nicole

[Old Salty Marine @BamaSaltyMarine]

HISTORY LESSON ON YOUR SOCIAL SECURITY CARD:
Just in case some of you young whippersnappers (& some older ones) didn’t know this. It’s easy to check out, if you don’t believe it. Be sure and show it to your family and friends. They need a little history lesson on what’s what and it doesn’t matter whether you are Democrat or Republican. Facts are FACTS.

Up until the 1980's, Social Security cards expressly stated the number and card were not to be used for identification purposes.
Since nearly everyone in the United States now has a number, it became convenient to use it anyway and the "NOT FOR IDENTIFICATION" message was removed.

Franklin Roosevelt, a Democrat, introduced the Social Security (FICA) Program. His promises are in black, with updates in brackets.

1.) That participation in the Program would be completely voluntary [No longer voluntary],

2.) That the participants would only have to pay 1% of the first $1,400 of their annual Incomes into the Program [Now 7.65% on the first $90,000, and 15% on the first $90,000 if you’re self-employed],

3.) That the money the participants elected to put into the Program would be deductible from their income for tax purposes each year [No longer tax deductible]

4.) That the money the participants put into the independent ‘Trust Fund’ rather than into the general operating fund, and therefore, would only be used to fund the Social Security Retirement Program, and no other Government program [Under Johnson the money was moved to the General Fund and spent]

5.) That the annuity payments to the retirees would never be taxed as income [Under Clinton & Gore up to 85% of your Social Security can be taxed].

Since many of us have paid into FICA for years and are now receiving a Social Security check every month — and then finding that we are getting taxed on 85% of the money we paid to the Federal government to ‘put away’ — you may be interested in the following.

Q: Which Political Party took Social Security from the independent ‘Trust Fund’ and put it into the general fund so that Congress could spend it?

A: It was Lyndon Johnson and the democratically controlled House and Senate.

Q: Which Political Party eliminated the income tax deduction for Social Security (FICA) withholding?

A: The Democratic Party.

Q: Which Political Party started taxing Social Security annuities?

A: The Democratic Party, with Al Gore casting the ‘tie-breaking’ deciding vote as President of the Senate, while he was Vice President of the US

AND MY FAVORITE:

Q: Which Political Party decided to start giving annuity payments to immigrants?

A: That’s right! Jimmy Carter and the Democratic Party. Immigrants moved into this country, and at age 65, began to receive Social Security payments!

The Democratic Party gave these payments to them, even though they never paid a dime into it!

Now, after violating the original contract (FICA), the Democrats turn around and tell you that the Republicans want to take your Social Security away!

And the worst part about it is uninformed citizens believe it!

If enough people receive this, maybe a seed of awareness will be planted and maybe changes will evolve. Maybe not, though.

Some Democrats are awfully sure of what isn’t so but it’s worth a try.

How many people can YOU send this to?

[Ron Rule @ronrule]

Those numbers are only big due to scale — it doesn’t translate well into more worker pay.

Here’s an easy example. The Walmart CEO’s salary is $1.5M a year, plus ~$20M in ISO’s (stock).

Walmart employs 2.1 million people.

The workers individually only make around $30k. But collectively they make $63 billion a year, which is about 63,000 times what the CEO makes.

If the CEO gave his entire salary to the workers, each worker would only get an extra 71 cents a YEAR.

If the CEO gave his entire salary AND stock package to the workers, each worker would only get an extra $10.23 a year.

The problem isn’t executive pay. It never has been. The problem is that most workers don’t understand how expensive it is to run a business.

[Ron Rule @ronrule]

When my son got one of his first jobs with a manufacturing company, he complained how he was “doing all the work” making parts that sold for hundreds of dollars a piece while only making $20 an hour.

“It’s unfair to the workers!” he said.

“You sound like a liberal.” I said.

He made a classic mistake I see people make over and over. They only look at the hard cost of goods and final sale price. They don’t understand anything in between.

I pointed out that the company he worked for only makes an 8% profit. Their total profit on that $400 part was really only about $32.

“There’s no way.” he said. “The bar stock only costs about $8.”

To him, his argument was logical. Every day his hands turned $8 worth of aluminum bars into thousands of dollars of product, but he only got about $160 of that. That seemed unfair.

I asked him “What about all of the other people in the company? The ones who aren’t making the parts.”

He hadn’t thought about that.

I explained that every hand along that product’s journey from creation to the customer is another person who has to get paid. The engineers who designed and tested it, long before you made it. The person who packed it in a box. The person who made the manuals that go with it. The person who answers the phone when a customer has a problem later. The people who order the materials and maintain the machines and sweep the floors and clean the toilets after you leave. The accountants and lawyers and insurance companies who keep the business organized, compliant, and protected if the part you made fails.

All of those people are paid for from those parts you made. And all of them get their paychecks whether the parts are sold right away or not.

On top of that, there’s the cost of the facility itself. The building, heating and cooling it, and every piece of equipment inside it.

All of those costs are paid before the owner makes one cent.

