Showing posts with label united kingdom. Show all posts
Showing posts with label united kingdom. Show all posts

Sunday, September 8, 2024

September, 2024, Part 3, Political Class Insanity: Stupid Tax Ideas Around The World, Possible NYC Government Corruption, Skyrocketing National Debt and More

 Every month we devote posts to just general political class insanity that is running rampant through the country. The members of the American political class continue to show that they are incapable of efficiently operating any level of government in this country. 


Even their best efforts are almost always ineffective at resolving any problem facing Americans. They spend a great amount of time not trying to improve the lives of their citizens but continually ensuring their reelection and enriching themselves, their families, and their friends in the process, all at taxpayer expense.


1)We have  made a career talking about the  corruption of the American political class, how their self-enrichment is far more important than serving Americans. This corruption culture exists at all levels of government, from the Federal government in D.C. to the smallest town governments across the country.


Recently, alleged corruption was exposed in the biggest city in the country,  New York City:


  • Recently, the FBI raided the homes of five high ranking members of the New York City mayor’s staff,  Eric Adams.

  • The FBI agents  seized electronic devices during their home searches.

  • The five folks being raided included two deputy mayors, the city’s school chancellor, the NYPD commissioner and  an advisor to the mayor.

  • Oh, in case we forget, the mayor himself is under scrutiny for election campaign fundraising and possible ties to the Turkish government.

  • Edward Caban, the NYPD commissioner, not only had his home raided and his phone taken by the FBI, other high ranking NYPD people also had their phones confiscated.


The good news is that in this country these folks are assumed innocent until proven guilty. The other good news is that if these folks were actually involved in self enrichment and illegal activities, it is refreshing that maybe some political folks will actually and finally face consequences for their actions.


2)Speaking of corruption, we have often talked about Hunter Biden, Joe Biden’s son, and his shady dealings with shady characters around the world, from the Ukraine to Russia to China among other countries. Congressional  hearings have previously found upwards of 20 shell companies that the Biden family used to launder money and enrich themselves.


Hunter Biden has already been found guilty of Federal gun charges and then surprised the world this past week when he pleaded guilty to tax evasion. He was accused of evading taxes to the tune of $1.4 million.


And he did not plead guilty to just one or two charges but nine tax evasion charges, indicating that this was a very involved tax con or incredibly stupid tax preparation. These transgressions allegedly occurred between 2016 and 2019. His sentencing will be later this year in December. He is also facing up to 25 years of prison time for his gun charges.


All of which raises the question: will he actually go to prison for his illegal income tax and gun actions or will his daddy rescue him, and shield the Biden family’s money laundering and influence peddling schemes, by giving him Presidential pardons?  One theory is that he pleaded guilty now rather than go through a trial because the trial may extend past his father’s Presidency and thus, he could not then be pardoned by dad.


Given the political class we have discussed over the years, the smart betting money is that Hunter Biden will not spend a single day in prison for his felonious behavior. Time will tell. If you or I committed these law breaking actions there is not doubt we are going to prison.


3)We have all too often discussed the failures of the Biden Presidency across so many different dimensions: illegal immigration, foreign affairs and diplomacy, economic policy, etc. But he has also been outstanding in overwhelming the country with Federal government’s national debt:


  • In  fiscal 2023, the Federal government via the Biden administration spent a mind boggling $6,200,000,000,000.

  • That comes out to about $17 billion a DAY.

  • Furthermore, it comes  out to $700 million an HOUR.

  • The Federal government collected $4.7 TRILLION in taxes in 2023, probably the most money EVER collected by any level of any government in any country and yet Biden spent $1.5 TRILLION more than what was collected, about 32% over his tax revenue budget.

  • As we have  calculated in the past, at a national debt $35 TRILLION, mush of which was created by the Obama/Biden and Biden/Harris administrations, every man/woman/kid in the country would have  to write a check for $100,000 each to pay off the debt, of which just in 2023 was $1.5 TRILLION.


All of which leads to this very distressing reality: all of this debt means that every year the American taxpayer is paying $1 TRILLION just to service the national debt. Not pay down the debt, just cover the interest payments.


And that burden is only growing since career politicians like Joe Biden have neither the ability, the brains, or desire to get government spending under control.


4)We have previously shown two wonderful examples that illustrates why it is is always stupid of politicians to continue to raise taxes in that more often than not when taxes rates are raised, tax revenue actually goes down:


  • Several years ago, the French raised the tax rates on wealthy earners in the country.

  • Rather than get increased tax revenue, the tax revenue from these wealthy earners as a group actually went down as the wealthy just left the country to lower taxing countries, taking their tax revenue with them.

