patrick.net

Taxpayer says

That is what I was referring to. None of MY INCOME is capital gains. So I am forced to pay 10x into medicare than someone making 50k. Why should that be when we both will be given the same benefit? Instead, first of all, medicare should be made into a voluntary program. Secondly, if everyone is getting the same medicare benefits, then everyone should pay a flat amount, say $2500 per year (irrespective of income); and not a discriminatory percentage based premium.

What part of cutoff don't you get? Are you sure you know what you're talking about? You don't pay fica above 106k so at 500k you don't pay 10x what someone making 50k does, you pay 2x. Someone earning 50k does pay 10x what someone making 5k but gets the same benefit. In using something called logic everyone earning less than 106k is actually subsidizing the benefits of everyone earning over 106k.

Taxpayer says

47% of the people in this country pay NO INCOME taxes. A majority of that 47% are the non-wealthy. I agree that there are a few wealthy tax dodgers in that 47%; but the majority of that is non-wealthy people. And those are the people benefiting from medicaid and all the welfare programs.

Your original post said that majority of taxes were from the wealthy and were used for the majority of government spending which was medicare and ss. As I pointed out the wealthy simply do not pay the majority of FICA which funds medicare and ss. Now you are changing that to INCOME TAXES and medicaid/welfare? Which is it? Tell me when you make up your mind. Medicaid and welfare aren't the majority of the government spending, they aren't even the majority of the general budget (that's the part of the budget that is not Medicare/ss and not funded by FICA) or anywhere close.

You are apparently one of the people who believes the definition of wasteful government spending is anything not spent on you.

I think most government programs are wasteful and dated. At least out here in CA, there is insane amount of fraud and abuse.

And to add insult to injury, when economy tanks politicians ask for more taxes from the private sector employees to pay for the bloated benefits and salaries of public sector.

Taxpayer says

None of MY INCOME is capital gains

Short term capital gains do get hit by SS taxes. Last year I paid 42% in taxes since some income was short term capital gains (not counting sales taxes, etc... realistically closer to 50%). But it is not fair that most capital gains are not taxed for this.

And someone correct me if I'm wrong, but if you flip houses you don't pay FICA taxes, but if you are a working man you are taxed. Seems hardly fair.

This isn't just Jewish, it's a very common practice in Mexico as well.

pkennedy says

But the habits, new cars and better driving style won’t go away. People will continue to burn less gas, and the gas will cost less, meaning they earn even less than before.

Not in this post-peak world.

As a point of fact, the yuan has about a 3X appreciation left in it, if the history of the Japanes yen is any pattern.

1.3 billion Chinese with 3X the buying power is a scary thing for oil prices.

Yes, our oil consumption will be driven down by $10/gas. As will our outdoor economy.

"How about all the shareholders of say, Haliburton? No way they would have made all that money. Either it would have come right back out in high taxes to finance those lucrative DoD Contracts, or if there was no SS trust fund theft, all those contracts would have never happened."

Agreed. Ultimately we (the US) have spent too much on the military budget anyway you cut it. Spending which at best has a low multiplier effect compared to other areas.

Tenouncetrout says

Calling him an “Employee” is no less ridiculous than calling everyone that posts on Patrick.net an Employee of Patrick.

Was he paid by Fox? I think that's a pretty key distinction, don't you?

American in Japan says

Agreed. Ultimately we (the US) have spent too much on the military budget anyway you cut it. Spending which at best has a low multiplier effect compared to other areas.

The funniest thing to me is all the people here that bemoan our foreign aid when in reality it is just military spending in disguise. Much of the "aid" has strings attached stating that it must be used to purchase US military equipment.

Anyone who wants to cut government spending has to start and finish with military spending. Period.

and Bill Clinton does book tours LET GET HIM!!!!

You guys forget, you're the only ones with a problem with Rick on Fox, the other 50% calls their wife in... "Hey Hon! Get in here, Rick Santorum is on Fox News again!"

Tenouncetrout says

and Bill Clinton does book tours LET GET HIM!!!!
You guys forget, you’re the only ones with a problem with Rick on Fox, the other 50% calls their wife in… “Hey Hon! Get in here, Rick Santorum is on Fox News again!”

Huh? I was just pointing out that if Fox is paying him, he is a Fox employee. Patrick doesn't pay any of his posters, so it's a really crappy analogy.

Well what does Rick getting paid to go on FOX and getting paid to say "the Democrats are out to Screw us", that hardly makes him an employee. Is Bill Clinton a Motivational Speaker, or a Politician?

state says

Are you completely missing nomos point on purpose, or are you just an idiot?

