Californicated is run by fools

As if we didn't already know that.
This dialogue was punctuated by a pithy tweet from Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, who describes herself as a progressive Democrat, “F*ck Elon Musk.”

At that time, we had no idea how much that tweet, and attitude, would cost us.
No, a lot of people knew what it would cost; people like you didn't listen or didn't believe it.
Nine months later, Elon Musk is gone. He is selling all his personal real estate in the state. He is now a resident of the state of Texas. He has moved his philanthropic foundation to Texas, too.

Consider the unfathomable irony of progressive Democrats forcing Elon Musk to give up on California.
When Rush Limbaugh moved out of New Effing York, the idiot currently Mayor said "If I'd known that was all it took to get rid of Limbaugh, I'd have raised taxes years ago."  Someone at one of the papers did a piece pointing out what an idiot the Mayor was, including "You know how much he paid to the city last year, counting up all the taxes and fees?  Now it's all gone, and you think it's funny."  Then, when lots of rich people started getting out of the city and state because of the raising taxes and the idiot Wuhan rules ruining the restaurant/theater/museum/social reasons they'd kept living there, Comrade Mayor said 'good riddance'.  Now they're losing all that tax income, and anyone in city/state government with a brain is wondering how much they can raise taxes on everyone else before the mobs start hanging politicians and bureaucrats('not nearly soon enough', I'd say).

They never effing learn.

Will these idiots never learn?

Meanwhile, progressive state legislators have introduced a wealth tax that would fall on Californians with a net worth of $30 million or more. 

 “[California’s] astounding level of income and wealth inequality is the best, most compelling argument in favor of Assembly Bill 1253, which would raise personal income taxes on the state’s top earners,” wrote Los Angeles Times columnist Nicholas Goldberg in defense of the proposal. “Sure, we have high taxes on the rich already — but California has enormous needs, not to mention an impending budget crisis, and the rich have deep, deep pockets.”
And do you know what those deep pockets mean?
When one considers that nearby states such as Nevada have no income tax at all, the problem with this approach quickly becomes apparent. 

The legislation is basically a giant incentive “for California high-earners to take their money and run,” the Wall Street Journal editorial board wryly noted.
Exactly: it means they've got the money to get the hell out of that state and move somewhere else.  Like they're already doing in New York.

But they just won't learn.

When the tax beast comes around and bites the taxers in the ass

Hard.

Mind you, Cuomo loves taxing the hell out of anyone who gets rich, he's just one who realizes there's a limit to what they will, and have to, put up with.
Lawmakers have proposed a wealth tax targeting the city's 100 billionaires to help fill a $30 billion (£23bn) budget shortfall created by the Covid-19 crisis.
Cuomo wants the rest of the country to save them instead, because
 “A single per cent of New York’s population pays half of the state’s taxes,” he said, “and they’re the most mobile people on the globe.”

Retailers say the city is now the worst place to do business in the country, blaming its strict months-long lockdown and exodus of its wealthiest residents.

They report foot traffic at Manhattan stores is down 85 per cent from a year ago. Nearly 3,000 small businesses in New York City have closed for good in the past four months.

Broadway theatres - normally a big draw for tourists - announced they will remain closed until at least January 2021.
And the clowns running the city/state did it all themselves.

If this crap passes, more people will leave Californicated

(and those who can't will make plans for when they can), which means a smaller tax base, which means these idiots will want to raise even more taxes...

Just picking one of this mix of "We need more money! AND we need more control over people!",
Following a national trend – and concerns over the risks of obesity and diabetes – Democratic lawmakers in the state have proposed a tax on the sugary beverages, which include soft drinks, sweetened iced teas, coffees and sports drinks. While details have remained vague on how much these taxes would be, Democratic Assemblyman Richard Bloom has supported a 20-cent-per-ounce tax in previous proposals.
I foresee a blossoming of smuggling of any "How dare you want to drink something we disapprove of!" drinks.

Someone should propose a tax on illegal aliens; that would raise one helluva lot, except the illegals wouldn't pay it and Californicated wouldn't try to make them.  Also, that's probably the ONE tax those idiots wouldn't support.

Short version: Politicians in places like the PROM and DaFSoNJ* hate the tax cut plan

because it'll make it harder to hide just how nasty their taxes are, and harder to keep the peasants quiet about them.

