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Basic income is all surplus federal tax revenue acquired by the US above its expenditures. Would generate incentives to run a balanced budget one way or another and encourage reduction of other expenditures.

and

Basic income is set in combination with a moderately progressive income tax at a level where a set percentage of the populace gains money. For example, it could be set so that the median income breaks even, thus half the population gains and half loses income. Incentives here would be to increase median income relative to everything else since that would be the basis for the payouts.

Keyesians might want to tool things so that basic income drops in good times and increases in bad times.

The BBC has a story about a German schoolboy jailed for writing to the BBC.

Karl-Heinz Borchardt was 18 years old when he was arrested by the Stasi in East Germany for writing to the BBC. In communist East Germany, listening to a foreign broadcaster was a crime, and Borchardt had been listening to the BBC's Letters without Signatures on its German service.

Much to the ire of the East German regime, the BBC programme gave an extraordinary insight into the physical and emotional lives of a cross-section of GDR society for more than 25 years.

"It was like coming up for air," says Borchardt - a form of release for a young, curious mind locked in the suffocating atmosphere of the communist state.

The methods employed by the Stasi to track down "criminals" who wrote to the BBC were quite clever.

They took saliva samples from the licked envelopes to identify blood groups which they cross-checked with doctor's records. They traced fingerprints on the paper, sourced the ink and collated an extensive archive of handwriting samples.

They caught Borchardt by cross-referencing the handwriting on one of his letters with that on a piece of school homework that he'd handed in.

He spent eight months in prison before being sentenced to two years for "attempted subversive activities" in conjunction with an enemy broadcaster.

In a democracy, all votes should count equally. In our democracy, when voting for the president, they do not.

Because of the winner-take-all allocation of electoral votes, if you don’t vote for the candidate who wins your state, your vote counts for nothing. That violates the Constitution’s “one person, one vote” principle.

We plan to challenge this system in the courts. Join this fight for citizen equality.

Equal Votes

Or is it an "outside" job?

I have absolutely no problem with AC trolls. They are perfectly welcome. Some of my best friends are ACs. But the one hovering around me like a gnat lately just doesn't sound human, seems particularly fixated and bizarre. So I just thought I'd ask. Please don't take it as a complaint.

Does anybody really want to throw out good, educated and accomplished young people who have jobs, some serving in the military? Really!.....
4:28 AM - Sep 14, 2017

..They have been in our country for many years through no fault of their own - brought in by parents at young age. Plus BIG border security
4:35 AM - Sep 14, 2017

Gotta say; I agree with Trump, apparently.

Move along... Nothing to see here... Absolutely nothing at all.

The farce continues.

Chief champion of Brexit, Nigel Farage, very recently backed the German far-right AfD without a hint of irony. Suzanne Moore in the Guardian tells the bigger story.

Very recently tens of thousands of people in the UK marched to protest against Brexit.

Of course, if you're an EU citizen from one of the other 27 countries living and working in the UK, things are uncertain and uncomfortable.

“Everybody shrugs their shoulders and says ‘you’ll be all right, your husband’s British’. We’re fed up of hearing this. I don’t have a home to go back to. It’s not as if we’re teenagers going back to mum and dad, I’ve spent my whole adult life here. To tell us we have to be treated like criminals, have fingerprints, pass an English test, it’s insulting.

“This is an abuse of human rights and our family lives. Every day I am questioning do I want to remain in a country where the majority of British citizens are not speaking out for us?

“Why are they not on the street demonstrating? If this happened in France and there was such discrimination against British citizens, I would be out on the street.

Some of us have written letters, demonstrated, argued, donated to legal challenges etc. but there is more to be done. It's not over yet.

If Mrs May's government lasts into 2018 I'll be very surprised.

President Trump and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) have agreed to pursue a deal that would permanently remove the requirement that Congress repeatedly raise the debt ceiling, three people familiar with the decision said.

Trump, Schumer agree to pursue plan to repeal the debt ceiling

I'm used to Republicans only caring about the debt when a Democrat is in office but this is just wacky.

