When Buying And Selling Are Controlled By Regulations

Then, to paraphrase P.J. O'Rourke, the first things to be bought and sold are regulators.

P.J. O'Rourke certainly knew what he was talking about:

The Detroit News:  Businessman pleads guilty to bribing Michigan medical marijuana licensing board chairman

Oakland County businessman John Dawood Dalaly pleaded guilty Friday to providing bribes to Rick Johnson, the chairman of Michigan's medical marijuana licensing board, and told a federal judge he hired Johnson's wife as a consultant at a rate of $4,000 a month.

Dalaly now faces up to 10 years in federal prison and became the first person to plead guilty in court as part of a wide-ranging corruption probe, examining Michigan government's awarding of licenses to sell and grow medical marijuana.

Marijuana is an industry where right now the sellers can literally grow money like a weed, with weed. Currently it's a $2 billion dollar industry so a few hundred thousand in bribes and favors is relatively cheap, and, of course, sellers are going to influence or outright bribe regulators.

Next step after bribery, the more established marijuana businesses will get their people on the regulatory boards to regulate and shut out or at least increase the cost of entry for their competition -- all in the name of public safety.

So, Who's In Charge Here, Exactly?

Quite the interesting affair is going on that raises some major questions about both government oversight, and who is actually in charge of our government - government agencies or Congress?

ABC News: Senators on intel committee demand to see Biden and Trump docs, in rare bipartisan outrage

Yes, the Director of National Intelligence, Avril Haines, is actually telling the House Intelligence Committee, the Committee that allegedly oversees the DNI and other government intel agencies, that the Committee cannot see what the classified documents are that Trump and Biden actually had in their possession.

In short, we have an executive agency under Congressional oversight refusing to be over-sighted.

Certainly makes one ask: Who is in charge here? 

It also makes one ask: What's in the docs (or in the case of the Trump docs, not in the docs - such as no nuclear secrets anyone?) that they don't want Congress to see?

Is the Biden administration directing thee DNI to make the denial and directly blocking Congress from doing its job as the documents would prove rather embarrassing both to the anti-Trump narrative and to Biden?  Or, is this a case of a government agency deciding that it can do whatever it wants without any proper oversight all on its own?

I mean, the only valid reason to not do so is a risk of a leak of the docs to a foreign power (assuming Biden and Hunter haven't already sent them on) and now that Eric Swallwell is off the Committee the risk of a direct pass-through to Chinese intelligence is much lessened, even with other Democrats still on the committee. 

How this gets resolved is going to be quite the  insight on how the Federal government is actually run today.

Turns Out, The DHS Disinformation Board Didn't Exactly Go Away

The censoring functions in the name of "fighting disinformaiton" just carried on without the name.

It now turns out that while they got rid of the board name,  DHS continued the censoring functions of controlling the narrative and flow of information on social media sites, just without a "Disinformation Board".

The Intercept: Truth Cops Leaked Documents Outline DHS Plans to Police Disinformation.

Even without the board, DHS and agencies continued to work to shape the narrative and remove information they did not like form social media.

So much so that Twitter and Facebook gave the government special access to remove posts they found objectionable.

 

Among other things, Hunter Biden's laptop anyone?

So, The Biden Administration was using social media sites as their agents, with government agents themselves flagging and censoring content they did not like and requested the sites to remove.

This is at most likely, if not de facto and de jure absolutely, given what is being revealed about this program so far, to be a major ongoing First Amendment violation by these government agencies in censoring speech. 

Remember when the Left and Democrats were in favor of free speech and against government censorship?  Good times.

Biden's Objectively Fascist Min Tru Is Run By A Pro-Censorship Nutter

Matzav.com: Biden’s Disinformation Chief Nina Jankowicz: Online Mockery of Kamala Harris a Threat to Democracy and National Security

Contrary to the rantings of this Marxist pro-censorship bint, I daresay that mockery of Kamala Harris and other politicians is instead vital for both democracy and national security.

The day you can't publicly mock a politician of whatever stripe is the day this is not America.

Attention the Biden Administration: 1984 is not supposed to be a how-to guide.

Proggies fail to realize that creating a government entity with the friendly name of "Disinformation Governance Board" (makes one think they will be promoting disinformation, doesn't it?) with the power of law to censor or ban speech in the name of prevention of disinformation or gender equality could ever be used against them when they're out of power. Lack of foresight, that.

Just imagine how proggies' heads would have exploded had Trump announced he was creating a disinformation board to censor the actually fake Russia, Russia, Russia, nonsense, and the many other lies the Prog's made online and elsewhere during is Presidency. Not to mention imagine their reaction to Trump announcing a board that urged censoring of first-amendment protected speech like the Prog's multiple acts of mockery of Trump they made at the time, and still do for that matter.

