There are some interactive thingies that predict whether you will personally benefit from the abominable tax bill the Republicans are expected to pass today. Here’s a link to WaPo’s version. Looks like we’ll get a moderate cut that will be more than consumed by the spike in health insurance premiums experts are predicting next year.
Everyone but the wealthy will ultimately get screwed under the Republican tax bill. I dread the fallout from it, including the inevitable assault on the social compact.
But in the short term, I’m dreading the vapid horse race coverage from the Beltway that will inevitably frame this as a “win” for Trump, without mentioning the loss for, say, kids who need chemo. I’m also dreading the doom-crying from a subset of fellow liberals, who are convinced that political gravity only applies to Democrats. I’m going to try to ignore all that bullshit.
Did you hear about the giant Tic-Tac that (possibly) came from outer space? Probably not. Each day’s fresh hell has all but knocked an otherwise remarkable story off the front pages. Via CNN:
A former Pentagon official who led a recently revealed government program to research potential UFOs said Monday evening that he believes there is evidence of alien life reaching Earth.
“My personal belief is that there is very compelling evidence that we may not be alone,” Luis Elizondo said in an interview on CNN’s “Erin Burnett OutFront…”
A pair of news reports in The New York Times and Politico over the weekend said the effort, the Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program, was begun largely at the behest of then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, who helped shore up funding for it after speaking to a friend and political donor who owns an aerospace company and has said he believes in the existence of aliens.
The Times’ report on the government UFO study included a pair of videos of pilots remarking on something mysterious they were seeing. One of the pilots, retired Cmdr. David Fravor, told CNN that he had witnessed an object that looked like a “40-foot-long Tic Tac” maneuvering rapidly and changing its direction during a flight in 2004.
Spreading minty freshness throughout the universe — a noble mission!
In other news, Cardinal Bernard Law shuffled off his mortal coil in the wee hours. To paraphrase Bette Davis on the death Joan Crawford: You should never say anything bad about the dead, only good. Cardinal Bernard Law is dead. Good.
Lastly, I saw “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” last night, and later today, I’ll post an open thread with a hidden thread for TLJ discussions with spoilers.
As for this thread, it is open!
A Ghost To Most
One more pedophile enabler down. May the last king be strangled in the bowels of the last priest
Cheryl Rofer
A number of people have been wondering on social media why the UFO story doesn’t have legs. I haven’t been able to tell if those comments on Twitter have been serious, so I haven’t responded. But someone I respect wrote a post on it, and here’s the comment I appended.
I think there are a number of reasons why the UFO story didn’t take off.
1) “Documentary evidence of spacecraft hovering with no sign of propulsion” has been claimed before, and it was wrong.
2) Congress’s determination to destroy the economy sucked all the oxygen out of the newssphere. Then there is always Trump.
3) Relatedly, it’s hard to feel wonder for anything scientific when you are wondering how badly you’ll be hurt by Congress’s latest move.
4) The two videos provided by the NYT were decidedly unpersuasive. The “objects” were blurry, and much of their “motion” looked like that of reflections. I’d have to know more about the conditions under which they were made to draw conclusions, but those two factors alone raise big questions that apparently nobody has bothered to ask.
5) On that last point, reporters have done such a bad job of reporting science that probably people are learning to ignore sensationalism supposedly based on science. How many articles have there been on, say, whether coffee is harmful or beneficial?
There’s a subsidiary question as to why the reportorial fraternity didn’t run with this. I think I saw maybe three or four secondary stories. I would attribute the lack of virality in this domain to the first three factors.
cope
Open is good.
The UFO story is interesting but I find it hard to believe that visiting intelligent beings would observe (?) us in such a way and apparently just this one time. Also, based on the pilot’s description of how fast the Tic Tac was moving and changing directions, the accelerations involved would have been astronomical to say the least.
It is nice to have mysteries in life, though, even if it is unlikely to be LGMs.
Obvious Russian Troll
I suspect that most UFOs are the human version of my cats chasing after a light reflected on the wall.
