What other Country allows everyone to sneak into their Country and then provides Heathcare , education for their children , food stamps , driver’s license , and sanctuary ???
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Mayor Adams NYC is still half-heartedly trying to wring money from Washington for President Biden’s migrant influx, which will cost local and state taxpayers $3.6 billion this year.
Last spring, the city’s Housing Preservation & Development agency signed a no-bid, one-year $432 million contract with DocGo for “asylee housing” and other migrant services, then extended the contract until the end of this year.
DocGo bills the city $1,140 each day for a social worker. For a five-day week, including vacation and benefits, that’s $270,000 a year, which no social worker earns.
Similarly, DocGo bills taxpayers $1,040 per day per person for six daily supervisors, and $1,000 a day for a program director.
DocGo bills us $520 each day for each of 84 security guards, 28 guards per shift — $65 an hour for a job that typically pays half that.
WHAT OTHER COUNTRY INTHE WORLD WOULD DO THIS ?
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You don’t really believe this; they are paralyzed with fear of doing or thinking the wrong thing and being sent to the gulag. Just enough people disappear to reinforce this fear. Outside of that there is nowhere to escape to. South Korea is on the other side of a buffer zone 1+ mile wide which is officially the most militarized zone in the world. That includes The Korean Wall, an anti-tank barrier across flat open area. These types of devices are hard to sneak across and guarded by soldiers anxious to be tested. Escaping north to China or Mongolia or the cold open sea to where? Kamchatka?
As a Brit who has escaped to Spain, maybe you could tell give us happy talk about the remnants of the class system in your homeland?
The Brits ruled India. I don’t know how many years they sat there, but culturally and sociologically, India’s caste system influenced the British society. You know the working class vs elite class BS in Britain.
I don’t know if you watched the movie Jurassic Park II but the beginning scene is about a rich British family with a servant dining on the beach of a mysterious island off the coast of Central America somewhere. (And the little girl is attacked by small, unknown reptiles who run on two legs).
A British guy told me it’s a likely scene for a rich British family.
I actually read the novel first (original Jurassic Park) and I thought it would be an interesting SF movie if they had the technology to make the dinosaurs run on screen.
Mayor Pooh is sitting in the honeypot and has ordered another truckload of honeypots. This is the same city that elected Bill DeBlaszio; -twice. He was generally believed to be the worst mayor ever, anywhere. He’s getting a run for his money. They are both stupid and it’s difficult to name a champ. Pooh was a NYC PD Captain, which says a lot about the standards of unexecellence, city-wide. Big Apple needs to look at itself in the mirror.
The big money shops have been driven out, the big office buildings are under utililzed and there are few reasons to believe that will change for the better because people don’t want to ride the rails into the city and then mingle on the dangerous streets. That kind of ruins the ambiance of fine dining and “arriving” in the big time with the beautiful people. The Mayor and other high muckimucks can come & go with security details in fine bullet-proof SUVs, so they can happy-talk and ignore the reality. You can pay a tunnel toll and an arm & leg for parking, but it costs extra to drive downtown, too.
Convicting Trump was a mistake that will be remembered on a scale with Rome burning and Nero playing his violin. THE pivotal moment that New York City fell to the barbarians. It’s not safe to be rich in NY; if your enemies ascend to power, you’re vulnerable. Get your money out, ASAP. The amenities that drew people to NYC are disappearing, along with the jobs catering to those who could afford fine restaurants and uppity shops and personal trainers and the clerical haven is on its way to not needing clerks and phone banks and sales agents with AI coming on-line in giant electrical black holes that can be anywhere. Anywhere, without hughe city, county, & state taxes & regulations. Flyover?
The city with a million stories is running out of stories, -and people to listen to them.
The story here is illegals millions of them and too few taxpayers to support them all .
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The talking heads keep speaking of the upcoming debate as though it’s actually going to happen. The people making these noises must have different TVs than me because every time I see Joe illustrated lately he’s doing one of a couple things: either losing his way or on a rant with some newly invented words inserted, some of them more the 30 letters long. If Trump could bite his tongue and let Joe be Joe he would eventually seize-up and they’d have to break away for an unscheduled commercial; then eventually announce that the jig was up and thanks for watching Joe go out in a blaze of diarrhea. News at eleven.
If you think the Dumbocraps are going to allow that eventuality, I got bridge to downtown Manhattan investment for you! More likely, Joe will pull up lame and need to postpone the debate until he gets better. Hold your breath!
