JOE BIDEN: “First thing I’d do is repeal those Trump tax cuts.”
I’m betting what he really means is he’d repeal Trump’s SALT-exemption limits which hit well-to-do lefties in high-tax blue states with higher tax bills.
In other words, Biden would give the rich — the right rich — a tax break and sock you with the bill.
THE INVISIBLE FIST: Federal Regulations Amount To A $15,000 ‘Hidden Tax’ On Families, Report Finds.
The federal regulatory apparatus imposed a roughly $14,600 “hidden tax” on American households in 2018, according to a report by the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI).
“That amounts to 20 percent of the average pretax income of $73,573, and 24 percent of the average expenditure budget of $60,060,” CEI’s Wayne Crews wrote in his annual Ten Thousand Commandments report released Tuesday.
In total, federal regulations, once again, cost the U.S. economy $1.9 trillion despite the Trump administration’s effort to roll back onerous regulations. Crews said his report was a conservative estimate of the true cost of regulations.
“The regulatory ‘tax’ exceeds every item in the household budget except housing,” Crews wrote. “More is ‘spent’ on embedded regulation than on health care, food, transportation, entertainment, apparel, services, and savings.”
That’s a lot.
BJORN LOMBORG takes on the crisis-peddlers.
ILHAN OMAR: Israel’s occupation of Gaza causes rockets to fire and children to be killed, or something. “The rockets fired because of an occupation? That’s a neat trick, considering that the occupation of Gaza ended in 2005. It’s been fourteen years since Ariel Sharon dismantled all of the Israeli settlements in Gaza — to a loud outcry at home — and pulled the IDF out of the strip, leaving the Gazans to their own devices. Sharon’s government had to forcibly evict some settlers from their homes in the area, and ended up relocating thousands of Israelis back into Israel proper. Gaza held elections the next year and, despite warnings from all over the world, elected Hamas to govern the territory. The rest is history.”
If anything, Gaza is evidence that unilaterally turning land over to the Palestinians just brings more war.
WELCOME TO THE PARTY, PAL: NY Times: ‘There Is A Crisis At The Southern Border.’
ANTI-SOCIAL MEDIA: Twitter Declares War on Conservatives: Pro-Trump Accounts Purged.
MATT VESPA: How Cory Booker’s 2020 Gun Control Agenda Is A Blue State Nightmare. “In total, the proposal is a blue state nightmare that Democrats want to unleash on the rest of us. And of course, Booker says the only people who should fear his agenda are criminals. Sorry, senator—this whole agenda is straight trash and one that will turn millions of law-abiding citizens into criminals…in accordance with the text of these proposals.”
Expect to see a lot more crazy as the huge pool of Democratic candidates try to stand out from one another.
LESSON (RE-)LEARNED: Don’t Expect the US Military’s Next Fighter to Be Joint.
“I don’t necessarily foresee an exact sort of repeat of F-35 in a single solution set.” Angie Knappenberger, deputy director of air warfare for the deputy chief of naval operations for warfare systems, said Monday at the Navy League’s Sea Air Space conference in National Harbor, Maryland. “I do see an awful lot of capabilities and systems that we can take, share one service to another.”
When the F-35 was conceived in the 1990s, it was thought that three variants for Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force might share about 70 percent of their parts, saving money. Almost 30 years later, the jets are only about 20 percent the same.
Different tools for different jobs.
LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: No Trump Tax Returns for You! “Secretary of the Treasury Mnuchin told the vexatious litigants in congress that Treasury will not be turning over Trump’s tax returns as requested. Mnuchin wrote that the request for the president’s tax returns ‘lacks a legitimate legislative purpose.’ I’ll say.”
STRANGE BEDFELLOWS: Feminists, Conservatives Join Forces to Oppose ‘Equality Act.’
The Equality Act just passed the House Judiciary Committee last week, and it threatens to erase protections for women — protections that benefit women and society as a whole. Legislative and policy “reforms” proposed in this dangerous bill will lead to blatant violations of our safety, privacy, and dignity.
Under this bill, men and boys will take away women’s small business grants and hard-won spots on sports teams; they will be allowed to live in women’s domestic violence shelters and use our locker rooms. And united as women, we are just not going to stand for it.
If you doubt the seriousness (and absurdity) of this situation, read what has already happened in Washington state, as just one example. In 2012, Colleen Francis was a 45-year old student at The Evergreen State College. Francis who identifies as a woman, but has male genitalia, has used the Evergreen women’s locker room.
High school students and other minors also use Evergreen’s pool and locker rooms, and Francis was completely naked in the locker room sauna when teenage girls practicing for their high school swim team saw him and reported him to their coach. The female coach confronted Francis and asked him to leave.
Was Francis discouraged from exposing his adult naked male body to underage girls in a public facility supported by tax dollars? Were the teenage girls congratulated and encouraged to continue exercising good judgement, affirmed in their power to set boundaries about who can inhabit or expose themselves in a female-only locker room?
No. The result was that everyone had to apologize to Francis — who is “female” on paper but male in the flesh.
These are Heinlein’s Crazy Years — we just live in them.
ROBERT FRANCIS O’ROURKE: ‘Yes, I Think There’s Enough Evidence’ for Congress to Impeach Trump.
POOR DEAR THINGS: Men Have No Friends and Women Bear the Burden. “Toxic masculinity—and the persistent idea that feelings are a ‘female thing’—has left a generation of straight men stranded on emotionally-stunted island, unable to forge intimate relationships with other men. It’s women who are paying the price.”
UPDATE (FROM GLENN): After a half-century devoted to destroying male spaces, feminists now complain that men don’t have enough male friends.
LICENSE TO TILL: Illinois ‘license to landscape’ bill is a pure protection racket.
Senate Bill 1899 says that anyone working in the field of landscape architecture must obtain a special license from the state. That means passing an exam, and you’ll need to jump through some high hoops just to take it.
You can either 1) complete a course of study and graduate from an accredited landscape architecture school and gather two years of experience under the supervision of a licensed landscape architect; or 2) get a bachelor’s degree in surveying, urban planning, architecture or engineering and work for six years under a licensed landscape architect.
It’s an expensive, yearslong slog.
But what counts as landscape architecture? And how has the field been functioning without state licensure for so long?
The bill is maddeningly broad, making it unclear what Illinoisans actually need a license to do.
The existing-players protection racket is a lucrative one.
CHANGE IT BACK: Pornhub wants to buy Tumblr and restore site to former porn-filled glory. “Tumblr owner Verizon seeks buyer months after banning adult content.”
Unexpectedly?
BUT THE NARRATIVE! Gallup Poll: Trump Approval Higher Than Obama’s At Same Point in Presidency.
That’s remarkable given the difference in press coverage.
YOU’RE GONNA NEED A BIGGER BLOG: Democratic Presidential Clown Car Update for May 6, 2019.
“SHUT UP,” THEY EXPLAINED: Facebook handled Alex Jones just right.
CHANGE: Admin Halts Disability Dues Scheme. “Regulation will no longer allow unions to take dues money from Medicaid checks.”
ANALYSIS: TRUE. No, U.S. Sanctions Are Not Killing Venezuela. Maduro Is.
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