Monthly Archives: April 2021

Tax Breaks for the Rich

Posted in Crazy Nuts, Liberals, Politcal Opinion, Socialists by

Over the years, the dems complain all the time about tax breaks for the rich. Now they are in favor of one. They want to reinstate the tax breaks for state income tax and real estate(known as SALT). Actually, there is already such a tax break. People can deduct certain state and local taxes on their federal taxes if they itemized. However, there is a limit. They can only deduct $10,000.

I find it odd that the dems are not happy with that. They are currently trying to get the cap raised, or better, removed. Guess what? Only the the rich would profit from the change. For instance, it would include folks with a big property tax bill, and/or those paying a lot of state income tax. That sounds like the rich to me.

So, it sounds to me as if they seek a tax break for the rich. If not, tell me how I am wrong. I mean who is going to pay state and local income taxes and property taxes of over 10 grand. Most of us poor folks don’t get close to that on our best years. On my best year, my gross income was only 4 times that. My state and local taxes barely reached a thousand dollars. Their proposed change certainly wouldn’t come close for me, even if I wasn’t retired.

Then again, I live in Mississippi, not New York or New Jersey.

Once again, the folks up there in the northeast want us to help pay for their lifestyle. Perhaps I should rephrase that. They want us to help pay for the lifestyle of the rich — northeast or not.

Isn’t it bad enough that they are using gas taxes intended to build and maintain highways to subsidize their subways and trains.

Trump Honest?

Posted in Abuse of Power, Crime, Deceit, President Trump, The Clintons by

President Trump was and is honest, especially in his finances while president. How do I know? He is worth about 1.2 billion less than when he took office. Had he been dishonest as 3/4 of the senators and representatives, he would have gained far more, even if he only took his salary.

On the other hand, both of the Clintons made their millions while in or after office while taking advantage of their office. No one would have given either of them a dime had they never held office. To the best of my knowledge, they never made a dime with the sweat off their brow or the blisters on their hands. It would seem, they made their fortune by the money given them or their charity organization. I can’t swear to it, but I strongly suspect the Clintons also broke a few rules along the way. Then again, that’s okay. They don’t have to follow the rules as we regular folks do. They have a D after their name.

Rules, Rules, Rules

Posted in Abuse of Power, Biden, Communist Takover, Deceit, Lawyers and Representation, Pelosi, Politcal Opinion by

One thing I’ve got to say about those dems. They do love to play by the rules, as long as they get to make them up as we go along. They were the first to alter the rules on the filibuster. Last election, they altered the rules in mass, even though that was against the rules. They claimed it was UN-American for people to challenge the presidential election, though they did it many times before. By the way, they are now challenging the election of a representative. It would seem the rule they made concerning the challenging of elections is that they can, we can’t. Now they want to pack the Supreme Court. I wonder, just what rules will they want to change next?

The $100 Million-dollar Bribe

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It’s been a while now that they decided to move the all star game to Denver. It is something I thought about quite a bit. Actually, to come right down to it, the dems didn’t have a reason to move the game, or so I thought. Really, the voting laws were not changed that much. They still have the vote by mail. The ID’s were already required.

Besides, to their point of view, it doesn’t matter. They plan on federal laws that will override any law Georgia would have anyway.

Then it dawned on me what it is really about. You see, Georgia, a republican state, lost 100 million dollars of commerce. Colorado, a dem state, gained 100 million dollars of commerce. Hence, it is simply a bribe. It has nothing to do with the laws that were passed. It was simply an excuse. It was a way for the dems to reward the democrat state while punishing the republican state. Hence, it was a bribe to the Colorado for voting democrat.

You don’t believe me? Do you think they would have moved the game to Texas or Florida? They might have moved it to Los Angeles, but why. For a state like California, the bribe would not have meant that much with their economy. Now Colorado, they could really use that kind of money.

So there it is. They took 100 million from a republican state and moved it to a democrat state. It should not surprise anyone. It is their MO. It happens all the time, but usually in congress.