We’re entering a heat wave and who knows, Joe could get heat stroke walking from the top step of the helicopter to the ground and fall down go boom. That would get him a face full of grass and would add to the ambience of the photos demonstrating Joe’s condition during the repair state. They could stretch that all the way to the bank and right up to the day in the Convention where they present the candidates. Joe could issue a terse statement regretting his slow recovery and Officially Withdrawing From The Running. This kills about 87 birds with one stone. The powers that be could pretend to pull the Chosen One out of a hat; ipso, presto! I don’t have any idea who that’s going to be. Perhaps a Hilary-Bernie ticket; the shit-on-the-stick at both ends ticket!
Clones can be reproduced. Some clones are smarter than others. They’re preparing a new clone for the debate with Trump.
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It really doesn’t matter braindead dems vote for the braindead !
Besides Joe is in the process of making his newcomers CITIZENS and take a guess who these 12 million will be voting for ? There are another 50 million waiting in the wings to become American citizens !!!
Then there is the NO ID voting and the ballotbox stuffing …
There are some profound changes already in motion in our economy that I haven’t seen before, or better put as; that are incongruous to my experience, such that I can’t put two & two together and get four, or any other answer. The following is disjointed because I have to work with factors at my limited understanding level.
The govt’s numbers/stats on the economy don’t compute. They reported the payroll increased by 272, 000 while the work force fell by 400,000, keeping the unemployment rate at 4.2%. That doesn’t make sense. Native born Jobs went down 299,000 while Foreign Born Jobs went up 637,000. That might make mathematical sense, is bad anyway. There seems to be some several mixed metaphors in these numbers.
I don’t have hard numbers, but the number of people working two jobs is up, to make ends meet. I see many people interviewed on TV who are looking for work, and have been for some time who can’t find jobs. I think the common element that is not spoken to is, that AI is in the process of reducing the need for clerical-type workers. That’s not hard to believe. The new dominant companies in the economy of already computerized services are those kinds of companies (I speculate) that have been introducing AI solutions as replacements of workers lost to attrition. In other words, that effectively reduces the work force at the same rate as that of attrition without affecting the unemployment rate. They can move existing people-workers around and as they exit for any reason, nobody new is hired. The only job openings are newly created positions. That would account for the questionable (in my mind) stats above. That would also be ominous in that all the paper-shuffler jobs would seem to be on the way out, for good. Actually, not for good; forever is a more appropriate word. That would only leave the kind of work that people do with their hands; AKA labor. There are a lot of people who aren’t fit for that, and those jobs are being priced out of the market, too, with unrealistic govt-imposed minimum wages, and will be replaced with/by automation over time. The fast food industry will be down to mostly machine-filled buildings with factory-packaged food components cooked (warmed) by machines and conveyed to a window for customer pick-up. Maybe one or two machine tenders will feed pallets of packages into the machines, and you will order & pay on your cell phone. People-free; nearly zero jobs.
There is another side of the coin, but it’s blank. With AI eliminating office workers and automation eliminating hand labor. Who is left to buy the burgers? Can that be called an economy? Back in the 90s the workforce was about 65% of the population. Employed workers bought stuff with their wages. If only a few are working, who will pay taxes? One of the important concepts within economics is the velocity of money. That is the speed and number of times money changes hands. In good times the speed is up; in a steady economy the number of turnovers in steady. I earn a dollar, the govt takes 25 cents, and I spend 75 cents at the cleaners. The cleaners pay taxes of 10 cents, and 65 cents in wages and cleaning materials. The process continues until my whole dollar is used up. The higher the number of times the money is further circulated is expressed as the velocity; the higher, the better. Lower tax rates obviously raise the amount that gets re-spent in the economy. It is better for the economy for the velocity to be high, and better for the govt can get the same total amount, but by taking a smaller cut from more cycles. The larger the work force; the easier it is to obtain enough cycles to accumulate suitable tax revenue.
The 5 stock market leaders are all overbought, and all of those top 5 companies are the kinds of companies that will be high users of AI. Many companies have their whole company-customer interface online. If you have a problem you can “chat” (a term of art that means anything except speak to someone) with a computer ~AI~ to solve your problem. That, in my experience works badly, but costs next to nothing for the company/seller/service. But that’s the new economy leadership. They are in the process of doing that with medicine. If it works as badly we’ll all die on our computer keyboards.
