[Hard to say what hasn't been said? Have at it. gjr]

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149 responses to “Sandbox – 19apr24”
“…because it is entirely new in modern American politics.”
Was this supposed to be a humor piece?
I can’t imagine anyone typing this without laughing.
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New red guard, new hitler youth hard to tell the difference –
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/04/24/nolte-elite-universities-breed-new-hitler-youth/
😉
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Reality check again –
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/news/the-electric-vehicle-market-didn-t-burst-it-imploded/ss-BB1kGNqT?ocid=msedgntp&pc=U531&cvid=e79f86a85a154a31ad355d570e92368f&ei=32#image=10
😉
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Time to put creepy grampa joe back in the basement with a pudding cup. Ya talking about a state that now has a million more repubs registered than dems –
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-insists-red-state-won-twice-trump-suddenly-in-play
😉
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Just want to add a new issue for discussion. There is a lot of misinformation out there regarding the grand jury report on Nevada County and the Fire Safe Council. You can read this report on the Nevada County Superior Court website of on YubaNet or the Union. However, the response to this report from the FSC seems to be one of kill the messenger rather than how can we fix the problem. In disclosure, I am not a member of the Grand Jury, but have served as a member in past years.
California codified grand jury law in 1872 in the Penal Code, where most of the grand Jury law resides.
Today, the Grand Jury’s principal role is to investigate all county agencies, special districts schools and other entities that receive public monies. The Grand Jury may investigate the efficiency of all local government activity, audit financial records and review all public records.
The Fire Safe Council and their allies have recently bombarded local media with opinions that the Grand Jury had no legal authority to review the monies given to the Fire Safe Council by Nevada County. Sorry, but you took public monies, you have to have proper accounting to show when, where, how and on what what the monies were expended.
Secondly, these opinions paint the Grand Jury as a group of uninformed people who don’t know what they are doing. It is true that Grand Jurors come from all walks of life. However, it should be noted that all Grand Jury reports, before public publication, are reviewed by the full panel of the Grand Jury and then are submitted to Nevada County’s County Counsel for review and approval. County Counsel has the authority to send back the report to the Grand Jury if any problems exist with the report.
After County Counsel approval, the report is then forwarded to the Superior Court Judge who presides over the Grand Jury for review and approval. Again, any problems which may exist can be noted by the Judge and the report sent back to the Grand Jury. Every report must be approved by both County Counsel and the Superior Court Judge before it it is published.
As I said previously, it is easier to kill the messenger, especially when there are individuals on Boards of Directors and manager of an organization who are more worried about their reputation and image in the community that in the facts.
I’m interested in any thoughts. Thank you
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Has anyone ever heard of a grand jury foreman going on the radio the day after a report is released?
😉
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showmekid@12:49. If it wasn’t obvious, one of my General Theories of Life is that non-profits are typically constructed to provide their founders and employees with a paycheck. Dunno if that’s the case here, although a person who is defending a cause is hard to tell from someone who is defending their livelihood.
I suppose a person could start with this:
https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/943317612/202332719349300923/full
From a first-hand standpoint, it appears that 99.9% of actual clearing work that I ever see is due to PG&E line clearing operations, so perhaps the right answer is to buy some spray paint and spritz dots on trees.
In the scheme of things, does anything called a ‘Council’ or a ‘Grand Jury’ accomplish much aside from The Union write-ups read only by retirees? It’ll just be some mix of accusations and award dinners interspersed with paperwork and meetings. Fire don’t care. Real results will come from the only parties with a say in the matter, insurance companies and the physics of conflagration.
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moi@2:13PM
I poked through the Grand Jury document for a minute. Ooooh. I like this.
I did notice in the IRS form that one Jaime Jones Purkey is making $211,653 in direct compensation and the one Christopher Wackerly is making $150,533. No telling what other benefits, travel and otherwise were spent.
A quick googling tells me that they are married.
OK. These people are geniuses.
