In line with its objectives to reawaken the consciousness of tax payers, the Anambra State Internal Revenue Service (AiRS) recently embarked on tax education with a view to boosting the state internally generated revenue through voluntary tax payment. OKECHUKWU ONUEGBU reports.

There is no doubt that tax is one major medium through which governments all over the world generate revenue for their day-to-day activities including prompt payment of workers salaries and provisions of basic amenities to the entire populace. Therefore, Nigeria is not an exception.Likewise, the constitution of the country, Federal Inland Revenue Service (Establishment) Act 2007, the Tax Administration(Self Assessment) Regulations 2011, the Company Income Tax Act 2007, the Personal Income Tax Act 2011, the Petroleum Profit Tax Act 2007, the Value Added Tax Act 2007, among others, uphold taxations with reasons and procedures. That is why civil servants and public servants and workers at private sectors have theirs deducted from their monthly emoluments in what is known as Pay-As-You-earn (PAYEE).

Constraints to tax payment

But available records show that citizens especially those in non-formal sector such as barbing, hairdressing, taxi business, etc. have little or zero compliance to tax payment probably due to lack of tax education and ignorance.In Anambra state specifically, Mrs Sylvia Tochukwu-Ngige, the deputy director/head, Taxpayer Education and Enlightenment Team (TEET) of Anambra State Internal Revenue Service (AIRS) believes that low level of tax awareness in the state is responsible for poor compliance in tax payment among the citizenry. The enlightenment campaignTo bridge this gap, AIRS in partnership with Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN) and Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) last week embarked on a week public enlightenment campaign entitled Anambra 2020 Tax Awareness Week under the theme: Voluntary Compliance to Tax Payment.The exercise, which was aimed at sensitising the citizenry on the whole process of taxation and why they should pay, featured other activities like breakfast meeting with stakeholders in tax administration including the civil societies and media, road show, visitation and engagements of people across the 21 local government areas with the aim of intimating the people about filling of Tax Returns, Anambra Revenue Stamps, Anambra State Social Identity (ANSSID) number, Whitholding Tax, Capital Gain Tax, Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE), Direct Assessment, among others.

Stakeholders speak

Speaking at the occasion, the president of CITN, Dame Gladys Simplice, said tax is the civic responsibility of every Nigerian to comply with and backed by law. She said, Whatever we are enjoying today are provided by the government. Have you asked yourself how the road youre driving on were constructed? The government was able to carryon those projects through tax.Simplice, who inaugurated a District Society of the Institute at Onitsha, equally charged the government not to relent in its duty of providing services to the populace.Chronicling the challenges and prospects of taxation of the informal sector, the chairman/chief executive of AiRS, Dr David Nzekwu revealed that there were an estimated 1.2 million people trading in the state but only 7,150 of them pay tax via Direct Tax. He identified non keeping of proper records by most businesses operating in the informal sector as the biggest challenge. According to him, unavailability of data makes it difficult for an independent party to accurately evaluate the financial position of the businesses in order to determine the amount of tax payable.Tax administrators face major operational difficulties in trying to tax informal sector due to its transient in nature of operations, lack of proper book keeping and the large number of unregistered businesses. However, the informal sector tax payers are able to pay taxes when they are assured of tangible benefits and where there is an effective institutional mechanism for enrolment and administration. The most straight-forward administrative strategy for improving informal sector taxation is simply to reorganise tax administration so as to strengthen monitoring and provide more focused incentives for administrators to target at the informal sector, Nzekwu added.

He, however, disclosed that the state has created an avenue for effective capturing of tax payers in both formal and informal sectors via Anambra Social Service Identity Number (ANSSID), a unique identification number for every transaction with the state government, which according to him, has captured over 300,000 tax payers, even as the state has started deploying Community Revenue Officers (CROs) charged to effectively relate with tax payers across 181 communities in the state. But Professor E Nwadialor, who spoke on Tax Education: Stakeholders Engagement, urged more engagement and continuous sensitisation of the populace on why they must pay tax and what had been achieved with the tax already paid. He argued that majority would be inspired to fulfill the civic responsibility when the government improves on welfare especially on infrastructural development.People need to know what tax is all about and the type of tax they need to pay. The AIRS and FIRS should not relent in educating the tax payers on tax laws why they must pay, who to pay to and how to pay. They should see them as those not knowledgeable about tax and should be educated to comply. You dont need to employ force. Identify their critical stakeholders and educate and motivate them to pay tax. The government should also provide for their plights; good road network, electricity and others. This would inspire them to comply, Nwadialor echoed.

Another speaker, Prince Ikpo Okereke, while speaking on Managing Self-Assessment and Voluntary Compliance in a Growing Tax System, advocated for what he termed self assessment method and voluntary tax compliance, as according to him, they were essential ingredients for effective and efficient tax administration and by extension, the realisation of government revenue objectives.

Okereke emphasised that, Self assessment enhances voluntary compliance and the net effect would be increased revenue generation, decrease in compliance cost, a more satisfied tax payer and better nation. When people voluntarily carry out an action, the resultant effect is that it would be cheaper and easier and at the same time likely to yield more satisfaction to all the stakeholders.Two major ways of achieving such a win-win situation is the term self assessment in the context of taxation refers to the responsibility bestowed on the individual taxpayer to compute his tax liabilities and make the tax returns accordingly to the relevant tax authority. The FIRS circular- Understanding Self-Assessment, the term self-assessment was described as a method whereby a tax payer is required to correctly compute own tax liability, properly complete the tax return, pay the self-assessed tax and submit the tax returns together with the accompanying documents on or before the due date according to the relevant tax law.To achieve this, the scholar listed procedures to achieving it as tax payer education, equity and fairness in treating tax payers, impartial and speedy judicial process, simplicity of tax laws, efficient tax payer services, effective tax payer complaint management procedure, tax incentives accountability and transparency and low compliance cost.But Prince Chris Azor, the chairman, Anambra Civil Society Network, urged the government and her agencies to do more in tax administration and management as according to him, the task for tax administrators is majorly to drag more big businesses into the tax net rather than focusing mainly on the informal sector, especially, the micro and small businesses.Azor maintained that, Again and more importantly, sensitisation, enlightenment is very key and imperative. There is need for partnerships with the civil society, the media and all citizens/stakeholders. Citizens should know why they pay taxes, who are authorised to collect and what their taxes do for them (dividends) in terms of development. There must be referrals and feed-back mechanisms to engender buy-in and ownership. Authorities must eschew all forms of double/multiple taxation and malpractices in collection, transparency and accountability.

