Category: Gummint

Just Camouflage

Taxes and Theft

You may recall that the loathsome former NYfC Mayor Bloomberg once declared war on super-sized drinks in that poxy city because people were getting too fat from the drinking thereof, or something.  So as an actual ban would essentially be unenforceable, he slapped a consumption tax on them.

How nice:  promote health while raking in the dollars.  (I’m sure the latter had no bearing on his action, of course. [eyecross] )

I was reminded of this when I read that the equally-loathsome British Labourite Wes Streeting has slapped a tax on sugary drinks.  (Okay, he just extended and raised the “temporary” tax on food on this particular category, but the effect is the same.)

The oily little shit then made this nauseating statement:

“This government will not look away as children get unhealthier,” the Health Secretary told the Commons.

Makes you want to give him a swift slap, dunnit?

And as with Bloomberg, the poison is in the details, as the tax may raise as much as £45million a year or more for the Treasury.

What about all those obese children?

Whitehall’s own estimates suggest it will only trim 0.3kcal off the daily intake of 5 to 10 year olds and 0.4kcal off 11 to 18 year olds.

Well, there ya go, then.

What I really love is all the contortions necessary to make all this happen:

The change will affect packaged milkshakes and coffees, but not drinks made in cafes and restaurants.

The exemption for milk-based drinks will be replaced with a ‘lactose allowance’ to account for the natural sugars in the milk component of the drinks.

I’m thinking that HMG could save a lot more than £45million a year by just firing all the goblins involved in implementing and enforcing all these tax minutiae, but no doubt that might be seen as too simplistic.

Whether control freaks like Bloomberg or unctuous figures like Streeting, they’re all just bastards.

STFU FOP

Asshole Cops, Government Thugs

Here’s one snippet guaranteed to raise my ire:

The National Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), together with the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), sent a letter to Congress urging them to reject national reciprocity for concealed carry.

The legislation, H.R. 38, is sponsored by Rep. Richard Hudson (R) and would treat the concealed carry license of any one state as valid in the other 49.

H.R. 38 is titled the “Constitutional Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act.”

According to the FOP/IACP, “The legislation exempts any person with a valid photographic identification from state or local firearms law who asserts that they are lawfully carrying a firearm under the laws of their own state of residence.”

They claimed that national reciprocity for concealed carry would impact officers’ safety, and it “jeopardizes qualified immunity.” Concerning the latter, they wrote, “Qualified immunity protects officers from civil liability unless they violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights. Any action the officer may take in reaction to the knowledge that the person they have encountered is armed could place that officer in very real legal peril.”

Yeah, well fuck you.  If a state-issued driver’s license is valid (under the Constitution ahem), then so should firearms carriage, if it’s lawful in the traveler’s home state.

Basically, what your organizations are saying is that you cops should be the only ones carrying guns.

Sorry, but that’s not how it works.  Under the same Constitution — which, lest you pricks have forgotten, is something you swore to uphold and protect, despite the possibility of personal danger — We The People have the right to keep and bear arms.   Whether in their home state or not, and whether or not it frightens you.

The fact that some states (and their little minions) behave contrary to the Constitution is irrelevant, and your pathetic fear of armed citizens ditto.

As a general rule, I’m on the side of law and order, but not when it comes to my rights.  So STFU cops, and your bosses likewise.  (Just the word “International” in the chiefs’ organization title grates on me.)

And lastly, you bastards have been abusing your “qualified immunity” for too long anyway, and you deserve to lose it.

Missed It By THISmuch

Bureaucracy, Gummint, Politics

…that would be the end of the Schumer Schuttdown.  I predicted that it would end two days after last Tuesday’s elections (Thursday), and it actually ended yesterday (Sunday).

How nice.  Now the Gummint so-called “workers” head back to their offices (except when “working from home”, what a boondogggle) and go back to wasting taxpayer money while doing so little to justify their existence.

Forgive me for sounding blasé about the whole thing, but at least the Republican Party Reptiles managed to maintain their soft spines and refuse (for once) to capitulate to the Socialists.  I suppose that’s something to celebrate.

So now it’s back to normal, and on we go with the never-ending story.

Bah.

Now it’s time to end ObamaCare, lower income taxes, keep up with the deportations of illegal immigrants and keep reducing the size and impact of the government on our lives.  To mention just a few.

Later, we can discuss the hangings.

Failed State

Bureaucracy, Gummint, Health

Every time I get into any kind of discussion with Brits and Euros (no longer a single entity, of course) about the relative state of our nations, I get hit with the “at least we have free health care”  jibe.

Well, sometimes “free” is better than nothing;  and sometimes, it’s a lot, lot worse:

Our 15 hours of hospital hell after my mother’s stroke. We saw patients urinating in the corridor, nurses being slapped and ambulances queuing for hours… the NHS is truly broken.

