BC's Carbon Tax is Just Another Regressive Sales Tax

Ever wonder why Gordo Campbell and his 'Liberal Party' passed a Carbon Tax in BC when no other jurisdiction in North America has one? Because right-wing neo-con politicians love regressive taxation and the Campbell Liberals were able to spin the Carbon Tax as a green initiative to a hopeful green-y population of naive residents at exactly the right time, at exctly the time when it looked like others, especially Californians who BCer's wanna be like so much, were going to do it too for the same green-y reasons. The Californians in fact did do it until they had the next election cycle.

There's three basic types of taxes. Regressive taxes charge everybody, rich or poor, the same amount monetarily. They are called regressive, of course, because they proportionately hurt  the poorer person more. So all sales taxes, here in Canada or anywhere, hurt folks in reverse proportion to their income and wealth as does a Carbon Tax. A progressive tax is any tax that is collected in direct proportion to their income, like income tax, or in proportion to their accumulated wealth like property taxes or capital gains taxes. The third type are luxury taxes and sin taxes. Both of them are leveraged against things judged to be non-essential choices, like Hummers, BMWs, cigarettes and booze.

Rich folks love regressive taxation for all the obvious self-serving reasons. If all govt. revenue was collected from those most able to pay the corporate shareholder, the speculators, the robber barons and those born with a silver spoon in their mouths would have slightly less bling to amuse themselves with, might have to limit their holdings to one house in the Hampshires, might even have to settle for only one trip to the Rivera each season.

Poor folks live with regressive taxation because they don't have the extra funds it takes to adequately bribe enough politicians to get progressive taxes mandated. The rich are well educated in the cost-benefit analysis of paying off the every political party in every 'democracy' to keep their position secure. The poor spend their time in prayer and at the lottery ticket window.

If they made me, w. wallace mud, benevolent dictator taxation would be of two varieties only, progressive and luxury. Of course, the rich would moan, groan and buy copious advertising space trying to convince the poor of the unfairness of those dictates. Being a benevolent type though would mean using luxury taxes to their best advantage too. Things like cigarettes and booze carry lots in terms of externalized costs that everyone pays in health care and violence. Things like Hummers externalize their costs onto the coming generations in terms of lower air quality etc. Pity the rich bastards, someday w. wallace mud or some other unbribed type will come along and collect taxes fairly, will re-distribute wealth equitably and will stop capitalism from externalizing the true costs of its obscene destruction onto the unborn.

Green Beer and Paganism on St. Patrick's Day

Legend has it that St. Patrick drove all the snakes from Ireland. Sometime back in the fifth century he stood on a hill, the story goes, and used a staff to herd the slithering creatures into the sea, banishing them for eternity. In reality most scholars agree that snakes symbolize paganism, which St. Patrick is also credited for banishing from Ireland. Snakes as symbols of evil are prevalent throughout Judeo-Christian mythology, most notoriously in the Garden of Eden as a tempter of Eve.

St. Patrick's Day, like most Hallmark Holidays, has its roots deeply embedded in paganism. The historic St. Patrick was born in Wales around AD 385. Before becoming St. Patrick he answered to the name Maewyn and, until turning 16, he identified himself as a pagan (no real shocker there, as most people back in those days were pagan). He later, after being enslaved and hauled off to Ireland, had visions, heard voices and moved to a monastery in France where he converted. Subsequently he returned to Ireland and began converting the local pagan folks to the latest craze in self-delusion, Christianity.

Some modern Pagans and Wiccans quietly protest St. Patrick by wearing a serpent pin or shirt on St. Patrick's Day instead of those green "Kiss Me I'm Irish" badges. Though if you're not sure about the depth of your pagan devotion or about wearing a snake on your lapel, you can always jazz up your front door with a Spring Snake Wreath instead.

But all that is old hat and nobody, other than the odd grudge holding pagan, really cares anymore about the historic St. Paddy. Nowadays it's all about parades, the 'Luck of the Irish' and green beer-especially beer, green or not, here in Canuckistan. Oh, for sure you'll see a few folks drinking Guinness or toasting with Irish Whiskey but the real truth is Canucks, like most folks everywhere, like a buzz and whatever excuse there is for a party sounds fine.

