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Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza!

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Maddow: Obama appoints a Commission to look into GOP’s voter suppression shenanigans.

Awesome: I.S.S.:

Thom with the Good, the Bad, and The Very, Very Ugly.

Sam Seder: Republicans jeopardize national security for political points.

Stephanie Miller: Leon Penetta’s comment on mean Washington.

Young Turks: Elizabeth Warren smacks down Wall Street bankers.

Greenman: Minding Nemo.

Tea Party Scandal:

Maddow takes on John McCain for revisionism on Iraq (via Crooks and Liars).

Republicans on the Sequester: Then and Now.

Lawrence O’Donnell: Wyoming Legislature bucks GOP tax trend.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) goes dancing.

White House: West Wing Week.

Bill Maher on being sued by the son of an Orangutan.

STOU:

Sharpton: Some G.O.P. Valentines day card ideas.

Thom: The Good, The Bad, and The Very, Very Ugly.

Bill Press: Why Dick Cheney is like Big Foot.

Steve Hartman on Arizona’s dildo rationing laws.

Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.

Comments

  2. 2

    Carnival is offering passengers of the Cruise From Hell compensation of $500 each. The first lawsuit has already been filed; there will be more.

  4. 4

    And you can go into gun shops there and buy all the AK-47s you want for your own personal use.

    Then if you change your mind you can just sell them to anyone you want after you leave the shop. Like Mexican mobsters.

  5. 5

    Facebook made $1 billion but actually paid no income taxes due to the requirement of expensing stock options to its executives. If no cash leaves a company when it grants stock options, why to companies get to expense these things? Shouldn’t these companies pay their fair share?

  6. 6

    Was wondering what the difference is between the U.S Federal Government killing an American Taliban member (without Due Process) and U.S police killing someone like the cop killer or that old guy who held hostage the 5 year old kid from Alabama (without Due Process).

  8. 8

    @ 5

    That comment about Facebook isn’t quite accurate. Before FB went public and probably before FB became a huge deal, it had to fund its growth when it was free to everybody and there wasn’t a whole lot of advertising. Before it reached a critical mass and the world began to realize how much profit potential there was from a database that large, it had to pay to fuel its growth. It brought in investors and sold off pieces of itself, and it paid a lot of employees peanuts but gave them stock options so they would stick around and continue to work for those peanuts.

    Well, by making those option payments they incurred losses (it’s a form of employee compensation), and the losses accrued and were carried forward from one year to the next.

    Now that FB is profitable, it has a tax liability, but the carried-forward losses offset it, and will continue to do so for some years in the future.

    Meanwhile, all those paid-out options, converted to stock and then sold, generate tax obligations to the seller.

    Those option holders might be executives now. Back when they received the options, they were likely 20- or 30-somethings who showered three times a week and worked 18 hour days subsisting on RedBull and Snickers bars.

    Not long ago GE made a very large profit and owed no taxes. It wasn’t stock options, but it was tax-loss carryforwards.

    BTW GM won’t owe taxes for a very, very long time. Check out why, and ask yourself how that came to occur.

    Just sayin’.

  9. 9

    @ 7

    You do realize that the gains were a result of labor-intensive pulling of weeds don’t you?

    You planning a never-ending supply of cheap, uneducated labor to do that, YLB? The article says the gains were made at ‘no extra cost’. Hell, that might not be cheap labor. That might be free labor.

    Everything has a cost. ‘Careful weeding’ of rice fields costs something. Funny they seem not to have factored that in.

  10. 10

    From 8,

    So how did FB use cash? I don’t see any cash flow out of the company when it grants stock options.

  11. 11

    6. Gman spews:

    Was wondering what the difference is between the U.S Federal Government killing an American Taliban member (without Due Process) and U.S police killing someone like the cop killer or that old guy who held hostage the 5 year old kid from Alabama (without Due Process).

    The US is past due process.

  12. 12

    @ 10

    It’s a charge against the overall value of the company. You’re not paying out cash but you’re giving part of it away.
    It’s an expense, even if it doesn’t deplete the bank account right away.

    I own commercial property. I get a depreciation deduction even though the value of the property has increased since I acquired it. Same thing – I can deduct it even though it didn’t cost me cash that year, necessarily.

  13. 13

    @ 5, 10

    I see your point – profitable companies have to pay taxes. My point was that it wasn’t giveaways to fat cats that resulted in the tax losses that have been carried forward and zero out the tax liability (FB actually is getting a rebate, this year, to really piss you off).

