I think the powers-that-be are loosing too much control. /s

hahahaha hey teddy – love that ending

watch out for the mantis rule

Divites este.

I have an alternative plan. Tax all incomes over $250K at 90% (I Like Ike!) and tax all income (including capital gains and inheritances) the same.

With catsup.

I like all of them except the first 10! *g*

It appears that you’ve totally overlooked the Dom and Beluga caviar subsidies. How are they supposed to get through each day without those?

Fava beans. And a nice Chianti.

Hello, everyone!

Let’s not say anything bad about our betters, shall we?

Happen to have both in stock at this very moment.

If you can point any out I might consider it.

Make them drink Moet White Star. No more Dom.
That’ll teach ‘em.

I’m pretty sure you’ll need a search party on that deal…and there are no guarantees.

That’s a hardship. We could be looking at a revolt…

Teddy…number 1 sounds like the financial version of what the Mormans are doing in terms of all that genealogy research so that they can baptize everyone who ever lived into the Morman Church…

Don’t worry. I’m only going to speak ill of the ultra-wealthy and excessively privileged.

I was going to suggest something about public restrooms being segregated between the rich and powerful and the riff raff, but you kinda stole that thought with the separate airports.

Hospitals might be a place the well-heeled run into scum, but then again my insurance won’t pay for me to go to Cedars Sinai.

Restaurants, no.

I don’t know, Teddy, you may have covered everything. Everything, that is, if the private highways have exclusive gas stations…

And other assorted social parasites. I think the country needs a goodly dose of wormseed.

I do find them revolting, yes.

So someone earning $250 K would take home $30K? Nah.

What won’t they give up next?

I am going to start a new company. “Rent a Less Fortunate” Feeling down in the dumps? Rent a less fortunate to bolster your self image. You can mock or generally abuse the Less Fortunate. Beatings are extra.

Do the math – Up to $249,999.99 at 35% and anything over at 90%.

No. Any income over $250K would be taxed at 90%. Incomes from $1-250,000 would be taxed at lower rates. Just going on the good conservative principles of the Eisenhower administration.

11) 5-Star Hotels will charge no city tax…Oh hell, tip your bellboy a buck and the room is free.

I had an item on serfdom and suffrage but I felt it was insulting to the VIP-Americans to suggest they spend so much time with the poor & powerless.

But,Teddy, the compare and contrast method does so much for one’s ego. Darling.

Well, it’ll only be until their Rx for Zol*ft gets filled, so they don’t have to feel depressed … *g*

Evenin’ Firepups !

Love that idea, Mary … see if Leno wants to do a spoof, or even SNL.

Protecting the “family farm” ? Oh sure. Yes-siree. Pure Big Lie.

How’s about just letting really rich Americans buy titles bestowing aristocratic stature upon themselves and making sure all Americans know when they are in the presence of really really rich Americans?

Titles like Baron Pay None,Prince Tax Little,Baroness Rich Inheritance,Princess Too Rich To Pay Taxes and finally Count Wealth NoWay.

They want special treatment for being rich Americans? Let them have it.

As for the Walton family and all those Wal-Mart,Super Wal-Marts and the monster warehouses filled up with lots of stuff from China can we just give them the big shove off? Have they no decency? Not even a little after all they have taken and pocketed after all these years from countless small towns across America?

Walton family got very damn rich here in USA and now just don’t want to pay anything back do they? The top two percent of Americans are walking off with the big winnings year in and year out and that still isn’t enough?

I suppose there will be hotels that don’t admit the poor & powerless.

Along with number nine, this is seeming more like reality, I guess….

Careful sta — they’ll shut off your internet access if you talk that way about

yeah, but the Mantis Laws have that certain genius touch, Teddy!

What’s circa 1950s 250K adjusted for inflation?

Maybe it is true – less is more.

a guzzillion.

I see what you’re saying.

Might be persuaded to adjust for inflation, but am really tempted to leave it unadjusted.

Teddy, I feel underprivileged already.
Can’t believe you’re not writing about Ann Althouse getting married !

