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Post by brucemacneill on May 1, 2018 14:35:55 GMT -5
... (Unless you’re one of those people who think the tax cuts for corporations and the rich are going to trickle down to the rest of us.)... H&R Block has a program set up so that you can plug your 2017 tax information into the 2018 tax code so that you could determine if you should change your withholding's or estimated payments. I suspect most tax prep outfits have one at the ready. I am not rich nor am I a corporation, but when they ran my stuff through the 2018 Tax Code, it resulted in a Federal tax reduction of just over $1500 next year. (and there was an estimated savings of $150 on my state taxes) I am not saying yea or nay, wise or foolish, to Trump's Tax Reform, but if nothing ledger-significant changes for me this year as compared to last year, that $1,500 reduction in my Fed Tax qualifies as a legitimate tax cut, not a hoped for trickle down from someone else's tax cut. Should I have received a bigger tax cut and everyone else a smaller one? Of course. But, it is still a tax cut for me. I don't think I am the Lone Tax Ranger here. It should be obvious by now to everyone here that, all ledger inputs being equal, they will receive a significant tax cut. Whether that is good or bad is another discussion. I got about $25/mo in reduced withholding which isn't much but my taxable income is less than $25K so I get to keep $300 and I'll take it.
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Post by aquaduct on May 1, 2018 14:38:47 GMT -5
Heck, they tagged on another $80 to each check for me. That ain't chicken feed.
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Post by aquaduct on May 1, 2018 15:04:56 GMT -5
Not to sound like a broken record, but the current divisions stem from the fact that our "new economy" with its increasingly open free-trade agreements has shifted manufacturing jobs offshore, and left a large segment of our fellow citizens in the dust. Rural, small-town, blue-collar America is mad as hell, and they have every right to be. As soon as we wake up and realize they've gotten a raw deal, and start doing something about it, the quicker these bitter divisions will end. And they don't want handouts. What they want is decent, good-paying jobs, and the dignity and respect they deserve as Americans who in many ways are the backbone of our country. Unfortunately, in Donald Trump they have a deeply flawed champion who (in my opinion) is cynically exploiting this unrest to advance his own selfish interests. My ancestors were farmers in North Carolina all the way back to 1695, right up to my father's generation. In modern times they almost all voted Democratic because, in the words of my father, "the Democrats really care about the farmers." That's how it used to be. I look forward to the day when one of these two parties reclaims that status. I realize that my attitude toward Obama (probably wouldn't bother to walk across the street to watch him bleed to death) may be skewing my viewpoint, but the Trump economy out here in Hayseed-ville is looking pretty damn good. 4.1% GDP growth, tax cuts, corporate repatriation incentives, regulatory roll backs, increasing recruitment contact- heck, it's boogying from what I see. And after 6 job losses and bankruptcy since 1998, I say go Donald!
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Post by epaul on May 1, 2018 15:05:24 GMT -5
... I watched her WHCD routine on Youtube. Since then, it seems that the controversy has only gained steam. It’s even controversial here, on the nearly apolitical Soundhole. Out of curiosity I pulled up one of her earlier videos. I think it’s equally funny. That is to say, I don’t think it’s all that funny, but it did get a few chuckles out of me. I don’t know why this one wasn’t also controversial. I guess Hillary and scrotums don’t warrant the same indignation. Jim, you are probably too young to remember this, but the WHCD used to be something akin to a Dean Martin Celebrity Roast, a good natured fun fest that enabled everyone to tease and laugh with each other and come together in a "hail fellow well met" communal dinner. People didn't describe the president's daughter as being like a diaper, pretty on the outside, full of shit on the inside. They didn't describe a lady sitting next to them at the dinner table as being a despicable lying piece of garbage who made them ashamed of being a woman. The WHCD used to be a coming together from across the waters, a bridging of differences, a shared dinner in a shared country. Not an opportunity to score cheap and vicious cuts while holding the only megaphone at the table. It might seem hard to believe for some, but there were unpopular presidents before Trump and there will be unpopular presidents after Trump. There was life before Trump and there will be life after Trump. Institutions like the WHCD were akin to a ceremony, a ritual, that served to remind us of this. To remind that no matter how unpopular or ridden with rancor the moment may be, there was a yesterday and there will be a tomorrow and whatever the current itch is, we are and will remain bozos on the same bus, so for tonight, we will laugh and share food at our common table. There is nothing wrong with angry, biting humor, there can be much that is right with it. But time and place matters. This woman's foul rant at a communal dinner was akin to pissing in the communion wine, laying a rank turd in the punchbowl, farting repeatedly in the elevator. She desecrated a ceremony birthed to keep the blood-dimmed tide at bay. (you think I exaggerate? What keeps us from being the Congo or Syria or the Sudan or Somalia or Nigeria or Yemen or Iraq or Pakistan? Functioning ceremonies that bond and hold tight against the chaos, that's what. Don't piss on them.)