    My point was that FB gave stuff in lieu of cash to its employees when it didn’t have cash to pay in salary, and now it has an opportunity to deduct that non-cash compensation. It’s not some sort of underhanded tax avoidance while handing off the company to the barbarians at the gate.

  14. 14

    From 12,

    Since you own commercial property, you are probably using some sort of accelerated depreciation (cost recovery) on our property to show a tax loss. What I’d like to do is eliminate the accelerated methods so that it’s all straight-line depreciation. We have too many methods of accounting for income and losses. Abuse is rampant.

  15. 15

    10 years ago, there was a lot of France-bashing going on by American Conservatives because they opposed the Iraq War. Since American Conservatives(not all of them, although I did not like Paul Weyrich’s opposition to expansion of voting, he was not a lockstep oil-only conservative when it came to transportation, he was a transit proponent) don’t like rail transit much, they probably are not too bothered by the French company Alstom getting the contract for a study, and eventual constructuion, of an elevated rail transit project in Baghdad.

    http://www.railwaygazette.com/.....tract.html

    Why no American company? Because, most of our manufacturers of passenger rolling stock went out of business when orders dried up. I read an article about TALGO’s experience in Wisconsin recently, and one of the people running the manufacturing operation in Milwaukee was one of the last people laid off from Pullman-Standard when they went out of business in the 1980s. He was trying to pass on some of his knowledge and skills to a new generation, but the shop is closing, because when the two Oregon DOT trainsets are delivered, TALGO employees in Seattle will be responsible for ongoing maintenance.(TALGO does not trust Amtrak or anybody in the US to maintain their trains without supervision from them, it’s partly due to the company’s experiences in the 1950s and 60s, but they failed on roads like the Boston and Maine, and the Rock Island. because those railroads were financially not in the best of shape at the time, track maintenance had suffered). A handful of the Milwaukee TALGO staff was expected to stay on to maintain the two trains bought for the existing Milwaukee-Chicago service, but with the contract canceled, those two trains will be mothballed.(Their are a few different components on the Wisconsin cars, that Amtrak Cascades might not want them).

  16. 16

    @ 14

    Not on the property itself. Building costs are depreciated over 37 years. That’s the kind of acceleration the GM Volt will give you, not a Porsche. No deprecation on the land cost, of course.

    Now, since you brought up acceleration, I will point out that the solar panels I’m about to install are eligible for accelerated depreciation. Over five years. It’s one of the things that makes them start paying me back in 6-7 years (actually, I have to add a year to that estimate because the permitting was about 3x higher than I thought it would be).

    Would you like those types of acceleration to be eliminated? Or would you like to pick and choose which to subsidize and which to eliminate?

    Not all commercial property is owned by well-off individuals. Some of it is owned by retirees and the income is fixed and a major portion of what they live on. Pension funds own an awful lot of commercial property for the same reason – fixed income.

    Be careful what you wish for. I understand your underlying rationale but in practice it is more complicated than it seems.

  18. 18

    President Obama’s leaked immigration proposal is disappointing to those of us working on a serious solution. The President’s bill repeats the failures of past legislation. It fails to follow through on previously broken promises to secure our borders, creates a special pathway that puts those who broke our immigration laws at an advantage over those who chose to do things the right way and come here legally, and does nothing to address guest workers or future flow, which serious immigration experts agree is critical to preventing future influxes of illegal immigrants.

    http://www.rubio.senate.gov/pu.....79b689c86d

    This Hispanic senator is getting a lot of criticism for an ill-timed swig of water.

    Meanwhile, a different Hispanic senator is just now starting to get some wider press for his penchant for underage prostitutes in foreign countries:

    http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-25.....on-claims/

    Good to know the press has its priorities straight.

  19. 19

    Citing financial concerns, the Obama administration has begun quietly winding down one of the earliest programs created by the president´s health care overhaul, a plan that helps people with medical problems who can´t get private insurance. In an afternoon teleconference with state counterparts, administration officials said Friday the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan will stop taking new applications.

    and

    In documents provided to the states, the administration said the program has spent about $2.4 billion in taxpayer money on medical claims and nearly $180 million on administrative costs, as of Dec. 31. Congress allocated $5 billion to the plan.

    http://townhall.com/news/polit.....s-n1513903

    That’s $180,000,000 in administrative costs for 135,000 people.

    Although, to be fair, $180M to administer $2.4B in payments is 7.5%, not too bad compared with health care administrative costs in plans run by corporations.

    It’s an AP piece, BTW.

