POLITICAL: Interesting switch — switch income tax to payroll tax?

Wednesday, January 10, 2018

http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2018/01/screwing-trump-ny-may-scrap-its-income.html

FRIDAY, JANUARY 5, 2018
Screwing Trump: NY May Scrap Its Income Tax for a Payroll Tax

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The state of New York may end its income tax and instead expand its payroll tax as a way to outmaneuver the new federal law that limits deductions for state and local taxes, according to WGRZ.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday during his State of the State address that he is exploring how to make the switch. California and New Jersey leaders have also discussed similar steps and other alternatives.

*** end quote ***

Good for retirees and pensioners?

I love when levels of Gooferment fight each other.

Hopefully “We, The Sheeple” will wake up and see how they are being robbed.

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SECESSION: Is there an automatic right to secession?

Tuesday, January 9, 2018

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/jan/4/jeff-sessions-ramp-federal-enforcement-marijuana-l/

Billion-dollar pot industry is dazed and confused by Justice Department’s reversal
By Jeff Mordock – The Washington Times – Thursday, January 4, 2018

*** begin quote ***

Attorney General Jeff Sessions moved Thursday to revoke the Obama-era see-no-evil policy on federal enforcement of marijuana laws, announcing that federal law enforcement will no longer look the other way even in states that have legalized use of the drug.

The decision doesn’t change the state policies, but it does give U.S. attorneys the freedom to decide how strongly to enforce federal law that classifies marijuana as an illegal substance.

*** end quote ***

Does this give California a clear reason to leave “These United States of America”?

While everyone would like to think that “secession” was “settled” by the War Of Northern Aggression, it wasn’t. Like the demise of the Soviet Union, it really doesn’t matter what the “central authority” wants. Collapse occurs.

There is an internationally recognized to “self-determination”. Does that de facto entail an automatic right to secession?

Certainly seems to, to me.

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GOVEROTRAGEOUS: Women don’t need Gooferment “protection”

Monday, January 8, 2018

http://keywestlou.com/george-bernard-shaws-caesar-and-cleopatra

A blog post from Petrone, Louis S. “Key West Lou” (MC1957)

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You have to admire Iceland. They are always a step ahead.

Following the bank debacle of 2008, they prosecuted and jailed bankers. Those at the top. Something I have been recommending for years we do in the U.S.

They elect women big time. Almost 50 percent of their Parliament is female. They elected a woman Prime Minister in November.

Iceland recently passed a law that allows companies who pay women less than men to be punished. Fined. No jail. A step forward, however.

Equal pay laws have no teeth. They tell the companies females must be paid equal to men. Enforcement lacking. Iceland recognized the problem and moved the step ahead.

It is generally acknowledged the law would not have come into being were it not for the large number of women in Parliament. 

*** end quote ***

Equal pay laws are a joke.

The invisible hand of the free market will quickly, efficiently, and effectively punish companies that underpay women. It’s only logical. If a business systematically underpays anyone, they will leave for someone who will pay them what they are worth.

That brain drain will hurt in numerous ways  — cost of replacement, poor morale, loss of competitive advantage, bad image, impaired reputation.

The Gooferment probably is the worst offender in this regard. Politicians and bureaucrats routinely are exposed for pay disparities, but they always seem to spin their way out of it. Women don’t need “protection” and especially not from the Gooferment! Those “gals” are pretty tough imho.

Now if we could just end Gooferment Skrules, then both the girls and boys would not be brainwashed to think like serfs. Argh!

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RANT: End welfare if you love the poor

Sunday, January 7, 2018

FROM AN EMAIL EXCHANGE

http://ncc-1776.org/tle2017/tle954-20171231-02.html

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Which brings me to my principal reason for opposing open immigration. Everywhere these newcomers go, encouraged by the likes of the politicians I have named, they change the culture, rather than become a part of it. I’m not entirely opposed to new elements of culture, and not every Mexican or South American is a robber or a rapist or a violent drug dealer, it’s true, but enough are to endanger the cultural home that our ancestors made for us, and damn few believe in the Constitution or the Rule of Law. Not every immigrant from the Middle East is a jihadist, but too many bring with them the unconstitutional mindset of Sharia Law, “honor” killings, death to homosexuals, and so forth. I have come to like the culture I live in, and the values it promotes. I don’t want to see it changed, especially to accommodate hostile strangers

*** end quote ***

Two choices offered — build a wall OR end welfare — neither is very good but that’s all we are left with.

