Might Be Idiots

                       By Junius P. Long   If you can get arrested for hunting or fishing without a license, but not for being in the country illegally... Then you might live in a country run by idiots.   If you have to get your parent's permission to go on a field trip or take an aspirin in school, but not to get an abortion... Then you might live in a country run by idiots.
If you have to show identification to board an airplane, cash a check, buy liquor, or check out a library book, but you don't have to show ID for the right to vote on who
runs the government... Then you might live in a country run by idiots.   If the government wants to ban stable, law-abiding citizens from owning gun magazines with more than ten rounds, but gives 20 F-16 fighter jets to the crazy new leaders in  Egypt... Then you might live in a country run by idiots.   If, in the largest city of the country, you can buy two
16-ounce sodas,but not a 24-ounce soda because the
government says a 24-ounce sugary drink might make
you fat... Then you might live in a country run by idiots.   If an 80-year-old woman can be stripped searched by the TSA but a woman in a hi-jab is only subject to having her neck and head searched because of her religion... Then you might live in a country run by idiots.   If your government believes that the best way to eradicate trillions of dollars of debt is to spend trillions more... Then you might live in a country run by idiots.   If a seven year old boy can be thrown out of school for saying his teacher's "cute," but hosting a sexual exploration or diversity class in grade school is perfectly
acceptable... Then you might live in a country run by idiots.   If hard work and success is rewarded with higher taxes and more government intrusion, while not working is rewarded with EBT cards, WIC checks, Medicaid, subsidized housing, and free cell phones... Then you might live in a country run by idiots.   If the government's plan for getting people back to work is to reward them with 99 weeks of unemployment checks with no requirement to prove they applied for it... Then you might live in a country run by idiots.   If being stripped of the ability to defend yourself makes you more "safe" according to the government... Then you might live in a country run by idiots.   If youre offended by this article, then I'll bet you voted for
the idiots who are running and "ruining" our great country!

 

 

Outrageous Government Inefficiency

The Washington Times reports that the Commerce Department's Inspector General found the US Patent and Trademark Office paid $5 million in salaries to paralegals who had no work to do and spent their work time time shopping, watching TV, walking dogs, etc. They also receive bonuses.
Not only is this typical for US government operations, but it is egregious, when the US Patent and Trademark Office management claims the issuance of patents and trademarks is slow because they have too much work to do.
We need a US Patent and Trademark Office and it should be fixed. However, there are other government operations which could easily be passed to the private sector, such as health care for veterans. Don't hire additional doctors, as they are now considering, rather sell off the hospitals and give veterans free healthcare cards for use in private and public health care facilities.

Corporate Income Taxes

According to the Washington Times, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont is castigating American companies in international business from not paying corporate US taxes. Here's the text from Bernie Sanders:
"One out of four American corporations already pay no federal income tax. Now, more and more of them have come up with a new scheme to dodge U.S. taxes by moving their headquarters overseas. Bernie filed legislation to ban those businesses from receiving U.S. government contracts. “I have a message for these corporate deserters: You can't be an American company only when you want corporate welfare from American taxpayers or you want lucrative contracts from the federal government.” The giant drug maker AbbVie made no bones about the fact that ducking U.S. taxes is why it hopes to take over its European rival. Walgreen’s, the giant drugstore chain launched at a Chicago storefront, may move its corporate headquarters to Switzerland to avoid U.S. taxes. They are part of a growing corporate trend. Bernie had a word for it. “It’s treason,” he said."
Now let's look at the real facts.
US-based international corporations generally have subsidiaries or joint ventures overseas. When those subsidiaries or joint ventures make a profit, US-based corporations have an option to either return their profits to the United States or keep it overseas for further investment. If the profit is kept overseas it is not taxable by the IRS, but those profits tend to accumulate overseas and investment opportunities may decline. In addition, stockholders of the US parent may want dividends, which pressures the parent companies to return the foreign profits to the US. On return of the foreign profits to the US, the IRS immediately slaps on a corporate income Tax. The net result is that he US-based international corporation may delay its payment of income tax, but eventually the income tax must be paid as the profits are repatriated to the US.
We now see another phase of evolution in corporate finance. That is, US based corporations do not have to continue as US corporations. They have the option of converting to a foreign-based corporation. The advantage of conversion is a lower income tax rate in the country where the corporation is newly based. To me, this makes good business sense. Why pay more taxes than necessary? As a stockholder, I am interested in dividends. If the foreign country takes less tax than the US, there is more profit left for my dividend. My corporation is to me a money machine. I don't care whether it's based in the US or some foreign country. Since Sen. Sanders is concerned about that, let him reduce the US corporate tax rate to the lower equivalents of foreign countries.
There is another aspect which is even more egregious. There should be no US corporate tax. Companies based in the US have their profits taxed based on profits generated in the US and also repatriated from abroad. When that tax is subtracted from the profit, there is less less for my dividend. In addition, as a stockholder, when I file my Form 1040, I must pay a second tax on my dividends. In other words, the US government is first hitting my corporation in taxing its profits and then again taxes me on whatever profit is left and paid as dividend. This is clearly double taxation, which means tax it once and then tax it again. If you leave it up to Congress which has an insatiable need for money, you can be sure it is looking for ways to tax it a third time and a fourth time, etc.

