Thursday morning links

Gay Americans Now Eligible for the Tax Code’s Marriage Penalty

Nah - The LGBTQIA is now a protected class - just like the Amnesty Aliens (or AA's as I call them) are now a protected social class. They will be exempted from this onerous bit of the tax code because of their special status. It will only take one tax cycle and they will be given special treatment.

Curiously enough, we now live in a Monarchical Republic ruled by a Royal President who issues Executive Decrees unchallenged by a rubber stamp parliament with the Senate acting as the House of Lords and the House the House of Commons. The new citizens of this form of Republic are all of some type of protected class while those who aren't members of a protected class are mere dots on the landscape.

It's only a matter of time before voters become disenfranchised by having their will circumvented by the Royal political class or the Supreme Court.

Oh wait - that's already happened.

We are so screwed.

#1 Tom Francis on 2013-06-27 08:33 (Reply)

The solutions are myriad and so simple that anyone against reform automatically self-identifies with the royalist reactionarian revanchists. Feature this simple common sense, make the debate plain and simple, offer partisan-whiff-free lists such as:

1) paper ballots, no paper ballot to be destroyed under any circumstance,

2) hand-counted at county level by committees of county residents

3) chosen by darts thrown at county voter rolls during the summer before the election, at summer-vacant local school facilities, by

4) blindfolded county-resident volunteers, from ten paces,

5) at lists style-formated in newspaper font pica and

6) filmed and web-posted at every stage of process sequence, and county-custodianed, CC the AG office of the state.

7) Dart-target lists to be scrambled for maximum random order 14 times, by twice daily, once per morning and once per evening, during the 7 day Election Week.

8) Ballot-count to commence one day after the last day of Election Week, and

9) results to be certified not before the elapse of the number of days necessary to prevent time-pressure-enabled fraud. Say, 7 days of marking ballots, 21 days of counting ballots, for a new 'election month'? Be nicer still if that month was March, for April 15 reasons.

10) Willful tampering with the process to be criminalized as RICO where applicable (careful, if either party is a criminal organization, then both are), or as 'aggravated hate speech' additional to existing state and federal statute, and prosecuted under federal civil rights law, 'fast-tracked' around dockets, to signal "screw around with elections at dangerous, rather than safe, odds --if you are caught, your Party will have to either cop a plea to keep you out of jail, or dangle you in the wind, to direct your appeal from anger, behind bars. And make all these changes retroactive to include Al Franken.

#1.1 buddy larsen on 2013-06-27 10:37 (Reply)

change 8) to read ''... one day after the first day of Election Week....''

#1.1.1 buddy larsen on 2013-06-27 10:45 (Reply)

Revanchism? Really?

Well, here's something for you to chew on. Our government is without a guarantee of any kind as to reliability, accuracy, existence or fitness for any particular purpose. Our legal system does not warrant, guarantee, imply or make any representations as to its accuracy for any particular purpose. Further our legislative system has no liability for or responsibility to you or any other person, entity or deity with respect of any loss or damage whatsoever caused by ill conceived laws, policies or protocols. Attempts to revamp, reauthorize, rebuild or shall be met by indifference to the will of the people. The very fact that citizens cannot do anything about it is viewed by the Executive, Legislative and Legal as acquiescence to governmental demands despite being given evidence to the contrary because the citizenry is being held hostage to the will of the Government - one branch will protect the prerogatives of the others to rule as they desire.

Providing proof is simple - issues that are back to front are often easier to comprehend if they are upside down as well.

Think about it.

#1.1.1.1 Tom Francis on 2013-06-27 18:23 (Reply)

Yasar, muhammadan in White house more n'more resemblin' Abe the Axeman.

However, Abe invented the system BHO is copyin'.

Curious ain't to strange a word for birds of feather.