“At the end of the day, you’re actually making more money from every unit you make than he is.“

He understood it after that.

Running a business is the hardest way to make money.

Roughly 90% of entrepreneurs will fail. Don’t get me wrong, the reward can be great if you’re one of the 10% that makes it, but that results in a confirmation bias. You only see the winners. You never heard about the 90% that failed before they made it.

You see the guy in the big office who looks like he doesn’t work as hard as you, but you never saw what it took to get there.

You never saw the times he went without a paycheck so he could make payroll. You never felt the stress of being denied necessary capital, or losing an important customer, or under-bidding on a contract and losing money on every unit. You’ve never felt the repercussions of making the wrong call.

If you mess up, one customer is marginally inconvenienced, and you can fix it with another $8 part. If HE messes up, you and everyone else have no job.

You can be the guy on top if you’re willing to take the risks they took and do the work they did to get there.

Or you can do your part and collect your paycheck while someone else worries about that stuff.

And that’s OK too, because the world needs both.

The beauty of capitalism is that you get to choose which one you want to be.

[Isaiah L. Carter 🇺🇸 @IsaiahLCarter]

THIS.

ALL OF THIS.

This might just be the greatest takedown of the fraud that is Bernie Sanders I've ever read.

[One Bad Dude @OneBadDude_]

If your candidate was forced through the primaries with ZERO votes, don’t talk to me about kings.

If your side has made multiple attempts on the presidents life, don’t talk to me about saving democracy.

If you don’t know what a woman is, don’t tell me to trust the science.

If you think that President Trump staged attacks on himself, don’t talk to me about conspiracy theories.

If you are boosted with Covid jabs, don’t talk to me about a cult.

If you’re trying to convince children to be uncomfortable in their own skin, don’t talk to me about brainwashing.

If you support abortion on demand, don’t talk to me about religion.

If you supported a vegetable as president, don’t talk to me about invoking the 25th amendment.

If you have armed security, don’t tell me the rest of us need gun control.

If you’re inviting illegals into our country by the millions, don’t tell me we don’t need secure borders and elections.

If you’re misappropriating billions of our tax dollars, don’t tell me not to worry about fraud.

If you burn our flag, don’t tell me how to run our country.

Enough is enough!

[Shawn Farash @Shawn_Farash]

Can someone on the Left tell me what rules we're playing by?

If Donald Trump saying "March peacefully and patriotically" on January 6th is "inciting a violent insurrection"...

Then what is it when Hakeem Jeffries calls for "Maximum Warfare everywhere all the time"?

Because if we're playing by the Left's rules, Hakeem Jeffries should be held legally responsible for the mass assassination attempt at the White House Correspondents Dinner.

Their rules. Not mine.

[Vince Langman @LangmanVince]

This photo was taken in the Oval Office after the attempted assassination last night!

This Iconic photo will be in history books 100 years from now!

[Alyse @mrs_alyse]

We witnessed the true character of a lot of men last night

Trump picked up Melania, who was crawling on the floor as he's rushed out of the venue

Hegseth and Kash stood guard over their wives

Stephen Miller covered his pregnant wife w his body

Some real toxic masculinity

[Eyal Yakoby @EYakoby]

Maher: “The president had the constitutional authority to direct the use of military force because he could reasonably determine that such use of force was in the national interest.”

Schiff: “Totally vague.”

Maher: “That’s from Obama about Libya.”

[Gunther Eagleman™ @GuntherEagleman]

💯💯💯

[Sassafrass84 @Sassafrass_84]

🤔

[Johnny Midnight ⚡️ @its_The_Dr]

One of the best explanations of Greed and How Capitalism is our only real escape from Poverty! Milton was Brilliant! Phil Donahue was more Philosophical, but when facts meet Philosophy Facts always win.

[Wall Street Apes @WallStreetApes]

Something has to be done about the propaganda mainstream media in America

This video goes over how the media positions articles about Democrats vs how they position the exact same stories about Donald Trump

You do not hate the media enough. How is this allowed to continue

[Camus @newstart_2024]

Jimmy Carr shared a brutally honest take on life without kids that will hit hard for anyone who's ever weighed the choice:

“Not having kids was like living life with a cheat code on the video game. Super easy. Low stakes. No real skin in the game.”

He continues:

Once you have children, your heart literally lives outside your body.

You worry about mortality differently — because now dying means saying goodbye to them.

Suddenly you're not playing on easy mode anymore. You're at the high-stakes table.

And his final word? “It’s very joyful.”

In 54 seconds he captures something profound:
The deepest fulfillment often comes from the highest risk — the one where you have everything to lose.

Parents: Does this perfectly describe the shift you felt?

Child-free: Does it change how you see the trade-off?

[Sassafrass84 @Sassafrass_84]

Bingo. 🎯

[Promethean Action @PrometheanActn]

🚨 NEW: While every talking head screams "Iraq 2.0," @barbaramboyd explains what they'll NEVER tell you — 118 years of British financial control over Iran, and why Trump just struck the last piece on the Empire's chessboard.