Otto Langer's Warning About the Harper Government's Desire to Gut the Environmental Review Process

Harper and his fascist cronies are at it again. This time their objective is to gut any environmental review process that could stand in the way of his oily corporate contributors now, as in the environmental review under way into the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline, or in the future. Harper and his thugs have, among other neo-conservative agenda items, the objective of turning Canada into a corporate petro-state.

In this instance the Conservatives plan to sneak this past the opposition by adding it their Budget Omnibus Bill was exposed when former DFO executive Otto Langer released an email he'd been sent by a current DFO employee and whistle-blower [who'd best be ducking as the fascists are surely circling the DFO staff's email accounts]. The video of an interview with Otto Langer about the repercussions of this move by the Harperites is available here.

NDP Fisheries Critic Donnelly is concerned these changes are designed to clear the way for industrial projects favoured the Harper Government. In a press release following the above exchange in the House, he stated, “The Conservative government is systematically dismantling environmental protection and regulation. By eliminating provisions to protect fish habitat, they can push through their agenda of pipelines, oil super tankers, mega mines and other projects that harm the environment.”

As Otto Langer writes in his article, 'Veteran Fisheries Scientist Warns Harper Government Watering Down Habitat Protections in Omnibus Bill' : "This proposed move by the Harper government is a travesty for our fishery resources and the health of the entire ecosystem and it ignores the needs of our future generations. It is little less than another attack on the biological systems that allow life to exist on this planet. To make matters worse, the political level has decided to not consult with DFO staff or the public on these proposed changes. The Harper government will attempt to sneak this neutering of the Fisheries Act through Parliament within the next two weeks by tacking it on to the end of the up coming Budget Omnibus Bill."


How BC Could Counteract Harper's Gutting of Environmental Protections for Enbridge  - Our esteemed contributor Otto Langer blew it wide open when he, using a leaked document, stated that under the Harper government the protection of fish habitat would no longer be enforced against industry and that it would use an “omnibus bill” to try to sneak it through.

"Bank of America took our homes, so we thought we'd move in here."

Today, March 15th, the Occupy movement in the US is taking on the Bank of America. The website 'Foreclose The Banks' has some very cool stuff and some great quotes. The Mud Report is totally behind the creative actions being taken across Amerika against one of that country's biggest banksters. Two Thumbs Up to the occupiers.

The website opens with, "Bank of America (BAC) is a morally and financially dead “zombie bank” poised to shock the entire global economy into crisis. Its time to Fight BAC and break up the bank! On March 15th, we will Foreclose on Bank of America." Then quotes Matt Taibbi who says, “There are two things every American needs to know about Bank of America. The first is that it’s corrupt… It is a giant, raging hurricane of theft and fraud… The second is that all of us, as taxpayers, are keeping that hurricane raging.”

One section called 'The Big Picture' reads, "We are fighting for economic justice and democracy. We are part of an international movement battling unchecked global capitalism, the crimes of Wall Street and the banks, a corrupt government controlled by monied elites, and the resulting income inequality, unemployment, environmental destruction, and oppression of people at the front lines of the economic crisis. The 99% are organizing to end the tyranny, greed, and selfishness of the 1% and usher in an era of protected freedoms, compassion, collaboration, solidarity, mutual aid, sustainability, economic justice, and democracy by and for the people."

Tonight mr. mud is going to his first General Assembly at Occupy Powell River, and couldn't be prouder. This small town group has already raised the consciousness of our little coastal rain forest community with its first few actions. There will be more actions and groups in communities both small and large  here in coastal BC and everywhere as first the spring then the summer of 2012 roll on.

As the article 'Occupy Movement to Blossom as Spring Approaches' says in part, "Organizers have also been using the winter to incubate grander plans, among them a May 1 Day of Action that may turn into a call for a nationwide general strike and proposals to occupy corporate shareholder meetings, the NATO summit in Chicago, and the Democratic and Republican conventions at the end of the summer."

