Fast-food workers recently protested in support of a federal $15-an-hour minimum wage. The main argument is that employees believe they are living below the poverty line, which suggests an inability to provide a family with food, clothing, and shelter.

First off, employment in the fast-food industry, unless upper management, should be an entry-position and not a permanent job. Secondly, over-taxation has a lot to do with how much money is left on the employees’ paycheck by the time he or she gets it.

In New York State, the sales tax rate is now 4-percent and as high as 8.875-percent in certain municipalities. Meanwhile, New York City’s income tax rate is 8.82-percent.

On the Left Coast, California adds a mandatory local rate of one-percent that increases the total state sales and use tax base to 7.5-percent and depending on local municipalities, the total tax rate maybe as high as 10-percent.

Unfortunately, the poverty line is jus’ an imaginary boundary established by government bureaucrats to rationalize their existence. The average poor person, as defined by the government, has a living standard far higher than you’d imagine.

The federal government claims that a family of four making less than $24,250 is below the poverty line. Breaking it down as one parent working, that’s $11.66 per hour, which actually is above the federal minimum wage of $7.25.

Using New York’s tax rate, that $24,250 per year suffers a 36-percent tax burden. So it isn’t the so-called low wage – it’s the taxation.

However, the typical household defined as poor by the government also has a car, air conditioning, three televisions with cable or satellite programming, a DVD player, two or more smart phones, a personal computer with Internet service and a printer.

The family also has a game system, like an Xbox or a PlayStation. In the kitchen, there’s a refrigerator, oven and stove, microwave, dishwasher and a coffee maker, with other household conveniences that include a washer and dryer and ceiling fans.

In the end, poor families certainly struggle to make ends meet, but in most cases, they are struggling to pay for comforts as well as to put food on the table. Their living standards are far different from the images of dire deprivation promoted by activists and the mainstream media.

There is a difference between real poverty and modern conveniences – it’s the gap between want and need — but you have to be willing to be truthful about where that line’s drawn. Plus you need to know that a healthy reduction in taxation also means more money come payday.

You’re jus’ blowing smoke up my ass when you claim the Jewish refugee crisis of World War II is anything like the so-called Syrian exodus of today.

First, the Jews were not a terror threat and there is evidence that terrorists are hiding among Syrian refugees. Then there is the fact that the Jews were singled out for persecution by the Nazis and were not initially escaping a war.

Next, the Jews had nowhere to go as they didn’t have a homeland until after it was turned back over to them in 1948. On the other hand Syrian refugees have many places to go as there are 57 member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

Opposition to Jewish refugee crisis was “racial.” Shamefully, one of the main reasons immigration laws restricted Jewish entries into the U.S. was to promote the racial, i.e. genetic, superiority of the national “stock.”

However, any opposition to Syrian refugees is based on security concerns. So it’s not bigotry to oppose the Obama administration’s current policy.

There were communities in the U.S., even prior to our entry into World War II that were willing and able to resettle the Jewish refugees. It’s not clear the Arab-American or Muslim-American communities have similar abilities as a recent report to Congress revealed that 90-percent of recent Middle East refugees in the U.S. are on food stamps.

Finally, many of the Syrian “refugees” are neither Syrian, nor refugees. Many of those who have joined the “refugee” wave are from other countries in the Middle East, or even further afield. They pose as Syrian because they know they are likelier to be received sympathetically, given the civil war there.

In addition, a majority — are “migrants,” not “refugees” as defined by international law. The “migrants” include those who have found shelter elsewhere, but prefer the West’s opportunities.

Several hundred trees across Northern Nevada snapped under the weight of a wet snow during a recent storm. Now people want to know who is responsible for the clean up, and how long it will take.

This is a perfect example of what is wrong in the U.S. today as there was time that the responsible for the clean up would belong to us and we would act on it.

Neighbor would help neighbor and no one would have even thought to ask how long it would take a local government agency to get the job done. True, limbs caught on power lines and traffic lights would need government services or the electric company; but still a ‘city tree’ falls on your fence, destroying it, and you have to wait before you cut it up and repair your fence?

This goes against the grain of what built this nation. Sadly, the days of ‘rugged individualism,’ and people who would rather do for themselves than ask for it to be done by anyone else, are gone.

It’s been replaced by a lack of personal responsibility brought on by too many rules and regulations.

President Obama is dismissing the idea we should only take Christian refugees instead of Muslims: “That’s not American. That’s not who we are, We don’t have religious tests to our compassion.”

And still he continues to allow Muslims in while denying the majority of Christian’s entry into the U.S. So far, 2151 Syrian refugees have thus far been admitted to the United States — 2098 of them are Muslims, while only 53 are Christians.

The main problem is that most of the refugees being considered for U.S. resettlement are referred by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. Therefore, there’s no real way of telling who is a Islamic extremist and who isn’t – save for the 53 Christians.

Charlie Sheen appeared on TV to say he is HIV positive and has indeed been so for four years. Apparently has spent millions on drugs and prostitutes – and hush money to keep this news private, but today decided to share it with the entire world.

Sheen’s case is one of many that can be pointed too in the last several months – if not years – that prove our nation in the throes of moral decay.

Bruce Jenner being celebrated with awards and magazine covers because he paid for a bunch of surgery, took a bunch of hormones and shaved his legs. Students on college campuses complain about Halloween costumes and whine about free tuition.

