Saturday, June 21, 2014

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I do not really understand (U.S.) taxes. On John Koskinen's Committee testimony before Congress.

While people like me are concerned with tax regimes and have made attempts first - hand and through other people to publish on the subject, there is more grist for the mill in news and television coverage this past week about the IRS targeting of members of conservative groups, including ordinary GOP members and members of its offshoots, of which constituents of the Tea Party organization.  Without further ado, and outside the issue their members wherever these might be serving as targets of IRS tax investigations and harassment, the members of these groups and the messages of the groups themselves, deemed however controversial and damaging to the country by other controversial groups with leftist tendencies, if not at least more liberal groups and individuals not aware of the leftist tendencies they represent in the fitful and conflicted dialogue with Tea Party and GOP and other conservatives and their representatives, notably those who'll "give or take" most things starting with the abortion argument, taxes and the like, and these issues have been along the same lines since the founding fathers or at least since the creation of the current federal tax regime some time ago, mention in the early 1900's.

To mention the coverage, even the news highlights of the IRS Commissioner's testimony (along with his "look at me, trust me" appearance and wistful mood in his speech before Congress) and interrogatory before Congress, again this past week, it is possible to interpret the talks from the IRS side as to provoke every misunderstanding due to the overall secrecy and confidential nature of much of what the IRS deals with on every administrative and field level office and every day.  This is what makes such acts as published in the papers and on TV as completely incomprehensible from the administrative standpoint, further confusing and apparently even magical in nature and more and more difficult and angering to view and read about, and much more so if one is a congressperson or staffer trying to understand.  As an example of the type of provocation these talks represent, a single computer during the year 2011, first apparently corrupted and then inoperable, is at length an issue in these talks preliminary to proceedings presumably aimed at confirming taxpayer harassment and targeting by the IRS as a service and as ordered apparently at a high level.  The pervasive nature of what apparently has happened with respect to some people is frightening and so shaking for some that people in these hearings are not talking straight, and this has apparently made the alleged offenders more arrogant and irritating in their words and demeanor, and as such viewers like me do know there is a danger at this point to mentioning one single employee and a related end - user IS that failed as responsible singly and only as culpable in this burgeoning and increasingly volatile political fracas about what the IRS actually does.  Help.  

Mama, what is "sun on snow"?

While General Wojciech Jaruzelski had a name that is difficult to spell for many Westerners (some used the spelling "Wotjech" and variants of it, for example), the passing of this public figure, pivotal and silently dramatic in the outcomes of the Cold War, not just in Eastern Europe and the Near Abroad for the former soviet states, but overall in the perceptions as to the purposes, intentions and workings of the various services and organs originating in Moscow going back some years until the beginning of the end of the Cold War that some date to Khrushchev and his regime.  It is difficult, for example, to vouch for the thesis that the Cold War began its slide into historical relegation during the 1960's and with respect to this the reading here refers to lots of texts speaking, for example, to the spirit of the biography / novel on Nikita Krushchev (entitled Krushchev Remembers) published some time ago and those in the same spirit.  There are many such books and with the ascendency of actual anti - communist and anti - marxist ideas and attitudes as documented in much of the political literature of the time and subsequent to then, a long list of which are available and the texts themselves shelved at many local libraries.  This "slide", some have proposed, also depends upon political and administrative interpretations of the Brezhnev period that succeeded the Khrushchev times, and that is subject to primarily perspectives that are at opposite ends:  For some, the Brezhnev times themselves were essentially the apogee of soviet communism internally as marked by world influences and soviet political power as demonstrated by the international and locked ties to Moscow of most regimes in the Near Abroad, a policy goal since Lenin times apparently, and then the dominion, however unspoken, of the soviets, at least on political and ideological grounds, over the non - aligned countries and their somewhat less significant and concerted marxist and communist allies.  Examples of these are numerous from those times, and at the breakup of the soviets, these territories and various states were a huge concern as far as political and administrative stability and sustainability were concerned.  Today, many of these regimes still emulate the soviet "style" of politics and policy, the editor here proposes, at least nominally in an indirect identification with anti - everything radicals, of which numerous groups formed by hooligans and including, for example, some groups within and subgroups of Hamas, the former PFLP, terrorist groups in North Africa and Saharan and Sub - Saharan Africa, and from other areas such as Philippines and other obscure Asia - Pacific territories, and others.

