The inevitable end result of our last 56 years

[Ron Bulman]

10 hours ago, Joe Bauer said:

We've never had enough money to even make a down payment in our 40 years of marriage and my 70 years of living here on the Monterey Peninsula California Coast.

Now...garages are $500,000. Homes start at 1 million!

Old shacks! I kid you not!

We rent...and are barely making that!

When property values started exploding here in the 1990's and went into the outer space insanity levels from 2,000 and to even now, our county assessors couldn't increase assessment values fast enough to get their windfall 100's of millions in inflated value taxes.

County governments LOVE this real estate hyper inflation. It's been a financial income revenue source windfall gift from heaven for them.

When the Bush recession hit in 2007 property values dropped more than half throughout California in just one year.

Here on the Monterey Peninsula they maybe dropped 25% in that time.

It took five years but the property sales rates here came back to pre-Bush collapse levels and now 9 years later have doubled again.

What was so real and not even denied however...was how the County never lowered the assessment rate for property taxes all through the Bush collapse years!

They kept them at pre-2007 levels! 

Home owners were furious! The county never really explained why they couldn't get new lowered assessments or came up with excuses about "their stalling" in that effort.

When new real estate sales prices explode higher however...BOOM! The county assessors are right on it.

But watch how they become possum minded turtles when sales amounts decrease.

Cities and counties here are as much "profit" money grubbing machines as any corporations in my life-time experience view.

They claim they are non-profit? Ha ... that's a shameless charade.

When they get huge increases in tax revenue...they simply throw almost all of it into salary and benefit raises for all their employees.

The bigger the salaries, the bigger the raises.

It's the pyramid thing.

In the 1980s or 90's all of our cities here came across a new gold mine tax revenue source. So sly but ingenious it was Mafiaesque in it's creation and implementation.

The person who first thought it up has been revered by all California city managers since as an icon of new income scheming genius.

It was called ..."The Hotel Room Tax!"

For 100 years people have been coming to this well known tourist spot of California - the Monterey Peninsula. Each city made a killing on these tourist coming here to spend their vacation monies on lodging, food, shopping you name it.

The city services like police, fire, maintenance did fine all that time. I've lived here since 1952.  I know they did.

Their budgets weren't strained. Heck, parking meters alone were a new income source and that brought in millions over the years.

Then, out of the blue, someone somewhere came up with a new tax scheme. Place a city tax on hotel room payments ( to be paid up front by lodgers) ON TOP OF CITY BUSINESS INCOME TAXES already collected on yearly or quarterly hotel income revenues.

Their public relations campaign to lull the citizenry into okaying this new but nebulous tax was an exaggerated claim that all these tourists and their presence demands had brought their city police and fire budgets to the breaking point.

Like all the police and firefighters here did was respond to these tourist needs 90% more than regular towns folk.

It was complete BS. Yet, the public and reluctantly, hotel owners eventually bought it.

Partly because it started off typically low. 1 to 3% Then they regularly started raising this 1 or 2 percentage points every few years.

You know what it is now? 12% or more!

You rent a hotel room here for $300 a night, and the cities here instantly collect $36! And we have between 10,000 and 15,000 hotel and motel rooms here!  More than half the year, they are booked!

I read last year that the city of Monterey ALONE brings in $10 million or more yearly just from Hotel Motel room taxes!

And this is on top of retail sales taxes of 12 to 13%!

Building fees and permits are in the 10's of $ thousands range to boot!

And they are still constantly putting out press releases that they don't bring in enough income to pay all their employee's salaries and benefits.

This "our budgets are strained"  crying poor game is a built-in money hurting claim and begging one that never ends.

It's never enough.

My whole point here is how city and county governments here, and obviously in other areas like Texas, have turned into ravenous never enough money demanding vulture machines. Non-profit entities? Please.

This legalized ever higher taxes greed is rampant in much of America now. And imo one of the real reasons for the ever growing and stressful inflation and income divide between the wealthy and the rest of us.

Sorry for the long rant... but this is reality now folks.

 

 

Thanks for your comments Joe.  I inherited our 15 acres from my mother but would like for my descendants to do so as well.  I'm well aware of hotel taxes from limited travel jacking up the price of a room.

The by far greatest portion of our property taxes in Texas is for School taxes.  The state decrees the are funded by property taxes.  We have no state income tax, forcing the most wealthy to pay a more fair share.  Corporations, through tax breaks contribute little.  They just squeeze the little guy more and more.

[Guest]

11 hours ago, Paul Brancato said:

As we discuss all these pertinent issues - Supreme Court, wars, new Omicron info with sub variants, insurrection, we would I hope realize that all of it serves to divide us amongst ourselves and distract from the giant sucking sound. 

