German Kristian, 31, from Erlangan, near Nuremburg, photographs [fireflies] near his home. He uses slow shutter speeds to capture on camera their movements between the trees and ferns.
Fireflies produce a “cold light”, with no infrared or ultraviolet frequencies. This chemically-produced light from the lower abdomen may be yellow, green, or pale red
Using a slow shutter speed on the camera makes the fireflies appear to leave ghostly phosphorescent trails between the trees
See all photos…
source: paxamericana
…yesterday at a Tea Party rally in Indianola, Iowa. Hey, if anyone knows stripper poles…
A country with over 300 million people needs big government solutions instead of more lies about small government and how tax cuts for the wealthy will create jobs — from Robert Reich:
A bold jobs plan is also good politics. With more than 25 million Americans looking for full-time jobs, the wages of people with jobs falling, and an economy on the verge of a double dip, the President has to come out fighting on the side of average people.
Besides, Republicans won’t go along with any jobs initiative he proposes – even a tiny one. Better they reject one that could make a real difference than one that’s pitifully small and symbolic.
If Republicans reject it, Obama can build his 2012 campaign around that fight. Maybe he’ll even call Republicans on their big lie that smaller government leads to more jobs.
What would a bold jobs bill look like? Here are the ten components I’d recommend (apologies to those of you who have read some of these before):
1. Exempt first $20K of income from payroll taxes for two years. Make up shortfall by raising ceiling on income subject to payroll taxes.
2. Recreate the WPA and Civilian Conservation Corps to put long-term unemployed directly to work.
3. Create an infrastructure bank authorized to borrow $300 billion a year to repair and upgrade the nation’s roads, bridges, ports, airports, school buildings, and water and sewer systems.
4. Amend bankruptcy laws to allow distressed homeowners to declare bankruptcy on their primary residence, so they can reorganize their mortgage loans.
5. Allow distressed homeowners to sell a portion of their mortgages to the FHA, which would take a proportionate share of any upside gains when the homes are sold.
6. Provide tax incentive to employers who create net new jobs ($2,500 deduction for every net new job created).
7. Make low-interest loans to cash-starved states and cities, so they don’t have to lay off teachers, fire fighters, police officers, and reduce other critical public services.
8. Provide partial unemployment benefits to people who have lost part-time jobs.
9. Enlarge and expand the Earned Income Tax Credit – a wage subsidy for low-wage work.
10. Impose a “severance fee” on any large business that lays off an American worker and outsources the job abroad.
Some of these won’t cost the federal government money. Others will be costly in the short term but lead to faster growth.
In light of Labor Day and recent posts, I especially like #s 2, 6 and 10. Hopefully President Obama’s speech on jobs, scheduled for Sept. 8th, will include some / all of these ideas.
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awesomepeoplehangingouttogether: Hunter S. Thompson and Bill Murray (via: katmayer)
Anyone know the year this photo was taken?
“I think the president should challenge the patriotism of these American corporations that are sitting on the sidelines. The problem in America isn’t that we don’t have enough money. We’ve got more money than any other country in the world. The problem is American businesses not spending it and not getting it in the game.” — Jim Hoffa, president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, blasting American companies who are not spending their capital in the U.S. as “unpatriotic”
Hoffa says that as if American businesses would be shamed by such a label. We’re teetering on the verge of Corporatism, and the only allegiance being pledged by American (multinational) companies is to their CEOs and their stockholders. There are no more ‘countries.’ There’s no such thing as patriotism anymore.
Related:
katmayer: i hate how little most people understand about how taxes work. (via: reagan-was-a-horrible-president)
Related:
“These individual CEOs are being rewarded for presiding over companies that dodge taxes.” — Chuck Collins, study co-author and a senior scholar at the Institute of Policy Studies.
The Washington Post examines the laughable, Republican argument that taxes must be lowered on U.S. corporations:
Of last year’s 100 highest-paid corporate executives in the United States, 25 earned more in pay than their company recorded as a tax expense in 2010.
Those 25 firms reported average global profits of $1.9 billion. Among the 25 were Verizon, Bank of New York Mellon, General Electric, Boeing and eBay.
[...] Eighteen of the 25 firms last year operated subsidiaries in countries that the U.S. Government Accountability Office and other groups have identified as tax havens, one of the report’s authors said.
For example, Bank of New York Mellon paid its chief executive Robert Kelly $19.4 million last year, while the company got $670 million in what amounted to a tax refund, according to the report. The company has 10 subsidiaries in foreign countries, the report said.
[...] Verizon, for instance, saw the equivalent of a $705 million refund in 2010 because it deferred paying taxes on the bulk of its income to future years. The company’s total tax bill from 2010 was about $2.5 billion. The delay in tax payments allowed the firm to make investments in the nation’s technology infrastructure, a company official said.
[...] Among its other findings, the institute found that the gap between chief executive compensation and average U.S. worker pay rose from a ratio of 263-to-1 in 2009 to 325-to-1 last year.
Read that last sentence again. Does anyone really believe that CEOs worked an average of 325 times harder than the rank-and-file employees of ANY company?
This year, Verizon wanted to cut healthcare benefits and freeze pensions for its employees — causing the union workers to strike — even with tax refunds and deferments and, undoubtedly, huge executive bonuses to Verizon’s CEOs. Essentially the workers will be funding CEO bonuses with cuts to their own benefits. And ultimately, non-wealthy American taxpayers also contribute to these huge bonuses handed out to CEOs, because the corporations they work for are getting such huge and varied tax breaks while we plod along, paying our federal income tax, year after year.
When are corporations going to invest in the nation’s employment and middle-class? Or in the nation’s treasury? It’s not like they haven’t benefited greatly from the U.S. tax structure via loopholes, deregulation and subsidies over the past 30 years. And it’s not like these companies haven’t benefited from the hard work of U.S. labor.
IN FACT, a 2011 report by the Economic Policy Institute reveals that benefits and wages haven’t kept up with the increasing productivity of American workers, both in private and public sectors. (see article or see PDF report)
Thanks to the right-wing ideology of the GOP-Teaparty, here’s where we’re headed: “Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power.” — unknown
Happy Labor Day weekend!
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