I flat love this slap of reality:
New Jersey’s Gov.-elect Phil Murphy campaigned on a promise to impose a “millionaires’ tax.” But the Democratic president of the state Senate, Steve Sweeney, said in November that New Jersey needs to “hit the pause button” because “we can’t afford to lose thousands of people.” His next words could have come from a Republican: “You know, 1% of the people in the state of New Jersey pay about 42% of its tax base. And you know, they can leave.”
Yes, they can.  Some of them already are, and it's hurting.  Which is good: stupid SHOULD hurt.

*In case you haven't seen those before,
PROM= People's Republic of Maryland or Massachussetts
DaFSoNJ= Dark and Fascist State of New Jersey

Diaries from Taxcutmaggedon

Day One of the Taxcutmaggedon

The tax-reduction bill has passed.

People are no longer forced to pay for Obamacare or pay a fine.  Hospitals have closed.  Doctors are asking a million dollars per hour for their services.

I’ve secured a supply of leeches and bird masks against the inevitable onset of the black plague.

Public transportation has closed all over town for lack of funds.

Heed the piteous cries of the poor screaming that as the tax bill was passed all food disappeared from their pantry.

I’d look up recipes on how to cook my neighbors, but I can’t be sure they’re organic and disease free.

I can't be the only one who remembers Bill Clinton and 'If we let you keep more of your money,

you might not spend it right.'  Well, here's an idiot against raising the standard deduction for the same reason:
"We're looking at the current draft plan as an assault," Jerry Howard, CEO of the National Association of Homebuilders, told Politico. "By raising the standard deduction you put money in people's pockets, yes, but you're not encouraging them how to use the money."


What the hell?  And all those journalists and party bigshots KNEW about this, all those years, and did nothing about it?  Reported nothing?  Such wonderful people.

Play stupid games,

die.
Shaman Suprianto died after a suspected crocodile attack in Kutai Kartanegara, Indonesia. 

Jumping into the water, he was attempting to use his ‘powers’ to locate the body of another victim, a man called Arjuna.


If this is true, then New Orleans has the choice of telling these people to go to hell, or of the whole damn place going there.
The day before Mitch removed Robert E. Lee from Lee Circle, Suber emailed Mitch more plans to carry out. It’s so insane it needs to be printed in full:

Mr. Mayor:
The next things to do are below:
1) Remove Lee statue
2) Remove Jackson statue
3) Rename Jackson Square after black hero lke Rev, Al Sharpton
4) Increase taxes on all white-owned businesses (can be called reparations)
5) Eliminate homestead exemptions for all white-owned property
Can be accomplished through City Council – no vote is needed.
— Malcolm Suber

A fine demonstration of just why the leftists want control of the tax system: they want to use it to punish people.


Why Britain is poorer than any US state, other than Mississippi
I remember the screaming when this first came out.


Ah, the German green energy project.  Still not getting there.
Short version:
"It's expensive as hell, hurts the poor most, and we're having to burn more coal because we're closing those clean reactors."

And the IRS wonders why people don't trust them,

and sometimes flat hate them.
The IRS has discovered more than 1 million Americans whose Social Security numbers were stolen by illegal immigrants, but officials never bothered to tell the peasants paying the billstaxpayers themselves, the agency’s inspector general said in a withering new report released Tuesday.

Investigators first alerted the IRS to the problem five years ago, but it’s still not fixed, the inspector general said, and a pilot program meant to test a solution was canceled — and fell woefully short anyway.

As a result, most taxpayers don’t learn that their identities have been stolen and their Social Security files may be screwed up.
The excuses?
The IRS says its role is not to enforce immigration laws but rather to collect taxes.
...
He(Koskinen) also said the agency struggled to come up with a solution that wouldn’t chase illegal immigrants away from filing their taxes altogether.
Yeah.  THAT'S why they didn't tell people.  And they didn't tell the bloody SSA, either.  Too much trouble or something, or maybe that would take too much time away from using the office for Democrat-Approved Political Purposes.

“As we continue to battle and make progress against all strains of identity theft in the tax ecosystem, we recognized that we were missing an important partner in this effort — the peasants paying the billstaxpaying public,” said Ms. Schiller, who had the task of answering the inspector general.

She also vowed to figure out a system to let the Social Security Administration (SSA) know if someone’s number has been stolen.
Well, isn't that just SO damned nice of them?

Well. You make it plain to people that they're considered sheep

to be sheared as needed or convenient, and they look for another place to live; who could've fo- oh hell, I can't even finish typing that.


Politico: when you want a report on Hobby Lobby that has no connection to fact.  Even in the corrections.