Link:
Taking tax awareness campaign to the grass roots in Anambra - Blueprint newspapers Limited

With the 2020 Census beginning in just a few weeks, hundreds of workers are still needed in Marion County.

Census officials said that just over 900 short-term, part-time workers are needed for the job, and only about 400 of those positions having been filled as of press time. Dreama Pritt, media specialist for the Census Bureau in West Virginia, said the county still has a great need in that area.

Marion County is one of the counties where we need a few more applications, so were giving people the opportunity to do that, Pritt said. Its a great part-time job with flexible hours. You get paid mileage, and here in Marion County, you get paid $17 per hour, so thats a pretty good deal.

The bureau held a hiring event at the Marion County Board of Education last week in hopes to raise the number of workers, although many more are still needed.

For the first time ever, citizens can now complete their census forms online or over the phone, but the need for door-to-door workers is as important as ever, according to Brett White, executive director of the United Way of Marion and Taylor Counties.

Without the people being able to go door-to-door, it leaves a huge gap in the census, White said. It starts with the people who fill it out online and the people who return it through the mail. But for every person who didnt do it through one of those two, we have to go visit their homes. Thats why the numerators become such a crucial part of it. They have to go visit every home that hasnt filled out the form to try to keep our numbers accurate and counted.

Pritt said taking part in the census, which takes place nationwide at the start of every decade, is an important part of ones responsibilities as an American citizen, and the numbers mean much more than most people realize.

The census is mandated by the Constitution, which says that every 10 years, we will count every person who lives in the United States, Pritt said.

It affects so many things. Every part of your life is touched by census numbers from roads and schools and hospitals to nonprofit grants and political redistricting and the local, state and federal levels.

Its so important. Our main goal as the Census Bureau is to count everyone once, only once and at the right place. There are $675 billion annually of federal monies that are distributed entirely based on census numbers, so if you miss just one person, its a significant impact to the community, Pritt said.

White shared her sentiment.

It derives over $6 billion of funding that comes into West Virginia, White said. Without an accurate count, we lose money for daycares, libraries and highways. Every aspect of our lives is tied to census numbers. Our representation in Washington is tied to the census, so were already on the cusp of losing a House seat. If our census numbers are inaccurate and go down, we could lose a member of Congress. People dont realize that its tied to everything the government brings back into West Virginia.

Both Pritt and White encouraged those willing and able to reach out to the bureau to apply for a position, saying that not only is the work done on ones own terms, but its crucial to helping ones community.

Its a fantastic opportunity if youre looking for part-time, short-term work, White said. Its a great opportunity to work your own hours. You get to work by yourself and youll be doing a lot of traveling. Its just a great opportunity to do something larger while also have an employment option.

Fairmont News Editor John Mark Shaver can be reached at 304-844-8485 or jshaver@theet.com.

Fairmont News Editor John Mark Shaver can be reached at 304-844-8485 or jshaver@theet.com.

Read more:

Marion Co. WV, still in great need of census workers - WV News

South Korean soldiers in protective gears sanitize shacks at Guryong village in Seoul, South Korea, March 3, 2020. (Heo Ran/Reuters)

On the menu today: how the coronavirus is both more deadly and more contagious than the seasonal flu, wondering about the track record of old warhorse presidential candidates, and Mike Bloomberg breaks some more promises.

Why We Fear the Coronavirus More Than the Seasonal Flu

There have only been [insert current number here] coronavirus cases, way fewer cases and deaths than the flu!

As mentioned a few days ago, the term going viral means something that spreads rapidly through a population by being frequently shared with a number of individuals. This means numbers dont grow steadily and gradually. They grow quickly and exponentially.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, the coronavirus primarily spreads when someone coughs or sneezes and the droplets get on someone else. The secondary way of spreading is by touching contaminated surfaces or objects.

There is some research from Chinese epidemiologists indicating that the virus may spread much easier than originally thought:

The coronavirus that causes Covid-19 can linger in the air for at least 30 minutes and travel up to 4.5 metres further than the safe distance advised by health authorities around the world, according to a study by a team of Chinese government epidemiologists.

The researchers also found that it can last for days on a surface where respiratory droplets land, raising the risk of transmission if unsuspecting people touch it and then rub their face.

The length of time it lasts on the surface depends on factors such as temperature and the type of surface, for example at around 37C (98F), it can survive for two to three days on glass, fabric, metal, plastic or paper.

This research is fascinating and ominous. On January 22, an infected passenger boarded a fully booked long-distance coach and settled down on the second row from the back. He stayed on the bus for four hours and the windows remained closed. Reviewing security camera footage, the researchers found the passenger did not interact with anyone else. The person next to him was not infected, but he did infect two people behind him, one person three rows ahead of him, four people who were six to seven rows ahead of him, and one person who got on the bus after the initial passenger disembarked.

Scientists are still getting a handle on how contagious the coronavirus is, but the current estimate of the R0 (reproduction number) is between 2 and 2.5 meaning that the average infected person spreads it to two or two-and-a-half people. For the seasonal flu, the R0 is about 1.3 people.

Coronavirus cases in the United States and broader world are not going to stay level; they may eventually level off, but we are probably a ways away from anything resembling herd immunity that is, when a significant enough portion of a population is immune to a disease, making it more difficult for a disease to spread. In the absence of dramatic steps to reduce peoples interaction with each other, the number of cases will continue to increase.

Scientists are still calculating the death rate from the coronavirus, and the death rate is probably going to continue to vary from country to country depending upon the countrys quality of medical care and preparedness. But it is already clear that the coronavirus is much more deadly than the usual seasonal flu.

The CDCs current estimate of the death rate for the flu in the 20182019 flu season is 35.5 million cases, and about 34,000 deaths. That is a death rate just shy of 0.1 percent, or one out of every 1,044 people.

