Sunday 9 December 2012

TAX THE RICH: AN ANIMATED FAIRY TALE

Absolutely brilliant. Written for America, but equally true in the UK and Scotland. 

If you do nothing else today, watch this, and don't let them convince you that it is your fault and that you should pay for what went wrong.

We weren't 'all in together' when they were making the money. It was the 1%. We're not 'all in it together' now when it has to be paid back. It's just the 99%.

54 comments:

  1. tris

    Fine and dandy but do you still say the snp giving a tax cut to the most wealthy in Scottish society via the Council tax freeze is fair.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Brilliant. Cuts right through the bull***** and gets right to the core of the problem in UK as well as USA etc.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Niko

    Would that be the council tax freeze that the Labour party first introduce in Glasgow?

    Would that be the council tax freeze that was part of the Labour manifesto for the Holyrood 2011 election?

    Would that be the council tax freeze that was part of Labour Glasgow manifesto for the council elections in May 2012?

    Has Ed had a word with his North British branch office and said our tory pals in England do not like the council tax freeze so lets stuff the old age pensioners the sick the low paid and the unemployed by making them even poorer?

    Labour! I used to remember when they were a socialist party, now most of there members would not know what a socialist is as they have never met one.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Niko -

    Are you in favour of regressive tax increases, then?

    It would appear your Socialist days are behind you.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Now what did Willie Bain promise before he was elected that he would only claim the basic of expenses Niko, over 200 grand seems a tad more than basic don't you think! Fits the video above, greed and only personal greed is good enough for labour in Scotland.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Niko, the tiny bit saved for the wealthy is a price worth paying for all the money that poor have saved.

    We can't say that everyone in a certain area can have their poll tax frozen, and the rest can pay extra. That would throw up too many anomalies (like the poor woman still living in the big family house in a nice area although she has no money because she's too old and sick to arrange a sale and buying new house.)

    And to means test it would cost far more than it would save.

    You know, the Edinburgh government is doing its best for the poor, but sometimes the rich benefit a little too.

    We shouldn't hate the rich so much that no matter what it costs we have to punish them.

    Otherwise we are going to have to ask why should the rich get free flu jabs? Why should the rich get National Health dentistry? Why should they not pay for their eye tests? Why should they not pay when they are in hospital or prison. They can afford to pay for food, and heating?

    And then you have a set of services for the rich, and one for the poor.

    I can see that it is unfair that if Kate Middleton had gone into a NH hospital she would have had her morning sickness treated for nothing, and that would have been wrong because they have more money than Croesus.

    But we already have a situation where the very richest don't have to use NH hospitals, or state schools, and that is one reason they are so crap.

    If the top people used them they would be much better.

    Services for the Poor are Poor services.

    I don't like them getting money they don't need, but if we REALLY have a problem with that we should be chasing them for taxes they don't pay, instead of putting poor people through embarrassment hell by means testing them.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I thought so too Abroath. :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Dubs, as I understand it, under Tony Blair the word socialist was forbidden. No one was allowed to use it with reference to anything the Labour Party did.

    ReplyDelete
  9. It occurs to me that if the SNP and Liberals had introduced LIT this wouldn't have arisen.

    But who blocked it?

    Oh yeah Labour.

    Some fairly poor people, living on around £10,000 would have been paying about £30 a year for LIT, instead of the £1,200 they pay at the moment.

    It's a scandal that Labour oted to make poor people poorer, just on the basis that as Willie the Bairn says, "We automatically oppose anything the SNP says".

    What a complete fool of a little man he is.

    But apparently rather a rich one now?????? My how he has got on the greasy toe rag world.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Good poster CH.

    Perfectly true.

    One of my neighbours insisted that he would never vote for an independent Scotland because he hated Alex Salmond. Like Alex Salmond will always be there. ...

    So, on that basis he will be voting for David Cameron, or after the next election possibly Boris Johnson, who makes no bones about the fact that far too much of England's money is wasted up here on us lot.

    At a push I suppose old Ed might win, but only if he promises the South of England first class right wing policies that will keep them on low taxes and please UKIP and the Tory voters.

    ReplyDelete
  11. So the nats praise a video and then defend the manipulation
    Which the said video exposes.
    And slur and smear a individual who has b
    No bearing on the issue being discussed tactics of undemocratic
    Extremists since the year dot.

    ReplyDelete
  12. In what way , Niko?

