Wealthy Would Be Able to Dodge 90 Percent of Biden Capital Gains Tax Increase

May 2, 2021

The left is positively drooling at the prospect of soaking $1.7 trillion out of the pockets of the rich. They can feel that money against their soft hands as if it were already there.

Under Biden’s super-duper, very keen tax proposal in the infrastructure bill that has nothing to do with infrastructure, the tax on capital gains would nearly double, from 20 percent to 39.6 percent. Along with raising the personal tax rate, it’s supposed to generate $1.7 trillion in tax revenue over the next 10 years from the wealthy who aren’t paying their “fair share.”

But you don’t get to be wealthy in America by paying taxes. In fact, legally avoiding taxes is fairly easy if you have a decent accountant.

A study from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton Business School reveals that up to 90 percent of those taxes can be avoided by wealthy people who just aren’t feeling the same sense of love and brotherhood about the government that the left feels.

“We don’t think that the proposal has a lot of teeth,” said John Ricco, director of policy analysis at the Penn Wharton Budget Model, a non-partisan fiscal policy research group at the business school. “There are a lot of games you can play to avoid paying this tax.”

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California Cypress College professor on leave of absence after heated ‘police’ argument with student

May 2, 2021

The unnamed adjunct professor had not planned to return in the fall

The California college professor caught on camera berating a student for supporting the police has taken a leave of absence after the video went viral.

The unnamed Cypress College educator got into a heated argument with her student Brandon Ellis, 19, when he said that he thought police were “heroes.”

Ellis told “Fox & Friends Weekend” on Saturday that he believed his teacher was trying to catch him in a “gotcha” moment, but he remained calm throughout the exchange.

“I think they are heroes, in a sense, because they come to your need and help you,” Ellis said on the video call, which was first reported by the Daily Wire. The professor repeatedly interrupts and talks over Ellis as he tries to defend his point following a presentation, according to the video.

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US says China should do more for intellectual property protection, as Beijing struggles to meet trade deal targets

May 1, 2021

Washington has signaled that Beijing is not doing enough to improve protection for American firms’ intellectual property rights, which was one of China’s commitments under the ‘phase one’ trade deal with the US.

The office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) has kept China on its “priority watch list” for intellectual property (IP) rights enforcement problems, according to the agency’s report published on Friday. While the list included eight more countries – Argentina, Chile, India, Indonesia, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Ukraine, and Venezuela – that the US is to monitor more closely, China’s section is the longest, covering 10 pages.

Under the trade agreement signed by the two parties at the beginning of 2020, which marked a truce in the longstanding US-China trade war, Beijing pledged to address US industries’ concerns on trade secrets, patents, trademarks, and copyrights, among other issues. The trade office said that it has been closely monitoring implementation of those commitments.

Big Pharma ‘Ripping Off’ U.S. Consumers, New Study Confirms

May 1, 2021

A new analysis commissioned by Sen. Bernie Sanders, shows U.S. consumers and insurers pay two to four times more for prescription drugs than other rich countries.

A new government study commissioned by Sen. Bernie Sanders shows that the U.S. pays two to four times more for prescription drugs than other rich countries, a finding that came as President Joe Biden rolled out a social safety-net plan on Wednesday that excludes progressive proposals to tackle sky-high medicine costs.

According to an analysis by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), retail prices that U.S. consumers and insurers paid for 20 brand-name prescription drugs in 2020 were 2.82 times higher than in Canada, 4.25 times higher than in Australia, and 4.36 times higher than in France.

The drugs GAO examined were a sampling of 41 brand-name medicines with the highest expenditures and use in the Medicare Part D program, which under current federal law is prohibited from negotiating prices with pharmaceutical companies.

One example GAO cites is Xarelto, a blood clot medication that costs more than $558 for 30 tablets in the U.S. but just over $85 in Canada.

“This important GAO study confirms what we all already know: the pharmaceutical industry is ripping off the American people,” Sanders (I-Vt.) said in a statement. “The time is long overdue for the United States to do what every major country on earth does: negotiate with the pharmaceutical companies to lower the outrageous price of prescription drugs.”

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Read an opposing take here.

3 Reasons Miami School Might Be Right About Asking Teachers Not to Get COVID Vaccine

May 1, 2021

Centner Academy, a private school in Miami, faced a global media assault after asking staff not to get vaccinated, but these three facts about the vaccines lend support to the school’s decision.

