The man who views the world at 50 the same as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life.
Muhammad Ali
Rant of the Day: An Open Letter to The (Incompetent) One
From The Kelly File on FB, Clara Trivino:
Dear Mr. Obama:Excerpt of the Day
I'm planning to move my family and extended family into Mexico for my health, and I would like to ask you to assist me. We're planning to simply walk across the border from the U.S. into Mexico, and we'll need your help to make a few arrangements. We plan to skip all the legal stuff like visas, passports, immigration quotas and laws. I'm sure they handle those things the same way you do here So, would you mind telling your buddy, the President of Mexico , that I'm on my way over? Please let him know that I will be expecting the following:
1. Free medical care for my entire family.
2. English-speaking Government bureaucrats for all services I might need, whether I use them or not.
3. Please print all Mexican Government forms in English.
4. I want my grand kids to be taught Spanish by English-speaking (bi-lingual) teachers.
5. Tell their schools they need to include classes on American culture and history.
6. I want my grand kids to see the American flag on one of the flag poles at their school.
7. Please plan to feed my grand kids at school for both breakfast and lunch.
8. I will need a local Mexican driver's license so I can get easy access to government services.
9. I do plan to get a car and drive in Mexico, but I don't plan to purchase car insurance, and I probably won't make any special effort to learn local traffic laws.
10. In case one of the Mexican police officers does not get the memo from their president to leave me alone, please be sure that every patrol car has at least one English-speaking officer.
11. I plan to fly the U.S. flag from my house top, put US. flag decals on my car, and have a gigantic celebration on July 4th. I do not want any complaints or negative comments from the locals.
12. I would also like to have a nice job without paying any taxes, or have any labor or tax laws enforced on any business I may start.
13. Please have the president tell all the Mexican people to be extremely nice and never say critical things about me or my family, or about the strain we might place on their economy.
14. I want to receive free food stamps.
15. Naturally, I'll expect free rent subsidies.
16. I'll need income tax credits so that although I don't pay Mexican taxes, I'll receive money from the government.
17. Please arrange it so that the Mexican Government pays $4,500.00 to help me buy a new car.
18. Oh yes, I almost forgot, please enroll me free into the Mexican Social Security program so that I'll get a monthly income in retirement.
So in France in the six weeks since the Charlie Hebdo massacre, far-right ideologues have been arrested for the crime of anti-Semitic speech, and three people who wrote homophobic tweets have been convicted of committing a hate crime. In Copenhagen just four months ago, an art exhibition was cancelled on the basis that it was racist: the Danish penal code forbids any speech that threatens or simply insults or degrades a group on the basis of its race, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, or faith. Was it the Koran that gave the Copenhagen cafe shooter the idea that any slur against his faith was an intolerable crime, or was it the insult-punishing law of the land in which he was born and brought up? His own nation sent him the message that anyone who degraded his faith deserved to be punished.Image of the Day
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| Via the Independent Institute |
New Scumbag Public Servant of the Year Nominee: Riviera Beach FL Police
90-year-old woman found her home wrecked by the police given a drug-related search warrant, that of course came up empty. Here is the official response:
Riviera Beach Police said the search warrant was executed at the correct address and while the resident may not have had any knowledge of drugs being sold from her home, it doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.Expletive deleted. Some people will never admit that they screwed up.
What? The Gray Lady Admits Phony Talking Point: the Rich Get Richer
Now, granted, for most midde/lower-income households struggling since the Great Recession, hearing that the highest income earners dropped by half from about $40M to $20M before recovering to about $30M is likely to get a 'cry me a river' response. But the point is they still are 25% below where they were, which is more than the decline of lower-income (see plot below). And federal support programs like unemployment compensation, food stamps, etc., have buffered the lower-income workers to a greater extent (which, even if they were eligible, would have a negligible impact on higher-income compensation). And whereas the stock market has risen robustly since 2009, some companies have done better than others; consider even on a nominal level, the Nasdaq is still far below its 2000 peak.
Make no mistake: the columnist is far more "liberal/progressive" than I am; he finds redeeming value in the social welfare net, with which I disagree. But people who held stock market assets took severe losses, at least on paper, during the last two bubble crashes. People who cherrypick during the markets' 2009 low to the present forget the huge drop since October 2007. Many income stocks froze, reduced or dropped their dividends during that period. No doubt some people have improved their lot since 2007, but the idea that only the middle/lower got hurt and the wealthy made out like bandits during and after the crisis has neen debunked.
The Rich Have Gotten Poorer Since 2007
Since the financial crisis and recession began, the incomes of the highest-earning households have fallen even more than the income of others.
Change in average pretax income of different percentiles, since 2007
%
0
-10
-20
-30
-40
Bottom 90
Top 10
Top 1
Top 0.01
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
More on the IRS Structuring Scam
Over the last week or two, I've focused this issue over unknowing depositors who deposit amounts just under $10K, which is reportable to the government; the IRS is seizing bank accounts of those who make deposits that they believe is working around the reporting rule. This is basically looking at a rule for the sake of a rule; the intent of the rule is to flag things like money laundering operations. In a number of cases, like the one cited below, the IRS knows the depositors are running legitimate businesses, but they are seizing the assets anyway. The law all but puts the burden of proof on the property owner.
Facebook Corner
(Reason). Hate speech laws legitimize violence against those who offend.
I think the primary issue here is the rank hypocrisy of hate speech laws in an allegedly liberal republic. It's not only the conceptual issue of drawing a line in what constitutes free speech, but the arbitrary, divisive nature of enforcement and the violations of the rule of law: why, for instance, is a "homophobic'" tweet more offensive than a cartoonist's provocative caricature of someone's faith? I have no doubt in the minds of many devout, peaceful Muslims, Denmark was discriminatory in its handling of hate speech.
