An Appeal

 Come on, Americans, don't let the hardships of your past overshadow the opportunities of your future. Only in America do you have such an abundance of opportunities and the liberties to pursue them-, to be all that you can be. Only our constitution provides those inalienable rights. Please know your country for what it is, its history of doing the right thing, not for the reasons it took action to make things right!. Be Americans first, your brand whatever you chose it to be second.

PS.  I hope you tolerate these short knee-jerk reactions to the near-daily liberal affronts to my conservative sensibilities. Admittedly they are fired from my hip, unlike my more in-depth, more thought-out, more lengthy posts. But, I have to vent my spleen on a more regular basis lest I grind my teeth down to the gum line.

While The U.S Burns

Aren't you embarrassed by President Biden, Vice President Harris, and their administration’s performance? I am! They fumble, mumble and cackle while our country burns! What a frustrating absence of leadership and their minions in the House and Senate exacerbating their incompetence. To say nothing of their hypocrisy in relentlessly attempting to blame President Trump for their disastrous self-inflicted domestic and international problems. Lest we forget, the ever-enabling media not only ignoring these blatant events and circumstances but spinning them to appear appropriate is shameful. And, for you malcontents, dissidents, anarchists, whatever you chose to call yourselves that are forever finding fault with our constitution-driven Republic, our tolerance for your antics have worn thin! Get out of our face! If you don’t like us, get out of our country! You don't deserve the right to share our American liberties. 

Kamala Harris and the Border

Nothing screams incompetence like a democrat unable to negotiate an interview with NBC’s Lester Holt.  But our Vice-President and Border Czar, Kamala Harris did just that in her June 8 interview in what should have been friendly territory.  In case you missed it:

LH:  Do you have any plans to visit the border?

KH: At some point (throws up her hands, shakes her head) it, you know I, it…..we are going to the border, we’ve been to the border, so this whole, this whole, this whole thing about the border, we’ve been to the border.  We’ve been to the border.

LH: You haven’t been to the border.

KH: And I haven’t been to Europe (starts cackling).  I mean I don’t, I don’t understand the point you’re making.  I’m not discounting the importance of the border. 

LH:  Well, I,  I mention it even because I know Republicans have come at you on this.  But democratic Congressman Cuellar, has a border district, has said to you and the President come, you need to see this.

KH: I care, listen, I care about the border.

Not that the text alone isn’t infuriating, but it’s worth pulling up the video just so you can become incensed over her body language. Condescending arrogance comes to mind as an apt description with a voice inflection and cadence that is all political posturing and zero substance.  This woman is an intellectual lightweight.  We should demand more from our elected officials.  And Lester Holt.  What a partisan shill.  “I mention it because Republicans have come at you on this”. No Lester, you should mention it because she has been appointed by the President to handle the border crisis, yet she still hasn’t been to the border.  And her comment about Europe should have been addressed as well.  Newsflash: We don’t share a border with Europe. A Republican never would have gotten away with this.  Here was his big opportunity to press her, to find out what she really thinks, what she really intends to do rather than placate us with pre-prepared non-descript talking points like “addressing the root cause of migration”, a line she must have repeated ten times in her address in Guatamala.  On ABC’s Good Morning America, she reiterated the nonsense: “I am responsible for and have been taking on the responsibility of dealing with the root causes of migration.  And here’s how I think about it.  Listen, when you look at the Northern Triangle….you have to ask and realize that I think most people don’t want to leave home.”  She continued: it’s usually because of “one or two reasons.  Because they don’t have opportunities there to fulfill their basic needs like feeding their children or keeping a roof over their head, or they’re fleeing some kind of harm.”  Wow, did you come up with that all on your own?  Genius.  Could it also be that the Biden Administration invited them? And apparently the old democrat fallback excuse, “climate change”, is playing a role as well, with “back-to-back hurricanes” and “drought” that has “devastated the economy that is primarily based on agriculture”.  So one of the root causes is climate change?  And you’re going to address it how? Specifics, please. 