Many doctors and public-health officials strongly suspect that there are a lot of Americans walking around who have already caught the coronavirus and are asymptomatic and they either will not show symptoms, or they will suffer such mild symptoms that they wont even realize they have it. As of this writing, the United States has 729 cases and 26 deaths. That comes out to a 3.5 percent death rate. Thats 35 out of 1,000 people.

Because there are people walking around who have it and who arent tested, it is possible that when all is said and done, the U.S. death rate will be significantly lower. But any way you slice it, the death rate for the coronavirus is significantly higher than the death rate for the seasonal flu. And with both coronavirus and seasonal flu, those most at risk are the elderly and the immunocompromised.

There is an odd tone to some of the commentary around the virus. Ann Coulter declares, Average age of the coronavirus dead in Italy (the country theyre using to scare Americans since its European): 81.

What the hell is this, Logans Run? I guess your perspective on the coronavirus being particularly dangerous to octogenarians depends upon how many people you know who are in their eighties or approaching it. Weve got about 13 million Americans over age 80. About 1.5 million Floridians are in their eighties. Sure, a death toll among the elderly, who have hopefully lived full lives, is somewhat less tragic than a virus that cuts people down in their prime or children. But that doesnt make it any less sad or worth attempting to prevent or mitigate. A virus that has even a 2 percent death toll among elderly Americans is going to mean a lot of funerals.

But wait, theres another factor to take into account. It is surprisingly difficult to get a reliable and recent figure for the number of Americans who are immunodeficient, immunocompromised, or otherwise have immune systems that wouldnt be able to fight off the coronavirus. A 2008 estimate puts it at ten million Americans and thats only counting those with HIV/AIDS (diagnosed and undiagnosed), organ transplant recipients, and cancer patients.

Secondly, the elderly and immunocompromised who are infected but survive are going to use up a lot of beds and time in intensive care units, and that will have far-reaching effects for those who are well under age 80. As Christopher Mims puts it, If we dont collectively slow the rate of spread of this virus, what he called suppression, it endangers everyone else because of the capacity crunch: People who need surgery. People who have accidents. Cancer patients. Everyone who would normally use our healthcare system. Every resource put towards controlling coronavirus is a resource that cant be used towards other health problems.

Some good news is that South Korean health officials have found that so far, only about 10 percent of coronavirus patients required hospitalization, while the rest had strong enough immune systems to fight the virus on their own.

When people ask, Why isnt there this kind of panic over the seasonal flu? the answer is, Because the coronavirus is both more deadly and more contagious than the seasonal flu. As noted above, the death rate for the seasonal flu is one in a thousand; the current coronavirus figure is roughly 35 in a thousand. Even if thats elevated because were not testing enough, if the figure is cut in half, youre at 17 in a thousand or nearly one out of every fifty.

For what its worth, the death rate in Italy is currently at 5 percent one in 20!

Italy is more or less in lockdown. Japan is preparing steps to instruct residents to remain indoors. Major countries do not shut down their populations because of media hype or a desire to make the American president look bad.

This is why we have to flatten the curve. We ordinary citizens have to take those basic steps of washing hands frequently and avoiding big gatherings, to reduce the rate of increase in cases, delay the peak of cases, and ensure that the hospital systems dont get overwhelmed.

The number of people who are currently insisting that preparedness is panic is amazing. None of us want a public-health disaster, but part of being responsible is being ready for the worst-case scenarios and taking action to ensure the worst-case scenarios dont come to pass. We have a lot of mayors of Amity and Chip Dillers among us.

If You Need to Beat an Incumbent, Is an Old War Horse Candidate the Best Choice?

An astute observation from Dan McLaughlin: Parties looking to unseat an incumbent have settled before on Biden-style old warhorse candidates, and lost. John Kerry in 2004, Bob Dole in 1996, and Walter Mondale in 1984 are the classic examples of this type of campaign. Adlai Stevenson in 1956 and Tom Dewey in 1948 were rerun candidates who lost to an incumbent, as was Bryan in 1900. John McCain in 2008 and Hubert Humphrey in 1968 were both old warhorses who failed to hold the White House a third time for their parties. The most encouraging parallels for Biden in modern elections would be the two former vice presidents to win the big job: George H. W. Bush in 1988 and Richard Nixon in 1968. The 1988 election, however, was a choice for continuity.

Yesterday I noticed that Biden campaign sources were mentioning both Senator Elizabeth Warren and Jamie Dimon, the chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, as a potential Treasury Secretary. Those two dont agree on much in economic policy. The fact that Biden could conceivably pick either suggests his economic policies are currently something of a blank slate, to be decided, or at least forged in greater detail, later.

The nomination of Biden represents the Democrats preferring to not have to choose a particular ideological or policy path.

Bloomberg: Hey, Never Mind about Those Guarantees I Made

Mike Bloomberg may never be president, but he can break promises like one: Mike Bloombergs shuttered presidential campaign is dismissing staffers across the country and inviting them to reapply for jobs on his new independent committee despite extending guarantees of being paid through the November election when they were hired. The consolation prize: They get to keep their Bloomberg-issued iPhones and MacBooks.

This is not surprising Bloomberg just wasnt going to need all of these people for his post-campaign Elect the Democrat effort. Judging from their own stories about their work ethic, he was wasting his money on them anyway.

ADDENDUM: Yesterday I chatted about coronavirus, the giant stock market drop, and the state of the presidential race with Brady Leonard.

Go here to read the rest:

Yes, Coronavirus Is Worse Than the Flu - National Review

When I first heard that Michelle Malkin was going to speak to a bunch of anti-Semitic, racist, and homophobic groypers, I thought (1) Oh, thats where shes been and (2) What happened to her? So I did some digging and what I found was even more disturbing than you might have guessed.

Those who have followed Malkin over the years know that she has always beenhow to put this politelyan immigration restrictionist. Though maybe thats too polite, since over the years shes championed not only racial profiling, but roundups of minorities, too. In 2004, she wrote a book titled In Defense of Internment. One of the websites she founded, Hot Air, thrived touting her anti-immigration cause through the mid-2000s and she considers the defeat of the McCain-Kennedy 2006 amnesty bill one of her great accomplishments. During those years, Malkin was put on a pedestal by mainstream conservative organizations such as CPAC, Regnery Publishing, and the Young Americas Foundation as a leading voice for the movement. She had a Fox News contract and appeared on the networks highest-rated shows.

