Posted on

RI religious leaders blame Trump, Gingrich for vandalism at local mosque


Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /hermes/bosnacweb08/bosnacweb08bf/b1577/ipg.rifuturecom/RIFutureNew/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4387

Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /hermes/bosnacweb08/bosnacweb08bf/b1577/ipg.rifuturecom/RIFutureNew/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4387

kingston mosque vigilDuring an interfaith vigil for peace on Saturday, Rhode Island religious leaders implicitly and explicitly blamed Donald Trump, Newt Gingrich and the Republican rhetoric opposing religious freedom on the national political stage for vandalism that happened at a mosque in Kingston, Rhode Island on Thursday night.

“In one sense this incident is an isolated incident,” Rev. Don Anderson, the executive director of the Rhode Island Council of Churches who organized the vigil, told the crowd of well more than 100 people who came to be with the members of the Masjid al Hoda mosque Saturday.

“But we also need to understand that this happened in a context,” Anderson continued. “It took place in a context where there is irresponsible, hateful speech in our country. It is being applauded by many of our fellow citizens and it demands that we make a statement and stand up together.”

The isolated incident in question was an attack on the Muslim Community Center of Kingston, near the University of Rhode Island campus, Thursday night. A vandal broke windows in the mosque and spray painted “Muhammad prophet of butchers” on an outside wall. The context is Trump and other prominent Republicans who foment religious persecution by calling for new rules and regulations to monitor Muslims in America.

“When someone says that all Muslims should be banned from American shores, even temporarily, it hurts us all,” Anderson said. “When someone suggests that unconstitutional, anti-American suggestion that every American Muslim has to take a faith test, that is absolutely and positively wrong and we must stand together and acknowledge that and help people to understand that we don’t believe that. We do not believe that is the America that we want to live in. and we need to say that long and loud.”

Trump, the Republican nominee for president, has called for Muslims to be temporarily prevented from entering the United States. Gingrich, on Friday, said Muslim Americans should be subject to deportation based on a faith test. While Anderson didn’t name Trump or Gingrich specifically, other religious leaders did.

“The hatred and the animosity that is being spewed by … I can’t even describe them as leaders,” said a dismayed Iman Farid Ansari, a well-respected leader in the local Muslim community. “For Newt Gingrich to even suggest that there’s a test… What is it about freedom of religion that he doesn’t understand?”

kingston mosque vigil2Ansari put US Attorney Peter Neronha, who also spoke at the vigil, on the spot about Gingrich’s call for a religious test for Muslim Americans, an idea that was widely panned as both unconstitutional and un-American. “Our US Attorney is here,” Ansari said, motioning to Neronha, who was seated nearby. “Don’t you think it’s against the constitution? I think it is.” Neronha laughed along with the crowd, but didn’t otherwise offer a legal opinion.

Neronha’s office sometimes investigates vandalism against religious institutions. He said they are helping South Kingstown Police investigate the Kingston incident. About a similar hate crime against a Muslim school in West Warwick two years ago, Neronha said, “We’re still working on the incident at the Islamic school and there is promise in that investigation. I’m convinced we will bring that person to justice.”

Neither Neronha nor Congressman Jim Langevin followed the theme of putting some blame for local violence on national political figures. Of the three secular speakers at Saturday’s event, University of Rhode Island President David Dooley came closest to putting the local incident into a global perspective.

“It does seem, and in real ways it is true, that we face unprecedented times,” Dooley said. “The challenges, the diversity of those challenges, the magnitude of those challenges, is perhaps greater than it has ever been. But I think we can take some comfort, at least I hope we can, in the recognition that in many respects the hatred that we fight today has long been with us, and we have defeated it in the past.”

While the secular speakers shied away from being overtly political, the religious leaders did not. A Muslim, a Christian and a Jew each parsed the vandalism against the Kingston mosque as a symptom of the national dialogue.

“To think that a man running for president could promote and exacerbate policies of hatred, fear and suspicion is just simply unbelievable for all of us,” said Rabbi Howard Voss-Altman.

He implored people to follow the example of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who denounced Donald Trump earlier this week in spite of the tradition that justices remain apolitical.

“Don’t be shy,” Voss-Altman said. “Stand up, speak out. We will stand together to oppose hatred, and division, and fear. We do so today, we do so tomorrow, we do so on November 8 and then we continue to do so.”

Posted on

Republican Presidential Candidates’ Tax Policy Would Destroy the Economy (Even More)

There’s nothing quite like a political campaign to demonstrate just how extreme the national Republican Party and its primary voters are. The Center for Tax Justice has an analysis of the GOP Presidential Candidates’ Tax Plans which shows just how much they favor the wealthiest 1% of Americans. Some high(low)lights:

  • Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s $18.1 trillion tax plan would give the richest one percent of Americans an average tax cut of $391,330.
  • Texas Governor Rick Perry’s $10.5 trillion tax plan would give the richest one percent of Americans an average tax cut of $272,730.
  • Former Senator Rick Santorum’s $9.4 trillion tax plan would give the richest one percent of Americans an average tax cut of $217,500.
  • Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney’s $6.6 trillion tax plan would give the richest one percent of Americans an average tax cut of $126,450.

To put these numbers into better perspective, let’s compare them to the 2010 median wgae of $26,363, as reported by the Social Security Administration (note: median wage means that 50% of workers earned less and 50% or workers earned more. This is a much better calculation to use since “average” income skews higher because of the outrageous sums of wealth that some people generate).

  • Under Newt Gingrich’s plan, the median worker would need to work almost 15 years to earn as much as the average tax cut received by the richest 1%.
  • Under Rick Perry’s plan, the median worker would need to work about 10 years and 4 months to earn as much as the average tax cut received by the richest 1%.
  • Under Rick Santorum’s plan, the median worker would need to work about 8 years and 3 months to earn as much as the average tax cut received by the richest 1%.
  • Under Rick Perry’s plan, the median worker would need to work about 4 years and 8 months to earn as much as the average tax cut received by the richest 1%.

And these calculations don’t include the millions of people who are either “officially” unemployed, or have stopped looking for work, just those that are fortunate enough to find jobs. Why these proposals are even being seriously considered is beyond me.

It’s important to remember that not all taxes (or tax cuts) are equal. For instance, a payroll tax is more regressive than an income tax, a sales tax is more regressive than a payroll tax, and a capital gains tax is the most progressive of all since the wealthy benefit the most from capital gains (hence why capital gains taxes were sharply cut under George W. Bush). It’s also important to remember that the US tax burden is at its lowest level since 1958 and also federal income taxes are at historically low levels. The LAST thing this country needs right now are additional transfers of wealth to the already rich.

Each of the GOP candidates’ tax plans would further starve the federal government of much needed revenue, increase borrowing to provide for all the important things the federal government does for us, further increase the national debt and the interest we pay on that debt, and exacerbate the growth of income inequality, albeit in varying degrees. What they wouldn’t do is deal with the real economic problem facing the country: not enough money is going into the hands of people who will spend it.

Since the 1970s, U.S. wages have largely remained stagnant. At the same time, the vast majority of all the wealth created in the country over the last 30 years has been flowing upward.

Because the super wealthy don’t actually work to generate their income, wages as a share of national income has been declining for just as long. What that means is less and less money is being earned by workers, and that’s bad for the economy because workers spending money is what fuels economic growth. Consumers earning more money means that they can buy more goods and services, increasing the effective demand in an economy. Seems pretty simple, right? Well, yes, it is.