30% tax

 Ok- let me get this straight - the GOP wants to do away with the IRS and levy a 30% sales tax on everything I buy ??

On the Surface this seems like a good IDEA - the SAME tax - 30% -  for EVERYONE . however,, hold the Phone  = they are not proposing a 30% tax on Wages & Earnings ... but on SALES tax....

OK - Let's check it out....

Say I make $50K per year .   and I buy Groceries (could be anything , furniture, car, clothes, etc etc)  of $150 per week  - that times 52 Weeks = $7800 per year on Groceries - PLUS a 30% tax on that...

so $7800 x 30% = $2340 - MY total groceries are now -  $7800 + $2340 = $10, 140 Dollars... GOT IT !?!?

SO I am spending  what percentage of my income on paying that flat (?) 30% tax ?

$2340 / $50,000 = 4.68% - Four point six eight percent of my income goes to that tax....  

4.68 % remember that number....

To make the math easy.. the FAMILY NEXT DOOR to me., say they make double what I make 

- $100,000

Same Math - they buy $150 of groceries per week - times 52 weeks, = $7800 per year. plus the 30% tax of $2340.

what percentage of their  income are they paying toward that flat (?) 30% tax ?

$2340 / $100,000 = 2.34 % TWO point three four percent of their income goes to that tax !!! 

2.34% versus 4.68% - the tax burden  on those making less is MORE!

UNDER TTHIS STUPID FUCKING GOP PLAN THE TAX BURDEN IS SHIFTED ONTO THOSE MAKING LESS  MONEY  AND LETS THOSE MAKING MORE TO SPEND FAR LESS OF THEIR INCOME ON THE 30% TAX. 

Wanna propose a flat tax - fine  - on INCOME !!  and DO NOT allow many of the deductions that the RICH are able to take today to show that a Billionaire makes no income cause he shows a loss on paper  therefore pays no tax !!  Bullshit ... 

IF you make  that $100,000 and pay 30% of that in tax - $30,000 is your tax burden - 

IF you make that $50,000 and pay 30% of that in tax - $15,000 is your tax burden -

NOW  you are getting to a FAIR flat tax.

Skip the ADS !!

 Doin some Disney today !!!

Try the Grey stuff , it's delicious ,,, don;t believe me - ask the Dishes !

You want thing-a mabobs ?? I got twenty .

WTF !?!?!?

 WTF did we just  watch ???  5 em beat to death another man...  

 There are Millions of overworked , under appreciated police officers in this country,,, yes - A handful like the ones that did this,, but the far out vast majority of men and women deserve our thanks and gratitude for the job that they do every day in our communities...

And the ones - like these 5 . need to be weeded out of the departments,  and/or put in Jail for the atrocities that that they do.   And the Paramedics that stood around for what  ?  20 minutes with out helping this man - they are near as responsible for his death as the ones that beat him to death. 

We can only hope that they all get what they deserve.  and to the news host wanting to knwo what this man was on.. waiting on his toxicology to see maybe  that had a hand in his death .  WTF is wrong with you... so if it is that he as high,,, or on Coke ,, or Alcohol... THAT is justification for what was done  to him. That make sit ok to KICK him in the head repeatedly - to beat him like a dog with a nightstick ?? TO leave him lying the street to die... You can go to hell...  

Music Friday

 From the Secret Policemen's Ball 

Pete Townshend...

The late Jeff Beck and E.C.

From the NO Nukes concert... a John Hall (Ulster country resident)  and Former Orleans frontman..

and the Times they are a Changin..

Ticketmaster

Don't know if you have been following - even a little bit - the Senate hearing on Ticketmaster  / Live Nation  (after this "TM" ) and the whole concert ticketing industry. This was mainly precipitated I think after the debacle over Taylor Swift Tickets. 

you can read the whole article here..

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-64384304

Seems that - of course - tickets to her concerts that went on sale on TM were "attacked" by BOTS that snapped up tickets before the General public could  get their hands on them,,, in some examples tickets that lucky fans put into their CART  were bought out from under them as they were in the Check out process.  Then these BOTS - thats robotic ticket buying - owned by ticket Scalpers had the tickets, they sold them for crazy prices.... $5000 - yes FIVE Thousand dollar and MORE !!!  You see these BOTS buy up groups - Hundreds of tickets then resell them. Even when the BOTS were unable to get into the system - they slowed down the process to the point the system either crashed or just sat there for HOURS with out movement.  They tried doing a preregistration to FAN Club members - but that did not really help. The Senate has heard or will hear from SeatGeek - Ticketmaster &  Live Nation. 

