patrick.net

Wait, wasn’t it a mantra of liberalism that art can’t be defined by fiat? I thought art was designed to provoke an emotional reaction, of some sort. Even if that reaction is disgust, amusement, or shock.
And now you’re proposing that art is actually only what you say it is?
Interesting.

Kakistocracy says

Every other person I know has been hurt and damaged their ride - usually within weeks of getting it and being a new rider. Over confidence kills on these things.

Some people should not ride. They don't have the attention or reflexes. Riding is dangerous. But so is skiing and a lot of other things. Accidents require 2 people not paying attention or 1 person getting crazy.

Life is dangerous. Motorcycles even more so.

This was gonna be used in Halloween 9, but Carpenter said it was shitty SFX.

Quigley says

Wait, wasn’t it a mantra of liberalism that art can’t be defined by fiat? I thought art was designed to provoke an emotional reaction, of some sort. Even if that reaction is disgust, amusement, or shock.

The test for Art is very simple. Put artwork on the floor of a museum. Call the Merry Maids and ask them to remove the trash from that room as you've just hosted "Art Appreciation for K-8 Schoolkids" there.

If they remove it, it's not art. If they leave it, it's art.

Goodbye, Jackson Pollock.

Perfect Trump re-election slogan: ‘I Don’t Keep Any Promises But My Voters Are Too Stupid to Notice’

WASHINGTON — I’ve got the perfect slogan for President Trump’s re-election campaign: “Promises Made, Promises Not Kept, But I’m Betting My Voters Are Too Stupid to Notice.”

Let’s take stock:

Trump promised to build a wall along the 2,000-mile southern border, with the cost of the “big, beautiful” barrier to be borne by Mexico. Trump made this pledge not once but dozens of times, in a call-and-response ritual at his campaign rallies. “Who’s going to pay for the wall?” he would demand, and the cheering crowds would yell the answer: “Mexico!”

Result: Not a single mile of Trump’s wall has been built. When Mexican officials made clear they would never pay a cent toward construction, Trump asked Congress for the money. Even with Republicans in control of both the House and the Senate for two full years, Congress declined to waste taxpayer dollars on the project. When Democrats took the House, Trump declared a “national emergency” in an attempt to steal funds from other projects. Still, despite what he claims, Trump has built no new wall.

Trump promised to reverse trade policies that he said were allowing the rest of the world to play Americans for suckers. He pointed to the U.S. balance-of-trade deficit as a yardstick measuring the “stupidity” of prior administrations that allowed trading partners like China, Mexico, Germany and even Canada to walk all over them. Tariffs were the solution, Trump said, as he launched a series of trade wars. “I love tariffs,” he crowed.

Result: The Commerce Department announced Wednesday that the overall U.S. trade deficit in goods last year soared to an all-time high of $891 billion. The deficit with China, Trump’s principal target — the amount by which the value of imported goods exceeded the value of exported goods — reached a record $419 billion. Many economists believe this is actually a sign of the U.S. economy’s relative good health. But according to Trump’s understanding, or misunderstanding, it is an abject failure.

Trump promised on Twitter that “there is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea.” He made that boast last year following his summit in Singapore with Kim Jong Un, with whom Trump said he had fallen “in love.” Most experts on North Korea warned that Kim’s vague promises to work toward “denuclearization” were worthless, but Trump insisted he had made a breakthrough and mused about possibly winning the Nobel Peace Prize.

Result: Following months of little or no progress, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats told Congress in January that North Korea is “unlikely to completely give up its nuclear weapons.” A second Trump-Kim summit, held last month in Hanoi, ended abruptly without an agreement. Around the same time, according to news reports, the North Koreans restarted work on a ballistic missile site. While Pyongyang has refrained from further tests of its nukes and missiles, Kim’s stockpile likely continues to grow. The threat remains.

Trump promised to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, claiming he would put in place a new health insurance system that would deliver better results and lower costs. He made the assault on Obamacare the main thrust of his first year in office.

