The Watering Hole: April 17, 2012 – Tax Day

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Picture found at http://www.truthbullets.wordpress.com

I don’t think you’ll need reminding do you? If anybody should have an “Oops”-moment here’s the extension form.

Mitt Romney has filed an extension. This comes hardly as a surprise, given how complicated it is to track down all those investments all over the planet and to get a nice tax rate about some 15%. Honestly, is it worth the trouble? Look what you have to do to get it.

You have to shovel 100 million into a trust for your sons and, boy, is it complicated to get rid of that pesky gift-tax. But then, which parent doesn’t want their kids to have it better in life?

Look what you have to go through to get it. People actually try and ask you questions about your very personal decision how to optimize your own tax-load. Disgusting really. No respect whatsoever. But then, can you really just talk to your friends and donors nowadays without getting slapped around by the press. No way. Interfereing lot those hacks. And again they mention taxes. And Swiss bank accounts.

No friends, it is not that easy to avoid paying taxes, really not. But then, if Mitt were President…..

87 thoughts on “The Watering Hole: April 17, 2012 – Tax Day”

  1. Hey EV, nice job of tying all the recent stories on Rmoney together in one post.

    I liked the way Webber passed Vettel on the last lap Sunday.

    Rubens Barrichello is racing over here in Indycar this year. I promise to try and not get him killed at Indy like almost what happened to Nelson Piquet some years back. F1 guys in Indycar is cool. BTW, Piquet, Jr. seems comfortable racing in Nascar in the trucks series. That just seems to be his level.

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  3. Last night on Rachel (hosted by Chris Hayes), Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island summarized Mitt Romney perfectly when he pointed out that virtually all Republicans are “prisoners of their ideology.” He was referring to their (the GOP’s) absolute inability to pass or even support highly popular legislation that might raise taxes or tax rates on the wealthy or on corporations, but it struck me that his summary describes the major reason that the Republicans can/will do NOTHING to benefit anyone other than those who need no assistance, period.

    Romney, as detailed above, is, in that regard, the quintessential representative of the Republican philosophy, the one which I would describe in my own words (slightly less reverent, perhaps, than the words of Sen. Whitehouse) as being ‘The only way to move the country forward is to continue to fuck the vast majority of The People.’

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  4. Capitalism is an economic system based on greed.

    The underlying question is, why are homo sapiens driven to amass great personal fortunes? We value this as an ultimate good, hence we allow, tolerate, and support a system that grants an inordinate share of wealth and power on the very, very few, to the detriment of the masses.

    In other words, to change this inherent inequality, we must change the very nature of our species. Education alone isn’t going to do it. Something must change in the hard-wiring of our brains.

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    • I’ve always hoped that evolution might eventually solve that problem even as it modifies or better yet, rids the species entirely of, the “pasture bull” gene that drives a hefty amount of aberrant human male behavior. But then I read recently there is no such thing as evolution, that it’s nothing other than yet one more fantasy of science, so poof, there goes THAT hope.

      Fortunately though, there’s no such thing as global warming either. So we should be OK as long as we as humans continue to exercise our god-given dominion over all earthly things.

      *barf*

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    • Someone once posed the question, if a person collects more things in their home than they can use, then they’re a hoarder. It’s a disease. If a person accumulates more money than they can use wouldn’t that be the same disease?

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      • Indeed. An interesting example is Ann Romney. She doesn’t actually amass the wealth, but she’s definitely benefited from it over her lifetime — and yet, she doesn’t feel rich.

        My question is this: How much is enough? Enough for decent housing; enough to stay warm in the winter and cool in the summer; enough to keep utilities running; enough to have access to reliable transportation; enough to make a living wage and put away some money for retirement; enough for decent healthcare; enough for a good education; enough for good healthy food; enough for a vacation now and then.

        How much is that? Or how little, depending on your perspective.

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    • Actually, it’s not that difficult to define what at least the right wing of American society has evolved into and become. Dante did it a long time ago in his ‘Divine Comedy’, to wit:

      From Dante’s “The Divine Comedy” The Seven Deadly Sins, aka “SALIGIA” based on the first letters of each (in Latin), in turn: Superbia, Avaritia, Luxuria, Invidia, Gula, Ira, Acedia.

