Headlines

Nunes feels the Russian probe blowback at home

These drones can haul a 20 pound load for 500 miles and land on a moving target

Mueller wins: Judge declines to throw out Manafort charges ...

Matthews: Trump doing everything he can to destroy this country

White House still  a  go on planning trip for North Korean summit

Ireland votes overwhelmingly to scrap ban on abortions

Seattle fastest growing city in USA ...

Spy gate: 7 ways Barack Obama spied on Donald Trump

Trump issues orders making it easier to fire federal employees

Why half of Americans won' take a vacation this year

TO THE MOON: Bezos pledges to expand space ventures ...

North Korea ramped up cyber attacks while talking peace with Seoul

Taxing Issue

Apropos to the upcoming April 15^th tax filing deadline, President Obama and his wife, Michelle, have disclosed their 2013 tax returns.  They paid a total of $98 thousand in federal taxes on an income of $482 thousand (a tax rate of 20.4%). Their refund totaled a little north of $19 thousand which they applied to this year’s estimated taxes … see: CBS Story .  They also generously gave $59 thousand to various charities.

All well and good. However, the fundamental issue that I have with this disclosure is … what about the hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars of benefits-in-kind that this duo receives from the U.S, taxpayers when they and their extended family and guests indulge themselves with their many globe-trotting vacations ... that are not part of official business.  This includes Air Force One and Marine One travel, the most luxurious hotel accommodations, five-star dining … and all the many other accouterments that they feel that they deserve … see: China Blossom for just the first quarter of 2014’s junkets. 

I realize that the first family receives a $100 thousand tax-free travel reimbursement as part of the President’s benefit package … but this is but a drop in the bucket relative to what they obviously palm off on us taxpayers. Where is this full-disclosure accounting for these sums?

I do believe that President Obama must have a friend at the Internal Revenue Service.

Measure of the Man

With Romney's primary sweep yesterday and his optimistic and inspirational acceptance speech last night, it seems clear to this non-pundit that Romney will not only win in November, but that he will prevail in a mind-boggling landslide ... and, in the process, sweep away many Democrat incumbents in Congress and in other state elections.  I think that this conclusion should also be ... or will shortly become obvious to Obama and most of the lickspittles surrounding him. Therefore, we now will see the true measure of our hope-and-change President.

Will he, with grace and patriotism, accept this imprimatur?  Or will he, in a snit, do everything he can in his last months in office to destroy his opposition and possibly his country in the process?  Will he go on a spending spree to reward his cronies to keep them solvent long enough to recapture future political purchase?  Will he try to pass legislative booby traps that will keep the new Congress tied up in knots for years to come?  Will he try to pack our government agencies and courts with loyal operatives who will work to frustrate the people's initiatives?  Will he and his family enjoy a series of over-the-top vacations and lavish White-House fetes at taxpayer expense?  Will he continue, with even greater fervor, to divide this country along gender, racial, ethnic, economic, and age-ist lines?  Will he try to finish the job of destroying many of our time-honored international alliances?  Will he even inspire the Occupiers to attempt insurrections?

Need I go on?  Unfortunately, I think we know the answers to these and many other equally-disturbing questions.  And, therefore, Obama's metric is unfortunately de minimis.