Beyond the Cusp

May 3, 2019

Election America, to Steal or not to Steal

 

There is going to be an all-out assault during the next American elections with the media making mountains out of ant hills, not even a mole hill size items. They will barrage the American voters with a different Trump controversy, conspiracy, scheme, collusion and other enticing tidbits. Each of these claims will have a half life of about twelve hours making them disappear within a couple of days, which is why the media is already lining up their ducks and making sure they are all in a row. But no matter how much they are able to invent, infer, suggest, rumor and hyperventilate over, these efforts are going to be overshadowed by the Democrat Primary Race.

 

We all know that hell knows no fury like a leftist scorned, and the Democrat Primaries will have an ample quantity of leftists each competing to make the others appear stingy when it comes to offering free stuff. The Democrats will have two sides to their campaign, the who can out-spend all of the other candidates with offers of free medical coverage for all, free college for all, forgiving all college debts, guaranteed wage, fifteen-dollar an hour minimum wage, paid vacations and whatever other socialist gems in the rough they can invent. Their backstabbing, undercutting, slash and burn campaigning will provide everything the Republicans require to win the election without ever using anything which was not part of the Democrat no-holds barred campaigning.

 

But the Republican primaries might also have some excitement as the establishment, country club, old guard Republicans may very well put somebody up against Trump. Originally, that person appeared to be Mitt Romney as that was the reason for him bumping a fresh and upcoming young man from the ballot so he would be in a position to threaten Trump. Whomever the Republicans attempt to run against President Trump will likely be guaranteed to win the majority of states which will be in the Democrat’s pocket during the election and as such will be a great measuring as to how the election itself will play out. There is another possibility in that the chosen savior who is going to replace Trump on the Republican ticket actually is dragged across the finish line ahead of Trump. Should this be the result, the Republican hierarchy might be able to do to Trump what Hillary did to Bernie Sanders. This would not bode well for the Republicans as not replacing Trump on the ticket is very likely to have many Trump supporters simply staying home. The one secret to the Trump victory which has been mostly ignored were the numbers of first-time voters and people returning to active voting after taking a long break. Remember the little group known as the Silent Majority? Well, they may not be the majority but when it came to supporting President Trump, they definitely were not silent. Should they go quiet, then the Republicans will definitely lose the White House and very probably lose the House and a possibility of losing the Senate. Such a collapse of the Republican base would place the surviving Democrat from the primaries in the White House very probably with a favorable Congress. With a small amount of rule changing such as cloture requiring a simple majority instead of sixty votes and other adjustments and they would be capable of almost anything policy wise.

 

They Can do Socialism Right, Really?

They Can do Socialism Right, Really?

 

The next American elections could provide some of the most ridiculous articles when attempting to cover the give away for votes the Democrats appear to be ready to use as their campaign slogan. Get your free stuff here, for a small fee, but we will only tax the rich and if Elizabeth Warren should win, she has proposed the greatest job and wealth killer in the world, a wealth tax. Such a tax would see money and corporations fleeing the United States in order to protect their shareholders and the health of the company. The remainder of the initial squeaking from the overly crowded field of candidates has already laid out several plans and programs which would completely destroy the American economy and do so with great alacrity. The Democrat Party has become the American for Socialism Party with the banner claiming, ‘We can do it right unlike the previous thousand times socialism has gutted a national economy.’

 

The proof that the Democrats have become the supporters of socialism was proven by their reaction to the Israeli elections. Their hatred for Bibi Netanyahu stems from far deeper than his nationalist agenda and stated support for the Israelis residing beyond the Green Line. Their initial distaste for Bibi Netanyahu originates back in the early 2000’s when he was assigned to be the Israeli Finance Minister. Ariel Sharon gave Bibi this assignment because it had been the death knell for every former Finance Minister as the Israeli economy was hamstrung with heavy amounts of socialism left over from the thirty plus years of the Labor Party running the country. Bibi immediately started to sell off many of the government agencies to private corporations completely separating them from government control. The taxes were revamped to be more favorable to research and development and allowing for the retention of more of the wealth. Israel still has that burdensome VAT tax, but some things might be going too far too fast. Still, Bibi transformed much of the Israeli economy into one based on Capitalism. Bibi also reinvested in Israeli companies giving them an advantage in receiving government contracts over foreign companies. These transformations took Israel from Socialistic economy to a Capitalist economy and the country has never looked back. But to the current Democrat leadership, such a transformation is taking the economy in the wrong direction. They insist that the government be the decider of who will be a winner and who will be the loser. Government will guarantee that workers have all the rights and the corporate owners will be made subjected to the worker’s demands. Should the American people choose their policies, then America could be heading over the falls without even a barrel.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

