Various blue states are facing towering budget deficits as federal pandemic payments end and expenditures rise. The result is a widening gap between the two parties on tax policies as Democratic leaders seek to avoid massive budget cuts in favor of tax increases. Two of the most economically moronic measures can be found in California and Illinois where leaders could be pushing high-tax residents out of their respective states.
In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom is seeking a billionaire tax that would target roughly 180 individuals who are expected to remain in the state, like some voluntary canned hunt. In Chicago, Mayor Brandon Johnson is facing the same exodus of businesses as California. His solution? A head tax on the very large corporations is needed for the city to survive. Even the far-left governor, J.B. Pritzker, is opposing the move as economically suicidal. However, groups like the teachers’ unions are pushing for this and other new taxes to support, among other things, a bloated pension plan for its members.
The Great Sucking Sound
California has long been bleeding tax revenue as residents move to states like Florida and Texas. Corporations have followed suit with major companies either moving out of the state or closing stores in cities like San Francisco. Despite the towering deficit, Newsom and the Democratic Party continue to spend wildly on a boondoggle bullet train and to engage in last-minute redistricting to gerrymander the state further. They have also moved to extend Medi-Cal to illegal immigrants at a massive cost to the budget. Newsom is also pushing ahead with a Commission to pay reparations to black citizens.
With a governor campaigning virtually full-time for president, spending is expected to continue apace until 2028. So, where can a presidential aspirant find money without losing votes? The obvious choice is with the wealthiest citizens.
California unions and liberal academics are demanding a new tax on those billionaires who have not had the sense to leave the state.
The “2026 Billionaire Tax Act” would hit roughly 180 citizens with a new tax demand to plug holes in the state’s health care system. While denied by Democrats in Congress, the “One Big Beautiful Bill” cut off funds used for illegal immigrants ‘ health care, which produced a shortfall for California. That is part of the money Democrats want restored, or they will keep the government closed. Another 10% of the funds would be used to support public K-12 education.
Two of the academics pushing this measure are UC Berkeley economics professor Emmanuel Saez, law professor Brian Galle, and Stanford law professor Darien Shanske. They insist that there is history to support the success of such wealth taxes in a few cities and states like Washington. Advocates are counting on the unions to get the initiative on the ballot, and they know it is always popular to soak the rich. Teachers’ unions have also demanded wealth taxes in states like Massachusetts.
Wealth taxes are in vogue among Democrats. In every election, Democrats insist that the wealthiest are not paying their fair share of taxes, even though the top 1 percent pays more taxes than the bottom 90 percent combined. It is an ageless mantra. Figures like Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass) sought to ride the wealth tax into the White House, unleashing what she thought would be a class warfare over tax policy. She thrilled many on the left by declaring that she was coming after “the diamonds, the yachts, and the Rembrandts too.” Then, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, another Democratic presidential contender at the time, also promised that “we will tax the hell out of the wealthy.”
In the California effort, fewer than 200 Californians would bear the new tax burden —the wealthiest 0.0005% of residents. They will face a 5% tax on everything they own.
For years, some of us have opposed wealth taxes on constitutional grounds in the federal system and practical grounds in the state systems. Practically, you must create a new bureaucracy for the estimation of wealth in everything from art to boats to real estate. Under the plan, the Franchise Tax Board would require all California residents to declare their total net worth, including interests in private companies, real estate, art, and intellectual property. The individuals would then have to pay the debt in full or spread over five years with interest, with steep penalties for underreporting.
They hope to raise $100 billion in a flash and then divvy it up among their favorite causes. Of course, the problem is that, while some assets like homes are not mobile, the owners are. California expects these individuals to sit through a campaign where they are treated as the fatted calves for the slaughter, and then sell off five percent of their property for the privilege of staying. There is an obvious alternative that billionaires like Elon Musk have already taken: they can get the heck out of California. Many have already done so. Indeed, California moved to force those leaving to pay a tax.
In the meantime, there is no reason to believe that, once legislators can tap into wealth taxes, they will stop at billionaires as they move the threshold wealth line down for greater revenue streams.
These measures seem to me as highly dubious and likely to make things much worse. I will admit that Milton Friedman ruined me during my college years at the University of Chicago. However, California is already one of the highest tax states in the union. It is experiencing massive homelessness, crime, and other problems. At the same time, it is one of the most expensive places to live or have a business. In the mix of these elements, it wants to tell the highest earners now that they will be treated as basic digestives for Democratic policies. It will likely not only cause many to leave but will discourage others from coming with their income and businesses. Could you imagine a billionaire moving to the state to arrive just in time to be clipped for five percent of their wealth?
Rather than address runaway spending and poor management, Democrats and unions are treating the wealthy as static chumps who will not have the sense or desire to leave. It will be like a canned hunt with the cage door open.
