This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: “Your Tax Dollars At Work”

  • The Peasants are Rioting in Paris….

    The French are rioting over Macron’s increase in the carbon tax.

    https://www.atr.org/french-revolt-against-carbon-tax

    In France, diesel fuel is now at $8.20/gal and gasoline at $9.00/gal. The bulk of the price at the pump here is taxes, not fuel costs. Macron wants to increase the carbon tax in France to $63/tonne. There is no reason for it, other than his personal greed factor. It goes for absolutely nothing other than payola to IPCC and to line his pockets.

    From the article: The loudest and most famous voice from the weekend protest is that of Jacline Mouraud, a diesel owner from Brittany who has become the star of the yellow vest movement due to her YouTube videos and appearance on all major French news outlets.

    “You have persecuted drivers since the day you took office. This will continue for how long?” she said in a YouTube video that has millions of views. “You only need those taxes for new china in the Élysée palace or another expensive swimming pool for your private residence!”

    This seems to be a growing movement in France since 283,000 people in 2,000 locations rioted and burned stuff over it. I’m waiting to see how long it takes Macron to realize that  – well, the French generally hate him. But they voted him in over Marie LePen, and she warned them what would happen.

    The link to WUWT’s article is here: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/12/02/president-macrons-climate-change-fuel-tax-riots-continue-in-paris/

    It also appears that in Paris, some of the rioting is the work of groups closely resembling the antifas here this country. There is much damage in Paris, and Macron is ‘shocked’ about it.  Well, les Crapeaux had a chance to vote in Marine le Pen, but they went for this King of Disconnectedness instead. I wonder if he will offer the peasants cake to eat.

    It is not just in France that this tax-to-death attitude is going on. There is a proposed bill coming up to inflict a $55/ton carbon tax on us, the unsuspecting public.

    I’ve already discussed how a similar tax proposed by IPCC on my gas bill alone would cost me income I simply do not have.  I did the simple math to find out what this carbon so-called tax might cost me, the same as the IPCC’s carbon tax, which was a staggering $21,000 per month by 2030, based on cubic feet of natural gas usage.

    Converting therms to tons was easy enough. There is a site that does that. The result for me was 3.774892954361 tons in January 2018, which is about average for me. My January bill is usually $115 to $120, depending on the weather. The carbon tax is an incremental tax, meaning that it starts low but increases every year for five years to an unconscionable $55/ton, which in my case is $206.14, making my wintertime household gas bill $325.98, an amount that is unaffordable at best, and egregious at its worst.

    This proposed so-called tax is not meant to benefit any of us at the taxpaying end of the economic scale. It will simply go into a massive slush fund with an elaborate title that this bunch of tax-sucking slugs in Congress will be able to dip into at will.

    https://www.atr.org/details-horrible-carbon-tax-bill

    The real anti-growth economic impact for the USA is discussed here:  https://www.atr.org/study-shows-devastating-economic-impacts-carbon-tax

    From ATR:  A carbon tax will not be pro-growth. Most carbon tax scenarios reduce GDP for the entirety of the 22-year forecast period. 

    Better than break-even economic performance may not be possible unless revenue is devoted entirely to corporate tax relief. A lump-sum rebate results in lost GDP equal to between $3.76 trillion and $5.92 trillion over the 22-year forecast period.

    That is trillions, not millions or billions of dollars – trillions lost to this nonsense.

    If you want to drive a thriving economy into a profound economic Depression, you tax the living daylights out of it until it is squeezed dry. Keep raising taxes and before long, there will be no more taxes to be found. We had a revolution in this country a while back because George III imposed a Stamp Tax Act on everything that was printed, to squeeze colonists dry. We fought that, and won.

    Here’s something else that is disturbing: the Bill authorizes armed carbon tax enforcement agents:  The bill authorizes armed carbon tax enforcement agents to collect the new tax on energy used by Americans. As if customs enforcement doesn’t already have enough on its plate, the bill states:

    “The revenues collected under this chapter may be used to supplement appropriations made available in fiscal years 2018 and thereafter –

    “(1) to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, in such amounts as are necessary to administer the carbon border fee adjustment.”

