The tariffs are a needed blow to the “progressive”
tax system
Posted By: Big Bopper, 4/3/2025 12:43:18 PM
Democrats think Americans pay too little in taxes. More specifically, they think “rich” Americans fail to pay their “fair share.” They play fast and loose with those terms “rich” and “fair share.” Their unstated definition of “rich” is people who make more than the Democrat hurling the allegation. And they never do define “fair share.” It’s always just more, more, more on the rich, rich, rich. Never mind that the top 1% of earners pay 40% of federal income taxes, the top 5% pay 61%, and the bottom 50% pay only 3%.
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Big Bopper"
Back in 1992, the citizens of Colorado passed an amendment to the state constitution to limit tax increases. They called it the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, or TABOR.
TABOR did not eliminate taxes, nor did it prohibit tax increases. Instead, it merely limited tax increases to the rate of inflation plus the population growth of the state.
Even those limits can be exceeded by a mere majority of the voters of the jurisdiction seeking to exceed it. If the voters of Colorado want to raise the state income tax rate, for example, they can do so with a simple majority vote in the next election.
Democrats think Americans pay too little in taxes. More specifically, they think “rich” Americans fail to pay their “fair share.”
They play fast and loose with those terms “rich” and “fair share.” Their unstated definition of “rich” is people who make more than the Democrat hurling the allegation. And they never do define “fair share.” It’s always just more, more, more on the rich, rich, rich.
Never mind that the top 1% of earners pay 40% of federal income taxes, the top 5% pay 61%, and the bottom 50% pay only 3%.
Dishonest media-alligators undermined President Trump’s first Presidency with bogus charges of Russian collusion. Corrupt deep state-alligators fabricated allegations to defeat his re-election in 2020. Partisan prosecutor-alligators in New York and Georgia brought bogus charges in trying to derail his election last year.
Overreaching judge-alligators in some of the federal district courts now seek to undermine his national security policies – an area that the Constitution largely reserves to the President.
Moms are wonderful creatures. They soothe, and they smooth. They resolve conflict with milk and cookies. Without moms, we wouldn’t be here.
Not all women are moms. Joan of Arc was not a soother or a smoother, and was never a mom. Nor was Amelia Earhart or Queen Elizabeth I.
Even among strong women who were mothers, not all were moms. Golda Meir and Margaret Thatcher had children but, to the public at least, they were not moms. Some women can change from a skirt into pants and back again, depending on the setting, and maybe Meir and Thatcher did. Others can’t.
Executive orders and administrative agency rules going back to the 1960s required businesses contracting with the U.S. Government to engage in “affirmative action.”
That was the euphemism of the day for racial discrimination. They couldn’t just call it “racial discrimination” because that term had, naturally and appropriately, developed a negative connotation. It suggested a world where people were judged not by the content of their character, but the color of their skin.
Over the ensuing decades, that euphemism “affirmative action” developed a similar negative connotation.
I won’t leave you in suspense. I’m a lawyer, so the answer is sometimes yes, sometimes no.
If you’re in the tribe that thinks whatever Trump does is wrong, or the opposite tribe that thinks whatever Trump does is right, then read no further. Just skip the analysis and instead warm up your cheers or your jeers for the Comments below, as your tribe dictates.
But if you’re in neither tribe, but are just a political partisan (which is different than being in a tribe) or a political neutral (are there any these days?) then read on.
Liberals lost their “cool”
3 replies
Tesla electric cars were cool a few years ago. They signaled all the virtue of a Toyota Prius, but without the ugly body shape and C-O-E-X-I-S-T bumper sticker. And they were a lot faster.
Electric vehicle devotees – you probably know some – hailed the immigrant behind Tesla as an engineering genius and good green guy. His immigration to the United States was not illegal, but even that wasn’t held against him. He was the liberals’ favorite African-American since the Hawaiian dude.
That’s all so 2023.
Chief Justice Roberts isn’t your hired gun
11 replies
The Republican-appointed Justices on the Supreme Court are now six of the nine. Unsurprisingly, the ideological tilt of the Court is more conservative than it’s been in two or three generations.
