So with Ferguson Missouri's, tensions are more than high, they're volatile and I tend to side with the community on what they're demanding. I do believe he should be brought up on at least wrongful death charges and should lose his badge. However, in dissecting this event I want to be balanced in answering the question of why the officer who fired the bullets have not yet been brought up on charges. I also want to make clear that in THIS post I'm not going to address the clear misconduct of the Ferguson police in this case...I'll leave that to my next post.
First of all, there is no question that the officer in question fired those bullets, that's not being contested. As for why he hasnt been arrested...I dont think they can just yet. Will they? they should, but that remains to be seen. Now why do I say that they cant arrest him just yet?
It comes down to the evidence they currently have as opposed to evidence they need to make the indictment and arrest. As I'm watching the news updates I get the feeling that they want to get to the bottom of what happened so they know how to proceed. Just the simple fact that shots were fired and someone is dead does not qualify as damning evidence in these cases. They are investigating and they cant make arrests like that until the investigation is over because if they do make an arrest, then they have a wrongful arrest/imprisonment and false charge allegations on their hands.
Now personally (since I'm doing commentary) I think the officer went too far and should have fired ONLY a warning shot and should have made damn sure that young Mr. Brown was armed before deciding to take his life. By all accounts once he was hit the first time, he gave up and complied. that should have ended the shooting right there. Accounts also state he had his hands up high enough where, if he were to go for a weapon, he would have had to make and obvious movement to get to that weapon. No observers report that he did so. This is why I tend to side with the community on this. The officer should not have continued firing. Also if he had a weapon on him, isn't it reasonable to assume he would have used it in this so called robbery? Since it was not and as it turns out, he wasn't armed something very fishy is going on here.
Arrests are the end result of thorough investigations, not the result of people demanding it to be so. We as citizens cant expect that we open our mouths and the process suddenly changes because we say so. There is a process, and the laws that run along side it are part of that process. As much as we hate that process at times like this, that process doesn't change based on an emotion. It's there for a reason.
In a tregedy like this, wanting answers is only natural. But chaos is not the way to go about it. The FBI has been called in to investigate so lets wait and see what they determine.
Now how will they proceed from this point on? Time will tell.
Saturday, August 16, 2014
Thursday, August 7, 2014
How We Should be Paying Down the Deficit!
Ive
been trying to figure out how the GOP thinks when we start talking
about ways to pay off the deficit, and I think I figured them out at
least to some extent.
Paying off the deficit is actually not something any one thing can accomplish. When we start talking about things that would help, we as liberals will talk about singular things that would help, but not be the end all solution to the problem. the GOP will take those points and isolate them further and say "see that's not going to work because its too small a thing to pay it off". The problem, that's a half truth. If we look at any one single thing working by itself, then yes it wont work because its like bailing out a sinking ship with a teaspoon.
But when you match up one small solution with a lot of other little solutions we could be doing you start to get a more comprehensive solution. So in the spirit of that here's what I think we need to do to help.
1: We've been giving money we cant really afford to give to other countries. As an example, since its been in the news a lot in the last couple of weeks, Israel. The US is giving roughly 2.15 to 3.07 billion every year. That money is being used to fund this genocide path Israel seems to want to continue on. We're OK with this? We could be keeping that money and, instead of funding something else unless absolutely needed, apply it to our national debt. it may not be a whole lot compared to our owing as a nation but like my mother said, every little bit helps.
2: Corporate Taxes. This is a two fold issue caused by one thing: Corporate tax loopholes. Now I dont pretend to know what all those loopholes are but there are quite a few. Close those loopholes and make it so corporations have to pay their taxes. There are several big issues I see here. A: Corporations are opening offshore accounts and shuffling their earnings there and only reporting what they kept in the US and only paying taxes on that, I would even imagine keeping just enough here to pay the bare minimum they can so they can keep their wallets fat. We need to find a way to make it so they cant do that. I think we need to find a way to make sure that money is taxed because it was made here and make sure companies have no way out of it. B: Companies Based in the US moving their headquarters to foreign countries. Walgreens is a recent example of this...thankfully they decided not too but they were going to relocate corporate from Chicago, IL to Switzerland. Why? Because then they would legally be considered foreign companies and they are barely taxed if at all in the US. I think if companies are going to do that then they should still be taxed for the business they conduct within the US like everybody else in the US is. C: Speaking of foreign companies that do business in the US, such as BP for instance, should be taxed. I dont mean taxed on their world wide earnings of course, but certainly taxed on their earnings within the US. I would think that has to be reported, and if it isn't it should be. The extra revenue could be used to pay down the debt even faster! D: of course, raising corporate taxes is an excellent Idea, it doesn't even have to be a lot! Again every little bit helps! I would be willing to bet even a 10% raise would be a huge help in paying down our debt! With that, make it so that there isnt a loophole to allow corporations dont have a way to get out of it!