I also see (from another source) that a couple of police sergeants in Nevada City made around $230k (income + benefits), and the Nevada County sheriff and chief administrator took in $413k and $460k respectively in one of the last few years, so perhaps I just need a more realistic view of what serving the public is worth.
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moi@2:35PM
A quick correction. The Purkey/Wackerly take is actually $231k + $162k if benefits are added.
Honestly, they should throw a little more sugar in there to get it to a nice even $400k combined. It makes the math easier.
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sorry to bug everyone, but I just love this kind of thing. After a fun 1/2 hour or so of checking out other ‘Fire Safe Councils’ in the state, typically with all-volunteer executives, I came back to the local one.
from: https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/943317612
here’s the CEO/Executive director compensation, rounded down:
2010: J. Drummond $53k
2011: J. Drummond $65k
2012: J. Drummond $64K
2013: J. Drummond $66k
2014: J. Drummond $66k
2015: J. Drummond $67k
2016: J. Drummond $74k
2017: J. Drummond $81k
2018: J. Drummond $84k
2019: J. Drummond / J.J. Purkey $47k / $44k
2020: J.J. Purkey $102k
2021: J.J. Purkey $163k
2022: J.J. Purkey / C. Wackerly $211k / $150k
make of it what you will.
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@324 Drummond was the only employee, and the rest were volunteers then it grew into a very large operation that ran many multimillion-dollar projects with a large group of paid fulltime staff and crews.
\
😉
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Any buyers remorse now? –
Non-German foreigners make up a disproportionate number of suspected criminals and nearly 60 per cent of violent crime suspects, despite making up just 14.6 per cent of the population, statistics released by the Federal Criminal Police Office on Tuesday revealed.
According to the data, foreigners without a German passport represented 111,517 suspects alleged of violent crimes out of the total 190,605 suspects for the country as a whole, or 58.5 per cent, broadcaster NTV reports.
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2024/04/10/migrants-make-up-nearly-six-in-ten-violent-crime-suspects-in-germany/
😉
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Indy Jeff is obviously off slapping his pecker.
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Too bad wokesters –
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/04/25/supreme-court-poised-to-agree-with-trump-former-presidents-are-immune-from-some-prosecutions/
😉
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Another big wake up call –
Shares of rental car giant Hertz plunged by more than 20 percent on Thursday after the company reported huge losses related to its investment in Electric Vehicles (EVs).
For months, Hertz has been struggling after going all-in on EVs. On Thursday, Hertz executives said it lost $1.28 per share in the first quarter, many times larger than Wall Street’s estimate of a loss of 45 percent per share.
The wider-than-expected loss came even though business was actually busier than expected for Hertz. The company took in $2.1 billion in revenue, slightly outpacing expectations.
In January, Hertz executives announced that they would sell 20,000 EVs from their fleet, which accounts for about 33 percent of the company’s total number of EVs. This week, Hertz executives said they would sell an additional 10,000 EVs from their fleet this year.
In return, the company is buying gas-powered cars, which executives said are in much higher demand than EVs. That lack of demand means delays for Hertz’s plans to buy 175,000 EVs from General Motors (GM) and 65,000 EVs from Polestar.
https://www.breitbart.com/economy/2024/04/25/hertz-shares-crash-with-another-electric-vehicle-wreck/
😉
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Weak governments breed criminal gangs. Bought and paid for he be –
Mexico’s president said Thursday that the country’s violent criminal gangs and drug cartels are essentially “respectful people” who “respect the citizenry” and mostly just kill each other.
The claims by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador are clearly at odds with the reality of millions of Mexicans who live in areas dominated by drug cartels. The cartels routinely demand protection payments from local residents and kill or kidnap them if they refuse to pay.
https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/mexican-president-claims-criminal-groups-195600552.html
😉
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…..she’s just now noticing President Brainstem and his bought and paid for scrawny ass is warming a chair in the Oval Office….
Those Supreme Court Justices…..nothing escapes them!
https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/4619091-supreme-court-jackson-trump-claims-oval-office-seat-criminality/
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Nothing matters except making President Stem’s “official” numbers look good enough to allow him to re-occupy his sinecure……
“Of course the truth is that we have been sold a lie.
