Surprise: NJ.com Editorial Board Is Against Treating Contractors As Employees

By William Teach October 3, 2022 – 6:45 am

I’ve been reading NJ.com since the early 2000’s. I’m from NJ a long time ago, they usually have lots of interesting reporting, they cover the Giants and Devils, and I used to love the forums, sports and politics. They’re very much a left wing paper. Overall, probably slightly less left than Pelosi and Schumer. But, hey, just like so many other Democrat companies, when Government starts raising their costs, they suddenly squeal and abandon those leftist principles

This fresh blow to newspapers — and our democracy — must be stopped | Editorial

This editorial is that rare piece that presents an unavoidable conflict of interest for us, since we in the dwindling press corps are not the observers this time; we are one of the players. But please, hear us out.

Because for local newspapers, this could be a matter of life and death. And for larger papers, like the Star-Ledger, the risk is further reductions in the already depleted coverage of local towns and school districts. Does any sane person believe that calling off the watchdogs would be good for New Jersey?

Wait, wait, Government instituting policies and requirements can have an adverse effect on companies? Huh

The solution wouldn’t cost taxpayers a dime. It would only require that the state allow the status quo to continue, as a bill pending in the Assembly would do. New York and California have already passed laws to protect newspapers in their states. New Jersey needs to follow that lead, as a pending bill would do, and it’s urgent.

The issue is the treatment of the men and women who deliver newspapers, usually for a few hours a day, early in the morning, typically earning about $300 a week. For nearly two centuries, and across the country, the job has been done by contractors who are not classified as employees of the newspapers.

But now the state Department of Labor is strictly enforcing a law that’s been on the books since the FDR era, upending tradition by ordering these workers to be treated as employees. That means newspapers, or the firms they hire to handle delivery, would have to pay taxes to cover benefits like unemployment and disability, just as they do for full-time employees. It would cost the Star-Ledger, already diminished by layoffs and buyouts, about $3 million a year.

You can easily dig through the archives, including the writings of the editorial board, to find that NJ.com has taken the side of the Democrats in all sorts of issues, such as Obamacare, raising taxes on businesses, and raising the minimum wage, not too mention all the COVID shutdowns and such. But, when it hits NJ.com in the wallet? No siree Bob!. We keep seeing this, like Starbucks being again unionizing stores. The NY Times and Amazon were against unions in their own workplaces. Plenty of examples of that.

Understand, this is not a simple story about heroes and villains. Many contract workers are happy to be independent players. And it’s impossible to draw a bright line between contractors and employees that fits every circumstance. Gray areas abound.

Interesting

N.J. legislators should do what Washington state just did for rideshare drivers | Opinion

The past month has been incredible for working people. Just this week, Starbucks workers in Boston voted to unionize two stores. This follows another victory just across the Hudson, where Amazon warehouse workers in Staten Island recently unionized after years of intense confrontation with the company.

As a driver with Lyft, one win that happened on the other side of the country still hits close to home. There in Washington state, rideshare drivers worked with Uber and Lyft, the local Teamsters union and democratically elected officials to pass a first-of-its-kind law providing them greater benefits and protections without jeopardizing their independence.

Granted, that’s not the editorial board, but, the paper was good with government forcing other companies to unionize, to treat contract labor as employees. Just, not their own company.

Read: Surprise: NJ.com Editorial Board Is Against Treating Contractors As Employees »

Posted in Liberal World, Wonky Media | 14 Comments | Trackback URL

AOC Seems Upset That Tents For Migrants Would Go Up In Her District

By William Teach October 2, 2022 – 8:56 pm

Bless her heart

The political pleasantries didn’t last long.

Immediately after appearing together in public for the first time Friday, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., took aim at Mayor Adams’ plan to erect a migrant tent camp in her district, charging that there’s a “better solution” to be had.

The progressive congresswoman, who’s had a simmering beef with the more moderate-minded mayor for months, offered the rebuke in a brief interview with the Daily News on the steps of City Hall following a press conference with Adams on an unrelated topic.

“I think we can get to a place with a better solution here,” Ocasio-Cortez said when asked about the tent facilities being built in the Bronx’s Orchard Beach parking lot to house upward of 1,000 Latin American migrants.

Ocasio-Cortez said she also ”very much“ sides with ”the sentiment” of Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson, who raised a number of concerns about the Orchard Beach site earlier this week, including poor transit access and susceptibility to flooding.

I’m sure she’s fine with the tents in other districts. Just another case of an open border liberal wanting all those illegals/migrants to be Somewhere Else. Someone Else’s Problem.

