John Semmens

One of the ways the Biden Administration plans to help pay for its very expensive Green New Deal is to levy higher taxes on assets that parents pass down to their children. Under current law, certain inherited assets like farms, real estate, and investments can be left to heirs without being taxed. This enables family businesses to be retained in the family from one generation to the next.

Under the proposed new tax, the son or daughter inheriting the family farm or store would face an immediate bill for the appreciation in value the business has garnered over the lifetime of the bequeathing parent. The amount due would most likely exceed the revenue available from the business. This would necessitate either a sale of the business or a massive infusion of newly borrowed money to pay the tax.

Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen called the planned tax change “a matter of equity. Why should a person who has run a successful business be allowed to pass it on to his children? By taxing away this gain in value we can push these properties into stronger hands. During the pandemic family businesses fared poorly. Many had to be closed down to prevent the spread of COVID. Fortunately, the big corporations were able to take up the slack.”

Yellen then pivoted to a recent study done by professors at Brown University that discovered there has been a 21% decline in IQ for children born during the pandemic, saying that “the fact is, the next generation may simply lack the intelligence to manage family businesses. I think this makes the case for greater consolidation of assets into mega-corporations, publicly owned industries, and collective farms. This would streamline the economy, eliminate unnecessary redundancies, and give government experts more control over what is produced, who produces it, and how the wealth of the nation is distributed.”

By John Semmens

Though science indicates that the mesh on the commonly available masks are too wide to impede more than the tiniest fraction of the virus, they are still being mandated all over the place to try to stop the spread of COVID. Now science is indicating that the plastic barriers used in classrooms, offices, and retail businesses is not really helping reduce virus transmission.

The less permeable plastic barriers can stop spewn virus globs from a sneeze or cough from making a direct hit on a person on the other side of the barrier, but they also impede air flow in the indoor space. Virus particles exhaled during beathing or during conversation are dammed up by the barriers. This allows a concentrated accumulation of virus-saturated air to build up and eventually flow around the barrier where it can infect someone else. In an unbarricaded environment normal air flow turns over the air mass in the room every 15 to 30 minutes.

These new findings are not likely to lead to the elimination of these plastic barriers because as Dr. Anthony Fauci explains “it is important in this time of pandemic panic that people not lose hope. Effective or not, these barriers and masks convey a message of encouragement to people that they are making a contribution in the fight against COVID. The false sense of security that they instill allows people to take risks that they would avoid if they knew the truth. This enables us to get a better picture of how well the vaccines are doing than if people did the only thing that might genuinely protect them from getting infected.”

In related news, President Biden has instructed the Department of Justice “to take whatever steps it deems necessary to prevent Republican governors from banning mask mandates in schools. These governors’ contention that the decision on whether their child wears a mask belongs to the parents strikes against the unity that I pledged to bring to this country. Letting every family decide for itself defeats our goal of having everyone accept the role we assign them in the fight against this awful disease. Refusing this role is like dodging the draft. It is treason.”

By by John Semmens

The FBI’s investigation of the January 6 riot at the Capitol concludes that “it was neither an insurrection nor a coup attempt. There is no evidence that anyone organized the incursion. The absence of firearms among the riot participants negates the theory that this was a planned coup. Coups and insurrections are typically better organized. The insurgents bring guns, take hostages, and seize control of important government agencies. That didn’t happen. In fact, the only persons carrying and deploying firearms were the Capitol Police.”

These findings sparked bipartisan outrage. Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill) complained “the FBI has neglected to do its duty. Everyone knows that Trump told these people to go to the Capitol and stop Joe Biden from being declared president.” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif) seconded Kinzinger’s view and added “the failure of the FBI to come to the expected conclusion reemphasizes the need for the House to conduct its own investigation. One way or another Trump and his minions must be punished for the most serious attack on our government since the Civil War.”

The House has already heard evidence from the Capitol Police. Officer Aquilino Gonell testified that “Trump himself helped create this monstrosity.” Officer Harry Dunn testified that “a hit man sent them.” Rep. Kinzinger and Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo) were both brought to tears by this testimony.

Though hundreds of people who entered the Capitol on January 6 have been languishing in jail, denied bail, and the right to a speedy trial, Judge Beryl Howell questioned whether “we are being too lenient with these people. The only conviction obtained so far is a guilty plea to a misdemeanor charge of trespassing on government property. The presence of this person in the Capitol implicitly entailed ‘impeding a police officer’–an offense that is a felony punishable by 20-years in prison.”

If you take the time to browse through the crime, staffing and reporting statistics from the City of Phoenix you will see that the city saw decreasing crime and violent crime rates from 1997-2009. Then in 2009 the crime rate begins to climb and hasn’t stopped since.

Looking back to that period researchers have pointed to Phoenix’s rapidly growing population as one of the many factors that contribute to this. Since the last census in 2010 the population rose in Phoenix by 19.92%. You would expect that with a population growth this size, the size of the police force would grow as well. Unfortunately, the data also shows that the number of police officers has actually decreased since 2010.

Others have pointed to policy. It is true that in 2009 Democrat Greg Stanton was elected Mayor of Phoenix and the recruiting for police officers seems to have just stopped. Then in 2019 Mayor Gallego was elected to replace him and to add on to the stalled recruiting the violent crime rate has just gotten worse.

So, is it that simple? Is it the failed policies of these two democrats that is destroying our city?