Countdown dedicated half of their show today on the real definition of “small business” as the Republicans are using it to make the case for extending the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. The “small” in “small business” refers to the number of owners. So companies like the Chicago Tribune are considered “small businesses.” The biggest “small business”? Bechtel with over $30 billion in revenue each year. Yep: ol’ mom and pop Bechtel! I’m worried about them making ends meet.

From the beginning, I’ve thought that Helen Thomas got a raw deal over her comment that the Jews should get out of Palestine. She wasn’t referring to refugees after WWII. She was talking about the current practice of Israel allowing Jews from all over the world to immigrate directly into illegal and quasi-legal settlements in Palestine. But this was never discussed, because unlike in Israel, in American we cannot say anything bad about Israel. Matthew Duss doesn’t discuss it either, but he does show that there is a double standard about the way people can talk about Israelis versus Palestinians. Calling Israel on their bullshit is not antisemitic. As I’ve noted before, liberal Israelis are very upset about this situation. This can’t be an issue that we are not allowed to discuss.

Howard Fineman is leaving Newsweek to head the Huffington Post. Fineman isn’t horrible in my experience of him, but Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting brings to light much that is troubling about his long career. As they say, “In his 30 years as a reporter and pundit at Newsweek, Fineman could be counted on to represent the conventional take on politics. For example, Fineman is forever either urging Democratic politicians to move to the right or praising them for doing so.” That does pretty much sum up the supposed liberal media.

It is so good to be done with Bush:

Yeah, it’s sentimental and staged. But it’s still truthful.

Ars technica has reported on a study about how skeptics discount scientific consensus by casting doubts on the scientific experts. Basically it says that if an expert says what they want to hear, they go along with it; if not, not. I don’t think there is any doubt of this, but I question the study itself. For one thing, they describe conservatives as “individualistic” and liberals as “hierarchical.” This is a real problem. Unfortunately, I don’t have a link, but it has been pretty well established that conservatives actually value hierarchical structures and acceptance of authority far more than liberals. In fact, what most seems to define liberals is that they do not acceptable authority—instead they mostly value individuality and empathy. In modern American politics, does anyone question that the teabaggers are not for individual freedom, despite what they claim? The group is overwhelmingly socially conservative, which is to say that they believe that proper behavior is comes from some law from on high. I know I have my blind spots, but that does not make my intellectually expansive world view at all equivalent to the anti-intellectual claptrap of American conservatism.

I still believe that video games could be far less pathetic than they now are. In fact, I think that there are many old game ideas that have been abandoned in the name of the current 3-D shot-em-ups. But I’ve seen this commercial for Civilization V with the tag, “What will your civilization stand for?” Fuck! What does any civilization stand for? Self-perpetuation. Or maybe I’ve just lived in America for too long.

Mr. Johnston has a confusing middle name. It is pronounced “kay” as in “Mary Kay.” So I thought I heard people refer to him as “David C. Johnston” and “David K. Johnston”! I figured some people weren’t doing their homework, but I did mine and found out so had they.

I read David Cay Johnston‘s Free Lunch today, and it made me really angry. The subtitle of the book is, “How the wealthiest Americans enrich themselves at government expense (and stick you with the bill).” That about sums it up. It tells stories of large companies that get huge government subsidies for opening up stores. As Johnston points out, if a large sporting goods store opens in a town, there are going to be no tax revenue increases, because without such a store, people would just buy their sporting goods elsewhere. In fact, if the large sporting goods store charges less, the government will get less tax revenue. Usually the argument is made that the store will be a destination and that people will come from hundreds of miles to shop at these stores. In reality, this is never the case. What’s more, in virtually all cases, the government subsidies are much greater than any increased revenues.

He also spends time on professional sports. It turns out that none of the major sports leagues in America (baseball, football, basketball) would be profitable without government subsidies. Yes, some particular teams are profitable, but not any league taken together. This is mostly because the teams get local governments to pay for their expensive playing arenas. What’s more, since the leagues have a monopoly, ticket prices are on average $15 more than they would be in a free market. (Why are there 30 MLB teams? Because MLB says so. Why do they get to say so? Because Congress granted them the monopoly.)

The most shocking thing I learned was that many large retailers work out deals with the state and local authorities to not pay sales tax. So when you go to WalMart and buy a shirt, you are actually paying 9.25% more (in California) than you are if you bought it at a smaller place like Ross. In other words, WalMart gets to mark their prices 9.25% lower than what they are really charging you.

What really made me made about this book, however, was thinking about what my father would think of it. I told him about the sales tax scam and he was outraged. And I know if I could get him to read the whole book, he would agree with it. But he has been so poisoned by Faux News and Hate Radio that it would have a different meaning to him. He wouldn’t see that all these giveaways to the rich are the result of all these people he listens to who claim to be for free markets. He would blame exactly the politicians who are fighting this kind of theft. It would most likely make him think just what the teabaggers think: the problem with Republicans is that they aren’t conservative enough!

There is something to this. As Johnston points out, the two people in Congress who most consistently fight against this kind of thing are socialist Bernie Sanders and libertarian Ron Paul. But I’ve never known my father to really embrace libertarianism, and as much as the teabaggers claim to be libertarians, they are anything but. People of this ilk (including libertarians, but at least you can have an intelligent conversation with them) don’t understand how much their way of life depends upon the government and other people. Understanding why progressive taxation is the only morally acceptable form of taxation is a prerequisite for any real understanding of what is wrong in American politics. I am working on an essay about it, but it is harder to explain than a “flat tax,” which is simple and sounds good, but is evil incarnate.

I’m really tired and I am cramming for a job interview—a good one that will let me pay off my $100,000 in medical bills and tens of thousands of dollars in back taxes. Plus no one (give or take me) reads this anyway. So here is episode ten of the third season of Elon James White’s This Week In Blackness:

Alone as usual, but I eat better than you.

The Clarifying Chaos

William Saletan wrote a wonderful overview of the whole Koran burning episode and how it relates to the Park51 project. I’m afraid it is written at too high a level to be of much use to those who need it most. Basically, Saletan says that we speak only for ourselves. He suggests that “Eventually, it will dawn on [Palin, Gingrich, and their chorus of right-wing commentators] that the Muslims who want to swim, eat, and worship at a community center in Lower Manhattan really are different from the Muslims who flew planes into the World Trade Center.” I wonder how I can get in on some of this group hate? I mean, I know I qualify as an intellectual elitist (I was called that recently), but I think everyone knows they need smart people. What group am I part of that can be hated? Who is Merritt Stone?!

All or Nothing

The Republicans (in the Senate anyway) really do seem to be set on refusing to give a tax cut to 97% of the nation in the name of giving really big tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires. It used to be the Democrats who snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, but it looks like the Republicans have taken over. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell keeps claiming that most people are for extending the tax cuts for those families making over a quarter million dollars a year (just $200,000 for single folk). In fact, it is really just the usual 30% wacko Republicans who are for this. November is looking up! Speaking of which…

O’Donnell Strikes a Blow for Democrats!

The Washington Post announces, “Christine O’Donnell upsets Mike Castle in Delaware Senate primary.” This is great news! Now she will face New Castle County Executive Chris Coons in the general election. Polling stated that Mike Castle was 95% likely to beat Coons in the general. The same polling stated that O’Donnell was 17% likely to beat Coons. O’Donnell is a nutjob. I’m liking the teabaggers more all the time!