www.newshounds.us

Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson #fundie newshounds.us

I’ve often said that, ‘Thank God for slavery,’ because, you know, had not, then the blacks over here would have been stuck in Africa— Everybody and their Mama are trying to get out of Africa and come to America and so God has a way of looking out for folks and He made it possible by way of slavery to get black folks into this country.

—I thank God that He saw fit for me to get here. Never mind that, you know, (my ancestors) were sold— by Arabs and blacks to white folks— The ride over was pretty tough but you know, it’s like riding on a crowded airplane when you’re not in First Class. It’s a tough ride. But you’re happy when you get to your desitination— I thank God that he got me here and to show my appreciation to the blacks who suffered as the result of coming here, and Arabs and blacks who sold us to the white man, the white man for going there and getting us and bringing us here, I want to say, ‘Thanks.’

Jim Adkisson (Church Shooter) #fundie newshounds.us

On Sunday, Jim Adkisson entered the Knoxville Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee and opened fire killing two people and injuring seven more who were watching a children's production of Annie. A report from the Knoxville News Sentinel states that when police entered Jim Adkisson's home they found books by Michael Savage, Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly.

"Inside the house, officers found "Liberalism is a Mental Health Disorder" by radio talk show host Michael Savage, "Let Freedom Ring" by talk show host Sean Hannity, and "The O'Reilly Factor," by television talk show host Bill O'Reilly."
h/t to CM

The article goes on to explain Adkisson's motivation for the attack which he revealed to Steve Sills, a Knoxville Police Officer.

"Adkisson targeted the church, Still wrote in the document obtained by WBIR-TV, Channel 10, "because of its liberal teachings and his belief that all liberals should be killed because they were ruining the country, and that he felt that the Democrats had tied his country's hands in the war on terror and they had ruined every institution in America with the aid of media outlets."

Peter Morici & Steve Doocy #mammon #wingnut newshounds.us

Underneath Fox guest Peter Morici’s complaint that Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s tax plan unfairly taxes those with “only” $50 million was the suggestion that rich people deserve more.

Fox & Friends hosted economist Peter Morici this morning to provide what host Steve Doocy called “a reality check” on Warren’s plan for a wealth tax of two percent annually on assets worth above $50 million and a 3% tax on every dollar of net worth over $1 billion.

“Think about it this way,” Morici said. “Suppose you have assets of $50 million, so you meet her threshold. And then you earn this year another $50 million and you invest 25 [million] of it. On that 25, you’re gonna pay another 1% a year for the rest of your life.”

“So you if you’re a 30 year-old woman, you’re facing an 85% marginal tax rate on that wealth,” Morici continued. “And, by the way, she wants to couple this with a 70% income tax on these people. So in the end, they basically, if they make a buck, they’re gonna have to pay $1.20.”

Doocy worked to amp up the outrage: “Let me see if I get this straight. If you make a buck, you’re going to have to pay $1.20. So you just stop making money, you start paying the government, just hand over fist,” he said. But, apparently, this 30 year-old woman would be just fine with her $75 million.

I’m not an economist and my math skills are not good enough to check these calculations. But I am capable of seeing that along with the scare tactics was the message that the very wealthy are more deserving of their money.

“You see if anybody invests in America that way,” Morici warned, as if smaller investors don’t count.

“No, what you do is you get yourself on a Delta Airlines to London, you get yourself an apartment in Mayfair, and you basically move your money to Britain and you pay your taxes over there,” Morici said.

“I mean, why were American companies leaving for Ireland before Donald Trump became president? One of the things she doesn’t get is, people can get up and leave,” Morici continued. Again, as if the rest of us will far apart without the ultra rich.

Doocy briefly played devil’s advocate: “We’re not talking about just wealthy people,” he pointed out. “We’re talking about super-duper wealthy people who have assets of more than $50 million, right?”

Or maybe Doocy was just handing Morici an opening to argue that $50 million is just a smidge over upper middle class.

“Well, 50 million is big but it’s not as big as you think,” Morici declared. “You work for Fox News long enough and you’re 60 years old, you’ll be surprised how much money you have.”

Then Morici made his rich-people-deserve-ro-have-more pitch explicit:

MORICI: You have to remember, these are the people who finance our startups. These are the people that give us companies like Amazon and Apple, ‘cause they’re the ones with the seed capital. See, they behave like these people sort of clip coupons, they have bonds, and they hang out at the Doral with the president and, you know, that sort of thing. That’s just simply not true. They’re very active people that are investing their money.

Rather than point out that we had a great economy under President Dwight Eisenhower, when the income tax rate was 90% (on roughly $1.7 million for an individual and $3.4 million for a couple, in 2015 dollars), Doocy said “Sure.”

Doocy just happened to have a graphic ready showing the findings of two French economists who claim the 15 richest Americans would have seen their net wealth decline by “more than half, to $433.9 billion, had Warren’s plan been in place since 1982,” Doocy intoned ominiously.

Doocy forgot to mention they’d still have many billions.