Social media companies, she [Nina Jankowicz] argued should “make the shift toward believing women” allowing them to identify and censor content. Jankowicz also called for tech companies to stop “a tacit pile-on instruction” from influential people with a lot of online followers.

Jankowicz said online mockery of women was a threat to democracy, warning that “gender disinformation” could prevent women from running for office.

Yeesh. With the "believe all women" line, one would expect she's on board for banning the investigative reporting that led to lots of Kavanaugh's accusers being shown to be frauds or less than believable. Or that she's supporting Amber Heard, perhaps.

Mockery of politicians of all parties is a time-honored American tradition, and Kamala Harris and other politicians male and female alike, certainly deserved to be mocked for their incompetence. To shelter female politicians from rather deserving mockery would certainly be rather sexist and even discrimination based on gender now wouldn't it?

That the Biden Administration even came up with this idea reveals how bad of a job Biden, Kamala, Whitmer and the rest of the gang are doing as they seek to censor criticism of their actions and idiotic pronouncements.

Child Development Messed Up By CDC's Covid Policies - In Response CDC Lowers Standards For Child Development

The fallout from the overreaction and hysteria about Covid is going to be felt for a very long time.

Substance abuse and deaths from substance abuse is sky high due to these horrendous decisions.

Mental health issues among teens is absolutely skyrocketing.  Mental health care is not keeping up.

Pre-teen mental health is also horrific right now.

Child development is also badly affected which is going to have effects on our country for a very long time.

Instead of admitting the stupid lockdown and masking policies caused developmental harm to infants, toddlers, and young children, the CDC has decided to do what bureaucrats always do when faced by the consequences of their failure:

Change and reduce the metrics for determining child development so the situation looks better than it is now.

CNN: Developmental milestones for children have changed for the first time in nearly 20 years

Very Bad For Canadians, But Good For Justin Trudeau Living His Prefered Style Of Government

Next time a politician publicly states he admires and prefers a dictatorial governing style,  maybe you should believe him and never let him near the levers of power, ever.

See: https://twitter.com/RapidFire_Pod/status/1493413794554564615

Because you get dictatorial results in response to actual peaceful protests that disagree with his political ideology:

New York Post:  Canada’s Trudeau invokes emergency powers to quell trucker COVID protests

This is also what happens when you elect a substitute teacher whose sole qualifications for office was an allegedly attractive visage and his father's last name.

Scratch a Liberal and you'll find a fascist.

A Taxing Insult Added To Injury In Minneapolis

Minneapolis Businesses got hammered in the BLM riots, with over 100 business properties destroyed or heavily damaged in the riots.

But in order to get a demolition permit in the city, you have to first prepay your property taxes, money that is supposed to be spent on things like police protection that was rather absent during the riots.

The Star Tribune: Landscape of rubble persists as Minneapolis demands taxes in exchange for permits

 Waiting for the property taxes to be paid when they come due in October, would give the victims of the riots an opportunity to rebuild and actually attempt to recover and perhaps make some money so they can pay the property tax.  But no, Minneapolis is requiring they pay it before a demolition permit is issued so they can't rebuild until that happens.

It's yet another great way to drive business out of the city - if the riots didn't tell you it was time to go, the taxman demanding his due before you can even clean up the damage form the riot surely will.

UI Incentives Matter

So one of my clients after a very long delay finally got his restaurant approved for PPP funds today.

This means his restaurant may just survive this crisis considering its been shut for the past 6 weeks and yet expenses such as rent etc have not ceased.

The problem is, some of his employees are making more on unemployment with the $600/week federal kick-up than they were as employees (including part-timers) and don't want to come back to work until that sweet $600/week UI bonus runs out.

Since it's a restaurant, "back to work" means sitting around at home and getting paid their salaries to do nothing rather than sitting around at home on UI to do nothing since he still can't, by the governor's order, open up his restaurant.

Obviously if you're sitting around at home doing nothing, the incentive is to get paid more for your doing nothing, right?

The downside is this may screw up the forgiveness part of the PPP loan due to employees not being back on payroll even as he's willing and able to put them on payroll thanks to the PPP funds to make up for the fact that he's gone 6 weeks plus now with zero income.

Ave, Atque, Vale - Oakland County Has Lost A Giant

L. Brooks Patterson, the Oakland County Executive who steered the county throughout tumultuous times, has died.

The Detroit Free Press: L. Brooks Patterson dies after leading Oakland County for a generation

He made the county an economic powerhouse and a soundly managed, fiscally responsible county with competent government.

