Biden's new tax on cars

 

 

One of the most frequent claims from Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign was that he would only seek tax increases on those earning more than $400,000 per year.

That was always a dubious promise, given his expensive big-government agenda, and now we’re seeing examples of how a tax-and-spend approach can hit everyday Americans. Biden won the 2020 election promising that he would never raise taxes on anyone earning less than $400,000 a year and would never impose a new tax

. Now his Secretary of Transportation announced he wants to both tax Americans earning less than $400,000 and do so with a new tax. Biden must fire Pete Buttigieg, repudiate his statement or admit that he was elected on a lie

 Biden and Vice President Harris made the pledge on at least 56 different occasions. The pledge also forbids the imposition of any 'new' taxes on Americans making less than $400,000. So the vehicle miles traveled tax would violate the Biden-Harris pledge both ways.  Setting aside that the $400,000 goal post has been moved from individuals to households, which ropes in millions of additional families, a high-profile Cabinet member has touted a new tax that would necessarily hit anyone who drives a car (which is the vast majority of adults). 

 

 Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg praised the concept of imposing a nationwide Vehicle Miles Traveled tax in an interview. He said that there likely would be several different tax increases as part of expected infrastructure legislation, which he claims is necessary because “it’s got to be transformative.”  The concept of a mileage tax has been around for years. One of the main reasons why the idea has become more prominent is the increasing use of hybrid and electric vehicles, which pay little or nothing in gas taxes. As such, federal gas tax revenue has flattened.

There are two ways of implementing the potential new tax.

One would involve annual odometer readings. That would be vulnerable to rollback devices that can change a car’s mileage readout, and it would be a logistical nightmare to perform on all cars across the country every year.

The other method would use GPS trackers to monitor the distance a car travels. That also has implementation concerns, such as whether older cars would have to have the devices retrofitted in and whether manufacturers would be forced to add them to new cars.

In addition, there are serious privacy concerns regarding whether a vehicle’s GPS data could be used to monitor individual drivers. Any such system would need to have strict rules in place to safeguard civil liberties.  That’s only the beginning of problems with imposing a nationwide mileage tax.  Supporters of the tax regularly claim that it would replace the gas tax. There are good reasons to be skeptical of that promise.  The astonishing size of current spending plans would require as much tax revenue as the federal government can get, meaning that any sort of tax cut is unlikely. Simply not paying for infrastructure spending by adding to the federal debt would be unwise, given the nation’s crumbling finances and growing deficits in the highway fund. 

 

 

 

Thus, a mileage tax would almost certainly be layered on top of the gas tax, meaning a tax increase for the vast majority of families. However, even if the gas tax were to be eventually phased out, supporters of a mileage tax are clear that the main goal of the tax is to bring in more revenue than the gas tax currently provides.

Either way, that spells a tax increase, and one that will disproportionately hit blue-collar workers who can’t telecommute.

Another reason to oppose the mileage tax is that it’s based on the idea that we need the federal government to meddle with infrastructure development more than it already does.

A Vehicle Miles Traveled tax would also be vulnerable to bureaucratic micromanagement, especially if it’s done with a GPS system. The federal government could charge different rates per mile, based on location, time of day, or traffic volume, and thus politicize the way we drive by playing favorites.

Those who promote the new tax-and-spend mega-package will insist that the only choices are voting for their progressive grab bag or allowing our roads and bridges to fall apart. That’s a false choice.

It also puts a big paradox out there. Because we know that Buttigieg and other Democrats don’t just want to tax motorists, but want to drive them off the roads entirely.

Amazon Book Banning

 

 

Most Americans know that there are two sexes, male and female, and that sex is rooted in science.  Most Americans also know that we ought to treat all people, including those who feel conflicted about their gender, with respect and dignity, without sacrificing the truth in the process. These beliefs, though, are now under attack from some of the most powerful corporations in the history of the world

The book, When Harry Became Sally by Ryan T. Anderson, was an Amazon bestseller. Its description says it provides “thoughtful answers to questions arising from our transgender moment” and “a balanced approach to public policy on gender identity, and a sober assessment of the human costs of getting human nature wrong.”

The book has been on sale for three years.

“When Harry Became Sally,” published in 2019, was written by conservative scholar Ryan T. Anderson and discusses several issues including gender identity.

“This book exposes the contrast between the media’s sunny depiction of gender fluidity and the often sad reality of living with gender dysphoria,” according to its description online. “It gives a voice to people who tried to ‘transition’ by changing their bodies, and found themselves no better off. Especially troubling are the stories told by adults who were encouraged to transition as children but later regretted subjecting themselves to those drastic procedures.”