#1.2 Leag on 2013-06-27 13:55 (Reply)

Seems to be a theme on government regulation. From its growth due to the Civil War, the great corruption of the building of the transcontinental railroad*, the Obamacare failure in the making, more money for less education, etc.

I might due to examine the cost of regulation. In a recent paper, it was determined that we'd all be three times richer except for the negative wealth effect of regulation since WWII.

QUOTE:

"Regulation’s overall effect on output’s growth rate is negative and substantial. Federal regulations added over the past fifty years have reduced real output growth by about two percentage points on average over the period 1949-2005. That reduction in the growth rate has led to an accumulated reduction in GDP of about $38.8 trillion as of the end of 2011. That is, GDP at the end of 2011 would have been $53.9 trillion instead of $15.1 trillion if regulation had remained at its 1949 level."

It's worth thinking about that for a moment. Each individual American, the society as a whole, would be three times richer than they are if there had not been that explosion of regulation of the economy since WWII.

Now, if only the government men would rub us behind the ears, we could all just go back to sleep

QUOTE:

* Our legislators have been blind to the lessons of history, or have been corrupt. They have been ignorant of the political and social laws, or they have been wanting in rectitude. In the period of thirty years, ended in 1880, Congress gave to railway corporations over 240,000 square miles, or 154, 067, 553 acres, of the best public lands in the States and Territories of the Union - an area double that of the whole kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, including the adjacent isles.

On the 17th of March, 1883, the Chicago Daily Tribune published a history of these land grants compiled by Mr. Henry D. Lloyd, under the following summary:

"The story of the dissipation of our great national inheritance- thrown away by Congress, wasted by the Land Office, stolen by thieves. A land monopoly worse than that of England, begotten in America. English monopoly is in families; American monopoly is in corporations; and corporations are the only aristocrats that have no souls, and never die."

#2 JKB on 2013-06-27 09:02 (Reply)

I agree.
Don't forget that the introduction of the Greenback, while it may have kept the North afloat, opened the doors for fiat currency and a Central Bank.

It also opened the doors for currency manipulation. Daniel Drew was well known for managing currency via "lockups" to support his short-selling schemes.

Today, Daniel Drew has been replaced with the Fed.

http://www.stansberryresearch.com/dailywealth/806/daniel-drew-the-lockup-greenbacks

#2.1 Bulldog on 2013-06-27 10:17 (Reply)

The cost of regulation affects the left side of the Bell Curve only financially, and that by which you are placed on that curve is also that by which you either recognize the fact or are oblivious to it.

The cost affects the right side naturally, as storms affect the distribution of heliotropic results (AKA, fate, destiny, luck, habits of mind, qualities of character, spiritual dedication to Golden Rule, et cetera).

#2.2 buddy larsen on 2013-06-27 11:07 (Reply)

Congress needs to start granting these lower-level IRS official immunity - thus negating their 5th Amendment rights, as they are no longer in danger of incriminating themselves - and start finding out just who said what and how high this goes.

#3 RonF on 2013-06-27 09:32 (Reply)

Aww, you think the IRS targeting was an Obama thing. You don't think Congressional Democrats and senior Republicans didn't know? They knew. This was the establishment attacking the upstart Tea Party which they fear most of all.

The Spring of 2009 was taken as a warning but the 2010 election put the fear of the electorate in the DC establishment. They feared for their phoney baloney jobs. They feared The People. Since then they've worked bureaucratic torture to thwart them and are working hard to disarm the People. They fear.

Throw the bums out. Regardless of party affiliation, all the old guard are part of the same Combine.

#3.1 JKB on 2013-06-27 10:28 (Reply)

Aye, the tea party groups are as dangerous to the progressive republicans as to the progressive dems. Just ask Lugar.

#3.1.1 indyjonesouthere on 2013-06-27 12:56 (Reply)

You know the Tea Party is feared by the Old Dogs of the party, when Graham\McCain lash out and foam at the mouth.