If we give up free speech, we give up our best nonviolent defense to having all our other rights taken away.
If and when left-wing authoritarians manage to compromise your liberty, why are your other unalienable rights not also at risk?
Free speech means nothing without the right to offend people
Bullshit! Tolerance does not mean acceptance. The bigger issue is whether the State should prohibit free expression, even of intolerant perspectives.
(Reason). Are reformicons the future of conservatism?
Well, you don't even have to look far for other relevant "reformist" examples--take the ubiquitous "repeal and replace" ObamaCare talking point. Part of the problem is exactly the sort of populist nonsense that prevented branch banking for most of American history. States impose barriers to entry, e.g., mandated policies (guaranteed issue and community rating) and special-interest benefits. Instead of being faithful to the free market ideals of interstate commerce as per the Constitution, we have seen things like prohibiting distribution of products across state lines (e.g., Carolene Products). We should see from Congressional conservatives more emphasis on devolving funding and regulatory authority to the states, privatization, etc.
I won't even read the other comments in this thread, because so help me if I read one more trite assertion that there's no difference between the parties, I'll puke--I challenge any one of those fools to find a fiscal hawk in any federal Democrat or any supporting a balanced budget amendment, etc., the likes of a Rand Paul or Justin Amash. Cutting spending is easier said than done; look at how Paul Ryan, who has proposed modest reforms on entitlements, was portrayed, pushing Granny over the cliff. It can be politically suicidal to take on popular, but unsustainable government programs.
Finally, I think the author is confusing conservatism with right-wing populism. For example, many right-wingers consider themselves vested in social security/Medicare over decades of payroll taxes.
(IPI). The current health-benefits package provided to state workers contains much richer benefits than the average Illinoisan might receive, while state-government employees pay a much lower price.
State workers are underpaid study
Wow, a real "surprise": the ruling class finds some crackpot "study" to argue they are "undercompensated". I don't even need to look at the "study" because they are typically garbage--to give an example, trying to compare apples and oranges. For example, public sector teacher unions never target private sector teachers (who actually make less) but some "and some magic happens" comparison of degreed professionals in the private sector. Other studies focus on only part of compensation--say, salary--vs. fungible benefits, which are much higher.
There is actually a very simple test as to judging empirically whether state jobs are "undercompensated"--like do public jobs go unfilled or have waiting lists? The last time I checked, the corrections department wasn't even accepting new applications for trainee positions--and I don't consider these positions "dream jobs". We might start believing the crackpots when state/local workers give up their retirement benefits to join the rest of us struggling in the real economy.
(IPI). Cut government spending and the sky is falling. Take $31 billion from Illinois taxpayers and it’s just another day at the Statehouse.
Its ok to cut the spending. Just remeber its going to have an impact somewhere. Plowing, street repair, emergency services. Somewhere......
Of course, the fascists will always argue that budget cuts will come out of essential services--remember, the Occupier-in-Chief screamed like a squealed pig over the same sequester agreement he signed onto--and the feds did everything they could under his "leadership" to make unpopular cuts get on the news with nonsense like closing down national parks, suspending DC tours, etc. If you honestly believe out of nearly a $4T budget that the bulk spending comes out of the national parks, you are hopelessly gullible and retarded. The pension crisis, not to mention unsustainable state debt, has more to do with future cuts for essential services. Of course, there are a lot of parasites who will squeal at any budget cut, but I'm not worried about self-serving bureaucrats.
(IPI). Governor Bruce Rauner's proposed budget relies on no tax increases or borrowing.
Yeah. He plans on stealing it from hard working people. Keep it classy republicans!
What a fascist parasite! As if stealing from other people's pockets to pay for your own corrupt state government is any more worthy...
(The Hill). "They knew where Bin Laden was. I don’t think they really wanted to catch him because he was used as the excuse for us, you know, invading various countries and building up the military." - Ron Paul.
As much as I admire Ron Paul from a policy standard, this is a crackpot conspiracy theory. Do you honestly believe George Bush wanted to let Barack Obama get the political credit for getting UBL? In fact, Ron Paul is being inconsistent here given his blowback thesis: did the US really want to make a "martyr" of UBL? Reprisal attacks could then be used to justify further interventions. So UBL is a useful idiot dead or alive for the interventionists. Notice that getting UBL didn't stop Obama from meddling in Libya, Syria, and going back to Iraq, even cynically trying to use two obsolete authorizations for force that he himself claims that he wouldn't have supported, to do that.
Don't use the buzz word crackpot like the media used to please. Your argument is so weak. Maybe they had to pretend they caught him because US citizens were getting restless and were starting to give up on this BS war on terrorism. They needed a victory to get the people behind them. I think your mistake is assuming that the parties are different. The parties the same.
I figured that the crackpot Ron Paulists wouldn't like what I had to comment. "Weak" argument? The parties are the "same"? Talk about state of denial. Let's point out that the Dems controlled the full Congress 2007-2010 and had run against the wars. Obama not only did not improve on Bush's negotiated exit from Iraq but failed to negotiate an extention; he doubled down on Afghanistan, more than doubling American casualties in less time than Bush's 8 years. Obama ran for reelection on "getting us out of Iraq" and for killing UBL--which for most Dems was the embodiment of terrorism.
As for your weak argument that the natives were getting "restless", they had been restless since the 2006 election. Avenging the 9/11 attack on the homeland had broad, bipartisan appeal, with or without nation-building; this includes non-interventionists like me. But Ron Paul has overused the blowback nonsense one too many times, most recently in discussing the Charlie Hebdo massacre.
Still More Wedding Proposals
Political Cartoon
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| Courtesy of the artist via Carpe Diem |
James Taylor, "Shower the People"
