Pun Salad

I can't agree totally with the opinion offered on the Amazon Product du Jour. Taxes are not theft.

I believe a more accurate description would be "extortion".

• Defund, Then Delete. William McGurn has a modest (too modest) proposal: Defund Joe Biden’s IRS.

  Joe Biden may be mistaken about many things, but he’s right about the Internal Revenue Service. If the IRS is to become the agency he wants it to become, it needs the $80 billion in extra funding he is now proposing.

  It comes down to the tax gap. This is the difference between what people owe the IRS and what it actually manages to collect. Though Commissioner Charles Rettig told the Senate Finance Committee in April that the IRS is leaving $1 trillion on the table each year, a more recent Treasury Department analysis put the gap at roughly $600 billion for 2019, which it said “is on pace to total $7 trillion over the course of the next decade.”

  There are two schools of thought here. The first—call it the Joe Biden School—holds that the answer is to give the IRS the authority, funding and manpower it needs to go out and bring in that missing revenue. Accordingly, an $80 billion IRS infusion will more than pay for itself by generating an additional $700 billion in tax revenue over the next decade. It’s a bargain at the price.

  The other school—let’s call it the Milton Friedman School—holds that the best tax collection system comes from a tax code that keeps taxes low, fair and simple. In either case, the kind of IRS you believe you need is more or less dictated by the tax code you prefer.

  I'd guess you know which school I attend. But anyone who looks at the recent politically-motivated leak of rich-folk tax returns, or remembers Lois Lerner might think twice about awarding the IRS more money.

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• Message Received. William Jacobsen takes a look at a well-funded effort: Union-Linked Coalition Scripts ‘Messaging’ To Counter Parental Pushback Against Critical Race Theory. The coalition is the Partnership for the Future of Learning, it's backed by numerous groups, including the National Education Association. And it gives the lie to assertions that "Critical Race Theory" is just some obscure field of study restricted to legal scholars. Its "Top 5 Messages"
  1. Truth in our classrooms propels young people towards a more united, inclusive, and just future.
  2. Trust students to talk about what’s happening in the world around them.
  3. Coordinated efforts to control curriculum come from aggressive right-wing instigators who want to stop educators and districts from working toward racial equity.
  4. When educators teach the truth, students start to see themselves as part of a bigger story.
  5. Banning conversations about racism in schools is a form of censorship. A shared, honest understanding of the past bridges divides.

  It's us (on the side of "truth" and "trust" and "racial equity" and "understanding") against them ("aggressive right-wing instigators" who favor "censorship").

  It gets "better" (by which I mean "worse") from there. They are very locked in and dedicated to indoctrination.

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• Not That Nice. I hope Jarrett Stepman was well-paid to Read Robin DiAngelo’s New Book on ‘Nice Racism.’ Here Are 3 Takeaways..

  But DiAngelo’s books aren’t really about deep societal analysis and policy, or really about helping people live in a better, freer, more prosperous society.

  They certainly aren’t aimed at a broader audience or conservatives who are assumedly nothing but a basket of deplorables beyond redemption.

  Opponents of the grand plan are little more than an absurd caricature.

  “I am writing this book at a time when white nationalism—the desire for a white ethnostate by and for whites—is on the rise both in the United States and globally,” DiAngelo writes in the first chapter with little explanation or evidence.

  No, DiAngelo’s books are miserable self-help guides for upper-middle-class, white, deeply committed progressives who are desperately searching for a way to not be racist in a world where denying your racism is an example of racism.

  I'm afraid I'm already classified as a hopeless advocate of a white ethnostate. Robin, all I ask is that you try to find one single bit of evidence of that from my 16 years of blogging.

  (There. That should keep her busy for a while.)

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• Which Reminds Me. I recently read The Disordered Cosmos by University Near Here Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy and a Core Faculty Member in Women's and Gender Studies Chanda Prescod-Weinstein. I wasn't that impressed, but if you want to read my take, it's in my book feed here.

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• Which Also Reminds me. Via Robin DeAngelo link above, I was led to the contribution of Ibram X. Kendi to a Politico collection on How To Fix Inequality: Pass an Anti-Racist Constitutional Amendment. In its entirety:

  To fix the original sin of racism, Americans should pass an anti-racist amendment to the U.S. Constitution that enshrines two guiding anti-racist principals [sic]: Racial inequity is evidence of racist policy and the different racial groups are equals. The amendment would make unconstitutional racial inequity over a certain threshold, as well as racist ideas by public officials (with “racist ideas” and “public official” clearly defined). It would establish and permanently fund the Department of Anti-racism (DOA) comprised of formally trained experts on racism and no political appointees. The DOA would be responsible for preclearing all local, state and federal public policies to ensure they won’t yield racial inequity, monitor those policies, investigate private racist policies when racial inequity surfaces, and monitor public officials for expressions of racist ideas. The DOA would be empowered with disciplinary tools to wield over and against policymakers and public officials who do not voluntarily change their racist policy and ideas.

  "Yeah, that'll 'fix' it."

  Seriously, the Chanda Prescod-Weinstein book discussed above uses the word "totalitarian" a lot. But I'm not sure a proposal could be more totalitarian than the one above. "Change your ideas, racist, or submit to our disciplinary tools!"

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• Those Crazy Mainers. Nathan Bernard tells a belated Independence Day tale at the Intercept: A Nation Conceived in Liberty Confronts Its Queasiness With the “MILF Mobile”.

  Brittney Glidden drives Maine’s most beloved vehicle. It’s a 2013 teal Chrysler Town & Country minivan. An enormous custom-made “MILF Mobile” logo is plastered on its rear windshield.

  “Everyone loves my van, except for Karens,” Glidden said, referring to a pejorative term for entitled white women. “Karens hate it.”

  Glidden’s ride also sports “Kids in this bitch, honk if one falls out,” “If you’re gonna ride my ass, at least pull my hair,” and “Condoms prevent minivans” stickers. A “TITSOUT” vanity plate is latched to the MILF Mobile’s bumper.

  “The plate references the fact that I exclusively breastfed all four of my children,” Glidden said. “And that I frequently drive topless. Maine is in fact a topless state.”

  I hear you: "She should move to New Hampshire!" Unfortunately, one of the vanity plate rules in the Live Free or Die state is no references to “intimate body parts or genitals", and I think Brittney's plate would qualify there.