Enter the place of Poland in this former multi - regional scheme (remark that communist and marxist influences under the soviet regime often were regional considerations only as then the soviet regime did not wish its KGB propaganda and other activism to become known, really, and thus the regional approach) that avoided for a time the type of power politics espoused by Lenin and Stalin in their times, and that eschewed confrontation with the West, especially over things like the Warsaw Treaty Organization and Berlin status for a long time, in keeping and managing soviet international politics in the details of political coverage without the proverbial Stalinist sweeps of the hand.  Wojciech Jaruzelski himself was at the same time subject to the backhanded tyranny of the Stalinists and those who remember his life during the time of his status as Polish head of state also remember the silent waiting his people did for years under the memory of not one but two partitions of the country in the last century.  These partitions not only engendered Polish internal instability and chaos that made military controls necessary for state order for a long time, and forcibly under a communist regime, but nullified any voice of Poland in its approach to non - soviet clients:  The Polish people were often, almost always considered communists, and some strictly so, by just about every Western person; and were considered, and to the one probably by each and every member of the Moscow Politburo not to mention party members and other soviets themselves, as dissenters from the true path that led to stateless and utopic society as was set down by Lenin and Stalin in their writings as the goal for all, not just the Russians and their satellites.  It was this status of the nation of Poland and its people, individually and collectively, that was so dangerous for everyone involved and self - destruction and bilking the system in such places was and proved to be tragically endemic during the soviet regime.  With this proposal to the reader as an incomplete mindset as to the embodiment of the Jaruzelski politics as part of the "Ostpolitik" of the post - WWII times first under "K." and then under "B."

The overall political and military power of the soviets during these times was oft demonstrated in the status and administration of the Eastern European regimes, and an overall slide is detectable after 1964 when "K." was hounded by his own people from power, and this followed by the overall economically and politically healthy "B." regime that technically politically represented political and military stagnation for the soviets, in the end represented by failures in places like Afghanistan and political disasters in places like Morocco and South Africa, even in the Middle East where soviet sponsored terrorists were active, but much of their activities never made the papers.  This is a story that is sinister and not without its major intrigues, but that is not worth reading, and rather James Michener's novel / political and cultural analysis along fictional lines, entitled Poland is a good place to start to properly take stock of what Poland was to be in the modern and postmodern world.  Though the obituary on Jaruzelski in the recent "Economist" (click here) is cogent and an excellent report overall, it does not do justice to the administrative balancing act the general's regime did over the years that silently made additional and more and more powerful (in the face of Moscow's extremely powerful military impositions and marxist political might from every angle and exported as well to every single corner of society and real estate in Poland itself, especially,) what were first quiet quasi - Western groups and their leaders as jailed and silenced, and then a faint light of resolution during the Brezhnev regime that led to "Solidarnosc"; and then followed by its leadership's revolutionary and countervailing ideas and political forces, all done on a shoestring, to first export and gain political currency about the actual situation in Poland and then gaining increased Western sponsorship, notably by the Reagans and Bushes, and even from the Swiss to have their own autonomy and authentic political voice and administration far and away separated from the dictatorship and despotism of the soviets.  This took years, and it is evident from any low - level reading about the life of Jaruzelski, and it must be said in his memory in view of his first repeated political and other threats from the soviets from all sides, and then subsequent prosecution and jailing by soviet authorities, that this political figure helped in the very necessary eventuality of regime change in his country to a more normal country; Jean - Paul II (as a Cardinal) openly allowed for discussion of this and it is in any reading about the period, and this in and of itself and related discussions of the evils of soviet marxist ideology, Leninism and Stalinism, etc., etc., and the efforts at open, oppressive and medieval subjugation of Poland in the conflicted ideological and other chaos of the twentieth century.  In fact, the soviets used the general Jaruzelski as a silent and enigmatic figure, himself privately chained to the political line of the Moscow Politburo and a thing completely undesireable for a thinking Polish person, even those outside its leadership, to promote the somewhat desired in some places and acquired reputation of the communists at the time to grasp the politics of a nation and undermine it.  This is / was what is so entirely dangerous and mortal to democratic regimes and remains on the face of, but poorly internalized by free regimes everywhere due the its either / or, determinative, and again entirely mortal norms, the founding and continuation of many new democratic regimes themselves; and with the grandsons of these soviet conservatives, remains an extreme practical danger today.  Jaruzelski in spirit battled this during the time of his rule and as much needs be mentioned about this and the psychology of Eastern European and other leadership who know and knew of the GULAG, SLON, and so on.  The reality of these are so stark, and in and of themselves so completely strange and apart from civilization as many know it needs be at the least, toxic and poisonous and unendingly painful, and a reason the oppressors of the day preoccupied themselves with this, that in his later books, Alexander Solzhenitsyn himself allowed these oppressive and atrocious institutions to recede to faded and background images only given the harm and universal types of destruction they caused.  Something needs be mentioned about this, maybe by a group led by the great physician / psychiatrist at the CATO Institute, Vlad Bukovskii, and same need be called upon to re - assess and re - evaluate what the dangers for places like Poland were during the times discussed here actually were and how their leaders transcended, eventually and in death, the wall of the political, administrative, and marxist ideological prison into which they were cast due to the perceptions of Lenin on things like what hell was for people and wanting to materialize this for his / their adversaries and enemies.  If not a societal and physically oppressive hell as imposed, then a psychological, systemically inextricable one.  Please pardon typographical errors in this draft editorial.

