by | BLOG, EDUCATION, HYPOCRISY, Israel
The latest attempt by Liz Magill to smooth over Jewish donors and save her job is absolutely pathetic. She purports to condemn hateful acts and claims they have no place at Penn, but has done nothing to actually ensure they have no place by removing antisemitism from the campus. There is no expulsion of students who actually engaged in antisemitism — even though she even described those acts! There is no removal of faculty or administration who have downplayed antisemitism and allowed its ideas to take root and grow. Penn indeed “has work to do”, and it can start there. But it won’t. And here’s why.
Liz Magill doesn’t actually believe what she says. It is apparent on the front page of her plan. She writes, “As we move forward with this important work, we will ensure that our programmatic efforts consider the interconnectedness between antisemitism and other forms of hate, including Islamophobia, so that we are fostering a welcoming community for all.”
Right there, Magill can’t help but include Islamophobia alongside antisemitism; this means she is fearful of actually taking a unilateral stand solely against antisemitism on behalf of her Jewish students, faculty, and donors. She is equivocating here by including what she calls “other forms of hate” in her statement, because she is more worried about upsetting other members of the community than she is clear about defending Jews.
Even more alarming is the fact that she calls “Islamophobia” a form of hate, but it is not. The very definition of antisemitism is hatred against Jewish, a form of racism and outright hostility toward the Jewish people. In contrast, Islamophobia is a fear (phobia), often irrational, toward Islam or Muslims. Fear and hatred are two very different things and to conflate the two is disingenuous.
But she doesn’t end there. She repeats the sentence in her Education plan, again lumping antisemitism with Islamophobia. And then further along as a Medium Term Action, she announces the commitment to hire “an experienced leader with expertise in preventing and responding to antisemitism, Islamophobia, and other forms of hate.”
If this was actually about antisemitism, it would be about antisemitism. And that’s why it’s not. The need to throw “Islamophobia” in there three times (and no specific mention of any other forms of hate, mind you) is ridiculous and it cheapens anything she says. Magill is merely pandering to the Jewish community because she is actually terrified of offending the larger UPenn community as well as losing millions in donations to her school. Her action plan to combat anti semitism should start with her own resignation.
by | BIDEN, BLOG, ECONOMY, HYPOCRISY
Biden told one of the biggest whoppers of his presidency during a speech today when he went after oil and gas companies and accused them of “war profiteering” after companies posted record profits. But what he purposefully left out was the fact that his own war on energy has directly contributed to the situation. Don’t forget that Biden once vowed to “end fossil fuels”.
It is laughable that Biden chastised Exxon, Shell, and other companies, saying “They have a responsibility to act in the interest of their consumers, their community and their country, to invest in America by increasing production and refining capacity” when one of his very first acts of his presidency was to cancel the permit on the Keystone pipeline so that it came to a screeching halt.
One week after taking office, he delivered on his campaign promises to ban “new oil and gas permitting on public lands and waters” by signing an Executive Order doing just that.
Emboldened by Biden’s alternative energy push, three Democrats submitted the “Fossil Free Finance Act” to Congress in September 2021, which would have ordered “the Fed to take unprecedented steps meant to steer financial support away from oil, gas, coal and companies by unraveling banks who refuse to comply.”
Likewise, Biden pushed for Sarah Bloom Raskin to be named to the Federal Reserve Board until she withdrew her nomination in March 2022. Raskin’s vision was that financial regulators move toward policies that will “allocate capital and align portfolios toward sustainable investments that do not depend on carbon and fossil fuels.”
If there is any actual “war profiteering,” it’s the war on fossil fuels Biden and the Democrats have been waging, causing oil and gas companies to change their investment strategies since they have been stymied by this administration since day one.
Even worse, Biden continued his war by threatening to impose a new tax on excess earnings if companies don’t start investing and lowering prices, saying, “if they don’t, they’re going to pay a higher tax on their excess profits and face other restrictions.” But such a tax, should it come to fruition, would actually discourage investment in new production, thereby exacerbating the very problem that Biden himself has manufactured!