Well, what about Viag*a?

… tee hee hee …

Don’t get us started … *g*

thank you!

Maybe it will keep her off the streets.

$250 = $2,266, give or take.

http://www.minneapolisfed.org/

My former employer was a first round draft pick of the Chicago Bears in 1954. I once saw a copy of his first year contract… $7000.

is delivered with the monthly maintenance check

Cleaner way to get a quick and dirty:

http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl

Altmouse got the NYT to cover it and too cutely and coyingly for words; I hardly think she deserves any more attention.

:)

Mood stabilizers and boner pills on demand

So, 250K adjusted for inflation would be over 2 1/4 mil. I think I could gear down my lifestyle sufficiently to accommodate it.

Personal chefs get REAL personal.

I think y’all are giving the oligarchs too much credit. They may be willing to concede a 100% inheritance tax in return for exclusive access to the Fountain of Youth. You think the likes of Dick Cheney want their kids to spend their money? Kids from multiple marriages or repeat mantis law applications? Nah.. people so full of themselves would rather have laws mandating that they and they alone get to live forever. Or lord it over us while undead.

That’s what the little toy calculator is telling me. I could probably manage to tough it out on that pittance.

BAM! takes on a whole new meaning..

According to the Census Bureau, the median income for men in 1954 was $3,439, which translates into $21,993 in 2006 dollars.

Why is it that the democrats don’t educate Americans about the estate tax? I mean what’s really happening? These democratic critters don’t have that kind of money, except Kerry’s wife maybe. Are there others?

Or is it even possible that Blanch and ? told them they would vote against everything the dems wanted, like health care, if the .02% didn’t get what they wanted? If so, for what purpose? Campaign contributions? That’s easily exposable.

I do not understand, unless they’re under some kind of threat…

Digg IT!
My suggestion is that anyone with an income over $100,000.00 pays no taxes! No sales tax, no gas tax, no taxes on anything they buy or do will be completly tax free! Of course when they have fill up their yachts, cars, Suv’s they will have to go the the elite gas stations and so forth. That way they don’t have to mix with us low life’s!!

,,,while john Madden does play-by-play…

Left you a response downstairs EChan… had to get dinner in the oven(:>))

That was the year my dad joined the local police force. Safe to say civil servants were making less than the median.

On the Dinner note time to eat!! BRB

And the mom usually didn’t work. And there wasn’t a lot of credit. How did a family of four or five make it on $21,933?
no cable
no internet hosting

Bon Appetit !

Feinstein, Kohl, Rockefeller, Cantwell, Warner — I’m sure I’m missing some of the mega-multi-millionaires among Senate Democrats.

one telephone – a party line. one car. no tv.

They are basically all millionaires. They don’t call it the “Millionaires Club” for nothing.

Thanks for the Digg!

or if you had a tv it was black and white.
and you had to get your butt up off of the couch to change the channel.
and kids went outside to play not to the computer.

One car (if that) and cheap gas (I remember paying 19 cents a gallon during gas wars).

in theory, the difference between 21k/yr versus say the 46k/yr median for that demographic or whatever it is today is real income increase, born of the cumulative growth in national productivity over the last half century. That real growth stagnated in recent decades but was quite healthy into the early 70s.

Being a cop didn’t pay enough for my dad to support a family of four (six by the time I came along) and we did NOT live extravagantly. He worked two jobs for over twenty years.

12) No need to hire a lawyer-your judge is already bought and paid for. Have a nice day!

Gardens. No snacks, just real food and only at meal time. Never eating out. One car. Sewing. A lot of sharing…babysitting, food, just helping each other with parties or events. Subsistence clothing, and again sharing.

It may have been healthier in some of ways.

the latter measure is unnecessary. They send their serfs to get gas for ‘em.

It happened in the mid-70s. Saw a graph the other day (can’t remember where) that plotted it out. Very startling to see.

And don’t forget… reusable diapers.

Good one!

That was true for a lot of working class Americans. A lot more working class women worked because of it, even though the cultural ideal was to be a stay at home mom.