Even CNN, in an attempt to defend her abysmal performance on her first trip abroad to Central America, called the foreign venture “rocky”, suggesting that her efforts were “overshadowed by her flippant response” in the Lester Holt interview.  “Her defensive response to a question that was certain to come up on her first foreign trip since taking office is raising fresh questions about her political agility.” Now there’s an understatement. CNN went on to suggest that it is the right that has portrayed her as the “border czar” which is “not the assignment Biden gave her”.  Instead, CNN explains that “Biden tasked her with handling diplomatic efforts to stem migration from the Northern Triangle [comprised of El Salvador, Guatamala and Honduras], not solving the problem at the US-Mexico border.” They attempt to dismiss her responsibility for the border crisis by stating that “many other government agencies are responsible for handling the border”, yet in a phenomenal act of contortionism conclude that “the two issues are inextricably intertwined.” So the fact that migrants from the Northern Triangle are the same people that are illegally crossing our border is actually two parts of the same issue? And exactly how dim-witted do you have to be that you couldn’t connect those dots? Perhaps she should have considered going to the border to ask the migrants about the “root causes”.  Going to Guatamala may have been less productive because most of the migrants had already left.  Duh.  But rather than address the issues, the CNN article devolved into a defense of Harris as being the heir apparent to the Presidency, surmising that it is “clear” that the criticism of Harris by conservative media is because, you guessed it: “she is the first Black female vice-president”.  Sorry, but the only party that appears to be assessing performance based on color is the democrat party.  The criticism of Harris is grounded in ineptitude, juvenile antics, astounding arrogance, and a failure to grasp the issues surrounding migration without resorting to tired old talking points, all the while offering no solutions. Recall her presidential candidacy when she was summarily rejected by her own voters early in the primary race.  Why was that? You know.

In an example of never letting reality intrude on perception, in an opinion piece for CNN, former ambassador to El Salvador Mari Carmen Aponte gushed the following: “Vice President Kamala Harris’ trip to Central America is a change in posture for the United States.  It sends a signal of hope to the region that the US is engaged and willing to do the hard work of solving complex regional problems to achieve long-term stability and prosperity.  To make real change, we must address the root causes of migration in Central America.” Apparently she got the “root cause” memo. She continued: “our diplomacy was focused on crime prevention and economic growth so that Salvadorans can find opportunity at home …..corruption infected and dominated public institutions….socioeconomic conditions that perpetuate poverty….a breakdown in the social contract between government and citizens”  She’s still talking about El Salvador, right?  Sounds more like Chicago, especially considering that the murder rate in Chicago is actually higher than in El Salvador.  Not only that, but how is it our job to clean up Central America’s crime, corruption and poverty when we can’t do an effective job of that right here at home?  You have to be kidding. Homicide in the United States increased by 25% in 2020. El Salvador has actually seen a decrease in crime because when they catch criminals, they put them in jail rather than release them back onto their streets. And when a democrat talks about solving problems, you know what that means: we are going to throw a boatload of money at it. And of course, nothing will happen, especially in corruption ridden Central America where the cash will evaporate.  But the democrats will feel better about themselves having lightened the wallets of the American taxpayer, especially the wealthy ones, to further their agenda and standing on the world stage. 