Result: Obamacare remains the law of the land. Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress failed in an attempt to repeal the ACA and did not even make a serious attempt to design a potential replacement. Republicans have managed to chip away at the health care law — the individual mandate is gone, for example — and Trump often claims the ACA is “imploding.” But still it stands.

Trump promised to spend up to $1.5 trillion on refurbishing the nation’s infrastructure, building new airports, bridges, tunnels, roads and other gleaming monuments to American greatness. He said he was uniquely able to oversee such a program because of his successful career as a real estate magnate.

Result: “Infrastructure Week” has become a running joke. Every once in a while, the administration announces it is launching the infrastructure campaign — then does nothing meaningful to follow through.

Trump promised to “drain the swamp” of corruption in Washington.

Result: Perhaps the most corrupt administration in U.S. history, riddled with nepotism and teeming with swamp creatures.

I could go on. Trump did fulfill some promises he made to far-right ideologues (appointing archconservative judges) and the ultra-rich friends he sups with at Mar-a-Lago (cutting taxes for the wealthy). Overall, though, his administration has been a great big failure.

He apparently believes his loyal supporters are the dumbest, most gullible people on earth. We shall see if he’s right.

https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2019/03/10/robinson-perfect-trump-re-election-slogan-i-dont-keep-any-promises-but-my-voters-are-too-stupid-to-notice/

Tarantula says

4. Nancy Pelosi
Too many liberals
9. Too many conservative Evangelicals
13. Can't wear MAGA hat to work at a college
14. Can't own a gun
15. Gender confusion
20. Realtors
22. White people won't pick strawberries

this part seems very true

marcus says

Tarantula says

19. Fags
20. Realtors
21. Homos

Based on about half that list, I can't help but wonder if Tarantula is an alt account for Fortwayne.

You missed 24: poverty and fags. eyeroll

This list is a bit queer

Train to nowhere.
Highest state taxes in the country. Extra nuisance taxes on everything.
CALIPERS to go bankrupt at some point.
Straws illegal

zzyzzx says

Train to nowhere.
Highest state taxes in the country. Extra nuisance taxes on everything.
CALIPERS to go bankrupt at some point.
Straws illegal

LA recently banned sale of fur too.
restaurant can be fined for giving someone water they did not ask for
restaurant can be fined for giving you straws you did not ask for.

Insanity of the left is real

Quigley says

Wait, wasn’t it a mantra of liberalism ....

According to Wayne’s daily strawman, yeah, sure, that’s liberalism LOL.

jazz_music says

Lies!

BTW

Truths!
BTW:
https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/noel-sheppard/2012/04/23/media-myth-debunked-republicans-are-more-informed-about-politics

zzyzzx says

Straws illegal

But free syringes are everywhere!

MisterLearnToCode says

But free syringes are everywhere!

And Illegals are free to live in our Sanctuary State and Gavin Newsom even wants to give them free healthcare.

zzyzzx says

Highest state taxes in the country. Extra nuisance taxes on everything.

Looking at overall tax burden by state California comes in at number 10. Outdoing California are:

10. California - Total tax burden: 9.57 percent

Property tax burden: 2.66 percent
Individual income tax burden: 3.65 percent
Total sales and excise tax burden: 3.26 percent

9. New Jersey - Total tax burden: 10.02 percent

Property tax burden: 5.12 percent
Individual income tax burden: 2.46 percent
Total sales and excise tax burden: 2.44 percent

8. Illinois - Total tax burden: 10.08 percent

Property tax burden: 4.11 percent
Individual income tax burden: 2.44 percent
Total sales and excise tax burden: 3.53 percent

7. Rhode Island - Total tax burden: 10.14 percent

Property tax burden: 4.7 percent
Individual income tax burden: 2.31 percent
Total sales and excise tax burden: 3.13 percent

