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@Negat0ry, if you know we used to have tax rates that high, then you also know that nearly no one actually paid taxes at those rates. Or if you don't, then you just consumed a "fact" and regurgitated the sound byte. So I don't know why you referenced it other than to imply that you think increasing taxes on billionaires will solve all our woes. I'll spare you the suspense though, it won't. And for many reasons. I'll give you two practical ones. First, mostly because the amount of "money" you think billionaires possess is actually tied up in capital assets - things that produce income or enable other people to be productive (factories, websites, logistics facilities, buildings, digital networks, communication infrastructure, supercomputers, etc). The second reason, and most important one, is there just isn't enough juice to squeeze from them. Meaning, if you confiscated all the wealth of all the billionaires it wouldn't cover the fiscal outlays and promises our government has made. Those are practical reasons. Those are mathematical reasons. Those are logical reasons. Those are reasons you should be able to buy into regardless of your political affiliation. I won't try to convince you that there are additional moral reasons you shouldn't confiscate wealth, but it'd be a waste of time - not only because you come from a different moral and ethical perspective, but because it doesn't matter on a practical basis - we can't get there from where we are. Your suggestion (assumed solution) won't work for practical (mathematical) reasons. Which, by the way, is why I think you promulgate a moral position. Yes dude, I believe that people should be able to stay rich forever. And honestly so do you. You don't think you do though, because you can't (or haven't) conceive of a world in which money keeps it's value and relative wealth means relatively less. I mean seriously dude, do you honestly think that every generation should start from zero? Like what's the point from a humanity-centered perspective to force individuals to have to suffer and grind from square one? I suspect you'd say "fairness" and "opportunity." I want fairness and opportunity in our country for everyone as well. Those are two things I think you and I would agree on, and I'm sure we just disagree about the mechanism, and honestly, that comes from just a different fact-pattern that you and I see. Problem is though, you have a math problem to address. You can moralize about it all you want, but the numbers don't work. You are right in that the $30 (15) million dollar exclusion is a lot of money, and you're also right that the crux of the problem doesn't lie in a few 'outlier' farmers who are able to pass on their $100M dollar farms to their heirs. Rather, the core problem is much broader and more subtle than that. The problems we have are all underneath the surface, and exist in ways most of us never think of or pause to consider - i.e. the wealth transfer mechanism that is social security, wherein it transfers my present day wages to the sons and daughters of people who bought homes in the 1960s and 1970s. Boomers, who are consuming end-of-life care and consuming dollars which my labor produced. These people should be putting their homes on the market in order to generate the 'income' they need to eat and to pay for their medical care. Instead, the government provides them with income and medical care (from me), and then when they die, their kids inherit many millions of dollars - much of it being MY MONEY. So in some cases it functions purely as a pass-thru mechanism from one set of people (produces) to another (consumers). I think you would agree that is an unintended and let's just say, sub-optimal, outcome of SS. I point at something like this because it's but one of an innumerable set of problems and dynamics which when they operate at scale, create all the problems you and I lament. You want a solution, and so do I - I respect that. You just haven't identified the problem yet.

F-35 hit?

Why throw the picture of Gaza in while arguing you’re not anti Jew? That landscape is all on islam, and their adherents (Iran supported hamas in this case). The “fringe” isn’t so fringe, as we clearly see by the actions and words of islamists and their supporters throughout the West. Without strong secular domination in Islamic countries, the mass always falls back to their terroristic and authoritarian foundation. Islam is not compatible with free Western civilization and is a deadly threat to the whole world.

Pictures of one kid (which haven't been included in any article I've seen on it, which also makes me question the legitimacy of the claim) allegedly doing a Nazi salute caused a completely non-affiliated group to write to UF saying they were pulling that clubs affiliation (which was a lie since they weren't affiliated to begin with). Then UF used that as an excuse to shut down the club, likely because they wanted to anyway after the Nazi salute uproar. The club is suing because the shutdown was an incorrect decision based on rules (they were still affiliated) and likely actually targeting the club based on that one member's bad, but protected free speech. Ironic that you're drawing fine distinctions after basically calling all college republicans Nazis...

Will never happen, at least not until some massive economic problem/collapse.

Leftists: Being anti-Israel doesn’t mean you’re antisemitic. Also leftists: If you want to deport illegal aliens it’s because you’re a racist who wants to get rid of black or brown people.

The welfare/administrative state must be shrunk by at least 50-75% The GOP should run an ad campaign with two tax scenarios for the average tax payer, one funding the beast of bloated social services and one with very modest social programs where welfare returns to the churches and local civic societies thru individual donations Ask the voter what do you want, aloof bureaucrats wasting your money in utopian schemes to address aspects of free societies that are features not bugs that can’t be solved only treated or you deciding how much and where you want part of your income to go to benevolent efforts?

Bravo sir. Overall an incredibly level headed, honest broker critique.

New York spent $81,000 per homeless person last year and will spend more this year. It's the duty of every patriotic New Yorker to give their money to the state to not solve this problem but feel good about "doing something."

