Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, Times Two, Over

[chris_gerrib]

Apparently my plan to show travel photos keeps getting overcome by events. Oh well. Here are two "WTF?" moments for your consideration.

Plot to Assassinate Saudi Ambassador

So, you've probably heard of the plot to blow up a restaurant in Washington, DC while the Saudi Ambassador was having dinner in it. What baffled me and many analysts was why Iran was so clumsy about it. I mean, wire $100,000 to a used-car salesman in Texas so he can hire a Mexican cartel to pull off a hit in DC? How stupid can you be?

Then it came to me - this plot was supposed to fail! What was (is) supposed to happen is that the US retaliates militarily, thus putting an end to the street protests. If that doesn't happen, the Quds force has at least, for the low-low cost of $100,000, seriously weakened Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Herman Cain's 999 Tax Plan

So, certain bloggers of my acquaintance argued that Obama wanted to surtax millionaires, even if this pushed unprofitable businesses into bankruptcy. Well, guess what - that's exactly what Herman Cain's 999 Plan does. See, it's explicitly a tax on gross income! The 9% on business is "Gross income less all investments, all purchases from other businesses and all dividends paid to shareholders." Notably excluded? Wages paid to employees.

Also notable is that, per verbal statements made yesterday by Cain (I saw the tape), he would allow businesses to deduct new equipment purchases from their 9% corporate income tax, as long as the goods were U.S.-made. Except, when asked if a computer assembled in the US from foreign components was US-made, he said he had "no idea." What about fuel - half our fuel comes from overseas - do airlines, for example, get to deduct fuel? I think he needs to put this pizza back in the oven for a while.

Comments

[baron-waste.livejournal.com]

I give him credit for saying flat-out, “I have no idea,” instead of waffling. That's brave, for a politician.

[chris-gerrib.livejournal.com]

Or stupid. I mean, it's one of the first questions you'd expect a businessman to ask. What - they don't use computers at Godfather's corporate?

[daveon.livejournal.com]

I was wondering how his system actually covered the gap between what it raises and actual outgoings.

A flat business tax which doesn't allow for the offset of standard business expenses is insane. Pretty much every small and medium services or software business would be out of business in a few months.

I get annoyed about the Washington State flat services business tax which is on gross income.

[daveon.livejournal.com]

Of course, if the US system also changes to let resident aliens be paid in dividends from a corporation (not currently legal) then WOOOHOOO! This would be the BIGGEST tax dodge in history!

[chris-gerrib.livejournal.com]

well, thus the "WTF" label.

Since he also abolishes the capital gains tax, investors make out like bandits.

[daveon.livejournal.com]

I think the problem here is that he seems to think Banks are the Jimmy Stewart type operations from Its a Wonderful Life, when they're not.

You really couldn't make this stuff up could you?

[chris-gerrib.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure what he thinks, or even *if* he thinks...

[daveon.livejournal.com]

Well, he obviously can run a corporation, although being a CEO isn't necessarily proof of anything except you can navigate corporate politics and have a degree of luck. Tony Haywood was a good CEO, he was deeply unlucky.

The problem is a country/government isn't a corporation and the things it does and has to do don't work to the same constraints and rules as corporations have to. Now I'd argue that there are co-ops and other more "old fashioned" business set ups that run more like a government probably ought to run, and that the goal of any government is to maximize "utility" (in the sense of general welfare and happiness of the population), but we've moved so far away from goals like that in a lot of countries that getting back there is going to be damn hard.

How we re-set the expectations of an entire generation without doing the 1930s/40s way, I have no idea.

[bdunbar.livejournal.com]

I think he needs to put this pizza back in the oven for a while.

He's got a while till the election.

But he's not going to get the nomination. And he got the nomination I do not believe he's win the election.

But he sure can give a speech, hunh?

[jetfx.livejournal.com]

Your explanation for the Iranian plot still makes little sense. US military action would be a disaster for Iran's ruling factions. It would be difficult for them to judge the scale of any military retaliation, and they must realize also that the Americans aren't too keen on war either. If anything, the plot serves American interests more than Iranian ones.

[jordan179.livejournal.com]

Then it came to me - this plot was supposed to fail! What was (is) supposed to happen is that the US retaliates militarily, thus putting an end to the street protests. If that doesn't happen, the Quds force has at least, for the low-low cost of $100,000, seriously weakened Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

This assumes, of course, that our retaliation doesn't seriously weaken Iran. This was a really, really stupid thing for the Iranians to do before they have the Bomb.

Unless, of course, they've judged Obama correctly as too weak to do anything effective. Which could be the case, but I wouldn't count on it if I were Iran.