It shows. Last year, the Court took the conservative side in reducing deference to administrative agencies; deciding expansively in favor of presidential immunity (which of course benefits both liberal presidents and conservative ones, but the particular case that was decided benefited a conservative one, namely Donald Trump);
One summer day in 1924, a train stopped at a station on Long Island. A man carrying a harmless-looking package ran to catch it. He struggled to board the train as it departed. One of the train employees on board reached for his hand as another on the platform gave him a boost from behind.
The package fell onto the tracks. It turned out to be a package of fireworks. The fireworks exploded.
So, the exploding fireworks injured someone, right?
Not exactly.
Have you seen the Denver restaurant scene? Me neither. It’s dead and gone.
In a one-year period, the number of restaurants in Denver declined by 183. Of all the restaurant closures in Colorado last year, 82% were in Denver – a place that has only about 12% of the population of Colorado.
Average profits at the few surviving Denver restaurants are only 3-5%. Anyone who dines out knows that this isn’t because prices are down. It’s because costs are up. Restaurant wages in Denver are up 89% since 2019.
The main reason is Denver’s minimum wage of $18.81/hour for ordinary workers and $15.79 for tipped workers. For comparison, in New York City
Trump v. Zelensky cage match: Whaaaat?
14 replies
The White House event “Trump and Zelensky Meeting Staged for Media” somehow turned into “Trump v. Zelensky Cage Match.”
How did that happen? My theory is that it wasn’t exactly an accident, but it didn’t play out the way either side intended.
Bear in mind that both leaders are experienced actors – Trump as a reality TV host and Zelensky as a stand-up comedian. (Yes, Trump really was a reality TV host!) Both saw the meeting as a stage. They intended to communicate not with one another – that could have been done better in private – but with millions of viewers.
It’s amusing to see them pose the question to themselves. It’s not really a question; rather, it’s rhetorical. Posing the question, “Why aren’t we marching in the streets?” is their way of saying that they really should be.
But even after considerable angst, self-incrimination, and rhetorical excesses about not marching, they’re still not marching.
As for why, there’s a simple answer and a complicated one. The simple answer is, because it’s cold outside.
Remember the “protest era” of the 60s and early 70s? College kids would organize protests and sometimes riots with two goals in mind:
Ending the Vietnam War (or, really, just ending the draft); and
Ending Spring finals.
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The artist behind a portrait of Donald Trump in the Colorado State Capitol says her career could be in tatters now that the president has besmirched it on social media.
Sarah Boardman’s painting of the president had hung in the Denver building for six years before Trump called it “purposefully distorted” and “truly the worst” on his Truth Social platform in January, prompting state lawmakers to yank it off the wall.
Now the artist’s 41-year career “is in danger of not recovering” from the backlash, Boardman said in a statement on her website on Saturday.
Former President Obama made an appearance at Hamilton College this week and tried to take some cheap shots at the Trump administration.
He was clearly trying to echo the talking points currently being pushed by his party and the media.
For some reason, Obama thinks no one remembers anything about his presidency.
From NBC News: Former President Barack Obama said he is “deeply concerned” with some of the actions that President Donald Trump and his administration have taken and seemed to call out the Republican Party
Elie Mystal, a far-left columnist for The Nation, is so petrified of the Trump administration snatching him off the street because of his articles that he has allegedly hired security to keep him safe.
This, according to Mystal himself.
The author of the new book "Bad Law: Ten Popular Laws That Are Ruining America" appeared with Charlamagne the God on "The Breakfast Club" late last week and promptly demonstrated little to no grasp of current law.
Mystal is not an illegal immigrant (he was born in Queens, and his father was a prominent political figure in Suffolk County, New York—a legal Haitian migrant), nor does he have a student visa.
As we told you earlier Saturday, an abortion fan was arguing with a pro-life advocate who was reporting for advocacy group Live Action when the woman suddenly launched a barrage of surprise punches—right to the face—stunning the 23-year-old journalist and leaving her bloodied. The victim, Savannah Craven Antao, said she’s been getting flashbacks from the attack, which she deemed emblematic of the entire pro-choice movement.