The Humane Act

Open Email to Sen. John Cornyn (TX):

Dear Sen. Cornyn,
I have read your general email concerning unaccompanied children at our southern border.
I strongly suggest that you are on the wrong track.
You say the southern border is currently ground-zero for a growing humanitarian crisis.
It Is not a humanitarian crisis! It is an attack on our southern border! A few of the children may have been abused in the transit from their home countries through Mexico to the US but the likelihood is that it is no greater than normal child abuse even in the United States. It becomes a humanitarian crisis only because you and others who apparently wish to increase the possibility of Democratic votes in the future US electorate, want these children to stay. The obvious answer to the non-humanitarian crisis is to send these children back to their home countries by plane as quickly as possible. This will automatically decrease future influxes.
I also suggest you do not fiddle around with another new law, which you call the Humane Act. As you describe it, this is only another mechanism by which you want to convert attackers into human refugees. If you want to do anything on a law, make it a clear designation that any children showing up at any US border without proper documentation will be disallowed entry and immediately flown back to their home countries.
For those who may be reading this email and are abusers of compassion, I say those persons should make every effort to work with the presidents of Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador to improve conditions in the home countries to minimize child-abuse. Do not use the usual Democratic/socialistic trick of taking it to a different level, wherein US citizens become responsible for what happens in those countries and take on the responsibility for ostensibly solving the problem.

Mobile "Bugs" for Surveillance

        The Washington Time says the U.S. Army is developing tiny spies called "pocket drones", for the next big war.
Hooray for technology! If you think about it, a pocket drone is a mobile "bug". Bugs have been used for a long time to gather intelligence on the plans of enemies or our potential enemies. The use of bugs in embassies and consulates is well known, in addition to tracking down criminals.
Which leads us to question why mobile bugs (pocket drones) should be limited only to the use of soldiers for the next "big war". As soon as they are developed, let's use pocket drones to obtain better evidence for the conviction of criminals, aid the CIA to determine what our enemies and friends are doing and which they have not been revealed to us, and generally track down terrorists and drug cartel operators.

Rep. Michael McCall's Newsletter

Open Email to Rep. Michael McCaul - 10th District of Texas:

Dear Rep. McCaul,
Thank you for sending me your weekly newsletter.
I note from its content that you are now batting zero! You mentioned four specific actions, for which you seem to be proud, but in fact are instrumental in helping to convert the US to a Marxist society.
You say, this week the House of Representatives passed the Student and Family Tax Simplification Act backspace, which modifies and permanently extends the American Opportunity Tax Credit for tuition, which will help our children to achieve their educational goals without going into crippling student debt or putting undue financial burdens on families.
Is there some reason that I and other US citizens should be making concessions to educate other people's children because you say it should be so? Students should have an obligation to educate themselves with the aid of their families. You say "undue" financial burdens on families. What makes it "undue"? Is the cost of a father feeding his children also an undue financial burden on his family? When you pass a law like this you only disturb the socialogical market. In this case, you are indirectly funneling taxpayer money into universities. It's wrong and you should quit meddling.
You say, the House also passed the Child Tax Credit Improvement Act.
This legislation requires individuals to include their Social Security number on a tax return in order to qualify for the Child Tax Credit. This will result in a savings of over $20 billion.
This one sounds kind of dumb to me. If you're talking about federal income tax Form 1040, there is a space to fill in the Social Security number. If you don't fill it in, the IRS presumably indicates it as a nonfiling. Consider also two paragraphs above. Why should taxpayers be required to support children through a federal mandate? It is the responsibility of families to support their own children through their own efforts, normally considered work. If they do not do so, it is a matter of child abuse and the children can with existing laws be removed from the families as the parents serve jail time. When children are in institutions, I will grant that taxpayers have a responsibility to support them, but this is far different than giving money to indolent parents to hopefully use in the support of their children. What about the saving of $20 billion? How is it saved? You mean that the federal government will not give out $20 billion of taxpayer money to indolent parents? If that's a saving, why not go for the big one and cut off all Child Credits on federal income taxes?
You say, in an effort to continue to honor the Greatest Generation and support the Honor Flight Network, the House passed the Honor Flight Act, which directs TSA to provide an expedited screening process for veterans traveling on flights operated by the Honor Flight Network.
More dumb. The Honor Flight Network is a composite of private organizations dedicated to helping veterans visit war memorials involving themselves at various locations, particularly Washington DC. Notice that I said private organizations. It has no relationship to government. Suddenly government wants to get into the act by directing the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to establish a process for providing expedited and dignified passenger screening services for veterans traveling on an Honor Flight to visit war memorials built and dedicated to honor their service. Things were going along just fine with the private operation. Why does government suddenly have to get involved? Is it really significant to veterans that they now don't have to take their shoes off at airports, when everyone else does? While you're at it, why not a law requiring all citizens to tip their hats when they come across a known veteran? Come on! Get out of the business of minutia and start getting down to cases of how you can best allow citizens to operate within their own country.
You say, finally we continued to combat the cruel and predatory practice of human trafficking by passing several pieces of legislation aimed at stopping, deterring and preventing human trafficking while ensuring we are apprehending those responsible for these heinous crimes. One of the bills that passed, the Human Trafficking Detection Act of 2014, was a bill I cosponsored and passed out of the Homeland Security Committee. This bill directs the Secretary of Homeland Security to train DHS personnel how to effectively deter, detect, disrupt, and prevent human trafficking. This legislation is a direct result of the field hearing I chaired in Houston on human trafficking earlier this year.
Here again, there was no need for more legislation. Human Trafficking is only another politically correct term for kidnapping. We have plenty of laws regarding kidnapping, and everybody knows what kidnapping is.
We don't need to train federal government agents to recognize kidnapping.
Most kidnapping cases can be prosecuted by the states. There is also a futility in any federal effort of training, deterring, disrupting and preventing kidnapping, when the Atty. Gen. of the United States, regards these items is insignificant and does not bother to prosecute known kidnappers. Why not get on with the main point of in some way making the Atty. Gen. enforce current federal kidnapping laws?