  21. 21

    I think what I want is simplification above complexity. The problem with our system is too much complexity and “carve-outs” for particular groups and industries.

    We’ve got a mess with the current tax laws. The biggest beneficiaries, as far as I can see, are accountants and lawyers!

  23. 23

    From 22,

    Strange indeed!

    But I don’t see how anyone (except the you-know-who’s) think a complex set of tax laws is desirable.

  24. 24

    @9 – And you do realize you’re unable to celebrate a victory of the poor farmer in the struggle to better their lot in life..

    Without the rapacious help of the Monsantos of the world.. Cutting them out.. Oh wow! Bob can’t profit.

    You’re such a miserable SOB Bob..

  25. 25

    Back to the dildo law in AZ.. The most infamous dildo fetishist is of course the dean of asshats:

    BillO

    No retirement in AZ for BillO.. He’d be busted within a day.

  27. 27

    @ 24

    You misunderstand, YLB. My point was that only through very labor-intensive farming, most likely frequent weeding by hand, did they accomplish their yield gains.

    If there are people to always do that work, at no cost, then all is well, isn’t it, YLB?

    But do you think that is realistic on a large-scale basis? That’s the point. I wasn’t trying to rain on anyone’s parade, only to point out that they didn’t account for the incremental increased labor costs in keeping the plantings weed-free.

  28. 28

    Although I don’t believe in feeding the trolls, I will answer partly the one question. I remember reading in TRAINS Magazine a few years ago in the “Ask Trains” section(used to be called the ABC’s of Railroading), that boxcars tend to last for 40 years. Locomotives, if they are well maintained, they last for a long time. There are still quite a few of the EMD GP7/GP9 series, which was the locomotive that helped put the nail in the coffin of steam, although retired from most class 1 railroads, in service with shortline and regional railroads. Passenger cars, Canada shows a good example of well maintained rolling stock. While the Montreal-Ottawa-Toronto run, and secondarily the Quebec-Windsor corridor are home to the more modern rolling stock, VIA Rail Canada’s transcontinental and remote area services are still home to some vintage rolling stock, built in the 1950s, that have gone through another rebuilding and modernization.(Over the years, in the sleepers, one of the classic Pullman open-sections was converted into a shower, and a couple converted to all room cars).

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMD_GP7

  29. 29

    24. YLB spews:

    @9 – And you do realize you’re unable to celebrate a victory of the poor farmer in the struggle to better their lot in life..

    Without the rapacious help of the Monsantos of the world.. Cutting them out.. Oh wow! Bob can’t profit.

    You’re such a miserable SOB Bob..

    When I was reading him, I just thought that he was boring, unoriginal and motivated by filling the space here with blather to discourage people from coming here. But get exercised if you wish. I think it far better just to scroll and ignore him, as in not feeding the trolls.

    I think he gets pleasure out of frustrating people and getting them to react. Since has obvious contempt for others, it gratifies him to annoy them.

    Better stony silence. Surely nothing anyone here says in anyway impacts him, he’s above all us lesser creatures. Like OLD style physicians: they are superior beings, like cops.

  30. 30

    From 29,

    Yes, it does appear that doctors and policemen have an attitude of superiority. It’s vey annoying to have to deal with such egos.

  31. 31

    29 – I know very well Bob is addicted to doing the same thing expecting different results..

    It’s uh.. kind of funny.. He’ll continue on and on for years as other trolls have vainly believing he’s making any sort of impact.

    Back to BillO…

    Here’s a BillO fan:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xzw1dZNWiL8

    Changed forever.. Could this be the film that will teach Bob to stop worrying and dump on the Monckton?

  32. 32

    @ 28

    Thanks, Railfan.

    You must have foreseen my next questions:

    If a company makes a product that lasts that long, doesn’t it, at some point, saturate its market and run out of customers?

    Is there a recurring revenue stream servicing locomotives or boxcars to keep a railroad vehicle manufacturer in business if the demand for new product declines?

  33. 33

    @ 31

    He’ll continue on and on for years as other trolls have vainly believing he’s making any sort of impact.

    Spoken by a guy who only about 4 or so months ago was one of those saying I’d be gone from HA after the election.

    BTW, where’d Rujax go?

  34. 34

    @ 29

    I think he gets pleasure out of frustrating people and getting them to react.

    Gee. I thought I pointed out that the article failed to include the incremental increase in labor cost required to achieve the production goal. Labor’s usually one of the most important, if not the greatest, costs in materials production, even agriculture, Chad.

    All along it turns out I did it just to frustrate and annoy YLB.

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