Divemedic

Taxes Are Racist

It’s tax season, and now we have an article claiming that taxes are racist: “Black married couples face heavier tax penalties than white couples,” and it’s pure BS. This is the logic:

When a Black or white couple have the same income, deductions and family structure, they will have the same tax liability, Gale said. But given the average economic differences between white and Black couples, according to the report, Black married couples are still more likely to face penalties and smaller bonuses.

Before tearing into the faulty logic here, I want to point out that “white” is not capitalized once in the article, while “Black” is capitalized every time. A bit of subtle “othering” that happens in journalism today.

So the taxes aren’t racist, it’s just that black married couples have more children than their white counterparts and taxpayers with children generally tend to face larger penalties under our current tax code. So it would be more accurate to say that the tax code discriminates against those with children.

I call bullshit on that, too. If a couple has a child, they get additional personal exemptions, they also get:

  • child tax credit
  • dependent care credit
  • earned income credit
  • adoption credit
  • education credit

Let’s look at two married couples: they have the same income, same jobs, same financial situation. Each couple earns a combined $68,000 a year. Their employers withheld $5,000 from their paychecks for Federal taxes. The only difference is that couple one has no children, and couple two has two children.

Couple one is in the 12 percent tax bracket, with an effective tax rate of 11.03%. They will pay $4,644 in Federal income taxes this year, so they will get a $356 refund.

Couple two has two children. They are both latchkey children, so there are no childcare expenses to deduct. They are also in the 12 % bracket, and had the same effective tax rate as couple two. However, they get more credits, so only wind up paying a net $644 in Federal income tax, and will wind up with a refund of $4,356.

So if in fact black couples have more children that whites, blacks pay LESS in taxes.

By Divemedic, ago

Value of Employees

The left is complaining about a company that is laying off 8,000 employees while it continues to pay Matthew McConaughey $10 million a year. The article complains that CEOs aren’t making sane financial decisions. This attitude comes from a complete lack of comprehension of how employees add value to a company.

Let’s look at the numbers. Salesforce has about $31 billion a year in annual sales, earning about $200 million in profit. That’s a profit margin of less than one percent. The company employs about 80,000, meaning that 8,000 workers are about ten percent of the workforce, and cost the company somewhere around half a billion a year in salary and other HR costs. McConaughey costs the company $10 million. Since he is a contract employee, there are no real HR costs.

So how much value do those employees bring? That is, McConaughey may cost $10 million, but if him being the spokesman brings $800 million in sales, it’s a good investment. That’s why companies have celebrity spokesmen. It’s why Michael Jordan was the single best shoe salesman in Nike history.

Then consider the 8,000 employees. How much do they bring in? That’s the question that needs to be answered, which is what the CEO does. It’s a value computation, not just a cost computation. Companies are not there to be a jobs program. Companies exist to make a profit for their investors. If there is not enough profit, there are no investors. If there are no investors, there is no operating capital. If there is no operating capital, there is no business. It’s not that difficult.

If you want to make more money, make yourself more valuable as an employee. You do that by showing your employer that you can help them make more in profits. Learn a skill that your employer finds valuable. If all you know how to do is flip a burger, pick boxes before putting them down over there, or pushing an idiot stick (a broom), then you are worth very little and can be replaced by nearly anyone. Or no one.

The real minimum wage is zero.

By Divemedic, ago

Bathroom Breaks

This parent is upset that her child isn’t allowed to leave the classroom whenever she wants by using the claim of needing to use the bathroom. Students do this all the time. There are kids who will need to use the bathroom constantly, then will leave the classroom and wander the halls for half an hour or more. Many teachers, myself included, developed policies that were intended to keep kids in the classroom. If you don’t do so, you will find that the kids take full advantage of that, and of you.

There are some things that you hear when you are a teacher that are heard so often, they become cliché.

  • The teacher is only giving me that grade because they don’t like me
  • The teacher must have lost my homework, because I turned it in
  • I wasn’t cheating, I was using my resources
  • I need this phone to text my mom
  • I wasn’t using this phone to cheat on the test, I was texting my mom. She needs to hear from me every hour, to make sure I’m safe.
  • My kid wasn’t cheating on the test, he was texting me, you can’t tell my kid that he can’t text his mother whenever he wants to.
  • I need to go to the bathroom (before being gone for half an hour)
  • My kid should be allowed to do whatever they want.

You get the point. Kids will do anything and everything to get out of school, to get things that they shouldn’t have, etc. If you are a parent, you know how manipulative children can be. It’s a parent’s job to guide and teach their children the right way, to show them the path to becoming functional, responsible adults. Sadly, many parents fail in this duty and instead strive to be the child’s ally and friend, rather than their parent. I saw this time after time during my seven years as a teacher. It’s so tedious that it was one of the main reasons why I am no longer teaching. .

This bathroom thing is no exception to that. Let that child get hurt, and the first thing those very same parents want to know is why was their child not being supervised. It’s tiresome, and looking at this teacher’s policy in the article, it seems reasonable.

Mrs. Garrett has allegedly implemented a classroom “reward system” that allows students to earn “Garrett dollars,” which they can cash in to borrow supplies or use the bathroom, among other things. How do you earn dollars? Students can donate supplies, do extra work in the classroom, be good citizens in the classroom, etc. They can then use those dollars to buy things like a pencil or paper (which was donated by another student), bathroom trips, and other things.

It’s a great idea. It teaches the kids that work carries reward, it teaches them fairness, and helps impart a work ethic.

Instead, this parent wants to teach her child the lesson that whining and complaining is far more effective a tool to get what you want.