      Superbia (Pride): love of self perverted to hatred and contempt for one’s neighbor.

      Avaritia (Greed): disloyalty, deliberate betrayal, or treason, especially for personal gain, for example through bribery. Scavenging and hoarding of materials or objects, theft and robbery, especially by means of violence, trickery, or manipulation of authority are all actions that may be inspired by greed.

      Luxuria (Lust): Desire for sexual or sociological excesses, compulsions and/or transgressions; a passionate or overmastering desire or craving, e.g. a lust for power.

      Invidia (Envy): love of one’s own good perverted to a desire to deprive other men of theirs.

      Gula (Gluttony): the over-indulgence and over-consumption of anything to the point of waste; “extravagant” indulgence

      Ira (Wrath): uncontrolled feelings of hatred and anger which can manifest as vehement denial of the truth, both to others and in the form of self-denial, impatience with the procedure of law, and the desire to seek revenge outside of the workings of the justice system (such as engaging in vigilantism) and generally wishing to do evil or harm to others. The transgressions borne of vengeance are among the most serious, including murder, assault, and in extreme cases, genocide.

      Acedia (Sloth): apathy and inactivity in the practice of virtue; depression, and joylessness; a sin of laziness or indifference, of an unwillingness to act, an unwillingness to care; indolence

      I copied all of that a long time ago from somewhere; unfortunately I don’t have the source (i.e. the precise URL) noted anywhere that I can find. Apologies for that oversight.

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  5. The thing that we must always remember is that Mittens will say ANYTHING to ANYBODY as long as he thinks it will bring in the big bucks. He’s not trying to change any minds, he just goes for the applause lines. He’s such a weather vane that, should he actually get elected, he might prove to be more “progressive” than President Obama simply by following the path of least resistence. Then, when the GOP runs a full slate of candidates in their primary against him, he’ll go all Reich-wing again. Of course, thanks to our dysfunctional media and the fact that everyone to the right of Obama’s left nut simply wants the black guy out of the White House at any cost, no casual observer will ever hear of his total lack of conviction. That information is only available to those who seek out news from diverse sources.

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  6. Dayton says stadium bill might have to wait until next year | StarTribune.com

    In Monday’s vote, only one member of Dayton’s DFL party, Rep. Michael Nelson of Brooklyn Park, voted for the bill, joining five Republican members. That angered Zellers, who is not leading the charge on the stadium but who has said the bill must draw bipartisan support to move forward.
    “We can’t pass the stadium by ourselves in the Republican caucus,” said Zellers.  “This is going to have to be a bipartisan approach. Last night, it clearly was not. Now, I’d say it’s up to the governor and the Democrat leader in the House if they want to go forward, because very clearly last night, they weren’t interested in passing the bill out of committee without recommendation.”

    Whether or not you’re for or against this, I found the statement by the Republican Speaker of the House, quite curious. The Democratic governor is for it, so they don’t need to overcome a veto. But he said “We can’t pass the stadium by ourselves in the Republican caucus.”

    Actually they can. They have a majority.

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    • Oh, and I forgot the key line by Zellers:

      “This is up to the governor and the Democrat minority leader,” he said of the future of the stadium bill. “If I was the governor, I’d be livid; if I was big labor, I’d be really, really livid.”

      I bet the rich guys who own the Vikings and who stand to profit handsomely by this are also livid. The Greedy Old Party has let them down. They had a democratic governor ready to sign this, they have a strong majority in both chambers, and they couldn’t get it done. Yet it’s the Democrats and Labor’s fault.

      Right.

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    • I always have and forever will side with anyone and everyone who’s not interested and refuses to support expenditure of public funds on “Colosseums” for privately-owned sports franchises. Period. If pro sports must exist, the least the franchises can do is pay for their own facilities.