    ReplyDelete
  13. From Yes Orkney
    No I do not have an answer as to whether Scotland will keep the pound/be in Europe/ have an army/be in NATO/make the wearing of blue socks compulsory da di dah. BUT, if called upon I believe in the ability of not only myself and others but indeed you the unsure and doubting person who is asking this question to become very quickly knowledgeable on how best to look at the options, evaluate the pros and cons and make a positive decision in line with whatever your political values may be.

    ReplyDelete
  14. CH

    the EU is a rope fat boy Alex hung himself with same as..keep the queen and the pound bank of England etc etc
    All a load of tosh to be sorted out by the new Independent Scottish Parliament whomever that be....Mayhap not Alex Salmond

    But then if your Enemy shoots themselves in the foot why worry.

    best advice tell Alex to shut the feck up somethings will be decided by others and not him or the snp.

    You see Alex trying to grasp all power to himself does not favours to the yes campaign .

    achieve more by giving power away to the new Parliament


    err he wont you lot lose thats it

    ReplyDelete
  15. Mind the blood pressure now Niko or nurse will be back with a bigger needle.

    ReplyDelete
  16. It's a question of having confidence in yourself. We don't need David Cameron, even though of course having been to Eton and Oxford he is far cleverer than any of us.

    But you watch, we don't need the English upper class Toffs to keep us from going down the toilet. Indeed, we probably need to get away from them to slow and hopefully halt the almost inexorable slide that the UK has begun.

    We can run Scotland ourselves for the benefit of Scotland.

    And no we don't know how everything will be.

    But apart from a relatively grim picture of life under right wing government, whether they be Blairite or Thatcherite in nature, with less and less money for services, and fewer and fewer rights, we really don't know everything that will happen under London rule.

    Who would have thought only a few years ago that they would be able to read our emails, listen to our phone calls, charge us money for using roads we already paid for...?

    ReplyDelete
  17. Niko:

    Alex has always said that the first govrnmetn of Scotland will decide a lot of things that cannot be decided in advance.

    As that first government could very easily be a Labour government, all we need to worry about is whether or not it will be a Labour government governing Scotland for Scotland, or whether the English Labour party will continue to tell it what to do, as at present.

    ReplyDelete
  18. tris

    yes well best Mr all thing to all peoples Alex Salmond start saying it will be up to the Scottish Parliament after Independence how ever composed.

    I see Nicola is making an erse of herself not her usual way of behaving I admit.But asking to negotiate before the referendum result which presumably she could lose.Over negotiations which may not happen whilst within a nation UK which they may have left is a bit iffy to say the least.

    I afraid her argument is to thin
    the snp has made a Gordian knot of the EU and other issues and you know how Alexander solved that one(er do you).

    Perhaps you lot should say Independence is a process whereby Scotland will make their own decisions.What they may be the Scottish people will decide after Independence thorough their new parliament assembled.

    Unfortunately Alex and the snp dont want to do that trying to hold all power to themselves.


    Politics like life has more questions than answers Independence is about what answers the Scots agree(err broadly upon) or not.

    Does any nation have clear cut answers on everything I don't bloody think so.

    ReplyDelete
  19. tris

    Who would have thought only a few years ago that they would be able to read our emails, listen to our phone calls,

    I only live next door wid me cup against the wall and me ear tightly against cup.

    The old ways are still the best ways

    ReplyDelete
  20. Niko

    Your last two posts are nothing more than rants, with nothing positive in them.

    You brought up the council tax freeze, why was it ok when Glasgow Labour introduced it first? Maybe you think there are no millionaires there?

    Why did Labour have it in their 2011 election manifesto? were they trying to get the millionaire vote away from the torys?

    CH

    That is a great poster. Do you know who produced it? It should be sent to Yes Scotland if it was not them.

    ReplyDelete
  21. CH

    Sorry its obvious that the poster was produced by Labour for Independence. The question should have been, are Yes Scotland aware of it. It needs coping and wider distribution.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Well Niko, you can't be all things to all people, but at least you shoul attempt it. Unlike te UK government which is everything to the rich and except for a couple of weeks before the general election does its best to stuff the poor.

    The truth is that Salmond can promise all he wants, but, it the government which takes control in 2016 don't want to follow his "dictats", they won't happen. He has pointed this out in parliament.

