Legend

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Viewing 15 posts - 106 through 120 (of 1,080 total)
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  • LegendLegend
    Keymaster

    Correction:  that’s how a politician who grew up in a one party state would handle it.

    we dodged a bullet, boys.

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    Sic transit gloria mundi (so shut up and get back to work)

    in reply to: Governor of California, Kamala Harris #9471
    LegendLegend
    Keymaster

    I’ll put it this way:  in a party and state that claps back at any criticism of a female candidate with accusations of sexism and misogyny, nobody is going to critique all the wonderful strengths Kamala has and all the fantastic jobs she can do until they actually have to vote.

    She’s awful. I would be willing to bet there are a thousand more accomplished black and Indian females in Silicon Valley alone, much less in the state.  She is the product of patronage, and while that sometimes produces capable people, it didn’t in her case. She has “failed up” like a few female executives I have known, and it’s always because they have such unique strengths and bravery, even in failure.

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    Sic transit gloria mundi (so shut up and get back to work)

    in reply to: Joe Biden pardons Hunter Biden #9429
    LegendLegend
    Keymaster

    Politics is like college football. Once the money got so big people forgot principle. It’s just another market at this point.

    ten percent for the big guy.

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    Sic transit gloria mundi (so shut up and get back to work)

    in reply to: Who bears responsibility for Lefty decline? #9412
    LegendLegend
    Keymaster

    Rachel is the Alex Jones of the left.

    She was badly exposed during this presidential election cycle.

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    Sic transit gloria mundi (so shut up and get back to work)

    in reply to: Unrealized Gains #9381
    LegendLegend
    Keymaster

    Theoretically, I would prefer a very low income tax and a very high estate tax, but as you note, the issue is with the concentration of power.  The ideal for me is to die with zero or darn near it.  That means I would hope to give away pretty much everything before death.  That way the government gets very little.

    I don’t know how workable that is, but it’s the ideal.  If the point of an estate tax is to increase tax revenue and concentration of government power, then I’m not for it. If it is to return assets to circulation in younger generations, then I’m all for it.

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    Sic transit gloria mundi (so shut up and get back to work)

    in reply to: 4B comes to America #9364
    LegendLegend
    Keymaster

    “Strong women.”

     

    A new generation of childless cat ladies.

     

    Whoopi Goldberg is on sex strike in case you are interested, Mick.

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    Sic transit gloria mundi (so shut up and get back to work)

    in reply to: Unrealized Gains #9363
    LegendLegend
    Keymaster

    I would be fine with taxing first generation capital gains at zero.

    At the end of the day, I think the best tax approach would be a relatively low, flat tax on any and all income and gains, with a standard deduction amounting to something like 75 percent of the median taxpayer’s income from the prior year. I wouldn’t even have an issue making part of the deduction refundable to alleviate poverty and encourage tax filing.

    I don’t think taxing unrealized gains is a good idea, but would absolutely treat a loan against highly appreciated assets as income. Yes, that includes your home equity loan. If somebody will lend you money against it, then it has tangible value and you are creating synthetic liquidity.

    You can add the tax to your cost basis when you cash out.

    The problem with our tax system is too many people get rich helping others navigating it.  A legion of accountants and investment advisors would be out of work if a simple tax mechanism were put in place.

     

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    Sic transit gloria mundi (so shut up and get back to work)

    in reply to: Unrealized Gains #9360
    LegendLegend
    Keymaster

    It’s stupid to tax paper gains on founder’s shares. There’s no quicker way to stop new company formation.

    The unrealized gains tax is a dicey proposition.  On one hand you have founders getting crushed. On the other you have wealthy people using capital markets to borrow against inflated assets to avoid realizing gains.  To me, that’s income.

    Maybe fix the income problem by taxing gains on shares used as personal collateral and you won’t have to stick it to founders.

    GR always had interesting takes on the wealth tax. I was intrigued by piketty’s take on it as an alternative to war and major economic dislocations Piketty’s thesis was that capital always outgrows economies, and always ends in massive misallocation of capital.