And she now seems to have turned her back on all of that in order to link arms with the most vocal elements of the white nationalist movement. Oh, Im sorry. They insist on being called America Firsters. Same difference.

If the name Nick Fuentes sounds unfamiliar to you, consider yourself lucky. Think of him as a younger, Catholic fundamentalist version of Milo Yiannopoulos. Only more militant and irresponsible. The only reason to mention Fuentes is that he turns out to have been a key figure in Malkins spiral into the world of online extremism.

While Yiannopoulos paraded around in flamboyant costumes, Fuentes marched alongside aspiring Nazis in the Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville and praised it as a tidal wave of white identity. Yiannopoulos mocked the mainstream media. Fuentes has said, I want the people to run CNN to be arrested and deported or hanged. Where Milo tried to be droll, Fuentes doesnt really do jokes, aside from making anti-Semitic noises about how long it takes to bake cookies in the oven because look how it triggers people who think the Holocaust was a bad thing.

You get the gist, Milo turns out to have just been a gateway drug to Fuentesism because the alt-rights red pills come in different strengths and flavors.

Fuentes and his followers loathe what they call Conservative Inc.a group of fake conservative establishmentarians who are insufficiently observant of traditional values. One of those values is severely restrictionist immigration policy, which at some point, began to tickle Malkins ears. So, too, has she adopted the anti-Conservative Inc. language, even though her entire career had beenif we are being honesta product of the actual Conservative Inc. Which is to say, CPAC, Regnery, YAF, Fox, and all the rest.

Malkins break with this main body of movement conservatism came last fall, amid a series of competing lectures on college campuses delivered by Malkin, Turning Point USAs Charlie Kirk, and the Daily Wires Ben Shapiro. During that time Fuentes and his followerswho see Kirk and Shapiro as avatars for Conservative Inc.began plotting ways to attend the events and embarrass them.

These followers of Fuentes werent students looking for a vigorous policy debate over green cards. Shapiros speaking schedule, for example, was posted on the neo-Nazi website the Daily Stormer, and circulated among white nationalists. The motivation was sinister and the goal was disruption.

Strangely, as they started harassing Kirk, Shapiro, and Texas Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw at various events, Malkin began giving cover to Fuentes and his groypers, tracking the drama on her Twitter account and in her syndicated column. She was quick to adopt their lingo, too. Cringe.

Then, on November 7, it was apparent that Shapiro, who happens to be an Orthodox Jew, felt compelled to say something about the anti-Semites who were trying to hijack the conservative mantle.

Hiding behind the lulz, Fuentes had recorded himself playing Grand Theft Auto and chasing down an Orthodox Jewish man wearing a business suit. He laughed about killing Ben Shapiro. In other videos criticizing Shapiro, Fuentes fondled a switchblade, opening and closing it dramatically, and flourishing it to emphasize his points. Needless to say, hostile signals were being sent. Only a very unwell person would find them funny.

In a YAF-sponsored speech at Stanford University, Shapiro devoted his remarks to condemning the alt-right, saying its members were playing a dangerous game. At one point he was booed. I have one question, Shapiro asked. Are you protesting the part where Im condemning the Nazis? You hear what Im doing right now. Do you have ears? Im literally condemning Nazis and youre telling me to leave. Do you hear yourselves?

Which is what finally sent Malkin over the edge. In the days after Shapiros speech, Malkin ran to the defense of the groypers. She used a November 14 YAF-sponsored speech of her own at UCLA, which she titled The Torch Is Being Passed, to burn every last bridge with her former friends and supporters.

She began by saying that usually her YAF speeches are intended to show how wrong or evil Democrats are, but that that evening she would be speaking to America First conservatives.

She criticized Shapiro for denigrating an entire movement of young men who watch a YouTuber named Nick Fuentes and said, Heres my message to the new generation of America Firsters exposing the big lies of the anti-American open borders establishment and its controlled opposition operatives: If I was your mom, Id be proud as hell.

Malkin went on to express solidarity with Fuentes, as well as the Proud Boys, Laura Loomer, and Iowa Republican Rep. Steve King (who was stripped of committee assignments by his fellow House Republicans for making racist remarks in January 2019).

This was too much even for YAF. Malkin had used her YAF-sponsored UCLA event to attack YAFs most in-demand speaker and to stand with bigots. YAF severed ties with her on November 18, issuing a statement that said, Immigration is a vital issue that deserves robust debate. But there is no room in mainstream conservatism or at YAF for holocaust deniers, white nationalists, street brawlers, or racists.

Later that week organizers at Bentley University in Massachusetts, who had planned to host an event promoting Malkins book Open Borders, Inc., canceled their event. Malkin went apoplectic. She tweeted and tweeted, doubling down on her new alliance. In one radio interview, she called for a widening of the Overton window and said that these are good kids who didnt deserve to be spurned.

She wrote a column titled Cancel Culture Hypocrites on the Left and Right in which she blasted the Keepers of the Gate who called on me to be de-platformed and cast out of the conservative mainstream.

I cancel you, she huffed.

All of that transpired during the fall of 2019. Last month, Malkins wayward progression continued. For years she had been a star at CPAC. But on February 28, instead of going to CPAC, where she was now banned from the stage, Malkin stood before a crowd at a new event organized by Fuentes. In that speech, she opened her remarks by saying, Thank you. Thank you. Mommys in the house.

It seemed a little odd that Malkin would again describe herself as a mom to these bigots. But it turns out that her imagery was deliberate. This is Malkins new identity: Mother of groypers.

In her speech, she addressed accusations of anti-Semitism with the same sort of mocking I talked about it, but didnt say ittone that is so common on the alt-right:

Already right out of the gate, before I even knew who Nick Fuentes was, before I knew who Groypers were, I was being tarred as an anti-Semite. Its become a useless, meaningless term and everybody knows it. And thats why theyre so desperate to tar all of us as that. Its anti-Semitic to mention George Soros billions. Its anti-Semitic to criticize the Anti-Defamation League. Its anti-Semitic to question whatever the precise number is of people who perished in World War II. It is anti-Semitic for me, being married to a 100 percent Ashkenazi Jew, to question dual loyalties of people who are working here as agents of a foreign country.