After two years of demonizing the oil and gas industry and choking off new growth, Biden now wants to blame them for higher energy prices. But who in their right mind would invest in such an odious (and now economically risky) environment? This is exactly what Biden wanted, except now it is threatening the Democrats’ standings in the upcoming midterm elections.
by | BIDEN, BLOG, ECONOMY, HYPOCRISY, TAXES
The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 is a scam, and the very name insults the American populace. Our President, Joe Biden, was quoted saying, “Yesterday, I spoke with both Senator Schumer and Manchin and offered my support for a historic agreement to fight inflation and lower costs for American families. It’s called the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.” Inflation is quickly approaching 10% the last time we’ve seen it this high was over 40 years ago, in the 1980s. The bitter irony is that the Biden administration knows what causes inflation, yet virtually nothing in the new law will make matters better.
The claim is that the bill is “fighting inflation” because it reduces the deficit by $300 billion over ten years, which is 1% of GDP. But the deficit reduction doesn’t start until the fourth year, so for the next three years it makes inflation worse!
And let’s look at the numbers. How could a $300 billion reduction in the deficit over ten years be a massive step forward in fighting inflation when the law passed last year increased the deficit by an estimated $1.7 trillion in one year? Utter nonsense.
The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 is a spending bill, first and foremost, and a repackaging of the American Rescue Plan of 2021. Unfortunately, despite their best efforts, they could not disguise the stench; trash is funny like that. The main push in the bill is to encourage investment in renewable energies and allow Medicare to negotiate Rx drug prices. God forbid we cut the deficit by meaningful reductions in spending.
Regardless of your feelings on energy consumption, it is undisputed that green energy is more expensive than traditional forms, evidenced by the fact that we pump billions every year into the industry via subsidies to keep it afloat. We know that the inflation we are experiencing is due to a surplus of money in the economy and demand exceeding supply. Yet, this administration’s solution is to put further pressure on supply via taxes and thereby disincentivizing production. Furthermore, increasing corporate tax rates will put additional pressure on supply; none of Biden’s plans make any sense.
The Democrats claim that the bill will reduce the deficit by roughly $300 billion spread over ten years is meaningless. With government spending approaching $7 trillion in 2021 (with a $3 trillion deficit), and the two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth (recession) we’re experiencing, the light at the end of the tunnel just got a lot further away.
by | ARTICLES, BLOG, EDUCATION, FREEDOM, HYPOCRISY
The continued maltreatment of Amy Wax at UPenn is egregious and unacceptable. Ted Ruger, Dean of the UPenn Carey Law School, has consistently mismanaged the entire affair; his recent change in policy effectively abandoned his prior stance that upheld the right for faculty to express their views buckling under pressure from students who clearly do not understand the concept of freedom of expression. UPenn certainly doesn’t seem to be doing its job these days.
Wax’s “crime” of expressing unfavorable views to some on the topic of immigration — off-campus and unaffiliated with UPenn, by the way — has resulted in a barrage of unrelenting criticism among her colleagues; Ruger went so far as to issue an official statement distancing the law school from her and then penned an op-ed in an act of pure posturing while thinly conceding that free speech is still a thing.
Not so anymore. Ruger bowed to student demands that Wax be sanctioned and that tenure be reformed to “ensure that tenure be consistent with the principles of social equity.” Ruger has now announced that he will indeed take action against Amy Way, a tenured professor who may face termination. This change in policy undermines the right of faculty to speak freely and UPenn’s commitment to safeguard those rights. This chilling change will undoubtedly affect anyone who espouses an unpopular idea that might be found offensive at some point. One would think that UPenn faculty would be aghast at such a prospect — for they too could be next.