If you add the “divide and rule” strategy to the death of the high street/community, you end up with a very isolated, lonely population, that is even more connected and reliant on government/MSM and technology. 
People wonder why there is an epidemic of mental illness, well, it’s obvious. People are fragmented, neurotic, fight or flight, divided, and alone. Government can see this. Social scientists can see this. For those who can’t, all you’d need to do is find one of the pockets of civilisation where a sense of community still exists, where traditional values and activities are being exercised, you’d notice that people aren’t suffering the way of the masses are. 
There is zero chance that the government and all it’s scientists/advisors can’t see what they are doing. The truth is; it makes it easier to rule, easier to perpetrate corruption. We’re in an abusive relationship with government and distracted by one manufactured crisis after another. 
 

[Douglas Caddy]

Neighbor leads protests against a Supreme Court justice.

https://wapo.st/3weYq2k

[W. Niederhut]

12 hours ago, Benjamin Cole said:

W-

It is interesting that you feel divided from your in-law, on a race issue. I hope your family relations improve. 

It does seem that M$M plays up, is indeed obsessed with, ID politics. 

This highlighting of Identity not only serves to divide voters, but obscures much more important issues. 

For example---

The US government every year takes about $4,000 per resident ($1.4 trillion) and gives it to the DoD, VA, black budget and to pay pro-rated interest on the national debt. 

Thus, a typical family of four pays $16,000 to this complex of military outlays. This year, last year, and next year and likely in perpetuity. 

No one plans to invade the US, and indeed nations with nukes might as well be considered impervious to military invasion. 

So what is the true purpose of this $16,000 annual tax on a typical family? Have you ever seen M$M portray this tax in the way I just did? 

But very important (we are told) is the new press secretary's ID.

You imagine MAGA people are inflamed over her appointment. Maybe they are---they too, have been duped by ID politics?

Anyway, you are safer now, not only from foreign military invasion, but from domestic subversives. 

Mr. Caveman, of the 1/6 rebellion coup-attempt, is in prison for eight months.  That is important also. 

https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/press-release/file/1353206/download

There is a great photo of Mr. Caveman with a fur-skin cap in the above link. It appears he says he was "doing acid" during the 1/6 scrum. 

BTW, I understand psychedelics are being rehabilitated as treatment for depression. 

 

 

Ben,

     I get along well with my in-laws, thank you-- especially since they stopped watching Fox News during the Trump presidency.

    But, as usual, you missed the central point here.

    To wit, white identity politics has been a Republican game since the Nixon years.  And it has been the essence of Trump-ism-- a real disaster for the United States.

     Your interpretation of "identity politics" and Biden is dead wrong-- by 180 degrees.

     In essence, Trump (and Fox) have normalized bigotry, misogyny, and xenophobia.

     In contrast, Biden has attempted to normalize tolerance and respect for all U.S. (and world) citizens, regardless of race, gender, or sexual orientation.

     See if you can figure that one out.  (I won't hold my breath.)

Edited May 7, 2022 by W. Niederhut

[Benjamin Cole]

8 hours ago, W. Niederhut said:

Ben,

     I get along well with my in-laws, thank you-- especially since they stopped watching Fox News during the Trump presidency.

    But, as usual, you missed the central point here.

    To wit, white identity politics has been a Republican game since the Nixon years.  And it has been the essence of Trump-ism-- a real disaster for the United States.

     Your interpretation of "identity politics" and Biden is dead wrong-- by 180 degrees.

     In essence, Trump (and Fox) have normalized bigotry, misogyny, and xenophobia.

     In contrast, Biden has attempted to normalize tolerance and respect for all U.S. (and world) citizens, regardless of race, gender, or sexual orientation.

     See if you can figure that one out.  (I won't hold my breath.)

W-

To be sure, "dog whistling" has been a staple of right-wing politics for years. 

But the Donks have evidently decided to fight fire with fire, making ID politics the essentially meaningless centerpiece of their party. 

So, the ID of the new press secy is very important, and no one talks that Biden's DoD budget is larger than Trump's.

The result is two parties obsessed with ID politics, although the Donks eclipsed the 'Phants on this score in recent years. 

Still, you have described yourself as a "social democrat," so surely you are aware that both parties ultimately serve their donor classes and employer-patrons, which is millionaires and billionaires, and the national security state. 

Jen Psaki sums it all up. 

Jen Psaki is moving on to MSNBC, having done a year in the Biden Administration, having previously come from lobbyist-outfit WestExec Advisors, and before that, the Obama Administration and CNN.

BTW,

John O. Brennan, former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, joins WestExec Advisors--4/11/22

Seriously. The former CIA top guy works at WestExec, and Brennan is the senior national security and intelligence analyst for NBC News and MSNBC. Same place Jen Psakai worked and works....