    So, if you somehow don’t pay this energy tax into this slush fund, you’ll get arrested???? If it shows up on my gas bill, which is my only source of carbon, men with guns and badges are going to show up on my doorstep demanding money from me? Aside from this looney-tune proposal, this loudly smacks of Gestapo tactics to me.

    The true nature of this proposed tax is discussed at the links, but most egregious is the 2-child limit per household included in the language of the proposal.  Here it is, straight from the bill text:

    “A carbon dividend payment is one pro-rata share for each adult and half a pro-rata share for each child under 19 years old, with a limit of 2 children per household, of amounts available for the month in the Carbon Dividend Trust Fund.”

    The reasoning behind a limit of 2 children per household is not specified, not at all. Because it is poorly written, it can be read as a means of forcing population control on families, which is what the Chinese government has been doing for decades.

    You may want to call Florida Republican Congressman Francis Rooney at 202-225-2536 and ask him why he has signed onto this absurd and harmful Democrat tax proposed by Deutsch, which seeks to impose a tax that is nothing but a feed into a slush fund. You should also call your own Congress critters and tell them to vote against this bill. Or send them e-mails to that effect. And sounding angry about it, in a civilized way, is acceptable. It isn’t a sales tax. It is larceny.

    It is extremely necessary on the part of all of us to be aware of these vultures and give them as much room as possible to expose themselves for what they really are. Without awareness of them and their agenda, we will lose the very things we value most.

     

  • And This Just In

    I’m reposting something from Watts Up With That, because if it weren’t for instant internet news, we might have not seen this coming.

    Democrats Debating Ocasio-Cortez Plan to Switch to a Climate Change Command Economy

     

    Please read it carefully, especially Ocasio-Cortez’s plans for seizing the American economy. Her ignorance is at an appallingly high level, yes, but she is a juggernaut on a roller coaster ride to make her place in history, by golly!!! She is annoying the very people who could/might be willing to help her climb to glory.

    She has done something that I had not anticipated: Ocasio-Cortez, in her haste to become Numbah One and lead with her ass… er, her lack of information, is running roughshod over senior members of the House and has already created a split in the Democrats over Her Plans. They are quarreling now. If this crack continues to grow and widen, as I hope it will, it weakens them. And if it gets wide enough, it may take a very, very long time to recover.

    We now have two in Congress who want to have their own way: ‘Nuke ‘Em’ Swallwell, and this Bronx bimp.

    They may seem like threats to the rest of us as a population, and they should, because they think they can do whatever they want to. We know that they can’t just do whatever they like, and that their “powers” are limited by law.  But beneath the perceived threat is the wedge they are driving into their own Democratic party.

    I had hoped this kind of crack in that party would occur some day. Hoped and wished and dropped coins in a charity wishing well. And it is happening right in front of us. If she continues along this path of running roughshod over senior members of the House, and probably the Senate at some point, a split which has already begun may widen and last for a very long time. Possibly take a century and a half to heal. Let’s hope so.

    Personally, I want to see her stir up so much frenzy and quarreling that the Democrats lose sight of their goal to squash the Republicans and especially Trump. I also hope she really annoys a lot of senior Congress critters, but that’s just me.

    What?? I can dream, can’t I?

    Read the article, read the links to her plan and take in just how much she is stomping on people to have her way.  Be grateful for all the resources that give us a chance to find out about these things so quickly.

    And have a nice Thanksgiving Day.

  • It Never Really Goes Away

    From Stars and Stripes:

    USS Ronald Reagan sailor gets two-year sentence after assaulting fellow sailor, strangling civilian

    By CAITLIN DOORNBOS | STARS AND STRIPESPublished: November 16, 2018

    YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan — A USS Ronald Reagan aviation ordnanceman has been sentenced to two years in prison after being accused of sexually assaulting a fellow sailor, lying to Naval Criminal Investigative Services and strangling a civilian woman.

    Petty Officer 3rd Class Steven Garcia, 27, pleaded guilty Wednesday to assault consummated by battery, making a false official statement and aggravated assault. He was originally charged with two counts of abusive sexual contact causing bodily harm but pleaded down to the assault charges in a pre-trial agreement with prosecutors.