6. Connecticut - Total tax burden: 10.19 percent

Property tax burden: 4.17 percent
Individual income tax burden: 3.34 percent
Total sales and excise tax burden: 2.68 percent

5. Minnesota - Total tax burden: 10.37 percent

Property tax burden: 3 percent
Individual income tax burden: 3.7 percent
Total sales and excise tax burden: 3.67 percent

4. Vermont - Total tax burden: 10.94 percent

Property tax burden: 5.2 percent
Individual income tax burden: 2.32 percent
Total sales and excise tax burden: 3.42 percent

3. Maine - Total tax burden: 11.02 percent

Property tax burden: 4.8 percent
Individual income tax burden: 2.69 percent
Total sales and excise tax burden: 3.53 percent

2. Hawaii - Total tax burden: 11.57 percent

Property tax burden: 2.2 percent
Individual income tax burden: 2.85 percent
Total sales and excise tax burden: 6.52 percent

1. New York - Total tax burden: 13.04 percent

Property tax burden: 4.62 percent
Individual income tax burden: 4.78 percent
Total sales and excise tax burden: 3.64 percent

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/10/us-states-with-the-highest-tax-burdens.html

This one is easier to read, more data: https://wallethub.com/edu/states-with-highest-lowest-tax-burden/20494/

Kakistocracy says

Looking at overall tax burden by state California comes in at number 10. ... Total tax burden: 9.57 percent

Property tax burden: 2.66 percent
Individual income tax burden: 3.65 percent
Total sales and excise tax burden: 3.26 percent

What the heck does that even mean? I'm guessing those percentages are % of entire income that goes to the various taxes. Also, you can't write off sales taxes from your income tax, so summing the pieces isn't a valid calculation in any numerical sense.

Also, it's silly to talk about state-wide averages. Different parts of California are enormously different and different people's circumstances are different.

If you're trying to live a real life in silicon valley, you'll be paying double that 3.65% income tax average. For a single person, the 4% tax bracket starts at $19k and the 9.3% (!!!) bracket starts at $52k. A 1-bedroom apartment is $25k/year, so hitting the 9.3% bracket doesn't mean you've "made it" financially. You'll need a salary more like $200k/year to even think about buying a house, at which point you're more like 8% of income going to CA tax.

Sales and excise taxes ... sales tax is 9% (approximate) and you're not counting the extra tax on gasoline, I guess you're only using 1/3 of your income on taxed items? That could be right for some people.

Property tax... there are wildly varying percentages of income being paid for property tax. People who are in jail, bums, etc are paying 0. Renters are likely to be (indirectly) paying modest property taxes due to Prop 13. Old people with Prop 13 are paying close to $0 (which might be a high % if they are retired and/or not reporting their income). People who just bought a house might be paying 4% or 5%. It all depends.

SunnyvaleCA says

Renters are likely to be (indirectly) paying modest property taxes due to Prop 13.

Dude, do you even landlord? The rent is whatever can be sustainably wrested from the renters, as high as possible before you get no more takers.

Prop 13 means that slum lords can charge $2500/month to rent a shack in Watts and pay $1500/year in property tax that goes for the local schools. Which keeps the schools chronically underfunded forever, despite the relatively high rents parents pay in the district.
Prop 13 is the reason LA unified can’t afford to pay more teachers to reduce class sizes down from 45:1. That and too many administrators. It’s not that teachers are getting rich like the water bureaucracy. It’s that Prop13 makes the local education chronically underfunded.

Quigley says

SunnyvaleCA says

Renters are likely to be (indirectly) paying modest property taxes due to Prop 13.

Dude, do you even landlord? The rent is whatever can be sustainably wrested from the renters, as high as possible before you get no more takers.

Prop 13 means that slum lords can charge $2500/month to rent a shack in Watts and pay $1500/year in property tax that goes for the local schools. Which keeps the schools chronically underfunded forever, despite the relatively high rents parents pay in the district.
Prop 13 is the reason LA unified can’t afford to pay more teachers to reduce class sizes down from 45:1. That and too many administrators. It’s not that teachers are getting rich like the water bureaucracy. It’s that Prop13 makes the local education chronically underfunded.