    I seem to remember it was something about an ass being tied up with a knot that no one could undo, and Alexander slashed it with his sword.

    So maybe the knot is David Cameron ... If so they can borrow my sword.

    After today's announcement that they are closing the Remploy factory in Dundee, I'd happily run the bastard through. (Pardon my language... but this is beneath contempt, the lowest of the low.)

    ReplyDelete
  23. Anything interesting, Niko?

    ReplyDelete
  24. Dubs, they are... in fat there are several different version of it and Yes Scotland is promoting them.

    ReplyDelete
  25. or even "in fact"

    ReplyDelete
  26. Tris

    In fat or not that is great news, I think it is a great poster.

    Must be the best poster produced by Labour party members for a long time. Mind you that is not hard.

    I've just heard the new Scottish Labour poster will be released soon.

    So you want something for nothing you ungrateful barstewards, after all we North Britons have arranged for you from our English masters.

    Vote Labour to ensure no more something for nothing. No more free prescriptions, no bus passes no council tax freeze, and yes we will be voting with our tory pals to cut your benefits and pensions (well we would vote about pensions but we could not be bothered to turn up)

    Any right thinking Labour party members know we need the money for important things like Trident.

    Vote Labour you no it makes no sense.

    ReplyDelete
  27. If you were touting for a job writing Party Political Broadcasts, I think you might want to tighten up some aspects of your presentation there Dubs...

    Just a thought :)

    ReplyDelete
  28. Au contraire Tris I think with my press release I have captured everything that Labour in Scotland stands for. Or at least what the toffs and public schoolboys in Westminster tell them they stand for.

    How can anyone think we can continue to afford Trident if we keep wasting money on unimportant things like prescriptions or bus passes. You will be wanting people with serious illnesses getting benefits instead of doing something useful with their free time like helping supermarkets make even more money by working for free.

    Remember the new Labour motto, "Theres no such thing as a free lunch, if fact if we have our way all you something for nothing skivers will have no lunch"

    ReplyDelete
  29. Niko

    I think you have just reached a new low with your post at 7.34pm.

    Even by the low standards you set that is disgraceful.

    When you have nothing useful to say, say nothing.

    ReplyDelete
  30. It's funny how people can talk some sense when they are not following the Labour party BBC line.

    ‘Independent’ Scots would remain EU citizens. Barroso’s comments are daft, then.

    liniked from wings.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Jeez Niko when you find yourself stuck down a deep hole that you have dug yourself here's a wee bit of advice......STOP DIGGING!

    On another point in agreement with Dubs the language in your 7:34 p.m. post is nothing short of DESPICABLE!

    Who are you to sit there and slag off people in the manner you did at 7:34 p.m. Until this point in time I have been prepared to accept you and your pathetic attempts at alleged ridicule.

    No longer BUBBA your behaviour tonight is UTTERLY disgusting. You sir are a DISGRACE to humanity with your language tonight no one deserves to be insulted in such a manner as you have done tonight. Members of the public NO MATTER WHAT THEIR DISABILITY deserve the right to work and Remploy gave disabled that RIGHT which the TORY government is now removing for NO logical reason other than yet another attack on the ill, the infirm, the poor, the unemployed. So before you EVER post on here again I STRONGLY suggest that you:
    a) moderate you language
    b)ppologise to all on here for your behaviour earlier tonight
    c) remember that no matter what our individual views NO ONE else on this site will tolerate your VILE and ABUSIVE behaviour on here EVER again.

    Sorry Tris, rant over

    ReplyDelete
  32. For heaven's sake Niko. That''s terrible. Take it down, please.

    ReplyDelete
  33. Wow CH. Eric Joyce seems to make sense there.

    If they throw us out I suggest we join , or stay in EFTA and the EEA and they can forget our fish and our oil and water ... it's not done Norway any harm.

    ReplyDelete
  34. Fair enough Arbroath.

    I agree that the comments Niko made were intolerable, but I'd prefer him to agree to take them down that me do it.

    I hope he will.

    In fairness when he has gone OTT in the past he has apologized.

    Possibly mainly because if John Brownlie reads that he'll kick his ass from here to Never Never land.

    ReplyDelete
  35. Sickeningly Dubs, they have really got their priorities all wrong.

    But you don't go down in history for making sure that the railways run, or that there aren't pot holes in teh road.

    You don't go down in history for paying decent social security payments to starving invalids.