Miss Bianca
I have “Rogue One” coming on DVD from the library. Am resigned to the fact that by the time i see the new movie, i will have been exposed to spoilers aplenty. Good thing i generally enjoy movies (or not) independent of how much i know about the story beforehand!
Trying to think of some terribly witty observation that will tie together Star Wars, the tax grab, and the giant Tic Tac from space, but wit ain’t in me this morning. We need Baud!
Ruckus
I like that they wrote this bill in about the most political way possible, to screw the coasts and to reward temporary little tidbits to the rubes which will fuck so many people in a short order after the euphoria wears off but the people who need anything the least will gain dramatically and that will fuck the country and all the republican supporters, along with all of us in ways that will screw us for a long, long time. I say, bravo assholes, bravo. Golf clap for your managing to fuck so many people so well and call it love. Brafuckingvo. Government by the rich, for the rich, by the fucking assholes among us. It’s only taken them what 50 yrs to accomplish this feat. Mom always said to look on the bright side of life. So….Of course there is a small ray of hope here, that maybe, while most of us end up even poorer and sicker there is at least hope that the republican party has just committed political suicide. Couldn’t happen to a more appropriate bunch of moronic, self serving assholes.
SiubhanDuinne
Tic-Tac, motherfuckers.
Jager
As we always said in Boston, the Cahdinal was a dirty bastid. I read about a retired Boston detective, who saw Law scurrying across St. Peter’s square, the cop turned to his wife and said, “I’d make a citizen’s arrest on the son of a bitch, but I don’t think I could get him extradited back to Boston.” His wife replied, “Try anyway, honey.”
Jeffro
I’ll believe in UFOs when one actually lands and aliens disembark, or zaps a major city, or crashes and leaves all kinds of hi-tech goodies scattered about for all to see. Until then, it’s all weather balloons and atmospheric phenomena .
In other news, ol’ Jeffro has been diagnosed with ‘walking pneumonia’. I don’t feel all that bad but boy do I sound horrible – my cough sounds like a special effect, it’s that not-normal. Antibiotics + steroids + fluids + a good book (“Everything Under the Heavens”, by Howard French – trying to learn a little about our Chinese soon-to-be overlords) and of course a power nap or three.
I’m going to enjoy the rest and reading, but pneumonia means that my upcoming ski vacation just turned into an upcoming sightseeing trip. Oh well, plenty of worse problems to have…
Betty Cracker
@Miss Bianca: I am also able to enjoy movies and TV series even if I’ve been exposed to spoilers, and it’s a good thing too, especially on the TV front, since I tend to wait for a show to run its course so I can binge-watch at will. I didn’t see “The Sopranos” and “West Wing” until years after their TV run had ended, for example. Loved both!
NotMax
First, something smooth ‘n’ sultry for holiday time.
Second, repeating for the daytime jackals. Mentioned because items below are ones some here take a cotton to.
Amazon’s upcoming Digital Day sale includes:
Save up to 80% off best-selling Marvel graphic novels
Save up to 75% off on Kindle best-selling books.
Just One More Canuck
I did not attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter that I approved of it
Betty Cracker
@SiubhanDuinne: Well played! Have you watched “The Crown” yet? Dying to hear your opinion!
SiubhanDuinne
@Miss Bianca:
How long will he be away, do you know? Does anybody know? Does Baud even know?
SiubhanDuinne
@Betty Cracker:
I really want to, but it’s not possible for me right now. When I do — and I hope it’ll be soon! — I’ll let you know. From everything I’ve heard and the few clips I’ve seen, pretty sure I’ll love it!
MattF
Good old Bette. A smart one.
And about UFOs. I guess there is life ‘out there’– but given the way the universe works, any sentient entities who could get here in a finite amount of time are sentient entities that I’d want to stay far away from.
NotMax
Oh joy. Flash flood warning issued at 5:02. At 5:08, rains began over the abode. Possibility of up to six inches at some locations, the list of which was 100% incomprehensible on the audio of the interrupt over the cable TV service.
Ruckus
@MattF:
Do you even wonder if they think the same of us?
Also there is a reason why aliens might do anal probing so much. So many of us are full of shit. Maybe they are just trying to help out. So to speak.