UPenn has proven to be rather un-collegial in this entire sordid affair which makes me recoil at the thought of supporting such an institution any longer. Clearly gone are the days by which the highest goals of a university are the pursuit of knowledge through the debate and discussion of ideas and the defense of the free expression of those ideas.
by | ARTICLES, BLOG, CONSTITUTION, ECONOMY, GOVERNMENT, HYPOCRISY, LAW
The most recent stimulus package gives money to one segment of the population by taking money from another segment of the population. Since wealth transfers cannot reasonably be inferred as any of the acts allowable by the federal government under the Constitution, the Stimulus Act is blatantly unconstitutional.
The recent stimulus checks from the federal government are a pure, vote buying giveaway. Neither need nor negative impact from Covid are factors in getting these payments. While some people have experienced financial difficulties over the past year, the majority of workers are doing okay or better than they were pre-COVID. Because the economy is in a strong growth spurt, there is really no need for a general stimulus at this point. (It would be reasonable to help those impacted by covid, but this is only a very small portion of the recipients). Yet these stimulus checks are being provided to all taxpayers who earn under the government-defined income threshold ($150,000 married, $75,000 single).
Now in order to pay for the stimulus, Biden is increasing taxes on the wealthy — which includes taxpayers who were above the arbitrary line and therefore ineligible to receive a check. There couldn’t be a more direct relationship of taking money from one group and giving it to another.
This very act is a constitutional violation as the Constitution does not allow for wealth transfer.
by | BLOG, CONSTITUTION, ECONOMY, FREEDOM, GOVERNMENT, HYPOCRISY, POLITICS, TAXES
On February 2nd Senator Elizabeth Warren announced that she will join the Senate Finance Committee, the committee tasked with writing this country’s tax laws. She stated, “I’m very pleased to join the Finance Committee, where I’ll continue to fight on behalf of working families and press giant corporations, the wealthy, and the well-connected to finally pay their fair share in taxes.”
Warren has often advocated for a wealth tax in the past, especially during her campaign last year for the Democratic presidential nomination. But now she is actually in a position to make proposed legislation happen. In fact, she’s promised that it will be her “first order of business.” This is wrongheaded on many levels, including fairness, constitutionality, impossibility of implementation, history of failure, negative effect on the economy, and morality.
Fairness: Senator Warren has always maintained that corporations and the wealthy are not paying their “fair share”. She has never addressed the question of what that “fair share” might be. That is not surprising, since corporations and the wealthy in the US pay a far higher share of the tax burden than is paid in virtually every other country in the developed world – and by a wide margin. This results not from very high rates, but rather from the fact that our poor and middle class – almost 50% of our population – pay almost no income tax. According to the Tax Foundation’s 2021 data analysis, in 2018 (the most recent figures available),“the top 50 percent of all taxpayers paid 97.1 percent of all individual income taxes, while the bottom 50 percent paid the remaining 2.9 percent.” Additionally, “The top 1 percent paid a greater share of individual income taxes (40.1 percent) than the bottom 90 percent combined (28.6 percent).” To add a wealth tax on top of the already extremely progressive tax system would be anything but fair.
The grotesque unfairness of a wealth tax is even more evident when it is actually calculated. This can be seen by the following example: Assume that an investor with $100M net worth in the present low interest environment (and because not all of his wealth is appreciating assets) has an average rate of return of 4%. His income therefore is $4 million. The investor would pay an income tax rate of about 45% total combined federal/state/local taxes which would be $1.8 million in taxes. Now consider a 2% wealth tax tacked on, which would be an additional $2 million. This would mean the investor would pay a total of $3.8 in taxes and he would have an effective tax rate of 95%. What’s even more sobering is that if he earns less than 4%, or if his tax rate was more than 45% (which it will be with Biden’s plans), then the investor’s taxes would be in excess of 100%.
Constitutionality: Our Constitution provides in Article 1, Section 9, Clause 4 that: “No Capitation, or other direct, Tax shall be laid, unless in Proportion to the Census or Enumeration herein before directed to be taken.”
