COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Monday, December 31, 2012

Vice President Biden and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell are close to a deal to cancel historic tax hikes for most Americans. But they are still hung up on spending, with Democrats resisting a GOP proposal to delay automatic spending cuts for just three months. President Obama to deliver remarks about the “fiscal cliff” at 1:30 p.m.

33 comments:

  1. Historic tax hikes?

    No, just a return to the Clinton rates. Remember? The Best economy in the last 60 yrs?

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  2. You know those Europeans have to envy us. We have All the fun, don't we? :)

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    2. You're right there. In Europe, much is done behind closed doors in the dead of night in Brussels, or wherever it is, and they wake up in the morning finding things aren't the same. I like our way better.

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  3. Only in America do we turn Congressional Budget/tax negotiations into "playoff, sudden death sports events."

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    2. I think they all ought to just play an old fashioned game of chicken, you know, couple hot rods, loaded up with officials, speeding at one another, see who swerves first.

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  4. My prediction is Congress (esp. the House) votes on this sometime after Midnight. That way, they'll be voting on a Tax "Cut," not a tax "increase."

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    1. Timed to correspond with the dropping of the ball in Times Square.

      Let's see Europe match that!

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    1. .

      There is an additional link you can go to on the calculator that allows you to refine the numbers for your personal situation. Using that link, it appears that I would be paying a few grand more in taxes, something I wouldn't object to if I thought it was going towards solving our long term fiscal problems.

      But it wouldn't. As I pointed out before, neither party is actually interested in lowering the deficit. Both sides would look at the additional revenue as found money, the GOP wanting to spend it on guns while the Dems would want to spend it on butter.

      Being cynical (yet fair) :), I would like to see the tax code become more progressive and tax the rich as the Dems propose but at the same incorporate the GOP mantra of starve the beast.

      In other words, I view the tax code as a zero sum game. If the government is going to waste the money it collects, I would like it to be the other guy's money they waste, not mine.

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    2. Perfect collection of emotions all of which, oddly enough, seem to favor your own financial position, unbelievably.

      it appears that I would be paying a few grand more in taxes, something I wouldn't object to if I thought it was going towards solving our long term fiscal problems.

      But it wouldn't
      .....therefore tax somebody else, like, oh, the rich! Then I don't care if the government wastes the money.

      heh

      Wonderfully expressed escape hatch there.

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    3. In order to avoid the problem of 'waste' Quirk, you can up your charitable givings, then you have control over where it goes.

      I'd like to ask, why should someone who makes a million dollars one year, say a farmer, or a developer, and I am not referring to myself, and not much of anything many other years, and I am referring to myself here, be taxed more than Rufus or Quirk?

      Maybe he/she really earned it, and employed a bunch of folks along the way, and made a product everyone needs. Why should this be punished?

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    5. Maybe no one should be taxed at all, in any way, until they have a net worth of maybe a million. And that is off limits to estate taxes too. That would give an incentive to get out there 'and make your first million', as the saying used to be, and you'd be able to take care of your next generation.

      Our tax code makes zero sense except as a big rip off scheme, and punishes the creation of and continuing of the nuclear and extended family, the destruction of which is at the root of many of our problems.

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    6. .

      Wonderfully expressed escape hatch there.

      Escape hatch? You make it sound like I am trying to hide something. I thought I made it perfectly clear. If you have to soak someone, soak the rich, the same guys who have been cleaning up since 2001, the only guys who have made any money since 2001; but leave poor little Quirk alone. You talk about 'charity'. Every dollar I send to the government is charity. Their priorities are not my priorities. You saw the link I put up on infrastructure. Our roads are going to pot, the bridges are rusting away, in some major water systems we are losing 30-40 of residential water to leaks yet we underfund repairs so that we can build roads in Afghanistan. One example, I could go on indefinitely.


      I'm not looking for an out. How more clearly can I state it? Even a dumb hick like you out to be able to understand that, Bobbo.

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    7. .

      Your post on the million dollar farmer is typical of you. If he's making a million, he probably should be paying more in taxes. If he doesn't make a million the next year, he wouldn't be paying as much. That is the point the GOP fails to see.

      Since at least 2001, the average Joe has seen no real increase in his wages while the rich have made out like bandits. For a simple refresher course go take a look at the charts DDR put up yesterday.