Keep in mind that these are people who have spent their lives making money and optimizing conditions to make more money. The advocates are counting on billionaires just loving the state so much that they will stay at virtually any price. We will see.
As I discuss in my forthcoming book, Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution, there is a common myth that the top five percent of this country do not “pay their fair share.” However, putting that debate aside, the question is whether it will produce more revenue than it costs the state in the long run. As these politicians campaign on clipping the “fat cats” who are not paying their fair share, many are likely to follow Musk with their money and their minions.
Head Hunters with a Dwindling Game Population
In my home city of Chicago, the economic conditions are becoming even more dire. Mayor Brandon Johnson has proven nothing short of a disaster as the city has spent itself into a deep deficit. In the meantime, many businesses and residents are fleeing the crime and high taxes. Any first-year economics student would see this as a time to rebuild the economy by attracting new businesses and retaining existing businesses.
Not Brandon Johnson. The creation of the far-left Chicago Teachers’ Union (CTU) came as Johnson took office with gimmicky plans for city-supported stores and open sanctuary policies. When money ran out, he became increasingly desperate and inflammatory, often accusing critics of being racists. He has a $1 billion deficit and, rather than cut the budget, he has tried every possible measure to raise money, including a ridiculous bond that even liberals on the City Council said would send the city into a rat hole of debt.
Moreover, the Regional Transportation Authority, which oversees the Chicago Transit Authority, Metra, and Pace, is now expecting an almost $900 million shortfall by 2028. Again, the impulse is not to view the RTA budget and operations as unprofitable, but to raise fares and impose new taxes, including fees on DoorDash and delivery orders, higher tolls, and real estate transfer taxes.
However, even Pritzker thinks that Johnson and the unions are nuts on reintroducing a corporate “head tax.” Barely able to convince many companies to stay in the state, Chicago would actually make it more costly to hire Chicagoans with an additional $ 21-per-employee tax. Chicago previously tried a smaller $2 head tax, which was ended by Democrat former Mayor Rahm Emanuel because it was seen as discouraging businesses from coming to the city. Johnson thinks that an exponential increase will now make it work. It is like preventing the sinking of the Titanic by increasing the amount of seawater.
However, Johnson listens to the unions and particularly the teachers’ unions, and they want a slew of new taxes to support their bloated pension fund and other city programs. In addition, they want to impose a 5% levy on corporations with global payrolls exceeding $8 million, applied to all compensation paid to employees earning more than $200,000.
It would further suppress economic growth and increase the revenue deficits. At some point, the city will go the way of Detroit in an irreversible plunge toward insolvency.
Over the last decade, Chicago has lost one out of five businesses and currently ranks as a city with the highest commercial property tax in the nation. However, Johnson and the unions want to double down on more taxes, as if there were magical infusions of money with no consequences.
There is even a plan to increase Chicago’s “cloud tax” and a new 50-cent-per-user “social media amusement tax.”
The CTU is calling for a coercive campaign to force the remaining thriving corporations and institutions to pay more. In a publication titled “Chicago is NOT broke: millions on the table if wealthy pay their fair share,” the CTU called for Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT), a program where “wealthy universities and private hospitals that currently pay no property taxes” would pay a lump sum payment in exchange. My alma mater, the University of Chicago, is an intellectual hub that brings in intellectuals, research, and students to the city. The CTU wants to hit it and hospitals with PILOT charges.
It also wants to hit landlords with new profit taxes and penalize vacant properties.
With the recent passing of my mother, I gave serious thought to buying her home and investing in its total restoration. It is a beautiful old home, but I could not imagine owning a property in Chicago despite my love for the city. It is simply not economically feasible. It was a hard decision. I would love to invest in the city of my birth. However, the mayor and the City Council seem hellbent on destroying this city. In the meantime, the state is also spending wildly. The result is that many of the people I grew up with have left the city, and most have closed their businesses.
With the rise of Democratic Socialists in California, Illinois, and New York, these economic policies are likely to spread only to major cities. I fear that the result will be disastrous for our great cities. There is a perverse incentive for some of these politicians. Wealthy Republicans and conservative residents are fleeing these states, leaving Democrats more solidly in control. However, they are cutting off the top income earners and job creators. With the cutting off of subsidies under the Trump Administration, they must either reduce spending or tax those remaining.
We have seen this before, and it is not pretty.