    I think the adage that we get less of things we tax comes into play here. We should tax idle and generational wealth, and subsidize founders and hard work.

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    Sic transit gloria mundi (so shut up and get back to work)

    in reply to: Blue State California going Red on issues #9343
    LegendLegend
    Keymaster

    Every time I have rejected measure DD I have regretted it.  Some good memories start with a size D.

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    Sic transit gloria mundi (so shut up and get back to work)

    in reply to: LA Times wants Kamala back home… #9338
    LegendLegend
    Keymaster

    I see what you did there.

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    Sic transit gloria mundi (so shut up and get back to work)

    in reply to: What drives me nuts about the Left, Part #8,357 #9333
    LegendLegend
    Keymaster

    This is how the New York Times is reporting it at this moment: Nothing to see here, the votes just haven’t been counted yet. Millions of them.

    I can’t paste the photo  will do later.

     

     

     

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    Sic transit gloria mundi (so shut up and get back to work)

    in reply to: Election Predictions Thread #9324
    LegendLegend
    Keymaster

    I didn’t know about the IRS story. That’s crazy.

    the same thing would happen if ID we’re to be checked across all states. Then it would be called vote suppression and Jim Crow 2.5 and such.

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    Sic transit gloria mundi (so shut up and get back to work)

    in reply to: Election Predictions Thread #9316
    LegendLegend
    Keymaster

    Most of my scenario looks moot because the popular vote is going to trump too. Who woulda thought?

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    Sic transit gloria mundi (so shut up and get back to work)

    in reply to: Final NYT poll #9287
    LegendLegend
    Keymaster

    I wish you peace. Your post is historically pretty interesting (the beer test, for instance). I kinda miss the old CEB or else I wouldn’t have set this one up.

    Your post also sounds a bit more unhinged than I would have expected. Trump can’t stop the sun from rising. He hasn’t hypnotized the populace. He’s just a better option than a leftist to many Americans. In other words, if the Democrats weren’t so cynical, they would have nominated a sure winner (I’d still vote for an Amy Klobuchar over Trump).  But to do that would have required the release of a lot of ideology.

    Trump has exposed the same evil tendencies that the Dems and GOP have banked on for years.  He has just done it in an open and brash way. When Biden calls Trump supporters garbage in a civil tone, it’s appealing to the same prejudices that Trump does when he says Illegal immigrants are criminals.

    In other words, demagoguery has become the way to win. People act on anger, not love, so you have to appeal to their prejudices.  Obama did it, Trump does it, Biden did it (not well), and Kamala is doing the same.

    The really odd thing is Trump’s politics are centrist. If it weren’t for Trump the man, and the democrats successfully pinning people’s votes to their personal endorsement of the man, his politics would win by a mile.  He’s proposing exactly zero social engineering legislation in his platform, and in reality is mainly focused on what would have been called law and order before that was made a buzzword for racial hate.

    secure the border, keep us out of foreign wars, support businesses.  He’s ridiculously pro American but perhaps blind to what his rhetoric has done to the other side. They have grown into angry, violent people because his rhetoric pins them in a corner.

    finally, even your post above falls for one of the worst fallacies to emerge in this election:  the fallacy that the Dems know exactly what Trump will do, and will tell you, and can’t articulate a damned thing about what they would do.   Trump’s gonna….  It’s pure fear mongering, coming from the party that has restrained, restricted, enslaved, interred, and segregated more people than the other over its history. Trumps gonna.

    I wish you peace. Your post sounds deeply agitated. Get some fresh air, watch the election returns, and realize this too shall pass.

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    Sic transit gloria mundi (so shut up and get back to work)

    in reply to: Harris will win #9286
    LegendLegend
    Keymaster

    It’s as plausible a scenario as someone saying Trump will win the election, and Kamala will choose not to allow the electors to convene.

    I started a thread below for predictions. You should play.

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    Sic transit gloria mundi (so shut up and get back to work)

Viewing 15 posts - 106 through 120 (of 1,080 total)