Do you see any patterns here that you find unsettling?

Any clues as to true nature of the New Donk Party? 

Trump is small potatoes to what truly ails America....

 

[Benjamin Cole]

9 hours ago, Douglas Caddy said:

Neighbor leads protests against a Supreme Court justice.

https://wapo.st/3weYq2k

"We’re about to get doomsday, so I’m not going to be civil to that man at all.”--neighbor and protester in front of Kavanaugh's house. She has a bullhorn of sorts. source: WaPo, see above.

BTW, my impression of Kavanaugh is that he is a hack GOP-security state lawyer.

The Donks asked ran a lengthy inquisition into a possible Kavanaugh groping at a teenage beer party, at his approval hearing. Not one Donk asked  Kavanaugh why helped obliterate Jeff Morley's freedom on information act request regarding the JFKA. 

So it goes. Drink the red kool-aid, drink the blue kool-aid, but you will piss purple. 

[Paul Brancato]

Senate questioning of Kavanaugh, especially by Feinstein, was at best ill considered. 

[Paul Brancato]

10 hours ago, W. Niederhut said:

Ben,

     I get along well with my in-laws, thank you-- especially since they stopped watching Fox News during the Trump presidency.

    But, as usual, you missed the central point here.

    To wit, white identity politics has been a Republican game since the Nixon years.  And it has been the essence of Trump-ism-- a real disaster for the United States.

     Your interpretation of "identity politics" and Biden is dead wrong-- by 180 degrees.

     In essence, Trump (and Fox) have normalized bigotry, misogyny, and xenophobia.

     In contrast, Biden has attempted to normalize tolerance and respect for all U.S. (and world) citizens, regardless of race, gender, or sexual orientation.

     See if you can figure that one out.  (I won't hold my breath.)

For sure white identity politics is the Republican playbook. But you must admit that inclusion of women and minorities in ones appointments can be tokenism. I’m all for inclusion, but I’m not fooled into thinking that it’s enough. It may move the needle, but it’s not a substitute for substantive changes in policy. 

[Benjamin Cole]

26 minutes ago, Paul Brancato said:

Senate questioning of Kavanaugh, especially by Feinstein, was at best ill considered. 

It was a gong show.

Kavanaugh, as a high-school teenager, might have groped a girl at a beer party. But the victim could not remember the house of the crime, nor could anybody else. 

But Kavanaugh's service to the Deep State, in obliterating Jeff Morley's FOIA requests for JFKA documents, was not even mentioned. 

Pure political theater. Well, like any Congressional hearing that captures the public's eye (or is thrust into the eye by the M$M). 

 

 

 

[Douglas Caddy]

 

 

Supreme Court abortion leak investigation and the curious case of Clarence Thomas and Co. (msn.com)

[W. Niederhut]

12 hours ago, Paul Brancato said:

For sure white identity politics is the Republican playbook. But you must admit that inclusion of women and minorities in ones appointments can be tokenism. I’m all for inclusion, but I’m not fooled into thinking that it’s enough. It may move the needle, but it’s not a substitute for substantive changes in policy. 

Agreed.  But it's not "tokenism," per se, when highly qualified people are appointed.

Tokenism is when candidates with dubious qualifications are appointed because they are minorities.

Clarence Thomas is a classic example.  He's a Republican Uncle Tom who voted to undermine voting rights for blacks in the South-- in Shelby v. Holder-- something that his people were denied for almost a century after the collapse of Radical Reconstruction in 1877 (prior to the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965.)

Meanwhile, the Trumplicans are suddenly outraged about public anger at the Republican SCOTUS judges who lied to Congress about upholding Roe v. Wade.

Where were these Trumplican clowns when right wingers were threatening Dr. Fauci and his family-- and Governor Whitmer-- for trying to save lives during the COVID pandemic?

Where were they when Trumplicans violently attacked the U.S. Congress on January 6th?

[Steve Thomas]

- Matt Gaetz -

https://twitter.com/mattgaetz/status/1521797001175834625

“How many of the women rallying against overturning Roe are over-educated, under-loved millennials who sadly return from protests to a lonely microwave dinner with their cats, and no bumble matches?”

5:20 AM · May 4, 2022·Twitter for iPhone

Somebody should take that man’s Iphone away from him.

Steve Thomas

[Douglas Caddy]

 

 

ttps://www.the-sun.com/news/5290210/moment-russian-helicopter-blown-ukraine-drone/

[Guest]

Tulsi Gabbard has said the Biden administration is turning America into a dictatorship with this new disinformation body that's being brought in. What could go wrong? Sounds like a full time Warren Commission. My mind flashes back to Parallax View. 

[Matt Allison]

Any truth to the rumor Tulsi Gabbard is going to just go all the way and change her name to Natasha?