Rebecca Bill Chavez, a senior advisor in the Obama Administration specializing in the region, also worked in the Harris presidential campaign .  She was equally as effusive talking to Noah Bierman of the LA Times: “The fact that it was the Vice-President’s first trip abroad signaled that the administration is committed to addressing the drivers of migration: pervasive violence, crushing poverty exacerbated by climate change and widespread government corruption. “  Do these government weenies all read from the same script?  Apparently, because she also claimed the migrants “don’t have a choice” stating that a message not to make the journey was unlikely to “impact the decision making of a mother whose children’s lives are threatened by gangs or a father who can’t put food on the table for his family. Such language-especially if it isn’t coupled with a plan for effectively addressing the”, here it comes, “root causes and providing help.  It’s why addressing root causes in a real and robust way is the right way forward”.  Okay, okay already, I get it.  It’s all about the root causes and climate change.  Now move on and tell us exactly how you intend to fix it?  And besides, I thought we no longer were the world’s policeman, meddling in the affairs of other countries? That’s apparently out of fashion as well. When asked how much and how quickly we can expect migration to slow, the answer from Chavez was chilling: “We have to be realistic.  The drivers of migration are deep-seated, and a successful strategy will only be measured in years, perhaps decades-and will transcend administrations.” Decades? With 178600 illegal immigrants attempting to cross the border in April 2021 alone, and over 20000 migrant minors already in custody, extrapolating those numbers over a decade results in nothing short of an invasion that will fundamentally change the demographics of this country.  We won’t save El Salvador, we will be El Salvador. Rick Scott of Florida summed it up succinctly: “Kamala Harris could have walked to the border, walked to the Texas border in the time that she’s been given the responsibility to solve this problem, and (she’s) not done anything.”  Brandon Judd, President of the National Border Patrol Council remarked, “As someone who knows this situation inside and out, as someone who lives this, my agents and I, we live this day in and day out, as someone who sees this, I can confidently say that President Biden owns this crisis.  It is his fault.” 

A Perfectly Timed Tax Leak

In a remarkable coincidence, ProPublica released the tax return data on Warren Buffett, Jeff Bezos and a slew of billionaires, so as to be perfectly timed with the Biden Administration’s unveiling of the most progressive tax increase agenda in recent memory.  ProPublica also advised that they are unaware of the source of this leak, adding themselves to the long list of contemporary “journalists” who no longer honor things like integrity, morals, verification of sources and the rule of law. Of course the finger pointing and misdirection has followed, including such absurd speculation that it was a “hack” of the IRS by foreign agents.  Uh-huh. But what exactly would Russia or China have to gain by exposing the tax data on America’s wealthiest taxpayers?  That’s right: nothing.  And whatwould the Biden Administration have to gain by furthering the myth that wealthy Americans are somehow gaming the system and not paying their “fair share”?  Now you’re catching on.  It is most likely that some mole buried deep within the most aggressive tax collection agency on the planet was a good little progressive soldier and leaked the information on cue.  And tell me again that there is no such thing as a “deep state”. As Kimberly Strassel of the Wall Street Journal pointed out, “for decades the GOP has understood that the term federal employee is increasingly interchangeable with registered democrat”.  So what did this riveting expose tell us? Well, again it depends on which side of the economic spectrum you live, and whether you actually believe all the socialist drivel that has spewed forth from the likes of Senators Warren and Sanders over the past year, despite her foray into cultural appropriation and his wife’s adventures in capitalism. Go ahead, look it up.  It may also be dependent on whether or not you’re an idiot. Not to ruin the punch line for you, but ProPublica discovered that wealthy individuals not only pay the lowest amount of taxes permissible by law, but that they also take advantage of legal deductions such as business expenses, donations to charities and loan interest, as well as paying a lower tax rate on capital gains.  Shocking.  They are also more likely, by virtue of their wealth, to retain small armies of accountants and attorneys who scour the tax code to find what the Biden Administration would call loopholes, but the rest of civilized America calls rules of the game.  And a big part of their wealth is paper.  Stock, real estate and business holdings are investments that have value, but they are not income. Only when those investments are realized do they become taxable income.  Thus wealth is not income and we do not tax wealth.  At least not yet.  Proposals by the aforementioned Senators of the hypocrite party would like to do just that, no doubt creating another level of bureaucracy to assess your assets, assign you a wealth value and tax it. Investments not yet realized would be taxed based on their theoretical value and things like real estate, art collections, cars, your home and even the furniture in it would be audited and assigned value by a wealth czar, often engaging in double dipping, taxing things on which you have already paid a tax.  As we have reported in these pages, dystopian tax schemes such as a “tree tax” and a “view tax” have recently been hatched in search of revenue to feed the voracious beast that is progressive government.  There’s likely more on the way.