Nonetheless, it is ill gotten gain. In the end they will pay for it ten times over. It is the way the Lord deals with people like that.

What’s in a Name?

Posted in Biden, Reporters, Vocabulary by

I was discharged in Memphis so, for a short time afterword, that is where my wife and I lived. We just had one car between us and neither of us had a job. Then I got on at a fast food place. This put my wife in a predicament. She had an appointment at Baptist Memorial and was not at all familiar with the area. Not only that, she had been driving for a little over a year.

If I could have, I would have taken her, but, given as I just got my job, I figured I’d better show up for work. So, the day before the appointment, I drove the route with her and it was pretty simple. All she really needed to do was drive straight west on North parkway to Pauline and turn left(south). The parking lot for the hospital was on Pauline.

Well she got lost. She went all over downtown and midtown Memphis and, a couple of times caught herself on the newer bridge on the way to Arkansas. She did eventually find her way after stopping a couple of times for directions.

Afterword, she told me about it. She said if she got on that bridge one more time, she would just go on to to Fort Smith, where she grew up. It confused me enormously. As I said, I drove the route the day before and was certain of the instructions.

So, when I had a chance, I drove the route again, with her in the car. When i got to Pauline, I made the turn, and right there was the hospital. She was very animate about it. She said that she looked very closely and Pauline was not there the day before.

I went back to the intersection and looked more closely. It was true. On the south side of North Parkway, it was Pauline. On the North side it was some other name, I can’t ever remember what. Had she looked at the street sign on the south side, she would have made the turn and it would have been fine. Since she looked at the one on the north side, she continued west and toward the bridge.

Sometimes these people try to confuse us drivers with tricks like this. I don’t have the foggiest idea why. One day in Yuma I looked for a theater that had an address on Second Street. I looked for hours for it. I gave up and started walking toward the downtown, figuring there would be something there. There was. I soon found myself on the corner of Second Street and 2nd Street. There was also a First Street and 1st Street.

That’s right. If you ever go to Yuma, you might remember that. The ordinals are used one direction. The other way they spell them out. I don’t remember which. At any rate, I got to see most of Yuma that day…while on foot. The one good part, it was winter and the temperature was mild.

My name is Benjamin Franklin Rhodes. I was named after my grandfather, not the founding father of of the Keystone State. I don’t know, but I would guess that, somewhere in my ancestry, someone was likely name named for old Ben. None the less, I have had my share of nicknames. Most of my youth I was called Benny. One or two have called me Benji. A few have called me Dusty and once or twice I was even called Frankie. None of it bothered me much, but I decided in my late youth to that I preferred Ben. While I went by Benny, there were frequently people that spelled it Bennie, not my favorite.

We humans put quite a lot in names. Some people get really upset if you call them by the wrong name. I never have and never will. To me it isn’t that big a deal. It did confuse me some when one guy called me Barney, mostly because I didn’t know he was talking to me.

None the less, we give names to many things, roads, cities, counties states and countries. We give names to people, places, and things. We give names to streams, rivers, lakes and oceans. It is, I suppose so that we can tell one from another. No one would think to create a civilization where we identify people by numbers instead of names. Well, I guess we do have Social Security Numbers, but can you imagine calling each other by number that is nine digits long. Even then we would still have names. Each of us would have a unique number that we would be known by. Of note: the number method would make things easier on computer. Not so much for us humans.

Nonetheless, we have chosen to use names. There are over 7 billion people in this world and each of us has a name. When you add in those that are no longer living, that is a bunch of names. It is sort of odd in a way. The street that my wife looked for that day was likely named after a woman.

We do a lot of that. Some streets have women’s names and some men’s. In Fort Smith, there are several streets that are named for WWII heroes. In some cases, there are streets named for battles. We used to name battleships for states. Subs were named mostly for cities, and so forth. Nowadays, you don’t get an aircraft named after you unless you lived in The White House for a while. Yet the first nuclear carrier was named for a WWII carrier, Enterprise. I have no idea what prompted the original carrier’s name.

