CardinalBacker

It's not about Biden. It's about the ultra rich living a tax-free existence. And about the most egregious loophole in our tax system (in my opinion) being ignored, mostly because the people who create the bills and sign them are currently benefitting from said loophole. It's simple... The tax code allows the ultra rich to borrow against assets (which weren't taxed as they were accumulating) and then live a lavish lifestyle while paying no income taxes... Do you think this should be changed?

Absolutely not. But it probably should be, and he had a chance to fix it... it just wasn't in his best interest. Not very "America First," wouldn't you say?

I was talking about Donald Trump. That's his gig, too. I think that's why it wasn't addressed in his tax cut package in 2017.

You're right.. it would be a much simpler route to communism. I'm fine with taxes on income, but taxation on wealth is not ok, IMO. We have a spending problem, not a revenue problem.... and we're not going to be able to tax our away out of it. I compare taxation in some ways to tithing. We're expected to give 10% of what we earn to the church... not a percentage of what we've accumulated AFTER paying tithes upon it in the first place. I have the same problem with an inheritance tax. At the end of the day, it's not OUR money, it's that individual's money, and that's a concept that seems to be repulsive to most liberals. Washington should be taking a long look at loans against wealth as income... with some parameters, of course. Jeff Bezos shouldn't have been able to argue that all of his stock had no taxable value because the value isn't realized until it's sold (which I agree with), then turn around and finance a lavish lifestyle like no other using tax-free loans taken against his holdings. That's just not right and should have bipartisan support... Unless, of course, that's how your President funds HIS lavish lifestyle, lol.

Why don't you use some local examples. Say.... WOS and Newton. Certainly there must have been some affluent school districts in 3A and 4A during those years, right? People use the "facilities" argument as an excuse. I mean, now that you mention it, Newton claimed that they lost that one year because they had to ride Yellow Dogs to Dallas and the competition (Lord, the Competition) got to ride charters.

No worries, man… I think that got a little personal. I don’t always do a good job of explaining my positions and I come off like a jerk.

Where did I bring that up? I think you misunderstood something I said.

The numbers that I read for 2021 were 342 murders and 628k citizens. That’s 54 murders per 100k in population. Or 10x the National average… or almost 1100% higher.

Hey, man.... Did I lie or did the truth hurt your feels?

That's the rumor. Park Place Hospital. Date withheld. I think what a lot of people miss is that I'm legitimately angry about the people who get no attention. Not as a means to excuse what happened to Tyre (because there is no justification), but to say that it's complete and utter BS that nobody cares (to the same extent) about what happened to the 342 "nameless" individuals that lost their lives in Memphis last year . What would have a greater impact, saving one or saving as many of the 342 as we can? But instead we focus on the trivial, almost insignificant issue (unless it happens to your kids, of course) issue of police violence. You've probably heard the story about a friend of mine that works at one of the plants. Solid, solid black dude... raised in a good family, good dad to his boys even though he's no longer with their mom. He was legitimately worried about his sons being killed by the cops. Dude, you've got young men growing up in PAT where a couple dozen men get murdered every year, but i can't remember the last time someone was killed by the police. But I CAN promise you that no matter how many die from the dawn of time, you'll have never seen anything like the mess that will break out if somebody gets killed by a cop in PA. I good friend of mine used to say "y'all worried about the wrong s_ _ _. " Approximately six unarmed black men are killed by the police each year in the US. That's six out of the 7000 black men killed in the US each year. Statistically speaking, an unarmed black man is three times more likely to be killed by lighting than killed by a cop. That's the way that I feel whenever the world screeches to a stop over a horrible incident like what happened to Tyre. Getting murdered happens to 20 black men every single day in America and nobody cares.

Hear me out.... I think that we, as Conservatives/Republicans, should organize protests for Tyre in all major cities just to prove a point that the outrage from the left is always manufactured to win elections.

[Hidden Content] Well, seeing as to how 342 people were killed there in 2021, you kinda have to ask why everybody is so worked up over this single one. That's almost one per day. I misspoke when I said "that side of town.' Memphis is actually 64% black. I should have said "that town" not "that side of town."

Ah, the same old argument. Coaching or athletic talent? They're both equally important in terms of success. You can take a scrappy bunch of kids w/o a lot of talent and have them beat teams with loads of talent but little coaching. On the other hand, a lot of times pure athleticism will take a team a long way. The thing is that both of the teams I've described will be at the house by the third or fourth round. It takes both of those, plus support from the community. The one thing that I DO believe is highly overrated is the "facilities." People always point that out, but the most successful programs from our area (WOS, Newton, BC) don't have the nicest facilities around.