Argh!

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AND MY LUDDITE FRIEND REPLIED:

*** begin quote ***

Wait a minute….they’re both bad? Do you agree with the guy that says there shouldn’t be a wall at all, that it’s infringing on people’s liberties? Just use a smidgen of your imagination, to envision our country without a wall. We’ve had a small taste of it already with the wall not being complete nor totally effective, and you like those results? Like I say, just imagine with even less control on the border, it would end life in America as we have known it. And none of us would like it.

As for “ending” welfare, that is not bad….it depends on what you mean by “ending” it? To me, ending welfare means stopping women from walking in with 14 children behind them that they recruited from the neighborhood to claim as their own, and ripping us off. At one point in NYC, there were more children on the welfare rolls than there were in the recorded child population levels! I think the solution for welfare and healthcare is really quite simple. First, you take the government out of the healthcare business with one exception…..you create a fund that is used in extreme cases where people are sick and need care that have no other means to help themselves. They have to “apply” for support, and a board reviews their request for approval…case by case basis. For the rest of us, we shop healthcare from the various healthcare providers and select the best plan for us. Initially it would be difficult for many, but like the great free enterprise system over time the cream would rise to the top, competition would create great healthcare solutions at affordable prices. The corrupt, cheaters, non-skilled, etc etc would be uncovered and run out of business.

*** end quote ***

AND I CONCLUDED: 

My concern with the “wall” is I remember the Berlin Wall. That which prevents ingress can also prevent egress. I don’t trust the Gooferment remember.

My concern with “welfare” is that I remember the destruction of the black family due to “welfare rules” about the father living at home. I don’t trust the Gooferment remember.

To elaborate on welfare, the Gooferment can’t “do charity” morally (i.e., it has to steal wealth from victims to redistribute), efficiently (i.e., the administrative costs are worse than any of the corrupt Big Charities), or effectively (i.e., I’ve been told and show evidence that the Gooferment perversely does NOT want people to get off welfare). 

Not that I am NOT just against fraud and abuse but the whole concept. It’s a killer. Being poor should be painful to get folks to save themselves from the Gooferment “plantation”. TO be effective, and efficient, charity must be private and personal. (IMHO) I formed this opinion years ago from http://www.acton.org/public-policy/effective-compassion/seven-principles-century-ago which really struck a chord.

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And, from what I have seen, Gooferment “welfare” gives you enough to starve. Argh!

Your comments are welcome if you can change my mind. 

p.s, yelling or name calling is unlikely to do that.

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GOVEROTRAGEOUS: Taxing Hospitals? Stupid is as stupid does!

Saturday, January 6, 2018

FROM BEHIND THE WSJ PAYWALL

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Why Tax Hospitals?

It’s a Medicaid Shell GameProviders pay the state. The state pays providers, then collects matching funds from Uncle Sam.

By Red JahnckeDec. 29, 2017 5:22 p.m. ET

When Connecticut faced a budget shortfall of $2.2 billion, or 11%, this year, it helped close the gap by almost doubling its tax on hospitals, to $900 million. Taxing hospitals sounds strange, especially since most are nonprofits. It also would seem to increase their costs and, thus, the cost of care—much of which, thanks to Medicaid, is borne by the state that levies the tax.

Yet 42 states tax hospitals. Why? One answer is the perverse incentives built into the Medicaid law. When a state returns tax money to hospitals through Medicaid “supplemental payments,” it qualifies for matching funds from Washington.