Both our income tax and a wealth tax would run afoul of this provision. To make the income tax constitutional we had to add the 16th Amendment. But no such amendment exists for the wealth tax. It may be that wealth tax proponents would argue that this tax is somehow taxing income potential using wealth as a proxy. But no Supreme Court, other than an off-the-charts progressive one, would approve of such strained logic. In fact, there’s currently a case before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals challenging Trump’s Mandatory Deemed Repatriation Tax on the ground that it is, in fact, an unconstitutional wealth tax.
Implementation: Taxing someone’s wealth requires determining the fair market value (“fmv”) of his or her assets, and then (presumably since no details are currently available) subtracting all liabilities. For anyone of considerable wealth, this would be an extraordinarily expensive, time consuming, and complicated effort. Even for assets that might have a publicly available market for valuation, it isn’t that simple. Consider volume. If someone has a substantial amount of something, you normally would apply a discount, since selling large volumes of assets can upset the market and reduce the overall value of an item.
But not everything has a value that can be determined easily. Investment in a closely held business, or real estate, or even paintings are examples of assets that are not susceptible to easy valuation on an annual basis, making it not very economically feasible to try to do so. Additionally, valuation can be determined in any number of ways — such as appraisals, discount rates, and reductions in the lack of marketability– so that valuations may be varied.
Another factor that makes valuations difficult are contingencies. For example, many assets have contingencies backed up with guarantees, and it’s difficult to value those contingencies. Finally, there is a question of liquidity/ability to liquidate or pay. Most people who have extraordinary assets like that often don’t have sufficient income or liquid assets to pay a wealth tax on them. Since many assets are not easily marketable, there could be a liquidity crunch.
Of course, a wealth tax would add even more burdensome complexity to the already byzantine tax code. The IRS would have to substantially increase its number of agents and its budget just to have the manpower to devote to compliance and enforcement. Given the IRS’s history of being discriminatory and incompetent, this is not a good thing.
Failure: It should also be noted that the wealth tax has already been tried — and failed — repeatedly. At one point, 15 European countries had a wealth tax. To date, all but four nations have since repealed it because it was ineffective in accomplishing its goals and was extraordinarily complicated and expensive to administer. Additionally, the wealth tax induced capital flight and asset hiding. For instance, in 2017 France decided to abandon its wealth tax after it caused the loss of “10,000 people with about 35 billion euros ($41 billion) in capital abroad” over a 15 year period according to the Prime Minister. Likewise, Switzerland — one of the four remaining wealth tax countries — experienced substantial tax evasion, noting that a mere “.1% wealth tax lowers reported wealth by 3.4%” according to a study by the National Bureau of Economic Research. As Switzerland has a wealth tax rate of 1%, that amounts to 34.5% in unreported assets.
Effect on the Economy: The growth of our economy is dependent on putting capital to productive use. Every time a corporation reinvests its retained earnings, or an individual puts his wealth to work by investing in an ongoing or new venture, the economy grows. This growth results in new purchases of equipment, facilities, hiring of employees, research and development, etc. Conversely, when capital is removed from the economy, such as by requiring the payment of a wealth tax, the economy shrinks. In fact, the wealth tax is a form of double taxation. Wealthy Americans already pay taxes on their income; under a wealth tax, they would then be taxed again for keeping that income in various assets. This not only punishes success, but discourages investment and savings.
Though progressives may argue that the capital taken out of circulation will be used to redistribute income to those who will spur the economy by consuming those funds, we revert back to Economics 101 – consumption has a much smaller effect on the economy than investment.
Morality: There is no moral justification to take something from someone just because they have it, even if they have a lot of it. One is reminded of the great scholar Thomas Sowell, who understands this quite well: “Since this is an era when many people are concerned about ‘fairness’ and ‘social justice,’ what is your ‘fair share’ of what someone else has worked for?” The wealthy in this country are an extraordinarily charitable group. But it should be their choice as to how charitable they wish to be with their hard-earned assets.
Senator Warren has argued that a real benefit of this tax is that it will only affect a relatively small number of people. This reveals what this tax really is – an attempt to foment class warfare by giving a large number of people (read: voters) a benefit through confiscating substantial amounts of money from a small group.
