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yosemite 5.9
climber
santa cruz
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Nov 10, 2017 - 09:41pm PT
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Splater makes some good points. The current estate tax begins at almost six million dollars only. Almost twelve for a married couple. Redistribution of wealth above those amounts might be justifiable, except that the tax goes to the federal government, not to low income people. And self-employed people are taxed extremely high in this country.
Our federal government seems to be incapable of making timely decisions. We all only live so long. Most of us have only a few decades of being our most productive in our economy. While our congress wastes our money and dickers endlessly many of us see our lives passing by.
Here in California we are wasting money on a bullet train from nowhere to nowhere. Meanwhile our levees are inadequate against floods. I see a lot of money spent here in Santa Cruz on installing bumpy yellow metal plates at the sidewalk corners. I guess they are for the blind. But the cost of them is very high. Ripping out concrete and then pouring fresh concrete to accommodate the metal plates can't be the best use of our money. There are many homeless here with obvious mental illnesses that would be better served with the money that is spent on concrete.
Along with the slow response of our government and the waste of our money, the root source of many of our problems seems to be mental illness. So much stupidity at such high costs. President Clinton sought to improve training for people needing jobs and thereby he showed some understanding of this root source of so many problems.
We have high taxes, only President Trump has the faith that we can do better than 3% annual GDP growth, our government wastes so much of our paychecks while time slips by and the never ending epidemic of mental illness broadly through our society is generally disregarded.
I don't have the answers. But paying high taxes doesn't seem to be part of the solution.
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Gary
Social climber
Desolation Basin, Calif.
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Nov 11, 2017 - 06:44am PT
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I don't have the answers. But paying high taxes doesn't seem to be part of the solution.
For one thing, we could tell the Pentagon to f*#k off. We could stop flushing money down that rat hole and use it wisely instead.
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crankster
Trad climber
No. Tahoe
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Nov 11, 2017 - 08:02am PT
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That's as likely as Gloria La Riva winning the next election.
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Norton
climber
The Wastelands
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Nov 11, 2017 - 08:38am PT
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all well and fine, but the really good news is that Paris Hilton will not have to pay inheritance tax on all that hotel money coming her way
I can't remember, help me out fellow Republicans, is it because she should be honored as a "job creator"?
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Patrick Sawyer
climber
Originally California now Ireland
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Nov 11, 2017 - 09:09am PT
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In a perfect world, in an utopia, life would not be adversarial, tribalism would not exist.
But in reality there are adversaries, right? And one could argue that North Korea and ISIS are America’s top adversaries.
Once could also put the case forward that Russia is the biggest adversary to the US, and if so, when the president of the US appears to side with Putin and believes him over the US intelligence community (who are no angels themselves), one has to wonder where Trump’s true allegiances lie.
Think about it.
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Norton
climber
The Wastelands
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Nov 11, 2017 - 09:20am PT
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True, Patrick
one could also argue that North Korea and ISIS are easily contained
and that the one real threat to America is the Republican party
who stands proudly against almost everything most Americans claim to be for
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Patrick Sawyer
climber
Originally California now Ireland
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Nov 11, 2017 - 09:33am PT
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Having now read through all the posts on this thread so far, I have to agree with those who say that impeachment would even further divide America and would probably be a sh#t show.
I do not know how to rid the US of this cancerous malevolent person who sits in the White House. I can only hope that he sees out his term with little damage to the country and indeed the world. He will probably have lined his pockets, but can only hope he is not re-elected, which is a possibility. If he goes for re-election one can only hope for a landslide against him. Hmmm.
I can only hope that indeed America is stronger than this man or his cohort, and that we indeed do have a checks and balances that is healthy and works.
EDIT
I for one would like to see the US on good terms with Russia (who I do not necessarily see as a bogeyman). In fact with all nations. But that is not the reality.
One can point the finger at the US, Russia, MSM, etc etc, but my experience is that life is not a one-way street.
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Norton
climber
The Wastelands
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Nov 11, 2017 - 09:47am PT
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Patrick, agreed
as good of a Democrat and as well "qualified" from past political office holdings Hillary was, she had two big thing going against her
she was a women, and a lot of men have a real problem with that
her last name was Clinton, and family Presidential dynasties in America ended with the Bushes
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Gary
Social climber
Desolation Basin, Calif.
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Nov 11, 2017 - 02:08pm PT
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That's as likely as Gloria La Riva winning the next election.
Your defeatist attitude is what enables the current disfunction in American politics.
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yosemite 5.9
climber
santa cruz
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Nov 29, 2017 - 09:29pm PT
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Regarding Trump and Putin.
President Lincoln said something to the effect of the best way to get rid of your enemies is to make them your friends.
Also, When they are your friends, it is easier to keep your eye on them.
Don't underestimate that Trump knows what he is doing. He knows what cards to show and how to play the game.
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