As a prologue to a March 15 action against bank foreclosures, a crew of Occupiers moved into a Bank of America lobby carting their couch, coffee table and potted plant.

Maher and Limbaugh are Kissin Cousins

Ol' Rush Limbaugh and Bill Maher both use the same gimmick, they both earn big bucks by the berating and name calling of individuals instead of making light or criticizing their public statements or policy perspectives. They both try to make themselves look bigger by attempting to make others look smaller. It's a very old gimmick and it's bullshit.

The gimmick is equally lame whether you happen to agree with the lame-o's overall perspective or not. In fact it's not only lame logically but actually does far more harm than good to one's argument.

As anyone who ever reads a post at The Mud Report knows the writer of these lines wouldn't be on Rush Limbaugh's X-mas card list and that on occasion Maher's musings have probably been a far fairer fit. But when Bill Maher calls Sarah Palin [or anybody else] disgusting names or belittles her children he's not only wrongheaded, he's wrong. There's plenty of room for argument, comedic or not, with Sarah Palin's politics, there's zero for the rest. Maher's salacious name calling gives him a bad name not Palin, it effectively dismisses any further comments he has about any legitimate policy topic and it gives the object of his personal attacks the perfect platform to sidestep any of Maher's more valid critiques.

Same goes in spades for Rush Limbaugh. Certainly his arguments about publicly funded birth control have been discounted to zero by his personal insults toward an individual rather than toward her perspective. There are huge differences all around the political spectrum, plenty of real differences to debate or make jokes about for Bill, Rush and anyone else without demeaning themselves and their arguments by name calling.

Manditory Minimum Marijuana Sentences in Bill C-10 is Reefer Madness Solution for Harper's Neo-Con Base

Despite the fact that every other country in the Western Hemisphere is moving away from mandatory minimum sentences for growing and possessing small amounts of marijuana, despite the undisputed fact that this idiotic policy of Harpo's will cost Canadian taxpayers billions of dollars to build prisons, will clog up the courts, will imprison non-violent productive members of society and will only increase the leverage organized crime has on the marijuana industry, undeterred, onward the Conservatives march. Why?

Because its an obvious wedge issue. Because Harpo's goal is to remain in power. Because the 40%, or slightly less, that voted for him are the only Canadians he cares to keep happy and many/most of them are convinced that smoking marijuana is a sin. Harpo's base of support is riddled with folks who are totally confused about the difference between a sin and a crime. It's not totally their fault individually, so many have been taught since the cradle to obey authority, to respect authority and that the minister-priest-bishop speaks for God-the big kahuna of authority.

A crime has a victim. A criminal believes he/she can get more out of a system than they put in-a free lunch. Criminals are dangerous to those around them and to society in general because they are immoral, because they have no empathy for others, because they reject the 'golden rule'-do unto others as you'd have them do unto you. A sin is a totally different thing. A sin is an internal conflict between the teachings of a religion [often totally moral and 'golden rule' appropriate] and the action an adherent is doing or the thoughts they are thinking. Marijuana growing for ones own consumption may be against the law of the land and the various churches may see it as a sin, but it is not immoral.

Anyway, as the John Howard Society of Manitoba points out: Bill C-10 will have a direct impact on rates of incarceration.  The Correctional Service of Canada is predicting an 8 per cent increase in inmates per year.  At the provincial level, the increase will likely be three or four times higher (putting it in the range of 24 to 32 per cent) given that the vast majority of minimum sentences will be served as ‘provincial time’. Added to that, the provinces will see an increase in remand wait times, as mandatory minimums make plea bargains less attractive, causing more cases to proceed to trial. All these changes will further burden our already financially strapped courts and prisons, but will not reduce instances of crime.

FAST FACTS: Bill C-10: The Truth About Consequences

How Would You Feel if a Massacre Like the One Yesterday in Afghanistan Happened in Your Home?

Didn't sleep to well last night, kept waking up from the same terrible dream over and over. Kept seeing storm troopers like the kind in 'Star Wars' busting down the door and shooting...and shooting...and shooting. Kept changing tee-shirts 'cause of the cold sweat. Always knowing within seconds it was a dream, always knowing how i'd feel if a massacre like the one yesterday in Afghanistan happened to my family.