Nomograph says

Conservative pool is a current or past employee of Fox News, including Sarah Palin, Santorum, and Newt Gingrich.

No I got his point but a Lie a point does not make.

state says

or are you just an idiot?

Now Chir'yn don't go calling me Names, I might say something back that will make you tell Patrick on me, then he'll send me another email telling "ME" to be nice.

what does stuck to an area mean? were you forced to live there? why would anyone take a job that means driving 100 miles every day?

We have a similar monthly gas bill too. Some people are "stuck" to an area for several reasons - like kids going to a particular school, being near family or being near a spouse's job. In our case, my job is closer to my home and the kids school. So, my spouse does almost 45 miles of commuting each way in traffic - a compromise we like because that leaves me 100% responsible for kids that my spouse just loves! We also have extra commuting for kids activities like art, sports etc, weekend shopping trips for grocery and essentials, visiting family or friends etc.
Sometimes, $750 for gas looks normal for our family. And we still try to combine a few chores into each trip, walk to the convenience store round the corner etc.
I saw an analyst on TV saying low end retailers will take a hit in 2011 and that the high end retailers are the only ones that will do well because they can pass on the costs to their well heeled customers.

Has anybody ever Googled Rick Santorum?

Yeah the first hit is a Liberal smear spot, you gotta pay to rank like that.
Followed by Stewart hit then a Colbert hit.

Now I'm curios, Santorum is a "Republican" right?

You know I find it Ironic, Liberals have to invent words "Santorum" and create definitions for it too, to stick it to the Republicans.

Well you know what word is also in the News the Republicans didn't invent?

Weiner! A big Fat lying Weiner, can't keep his dick in his pants Weiner.

Say it, "Weiner" it just flows like "Liberal". Liberal Weiner...

Even by Pennsy's (I loathe to admit it but I lived in Scranton for 2 years and did some volunteer work for the county repub party so I am very conversant with political "standards" in PA) pretty damn low sleaze standards Santorum was considered by most to be a exceptionally sleazebag politico working the system for self enrichment.

Of course our district had Don Sherwood mr super republican family values man who claimed it was ok that he had a mistress since he didn't beat her. Anyone know why is it all the family values repubs end up sleeping around, usually without much regard to gender?

John Edwards anyone?
But he didn't know he was breaking the Law.

Had a woman at home with Cancer, and he's out plowing the help.
Talk about sleaze.

Sex and politicians to me is a non issue, but I wont have black kettles pissing the pot.

ToT, did I miss something? Is Bill Clinton running for president again? If he's not then any analogy you make here using him only works in Wackedout Bizzarroland.

The point of this entire discussion is that almost all current Republican presidential hopefuls either are or have been employees of Fox. The key point here is that almost all of the conservatives are or have been employed by GOP TeeVee.

Find a CURRENT liberal presidential hopeful who is employed by a "news" network that is exclusively run by liberals that serves as a liberal campaign propaganda network. Go ahead, I dare you.

(First you have to find a liberal Fox equivelant. Yeah, good luck with that.)

state says

Tenouncetrout says

Well what does Rick getting paid to go on FOX and getting paid to say “the Democrats are out to Screw us”, that hardly makes him an employee.

umm, yes it does, it literally means that he was an employee. I mean, its hard to take you seriously when you cannot figure out these very simple things.

Well maybe he's a contractor, if that's the case, Marge over in HR doesn't view him the same as an Employee. Think he's getting Fox News Bennies? And if so, do you think he is "Entitled" to them?

simchaland says

ToT, did I miss something? Is Bill Clinton running for president again? If he’s not then any analogy you make here using him only works in Wackedout Bizzarroland.

Oh I see, you guys are just here to spout Bullshit about Presidential candidates. Obama is Great don't sweat it, he's doing fine...
No really, stick around He's got the Lindbergh baby in the Green room.

@Tenounce

You sure seem to be "tuned in" to the goings on at FOX "news", and repeat the same diatribe for someone who professes to not have "drank the Kool-aid".

From your posts you seem to be so full of Kool-aid that those within ear shot of you would risk having holes smashed in their walls if they were to yell, “HEY KOOL-AID!”

Tenouncetrout says

Weiner! A big Fat lying Weiner, can’t keep his dick in his pants Weiner.

Of course he can, he just can't help tweeting pics of his dick.

Is this a high-tech version of a guy in the park naked under a trench coat?

But, come on Tenounce, you must admit that even if you are not a fan of anal-sex the Santorum definition is pretty funny.