  • A similar thing happened to the state of Maryland, also a few years ago.

  • The state government raised the tax rates on those citizens earning more than a million dollars a year.

  • Several years later, the tax revenue from state citizens earning over a million dollars a year had actually shrunk, despite a higher tax rate, since the wealthy citizens simply had the resources to move out of state to lower taxation states, taking their tax revenue with them.


And despite this history lesson, politicians rarely learn from history:


  • United Kingdom politicians are planning to raise the tax rates on the wealthy citizens in the country.

  • Reports are surfacing that high earning bankers, entrepreneurs, and business executives are already either planning to leave the country or have done so already even though the new higher tax rate on the wealthy have even become law yet.

  • Countries they are heading for include Italy, the United Arab Emirates, and Switzerland, all countries with much friendlier tax rates.


According to an article which, unfortunately I deleted by mistake, “In a world that should favor growth, it’s time for policymakers in Britain and similarly afflicted regions to understand that punitive taxation does not build successful economies; it merely depletes them.” 


Whether in France, England, Maryland or blue states, continuing to increase the tax rate on the wealthy only drives the wealthy to other, more tax friendly environs. But politicians continue to be too ignorant to understand basic human  nature.


That will  do it for today: alleged corruption in NYC, alleged corruption in  the Biden family,  national debt still  out of control, and stupid politicians continue to be economic idiots.


**********************

If you agree that we need to deseat every member of Congress for their lack of success and accomplishment, then please consider going to the following petition link to help the cause:


https://www.change.org/p/deseat-congress-reset-freedom



**********************


Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

Monday, December 22, 2014

December, 2014, Part 1, I Am A Global Warming Doubter and a Believer In Science:Damn Beaver Dams,The California Drought, and Climate Predictions That Went Wrong

Several years ago we decided to look into the popular craze at that time that the world was warming and global warming was going to wipe out humanity. Rather than just assume that global warming advocates like Al Gore were correct, we wanted to look at ALL of the science, ALL of the climate data, and All of the realities of global warming.

And to be perfectly honest, we were tired of Al Gore, Barack Obama and other global warming advocates yelling at global warming doubters like myself, calling us racists, homophobes, flat earth believers, etc. In order to have a mature, adult conversation about global warming, we felt it was necessary to treat those with a different opinion with respect not derision and that to get to an adult solution, all of the science should be included in the debate.

Over the years, however, we have put together a very strong case that man made global warming and its rebranded marketing theme, climate change, were indeed mostly a false position, a travesty of science. Those who believed in global warming ignored or failed to consider scientific findings and research that was contrary to their views. 

They were found to have suppressed or changed raw data and findings that did not support their global warming positions. In short, they were the ones that had shortchanged the scientific method, not the doubters.

To review our past reviews of the global warming fallacy, type in the phrase, “I am a global warming doubter” in the search box above. Over the next few days we will continue to look at the latest climate data and realities and again prove that being a global warming doubter is a position that is strongly supported by science and not Al Gore hysterics.

1) One trait that makes global warming and climate change advocates look so foolish and weakens their credibility is their tendency to associate some very stupid factors with global warming. For example, last month we reviewed the ridiculous assertion that Halloween candy was contributing to global warming. 

Apparently, palm oil is used in some types of Halloween candy and by celebrating Halloween we are reducing the number of palm trees in the world which is contributing to global warming. The advocates of this position did not mention that the new coal burning plants that China and India are opening up on an almost weekly basis might be having a tad more impact on the Earth’s temperatures than Halloween candy.

We recently came across an equally inane assertion, namely that increase methane production caused by beaver created dams was causing climate change. Really, beaver dams? According to a recent article in the International Business Times:
  • The theory is that methane that’s generated at the bottom of standing water ponds created by beaver dams ends up being released into the atmosphere and creating unwanted climate changes.
  • The scientists making this tie-in to global warming and climate change even estimated that beaver created ponds are adding an 800 million kg of methane to the atmosphere every year.
  • I am not a scientists but if we divide the 800 million kg estimate by 365 days a year, then beaver ponds by themselves are adding an astounding five million pounds of methane to the atmosphere every day. Sounds a little impossible to a non-scientist like me.
  • According to the article, over the past hundred years there has been a conservation effort to save and enlarge the beaver population in the wild and this successful conservation effort is now contributing to global warming and climate change.
  • Researchers at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada estimated methane released from these beaver ponds is now 200 times higher than it was a century ago.
Really, beavers are significant culprits in global warming and climate change? This analysis and assertion omits two important realities:
  1. If global warming is indeed a major problem, shouldn’t we be more worried about what we discussed above, the hundreds and hundreds of coal burning power plants that have been built and are now being built or planned in countries like India and China? Aren’t they far more lethal than….beaver dams?
  2. And if beaver ponds and dams have been growing over the past hundred years, why has global warming stopped about 18 years ago? Either beavers and their dams are not big factors in global warming, since the global warming trend has stopped long ago, or the growth in beaver dams and ponds stopped about 18 years ago, a highly doubtful situation.
It is tough to take global warming advocates seriously when Halloween candy and beaver dams are considered important components of their failing climate theory.

