Or, Public Policy 101: Tax “Bads”, Not Goods Public policy, or government policy, should reflect certain basic principles. Let’s set out a few. Not everyone will agree, but polls repeatedly show the great majority, from the moderate grassroots right, across to the left, in general agree, and in general strongly
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Writings of J. Todd Ring: Waiting For The Crazed Clown Show To End – Or, Welcome To The Brave New World
I don’t know when I will be able to go to the gym or library again, or a park, or my favourite local bookstore or record store – or whether they will still be in business when this is over, if it does indeed end; or when I will be
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: The Faux Left, and, The Urgent Need To Unite The People
What’s called “the left” is really a few camps, very narrow in range: There are neoliberals such as Hilary Clinton, Obama, Biden, and the Democratic party establishment, who are (like Tony Blair and new Labour in B, and the Liberal party of Canada) in reality extreme right – they are
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: The Central Issue: Oligarchy vs Democracy
The central issue, now as always, is not about wealth, or distribution of wealth. It’s not about bread and butter issues. It’s not about taxes or spending, budgets or allocations, or who gets what and how much. It’s about power. The oligarchs know that. The elite know that very well.
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Sanders & The Terror Of Socialism, vs The Real Dangers
A note to those on the right: Universal public health care is considered a basic human right in Canada, the UK, Europe, and every civilized country. It aslo happens to cost less than the private profit-driven US system – a lot less. So let’s not be too dogmatic. The
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: The Most Dangerous Epidemic Of All
Just over 100 deaths in the US from the coronavirus, and what is the government response? Fascist lockdown. The pattern is the same across the Western world, mirroring the police state which is China. Fascist lockdown. People are hysterical over a virus that kills fewer than bathtub drownings, motor
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: The Central Challenge Of Our Time
What is the central challenge of our time? It is not what most people think it is. It is not race or gender, or climate change, or the environment broadly, or issues of war and peace, or poverty, or justice, or equality, or fighting terrorism, crime or violence, WMDs and
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: The Dangers Of Denial
When someone fails to realize that China is a deeply authoritarian state, or actively denies it, or likewise does not realize that the US, Canada, the UK and Europe have been taken over by an equally authoritarian corporate oligarchy, I think, have you been living under a rock? Wow. Almost
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: US 2020 Election: One Choice Only – The Oligarchy
Chris Hedges states there is no choice in the 2020 US election if it is a choice between Trump and Biden: both are a vote for the consolidation of the oligarchy. Now that sums it up perfectly well. Mind you, it was the same in 2016. People in Germany felt
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Importing From China: A Virus? Or A Totalitarian Model Of Elite Control?
Someone prescient once said, “Those who would sacrifice a little freedom for a little security, deserve neither, and will lose both.” We would do well to remember those words now. And we are most definitely in the process of losing both, as we speak. But maybe we aspire to be
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Coronavirus Update – Panic or Propaganda? Both? Or Simply Mass Insanity? All The Above
As of today, the mass media hype and hysteria over the latest exotic virus continues to spread, unabated. In its wake, mass insanity is spreading nearly as fast. Let’s step back, and look at the figures, to try and gain some much-needed perspective. As of today, 3,200 people have died
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Liberal Democracy Cannot Survive Undefended.
Since the advent of the neoliberal era, the reign of Thatcher, Reagan and Mulroney, liberal democracy has been left to its own devices. The warning sign, the red flag, was the extinction of any meaningful vestige of progressivism from the body politic. The last defender of liberal democracy we knew
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Looking Back – Why Didn’t Obama Fix the System and Help the Working Class?
Now that we’re in the era of the 45th republican administration the battles we fight are more basic. Defending basic rights of people and defending the societal institutions that promote equality in society. That is where we are now. But back in the first term of the Obama presidency he
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: What Happens When you Run Out of Quick to Cut? – The Republican Tax Cut to the Rich
The adage that says ‘a capitalism will sell you the rope to hang him with’ comes to mind while reviewing the latest round of Feed the Rich that is going in in the United States. It is frightening the pace at which the plutocrats are lining their pockets and
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: A Fitting End to a Country Grown Too Old
Remember when North America was called the New World? Well, in some ways, it’s rather old, very old. The United States boasts of being the world’s oldest constitutional democracy and, even if that means brushing a few other nations such as Switzerland under the carpet, it clings to that claim.
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: America is Broken, Probably Beyond Repair
The sad fact that America’s Congress is “bought and paid for” is well known. America has long lost any notion of “government of the people, by the people, for the people.” It is instead government of the people by a few people acting for the benefit of a select, privileged
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: The "Bought and Paid For" Tax Reform Bill
The menacing face of Congressional corruption is being exposed in the Republican’s tax reform bill. They can’t hide it any longer. They’re bought and paid for, have been for some years, and now they have to do their patrons’ bidding. Even Senator Lindsey Graham admits the Republicans are at a
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Obama’s Vision and Legacy: A retrospective look at the Obama presidency – before we lose all sight of recent history, as our culture is wont to do
Here are three short articles which I wrote between 2011 and 2015 which sum up the Obama presidency, and the Obama vision and legacy. We should remember, those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Let us review now the torturou…
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Prospects for America: Sanders vs Civil War
(And that is not a threat, of course, but a prediction) An analysis of the present state of future prospects of the nation ~ An open letter in response to Daily Kos, and to anyone concerned with either justice, or peace The article I recently wrote and…
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: New Poll: Sanders Leads Clinton In Iowa
Substance begins to overtake slime. Whoops….did I say that? I meant to say, an honest candidate who has defended and worked for the people, consistently for over 30 years, and the only candidate who is standing up to Wall Street and the corporate…
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