MattF
@Ruckus: You might want to read Roadside Picnic.
TaMara (HFG)
Good timing, I’m seeing it this afternoon. I’ll email you an article written by a friend for Huffpo on it and his assessment. You can link to if you want. I hear it is very spoilery, so I have not read it yet.
Major Major Major Major
@Miss Bianca:
tbh if the movie isn’t any good after you know the plot, then the movie isn’t any good
@Betty Cracker: and Breaking Bad is pretty obviously subtitled Walt Dies At The End, and it’s still good.
blackcatsrule
@Jager: Just wanted to let you know that I’ve seen your comments lately and now always look to see if you’re in a thread. The biker story! The relative out on his ass at the holidays story! The 360 spins! Great stuff.
NotMax
@Ruckus
Compact, powerful, renewable fuel source. We’re just too backward to realize it.
;)
kindness
Most Americans don’t have an issue with us not being the only sentient species in the universe. The only group that does have an issue are the Fundie Christians who pulled a number (6000 years) out of their ass (it isn’t listed anywhere in the Bible) and proclaimed that the day God created everything day (OK, 6 days). That contingent holds their truths close to their breast and demands we all humor them. Fuck them. They can live in their own fantasy world but they have no right to demand I do too. If it offends them that I think we are primitives in the vast sea of galaxies of other civilizations out there, so be it. We aren’t alone. But we are doing a great job of showing ourselves to be toddlers at this civilization thingy in alien’s eyes. There is a reason they aren’t landing and saying hi. For my purposes I hope they wait till after Trump is tossed from office to do so because that whole ‘Take me to your leader’ jive would be totally embarrassing with the Donald.
Nicole
Oh, I look forward to TLJ thread! We saw it yesterday, also. It was hard for me, as someone who was a young girl when Princess Leia burst onto the scene, to accept it was the final bow of Carrie Fisher, but it’s meant so much to see the character come back in these films, and to see she remained a fighter. While Han went back to smuggling, and Luke ran away, Leia kept up the good fight.
As for my reaction, as I left the theater, I thought, “That was pretty good,” and by the time I got home, having mulled the themes some more, I thought, “That was REALLY good.” I like movies that get better the more I think about them.
Major Major Major Major
@kindness: my dad talks about the time he tried to trick the Jesuit teachers by asking about aliens and they just said Well, why the hell not? (Only they didn’t say ‘the hell’.)
Jager
I used to work with a guy who claimed he saw a UFO while driving back from Florida. It scared the crap out of him, so much so he was “Born Again” and pledged his life to Jesus. About 6 months later he quit his job and went to work for Pat Robertson on Pat’s Plantation in Virginia. The guy had a wife and a little kid, he took a 70% pay cut to work for Pat. He and his little family were starving, He went into Pat’s office and and asked for a raise. Pat said, “let’s pray on it.” they prayed like mad for a while. He didn’t get the raise. I ran into him years later at a broadcaster’s meeting and he told me, “I think I got the wrong message from those fucking aliens.”
Butch
@Ruckus: You know, I’ve been reading stories about the approaching “demographic winter” for the Republican Party for so long that I no longer believe it, but since I need something to hope for, I am genuinely hoping that this bill does some lasting damage to the GOP. Of course, none of my recent predictions have been accurate.
Major Major Major Major
@Jager: that is a great story. I’ve been reading Elmore Leonard lately and it would be right at home in one of his books.
Mnemosyne
@Nicole:
G and I saw it last Friday, we’re still talking about it, and we’re going to go back and see it next week. So, mission accomplished!
Doug R
Since there are ~250,000,000,000 stars in our galaxy and about 1 in 4 stars we’ve looked at so far have planets and even in our podunk empty corner of the galaxy we’ve got possible habitable planets 4 and 11 light years away, damn straight there’s life just like us out there.
It’s just everything’s too far away, can’t go faster than light.