Oh, and it is an unacceptably anti-Semitic to point out the rank hypocrisy of people who are fiercely protective of an ethno-state and an immigration enforcement system that workswho turn around and call those of us who believe, whatever our backgrounds are, who only have one homeland that theyve ever known, to call uswhat is it now?white majoritarianism I believe is the term. Thats me. Thank you.

Moreover, Malkin sees herself following in the footsteps of one of her matriarchal heroines. There was a time when CPAC did at least give the grassroots nationalists a seat at the table, Malkin said. And Ill never forget this, because this was a very pivotal moment for me in my young career. Seventeen years ago, when I had the privilege of teaming up with the original Godmother of America First, the Catholic author, lawyer, and social conservative, mom of six and grandmother of 16, Phyllis Schlafly.

Today, Malkin seems to see herself as the figure to bridge the gap between Schlafly and the groypers. She spoke affectionately about the affinity she has for kids who do video from their basement, given her past experience developing online videos for Hot Air. Then, she turned serious and returned to the torch theme of her UCLA speech:

I really do believe that my role as a mother informs the choices that I have made and at some point, there will be a passing of the torch. I will not be doing what Ive done for 25 plus years. I had always woken up, especially in the last couple of years, thinking before I knew all of you, that I would have to do it until I was 70 or 80 or 90 because there was no one else to take up the legacy. I feel very confident that you, the Light Brigade, the America First Brigade, are well positioned to do what so few other grassroots revolts and rebellions have succeeded in doing. I believe in you. I honor your charge. I honor your mission. You may not have finances, but you have faith in this country and you have many more friends than you know.

The Daily Stormers Andrew Anglin described Malkins speech as beautiful.

In that same speech Malkin helpfully talked about others she considers part of the family. Among them were Fuentes, Yiannopoulos, Identity Evropa director Patrick Casey, VDARE president Peter Brimelow, VDARE writer (and former National Review writer) John Derbyshire, National Review contributing editor Dinesh DSouza, Ann Coulter, the Canadian white nationalist Faith Goldy, Frank Gaffney, and Pamela Geller. (Not all of them were thrilled by the honor. Geller posted the video of Malkins speech, calling it unconscionable and breathtakingand linked to an open letter posted on Robert Spencers Jihad Watch website asking Malkin to rethink her defense of a Jew-hater and Holocaust-denier.)

The great irony is that even now, Malkin still has friends in Conservative, Inc.

The Trump administrations senior official performing the duties of the director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Ken Cuccinelli, gave Malkin a shoutout from the same CPAC stage she was banned from. Although many outlets, such as National Review and the Daily Wire, stopped carrying her syndicated columns, the Salem Media-owned Townhall.com still does. (When I emailed a Townhall.com executive asking why the site continued to publish her column, I received no reply.)

And Malkins columns continue to be carried by Creators Syndicate, which has placed more than 1,500 of her columns over various outlets over the last 20 yearsa record Malkin celebrates.

In fairness, its difficult to tell which newspapers are actually carrying her Creators column these days. A Lexis-Nexis search of her recent columns turned up only a handful of regional print publications, several of which are based in Louisiana, that run her.

When I reached out to Malkin to ask where her columns are now published she said I should contact Creators Syndicate. She added:

I look forward to your morally courageous call to continue lying, purging, and gatekeeping in the name of responsible conservative journalism. LOL

(After receiving no response from Creators, I circled back to Malkin to ask if she had a specific point of contact she would like me to use. She declined, and thenshe took to Twitter to say Creators Syndicate has proudly stood by her for 20 years and to tell her followers I was trying to cancel her. Rasmussen Reports tweeted it was proud to carry her columns every week.)

From the outside, it can certainly look as though Malkin tanked her career and is on the way to days filled with crocheting, hot yoga, and pickleball. But, her fierce commitment to this new crowd seems like something more, though.

So, why does the Joker smile?

Malkin is, if nothing else, a successful businesswoman. In 2006, as the blog revolution was remaking digital journalism, Malkin founded Hot Air. Four years later, she sold the enterprise to Salem Communications, a conservative media company. As the social and mobile revolutions sped up in the early 2010s, Malkin saw another opportunity, and founded the site Twitchy.com, which aggregates Tweets on a blog-style platform. A year later she sold this enterprise to Salem as well.

Its possible, of course, that by embracing the groypers, Malkin is just finally deciding to let her freak flag fly. Or its possible that her new views really do differ in kind from her old viewsthat some precipitating event changed her basic outlook on the world.

But it seems just as possible that Malkin may be positioning to build a new platform. The old trifecta of column writing, dead-tree book publishing, and cable news contracts is a dying model and whatever else you want to say about Malkin, shes always been entrepreneurial.

Lots of people seem to think that the alt-right is a phenomenon that will disappear when the Trump administration ends. It seems equally likely that the alt-right is waiting to be monetized by someone able to look past the bigotry and see it as an asset ready to be put to work. Why couldnt Alt-Right, Inc. be the new Conservative, Inc.?

If so, then it makes sense that Malkin is courting Fuentes and his young, loyal audience. Especially if they are all cancelled and cant find any other basement to dwell in. Because it sure seems like Mommy wants to give them a home.

Correction, 3/9/20, 8:01 a.m.: The article originally identified the head of the blog Jihad Watch as Richard Spencer. Robert Spencer is the director of Jihad Watch.

Correction, 3/9/20 1:20 p.m.:A previous version of this article mistakenly identified Ken Cuccinelli as the acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, rather than as the senior official performing the duties of the director.

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Michelle Malkin: Mother of Groypers - The Bulwark

Cape Cod Times Monday Mar9,2020at5:22PM Mar9,2020at5:22PM

The RAIN Group, a global sales training company, announced that it was presented with four gold Stevie Awards in the 14th annual ceremony in Las Vegas in February.

For achieving outstanding client results, the firm received top honors in the categories of sales training program of the year with SAGE Publishing and business development achievement of the year with Chatham Financial. The company also won awards for sales training practice of the year, and Bob Croston, company vice president, was named sales training professional of the year.

