Join us this Tuesday evening for a “what’s all that smiling about?” edition of the Seattle Chapter of Drinking Liberally.
We meet every Tuesday at the Roanoke Park Place Tavern, 2409 10th Ave E, Seattle. You’ll find us in the small room at the back of the tavern beginning about 8pm.
Can’t make it to Seattle? Check out one of the 242 chapters of Living Liberally, including 23 in Washington state, five in Oregon and three in Idaho. Find, or go out and start, a chapter near you.
In rush this AM. Just needed to check in and find out the current status of Doctor Dumbfuck’s “highly credible” reports of Evergreen students carrying out a domestic terrorism attack against Amtrak. How’s that looking? Still “highly credible”?
Tax votes in House and Senate expected later today. The biggest tax rate changes are in the middle brackets, where 25% goes to 22%, and 28% drops to 24%, although these income brackets rise, making these tax cuts smaller than they initially appear. There’s a lot of smoke and mirrors in this tax scheme (more accurately, tax scam).
http://money.cnn.com/interacti.....-brackets/
“It’s being billed as a ‘massive tax cut,’ but millions of Americans will end up paying more …. Your odds of being hit with a bigger bill depend on a number of provisions in the more than 500 pages of new rules.”* For example, in Washington, about a third of the middle 20% will get a tax hike. Here’s how to see if you’ll be one of the victims:
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/19/heres-how-the-final-gop-tax-bill-would-hit-your-wallet.html
* So much for tax return simplification.
@ 1
Still possible, if unlikely at this point. Hey, if they were fucking with train tracks in Medford and in Olympia over the past month, it’s not like they deserve a pass right now.
We’ll see. For some reason they chose to delete their bragging about the damage they caused to the rail system elsewhere.
@4 Why don’t you just admit you were blowing smoke out of your ass? Everybody knows you were. It’s not like you can hide it.
3,
“You’ll be able to file your return on a post card!”
The thing about tax cuts is they only work politically if they are fairly large and the majority of voters take part. Otherwise all most voters remember at the ballot box is “tax cut for some other guy”.
The one thing they could have done to sell this politically would have been to reduce filing complexity. In most developed countries the tax collector figures your tax for you and due to simplicity it doesn’t pay to do it yourself or hire someone else. Instead we’ve got people trying to figure out how to prepay their state and local taxes and facing even more time and effort to file. Once people work through the added complexity and confusion surrounding the new rules and realize they didn’t even get a cut they will be furious. And that’s why Ryan is preparing to leave.
A littlei nfo on the first fatality to be released. Zach Willihoite, IT Customer Service specialist at Pierce Transit, and Director of Information Technology at All Aboard Washington. He was an avid bus and railfan, including about 10 years ago, purchased at auction, a used PT bus.
http://www.king5.com/article/n.....-500638211
On a personal note, Sunday night I was asking about question on the AAW facebook page about the closure of the Amshack in Tacoma, if 508 was going to thend last one through, he was the one who replied to my comment. Said he was going down there and bought the last ticket. Sadly, at least temporarily, the Ams hack will have to re-open.
@6 “Otherwise all most voters remember at the ballot box is ‘tax cut for some other guy’.”
What they’ll remember this time is “tax cuts for giant corporations and rich people.” Combine that with entitlement cuts, and, whoooeeeeeee! Midterms here we come.
Too late Dumbfuck. Once again you’ve been duped into spouting unhinged lunacy authored by spotty chain-smoking commie teenage script kids. You and your fellow “Konscientious Konservatives” have made yourselves into little more than a Buttery Males utility free to be used by the dead enders of a collapsed socialist empire.
@9 You expect that shit from the usual gang of rightwing lunatics, but you don’t expect it from an M.D. Makes me wonder if some of the vacuum tubes in his cranium have burned out.
http://www.newsweek.com/antifa.....ers-751893
Will Irish Americans be next to be outed as pretenders? Heh. The Irish have been undermining America ever since they got here.
https://www.theroot.com/when-the-irish-weren-t-white-1793358754
“Wisconsin GOP candidate accuses Jew of ‘pretending’ to be white so he can ‘undermine’ the white race”
https://www.rawstory.com/2017/12/wisconsin-gop-candidate-accuses-jew-of-pretending-to-be-white-so-he-can-undermine-the-white-race/
In her floor speech today protesting the GOP tax scam, Rep. Pelosi described it as a betrayal of the middle class, called it “a monumental brazen theft,” and said it “morally demands a ‘no’ vote.”
http://www.cnn.com/videos/poli.....ax-reform/
Roger Rabbit Commentary: But isn’t theft what Republicans do? That’s their whole platform in a nutshell.