I’m 1/2 mile from what was supposed to be the California High Speed Rail line we voted for in 2008. It was a simple clean bill “sell bonds build rail, pay off bonds.” I had a sinking feeling they would start findling loopholes and they sure did. First thanks to Gov Boobengrabber (who will go down in history as the Last Republican) they got some judges to say the “cap and tax” fund to reduce carbon emissions could be used to pay for the rail (some assessments were that only ONE percent reduction in emissions would result) a succession of appointed bureaucrats who did some time to run up a pension benefit and then retire, served as managements NONE have stayed to see the now-fantasmic project through. Land was seized some of which will NOT be used, now owners can’t get it back. Rail was supposed to be running in 2029, no construction has begun but far south of here billion$ in concrete poured, huge flyovers constructed. for rail line that does not exist. No train yet either. No one believes it will ever come at this point as NOW the state says “oh wait maybe we’ll change the route” AGAIN and not even go where they already spent millions on prep. All know the key is getting over to Cal coast where the money is, nobody believes is will ever get to LA to link to SF which was the whole justification in the first place! Meanwhle our roads crumble faster than can be fixed using the $ from the last tax increase they promised would repair everything. 1/3 of the state lives on benefits (though many deep into underground cash enonomy some of which is honest labor but vast $$$ is drugs and crime. Common day life is a looting orgy and though the citizens voted to undo the loose crime “reforms” they conned with AB 109/Prop 47 Newsom simply refused to fund it so the jails overflow as he CLOSES prisons. My small county had to let 250 alien felons go last year because the state forbids coopertation with ICE. Huge drug busts on the I-5 nearly daily with transport between Wash St. and LA it appears. Most simply walk away as they are illegals with a stack of fake IDs–another non-reported scandal the government does nothing about as it might hinder the waves of illegals still pouring in daily. (Probably running from states that cooperate with ICE).
OT
Dems really, really want the “Epstein Files.”
“GHISLAINE Maxwell bragged of performing a sex act on George Clooney, it is claimed in Virginia Giuffre’s memoir.”
– The Sun
The policies of CA is frightening, especially to the small business owner.
It wasn’t that long ago that small businesses and churches were shuttered during Covid, while big donors like Hollywood and Disneyland were allowed to operate, not to mention airline travel.
Restaurants were told they had to close in the interests of public safety, while Gavin Newsom dined at the French Laundry, and craft services (i.e. catering) for film and tv shoots were allowed to continue. There was a video of an owner crying in the parking lot of her closed restaurant, next to a tv shoot with craft services handing out food. She had been prohibited from outdoor dining as too dangerous to public health. There is no unemployment benefits for the self employed, and many small business owners who folded lost everything, with no support to pay their mortgage or utilities. PPP loans were really intended to keep employees on the payroll, not maintain businesses. The rent/eviction moratorium meant renters who could afford to pay rent, didn’t have to, but landlords still had to pay their mortgages, and keep the units in good order.
Democrats’ focus on wages has been disastrous. Most minimum wage earners get a raise within a year. Such jobs were for unskilled, entry level workers. Democrats, having already driven jobs from the state, got the mad idea that a minimum wage job should support a middle class family, and that all minimum wage earners “deserved” a raise. This then required raises vertically up the employee hierarchy, to avoid skilled workers getting paid the same as unskilled. This lead to layoffs, automation, stagnation of raises and bonuses, higher prices, and the closure of many businesses with small profit margins, like restaurants. It’s like out of the blue, Democrats decided small business owners deserved a pay cut, or to be driven out of business, and that Californians deserved to pay higher prices. Order kiosks are now common at fast food restaurants, and the prices are astonishingly high. The Democrat Party did not understand that it’s now how much you get paid, but what you can get for that, and how accessible are raises and promotions.
Democrats like Gavin Newsom allowed homeless camps to proliferate, and drive business away from small businesses. People tend not to want to visit a business that’s got homeless people urinating outside.
Then there is Democrats’ proclivity to raise taxes to cover their spending addition. Always, it’s higher taxes.
Please, from the bottom of my heart, Democrats, stop helping us.
Democrat taxation policies rely on a series of false beliefs: that the wealth don’t pay their fair share, that they will not change their behavior in response to higher taxes, and that higher taxes will not be perceived as punishment that will repel taxpayers and companies from moving to the state.
The rich pay the freight in the US, but the propaganda that they don’t pay taxes has unfortunately spread to the point that no amount of data or graphs can disabuse believers of this notion. Fair is also a subjective term. Anything up to 100% can be considered fair to some people, like communists.
The fundamental problem is that conservatives have failed to connect policy with outcome when communicating with voters who are not conservative. Democrat voters do not connect Democrat policies with the disastrous results they complain about.
A case in point is the high cost of healthcare. Most people do not connect that with the Affordable Care Act. I’ve said before how the ACA was a financial catastrophe to unsubsidized individual policy holders. I now pay $2800/month for a family of 3 in premiums alone. I’m middle class, and I’ve never qualified for subsidies. I pay more for health insurance than I do for my mortgage. Every time I’ve complained how the ACA dramatically increased the cost of health care, supporters either didn’t believe me, or responded that I don’t care about the poor for wanting the ACA overturned. It would have been better to add subsidies to the poor to expand their access to health insurance, than to take affordable health insurance away from the middle class.