Connecticut hospitals will pay $900 million in taxes, but the state will offset that with $600 million in supplemental Medicaid payments—matched with $450 million of federal funds. The state keeps those matching funds, plus the $300 million from the hospital tax, meaning Hartford comes out ahead in the whole scheme by $750 million. Nice work if you can get it.

*** end quote ***

Oh come on. Hope DJT45 shuts this stupidity down immediately. 

When you consider all the costs of “handling” this money from one Gooferment pocket to another, the Taxpayers are really getting screwed.

By “handling” I mean, the “loss” at each level of Gooferment that passes Taxpayer money to another level of Gooferment. I’ve seen calculations that estimate it at 50%. So a CT Taxpayer sends the “Federal” Gooferment a dollar, from which then the “Federal” Gooferment send the “Connecticut” Gooferment fifty cents. The CT Taxpayer would be better off just allowing the “Connecticut” Gooferment to steal the fifty cents directly. Argh! 

Why can’t “We, The Sheeple” see that?

Argh!

So if the “Connecticut” Gooferment steals 450M$ from the “Federal” Gooferment, then the “Federal” Gooferment has to steal 900M$ from everyone paying taxes. Mutliply that by 50 States and who knows what else and that’s a lot of <synonym for the act of procreation in real time> money.

Argh!

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RANT: I love all Heinlein’s work!!!!

Friday, January 5, 2018

http://ncc-1776.org/tle2017/tle952-20171210-02.html

It’s Time For a City On the Moon by L. Neil Smith lneil@netzero.com

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In his wonderful, life-changing novel that he called The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, the late, great science fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein (he also wrote Stranger in a Strange Land and The Puppet Masters) demonstrated the vital importance to national security (or just good old-fashioned peace, freedom, and prosperity) of an established American presence on the Moon. In that book, he had a culture of lovable convicts and exiles declare their independence by electrically launching boxcar-sized boulders at Earth, creating purely kinetic impacts that rivaled nuclear explosions in power. I’m not usually one to go looking for international trouble, but for the sake of our health and safety, if nothing else, consider: if those who conceive themselves to be America’s enemies have a monopoly on Lunar colonies, it could be a disaster. Just sing Randy Newman’s “Let’s Drop The Big One Now” to yourself under your breath and substitute Los Angeles and Chicago for London and Paris.

*** and ***

Let’s call it Heinlein City, okay?

*** end quote ***

What tremendous idea!

Let’s start a social media Indigo to make it happen.

I’m in.

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HEALTH: A salad a day keeps dementia away?

Thursday, January 4, 2018

http://www.newsweek.com/eating-salad-every-day-keeps-brains-11-years-younger-and-prevents-dementia-754256

EATING SALAD EVERY DAY KEEPS BRAINS 11 YEARS YOUNGER AND PREVENTS DEMENTIA, STUDY SHOWS
BY MELISSA MATTHEWS ON 12/20/17 AT 4:33 PM

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The study included 960 people, all between 58 and 99 years old and all without dementia. Everyone enrolled in the study was part of the Memory and Aging Project, which has been ongoing since 1979 at the Knight Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center at Washington University. As part of their involvement in that project, participants completed questionnaires about their dietary habits over the course of nearly five years. Questions included assessments of how often people consumed spinach, salad, and kale, collards, or other greens. Participants also took yearly thinking and memory skill tests to gauge cognitive ability.

*** end quote ***

That’s a prescription that’s easy to follow. Cheap insurance. And if their wrong, no side effects! My kind of medicine.

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TECHNOLOGY: iPhones slow down after a year

Wednesday, January 3, 2018

https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/12/20/16803190/iphone-slowdown-is-needed-but-also-a-problem

iPhones start slowing down after a year of use, and that’s way too soon
By Jacob Kastrenakes  Dec 20, 2017, 5:15pm EST

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But the big conspiracy has been that Apple intentionally slows down your phone every time a new one comes out, a subtle way of encouraging you to buy it. And now we know that it’s true on some level, even if you take Apple’s word and see this as about preservation and not a sales tactic, since the software update that comes out alongside every phone seems to be what introduces the throttling. Here’s how Apple puts it in its statement describing what’s going on: “Our goal is to deliver the best experience for customers, which includes overall performance and prolonging the life of their devices.”