Well I was worried about them having to pee with the common-folk if they didn’t have their own special gas stations.

Why do they need to do that? They could just “drill baby drill” (in someone else’s neighborhood, of course), and then have the treasury fund a pipeline straight to their estate. No more hassling long gas lines with great unwashed types. You could even fuel the helo and jet right on the property.

I say it was surely much healthier. I was a skinny little kid who spent the entire day outside. (even during hurricanes:>)
We went out to eat about once every three months. We got a kick out of things like my mom bring home a new tube of fire engine red lipstick and finger nail polish to match. oooooooo. She would paint my toenails for me. This was a huge deal.

And hanging clothes to dry on the clothes line or in the basement.

No dishwasher…..AHHHHH!

and wearing clothes more than once, cept undies.

of course. they are the leaders of the long promised rethug Ownership Society. You have 24 hours in which to report to your assigned owner.

Thank you. Good name!

oh. good point. but they quite possibly have serfs to do that for ‘em too.

Think I had best head out. Spring Break is over and I have to actually go to work tomorrow. More young minds to corrupt and I will need my rest, since I am out of practice. 8-)

After my divorce I was flat broke paying attorney fees. TV wasn’t a necessity, and we can only get it with cable, so that was out. My girls were young, and had so much fun playing Beauty Shop and building bedrooms out of furniture and sheets. For Beauty Shop, they’d make signs and write out prices. Sometimes they played restaurant. Kids need to use their imaginations, it’s healthy!

Excellent! You are presuming, though, that the VIPs will end up in court at all. I can’t really see a reason to subject our betters to that, can you?

That ownership society is working out very nicely…if you own the whole society, of course.

I’m becoming increasingly nostalgic for those times, although for the simple reason that everybody I loved was still alive more than anything else.

If the students start to get out of line, one word: Electricity.

I say it was surely much healthier. I was a skinny little kid who spent the entire day outside. (even during hurricanes:>)

I was the same way. (even during snowstorms;~))

G’night.

Guess I’ll head out too. A splendid evening to all.

I got rid of our teevee for three years during the teenage time. The fighting was cut by 75% and we had fun.

Blanche ‘Antoinette’ Lincoln.

The Antoinette’s are running our country… from inside the D party.

I pitch forking can’t wait for Bastille Day in America.

yep. Real growth stagnated and the gini coefficient started to widen. Now, 30 years later, we’re entering the endgame of this whole drama of protracted relative decline. And, for the oligarchs, the abiding principle of this terminal stage is, steal whatever you can before it all falls apart. Eventually, lomg after they’ve stolen the curtains and absconded to Bermuda, the creditors who’ve been financing three decades of lifestyle improvement without corresponding real income
gains will come acallin’, and whatever is left won’t buy a pallet in Shanghai.

“And, for the oligarchs, the abiding principle of this terminal stage is, steal whatever you can before it all falls apart.”

With plenty of help from Timmy and Benny.

you’re right, It was a case of mistaken identity, The witness thought they were driving their OWN car.

Hah!!! Outstanding.

Goodnight to all the sleepy pups heading to bedtime….

For sure. It was hard work all day, every day.

the death tax is a toughie.

so few are subjected to it.

on the other hand, those of us who are have been paying taxes for years on the income from our assets.

now, upon our deaths, you want the state to take another bite. an even larger bite.

why do you think that this justified?

why do you think that the state has a right to empty my family’s wallet upon my demise?

more to the point, what is the state going to do with that lucre? acquire more munitions? kill more wogs? reward more banksters? reward more insurance companies?

THINK IT THROUGH. why do you think it is a good policy to steal from the “PRODUCERS” so as to transfer that theft to geithner and his buddies?

because that is the issue. you may think that the death tax extorts funds for the untermenschen. it doesn’t. it extorts it for the obombyas, the geithners of this world.

the cerebral capacity of this board is getting close to zero.

sad to say.

No, we all loved the PRODUCERS and wouldn’t steal any more than they would.
And if we empty your wallet upon your demise, in return you’ll own 100% of Springtime for Hitler.