Maybe to keep the confusion down, we ought not change names too much. Can you imagine if the navy kept changing the names of ships. Also, in order to understand each other, maybe we shouldn’t keep changing the meanings of words just to fit our purpose. I mean, when a person says infrastructure, he really ought to mean infrastructure. There is already enough confusion in this world.

Vocabulary

Posted in Uncategorized by

It is oh so easy to win the debate when one controls the meaning of the words. It is so amazing when one considers just how frequently the liberals have changed our vocabulary. I guess that is what one does when they the facts keep getting in the way.

I Love Unions! I Hate Unions!

Posted in Abuse of Power, Unions by

There was a time in this nation when when big business was horrible. A child working on an assembly line would be hurt and he would be effectively tossed out the door and was quickly replaced by another. Ford Motor Company provided a good wage – for the day – but Ford expected far too much from his employees. So, his employees unionized.

The unions stopped the northern form of slavery. Oh, to be sure, no one was forced to work. However, if you wanted a salary, you better do what you were told and under horrible conditions. Many times, those on the assembly line were working under dangerous and unhealthy standards. Coal miners were dying early from black lung disease. Those who owned the mines would not provide proper ventilation and protection equipment so those who provided the rest of us the material to power our homes and industry breathed in the fatal black dust. So they unionized.

The reason I write on the subject today is that the employees of Amazon have voted and, apparently turned down the unions, which, from my point of view, is a good thing. As near as I can tell, they are being paid very well and they seem to be working under safe and good conditions.

I can’t speak from first hand experience, of course. I don’t work for Amazon. Maybe I would think differently if I did.

However, I do know this. When unions move in, so do the dishonest people who run them. I don’t know of any union that voted itself out of existence when it was no longer needed. Once a union gains control, it never gives up its power. You see, many people have a strong yen for power. Virtually every major union formed in this country have had questionable people running them at one time or the other. Instead of seeking the good of the rank and file, they seek their own fortune, fame and power. If the rank and file are not careful, the monster they create in the name of a union becomes almost as bad as the employers the dislike so much.

Moreover, the unions can create disincentives. My father was a carpenter. More than once, he was cautioned against working too fast. “You’re making the others look bad.” Today, it is the unions that control our schools. The school boards have little control over them. The parents are afraid of retribution should they complain. To be sure, they have good reason. Whoa to the person who suggests the idea of allowing school choice. You see that would be disaster for the teacher’s union. Every time 30 students go to a private school, it would mean one less member in the teacher’s union. I assure you, the teacher’s unions do not have our kids at heart. They don’t even have the teacher’s interest at heart.

All they care about is the power they can muster and how they can use it for their betterment. Those bribes they send to the state and federal government don’t help our students or our schools. Oh, it is called lobbying, but I call it for what it is, bribes. They pay our representatives for the sole purpose of controlling their vote. That’s a bribe.

And so it is, I love unions and I hate unions. It is something of a quandary. You can’t live with them and you can’t live without them.

However, let me say just one more thing. They have driven our auto industry almost to extinction. In their effort to obtain their wealth and power, they have drained the life blood out of a once thriving industry. In this way, they are not much better than leaches. The union leaders have seen what they have done and yet they demand higher wages and more benefits, forcing GM and Chrysler into bankruptcy. They almost did the same to Ford. Worse yet, they turned out poor quality cars. It was only after the bankruptcy that they have improved their product. However, even now, the cars that come ashore from foreign manufactures are better quality. To be sure, even those cars built here are built with foreign parts.

In the union’s effort to squeeze the golden goose, they have about destroyed her. The employees they promise to protect are becoming a vanishing breed. The industry that helped save us during WWII, is fading into obscurity. What happens if again we need that industry? What happens if we can no longer use the foreign parts or steel? What happens to us then — and the unions?

A Message to the CEOs

Posted in Biden, Cancel Culture, Communist Takover, Important things, Politcal Opinion, Socialists by

Pepsi is a good alternative to Coke. Sam’s Cola tastes as good and is far less expensive. When I go out to eat, I just might start drinking Ice tea or water. It is likely better for me anyway.

