• Below are the words from my daily political diary. It is quite long so scroll on by if not interested. But do stay around and add your commentary and point of view to the thread.
Yes I am compiling a Blog about the great pandemic of 2020 and how my country stupidly shut down the economy. We will have opinions, political and cultural highlights, my personal experience, social media details, even TV reviews since I watch so much TV while in my home jail. We shall, as always, end with a smile.
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MAJOR POLITICAL EVENTS OF THE WEEK
(another update)
The nomination of Amy Coney Barrett
Barrett's Real Problem
I got into a bit of trouble on a daily report that I write in that, in my musings, I pondered just why a couple with five children would adopt two children from a foreign country and of a different race. I suggested, with half a heart, that perhaps such an action was due more to add to the couple's public image. As of this writing I have one major criticism of Amy Coney Barrett and it perhaps says more about me than her.
This woman is entirely too perfect.
Serious.
She gave birth to five gorgeous children, although there is a handicap somewhere in the clan. And yet she looks to only be about 35 years old. She is very pretty, very fit, a good Christian woman. She graduated first in her law class, clerked with Supreme court justices and was named judge in a federal appellate court. She participates in many church activities. And in between all this, she adopts two children of different race and nationality.
Can someone be entirely too perfect?
If so, doesn't that make her a liability to the people whom she is to judge? There are very few perfect people. I sure know I'm not one.
At the end, my musings are a bit nuts and Barrett is a woman I greatly admire but know I could never hope to match.
I hope she gets nominated to the Supreme Court. Then, with her level of perfection, she will become President and when God calls her home she will surely be given wings the moment she takes her last breath.
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MAJOR CULTURE EVENTS OF THE WEEK
(one more update)
The Great Debate
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MAJOR CULTURE EVENTS OF THE WEEK
(one more update)
The Great Debate
Why yes, of course, I did watch the great debate between former VP Joe Biden and President Trump on Monday, 9/29/20, with Chris Wallace as the moderator.
First, kudos to Biden as he didn't verbally stumble or lose his train of thought as many expected.
But Biden did lie with ever sentence he uttered, including the Charlottesville lie that Trump praised white supremecists, the falsehood about Trump calling soldiers losers, the assertion that all that nonsense about Hunter Biden's infusion of monies from overseas and the fact that he had NO manifest with Bernie Sanders.
The general rule of thumb is that the debate changed no minds and I agree. Of course I had no expectation that the debate would change any minds at any rate.
I thought President Trump interrupted a bit too much but I imagine how difficult it must be to have to listen to lie after lie and keep mouth shut.
Wallace was a failure as a moderator. Add to it that the setup could have been better. There should have been a light go on after the allotted two minute response so the debaters would know to sum it up. Beyond that, perhaps a debate, or call it whatever, should be arranged to have the debaters ask each other questions and forget the stupid moderator or just have someone to call time and such.
Biden and Trump had lots of questions to direct at each other. Why not have one evening to allow exactly this to be the setup?
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PERSONAL NOTES FROM ME RE THE PANDEMIC
(that my descendants may know how I handled it)
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PERSONAL NOTES FROM ME RE THE PANDEMIC
(that my descendants may know how I handled it)
I ask yon descendants to consider getting their hair taken care of in their own house.
Indeed I was looking like Matlock and finally I called she who used to do my hair but was banned from serving customers except for Nancy Pelosi. She could no longer stand for working for the nursing home and agreed to come to my home.
She was organized, efficient, my dog behaved and I no longer am confused with being Andy Griffith.
It's going to be my routine from now on.
Take that Nancy Pelosi.
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OVER THE INTERNET
(social media explains so much)
OVER THE INTERNET
(social media explains so much)
REVIEWS TV SHOWS
(since I watch so much TV, not for my descendants)
Finale America's Got Talent
Update on Dancing With the Stars
I really enjoy this show and I have reviewed it before. Each year it gets better, showing on Wednesday nights at 8 pm on Fox. Host Nick Cannon got into some trouble recently but it's now all smoothed over and he remains the host of The Masked Singer.
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EDITORIAL
(My opinion for my descendants)
Taxes promote capitalism and fairness
I really enjoy this show and I have reviewed it before. Each year it gets better, showing on Wednesday nights at 8 pm on Fox. Host Nick Cannon got into some trouble recently but it's now all smoothed over and he remains the host of The Masked Singer.
There is to be a total of 16 masked singers on this Season 4.
The judges are:
Nicole Scherzinger
Ken Jeong
Jenny Wahlberg
Robin Thicke
On the first night Group A, pictured above, performed.
Group A
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The Sun
Giraffe
Popcorn
Dragon
Snow Owls
Below are my notes on their efforts and the results of the first reveal.