With more than 25 years of experience, Croston won the award his successful career as a sales consultant. Croston's clients worldwide include Toyota, Hitachi, Fidelity Investments and Harvard Business School.

The Stevie Awards for Sales and Customer Service honor outstanding customer service, business development and successful sales professionals.

Email business news and high-resolution photos to biz@capecodonline.com. Please include a contact phone number.

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Osterville Resident Bob Croston named sales training professional of the year - Cape Cod Times

The company is paying well for experienced operators.

Walmart (NYSE:WMT) plans to hire 500 more truck drivers for its private fleet, primarily on the East and West Coasts, to help meet the increased demand from its growing e-commerce business.

In a highly competitive market for experienced drivers, Walmart has been attracting applicants by the simple strategy of offering better wages than its rivals. Walmart pays drivers an average of $87,500 per year, and says it plans to improve that in 2020.

Walmart plans to hire 500 more drivers. Image source: Walmart.

The retailer pays for more than mileage driven. It also offerstraining pay and activity pay for times when trucks aren't moving (like when they are is being loaded or unloaded).

Walmart also gives its drivers weekly schedules, which allows them to plan for when they won't be home. And it awards its drivers safety bonuses for meeting its operating standards.

Despite the national shortage of truck drivers, Walmart holds its new hires to relatively high standards. It requires them to have at least 30 months of experience over the past three years with a clean driving record.

Experienced truck drivers have leverage in the job market, and Walmart understands that to get the number of them it needs, it has to offer them a good deal. The company appears to be doing that both in pay and in how it treats drivers. That should allow the retailer to grow its fleet as needed -- and that need could expand significantly in the coming years.

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Walmart Hiring 500 More Truck Drivers to Handle Online Sales Growth - The Motley Fool

Today with great excitement the Association of Directory Publishers (ADP) announces the creation of theTrusted Local Directory, a national online business directory.

ADP recognized the need for an online business directory that offers consumers a higher level of trust. Through a united effort by directory publishers across the United States, the Trusted Local Directory was developed.

The Trusted Local Directory is enhanced by the ADP Trusted Local Certification Program. This program identifies and certifies Publishers, Partners and businesses that exemplify trust.

Companies that apply for the Trusted Local Business Seal must pass a thorough certification process. The Business Seal, combined with innovative presence management and local trust factor tools, strengthens a business credibility and helps it stand out among its competitors where consumers are searching for products and services in print and online.

Businesses can only obtain the Trusted Local Business Seal from aTrusted Local Publisher. Each Trusted Local Application varies in requirements. For Publishers and Partners these stringent requirements include a priority on business integrity and ethical standards; customer service standards and accountability; contract transparency; sales training practices; and data integrity, including security and privacy of information.

ADP President and CEO Cindi Aldrich said, Consumers are more skeptical than ever, so its important to have this trusted national online directory. Not only is it critical to have this national online directory, but for it to be supported by Publishers and Partners that also meet high standards. Creating the Trusted Local Certification Program and Trusted Local Directory was a logical addendum for ADP.

Publishers and/or Partners interested in the Trusted Local Certification Program shouldvisit ADP.org. Those that would like to learn more about the Business Seal should visitTrustedLocalDirectory.com.

For press inquiries, please contact Cindi Aldrich at info@adp.org or by calling 404-444-0127.

About Association of Directory Publishers (ADP)

The Association of Directory Publishers (ADP) is an international trade association serving the directory publishing industry since 1898. ADP membership includes online and print publishers, app developers and designers, advertising agencies and suppliers to the online, mobile and print publishing industry.

The directory publishing industry is the original local search engine, widely known as the medium that brings buyers to sellers at the exact moment they are ready to buy.

As this ever-evolving world of search expands, whether it is print, online, social networks or mobile devices, ADP will continue to be at the forefront to assist its members in connecting buyers to sellers.

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ADP Announces Trusted Local Directory and Invites Publishers, Partners and Businesses to Join - PRUnderground

Our small business support program launches in Austin, Texas; Athens, Greece; and Plovdiv, Bulgaria, to create sustainable economic opportunity in communities around the world.

Mar. 06 /CSRwire/ - eBay partners with local city leaders in regions across the world to develop innovative small business programs that address specific retail challenges and scale solutions to benefit entrepreneurs across different communities. Through programs likeRetail Revival, and its international adaptations like Export Revival, local business owners receive training and coaching to sell their unique inventory on a global marketplace, while strengthening ties within their local business community.

Austin, Texas

This month, eBay proudly launched Retail Revival in Austin, Texas, home to a rich community of artisans, entrepreneurs and small business owners eager to expand their reach. The Austin cohort includes 50 sellers, whose products span everything from ceramics and bicycles, to sustainable fashion and gourmet cotton candy.

Mike Petersen, general manager of the Austin office, kicked off the event with a warm introduction to eBay, followed by remarks from Marni Levine, eBays vice president of seller operations and engagement, on how eBay operates as a true partner to its sellers.

Participating sellers enjoyed a full day of training on pricing strategies, listing optimization and inventory management, among other important tools and strategies for building a successful eBay business. Training sessions were led by the eBay global customer experience team, with support from members of eBays third-party partnerships team, as well as seller guests,Rocky SchianoandAngie Cardona-Nelson.

The audience also heard from Sylnovia Holt-Rabb, deputy director of economic development for the city of Austin, and Christopher Van Bergen, CFO/COO of Nest, an organization that promotes artisans around the world and has partnered with eBay to support Retail Revival Austin through specialized outreach and training.

Athens, Greece

We also recently welcomed 67 Greek businesses in Athens, Greece to Export Revival, a regional spin-off of Retail Revival focused on expanding the trading reach of participants. Benefits of Export Revival include monthly training sessions taught by eBay experts, customized support, exposure to more than 183 million buyers in 190 global markets, a dedicated page on eBay.com highlighting the participants products and a promotional campaign on eBay.

Over 120 guests attended the Export Revival Greece kick-off event. Sellers enjoyed introductory training, and a fireside chat with Greek sellerKonstantinos Spiliadisanda. Attendees also heard from Gregoris Zarifopoulos, Greek Minister for Digital Governance; Yiannis Chatzitheodosiou,President of the Athens Chamber of Commerce; and Ilya Kretov, General Manager Global Emerging Markets - Emerging Europe, LatAm, APAC at eBay, among others.