Jager
@Major Major Major Major:
I’ve read almost everything by Leonard. I had drinks one night with a couple of owners of 9 religious radio stations (we were trying to buy one of their FMs) after about 6 scotches, the talkative one said, “it’s a great business kid, you get a born again in a white suit to front the station and he hires cripples in wheel chairs to put up the tapes” The guy was a perfect character for Elmore Leonard,. big guy, overweight, splotchy, flushed face with a 3 ton wallet in his pocket.
Brachiator
@cope:
Who knows. Don’t really care unless some actual ETs decide to make actual contact or leave some tangible evidence of their existence.
Had Einstein said nothing more than “My personal belief is that there is compelling evidence that the speed of light within a vacuum is the same no matter the speed at which an observer travels,” he would never have been anything other than a forgotten clerk in the Swiss Patent Office.
Personal beliefs don’t mean squat.
OTOH. I love that there has been an accelerated understanding of the universe. When I was a kid, my science book insisted that ours was the only solar system with planets. Now, planetary systems are popping up all over the place. And I like to think that the universe may have some surprises in store.
Miss Bianca
@SiubhanDuinne: OK, *that* was what I was looking for. Well-played, SD!
Brachiator
@Jeffro:
Hope you’ll be able to use the holidays to relax and take care of yourself.
Uncle Cosmo
Bernie Law dead, good…except…
Ever since Frankie slipped on the Shoes of the Fisherman, I’d been hoping to read that he’d driven down to whatever extraterritorial flat (St. John’s Lateran?) Law occupied & said, I’m tossing your sick carcass out of here & sending you home to swap those robes for an orange jumpsuit, you pedophile-enabling fuck! That one simple & utterly just act would have given hundreds of millions real hope that the One Holy Catholic & Apostolic Church might finally be emerging from the Dark Ages. Now he’ll never have the chance.
Doug R
@Ruckus:
Hate to mess up a good joke, but apparent anal probing has a scientific reason.
Ball lightning moves in what appears to be a strange way, if it hits someone, it can give someone a seizure and affects the part of the brain that thinks things are important. Plus, every electric charge has to leave somewhere, usually somewhere moist….
d58826
TOTALLY AGREE. Just sorry to see that Francis will attend the funeral. I know protocol and all that but it would be a powerful signal that the Church is trying reform. Instead he will get the royal send off and God will forgive him, blah blah. I suspect that there will be no mention of the children victimized while he was in charge in Boston.
Uncle Cosmo
IMHO we need a pickup truck – nay, dozens, nay, hundreds of pickups – mounting 3-dimensional versions of that recent editorial cartoon (Danziger?) with the GOP Elephant picking John Q. Public’s pocket & handing the loot to a bazillionaire. (Do we use the Monotony plutocrat, Scrooge McDuck, or some generic fatcat in a top hat topped with a giant $? Details to be worked out.) Maybe hang signs like YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT THEFT along the sides. Then we drive them around every fucking district where a Thuglican is running for (re-)election. Remember what the Tammany boss said a couple of centuries back about Thomas Nast’s editorial cartoons: Don’t care what they write, because my voters don’t read, but them damn pictures!
d58826
@Doug R: and how much of that life has evolved beyond pond scum?. Since I’m in a non creative mood today please feel free to add (snarky) comments about the evolutionary level of life on earth.
burnspbesq
@Uncle Cosmo:
I hear ya, but I take comfort that in his final moments, Law must have been terrified by what he knew was coming.
Uncle Cosmo
@Brachiator:
Bangalore! Try this one on for size:
How many hundreds of millions of people have lived (& committed atrocities in the name of) this sort of statement?
Betty Cracker
@burnspbesq: It’s times like this that I miss being a believer — specifically, the certainty that cosmic justice awaits. As it is, I think the bastard lived in splendor until his dirt nap started this morning. Perhaps HE died in terror because he thought he knew what was coming. But I’m convinced nothing but sweet oblivion awaited him, which means he got off easy.
kindness
@Doug R: Stop being so limited. Interstellar travel won’t happen from going faster because Einstein’s Theory of Relativity is fundamentally correct. As any mass approaches the speed of light that mass expands. That effectively kills biological cells and electrical circuitry. No, that kind of travel will happen by way of ‘Jumping’. Remember the Dune books? We already know the distance between two points isn’t always just a straight line. For example going through a star or a black hole bends the line. We’ve documented that. The key to that kind of travel will be bending the two points so they are adjacent to each other and then jumping across. Nothing is fixed out there.