July 2, 2018

Not This Idea Yet Again!

Filed under: Israel — qwertster @ 1:04 AM
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

 

I thought we had buried this stupidity long ago, but leave it to the current General Staff, the one that claims that religious officers might be too out of touch, retired officers from previous command level positions, Avigdor Lieberman and rumored others from the Security Cabinet have started debating how to provide Gaza with a port and possibly an international airport. The reasoning is to relieve the economic malaise such that they will no longer be facing a collapsing economy and thus be happier and stop rioting and attacking us. So we really need to say this again? Well, if we must as it appears to be necessary, here goes. The Gazans are not attacking us because they are poor, they are poor because they are attacking us. If they were using most of their production in wealth accumulation and their own betterment, Gaza would be one of the most luxurious places on the planet. The Arabs in Gaza receive some of the highest per capita wealth resulting from the aid provided. They are not lacking for assistance, what they are lacking is the use of the aid provided. One example is when cement is provided for rebuilding damaged homes and structures, it is estimated that Hamas is siphoning off 95% of the cement transferred into the Gaza. The stealing of aid shipments reached such levels that the United Nations suspended aid until Hamas provided assurances that they were not stealing the aid, which Hamas promised they would never ever commit such a horrible crime and the United Nations was satisfied that all would be well and reinitiated the aid shipments. This was absolutely remarkable, but then it was the United Nations. Apparently, with the speed and numbers of tunnels being constructed by Hamas, aid levels must be astronomical providing Hamas and Islamic Jihad with all the construction material they require for building the means for attacking Israel. But there are those in high positions in Israel who actually think that there is a dearth of provisions and aid, especially food and medical equipment and supplies despite Hamas refusing an aid shipment of medical supplies by Israel. But not to worry, there are discussions to build an island or use Cyprus or have some method to permit inspection and then direct movement of goods into Gaza. The current method is to use the port in Ashkelon and delivering almost all of approved goods the same day or the next morning in dozens of tractor-trailers every day when the level of violence permits (see image below). What is even more encouraging in showing the appreciation by Hamas and the Gazans of the aid provided, one of their favorite targets is the Kerem Shalom crossing where the aid is provided forcing the aid to be delayed which then the media blames Israel for not providing aid efficiently. Note in the last link that the rocket barrage held up approximately one-hundred tractor-trailers of aid from being delivered and they believe that this current means is inadequate. What are these crazies smoking and can we get some.

 

Tractor Trailer Trucks Lined Up to Enter Gaza with Supplies Daily

Tractor Trailer Trucks Lined Up to Enter Gaza with Supplies Daily

 

The idea of building a dock on a man-made island around three kilometers off shore with a causeway which will have a disconnect section which could be used to cut off travel along the causeway connecting this dock with the shore in case of violence flaring is just as insane now as it was six years ago when it was first floated. If they are actually planning for threats from the shore, then you can bet such will be forthcoming. We would predict that Hamas and Islamic Jihad will launch a major offensive using fishing boats, submersible craft, scuba forces and possibly even finding a way to prevent the causeway being secured and attacking taking the port island supported by sniper fire from the shoreline. If the port is being guarded and manned by international inspectors provided from the United Nations, as they will demand that Israelis would be too controlling and constrict the most critical aid, they will hand the entire island and docks functionally over to Hamas. Basically, within a few weeks, months at the longest, the entire port, which was initially predicted to cost three-billion-dollars and likely resulted in costing ten-billion-dollars, will be required to be bombed out of commission simply because it was taken by the terrorists and bombing it would be less dangerous than attempting to take control back. But what is wrong with the using Cyprus idea? What is the means of taking aid from Cyprus and getting it to Gaza. There is no land route from the island of Cyprus to Gaza. So a shipment pulls into the dock in Cyprus, is unloaded, inspected and then reloaded onto another ship and taken to where? Probably Ashdod or Ashkelon and then taken overland by trucks to Gaza? Perhaps the ships from Cyprus would be permitted to dock at the Gaza docks. Would each ship, likely seven or more per day, receive a military escort by the Israeli Navy to prevent their being loaded with rockets, weapons, ammunition and other military provisions up to and possibly including tanks while going from Cyprus to Gaza. Maybe the Israeli Navy will double in size and have a merchant marine division which will take the shipments from Cyprus to Gaza which will eventually result in a kidnapping of one of the personnel by Hamas, possibly an entire crew, as they attack one of the ships possibly even in such a level as to take control of the entire ship. Everything they think of will provide additional layers, actually take longer, a fraught with danger and troublesome difficulties and reasons why they are simply plans which will result in dangerous situations to Israeli personnel or of Hamas takeover leading to no supervision of what they import while plans are made to destroy the structures leading to using the system already in place. There is no problem getting the aid to Gaza and if the Israeli leadership wish to improve the vision of how aid reaches Gaza, the best means would be to invite the United Nations to come and observe the entirety of the process and allow them to remain until they are satisfied that Israel is passing almost all aid into Gaza with the omissions being items obviously having a strong military use. All these half-baked ideas which bleeding heart leftists propose on a regular basis are a smoke screen which had the intent of causing Israel to question their system which is working perfectly well currently and needs no improvement or a whole new system which will simply lead to failure and a return to what is already in place or Hamas and Islamic Jihad having completely open importation of weapons, additional fighters and anything Iran cares to send their way.

 

Let us state the reality in as straight forward a manner as we are able. Gaza has plenty of aid and there is even a wealthy class made up of Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders, smuggling families who run the black market and supply the terrorists, the people who command the tunneling and an assortment of people in tight with Hamas. Allow us to give you proof from an earlier article titled Wrong-Headed Policies Pursued on Gaza which explains and displays the difference and why there are wealthy and those who Hamas has relegated to virtual homelessness and also the article Gaza which explains the use of the large quantities of cash and the threat Hamas and Islamic Jihad have acquired with the aid packages and the items smuggled largely from Iran. These two articles pretty much cover both sides of the equation of where the aid money ends up, either it ends up in the leadership of Hamas and Islamic Jihad pockets or is invested in better rockets and even missiles and incendiary grenades they attach to balloons and kites to set Israel fields, forests and wildlife preserves afire as has been happening for the past three months. What the General Staff and all the rest of those leading this misadventure need to think about is how can they hit targets in Gaza which would maximize the effect to end the rioting, fire-kites and balloons and the intermittent rocket fire. A simple and direct plan would be to send a small detachment to Tehran clandestinely in order for them to assist the demonstrators with their biggest problem and remove the entirety of the political class starting with the Mullahs and working their way through the IRGC commanders and other necessary individuals in order to allow the protests to actually have a clean slate to develop a new governance. That is highly unlikely despite the temptations which make one dream of such. Our other means would be, as we stated in one of the articles, to strike those lovely places where the Hamas leadership enjoy the good life. Take out the new mall, the new water park, the lovely hotels along the shoreline, the really nice homes where the leaders reside, the fine dining restaurants and everything else we pictured on the right side in the first article’s pictorial of the two Gazas.

 

But as far as wasting time and resources on a new procedure to provide the Gazan people better procedures for providing aid, the system in place is probably about as good as it can get and Israel and the outside world cannot do anything about the actual problem, Hamas stealing the people blind and destroying any chance for a functional economy all to continue to try and drive the Israelis from their land by murdering as many as it takes for the rest to flee. That is never going to happen and should Hamas continue as they have, what may be the eventual result of their attempts to drive the Israelis from their lands will be the people of Gaza, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and all, being driven from Gaza and Israel sweeping it clean to make rebuilding it far easier. Hopefully, when Hamas and Islamic Jihad have driven the Israelis to demanding that the problem that is Gaza be remedied with a finality, the General Staff will have spent sufficient time worrying about plans for every eventuality, including this situation, instead of thinking of how they can complicate the method of providing aid to Gaza such that Hamas can import directly, after a small effort to take over an island Israel built replete with port facilities, and have a plan for removing the terrorist leadership and true believers and allowing the Arabs who simply wish to live a normal life to rebuild their region with Israeli aid. Eventually Israel will be forced to retake Gaza. The media has attempted to tell the world that everybody in Gaza is protesting Israel. The reality is that under 3% of the Gaza population have been involved in even the presumed largest day of rioting. This includes those who decided that rioting for a day was a great way to make $300 for showing up so they could tout a whole fifty-thousand protestors. The population of Gaza is approximately one-million-eight-hundred-thousand. So, even if we were to believe that there were twice of many who just were unable to make it to the protest on the busiest day, that would still mean that 90% plus of the Arabs in Gaza have no intention of joining in the rioting along the border and have no real desire to join the invasion of Israel. These people should be permitted to live a normal life, elect their own government, and not be left imprisoned in a virtual jail which is just as enforced from within by Hamas and Islamic Jihad as it is from the Israel side to prevent terrorist infiltrations. Israel accepted 6,000 Gazans for medical treatment in past four months. This was despite the fact that Hamas regularly prevents Gazans from being allowed to cross into Israel for medical treatments. Perhaps Israel is not the problem where Gaza, their economy, medical treatment and aid reception, just maybe the problem is the dictatorial governance made up of Hamas and Islamic Jihad imprisoning the population and stealing even the food from their mouths is the problem. Just maybe that is the real problem.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

December 24, 2017

Let’s Talk About the Tax Cut Law

 

The long talked about and maligned tax cut legislation has finally passed, and will be signed as a Christmas present for all in tax lands. What has been some of the main talking points have been that the uber rich will receive more money back than the poorest of the poor and that companies having more of their money is not required for them to pay higher wages or hire more employees while expanding business, they could pay more to employees and hire more without a tax cut or expanding their business. Why don’t we simply look at these half-crazed statements which have infected much of the discussion over this economy boosting legislation?

 

The very first things we need to be honest about are that the Democrat Party elites have never seen a new tax or tax increase they did not like, a government giveaway to the lower fifty percent of earners they could not get behind, and tax cuts which includes corporations and the top fifty percent they could not hate. Since we are speaking of the tax cut, we will address the last point only. When your definition of the uber wealthy includes the entirety of the top fifty percent of earner sans the Hollywood elites, then any tax cut will provide the wealthy with almost all the tax relief as they are those in the top fifty percent of earners who pay taxes while those in the bottom fifty percent largely do not pay income taxes. The confusion comes in because the entirety of earners pay taxes, but not all pay income taxes which is what we are talking about. If the Democrats were really so concerned about the taxes paid by the lower fifty percent of earners, then they would find some way of restructuring Social Security taxes, Medicare and Medicaid taxes such that it was less of a burden on those at the lower wage earning end of the scale. One means would be to make minimum wage earners exempt from these taxes and have them begin after earners have earned a specific amount and raise the upper end cut-off one more. Of course, once this begins, very soon these taxes will end up like income taxes, only paid by the top fifty percent of earners and the lower fifty percent of earners being exempt for the most part. Such a taxation schedule should be called the “Democrats think this is almost fair tax schedule.” It is this protection racket by which the Democrats all but lock in those who earn less as their supporters and why they are scared to death of such ideas as a fair tax system where there are far less deductions and a flat tax rate for everyone. To the people complaining about this tax cut, a straight flat tax is called grossly unfair and a tax plan that helps the rich. That is only an accusation available because of the mess of a tax system the two parties have patched together through years of designing taxes to fit their ideas of fair. Such a system has produced a money wasting and unfair system which drains of close to if not over ten percent of the economic growth just to address taxation. That is unfair to everyone no matter where on the pay schedule they fall as it takes money from everybody at an equal percentage and allows the IRS to use the tax code through differing interpretations to attack people which those in power decide need targeting.