Read: AOC Seems Upset That Tents For Migrants Would Go Up In Her District »

Posted in Democrats, Illegal Immigration | 5 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach October 2, 2022 – 1:15 pm

…is a horrible fair using lots of energy, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is No Tricks Zone, with a post on Antifa in Berlin hunting “high energy users”

It’s Octoberfest week!

Read: If All You See… »

Posted in If All You See | 4 Comments | Trackback URL

Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup

By William Teach October 2, 2022 – 8:54 am

Patriotic Pinup Greg Hildebrandt

Happy Sunday! Another gorgeous day in the Once and Future Nation Of America. There’s a bit of Fall in the air, the squirrels are loving my neighbors bird feeder, and the Dodgers are simply rolling. This pinup is by Greg Hildebrandt, with a wee bit of help.

What is happening in Ye Olde Blogosphere? The Fine 15

  1. Climate Depot has a reality check on hurricanes as climate change
  2. Cold Fury says to know your role, prole
  3. Da Techguy’s Blog says LGBT voters would benefit from less government
  4. Dissecting Leftism notes the FDA is withholding autopsy results from people who died from COVID
  5. Geller Report covers the Army’s first open gender confused charged in plot to give US info to Russia
  6. Gen Z Conservative highlights Kari Lake firing back at Excitable Liz Cheney
  7. IOTW Report covers the lawsuits against Biden’s loan forgiveness
  8. Jihad Watch notes the Squad remaining silent on the Iran protests
  9. Legal Insurrection laughs at Harvard saying Trump won in 2016 due to memes
  10. Moonbattery discusses Planned Parenthood pushing insane sex education
  11. Pacific Pundit features Kamala Harris saying we have an alliance with North Korea
  12. Powerline wonders how corrupt the FBI is
  13. White House Dossier covers DHS playing nanny with it’s employees
  14. The First Street Journal notes our betters wanting you to charge your EV at work, not home
  15. And last, but, not least, The Gateway Pundit features Kamala saying disaster relief should be based on race

As always, the full set of pinups can be seen in the Patriotic Pinup category, or over at my Gallery page (nope, that’s gone, the newest Apache killed access, and the program hasn’t been upgraded since 2014). While we are on pinups, since it is that time of year, have you gotten your Pinups for Vets calendar yet? And don’t forget to check out what I declare to be our War on Women Rule 5 and linky luv posts and things that interest me. I’ve also mostly alphabetized them, makes it easier scrolling the feedreader

Don’t forget to check out all the other great material all the linked blogs have!

Anyone else have a link or hotty-fest going on? Let me know so I can add you to the list. And do you have a favorite blog you can recommend be added to the feedreader?

Two great sites for getting news links are Liberty Daily and Whatafinger.

Read: Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup »

Posted in Patriotic Pinup | 9 Comments | Trackback URL

People’s Republik Of California Is Now A Sanctuary For Child Gender Transition, Mainstreaming Child Abuse

By William Teach October 2, 2022 – 7:00 am

This is a recent poll of Californians

38% say they are having a serious hardship with the current economy, 33% say hardship, but, not serious, and 29% say no hardship. So, of course, Newsom and the General Assembly are working on those concerns, making child abuse legal

Newsom Signs Bill Making California ‘Sanctuary’ for Child Gender Transition

On Thursday, California governor Gavin Newsom signed legislation that would facilitate child gender-transition tourism from other states.

The bill, spearheaded by Democratic state senator Scott Wiener, aims to make California a “sanctuary state” for out-of-state children to receive so-called gender-affirming surgery and hormone therapy without the knowledge or consent of their parents. The bill includes a number of provisions designed to insulate residents of red states that have banned child gender-transition from prosecution.

It prohibits California courts and lawyers from enforcing subpoenas imposed by other states demanding that healthcare providers disclose when they perform such medical procedures on minors.

Wiener has been behind multiple lawmaking efforts in the state to undermine parental rights. In January, he pitched a bill that would allow minors to be vaccinated without parental permission.

Under the gender-transition law, California courts will have “temporary emergency jurisdiction” over any child and the person who accompanied the child to California to obtain the invasive medical interventions.

This is beyond insane, that the state is going to take the place of the parents and help a child, who really doesn’t know any better, do terrible things to their body that would be extremely difficult to reverse, and block parents from knowing and interceding. An unrelated person could transport a minor without parental consent across state borders. Sadly, there cannot be a federal lawsuit until a child’s life is destroyed, most likely.

You can bet that even many Democrats will be against this, and will turn many against Democrats. It’s pure insanity.