If you do not have a job, you are classified by the U.S. government as either “unemployed” or “not in the labor force”.
In 2008 and 2009, the combined total of those two categories never even reached 90 million.
Today, the combined total of those two categories is over 106 million.
The Biden administration says that only 6,429,000 Americans are officially “unemployed”.
The other 99,989,000 Americans without a job are considered to be “not in the labor force”.
And more will be lumped into those two categories soon, because large employers all over the nation continue to conduct mass layoffs.
For example, thousands of Tesla workers in California and Texas were just notified that they will be losing their jobs…
The notifications in California and Texas, where the electric vehicle (EV) maker has large presences, came in the form of WARN notices, according to reports.
In California, the planned Tesla headcount reductions will hit approximately 3,300 workers, The San Francisco Standard reported Tuesday.
They will apparently occur at locations in a total of four different cities in the Golden State.
Meanwhile, Texas will see almost 2,700 employees in Austin lose their jobs, according to the Austin American-Statesman.
Sadly, the pace of layoffs is likely to increase during the months ahead, because business activity in the U.S. is declining…
The U.S. economy lost momentum in April, a pair of S&P surveys found, as businesses reported a decline in new orders and reduced employment for the first time since the pandemic.
The flash U.S. manufacturing purchasing managers index slipped to a four-month low of 49.9 in April from 51.9 in March.
The S&P flash U.S. services PMI fell to a five-month low of 50.9 this month from 51.7 in March.
The surveys are the first indicators of each month to give a sense of how the U.S. economy is performing.
Meanwhile, the cost of living crisis just continues to escalate.
Shockingly, at one station in California gasoline now costs $7.29 per gallon…”
….more zerohedge.com you senile old wanker!
https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/why-are-there-so-many-americans-cant-find-job-even-though-they-are-desperate-be
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I wondered why jeffy….err….Individual jeffy….had been so spotty in his visits recently
I guess he’s been enjoying two of his favorite peccadillos simultaneously….
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/watch-drag-queen-makes-tiny-kids-chant-free-palestine
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The Dems next vote-buying opportunity:
“Americans say they don’t have enough money for retirement, with a solid chunk having no savings at all.”
Example one –
“Pam Tourangeau said at 68, she doesn’t have a big nest egg.
“I was just doing all the love, peace, and let’s be happy kind of thing. But money wasn’t our focus,” she said. “Now, all of a sudden, it’s become a problem.””
No – it was a problem back when you decided that “money wasn’t our focus”.
This is going to be wonderful. Hang on everyone.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/retirement/ar-AA1nILeT
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I routinely deride the website curated (that’s the “word o the day” isn’t it) by Matt Drudges boyfriend but he does find the best pictures of President Stem…!
Scrawny old man fists balled in little clumps of old man rage…..! Having perhaps his greatest ever “Old Man Yells at Cloud” moment! So much better than his “Riefenstahl Speech” as they refer to it with the red background and the Marines in the background…..this one captures the essential Biden essence, a crazy old pol yelling for reasons even he is unaware!
Truly sublime!
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMHujTNWwAAw78R?format=jpg&name=small
It’s moments like this that I understand most why Punchy™ likes him!
(…and yes jeffy…..I’m posting after midnight! Scaaaarrryy!)
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“This is going to be wonderful. Hang on everyone.”
C’est l’argent.
Lotsa things going on. Average age of death increases, cost of elder health increases, break-up of family life, disappearance of fraternal organizations and church membership, offshoring.
I figure it’ll be a fun political football since the people driving the train (POC, men-in-dresses, wine moms) have shittier savings habits and a lesser ability to do something useful for a living for a lifetime. There’s going to be quite a tussle over 401k/IRA money, there’s a lot just sitting there not doing God’s Work for protected classes, but I expect that most funding will be done via inflation. Good times, good times.
Honestly, my favorite part will be the misremembering of some kind of Golden Age of America, back when houses cost 10 cents and everyone got a huge pension from their employer. It’s all bullshit, but that never stopped anyone.