There isn't a doubt in my mind, i'd do anything to get even. The Afghans don't feel the way they feel today because they are living in a medieval culture or because they are jihadists, or terrorists or any other bullshit characterization you choose. They feel and act as they must because they are you. If you want to understand how the Afghan people feel? Think of your kids.

Today's lead article at Common Dreams 'I Don’t Want To See Their Faces; I Don’t Want To Hear Them Scream', by Christopher Cooper, was some comfort to me. It may well be to you also, please read it, it says what we all must be feeling today.

Afghanistan is well-known as the 'graveyard of empires'. It cast off the imperialist likes of Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan and the Mongol empire, the British Victorian colonial empire and most recently, the Soviet communist empire. After 11 years of pain, death and destruction we should concede that the stories of a this soldier's massacre of innocent women and children and Quran burnings could be the lasting legacies of the longest war in the American empire's history. The US and its vassal states in NATO must get out now even though now is already far to late.

I Don’t Want To See Their Faces; I Don’t Want To Hear Them Scream - Does it feel different to be dead by drone than dead by M-1? Does Obama have nightmares? Did Bush? Do they wash their hands, trying to scrub off the blood?

Why NDP Leadership Candidate Nathan Cullen is the Best Choice for Progressive Canadian Voters

Today in Vancouver the NDP is holding its final debate before the leadership vote to pick Jack Layton's successor on March 24th in Toronto. After listening, watching and studying the websites of the various candidates Nathan Cullen appears to be only one offering any real chance of a big change in Canadian politics.

As Nathan's website says, "After just eight months of a Harper majority, we’ve seen Canada withdrawn from Kyoto; the Canadian Wheat Board gutted; expensive, radical crime bills ushered in; and attack after attack on the values most Canadians cherish. Stephen Harper's majority government is attacking Canadian values with less than 40 per cent support. The NDP is in an ideal position to lead the conversation about how the other 60% can work together to replace Harper’s majority with a progressive majority."

Canada is in a small minority of countries that do not use proportional representation already. More than 75 democracies do in some form, including Australia, New Zealand and Scotland, all of which use Parliamentary systems like Canada's. Done right, proportional representation produces stable, productive governments -- which, crucially, reflect, not fight, their citizens' beliefs.

Cullen has gained support with controversial positions such as advocating for strategic alliances with the Greens and Liberals, and a populist-environmentalist stand against the Enbridge pipeline. Check out Project Democracy where you'll learn how Nathan's proposal for joint nominations and electoral reform can and will defend Canadian values.  Nathan Cullen attracted more people to his events in February than any other candidate. Unless the NDP, Liberals and Greens find some way to unite the 60% who vote against Harper and his Conservative Party agenda we will continue to be ruled by a Republican style right-wing minority. The right united, now the left must do the same.

The Mud Report enthusiastically endorses Nathan Cullen for the leadership of the Canadian NDP. Go Nathan GO!



Nathan Cullen 2012


Project Democracy

Is Dutch Disease Why Only McDonalds and Starbucks are Hiring?

There used to be good jobs here in BC and across Canada when my oldest daughter graduated from high school back in '78. Back then a kid could find a job in the forest industry, manufacturing or fishing industries. A good job, a job that in time would feed a family, buy a home, maybe a vacation in the camper up at the lake and probably a pension someday. Some kids also went off to university, sooner or later they too found a job in their field [though they mighta had to move somewhere inconvenient to get a start].

But by the time my youngest daughter graduated from high school things were far different. Some still went on to university and a few still got decent jobs if they were uniquely talented or well connected. Many though hoped for a job at Starbucks but ended up at Tim Hortons. A few years later, by 2010, those who had 'secured' their position at Starbucks were happy because by then mosta the heavily indebted university grads were filling out applications there too.