His willingness to put his constituents, the county residents, first, and not letting them become a piggy bank for Detroit "Regionalism" (read Oakland County pays, Detroit spends it with no oversight) and his leadership will be sadly missed.

His fiscal responsibility, business acumen, and leadership that made Oakland County a AAA rated county will be sadly missed.

While not perfect, with plenty of foibles, Brooks put the county and its residents first and we've all benefited from his solid management and stewardship of the county.

I fear we will not see his like again, and Oakland County will be the worse for it.

FUTA - The Most Complicated Way To Pay The Feds $42, Ever

FUTA apparently stands for "F U TAxpayer!".

Since I'm a single employee business, namely myself, I get the joy of paying not just state unemployment taxes, which I can't claim or ever use as it is not like I can fire or lay myself off.

I also have to pay annually to the Feds the FUTA tax, which is short for the Federal Unemployment Tax Act, a tax the Feds use to buttress states that need more unemployment funds. Yep, you don't know it if you're an employee but your employer is, on top of everything else in terms of taxes and deductions, sending in at last $42 and possibly more depending on their state, for each and every employee.

The FUTA calculation is quite convoluted, starting at 6% of the first $7,000 of an employees wages or $420, and it gets credited down in general to .6% or $42 per employee depending on the calculations - and that's where the fun begins. Of course they can't do a simple form with (total number of employees x total amount of employee $wage up to 7,000 per employee) x .006. That would be too easy.

The form to do so instead is Form 940. Get a load of that beautiful form, and the lengthy instructions.

It's a great cure for insomnia.

The problem is if you follow the rather convoluted instructions and the form itself you will likely pay more tax than you should.

In short, after tearing my hair out as the numbers wouldn't work when following the instructions, I broke down and called an accountant friend and asked about it, as applying the credit calculations for prompt payment of state unemployment taxes etc led me to paying more tax which is kinda counter-intuitive.

In short, for a single member company you basically ignore the instructions and steps on the form and just enter in the baseline $42 for a single employee and don't even try and apply any credits or calculations.

Sheesh. Hours spent in frustration just to comply with a rather stupid requirement to send them a check for $42.00.

Obama's Spokesman's Latest Career Move.

Legal Insurrection reports that former White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs is taking a job as Global Chief Communications Officer for McDonald's.

Too bad it wasn't Burger King.

If Gibbs had, he would've been going from Telling Whoppers to Selling Whoppers.

So Make An Unauthorized Database Of Americans' Personally Identifiable Information. What's The Worst That Could Hppen?

Borepatch notes that even Law Enforcement Surveillance software is vulnerable to being compromised.

But worry not, the Feds, namely the The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), are rolling out what is quite arguably, at least by Republicans as the Democrats don't seem to care, unauthorized expansion of their authority to create a mortgage database that will potentially contain all borrowers' personal identifying information including social security numbers, race, address, mortgage payment history, all credit lines including student loans and credit cards, employment status, education and religion.

It would cover these details on every home purchased with a mortgage since 1998. It may have full data and persoanl identifying information to match against other datasets or just samples with the personal infor removed for further data analysis.

Categories of individuals covered by the system is blithely described in the regulation notice is "Individuals who have records in one or more credit bureaus or consumer reporting agencies."

In the modern USA, that's just about everybody.

A one-stop identity theft database, where you can bet security may get as much as an afterthought or not even a thought at all.

It is not quite fully explained as to why the the FHFA and CFPB want this expansion and what they will do with it, and the effect on consumer privacy that it will have on Americans for these government agencies to have this data at their fingertips is not discussed. On top of that, the potential for far too much havoc if the database is compromised certainly makes it worth worrying about, and for this expansion to be stopped until both its unintended and intended consequences are fully understood.

The Hill: Federal mortgage database draws privacy concerns from GOP

Don't Drink N' Drone - At Least Not Yet

The killjoys at the FAA are at it again:

The Detroit News: FAA grounds drone beer delivery to ice fishermen

A Wisconsin beermaker wants drones to help anglers remotely replenish their stocks of beer. But the government is saying no.

For now.

The Federal Aviation Administration informed Lakemaid Beer that it currently prohibits small businesses from using drones shortly after the brewer posted video of a test run last week on Lake Waconia, located in Minnesota west of the Twin Cities.

Using drones for spying, good. Using them for something as crass as delivering refreshments to fishermen - bad.

The regulations are slipping farther and farther beyond the technological capabilities of the day.

"Forget it, Jake. It's Detroit."

The Detroit News: Demolition of dreams: 12 Detroit homes razed by mistake

Kristine Diven thought she had her dream house.

