All Politics," by Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson

21. "The Haves and the Have-Nots," by Branko Milanovic

22. "A Theory of Justice," by John Rawls

23. "Park Avenue" documentary, by Alex Gibney (New York's Park Avenue is home to enormous wealth and excruciating poverty.)

24. "Wealth Inequality in America," YouTube video

25. "Inequality and New York's Subway," by The New Yorker (This is fascinating in its minimalism. See median household incomes mapped by subway stop.)

26. "Nickel and Dimed," by Barbara Ehrenreich (Just read it. The author tries to live on low-wage jobs and finds it's nearly impossible. Heartfelt and so well-written.)

27. "The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger," by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett

28. "Wealth of Nations," by Adam Smith

29. "The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism," by George Bernard Shaw

30. "740 Park," by Michael Gross (Gross examines one of the richest buildings in the world.)

31. "Savage Inequalities," by Jonathan Kozol

32. "The Jungle," by Upton Sinclair

33. Podcast on the "Economics of Enough"

34. "America the Beautiful," by Ben Carson

35. Nick Hanauer's TED Talk on income inequality (video up top)

36. "The Case for Happiness-Based Economics," by Kentaro Toyama

37. "Superclass," by David Rothkopf

38. "Love and Capital," by Mary Gabriel

39. "Why the rich don't give to charity," by Ken Stern, The Atlantic ("One of the most surprising, and perhaps confounding, facts of charity in America is that the people who can least afford to give are the ones who donate the greatest percentage of their income. In 2011, the wealthiest Americans-- those with earnings in the top 20%-- contributed on average 1.3% of their income to charity. By comparison, Americans at the base of the income pyramid-- those in the bottom 20 percent-- donated 3.2% of their income.")

40. The Poverty Clinic, by Paul Tough, The New Yorker

41. "The House I Live In," documentary by Eugene Jarecki

42. "Screwed," by Thom Hartmann

43. "Richistan," by Robert Frank

44. "You Call This Democracy?" by Paul Kivel

45. "The Conscience of a Liberal," by Paul Krugman

46. "The Wretched of the Earth," by Frantz Fanon

47. "Reckless Endangerment," by Gretchen Morgenson and Joshua Rosner

48. "Ill Fares the Land," by Tony Judt

49. "The FairTax Book," by Neal Boortz (Wanna get rid of the IRS? Here's your book.)

50. "Taxes and the Economy: An Economic Analysis of the Top Tax Rates Since 1945" by Thomas Hungerford, for the Congressional Research Service

51. "Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts," by Karl Marx

52. "The Grapes of Wrath," by John Steinbeck

53. "The American Way of Eating," by Tracie McMillan

54. "Animal Farm," by George Orwell ("All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.")

55. "How much inequality is necessary for growth," by Fuad Hasanov and Oded Izraeli, Harvard Business Review ("Although our findings suggest that modest increases can generate growth, other data indicate that heightened inequality shortens growth spells and may halt growth. Reducing inequality, though, has clear benefits over time: It strengthens people's sense that society is fair, improves social cohesion and mobility, and broadens support for growth initiatives. Policies that aim for growth but ignore inequality may ultimately be self-defeating, then, whereas policies that decrease inequality by, say, boosting employment and education have beneficial effects on the human capital that modern economies increasingly need.")

56. "The Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic Study of Institutions," by Thorstein Veblen

57. "Orange is the New Black," Netflix series

58. "Wage Inequality and the Rise in Returns to Skill," by Chinhui Juhn et al

59. "Rules for Radicals," by Saul Alinsky

60. "Mayday for America's Middle Class," by Hedrick Smith ("If America is going to get beyond paralyzing gridlock and dangerous brinkmanship in the budget battles this fall, what's needed is a shift in the economic mind-set that has dominated Washington for three decades. To paraphrase what Albert Einstein reportedly said at the dawn of the Atomic Age in 1945: You cannot solve a problem with the same thinking that created it.")

61. "Why Nations Fail," by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson

62. "Income Inequality in the United States, 1913-2002," by Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez

63. "Unequal Democracy," by Larry Bartels

64. "Wealth and Poverty," George Gilder

65. "Rich Schools, Poor Schools," by Arthur Wise

66. The Catechism of the Catholic Church-- Social Justice (A reader suggested Chapter 2, Article 3. One excerpt: "Socio-economic problems can be resolved only with the help of all the forms of solidarity: solidarity of the poor among themselves, between rich and poor, of workers among themselves, between employers and employees in a business, solidarity among nations and peoples. International solidarity is a requirement of the moral order; world peace depends in part upon this.")

