Daily Thoughts

[Zzzptm]

Drop in the bucket, really, in the grand scheme of things. Even a full billion is less than a tenth of a percent of the total annual US federal budget.

Also, it's not like the lottery winner *worked* to get that dough. It's not hard-earned cash made from the sweat off his back or anything. It's a pile of cash that fell into his lap and even after taxes, he's got $433 million in his lap and a lot of crazy about to happen. And that pile of cash came from all the people who bought lottery tickets and lost. It's their work and effort that got swept up both by governments and by the winner.

For the matter of the taxes themselves, I'm dealing with a low-tax state like Texas where the State Board of Education and Texas Education Agency are turning a blind eye to districts taking state and federal supplementary funds for disabled and disadvantaged kids and rolling the money into the general fund and illegally using them for general fund expenditures. That's been going on for over 30 years under solidly Republican administrations in this state, with the politicians allowing the disabled kids' money to keep the property taxes low. When Governor Abbott was talking about needing more money for mental health in Texas to prevent another Uvalde shooting, he left out the part where his party allowed mental health programs to be gutted in the state so that the rich folks backing his party wouldn't have to pay property taxes to cover the general fund expenditures for their own kids. Another Uvalde shooting is inevitable in Texas because of the way Republicans see fit to take money meant to help disabled kids and turn it into a tax holiday.

The US tax code is full of special paragraphs written by mostly Republicans and some Democrats for some very specific major contributors. The paragraphs make no sense whatsoever until that one big donor's tax forms arrive and then like two halves of a heart locket, they fit together perfectly. Not a big donor? Then you or your corporation won't get special exemptions or reclassifications that reduce one's overall tax burden in substantial ways. There are also ways for the taxes the wealthy spend to come right back home to them and then some. This is in the form of government programs and contracts handed out to big donors. One of George Bush's biggest donors got the contract to run federal disaster planning for Louisiana. The grant was much more than she'd paid in both taxes and donations, and she was able to hire friends and family. When Katrina hit, she had no plan and the people there suffered. When money came up to investigate the failure of federal disaster planning, the Bush administration awarded the contract to that same donor. Whether a state or federal politician is involved, the benefits are roughly the same. If you can donate $20K/year regularly, you can expect to administer several millions in government programs. Not rich enough to get the $20K/year? Then you don't get invited to that dance.

[Charger]

But that kind of ridiculous taxing kind of totally deflates the purpose of even having a lottery....

It more like just added tax than a lottery.

It is beyond stupid.

[Zzzptm]

I agreed, and then my Internet at the hotel here pooped out. Yay for data over cellular...

I think announcing the pre-tax jackpot is a marketing ploy to get more people to buy tickets. It's more honest to say it's a 60-40 split. Even more honest to just say the smaller number and then there's no mention of taxes...

[Typhon]

I agreed, and then my Internet at the hotel here pooped out. Yay for data over cellular...

I think announcing the pre-tax jackpot is a marketing ploy to get more people to buy tickets. It's more honest to say it's a 60-40 split. Even more honest to just say the smaller number and then there's no mention of taxes...

Exactly! 

You could have said this right off the bat, instead of all that other jibber jabber bullshit.

[Charger]

But hey this is a forum...jibber jabber is kind of what we do!

[Typhon]

But hey this is a forum...jibber jabber is kind of what we do!

Jibber jabber, yes.  Jibber jabber bullshit, no.   

[Charger]

The price of electricity is going up like crazy....

Right now it's more than 4x of what it was last year and it's just going up...

My electric bill will go up from little over 1000€ a year to little over 4000€ a year for next year...where the fuck am I gonna tear that money from??? Goddamn.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

^^^
UK energy bills are heading in the same direction and by a similar amount.

[Zzzptm]

I'd say that the case for NaK reactors gets stronger by the day. Much safer than water-cooled nuclear reactors, they are also cheaper to produce.

[Typhon]

   Yikes!

[Charger]

That is one sinister ass picture there for sure!

You can almost hear him going:

[Zzzptm]

Funny thing is, Trump's the one who's done the most copying of speech elements, rhetorical style, and gestures from Hitler and Mussolini. If you want to find a fascist, look to the right...

[Typhon]

Funny thing is, Trump's the one who's done the most copying of speech elements, rhetorical style, and gestures from Hitler and Mussolini. If you want to find a fascist, look to the right...

[Vyn]

They chose poorly with that red lighting lol. You could put anyone up there and they'd look sinister.

[Zzzptm]

Funny thing is, Trump's the one who's done the most copying of speech elements, rhetorical style, and gestures from Hitler and Mussolini. If you want to find a fascist, look to the right...