For $500 at a tax auction in October, she and fellow artist Micho "Detronik" McAdow bought an empty two-story home on Detroit's east side. Thrilled with its crown molding, hardwood floors and fireplace mantels adorned with Pewabic tile, the pair planned to fix it up and move in by spring.

As a first step, Diven, 36, prepared to board up the Morningside neighborhood house to protect it against vandals and wintertime damage. But when she and McAdow drove down Beaconsfield Street one evening in December, their new house was gone.

"Instead of taking measurements for the boards we needed, we found our house in a pile," she said.

The structure had been demolished — mistakenly — by the state's Land Bank Fast Track Authority as part of a program to eliminate blight near three east-side schools.

At least 11 other properties, purchased by a local investor, also were demolished by mistake, said Karla Henderson, director of the city's planning and facilities department.

Between the tons of corruption, on top of corruption, racism, and crime, it can't be unexpected that you'll have this level of incompetence piled on top.

Obama And Feinstein Gun Salesmen Of The Year

I'm not sure if this is all just a cunning plan on the part of the Democrats to increase consumer spending in December and show the economy is improving in 2012 with all this frenzied spending activity by threatening to ban guns in January, but it is getting rather tiresome.

Good luck finding standard capacity magazines or indeed finding decent bulk quantities of ammunition to buy just about anywhere.

Good luck finding semi-auto rifles, or lower receivers for same to purchase at this point as the buying panic / speculation / foresight and considered preparation (your choice which) is well and truly underway.

Note that Supply and Demand isn't just a good idea but a law - prices on these items are up to reflect the higher demand for these items.

This is also forcing me to both consider purchasing items ahead of my planned schedule and back ordering standard capacity magazines for firearms I might buy in the future, or magazines that I might instead buy on occasion. For example, an AR magazine with every Brownells or Midway order is a standard practice with me. Instead, I'm leaning towards stocking up now, which of course introduces even more feedback into the shortage loop.

On the upside, I'm making a donation to the Second Amendment Foundation and urge others to do the same, and considering also made one to the NRA-ILA and am emailing my state and federal representatives accordingly to voice my opposition to any such bans. If everyone out there who buys a rifle in a panic also buys an SAF and NRA membership, we'll be a lot better off.

Don't get mad and do nothing but mumble and stock up on mags. Instead work the representative government system we have and do something to show that these proposed bans are unacceptable to the majority of Americans.

EPA To Make The Rare Wisconsin-Michigan Badger Extinct?

The coal-fired steamship S.S. Badger to be precise.

The Detroit News: Full Stop: S.S. Badger could end historic journey in December

The ship, launched in 1952, is a registered historic site in both states and regularly ferries passengers and vehicles back and forth contributing millions to both states' economies.

This could all end on Dec. 19 if the Badger's parent company, Lake Michigan Carferry Service, doesn't come up with a way to stop dumping the boat's coal ash discharge into the waters of Lake Michigan.

The Environmental Protection Agency is currently reviewing an application by LMC that, if approved, would give the Badger a permit to continue operating past the Dec. 19 deadline, if the company sets a schedule for compliance with EPA water cleanliness restrictions.

Considering the Badger is the last coal-fired vessel in service on the lakes, the worry that one ship will harm the environmental balance of Lake Michigan is a bit overwrought, not to mention it save millions of gallons in fuel that vehicles would otherwise consume, and even carries windmill parts fer crying out loud:

The Badger not only transports people back and forth between Wisconsin and Michigan on a four-hour, 60-mile cruise, but it also transports automobiles, tour buses and commercial trucks across Lake Michigan, Brown said. It is 1 1/2 times the size of a football field. Nickels said the Badger often carries the massive pieces of wind towers — huge windmills produced by Broadwind Energies, which is based in Manitowoc. If not for the ship, he said, those pieces would have to be driven on flatbed truck trailers on highways around the southern tip of Lake Michigan. Brown said LMC estimates that the Badger saves 1 million gallons of fuel each year from vehicles that can avoid driving around Lake Michigan.

One would think the EPA would grant an exemption considering the environmental benefits of the S.S. Badger far outweigh its costs.

Then again, expecting such rational decision making from a greenie dominated, anti-coal driven administration is likely asking for too much.

That's Not Very Comforting...

Airflow problems plague CDC bioterror lab

From USA Today / The Detroit Free Press.

A $214 million bioterror germ lab at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta has had repeated problems with airflow systems designed to help prevent the release of infectious agents, government documents and internal e-mails show.

While the agency says no one has been infected, a biosafety expert says the problems appear to be major violations of laboratory operating standards.