 

 

 

You can get [Adolf] Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” shipped to your door with free Amazon Prime delivery. You can get the Unabomber manifesto written by a serial killer who murdered three people and maimed 23 others. You can even get “How to Blow Up a Pipeline.” I assume the title speaks for itself.

All those books are available for purchase on Amazon right now, one click away, but Amazon wants you to believe that a conservative book is somehow beyond the pale, unacceptably hateful, literally worse than Hitler, as they like to say.

Amazon has banned books in the past, the works mostly focused on conspiracy theories and debunking the Holocaust. The Amazon web services also recently banned conservative website Parler from its services, and has deplatformed other conservative websites.

 The company has previously said that it reserves the right not to sell certain content based on its content guidelines for books. “All retailers make decisions about what selection they choose to offer and we do not take selection decisions lightly,” a statement read.

 

 

Can a boy be “trapped” in a girl’s body? Can modern medicine “reassign” sex? Is our sex “assigned” to us in the first place? What is the most loving response to a person experiencing a conflicted sense of gender? What should our law say on matters of “gender identity”?

When Harry Became Sally provides thoughtful answers to questions arising from our transgender moment. Drawing on the best insights from biology, psychology, and philosophy, Ryan Anderson offers a nuanced view of human embodiment, a balanced approach to public policy on gender identity, and a sober assessment of the human costs of getting human nature wrong.

This book exposes the contrast between the media’s sunny depiction of gender fluidity and the often sad reality of living with gender dysphoria. It gives a voice to people who tried to “transition” by changing their bodies, and found themselves no better off. Especially troubling are the stories told by adults who were encouraged to transition as children but later regretted subjecting themselves to those drastic procedures.

As Anderson shows, the most beneficial therapies focus on helping people accept themselves and live in harmony with their bodies. This understanding is vital for parents with children in schools where counselors may steer a child toward transitioning behind their backs.

Everyone has something at stake in the controversies over transgender ideology, when misguided “antidiscrimination” policies allow biological men into women’s restrooms and penalize Americans who hold to the truth about human nature. Anderson offers a strategy for pushing back with principle and prudence, compassion and grace.

 

 

The big issue, though, is Amazon’s scale. The company’s share of the book market is giant – it accounts for 83% of all US ebook sales, and at least 50% of all physical books. It is the world’s largest bookseller, meaning it can essentially make books disappear for all readers, and its size means some books may not even be published in the first place if Amazon won’t sell them. Normally, a conservative response to this issue is simple – go buy the book elsewhere – but Amazon has such clout, the book may never reach the publication stage at all.

At the moment, this is just about a couple of books, but if we don’t take a stand now, the list of banned material will only grow. Amazon should not have the power to decide what we can read and, as a result, which ideas should circulate in a society. The company is engaging in a form of virtual book burning, and that’s terrifying. I’m reminded of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, and how firemen destroy literature to censor knowledge, something the author described in a 1994 interview as “thought control and freedom of speech control”. Amazon has started the fire – the question now is whether we will fight to extinguish it.

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Horror on the Border

 

 

 

At present time, the United States' southern border is wide open. Unaccompanied alien children, single alien men and intact alien families are all pouring over en masse. Anecdotal horror stories abound.  Illegal immigration—let alone the extraordinarily high volume of illegal immigration now transpiring—is not an abstract or academic concept. Yes, policies such as amnesty and catch-and-release are fundamentally unjust insofar as they deprive U.S. citizens of agency over the most consequential decisions that citizens in a free republic are ever asked to contemplate: who else to admit into the body politic. And the very notion of sovereignty is undermined and rendered unintelligible. But there are also tangible, sweeping harms from widespread illegal immigration affecting all relevant stakeholders. Democrats who wish to downplay those harms for the sake of boosting intersectional street cred with their "woke" base are doing no one any favors.

 

 

Non-citizens constitute only about 7 percent of the U.S. population. Yet the latest data from the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics reveals that non-citizens accounted for nearly two-thirds (64 percent) of all federal arrests in 2018. Just two decades earlier, only 37 percent of all federal arrests were non-citizens.

These arrests aren’t just for immigration crimes. Non-citizens accounted for 24 percent of all federal drug arrests, 25 percent of all federal property arrests, and 28 percent of all federal fraud arrests.

The open borders agenda massively empowers and enriches the smuggling rings that the media typically refer to as the "drug cartels," but which are better understood as barbarous transnational criminal syndicates that sometimes even sync up with Chinese fentanyl exporters and internationally recognized terrorist outfits, such as Hezbollah. These are some of the most vicious organizations in the Western world and, as even The New York Times reported in 2019, are known for widespread raping and sexual violence committed against female migrants. Ranchers along the often-barren high deserts of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona are imminently endangered by the cartels' depredations in their own (literal) backyards.