Those on employer policies have faced increases in costs at a far slower rate, but they have felt the difference, as well.
It’s reached the point where an extraordinary number of people cheered the murder of an insurance CEO, never making the connection that it was Democrats’ darling policy, the ACA, that sent healthcare costs skyrocketing.
Architects of the Affordable Care Act were caught admitting they knew the ACA would increase the cost of health insurance, but they believed the increase would be more gradual.
The end goal is to make health insurance so unaffordable that Americans would clamor for Single Payor, like the Canadian system that is running out of money, has months’ long wait lists, and it can take years to get added to a family practice. Single payor are often run like HMO’s, where you have to wait to see a doctor, to get a referral to a specialist, instead of having the freedom to choose your own specialist. Americans hate long wait times, and being assigned specialists, so Democrats simply made health insurance so unaffordable that single payor began to sound like the only viable alternative.
” I now pay $2800/month for a family of 3 in premiums alone.”
Karen, you are paying $33,600 per year. In the past, there were ways to stay clear of Obamacare premiums with high deductible insurance, HSA, etc. Additionally, I think California has a state rule that restricts premiums to 8.5% of family income. I’m not from California, but it seems to an observer who used to follow healthcare that, with $33,600 in premiums alone, there is a better deal out there.
If you’re a liberal-stay out of other states-stick to your utopia
Fortunately for red states, most people escaping blue utopias are refugees, not missionaries.
@Anonymous
Wish that were true, refugees or not, they are bringing their baggage and entitlement with them (it happened in my home state, and pretty easily). The fallout from NYC, CA, and IL could have disastrous repercussions. People in surrounding areas better start fortifying right the heck now.
“However, the mayor and the City Council seem hellbent on destroying this city. In the meantime, the state is also spending wildly. The result is that many of the people I grew up with have left the city, and most have closed their businesses.”
For a while, I was wondering if this is a case of extreme incompetence, low IQ and pure insanity. I think it is a combination of these factors but more importantly, this appears to be a deliberate effort to destroy the gems of the United States. Isn’t this the goal of the radical left? Surely they cannot, otherwise, be that stupid.
I recently traveled through Illinois, there seems to be little money available to maintain the highways.
If we can be patient, the corrective genius of the federal system should work its magic. States and municipalities are, through democratic means, free to elect scoundrels and charlatans. But as long as their reach is limited and we have not entirely become a nation enthralled with scoundrels and charlatans, then there must be some places governed by the sane. Those sanely governed places should then prosper and those governed by scoundrels and charlatans will not. Eventually enough voters will wise up to recognize their error and reverse course. This will take time but it will happen albeit not before a lot of damage has been done.
I find it astounding that states such as California, Oregon, and Washington, all with significant state deficits, have taken upon themselves to replace federal funding for Planned Parenthood as well as to provide illegal alien medical benefits. Either these funds are coming either from enacting additional taxes (payed by residents) or from reducing budgets of programs used by more residents such as fire protection, prevention, and recovery. Eventually, the local tax payers and beneficiaries of reduced programs will take note and this political Ponzi scheme will collapse.
nooooo, they would never take it from fire protection! LOLLLLLLL
WA already has
A nice (and hopeful) post as usual Arnold. But this: “Either these funds are coming either from enacting additional taxes (payed by residents) or from reducing budgets of programs used by more residents such as fire protection, prevention, and recovery.”
Surely you have considered the third option: They expect the Federal government to give them that money for one intended purpose or another – and then states like that will “re-purpose” that federal taxpayer money to pay for these vote buying exercises.
Or ultimately, like Obama and Biden’s signature spending bills their first year in office, the Democrats will pass legislation that openly gives them the funds directly to spend on Illegal Aliens, Planned Parenthood, etc.
Your point is well taken. The temporarily (?) closure of the option to divert Federal COVID money to whateverthehellthestateswant has brought these states to this dilemma. I think that for at least three years that funding will continue to be unavailable to the states. We have gotten to the point in this country where there is a belief that money does grow off the Federal tree. Which is why 2028 is looming to be a key moment: do we stay the course (more or less) or do we lurch back to the, in my opinion, disastrous Biden or worse policies? If one can stave off the presidential aspirations of Bernie Sanders/AOC/Elizabeth Warren/Gavin Newsom Democrats past 2028, I think the reforms instituted by DJT will become normalized and therefore long-lived.
Atlas Shrugged…
Exactly.
Well, well, well.
Recent studies show that the Covid mRNA vaccine acts as an immune modulator to enhance the survival rate of people with lung and skin cancers who were already receiving immunotherapy.
Patients who received the Covid vaccine were twice as likely to be alive if they were vaccinated compared to unvaccinated patients.