Greece has unique products and a strong export potential, as proven over time, said Kretov. About 12,000 sellers from Greece are already active on the eBay platformmany of them for more than a decade. In 2019 alone, they sold and exported nearly 1 million items. Together with our partners in Greece, we are working hard to keep these numbers thriving.

The program is being offered under the auspices of the Ministry of Digital Policy, Telecommunications and Media and the Municipality of Athens, and is supported by ACT Athens Chambers of Tradesman, SEV Hellenic Federation of Enterprises.

Plovdiv, Bulgaria

Fifty local businesses completed their training at eBays Export Revival program in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, at the end of 2019. Through the four-week training program, participants learned to effectively sell online through product presentation and strategic sales tactics. By the end of the training, participants had learned to create their own eBay stores, list and manage inventory, and process their first sales.

The program aims to increase Bulgarias exports by supporting small and medium-sized businesses to sell locally sourced goods online to global consumers. Since the launch, the Plovdiv region has seen rapid economic growth, attracting investments and establishing new businesses in the area.

These online stores are now accessible to 183 million eBay customers worldwide and meet the most up-to-date requirements for convenient functionality and accessibility. Sellers products are presented on a specially designed page,Made in Bulgaria, a destination for customers looking to learn more about Bulgarian products and sellers. Over 8,000 products spanning women's fashion, baby goods, auto parts, leather wear, souvenirs, watches and car parts areavailable for purchase.

The Export Revival program in Bulgaria is backed by the Ministry of Economy, the Executive Agency for Promotion of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises and the Municipality of Plovdiv.

VisitMade in Bulgariato learn more about Bulgarian products and watch seller testimonials.

Export Revival is an international adaptation of eBays global Retail Revival initiative, which has launched in more than 10 cities in the U.S., UK, Germany, Canada, Ireland, Israel and Russia, propelling international sales for hundreds of companies across the globe. Each participating city has seen economic growth and an increase in exports of locally produced products.

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Retail Revival Grows Internationally, Helping Local Businesses Expand Their Sales Online - CSRwire.com

I am, yes, said Hoskins, the Phillies representative for the M.L.B. players union. He added, I have not changed the way that I live.

Fans of the four sports, too, have largely been able to keep to their same routines. None of the leagues have announced plans to cancel games or hold them in empty stadiums, as some leagues in countries like Italy have done. But the landscape is changing quickly, and the leagues remain in consultation with health officials and are prepared to act according to their recommendations.

Organizers of other public events have already taken more drastic measures. On Tuesday, the Ivy League canceled its mens and womens college basketball tournaments, and on Sunday the Indian Wells tennis tournament, one of the biggest on the calendar, was canceled, too. The New York Road Runners also canceled the NYC Half, a half-marathon with about 25,000 runners that was scheduled for Sunday morning.

Other large gatherings including Bostons St. Patricks Day parade and political rallies for the Democratic presidential candidates Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Bernie Sanders, both of which were scheduled for Tuesday have been canceled.

For now, the only restrictions for the professional sports leagues center on nonessential people who have access to locker rooms, like sports equipment sales people, food vendors, traveling scouts and media members. Instituting those measures without any restrictions for fans in the stadiums drew some criticism, including from Gov. Gavin Newsom of California.

I found it quite curious that the four major organizations N.H.L., soccer, Major League Baseball, and the N.B.A. put out guidelines to protect their athletes but not their fans, Newsom said at a news conference on Tuesday.

In Los Angeles, the N.B.A.s Lakers roped off a square-shaped area for LeBron James to meet with reporters on Tuesday morning ahead of a game against the Nets at Staples Center.

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Closing Off Locker Rooms, but Not the Stands, Over Coronavirus Concerns - The New York Times

Every year, more sales technologies enter the market.

In fact, sales technology tools have grown in availability.2019 alone saw an increase of 25% in the number of tools available. At the same time, many sales organizations continue to increase their sales technology investment year over year.

However, according to annual Sales Performance report from CSO Insights over the past several years, sales effectiveness has not grown at the same level. The report notes: While much in the world of sales is changing rapidly, sales results have not changed much.

Clearly, most sales organizations are not getting the results from their sales technology that they expect and, probably, deserve. In this article, we take a look at how sales organizations are currently spending on technology, the key mistakes most are making, and how to develop a technology strategy that will enable your organization to get the ROI you expect from your technology investments.

According to a recent Smart Selling Tools report, most companies think they are spending more than $150/month per user on sales technology. But the number didn't sound accurate. To get more insight, I asked Nancy Nardin, owner of Smart Selling Tools, about it.

Not surprisingly, most organizations were vastly underestimating how much they actually spend on technology.Nancy agreed. She said that when respondents reported their spending, they might not have a complete understanding of all the technologies that theyve purchased, either as point solutions or as plug-ins, because they are often independently purchased by different teams and departments.

It can be assumed that the number is currently at $500-$1,000 per month/user for modern sales organizations. Whatever the number is, its too much for too little. The good news is that there are really only three main causes of overspending on sales technology.

Most sales organizations do not have an effective strategy for managing their sales technology spend. Lacking a clear strategy, they fall prey to three big mistakes that cause overspending:

In ancient Greek myth, there is a story of a great monster that destroyed towns and devoured heroes who attempted to defeat it. This monster, called the Hydra, had many heads with sharp teeth and poison breath. But what made it truly dangerous was that every time you cut off one head, it would sprout two more.

Membrain, by Bjrn Andersson

Sales technology can be that way too. Organizations may purchase a large CRM product, expecting it to be a one-size-fits-all solution. But in order to get it to do everything they want it to do, they have to stack add-ons and customizations on top of it. Each of these requires custom coding and updates and upgrades in order to integrate with the CRM.

Each time a new element is added, complexity increases. As complexity increases, so do the opportunities for technology failure. When a breakdown occurs in one part of the technology, it impacts other parts. Custom coding designed to fix one problem, often causes problems elsewhere in the system. And every time one problem is fixed, another rises in its place, like the head of a monstrous Hydra, eating up the companys profits.