One of the reasons these conversations are so unproductive is because people like you, clearly motivated by bitterness and spite, approach the solution from a position of vengeance. Intent matters, and if everything you say is dripping with contempt, then the possible policy solutions being suggested will be poisoned and fail. The best thing you could do, if you truly care about the issue, is to simply keep quiet. Just look at the last few years of your conversations here. What have you accomplished? Even when everyone is in agreement, you somehow find a way to turn it back into a fight. I was impressed when you admitted you were wrong during covid, but it doesn't appear to have had any meaningful effect on your overall disposition. If all you're shooting for is to feel superior, then by all means, carry on. At least then your actions are aligned with your intent. But if you're trying to change minds, you're just not the right tool for the job.

You can’t have it both ways. I’ve just stated that there is another side and explained why. Rhetorically, you calling me an anti semite with no legitimate rationale (I’m not) mirrors almost exactly the way people call you/people like you nazis with no legitimate rationale. Note that I am not calling you a Nazi.

Oh so I see you are one of them....good for you. There is HUGE difference between one lunatic group of college kids at the University of Florida and ELECTED members of Congress. Also ironic that you bring up the incident at UF but say NOTHING about all the antisemitic attacks against Jewish students at a large number of universities around the country in recent years. Finally and for the record...Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn, Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., and Rep. Cori Bush in particular voted AGAINST a House resolution condemning "global rise of antisemitism."

@ViperMan The estate tax/gift tax allows for tax free exemptions of $30M over a lifetime for a married couple to pass on. You really think that our billionaire overlords must be allowed to establish untaxed dynasties? The propaganda is hilarious. As a reminder, $30M is a lot of money. The largest of “family farm” operations in the top 1% - which is typically given as the propaganda reason why the estate tax is bad - is approximately $15M. When America was great - after WWII - the top marginal tax rate was >90%, with estate taxes >77%. There is literally no cogent reason why a society that touts itself as the land of equal opportunity would not support our society being based on a meritocracy - in which people don’t start a poker game with all the chips - as opposed to an oligarchy. Except, your brains have been conditioned via over 40 years of Reagan era policies to believe that allowing the rich to exist forever has always been the case during American prosperity. And you probably want to call me a socialist right now for some reason, even though I’ve literally only told you about American policies. Solution is simple - increase taxes on the ultra rich and their families, as we used to.

You’re confusing criticism of Israel with antisemitism. These are not the same, although AIPAC has tried to say they are. Turns out studies show both sides are basically dead even when it comes to being anti-semites. The left does seem more concerned and upset than the right with this, though, I’ll give that to you: Also, I forgot, was it the college democrats or the college republicans that just sued 3 days ago to preserve their god given right to do Nazi salutes? https://amp.miamiherald.com/news/local/education/article315076912.html This is confusing, let’s ask Grok

Shocked how antisemitic the left has become, the AI explanation is interesting: The rise of antisemitism within elements of the political left is a complex phenomenon driven by the intersection of anti-Israel activism, anti-colonial ideology, and the adoption of traditional conspiracy tropes, often masked as progressive critique. While often associated with the Israel-Palestine conflict, this trend has broader roots, including a tendency to view global issues through a strict "oppressor vs. oppressed" My pea brain has distilled it down to the squad type lunatics the far left has elected.

Yep, summerslide covers the estate tax concept. It's also worth reading his series that starts with "My life is a lie. He's not some sort of lifelong progressive who is just now finding the spotlight. His research has changed his perspective (and mine) rather profoundly, and I think it's identified a blind spot in a lot of wealthy and or conservative people's philosophy.

Ooorrrr, we could you know, stop putting all the old-people on welfare. Social security (in certain cases) functions to allow old people to stay in multi-million dollar homes in lieu of selling them. Homes which are then passed on to their heirs largely tax free. So, social security really functions as a wealth transfer vehicle from present-day workers to the descendants of property owners. We're not going to fix that though. So in a case like this, I could see an "estate" tax as being a legitimate recoupment of social security paid out which allowed someone to stay in their home until they died. Oorrrr, we could do the same thing for people who absorb massive medicare dollars in lieu of paying for their own healthcare. Orrrrr, we could stop the infinite deficit spend binge we're on, which will irrevocably result in continued and runaway inflation. Or yeah, I guess we could just take people's property too. I would have zero issue with people's estates owing taxes on income they claimed during their lives which they want their estates to pay after death. I'd have a major issue though, with just confiscating people's inheritance who aren't net minuses. I'd just rather it be characterized as a recoupment tax to identify it as a bill owed for benefits received. Most estate taxes are not "that." Is the article you reference the "Summer Slide" series?

There is an element of the right that is highly susceptible to anti-semetic propaganda. He clearly fell victim to it. Ironically, this aligns people who fall for it with leftist elements. It's an extremely effective attack vector.

Jk you were right lol, makes sense though

You’re right, I meant the… 85th, I think?

I thought 434th was the T-6 squadron we all go through and 87th was for T-38s for those who track that route.

Same. My guess is they’re concurrent classes between the 87th and 434th. Might call the UTM tomorrow to ask which we’ll be in

IPT 26 Jun-22 Nov UPT 03 Dec-18 May

Yeah sounds like they are 2 potentially different classes. My RIP shows IPT from 30 June to 4 Dec and I spoke with the UTM and Flt/CC of the STUS today who told me specifically San Marcos. Are you guys also in the 21 Dec UPT class? Curious if that one is going to get pushed with holiday schedule