So, the economy is eliminating paid workers at the same time the top 5 stocks are overbought and doomed to one day be selling products to the very few people working and earning wages. These companies will be very efficient with small payrolls, just like all other companies. But there won’t be any customers to speak of because very few people will (can) work. That makes for stock values worth next to nothing, too. You can plainly see that I don’t understand how any of this can be avoided or work at all. Either I’m crazy or we lemmings are on the way out.
All this bodes ill for mankind. If you’re not old, too bad
It is hypothetical.
If you’re an independent farmer or a small group of farmers producing your own food, not requring chemical fertilizers, what good is government with its never-ending taxation?
You educate your own children and no woke teachers messing with their minds. What good is school education?
You need not to hear about the rich and famous doing their thing in Holliwood. Who cares which team wins in football or baseball? Who needs to hear all the crap in the news? It’s all lies anyway.
You respect nature and all plants and animals. You gather a few times in a year to pay respect to them and conduct small ceremonies. What good is the church with its priests and pastors extolling wars in faraway lands?
Life can be simple. Go ahead and work 2, 3 jobs if you want a big house and expensive muscle cars.
The choice is ours.
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Well with the never ending minimum wage increases it seems possible .
Who wants to pay $16 an hour to ask " do you want fries with that ? "
Bussinesses are failing left and right because the government wants to ditate wages . We have so many working "off the books " these days , many illegals , those on welfare etc.
People are begining to realize they could make more on the government tit than working . I would venture to say a family of 4 on 100% benefits from taxpayers would rake in about $52,000 if you add up everything , and they have NO TAX liability ZERO !!!
The evidence is clear: Americans are staying home rather than returning to work. Some states took action to address this labor crisis by ending the expanded federal unemployment benefits and bonuses earlier than their scheduled expiration date. And in those states, this action was a success.11–12–13–14 But even with these success stories and the unemployment bonus ending nationwide, the American economy is struggling for one simple reason: For millions of people, staying home still pays better than returning to work.
Using COVID-19 as an excuse, federal policymakers have quietly launched new welfare-like initiatives—and expanded existing ones—that provide regular, recurring payments that discourage work to millions of Americans.
Congress has pumped nearly $5 trillion taxpayer dollars into COVID-19 “relief” spending.15 Many of these programs enable regular monthly payments that, when combined, are far more lucrative than work. These new initiatives have infected several significant government programs and threaten to tank the American economy.
Child Tax Credits
In 2017, Congress enacted the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), which expanded the existing Child Tax Credit program into a generous credit for millions of Americans.16 Under TCJA, American families could receive up to $2,000 per child to offset their tax liability.17 If the families owed less in taxes than the credit was worth, a portion of the credit was refundable.18 In order to receive the refundable credit, taxpayers needed at least $2,500 in earnings and the credit value increased by 15 cents for every dollar earned above $2,500, up to a maximum refundable credit of $1,400 per child.19 This was an important feature: The credit ensured that Americans worked in order to receive the benefit.
However, the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), championed by President Biden and the Democrat-controlled Congress in March 2021, changed everything. The credit amounts were hiked to $3,600 for dependents under the age of six and $3,000 for those six and older.20 The credit was made fully refundable, and the minimum earnings threshold of $2,500 was eliminated—essentially striking the connection to work that existed under the previous tax credit.21 Meanwhile, instead of being distributed in a lump-sum at tax time, the government began paying out these new welfare-style payments in regular monthly installments.22
The disincentive to work is easy to see. What was once a reasonable credit used to offset a working parent’s tax liability at tax time has become a stream of welfare payments distributed in regular deposits into the bank accounts of millions of Americans, even if they are not working. In fact, for a single parent with two dependents, the value of the Child Tax Credit is now larger than the most generous cash welfare payment that same family could receive. 23 The Child Tax Credit has become welfare—with no incentive or requirement to work.
Food Stamps
The food stamp program has also been modified under the guise of COVID-19 relief. Beginning with the passage of the Families First Coronavirus Relief Act (FFCRA), the federal government suspended the work requirement for able-bodied adults without dependents in the program—a suspension that remains in effect.24 Previously, able-bodied adults would have to work, train, or volunteer at least part-time in order to qualify for the program.25 Those work requirements remain suspended nationwide despite employers facing one of the worst labor shortages in American history.26
Meanwhile, the federal government has massively increased the amount of food stamp payments. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) gave states the ability to receive “emergency allotments” that increased the size of food stamp payments during the pandemic.27 Although this was supposed to be a temporary initiative, nearly 40 states are still participating in the program as of October 2021.28
In October 2021, the Biden administration doubled down on its welfare expansion by unilaterally—and potentially unlawfully—implementing the single-largest permanent increase in food stamp benefits in the history of the program. 29–30 The average benefit paid out increased by roughly 25 percent compared to pre-pandemic levels, while the maximum allowable benefits also increased across the board.31
With the indefinite suspension of work requirements and the significant hike in the size of benefits, the food stamp program has become an even greater trap for government dependency.