Even Boehner fears them, when the 70 said that 'Immigrant reform is Dead on Arrival, if it comes to a vote on the floor." They all know 'fly-over country' is mad, angry, and fed-up. The latest from the Supremes, along with the pending legislations are only fueling a cleansing fire nobody wants to see. Harry Reid and the others can laugh the TP's off, but they finger their progressive beads hoping for just one more miracle just go hammer in the final nails of the coffin.

When you got nothing to loose, nothing is sacred...

#3.1.1.1 fred zeppelin on 2013-06-27 14:36 (Reply)

How to fix the unhealthy relationship with student debt: Don't lend them or give them money! How/why did the government get involved in giving or lending money for people to go to college? Just another one of the many extra-constitutional things our federal government chooses to do. The government is so bad at these kinds of things. It seems everyday we here about more waste, fraud and abuse in government programs. Most of the welfare money goes to support drug habits and our response seems to be to increase welfare! Where does common snese come into play?

#4 GoneWithTheWind on 2013-06-27 10:14 (Reply)

Sen. Manchin: It's war on America

Thanks for noticing, Senator. Be advised, it has not gone unnoticed that you were leading the charge to disarm Americans.

#5 JKB on 2013-06-27 10:43 (Reply)

U.S. Spends More, Gets Less in Education

This headline should read:

U.S. Spends More on Schooling, Gets Less in Education

That difference is the key flaw in American education. The confusion of schooling with education, of time in seats being lectured with learning, of testing of facts with assimilation and understanding. Our education is declining because we keep taking up all the time with increased schooling requirements.

QUOTE:

My education was interrupted only by my schooling

--Winston Churchill

#6 JKB on 2013-06-27 10:54 (Reply)

I am READY for Hillary!...to go away. No hope of that, but not gonna kill myself over it.

Manchin's right on this, but what exactly is he going to do about it? And when?

Don't know about the Dems, but the Greenies want the War On Coal (and Oil, and Natural Gas, and Nukes, and...)
I expect the Dems to sign on with them.

#7 Sam L. on 2013-06-27 11:16 (Reply)

I was looking around the Lehrman institute where I sourced the Churchill quote. I found this speech given by the founder back in 1983 on education in America

In it he lays out an allegory of "a satanic plan - a 200-year plan for the systematic depreciation of the high standards governing American education."

I must warn you, it could make you sad reading the plan. See, the devil's plan has proceeded these last 30 years without any significant opposition. Today, the only thing figurative about the story is that the devil made them do it.

QUOTE:

Last month, the President's National Commission on Educational Excellence made its report, on where, after 200 years, we stand as a nation dedicated to universal education. What did it find? It found, 'the educational foundations of our society are being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a nation and a people.' And in a passage strangely reminiscent of my fable, the Commission observed 'if an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war.' Or, I might add, an act of the Devil, for education today is in, if you'll indulge the metaphor, one hell of a mess.

2003-1983=30 years. Apparently, time is not on our side, nor did the people rise up to take back the future of their children. Now...?

#8 JKB on 2013-06-27 11:53 (Reply)

This all makes me think only one thing: where do I sign up for a new country?

#9 Park Slope Pubby on 2013-06-27 12:26 (Reply)

Read Prof. Don Livingstons book "Rethinking the American Union for the 21st Century" - just finished it over vacation (wished I stayed at home...) and its got some good thoughts.

#9.1 fred zeppelin on 2013-06-27 14:42 (Reply)

--let me know what you find out --

#9.2 buddy larsen on 2013-06-28 21:24 (Reply)

Another IRS Official Refuses to Testify Before Congress

So the boss calls you in to ask a few questions, and the employee says "no thanks"? I propose we engage in a bit of salary clawback. A touch of unpaid suspension, say for as long as the abuse went on, wouldn't hurt either.

#10 Ruby Slippers on 2013-06-28 05:40 (Reply)

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Thursday, June 27. 2013

Thursday morning links