Triumphs of Biden's first 100 days: Canadians to snap up US shares; menthol cigarettes to be banned; and so much more!

Last night, before a joint session of Congress, the fraudulently elected President of the Paranoid States of America mounted a campaign-style attack on Ronald Reagan, whom he seems to think he beat last November. He also gave himself an hour-long pat on the back for all the big announcements he's made in the first 100 days of his presidensity.

Sleepy Joe bragged about plans to spend over a TRILLION dollars -- raised by mortgaging America's future -- to get the economy moving again, so Americans can all enjoy a cookout on July 4th.** Part of the money has been earmarked for the purchase of new printing presses, as the existing ones are already showing the strain of printing so many banknotes and cheques of diminishing value. 

Value is measured by the worth of the once-mighty greenback against other currencies. In November of 2020 it took 75 American cents to buy one lousy Canadian dollar. This morning, if you want a "loonie", it'll cost you nearly 82 cents in real money. You'll find out next time you go to Niagara Falls!

As surely as day follows night, more reckless government spending is followed by higher taxes. Mr Biden-Harris seems very happy to "tax the rich". Unfortunately raising capital gains tax will hit the small investor [like me with my 100 shares of Tesla. Ed.] just as much as the vile Koch Bros who helped get Sleepy Joe elected.

What Mr Biden-Harris apparently doesn't realize is that his proposed hikes to corporate and capital-gains taxes could compel family-owned US companies to sell their businesses, creating opportunities for foreigners -- especially those greedy Canucks -- to make cross-border acquisitions. 

Sleepy Joe's alleged plan would reverse President Trump's 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which slashed the top corporate income tax rate from 35% to 21% . The Biden-Harris plan will raise the rate back up to 28%.

The levy on long-term capital gains will rise to 39.6%, up from the current 20%. The unintended (?) consequence will be family-owned enterprises cashing out before the Biden-Harris shit-hammer crashes down. Smart, eh?

But wait (as Vince Offer used to say), there's more! The Biden-Harris administration is set to alienate millions of Americans who voted for them -- voters of the coloured persuasion (aka BIPOCs) -- by banning the sale of menthol cigarettes!

The Food and Drug Administration says that 19.5 million Americans, most of them younger and, errr, darker, smoke menthol cigarettes.  Among black smokers, 85.8% smoke menthols, compared with 28.7% of smokers of paler complexion.

Right on cue, the SJWs -- the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Association of Blacks in Criminal Justice, etc etc -- warned that the move to ban menthol cigarettes "would disproportionately impact communities of color, result in criminalization of the market, and exacerbate mass incarceration," according to a letter sent this week to HHS Secretary and Chief Prosecutor of Nuns Xavier Becerra.

The ACLU and other groups claim the ban on menthol smokes has the potential to create "large underground, illegal markets.... In addition, underground cigarette sales would be a massive law enforcement problem for states, counties, and cities, since all states treat unlicensed sale of tobacco products as a crime – usually as a felony punishable by imprisonment."

The letter goes on to say that "in the end, tobacco policy will no longer be the responsibility of regulators regulating, but police policing." Do they mean that the police, who aren't allowed to arrest black rioters and looters, are going to feel the collars of POCs selling smokes on street corners? 

Oh yes, sez the ACLU. "'Our experience with alcohol, opioid, and cannabis prohibition teaches us that that is a policy disaster waiting to happen, with Black and other communities of color bearing the brunt." Well, at least no-one will be able to accuse Biden-Harris of being soft on crime!

Footnote: Even CNN's Anderson Cooper noticed that Mr Biden-Harris barely mentioned the little problem at America's southern border, and clearly has no clue about what to do about it. See "Axelrod: Biden 'Didn't Offer a Solution' for His 'Biggest Problem' at the U.S.-Mexico Border" (referencing remarks by David Axelrod, former advisor to the Prez), Breitbart News, 29/1/21.

**Another footnote: Please sit down while you look at this little graph, scraped from the Economist, and consider its implications for your future.