Comrade Bernie Forgets Who Writes The Tax Code

Comrade Bernie, with his three houses with the money he’s made off book sales that wouldn’t have gone anywhere without being a U.S. Senator, really wants to jack up the corporate tax rate and stuff

Sanders takes aim at corporate America with new tax plan

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is shining a light on the U.S. tax code in the lead-up to Tuesday’s Democratic presidential primary debate by releasing new proposals that would aggressively raise rates on corporations and the wealthiest Americans.

On Monday, he called for raising the corporate tax rate from 21 percent to 35 percent — the level it was at before President Trump’s 2017 tax-cut law — and making statutory changes to prevent companies from using offshore tax havens.

His proposal also would require large corporations to give their employees stock until the businesses are at least 20 percent employee-owned and for large corporations to have 45 percent of their boards elected by workers.

Of course, quite a bit of the so-called “loopholes” in the tax code were removed with that tax cut law, which may be Trump’s, but was passed by the U.S. Congress. Forcing companies to give employees ownership and sit on the board? Sure thing, Comrade. Off shore havens? Perhaps Sanders should read the Constitution.

“For more than 40 years, the largest and most profitable corporations in America have rigged the tax code and our economy to redistribute wealth and income to the richest and most powerful people in this country,” Sanders said in a statement. “The American people are saying enough is enough.”

In case Bernie forgot, which is easy, since he’s only been in Congress since 1991, the Congress writes the tax laws. Yes, companies can lobby and suggest and donate to get something back, but, Congress writes the laws. Perhaps there should be a law that requires sitting federal lawmakers to be taxed at an 80% rate on any book sales.

Funny thing is, quite a few of those richest people support Democrats and vote Democrat. Why aren’t they voluntarily giving up their money and giving their employees control in their companies?

The proposal comes at a key time for his campaign.

Many recent polls show Sanders in third place, trailing Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), his biggest rival for the Democratic Party base’s liberal wing, and former Vice President Joe Biden.

Like Sanders, Warren is running on a platform designed to appeal to progressives, and she has seen her stock in the Democratic primary contest rise in part because of her numerous policy proposals aimed at reducing wealth inequality and reining in corporate power.

In other words, they are pandering to the far left to get the party nomination. However, how will these far-left Modern Socialist policies play in the general election? Whomever makes it out of the fighting pits will then have Trump bringing this stuff up.

Read: Comrade Bernie Forgets Who Writes The Tax Code »

There’s A Solution To Climate Anxiety Or Something

You can also call it climate depression, as well as climate rage

The harm from worrying about climate change

Back in 2014, my partner and I marked a date in our shared online calendar. Unusually, this was for 27 August 2015 – a year ahead. It was an arbitrary date.

We’re indecisive when it comes to big life decisions, and this was the biggest: whether to have children. We were aware that, now in our 30s, we couldn’t wait indefinitely to decide. So we marked “baby-making conversation” in the calendar, as ever using irreverence in an attempt to make weighty matters seem less daunting, and happily pushed the question away for the time being.

But 27 August 2015 came and went. We felt no more prepared. We moved the date back another year. Then 27 August 2016 passed too. Clearly our stratagem hadn’t worked. While plenty of factors affected our ambivalence, the personality-level issues were overshadowed by a global one: anxiety about a future planet made unliveable by climate change.

Even if the average temperature went up to 2C (3.6F), our planet will not be unliveable. It will be fine. And it still wouldn’t be proof of anthropogenic causation.

Climate change harms mental wellbeing in a number of ways. From trauma and stress following disasters, to relationship damage caused by separation and displacement, the psychological effects of climate change can be enduring. Of course, these effects are heightened for certain vulnerable populations, such as elderly and low-income people, as well as those on the frontlines of climate change.

Loonies.

Researchers at the University of Bath have some suggestions. When I visit the university, surrounded by woodland, with soaring views of the stately city below, Caroline Hickman and I decide to talk not in her office, but by a small lake on campus. We sit on rocks surrounded by sunbathing students and preening ducks, and swap stories of climate anxiety (or Hickman’s preferred term, “eco-awareness”)….