Blanche ‘Antoinette’ Lincoln.

Wiki:

Blanche Lambert was born in Helena, Phillips County, Arkansas. She attended Arkansas public schools and graduated from Randolph-Macon Woman’s College in Lynchburg, Virginia in 1982.

Lincoln called for the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, claiming that the firing of eight federal prosecutors has created a “serious breach between the Justice Department and Congress, a breach that I’m not sure can be repaired with Mr. Gonzales at the helm.” She and her Senate colleague, Mark Pryor, were particularly upset that Gonzales reneged on a promise to have a replacement for Bud Cummins, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, go through Senate confirmation.

Where did you get the Antoinette info?

spring time for Hitler and Germany.
lalalaalaalallala.

Winter for Poland and France…

lol

Good one, mac

that’s for later. First comes the Weimar economy.

Are you subjected to this “death tax”? I’m sincerely curious because it would be really nice to converse with someone in this position.

Why is there a city in Virginia named Lynchburg?

Danke.

Here is the problem I have with the estate tax. I am broke. I have no pension. I need that money that MAY be there when my parents are gone. I don’t feel entitled to it. I just need it. One of the reasons I need it is because the health “care” system stole it from me. But I do believe the Waltons should pay more. I think the money should go directly to the employees slaves they paid almost nothing to sell crap to other underpaid fellow citizens.

I come from American farming background. Grew up on a small dairy farm in America’s Dairyland. Worked for the old DelMonte Corp. for some years back in the 1970’s into early 1980’s.

My dad had worked for DelMonte for years going back into the 1950’s.

From 1973 out through 1983 I saw many changes come along. Finally DelMonte Corp. was bought out by KKR–the big Wall St. outfit that did equity buyouts. Are they still around?

KKR bought DelMonte Corp for what I recall was for somewhere around $513 million–then proceeded to slice and cut it up and sell it off. With KKR it was all about getting the payouts done. I believe they sold off the DelMonte fishing fleet for about what they had paid for all of DelMonte.

Ultimately I believe KKR raked off somewhere around one billion three hundred million $$ from busting up DelMonte. It was all about the money.

Lots of small farmers got pushed out of the deal. The local canning factory (a relatively modernized one) ended up being closed down and the place was pillaged and plundered. Lots of local jobs gone with it.

KKR made lots of money off buying and devouring DelMonte.

Same thing is about to happen now to GM. Likely Chrysler too.

I think USA is too big. The money games have gotten too big. I would be happy to see the USA broken down into regional federal areas so the money games Wall Street likes would be harder to pull off. Would also help to put a leash on rampant American militarism. Perhaps create higher quality of life outcomes here similar to standards seen in western Europe.In transit. In healthcare. In just things being closer,smaller,easier to monitor.

My instincts tell me if I am lucky there will be some SS still left when I turn 75. Meanwhile the next 20 years getting there have just become a whole lot more dicey since late 2008. I voted for the guy who is now President. Not because I am a Democrat. I am not. Only because the other choices were so very very much worse. Taking money contamination out of American politics would be a great improvement.

Sadly it appears these days much of the United States is going the way of what KKR did to DelMonte.

Oh, boy.

DOVER, Del. — For the first time since an 18-year ban on news coverage of returning war dead was lifted, the media witnessed the arrival Sunday night of a soldier killed overseas.

Did anyone see this .. about Dubya’s buddy:

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/…..id=4041596

Yeah .. and if you read what Hicks says .. he is obviously full of it

***important notice***

the server hamsters are scheduled for installation of an upgraded wheel around 9:45ish.

the tech crew says the lake and sister sites will be down for less than 10 minutes.

Will we survive unconnected to one another?

I’m not an expert on the estate tax, especially since the exempt amounts have been juggled around a lot lately, but my understanding is that anyone with an estate up to about two and a half million dollars can pass it to heirs without being subject to the tax. There are also steps your parents can take, now, to protect their estate from the tax if it is large enough to be subject to the tax.

nothing that sinister. Some guy named John Lynch started a ferry service there sometime right after the revolutionary war.