 

But really, will any of this affect Monsieurs Buffett and Bezos, darlings of the progressive left?  Of course not.  This ploy is designed to cast a wider net, to ensnare the “not so rich”, those poor pretenders that are climbing the economic ladder, working hard, likely small business owners who will never attain those stratospheric levels of reward seen by the uber-wealthy.  To put it in perspective, let’s look at those top tiers of earners, shall we?  When one thinks of the truly wealthy, the top 1%, the likes of Buffett,Gates and Bezos come to mind, as do the elites in the entertainment and sports industry: Oprah, LeBron, Tom andGiselle, for example.  But in actuality, this exclusive grouplives in rarified air in the top one-tenth of one percent of earners, defined as making more than $2.8 M per year.  They’re doing just fine, thank you for asking. But the pilloried top 1% is actually defined as those earning more than $737,697 per year, making the lower tiers of this bracket collecting only pocket change compared to the members at the top of the heap.  Entry into the top 5% requires only an annual income of $309,348 and joining the top 10% requires the paltry sum of only $158,002.  And recall that Biden is currently defining “rich” as those making four hundred thousand dollars per year.  As we know, that definition inevitably creeps lower in search of more revenue for the government coffers and was as low as $200000 in the Clinton years. The real money lies in the middle class. Do you feel rich?  Your government thinks you are. 

 

So you’ve reached the top 10% of wage earners.  Congratulations. You commute into New York City.  You live in New Jersey, or perhaps Westchester County where the average home price is $622,000 and you have a hefty mortgage.  Your property taxes are amongst the highest in the country at $12000 annually. School taxes bump that closer to $20000. Your state sales tax is 8%.  Your state income tax is 8.82%.  County taxes make that closer to 13%.  Your federal income tax, in that top 10% of earners,places you in the 32-35% tax bracket. Your de rigeur domestic SUV cost $35000 and the wife’s Subaru was at least that again. They are both financed.  Because you are a high earner, you have a Cadillac health insurance plan that now costs $2000 a month. Thank you, Obamacare. Your youngest child is in daycare so your wife can work.  Daycare averages just over $600 per week, per child. Your oldest child was just accepted to a private college with a tuition of $65000 a year.  You don’t qualify for any student aid based on your income.  Do the math.  How far is your salary going to get you and your family of four, rich boy? 

 

America already has the most progressive tax code in the world, and it is aggressively enforced.  The top 1% that Biden is desperately trying to convince you are not paying their “fair share” actually pays 39.5% of federal taxes. To put this in perspective, the bottom half of wage earners, 50%, pay only 2.8% of the federal tax burden, 14 times less than the top 1% although they represent a 50 times greater percentage of earners.  We are, in effect, being punished for success with a disincentive to work harder, to earn more money.  And gird your loins America; it is about to get worse. A lot worse.

Et Tu Atlantic Monthly

I just read an article in Atlantic Monthly criticizing red states as becoming redder with new conservative legislation aimed at the Democrat hot buttons. Of course if it’s conservative, it has to be bad. Among these horrible laws: banning abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected. Stiffer penalties for protests that destroy private property or block traffic. Stiffer ID laws for voting. Banning critical race theory teaching in public schools. Banning biological males from competing in girls high school sports. Barring localities from defunding then police. Banning municipalities from limiting business hours through Covid restrictions. You know, crazy stuff like that. The world is upside down. 

Disheartened

I've been silent of late in being so taken aback by Joe Biden’s Tulsa speech I could hardly collect my thoughts. It is hard to imagine anyone so steeped in our county's traditions, accomplishments, and humanity being so perplexed about who we really are.To continually accuse us of being systemically racist is intentionally meant to be divisive and patently absurd. Get real, Mr. President!