THE ORGY OF GREED BEGINS!
https://theintercept.com/2017/12/18/tax-bill-corporate-rate-stock-buyback/
Topping the list is Home Depot with 15 BILLION.
Waytogo greed heads “investing” in stock buybacks! It’ll find its way into american middle-class paychecks somehow, especially with 1/3 of american corporate shares owned by foreigners.
Watch Fuckabee deny that Fuckface benefits from this tax scam.
http://www.cnn.com/videos/poli.....ax-reform/
She’s a hoot!
@13 “It’ll find its way into american middle-class paychecks somehow”
Not on my account, because I won’t spend a penny of my dividend and buyback bonanza on consumer purchases. I’m going to reinvest all of it in MORE STOCK so I can be EVEN RICHER and pay EVEN LESS TAXES.
Sure, it’s unfair to families who work for an honest living, especially those raising kids and most of all single moms working their fingers to the bone at two or three shitty low-paying jobs, but don’t blame me, because I didn’t vote for this POS.
Besides, I’ll need the money coming my way from corporate tax cuts when they raise my insurance premiums and cut Social Security and Medicare to help pay for it. Plus the only “growth” we’re going to see is in the inflation rate.
“Hours after the Amtrak train derailment that killed at least three people and injured around a hundred near Tacoma, Washington, today, President Trump argued that the accident highlights the need for infrastructure spending. … But the track involved in Monday’s incident wasn’t crumbling. In fact, the derailment followed a multimillion dollar track upgrade.”
Meanwhile, his “budget blueprint for next year would restrict any federal funding for the Federal Transit Administration’s capital investment program to already-approved transit projects. … Trump’s proposed federal budget would also slash certain federal subsidies to Amtrak.”
Also, “The president has long urged that public-private partnerships pay for infrastructure upgrades, arguing that tax credits would incentive investors to spend big on new roads, bridges, and railways. That money would later be recouped through taxes on wages ….”
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics.....d=51872981
IOW, investors get tax breaks, and projects are paid for by taxing the wages of the workers who build them. Making America great again.
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Frankly, as long as hardhats keep voting for Trump and other Republicans, there’s nothing I can do for htem.
Paranoid much?
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics.....h-51885969
Still winning?
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics.....t-51885066
One less bad cop on the beat.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/texas.....d=51878654
Roger Rabbit Commentary: One wonders how many other citizens this 22-year cop abused before getting sacked. Thanks to body cameras, some of these bullies are finally getting caught.
Meanwhile,
“Track Palin, the oldest son of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, called police officers ‘peasants’ and ‘moved around in a strange manner’ before he was arrested …. ”
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/track-palin-oldest-son-sarah-palin-called-officers-peasants-arrest-n8312
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Yeah, it helps to be white if you’re gonna get in a confrontation with the police.
Enjoy your retirement Reichert.
With the near elimination of property tax and mortgage interest deductions there is no denying that this tax bill contains less for Washingtonians than for other states. It could even be described as making Washingtonians pay for the services of other states.
So of course after a Facebook post about his “troubles” with the bill, Reichert is a yea. Because he represents Washington and not the Republican party or something.
Nothing happened in VA.
After final recount, Dems pick up 50th seat by a single vote.
Needless to say the Gerrymandered maps that kept Rs safe for a while until those “counties won by Clinton” tossed a bunch of Gerrymandered state electeds out won’t be there anymore.
VA House U.S. House Delgation is currently 7-4 R. Good luck with that.
@11
Funny that, re “Pocahontas” and family lore.
I’m majority Irish. Everyone knows it. My Great Grandpa told me, as did my Granddad, my father….
My last name has a famous castle In Ireland. There’s an Irish saint who is my namesake. I did my 4th grade country report on Ireland because I am a proud descendant of the Irish.