Santorum (the guy, not the frothy mixture) is one of those "doth protest too much" people. I would not be surprised in the least if a gay sex scandal were to break.

Tenouncetrout says

Well maybe he’s a contractor, if that’s the case, Marge over in HR doesn’t view him the same as an Employee. Think he’s getting Fox News Bennies? And if so, do you think he is “Entitled” to them?

Really??? Are you going to break this down to a issue of semantics? Or do you really not understand the overriding point being made?

I get that you guys want me to think Santorum is some desk jockey over at FoxNews, and there's some sinister plot going on against the Democrats. Fox News is going to blast his picture and doctrine at all of the Nascar events, Teahouses, and Tent Revivals.
And its just terrible, because Political candidates being a Network Asset is a dangerous thing. Let alone when a Network is a Candidates bully pulpit.

And I'm jumping up and down pissed off with you and saying "Yes! Yes! Yes!". How ever!
It's you guys, that don't get it, it only bothers you when it's somebody else doing it. It scares me when any Mother Fugger has that arrangement.

Do you think other politicians don't get paid for their Contributions to the News outlets they support? Right or Left.

That does not make them "Employees" they aren't hired and fired, the only way these guys could lose these gigs, is be to irrelevant to the Networks paying them.

Politics is theatrics and showmanship, who works for free?

I bet Weiner is going to make more money "Contributing" to news going forward I guarantee that.

This is the first thing that comes up when I google Santorum. That's gross. I just now learned about this

http://www.spreadingsantorum.com/

To understand where this definition (or meme) came from (I'm sure it will be a definition in english for eternity amongst the deviants that deal with such.)

I can here it now, "ewww I rolled over onto the Santorum." To understand the genesis of the definition:
http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/08/rick-santorum-google-problem-dan-savage
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santorum_(neologism)

That wikipedia is the second one to come up (at least on my machine).

Technology can be very amusing.

xenogear3 says

Many companies hire people pretend to be union thugs.

Yup, they did it in Fremont at the NUMMI plant. They are very creative. They recruited fellow workers who were right-wingers and used them to direct criticism towards the union. They staged a riot at the UAW union hall with several agent provocateurs and filmed it with 2 cameras and then sent it out to the news media and union busting websites and posted it up on You Tube to prove that we were "union thugs".

I'm REALLY hoping Santorum gets the nomination. It will be epic.

thunderlips11 says

Why is circumcision singled out for “Concern”?

Circumcision is not "singled out". The difference between male circumcision and nose piercings is that the former is done to infants and the latter is decided by the person who is getting the piercing, and they must generally have permission to do it if they are not of legal age. There is a huge difference here.

>justme says

>And not just that: The foreskin exists for a reason. Just because a >man can live without it doesn’t mean it is ok or good to chop it off.

>>What reason is that?

Every body part exists for a reason. I'm not sure we know what half of our body parts are really for, or what unknown functions they might have.

Look, I understand that there exists people who will USE circumcision as a platform for anti-judaism. But that does not mean that wanting to protect infants and give them a choice later in life constitutes anti-judaism.

Thunderlips11, you write plenty of sensible stuff, but we are not going to agree on this one.

SF ace says

Sales tax/seller use tax = seller
consumer Use tax = buyer

The only difference is state prefer seller as buyer outnumbers seller 10,000/1 so it’s much easier compliance. Which is what the assembly bill does. It helps compliance rate from 1% to 99%.

The NY court is going through the legality of it all based on present facts (since the essence if the NY and CA/IL/NC bills are all the same). New York won round 1 and round 2. Obviously, only the last round count, but there is no indication Amazon will prevail. Anyone who says states can’t govern interstate commerce needs to go a little deeper to understand the factual substance.

The case in NY is based on an in-state presence, not an out of state company with no presence in NY. The link you posted explains this clearly and goes into some detail about restrictions on states taxing interstate commerce. Each state is sovereign and business with a presence in a state only fall under the laws of the states they have a presence in. The state of NY doesn't have jurisdiction over businesses in other states. In the case of Amazon, the company is using residents in NY to promote and solicit sales to other NY residents. The disagreement is whether or not Amazon's NY affiliates make a legal presence for the company as a whole. NY changed their laws saying they do. Amazon disagreed. The courts agreed with Amazon. The courts did not agree that NY has the right to force a business in North Dakota (for example), to register with and collect taxes for NY.