The Sun
Clues….gold member of something, center of universe,spotlight scorching, got burned out, got depressed, Frozen, saw Disney ears, felt like sun was reflection of her personnaly
"Cuz I Love You" Lizzo…has very good voice, bet she's older.
Guesses by Judge first one, win Golden Ear.
Guesses of identity of The Sun
Kat McPhee…..American Idol contestant
Debbie Lavito
Madonna
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Giraffe
Clues…..circus music/carnival, roller coaster career, butt of jokes, swing even higher, in driver's seat, off to races
"Let's Get It Started" -Black Eyed Peas
Wants anonymity
Guesses on identity of Giraffe
Garth Brooks
Travis Barker…drummer…was in plane accident
Vanilla Ice
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Popcorn
Clues….Miss Jackson?, career around love, hard-corn hustler, worked long nights, cut pics out of vogue, jet-setting to exotic places.
"What About Us"-Pink
Guesses of Popcorn's identity
Tina Turner
Carol Baskin-Tiger lady
Mary J. Blige
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Dragon
Clues…..Humid, outrageous costumes, quest to be the best, fire was dangerous, shiny treasured den
"Mama Said Knock you out"-LL Cool J
Guesses on Dragon's identity
DMX
Michael Phelps-olympic swimmer
Busta Rhymes-rapper
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Snow Owls
Clues….Not together in a while. Working with him, brother, prankster, Magical
"Say Something"-A Great Big World
I say Donnie and Marie
Other guesses on the Snow Owls identity
Amy Grant and Vance Gill
Donnie and Marie
Eugene Levy and Catherine O'hara
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Least amount of votes….Dragon
Identity is…..BUSTA RHYMES
I have never heard of Busta Rhymes but he got the least amount of votes and was masked as the Dragon.
Update on Dancing With the Stars
9/21/20…out of 60-last week I said watch Skai and she made big mistake this week, bottom two -Carol Baxkin and Charles Barkley…judges saved Carol Baskin…..Charles Barkley sent home which should have been.
AJ McLean-Jive,18,….foxtrot,19-ttl-37
Chrishell Stause, tango, 13……..rumba,18-ttl-31
Vernon Davis,Foxtrot,17…..paso doble,18-ttl-35
Anne Heche, cha cha, 18……..Foxtrot,18-ttl-36
Jeannie Mai, Salsa,18……………….Cha-Cha,18-ttl-36
Jesse Metcalf, Quickstep,18…..Foxtrot,20-ttl-38
Skai Jackson,tango,21….samba,15-ttl-36
Kaitlyn Bristowe,cha-cha,20……..foxtrot,22-ttl-42
Nev Shulman,Foxtrot,20…cha-cha, 21-ttl-41
Johnny Weir,Cha-Cha,18…tango,18-ttl-36
Justina Machado,Cha-Cha,21…..Foxtrot,21-ttl-42
Charles Oakley, Salsa,12……..Cha cha,15-ttl-27
Monica Aldama,Foxtrot,19,…..Jive,16-ttl-35
Nelly,Salsa,16…..cha cha,18-ttl-34
Carol Baskin,Paso Doble,11………………..viennese waltz,16-ttl-27
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Finale of America's Got Talent
A poet?
Who goes to Las Vegas to see a Poet?
5th place-Alan Silva
4th place-Roberta Battaglia
3rd place-Christina Rae
2nd place-Broken Roots
Winner-Brandon Leake
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(My opinion for my descendants)
Taxes promote capitalism and fairness
I address this thoughtful missive of mine to my descendants as they will never be taught such an important thing in school. And I stress right now that I know a bit about computation of federal income taxes but am certainly no expert. Further, it's been well over ten years since I've worked on jobs requiring me to do any calculation of corporate income taxes and this stuff changes all the time.
As I listen to the hysteria over the illegal release of President Trump's tax returns I realize that it's all about convincing much of the public that Trump didn't pay federal taxes on money that flowed into his companies and he should have.
Much of the public does not have access to such as depreciation and the ability to claim losses against future income. More of the public might deal with such as "S" corporations as there are many self-employed hairdressers and contractors in the general public.
The people shouting about Trump's taxes want Joe Blow the Janitor to fuss and fume that while he has to pay federal taxes on his meager salary of $50,000 a year, Trump pulls in millions and pays peanuts.
I don't particularly like the IRS and I sure don't like taxes. But many of our tax laws have been written to promote growth in business which does, though many won't admit it, benefit us all. There's also an element of fairness input into the tax code which again, that janitor might never need.