67. Dorothea Lange's photography (Think Dust Bowl.)

68. "The Working Poor: Invisible in America," by David Shipler

69. "All You Can Eat: How Hungry is America," by Joel Berg

70. "Targeting the Wealthy Kills Jobs," by T.J. Rodgers, Wall Street Journal

71. "If You're an Egalitarian, How Come You're So Rich?" by G.A. Cohen

72. The Inequality Issue of The Economist

73. "The Capitalist Revolution," by Peter L. Berger

74. "Getting Rich: America's New Rich and How They Got That Way," by Lisa A. Keister

75. "13 Bankers," by Simon Johnson and James Kwak

76. "The Status Syndrome: How Social Standing Affects Our Health and Longevity," by Michael Marmot

77. "Worlds Apart: Why Poverty Persists in Rural America," by Cynthia Duncan

78. "America: What Went Wrong," by the Philadelphia Inquirer (This 1990s newspaper series really stuck one reader, who wrote in an e-mail to me that "it took my breath away when I read it as a young man in my late 20's; and it continues to have a profound impact on my thinking today-- particularly about concerns over the American middle class.")

79. "Out of this furnace," by Thomas Bell

80. "Equality and Efficiency: The Big Trade Off" by Arthur Okun

81. "The New Good Life," by John Robbins

82. "Workonomics" section of Upworthy.com (Engineered for clickability, with headlines like, "Hey Broke People: This Statistic Will Piss You Off.")

83. "The United States of Inequality" video, BillMoyers.com

84. Monty Python clip on "Constitutional Peasants" ("Oh, there you go, bringing class into it again ...")



85. "The Other Wes Moore," by Wes Moore (From an online book description: "Two kids named Wes Moore were born blocks apart within a year of each other. Both grew up fatherless in similar Baltimore neighborhoods and had difficult childhoods; both hung out on street corners with their crews; both ran into trouble with the police. How, then, did one grow up to be a Rhodes Scholar, decorated veteran, White House Fellow, and business leader, while the other ended up a convicted murderer serving a life sentence? Wes Moore, the author of this fascinating book, sets out to answer this profound question.")

86. "Moral Man and Immoral Society," by Reinhold Niebuhr

87. "The Politics of Rich and Poor," by Kevin Phillips

88. "A Modest Proposal," by Jonathan Swift

89. "Class War? What Americans Really Think about Economic Inequality," by Benjamin I. Page and Lawrence R. Jacobs

90. "Five American Authors on Wealth Poverty and Inequality," by Ichiro Kawachi and Philippa Howden Chapman

91. "Caesar's Column," by Ignatius Donnelly

92. "The Time Machine," by H.G. Wells

93. "Debt: The First 5,000 Years," by David Graeber

94. "The Great Gatsby," by F. Scott Fitzgerald ("The loneliest moment in someone's life is when they are watching their whole world fall apart, and all they can do is stare blankly.")

95. "How Unequal Can America Get," YouTube of Robert Reich (video below)

96. "Twilight of the Elites," by Christopher Hayes

97. "Third World America," by Arianna Huffington

98. "It's the inequality, stupid," by Dave Gilson and Carolyn Perot, Mother Jones ("A huge share of the nation's economic growth over the past 30 years has gone to the top one-hundredth of one percent, who now make an average of $27 million per household. The average income for the bottom 90% of us? $31,244.")

99. "The Maximum Wage," by Sam Pizzigati

Germany vs Greece... In Perspective

Yesterday the German and Greek national soccer teams met for the Euro 2012 quarter final match. "Kick the Germans Out of the Euro" blasted one Greek newspaper. Greece national pride was at stake... what's left of it. Like the Russians-- who the Greeks beat-- Germany was favored to win. Unlike the Russians, though-- and unlike the outcome in the Monty Python skit above-- the Germans won. Outside of Germany, and perhaps Mitt Romney's campaign headquarters, the world was cheering for Greece. Greece will need that goodwill next week, when the new corporate-backed pro-Austerity government begs Germany to lighten up a little on the overly harsh Austerity-mania that has caused massive unemployment and social dislocation from one end of Greece to the other.