3: Speaking of taxes, how about the super low taxes on the rich? I think I have to pay something like 33% in income taxes? Why are the rich, who make massively more paying massively less then me? New tax bracket with a higher tax rate specifically designed for people that dont really have much of a tax bracket...the financially well off. Again it doesn't have to be super high but certainly a bigger percentage than what the average low wage earning American pays...hey look, more money to pay down the deficit with.
That's only a few major examples of what we can do and I'm sure there is more! What you do with all that is keep the programs that help the down and out funded instead of cutting them and take all the extra funds raised by implementing all the things I mentioned, and apply it to what we owe to other countries as a nation and then take that extra when everything is paid off and work on improving infrastructure which is badly deteriorated. I mean there's just so much we can do with that extra when it indeed becomes extra!
Here's my prediction: Some fool is going to try and pic this apart and tell me I'm 100% wrong. That's fine...I love watching people be wrong. its kinda entertaining actually!
Paying off the deficit is actually not something any one thing can accomplish. When we start talking about things that would help, we as liberals will talk about singular things that would help, but not be the end all solution to the problem. the GOP will take those points and isolate them further and say "see that's not going to work because its too small a thing to pay it off". The problem, that's a half truth. If we look at any one single thing working by itself, then yes it wont work because its like bailing out a sinking ship with a teaspoon.
But when you match up one small solution with a lot of other little solutions we could be doing you start to get a more comprehensive solution. So in the spirit of that here's what I think we need to do to help.
1: We've been giving money we cant really afford to give to other countries. As an example, since its been in the news a lot in the last couple of weeks, Israel. The US is giving roughly 2.15 to 3.07 billion every year. That money is being used to fund this genocide path Israel seems to want to continue on. We're OK with this? We could be keeping that money and, instead of funding something else unless absolutely needed, apply it to our national debt. it may not be a whole lot compared to our owing as a nation but like my mother said, every little bit helps.
2: Corporate Taxes. This is a two fold issue caused by one thing: Corporate tax loopholes. Now I dont pretend to know what all those loopholes are but there are quite a few. Close those loopholes and make it so corporations have to pay their taxes. There are several big issues I see here. A: Corporations are opening offshore accounts and shuffling their earnings there and only reporting what they kept in the US and only paying taxes on that, I would even imagine keeping just enough here to pay the bare minimum they can so they can keep their wallets fat. We need to find a way to make it so they cant do that. I think we need to find a way to make sure that money is taxed because it was made here and make sure companies have no way out of it. B: Companies Based in the US moving their headquarters to foreign countries. Walgreens is a recent example of this...thankfully they decided not too but they were going to relocate corporate from Chicago, IL to Switzerland. Why? Because then they would legally be considered foreign companies and they are barely taxed if at all in the US. I think if companies are going to do that then they should still be taxed for the business they conduct within the US like everybody else in the US is. C: Speaking of foreign companies that do business in the US, such as BP for instance, should be taxed. I dont mean taxed on their world wide earnings of course, but certainly taxed on their earnings within the US. I would think that has to be reported, and if it isn't it should be. The extra revenue could be used to pay down the debt even faster! D: of course, raising corporate taxes is an excellent Idea, it doesn't even have to be a lot! Again every little bit helps! I would be willing to bet even a 10% raise would be a huge help in paying down our debt! With that, make it so that there isnt a loophole to allow corporations dont have a way to get out of it!
3: Speaking of taxes, how about the super low taxes on the rich? I think I have to pay something like 33% in income taxes? Why are the rich, who make massively more paying massively less then me? New tax bracket with a higher tax rate specifically designed for people that dont really have much of a tax bracket...the financially well off. Again it doesn't have to be super high but certainly a bigger percentage than what the average low wage earning American pays...hey look, more money to pay down the deficit with.
That's only a few major examples of what we can do and I'm sure there is more! What you do with all that is keep the programs that help the down and out funded instead of cutting them and take all the extra funds raised by implementing all the things I mentioned, and apply it to what we owe to other countries as a nation and then take that extra when everything is paid off and work on improving infrastructure which is badly deteriorated. I mean there's just so much we can do with that extra when it indeed becomes extra!
Here's my prediction: Some fool is going to try and pic this apart and tell me I'm 100% wrong. That's fine...I love watching people be wrong. its kinda entertaining actually!
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