They prolly have done that. We are a good southern family and don’t talk about money much.

yes, but in the zero mostel comedy the investors had a choice to lose their assets.

in this scenario of taxation, there is no choice. when you live, the usg extorts a percentage of your assets. when you die, the usg says that we shall extort more.

there is this notion on the left that it is a good idea to extort those with assets.

but, i ask you, what will you be doing with the assets that you extort?

killing more iraqis, more afghanis, more pakistanis, more colombians?

and how many others?

because the issue is, you want to extract funds from me so as to do what? kill more people?

because that is what barry obombya is all about. more mass murdering.

you seem to want to feed this murderous beast. wanting to be associates to the crimes. why is that?

is there any difference between the left and the right? i think not.

i would prefer that we starve the beast. stop it from its homicidal ways. and the only way i see that can be accomplished is to arrest its taxation powers.

do you have another vision? if so, share it with us. and tell us how it is that obombya is a “change”.

just another rockefeller lackey as i see it.

yep.. family trust stuctures could double that 2.5 mil if both parents are still alive… parents shelter their assets
by transferin them to the living trust. You’ll need a lawyer. I’m talking WAY out of my depth here.

3 cheers for the tech crew – that was fast!!!

Hey Suz!
Nice work techs

he.. I didn’t even notice

The Walton kids inherited something like 15 billion each.

Avoid the estate tax using the Andrew Carnegie method.

And since they didn’t work for it, and their pa couldn’t have made it anywhere but America, where we don’t believe in an inheritable aristocracy, why should we let them keep much of it at all?

Thanks, Blub.

That was painless. Nice work.

because that is what barry obombya is all about. more mass murdering.

you seem to want to feed this murderous beast. wanting to be associates to the crimes. why is that?

EXCUSE? Where are you coming from? That’s a nutsy statement.

conceptually I don’t have a problem with inherited wealth, especially taken in moderation and so long as the wealth was legitimately and fairly accrued and sufficiently taxed as current income. For example, I don’t think kids should have to sell the paid off family home just to meet some sort of estate tax burden on it. I’m not talking about disgusting amounts of wealth like the waltons, of course, and current law is more than sufficient to provide the amounts of inheritance that I would support.

you still don’t get it.

what do you want to do with the lucre that you want to extort?

continue to support israel? kill more palestinians?

kill more timorese? more pakistanis? more afganis? more iraqis?

these are the real issues. some of you think that the usg should just extort more funds from the top of the pyramid.

but, it would appear that you have no reservations as to how those extorted funds are deployed.

sit down, now, and reflect upon the fact that 30+ percent of all those tax dollars are going to go to financing amerikan militarism. amerikan mass murdering all over the planet.

and you are comfortable with that? if you are, then you are virtual kissingers.

starve the beast.no taxation.

This sounds right. I think my parents paid their lawyer about a grand to draw the papers. I can find out more, if necessary.

Instead of no taxation, wouldn’t be even better if we all left suddenly?

Looks like it unless folks get an education right quick.

Build Universities, hospitals, healthcare for everyone, etc.

rethugs don’t believe in such things. Prayer should suffice, especially for the non-oligarchs.

and by the way, you don’t know me.

i am a manufacturer. and i run my business as if it is a lifeboat.

healthcare. long-term disability coverage. and a very friendly attitude concerning my employees.

i have virtually no turnover and a very congenial workforce. we manufacture a quality product.

and the only enemy i have ever encountered is the usg.

Stalin said one death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic. That observation explains our fantasies. Michael Vick gets jail time for fighting dogs. I don’t approve, but commercial animal breeding farms are not only far more cruel, they are literally dangerous to our health in so many ways. We don’t get involved with that. Same for PETA which disapproves of fur coats. Same for the bailouts. We bailout AIG because the powers that be want the money to go to Goldman Sachs and others of that ilk. We blow off steam with comments and think we do something when we don’t.