Then Granddad got into Genealogy when I was in my late teens carried on by my uncle in my 20s. Nope, we’re mostly Scottish. I can point to two female Irish direct descendants one about 375 years ago and the other about 200.
I guess every time I celebrate St. Patrick’s day I’m lying to take advantage of affirmative action.
One point that’s not discussed much, but is obvious, and bears mentioning, is that the GOP never had a plan for governing, only a plan for dismantling government. The GOP’s tax bill exemplifies this. It’s sloppy, jury-rigged, and thrown together. What we called a “rush job” when we were in college.
“Some technical provisions being stripped out of the tax bill because of Senate Byrd rules means the House will have to re-vote on the final tax bill tomorrow. Both chambers are being notified of the changes now. This is a small hiccup. It won’t change the timing on the bill or its fundamental provisions — but it will force the re-vote in the House tomorrow morning.”
http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/19/.....=permalink
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Republicans have long argued that government should be run more like a business. That’s fallacious in itself, but anyone who ran a business like they run government would be peremptorily sacked.
Incompetent, treasonous, perverted Roypublicans can’t even “win”* without fucking the dog. I wonder how many of them will have to rebook their flights?
*Hard to call it “winning” when they faced no opposition other than themselves.
@20 More proof that every vote matters.
Quinnipiac poll released today:
“Fifty percent of American voters, including 59 percent of women and 41 percent of men, say President Donald Trump should resign because of sexual allegations against him.”
https://poll.qu.edu/national/release-detail?ReleaseID=2509
@21 My father insisted we were Scotch-Irish, but I never believed him.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotch-Irish_Americans
In keeping with the Christmas spirit, a Starbucks in Walnut Grove, California, booted a racist witch who harassed another customer for speaking Korean.
http://www.foxnews.com/food-dr.....orean.html
Roger Rabbit Commentary: You can’t educate stupid, so this woman probably learned nothing from the experience. But it’s important to let racists and bigots know they don’t represent the values of our society and their rude behavior won’t be tolerated.
The Port of Seattle may finally get some decent leadership.
“Plagued by public-trust issues …, the Port of Seattle on Tuesday went in a new direction and selected a retired military commander to lead the agency.
“Stephen Metruck, a former rear admiral and chief financial officer at the U.S. Coast Guard, will take over as executive director at the Port in February ….
During his 34-year career, Metruck has overseen 3,600 military and civilian personnel as the commander of the Coast Guard’s mid-Atlantic region, helped plan the Coast Guard’s $10 billion budget and served on the board for the Coast Guard’s academy for new recruits … [and] he spent four years as commander of Sector Puget Sound, where he helped lead safety operations at the Port of Seattle.”
https://www.seattletimes.com/business/port-of-seattle-shifts-direction-picks-retired-military-commander-as-new-leader/
The one thing high income people from high tax states should be asking now that they won’t be able to deduct as much SALT any longer is, “Am I getting my money’s worth for the taxes I’m paying at the state and local level?”
This could encourage tax reform in the high tax states, once the people paying even more realize they aren’t getting their money’s worth in taxes. If they like “draining the swamp,” why not start at the state and local levels?
Hoboken elected a Sikh who will take over as mayor in 2018. So naturally angry ChristianJihadis are flooding the city’s Facebook page about celebrating the last Christmas before he cancels it.
Last year an episode of “Nova”, with David Koch picking up a big chunk of the tab, dealt pretty much head-on with railroad safety and modernization. Of course, the most exciting parts of the whole show involved cars and trucks operated by idiots getting flattened by trains, the main focus was on the acute need for modernization and the urgent need for safety improvements. The last third of the program turned from the disgraceful state of North American railroads to those in Europe and Japan, and made it clear that we’d be far better off if we got busy and caught up.
Christmas = Yule = Saturnalia. Christmas has it’s roots in pre-Christian Pagan beliefs. If you’re a Christian monk trying to convert Pagan Saxons or Danes, it helps to throw in a bit of the Old Religion to make things more familiar and palatable. Same logic was used to sell the Father-Son-Holy Ghost scam as a way to make Christianity easier to adopt by people who believed in multiple Gods and Goddesses. In short, it’s all a scam, whether it’s Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hindu, Wicca or whatever.