I say that all of the time... people used to drive a town over to buy their groceries if they were having to use stamps temporarily. It was just a matter of pride. The thing is this... that "disease" of being willing to exist on the efforts of others is contagious. Not only do the beneficiaries always want their handouts to be increased, but the people who aren't receiving anything start to think "why should I pay for all of this when nobody else has to?" Then the welfare state grows. I've got a married coworker. She and her husband do REALLY well, but have two small kids. They started receiving those "child tax credit" payments last year and was like... WTH? Why are they sending me money? My 18 year old kid signed up with the Salvation Army after Harvey and collected $400. He literally lived at home and had ZERO losses. No damage, no lost work.... nothing. Our lights didn't even go out. He's like "everybody is doing it!" I worry that the greed/unwillingness to work is going to be the end of us all.

I was on my way to the lake a few years back and stopped in Newton at Brookshires. There was a clean cut lady in line in front of me at the registers and she was wearing a Newton ISD shirt. Possibly a teacher , probably a para… I don’t know. We made small talk and she seemed sharp. She pulled out her Lonestar Card and paid for her groceries, then paid cash for her non-grocery items. I could make a ton of judgments, but it made me wonder. How many people have NEVER paid for their own groceries? I can’t claim superiority because I have signed up for benefits in the past. There was an emergency 90 days’ worth, if my memory is correct. I found work and never renewer after that initial period. But I do remember that the actual money lasted a lot longer than 90 days, lol. Its like this… I know a young couple with kids and they are always struggling… but I’ve heard Grandpaw say “I don’t care how bad it gets over there… my grandkids aren’t going to sit in the dark over there and they’re not going to go hungry.” It’s a nice gesture, but all Mom and Dad hear is that they don’t have to worry about the light bill or food… gramps has it covered… or at least that’s how they act. They just need somebody else to help them get their car back from the repo yard. And I think that’s where a lot of our “poor” are today. They know that if they start improving their lot in life by getting a job, they won’t be able to afford the groceries that they have on our dime. Those generous benefits are a disincentive to getting off of them. My solution? A set period of benefits like we have now… 24 months or so. Once it’s done, it’s only good for products like WIC provides, the old cheese and butter like they used to pass out, and MREs like we feed our troops. My guess is that you’d have a lot fewer people on the system. Heck, prove the liberals wrong. Only give them healthy alternatives. Fresh fruit and vegetables, no processed foods, no soft drinks. My guess is that our spending in that area would shrink when they couldn’t shop like fourth graders turned loose at the grocery store with unlimited resources.

I'll throw one revision to the tax code that DOES need to happen. Guys like Jeff Bezos, Zuckerberg, and a whole host of other mega wealthy use a particular mechanism to avoid paying property tax. Each year their compensation consists largely of shares of stock... and we all know that the value of those assets isn't taxed until the stock is sold... therefore it's not subject to taxation. The argument is that those increases in stock value aren't realized until the stock is sold. For instance, if you and your buddies all dropped $500 into Dogecoin year before last, at one point you were "worth" $50k... today you're probably worth less than your initial $500. Aren't you glad you didn't pay taxes on that $50K? But the mega wealthy take out LOANS against their stock and use the proceeds of those loans to finance their lifestyles. I'm Elon Musk and I've got 500 Billion worth of Tesla stock that I received tax free, or tax free until it sells... no income taxes. I just borrow piles of cash against my stock (those loans are not subject to taxation, other than the fact that Mr. Musk can write off any interest he paid during the course of his loan. That's how guys manage to live filthy rich lifestyles without ever paying taxes. That, in my opinion, is wrong. Loans against stocks should be taxed like income. And it should have bi-partisan support.

I saw a neat video last week. A guy was on the street asking people if they'd sign a petition demanding free college for all. Every single one was like "heck ya! We need that here-that's how it should be!" While they were signing the petition he said " and also, write over to the right of your know how much you'd like to contribute towards free college every year." Every single person was like, "no.... wait..... nevermind, I don't want to sign your deal." Everybody's got their hand out, but they also want a big fat "refund" they didn't earn instead of contributing. Everybody should be contributing.

From the guy who pretends to pay six figures a year in taxes. So you think that a person should be entitled to: 1. a few thousand dollars a year in the form of a tax handout. 2. Free food for the course of their natural life via foodstamps 3. Free healthcare (up to and including abortion on demand regardless of ability to pay) for life 4. Absolution of all college debt and free college for all from now on. 5. NICE housing from cradle to grave, with no contribution from the tenant 6. Reparations for all black people, regardless of their affiliation with slavery 7. A free smart phone w/data plan 8. EBT plans for those expenses not covered by SNAP/WIC You know who never supports gross handouts to those who make poor choices? Rich people. You'll need to bump your imaginary tax payments to 10 figures, sir. What y'all want is impossible, regardless of how much you tax the 1%.