Fully agreed. I am as much a low/no tax guy as one can get, but prop 13 is fucked up. I said multiple times lower property taxes for all and repeal prop 13. In fact I would go further. Remove mortgage interest deduction OR allow the same standard deductions for renters (allow to deduct rent from income taxes up to the same amount as property) and any other investments. The current situation makes it easy for people who already have money to suck those who rent dry while artificially propping up house prices by passing property through generations in trusts and other vehicles (even corporations do that), resulting in extremely high inflation in house prices and rents (next to healthcare) which lower income professions such as teachers cannot afford. It's fine if you're a private person and can't afford a posh place here in the bay area, you can move elsewhere, but it's an abomination that teachers cannot even dream of buying a flea infested tiny crap-shack with their salary in CA within 50 miles of the school they are supposed to teach at.

Prop 13 was suppose keep old people from getting taxed out of home not keep property commercial or residential from tax increases for perpetuity. Problem now is that CA government is horrible and will try to rip you off at every chance.

jazz_music says

The media’s bias, a large part of it is in fact right-wing bias

Paul Krugman is obviously biased here. What about CNN and MSNBC? If he doesn't see a heavily distorted bias on those networks then he isn't being objective. FOX is the only right-wing major network and conservatives are inundated with left-wing biased news everyday. If you were a conservative you would see it. Most reporters are dems, so to sit there and say the media has a right-wing bias is disingenous and false.

RC2006 says

Prop 13 was suppose keep old people from getting taxed out of home not keep property commercial or residential for perpetuity. Problem now is that CA government is horrible and will try to rip you off at every chance.

Sure but usually creating exceptions to benefit one subgroup doesn't work as intended and will get abused. Also old people are not the poor in CA or in the US in general. They may not be rich either but they are doing significantly better than the youth of whom most will never become a house owner or when they do they will be twice the age that granny was when she purchased her home. Not to mention the older generation is set wrt Medicare while health insurance & cost inflation screws the youth disproportionally. The vast majority of the poor and homeless are not that old. Granny can scale down, sell her bay area shack for 2MM+, buy a 1-2 bedroom for half the price and live plentiful for the rest of her life, including higher property taxes.

Quigley says

Prop 13 is the reason LA unified can’t afford to pay more teachers to reduce class sizes down from 45:1. That and too many administrators.

Yep. And retiree healthcare is NOT money being spent in the classroom.

mell says

Granny can scale down, sell her bay area shack for 2MM+, buy a 1-2 bedroom for half the price and live plentiful for the rest of her life, including higher property taxes.

In CA she can take tax she paying to the downsized home as long as the downsize is less than what she sells for.

Example she sells her 2m property she is paying $500 on and buy a 1.9m house and still pay $500.

Yup that proposition passed.
I really don’t see why people should pay significantly different property tax rates based on how long they’ve been a homeowner. It’s really a “got mine, fuck the new guys” sort of rule. It might have begun with good intentions, but the super inflation of 1975-1985 changed it into something else entirely.

Its really bs that prop 13 house can be put in trust and kept in a family forever at low tax rate, businesses I believe are even worse because the tax rate can be kept down as long as originator keep a small share.

Quigley says

I really don’t see why people should pay significantly different property tax rates based on how long they’ve been a homeowner.

Did your parents bring you here as a little kid, or birthed you here?

Or were you coerced to move to here with a gun to your head?

Just asking.

Quigley says

Yup that proposition passed.
I really don’t see why people should pay significantly different property tax rates based on how long they’ve been a homeowner. It’s really a “got mine, fuck the new guys” sort of rule. It might have begun with good intentions, but the super inflation of 1975-1985 changed it into something else entirely.

You weren't here during the tax revolt I take it. Shit was insane, unions wanted tax increases, while average Americans everywhere were foreclosing because they couldn't afford taxes to pay union pensions. That was fucked up.