“Investigators are looking into whether the Amtrak engineer … was distracted by the presence of an employee-in-training in the locomotive, a federal official said Tuesday. … The emergency brake kicked in during the accident, not before … [i]t does not appear the engineer activated the emergency brake ….”
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/authorities-investigating-whether-amtrak-engineer-was-distracted-washington/
Roger Rabbit Commentary: I’m confident the only cement around here is between Doctor Dumbfuck’s ears.
@32 Yeah, but useful for social control, plus it keeps them off the streets one day a week.
@28
Admiral Stephen Metruck is a excellent USCG Officer and will bring credibility to the Port of Seattle, finally. I had the pleasure to hear him speak on more than one occasion and he was a dynamic speaker and a great motivator of Sector Puget Sounds staff.
Best part about it, he isn’t an airport guy and certainly understands port security and the need for safe and reliable infrastructure. I for one look forward to his leadership of the POS.
@4 “Still possible, if unlikely at this point.”
As much as it is possible that Hillary will become POTUS.
You’ve made some pretty far-fetched claims and assertions but trying to pin this derailment on kids from Hippie Haven is just plain nuts.
Why did they block rail tracks in the past? To protest fracking. WTF does commuter rail have to do with fracking or environmental concerns? Even the hippies at Evergreen are as stupid as you on this one. Dumbfuck just gonna dumbfuck…
@ 36 NH:
Bear in mind that the man has long since realized that if he can’t come in here to lie, he has nothing to say.
@36 Correction, what it should have said is: “Even the hippies at Evergreen are not as stupid as you on this one.” Wasn’t able to correct it in the alloted editing time. My apologies to the folks at Evergreen.
@37
Yes, that is so very true.
Followup on “Roger Rabbit Commentary” @22: Not only can’t Republicans run government like a business, they can’t run their own kindergarten.
(1) Conservative House Republicans are making clear they intend to renege on Sen. McConnell’s deal with Sen. Collins even before Sen. Collins votes on the tax bill. Don’t know if that’ll flip Collins’ vote, but if it does, McConnell is down to 50 votes.
(2) Watch them vote “no” on $81 billion for disaster relief and leave devastated communities in Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico, and California in the lurch. What the hell, California doesn’t vote for them anyway.
(3) Speaking of train wrecks, it appears the tax bill vote will be followed immediately by a government shutdown. The last time the GOP shut down the government they got slaughtered in the next elections. They’re already looking at getting slaughtered in 2018 because of their tax scam bill; now they’re going for a two-fer, and just to make sure those nails stay in the coffin lid, they’re gonna attack Social Security and Medicare ahead of the elections.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/19/.....index.html
Ryan and McConnell can always hope Steiner will save them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7PmzdINGZk
Long Live Ireland – True Home of The Free and the Brave…..right after that is Australia!
Not everyone is a greedy capitalist. And I can already imagine the conservatives muttering, “Fucking communist!”
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/709-carat-peace-diamond-auction-benefit-poor-village-pastor-emmanuel-momoh/
Busting the myth that corporate tax cuts will stimulate investment.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/corporate-tax-cuts-not-likely-to-raise-wages-growth/
33)Turns out, the other guy in the cab was a conductor getting familiarized with the territory. Besides the already qualified crews, they still havenjoy an extra board to qualify on the new route.
OK it stops the winning streak but TN Sen Dist 17 went to Trump by 49 points. In today’s special election the R won by 3 points.
But there ain’t nothing happening outside Hillary counties.
Very interesting.
http://www.newsweek.com/north-.....most_read5
Incompetence?
It’s the media’s fault!
https://www.aol.com/article/news/2017/12/19/white-house-attributes-trumps-low-approval-numbers-to-negative-media-coverage/23312463/
Damn. Obama must be jealous.
The Senate passed the tax bill with every Republican voting “yes” and every Democrat voting “no.” Final vote 51-48. Now wait for Sen. Collins to get screwed by her own party.
Roy Moore still hasn’t conceded a week later.
“We have to go through … this recount provision and but we also know that God is also in control.”
OK, God is saying that it isn’t safe to have you around teenage girls so HELL NO to the Senate.