People are tempted to recall the brutal Nazi occupation of Greece (1941-44, in which Germany wrecked the Greek economy, something at the root of Greece's current problems) but Merkel has more in common with Othon, Greece's first king (1832). Othon was actually Prince Otto Friedrich Ludwig, a young Bavarian who the Great Powers presented to the Greeks after independence from the Ottoman Empire. Plagued by financial woes in the new-born kingdom, he ruled as an absolute monarch, something that proved unpopular with the Greeks, who forced him to grant a constitution 10 years after he and his gang of Bavarians (the "Bavarocracy") took over. Britain, which was then what Germany aspires to today, and the Rothschild bank (a kind of a Wall Street/Bankenstadt in it's time), who were underwriting the Greek loans were-- believe it or not-- demanding... Austerity. The Greeks quickly found themselves paying higher taxes than they did under the Ottomans, much of the money going to pay-- you guessed it-- exorbitant interest from the foreign banksters. Eventually the Greeks rose up and kicked Otto out of the country.

Today the German banksters are pissed off that the Greeks aren't... German enough. Germany has set all sorts of fiscal and economic targets for them and the Greeks, they think, aren't trying hard enough to meet them fast enough. Most Germans want to kick Greece out of the Eurozone. Although the Greeks work longer hours than Germans do, the German people consider Greeks lazy and shiftless. Greeks are getting sick of the German's and more and more of them are ready for an Otto-like break. A recent Pew poll shows that 78% of Greeks have an unfavorable opinion of Germany and 84% think Angela Merkel is doing an especially unfortunate job dealing with the current economic debacle.

And Alexis Tsipras' Syriza isn't the only political party rallying Greeks who are fed up with Austerity and the Germans. Less than 4 months ago the Independent Greeks formed as a party in the village of Distomo, where Nazi troops massacred 218 locals in 1944 and one of the party’s main policies is to demand reparations from Germany for the Nazi crimes during World War II. They certainly got more votes than the local Nazi Party (Golden Dawn) and have 20 deputies in the new Parliament. The spirit of the soccer match in Poland yesterday wasn't too lovey-dovey between Germans and Greeks.

For Greeks, Germany now represents austerity and foreign diktats. For Germans, the Greeks represent tax-dodging wastrels looking for handouts. “Goodbye Greeks,” declared the front page of the daily newspaper Bild on Friday; the paper has previously published calls for Greek islands and even the Acropolis to be sold. “Today we can’t rescue you.”

...Every time Ms. Merkel appeared on the giant monitors in the stadium here, cheering Germany on, the blue-clad Greeks booed and whistled with gusto.“This is a football game, but it also has a political message,” said Giorgos Helakis, 48, the editor of Sport Day newspaper in Greece, who came to Gdansk for the match. Sport Day on Friday ran the headline “Bankrupt them!”

In Germany, there is frustration over what is perceived as insults in exchange for assistance. Nazi taunts at protests and in newspapers against the Germans, who invaded Greece during World War II, have not gone unnoticed in Berlin.

The new Greek pro-Austerity coalition, hopes to walk a tightrope between the Greek people and the Germans/banksters. Earlier today the coalition, in preparation for talks next week with creditors, announced it would basically beg to be allowed to suspend some layoffs in the public sector (150,000 jobs), end union-busting measures that the IMF is trying to impose, reverse cuts in the minimum wage and to unemployment benefits (the European Central Bank-- in other words, the Germans-- are demanding that unemployment benefits last only one year, not two), and suspend the harsher austerity measures the Germans are demanding. According to The Guardian, Angela Merkel "has made it clear that she has no intention of renegotiating the Greek package, which was agreed in February after weeks of talks-- though Europe's leaders may fear the reaction of Greece's voters if they fail to offer them anything."

Simon Derrick, currency strategist at BNY Mellon, pointed out that Athens's position was weak because it urgently needs the next tranche of bailout money, which the "troika" of the European Central Bank, IMF and European commission will only release if it is satisfied that the country is complying with its austerity programme.

"They don't have the luxury of entering into protracted negotiations: they don't have any bargaining power," he said. "I think they lose-- I think the troika wins. The key question is, how do the Greek public react to that?"