Oncologists are considering using the vaccine as part of their treatments.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09655-y
They had to find a use for it? Made China or India?
Well, well, well!!!! Will that offset those who died of morbidities that appeared only after they were vaccinated, re-vaccinated, and then re-vacinaated yet again?
Given how many times the Bidens contracted Whuhan Flu after being repeatedly vaccinated, and everybody anywhere near them having to vaccinated in the same fashion… are they finding that these vaccines are actually capable of doing something positive rather than failing at what they were specifically sold as being able to do?
BTW… good luck selling this claim to the American public after your claim that the vaccine would not only prevent infection, but also prevent you from passing it on to others turned out to be a massive lie.
Lol
actually the covid clot shot has ben found responsible for an epidemic of “turbo cancers”. you need a new source for info there pal.
Bazinga, winner winner chikin dinner!
The study comes from the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.
This center is rated the #1 Cancer Center in the US.
It is arguably the #1 Cancer Center in the world.
Where do you get your information from ??
Probably from RFK Jr., the well known heroin addict whose brain has been eaten by worms.
not a clean study. disappointing because mRNA is a viable pharmacological tx modality at the molecular level.
the more dirty studies like these are done, the more harm they do to vaccines which are lifesaving.
AJG EJS, & SHL = lead investigators
That interferon α is efficacious at the tumor level is not new. The investigators merely found a way to trigger the innate immune system to transcribe and translate interferon α using their patented technologies. BFD. Where are their studies and tx discoveries on HIV, which was identified in 1983?
….
Author contributions A.J.G., S.H.L. and E.J.S. conceived the study, developed the study methodology, directed and supervised all analyses, analysed data, provided resources, acquired funding for the study and wrote the manuscript
Competing interests A.J.G. has received travel funding from Alamar Biosciences and is a
scientific advisor for Sift Biosciences and BeyondSpring Pharmaceuticals. J.Z. reports grants
from Merck, grants and personal fees from Johnson & Johnson and Novartis, personal fees
from Bristol Myers Squibb, AstraZeneca, GenePlus, Innovent and Hengrui outside the
submitted work. D.L.G. is a scientific advisor for AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly, Menarini Richerche, 4D
Pharma, Onconova Therapeutics and Sanofi. P.S. is on the scientific advisory committee for
Achelois, Affini-T, Akoya Biosciences, Apricity, Asher Bio, BioAtla LLC, Candel Therapeutics,
Catalio, C-Reveal Therapeutics, Dragonfly Therapeutics, Earli Inc, Enable Medicine, Henlius/
Hengenix, Hummingbird, ImaginAb, InterVenn Biosciences, LAVA Therapeutics, Lytix Biopharma, Marker Therapeutics, Matrisome, Oncolytics, Osteologic, PBM Capital, Phenomic AI, Polaris
Pharma, Soley Therapeutics, Spotlight, Trained Therapeutix Discovery, Two Bear Capital and
Xilis, Inc., and reports private investments in Adaptive Biotechnologies, BioNTech, JSL Health,
Sporos and Time Bioventures. S.H.L. receives grant funding from Beyond Spring Pharmaceuticals and Nektar Therapeutics, serves on the scientific advisory boards for Beyond Spring
Pharmaceuticals, AstraZeneca and Creatv Microtech, and is co-founder of and holds stock
options in Seek Diagnostics. J.V.H. reports being on advisory committees for BioNTech,
Genentech, Mirati Therapeutics, Eli Lilly, Janssen, Boehringer Ingelheim, Regeneron, Takeda,
BerGenBio, Jazz, Curio Science, Novartis, AstraZeneca, BioAlta, Sanofi, Spectrum,
GlaxoSmithKline, EMD Serono, BluePrint Medicine and Chugai; support from AstraZeneca,
Boehringer Ingelheim, Spectrum, Mirati, Bristol Myers Squibb and Takeda; and licensing or
royalties from Spectrum. E.J.S. is a paid consultant for Siren Biotechnology, an external
advisory board member at Nature’s Toolbox (NTX) with stock options, and a scientific advisor
for iOncologi, Inc. The Article discusses patented technologies related to RNA therapeutics
from A.J.G., C.M., S.H.L, D.S., H.R.M.-G. and E.J.S. Some of these technologies are licensed or
under option to license by iOncologi, Inc. H.R.M.-G. and E.J.S. receive royalty payments from
patents licensed to iOncologi. The other authors declare no competing interests.
Estovir
I wonder if the patients who were twice as likely to be alive after 3 years share your opinion ????
Perhaps you should contact M.D Anderson and let them know that their study is worthless.
You are a pompous know-nothing idiot.
Wait a minute. RFK Jr. has a brain? Who knew?
No !!!
He HAD a brain.