@15 You are making arguments here that counter each other. You state you are going to personally benefit from the tax cuts, Still there will be inflation (the Fed has been hoping to get it up to three percent for a decade now), and that the buybacks don’t create a bubble, and we are due for a downturn, so are you really so sure the tax plan is going to make you richer, could make you poorer. US Treasury bonds are the safest investment for the retired elderly investor.
Since you are already receiving social security and medicare (entitlements) you don’t have worry too much about changes, as you are already in the system.
@48 And we get to find out how many write in votes different people got. There is no requirement any politician has to concede. Hilliary Clinton did not concede until the votes were counted by the VP, and held out hope the electoral collage would hand her a win, or throw the election into the house.
Moore has every right to know the final count including the uncounted mailed in votes.
Meanwhile the Secretary of State of Alabama actually is obligated to do his job and investigate fraudulent votes, counts, ect and turn over any uncovered criminal activity to the Attorney General of Alabama. The US Feds may get to investigate cases of blacks being pushed off the voter rolls. Fun Fun Fun.
Still with a difference of a bit over 20,000 votes Moore is not crazy to want to see the official final numbers, and insist on a free recount if it turns out it’s within 1/2 a percent or pay for a recount, or he can go eat peanuts. He may even concede, but he does not have too.
Meanwhile there is probably some consideration of challenging the Governor’s decision in calling the special election. Probably too late, but hey there is the Al Franken effect and meanwhile Strang sits in the Senate.
Since you all think the Republicans are bastards, why should they play nice? I doubt the Republicans will be this Machiavellian, but Judge Roy Moore maybe. That thar crazy Alabamian Judge may want some payback.
@16 Still he may turn around to his Transportation Secretary and ask about the safety culture at AMTRAC. It’s only been since the Clinton administration when AMTRAC’s safety culture was questions and they were told to implement a program that would automatically slow trains or stop them if they are exceeding a section of tracks speed limit. So far AMTRAC doesn’t want to pay for that or to place two engineers in the locomotive.
@18 The video is no longer available on the older son of Sarah Palin. But would you be so kind as to why police would have probably cause to arrest someone for calling police peasants or for walking in a strange manner? Neither of those reason give police a reason to arrest anyone.
@25 Just means 59 percent of American women and 41 percent of men should be required to retake or take a American government class. And if they work in government they should be suspended from their job until they pass.
@27 It does to an extent depend on why An a Korean exchange student out in the public was speaking Korean was it to include or exclude. As an exchange student she should be speaking English in public. That does not mean the woman’s behavior was good, but if her reason for it was being excluded then the Starbuck’s employee maybe in the wrong. It could expose the company to legal action.
According to Korean manners An should have using English unless she had a reason such as being there with a Korean who does not speak English and needed a translator.
@3o The Mayor of Hoboken can cancel Christmas? The headquarters of Gimbels or Macys is not in Hoboken. And Whoville is no where near Hoboken. There maybe a few Grinches in Hoboken though, starting a panic or fanning a panic.
Happy Holidays Hoboken. If a city needed the holidays, Hoboken is in the top 10.
The train set, a TALGO 6 is probably a write off. The train involved in the Steilacoom derailment was a type 8. The main difference is the shark fins that are immediately behind the locomotive. Those were an enhancement to TALGO’s basic design to handle and aerodynamic problem caused by the locomotive being taller. The Type 8 does not have those fins, as the locomotive and coach height match a little more closely. Last I heard about the train set from the wreck at Bridge 14, was it easy in Milwaukee, getting repaired. TALGO recently re-opened the plant after getting contracts from the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority to overhaul the rolling stock used on the Red and Purple lines.
@ 54
It isn’t any of anyone else’s business what language people are speaking in public. Just because you can’t eavesdrop on them doesn’t make them criminals or terrorists or in any other way offensive.
You’re just a nasty, nosy jingo who likes to listen in on other peoples private conversations. Fuck you.
In other news, apparently Pizzagate (which really is still very much a thing amongst the “alt-right”) is really just the tip of the iceberg.
50,
As if Democrats run the elections in Alabama.
You people are such schmucks. No wonder pimply Russian teenage script kids lead you around like cows.
@51 “he may turn around to his Transportation Secretary”
You mean Yertle’s wife? She’ll dutifully respond that the only possible solution is to defund what’s left of Amtrak.