While organizations are busy fighting their Hydras, many are also engaging in point pollution. This refers to the habit of purchasing separate pieces of technology to solve individual problems, which solutions may or may not integrate with the larger technology (the Hydra).

As the data cited at the beginning of this article shows, new sales technology point solutions are entering the market at breathtaking speed. They promise to solve all kinds of problems, from prospect research to call recording to proposal building.

But each time you add one to your team without a clear strategy, you add to the complexity of the sales environment and interfere with the sales workflow. Each new technology requires salespeople to switch between tasks and applications, to enter new information, and to manage new administrative tasks.

Salespeople who dutifully use all of the point solutions that their sales organization has invested in run the risk of damaging their productivity by constantly switching among tools. Most simply wont choose to use all of them. Either way, the organization ends up spending money on tools that are not improving sales effectiveness.

The same mythology that gave us the Hydra also gives us the story of the Sirens. These were merpeople who sat upon sharp rocks in the ocean and sang songs. Their singing was so beautiful, that it lured sailors onto the rocks where their ship was destroyed.

In many ways, artificial intelligence (AI) and the automation it promises are like a modern-day siren song. It promises to make salespeople more efficient, faster, better. But very often, it also annoys prospects and destroys goodwill.

In complex B2B sales, this is particularly problematic because trust and relationship are a key component of success. To be effective, AI for B2B must focus on enabling salespeople instead of completing tasks on their behalf.

Augmented intelligence is the practice of using AI to analyze and sort data, and serve it up in a useful format, while leaving salespeople themselves to make decisions based on the insights delivered by the AI. Its called augmented intelligence because it seeks to support the human intelligence on the sales team rather than replacing it. This is one of the keys to making sales technology investments work for your organization.

All of the most common mistakes about sales technology are rooted in one bad assumption: technology can be the salvation of sales.

This assumption ends up making people the servant of the technology. Truly world-class organizations do it the other way around: They make the technology the servant of the people. In order to do that, you have to take a holistic approach to sales technology investment. You cant make those decisions in a silo.

To get the ROI you want from your sales technology investments, you have to start with a solid strategy, and work your way down through process, training, reinforcement, and content enablement. Technology then takes its proper place as an enabler of all these functions within a holistic strategy. The result is a well-functioning sales team that exceeds expectations and, in most cases, outstrips the competition.

At the heart of every effective sales strategy, is a human-first approach, starting with the customer. You must understand how your customers need to be helped, what they want to achieve, and how they ought to buy. This is accomplished by doing your research about your customers business challenges, asking the right questions, and listening to what they say.

Build a customer-focused sales strategy that helps your salespeople be both efficient and effective in guiding customers through their problem-definition and decision-making journey.

Many sales organizations that develop a sales strategy fail to execute on it. This is usually due to a failure to connect it with an actionable sales process. Once you have developed your sales strategy, build a dynamic, milestone-based process that walks salespeople through every step they need to take to help buyers make the purchase.

In such a process, you will have not only stages, but also milestones within those stages, and steps to take to reach each milestone. Within each step will be activities to engage in toward achieving that step.

The process should be dynamic based on the needs of customer segments and their response at each stage, milestone, and step of the process. Such a process makes it possible to take the strategy and actually execute it in the field.

With an effective strategy and process, it becomes possible to align training to support execution of the process. Many sales organizations treat training like a siloed activity that they send salespeople to for a week or a weekend, and then expect that to magically translate into improved performance.

But a holistic sales approach puts training in service to strategy and process. With your milestone-based process mapped out, identify where skills gaps are in your sales team, and develop training that focuses on what they actually need in order to execute on your process and any methodology youre using.

Training that is not reinforced rarely sticks. This is not due to failure on the part of your salespeople. Its simply the way it is. The well-documented Spacing Effect shows that people cant remember information that isnt regularly reinforced, so its not smart to expect them to.

Instead, build reinforcement into your salespersons daily workflow. This can take the form of checklists embedded in their CRM, dynamic reminders of next steps in the process, on-demand an in-context training content, and effective coaching cadences. This can be enabled by AI that identifies when individual salespeople can use reminders and additional training, and serves it up to them at appropriate moments.

Sales enablement software promises to help your team by making it easy to find collateral when they need it. Unfortunately, most salespeople dont know when they need it, so they underutilize resources, or they create their own content off the record to fill gaps.

AI tools promise to alleviate this problem by intelligently sending sales enablement content to customers or to salespeople. Most AI tools fail at this task. AI is only as smart as the training it receives, and when content isnt tied to an effective strategy, process, and training, an AI cant be trained to use it effectively.

Instead, content enablement should be made subject to the strategy, process, and training your salespeople receive. It should be created and managed in context, and suggested to salespeople in the context of your best practice process.

As you can see, I have begun introducing ways that sales technology can serve the rest of the holistic system. When strategy, process, training, reinforcement, and content are aligned, the right technology tools can be chosen to help you execute on those things.

Instead of choosing technology and hoping it will solve problems, you have a holistic system designed to produce the most effective sales team possible. Your technology then becomes the servant of that system and the people in it.

Its also important that your technology be beautiful and easy to use. Remember that your sales organization is run by humans. Technology that is complex and difficult to manage is demotivating, and will rarely be used. Even when it is used, it affects productivity.

But when the technology is easy to use, beautiful, and helps salespeople accomplish what they want to accomplish, they will be eager to use it. Adoption ceases to be a problem.

In short, effective sales technology:

In conclusion, there is no one sales technology purchase that will be your magic potion to sales effectiveness. And, unfortunately, your sales technology stack is probably causing you more problems than its solving if you buy a point solution for each problem that you face.

Sales technology should not be a drain on sales productivity and profits, yet it often is. To solve this problem, align your customer-focused sales strategy, process, training, reinforcement, and content enablement with simple, beautiful, easy-to-use technology that supports your way of selling. The result will be sales technology investment that more than pays for itself.

George Brontn is the author of Stop Killing Deals and the CEO of Membrain, a sales enablement CRM. George has devoted his life to understanding the success factors that drive effective sales organizations. He shares his insights on the award-winning blog, Art & Science of Complex Sales.

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How to Get the Most out of Your Sales Technology Investment - G2