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Post by millring on May 1, 2018 15:09:30 GMT -5
... I watched her WHCD routine on Youtube. Since then, it seems that the controversy has only gained steam. It’s even controversial here, on the nearly apolitical Soundhole. Out of curiosity I pulled up one of her earlier videos. I think it’s equally funny. That is to say, I don’t think it’s all that funny, but it did get a few chuckles out of me. I don’t know why this one wasn’t also controversial. I guess Hillary and scrotums don’t warrant the same indignation. Jim, you are probably too young to remember this, but the WHCD used to be something akin to a Dean Martin Celebrity Roast, a good natured fun fest that enabled everyone to tease and laugh with each other and come together in a "hail fellow well met". People didn't describe the president's daughter as being a diaper, pretty on the outside, full of shit on the inside. They didn't describe a lady as being a despicable lying piece of garbage who made them ashamed of being a woman. The WHCD used to be a coming together from across the waters, a bridging of differences, a shared dinner in a shared country. Not an opportunity to score cheap and vicious stabs while holding the only megaphone at the table. It might seem hard to believe for some, but there were unpopular presidents before Trump and there will be unpopular presidents after Trump. There was life before Trump and there will be life after Trump. Institutions like the WHCD were akin to a ceremony, a ritual, that served to remind us of this. That no matter how unpopular or ridden with rancor the moment may be, there was a yesterday and there will be a tomorrow and whatever the current itch is, we are and will remain bozos on the same bus. There is nothing wrong with angry, biting humor, there can be much that is right with it. But time and place matters. This woman's foul rant at a communal dinner was akin to pissing in the communion wine, laying a rank turd in the punchbowl, farting repeatedly in the elevator. She desecrated a ceremony birthed to keep the blood-dimmed tide at bay. (you think I exaggerate? What keeps us from being the Congo or Syria or the Sudan or Somalia or Nigeria or Yemen or Iraq or Pakistan? Functioning ceremonies that bond and hold tight against the chaos, that's what. Don't piss on them.) Brilliant. This is why if I want good commentary I'm as likely to find it at the Soundhole as anywhere. Unless epaul just plagiarized that whole thing. Then I'll have to reconsider our collective brilliance minus epaul.
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Post by Russell Letson on May 1, 2018 15:11:07 GMT -5
This is how I look at Trump: The universe exists in state of perpetual tension between order and disruption. Broadly speaking, historically, the Right represents order, the Left represents disruption. Pull the other one--it's got bells on. Of course, maybe this is one of those 30,000-feet observations. Or maybe from geosynchronous orbit. (You know, where you only see one side of the planet from way far away.) Myself, I'm going to hunt down an alligator, look at it from the wrong end of a telescope, pick it up with tweezers, and put it in a matchbox.
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Post by brucemacneill on May 1, 2018 15:15:54 GMT -5
This is how I look at Trump: The universe exists in state of perpetual tension between order and disruption. Broadly speaking, historically, the Right represents order, the Left represents disruption. Pull the other one--it's got bells on. Of course, maybe this is one of those 30,000-feet observations. Or maybe from geosynchronous orbit. (You know, where you only see one side of the planet from way far away.) Myself, I'm going to hunt down an alligator, look at it from the wrong end of a telescope, pick it up with tweezers, and put it in a matchbox. That should save us one Social Security check per month. Go Donald, you've made Russell suicidal. Now if we can just move him to Canada...
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Post by epaul on May 1, 2018 15:18:44 GMT -5
(I did borrow "the blood-dimmed tide" from Yeat's "The Second Coming", a poem like no other by a poet like no other.)
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Post by millring on May 1, 2018 15:28:23 GMT -5
See? ...and I thought that was the weakest line in an otherwise brilliant post.
