The Goat Pen

Wonder what Trumps latest conspiracy theory is today now that supposedly Bin Ladin is alive. How many have we had so far this week alone. Poor dude is desperate.

Didn't watch any of the crap last night but I figured Biden would act calm cool and collected while the soon to be Ex President acted like he needed his diaper changed. Not gonna watch the next one either. Just gonna be another shit show. Trump acting like a child and Biden acting Presidential.

hedge wrote: ↑Fri Oct 16, 2020 8:17 am "I never succumbed to addiction"

Yeah, I guess it's just a coincidence that every time I've ever seen you you've been shitfaced. In fairness, so was I, but let's focus on you for now...

In my family, we define addiction as shitfaced all day and all night on an everyday basis...

Plus, I've slowed the partying down over the past two years.

Uh huh.

I just read that Biden wants to change the 401K tax structure. Under his proposal, people making over $80K would be negatively affected in the tax break they get for saving pre-tax into a 401K while people in the lowest tax brackets would see a tax credit at the end of the year that would decrease their tax obligation. However the net effect is they would lose the initial tax break which means they would see little to no pre-tax savings. For the few people in the lowest tax brackets actually capable of investing in a 401K, it would cost them more initially.

See a similar trend here ? With Obamacare, even though it was supposed to save everyone money, people making over $80K or therabout ended up getting fucked with higher deductibles and increased premiums while relatively few people benefited from the ACA.

And now Biden, even after publicly stating that he would not tax people making less than $400K isn't even elected yet and is proposing going after one of the few benefits left to help the middle class by "evening" out the tax structure so people who can't invest in the stock market, are even less excited about it by giving them the dreaded tax credit while decreasing the amount of their take home pay.

This is only the start with him. He will be a nightmare for the middle class - because regardless of what they say, you can't pay for welfare programs by only taxing the relatively few rich. You have to go after the masses out there who are making $120K - $250K in mixed income suburban households.

Why in the fuck would any politician think lowering the tax benefit for the middle class contributing to their retirement in a time when Social Security is on life support is a good idea?

To stay on the political class gravy train...

I'm glad I'm near the end of working.

unfortunately for me I am dumping a significant percentage of my pay into my 401K for the next 13 years

I just don't get it

Obama essentially creates a multi thousand dollar a year tax on the middle class for the benefit of a very, very small percentage of the population with health care
and now Biden wants to go after our retirement fund, and being Gen X the group that currently funding the 401K and social security for retirees, we're the generation that got to watch our parents get the gold watch and the pension (certainly not my parents though) while we got corporations first obligation is to the stock holder.

E. You read wrong. Of course. Typical

anyone watch 60 minutes where the CDC knowingly sent 45 people who were covid-19 positive out into the Atlanta airport to catch flights to go home after being infected on a cruise ship?

Yeah, the CDC is bullshit and Fauci is dumb. Masks don't work, lockdowns don't work; open everything up full bore. People under 85 are safe, and the president is immune. Herd immunity is the way to go.

The Woodward tapes were faked.

bluetick wrote: ↑Mon Oct 19, 2020 7:38 pm Yeah, the CDC is bullshit and Fauci is dumb. Masks don't work, lockdowns don't work; open everything up full bore. People under 85 are safe, and the president is immune. Herd immunity is the way to go.

The Woodward tapes were faked.

well you could make that assumption, or you could believe like most rational people that in March, everyone was struggling to get a handle on this so pointing the finger at a single individual or entity and placing blame or actually believing that someone could do better is partisan bullshit.

In this case I refer to the "I'll believe the science" mensa group members who conveniently forget that Fauci has waffled on masks (intentionally it seems because he wanted to protect first responders over the public at large, but its still disingenuous and relates to why there is so much mask ambiguity now ), the WHO being a political organization that is owned by China ad one time refusing to condemn or support border lock downs , and now finally we see the CDC not even following their own protocol releasing at least 45 infected Americans into Americas busiest airport, an airport with a quarantine support system and just happens to be located at the headquarters of the CDC, allowing them to get on planes and fly to other cities in the country

but please tell me again how 200K+ deaths are on Trump and how another politician would have prevented them.

The third debate was supposed to be about foreign policy, but that now has changed for some reason...

"Fauci has waffled on masks (intentionally it seems because he wanted to protect first responders over the public at large, but its still disingenuous and relates to why there is so much mask ambiguity now )"

What is ambiguous about that? "I downplayed the need for masks early on, when very few people had covid in order to make sure there wasn't a run on masks so that the front line workers who were dealing with actual covid cases could still get them rather than some Doomsday preppers in east Bumfuck Oklahoma stocking up on the limited supply. But now that the supply chain has (somewhat) caught up with demand and frontline workers can readily get them, and also now that we have millions in the public who have contracted covid, I can tell you masks work and you should be wearing them." Again, what is "ambiguous" about that? Nothing could be more straightfoward...

either you need masks to saves lives or you don't

just because masks aren't available doesn't change that reality

"downplaying" the need for masks in March was a bad idea , and when someone says "I'll believe the science" what you get is a scientist who is making a statement to the public about the need for a mask. The reality was everyone needed a mask, they just weren't available. Whether someone in Oklahoma is hoarding them isn't justification to mislead the public on a factual piece of information.

How many lives would have been saved had Fauci said in February or whenever "Everyone needs a mask, it will reduce the chance of transmitting this virus by as much as 80%"? instead of him making a decision about protecting first line responders.

Yea, I get the logic of it, first line responders are necessary, they save lives, etc

but there is no getting around this - Fauci mislead the public intentionally to do what he thought was prudent, so knowing that, how can you blame anyone who questions "the science?

The primary role of state health organizations is propaganda. That is how they fight every every battle. The only thing they do is think about what do they need to say in order to get the sheeple to do what they want them to do. That is like almost the entire scope of their job. So yeah, if you're going to compare what they say now vs what they said then, they will always look like hypocritical cocksuckers when you look back at all information, but to them, it only matters what they are saying right now, because their only goals are what they want you to do right now to fight whatever battle they are fighting right that moment.

"how can you blame anyone who questions "the science?"

I'd blame them for being an idiot if they couldn't understand why it was done. It's real simple, just b/c a strategic decision was made based on one set of circumstances doesn't mean the science is wrong. The earth is round, not flat. Masks are effective in reducing the spread of coronavirus. End of story. Don't wear one if you don't want to, but if you think they don't work just b/c Fauci made a statement back in February, then you're an idiot. The information is out there, easy to find, if you can't, again, you're an idiot...

The problem with them is that like everyone, they always think whatever they are specifically working on is "the biggest crisis in history" so they are willing to wage total information and policy war, while they are likely completely ignorant of how their policies and propaganda effect things from a risk management standpoint on areas they don't understand, like say the economy.

Exactly, just like you don’t let generals decide whether we should go to war or not because they always want to.