WATCH: This Likely 2020 Dem Presidential Candidate Ups The Ante: Speaks Of 90% Tax Rate
Apparently unsatisfied with the suggestion of fellow Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez that wealthy Americans should be forced into a 60-70% tax rate, likely 2020 presidential candidate Julian Castro, who served as the Obama Administration’s Housing and Urban Development secretary, seemed to speculate on Sunday about the possibility of raising Ocasio-Cortez’s bid to 90%.
Appearing on ABC News’ “This Week,” Castro remarked that he could support Ocasio-Cortez’s suggestion, adding, “Oh, I can support folks at the top paying their fair share … There was a time in this country where the top marginal tax rate was over 90%, even during Reagan’s era in the 1980s it was around 50%.”
Castro, the former mayor of San Antonio, Texas, urged “that we get more serious about making sure the corporations pay their fair share. He continued, “During this campaign, if I run, I’m going to be very up front with the American people on how we would do that because I think that they are owed that, but it is worth it. It is worth it in this country for us to do that,” he said, vowing not to be “a single issue candidate.”
In 2015, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, never averse to raising taxes, also brought up the Eisenhower tax rates during the Iowa presidential debate. Sanders was asked about tax rates, “Well, let’s get specific, how high would you go? You’ve said before you’d go above 50 percent. How high?” He responded, “We haven’t come up with an exact number yet, but it will not be as high as the number under Dwight D. Eisenhower, which was 90%.”
But as the Tax Foundation explained in 2017, it is true that the top federal income tax rate was 91% for most of the the 1950’s, but the top 1% of taxpayers in the 1950s only paid about 42% of their income in taxes. The Tax Foundation explains that the 91% bracket of 1950 only applied to households with income over $200,000, the equivalent of roughly $2 million today. Additionally, the high tax rate only applied to income above $200,000, not to every single dollar earned.
An article in Forbes from 2015 estimated that $200,000 in the 1950’s would be equivalent to $1.7 million now, then added, “But general living standards have risen considerably over the past 60 years. Well more than doubled in fact more like four times … To be similarly high up the totem pole of relative incomes, assuming no change in inequality, you’d actually need that $8.9 million to live as large. And this is about right: living standards have risen some eight times since around 1900. That’s for everyone, not just the super rich … So, while $8.9 million might be equal to the general rise in incomes over the period, given the way that the very tippy top incomes have soared away, this only puts you in the relative income position of that $4.4 million to equate to the $200k. That is, $8.9 million isn’t as close to the top as $200k was then.”
Video below:
Schumer says ‘enough with the memes’ in attack on Trump, gets bombarded by sea of memes
US Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer inadvertently activated the meme-generating powers of President Donald Trump‘s supporters after criticizing his handling of the government shutdown on Twitter.
“Enough with the memes. Just quit hurting innocent people and re-open the government,” Schumer tweeted on Saturday in response to a ‘Game of Thrones’-inspired meme that Trump had tweeted earlier to champion his border security fence project.
Trump tweeted a photo showing a barrier of steel slats below an image of his frowning face. The photo was captioned “The Wall is Coming,” channeling the famous “Winter is Coming” motto from the popular HBO series.
READ MORE: ‘Wall is Coming’: Trump raises stakes with another Game of Thrones meme
It was not the first time that Trump altered the Stark House slogan to bolster his agenda. Back when he reintroduced sanctions against Iran in November, the president tweeted a photo with “Sanctions are Coming. November 5” transposed over his image.
The president’s clumsy meme-making was entirely lost on Schumer, who chided Trump for indulging in picture-editing instead of working to reopen the government, now in its third week of shutdown.
The Twittersphere’s response was instantaneous: Schumer’s comments were flooded with dozens of memes.
The unproven ‘Russia collusion’ allegations were also brought up.
The anti-Trump resistance crowd entered the meme battle with a few sorties of their own, dragging the Mueller investigation, the “blue wave,” and impeachment calls into the snowballing thread.
The $1.2 Trillion College Debt Crisis Is CRIPPLING The Economy
By Mac Slavo
A whopping two-thirds of American college students graduate school already deeply in debt. But the decision to go into debt to pay for a college degree is a $1.2 trillion crisis that’s crippling the economy.
According to The Institute for College Access and Success (TICAS) Project on Student Debt, the average borrower will graduate with $26,600 in student loan debt. That means, that before a dollar is made using the degree, most Americans will owe money to someone else. The trend is not doing the economy any favors either. One in 10 graduates will accumulate more than $40,000 in debt and 1% of graduates will accumulate over $100,000 in student loan debt.
According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, student loan debt has reached a new milestone, crossing the $1.2 trillion mark — $1 trillion of that in federal student loan debt in 2013. That debt currently stands at a whopping $1.5 trillion. And according to a report by Forbes, this is a negative sum game for both the borrowers and the economy. Although taking out massive amounts of debt for college is now the new normal, it’s crippling the economy and the personal financial situations of millions of borrowers.