2) Julia A. Seymour, writing for the website www.mrc.org, on December 10, 2014 reviewed recent scientific data and analyses that concluded that “natural cycles” were blamed for the current California drought and that climate change was not the culprit in the drought.

This conclusion was reached by a team of Federal government scientists who studied California’s multi-year drought. The researchers determined “natural cycles” and “sea surface temperatures” were “main drivers” of the California water shortage and drought: "It's important to note that California's drought, while extreme, is not an uncommon occurrence for the state. In fact, multi-year droughts appear regularly in the state's climate record, and it's a safe bet that a similar event will happen again. Thus, preparedness is key," said Richard Seager, the lead author and professor with Columbia University's Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory.

The research was enough for the global warming advocate New York Times to report on the findings (but buried deeply inside the paper on page A23 in its December 9, edition): “Scientists who have analyzed California’s extreme drought have concluded that it is a result of natural climate variability over the past three years and that climate change caused by humans has played little role.”

Government meteorologist Marty Hoerling was also quoted in another Times article, saying the California drought “resembles the droughts that afflicted the state in 1976 and 1977,” a period before man made global warming and climate change became a popular theory. 

Who is right? These government scientists and other scientists whose scientific work has cast considerable doubt on global warming and climate change theories or the handpicked scientists who Al Gore advocates for, some of whom were critical of this California study? I cannot choose a side since I am not a climate scientists. 

However, I am smart to know that there is enough science on the side of global warming doubters to merit an adult conversation about the whole issue, a conversation that will never happen as long as Al Gore types choose to berate those that disagree with him and who ignore science that does not fit their preconceived opinions.

3) We will finish today’s discussion on global warming doubters by reviewing some recent material that was published on Cato’s website on December 8, 2014. In their “Friday Funny” feature, they took a look at some historical climate and global warming predictions that Tom Scott had put up on the “Watts Up With That” blog. 

As you read them, keep in mind that when these predictions were espoused, they were taken as seriously in their day as Al Gore wants us to accept his predictions today. Given how wrong these historical predictions turned out, it makes one stop and wonder if Al Gore-type predictions are just as wild and just as likely to prove to be terribly wrong:

- “By the year 2000 the United Kingdom will be simply a small group of impoverished islands, inhabited by some 70 million hungry people … If I were a gambler, I would take even money that England will not exist in the year 2000.” -Paul Ehrlich, Speech at British Institute For Biology, September, 1971. At last look, 43 years later, England’s coast line as about where it was back in 1971 and most of the current inhabitants are not hungry.

- “Some predictions for the next decade (1990’s) are not difficult to make… Americans may see the ’80s migration to the Sun Belt reverse as a global warming trend rekindles interest in cooler climates.” -Dallas Morning News December 5, 1989. The Sun Belt migration has continued unabated since 1989, with the Sun Belt states seeing steady population growth and picking up dozens of Congressional delegates to the detriment of northern states.

“Giant sand dunes may turn Plains to desert – Huge sand dunes extending east from Colorado’s Front Range may be on the verge of breaking through the thin topsoil, transforming America’s rolling High Plains into a desert, new research suggests. The giant sand dunes discovered in NASA satellite photos are expected to re- emerge over the next 20 to 50 years, depending on how fast average temperatures rise from the suspected “greenhouse effect,” scientists believe.” Denver Post, April 18, 1990. Twenty four years later, right smack in the middle of the 20 to 25 years predicted time frame, there are no giant sand dunes, the plains are anything close to being a desert, based on the polar vortex from last winter, and temperatures stopped rising about 18 years ago.

Strike one, strike two, strike three, three serious predictions that came nowhere close to being true. If global warming theories and forecasts were so wrong decades ago, why should we believe non-scientists like Al Gore, Barack Obama, and others when it comes to the equally wild climate predictions of today? 

Especially when government and non-government scientists continue to prove every month that man made global warming and climate change may be as much as a mirage as these three predictions turned out to be. More global warming doubting material tomorrow.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org

http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w