Blue-collar workers of all races and backgrounds are hurt by an uncontrollable deluge of cheap, low-wage migrants who lack labor market bargaining power for the simple reason that they are not here legally. Pro-immigration enforcement states are perversely penalized in the U.S. Census—at least under the erroneous prevailing practice, which Trump sought to change, of counting both legal and illegal aliens—when they lose congressional representation to "sanctuary city"-enabling blue states that mollycoddle illegal aliens.

 

 

 

But we do know why so many people from all over the world are attempting to illegally enter the country now. It’s because Joe Biden said during last year’s campaign and since he took office he was going to provide free healthcare, stop deportations, and pass a massive amnesty bill. He invited this crisis!

Wouldn’t you like to get free healthcare, a free education for your kids, and be forgiven for breaking the law? Illegal aliens are getting a better deal than most Americans!

Don’t think this is just a border-state problem. Migrants apprehended at the border are being sent to states all over the country. Every state is being turned into the equivalent of a border state.

Meanwhile, our schools aren’t fully open yet, but the border is wide open. And the cartels are fully exploiting this vulnerability, charging thousands of dollars to smuggle people and who knows what else across the border.

 

 

 

A new Rasmussen poll finds that 73% of voters are concerned about the crisis at the border, while a majority opposes granting amnesty to illegal aliens. Strong majorities also support commonsense measures like ending chain migration and requiring employers to verify the citizenship of job applicants.

And 90% of voters say illegal immigrants should be tested for COVID before being released, but that isn’t happening. Biden’s insane policies have created a super-spreader event along the entire southern border!

One final thought: Biden and the woke left are constantly telling us that we are a country sick with “systemic racism” and “white supremacy.” And yet the overwhelming majority of people trying to come in are people of color.

If the U.S. is so racist, why is there such fervent desire to come live here?

Crisis at the border

 

 

 

President Biden’s immigration policies have created a crisis on the border he can no longer afford to ignore. Despite his administration’s unwillingness to recognize the situation on the border as a serious humanitarian crisis, federal authorities have struggled to control this situation as a massive surge of migrants attempt to enter the U.S. illegally. Just last month, over 100,000 migrants attempted to cross the border, which is more than three times the number of attempts one year prior.

President Biden needs to realize his campaign promises and actions since taking office have created a crisis on the border which compromises the safety of law-abiding Americans. On the campaign trail, President Biden promised to ease immigration controls and put a moratorium on deportations, signaling to asylum-seekers the likelihood of gaining entry to the United States. He has further exacerbated the problem with his proposed immigration bill offering asylum and a pathway to citizenship to most of the illegal immigrants who are already in the United States.

The crisis on our border will continue growing if President Biden does not get serious and change his course of action. During his first days in office, he chose to no longer enforce a Trump-era rule applying Title 42 of the Public Health Safety Act to minors, which allowed the temporary suspension of entry of a person “when doing so is required in the interest of public health.” He also ended the Remain in Mexico policy requiring asylum seekers to remain in Mexico while awaiting trial. These two decisions have contributed greatly to the massive influx of asylum seekers and the inhumane overcrowding at detention facilities.

 

  The Border Patrol is currently dealing with a backlog of more than 4,000 unaccompanied minors, with more than 3,200 already having been held longer than the legal limit. One Customs and Border Patrol facility in Texas is now at 729% capacity and continues growing. This is unacceptable. Just this past weekend, the White House was forced to dispatch the Federal Emergency Management Agency to assist with the ever-growing surge across the border.

 

 Organized crime involving even the police is an integral part of the worsening immigration crisis. Criminal organizations are involved at every stage of the migration process, from motivating migrant departures for the United States to security along human smuggling routes through Mexico, to the mechanisms for entering the United States undetected.

There are two kinds of criminal groups at work here — transnational gangs and transnational criminal organizations. The brutal violence and unchecked extortion perpetrated by transnational gangs in the Northern Triangle (the nations of El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala), targeting both civilian populations and rival gang members, motivate Central Americans to uproot their lives and families in the hope of a better, safer life in America.

Transnational criminal organizations control, regulate, and tax every land port along the southern border. They also control smuggling routes through Mexico and impose a tax, called a piso, on the smugglers and migrants who use them. These groups control the flow of migrant caravans, strategically diverting Border Patrol resources from sectors of the border that are used to smuggle illegal drugs into the United States.