It happens every night on "that" side of town.... the only reason anybody cares is that there were cops involved in this one. There are two explanations for why people aren't rioting right now. 1. It's purely about race and is always the case, nobody cares about the epidemic of black men murdered by other black men. If those cops were white, this would have been worse than George Floyd's riots. But since there's not a racial element, the masses don't care. The media does, but you don't see much carrying on at all. 2. The riots only occur when a Republican is President. That's also a fact.

Lol... Bull. When I'm broke, do I buy more junk food? Nah, it's time for rice and beans, etc... Everybody knows that food stamps (SNAP, EBT) gives a person way more money to spend than they'd have as a person who buys their own groceries. Isn't it crazy how since the dawn of time, if humans or animals don't have enough to eat, they get skinny... except in America they get fatter. You're not that stupid, you're just lying.

I agree completely. I wanted to make it clear that it’s just a theory/rumor, but it’ll be interesting to see if it takes shape. It WOULD be an interesting development if it turns out to be true.

The latest that I read (from a dubious source) is that the kid worked at FedEx… and one of the cop’s ex lady also worked at FedEx and had a thing going with the victim. The story is that it was set up to beat the guy up (hence not asking for license/registration (since they already knew who the victim was). The real kicker is that supposedly the cop (ex bf) took a photo of the victim and sent it to his ex gf… if that’s true, it certainly changes things. Don’t take it as gospel, it’s just what I read. It’ll be interesting to see if that story pans out.

So... they take from earners and give to non-earners with zero utility recovered for the expenditure? Give me a break. Today's "poor" aren't poor. They just don't have everything that they want. There are too many "broke" fatties.

And that, my friend, is the reason that I'm not a liberal. First off, that "chump change" is going to come due one day... and we're probably already past the tipping point. But who cares, as long as I get mine, right? And I'd be interested in where these "trillions of dollars given to corporate" exist. Because they don't. It's a lie told to simple-minded people to earn their support. "Oh, yeah? Big oil gets TRILLIONS given to them." No, they don't. There are a ton of places where we spend wastefully (social security, the military, etc....) and both sides act like their cash cows are sacred. I can freely admit that the military spends wastefully. I can safely argue that every single government entity blows through piles of cash that they shouldn't. That's the problem that we need to fix. Our healthcare system is corrupt with fraudulent billing, people on benefits that don't deserve them, etc... and our solution was to make sure that everybody has a spot at the trough instead of attacking the costs. The bigger problem is this... now that people realize that they can vote for generous gifts from the treasury, they'll continue to do so until the whole thing falls apart. And by "people" I mean those that believe that they deserve "a little chump change," as you put it, but also the people who fight to protect military spending without reservation, those who want free college education for everybody, those who refuse to look at waste in Medicare/Medicaid/Social Security, etc.... Our spending is going to be the end of us, and we can't tax our way out of it, or cut taxes to get ourselves out of it. It's about spending.

“We need more community policing… none of these cops look like us.” What happened to that kid was a shame and should not have happened. As somebody who thinks that the world was a better place when the police could tune a guy up when he needed it, this was just too much. Much too much. 1. If those weren’t cops, it wouldn’t have made the local news two days in a row… it would have just been more inner city violence. 2. A part of me wonders if these police were hired as part of a program that relaxed hiring standards in favor of filling racial quotas. 3. As always, I suspect that there is more to the story. What happened was still criminal, but if you, say, kicked a cop in the nuts or something, you were kinda up front in the engine ringing the bell when the train left the station. 4. This isn’t a George Floyd “did the knee cause his death” question. They beat this man to death. I guess they didn’t realize that the ‘hood code of silence wouldn’t apply to them. 5. Ben Crump is implicit. In 2023 people antagonize cops hoping that they’ll get a payday. Has that dude given anything back? He sure earns a lot. He needs these incidents to keep popping off or he’ll have to go back to fighting speeding tickets. 5. It’s funny how we can talk about the culture of violence in police departments causing this while ignoring that this could also be a result of the culture of violence in the black community. This whole thing was messed up. I can see a human snapping and knocking that hell out of somebody. I can’t see five guys holding a guy and taking turns punching, kicking, and hitting him with a baton over and over… then celebrating. It was just savage.