How much? "...[E]ven if Amazon's New York tax bill were just HALF of what it paid in Washington, then New York City would have been recouping more than 100% of its tax incentive EVERY YEAR."
NYC offered Amazon tax credits to the tune of $120 million per year. Amazon pays Washington state $250 million per year, and their taxes are lower than NY's taxes. So figure that even in Amazon owed NY only what it owes WA every year, that's still $130 million over and above the tax credit.
Then? "The company itself estimated that they it generate an average $500 million per year in tax revenue for New York City."
Using that number, we're looking at $370 million rather than $130 million. Now we're starting to talk about real money, aren't we?
And it turns out that NYC is running a $500 million budget deficit this year. Coincidentally, Amazon estimated it would generate $500 million in tax revenue for the city. Hmm....
Where is the victory that the leftists are crowing about? What advantage do they see in this situation? What does this fix? "Haha, we kept Amazon out!" And cost the city $500 million per year in tax revenue. Good going.
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Nancy Pelosi thinks this is clever. She says the next Democrat President will "declare a national emergency on guns."
As Denninger points out, there is a right to keep and bear arms; there is no right to enter the country. He says "unlawfully" but in fact there is no right to enter the country at all. Citizens of the country have the right to be here; noncitizens do not. At any time the country can tell noncitizens, "Get out," and they have to. They can be barred from entry at any time for any reason.
The distinction is tricky. It can be argued, "Well, if the country says no one can come in, then if they do, they're entering illegally." But it could be argued that as long as there is a legal process for entry, we must let someone in that follows that legal process--and that's what I'm talking about. While it is routine to grant entry to those holding visas, there is absolutely no legal right to entry. Entry to the US is a privilege if you are not a citizen.
So much for the constitutional basis for Pelosi's horseshit. But what about the rest of it?
Any President trying to make an end run around any constitutional right should be impeached, immediately, and removed from office--but as we see from the Civil War and Lincoln's suspension of habeus corpus, that doesn't happen.
What would happen? Denninger thinks "Civil War II" and I'd wager he's not far off. Only an idiot would try to disarm the American populace through brute force. But I do not have a lot of faith in Pelosi's intellect.
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Bernie Sanders, you're a dud.
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I'll go one better: why did his prior felony conviction not come up during the background check? Whenever you buy a gun from a dealer, you fill out a form, and they run a background check. The background check is supposed to flag people who are not eligible to purchase firearms.
Oh, but more laws and more restrictions will totally end gun crimes. Right?
* * *
I want one. Actually I want an "infinity dodecahedron" because the 12-sider has always been my favorite polyhedron die. Most cool.
* * *
Last night it felt cold and...quiet. When I went out to do my shopping, the air felt heavy, and sound seemed muffled. I figured it was going to snow, but it didn't.
Today I got up and saw snow on the ground, maybe as much as an inch of it.
That's fine. This winter has already been a lot more harsh than I expected.