So now that the birth certificate bullshit is all safely behind us, we can focus on the real question that’s been bugging everyone. How did a black guy get into Columbia and Harvard?
Donald Trump tells the press they are protecting President Obama.
“I’d like to know how does he get into Harvard, how does he get into Columbia if he isn’t a very good student,” Donald Trump told the press this morning in New Hampshire.
“If he wants to release it that’s fine, if he doesn’t want to release it that’s fine too. But the word is he wasn’t a very good student,” Trump added.
“I mean, black students have statistically lower grades than their white counterparts. It’s been proven by statistics. So doesn’t it just seem unlikely?”
But it’s not as if not-very-coded racism hasn’t been present in the entire Birther movement, which were generally rooted in the perception of Obama as being somehow less American than he should be. The issue simply can’t rest, even after a birth certificate is produced, because people will continue to have this perception.
Which is also why I believe Trump’s college grades question will fail to produce the same kind of devotion the Birther movement had and will continue to have. Though it’s a very convenient opening for a renewal of the discussion on Affirmative Action, Obama being a bad student simply doesn’t fit with a perception of him being less like the rest of Americans. If anything, being a bad student is humanizing — and it certainly doesn’t fit with the elitist intellectual image the right wing has so carefully cultivated.
As for the possibility of Trump taking a crack at Affirmative Action: given the current unemployment problems, it could be an effective campaign tool. Between future continued unemployment problems and persistent Republican attacks on organized labor, workers’ rights could possibly become a central issue in the coming contest. So Trump might be able to siphon some momentum from the Birther movement into questions about Affirmative Action, and possibly position himself favorably with unemployed white voters who might otherwise lose interest now that the birth certificate has been released.
President Barack Obama said he and 20 company executives made “good progress” during a four and a half hour meeting toward establishing closer cooperation between government and business to accelerate the U.S. economic recovery.
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The president asked the executives for examples of policies that weren’t working. One idea was to cut tax rates on accumulated foreign earnings that are repatriated to the U.S. like Congress authorized for one year in 2004, according to participants in the room.
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While Obama has called on the CEOs to spend the $2 trillion in cashtheir companies have accumulated on job creation, the executives said much of that is earnings from overseas sales that are retained abroad to avoid paying U.S. corporate income tax. U.S.-based multinational corporations pay corporate income tax on earnings when they are brought back to the U.S. If the revenue remains abroad, either in cash or investment in overseas facilities, the money isn’t taxed.
Obama said he would consider the issue and asked what the executives would be willing to give up in other corporate tax rates to make sure it remains revenue neutral.
So Obama asked a room of billionaires who, thanks to the stimulus, have just had the most profitable year in history to spend some of that profit on expanding jobs in America. The billionaires tell him to fuck off because they’re upset too busy committing systematic tax evasion on a scale millions of times larger than the median household income.
How is it that this can get reported on as news and not what it actually is, effective blackmail? Why would these business leaders ever stop withholding these jobs, now that Obama and the Democrats clearly aren’t going to reform the tax code in any meaningful manner? It worked the first time:
a) lay off millions of workers to increase profitability in economic downturn
b) accept billions of dollars in economic stimulus money
c) profit
d) don’t hire anyone else
e) ask for tax holiday so you can bring all that fetti home
Obama’s response is to ask them how much evasion they’d be comfortable with. THIS IS CALLED PROGRESS
The United States on Monday gave a green light to sales of Libyan crude oil from rebel-held territory, giving a potential boost to forces battling Muammar Gaddafi.
A U.S. Treasury Department official said Libyan rebels would not be subject to U.S. sanctions if they avoid entities linked to Gaddafi’s regime, which would allow them to sell oil under their control. (source)
Mission accomplished I guess, right guys?
It’s also worth noting that the media narrative has now jumped from mocking Gadhafi’s statements about there being al-qaeda amongst the rebels to making exactlythesame claim themselves a week later with absolutely no circumspection.
This claim is useful to get people ready for the west’s eventual move of implementing a new constitution/government themselves upon Libya to make sure it isn’t “terrorist-controlled” or “the next Iran.”
youre having a nice picnic with some friends in the park. its a beautiful sunny day. your ear tickles, and you scratch at it, smashing the ant that had somehow made his way in there. for the rest of the day you compulsively check your ears for more ants
white beans diced pork belly canned whole tomatoes KALE white wine onion garlic dried chilis / chili flakes black pepper oregano bay leaves
cook up that pork belly and let all the fat melt. throw some olive oil in there too if you don’t gaf about fat. sweat the onions and garlic in there with the spices. drain the beans, add them and fill the rest up with white wine & water. if you have time to let it cook you can add more wine, but you want to make sure the alcohol gets cooked out. drain/rinse tomatoes and add them. cut kale into ribbons and add the kale. cook until it’s done.
pork belly is hella salty so be careful when adding salt or stock to this, which is why i suggested adding water instead of stock. if you don’t live in a country where esoteric pork products are readily and affordably available in large quantities, use diced bacon instead i guess.
the kale really made it here, without the kale to break up the texture i think it would have been a bit boring, but the kale really took it to the next level. <3 kale
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