For the average person at this time and place, the non-chump move would have been to head for gubmint jobs or invent a non-profit (and no Don, I don’t think that $400k in family income is appropriate for an organization grossing $2.9M, but then that’s just me 😉 ), but that becomes musical chairs pretty quickly.
The scrabbling is going to get pretty intense I think. Everyone wants some of the Little Red Hen’s bread and those zombies scratching at the door will be retirement-age therapists, ageing urban masses, out-of-work retail clerks, bank employees, and travel agents. I’m not certain what the best path for asset protection will be for the responsible middle classes. Maybe the gold bugs had it right all along.
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fisho: “Truly sublime!”
FOUR MORE YEARS…..PAUSE.
I think that Biden is the perfect man to lead the country. When senile grandpa is weaving down the highway in his Delta 88 Royale Brougham, you just have to stay behind him and watch the mayhem. If a person is careful, it’ll be like watching a battle from a distance. A giant variety show of madness, pathos, and humor. We’re just lacking a big ol’ foreign war as icing on the cake.
Gotta improve my shortwave receiver setup. The center cannot hold and news is where you find it.
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JHK speaks:
“The plum blossoms are ready to pop here. You can feel your blood rising. The evening sun lingers a little longer every day. Normally you’d celebrate, but not this year of roaring portents and evil juju. History doesn’t stop to catch its breath for a moment. The tiny glowing diode deep in “Joe Biden’s” brain dims a bit more each day (pause) while low men and women in high places trifle with the fate of the nation. Everyone dreads what’s coming.”
…etc.
https://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/emergency-o-rama/
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Ain’t Kunstler a cheery morning wake-up twice a week?
But he’s absolutely correct. The whole financial shebang is a clattering contraption of everyone trading IOUs backed up with a value base of nothing but one’s and zed’s on a hard drive that’s controlled by God-knows-who.
I have to laugh every time a paid liar proclaims your SS funds are safely backed by billions in “assets”.
Everyone is doing swell because someone else owes them a pile of dough.
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scotto@8:13AM
One of my favorite variants on the theme is the notion that WE SHOULD JUST TAKE MONEY FROM THE BILLIONAIRES AND GIVE IT OUT TO ME AND THE POOR.
Nearly all of those assets are parked in ones and zeds and attempting to turn them into groceries and new Escalades is simply a disaster waiting to happen, simply more inflation as it doesn’t reflect hard goods to any extent.
Naturally, you gotta keep that stock market inflated and the bond market forever solvent as a fair amount of it represents the ‘wealth’ of public pension plans and highly government-encouraged tax deferred instruments. Any decrease in the wealth of government employees overly-affects-POC-and-wimmen and the middle class will go crazy if their stocks go down in value.
I’d say that financial markets have not only metastasized, witness the growth of FIRE, but have merged with The State. The treadmill goes faster and faster and everything will be fine until it isn’t.
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One of my favorite variants on the theme is the notion that WE SHOULD JUST TAKE MONEY FROM THE BILLIONAIRES AND GIVE IT OUT TO ME AND THE POOR.
Yes….PLAN WARREN…..coming to a frightened political class near you!
You won’t want to miss it!
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Ah, yes – those damn “rich” people hog all of the money! It’s in their basements – just like Uncle Scrooge. Here’s the latest hilarity from that crowd:
“Nobel laureate Esther Duflo proposes taxing 3,000 billionaires to protect the world’s poorest from climate change—and most Americans likely agree with the plan”
…most Americans likely agree – well, of course!
““That is our moral debt,” Duflo told Fortune.”
Gotta love the collective “our”.
Here’s the bottom line:
“The idea is not to tax the ultra-rich more, Duflo said, but rather to ensure that they are paying income taxes in general—since notoriously, this group avoids a lot of taxation. And once their fair share of taxes are collected, she argued, “what better use of them than to compensate the very poorest people in the world for losing their life due to climate change?””