Yet Hickman insists that climate anxiety – like climate depression or climate rage – isn’t a pathology. It’s a reasonable and healthy response to an existential threat. “I’d kind of wonder why somebody wasn’t feeling anxious,” she says.

Because they aren’t nuts, would be my guess. And this turns rather dark

This is true even for extreme feelings. Hickman has counselled parents who fantasise about killing their children, out of fear of the climate-ravaged future. But she calmly points out that history is rife with examples of parents preparing to end their children’s lives in order to protect them. “If we disallow those feelings, we’re just driving them back into the unconscious,” Hickman argues.

You can thank the Cult of Climastrology for creating this type of atmosphere. I’d usually consider dropping a Prozac graphic in that paragraph, but, this is really no laughing matter. These people are beyond unhinged, and really do need proper mental health professionals, not idiots agreeing with them on climate doom.

Read: There’s A Solution To Climate Anxiety Or Something »

If All You See…

…is brush drying out from too much carbon pollution, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Jo Nova, with a post on Extinction Rebellion being run by paid activists.

Read: If All You See… »

Even The ACLU Has An Issue With California’s Update Red Flag Law

Yes, the ACLU does, in fact, attempt to protect actual Constitutional Rights now and then

California enacts most radical gun seizure, gun control law yet — even the ACLU is speaking out

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed more than a dozen firearm-related bills into law Friday, including one that expands the state’s existing red flag law.

One law allows Californians to purchase just one long gun per month starting in July 2021. Another mandates that ammunitions dealers at firearm shows follow the same regulations as licensed firearm dealers.

But one law in particular is being hailed as one of the most strict gun seizure laws in the nation.

The law will allow co-workers, employers, and teachers to seek a “red flag” firearm restraining order against anyone they believe is a threat to themselves or others that asks a judge to temporarily take away someone’s firearms, the Sacramento Bee reported. (snip)

Newsom also signed a companion bill that allows the restraining orders to remain in place for one to five years, the Associated Press reported. The same bill allows a judge to also issue a search warrant at the same time the restraining order is issued.

The bill is so extreme that the American Civil Liberties Union is speaking out against it.

From Fox News:

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) opposed the bill, saying it “poses a significant threat to civil liberties” because a restraining order can be sought before a gun owner has an opportunity to dispute the request.

Additionally, those making a request under the new law may “lack the relationship or skills required to make an appropriate assessment,” the ACLU said.

Of course, the ACLU being the ACLU, they don’t seem to be doing anything about it. Usually, they are hot to trot to file lawsuit after lawsuit. Anyhow, this update to the law will simply see unhinged gun grabbers making accusations because someone has a firearm and they Don’t Like That.

Meanwhile, Gov. Gavin failed to sign any sort of legislation cracking down on people who unlawfully have firearms nor those that use them illegally. Can’t demonize criminals, right?

Read: Even The ACLU Has An Issue With California’s Update Red Flag Law »

Not Politics: Scientists Endorse Mass Civil Disobedience To Stop ‘Climate Change’

This is totally not political, and don’t you dare say it is

Scientists endorse mass civil disobedience to force climate action

Almost 400 scientists have endorsed a civil disobedience campaign aimed at forcing governments to take rapid action to tackle climate change, warning that failure could inflict “incalculable human suffering.”

In a joint declaration, climate scientists, physicists, biologists, engineers and others from at least 20 countries broke with the caution traditionally associated with academia to side with peaceful protesters courting arrest from Amsterdam to Melbourne.

Wearing white laboratory coats to symbolize their research credentials, a group of about 20 of the signatories gathered on Saturday to read out the text outside London’s century-old Science Museum in the city’s upmarket Kensington district.

“We believe that the continued governmental inaction over the climate and ecological crisis now justifies peaceful and non-violent protest and direct action, even if this goes beyond the bounds of the current law,” said Emily Grossman, a science broadcaster with a PhD in molecular biology. She read the declaration on behalf of the group.

“We therefore support those who are rising up peacefully against governments around the world that are failing to act proportionately to the scale of the crisis,” she said.