Borrowing from Insty,

Under pressure from Obama educrats, public school districts are no longer suspending even violent students; but now, under pressure from Black Lives Matter, they are suspending teachers who complain about not suspending bad kids.
...
Complained Olson: “Since we now have no backup, no functional location to send kids who won’t quit gaming, setting up fights, selling drugs, whoring trains, or cyber bullying, we’re screwed, just designing our own classroom rules.”

For these mild opinions, Black Lives Matter called Olson “a white supremacist” even though he had once marched with the group. Two days after Black Lives Matter met with the St. Paul school superintendent — and agreed to call off its protest — the 10-year veteran teacher was put on leave.
Etc.

Tab clearing

They can try changing the meaning of words, it won't change the reality.  It does help their little minions try to ignore it.


And Sanders and Clinton both would love to make the taxes even higher.


Yes, all the 'Meat and fat is bad, eat more grains and stuff!' thing is garbage.  But the Defenders of What We Believe don't want to give up.
The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation, in a 2008 analysis of all studies of the low-fat diet, found “no probable or convincing evidence” that a high level of dietary fat causes heart disease or cancer. Another landmark review, published in 2010, in the American Society for Nutrition, and authored by, among others, Ronald Krauss, a highly respected researcher and physician at the University of California, stated “there is no significant evidence for concluding that dietary saturated fat is associated with an increased risk of CHD or CVD [coronary heart disease and cardiovascular disease]”.

Many nutritionists refused to accept these conclusions. The journal that published Krauss’s review, wary of outrage among its readers, prefaced it with a rebuttal by a former right-hand man of Ancel Keys, which implied that since Krauss’s findings contradicted every national and international dietary recommendation, they must be flawed. The circular logic is symptomatic of a field with an unusually high propensity for ignoring evidence that does not fit its conventional wisdom.


And this:
People who regularly consume full-fat dairy products are less likely to develop diabetes than those who eat low-fat dairy products, according to new research published in the journal Circulation.


Idiots who can't tell a priest from someone in a KKK getup.  Products of Higher Education...


'Gender ideology' harms kids.  Who could've imagined, right?


Some of the American Indian legends of nasty creatures.


Gee, I wonder what she said that she didn't want the public to know about?

Whether the "More taxes!" people will admit it or not, in the end,

it's not some corporation or whoever that pays, it's people.  And most of them aren't rich, and can't afford it.
4  The tax isn’t borne just by the traders.  The tax is shouldered by the American public.  The tax will make it more expensive for producers and consumers to manage risk.  That cost will be passed directly on to the market.  It might only be .05-.20 cents on products that have exposure to grain. When you think about all the grocery products that have exposure to grain, the tax adds a lot of money to the average grocery bill quickly.


'Free healthcare and education!' my ass; they're damn well paying for it.  Through the nose.


No, it doesn't

It's disheartening that an avowed socialist is a viable candidate for president of the United States. Socialism is a dead end. For hundreds of years, it has failed everywhere it's been adopted. The enthusiasm of our youth for the candidacy of Bernie Sanders is a symptom of our failure to educate them, not only in history, government and economics, but also basic morality.

Nixon tried to misuse the IRS;

Obama & Co. ...
White House emails to the IRS about individual tax returns cannot be exempted by the embattled agency under the Freedom of Information Act, a federal judge ruled Friday.

United States District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled that Section 6103 of the tax code does not justify the IRS from withholding from FOIA requesters by refusing to say whether the records exist. She ordered the IRS to respond properly to an FOIA request submitted by the non-profit watchdog group Cause of Action.
Short version: "Hey, if the White House did this it would violate confidentiality to confirm it, so we don't have to tell you!"  Which is utter bullshit.  But about what we've come to expect.

This has two parts of "Oh shit" for the bad guys: the White House using the IRS to access taxpayer records and the IRS doing it- both illegal and unethical as hell- and the IRS trying to cover it up.  Both worth prison time. 

Yeah, yeah, I know, with this 'Justice' Department...

Now sue their ninja-suited asses off

The Milan family sued the department, and last week the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals decided that the police had no legal immunity for being sued by the Milans for their actions that day.
Damn right.  Because not only did the do a 'Kick in the doors and toss grenades' raid when it wasn't needed,
...It took them only a day to discover that it was indeed he who was responsible—he had used Mrs. Milan's open network to threaten the police. But rather than give him the SWAT-team treatment, the police politely requested that he come to police headquarters, which he did, where he was arrested without incident. (He was prosecuted for the threats, pleaded guilty, and was given a sixteen-month prison sentence.) The police department's kid-gloves treatment of Murray is in startling contrast to their flash- bang assault on Mrs. Milan's home.
Sue the department, and sue these idiots personally for damages.  It's a good start.