A wealth tax will certainly not bring in the revenue expected by the progressives – who relish the thought of punishing wealthy Americans in order to throw more money at their failed policies. Wealth redistribution is inherently the antithesis of the American Dream. Bastiat was right. No matter how you spin it, explain it, try to justify it, a wealth tax is simply “legal plunder.” Perhaps Senator Warren is being disingenuous (since the wealth tax would never be passed) but she will nevertheless score political capital among her constituents who do not know any better. She is taking advantage of the lack of economic knowledge among people who don’t understand the complexity and stupidity of a wealth tax.
by | BLOG, ELECTIONS, HYPOCRISY, POLITICS
I was disappointed that a black socialist anti-Semite became a Senator of the United States. While it is well known that he is a progressive and socialist, it’s even more troubling that he is openly anti-Semitic.
In 2019, he signed a letter with other clergy members describing “the heavy militarization of the West Bank, reminiscent of the military occupation of Namibia by apartheid South Africa.” Likewise, during a sermon in 2018, he proclaimed, “We saw the government of Israel shoot down unarmed Palestinian sisters and brothers like birds of prey.” And yet, the very same time, Warnock has been virtually silent on Hamas.
To the extent that racial bias exists in our system today, one thing is clear: 92% of Georgia black voters supported this anti-Semitic socialist. This result would seem to be clear evidence of true racism – that voters can ignore the openly outrageous policies and positions of a candidate and support him solely based on his skin color. Otherwise, how could anyone actually support Warnock?
by | BLOG, COVID, ECONOMY, FREEDOM, HYPOCRISY, LAW
Rioting and looting damage society and harm people. The recent protests on behalf of fighting institutional racism wreak with unlawful violence and hypocrisy. Of course there are plenty of peaceful protesters who have caused no physical harm to property or other individuals. These are not at issue. Rather, the focus should be on the 15 people who lost their lives from the initial George Floyd protests, the countless businesses suffering stark physical damage to their properties (and despite ignorant assertions to the contrary, never fully covered by insurance), and the many families who had their livelihoods ripped to shreds because of looting.
The violence that tore through Minneapolis and other cities in recent months is simply never justifiable. The argument made by NPR’s interviewee, Vicky Osterweil, who takes on the Marxist theory that damage to property is neither violent nor unlawful is clearly nonsense. We live in the United States of America, where property and the endangerment of the security of our citizens are imbedded into every page of our Constitution. In fact the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments delineate this protection of property rights explicitly. Violence to another person’s property is unlawful.
Not only has the recent rioting and looting been unlawful but it has been hypocritical to the highest degree. One mob even attempted to assault Rand Paul and his wife in the name of “social justice.” Disgusting hypocrisy as Rand Paul is the very one who introduced the “Justice for Breonna Taylor Act.” Multiple Americans who died in the Minneapolis riots were minorities. The very Americans – including many of those in racial minorities – whom the violent protestors claim to be protecting were harmed by sky-high property recovery payments and most likely will be faced with spiked insurance premiums in the future. The emotional, physical, and economic freedoms that the rioters and looters claim as their banner are precisely what they themselves are destroying.
If you want to go out and use your freedom of speech in a peaceful way, be my guest– it is your absolute right. If you intend on gathering together a mob full of hatred and hypocrisy, be ready for the consequences. We all ought to be raising our voices against the violent protestors as much as we are trying to solve the civil rights problems of our day. Shame on those who are hypocritically or ignorantly harming the well-being of our own American people.
by | ARTICLES, BLOG, ELECTIONS, FREEDOM, GOVERNMENT, HYPOCRISY, LAW, POLITICS
With Kamala Harris as the Democrat’s Vice-Presidential candidate, it’s important to know that she has committed some rather egregious trespasses as a prosecutor. Just as disturbing is her fluctuating policy positions, calling into serious question her attempt to presently appear as a criminal justice reformer. Instead, Harris should be known for 1) her criminality and very poor judgement as a prosecutor 2) her hypocrisy, and 3) her opportunism.