I used to fly quite a bunch, especially when I repaired computers. I preferred American Airlines. I don’t have the need or desire to fly as much but if I did, it would not be American or Delta. They likely won’t miss me but there are others who feel as I do when I say I’d rather take the bus than give them a dollar.

As for the major leagues, I gave them up long ago… all of them. I’ve started watching college games. I even go to little league games in the area. I found them far more interesting and they don’t toss in a bunch of left wing propaganda. Those ten, eleven and twelve-year-olds know the purpose of the game. The old pros seem to have forgotten it.

I am not even a drop in the water. The above folks will likely never miss me. I will not even show up on their stats. However, I am sure I am not alone and those stats just might show that they made a bad decision.

Far more important they might all remember this. We need farmers. We need truck drivers. We need storekeepers and we need homes. Coca-cola… not so much. Without pro basketball, baseball or football, some might go into sports withdrawal, but we CAN do without them. It is a convenience to be able to visit relatives who are far away, but we don’t have to. And, as I mentioned before, there is always the bus. Maybe those of you who sit in your ivory towers and have taken bailout dollars should remember where that money came from. The government might have signed the checks, but part of it came from me and people like me. There are over 70 million people in the country who will remember what you have done. For that matter, there might be a few dems who will remember it too, such as the people in Georgia. There just might be a few who own restaurants, cafes and hotels near the ball bark. There were also a few people who worked there. But then, why should you care. You managed to survive for another day or two. That is the attitude of business today. Never mind the decades. Just, let’s just survive today.

No Room for the Proud

Posted in Christian values, Pride, Religion, Truth by

Please note the following from the King James version of the Bible

Ephesians 2: 8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.

Almost all preachers concentrate on verse 8 and rightfully so. However we should never overlook verse 9. I cannot say exactly what God meant by what he said, but I know His result. Those who think that they will be received in heaven because of what they did or said, will never be accepted. Those that expect that they will, are going to be very disappointed. For if they think they will contribute to their salvation is pride.

Hence, I think I can safely say that the those who are proud will not find room for them in heaven. Maybe that was His purpose, though I cannot say for sure. Yet it does serve the purpose.

I caution you that if you plan on telling God all your good works, He will not be impressed by them or you. You see, you will have had your chance to rely totally on His Son for your salvation and you decided not to. You decided to rely on yourself at least in part; or to follow the false teachings of some so called church whose teachings lead people astray by the millions…and ultimately to hell.

If you try to stand before God your pride, your home is not in heaven. For those of use who bow humbly at the feet of Jesus Christ and accept His gift of salvation, without trying to add anything to it, heaven is already our home. We have been assured of it. It is not bragging on what we did, but what Jesus did.

Of all the sins of man, pride is the one that God hates the most. I suspect it is because it leads us from him and to our own means. So, it is my deduction that, no matter how large heaven is, God will make sure that there will be no room for the proud.

Something a man told me a long time ago is that it is better to be thankful than to be proud. For sure, I have no reason to be proud of the United States, though I do believe it is the greatest nation in modern history. However, I am thankful that God made it so. God did not have to put in Los Angeles, California when I was born, but He did. For that I am grateful. God did not have to put me in a Christian family with really good brothers and sisters, but I am thankful He did. God did not have to send his Son to die on the cross for my sins, but He did, and I am thankful beyond words He did. Moreover, I will not try to add anything to it. If I try, not only will I mess things up, but it would mean that I think His work is incomplete or insufficient, a lack of faith.

God does not make us go to heaven, though He could. He has given us the choice. It is a gift, not a something to be forced upon us. To be sure He pleads with each of us to accept the gift for which He paid so much. However, should you turn it down, it will be your greatest mistake. The pride you insist on holding onto will lead to an eternity of suffering.

Of all the allusions that Satin presented to man, the one that man can earn, or help earn his salvation is the most devastating. The reason it succeeds more often than not is because of the pride of mankind.