I had called my mother for a quick catch-up when it became clear that there was a serious problem.

It was about 10.30am, an average Wednesday two and a bit weeks ago, when my usually sparky, chatty, bright and switched-on mum answered the phone in a way that suggested something was terribly wrong.

With a befuddled voice, she told me she wasn’t feeling well. She was confused and couldn’t work out how to open the back door to let the dog out. ‘I’m supposed to be at work,’ she told me, ‘they keep calling. But I can’t understand how to do anything.’

Because I’m paranoid, and because her mother – my grandmother – had died of one 20 years ago, I immediately suspected she was having a stroke.

I remembered the famous F.A.S.T test to recognise the signs – F for facial drooping, A for arm weakness, S for speech problems, T for time being of the essence if you recognise any of these symptoms.

My mum couldn’t tell me about her face, or her arms, but her speech was confused in a way I hadn’t encountered in all my 45 years on the planet, so I immediately told her to stay where she was while I called 999.

The emergency operator told me the call was marked as high priority and that an ambulance would arrive as a matter of urgency. I would soon discover that my definition of terms such as ‘urgency’ and ‘high priority’ were very different to the definitions used by the NHS in 2025.

Read the whole thing, for the full horror.

Where’s The Beef?

Gummint

Following on from my previous post about the inadvisability of importing furrin (Argy) beef, allow me to point out the following things.

First:

Mo-Kan Livestock owner Jim Hertzog told the lawmaker that another issue involves small cattle herds.

“We’re short on numbers. It’s just that simple, and the reason we’re short on numbers is three years of drought, and a lot of cows were sold and slaughtered, and they’re not there to raise the calves,” Hertzog said.

He added that the solution is to “rebuild the herd. The solution is not to bring in other beef.”

And as for those steep beef prices at the supermarket:

Restaurant owner Sherry Keegan blamed large packing houses. “It’s the big four, big five packing houses. They tend to manipulate the pricing by shortening their kill days,” she said.

Keegan explained that “rather than killing five days a week, having a five-day-a-week slaughter schedule, they’ll reduce it down to three days and the price of beef, price of meat will go up.”

The second may also be a result of the first, however (although Big Meat have never been known for their lack of greed and cupidity).  Another reason for their slaughter slowdown could be a shortage of illegal alien workers in the packing plants…

Anyway, next up:

Matt Pearce, owner of Pearce Cattle Company, and Steve Lucie, a fifth-generation rancher, appeared on Newsmax’s “National Report” to discuss the increase of beef imports from Argentina aimed at driving down food costs in the U.S.

Pearce warned that importing foreign beef could expose U.S. herds to dangerous diseases and undermine domestic producers already struggling with high costs.

And finally:

The USDA said the national cattle herd is at a 75-year low, while consumer demand for beef has grown 9% over the past decade.

Because it takes time to rebuild herds, the department said it is investing to stabilize markets for ranchers over the long term and to make beef more affordable.

Ah yes… government stepping in to help solve a problem that they created in the first place.

The plan calls for the Agriculture and Interior departments to “streamline and expand” ranchers’ abilities to graze on federal lands.  It will prioritize grazing on an estimated 24 million acres of vacant allotments across the country.

By the way, the reason that ranching permits were reduced came courtesy of the AgDept during the FuckJoeBiden administration, because it was all part of the drive to make consumers start eating insects instead of beef, or to cut back the effect of cow flatulence on the environment, or some other crap. #BigGreenStupidity

Read all three linked articles to get a full flavor of the complexity of the issue.

There is so much bullshit [sic]  involved in this whole business that I’m starting to favor a simple solution to this Gordian Knot:

Feel free to suggest who or what should be at the naughty end of this gun barrel.

Nazzo Fast, Guido

Foreign Affairs, Politics, Subsidies

I’m not so sure that this is a good idea.

President Donald Trump told reporters on Sunday that his administration is considering importing beef from Argentina to lower its price at home and help Argentina stabilize its struggling economy, which he described as being in critical condition.

Dear  King  God-Emperor Donald:  Those are both laudable goals, i.e. to help a loyal ally and simultaneously help U.S. consumers who are being flattened by stratospherically-high beef prices at home.

However, I can’t help but think that you should also consider trying to ease the crushing burden of federal regulations that beef farmers — actually, all farmers — have to deal with, regulations that are a legacy of the Leviathan State you’ve inherited.  That will lower their cost of production, and should make beef less expensive.

Lowering beef prices through imports will simply make our beef farming less profitable — not that it’s all that profitable to begin with — and frankly, I care more about our farmers than about the Argies.

After all, it’s Make America Great Again, not Make Argentina Great Again.  With all due respect to Señor Presidente Milei, he has to deal with problems of his country’s own making, just as we have to beat back the Commies Over Here.  We can and should help him, but not at our own expense.

Just a thought.