*** end quote ***

And, this — planned obsolesence — why I am leaving the Apple family for Android and Chromebook.

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GOVERNACIDE: Politicians ribbon-cutting opportunities cost people’s lives and Taxpayers’ wealth

Tuesday, January 2, 2018

https://www.cato.org/blog/questions-ask-about-amtrak-501

DECEMBER 20, 2017 9:21AM
Questions to Ask About Amtrak 501
By RANDAL O’TOOLE

*** begin quote ***

The wreck of the 501–the Amtrak train that crashed near Seattle on Monday–is raising lots of questions about Amtrak operations, but they aren’t always the right ones. Here are some questions that should be asked and some of my preliminary answers. Answers from Amtrak (the operator), FRA (the funder), Sound Transit (the track owner), or WSDOT (the train owner) may differ.

*** and ***

2. Around 800 people die in railroad accidents a year. PTC would prevent only about 1 percent of these fatalities; far more would be saved by spending the same amount of money on better grade crossings and fencing of rail rights of way. Why do we put so much emphasis on an expensive technology that will do so little?

Answer: Accidents that PTC could have prevented tend to be more spectacular than people getting killed when a train hits their car at a grade crossing. This suggests that, when politicians decide where private businesses spend their money, it’ll get spent on grandiose programs rather than things that could really make a difference.

*** and ***

5. Why do so many reporters call this a high-speed train? The top speed between Portland and Seattle is 79 mph, the same as it has always been and the same as most other Amtrak routes. In technical terms, this was a conventional, low-speed train.

Answer: Though this was a low-speed train, it was funded by Obama’s high-speed rail fund. By repeatedly using the term “high-speed trains,” reporters are keeping that idea in the public consciousness, perhaps in the hopes that Trump’s infrastructure plan will include money for more such trains. (This could backfire, however, by making people think that high-speed trains are more dangerous. They aren’t–but they are a lot more expensive.)

*** and ***

Question: So are all trains obsolete?

Answer: No, only passenger trains are obsolete. Freight trains are extremely productive, and America has the finest, most advanced rail system in the world. That’s because it is mostly private and operates to produce profits, not to give politicians ribbon-cutting opportunities.

*** end quote ***

So the answer is that politicians and bureaucrats, their egos, cause the waste of Taxpayers’ wealth on their egos.

Argh!

Happy New Year; new year same as the old year.

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INOVATION: Happy “Underwear Day”?

Monday, January 1, 2018

http://www.commanderzero.com/?p=4648

Underwear Day
Posted on December 16, 2017

*** begin quote ***

It’s not exactly a holiday, but today was Underwear

Day. Every two years or so I throw out all my socks, all my underwear, and most of my t-shirts, and start over.

Three dozen socks (all matching), three dozen boxer briefs, and three dozen black t-shirts. One pass through Costco and I’m pretty much done for the next two years.

Are some socks still good after two years? Some, not many. My rather oversize feet tend to wear socks and shoes out pretty quickly.

{Extraneous Deleted}

So…every two years I scrap the whole thing and start over. One benefit to this policy is that I don’t have to match socks. In fact, if I get a hole in one sock I can toss it, keep the good one, and just mix it in with the others….they’re all identical.

It’s a very guy way to buy clothes.

*** end quote ***

What a great idea!

If I wasn’t so “thrifty”, I could throw out stuff that was not EOL! (That “end of life” for my one Luddite reader.)

I do like the no matching. I have a pile of “orphans”.

Maybe if I was  thin, young, and handsome (again), then I could do it.

Wonder how he handles it when you need brown socks for your “brown” outfits?

Hmmmm, maybe that’s the draw back.

Comments?

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P.S.: Seasonal Greetings from a grinch!

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