ObamaCare Subsidies
The Biden administration also used ARPA to massively expand taxpayer-funded subsidies through ObamaCare. Under ObamaCare, individuals seeking federal subsidies on the exchange were still expected to pay a portion of the cost of their health insurance plans. But ARPA eliminated that expectation altogether for individuals with income below 150 percent of the federal poverty line, shifting those costs to taxpayers and ensuring enrollees do not have any skin in the game.32
ObamaCare also phased out subsidies so that individuals with income above four times the poverty line would not qualify.33 Under ARPA, that threshold was eliminated, and the share of costs higher-income households were expected to pay was also reduced.34
This leads to perverse policy outcomes that subsidize the health care of individuals well above the working class. For example, a family of five living in Arizona with a 60-year-old head of household who earns $150,000 annually now receives nearly $38,000 per year in premium tax credits under ARPA.35 These subsidies will continue until that same household earns more than $500,000 annually.36 Likewise, the average single 60-year-old will continue to qualify for these subsidies until they earn more than ten times the federal poverty line.37
To make matters worse, the Biden administration also deems anyone who receives unemployment benefits at any time in 2021 automatically eligible for these enhanced subsidies, and treats them as if their earnings were near the poverty line, regardless of their actual income.38
Since ObamaCare subsidies are usually distributed on an advanced basis to offset monthly premiums, the recent expansions under ARPA are yet another extension of the welfare state into the lives of millions of Americans.
Other Government Programs
In addition to the Child Tax Credit, food stamps, and ObamaCare subsidies, the COVID-19 pandemic has been used as an excuse to expand government dependency in numerous other areas.
Under ARPA, more childless adults are now temporarily eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC)—a program traditionally targeted towards workers with qualifying children.39 States that accepted extra federal Medicaid funds during the pandemic are blocked from raising cost sharing, changing eligibility, or removing anyone from their Medicaid rolls—even if they have become ineligible.40 As a result, millions of Americans are “locked-in” to Medicaid coverage that they no longer qualify for. 41
This is especially problematic because Congress forced states to disregard unemployment bonuses for Medicaid eligibility purposes.42 This means that individuals who were collecting upwards of $50,000 per year on unemployment were placed onto Medicaid and cannot be removed unless and until the Biden administration ends the public health emergency.43
This is just a sampling of some of the other government programs that have been expanded since the pandemic began, all of which have enabled the quiet growth of the welfare state that is holding back America’s economy recovery.
Welfare now pays better than work for millions of Americans
These “temporary” expansions and perversions of government programs have infected the American workforce. Today, welfare and welfare-like initiatives simply pay better than work for millions of Americans.
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In Michigan the state administers the Unemployment Fund, but only pays state money when the company goes down the tubes. Otherwise, all the money paid out comes from an account that the employer contributes to and keeps at some level. When that account falls below some level the unemployment tax that the employer pays is an extra 10% of its weekly payroll until the account is back to the “filled” level. Then the employer pays 4.6% of payroll every week. The size of the account is based upon size of payroll.
In Michigan the state administers the Unemployment Fund, but only pays state money when the company goes down the tubes. Otherwise, all the money paid out comes from an account that the employer contributes to and keeps at some level. When that account falls below some level the unemployment tax that the employer pays is an extra 10% of its weekly payroll until the account is back to the “filled” level. Then the employer pays 4.6% of payroll every week. The size of the account is based upon size of payroll.
All of that was hard to read. Not just because it was long, but because it’s true. If you’re not a go-getter personality, laying in bed at 6 AM and asking yourself whether you should get up and go to work, or just roll over, the answer is pretty easy.
The Dems are not just planning on using illegals voting for them in Nov., they’re doing it now. Congressman Claudia Tunney of NY reports that the voting registrar she encountered at the Primary refused to look at her driver’s license (she offered for ID purposes). That means the Dems plan is now in motion. Since the SCOTUS started this mess with forbidding states from asking for proof or even about citizenship when applying for a drivers license, all illegals will have one, and with that address can vote, unless the voting registrar asks for proof of citizenship. That won’t happen in any blue state and Merritt Garland has said he will press for that to not happen anywhere. That means Dems win.