OK- let' s talk about a few things .... 

- Ticketmaster / Live Nation are responsible for a bit more than 70% of the Concert and sporting event tickets sold in the US. = As Senator Amy Klobuchar correctly (IMHO) pointed out - THAT IS A MONOPOLY !  You don't have a choice of where to get a ticket from... Either TM or one of these Resellers.  

- TM charges what most think are crazy fees - there is no delivery of the tickets ,, you either download them and print them yourself - or you use an electronic ticket Barcode / QR Code to gain entry to the show.. for this TM gets from $10 - $20 per ticket. Thats over and above the Ticket price.  TM claims that the Venue set the ticket prices, not them and not the Artists. 

- TM claims no wrong doing  - Claims the BOTS are the reason for system failures,,, However - with the profit they make - there is no reason to change , upgrade or innovate the way tickets are sold to the General Public.. 

There are a few things that again IMHO would immediately change the way the system works and move this in a positive direction. 

1) Artists need to be more involved in setting the Price of the Tickets to their shows.

2) Venues need to  distribute  across several if not many vendors.

3) RESALE of Tickets is NOT ALLOWED !  (this should be 1st) Consumers are going to have to buy into this one,, as say you buy the ticket and then for whatever reason can't go to the Show... You are gonna be out the Money! OR - IF the show is sold to  some percentage - say 90-95%  that the ticket vendor would buyback the ticket (even at a lower price) knowing they would be able to sell it to someone else and could get a re-list fee so the 1st buyer would not be out all the money...  Folks have proposed ticket limits - but BOTS are smart enough to be able to look like different people buying them - so I doubt that would even work.  

4) Preregister for ticket sale- so - for say 2 weeks (whatever) ahead of the actual sale , you can essentially at your leisure register to buy tickets - Set amount of tickets and price range you are looking for.  (YUP - this costs you some percentage of the ticket price that isNON refundable) The Ticket vendor then assigns you a number  (in a lottery fashion) that is associated with a time to sign on and purchase your tickets.  

- I register to buy 2 Eagles tickets at a price point between $150 - $200 per seat,  or say seats that are Less than $200 per....  and the FEE for that is $50  that goes toward the Ticket Price.

- I get a Date - 2/17/2023 - Noon to 12:30 pm. to complete my purchase. I go in at that time - purchase my tickets at $175 each plus a $20 one time fee - so $370 Total - and that days purchase is minus the $50. VIOLA ! done.  

This does not cure all the ills of the ticketing industry - but i think certainly would help... 

Don't read this post

 No one wants to hear about DEBT CEILING 

What does DEBT CEILING even mean ???  Some in the Media and the Congress want toy to believe that this spending more money... aka increasing our debt ... WRONG ! its just wrong...

IF you say have a Credit card with a $1000 dollar limit...AND you have have a RULE that you cannot go owe over  $1000 on that card,,, BUT you bought things that equaled $1000 and now with that $1000 and the  interest on the Card has added  you now owe $1000 and $5 dollars.

You can chose to do one of two things,,, 1) default on the Credit card - not pay what you already owe - money you already spent or 2) Increase the amount that you can owe on the card..  

THAT is what the Debt Ceiling is, Increasing the Amount of debt you can have to Pay for the Things you ALREADY BOUGHT !  Don;t let the Rhetoric fool you.  Those advocating to not increase it and oh BTW - it has been done 78 times before.  The actual Ceiling was met  last week - according to the Finance Department. But they have a provision that they can continue to pay for things in an emergent situation until we run up against what they are calling DAY X or X DAY - that will happen this summer - when we REALLY hit the TOP of the Ceiling. and the House can vote to increase it or default.

Defaulting would be catastrophic. You can go read about the affects in you r favorite search engine... not FOX news or OAN- use a real news source... The US would then default on our debt for the 1st time in HISTORY.  World financial markets would down grade our financial rating,, meaning that it would cost more to borrow money.   The stock and Bond market would likely fall.. not collapse maybe but take huge hit ! Perhaps most seriously, if the U.S. Treasury does not meet its debt obligations, it would result in a default on trillions of dollars of assets. These assets, currently considered high investment grade, would turn into “junk” bonds overnight and may result in a cascade of selling across many financial assets - a downturn int he market like has not been seen since the Depression. 

DO I understand all the in and outs of the Debt Ceiling, where we owe money, what would we default on - Medicare, Social Security, Paychecks to the Military, etc.... nope - I don't. Here is what I do know ,, those that are advocating debt failure  and tie the increase of the Debt Ceiling to spending cuts are playing with actual fire - and what scares me is that many of those advocating that are ones that denied the last election, think jewish space lasers affected the election, believe that if you have solar panels will not provide power at night...  yea - so I doubt they can understand the DEBT and the Financial implication of Defaulting on the DEBT !!