 

The people telling us that only the rich will see significant reduction in their taxes are selling you a yarn. We have heard arguments that the lowest one-third of income earners will not see a single penny extra in their paychecks resulting from this legislation. Well, of course not, they do not pay income tax but many get a refund from the income earned tax credit, a straight giveaway to those who pay no taxes such that they will receive a tax refund so they can believe they must have paid taxes. In reality, this is another form of welfare the democrats have devised calling it a tax refund for the tax challenged. What else do you call a refund sent mostly to people who never paid into the fund from whence the refund for payments comes from? We call that a backdoor, disguised Welfare payment. The other truth they leave out is virtually every taxpayer will see some degree of reduction in their tax bill with the singular exception being such special cases who claim every conceivable deduction through some form of tax wizardry and now face some of those deductions being removed from the tax code as part of simplification and those deductions outweighing the amount their taxes were reduced. Thusfar, in everything we have read, such an individual exists in examples of how such could conceivably occur and have names such as John Doe, John Smith, Taxpayer X and other such nomenclature for something which is so rare that no such individual could be found, but we are assured that there are millions who fall into this narrow class of people and they just did not have the time and resources to find anyone.

 

Capitol Cash Machine

Capitol Cash Machine

 

The other huge problem is that this tax cut legislation actually gives corporations, which term is used such that you do not believe this includes the Ma and Pa store on the corner or down the street, it does, are receiving tax cuts. They poke fun at the idea that this will increase the ability of these companies to pay their employees more, save up and enlarge their company thus hiring more employees at a higher rate of pay. Their claim is companies, including the Ma and Pa shop aforementioned, can pay their employees more and expand their businesses and hire more people now if they really wanted to but they are not doing so which simply proves that they will just pocket the extra money and pay the top earners more while probably cutting lower earners’ salaries because they got a tax cut so do not need as much salary. These people really do hate companies and wealthy people unless they are leftist backers of the Democrat Party. Below are a few selected tweets from Hollywood and other elites we took from an article titled, “Liberals Have an EPIC Meltdown Over GOP Tax Reform” which we found online at Townhall.com and cleaned up Mr. Maher’s language to retain our family friendly ratings. These comments were extremely amusing in a provocative way as they come from people who make more in one week than we will in our combined lifetimes. Do they not realize that they are the wealthy of which they complain so loudly? If it is so rotten being that wealthy, we have another suggestion for them, not only refuse their ill gotten tax cuts, but make an example and pay double what they owe and denote that their extra payment must be used to pay down the principle of the debt, something which truly would help the nation and its financial wealth and would pay dividends far into the future. If the entirety of the mega-wealthy would make a contract that they each pay one million dollars additional taxes each year denoting that it goes directly into paying off the principle of the debt, with one proviso, the government finish that year with a balanced budget or showing a profit. That would serve a number of worthy causes, it would give the government, particularly Congress, an incentive to live within its means, pays down the principle and not just another interest payment making the interest in the future less, and eventually such a contract would remove the debt altogether making the United States debt free for the second time in its entire history (the other time was January 8, 1835, under President Andrew Jackson). Wealthier corporations could join this effort, use their participation as an advertising gimmick, and likely make more profits than the payments would cost. The biggest benefit of such a bribe would be getting Congress every few years to actually manage to spend within its limits, the more often the better.

 

Liberals Have an EPIC Meltdown Over GOP Tax Reform Tweets

Liberals Have an EPIC Meltdown Over GOP Tax Reform Tweets

 