If the GOP can’t get SCOTUS to overturn that ruling before the election, we don’t stand a chance. The economy can’t stand another 4 years without a Trump turnaround and will collapse, period.
Of course dems will NOT ask if a voter is a citizen . And we are screwed because Biden plans to make them ALL citizens .
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Well Kiddies, it’s lookin’ like the Dems are going to throw the election. Their thumbs are on the scale, they’re pulling their punches, and they’re pretty close to bringing in a ringer with a glass jaw. The bad guys in the world are on notice that they have 6 months to launch & win wars, after which the USA will intervene with the old finesse. If the bad guys can get in & done by Christmas they can pretend like there is no remedy. The Ruskies don’t have a lot of time to get their shit together, and considering how badly they have conducted their half of the war, I see no reason to believe they will. Looking back thru history we can remember that armies that try to win by laying siege to another defending army have not fared well especially when 3rd parties are willing to re-supply the army under siege. The world views Ukraine differently now than in the beginning in that it’s plain that Putinian forces of evil are a couple bricks short of a load and if they take the war nuclear, it will be a two-way street. That’s not even the worst eventuality of going nuclear; Russia is decidedly downwind of any target, AND, so are all the old soviet block hangers-on downwind and whatever else is true, the periods of easterly winds are few and brief. This gives, “Pissing in the wind” new meaning, in spades. Even if Ukraine doesn’t strike back in-kind, the breezes are all bound for north, east & south of Ukraine and that’s Russia & her friends. When Trump comes to office the nature of the armaments will change from the token toys and late deliveries of almost-measures to the weapon systems that will change the game. Putin knows this. It would be like fighting the NATO forces with real offensive weapons of the first order. The cartoon that fits is Putin sitting in his corner looking bloodied and bruised and watching his human opponent leave the ring and Transformer Boxer stepping in.
Why do you say that?
They have plenty of time.
If Trump is sworn in and stops the war on the same day, the Russians probably will have reached the Dnieper River in the Donbass. Yeah, they can live with that.
Russia hasn’t laid siege anywhere.
In Mariupol, the Russian army consisting of Chechen troops went right in. The Ukrainians tried to hide in the huge industrial complex underground but it was a lost cause from the get-go. (I heard one Ukrainian came out of the hiding place a few weeks ago. What in the world was he eating for two years, other than rats in the darkness… I don’t want to know.)
Are you referring to nukes?
Only Joos and their servants want to nuke Christian lands.
Gramps , what in the hell gave you that goofy idea ? Dems have always done everything to win elections including CHEAT .
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Here it is 2125 hrs EST, and I have to make some apologies and retractions. I said before that one of the characteristics of senility is obstinacy, and that stands, but I also said they would throw Joe to the sharks now, and evidentially he won’t let go of the rail and is climbing back in the boat. I now think the only way out of this mess for the Dems is a 25th Amendment call by the Cabinet. It don’t get no better than this. Any time your enemies start eating their young you have to thank God and pull up a comfortable chair and hope for a real bloodletting; long & drawn out; involving as many of them as possible.
As a little bonus, SCOTUS has thrown a wrench in all the lawfare cases and that doesn’t even include the lawsuit in-process by two past US Attorney Generals pointing out that Jack Smith is not qualified to be named a Special Prosecutor because he is not an Officer of the United States, all of which are appointed such by the Senate. Merrittless Garland can name an Officer to be Special Prosecutor, but Jack’s not an Officer. Outside of that, SCOTUS sez the motive underlying any Presidential decision is not open to question. That IS the last straw.
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Don’t ya just love the Dems reaction to the SCOTUS rulings? People in the middle of the political spectrum who admire the court, and like the rest of us assume honesty on the part of the Justices notice. This is just one more opportunity to lean towards or away from one political side or the other. Thank God the Dems are such boobs dealing with any people or idea that don’t go their way. The neutrals notice…
Liking the Justices or their leanings shouldn’t change that respect; we conservatives know who we cheer for and who we boo, and we get plenty of opinions we don’t like, but we accept them while we grumble. The Dems get out the rope & torches when they don’t like a decision. The spirit of the Klan & Jim Crow are alive and well on the left. It WILL cost them votes.
What the left doesn’t understand is we have three EQUAL branches of govt precisely as THE tool to prevent any one branch from dominating the govt by being able to control the others, the way the Executive branch is able to sic the DOJ on enemies! Imagine what they could do if they could control the courts? Wait a minute… that is what they’re doing now…
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