First, there's the element of depreciation which those receiving ordinary paychecks will never need or use. It's a simple concept. If a business purchases a $100,000 machine needed for operations they don't get to claim the entire amount as a deduction from corporate incoming funds. That would not be fair because we'd have businesses deducting fancy televisions, even houses, from business funds on which no taxes would ever be paid. But it does require a $100,000 machine to put caps on soda bottles, that business gets to deduct 1/5 of the original cost each year as depreciation.
The machine does tend to lose value over the years so while the business can't deduct it all at once due to the probability of cheating, the business does get to deduct some percentage of the reduction in value for its lifetime. It's like a car. You pay $35,000 for a car. The first year it goes down in value by 10% so that would be deductible that year, 10% the year following, until the full value of the original purchase has eventually been deducted.
The IRS has lengths of time already established for various assets so I use examples but hope the point is understood.
A big organization like Trump's probably deducts HUGE appreciation amounts for assets they purchased to run a business. Thus the janitor gets to deduct for his wife and children while a Trump business might be deducting millions of depreciation for assets they need to purchase to remain in business.
As for business losses, it is well known that Trump once went bankrupt, thus he probably had great business losses. Now we must pay taxes on all money coming in but do we get to file a tax return for negative taxes on money we've lost in business? Of course not.
But to keep capitalism going and business running, it is possible to claim business losses on some percentage basis from profits made in the future. Note that such deductions are not allowed unless the business carries on. Again, a business making a profit benefits us all, either by providing product or services. If that business suffered a loss in its early year or from one bad year, why shouldn't they be allowed to deduct that loss from future profits on which they must pay taxes on? It can't be claimed all at once and rest assured there are plenty of rules and regulations on when and how such losses can be deducted.
It's the same with S corporations, which benefits, as is my experience, sole proprietorships and small partnerships. Someday that janitor might find a buddy and they join together to to clean buildings as contractors, not employees. The S corporation allows relief on FICA taxes and ease of tax prep to give a small business some of the same tax benefits of big corporations.
Capital Gains taxes are another form of business deducts that achieve a fairness but I won't bore anymore with tax talk.
All this about Trump not paying, or paying few, taxes is based on a final calculation of money he made, assets he purchased, losses he's had. It was legislators that decided and approved these deducts and forgive me for defending politicians, but such were mostly designed to be fair and allow capitalism to keep America humming.
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Yes I am a fly and yes I also Blog. I tend to wander around among the politicians and hear their conversation. Because I am a fly beneficial to humanity, I share that which I hear. Please ignore my attempt at human spelling because, after all, I'm just a fly.
THE FLY ON THE WALL
Yes I am a fly and yes I also Blog. I tend to wander around among the politicians and hear their conversation. Because I am a fly beneficial to humanity, I share that which I hear. Please ignore my attempt at human spelling because, after all, I'm just a fly.
Teaching Humans the Art of Ignoring
Why yes I have heard all the human screechiness of the alleged cheating the human President Trump did on his taxes. Flies don't pay taxes but I've learned enough about them through the years as I flew from room to room and listened to the humans and their plans.
The tax thing popped up recently and my fly ears listened in after I landed in a room with Valeria and some other political human people.
"We got the NY Times coming out with the Trump tax issue the day before the debate," the first human said, a kind of fat guy that I'd see around a lot.
Valeria lit up a cigarette as is her wont and took a seat. "Good. We need something to fight him against all these Hunter Biden stories the DOJ is releasing."
Another fat guy-what is it with you humans? Do you all ever stop eating?-takes a seat and throws down a pack of papers. "I'm not convinced it's going to do much good," the second fat guy said. "Seems most Americans have come to accept that corporations get all kind of tax breaks the little guy doesn't get."
Valeria blew a smoke wind into the air as pause. "Well that's true," she finally said. "But the little guy doesn't like feeling like he is being treated unfair and Trump only paying nickles for federal taxes strikes them as unfair."
The first fat guy clasped his hands behind his head and leaned back on his chair.
"It's getting so we are getting ignored on these big news breaks," the first fat guy finally said. "I think we're one day to be totally ignored no matter how many stories he make up or embellish."
This made my fly self lean back and rub my front legs together. I might be only a fly but my species and my ancestors learned long ago to ignore anything that doesn't affect us or gives another fly more power.
Why don't humans do the same thing? Because with this political thing they got going on, it only seems to make most of them upset and angry. Us flies don't have time to be upset and angry but humans get all riled.
The group in the room discussed how to play up this Trump tax thing, which doesn't get one human a meal on the table or shoes on their human feet. Yet humans make a business out of getting all upset about stuff that has nothing to do with them.
To a fly, a pile of poop is all we need, not stories of other flies not sharing any poop with the queen.
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TIME FOR A SMILE
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