Read: People’s Republik Of California Is Now A Sanctuary For Child Gender Transition, Mainstreaming Child Abuse »

Posted in Democrats, Unhinged Tools | 5 Comments | Trackback URL

Bill Gates Not A Big Fan Of Telling People To Eat Bugs To Stop Climate Apocalypse

By William Teach October 1, 2022 – 3:00 pm

Well, of course not, because he’s rich, and he, like most Warmists, has no intention of giving up his modern lifestyle

Bill Gates says telling people to stop eating meat and buying big houses will never solve climate change

climate change joke

Climate change will never be solved by asking or expecting others to live greener lifestyles, according to Bill Gates.

Speaking on Thursday’s episode of Bloomberg’s Zero podcast, Gates said expectations that people were going to “utterly change their lifestyle because of concerns about climate” were “unrealistic.”

“You can have a cultural revolution where you’re trying to throw everything up, you can create a North Korean–type situation where the state’s in control,” he said. “Other than immense central authority to have people just obey, I think the collective action problem is just completely not solvable.”

Although Gates has a long history of working to alleviate the effects of climate change, the Microsoft cofounder stressed in Thursday’s episode of Zero that “not that many people are prepared to be worse off because of climate requirements.”

“Anyone who says that we will tell people to stop eating meat, or stop wanting to have a nice house, and we’ll just basically change human desires, I think that that’s too difficult,” he said on Thursday. “You can make a case for it. But I don’t think it’s realistic for that to play an absolutely central role.”

So, what’s the solution? Because everything coming from the Cult of Climastrology is about government forcing people to act in certain ways

Gates, whose foundations have invested hundreds of millions in climate initiatives, said last year that so-called Green Premiums—which offer people the chance to pay more to do or consume the same things without the emissions—could be a viable solution to reducing emissions without demanding people rethink their consumption habits.

So, paying fees and taxes? Where do they go?

The billionaire philanthropist, who said he pays $9 million a year to counteract his carbon footprint, told podcast host Akshat Rathi that a better solution is to invest in green innovations—but he noted that there are various other important social issues competing for funding.

Which requires lots of taxes. It’s really no wonder a very rich guy wants to pretend to Do Something by purchasing carbon offsets so he can jet around the world, eh?

Read: Bill Gates Not A Big Fan Of Telling People To Eat Bugs To Stop Climate Apocalypse »

Posted in Climahypocrites, Global Warming | 6 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach October 1, 2022 – 1:00 pm

…is a sea that will soon rise dozens of feet, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Chicks On the Right, with a post noting that some will bow to government no matter what.

Read: If All You See… »

Posted in If All You See | 2 Comments | Trackback URL

Small Online Sellers Should Get Ready For Biden’s Taxation

By William Teach October 1, 2022 – 10:30 am

Those 87,000 new IRS employees won’t be doing anything, right? (non-paywalled Yahoo story here)

Did You Sell an Old Desk Online? You May Receive a Tax Form.

It’s not unusual for anyone with an old desk or bicycle that’s in decent condition but no longer needed to sell it online and make some extra cash.

But because of a change in tax law, these small-time online sellers might soon receive a tax form that few have seen before, a 1099-K. The change took effect for 2022 and might be confusing, experts say, possibly leading some people to pay taxes that they don’t owe.

Millions of people could receive the forms early next year, said Christopher Walters, CEO of Blucora, the parent company of TaxAct do-it-yourself tax software. “A lot of people are likely to be surprised,” he said.

What’s going on? In 2021, as part of the American Rescue Plan, Congress changed the rules for how online marketplaces and payment services must report transactions. The aim was to better track gig economy income that wasn’t reported to the IRS.

Yes, they will be surprised. Any who voted for Biden and Democrats need to shut up and take it. This is the result of your vote. Put on a big smile and pay it

Before this year, online companies that process payments — including marketplaces like eBay and Poshmark and payment services like PayPal and Venmo — were required to send 1099-Ks only to sellers who exceeded 200 transactions and $20,000 in income annually. That threshold captured sellers running businesses, while excluding most people who were merely cleaning out their closets.

But this year, the income threshold dropped to $600, with no minimum number of transactions. If you received $600 or more for the sale of goods or services, you may receive a 1099-K in early 2023 — even if you are just an occasional online seller of used household items or clothing.

Remember, Biden voters, big smile!

Casual users of online platforms may receive the forms even if the payments don’t reflect taxable income, said Andrew Lautz, director of federal policy with the conservative National Taxpayers Union, which supports a higher reporting threshold. Used items generally don’t result in taxable income if they are resold for less than what the seller originally paid, he said.

Say you sold a used piano on eBay for $1,000, but you paid $2,500 when you bought it new. “You don’t owe taxes,” Lautz said.

