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If Only We Could Find A Cure For Trump Derangement Syndrome

Via Zero Hedge

The disease in its pandemic form is far from over. Our former hopes of its eradication and a return to normalcy in the new year now appear forlorn. We shall just have to live with it for the forseeable future, it seems.

The president, it’s true, has told us that, although the virus “has been hitting this country hard, we have the tools to combat the virus, if we can come together as a country and use those tools.”

But he was only talking about the coronavirus and not the much-less controllable but equally virulent virus causing Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) on a near-pandemic scale.

That is something against which we appear to have no “tools” at all. Indeed, the president himself is an unrelieved sufferer from “long” TDS, as he showed in this same speech by enthusiastically participating in the “pandemic politics” he decried in others and implying that former President Donald Trump’s efforts against the coronavirus—including Operation Warp Speed, which developed the vaccines he was now mandating—had been unavailing until he came along.

By thus politicizing his own anti-COVID efforts, did he somehow imagine he was going to persuade vaccine skeptics to trust themselves to his good faith in recommending them to get immunized?

Of course, it’s no surprise to learn that this president’s case of TDS is a terminal one, but the disease struck again two days later in an unexpected place, Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

There, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the terror attacks on New York and Washington of Sept. 11, 2001, former President George W. Bush strongly implied that he had chosen to align himself with one of the worst of the hallucinations caused by TDS fever-delirium by suggesting an equivalence between the events of 20 years previously (death toll 2,977) and those of the Capitol riot of last Jan. 6 (death toll 1).

If there’s anyone in the whole wide world with a better reason to resist the politicization of the 20th anniversary commemoration of 9/11 than former President George W. Bush, I don’t know who it is. That, surely, is the province of the Bush haters—sufferers from Bush Derangement Syndrome, which was to TDS what SARS-CoV-1 was to SARS-CoV-2—who suggest that his response to the attacks, if he didn’t himself conspire with the attackers, was politically motivated.

But he just couldn’t help himself, could he? That’s long-TDS for you. Once that poison enters your mind, you can never get it out again. Or so it seems.

The latest virus hot-spot to show up is in California, where a majority appear to have declined to recall a governor generally acknowledged even by some Democrats to be one of the worst in the country solely because—according to the pundits, anyway—his principal opponent had some nice things to say about the Bad Orange Man from Mar-a-Lago.

Let us live a little longer, said the Californians, with the wildfires and the soaring crime rates and the invasions of the homeless and the oppressive anti-COVID measures wished on us by people who don’t observe them themselves. At least Gov. Gavin Newsom still hates Trump as much as we do.

You might think that the delirium caused by such a cruel disease could grow no worse than this, but you would be wrong. The worst case must belong to those Democratic pundits who are euphoric over the Californian demonstration of mass insanity, because they think it has foreshadowed the salvation, presumably by an even wider spread of TDS, of the Democratic majorities in Congress.

Perhaps the best-known symptom of TDS is that it utterly and permanently deprives you of your sense of shame. MORE.

Biden’s Plan To Crack Down on Tax Cheating: Snooping on Everyone’s Bank Accounts

Via Reason

In order to make sure the rich are paying their fair share in taxes, President Joe Biden says the IRS just needs two bits of information: all the money that goes into your bank account, and all the money that comes out.

That’s how Biden pitched his plan for a more comprehensive financial surveillance state—all to catch those nasty tax-cheating rich folks, of course—during a speech from the White House on Thursday afternoon.

The plan “will give the IRS the resources it needs to keep up with the lawyers and accountants of the super-wealthy. It would ask just for two pieces of information from the banks of these folks: the amounts that come into their bank accounts and what amounts go out of their bank accounts,” Biden said. Right now, he added, “the IRS can’t see what they’re making, and can’t tell that they’re cheating.”

Thankfully, he stopped short of using the “If you’ve got nothing to hide…” cliché.

Still, Biden’s framing of this plan to beef up IRS enforcement with an additional $80 billion in funding is wildly off-kilter. As I wrote in April, giving the IRS more information about the inflow and outflow of bank accounts won’t automatically tell the IRS that someone is hiding unreported, taxable income. But it gives the federal tax cops another way to establish probable cause for a financial stop-and-frisk.

The details of Biden’s plan are far different from the innocuous-sounding description he used Thursday.

“The administration’s proposed ‘comprehensive financial account reporting regime’ would dramatically increase the types of financial institutions and transactions exposed to the feds’ prying eyes,” Reason’s Matt Welch recently wrote. “The new domestic surveillance program, which requires congressional approval, is one prong of a tripartite strategy for transforming the entire global financial system into a harmonious, haven-free collection funnel to the IRS.”

Closing the so-called “tax gap” and making sure everyone pays what they owe is a crucial part of how Biden and congressional Democrats plan to pay for part of the budget-busting $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill curring being crafted by the House. The $700 billion that will supposedly come from stepped-up tax enforcement was the largest single funding source for Biden’s American Families Plan when he outlined it earlier this year (though Congress could make significant changes before the bill is finalized).

It is disingenuous to suggest, as Biden did Thursday, that letting the IRS peep at your bank records is about ensuring “that the wealthy can no longer hide what they’re making, and they can finally pay the fair share of what they owe.”

As the details of his proposal make clear, enhanced tax enforcement will mean hoovering up more data from crypto wallets, bank accounts, and third-party payment providers such as PayPal and Venmo. And that comes after Biden already ordered the IRS to give greater scrutiny to transactions in the so-called sharing economy. MORE.