The declaration was coordinated by a group of scientists who support Extinction Rebellion, a civil disobedience campaign that formed in Britain a year ago and has since sparked offshoots in dozens of countries.

It is interesting that their idea of a solution is Government Doing Something. Because this is all science, not politics

While many scientists have shunned overt political debate, fearing that being perceived as activists might undermine their claims to objectivity, the 395 academics who had signed the declaration by 1100 GMT on Sunday chose to defy convention.

“The urgency of the crisis is now so great that many scientists feel, as humans, that we now have a moral duty to take radical action,” Grossman told Reuters.

No one is stopping these 400 people, and all the Extinction Rebellion nutters, from giving up their own use of fossil fuels, hair dryers, air conditioning and heating, showers longer than 2 minutes, more than 2 sheets of toilet paper, living in homes over 300 square feet, eating food they didn’t grow, eating meat, ice makers, etc and so on. Giving a goodly chunk of their money to the government. Practicing what they preach.

“We can’t allow the role of scientists to be to just write papers and publish them in obscure journals and hope somehow that somebody out there will pay attention,” Julia Steinberger, an ecological economist at the University of Leeds and a lead IPCC author, told Reuters.

Oh, so people who have a stake in perpetuating the climate scam, along with increasing the size and power of government.

Say, did any media folks ask these scientists (many are not) about the nutters gluing themselves to things, including airplanes? How about duping fake blood all over the place? Dancing like they’re on drugs? How about interfering with average people just trying to go about their lives?

Read: Not Politics: Scientists Endorse Mass Civil Disobedience To Stop ‘Climate Change’ »

Impeachment Sham: Excitable Adam Schiff Says Might Not Need To Testify

So, no one needs to hear from the person at the heart of this whole impeachment sham, someone who has links to Schiff and told Schiff’s staff a month before he went to the IG? Huh

Schiff Says Congress May Not Need To Interview Whistleblower After All

Rep. Adam Schiff said Sunday that the House Intelligence Committee might not need to interview the CIA analyst who filed a whistleblower complaint against President Donald Trump, a reversal for the Democrat, who has come under fire for failing to disclose the whistleblower’s contacts with his office.

Schiff acknowledged he initially supported the whistleblower testifying about the Aug. 12 complaint, which centered on a July 25 phone call Trump had with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

“Given that we already have the call record, we don’t need the whistleblower who wasn’t on the call to tell us what took place during the call, we have the best evidence of that,” Schiff said on “Face the Nation.” “It may not be necessary to take steps that might reveal the whistleblower’s identity to do that, and we’re going to make sure we protect that whistleblower.”

The Democrat has slowly pulled back his preference for the whistleblower to testify after it was revealed Oct. 2 that the CIA analyst had contact with a Schiff aide prior to filing the complaint Aug. 12.

OK, so, we have the call record, which shows no quid pro quo, nothing beyond typical international diplomacy. If Schiff doesn’t need the whistleblower, who never actually heard the call, then it’s time to move on from this obvious but of still being sore losers because Trump beat Hillary in 2016.

A Republican source familiar with the matter told the Daily Caller News Foundation in response to that report that it appeared Schiff was “laying the groundwork” to announce the whistleblower will not testify, “and to blame that on Republicans.”

“Schiff may not want the whistleblower to testify anymore because the whistleblower would have to reveal more details about this cooperation with Schiff,” the Republican source told the DCNF.

That, and that the so-called whistleblower would have to answer questions on his actual knowledge of the call, which he didn’t hear, and who was saying that’s what the call was about. And how the person got involved with this, and did someone put him (or her) up to this.

Read: Impeachment Sham: Excitable Adam Schiff Says Might Not Need To Testify »

If All You See…

…is a horrible fossil fueled vehicle, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is This ain’t Hell…, with a post on some feel good stories.

It’s fur week, in honor of California banning the production and sale of fur in the state. Because no one could possibly go to another state or order on the Internet, right?

Read: If All You See… »

How To Nag Your Friends And Family To Live More Hotcoldwetdry Friendly

Young snowflakes attending University! with no life experience have Ideas

How to encourage your friends and family to live more sustainably

Even the most dedicated eco-warriors sometimes find it tough to inspire planet-friendly behaviour change in others. Sarah Ford-Hutchinson, from the University’s Department for Social Responsibility, gives us her top tips for encouraging your friends and family to live more sustainably.