The area of the building with problems involves Biosafety Level 3 labs that can be used for experiments involving anthrax, dangerous strains of influenza, the SARS coronavirus, monkeypox and other microbes that have the potential to be used as bioweapons.

Hmm, and we're now experiencing a strange outbreak of face-eating zombies.

Nothing to see here, nope nothing at all, just a coincidence I'm sure.....

Compliance Costs But Reaps Big Rewards

Marginal Revolution reports that General Electric's tax return was 57,000 pages in size.

To put it in perspective, the entire US tax code is 72,536 pages (in 2006 it was 16,845 pages).

In return for this monumental display of compliance and finding every favorable term of the tax laws and regulations, GE on a profit of $14 billion with $5.1 billion for its US operations paid no income taxes.


Think of the amount of time, energy and economic effort wasted to produce 57,000 pages.

Then think for the need to make our tax code a lot simpler and straightforward to both understand, comply with.

Such a simplification would ensure that other businesses and individuals can reap the same benefits as GE rather than GE being able to pay no taxes by virtue of its size. GE due to having a massive accounting department and a huge size has the ability to operate in a way to negate any tax by a careful application of numerous laws, subsidies and credits that while politically nice may be economically very wasteful. While GE saves on taxes, its probably wasting tons of money not just by all the tax compliance measures, but by inefficient projects taken in the quest for tax credits and write-offs.

Should Government Motors really be getting into the educational / social engineering stuff now?

The Detroit Free Press: GM to pump millions into helping United Way improve metro Detroit high schools

General Motors plans to give $27.1 million over the next five years to help the United Way restructure five metro Detroit high schools, as the company continues its post-bankruptcy emphasis on turning around its home city.

The donation, which is the largest ever to come from GM’s charitable foundation, targets the 22 schools in southeast Michigan that have graduation rates of less than 60%. The schools must submit applications in January to get turnaround money and, if chosen, will follow an existing United Way model with the hope of increasing their graduation rates to at least 80%.

As GM has returned to profitability and to the stock market, the automaker has returned to charitable giving.

Now, helping Detroit area schools is indeed a noble (and herculean) task and 27 milion is ust a fraction of the government money the company has received, but should GM, still owing the US Government (read: taxpayers) billions of dollars in bail out money be putting its money into this program?

After shouldn't the Department of Education be the federal government's source of education dollars rather than GM, its new motor vehicle production department?

Is GM just another source of government funds ready to be diverted to government approved social causes?

Yet another example of government competence in action, FAA department.

FAA loses track of 119,000 aircraft

Yes, the FAA's registry system is so messed up, they don't know with certainty who owns over 1/3 of America's aviation fleet.

The Detroit News:

The Federal Aviation Administration is missing key information on who owns one-third of the 357,000 private and commercial aircraft in the U.S. — a gap the agency fears could be exploited by terrorists and drug traffickers.

The records are in such disarray that the FAA says it is worried that criminals could buy planes without the government's knowledge, or use the registration numbers of other aircraft to evade new computer systems designed to track suspicious flights. It has ordered all aircraft owners to re-register their planes in an effort to clean up its files.

About 119,000 of the aircraft on the U.S. registry have "questionable registration" because of missing forms, invalid addresses, unreported sales or other paperwork problems, according to the FAA. In many cases, the FAA cannot say who owns a plane or even whether it is still flying or has been junked.

Already there have been cases of drug traffickers using phony U.S. registration numbers, as well as instances of mistaken identity in which police raided the wrong plane because of faulty record-keeping.

The fix will require re-registering all 357,000 civilly owned US aircraft, causing some major issues with priority on the titles of the aircraft.

The registry errors have already led to innocent aircraft owners being confronted at gunpoint by US law enforcement:

Unreliable data in the system has led to cases of mistaken identity.

Pilot Pierre Redmond said his Cirrus was searched by Customs and Border Protection agents in fatigues and bulletproof vests last year in Ramona, Calif. They told him his tail number had been confused with that of a wanted plane in Florida.

In August, police in Santa Barbara, Calif., detained flight instructors John and Martha King at gunpoint after federal authorities mistook their Cessna for a plane that was stolen in 2002. The Kings are famous in aviation because they produce and star in a popular series of test-preparation videos for pilots.

The error in the Kings' case was eventually traced to a law-enforcement database that is cross-referenced with the FAA's registry, not to the registry itself. But Brown of the FAA called it an example of the real-world consequences of bad recordkeeping.

"It's very, very scary," Martha King said. "If this keeps happening to people, somebody's going to get shot."

As the Instapundit would say, the country's in the very best of hands!