The really sad part is the woman is so bleeding stupid, she actually believes this shit. In a sane world, the audience would throw things at her and hoot her off the stage. But we live in crazy-town now, so on and on it goes.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/news/nobel-laureate-esther-duflo-proposes-taxing-3000-billionaires-to-protect-the-world-s-poorest-from-climate-change-and-most-americans-likely-agree-with-the-plan/ar-AA1nlTgB
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re: scotto@9:45AM
What you come up against is that the audience for Esther Duflo (who is, I see, the ‘Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics’ at MIT. Bet it pays well.) has a very foggy notion about the difference between ‘asset’ and ‘income’.
Maybe a decent rule for life is that any statement with the words ‘fair share’ (or ‘common sense’) should just be thrown in the bin.
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Scott O @ 09:45 AM
Esther received the “Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel” – not quite an original Nobel Laureate, but it is one more than I have. Remember, my fave economist, Paul Krug…. also received one, so there is that.
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“Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics”
I really had thought that was a snarky joke – I looked it up. I’m sure that she’s made sure that her poverty has been eliminated. So – that’s a point in her favor.
Exactly what is a “fair share” makes perfect sense to the person who gets to be the decider of “fair share”.
It’s an amount or a percentage that is TBD always at a later date.
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re: scenes on 4/27 @ 7:02AM;
$400G plus their kid or a kid of one of them, is employed there also, not sure of his last name. Don’t know what he makes, he’s a project manager or some such lofty title.
Plus, has Bessee or anyone else seen the trucks they drive? When we had snowmageddon, they were out at the PG&E staging grounds on Brunswick. PG&E crews were driving work trucks, you know, the basic pick-up with vinyl bench seats, no frills. The head of FSC, her husband (second in command) and her kid (the crew chief)were driving Ford and Dodge Ram trucks, top of the line paint and trim, with lift kits, huge tires, custom wheels, all kinds of chrome roll bars, fancy lights, leather interiors, all the bells and whistles. You know the kind truck you would pay in the $70Gs for. I’m really sure that was an appropriate expenditure.
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@435 Envy much?
😉
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One more thought on E Duflo’s logic –
“to ensure that they are paying income taxes in general—since notoriously, this group avoids a lot of taxation.”
Could have sworn income tax returns were not normally in the public domain.
I would love to hear her provide proof of this comment. There are people who make a very good living helping the wealthy to structure their income to lessen the tax burden and they all say the rich pay plenty. The IRS and state finance figures and stats bear this out. In fact – one reason the CA state govt typically has extreme cycles of boom and bust is because it way overly depends on the wealthy for the lion’s share of tax revenue. Even Gray Davis pointed that out.
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DB 4:57 – What’s the goal of the Fire Safety Council?
Fire safety or cushy lifestyles for certain people?
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Well – at least they have standards!
“College Activists Postpone Anti-Israel Encampment Because Students Are Too White”
Gotta keep it real.
https://thefederalist.com/2024/04/26/college-activists-postpone-anti-israel-encampment-because-students-are-too-white/
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Really surprised by your replies, Mr. Bessee. Always thought you were conservative and were concerned about how public monies (taxes) are spent. The FSC did some good work,but could they have done more if monies were properly and prudently spent? Are some folks a little worried about where a full forensic audit will show the monies went to or were spent on?
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Scott @ 05:06 PM
In 2021, ProPublica published their ‘analysis’ of the taxes paid by the obscenely (my word) wealthy. (My name was not on the list – I am torn in both directions on that). “We obtained the information from an anonymous source who provided us with large amounts of information on the ultrawealthy.” It is thought this info is illegal to reveal publicly. But as PP said:
“One of the billionaires mentioned in this article objected, arguing that publishing personal tax information is a violation of privacy. We have concluded that the public interest in knowing this information at this pivotal moment outweighs that legitimate concern.”
What PP did was to use taxes paid vs increase in annual wealth, rather than taxes paid vs income declared on the 1040. That’s not how I would calculate % tax paid, though Liz Warren might disagree with me.
PP also said “Federal budgets, apart from military spending, have been constrained for decades.” We’ve had a spending problem with no constraint for those same decades. With the decline in religious attendance, there is no moral constraint anymore.
“Taxes are a kind of collective sacrifice. No one loves giving their hard-earned money to the government. But the system works only as long as it’s perceived to be fair.” Yet there is a large number of folks who pay no income taxes. Is that fair? Again, who gets to decide the ‘fair share’? I know I’m not the one deciding.
https://www.propublica.org/article/the-secret-irs-files-trove-of-never-before-seen-records-reveal-how-the-wealthiest-avoid-income-tax
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EF 6:53 – The guy that released the info to PP went to prison. PP knew it was illegally obtained and they should have been charged as well. Oh, well.
PP is as left wing as they come. They cherry-picked some years here and there but the idea that the wealthy don’t pay taxes is total BS.
They are confusing wealth accretion vs income and they sorta leave out all the taxes they always pay on their homes and their employees and their mechanical toys.
It’s just left-wing BS to cover for failed socialist policies. The govt can confiscate every penny from the wealthy and we’d still be broke. Some how that fact seems to always elude the conversation.
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College students are revolting.
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Posted by: Gregory | 28 April 2024 at 01:08 PM
College students are revolting
They’ve always been revolting….now they’re rebelling!!
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@959 The fsc had an independent audit in 2022 and they passed. They do the jobs for less than any other contractor in the area. They give the taxpayers the best value for dollar.
😉
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Always a good idea to start the day with comedy.
From CNN of all places:
“Misinformation has created an alternative world for some Americans”
https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/28/politics/election-misinformation-conspiracy-theories-what-matters/index.html?iid=cnn_buildContentRecirc_end_recirc
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But emoluments……emoluments…..
What of emoluments????
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/joe-bidens-brother-embroiled-high-ranking-qatari-scheme-provide-wealth-introductions
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Hey…. good thing you guys elected Bai den…..
He got all those environmental problems corrected in short order……and all that money Trump was was sending to fight foreign wars….he fixed that too!
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/face-shields-dry-suits-showers-lifeguards-in-south-county-calif-adapt-to-persistent-sewage-contamination/ar-AA1nP1pC
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I’m not sure that any single photograph sums up just what a slack jawed idiot is the Vice President better than this one does….
https://s.hdnux.com/photos/01/37/16/55/24963961/3/960×0.webp
Absolutely delightful in a slow witted child being asked a question before the class sort of way!
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from the article on the lifeguards facing polluted water –
“”We can’t wait years for the federal government to get enough money and do all this construction,” said Coronado Lifeguard Capt. Sean Carey. “We just need some protections now because this is the lifeguard’s cancer.””
Why is this a federal issue in the first place? This is entirely on the local authorities. You would think gov Hair Gel might even try to care. A failed sewer system is a 3rd world symptom straight out.
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Posted by: Scott O | 29 April 2024 at 08:45 AM
You would think gov Hair Gel might even try to care.
Too busy conducting quiet Voodoo ceremonies trying to usher Xho Bai Den into the great beyond!
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“A failed sewer system is a 3rd world symptom straight out.”
Tijuana is the place with the failed sewer system, and TJ is not often mistaken for first world. The article doesn’t do a good job pointing the finger…
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The Estonian Fox couldn’t get this to post.
President Biden and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen embrace a massive wealth tax redistribution scheme including taxes on unrealized gains in their Fiscal Year 2025 proposal. The revenue proposals in the Administration’s Fiscal Year 2025 Budget (U.S. Treasury, 2024) would raise revenues, help ensure the wealthy and large corporations pay their fair share.
* Top marginal rate on long-term capital gains jumps to 44.6 percent.
* Restrictions on conversions to Roth IRA.
* Minimum 25 percent tax on unrealized stock gains for wealthy individuals.
* Tax rate for C corporations goes to 28 percent from 21 percent.
* If there is anything ambiguous, the Secretary of the Treasury gets to determine what the law is.
https://mishtalk.com/economics/biden-embraces-a-wealth-tax-to-address-racial-wealth-inequality/
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