Under the new rule, however, eBay will send both you and the IRS a Form 1099-K, showing you were paid $1,000. The company knows nothing about your initial purchase; it’s up to you to document the original price to show that no tax is owed. Taxpayers with normally simple tax profiles “may not know how to report this transaction” on their income tax return, the Congressional Research Service noted in a report.

Say it it with me, big smiles!

The change is not meant to apply to people who are receiving payments as gifts or as reimbursements from friends after splitting the cost of a restaurant meal, said Erin Collins, the national taxpayer advocate, who heads an agency within the IRS that assists taxpayers. But some people could mistakenly receive forms anyway — say, if they get payments mislabeled as business transactions rather than “friends and family” payments, she said.

“The change is going to cause confusion,” Collins said.

Right, and it will be so easy to get it resolved, even as the IRS adds all those employees, right? It will probably be easier to just pay.

Read: Small Online Sellers Should Get Ready For Biden’s Taxation »

Posted in Democrats, Joe Biden, Taxation | 21 Comments | Trackback URL

Who’s Up For A Lecture On ‘Climate Change’ While Getting A Haircut?

By William Teach October 1, 2022 – 7:15 am

To be honest, I don’t want to talk about anything while getting a haircut. Just get it done?

This hairdresser gives lessons on how to discuss climate change with clients

As the effects of climate change have become more serious, many people without much political or financial influence have asked themselves what they can do to address the situation.

Paloma Rose Garcia, who owns a hair salon in Sydney, Australia, was one such person. What she discovered was that merely talking about global warming with customers could have a positive effect — and that realization has led her to create climate change education and communication workshops for others in her profession.

“As I was on my own personal journey with climate and understanding more about climate change and the effects that it’s having all around us, it just became a conversation that came up with guests,” Garcia told What On Earth host Laura Lynch.

You know one thing I really loathe? This whole “journey” thing. People keep using it, it shows up in commercials, and it’s just very, very silly. Perhaps it’s just me

“It can start off as something very small. It’s as simple as, ‘Oh my god, isn’t this weather just crazy? It’s really sad to see the effects of climate change.’ It’s a simple little comment or remark like that that can turn into a bigger conversation,” Garcia said.

My response would be “so, what kind of car do you drive? Oh, it’s a fossil fueled one? Huh.” And that tip would be going way down

As a member of Sustainable Salons Australia, she’s making every effort to minimize her salon’s footprint, which includes reducing water consumption and using a power supplier that provides emissions-free electricity.

Her positive interactions with customers spurred her to encourage the hairdressers employed in her salon to have similar conversations. Since then, she’s run three climate workshops, with hundreds of hairdressers.

Obviously, the reporter failed to delve deep into how much that carbon footprint has come down, what she and the others are actually doing, and if they’ve given up their own use of fossil fuels.

Read: Who’s Up For A Lecture On ‘Climate Change’ While Getting A Haircut? »

Posted in AGW Idiocy, Global Warming | 23 Comments | Trackback URL

LGN: Pelosi Wants Red States To Let Illegals To Stay To Pick Crops

By William Teach October 1, 2022 – 7:00 am

One would think this is satire from the Onion or Babylon Bee. Nope

Nancy Pelosi Argues Red States Should Let Illegal Immigrants Stay to ‘Pick the Crops’

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Friday that Republican governors should welcome the influx of migrants coming across the southern border because they can “pick the crops,” in their states.

“We have a shortage of workers in our country, and you see even in Florida, some of the farmers and the growers are saying, ‘Why are you shipping these immigrants up north? We need them to pick the crops down here,’” she said at a press briefing.

Her comments came as a response the transportation of migrants to New York City, Washington D.C., and other localities that have touted themselves as sanctuaries for illegal immigrants by Republican governors such as Texas’s Greg Abbott, and Florida’s Ron DeSantis.

Dropping a busload off near Nancy’s homes in D.C. and San Francisco should be on the cards of Abbott and DeSantis. Or, hey, how about at Nancy’s winery in St. Helena?

“We have a responsibility to secure our border,” Pelosi said. “We also have a responsibility to recognize the importance of newcomers to our nation. Right now, the best thing we can do for our economy is to have comprehensive immigration reform.”

“Our nation is great because we are a nation of immigrants — but don’t take it from me, listen to Ronald Reagan. When I quote Ronald Reagan to my Republican colleagues, he doesn’t get any applause. Can you imagine that?” she asked.

Sure, they can come legally. We can provide work permits, and, when those expire, they leave. The low skill permits should be expanded, for sure. Here illegally? Deported immediately.

Read: LGN: Pelosi Wants Red States To Let Illegals To Stay To Pick Crops »

Posted in Democrats, Illegal Immigration, Queen Nancy | 29 Comments | Trackback URL
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