There are reasons they used to be called 'revenuers'.  And shot at.  Sounds like we may need to go back to that.

And Californicated wonders why people and businesses keep moving out...

I've got problems with Rand Paul, but this does sound good:

So on Thursday I am announcing an over $2 trillion tax cut that would repeal the entire IRS tax code—more than 70,000 pages—and replace it with a low, broad-based tax of 14.5% on individuals and businesses. I would eliminate nearly every special-interest loophole. The plan also eliminates the payroll tax on workers and several federal taxes outright, including gift and estate taxes, telephone taxes, and all duties and tariffs. I call this “The Fair and Flat Tax.” . . .
I've been signed up for the WSJ site, and the damn thing still won't let me log in and read the whole thing, therefore the bit at Insty is all I've got.  But that bit does sound very good.

Well, there will be no further tests for Grab A Gun, it seems;

informed them I'd need some more funds for the next rental and ammo, and no response.  At all.  Which is rude, especially since a simple "We've decided not to continue" would have done it.


In other news, this really should involve subpoenas.  And people going to jail for either not responding or lying.
According to new congressional bombshell testimony today, the IRS set up a previously unknown “special project team” comprised of “hundreds of attorneys,” including the IRS Chief Counsel (one of only two politically appointed positions at the IRS). 

The “special project” this team was given? Concealing information from Congress. 

The IRS’s director of privacy, governmental liaison, and disclosure division, Mary Howard, testified that soon after the IRS targeting scandal was revealed, the IRS “amassed hundreds of attorneys to go through the documents [requested by Congress] and redact them.” 

Members of Congress have long complained that many of the documents produced by the IRS have been “redacted to the point of absurdity.” 

Now we know why.
No wonder they didn't have people to answer the phones, they were spending all the funds on lawyers.


And who didn't see this coming(I know you people did, put your hands down)?
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s (D.) promised minimum wage hikes for fast food restaurants could shut down one out of every five chain restaurants in the state, according to a new survey. 

The Employment Policies Institute, a free market think tank and critic of minimum wage hikes, surveyed nearly 1,000 self-described fast food entrepreneurs about how they would respond to statewide, industry-specific wage hikes. More than 20 percent of respondents said they were “very likely” to go out of business if the state raises the minimum wage for fast food joints to $15, a 70 percent increase from the current $8.75 statewide minimum wage.


Crap, even the firefighters in DC are assholes.
Mills, 77, had been a city government employee before the January 2014 incident, when he collapsed in front a fire station in Northeast D.C. Family members and bystanders ran to the nearby fire station, but instead of helping, the firefighters inside turned them away.

They were told that the firefighters could not respond to the emergency until someone called 911 to file a report. A passing ambulance eventually stopped to help Mills, but he later died.

According to The Washington Post, an internal investigation found massive negligence at the fire station and said that one firefighter decided to read a book in his bed instead of going to help Mills.

Doesn't this just give you ALL KINDS of confidence?

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is paying a Washington law firm $1,000 an hour in taxpayer money to perform a corporate audit, despite its claim of being severely underfunded.

The IRS’ $2.2 million contract with big-money firm Quinn Emanuel has sparked a Senate Finance Committee investigation, with the committee’s chairman saying that the IRS “appears to violate federal law.”
No problem, they'll just change the law to suit!
“Only weeks after retaining the law firm, the Treasury Department and IRS issued a temporary regulation, without a notice and comment period, allowing third party contractors to take compulsory, sworn testimony in connection with an IRS investigation,” Hatch wrote. “The new, temporary regulation would allow private contractors — in this case, litigation attorneys billing taxpayers over $1,000 an hour, according to the contract — to question a witness under oath and ask the witness to clarify objections or assertions of privilege. It would also give these attorneys access to confidential taxpayer information while raising questions over how well that information is then protected from further disclosure. The temporary regulation was issued as a ‘clarification,’ despite the fact that it is an unprecedented expansion of the role of outside contractors in the examination process, and one that violates the IRC provisions…”
Yeah, I get the kind of warm feeling from that that you'd feel as a anaconda went to work.

Trust feds, especially the IRS?

Why?
I was audited in 2011, and it started in a way that government officials and IRS spokesmen claimed in a recent Wall Street Journal article can never happen -- with a phone call.