Plus, we have presidential candidates that claim the biggest threat facing us is the weather. And I know a number of people who care more about winning some damned online game than they do about liberty.

No wonder the Islamists call us infidels and no wonder they believe they can easily defeat us. I mean jus’ look around at what our nation has become — the land of “participation trophies,” “safe places” and “gun-free zones.”

This year’s ‘holiday season’ red cups at Starbucks have stirred up critics who accuse the company of waging a war on Christmas. Starbucks said it removed the “symbols of the season,” in favor of a simple, two-toned red cup.

Starbucks vice president Jeffrey Fields said the company “wanted to usher in the holidays with a purity of design that welcomes all of our stories.”

A former pastor, Joshua Feuerstein — who calls himself a “social media personality,” is one of many who’ve taken exception. He criticizes Starbucks for removing. “…Christmas from their cups because they hate Jesus.”

Because I’m not a fan of Starbucks, I honestly don’t care what sort of cup design they use for this Christmas season, but unfortunately, if a coffee cup design defines the meaning of Christmas for you – then you’re practicing religion — not celebrating your faith.

And there is a rather simple solution — if you don’t like how Starbucks, or any other company for that matter, conducts business — don’t buy from them.

The media is in the throes of trying to destroy Dr. Ben Carson’s character. Progressive ‘news’ organizations like Politico wrote and published a hit piece challenging Carson’s like story and were eventually debunked, forcing the authors of such crap to fess up to the swindle.

Now they’re going after some religious iconography he has hanging on his living room wall.

It’s a painting the doctor with a ‘Black Jesus’ standing behind him. A lot of people have these sort of paintings and there’s nothing wrong with it as it depicts Carson’s personal belief that he’s being guided by the holy hand of Christ.

“The decor at Ben Carson’s home in Maryland shows that Donald Trump may not have the biggest ego among the Republican candidates. On display are awards, certificates, medals, and a painting of himself with Jesus,” decried a media outlet.

But this is also the same media that has allowed President Obama to slide on the same sort of trivial matters. Remember the one painted by Michael D’Antuono and titled, “The Truth,” featuring Obama with his arms outstretched and wearing a crown of thorns upon his head.

As one media outlet reported, “On his 100th day in office, President Obama will be ‘crowned’ in messianic imagery at New York City’s Union Square.”

It’s become more and more clear each day that the real problem in the U.S. is the Progressive media and their cult-of-personality idol worshiping actions.

Here are nine reasons President Obama is wrong when it comes to having denied the permit application on the Keystone XL Pipeline:

1.  Simply building the southern part — which didn’t need Obama’s approval — has already created 4,000 construction jobs.

2.  The pipeline would carry up to 830,000 barrels of oil from Canada to the Gulf Coast, where U.S. refineries are already equipped to handle the heavier crude.

3.  Many people across the U.S. live near a pipeline without even knowing about it.

4.  After the State Department concluded that the pipeline was environmentally safe, the decision to build Keystone XL should’ve been a business decision – not a government one.

5.  The Keystone XL Pipeline is a part of the larger Keystone Pipeline System.

6.  After multiple environmental reviews concluding that Keystone XL poses minimal environmental risk to soil, wetlands, water resources, vegetation, fish, and wildlife, the Obama administration still rejected the permit application.

7. The State Department’s final environmental impact statement concludes that the Canadian oil is coming out of the ground whether Keystone XL is built or not, so the difference in greenhouse gas emissions is tiny.

8.  Building and operating Keystone XL will result in real private-sector jobs that will grow the U.S. economy. This is much different from the president’s taxpayer-funded green jobs plan that merely siphons resources out of the market and forces pricier energy on the American public.

9.  A CNN poll in the beginning of 2015 found that 57 percent of Americans support the project, while only 28 percent oppose it.

There’s a reason behind this refusal — and it’s a certain bet that it’s not about the ‘environment’ as the administration would like us to think.

It was September 11, 1863, when Kara Mustafa led the Ottoman Empire against the Holy Roman Empire, where the surrounded the gates at Vienna, the gateway to Rome. The outcome was an extreme embarrassment to the empire, ending with Mustafa being beheaded by his own Sultan.

On November 14, 1914, the religious leader Sheikh-ul-Islam declared an Islamic holy war in Constantinople in the capitol of the Ottoman Empire on behalf of the Ottoman government. He compelled his Muslim followers to go to war against Britain, France, Russia, Serbia and Montenegro in World War I.

President Obama in a recent NBC interview praised himself for his work on racial justice and combating discrimination as his administration executes the nation’s largest mass release of federal prisoners. But, like always, there’s an underlying hypocrisy in the Progressive agenda.

As part of the movement the U.S. Sentencing Commission lowered maximum sentences for drug offenders and made it retroactive. The Obama administration started releasing the first wave of 6,000 drug convicts who will get out of jail early.

In all, about 50,000 prisoners are eligible for early release and federal authorities claim they’re all “non-violent” offenders whose sentences were ‘too long in’ the first place.

However, the feds went after commercial fisherman Anthony Joseph of New York, for “Fisheries Fraud” because he caught too many fluke, then lied about it. He has been sentenced to seven months in prison, a $603,000 fine and three years of supervised release following incarceration, according to the Department of Justice.

So much for ‘teaching a man to fish,’ when he can jus’ sell drugs to our kids and get a ‘get out of jail free,’ card.