The Frankish Reich

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.

The comment that you flag above had to do with the price of food at the Cheesecake Factory. What exactly is the "false narrative" you pointed out? Do you thinking moving toward a more tip-based economy is a good idea?

I need to go to a reeducation camp. My apologies if I offended anyone. The good news is that since they were warriors in spirit and practice, we may now delete the Ray Epps Made Me Do It thread.

Think how much better it will be when I'm expected to tip my Cheesecake Factory waitress 40% because tips are tax free!

Trump called them "warriors" in his Vegas rally. So I guess the days of "mass trespassing event" are over. They are now officially "warriors," and a warrior doesn't typically come in peace. The Spanish equivalent sounds even better to me. They were guerrillas.

So @B-Man, I checked out this "RSBN" ("Right Side Broadcasting Network"). It seems to exist to stream Trump events, and includes a completely preposterous chyron crawl (the one you posted says "dismal jobs report" - yeah, the same one that caused the markets to react to what everyone considers a very strong jobs report). Well anyway, here's another Trump aggrandizing post. Look at the strength, the agility, as he brings back what Bill Maher calls the jacking off two guys at once dance move, mixed in with the 90 year old Bob Hope faux golf swing: Buried in there is some actual news: Trump (seeking Vegas votes) says he'll make tips tax-free. Oh, what a wonderful day, when waitresses will be officially paid $1.00/hour and everyone in the damn restaurant will be shilling for tips. I can't wait till the busboy hands me a QR code with his Venmo on it. Let's just make the whole damn economy tip based. Maybe the illegal Venezuelan with the squeegee will do that too. Americans love tips!

So, as I just said ... you guys don't even bother to read each other's posts. It's all about trolling someone or someones ... I suppose that means me. In which case it's working since I do actually read these reposted tweets some of the time, and I notice the lack of any original thought.

https://www.wsj.com/real-estate/commercial/the-unlikely-new-real-estate-darling-restaurants-5308a2f3?mod=hp_lead_pos7 Revealed preferences. Food services accounted for more than 19% of all retail leases last year, rising in recent years to the highest proportion for any category since data firm CoStar Group began tracking the statistic in 2007. The uptick reflects how Americans are spending more time and money at restaurants, from fine-dining hot spots to fast-casual chains. Low unemployment, rising wages, the ascent of “foodie culture” and millennials’ tendency to marry and have children later than previous generations have likely contributed to increased restaurant spending in recent years, analysts say. Single households are less likely to grocery shop than families. It is a far cry from the depths of the pandemic, when tens of thousands of restaurants permanently closed. Four years later, robust restaurant leasing has helped power the retail-real-estate sector to its strongest position in years. The average household spent nearly 53% of its food budget on food away from home last year, a record-high proportion and up 10 percentage points from 2003, according to the U.S. Agriculture Department’s Economic Research Service. Total restaurant sales have never been higher. They are on track to top $1.1 trillion this year, a 5.4% increase from 2023’s record-high level, according to the National Restaurant Association, an industry group. Money spent on dining out has been rising for years. In 2018, the average household spent slightly more money dining out for the first time since the USDA started tracking the statistics in 1997. Restaurant spending tanked in 2020 but quickly rebounded as establishments reopened and infection fears faded.

Strong ad. Nicely done.

The Iron Rule of Rightist Projection: party of the candidate literally born of a Holocaust Denier will be praised for vanquishing the "Nazis."

Lots and lots. All regular MJ users are presumptively banned from acquiring firearms.