1. Understand yourself.

First things first, start with you. Make a list of the sustainable behaviours you do: using reusable items, eating less meat, opting for a renewable energy supplier or not flying within the UK. Ask why you choose to do these: your motivation may be just as much about saving money and fitting in as about reducing carbon emissions. Then make a list of the sustainable behaviours you’d like to do more of in the future.

When you understand yourself and the sustainability journey you are on, it’s much easier to explain to others. This honesty is a great place to start when encouraging you friend or family member to open up about their behaviours.

Interesting that this does advocate that young climate cultists actually live within the beliefs set of their cult. Just think about it.

2. Ask questions and listen.

Let’s face it: not everyone cares about climate change or biodiversity loss because the effects on individuals in Scotland can be hard to detect. While you may be able to start a conversation with one person about planetary health on a global scale, a better tactic for another person might be to start with them as an individual.

But, they only ask questions and listen within their own narrow world-view. Usually, they are screeching about it.

3. Make change together.

It’s well-known that peers strongly influence a person’s behaviour. Agree to some goals with your friend or family member: “let’s not use disposable plastic all week”, or “let’s take the train rather than fly to visit each other”. Doing something together is more likely to succeed, and empowers them to tackle more complex behaviour changes in the future with your support.

Hooray, for a week!

6. Look after each other.

Influencing others is hard, and it can easily drain your energy. Having conversations about reusable cups while the arctic warms can seem exasperating. Recognise when you or your friend are experiencing eco-anxiety, or feeling powerless, and talk about it. Change is absolutely possible if we remain positive and action-focused, but we all need a time out to rest and collect our thoughts.

Nagging each other and everyone around you is difficult. And then they graduate and realize that they actually have to work for a living and most companies do not tolerate this nagging.

Read: How To Nag Your Friends And Family To Live More Hotcoldwetdry Friendly »

Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup

Patriotic Pinup Edward Runci

Happy Sunday! Another gorgeous day in America. Unless you’re one of my sports teams. Dodgers blew the series, Giants have lost twice, Devils haven’t one a game yet. But, the sun is shining, the mockingbirds are back singing on my front porch, and life is just good. This pinup is by Edward Runci, with a wee bit of help.

What is happening in Ye Olde Blogosphere? The Fine 15

  1. Not a blog, but the NY Post exposes the problems with that “majority support impeachment” poll
  2. Climate Change Dispatch features Piers Morgan asking a climate activist why she doesn’t practice what she preaches
  3. Jo Nova notes the Vatican might be about to list Green Sins against the earth
  4. American Elephants explains that Trump did not betray the Kurds
  5. Bunkerville explains who’s to blame for the California blackouts
  6. Bustednuckles explains a very different tipping point
  7. Chicks On The Right show why Red Flag laws are problematic
  8. Cold Fury notes that California liberals are getting a taste of what they want to inflict on Everyone Else
  9. Creeping Sharia covers a Muslim patrol in NYC enforcing Sharia law while looking like the NYPD
  10. DaTechGuy’s Blog discusses real dictators vs Liberal fantasies
  11. DC Clothesline notes a 13 year arrested for making a handgun and charged with a felony
  12. Jihad Watch covers sex crimes rising threefold in 5 years, as the Muslim refugee link is ignored
  13. Moonbattery highlights Democrats pandering to the gender confused
  14. MOTUS A.D. explains that if you can’t compete, you must impeach
  15. And last, but not least, Newsbusters discusses the NBA pandering to China

As always, the full set of pinups can be seen in the Patriotic Pinup category, or over at my Gallery page (nope, that’s gone, the newest Apache killed access, and the program hasn’t been upgraded since 2014). While we are on pinups, since it is that time of year, have you gotten your “Pinups for Vets” calendar yet? And don’t forget to check out what I declare to be our War on Women Rule 5 and linky luv posts and things that interest me.

Don’t forget to check out all the other great material all the linked blogs have!