The worms ate it.
spoken like a true donk…focus on the tiny percentage as if that is the only concern.
well well well my ass
The truest words ever spoken: the power to tax is the power to destroy. The wise peope who founded this country unstokd these words. It is why they forbade the federal government to power to tax income. When the power to tax income was established, the people fell and the government rose.
Trump prepped the population on Venezuela this morning on Maria Bartiromo.
Compelling rationale competently laid out by spokeswoman María Corina Machado: Criminal acts by Maduro against the U.S., stolen election, corrupt government, abused citizenry, etc.
“We’re goin’ in!”
“Tax the rich” LOL, every american is amongst the top .1% of all humans on earth in quality of life.
even the homeless can afford cars, food, phones.
We are not victims of the rich, and the opportunity for anyone to become even richer is most prevalent here too.
Poverty in America is as fake as a homeless guy holding a sign “hungry”, he never heard of SNAP???
Socialism in america is a grift by the lazy. No one is stopping you from having it all.
anyone on the left denies this, and it’s to their detriment, but in fact, many of them DO work for a better future while they fail to imagine they could have more. victims of their victim mentality.
The absurd “Tax the rich” path will justify the poorest rest-of-the-world taxing the US.
Wait, maybe that’s what’s been happening…
yes, our “poor” live better than Kings (real ones) did 200 years ago.
Nice rant and I agred
Russia now owns another Republican member of Congress. Likely bought at a bargain price.
Kirill Dmitriev. CEO of the Russian sovereign wealth fund, and close to Putin just posted this.
“Had a very productive and constructive meeting with great @RepLuna
She’s been a strong voice for dialogue and for peace. She is also organizing a meeting between U.S. Congress members and the Russian Duma to encourage parliamentary dialogue. Blessed are the peacemakers!”
https://x.com/kadmitriev/status/1982430388610826260
Ukraine needs you in the trenches. Stop being a blowhard and a coward and show some initiative.
I believe every word Kirill Dmitriev has to say.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) blasted the Trump administration Sunday for its ongoing military strikes on suspected drug traffickers in the Caribbean, labeling them as “extrajudicial killings” that he argued were similar to how the Iranian or Chinese governments operate.
“The drug or the crime war has typically been something we do through law enforcement, and so far they have alleged that these people are drug dealers,” Paul said, appearing on Fox News Sunday.
“No one’s said their name, no one’s said what evidence, no one’s said whether they’re armed, and we’ve had no evidence presented. So at this point, I would call them extrajudicial killings. This is akin to what China does, to what Iran does with drug dealers, they summarily execute people without presenting evidence to the public, so it’s wrong.”
Senator Rand Paul – replacing Senator John McCain as the Democrat leaders’ favorite Republican senator! Which is why Democrat commie apparatchiks rush here, completely off topic, to throw him against the wall in hopes that it will stick and distract from the incredible damage communist taxation has done to their Utopian states like California
If only Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) (and his Democrat eminence gris standing behind his throne) could get just as worked up about foreign nations and foreign actors that either collude with or directly partner with drug cartels to kill twice as many Americans each year as died in the Vietnam War. How many drug cartel terrorists dying in these strikes that he likes to call extrajudicial killings – versus 100,000+ Americans murdered in extrajudical killings each year by these foreign narco-terrorists assaulting and penetrating our borders to drop off what kills those Americans?
Rand Paul prefers to see 100,000+ Americans die each year rather than a few dozen foreign terrorist drug trafficers die without a trial, dying in international waters while on their way to assault and try to penetrate our borders to drop off the drugs that are essentially a weapon of mass destruction.
This is the same Rand Paul who said after Trump took Iran’s arch terrorist Soleimani out of the terrorism game: “The Iran agreement wasn’t perfect, and I was a critic of the Iran agreement, however, I think it was a big mistake to pull out of the agreement. The death of Soleimani, I think, is the death of diplomacy with Iran. I don’t see an off-ramp. I don’t see a way out of this
Paul is one of those either ignorant or fraudulent purist libertarians who believe that their most extreme interpretations of the Constitution must be used to allow them to use it as their national suicide note.
Trump prepped the population on Venezuela this morning on Maria Bartiromo.
Compelling rationale competently laid out by spokeswoman María Corina Machado: Criminal acts by Maduro against the U.S., stolen election, corrupt government, abused citizenry, etc.
“We’re goin’ in!”
The consequences of Trump gutting the National Weather Service are becoming apparent.
“Whisky Pete” Hogsbreath ordered an aircraft carrier group into the Caribbean, directly into the path of force 5 Hurricane Melissa.
Somebody’s been getting into the crack pipes and cocaine stashes left behind by The First Felon Crackhead Bagman Son.
“The consequences of . . .”
So how do you know there’s a hurricane, its location, its force, its path?