    The first assault happened Oct. 22, 2017, during a Ronald Reagan port visit in Busan, South Korea, Garcia admitted in court Wednesday. After a night of drinking with friends, Garcia’s first victim said she lost consciousness and woke up in her hotel room to Garcia forcefully penetrating her with his hand and mouth, causing her pain.

    The remainder of the story, including his assault on a civilian woman and strangling her, is at this link.  https://www.stripes.com/news/pacific/uss-ronald-reagan-sailor-gets-two-year-sentence-after-assaulting-fellow-sailor-strangling-civilian-1.556838

    He does not have to register as a sex offender yet, but a BCD is on his plate. He gets to explain to future employers why he spent two years in jail instead of leaving the Navy with a clean plate. I doubt that this is the first or last time he’s done something like this, because he lied to the NCIS people when the assault on the first victim was reported.

    This article  https://www.stripes.com/new-military-sexual-assault-report-finds-highest-risks-on-navy-ships-certain-larger-bases-1.548654  addresses a Rand Corporation study that found sexual assault is a higher risk on ships than on land, and that some bases pose a higher risk than others, but there is no explanation for that.

    From the article:  [Each servicemember’s estimated risk of being sexually assaulted during the one-year period of study depended in large part on their assignment to a particular unit, command and installation.

    “In one military service, for instance, women could see their risk doubled or halved, depending on the installation or ship to which they are assigned,” the report found.

    The study found in the Army, Fort Hood in Texas had the most estimated incidents of sexual assault: 885, with 473 male victims and 412 female victims. Fort Bragg, N.C., had the second-most: 837, with 476 male and 361 female victims.]

    What is plain is that more men were on the receiving end of sexual assaults than women. Perhaps the women were more aware and more cautious than the men who were assaulted. It seems to show that things haven’t actually changed in the last 60 years, but have essentially stayed the same. It does not mean that the military employs more sexual predators than civilian companies. It simply means that, because this is a closed environment in all services, the assaults are more likely to be reported than in a civilian environment.

    It does not have anything to do with putting women on ships. It has everything to do with people who are predatory in nature looking for victims in a closed environment.

    This summary of statistics on sexual violence https://endsexualviolencect.org/resources/get-the-facts/national-stats/  includes an unfortunate and simple fact: Victims of rape and attempted rape who did not report to the police did not report for a number of reasons. 43% of victims did not report because they thought that nothing could be done, 27% thought it was a private matter, 12% were afraid of the police response, and 12% felt it was not important enough to report.

    At the same time, 2% of sexual assaults reported to police are false.

    Telling people gross jokes and hitting on people at work in the civilian world is something should, and frequently will, get the joker fired.  It means that Harvey Weinstein could only get away with being a predator as long as women were willing to put up with his crap.

    However, we all have seen people of both genders using sex as a way to get to the top of the ‘look at me’ pile, e.g., Petraeus’s biographer a few years ago.

    The loss of good manners and common sense in the general population seems to be on the rise.  Bad manners and ‘look at me!’ behavior is taking precedence.

    If there is a solution, it’s emphasizing awareness, especially in children, and that should always be ongoing.

     

     

  • NIMBY

    This is in regard to finding a new place closer to the Chicago area than the Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery at Elwood, IL, which is south of Joliet. That cemetery includes places for cremains, and has room for 400,000 burials. The Fort Sheridan Post Cemetery is limited to those who made a career in the military, and those spaces are dwindling. Part of Fort Sheridan’s acreage is also part of the Lake County Forest Preserve district, with regular guided tours for people who want to come and see the wildlife (mostly hawks) and the habitat. (Sorry, I don’t have a photo of the Lincoln Cemetery entrance.)

    What the VA wants to do, according to the article, is build a columbarium on a 15-acre site at Freeman and Mundhank roads, five miles east of the Arboretum (shopping center) of South Barringon, just off Interstate 90. It would offer room for 5,000 containers for cremains, along with a memorial marker, gravesite locator and parking.

    However, the potential neighbors of this proposal were adamantly against the idea, even though it will be near Paul Douglas Forest Preserve, named for the Senator from Illinois who was one of the oldest Marine seeing combat in World War II in the Pacific Theater. Mr. Douglas also helped to preserve the Indiana Dunes National Lake Shore.