    You go down in history for killing people.

    It may be of interest to Blair and Cameron and their likes, that, whilst history books used to glorify this killing and stealing lark that britain has been so good at, they now tend to take a rather more analytical approach .. and please like blair are likely to be called butchers, not heroes.

    I think that Cameron will be removed before he can have himself a war, but he's sure as hell making certain that he has the equipment to blow foreigners out of the world, just in case.

    Still maybe they will get him first.

    ReplyDelete
  36. tris -

    My first reaction to Niko's post above was this - "If I ever see Niko posting on this site again I shall delete it from my list and never reference it again". I have thought about this and realised that it is not Munguin's Republic's fault that one of their posters can express such filth. Indeed, it is to your credit that you can expose the mindset of the Unionists.

    It is obvious now that his posing as a "Socialist" all this time has been a pack of lies and he is a mere puppet of the privileged elite that have taken over our society.

    Let us hope that we can soon be free of such vile people.

    ReplyDelete
  37. I really do hope like you Tris that Niko takes that disgusting post down. I have NEVER been so sickened in all my time posting on websites as I was when I read that last night. Yes I do accept that when he has gone OTT before he has apologised. The trouble is this time he has gone OTT PLUS. Even Niko by his own standards must have known he had gone way beyond even OTT this time.

    I can only apologise for the state of my rant. I would normally switch off and try and cool down before even considering a response but unfortunate;y last night his post was just too much for me and I reacted on the spur of the moment.

    As I posted in my last post Niko has, in my view, THREE steps to take, now modified to four, before he will start to begin to regain the respect of everyone on here. That said the respect he regains will NOT happen overnight and he will have to be on his BEST behaviour for quite some considerable time before I can trust myself to accept him as a respectful poster on this site.

    I sincerely hope that he realises that he has not just stepped over the mark this time but leaped over it by a significant margin.

    The four steps I believe Niko MUST take ASAP are:

    a) moderate you language

    b) apologise to all on here for your behaviour earlier tonight

    c) remember that no matter what our individual views NO ONE else on this site will tolerate your VILE and ABUSIVE behaviour on here EVER again.

    d) remove your vile and disgusting post forthwith.


    Again I can only apologise for my rant mark II tonight and thanks for keeping this site going.

    ReplyDelete
  38. My post was written in the style of a Tory supporter as that is how they view the disabled etc. Uncomfortable but true.

    Still if that is how you lot feel. I bid you farewell

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I show you the dark places in the world and you don't
      Like it it's the world Cameron and osborne are creating.
      It's no good just waving your hands in the air and running away
      Screaming.

      On Friday I am going to a disabled relatives funeral you lot don't know me at all

      Delete
  39. Well, of course we don't know you Niko.

    We're all just folks on the internet who bang into each other here; and have stuck around, discussing, laughing, arguing, about politics, and a few other things, for, in some cases, a few years now.

    Like mates in a pub, who are only mates in that pub, I guess, this is the only contact we have. So we get to know facets of each others' lives, personalities, political opinions, and we probably have a rough (totally inaccurate) views of how each other looks...

    And that's all we can know of each other.

    So you come over as a nice jovial, friendly, well read, bloke with a great dog, and grandchildren, whose only major fault is that you can't see the benefits of an independent Scotland. And I think that a rant against disabled people is absolutely against what you are about.

    The trouble is that when people know each other very well, they may be able to get away something out of character as a joke... face to face, because of the tone everyone knows they don't mean it.

    The trouble is that there is no such indicator in a bunch of friends on the net.

    So I accept that you meant this as a mick take of a typical Tory head office attitude (because I doubt that Tories on the ground are like that at all), but you didn't indicate that in any way.

    And so you offended and shocked people...

    So, because I reckon you didn't mean it at all, I'm asking you to apologise for the hurt and offence you caused other readers in what was a joke that went wrong.

    Tris

    ReplyDelete
  40. Thanks everyone for your comments.

    I hope you aren't too angry.

    I'm trying to sort it with the least damage possible.

    Thanks for your support.

    Tris

    ReplyDelete
  41. If I offended anyone apart from any torys then I do regret
    This misinterpretation of my post perhaps I should preface them
    With whose role I am playing.