Music Sunday

 Ok - so I am reminded that I have not posted up music in a while - so caught up in the political doings of the Present day.

  So here are a few older ones and maybe some newer ones - Definitely skip the ads - if any - as soon as possible to watch the Videos or hear the Audio of the ones that are not much of a Video experience....

Let's start with the late John Prine,  and Paradise ..

Earlier this week,, ok ,, maybe last week , one of  my FB friends posted pictures from Billy Joel concert in NYC,, so  thought I would  put up 2 songs,, after I saw his post.  I had forgotten how much good music Billy made in his day,....

1st up kinda a sad song about a break up....- "And so it goes",,,,,

and of course - "We Didn't start the FIRE" feel free to sing along !!

The Tedeschi Trucks band - I pity the FOOL

and I agree Susan Blows the roof off with this one !!!

and if you don't think this band is the best one touring today - you are missing it !

And the Band that I miss the most,,,, R.E.M. that's Michael Stipe, Mike Mills, Peter Buck, and Bill Berry...

Begin the Begin

The one I love - 

and - so technically NOT REM  - 10,000 Maniacs ( Rhinecliff NY resident -Natalie Merchant with Michael Stipe) Followed up with Give 'em what they Want...

You can find this on an EP called Rock the Vote...

 

HR25 - the Fair tax Act

 If you have not hard ofHR 25 - or the FAIR TAX ACT - you will..

This is the GOP looking to replace the Current tax structure in the United States... you can go read the Proposed bill...   but in summary  - it would eliminate the Federal Income tax ,,, and before you jump for joy...  it will replace it with a FLAT 30% tax for Individuals and it would be administered essentially by the States and not the federal government...   still interested - IT also essentially eliminate Corporate tax.

Yea - want a surprise - the GOP giving a huge tax break (elimination) of any taxes to the Big Corporations that donate Millions to the GOP campaigns, and help them continue to be elected.. ,, not that many pay taxes now - just that now the Tax burden will get shifted from  them to YOU ! While this has little chance of passing the House and Senate any time soon,,  this is what Republicans are thinking about - 

The Fair Tax Act, H.R. 25, which has 11 original Republican cosponsors, also would enact a national sales tax that would be administered primarily by the states, the text says. 

“Instead of adding 87,000 new agents to weaponize the IRS against small business owners and middle America, this bill will eliminate the need for the department entirely by simplifying the tax code with provisions that work for the American people and encourage growth and innovation,” Rep. Carter said. “Armed, unelected bureaucrats should not have more power over your paycheck than you do.”

If enacted, H.R. 25 would replace the current tax code with a national consumption tax known as the Fair Tax, which was first introduced in 1999 by former U.S. Rep. John Linder (R-GA), who served in Congress from 1993 to 2011. The Fair Tax is a leading tax reform movement, according to Rep. Carter’s office.

“Cosponsoring this Georgia-made legislation was my first act as a member of Congress and is, fittingly, the first bill I am introducing in the 118th Congress,” said Rep. Carter.

H.R. 25 also would eliminate all personal and corporate income taxes, the death tax, gift taxes, and the payroll tax, thereby eliminating the need for the IRS, according to a bill summary provided by his staff.

The measure has been referred to the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee for consideration.

==========================================================================

And the Inmates are running the asylum

 Took the GOP 15 ballots to elect a Speaker of the House - McCarthy made every concession to the FAR right Crazies - that's Gaetz, Bobo, Margerine , Gozar, etc,,,   You can fully expect they will not have any ideas of what to do,,,  What they will do is fight - even between each other....  The GOP holds this small majority on the House - Just 4 votes, that they will be able to actually accomplish - Nothing -  you watch what I think is true...

You - there will be investigations - of every ilk,,, and yup - it's in their right to do that... There may be impeachment hearings... There has already beed what some of them think is the DEfunding of those 67,000 - they said 87,000 IRS agents - hummm  do they all understand that the legislation to do that -- and the that is those people hires over the next 10 Years to replace those lost duing the Pandemic and thru normal attrition - that the Senate that they - the GOP do not hold a majority in,, and oh BTW - the POTUS has to sign hat bill - NOT F-ing happening ...  I do not think many understand that... 