Ouija board?
check mate!
no.
a hurricane is a problem even for an aircraft carrier! And you dont even need a federal weatherforcaster t o see a satelite..
Jezzzzzzzzzz do you know these carriers do their weather forecasting.
Not to worry sailor boy. These ships were built for this.
There’s one word for government in California: WATER!
“Goofy Gavin” Newscum will have spent $200 billion upon completion on a pointless train to nowhere to serve a very small portion of the population when his Communist Directorate of Water issues cease and desist orders to water users with the threat of felony prosecution, when $2 Billion would have built a supplementary water pipeline from the Columbia River to the northern sources of the California Water Project, the prototype of which was initiated by William Mulholland in 1913—it’s not like we all didn’t know!
Charles G. Shaver says: Try as I might I find no provision in the US Constitution for obscene wealth to coexist with abject poverty. In fact, I find no provision for wealth, at all.
Charlie: don’t just dump your load of communist fecal matter about the Constitution and then run and hide. Have the courage of the Founding Fathers that you cosplay as admiring: take advantage of your freedom and liberty to stay and defend what you posted as your beliefs.
While we await you having the courage to do that as a self-taught, self-identifying Chicago constitutional scholar in the likeness of Barack Obama, here’s a reminder to you from one of the Framers. It concerns your belief that the Constitution supports your demands for communist Obama style “redistribution of wealth” — because wealth is supposedly what you claim, a traitorous obscenity:
Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government. I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.
—James Madison
The Constitution and Bill of Rights provide maximal freedom to individuals while they severely limit and restrict government, severely!
Article 1, Section 8:
Congress has no power to tax for or fund anything other than debt, defense, and “general Welfare,” which consists of only security and basic infrastructure.
Congress has no power to regulate anything other than “the value of money,” “commerce—buying and selling only—among nations, states, and Indian tribes,” and “land and naval Forces.”
The momentous and singular American failure is the judicial branch, with emphasis on the Supreme Court.
“The momentous and singular American failure is the judicial branch, with emphasis on the Supreme Court.”
The overwhelming singular failure of the American republic rights and freedoms experiment has been voters allowing the continued existence of the vile and violent, seditious DNC and their equally vile members like GeorgeX. The Democrats who blame the chaos they’ve created on the Supreme Court, not themselves: the Court that has given them what they couldn’t get at the ballot box.
The Confederate DNC who have now embraced Marx/Alinsky’s communist strategies, particularly that of California and Chicago style taxation, since losing the Kluxxer Civil War.
They attempt to defend that by putting their fellow communists like Justices Jackson and Sotomayor on SCOTUS, polluting that court in hopes of continuing to get from SCOTUS what voters consistently reject at the ballot box.
And while GeorgeX and other communist Democrats try to blame SCOTUS – They howl in delight at the actions of Jackson and Sotomayor that they worked so hard to put on SCOTUS. They have been orgasmic with excitement even before SCOTUS gave them first Obamacare as supposedly a tax, and then allowed Obama to rewrite that legislation to add his government exchanges himself, without the Legislative Branch.
The entire communist American welfare state must have been struck down by the judicial branch, with emphasis on the Supreme Court, because it is unconstitutional including, but not limited to, admissions affirmative action, grade-inflation affirmative action, employment affirmative action, quotas, welfare, food stamps, minimum wage, rent control, social services, forced busing, public housing, utility subsidies, CRT, DEI, WIC, SNAP, TANF, HAMP, HARP, TARP, PBS, NPR, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Environmental Protection Agency, Agriculture, Education, Labor, Energy, Obamacare, Social Security, Social Security Disability, Social Security Supplemental Income, Medicare, Medicaid, “Fair Housing” laws, “Non-Discrimination” laws, etc.
Article 1, Section 8, provides Congress the power to tax for ONLY debt, defense, and “general Welfare”–ALL or THE WHOLE WELL PROCEED through governmental provision of security and basic infrastructure–omitting and, thereby, excluding any power to tax for individual Welfare, specific Welfare, particular Welfare, favor, or charity. The same Article enumerates and provides Congress the power to regulate ONLY the Value of money, Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes, and land and naval Forces.
Further, the 5th Amendment right to private property was initially qualified by the Framers and is, therefore, absolute, allowing no further qualification, and allowing ONLY the owner the power to “claim and exercise” dominion over private property.
Government exists, under the Constitution and Bill of Rights, to provide maximal freedom to individuals while government is severely limited and restricted to facilitating that maximal freedom of individuals through the provision of security and infrastructure.
The Necessary and Proper Clause is nothing more than a perfunctory redundancy for the purposes of clarification—a reinforcement of that which was previously codified—and may not be wielded to amend and impose separate acts that do not represent but alter the letter and spirit of the Founders and Framers.