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Post by millring on May 1, 2018 15:33:30 GMT -5
This is how I look at Trump: The universe exists in state of perpetual tension between order and disruption. Broadly speaking, historically, the Right represents order, the Left represents disruption. Pull the other one--it's got bells on. Of course, maybe this is one of those 30,000-feet observations. Or maybe from geosynchronous orbit. (You know, where you only see one side of the planet from way far away.) Myself, I'm going to hunt down an alligator, look at it from the wrong end of a telescope, pick it up with tweezers, and put it in a matchbox. You're just being a contrarian. There's no way you disagree -- generally -- with the proposition that the very wings defined as "conservative" and "progressive" couldn't synonymously be described generally as "order" and "disruption". Surely one doesn't progress without disrupting the status. Heck, the left is the home of the revolutionary. If you're not careful, LJ is going to tell you to take a vacation. On the plus side, he'll apparently put you up for a couple weeks and he's got a great guitar collection.
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Post by epaul on May 1, 2018 15:39:12 GMT -5
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
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Post by epaul on May 1, 2018 15:41:24 GMT -5
What the hell ...
The Second Coming, W.B. Yeats
Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand; Surely the Second Coming is at hand. The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert A shape with lion body and the head of a man, A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun, Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds. The darkness drops again; but now I know That twenty centuries of stony sleep Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle, And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
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Post by drlj on May 1, 2018 15:43:31 GMT -5
I never said I would actually put John up for two weeks. I would allow him to take the 14 days one at a time over the course of 6-8 months.
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Post by Chesapeake on May 1, 2018 15:47:27 GMT -5
... I watched her WHCD routine on Youtube. Since then, it seems that the controversy has only gained steam. It’s even controversial here, on the nearly apolitical Soundhole. Out of curiosity I pulled up one of her earlier videos. I think it’s equally funny. That is to say, I don’t think it’s all that funny, but it did get a few chuckles out of me. I don’t know why this one wasn’t also controversial. I guess Hillary and scrotums don’t warrant the same indignation. Jim, you are probably too young to remember this, but the WHCD used to be something akin to a Dean Martin Celebrity Roast, a good natured fun fest that enabled everyone to tease and laugh with each other and come together in a "hail fellow well met" communal dinner. People didn't describe the president's daughter as being like a diaper, pretty on the outside, full of shit on the inside. They didn't describe a lady sitting next to them at the dinner table as being a despicable lying piece of garbage who made them ashamed of being a woman. The WHCD used to be a coming together from across the waters, a bridging of differences, a shared dinner in a shared country. Not an opportunity to score cheap and vicious cuts while holding the only megaphone at the table. It might seem hard to believe for some, but there were unpopular presidents before Trump and there will be unpopular presidents after Trump. There was life before Trump and there will be life after Trump. Institutions like the WHCD were akin to a ceremony, a ritual, that served to remind us of this. To remind that no matter how unpopular or ridden with rancor the moment may be, there was a yesterday and there will be a tomorrow and whatever the current itch is, we are and will remain bozos on the same bus, so for tonight, we will laugh and share food at our common table. There is nothing wrong with angry, biting humor, there can be much that is right with it. But time and place matters. This woman's foul rant at a communal dinner was akin to pissing in the communion wine, laying a rank turd in the punchbowl, farting repeatedly in the elevator. She desecrated a ceremony birthed to keep the blood-dimmed tide at bay. (you think I exaggerate? What keeps us from being the Congo or Syria or the Sudan or Somalia or Nigeria or Yemen or Iraq or Pakistan? Functioning ceremonies that bond and hold tight against the chaos, that's what. Don't piss on them.) Thank you for saying what I've been trying to say, only saying it much better.