Warning: Violent imagery. (X Video) Now the attacker has identified herself on social media as Bronx resident Brianna Rivers, and she gave an “apology” that made it sound like she wasn’t sorry in the slightest.
Remember during President Trump's speech to the Joint Session of Congress in early March, when Rep. Al Green (D-TX) behaved so badly that House Speaker Mike Johnson had to instruct the Sergeant at ArmsThen, he held court outside the chamber with a gaggle of reporters, who allowed him to spout nonsense about Trump and the Republicans planning to cut Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.
When one of the journalists asked Rep. Green if that was the only reason he decided to disrupt Pres. Trump's address, the Texas Democrat used it as an excuse to share an astounding non sequitur. to kick Green out of the chamber?
In a bold move that champions both economic growth and practical forest management, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced on Friday that it will greenlight logging in America’s national forests. This decision, spearheaded by USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins, follows President Donald Trump’s executive order last month aimed at revitalizing the nation’s timber industry. For Americans, this is a long-overdue step toward restoring common-sense stewardship of our natural resources while bolstering rural economies battered by years of overregulation and neglect.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) signed new controls into law last week, including one that allows credit cards to track ammunition purchases.
She described the ammunition control as one that “[refines] how credit card companies track purchases at gun dealerships.”
Hochul noted, “This gives law enforcement the opportunity to find out exactly who may be stockpiling ammunition. And this is an indicator that something untoward could be happening, so it’s an important data point for us to have.” North Country Now pointed out the credit card tracking will occur via the use of a new merchant code,
President Donald Trump is more popular now than before he sent the global markets into a frenzy by enacting sweeping new tariffs.
An exclusive DailyMail.com/J.L. Partners survey of over 1,000 registered voters conducted from March 31 to April 3 found that the Republican remains largely popular in the U.S.
The poll found that Trump's approval rating rose to 53 percent, a 4-point increase over last week when it was 49 percent.
Trump's rising approval rating is surprising given the flak the White House has received over the tariff order signed Wednesday.
It is up by 13 points since March 7 among those aged 18 to 29.
Chinese woman detained for expired visa
dies by suicide at Border Patrol station
in Arizona 18 replies
dies by suicide at Border Patrol station
in Arizona 18 replies
A Chinese woman detained by border patrol officers for overstaying her visa died by suicide at the US Border Patrol station in Arizona after officers reportedly failed to perform required welfare checks on her, US Representative Pramila Jayapal alleged.
The woman, a 52-year-old Chinese national, was picked up in California after authorities determined she overstayed her B1/B2 visitor visa, Jayapal said in a statement last week. She was sent to the Yuma station in Arizona and was detained there until her sudden death on March 29.
Barack Obama has lost his mojo and ruined his brand.
It used to be said that President Joe Biden was serving former President Obama’s third term, that his former boss was controlling him from the home he had bought in DC’s ritzy Kalorama neighborhood, two miles from the White House.
The feeling was that Obama was the real leader of the Democratic Party and his wife, Michelle, was the secret weapon they would whip out in 2024 to replace Biden and trounce Donald Trump.
The last thing the Palestinians need are more calls from Qatar-based extremist for terrorism and jihad. If these Muslim "scholars" really want to help their Palestinian brothers, they should be calling on Hamas to release all the Israeli hostages they kidnapped, then to disarm, and then to stop pursuing the disastrous path of terrorism and jihad.
The "scholars" leading the IUMS live safely in Qatar, not in the Gaza Strip, and they are therefore not directly affected by the war that Hamas launched.
That such a call by an influential Islamic group comes from an organization based in Doha illustrates why Qatar c
A fundraiser for the Texas teen accused of fatally stabbing Austin Metcalf and leaving him to die in his twin brother’s arms has raked in over $60,000 as of Sunday — as the teen maintains he acted in self-defense.
The GiveSendGo campaign was purportedly set up by the family of Karmelo Anthony, 17, who cops say confessed to the horrific stabbing at a track meet in Frisco, Texas, last Wednesday.[snip] The company, which also hosted a fundraiser that brought in hundreds of thousands for Daniel Penny’s legal defense after he was charged in the NYC subway chokehold death,