      As Mr. Sutton said when asked why he robs banks, "That's where the money is."

      The rich are taking on an increasing portion of the tax burden because they are taking an increasing amount of the money being made. It's pretty damn simple, you take money from the rich because the rich are the only ones that have any money.

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    8. As for the "chicken/feathers" argument - INCOME AVERAGING

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    9. I used to be able to carry over loses. Did it many times. I don't know if that is still possible.
      ......

      I would like to see the tax code become more progressive and tax the rich.... It's pretty damn simple, you take money from the rich because the rich are the only ones that have any money.

      But of course.


      you ((((take)))) money from the rich because the rich are the only ones that have any money

      What could be simpler? Robin Hood had it figured out.

      You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

      — Exodus 20:17

      Desire leads to coveting, and coveting leads to stealing. For if the owner (of the coveted object) does not wish to sell, even though he is offered a good price and is entreated to accept, the person (who covets the object) will come to steal it, as it is written (Mikha 2:2) [Micah 2:2], 'They covet fields and (then) steal them.' And if the owner approaches him with a view to reclaiming his money or preventing the theft, then he will come to murder. Go and learn from the example of Achav [Ahab] and Navot [Naboth].

      — Maimonides


      Ending in.....murder.

      heh

      Just shoot 'the rich', take their shit, get it over with, and be honest about it!!

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    10. "Then all shall be well in the garden."

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    11. I'm not looking for an out.

      Oh, no, not at all, at all. Just let somebody, anybody, else pay is all. No out at all. ((Take)) the money from 'the rich', which is anybody with more than I, and count me out, is all I'm asking.

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    12. .

      Bobbo, I've probably mentioned it before but you are a nitwit.

      I used to be as nutz as you, believed in the American dream, thought the best tax, if there was a tax, was the flat tax or the 'fair tax'. But that was when I was young and stupid, too busy making a living to do a little reading, you know, in the days before google. Now, I recognize our current system for what it is, crony capitalism, a rigged game.

      Your last post was laughable but still what I would expect from you.

      Using the Bible to defend the crooks at the banks and on wall street, as well as, the politicos in OZ, talk about a joke.

      Hilarious. I could go on for a few more posts talking about the way the average Joe is being screwed by these people, how through the FED and the Treasury be are feeding the profits of the banks while sticking it to the elderly, those on fixed income, how the hedge fund honchos get by paying jackshit in taxes, how the corporations have gotten rich off of productivity increases while gutting their work forces, how the politicos are willing to stick to everyone, rich and poor alike, just to assure they will get elected, how...well I could go on but it likely wouldn't make an impression on you. You are still wandering in the GOP dream. Never having transitioned, you have progressed from young and stupid to old and stupid.

      ...and be honest about it!!

      Are you illiterate? Be honest about it? How much more honest can I be?

      Lord, have you seen any Cheshire cats over there in Bob-world?

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    13. Just what I thought. You do want to shoot the rich.

      The banks? Wall Street? Ash? This is the first I've heard of this. You never mentioned the banks before. This is called moving the goal posts. How can anyone possibly have any concern with the banks?

      ((Take)) the money from 'the rich', which is anybody with more than I

      My words, your thoughts.

      but leave poor little Quirk alone

      Po, po little Quirk. Just leave him alone.

      Losing an argument, you bring in the banks like in an old socialist drinking song.

      Shame, shame.

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    14. .

      Losing an argument?

      What argument? We may be having a failure to communicate but we are not having an argument. I might try to imbue you with a little wisdom occasionally; but I wouldn't argue with you, Bobbo. My dear old mom warned me to never argue with a fool since he will only drag you down to his level and then beat you with experience.

      You quote the Bible almost as much as T. The problem is you don't follow its precepts. Take Corinthians 11 for instance. "When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things." You have failed to transition, Bob.

      You continue to speak as a child, to understand as a child, and to think as a child. Or a puppy. However, the difference between a puppy and a fool is this--the one is born blind and continues so for nine days only, while the other remains with his eyes shut all his life.

      Open your eyes, Bobbo. There is no fool like an old fool.

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  6. We've been requested by the Venezuelan government to pray for Chavez. Join me in praying that he dies before January 10th, which will make the transition easier, as the legislature has a say in who replaces him. After that date, the bus driver replaces him, so I read.