One of the biggest areas of concern is her prosecutorial misconduct. In many instances, she basically acted as a rogue prosecutor who should have possibly been charged criminally for her own actions in some of the following incidents:
*During a case in 2015 in which a prosecutor concocted a confession from the defendant, thereby leading to the case being dismissed, Harris’s Attorney General’s office appealed the dismissal.
*During a case in 2015 in which a prosecutor in his case fabricated information to a jury relating to compensation to an informant, Harris’s Attorney General’s office fought the defendant’s appeal.
*During a case in which the entire Orange County DAs office was removed from the trial for failure to turn over evidence, Harris sought to block the removal.
*During a case in which a man was wrongfully imprisoned for 13 years, Harris’s office attempted to keep him locked up.
*After a crime lab technician purposefully tainted evidence in a vast amount of cases, Harris hid his actions while acting as a San Francisco DA.
Furthermore, Kamala Harris has worked on rebranding herself from previously being tough on crime to more sympathetic to justice warriors. For instance:
* Until 2014, Harris was against the legalization of marijuana while acting as the Attorney General of California.
* Harris declined to support criminal justice sentencing reforms that were on the ballot in California in 2012 and 2014.
* Harris’s office opposed an order to lessen the amount of prisoners in California, while supporting the use of prisoners as laborers due to the low cost.
* During her time serving as the Attorney General in California, Harris supported the dubious practice of civil asset forfeiture under the guise of going after drug operations.
Additionally, Harris was eager to be in the spotlight while moving up the political chain in California; two ridiculous incidents in particular come to mind.
*While running for US Senate, Harris’s office arrested the owners of Backpage, a site for classified sex workers, after publicly declaring that they “were protected from prosecution under federal speech law.” The case was promptly thrown out by a judge.
*While running for US Senate, Harris’s office went after for-profit colleges in California as part of an Obama initiative, while subsequently refusing to release any buyer of potential future liability– meaning anyone purchasing would be under constant threat of a lawsuit. Subsequently, no buyer would accept the terms. The Corinthian college system therefore shuttered 23 schools, putting people out of work and education.
Kamala Harris has repeatedly shown to have no moral compass. Her actions as a prosecutor should be alarming, as well as her hypocritical flip-flopping of positions. She has shown to be a mercurial political opportunist and has no business being a Vice-Presidential candidate.
by | ARTICLES, BLOG, ECONOMY, EDUCATION, HYPOCRISY, NEW YORK
I was disgusted to read Jamie Dimon’s new initiative, the “New York Jobs CEO Council,” not because I oppose gainful employment for New Yorkers, but because Dimon completely gives a free pass to the New York education system with this program. He misses an opportunity – and ignores his responsibility – to help improve a clearly broken system.
Dimon spends most of his op-ed talking about “skills-based hiring and matching,” but completely ignores the elephant in the room: New York’s education system is failing our kids. He describes how, “The council will create sustained pathways for opportunities in the city, better aligning educational programs with skills that employers need as the demands of the labor market rapidly evolve. This will alleviate unemployment—filling currently open jobs through skills training and empowering communities for the jobs of the future.” Quite frankly, this is PR-speak nonsense. New Yorkers are bereft of a decent education system, which is strangled by public school unions, and exacerbated by the fact that Mayor de Blasio is abusively hostile to charter and religious schools, even though those schools consistently outperform public schools — especially among black and Hispanic students.
If Dimon really wanted to make a difference, he would blast de Blasio on the sub-standard New York education system, but instead, he’s joining forces with him. This is an embarrassment, a detriment of rank-and-file New Yorkers. You would think Dimon would be smart enough to know that he’s in bed with New York politicians and playing politics with regular New Yorkers, but perhaps he thinks he can get away with being so political just because he’s the CEO and chairman of JPMorgan Chase.