For those who choose to leave the Northern Triangle for a better life in America, the escape from territory controlled by transnational gangs leads them into territory controlled by the transnational criminal organizations.

 

In most cases, they use coyotes — human smugglers and traffickers who charge them thousands of dollars. Human smugglers range from independent operators and loose networks to subsidiaries of the transnational criminal organizations themselves.

Beyond what migrants pay up front, as the Associated Press reports, many are kidnapped and tortured “until they reveal the phone numbers of relatives in the United States and holding them for ransom.”

If they can’t pay — or if their families can’t — they’re killed. As one analyst points out, “It’s a long trail of extortions, and it’s a very dangerous journey for all of them.”

The groups also sometimes use migrants as drug mules. They will coerce migrants traveling through their territory into carrying large bags, or mochilas, filled with illegal drugs. Not only does this perpetuate the stream of narcotics into the U.S., it also victimizes migrants, making them desperate to unlawfully enter and remain in the U.S. — even if imprisoned on drug charges — for fear of being killed if they are sent home.

 

The bottom line is that throwing open our borders — as President Biden has effectively done — only serves to empower these transnational criminal enterprises. His immigration policies aren’t humanitarian; they’re creating more victims.

 

 President Biden’s reckless immigration policies and his failure to enforce our many immigration laws have created an unprecedented crisis at our border. We are a nation of law and order, and we must have a strong border to protect the health, safety and security of the American citizens. It’s more important now than ever to secure the border and fix the Biden Border Crisis before it gets even further out of hand.

Black Privilege Is Real; White Privilege Is Not

 

 

 

There is a quote attributed to the French philosopher Voltaire: “To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.”

 Critique of past monarchs resulted in beheadings; drawing even a smiley face of Allah portends imminent death by assassination; does the black community fear speaking out against whites, or is it in fact just the opposite?

 

 

 

 Pop culture is a bastion of debauchery and shamelessness, but it also encapsulates everything wrong with the present-day notion of whites being in control of, well, anything. Assuming white privilege and white supremacist institutions were the norm, we might expect whites to say whatever they wanted and do whatever they wanted, free from punishment. Relatedly, to accept that black victimization occurred every day and twice on Sunday, we might expect that for casting the slightest aspersion toward the ruling class (i.e. white folx, as they now say), or getting uppity, that the blowback would be swift and immediate.  In recent weeks, cancel culture has gone from ludicrous speed to plaid in its efforts to silence and shame anyone they deem a threat to The Narrative.

 

 In the case of white people, there is now the requisite demand to speak only in certain terms and regarding certain matters. Asking if defunding the police represents sound policy is rebuked by some nonsensical argument about not knowing what it’s like to have the police patrolling black neighborhoods. At the height of both the riots last summer and human stupidity, Minneapolis City Council chair Lisa Bender declared on national television that her right to basic safety and security from immoral, ruthless, and dangerous thugs was white privilege manifesting itself. No one seems to care that this same city, led by this same loser and the incompetent boy mayor, just asked for and received almost $6.5 million to shore up much-needed police needs. If their hypocrisy didn’t produce such tragedies, then this entire charade would be a comedy.

 

 White people are clearly on the defensive. White opinions matter only if they are parroting approved, and ever-changing, talking points. This leads to the counterargument that, while white privilege is quite false, black privilege is quite real. It has been repeatedly and consistently demonstrated that white people no longer have free speech when it pertains to matters of cultural or political value. Either cozy up or shut up.

 

 

 

 There are no such things as “white privilege” and “systemic racism.” They are made up concepts that became necessary when blacks gained full equality and even preference in many circumstances. People started to ask, “Aren’t affirmative action and quotas just reverse racism (ie. racism)?” There was no longer any justification for such programs (if there ever was) so an invisible, unarguable “wrong” had to be created, hence “systemic racism” and “white privilege.” People need to stop apologizing or feeling guilty for something that doesn’t exist, and simply say, “There’s no such thing.” We need to go back to MLK’s vision of a colorblind society. 

 

 The other night, I watched the film “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.” At one point, Sidney Poitier’s character was chastising his father. He said, “You think of yourself as a black man. I think of myself as a man.” Today’s leftists and wokes say the opposite, “Don’t think of yourself as a person, think of yourself as a black person/person of color.” This is destructive, wrong, and evil, and people need to stand up and say so. I believe there are millions of blacks that agree with me, but they (like millions of whites) are just “keeping their heads down.” Well, the Bolsheviks took over Russia, the Nazis took over Germany, and the Communists took over China because most of the people “kept their heads down.” Then millions of people were put to death and untold sorrow was visited on those that lived. Think it can’t happen again? Just watch.