Salem Snow is a social worker running for Congress in Philadelphia as a Democrat. He’s a Black Lives Matter fan, and describes himself as a “Leftist” and “aggressively pro-worker.” Of course he includes his pronouns in his Twitter profile. That’s all dumb enough, but he also tweeted this:
You watch: he’ll probably get elected. Is this a great country, or what?
Incidentally, it’s unethical to look that smug in a photo when you write something as stupid as that tweet.
Ethics Alarms 
Over half the country thinks the same thing.
Easily.
Worse than that–is true for about half the country’s eligible voters (at least via federal income tax).
Food comes from the grocery store.
Water comes from the faucet.
Electricity comes from the outlet.
Gas comes from the pump, though apparently there are fossil fuels involved.
Internet comes from the router.
Money comes from the government.
I firmly believe that significant portion of our country’s population has no deeper understanding of where things come from than the statements above.
The Inflation Reduction Act has reduced inflation and caused prosperity.
That may not be a COTD, but it’s certainly my Twitter Response of the Day.
Way to go!!
Many people asked him the same question, and his answer was, ‘They print it’. My god…is he for real?
Yup.
As we all know…
Yes, but the government dollars don’t come from 100% of the people.
From Salem’s campaign’s web page:
“Who is Salem?
Salem is a Kensington-based millennial activist running for Pennsylvania’s 2nd Congressional district. He lives in Philly with his life partner, Zane, and his hairless cat, Chicken.
Salem credits his political activism to growing up in poverty, growing up LGBTQ+, and the Occupy protests in 2011. As a volunteer, he worked on the presidential campaigns of Bernie Sanders and Barack Obama.
Alongside local organizations, Salem has co-organized and participated in direct actions in his community, including protests for Medicare For All, housing rights, and racial justice. Most recently, Salem has been working on housing justice projects and food distribution for low-income and high risk residents.
In addition to a history of activism and deep ties to the local community, Salem has earned a reputation as an unflinching firebrand in Philadelphia with his willingness to disrupt the status quo. He’s loudly advocated for justice for oppressed communities and the working class, and supports the policies to back it up. Salem will continue to fight for a system that benefits all of us – not just the 1%.
Join Salem in the fight for justice and equality.
Our campaign takes no money from corporations or the fossil fuel industry – we are 100% grassroots. We believe in transparency, honesty, and authentic representation.”
I’ve noticed the site has little else on it. The “Policies” button and the buttons to his social media accounts don’t work. It’s too early to submit nominations for PA elections, but I’ve got half a mind to go check for Salem Snow’s name after the submission deadline passes. I’m 60% sure that this guy’s just a troll looking to make a quick buck off “donations”.
I do understand where this mindset comes from though. For my entire lifetime, when the government spends more than it takes in in tax, it has borrowed. Maintaining the debt has just become a line item on a balance sheet that just gets redder and redder, and there is no tie in to our pocket book. Frankly, I can’t make sense of why Democrats even pay lip service to the debt without getting conspiratorial. Why do we bother increasing taxes every time they want to trot out some new and exciting bit of largesse? Why not just let the debt balloon? It’s what we’ve always done. It’s a fake number. It’s a social construction. If you don’t care about how big the debt is because the debt isn’t a real number to you, why bother with taxation at all?
They’re damn near saying this out loud now, and I think it’s only going to get worse as younger generations make their way up the ranks. So either they’re increasing taxes out of some kind of carry over nostalgia for when we at least tried, or they’re purposefully trying to impoverish people further.
And frankly, I don’t think the latter is completely insane. Up here in Canada, for 2015, they passed a budget that was supposed to make the rich pay their fair share. Up until that point, there had been 5 tax brackets: 0%, 15%, 22%, 26%, and 29%. This budget changed that to 0%, 15%, 20.5%, 26%, 29%, and 33%, with the additional 4% coming from anyone who makes more than $200,000. Now this seemed like a great idea. Problem is that only about 2% of Canada makes more than $200,000. In fact, in order to be in the top 10% of income earners, you only have to make $100,000*. Meanwhile, fully half of Canadian earners were in the bracket that went from 22% to 20.5%.
Take a guess what that meant for the tax base?
Mathematically, if that all that happened, the feds would be out.
What happened in reality?
We paid less in income tax, but tax revenues were up in fiscal 2015.
How do you explain that?
Double digit increases to tobacco and alcohol taxes. A 1500% increase in vape taxes. Changes to the way school tax rebates are paid out. New fuel taxes. The list went on and on… Canadians were nickel and dimed out of every bit of income tax we “saved” and then some. And you tell me… Who do you think is more disproportionately hurt by taxes on alcohol, smokes, vapes and gas?
It’s like the point is to keep the poor poor.
(*This actually surprised the hell out of me – https://www.statista.com/statistics/484838/income-distribution-in-canada-by-income-level/)
I run into this all the time during tax season. The state typically takes longer to issue refunds than the federal government and when people wonder why, I have to tell them: The state has this quaint concept that before you write a check, you have to have money in the bank. The feds can just make it up out of thin air.
AOC has said out loud that all congress has to do is print more money. She’s the future.
Debt goes up, interest goes up. Taxes go up to cover the interest.
So, all you commenters are saying, “Salem has never worked a day in his life, and he sees “Congress as his everlasting meal ticket,” compliments of the Government who will sign his paychecks. What a gig! God help us.
No, I believe the majority of the comments so far are pointing out that a superficial understanding of the source of money is a severe problem. People working hard in their activism, which I no doubt believe Salem is doing, are doomed to create problems greater than the ones they are trying to solve when they don’t understand fundamentals like that.
I think this goes to the heart of the issue: the popular understanding of activism is very different from real work. It seems to consist of making complaints and demands, until somebody in a position of responsibility actually fixes the problem. It’s a remarkably childlike view of problem-solving, with government cast in the role of the parent.
The government as parent. Hammer meet head of nail. This is why government is trying to basically disempower parents.
Maybe not the first part, but yeah, Congress is as often as not the ultimate do-nothing gig. Cory Booker busted his butt and tried to act like a hero when he was mayor of Newark. Since he made it to the Senate he has done very little, except stare at President Trump during SOTU like he wanted to rip his head off and call himself Spartacus. Oh, and then there was that campaign for president, which lasted about as long as a fart in a hurricane.
I think you might have missed the point. None of his voters pay taxes. Therefore, he is correct that the money would not come from their wallet. The money in their wallet, like reparations, come from taxpayers. Once over half the voters don’t pay taxes (like now), they get to vote themselves money from taxpayers.
The stupid, it buurrnnsssss….
Honestly I wonder how many of the younger “politicians” are auditioned like AOC was. Seems like they aren’t even trying anymore. Too many 60/70s Sci fi dystopia’s are becoming reality. I ain’t old enough for that. I have children.
There is no Sanctuary!
Bolshies were strong “pro worker” but forgot to rally Russia’s farmers and so they starved. Salem Snow, a junior clown, cute as a Teen Vogue ingenue, genderly dysphoric, presciently projected as a top-shelf, to his mind sans parallele, incompetent, would endorse socialism and the sham that BLM is .. after what the world now knows? Yikes.
Right Jack, could it get anymore flat out stupid?! And the photo? But Jack, had you observed the art of brevity, you needn’t have written anything. It told Snow’s silly ass story all by itself.