The IRS agent left a voicemail, and then took another unheard-of step and called my accountant, who had my power of attorney and told the agent he was forbidden to ever contact me again.

Yet the IRS agent called me again, only minutes later, telling me all about my political views. How did an IRS agent know about my political views? Why was he telling me my political views? I felt like I was being stalked.
...
After winning my case the second time, I contacted government watchdog Judicial Watch, which took my case and requested my tax files under the Freedom of Information Act. By law, the IRS has 30 days to comply. They stalled and refused for 14 months. The question is why would a government agency disobey the law for 13 months?

Now come the political and criminal revelations. The IRS is supposed to be totally nonpolitical, as it must be in a free and fair democratic society. Do you know what my IRS tax file says?
“SENSITIVE CASE.”
...
But we’re only getting started with the criminal implications of this case. My IRS auditor wrote into the margin of my file that he spent hours researching my political views. How chilling is that revelation? It sounds like the KGB, Stasi or even the Gestapo.

An IRS audit that required researching my political views clearly wasn’t a “normal random audit.” I was targeted for my political views. My civil rights were clearly violated.
...
Why was my case closed? The IRS auditor handling my case informed my tax attorney that he had just been called by a top IRS official demanding the case be closed immediately. Why would a top IRS official get involved in my case? Who asked him to make that call? Did he know the politically damaging details of this audit marked “SENSITIVE CASE"? Why did it happen the very day after Lois Lerner's testimony?

Things that I trust more than Hillary Clinton:

* Mexican tap water
* A rattlesnake with a "pet me" sign
* OJ Simpson showing me his knife collection
* A fart when I have diarrhea
* An elevator ride with Ray Rice
* Taking pills offered by Bill Cosby
* Michael Jackson's Doctor
* An Obama Nuclear deal with Iran
* A Palestinian on a motorcycle
* Gas station Sushi
* A Jimmy Carter economic plan
* Brian Williams news reports
* Loch Ness monster sightings
* Prayers for peace from Al Sharpton
(stolen from Mr. Henick)


If this is correct, H&K really screwed the pooch on the G36.  Short version: heating from firing, and even from the sun hitting one side of the rifle for a while, can cause serious accuracy problems.  And it appears the wrong type plastic was used in some components.  And H&K may have forged acceptance marks.  That alone, if true, will cost them their ass.


The EPA: We lie according to our audience, but we lie.


Trust: it's what we no longer have in far too many.
A detective’s court testimony Monday revealed that Baltimore law enforcement is spying on residents at an incredible rate without a warrant — and doing their best to hide it. 

Detective Michael Dressel testified that Baltimore law enforcement have used “sting rays”–devices that can track personal cell phone data and location–without court orders, The Baltimore Sun reports. Police said they have used sting rays 4,300 more than times since 2007.


I find myself liking Eastwood:
“Everybody’s saying I threatened to kill Michael Moore,” Eastwood said, according to Variety. “That’s not true.”

After a pause, he added, “It isn’t a bad idea.”


I guess you could say one accomplishment of Hillary Clinton is this level of corruption; kind of amazing, actually.

Oh, and she doesn't like paying taxes.

Why has the opinion of teachers lowered?

Crap like this sure doesn't help:
A third-grade teacher at a public school in New Jersey is under fire after she encouraged her students to write letters to notorious convicted cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal, who recently fell ill in prison.

Marylin Zuniga teaches language arts and social studies at Forest Street School in Orange, N.J.
...

Every teach out there who actually cares about the job, as opposed to being a commissar for the small comrades, despairs.  And every parent who doesn't want their kid thinking communism is a good idea is seriously pissed-off.

Brings new meaning to The Dark and Fascist State of NJ, doesn't it?

...but once the Tea Party scandal broke, his encounters with otherwise law-abiding ranchers became more hostile. “I used to work Tombstone,” he says. “They hate the IRS down there. It’s a hard enough thing to drive out, bang on somebody’s door, and make a legal demand on them for money. It’s even harder when the person is wearing a gun on his hip and says, ‘I saw on TV that you people are discriminating against the Tea Party.’ That’s when I decided, the hell with this!”
Well, when your agency goes from 'PITA, but at least evenhanded' to 'Uses the power of the agency for political purposes', what do you expect?  Applause?


"Tell you what, Officer Third Trimester, how about you let us carry the guns through here and I'll take my chances with Johnny Jihadi on my own? Because if someone suddenly went all Aloha Snackbar in here, Officer Gimpy McCruller over there's best and highest use would be as a ballistic shield."