If you take the time to read about relevant cases you will find a very consistent pattern. States that attempt to force a company to collect sales taxes that do not have a presence in that state lose. When the companies lose it is because they have a presence in that state. The link you posted summarized that having affiliates in NY met the requirement for having a "nexus" in the State of NY. Without those affiliates the ruling, based on past history, would have been different. If Amazon dumps the NY affiliates they aren't liable to collect sales taxes for NY.

Someone needs to setup a circumcision store in the East Bay, and rake in the $$$$$!

elliemae says

Just curious, how many of these jobs did you create?

Whoa 1800 tequila just poured me a shot, what can your Tequila do?

I was told the rest is handed back to me by Saint Peter when I get to heaven. That was good enough for me.

When I was 16 I had a knee operation. In the other bed in my room was a very very old febel man about 80 or so. He was there having his stuff removed. He told me, and I over heard the doc, that his skin was too stiff (quit laughing! this is not a joke) to be pulled back so there had been some fungus and such working to glue the flap down. So, there he laid .. moaning in agony .. while the nurse would help him force the oooozing pus from his flag-pole-wrapped member. Three times a day. New wraps, clean the scabs and cut away some more skin, and then later squeeze, the pus .... IF the feller was alive today, I think he should be the one to present the arguement for trimming.

Sim, no personal offence meant by this next part. I would bet the reason this push is in frisco is because sodomites there have discussed the matter and have found that sodomites with untrimmed members use more superlitives to describe their feeling while sodomizing. I do not think it is anti-Jew, exactly. I think it is just queer thought coupled with anti-God, in frisco.

thunderlips11 says

Better smell and taste, ‘freshness’ lasts longer between showers

best line I have read in a while. That rocks.

Very nice. Sounds like they have their heads on straight in Greensboro.

SEC is, reportedly, going after auditors of some Chinese companies that are traded on American exchanges (through reverse mergers).

"No nation has become richer from devaluing its currency."

How do you explain China?

You're probably right.

However, for those who understand, let them be wary of the Best Ayn Rand synopsis ever:

"Atlas Shrugged: Part 2 - One hour later"

Chinese are famous for their "get rich quick" schemes.

Name a Chinese company lasts 10 years. None.

shrekgrinch says

You just said we are going to become the “Islamic Republic of America”

I did not say that nor did I write it.

Your declining demographic trend is being offset by children of immigrants who probably don't look like you. But not by a surge of children of Islamic immigrants.
That's Europe.

thunderlips11 says

the elites are not only getting their share of productivity gains, they are keeping ALL the productivity gains.

Except the amount of the "rent" they permit siphoned off for nonproductive sectors of our society (like realtors, etc.)

This thread has been on the main forum page on and off for more than a week. Everyone has their limit. Mine has been reached.

*Ahem*

For the love of all that is holy; in the name of Zeus, Buddah, and Quetzalcoatl; and by Satan's terrible red testicles: "Entitlements" is plural! They are entitlements. Stop Calling *them* "Entitlements." Putting quotes around it doesn't change anything, because the entities --plural-- you're *not* calling "entitlements" are at least three: Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Those are what you're not calling "entitlements." Them.

Plural!

I have no idea what the discussion on this thread is about. Sincerely: apologies for barging in like this. It just had to be said. As you were.

Taxpayer says

That is not true. In 1910, there was very less demand for cars; while there was a huge demand for horses and buggies. What Henry ford did was to make people realize that they needed a car. While I agree that there are currents and trends, not everyone realizes them in the moment or shapes the currents themselves.

Yes, he accomplished a lot, and was a great salesman, selling his ideas to America and investors. But things would have happened in a very similar way without him. Somebody else would have figured out the idea of cars for regular folk. VW repeated the idea 40 years later.

I actually think cars are a great example of what I said. It was inevitable, Ford just happened to be the first one to pull off mass production. If not for him, someone else would have done it, very close to the same time. Maybe they would have been better.

This guy must have a bias against ford. Interesting though.
http://www.ausbcomp.com/~bbott/cars/carhist.htm

@ChrisLA

Is traffic getting somewhat less in LA due to the high cost of gasoline (more ridesharing, etc.)? Just curious. I don't miss the LA traffic from when I lived there.

American in Japan says

@ChrisLA
Is traffic getting somewhat less in LA due to the high cost of gasoline (more ridesharing, etc.)? Just curious. I don’t miss the LA traffic from when I lived there.

not that I can tell. Maybe on weekends, but we don't drive anywhere on weekends to save on gas, so speculating that others do the same.

During week it seems there are more people driving further out for jobs so traffic is very very congested during peak times since most companies are moving further out. A lot of people seem to skip on maintenance so there is at least one stalled car a week lately.