    There are apparently all kinds of excuses: kids scared by the sound of blanks being fired from rifles, the sound of “Taps” depressing everyone, etc. but the NIMBY attitude is the real reason.

    Charles Selle’s article is here:  https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/lake-county-news-sun/opinion/ct-lns-selle-south-barrington-columbarium-st-1115-story.html

    As Mr. Selle, the author of the article, tells us, it is less about finding a final resting place for veterans. It’s about property values and that old bugbear NIMBY (not in my back yard!)

    From Zillow: The median home value in South Barrington is $759,700. South Barrington home values have gone up 2.0% over the past year and Zillow predicts they will fall -0.9% within the next year. The median list price per square foot in South Barrington is $210, which is higher than the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin Metro average of $166. The median price of homes currently listed in South Barrington is $865,000.

    I looked up current sales prices on homes in South  Barrington. They’ve gone up quite a bit since 1972, when I had a horse at a stable over in that area, something on the order of 1000% higher than back then. https://www.zillow.com/south-barrington-il/

    While I can understand the desire to have a place closer to Chicago than the rather long distance down to Elwood, there are other places that might welcome the plan and provide acreage suitable for a columbarian.

    One of those is land near the Illinois-Wisconsin state line, already purchased by the Lake County Forest Preserve District, and currently used as crop production until further notice. If the VA is paying for the development of this facility, then why not use land already in the FPD, with plenty of parking and access already in place?

    The VA is taking public comment on the cemetery through Nov. 26, with a final environmental assessment due next month. However, as Mr. Selle indicates in his article, the VA can build the columbarium without village approval.

    Here’s the link to the pdf of the VA’s proposal: https://www.cem.va.gov/CEM/docs/EA/ALNC_Columbarium_Draft_EA.pdf

    I could not find any VA contact info specific to this, but you could call their general number and ask about how to provide your input on it, if you like.

  • Army Retro Uniform OKd for 2020

    Well, it’s official: the U.S. Army is going retro to its World War II “pinks and greens” for officers by 2020, as was discussed on TAH last year.  The remainder of the force has until 2028 to change from current blue uniforms to the Army greens.

    https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2018/11/11/for-veterans-day-the-army-has-a-present-a-long-awaited-new-service-uniform/

    The Army Blues will revert to being strictly a formal dress uniform.

    From the article: The standard uniform set-up will require pants and brown leather oxfords for both men and women. Women will have the option to wear a pencil skirt and pumps. Everyone will also be able to buy a leather bomber jacket as an outerwear option.

    The rest of the Army would have until 2028 to pick up the new uniform, the release said.

    I’ll take the bomber jacket and change the pencil skirt to an A-line skirt, which is more attractive of chubby girls, and you’ve got a hit.

    Now if we can just persuade the Army that Hello! Kitty pink camo will keep everyone safe from The Bad Guys, we’ll be fine.

  • News From the Front

    Here’s your morning update on Iraq:

    https://www.militarytimes.com/flashpoints/2018/11/11/us-iraqi-forces-kill-dozens-of-islamic-state-fighters/

    BAGHDAD — by The Associated Press — The U.S. military says American and Iraqi forces killed more than 50 Islamic State militants, including several commanders, in northern Iraq last month.

    U.S. Central Command said Sunday that an Oct. 30 operation in Salahuddin province killed five ISIS leaders and more than 30 other militants, and that an operation the following day in the Makhmour Mountains killed around 20 ISIS fighters. It says the leaders killed in the first raid were responsible for coordinating attacks across northern and western Iraq.

    It’s a short story, but there’s a nice shot of a grenade exploding in a hillside cave.

    There’s also a link to an earlier story from 11/05/18 regarding the reasons that it will take years to decades and possibly a full generation or more to reform the Iraqi military. https://www.militarytimes.com/news/2018/11/05/why-a-self-reliant-iraqi-military-may-take-years-if-not-decades-and-could-require-a-generation-to-reform/

    Definitely worth your time to read both stories.