And now for something completely different: Midnight calling, Monty Python-style

Michael Palin's Pole to Pole journey begins, logically enough, at the North Pole. But in the Pole to Pole book Michael explains that, while most of the journey took place between July and December 1991, no pilot could be found foolhardy enough to risk landing on the increasingly treacherous Arctic ice as late in the summer as July, and so the first leg of the journey, from the pole as far as Tromsø, Norway, was in fact carried out and filmed earlier, in May 1991.

by Ken

In my ongoing project of establishing myself as the world's most shameless Michael Palin toady (that link is where where we saw the start of of MP's third travel series, Full Circle, his journey around the Pacific Rim; but also look here and here), I've stumbled across an anecdote I can't resist sharing for the benefit of Monty Python fans.

The anecdote is from the early going of the second of MP's big serialized filmed journeys for BBC, Pole to Pole, which began at the North Pole and over the second half of 1991 was designed to work southward, as closely as possible along the 30th-degree East meridian, through Scandinavia, the Soviet Union, Turkey, and the whole length of Africa, and on to the South Pole. (That, I stress, was the design. The actuality proved different in a number of ways.) Pole to Pole had been preceded by a 1989 trip Around the World in 80 Days, which fell into Michael's life serendipitously (he was at best the BBC's third choice, though they didn't mention this to him at the time) but in fact fit a longtime life plan he had formulated, as we read in his now-published two volumes of diaries: Diaries 1969-1979: The Python Years and Diaries 1980-1988: Halfway to Hollywood (apparently still not published in the U.S.), which takes us literally up to the day of his Around the World departure.

That plan, based on his considerable professional success in his 20s and early 30s, was to retire at 40 and devote himself to writing travel books -- that is, the kind of travel books he would want to read. Now I don't know if we could call what he's done these last 25-plus years (he turns 67 in May) "retirement," and he was already 45 by the time he boarded the English leg of the Orient Express heading round the world, but I think it's safe to say that he wound up doing something even better: inventing his own form of video travel series -- and, yes, publishing a book on each journey. And the books, based mostly on his diaries of those periods, complement rather than duplicate the actual series, as I'm in the process of discovering.

PALIN'S TRAVELS ON DVD

By the way, since we last talked about the DVD editions, when I noted that the U.K. Region 2 PAL edition of The Michael Palin Collection could be had for a fraction of the price of the U.S. edition, the availabilities have changed somewhat. There is now an American Michael Palin Collection (on 19 DVDs) that includes all the series through New Europe, offered by Amazon.com for a mere $224.99; other Amazon vendors are selling it for a bit under $192. However, in the U.K., the 19-CD Palin Collection has been superseded by a 20-CD set called Michael Palin's Travels, including in addition the 20-years-later sequel to Around the World, which Amazon.co.uk is selling at the moment for £46.98, or about $74. If you can play Region 2 PAL DVDs, this might be a time to spring into action.

Note: U.S. shoppers need to beware of the "bargain" combo package Amazon is currently offering: the 19-CD Palin Collection, which of course includes New Europe, plus a separate copy of New Europe, plus -- I swear this is what's listed and pictured -- a copy of the original Around the World (I presume what was intended was the new 20 Years Later show, but if they ship you the original series, don't be surprised; it's what they promised, after all) -- all for a combined price of (are you ready for this?) only $314.97! What did P. T. Barnum say about the frequency of suckers being born?

Oh yes, the anecdote! Sorry about the distraction -- er, distractions.

At this point in the Pole to Pole journey, Michael and his traveling crew have made their way down from the Arctic port city of Tromsø in the north of Norway, first farther up the northern coast in order to be able to get into Finland, then down the length of western Finland -- necessarily straying well to the west of the 30th East meridian -- to Helsinki. After arrival in the Finnish capital, and an afternoon and evening with no planned activities, and an opportunity to enjoy the luxuries of "civilization" after the rigors of the Scandinavian leg of the journey, Michael has gone to bed, hoping for the benefit of a full night's sleep.

At a quarter to midnight the telephone rings. It's a particularly insistent Finn who wants to talk to me for his university newspaper. In vain I point out the time, the fact that I was asleep, and the work I have to do tomorrow.