The Guardian reports that Nigel Farage, former leader of UKIP and Brexit campaigner will address a far-right rally in Berlin on Friday.

The South East England MEP will appear at the Spandau Citadel in the west of the German capital to talk about “developments in the European Union, Brexit, direct democracy” and “how to make the impossible possible”, according to AfD MEP Beatrix von Storch, who is hosting the event.

A granddaughter of Hitler’s finance minister, Lutz von Krosigk, von Storch is a leading member of the anti-immigrant party, which has realistic aspirations to enter Germany’s parliament for the first time in federal elections on 24 September.

Godwin! See what I did there?

Farage speaks highly of that Nice Mr Putin:

In the run-up to Britain’s EU membership vote in June 2016, Farage said the then-US president, Barack Obama, had behaved “disgracefully” by warning on the economic consequences of a leave vote, and praised the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, who, he said, “maintained his silence throughout the whole campaign”.

And, of course, he didn't have a good word for those lily-livered liberals' next choice either:

Two months later Farage appeared at a rally with Donald Trump, where he stated: “I wouldn’t vote for Hillary Clinton if you paid me.”

Never mind, they way things are going in North Korea we might all be put out of our misery sooner rather than later.

Here's one. Putin, Farage and Trump walk into a bar. The barman says to Putin, "What can I get for you and your friends?" Putin looks the barman in the eye and replies, "I will have little water to toast great nation of Russia. I never met these two before. I don't know them from Adam." The barman replies, "Your vodka is on the house."

I'm usually not much of a writer, but by a strange and incredible turn of fate, I have a lot of time on my hands now.

Just the other day, my boss (a petite brunette with perky breasts and a great ass) called me in to her office, telling me she wanted to have a discussion. I knew what that meant, since she was always walking by my desk shaking that sweet ass in front of me. especially after the look of lust she gave me the day before when I slapped it as she walked by.

So finally, after three weeks, I was finally going to get a taste of of that hot bitch!

I went into her office, closed the door and drew the venetian blinds that looked out into the bullpen where us peons sat.

She looked up and said, "Please sit down. I hope you don't mind if I record our interaction." Sweet! Now she wants to make porn with me, I started getting quite sexually aroused as she started the webcam.

I said, "You look so hot today baby! I've been looking forward to this from the moment I met you, you sexy little ho!"

She replied, "I understand. It's was inevitable, almost from the day you started working here. And finally the moment has come."

I got up and started opening my pants. She slid back from her desk as I dropped my pants and began pulling down my underwear. "I've been wanting to get between those sexy legs so bad!" I said, starting to breathe heavily.

She stopped me by saying, "This isn't the right place for this."

I agreed, "Let's go into the ladies room so I can bend you over the sink, you sexy slut!"

My boss had other ideas. She said, "I've reserved a conference room for us, so put your pants back on and let's go."

That sexy bitch didn't have to ask twice! The image of her spread-eagled on the conference table was making me so hot!

We exited her office and walked down the hall toward the large conference room adjacent to the HR department. I checked my phone to make sure I had enough free space to video the "coming" encounter, just like she wanted.

We entered the conference room and I was surprised to see two burly security guards already there. I said, "Wow, honey! All three of us at once? You do love the cock, don't you?"

My boss paled a little. Obviously, all her blood was going to her loins, in expectation of the fun to come.

"We're just waiting on Leslie now," my boss said, referring to the head of HR. Today really was my lucky day! I was going to get to fuck both of those hot babes!

"Woo-hoo!" I exclaimed as Leslie walked in, looking sexier than ever. I started unbuttoning my shirt, when the security guards grabbed me and forced me into a chair at one end of the conference table and stood over me.

I said, "Ooh! bondage games! I love those! let's see those sweet pussies, girls!"

The women sat down at the other end of the table and then the meeting took a turn I never expected.

As I said, I have a lot of time on my hands now. Which is good, because both of those hot bitches are definitely going to call me soon!