Gov. Use of National Guard at the Border

The Washington Times says House Republicans will call today for decisive action to end the border crisis, proposing a deployment of National Guard troops and accelerated deportation hearings for unaccompanied children inundating the U.S. The proposals from a task force will aim to fix the most urgent problems quickly, “stemming the flow of [unaccompanied alien children] and securing the border right now,” the Republican aide said. “This is about solutions right now.”
Note that the Republican statement involves "unaccompanied alien children". However recent reports from the news media indicate that while unaccompanied alien children are receiving the spotlight at the southern border, they are only a small percentage of the illegal entries. The vast majority are adults with various agendas.
The second point of note is that this will be an exercise in futility. House Republicans may call today for decisive action to end the border crisis, but that still does not mean that the House has established a bill to do this through floor vote. Even if the floor vote comes to pass, you can be sure that the Democratic Senate will not support the House position and any intended legislation will die. If through some extraordinary occurrence, the House and Senate are on the same wavelength, Pres. Obama will veto the bill with another result of dead dead dead.
This means that House Republicans will be basically ranting and raving, while Pres. Obama has no intention of listening to them.
The only significant affect on possibly reducing the influx of illegals through the southern border was Gov. Perry's deployment of 1000 state National Guard to assist the Federal Border Control agents. The weakness of Gov. Perry's action is that the federal Border Control agents have their hands tied to do anything constructive from orders through the various agencies reporting to Pres. Obama. Since the Border Control agents can do nothing constructive, then Perry's 1000 state National Guard can equally do nothing.
I believe the stated cost of the Perry operation will be $12 million a month. Rather than that amount being a cost to the state of Texas, I strongly suggest that Gov. Perry bill the federal government, with justification that this is only doing a job that should have been done by the federal government. He likely will get a favorable response in the House, which normally controls the purse strings, but the Senate and the President will probably veto any actual payment. This means that the state of Texas will be stuck with the bill and the only justification for that is to change the rules of engagement so that the 1000 National Guard members are not assisting Federal Border Control agents but are actually serving as State Border Control agents, with the power to incarcerate or immediately return illegal aliens to their home countries.
Here are the rules under which a governor can use the National Guard:
When National Guard units are not under federal control, the governor is the commander-in-chief of the units of his or her respective state .
States are free to employ their National Guard forces under state control for state purposes and at state expense as provided in the state's constitution and statutes. In doing so, governors, as commanders-in-chief, can directly access and utilize the Guard's federally assigned aircraft, vehicles and other equipment so long as the federal government is reimbursed for the use of fungible equipment and supplies such as fuel, food stocks, etc. This is the authority under which governors activate and deploy National Guard forces in response to natural disasters. It is also the authority under which governors deploy National Guard forces in response to man-made emergencies such as riots and civil unrest, or terrorist attacks.
The Governor can activate National Guard personnel to "State Active Duty" in response to natural or man-made disasters or Homeland Defense missions. State Active Duty is based on State statute and policy as well as State funds. Soldiers and Airmen remain under the command and control of the Governor.