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    • It’s typical “scorched earth” from the GOoPers. They would love nothing more than being able to spend the next 50 years blaming the Dems for “losing the Vikings”. Much like the GOoPers in the U.S. Congress and Senate; they won’t allow anything good to happen while Dayton is in the Governor’s mansion. And this could be a good deal for everyone. Even with pre-season and possible playoffs the Vikes only use the stadium 12 days a year. All that’s needed is for the public to receive their share of the profits for the other, potential, 352 days of the year. If we publicly fund 50% of the cost we get 50% of the profits. Of course, that makes so much sense that no one has even proposed it.

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    • She flew right past my backyard this morning.
      Made me sad.
      Thanks for killing the space program George.
      I’m starting to think that Walt may have died from a broken heart.

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  10. The morning crew at FAUX”News”, Freaks and Fools as I like to call ’em, best start watching Bill0. Just last night Bill0 announced that he doesn’t believe FAUX”News” is “trying to get anyone elected”. Leaving aside the fact that it’s a bald-faced lie and they would gouge out their eyes to get the black guy out of the White House; the myth didn’t even last 12 hours before the Freaks and Fools volunteered to help Mittens in his search for a VP candidate. Sigh… The loyal FAUX”News” worshippers won’t see the problem but the Freaks and Fools should at least try to play the same game as their biggest star.

    http://thinkprogress.org/media/2012/04/17/465809/fox-friends-wants-to-know-who-should-we-choose-as-mitt-romneys-vice-president/

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    • Oooh! Ooohh! Mittens!! Hey! There’s this really smart lady who used to be governor of Alaska for a while!! Pick Her!

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    • The righties don’t really understand how facts work. It doesn’t require Bill-O to “believe” it for it to be true. He seems to be confusing it with faith.

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      • I never watched “friends” so I wouldn’t know. Don’t like the Aniston girl. I stumbled across a number of sitcoms lately, I prefer GOPwatching. Much more fun. 🙂

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        • As crazy as it may sound, the older I get, I can only handle old cartoons.
          Having shot several televisions out of disgust has taught me to not watch anything mainstream.

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  13. Who is Bob Beckel, and why was he dog cussing Neal Boortz on Hannity? Oh, that’s right. Because Boortz is a fuckwit and deserves to be dog cussed!

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    • Beckel is usually the token “librul” who is shouted down on “The Five”. Frankly, I think I dislike him more than the Reichwhiners. He must know his place. He never wins a point or changes a mind. His sole purpose is to prove that “libruls” are always wrong. Although, it would be amusing if he actually got fired for the only time he’s ever really stood up to one of the Reichwhiners.

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  16. QOTD: You’ve got to hand it to Mitt and Ann Romney, even their indignation is as two-faced as everything else about them.

    Martin Bashir’s closing comment today folling a commentary on Mittins seeking Ted Nugent’s endorsement.

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  17. Tax day news: for the first time in some years, Uncle Sugar actually owes me a bit of change. My problem has been that my online work records me as an outside consultant, and so my income from that work comes out as a personal business for me. But this year, the EIC finally kicked in, and hence I’ve a refund. Very exciting, in a rather pathetic sort of way …

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  18. Interesting post on Truthout.org today, speaking of Republicanism and their Fox-fueled ignorance. It’s a conversation between Mark Karlin and author/journalist Chris Mooney (“The Republican Brain”). Here’s a brief excerpt that reveals the ‘tone’ of the discussion:

    MK: How do you scientifically show why the leading ideology of the GOP is a denial of science? After all, every GOP senator denies global warming. Won’t they just deny your scientific proof of their rejection of science?

    CM: This is pretty easily done. The polling data show overwhelming that conservatives, much more than liberals, deny global warming, deny evolution, think Obama wasn’t born in the U.S., think Saddam was collaborating with Al Qaeda, and so on. Tea Partiers tend to be the worst on a lot of these.

    I don’t honestly think even conservatives would argue back against the polling data – rather, they’ll say that they’re right to question global warming because it’s phony science, and so on.

    There is also a separate body of data showing that Fox News viewers tend to be more misinformed about these issues – call it the Fox “effect.” Here, there has been some response, with Fox trying to critique and dismantle the various studies involved. But it just doesn’t hold up. You might be able to undermine one such study, but seven of them? I don’t think so. There’s too much data. Toss out one study, it doesn’t change the big picture.