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  7. NBC: No House vote, today.

    :)

    Suprize, Suprize

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    1. We're over the cliff! Finally!! Don't it feel great!!! Freedom!!!!

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  8. 2019.09.17.八大行業酒店快報酒店經紀30歲「竹聯十五份幫」成員酒店工作下班陳男昨晨與酒店經紀友人搭計程車回台北市萬寧街住處,下車時卻遇槍手伏擊,陳男右大腿中1槍,送醫院急救,暫無生命危險,涉嫌開槍的酒店兼職20歲四海幫份子梁男案發1小時後,主動到派出所投案並交槍,警方還在釐清其開槍動機。警方初步調查,涉嫌開槍的梁男是四海幫份子,擔任酒店經紀的陳男是林森北路大型酒店的「酒店打工圍事項目」成員,雙方人馬今年4月間曾在東區1間酒店酒後衝突,事後多次尋仇鬥毆,警方目前積極偵辦中。

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  9. 2019.10.20酒店經紀酒店上班調查,高達7成上班族對目前職場不滿,尤其在薪資、工作氛圍以及職場階級相處等不滿比例逾4成。多數上班族女性對酒店工作想當的榮譽感,更有高達7成4上班族有酒店兼職計劃在1年轉職酒店小姐。知名酒店經紀今天公布「大學生、上班族酒店打工調查」,調查結果顯示,9成大學生對於酒店兼差任職感到興趣,其中對酒店薪資比例最高,達33.8%;有42.8%不滿白天工作薪資,第三名則是對企業管理方式不滿達51.6%。

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  10. 2020.06.17酒店小姐的基本介紹跟工作內容今年4月國內出現首例酒店女公關確診武漢肺炎,為防堵疫情,中央流行疫情指揮中心宣布,自4月9日起,全國酒店、舞廳停止營業,直到5月中疫情趨緩,各縣市才陸續解除禁令,但在我在酒店上班的日子八大行業歇業期間不敢來酒店上班-酒店打工的原因,淋病感染卻意外激增,5月底確診數竟比過去3年同期平均數上升逾8成,醫師推測酒店上班-酒店兼職-兼差如何達成人生的第一桶金,這與性交易轉往地下化有關。根據疾病管制署酒店兼差不是一個複雜的工作環境?傳染病統計資料,性傳染病中淋病感染者近期顯著上升,比較2017、2018、2019與今年1月到6月初數據職場須知 【酒店PT 】,發現2017年在這段時間累計有2166例,2018年同期則有1903例,2019年同期為1875人確診,但2020年同期則有2574人確診,比前3年都高。再細看國內八大行業禁令與淋病成長趨勢,可發現淋病確診在八大行業4月9日喊卡當周有109例,到了5月第2周升高至135例,接下來有些微下降,但到5月最後1周又飆到142例,創下今年單周最高紀錄,和前3年同期平均數相較,更足足暴漲86.6%,且到了下一周、即6月第一周,仍有133 例,顯示疫情仍在高峰。至於同樣是性病的梅毒,確診個案則未明顯增加。針對八大行業禁令與淋病感染增加的關係,林口長庚醫院男性學及婦女泌尿科主任陳煜說,應與消費生態與客群產生變化有關,因酒店的消費較高,帶出場的門檻也高,但酒店歇業後,小姐還是要生活,只好轉入地下,進行性交易的頻率可能提高,才導致淋病增加。陳煜解釋,過去有研究發現,私下進行性交易的客群,以中下層、低消費的族群較多,而這些人使用保險套的情形也較不普遍,發生性病的風險偏高。淋病感染激增,梅毒疫情卻沒有擴大,對此陳煜認為,染淋症狀明顯,常有尿道灼熱感,且性器會流出黃綠色濃液,而梅毒感染初期可能僅有輕微的皰疹,較不容易發現,所以才有兩種性病趨勢大不同的特殊現象。疾管署副署長莊人祥說,近期確實發現淋病確診明顯增加,從年齡層分析,以20歲到29歲增幅最大,比去年1月至5月增逾300例;30歲到39歲也增約百例,且男多於女,增加個案以六都為主;至於與八大行業禁令的關係,他則說,詳細原因仍待疾管署進行相關調查。

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