However, the Pittsburg Post-Gazette says there isn’t a student loan crisis in a recent op-ed. But this information is coming from those who profit off of student loans, such as college presidents. But others say that this is simply a matter of supply and demand and there is more demand than supply. Additional options should be presented to those who have become intent on debt rather than a mandated degree. Educating students on the power of debt should also be considered to help stave off and eventually eliminate this problem.
“There has been a big shift in terms of who should bear the burden of the cost of education,” said Benjamin Keys, a Wharton real estate professor with a specialty in household finance and debt. “We know the stories of our parents, that they could earn enough working as a lifeguard in the summer to pay for a semester of college. The growth of tuition costs relative to teen wages — indeed, all wages — has veered sharply upwards.”
“We’ve come to a place where most students have to borrow in order to pay the cost of completing a bachelor’s degree,” said University of Pennsylvania professor Laura W. Perna, executive director of Penn’s Alliance for Higher Education and Democracy.
Of course, that’s little consolation to those who cannot pay for the degree they went into debt to finance. The student loan dynamic is without a doubt changing the culture of the country. People no longer view debt as something they need to avoid to eliminate slavery to the lender, but something as “necessary” to get ahead. Perhaps this is also why people cannot imagine their life without enslavement to the government. They have been conditioned to believe this is “normal.”
Broken Britain: 2018 Acid Attack Victims Aged 11 to 72 in Cambridgeshire
By Jack Montgomery
Acid attackers targetted victims including an 11-year-old child and a 72-year-old pensioner in the first few months of 2018 in Cambridgeshire, hitherto more famous for its university colleges and cathedrals than violent crime.
The handsome English county suffered a number of gruesome attacks between January and May 2018, according to Cambridgeshire Live, citing statistics uncovered through the Freedom of Information Act.
“We take acid attacks very seriously because they can often have a devastating effect on victims, particularly if they are young or otherwise vulnerable,” said a spokesman for Cambridgeshire Police — although they also claimed it was “important to note” that such attacks are “still very rare”.
This is certainly true if the numbers are compared to multicultural urban centres such as London, under Mayor Sadiq Khan, where such attacks now occur with frightening regularity — and police have even been issued with equipment designed for war zones to treat victims more efficiently.
However, the Cambridgeshire figures show nine people were victimised in the county between January and May 2018, compared to a total of 30 between 2012 and 2017 — suggesting a long-term increase in attacks.
Across the country, an average of 15 acid attacks a week are carried out, with three-quarters taking place in London.
A slim majority of acid attacks in Cambridgeshire between 2012 and 2017 were inflicted on women, which on the surface would appear to be in line with the conventional view of victims as women from non-European “honour” cultures being punished for perceived social transgressions.
The United Kingdom goes against the grain in this respect, however, with victims predominantly male and perpetrators skewing disproportionately but not exclusively non-white, and South Asians not particularly overrepresented.
Instead, acid appears to be a weapon of choice for armed robbers, home invaders, and gang members of all backgrounds in Britain’s high diversity, low social cohesion cities, being used to intimidate or disable with little concern for the serious, long-term injuries they can inflict.
Antifa Aims to Create No-Go Zones For Conservatives In Nashville
“No Go Zones” were first popularized by radical Muslims.
By
A since-deleted Facebook post shows a Nashville, TN affiliate of the left-wing terrorist organization Antifa attempting to establish “Anti fascist zones” over the New Years holiday.
In the post, which mistakenly labels New Years as “January 31st,” they call for “free engagement” against who they consider “fascists” in areas of the city circled on a map.
The driving force for these activities came from two fronts. First was a rumored meet-up of the conservative-leaning fraternal group Proud Boys, which Nashville-area Proud Boy Matthew Walter has confirmed to Big League Politics as non-existent.
Trending: College Student Suspended For “Antagonizing” SJW Microaggression Lecture
Along with the non-existent Proud Boys meet-up, the Antifa group was targeting the city due to the presence of Fox News personality Tomi Lahren, who was broadcasting her show from a Nashville bar.
In a statement posted on the group’s website, they confirm that they were in the city over the New Years holiday working to prevent the Proud Boys from enjoying their night.
Also, a Tweet on their page confirms they were attempting to spot Proud Boys in the city, even posting a picture of a random person, which Walter tells Big League Politics is unknown to the group.
A since-deleted Facebook post shows a Nashville, TN affiliate of the left-wing terrorist organization Antifa attempting to establish “Anti fascist zones” over the New Years holiday.
In the post, which mistakenly labels New Years as “January 31st,” they call for “free engagement” against who they consider “fascists” in areas of the city circled on a map.
