Uncategorized

Taxes

Peter asks for comments about the income tax, the EITC, and reparations over at his blog. A debate over income taxes ensues in the comments, and it perfectly illustrates our problems. Let me explain:

There are those who advocate for a 10-15% flat tax. This won’t work for one simple reason: that is nowhere near enough money. The US GDP is just over $27 trillion. The Federal government spends just under $7 trillion per year. In fact, it works out that the Federal government spends about 23% of GDP. This means that the flat tax would need to be about 24%.

Then came the people who wanted carve outs. The flat tax, they argue, should not be paid by anyone with large medical expenses, the poor, Social Security recipients, or half a dozen other special categories, which means that it wouldn’t be long before the new flat tax code would be just as byzantine as the current one.

There was a guy arguing that a flat or sales tax wouldn’t be fair because poor people would pay a higher proportion of their wages than rich people. Hogwash- flat tax means everyone pays the same flat percentage. Why do so many people want to punish success and reward failure, sloth, and laziness? Not only that, but many on the left say that the rich don’t pay enough taxes under the current system.

Then there are the types who say since the government always runs a deficit, why not eliminate all taxes and just run the government 100% on deficits.

Most people, even those who claim to be conservative, are wholly ignorant of the situation and only want the rules changed to benefit themselves.

Here is the problem:

The US government spends a total of $6.8 trillion a year. Of that amount, $3.7 trillion was mandatory spending, otherwise known as entitlements. In other words, money that has to be paid out by law: Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Unemployment Compensation, Refundable Tax Credits, Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), and other mandatory spending. Another $890 billion is interest on the debt that we already owe, bringing the total outlay for mandatory spending to $4.6 trillion. The government only collected $4.5 trillion in taxes. So without spending a dime on the rest of the things that the government must do: defense, courts, prisons, and all of the alphabet agencies, the government is already running a deficit of $100 billion. Add in all of those expenditures, and the deficit rises to $2.2 trillion. 

There is no amount of cutting that is going to fix this. The math is eventually going to sink this fiscal ship. Those who think it will might as well buy a violin and learn how to play Nearer My God to Thee, for all of the good it will do.

By Divemedic, ago

Bicyclists

Watch this video to see a couple of bicyclists get in an argument with a local. One of them tries a faggy looking, sloppy spinning kick.

That kick was slow enough that if you try it in a real fight, you are going to get your ass kicked.

One of the interesting things about this video is that the cowboy starts to blade off and reach for his right hip. The two bicycle idiots were about a second away from becoming the subject of some future CCW classes.

I am about tired of dealing with stupid bicyclists. Why do they all have to dress like they are in the Tour de France? Why do they have to take over the road? Even when there is a bike lane or bike path, they still block the road like a bunch of assholes.

I don’t know who instigated what, but I am inclined to believe that the guys on the bikes were just being assholes.

By Divemedic, ago

Not the Same

An NFL player gave an interview while wearing a MAGA hat. Now the left is losing it:

The problem isn’t that Kaepernick was presenting a political opinion. What he did was take a knee during the National Anthem, thereby disrespecting the flag, and by extension, the country. When called on it, all he and his followers had to say was “It’s just a piece of cloth. Get over it.”

Well, it isn’t just a piece of cloth. Until you understand nuance and see that there is a difference between disagreement and disrespect, you don’t have the ability to engage in a productive discussion on this. So instead, you resort to throwing down the race card. I refuse to play that stupid game.

By Divemedic, ago

Mailbag

This week in comments and in email responses to this blog, I have received no fewer than 12 threats to my career, my life, or other rants about how they are going to “get me.”

I’ve been called a “boomer halfwit,” despite the fact that I am not a boomer. You see, to everyone that is currently under 25 years old, everyone over the age of 30 is a boomer, because they are too ignorant to understand that boomer is a slang term for “baby boomer,” which is the term for the generation of people born between 1946 and 1964.

  • The greatest generation was the one who won WW2. They were born from 1901- 1924.
  • The silent generation were those born between 1925 and 1945.
  • Gen X (for the tenth generation, from the Roman numeral X. Kids, ask your parents) were born from 1965 to 1980.
  • Millenials are those born from 1981 to 1996.
  • You babies who were born from 1997 to 2012 are called Gen Z, because this generation spent more time learning about trannies than they did Roman numerals.

Who is the halfwit? The person who claims I was raised by a member of the greatest generation? Or the dumbass who doesn’t know how wrong they are?

About half of the attackers called me a coward for blogging under a pseudonym, even though they posted their screed without even using a screen name. I use a pseudonym because you little asshats are constantly trying to find my employer in an attempt to get me fired, writing my registrar trying to have me deplatformed, or sending me death threats. See the skank that tried to do that last year who then complained that I doxxed her and threatened to sue me.

On the death threats front. This blog gets a death threat from a lefty about once a month. I’m armed everywhere I go. That’s all I have to say on that front.

I don’t approve such comments. Not because they disagree with my opinion, but because they violate rules 2 and 3 of this blog.

By Divemedic, ago

On Amendment 3

Have you been to New York, Denver, or Las Vegas? The smell is absolutely pervasive. Even with only “medical” marijuana being legal here, we see a parade of people who are suffering from cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome- a malady where they smoke so much weed that they spend a good chunk of time every day throwing up, yet they won’t take our advice and smoke less weed.

By Divemedic, ago

Update

The local press is saying that Milton will make landfall right about in Venice, which is south of Tampa. I don’t know about that. I am no weather expert, but I can look at a map. The NHC says the hurricane as of noon is at 26.0N, 84.2W and moving at 17 mph at a heading of 035deg. This website draws me a map where you can put in starting coordinates, heading, and speed, and this is what it shows for 10 hours worth of movement:

In order to come ashore at Venice, it needs to take a pretty hard turn, and the longer it waits, the harder the turn will be needed.

By Divemedic, ago

DeSantis Takes Action

Every time there is a strike from a national union, we hear stories of union members committing violent acts to keep others from going on with their lives without the union’s blessing. I remember a Greyhound being shot at during a teamsters’ strike years ago. The leader of the longshoremen threatened to “cripple” us. The Governor of Florida took action to make sure that this doesn’t happen.

By Divemedic, ago