What happened is called Dutch Disease. every major oil exporter from Venezuela to Louisiana has suffered some form of the ailment. 'The Economist named the economic malaise "the Dutch Disease," from which the astute Dutch eventually recovered but from which every major oil exporter from Venezuela to Louisiana has suffered at some point. Phillippe Bergevin first diagnosed Canada's growing infection in a paper titled "Energy Resources: Boon or Curse for the Canadian Economy?" Bergevin detected a number of critical and telltale symptoms including "a rising resource-led export sector coupled with a struggling manufacturing sector and a rising currency."

Jock Finlayson of the Business Council of British Columbia noted that every one cent rise in the Canada's petro dollar subtracted $150-$160-million from the forestry sector; and another $50-million from the mining sector. The Tar Sands carnival and the resulting Dutch Disease is responsible for 54 percent of the manufacturing employment loss across Canada due to exchange rate developments between 2002 and 2007 alone. By exporting vast volumes of oil instead of refining and consuming it here in Canada Alberta and successive federal flunkies have chosen to export thousands of high value jobs to U.S. refineries.

The bought and paid for politicians are right when they say the tar sands is all about jobs and revenue. They just refuse to add two important qualifiers: lost jobs and squandered revenue. Please do your own research on Canadian Dutch Disease. When you do you'll see why Caterpillar shutdown its plant in Ontario and opened a new one Georgia recently and why there's a lineup to get jobs at Mickey D's nowadays.

How the Tar Sands Threaten Canada's Economic Fate - A short course in Dutch Disease, deindustrialization and the Bitumen Curse.

Does the Canadian economy suffer from Dutch Disease?

What NATO's Kids are Fighting and Dying for in Afghanistan

Yesterday was International Women's Day around the globe but instead of focusing on the achievments of Women's Rights groups the international press concentrated on Hamid Karzai's endorsement of the Afghan Council edict a few days ago which clearly said that 'women are secondary'. On last friday the Council, Afghanistan's highest Islamic authority, issued an edict saying that women were worth less than men, then on tuesday a statement released by Karzai's office endorsed it.

"Men are fundamental and women are secondary," the edict said, adding women should avoid "mingling with strange men in various social activities such as education, in bazaars, in offices and other aspects of life". The guidelines would prohibit women to be in public places unaccompanied by a male. a condition that could dissolve the Afghan legislature. Further it said women should wear "full Islamic hijab", should respect polygamy — Islam allows a man to take up to four wives — and comply with Shariah law on divorce, which severely restricts women's rights.

In a largly symbolic move Canada last year joined other nations that have withdrawn from a combat role in Afghanistan. But along with these NATO nations Canada continues training police and armed forces plus has investments funding for education and justice projects and aid programs. Other NATO countries, notably Great Britian and the US-which has over 100,000 regular military personal on the ground there as well as untold numbers of mercenaries-continue to send their young people into battle where thousands have already died or come home severly injured.

11 years later, US troops are still burning Korans out of either insensitivity or ignorance. Thousands are dead on all sides.
thousands more are maimed in body and soul and FOR WHAT? So that Hamid Karzai's government can uphold the edicts of medieval clerics. The illegal, undeclared 'war', in Afghanistan was crap to begin with and now after 11 long years the outcome is the same as was predicted at its begining. The Afghans aren't buying the supposed benefits of western occupation, instead they wait, they wait for the inevitable day when, like that last ignoble day in Saigon, the US and its vassels leave.

There are methods like the power of example that triumph over the example of power. One day perhaps the US and its allies will understand that the force of their ideas not the force of their armies can change minds. The only avenue to change in the long run is mutual respect and honest interaction. Our history of human rights in the west has slowly evolved through common cause, through mutual understanding and acceptance of the inalienable fact that we are all in this together, that, being one life-one interconnected life-any harm done to another is actually harm done to oneself because there is no 'other'. So too for the Afghans.


Hamid Karzai endorses Afghan edict that 'women are secondary' - Hamid Karzai's US-backed government is under fire this International Women's Day, accused of selling out on Afghan women's rights as it tries to woo the Taliban into peace talks.


Hamid Karzai backs restrictive code for women - Afghanistan's president endorses 'code of conduct' which activists say is a giant step backward for women's rights.