Karl Marx wrote the Communist Manifesto 59 years after the adoption of the Constitution because none of the principles of the Communist Manifesto were in the Constitution. Had the principles of the Communist Manifesto been in the Constitution, Karl Marx would have had no reason to write the Communist Manifesto. The principles of the Communist Manifesto were not in the Constitution then, and the principles of the Communist Manifesto are not in the Constitution now.
Of course, the communist author of this incoherent post, who covets other people’s money and status with a vengeance, disagrees.
How profound.
“Communism Good!”
wow, with our Congress, that’s saying something!
Quotes by Ra’s Al Ghul, leader of the League of Shadows, in “Batman Begins”
“Gotham’s time has come. Like Constantinople or Rome before it the city has become a breeding ground for suffering and injustice. lt is beyond saving and must be allowed to die. This is the most important function of the League of Shadows. lt is one we’ve performed for centuries. Gotham must be destroyed. “
“This is not how man was supposed to live. The League of Shadows has been a check against human corruption for thousands of years. We sacked Rome. Loaded trade ships with plague rats. Burned London to the ground. Every time a civilization reaches the pinnacle of its decadence, we return to restore the balance. “
“No one can save Gotham. When a forest grows too wild, a purging fire is inevitable and natural. Tomorrow the world will watch in horror as its greatest city destroys itself. The movement back to harmony will be unstoppable this time. “
“Over the ages our weapons have grown more sophisticated. With Gotham we tried a new one. Economics. … We are back to finish the job. And this time no misguided idealists will get in the way. “
Gotham is usually associated in real life with either New York City, or Chicago, and the way the Democratic leaders of those cities have been governing and promise to govern in the future seems entirely in line with what the League of Shadows would plan. Are “Progressives” just the League of Shadows JV team?
Maybe it’s just me, but from my perspective the Democratic Socialists / Progressives / Marxists seem to be trying their darndest to de-stabilize every club, school, company, government or society they have any control over. Anyone with any reasoning ability at all can guess where this leads, and it’s not pretty. The most forgiving explanation that I can imagine for their actions is that they, like the League of Shadows, think that they are the good guys, saving the world from evil, decadent excess, by tearing it all down and starting over.
The alternative, less kind explanation is best stated by a quote from Alfred in a later movie “Some men just want to watch the world burn.”
I left CA as soon as I hit retirement age. I have never voted for a Republican and I have very rarely voted for a Democrat. I grew up, and have been, blue collar all my life. I don’t have a degree of any kind, much less in economics, yet it seems as clear as day that offshoring American manufacturing (read solid blue collar jobs) has radically affected the earnings arc of the middle class and thus the economic well being of a large portion of We the People. When Clinton, who came later, was pushing NAFTA (part 2 of the outsourcing of manufacturing and jobs) he said we were switching to a “service based economy”. Considering my blue collar background and life experiences it should come as no surprise that my first thought was a very snide “who’s gonna be serving whom?” as if I, and countless others, didn’t already know the answer… I used to think I was a leftist, but I’ve since discovered that being for the “people” and their well being and against wars of agression doesn’t make me a leftist. It certainly doesn’t make me a Democrat or Republican.
just stupid.
Just wait until Illinois, New York, Massachusetts, and maybe Connecticut and other New England states (except maybe New Hampshire) enact California-style “exit taxes” that tax ANNUALLY for ten years the net worth of residents that move out of state. It would be the equivalent of an economic Berlin Wall. But then again, such would not be a surprise coming from the socialist Democrats elected to run these states, and the communist about to be elected Mayor in NYC, the soon to be former worldwide center of capitalism.
Vincente,
I would not put it past them. And I would fully expect such laws to be struck down as un-Constitutional. Just like the idea of taxing unrealized gains of stocks, real estate.
I just read today that city of Boston Mayor Wu wants the Prop 2 1/2 law removed from the CommonWealth of MA This is the one control the residents have over real estate taxes hiking beyond ability. Prop 2 1/2 requires the cities and towns to put to vote whether taxes will be increased. This past year several cities and towns asked the voters to increase the real estate taxes and many denied the increases. The problem in the CommonWealth of MA is that our legislature is highly tilted to the left. Prop 2½ (Mass. Gen. L. c. 59, § 21C) is a Massachusetts statute that limits property tax assessments and, secondarily, automobile excise tax levies by Massachusetts municipalities. The name of the initiative refers to the 2.5% ceiling on total property taxes annually as well as the 2.5% limit on property tax increases. It was passed by ballot measure,[1] specifically called an initiative petition within Massachusetts state law for any form of referendum voting, in 1980 and went into effect in 1982. The effort to enact the proposition was led by the anti-tax group Citizens for Limited Taxation.[2] It is similar to other “tax revolt” measures passed around the same time in other parts of the United States. This particular proposition followed the movements of states such as California