While we are speaking on taxes and balanced budgets, there are some dangerous realities coming in the near future if the United States does not get its fiscal house in order. The first is that with the debt climbing to such a high level, the interest is eating an ever-larger share of each yearly budget making spending limitations impossible. Should the interest rates increase, which should the economy heat up would become unavoidable, then the interest on the debt, which is paid with short term loans, would balloon making even meeting that payment beyond the ability of the government leading to a default situation. This has been part of why the interest rates have been kept artificially so low as the government would collapse should they ever reach close to or above nine percent prime rate. Of course should the debt increase faster than the economy increases as was the case over the past twenty years, then nothing will prevent default within some set period of time probably within this century. The best plan for taking care of this problem would be two-fold approach; first, pass a balanced budget amendment to the constitution which would require that no budget surpass the previous years tax intake by the IRS except in time of declared warfare, and second, a tax policy which incentivizes the economic growth through simplification of the tax code which would include a wealth tax on uninvested savings, which would include trust funds and endowments, of over two-hundred-fifty-million dollars, adjusted for inflations and deflation each year, such as to encourage these large pools of revenue to be invested thus stimulating economic growth as that is the easiest and fastest way to shrink the deficit.

 

As far as the ridiculing and belittling of the tax simplification and reduction legislation, it is being done for two basic reasons. First, the left-leaning media-Democrat Party-entertainment-news conglomerate believes firmly that the government can spend your money far more wisely than can you as you would never spend your hard-earned money on some of the insanities such as investing in anthropomorphic global warming schemes from the United Nations or whatever your favorite waste of money by government might be but the government will spend money on the United Nations IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) and that means they would spend your money more wisely than you could ever spend that money. Second, this was one of Donald Trump’s ideas and as he backs this plan, it must be prevented from being enacted at all costs simply because it is Donald Trump’s idea. That is the hard and basic truth. It matters not if this tax package is good for America, good for most of the populations, good for the economy; it was not done by an approved individual, read Democrat, and thus is terrible, horrible, dastardly and must be made to be unpalatable to the public. What the people pushing this inanity twenty-four-seven have not and refuse to recognize is that they have reached the point where the rest of the world is getting on with their lives and have been ignoring them for months. They cannot see this as they are locked into echo-chambers of like-minded, or out-of-minded, others who are doing the same thing. They each retweet or repost the same things in such a manner that they do eventually repeat about every seven or eight months thus these have become ring-posts which work their way around varying groups of people finally reaching back to the original point only to start around again. Some of these people are in multiple rings making the entire hodgepodge somewhat less discernable, especially for those involved. Granted, there are some who remain in contact with a number of these people either for amusement, gain information on the other extremes, or because they have lost a friend to the fire breathing circuit and are waiting for the right moment to try an make a recovery effort.

 

As a closing point, having companies pay fewer taxes is always a good thing because companies do not pay taxes, only people pay taxes. Does anybody really believe as some have posted that companies do not pass on the cost of taxes in the price of their products and in lower raises for the employees. Those are the realities of running a business as we can tell you from experience in doing exactly that. Overhead includes tax payments, licensing, rental fees, fuel costs and a myriad of other incidentals and are all summed up and then incorporated in determining the cost of their goods and services. Lower any single element and the price drops, raise any single element and the price goes up. What you are not being told is it is less expensive for you to pay a tax directly than for you to pay the tax through a corporation placing the costs of that tax into its price formula. When they incorporate the tax as part of their price formula, that cost is added to the base cost of the goods and other essentials in manufacturing or producing the goods or services and once that determination is made, it is then increased by a percentage. For example, an item costs ten dollars to make and overhead is five dollars per unit of which one dollar is taxes. The price mark-up is one-hundred percent (not uncommon for production to retail price with Jewelry far higher and low ticket items less but this is a normative range) then you take the ten dollars and the five dollars and add them getting fifteen then increase that by one-hundred percent and you get a selling price of thirty dollars of which two dollars are for the taxes. That is right, they mark-up their tax cost and pass that along and make a profit on their taxes because companies make a profit on everything otherwise they would not be in business very long. So, which is more expensive, the corporations paying the taxes or the individual paying the taxes once you realize that the corporation places the cost of taxes into the production cost and then mark-up the entire cost including a mark-up on the taxes so you pay for the taxes plus. It really is that simple, you pay for the taxes plus for a profit on their paying the taxes in the price of everything you purchase, so would it not just be easier to pay the taxes yourself instead of through a middleman? We know there are some out there still saying that the corporations and companies can afford to pay more taxes but they do not actually pay the tax, the people do. The corporation and tax costs are passed on to the customer with an allowance giving the corporations additional profits.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

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