Prop 13 nicely fixed that problem. You can at old age not worry about bullshit market speculation affecting your taxes. You shouldn't have to pay more taxes because someone is willing to overpay next door. It created stability for older folks. You get rid of prop 13 and you'll have homelessness and riots on the street.

Fortwaynemobile says

You shouldn't have to pay more taxes because someone is willing to overpay next door. It created stability for older folks.

Well said.

Sorry not buying it. There’s no reason for me to pay 4 times your tax for an equivalent home. The only exception I can condone for different tax rates for the same thing is a reduced rate for senior citizens (past 65), say 25% of normal tax. And no transfers.
We all need to pay the same tax if we are to feel right about it and be equally invested in the society.

Quigley says

Prop 13 is the reason LA unified can’t afford to pay more teachers to reduce class sizes down from 45:1. That and too many illegals.

FIFY

Kakistocracy says

New Jersey -

Property tax burden: 5.12 percent

Woo hoo, We're Number One! We're Number One!

We beat all you suckers on the property tax burden.

Now stop whining!

Go back in time and pay 30 years of taxes I paid into the system to help afford society and build it.
Your view of equality is very unequal.


Quigley says

Sorry not buying it. There’s no reason for me to pay 4 times your tax for an equivalent home. The only exception I can condone for different tax rates for the same thing is a reduced rate for senior citizens (past 65), say 25% of normal tax. And no transfers.
We all need to pay the same tax if we are to feel right about it and be equally invested in the society.

FortWayneIndiana says

Go back in time and pay 30 years of taxes I paid into the system to help afford society and build it.
Your view of equality is very unequal.


Quigley says

Sorry not buying it. There’s no reason for me to pay 4 times your tax for an equivalent home. The only exception I can condone for different tax rates for the same thing is a reduced rate for senior citizens (past 65), say 25% of normal tax. And no transfers.
We all need to pay the same tax if we are to feel right about it and be equally invested in the society.

That's fine but most probably even with all that pay-in take more out net-net than they paid in, the reason being the incredible inflation in local essential goods and services (Medicare etc.). Even though the millenials are stupid if they think they can vote in socialism and come out ahead when they're older they are worse off than the older generations. And then they have terrible work ethic on top of that, so it's a recipe for socialism.

Willing to bet Jazz's entire exposure to Q is from this article.

Fortwaynemobile says

You get rid of prop 13 and you'll have homelessness and riots on the street.

No kidding.

As if California's problems are that we aren't taxed high enough.

Quigley says

There’s no reason for me to pay 4 times your tax for an equivalent home.

hahahaha!

Then why are you doing it, Quigley?

Why did you pay too much and by doing so, lock-in too high of a tax assessment on yourself?

I didn't find your answer my previous question, just asking.... did your parents bring you here when you were a kid, or by birthing you here? Or were you coerced with a gun pointed at your head to come here and overpay?

Yeah it has been a pretty good larp. Qoomers still have faith and don't recognize it for what it really has been- a very successful stall tactic.

jazz_music says

A comprehensive counter-case to one of the more dumb conspiracy theories in history

Are you talking about that conspiracy of Russian collusion that's been going on for almost 3 years?

B.A.C.A.H. says

Quigley says

There’s no reason for me to pay 4 times your tax for an equivalent home.

hahahaha!

Then why are you doing it, Quigley?

Why did you pay too much and by doing so, lock-in too high of a tax assessment on yourself?

I didn't find your answer my previous question, just asking.... did your parents bring you here when you were a kid, or by birthing you here? Or were you coerced with a gun pointed at your head to come here and overpay?

If you sell your house, will you sell it at market price $$MM or 1970s $100k. Hope you can answer your own question.

Fortwaynemobile says

You get rid of prop 13 and you'll have homelessness and riots on the street.

You mean, just like every other state out side CA where there are no Prop 13 victims in every neighborhood.