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    • Mooney’s hypothesis strikes me as fundamentally flawed. Recent studies have shown that Repugnantcon trust in science has dropped precipitously in the past 40 years (and that drop has come has come primarily amongs their most “schooled” elements.) However, if one goes back 40 years, conservatives actually showed a HIGHER trust in science than liberals. If the current spasm of anti-science were somehow neurological in its basis, then it is scarcely possible to believe that such a shift could occur — they would have begun low and stayed low.

      And citing the effects of propaganda hardly points to a neurological difference, it points to the effects of propaganda. Fox news watchers are a self-selecting group, and as such cannot be supposed to be indicative of any merely biological factor.

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      • My suspicion is that the demographics of the Republican party have changed over the last fifty or so years, that those who would have once been Republicans (those with functioning brains and at least a portion of their offspring) have now become either Democrats or Independents, and that those with non-functioning brains have become today’s Republicans … and watch Fox news. In fact, a fairly substantial grouping of those who were once ‘Southern’ Democrats, or Dixiecrats (and their offspring) … the racists, bigots, religious nuts … are now either Republicans or Teabaggers … who, of course, watch Fox news. Seems to me I recall that the founder of the John Birch Society (today’s membership of which remains strongly right wing, Republican) accused Eisenhower of being a Communist. That dude would actually fit perfectly into today’s GOP, would likely not accept either evolution or global warming, and would, of course, be a Fox news devotee. Maybe a contributor, an anchor even.

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        • I think you’re right (so to speak), but the study I was thinking of was directed at people who self-identified as “conservative” vs. “liberal.” Tied in with your point above, and somthing that the study did not discuss, was whether that self-identification itself might have shifted in the past 40 years (rather analogously to the transitions you mention between Dem and GOP.)

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  20. Beyond WTF

    Swedish Official Gleefully Cuts Racist Black Lady Cake, Delights Onlookers

    I hope you spent the morning warming up your What The Everloving Hell reaction muscles, because this will require you to use all of them. It’s the Swedish minister of culture cutting up a taxpayer-funded cake baked to look like a racist caricature of a black woman at the opening of an exhibit about the horrors of female circumcision, and a crowd of people laughing while she feeds a piece of it (red velvet, natch) to the actor in blackface someone hired to poke their head out from a hole in the table so that it looks like the cake is alive and crying.

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  23. Rmoney may well represent the 1%, what is wrong with our tax system, etc, etc,…but why aren’t the Democratic party as a whole attacking that douche bag and his trophy wife?

    Once again the Democratic party is letting the republicans control the message. From taxes to the United States Postal Office.

    I like what either Ed Schultz or Thom Hartmann said on their radio programs today. They brought up how President Clinton had an action commitee to combat the republican lies of each days news cycle….OBAMA AND THE DEM’S MUST DO THE SAME…WHY THE PHUCK AREN’T THEY???????????????

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    • IP, great to be reading you, again!

      The President is attempting, all be it in a somewhat ‘timid’ voice, to counter the lies. The entire administration needs to be speaking up and out on the lies, you are so correct on that!

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    • Nugent must be suffering from that ‘cat scratch fever’ he was howling about many years past. It seems to have affected his small brain.

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    • I can’t understand why anyone gives a shit what Ted has to say. He’s creepy. Let the Secret Service handle his threats, but they’re not credible threats. He’s a wussy has (almost ) been.

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  26. This is honestly an actual headline in the Washington Post:
    “Forest Service considering explosives to get rid of frozen cows in Colorado mountain cabin”
    They don’t want the cows to melt and contaminate the water supply.

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      • I think Tony is obsessed with the groins of other folks, and with wanting the forbidden fruit he’s always desired.
        I’m off to bed, I still have loads of tomatoes to pot.
        Happy sewing Z 🙂

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        • Paraphrasing Eton John: My husband wishes I thought about gay sex as much as they do. 😉

          Sleep well, and have fun planting the tomatoes! Delicious tomatoes….mmmm.

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