Washington State Now Hiring ‘Strike Team’ for Quarantine Facility With 24/7 Security

Via PJ Media

The State of Washington Health Department is advertising open positions for members of a new unit called the Isolation and Quarantine Strike Team. The new positions pay $3,294-4,286 per month:

These I & Q Strike Team Member Program Specialist 2s (PS2) are responsible for participating in program planning and evaluation of health service delivery products and identifying needs for personnel, supplies, and activities to support community and state response activities. These positions will staff the State Isolation and Quarantine Facility and provide for the needs of travelers that stay at the facility. I & Q Strike Team members are in responsible charge of the I & Q Facility during their shift and are tasked with responding to emergencies, training contractors and new staff, and providing guest support as needed. When we are successful, these efforts will directly support the mission of the DOH, which is to protect and improve the health of people in Washington.

No word if “travelers” and “guests” maintain the ability to come and go as they please.

The state isolation and quarantine facility, located in Centralia, Washington, will initially hire three new employees to staff its Strike Team. The duties sound benign enough:

Duties Include

• Maintaining the readiness of the isolation and quarantine strike team, facilities, and equipment.
• Providing direct services to the public at the I & Q facility to include: check-in, providing technical assistance, purchasing groceries and supplies for the site and guests, distributing food and resources, assisting with inventory of resources, and ensuring all guests receive excellent customer service.
• Assisting nurses on performing rounds,
• Maintaining facility cleanliness and processing guest laundry.
• Providing guest transport to and from the I & Q facility.
• Prepping the I & Q facility to receive guests, ensuring rooms are stocked and have been properly cleaned.
• Providing outreach, education, and technical assistance to internal and external stakeholders.

One question, though: Why is a Strike Team needed? The image of a Strike Team conjures Vic Mackey and The Shield, not a benevolent public health worker. Is it as Orwellian and fascistic as it sounds, or are we just being paranoid? MORE.

Pennsylvania Rations Alcohol Due to Crippled Supply Chain

Via The Epoch Times

A shortage of certain alcohol brands is leaving some drinkers in low spirits; the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board (PLCB) announced this week it would begin rationing a list of popular liquor labels.

Due to sustained supply chain disruptions and product shortages, purchase limits of two bottles, per customer, per day were applied to certain items beginning Friday, Sept. 17, and will remain in effect for the foreseeable future.

The two-bottle limit applies to all consumers and liquor license holders such as bars and restaurants, and includes 43 well-known labels including Hennessy Cognac, Don Julio 1942 Tequila, Jack Daniel’s Whiskey, Moët & Chandon Impérial Champagne, and Buffalo Trace Kentucky Straight Bourbon.

The rationing was not a surprise to Shawn McCall, general manager at Room 33 Speakeasy in Erie, Pa. The speakeasy has had trouble getting some brands for the last three or four months.
“I haven’t been able to get Bulleit Bourbon for a month. Jack Daniel’s was out for a while but it’s back in now,” McCall told The Epoch Times in a phone interview. “People know there is a shortage, so bar owners are overstocking. That is why they put a limit on it.”

In Pennsylvania, wine and spirits are sold at state-operated stores where both consumers and liquor license holders shop. The state stores buy directly from producers so they have a first look at supply.

“We are aware of product shortages in other states,” PLCB Press Secretary Shawn Kelly told The Epoch Times in an email. “While the current supply challenges are not unique to Pennsylvania and are impacting markets across the U.S., the PLCB has experienced product shortfalls before, and we regularly impose bottle limits on products for which we know demand will exceed supply in order to distribute the product as fairly as possible. These bottle limits are preventative measures to fairly distribute product and minimize out-of-stock situations, which will vary by location.”

 

Chuck Moran, executive director of the Pennsylvania Licensed Beverage & Tavern Association, says the rationing adds to a growing list of challenges for small businesses.

“Before the pandemic I believe there were problems making kegs, having to do with steel tariffs,” Moran told The Epoch Times in a phone interview. “We’ve dealt with shortages before. But now it seems to be one thing after another. We went through this with chicken wings, ketchup packets, plastic cups, and there is still a recovery effort going on from COVID. Businesses were having a hard time finding employees. The combination is really hampering recovery for small business.”

Moran hopes that when Pennsylvania’s legislators return to session Monday, they have a plan to help small businesses. MORE.

Gavin Newsom Named U-Haul Salesperson Of The Year

Via The Babylon Bee

SACRAMENTO, CA—U-Haul has named Governor Gavin Newsom its Salesperson of the Year for the third year in a row after a record-setting sales quarter.

“We are astounded by the growth we’ve seen in California,” said U-Haul’s Western Regional Director Fennick Buggstein. “Thanks to Gavin Newsom, literally every middle-class family has moved out of the state! It’s been impossible to keep up with demand! Also, most of our workers left the state too, which kind of stinks.”

In their second-quarter earnings statement, U-Haul revealed their sales on the West Coast have increased over 37,000% as every human with a pulse and marginal desire for a better life has packed up all their worldly belongings and chosen to leave for greener pastures in a giant U-Haul truck.

“We are deeply grateful to Gavin for our success in 2021,” said Buggstein. “The only problem now is that we’re all out of trucks. And no one is willing to drive a U-Haul back to California. And I’m leaving with my family as well. So I guess this is it! Bye everyone!” Buggstein then jumped in the last U-Haul with his family and took off for Texas.

Congrats to Gavin Newsom!

Check out all of the Bee’s takes on politics and culture HERE.

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