Anyone else have a link or hotty-fest going on? Let me know so I can add you to the list. And do you have a favorite blog you can recommend be added to the feedreader?

Read: Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup »

White Guilt Is Shaping The Democratic Primaries Or Something

Of course, the unhinged notion of white guilt, which has been building among the crazy Democratic Party base for most of this decade, is somehow linked to Trump. And, let’s not forget, while Dems yap about it, they never really do anything about it. Because, at their heart, they’re still the party of the KKK, Jim Crow, segregation, and blocking immigrants. Now, though, they just leave blacks down on “plantations” in inner cities, beholden to the Government while living in dangerous places, often in squalor

How ‘White Guilt’ in the Age of Trump Shapes the Democratic Primary

When Donald Trump was elected, John Olsen felt enraged by the racial tension that fueled his rise, the silence of his white neighbors and the stories of racial discrimination he heard from his nonwhite friends.

Black friends said they were followed around department stores, so Mr. Olsen, who is white, became a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He thought that white Americans were scared of the country’s growing Latino population, so he joined the League of United Latin American Citizens. He now registers voters weekly, including with the League of Women Voters, to atone for his “white privilege,” he said.

“I try to have my bases covered,” said Mr. Olsen, 50, who wore a N.A.A.C.P. T-shirt to a campaign rally for Senator Kamala Harris here last week. “It just hurts my heart that white people are afraid of the country’s growing Hispanic population. And I just can’t allow that to continue.”

See, this only started during Trump’s term. Someone should explain to him how many Latino’s Obama deported.

White liberals — voters like Mr. Olsen — are thinking more explicitly about race than they did even a decade ago, according to new research and polling. In one survey, an overwhelming majority said that racial discrimination affects the lives of black people. They embrace terms like “structural racism” and “white privilege.”

The shift in white liberal attitudes on race might be a permanent one, helped along by a changing media environment and heightened cultural sensitivity, or it could be a more fleeting reaction to the current polarized moment.

Interesting. Who was president for most of the last decade?

Either way, it means that in the Democratic primary, candidates have an incentive to talk to white voters explicitly about race — an incentive that is especially apparent now that a half-dozen Democrats are intensifying their campaigning in the key early states of Iowa and New Hampshire.

But, how will this work out during a general election? Does anyone think that the general voting population is going to appreciate being told they’re all racists and horrible people?

After a few paragraphs about Kamala Harris and her Victimhood over being a black woman running (does anyone want to mention the affair she had with Willie Brown, speaker of the California House, double her age, that launched her career?) and How Hard it is and stuff, we get

But in the era of Mr. Trump, and after social movements such as Black Lives Matter pushed racial inequality to the forefront of national politics, it’s white Democrats in Iowa and New Hampshire — not black ones in South Carolina — who, to this point, are embracing the candidates who promise to upend society in the name of racial equity.

Really, though, do they care? Or are these just the Talking Points they’ve learned in order to be Woke in their little Modern Socialist circles? These same Woke leftists will block the Trump admin sending illegal aliens detained at the border to their own communities, which tend to be pretty darned white.

According to research by Zach Goldberg, a Georgia State University doctoral student, the attitudes of white liberals like Ms. Neff have moved dramatically in a short time.

In 2010, about 40 percent of white liberals said “blacks who can’t get ahead in this country are mostly responsible for their own condition.” Now, that number has dropped to 24 percent, and more than 70 percent of white liberals say “racial discrimination is the main reason why many black people can’t get ahead these days.”

Which is very interesting, because it is the policies of white liberals which have caused the disparity, where it exists, because they are the ones running most of the big cities. Republicans do not run Detroit, Chicago, NYC, Newark, Camden, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, and even places like Houston and New Orleans. But, again, what are these white liberals doing about it? They talk a big game, but, much liker their beliefs in anthropogenic climate change, it is all talk, no action. Are they giving their money away? Firing their white employees and hiring blacks? It’s a long, long article, but, actions are missing. Because, let’s face it, Democrats really do not care, they’ve just learned to express certain platitudes.

Read: White Guilt Is Shaping The Democratic Primaries Or Something »

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