Bill
After the spike I got hit with this year (40%), I can’t imagine what next year is going to bring. I’m already paying unaffordable sky high premium for terrible coverage. If I get another increase next year I may have to consider paying the penalty and just buying catastrophic coverage.
Health insurance is beyond fucked up in this country. Also, I hate the Republican Congress.
Miss Bianca
@Doug R: Oh, eww. I could have survived a bit longer without *that* particular nugget of information lodged in the old brain-pan.
MattF
@kindness: The underlying reason why it’s impossible to go FTL has been alluded to a couple of times in this thread: the speed of light remains the same in your local reference frame, no matter how ‘fast’ you’re going. It’s weird, but there’s really no doubt that’s the way the universe works.
Brachiator
I may watch the movie “Spotlight” again over the holidays. An excellent, low key depiction of one of the best investigations into the priest scandals.
This film is part of what I call The Massachusetts Quartet, unrelated but excellent films set in Mass. The others are The Fighter, Mystic River and Manchester by the Sea.
Seanly
Hmmm, I think I will pay more. No one is talking about how the doubling of the standard deduction comes with eliminating the personal exemptions. So my wife & I typically have 2 exemptions of $8100 plus itemized deductions of say $19k. That’s a total deduction of $27k or so. But now we’d just have the $24k so I’d need to pay 22% on the extra $3k.
The only thing that might help is that much of the deductions are due to having a 2nd house we rent out. We’d love to get rid of the place, but we’ve got too much equity to walk away but not enough funds to pay the mortgage while we try to sell it. It was our home when I lost my job and then had to move cross country to find work. I think I saw somewhere that the losses on rental are being kept but won’t be part of deductions but rather figured a different way. Maybe I should incorporate myself..
lethargytartare
does he have a son named Dwayne?
TenguPhule
@Bill:
They’re getting rid of the mandate.
Uncle Cosmo
@Betty Cracker:
If only.
My utterly cynical take is that he was convinced of that as well, & had been for many years. I think Law long ago abandoned any sort of real belief in an afterlife or divine justice. How could anyone who had not lost those beliefs treat the scandal of priests abusing kids (& the parents they trusted them with) as essentially a PR problem that could be finessed with some administrative sleight-of-hand so long as it didn’t threaten the Church’s bottom line?
IMHO for the last decades of his life (if not earlier) the old sumbidge lost whatever belief he ever had, considered his position a cushy sinecure he could keep as long as he obeyed the outward forms, & went to his dirt nap expecting nothing more than nothingness,
burnspbesq
@Seanly:
You may benefit from the Corker Bribe. And you may not need to incorporate. If you own the property with your spouse, an LLC (which is taxed like a partnership if it has >1 member) might be a viable option.
It’s worth a few hundred bucks to work it through with a lawyer or accountant in your area.
cope
@Brachiator: I don’t want break your quartet but I would like to put in a good word for “The Verdict” as another Massachusetts-located movie.
Jim
I recalculated my 2016 tax return using the new law’s parameters. I would have owed $600 more (17%) if it had been in effect. Fair’s fair, though: My Social Security went up this year. But with increased Medicare etc deductions, it was only $36 a year, net. All hail Trump and the pussy Republicans who worship him!
J R in WV
@kindness:
That 6000 year old universe thing isn’t specifically in the Bible, but Bishop Usher spent his life calculating (via the begats for the most part) from the history of the world as written in the infallible Bible when the G-D of the Jews created the world, and it was on October 23, 4023 BCE (or there abouts). The good bishop’s work was accepted uncritically by most of the christian world.
So it is in general in the bible, just not listed as such, because of course when the bible was written (infallabily) the world was much newer than it is today.
Original Lee
It looks as if we’ll get a tax cut for 2018, but given that my health care premium is going up 25% in 2017, with higher copays and deductibles, I think we’ll end up down a bit (depending on whether or not we have any significant new health problems from here on out).