Elected officials of California, you are idiots. You have no clue how amazon’s associates program works. Did you really think Amazon would go to work as your tax collector? The stupid Amazon tax you added to the new budget will not get you another cent in your coffers. In fact, I bet you will be worse off. Amazon will not collect a dime for you. Amazon’s associate program has already terminated their agreement with CA residents. California’s economy is already in the toilet and you just helped to destroy 25,000 small businesses that used to earn a living working with Amazon. Great job working to get the unemployment numbers down you jackasses. So not only will you not collect a dime in new sales tax revenue, you are going to lose out on the $152 million in state income taxes those affiliates paid last year. Bravo. Once again the government has demonstrated just how out of touch they are with reality. Did you miss that Amazon and Overstock have terminated their affiliates in every state that passed one of these laws? There is already a law on the books that requires CA residents to pay the sales tax even if an out of state online retailer doesn’t collect it. Exactly what resources of the state of California does Amazon use that they should be subject to CA taxes? I guess you passed this all in the interest of fairness to Main Street – if by Main Street you mean Walmart and Best Buy’s lobbyists and lawyers. WTF? You just screwed over 25,000 small businesses in CA to help out Walmart and Best Buy.
Category: politics
me: just what I always wanted to do – follow the dmv on f$%#ing twitter.
friend: seriously?
friend: wtf
me: yes.
me: and watch the dmv on youtube.
me: i would rather remove a testicle with a spork from KFC.
friend: but probably not the best thing they could do to fix their shit atm
me: holy f$%# – can i please like them on facebook.
friend: lol
me: 1,119 like this
me: all state employees probably.
friend: probably heh
me: what an exciting post – It is very dangerous & unlawful if you pass a vehicle on a two lane highway without sufficient clearance.
me: oh, and there is a link to the state vehicle code. doesn’t get much cooler than that.
SERIOUSLY – California is going to have a $25 billion shortfall and the state is paying someone to do social media for the DMV?! WTF! Of all the things the California DMV needs to do to improve its image, I really don’t think “connecting” is one of them.
I can’t make this stuff up – the dea is hiring ebonics translators. Apparently, Special Agent Michael Sanders said Tuesday “I think it’s a language form that DEA recognizes a need to have someone versed in to conduct investigations.” At least we know there is a job waiting for Michael Steele when his stint with the Republican Party ends. Or is this part of the government’s plan to keep unemployed rappers working? Can’t wait to see the look on their faces when they find out what skeet means.
Tax coffers running a little low – let’s raise the sales tax to 10% for 7 years. Nice move San Leandro city officials. Let’s waste time putting it on the ballot. Hopefully voters have a clue and vote against it.
At 10%, San Leandro will have the highest sales tax in the already expensive Bay Area. And let’s face it, San Leandro residents don’t have the highest incomes in the Bay Area. Who will it hurt? The poor and the businesses. Anyone with the means can and will shop in any of the neighboring cities or unincorporated areas and not pay the tax. (Don’t even get me started on metered parking – but that’s not just in San Leandro)
Let’s also raise sewage rates so we can spend tens of millions of dollars upgrading the sewage treatment plant.
And statewide – let’s see what else we can do to dig ourselves deeper. Raise bridge tolls? Take a tax advance on everyone’s future earnings (interest free I might add)? Those with the means will eventually get fed up and leave – and those with the means are the ones who will refill the empty coffers – only they will be gone. Then what will you do?
Oh, don’t you just love the Orwellian schemes dreamed up by politicians to monitor, track and control the masses? Most of which are easily thwarted by true criminals. Case in point, the UK’s £1.2 billion e-Borders scheme (that’s $1.78 billion for our American readers).
Under this new immigration scheme, every person leaving the United Kingdom will be forced to provide detailed personal information like their home and email addresses, phone numbers, passport information, credit card information and detailed travel itineraries. In order travel abroad (by any means – including swimming the English Channel), Britons will have to submit the information a day before departure. Fail to comply? Well then you will be facing a £5,000 fine or possible criminal prosecution for not obeying Big Brother.
Oh wait, it gets better! They plan to hold your information for 10 years. Judging by how well governments (in the US, UK or wherever) keep sensitive networks/information secure, we’ve got nothing to fear about this database being compromised.
As Chris Cuddy points out in an article at Travolution, “…this additional Stalinist hurdle to freedom to travel from the UK is not what ordinary travellers seek when planning a holiday abroad…”
What is worse, with all the money thrown at the misguided scheme, it still has serious holes. Like most things having to do with transportation safety, the effort is more for show than actual safety (the TSA’s 60% failure rate is a good example of all show and no substance). e-Borders is not even online and already problems are surfacing. Have dual passports (something fairly common in the UK)? Darn, they forgot to think about how to handle that. According to the Daily Telegraph, “An airline, under the ‘e-borders’ system, would be denied permission to carry the passenger home. Even if a British passport were presented.”
“But wait!” you say, “that is a minor inconvenience if we are all safer.”
“Not so fast,” I say, “that’s where you are wrong.”
Experts like Frank Gregory, professor of European Security at the University of Southampton, are already warning of holes in the e-Borders system. In his report, he states:
There are two key problems with the e-Borders programme. First, it will not reveal if the person matching the identity documents has created a false identity and, second, ‘watchlist’ scrutiny only works if a suspect person continues to use a ‘flagged’ name.
Unfortunately, the e-Borders ship left port long ago with Big Brother at the helm and Stalin as its navigator. The e-Borders scheme starts this year and will become more and more draconian through March 2014, when it is expected to be fully operational.