  • Democrats Plan to Pursue Most Aggressive Gun-Control Legislation in Decades

    gun grabbers Georgia Democrat Lucy McBath, the highest-profile gun-control advocate on the ballot Tuesday, defeated GOP Rep. Karen Handel. Photo: DUSTIN CHAMBERS for The Wall Street Journal
    Focus spurred by an incoming class of lawmakers with ‘F’ NRA ratings who campaigned on the issue.
    By Reid J. Epstein

    Democrats say they will pass the most aggressive gun-control legislation in decades when they become the House majority in January, plans they renewed this week in the aftermath of a mass killing in a California bar.

    Their efforts will be spurred by an incoming class of pro-gun-control lawmakers who scored big in Tuesday’s midterm elections, although any measure would likely meet stiff resistance in the GOP-controlled Senate.

    Democrats ousted at least 15 House Republicans with “A” National Rifle Association ratings, while the candidates elected to replace them all scored an “F” NRA rating.

    “This new majority is not going to be afraid of our shadow,” said Mike Thompson, a California Democrat who is chairman of the House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force. “We know that we’ve been elected to do a job, and we’re going to do it.”

    Mr. Thompson, who represents a district in the Napa Valley north of San Francisco, said he plans to introduce legislation mandating universal background checks in the opening weeks of the new Congress.

    The gun-control movement’s evolution was evident this week following news that a dozen people had been killed Thursday at a country music bar in Thousand Oaks, Calif.

    Here come the ghouls, dancing in the blood of innocents. But this should surprise no one, and they’re a couple things the gun grabbers will have to overcome- the Senate and the President.

    This is all show and bluster.

    Read the entire article at The Wall Street Journal but take your blood pressure meds first.

  • The Spanish Flu 100 Years and Counting

    This link will take you to a full article (not pay-walled) on the Spanish flu pandemic, which may have originated in China as avian or swine flu, but erupted in a virulent way during and after World War I.

    https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/12/1/05-0979_article

    From the article: “The impact of this pandemic was not limited to 1918–1919. All influenza A pandemics since that time, and indeed almost all cases of influenza A worldwide (excepting human infections from avian viruses such as H5N1 and H7N7), have been caused by descendants of the 1918 virus, including “drifted” H1N1 viruses and reassorted H2N2 and H3N2 viruses. The latter are composed of key genes from the 1918 virus, updated by subsequently incorporated avian influenza genes that code for novel surface proteins, making the 1918 virus indeed the “mother” of all pandemics.”

    Prior to World War I, the causes of influenza were unknown. There were no separate strain names for the various types, such as swine flu or bird flu. Anyone could catch a “congestion of the lungs” and subsequently die of pneumonia after recovering from the “congestion”.  There were no vaccines for it or anything else back then.

    The post-war flu pandemic resulted in 50 million to 150 million deaths worldwide, although there was no actual census count. But we had another serious scare in 2006. Remember the bird flu pandemic? The research for the 2006 pandemic had already started at CDC in 1995, with researchers reconstructing the virus’s structure from autopsied materials left over from WWI and the Spanish Flu pandemic.  Shortly after that, the 1997 H5N1 avian influenza A pandemic broke out in Hong Kong. The finding that H1N1’s descendants include swine flu and avian flu RNA resulted in corporations like the one I worked for at the time offering flu and pneumonia vaxes while at work, for a modest fee.

    Here’s a 2006 article from American Family Physician regarding the 1997 outbreak and the 2006 pandemic:  https://www.aafp.org/afp/2006/0901/p783.html

    The UK had a popular TV series titled “Survivors”, which was about a worldwide pandemic caused by a combined RNA flu vaccine which was supposed to stop the flu, but instead it became as aggressive as the bug in Stephen King’s “The Stand”, which was based on the same idea. Both “bugs” were recombinant shifting antigen viruses constantly seeking new hosts for survival.  In both stories, the surviving populations were sparse, and if the viruses shifted into new hosts such as dogs or cats, humans were doomed.

    All I’m saying is, get your flu shot because the swine flu and avian flu viruses mutate and combine at will, always on the search for new hosts so that they can spread.  It’s survival. Oranges and lemons help repel it. Must be something about ascorbic acid, eh? That, and bacon.  And your VA flu shot is free, too.

    Let’s just help the flu bugs not survive, because if there were two major episodes of flu in less than 10 years (1997 and 2006), with air transportation the way it is now, it will happen again.