    Obviously or maybe not I personally do not wish to denigrate
    Any disabled individuals at all bit the fact is the torys in reality
    Do see them that way and treat them accordingly
    All the time claiming they care.
    I
    Just tore away the veil to reveal them as they are and of course
    S
    Many are offended as they should be as tris points what
    Comes across down the pin does not always do the same
    On a blog

    I regretfully apologise to you all

    ReplyDelete
  42. That's fair enough Niko. As Tris says trying to "appear" as someone else on line is not so easy as to do so face to face. I think we all have been there at some point.

    I'd like to apologise to YOU if my posts last night came across in any way offensive unfortunately I was reacting to your original post and letting my anger get in the way of normal thoughts. I was not thinking that you might be trying to be "impersonating" the Tories.

    I agree with you, as would most people here I think, that the behaviour of the Tories with respect to the old, the infirm, the disabled etc is diabolically atrocious. They have NO excuse for the actions they are taking.

    Finally, I am sorry to hear about the death of your disabled relative and would like to send you my sincerest condolences for you loss.

    ReplyDelete
  43. This animation was produced for the California Federation of Teachers, and is narrated by Ed Asner, a famous actor and liberal activist.

    This is the "sanitized" version of the piece, from which a urination scene, which illustrates trickle-down economics, has been cut.

    The original caused some controversy, and was pulled in favor of this more "acceptable" version. FOX News was furious about the scene, and sent a producer out to confront Asner about it.

    Here is the link to the FOX News piece. It shows the original urination scene, and the funny confrontation with Asner.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JU1pugRCltU&feature=endscreen

    ReplyDelete
  44. Oh dear someone is throwing her toys out of the pram here I think.

    How DARE Ed Asner do ANYTHING that "attacks" the rich and the politicians. The VERY people who created the whole financial meltdown in the first place.

    Hmm faux outrage here methinks or just plain old straight forward blinkered "thinking."

    ReplyDelete
  45. @ Arbroath,

    Oh yes, Michelle Malkin is really in a state here. But she's always this way. She's one of the far right wing nut cases who appear regularly on FOX, and "thinking" is not only not required at FOX, it's actively discouraged....LOL.

    The group at FOX are of course still in an apoplectic state over the triumph of the Democrats in the recent presidential election. FOX NEWS is pretty much the media branch of the Republican Party in the US. (Faux outrage at FAUX News.)

    ReplyDelete
  46. Aye I kind of got that thought from watching the piece you put up. :D

    I'm on the verge of suggesting that FOX news is what the BT crowd would like the BBC to become. Thankfully the BBC is only biased. :lol:

    ReplyDelete
  47. Good lord Danny. Fox Noise just gets worse.

    But I had to laugh at the bit when they cut from the interview with Mr Asner back to the studio and that bloke who looks as if he's arrived from 1961. He's pulling a long face of disgust, and saying 'classy man', because Asner, quite humorously, asked the interviewer if he can piss on him...

    And in all this disapproval, someone in the background is laughing like a drain.

    I love the way he talks about dehumanising people. I suppose being given a mortgage you can't afford by a bank which you assume knows best, and then having your house repossessed to make the bank a profit has a humanising effect on folk.

    Idiots.

    ReplyDelete
  48. Niko:

    Thanks for that.

    Totally accepted.

    ReplyDelete
  49. Yes, Arbroath, compared to Faux Noise the BBC is just a bit biased.

    After all it gets 10% of its income from Scotland, and spends only around 3% of it Scotland, so I guess Scotland is a cash cow for it.

    You should look at some of the presenters on Fox thought, Arbroath. They are mad. Bill O'Reilly comes to mind. The man is as mad as a march hare.

    ReplyDelete
  50. Michelle Malkin " going way way back, a couple of years ago...."

    Yep!

    ReplyDelete
  51. LOL Tris......Yep, the funniest part of the whole thing was how someone in the studio was laughing about Asner asking if he could piss on the Fox reporter, at the exact moment that Fox's Sean Hannity was pulling his "disgusted" routine.

    Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly are on Fox every night. And Michelle Malkin often shows up and makes Bill and Sean appear almost sane, by comparison.....LOL.

    ReplyDelete
  52. Loved it Danny.

    They clearly couldn't see that he was already peeing on them with his "can't remember a word of it", which that daft bat took seriously...

    "How can he not remember?..."

    Duh....

    Because he's pulling your chain you silly fool. Imagine being as young as she is and a right wing nut job. God, can you imagine what she'll be like at 55?

    ReplyDelete