Now - so they fooled you into thinking these agents were coming for your taxes.... NOT ... they make you think that GUN control legislation - is coming for your guns - NOT ... that Critical Race Theory is what they are banning in Elementary Schools - NOT - was never taught in anything but College ....    There will be issue after issue that they will build up to say they are accomplishing -- IT will amount to nothing,,, 

And let's not forget that idiot in Florida that is proving more and more that he is a racist.   Forget that Critical Race Theory was never taught in any elementary school  or schools lower than college  for  the most part  He had you believing that it was,, and that is Bad ! Idiots ... NOW Desantis wants to block and AP level course in High schools  African American studies...  Listen Asshole - African American history  IS fucking American History - even though you would like to white wash it and pretend things never happened,,, how do our children learn the truth about history  - the ACTUAL truth - not one mans version of that history ??  and ok - If you don't want White kids learning black history ,, how about black kids don't need to learn White history ???   And if he was not enough of a jerk - there are AP classes on Spanish history,  French History, German,    but let's ban African American History.... then cll others the CANCEL CULTURE - come on - only the Stupidest people would believe this crap.

========================================================================

It's past the funny part

 SO - it has been  entertaining the past few days watching and listening to the House  of Representatives GOP  eating it self alive. Watching 20 members of the House hold out and hold up the business of governing the USA.  Frankly - we are now past the "funny" part. 

This Body of our government - regardless of which Party holds the Majority - has some functions that it must do.  They cannot even start that without electing a Speaker of the House.  WE have these 20 Republicans - the Freedom Caucus - I think they call them selves - made UP of Ultra MAGA - ultra Right wing of the party not voting for the guy who has been the Minority leader , while Nancy Pelosi has been the Speaker. McCarthy is now negotiating with them for the votes he needs to become speaker... to date - the last 2 days - he has lost on all 6 votes - unheard of since the 20's - so near 100 years. You have yo ask how much of the "power" (political influence )  that he will need is he negotiating away to get those votes... and remember here although these ULTRA MAGAs will tell you that the American people spoke and elected them the majority - they have a Majority by I believe 4 votes. So that nay time in the next 2 years this group of INSANE people - yup Bobo, Gosar , Madge, Perry (who may be in jail before his term is up)  - has a hissy fit ... that group that barely understands how the Business of the country works,  will destroy the GOP majority.  So if you think this infighting in the GOP is over after they pick a speaker - think again !  

OH and they - those 20 Full goose Bozos  - nominated Byron Donalds on Wednesday - I believe they did that as a counter to the Democrats ALL voting to Hakeem Jefferies ( a Great Rep from NY - will be the 1st time that a Black man is the Leader of a party in either House)  -  Jefferies who will eventually be the House Minority Leader - he and Donalds both African Americans -  I believe they did it to say  - "oh you have a black guy ,,, so do we... " Assholes...

A quick side note: Remember that even though there were those in the Democrat party that were not thrilled with Nancy Pelosi- they realized that they needed to show the Strong Front- the I'm on the TEAM and vote for Nancy ,

On November 17, 2020, Pelosi was nominated by voice vote without opposition. Whoosh! 

It does offer us  - once again - some insight into things that I did not know how it all worked. So one needs a majority of the Reps that are voting in the House   - the number is 218 IF everyone votes.... If there are some not in attendance (for whatever reason)  then it the simple majority of those A) in attendance and more importantly casting a vote for SOMEONE..... The Representative can vote "Present" so that they are in attendance - but not voting for any candidate for Speaker - this also  lowers the threshold that is needed to be elected..  there was a rumor that the House Democrats  were going to either not be in attendance, or Vote "Present" to help McCarthy get elected... But I could not see that happening,, and many many of them came out to say so..  AOC  (who I just love - what a smart strong Representative) was seen talking to Gosar - who you have to know they HATE each other - she came out and said that he asked her of that was what the Democrats were going to do ,, and she she told him in no certain terms that the Democrats would not be taking any action to help the GOP , especially McCarthy - in any way. 

The House reconvenes on Thursday at Noon- so stay turned to see if they Elect a Speaker of the House later today - and then can get on with the Business of Government. 

a Second side note - I think that most people - at least most people  Before Trump came along - most thought that their Congressperson - Senator , Representative of Federal or State legislature  was going to a) represent and stand for what they stood for to get elected, and perhaps more importantly - B) they would work with their peers of BOTH parties in order to achieve a compromise where possible for the Good of Both sides ...  I think that the Compromise part has been removed by Trump and ultra magas and that compromise - give and take - is seen as Weakness instead of Strength of a Legislator.  Yes - there are hills you will DIE ON ,,, but that can't be every issue - If you are a parent reading this - you know exactly what I'm talking about.. humm  Maybe a requirement of governing should be you must be a parent 1st !!