"I am down here in the lobby," he persists.

"I am doing an article, please, on John Cleese and I think you know him . . ."

That does it.

"I am in bed. I have four months' traveling ahead of me, and I have no time to talk about John Cleese!"

Somewhat surprisingly, this seems to amuse my caller greatly, and only then do I recognize in the cackle of non-Finnish laughter the unmistakable tones of a tall fellow Python.

"I just rang to see how you were getting on," wheezes John cheerfully . . . and I remember how much he enjoyed doing Scandinavian accents.

A younger Mr. Palin and Mr. Cleese find themselves famously unable to reach agreement as to whether the "Norwegian blue" parrot under examination is dead or merely "resting" ("tired and shagged out") -- or perhaps "pining for the fjords"? (Note: We saw a complete version of the legendary Parrot Sketch here. We also watched here as Mr. Cleese, now as Basil Fawlty, tried to cope with the profoundly hard-of-hearing Mrs. Richards, who you'll recall refused to turn her hearing aid on because she didn't want to run the battery down -- in perhaps the same way, I was trying to suggest, that so many Americans prefer not to turn their brains on.)

#

Newt, You Dirty, Dirty Dog!

By NOAH
 
This week, Newt Gingrich, the man who once sought to impeach his way into the White House, awarded one of his “Entrepreneur of The Year” awards to Pink Visual, a porn DVD superstore, but after being discovered, has pulled out of all consummation activities.
 
Pink Visual’s Allison Vivas, was notified, by fax, of the award by Gingrich’s American Solutions for Winning the Future (ASWF) organization. She was informed that she’d been chosen for a 2009 Entrepreneur of the Year award by Gingrich’s Business Defense and Advisory Council. Think Progress has obtained a copy of the notification.
 
               Private Rooms Available!

“Newt would like to arrange a PRIVATE (Oooh la la!) dinner with you at the historic Capitol Hill Club on the evening of October 7, 2009 in Washington. You’ll dine privately with Newt at this exclusive (No Jews? No blacks? No doubt?) club and he’ll take the occasion to present you with your well deserved (“You’ve been a very good girl.”) award and have your photo taken together.” (“Get away, you creepy man!”)
                                          
             Size Matters
 
“This tremendous honor is a testament to your success in building your business and recognition of the risks you take to create jobs and STIMULATE the economy. As an award winner, you’ll be on the ground floor… Newt is looking forward to hearing your ideas on getting the economy moving again and getting your feedback on his plans over dinner.”

There you have it. The economy is so bad, that for many, porn is the only way out. ThinkProgress contacted Gingrich aide Joe Gaylord (An obvious screen name if there ever was one!) but found him UNRESPONSIVE. ASWF has reportedly called Pink Visual with the premature withdraw news, saying that the award was “inadvertent.”

Pink Visual’s marketing coordinator Q Boyer isn’t buying it any more than any rational person would:
 
                        Inquiring Minds Want To Know

“Allison was disappointed to receive a call this morning from an ASWF representative… We’re not entirely clear on how one ‘inadvertently’ sends a fax to the right person at the correct fax number, so our sense is that this is damage control on the part of a group that is having second thoughts…”
 
Ironically, Gingrich led a 1995 press conference to announce the Christian Coalition’s 10-point “Contract With The American Family.” One of the 10 points called for a restriction on porn. I’m assuming that there were exemptions for people such as the porn again reverend Jimmy Swaggart who was once pulled over with a hooker and a big pile o’ porn in the car. I am also curious about how Gingrich’s outfit judges companies. What is the basis on which one is given an award? Who examines the products? Is there a David Vitter Golden Diaper Award?

ThinkProgress also reports that listed on the PRIVATE DINNER agenda is time for VIDEO presentations (Say no more!). In the fax sent to Vivas, Gaylord circled the video mention and added the note:
 
“Please come prepared to share your thoughts on how we can help your business.” (Nudge, nudge, Wink. Wink!)

                  Bad, Naughty Boys. Nasty Bad Naughty Boys.

I don’t know about you, but I might be pretty creeped out by the thought of Newt Gingrich watching his secret porn collection for a very long time. Clarence Thomas’s box set of Long Dong Silver videos and the rumored circumstances around the resignation of Newt’s successor, Rep. Bob Livingston was bad enough.