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Post by Fingerplucked on May 1, 2018 15:59:58 GMT -5
... I watched her WHCD routine on Youtube. Since then, it seems that the controversy has only gained steam. It’s even controversial here, on the nearly apolitical Soundhole. Out of curiosity I pulled up one of her earlier videos. I think it’s equally funny. That is to say, I don’t think it’s all that funny, but it did get a few chuckles out of me. I don’t know why this one wasn’t also controversial. I guess Hillary and scrotums don’t warrant the same indignation. Jim, you are probably too young to remember this, but the WHCD used to be something akin to a Dean Martin Celebrity Roast, a good natured fun fest that enabled everyone to tease and laugh with each other and come together in a "hail fellow well met" communal dinner. People didn't describe the president's daughter as being like a diaper, pretty on the outside, full of shit on the inside. They didn't describe a lady sitting next to them at the dinner table as being a despicable lying piece of garbage who made them ashamed of being a woman. The WHCD used to be a coming together from across the waters, a bridging of differences, a shared dinner in a shared country. Not an opportunity to score cheap and vicious cuts while holding the only megaphone at the table. It might seem hard to believe for some, but there were unpopular presidents before Trump and there will be unpopular presidents after Trump. There was life before Trump and there will be life after Trump. Institutions like the WHCD were akin to a ceremony, a ritual, that served to remind us of this. To remind that no matter how unpopular or ridden with rancor the moment may be, there was a yesterday and there will be a tomorrow and whatever the current itch is, we are and will remain bozos on the same bus, so for tonight, we will laugh and share food at our common table. There is nothing wrong with angry, biting humor, there can be much that is right with it. But time and place matters. This woman's foul rant at a communal dinner was akin to pissing in the communion wine, laying a rank turd in the punchbowl, farting repeatedly in the elevator. She desecrated a ceremony birthed to keep the blood-dimmed tide at bay. (you think I exaggerate? What keeps us from being the Congo or Syria or the Sudan or Somalia or Nigeria or Yemen or Iraq or Pakistan? Functioning ceremonies that bond and hold tight against the chaos, that's what. Don't piss on them.) Well said. I’ve been thoroughly unimpressed with all the outrage, even though some of it has come from people I respect and usually agree with. Up until last week I’ve been hearing “It’s just locker room talk,” “you’re taking him literally when you should be taking his meaning,” “He’s just saying what we’ve all been thinking,” and “I never said/did that (even though there are videos of him saying/doing just exactly that). I’m not saying that anyone here said those things, although there are a few. Trump has been the schoolyard bully, hitting the weakest and most vulnerable among us, over and over again. Michelle Wolf hit back. Is it what I would have done? No, at least not in that manner. Was it in good taste? No. Do I give a shit? No. Remember the Billy Jack movies? It was satisfying to see him go apeshit on the bullies. Michelle Wolf/Trump was the same thing. While I wasn’t exactly applauding her counter attack, I wasn’t bothered by it either. However, you’ve framed it well, Paul. I suspect you said what others were hinting at or wish they had said. Looking at it in the way you’ve framed it, I find myself in complete agreement. Damn that Michelle Wolf. Bitch.
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Post by Fingerplucked on May 1, 2018 16:02:56 GMT -5
Don, for the record, I was typing while you were posting. My suspicions were only guesses. Good ones, but, you know ...
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Post by Russell Letson on May 1, 2018 16:20:40 GMT -5
There's no way you disagree -- generally -- with the proposition that the very wings defined as "conservative" and "progressive" couldn't synonymously be described generally as "order" and "disruption". Surely one doesn't progress without disrupting the status. Heck, the left is the home of the revolutionary. There are any number of ways of disagreeing with Jeff's squinty vision of the political landscape. Here's one: "Conservative" and "progressive" are both relative terms--that is, they indicate sets of philosophical and policy ideas relative to each other and relevant to a given historical moment. It's more useful to note the clumping of particular policies (and their philosophical bases) and see how they differ from each other. It's also useful to note the demographics of those who accept the labels and/or the policies and programs so labeled. Whose interests are represented by "conservatives" and "progressives"? Cui bono? BTW, if conservatives are agin disruption, how come that's the direction from which I hear all the talk about creative destruction and disruption of the status quo and the hegemony of the coastal elites? I won't even get into the right-wing revolutions and civil wars of the last century--though what was really going on was various flavors of authoritarianism being passed off as something more high-minded and intellectual than jackbootery. (I'm not going to bother with that "Nazis were really leftists" nonsense.) (And speaking of coastal elites and The Left, how does one explain the distinctly "leftist" history of much of the upper midwest? Note what "DFL" stands for.)
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Post by brucemacneill on May 1, 2018 16:28:11 GMT -5
(And speaking of coastal elites and The Left, how does one explain the distinctly "leftist" history of much of the upper midwest? Note what "DFL" stands for.)
Had to google DFL. First definition was "Dead fuckin' last" so I kept looking. Guess it's a party in Minnesota. I figure they think the coast of the great lakes is a coast. Beyond that Sweden and Norway are socialist monarchies. Then again they're near that Socialist country Canada. One way or another it must have rubbed off.
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Post by epaul on May 1, 2018 16:34:01 GMT -5
The DFL. The Dazzling Farmers League.
(I have long been a proud and sustaining member)
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Post by millring on May 1, 2018 17:11:51 GMT -5
BTW, if conservatives are agin disruption, how come that's the direction from which I hear all the talk about creative destruction and disruption of the status quo and the hegemony of the coastal elites? Maybe you need to go back and read what Jeff wrote, 'cause I'm pretty sure he's saying the same thing.
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