Centner Academy, a private school in Miami, has made international headlines for directing its employees who have not yet received the experimental COVID-19 vaccine, to wait until the end of the school year, as a precautionary step to protect the health of their school community, given both concerning new anecdotal reports that the vaccinated can adversely affect the health of the un-vaccinated, and that clinical safety and efficacy data for the mRNA vaccines will not be completed until sometime in 2023.

Thus far, mainstream media reporting has focused and railed against the following statement made by Leila Centner, co-founder and CEO of Centner Academy, to her employees (in an internal email later leaked to the press) as being the most controversial and contestable:

“Tens of thousands of women all over the world have recently been reporting adverse reproductive issues simply from being in close proximity with those who have received any one of the COVID-19 injections, e.g., irregular menses, bleeding, miscarriages, post-menopausal hemorrhaging and amenorrhea (complete loss of menstruation).

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Another Hillsong Leader Has Stepped Down Due to Infidelity

May 1, 2021

Hillsong Church has lost another leader. Darnell Barrett, creative director of the Hillsong New Jersey Montclair campus, announced his resignation on Tuesday due to being unfaithful to his wife.

After being approached by DailyMail.com outside of his New Jersey home, Barrett said the reason for his resignation was “infidelity” and that he and his wife are in the process of working on “healing and repairing [our] marriage.”

Barrett said, “We thought it was best for me to move on. I don’t want to get into the details.” His announcement comes after sharing an inappropriate photo on Instagram with a 30-year-old former Hillsong female volunteer, which he claims was an accident.

The former creative director, who is married with two children, said he had no intention of meeting up with the former volunteer. The “gym photo,” as Barrett calls it, which highlighted his washboard abs and private parts [he had workout tights on], was sent to a private group on Instagram to encourage others to join a gym challenge.

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Bill Maher now admits Russiagate was ‘reported erroneously’ after years of promoting Trump-Russia collusion narrative

May 1, 2021

Bill Maher now admits that the Russiagate story that he helped promulgate while Donald Trump was president had elements that were “reported erroneously.” The liberal TV talk show host made the admission on the latest episode of “Real Time with Bill Maher.”

There were hundreds of media outlets and some Democratic politicians that pushed conspiracy theories claiming Trump was colluding with the Russian government, including stories that the former U.S. president was a “handmaid” to Russian President Vladimir Putin because he was blackmailed by kompromat. Veteran journalist Brit Hume went so far as to say the mainstream media’s coverage of the Russia investigation is the “worst journalistic fiasco” he has ever witnessed.

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Washington DC Is Paying $1.6 Million In Settlements To Rioters At Trump’s Inauguration

May 1, 2021

The double standard of justice continues.

Washington D.C. is going to pay $1.6 million in settlements to those who were arrested for rioting at Trump’s inauguration.

According to lawsuits filed protesters were arrested without cause and excessive force was used.

ABC reported:

The city of Washington has reached a $1.6 million settlement in two lawsuits that included allegations of arrests without cause and excessive force on protestors during the inauguration of former President Donald Trump in January 2017.
The two lawsuits were brought by the American Civil Liberties Union of the District of Columbia and attorney Jefferey Light, on behalf of protesters.

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CNN Poll: 64% Say Voter ID Requirements Make Elections ‘More Fair’

May 1, 2021

A majority of Americans believe basic voter ID requirements, such as requiring a valid photo ID prior to casting a ballot, would make elections “more fair,” despite the steady stream of mischaracterizations from top Democrats, who contend that such requirements are oppressive and akin to the Jim Crow era.

The survey provided a series of potential rules a state could implement regarding voting and asked respondents to rate if the suggested rule would make elections “more fair,” “less fair,” or the same.

Notably, 64 percent of respondents said requiring voters to provide photo identification before casting a ballot would make elections “more fair,” compared to 17 percent who said “less fair,” and 17 percent who said it “would not make much difference.”

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The Search of Giuliani’s Home May Have Broken the Law

May 1, 2021

On Wednesday morning, federal authorities executed a search warrant at the Manhattan apartment on Madison Avenue owned and occupied by former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Authorities also executed a warrant to search Mr. Giulian’s Park Avenue office at the same time.

Whether the search itself was legal would depend on the exact nature of the facts that, at this point, are simply speculation. But the first thing that jumps out is that while it isn’t illegal for prosecutors to execute a warrant to search the office and personal home of a high-profile lawyer, it is highly unusual.

We all might remember a similarly unusual case a few years ago in Manhattan — that of former President Trump’s other personal lawyer, Michael Cohen. For those interested in a deeper dive into the events surrounding the Cohen search and seizure, here is an excellent episode of a legal podcast.

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