Reeboks Rest in Peace

I bought my last pair of tennis shoes in about 2001.  Although I don't remember the actual date, I do remember the price.   15 bucks on sale!     I seem to recall they were 50 or 60 shoes but I thought it was a bargain, plus I had no tennis shoes and I bought them.

I've worn them now for 15 years.   I often go for walks in a pair of loafers, but sometimes wear the tennis shoes.   Where I walk now is on a gravel road and I'd been noticing the past few times I walked that it felt just a little uncomfortable.   But I didn't stop to wonder why.

It rained last night, so the road was a little damp today and I got some mud on them.   When I came in, I took them off at the door and carried to the sink so I could wash them off.   When I held them under the water, I immediately saw the reason for the discomfort.

I believe these shoes are gone now.    Beyond repair.   But they have been a good ole pair of shoes for me for 15 bucks.    Now I'll have to find another bargain?

Texas Property Taxes grown out of control? Up 41% in past decade

Texas-sized property appraisals fuel tax-swap talk

By Kenric Ward   /   May 12, 2016 

Another year of soaring property appraisals is spurring talk of scrapping Texas’ property tax in favor of an expanded sales tax.

“The most appealing part of the plan is the ability to own your own property as opposed to ‘renting’ from the government,” says James Quintero, director of the Center for Local Governance at the Texas Public Policy Foundation.

Texas’ property taxes — the sixth highest in the nation — are anything but transparent. More than 4,000 localities and special taxing districts levy property taxes, obscuring exactly who is responsible for raising them, how that money is spent, and whether any increases are necessary.

“The tax system is absolutely broken,” Bexar County deputy appraiser Mary Kieke told the San Antonio Express-News . She says a lack of disclosure requirements makes it nearly impossible to systemically determine the fair market value of properties.

The result is highly subjective and hotly contested appraisals. More taxpayers are challenging their assigned property values; some 90,000 protests were filed in Bexar County alone last year.

“Currently, a disproportionate share of taxes are paid by a few,” notes Allen Tharp, president of the San Antonio Tea Party . Schools account for half of most tax bills, whether the assessed homeowner has children or not.

Politicians deflect an outright revolt by boasting that they are holding steady, or even reducing, tax rates. When aggressive county appraisers boost values by double-digit percentages, local governments reap record revenue increases without raising rates.

While mainstream media outlets trumpet the “reductions,” Texas property tax collections have roughly doubled since 2003 — from $29 billion to more than $50 billion today.

In addition to property taxes, Texans are saddled with a sales tax of about 8.25 percent (rates vary by county).

TPPF’s Quintero estimates that a statewide 10.98 percent sale tax would cover all government and school operations currently funded through property taxes.

“This would invite significant job growth and opportunity,” he told Watchdog.org. “The property tax right now acts as a deterrent to investment, particularly with regard to capital-intensive industries.”

A report, “The Freedom to Own Property,” estimates that a reformed sales tax would:

·        Add 124,900 to 337,400 net new jobs over a five-year period, beyond the job growth Texas would have without the tax reform.

·        Boost personal income in the range of $3.6 billion to $3.68 billion in the first year. Over five years, personal income could increase between $22.85 billion and $63 billion, or 1.8 percent to 4.7 percent higher than it would have been otherwise.

Mark Pulliam, a retired attorney and Travis County activist, said he has reservations about switching to an expanded sales tax. “In addition to being politically difficult, we could end up with both taxes,” Pulliam predicted.

He prefers statutory curbs on government spending, as well as limits on property taxes.

Republican state Sen. Paul Bettencourt, who is chairing a series of hearings on property tax reform , last year introducedSenate Bill 182 to cut the property tax “rollback” rate to 4 percent. Heavy lobbying from the Texas Municipal League, the Texas Association of Counties and local school districts helped kill the measure.

“Mayors and county judges effectively admitted that their local governments are so badly mismanaged that they can’t make ends meet on increased revenue of 4 percent per year without cutting public safety, parks and libraries,” said Jerome Greener, president of the Texas chapter of the free-market Americans for Prosperity.

Dean Wright, co-founder of the Austin Tea Party, calls limits on property tax increases “a good first step.” But he said the ultimate goal is to eliminate the property tax and replace it with the TPPF-endorsed sales tax that would include a sales tax on home purchases and levies on services that are taxed in other states.

“Zero-based budgeting also needs to happen,” he added.

Meantime, Bettencourt notes that while property tax levies have grown 41 percent in the past decade , Texans’ median incomes rose just 6.2 percent.

“We can’t afford this over the long term,” the Houston Republican said.

Kenric Ward writes for the Texas Bureau of Watchdog.org. Contact him atkward@watchdog.org . @Kenricward.

My 1st Grade Grand daughter. I'm as proud of her as any moment of my life.

One of my grand daughters, Vivi, is in the first grade this year.   She's the epitome of a "people person".    She's happy to be a friend to all.  She seems to never meet a stranger, and I love her so much, just as I do all my grand children.

Once in a while a child does something that make us examine our own selves to see how we have succeeded or failed in our own lives.

Yesterday, her mother sent me an Instagram that she had received from the mother of one of Vivi's classmates, who has Spina Bifada.   I wept.    And today my heart is still warm from seeing the love and character that is already present in the heart and life of a 6 year old child.

Below is a copy of the Instagram:

US Congress makes themselves a Small Business to qualify for Subsidies

Obamacare’s insurance subsidies for ordinary Americans are generous, but capped by income. No one with an annual income over $47,080 gets a subsidy. That’s well below typical Capitol Hill salaries. Members of Congress make $174,000 annually, and many on their staff have impressive, upper-middle-class paychecks.

Maybe the lawmakers didn’t understand what they were doing, but The New York Times’ perspicacious Robert Pear certainly did.

On April 12, 2010, Pear wryly wrote, “If they did not know exactly what they were doing to themselves, did lawmakers who wrote and passed the bill fully grasp the details of how it would influence the lives of other Americans?”

Click here for the full article and details on more of Congress corruption and the federal government's collusion in outright lies and criminal distortions to fit their own oligarchal needs.

Saudi Arabia collaboration with 911 Hijackers.

28 pages of documents buried away in the vaults of the Capital contain numerous redacted references to Saudi government complicity in the 911 attacks.

It's time for the release of those documents and stop coddling a foreign power who is NOT our friend, nor ally.

Click here for more details.

Gun Control and Gun Violence. Related?

London England's Most likely new Mayor

A Muslim England?   A Muslim London?

An illuminating look at the new voice of London.

Click here.