The Frankish Reich

Hah! Nicely done. But I stand by my point that the justice system continues to work. The prosecution was fair, as was Trump's hush money prosecution, the jury verdicts should be respected, and we really ought to be given the chance to vote for better people than these.

Hmm, can't remember, but it wasn't Husker Du

Show Trial Scoreboard: Trump 1 Biden 1 And they were both fair, but both cases of "these would have never been prosecuted but for their surnames." (Note that there are 3 - count 'em, 3 - separate NCBills threads with "show Trial" in the title. Now who's the sh[I]t poster?)

Well, that's where your taste in music diverges from mine ...

Water from where? The clouds?

But maybe not in LV? Whose water are you using to build those new subdivisions?

Then why? Really, you are better than this silliness.

Please retitle: Idaho chicken coops are burning!

First!

Because he seems incapable of starting his own duplicate threads?

Umm, I kind of think this thread was first. a somewhat more sane alter ego?

I've said it a few times in this thread: Fresh food at the supermarket is cheap. Prepared/junk food is expensive. Restaurant food is really expensive.

So we have our answer to the question: will the angry old man ever be happy?

Hunter's wife is kind of cute and only slightly trashy. Quick pivot there, champ.

Idaho Apocalypse! (There's already an identical non-Idaho centric thread)

Lawfare! Rigged!! Liberal Biden Country Jury Will Never Convict!!!

I dunno. I watched some of that Vegas speech and the Electrocution By Battery-Powered Boat vs. Dismemberment By Shark scenario was pretty compelling.

Gundlach has been saying this for a while now. Quite a while now. He's a Buffalo guy so I am inclined to give him a pass, but he's now looking like the personification of that old joke "economists have predicted 5 out of the last 3 recessions."

True, but it's bothering me that instead of America becoming like the rest of the world and eliminating tipping, much of the rest of the world is becoming more like America. Tipping used to be so unheard of in parts of Europe that the waiter/barman would assume you left money on the table by mistake and would try to give it back to you. Not anymore. It started innocently enough with the "leave the change (coins) on the table as a small token of appreciation ..."

Let's think this through (something I doubt the Trump team, which no doubt includes economists, has done): - The Forbes article ways about 45% of tip income isn't reported. So already only 55% of tips are taxed. - Tipped workers generally received a lower rate of official pay (minimum wage as low as $2.13), provided their reported tip income allowed them to at least hit the minimum wage. - Trump said this is on his "day one" list (you know, the day where he can be a dictator, but let's set that aside). Since the tax code is set by Congress, I assume he means some kind of executive action that doesn't make tip income excluded from taxation, but rather directs the IRS to take no action against unreported tip income. So that's all we know now. What will happen? 1. To the extent state law provides, restaurants may be expected to drop official paid wages as low as they can, and to encourage tipping as a substitute. Pay that $2.13 an hour and get $100 an hour tax-free in tips. Employer and employee are happy I guess. 2. Expect any business that is arguably included in the proposal to shift quickly to a tip-based service. Airport skycaps (contract workers) have always been tipped. Ticket counter reps (usually employees, sometimes contractors) will be shifted to a similar tip-based service with a very low official wage. Others who typically haven't been tipped (flight attendants?) would be pushed in the same direction. Housekeeping? Curiously, the main hotel workers union discourages people from tipping hotel maids since that would allow hotel management to drive down official wages. I suspect that would change in the same way - lower official wages, more pressure to tip. 3. Are service charges "tips?" Expect the hospitality industry lobby to say yes. So they can collect the "tips," pay very low official wages, and then distribute the tip money (tax-free) to employees, with no withholding. Obviously that would have to be part of the proposal. Expect these "service charges" to go up sharply. 4. IRS takes in less revenue. The deficit increases, or taxes are raised and non-tipped workers bear a greater share of the tax burden, or spending is sharply cut. I know a lot of people like the spending cut thing. This was Reagan's theory - "starve the beast" - and we all know how that worked out. (Hint: poorly). 5. Service/hospitality work becomes more in demand. Imagine a waiter at a pricey Vegas steakhouse. $2.13 minimum wage, makes about $100 per table in untaxed tips. There's calculators out there to do the math, but here's the basic: if he's at a marginal tax rate of 24% and he makes $100,000, he takes home $76,000 a year. Shift almost everything to tax-free tip income, and he just got a $24,000 "raise." 6. Biden properly takes flack for forgiving student loans, pandering to his base of college grads by giving away money. Trump deserves flack for pandering to what he considers his new base (particularly in a battleground state) by giving away money. That's the part I hate the most. It turns us into even more of a tip-based economy. When I was young I used to think that was a third worldly thing, keeping a roll of bills or a pocket of coins to hand out to people doing ordinary things. Welcome to America 2025.

Well, Trump's comment didn't say what occupations it would be limited to. It was obviously aimed at "hospitality workers," generally defined, but how do you define that?

So what would stop, say, a lawyer (hah!) from taking his client's credit card for billable hours, then flipping the screen ask the client to add a 15, 20, 25 percent tip?

Discuss the economic distortions that such a change in policy would create. Extra Credit: would illegal aliens be included?

What Trump waving a Cheesecake Factory menu at a Vegas rally has to do with whether he called our troops "suckers and losers" is the starting point here.