Sadly, that is the lesson that is learned far too often. Too many parents claim that their kid is different, their kid “would never do that,” which ties the hands of the teachers who actually DO want to do their jobs. That’s how we wind up with schools that can’t control kids, and the school becomes a discipline free for all, like this Minnesota school where parents are complaining that the violence is out of control.

By Divemedic, ago

Violence Becomes More Likely Than Not

With the news that law students and faculty at Stanford Law School shouted down a visiting appeals court justice, preventing him from delivering the speech that he had been asked to give at the school, we see that even prestigious law schools don’t want to hear from anyone from the other side of the political aisle.

Couple that with faculty and students being attacked by a virtual lynch mob of other students because of their political beliefs, I just can’t see any other possible result on the horizon than the outbreak of outright hostilities.

The ever increasing animosity and violence has been ramping up for years. Reminiscent of the period before the Civil War when fistfights erupted on the floor of Congress. Outside of Congress, people would attack and beat their Representatives in the street.

Even Politico sees the parallels between now and the 1850’s. The difference here is that Politico is blaming the right for the violence, and using the attack on Paul Pelosi as evidence. Of course, we know that the Pelosi attack was his gay lover attacking Pelosi. Even if you DON’T believe the gay lover story, there is no evidence that the attack had anything to do with politics.

Even in the days before the American Revolution, there was violence. Keep in mind that in those days, those who lived in North America were all of the same country. That didn’t stop British soldiers from raping and killing local women. Colonists would tar and feather tax collectors before burning down the tax collector’s house.

Wars between citizens of a same country are especially bitter because of the similarities between combatants. Like a couple that has been married for too long, each party knows how to hurt the other, and they do.

In the current day conflict, we are seeing an extension of the conflict of the Civil War: does one side in a political debate have the power to force the other side to do their bidding? The Civil War was one of country farmers in the south versus the industrial city dwellers of the north. The south didn’t have the industrial base to win the war. In today’s case, it will be the country and suburban counties versus the heavily populated cities. Will the cities have the industrial base to win?

Who knows, but the last Civil War was the bloodiest we have ever had. The next one will be even worse.

By Divemedic, ago

School Boards Oppose the Will of the Voters

A Nebraska school board voted to allow people with mental problems to compete as whatever they claim to be, despite the fact that parents who were at the meeting overwhelmingly opposed the measure.

Meanwhile, this dad was banned from his daughter’s school for taking a picture of her tranny teacher and posting it on Social Media. I guess only the left is allowed to use public shaming. So the Dad appeared at a school board meeting dressed as a Roman and said, “Hi, I am Julius Cesar. I am also a woman. Now who believes me? Of course, no one will believe that I am actually Julius Cesar, because I am obviously not, even though I claim to be, but many of you would believe that I am a woman, simply because I say I am. That is insanity. Your duty is to act in the best interest of children. It is to teach truth, not lies. Facts, not fiction. Biology, not a social agenda.”

I agree. I leave you with this:

  • Let’s say that I believe myself to be a gorilla. No matter how strongly I believe it, I am still not a gorilla.
  • Let’s say that I take pills to make myself grow more hair to look more like a gorilla. I am still not a gorilla.
  • If I hire a surgeon to perform an operation to make myself look more like a gorilla, I am still not a gorilla.
  • If I get a million people to say that I can be whatever I identify myself as, and declare than I am a gorilla, I am still not a gorilla.

If I were to believe myself to be a gorilla and took the steps above, people would say I am delusional.

Why doesn’t the same thing go for trannies? Just because you think that you are a woman doesn’t make you a woman, it makes you delusional. I will not play into your delusions.

By Divemedic, ago

Wrong

Take a look at this. Comment below.

This cop has been involved in three shootings. If there had not been a camera recording this, he would have gotten away with this beating, too. Had this man fought back, the cop’s partner would have killed him. His only real choice is to take the beating. Why? Because cops ALWAYS cover for other cops. One lies, and others swear to it.

What needs to happen is that BOTH cops need to be fired, and need to have their law enforcement certification taken for life. Then EVERY single use of force that they have been involved in needs to be reexamined.

Perhaps it is time to have an elected citizen review board in each jurisdiction. Say, a board made up of two cops and three elected citizens who review every use of force incident and every citizen complaint. If a cop is found to be using illegal force, they can file charges and yank his law enforcement credentials by majority vote until he faces a criminal trial for depriving someone of their legal rights. If found guilty, the loss of credentials becomes permanent.

By Divemedic, ago

Loser Gets 10 Years for Being a Loser

That isn’t what the headline says. The headline says “Homeless man gets 10 years in prison for stealing clothes for warmth.” Until you read the article. He broke into a house to steal stuff. When the cops found him, he was in possession of methamphetamine. It wasn’t his first offense. He got 18 months for the burglary, and 8.5 years for the drugs. He had just gotten out of prison in December for drugs.

Is there anything that gets reported in the press that isn’t misleading or an outright lie?

He lost his kitchen manager’s job and ended up homeless and using meth. His (public defender) lawyer said Krumwiede does well, but then friends get him drugs. Yeah, that happens to me every time I lose my job- somehow, through no fault of my own, I find myself using drugs.

In fact, looking into this loser’s record, he has four previous felony convictions. This incident adds two more to that. He was kicked out of the Army in 2012 for drugs.

The only real bright spot in this story is a quote from the judge: “Why should the state of Michigan rehabilitate you? You’ve only been here for three years. You’ve done nothing but disrupt this community.”

By Divemedic, ago

Evidence

If I was ever involved in a case where a restaurant worker did this to my food, the following video would be the only piece of evidence I would introduce at trial. I would probably walk.

If ever there was a justification for legal ass whippings, this is it.
By Divemedic, ago