Salty Ginger Talk Newsletter

December 11, 2024

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SGT
December 11, 2024

Salty Ginger Talk Newsletter

December 11, 2024

It’s 12/11, check out our Wednesday newsletter, now buzzing on Beehiiv! 🐝 Stay tuned for fresh updates, exclusive content, and more delivered straight to your inbox.

CURRENT EVENTS

White House displays math skills trying to defend Hunter Biden's pardon

Our take: In a laughable attempt to defend the unpopular pardon President Biden issued his son Hunter, White House Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre cited a YouGov poll to claim 64% of Americans approved of the President’s decision. The problem? That is not true. While 64% of Democrats approved, only 34% of Americans approved.

You have to admire the consistency from the Biden administration. They are committed to gaslighting the public until they leave office in about 6 weeks. Expect more of the same from this crew in the coming weeks. We would not be surprised if they told us President Biden won the Ironman triathlon last year, Vice President Harris never slept with Willie Brown, and Jill Biden is actually a thoracic surgeon, not a PhD in education. Enjoy the show while it lasts.

COURTESY: MSN

An article suggests tax code reforms could reduce budget deficits

Our take: This is an interesting article with ideas that merit consideration. In our view, the author correctly calls out that the Byzantine tax code carries dozens of exemptions by which tax burdens are lightened. This decreases revenue and increases budget deficits. It may seem counterintuitive that simplifying the tax code could reduce government spending waste, but it’s actually true. By eliminating many of the deductions that exist in today’s tax code, those currently enjoying those deductions would have more taxable income, leading to more tax revenue, at least theoretically. The flaw in the argument is that people always find a way to reduce their taxes. People would change their behavior to shield more income from the taxman.

Rather than focus on changing these deductions, we propose eliminating all deductions and making the tax code extremely simple—everyone pays 17%. Period. No deductions, no exemptions. If you have income, you pay 17%. We have more supporting data below to show why we think this is a good idea.

Regardless of what the top and bottom tax rates have been over the past 110 years since the income tax was introduced in 1913, the average tax receipts come in at around 17% of GDP. Rather than continue to add and change to the burdensome tax codes that allow for people to cheat, lie, and dodge taxes, why not go to a flat tax of 17% for all US taxpayers?

The argument du jour is that the rich need to pay their fair share. Unfortunately, the actual statistics do not support this argument. When you look at the current distribution of taxes paid annually, the top 50% of taxpayers pay 97.7% of all income taxes in the US. The bottom 50% pay 2.3% of all income taxes. The effective tax rate paid by the top 50% is 8 times that of the bottom 50%. I’m not sure how much more of the “fair share” they should pay.

If we want everyone to care about how taxes are spent, everyone needs to pay their fair share. Set the rate at 17%, get rid of all but a few IRS agents who investigate non-payers, and watch the deficits disappear. I guess it’s too basic to work.

COURTESY: MSN

Daniel Penny, acquitted in subway chokehold death, speaks after trial

Our take: Daniel Penny, 26, is a former Marine who found himself in a wild situation on the NYC Subway in May of 2023. Penny was a passenger in a car when another Jordan Neely, 30, boarded the train and began threatening passengers. Unknown to the train passengers at the time, Neely had a long history of mental illness, arrests, and drug use. When Neely began to physically threaten passengers, Penny intervened and subdued Neely via chokehold. Unfortunately for both men, Neely passed away after the encounter.

Liberal DA Alvin Bragg convened a grand jury (we conjecture largely because Penny happened to be white and Neely happened to be black) and charged Penny with second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide, a clear attempt to convince the jury to convict Penny on the lesser charge. After 5 days of deliberation, the jury acquitted Penny on the lesser charge after the DA was forced to drop the bogus manslaughter charge when the jury stated they were hopelessly deadlocked.

Penny shared his view of the situation and recounted his thought process before and during the struggle. "He was just threatening to kill people. He was threatening to go to jail forever, to go to jail for the rest of his life."

Penny described how the situation escalated while he was trying to restrain Neely. "Now I'm on the ground with him, on my back, in a very vulnerable position. If I just would have let go..." to go to jail forever, to go to jail for the rest of his life," Penny described how the situation escalated while he was trying to restrain Neely. "Now I'm on the ground with him, on my back, in a very vulnerable position. If I just would have let go."

"I'll take a million court appearances and people calling me names and people hating me, just to keep one of those people from getting hurt or killed," Penny said in a preview clip that aired Tuesday.

It’s a terrible situation that the mental health system, criminal justice system, and his own family failed to get Neely the help that he needed. He was a victim in this story several times over. With that said, Penny deserves recognition for being willing to step up and protect his fellow passengers when no police were available to do so. It would have been a miscarriage of justice for him to be convicted, regardless of the unquestionably tragic outcome of the encounter.

More than one thing can be true at the same time. Neely did not get the help he needed and probably died because of it. Penny is not guilty of a crime, even though the events likely caused Neely’s death. Hopefully, situations like this can be avoided in the future. There are no winners here.

COURTESY: NEWSWEEK

TIP OF THE DAY

Every morning, prioritize the top 3 things you need to get done that day, and start on the hardest/least appealing one first. You will find this helps you accomplish more, will help your mental health, and will keep you organized throughout the day.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?” - John Wooden

SOURCES: