OLD FOLKS TALKING IT OUT ON TELEVISION

Why would old folks not rest on their laurels?

Either they’re not tired, or they have no laurels.

Last night’s Presidential Debate showed more than just the candidates.

It also showed the problem with the format.

What about a format that allows a master debater, a master shit talker, go unchecked?

As I’m watching and taking notes like any blogger would, I found myself glad to never spend any time with an unchecked master of the bullshit.

Did Joe Biden look old? Or stunned and old.

I felt a little shocky myself listening to revised history like no one had ever paid any attention.

Talk about a memory lapse.

How many voters don’t remember the events of the past eight years?

If that’s the turning point in the coming election, it’s a done deal.

If memory is not an issue, then Jan. 6 was just a group of tourists interested in knowing more about the US Capital, not insurrectionists acting on their man’s urging to ‘fight like hell or you won’t have a country.’

The Covid years were ‘just one of those things’ no one could have done anything about.

Portland had burned down according to one of the candidates.

The same candidate gave himself the ‘white wash’ on his four years in office from 2016-2020.

His administration had the best economy, the greatest support, and the highest ranking of any president.

Who said shit talk was dead? Not the CNN moderators.

 

Taxes and Government Regulations

One man gave credit to himself for giving tax breaks and eliminating government regulations, which is a nice piece of work.

Doesn’t everyone want lower taxes? Lower federal taxes, state taxes, city taxes?

Consider lowered taxes when you find out your kid isn’t learning on schedule, isn’t keeping up with their class because of a teacher shortage, or a lack of necessary resources.

Think of lowered taxes when you drive into a pothole and break your car’s suspension.

When your house is on fire but no fire truck shows up?

All the money saved goes into childcare, car repair and a motel room.

The big money guys see taxes as a threat to their empires of transportation, shipping, and software.

Besides, it’s hard to pound your chest and claim the title of ‘Greatest Self Made Man’ with the competition so tight.

It’s a close race with just under a hundred billion separating them.

 

Rank	Name	Net worth in billion US$	Source of wealth	Age
1	Elon Musk	251	Tesla, SpaceX	52
2	Jeff Bezos	161	Amazon	59
3	Larry Ellison	158	Oracle	79
4	Warren Buffett	121	Berkshire Hathaway	93
5	Larry Page	114	Alphabet	50
6	Bill Gates	111	Microsoft	67
7	Sergey Brin	110	Alphabet	50
8	Mark Zuckerberg	106	Meta	39
9	Steve Ballmer	101	Microsoft	67
10	Michael Bloomberg	96.3	Bloomberg L.P.	81

Where’s the backbone?

 

Big Guy’s have a rationale on paying taxes.

“We pay taxes and more taxes, taxes you’ve never heard of and wouldn’t understand. We pay Big Guy taxes, not like you.”

Is it such an incredible feat to take rich guys off the hook on taxes and open up industries regulated to avoid polluted air, water, and us?

It’s a nice piece of work for a man raised in the concrete jungle with a park his only regular connection to nature.

I’m not knocking Central Park, but it’s an edited version of nature for city-locked people to feel the great outdoors.

Not a beach, not a mountain, but a made-up environment where made-up men can live in a made-up world.

 

The same candidate gave himself a ‘white wash’ on his four years in office from 2016-2020.

His administration had the best economy, the greatest support, and the highest ranking of any president.

Who said shit talk was dead?

 

Why Are Taxes So Confusing

Oxfam says:

• U.S. billionaires are 46 percent, or $1.6 trillion, richer than they were in 2020.

• According to a 2021 White House study, the wealthiest 400 billionaire families in the U.S. paid an average federal individual tax rate of just 8.2 percent. For comparison, the average American taxpayer in the same year paid 13 percent.

• According to leaked tax returns highlighted in a ProPublica investigation, the 25 richest Americans paid $13.6 billion in taxes from 2014-2018—a “true” tax rate of just 3.4 percent on $401 billion of income.

 

Cato says:

The tax rates are all federal taxes (income, payroll, excise, and other) divided by family income.

The top 1 percent will pay an average rate of 31.5 percent this year, compared with 10–12 percent in the middle and about 0 percent at the bottom.

 

Vox says:

Stocks aren’t taxed until they’re sold — and even then, what’s taxed is the profit on the sale, called a capital gains tax.

Billionaires (usually) don’t sell valuable stock. So how do they afford the daily expenses of life, whether it’s a new pleasure boat or a social media company?

They borrow against their stock. This revolving door of credit allows them to buy what they want without incurring a capital gains tax.

 

One candidate is on record with, “That makes me smart” when asked why he doesn’t pay taxes.

The other candidate said he will tax the Big Guys and their billions at a fair rate.

“No household making under $400,000 will pay more taxes.”

 

Why Are Presidential Debates So Confusing

Think of David and Goliath.

Goliath is the greater warrior; David is taking his shot.

One candidate is an experienced television reality show man, the other an experienced elected official.

The face I saw on Joe Biden last night said one thing to me:

‘Who the fuck turned this weasel loose on life TV?’

It was jaw-dropping to see a polished TV star try and grab us all by the pussy for ninety minutes.

Guess what? He missed.

The fact is, we’re too smart to let it happen again.

Besides, we’ve already seen one man’s work sample when he quit the Paris Agreement and disbanded the Directorate of Global Health Security and Biodefense

 

The Paris Agreement:

The Paris Agreement is a landmark in the multilateral climate change process because, for the first time, a binding agreement brings all nations together to combat climate change and adapt to its effects.

 

It doesn’t work when an important player who ‘does their own research’ doubts there is any climate change issues to address.

Directorate of Global Health Security and Biodefense

In May 2018, former national security adviser John Bolton restructured Trump’s National Security Council and disbanded the global health unit. Its former head, Rear Adm. Timothy Ziemer, resigned from the administration and was not replaced.

Bolton attributed the attack to partisan politics.

“The angry Left just can’t stop attacking, even in a crisis,” he wrote.

It doesn’t work when an important figure who does their own research hires hack politicians to run their departments into the ground.

This last bit came from USA Today Fact Checking article.

Hack Bolton takes the heat and what’s he hear from the boss during the Covid pandemic?

“It is what it is.”

 

Presidential debates are confusing because we’re all trying to interpret what we hear.

Does anyone think the man behind the throne for George Bush had more pull?

When Dick Cheney ran the campaign, won, then went out on a search for a vice president who did he find?

Himself.

The Man From Halliburton didn’t need to pretend he was pulling stings in the White House.

We want to hear a candidate debate their vision of the future and the role they intend to play.

Last night Biden mumbled his way through, but seemed like he was trying to be accountable.

Afterwards the panel on CNN, the sponsoring network, were all aghast at the performance.

They are television people who are on-air because they fill time the way the network and advertisers want them to fill air-time.

‘Oh, but Joe Biden couldn’t even fill his allotted time. More than once the moderator said he had more time and did he have more to say.’

What we learned was Joe Biden would make a poor choice as a reality television host.

As President? Yes.

He hires people to do jobs, not dance like an organ grinder’s monkey.

Did he do poorly?

Would you do well against an organ grinder’s monkey?

 On life TV?

Or would you be shocked thinking, “Who let this mess loose?”