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Another Nuclear Book by Joseph Cirincione (2013.)

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Nuclear Nightmares:  Securing the World Before It Is Too Late, by Joseph Cirincione (2013, Columbia University Press.)

Most of what we know about the consequences of nuclear arms has to do with the end of WWII and the defeat of Japan.  Most everyone agrees the nuclear arms used on Japan were extremely devastating.  What has not been resolved and again not resolved by this text, which incidentally makes a valuable attempt to have any reader of even a paragraph therein to consider this, is the intrinsic value and therefore the merits and / or disadvantages of nuclear arms, their development and maintenance, and then the specter of their use and the resulting physics and other consequences thereby.  The text does remind the reader time and again of the finances of such weapons as cold and calculating, and as cold and calculating as the predilictions, formal and otherwise, of the effects of an armed nuclear exchange on the world populace.  There are other texts that are more stark in their portrayal of this and the risks and even strict utilitarian cataclysm and waste resulting from the blasts and fallout and later events as well, but the book here has the reader in its grip from beginning to end, and for those not necessarily aware of the “hair trigger” dangers of armaments strategy, even more so due to the detailed narrative and prose as to the overall dangers and financial and societal costs of such things.  In reading this text, however, people like me get the idea that nuclear arms are cheap, actually, and they dismiss and eliminate much of the consideration of life and property, etc., no matter for whom, of the subject matter of same, or the ‘whereupon’ such weapons are trained. 

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All readers, and maybe all people, need be made aware of the overall issues examined by this text and that there is hope that one day nuclear weapons will no longer be a danger to anyone:  The text gives a quite captivating presentation of the history of these armaments and the effects they would have if used, and the litany of talks related to them, including the 1972 ABM Treaty, the START talks including the “New START” treaty advocated by both Russian and U.S. administrations.  The text mostly appears in all events to have to do with armaments security and the dangers of things like stray fissile material(s), false alarms and other incidents that are shocking in their impact for the reader, and that represent examples of a most salient problem in the maintenance of nuclear armaments stockpiles today.  That the book is composed and written in straight prose is a relief for the reader whereas the world of rockets, bombs, missiles and so forth might be impacted by acronyms, hard – hitting language, technical and other considerations that might make it difficult for anyone to write of at present.  This book is aimed at the commonweal and succeeds in bringing again a utilitarian message to the reader as to the consequences of further developing and maintaining nuclear weapons stockpiles, and the consequences of this now and for the future.  

Monday, June 2, 2014

"I prefer [read 'fall all over myself on'] facebook" and Other Nonsense - News About A Great Internet Company - Yahoo!

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On network television, and from some New York, NY station apparently, some IT media expert tried to go on the air yesterday, again, to explain what a lousy company (and again, this happens periodically, and typically a foreign or foreign influenced journalist gets on the air for such things) Yahoo! is supposed to be.  The fellow went on and on about it and that “financial results” and so forth are supposedly not up to it and that Marissa Mayer might not really be doing her job.  The same people used to hit on Susan Decker when she was a Yahoo! corporate officer and the like.  It just gets to be annoying and enough, already, for the time being.  Anyone who knows about the web knows that Yahoo! is a great company, and they have terrific stuff, they just are occasionally a little slow to listen to things like rumors and gossip on a high level, and should not be disparaged for this by “omniscient” television people. 
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This might be why Jerry Yang left the company some time ago, and it’s because the company might lose a penny in earnings and then three or more former soviet journalists (many are indeed IT ‘experts’) pop – up in the media where they have been following Yahoo!, and possibly some related business entities, through local Silicon Valley papers since the dark ages; they fly to NY or San Francisco routinely with bad news in their briefs, and using either various connections or bluster, they bully their way onto studio sets to hammer the people they don’t really like:  another example of what viewers call “vibe” that’s actually hype (informally here, and tongue – in – cheek, much of it.)  This kind of thing should stop and Ms. Mayer and her management team should be allowed, and their staff and business partners, etc., should be allowed to conduct business without the kind of hype and hammering they appear to be taking and have taken in the media, and for obvious reasons.   Please go elsewhere and maybe back to Kazakhstan or something to complain about technology companies, former soviet television journalists, and those so – influenced, for instance.  In the meantime, Yahoo!, have a great day.  Additionally, Yahoo! is for young people as well, so old pessimists, and difficult people stay home.  There are any number of reasons to express a favourable view here of this business, but this is not an endorsement either way,  it's just a great internet company, great web services, ... .  By the way, Yahoo! reports first, and sometimes they get to quite important things in the popular news first, the U.S. beat Turkey in a soccer match (again, yesterday?)
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