The driving force for these activities came from two fronts. First was a rumored meet-up of the conservative-leaning fraternal group Proud Boys, which Nashville-area Proud Boy Matthew Walter has confirmed to Big League Politics as non-existent.
Trending: College Student Suspended For “Antagonizing” SJW Microaggression Lecture
Along with the non-existent Proud Boys meet-up, the Antifa group was targeting the city due to the presence of Fox News personality Tomi Lahren, who was broadcasting her show from a Nashville bar.
In a statement posted on the group’s website, they confirm that they were in the city over the New Years holiday working to prevent the Proud Boys from enjoying their night.
Also, a Tweet on their page confirms they were attempting to spot Proud Boys in the city, even posting a picture of a random person, which Walter tells Big League Politics is unknown to the group.
Antifa, which considers President Donald Trump, and his supporters to be “fascists,” have a long history of violence.
When they label an area as an Anti-Fascist Zone, they are attempting to instill fear to those who disagree with their far-left views.
The tactic of zoning areas to unwelcome those with disagreements is most known in Islamic communities across Europe.
These areas, which have even been acknowledged by German Chancellor Angela Merkel are known to be unwelcome to non-Muslims. Radical Muslims have been known to use violence to enforce those zones.
YOUNG TURKS DELETE MULTIPLE VIDEOS AFTER CLAIMING BLACK SHOOTER WAS ‘WHITE SUPREMACIST’ MOTIVATED BY TRUMP
Left-wing news outlet tries to hide evidence of pushing fake narrative
JANUARY 7, 2019
The Young Turks were forced to delete numerous videos from their YouTube channel after helping to whip up the fake narrative that the murder of a 7-year-old black girl in Houston was a racist hate crime when in fact the gunman was black.
As we reported yesterday, for almost a week left-wing activists and the media fueled the story that the tragic killing of Jazmine Barnes was a white supremacist attack and indicative of a larger trend in America of black people being indiscriminately targeted by whites.
This narrative collapsed after it was revealed that the two suspects in the murder were both African-American and the white bearded man who authorities claimed (after pressure from civil rights activists) was behind the murder was completely innocent of the crime.
The murder was likely a result of the killer targeting the wrong vehicle after a drug deal gone wrong. Citing claims that the mother was friends with the killer on Facebook, others have speculated that she was attempting to steal the drugs and merely blamed a white suspect because she feared for her own life.
Black Lives Matter activist Shaun King, who offered a $100,000 reward for the killer to caught, still appeared to be pushing the white supremacist narrative even after he personally knew the killer was black, according to a Daily Caller report.
It has now emerged that the Young Turks deleted at least four videos from their YouTube channel which had promulgated the fake narrative.
One video that was re-uploaded by another user and originally titled ‘The CRIME Every Outlet in America Should Be Talking About’ features Young Turks contributor Francis Maxwell complaining about why President Trump didn’t draw attention to the murder.
At one point in the clip, Maxwell asserts that Trump wouldn’t pay any attention to the issue unless “there were murmurs of the suspect being a Muslim or an immigrant.”
Maxwell also chided Fox News for not affording the story enough coverage while demanding that the (later proven false) drawing of the suspect be tweeted out by Trump while also drawing comparisons to Charlottesville.
Another video deleted by the Young Turks was entitled ‘Manhunt For White Man Who Murdered 7-Year-Old Black Girl’ featured host Cenk Uygur asserting that the murder was an act of terrorism and that the shooter may have been emboldened by Trump
Another video featured a panel discussion of the story while a fourth video featured Hasan Piker again pushing the narrative that the shooting was a racist hate crime.
Instead of issuing a retraction video or a clarification, the Young Turks appear to have just deleted all of the videos in the hope that no one would notice in an attempt to avoid accusations that they exploited the entire tragedy for race baiting and anti-Trump political points scoring.
Whoops.
Neighbourhoods in Brussels out of control: Emergency services tricked and attacked
Firemen in Brussels had to flee from youths in the multicultural suburb of Molenbeek several times. The fire brigade’s union is “sick of it”, Belgian newspaper HLN reports.
During New Year’s Eve the fire brigade were attacked with stones and fireworks and a house burned to the ground as firemen had to wait for police protection.
“It’s the same situation at Zwarte Vijvers [Molenbeek] every year, Eric Labourdette of the labour union says. “They call us to report small fires and then attack us when we want to help,” he says.
According to Labourdette, the situation in the neighbourhood is out of control, is “youths were plundering shops and no control is possible”.
“Totally unacceptable”, regional Interior Minister Pieter de Crem said about the dangerous situation for emergency services to work in the area.
The Minister calls for a crackdown by the police to prevent the formation of no-go areas in the neighbourhoods.
“Brussels should have planned more carefully for the eventuality of such incidents, given the fact that similar problems occurred in the past,” De Crem said.
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