Brew

Eliminate the standard deduction (everyone itemizes), eliminate the SALT cap when itemizing, increase the use of homestead exemptions in states that don’t use it, reinstate first time home buyer credits, and build in a bigger spread on rates on government backed mortgages versus conventional financing. You aren’t putting the horse back in the barn on corporate ownership, but you can increase the incentives to individual ownership. Also, they might want to rethink that whole 21% corporate tax rate. These issues aren’t new, but they have been exacerbated by a certain piece of tax legislation in 2017 along with the high inflationary environment of this decade.

If you have the means, go consult with a family law attorney and see what the options are. I don’t know shit about the legal system, but I remember at that age sitting in front of a judge and telling him which parent I wanted to live with and that’s who I lived with. The kid is old enough that there should be a way around the issue. Getting dad to relinquish his parental rights sounds like a problem, but at some point the circumstances of his upbringing should carry some weight. Doesn’t mean it will though.

Daughter applied as an English major and got accepted pretty much everywhere. Others with higher ACT’s got rejected from the same schools. She is very involved and had great essays, but applying outside of business and a few other options definitely opens up more opportunities at the selective schools.

If you aren’t getting accepted in state at UT, you’re aren’t going to make the cut out of state at Michigan today. Also, we toured it and were not fans of the campus layout. You don’t have the traditional campus setup like a lot of southern universities because of how the campus is laid out around Ann Arbor. Illinois is definitely worth a look. Near the top of the Big Ten in all rankings, decent campus, etc. We pushed our daughter to really consider it, but it was too far away from her friends ultimately. We also looked at Purdue and Indiana, but location killed them. Florida is worth considering if you are just looking at academics. Suprisingly, Clemson is also worth a look. They have a pretty strong honors college.

Saw it Sunday, was well worth going to see. Enjoyable, summer movie that definitely played better in the theater than what it will at home.

If you ever fly into Savannah, make sure to pay attention to the Air Force side of the runway. They had an assortment of the different jets the AF fly as well as a number of T-38 Talons and other planes. My pilot took his time on the approach to takeoff so we could check everything out. They also had a Sikorsky CH-53K sitting out there, it’s hard to believe how massive that helicopter is even sitting next to F-22’s and 35’s. This isn’t my picture, but this is what it looks like right off the edge of the runway except the planes are all newer versions.

It’s not correct, nor anywhere near correct. I think the actual numbers on the bottom 50% of income earners is sub 5%. I even played with some data using taxpayers (eliminating those that pay no tax) and I don’t think you can get there although it is closer.

Looks like a lot of tubing going on there.

If you like the Voodoo flavoring, they are worth a try. They are very heavy on the seasoning with them. Honey Mustard ones were also good.

Have you discovered Voodoo Pretzel Stix yet?

No better time to visit Chicago than this time of year especially if you can catch the good weather days. Spent 4 days there last week with the kids around a concert one of them wanted to attend and had a great time as always. Spent one of the days looking at condos again as we’re still thinking about buying something to spend a little more time in the City and for our daughter to use during the summers. We’ll see where it goes.

Looks like our oldest is locked into UGA. She ended up accepted everywhere she applied other than NYU. We preferred Illinois or Willam and Mary, but left it up to her to decide what was best for her. She will be in the honors program there as an out of state kid, so she is about as excited as she can be at this point.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/malibu-boats-comments-litigation-filed-213500077.html https://www.tradeonlytoday.com/manufacturers/lawsuit-filed-against-malibu-boats Interesting suit going on with Malibu and Tommy’s. Tommy’s side is that Malibu offered incentives that were never paid for them to increase their floor plan size and overstock slow moving high end boats to help their numbers. They are one of the larger boat dealership brands I know of. I’ve worked with them a few times in the past on buying or trying to buy. I also did not realize the other brands including the saltwater brands that Malibu had acquired over the years. With their large out of pocket settlement last year, things are bound to get interesting.

Went to the Audi dealership Sunday (mid day) to look at a couple of SQ8’s. Kept hearing something over the PA system, so I walked back around where I could hear better and it was an announcement saying we were trespassing and the police had been notified. Security guys pulled up not long after and said they keep the entire dealership group under video security and notify the police if people are on the lot after hours. I told him he might want to tell someone to post a sign in the only place you can park to access the lots and save the hassle. I’m sure police weren’t notified, but the whole thing was dumb. She is eyeballing an Ineos now, we’ll see where that goes.

I will say allowing this to play out in a thread is pretty shitty though. There is nothing positive for Derka that comes out of the slow burn. If you wanted to ban him, the best thing would have just been to ban him. Everyone knows his issues and this just feels like imma kicking him in the nuts a few times on the way out the door as he was never going quietly. He should have banned for some period, let things calm down, and then discuss whether he was coming back.

He laid out his reasoning earlier in the thread. On the mod/owner issue, I’m not going to speak for black lab, but that involvement sounds a whole lot more like trying to look out for / help Derka’s well being than dealing with a random poster from the internet. I commend him for the personal involvement. Derka is clearly in one of those times he could use it. The issue with the other poster ultimately doesn’t matter, Derka can put him on ignore. Instead, Derka has said repeatedly he refuses to do it so he can see what he says about him to report it. Then he has a come apart on the site owner that clearly told him how to handle it. I’m not sure how he expected this to go at this point. Sometimes you have to remember that we are here because we are allowed to stay. That can always change just like the site can die on the vine if enough people don’t agree with the way it is run as has been proven in the past.

No doubt, but I’ve also seen plenty of threads over the years where disagreeing with Derka on something that is strictly an opinion results in Derka saying people are bullying him or going scorched earth. It has happened more times than I can count. Usually he steps away and comes back and is in a better place for a while until it comes up again. Using the term bully in today’s online environment can be problematic. I don’t participate in the same threads he does, so I cannot speak to whether it is or isn’t. However, I can speak to a fairly easy solution to dealing with it, which is put him on ignore instead of trying to be a moderator. It’s an online community, you hold all the control over who you interact with and Derka is making the active choice not to do his part to control it. Instead he is choosing scorched earth which is the most “Derka” thing he can do.

There was a simple solution to this issue and Derka chose to set fire to everything instead. That puts the mods in a no win situation at that point, so here we are with another in the long list of Derka threads. This is iteration # who knows at this point of this same/similar thread. Every so often things with Derka come to a head and we get this and he takes some time off and usually comes back better. It’s a problem and puts the site owners in a weird predicament that I would not want to deal with either. I like Derka as a poster, but I don’t engage with him any more. If you don’t agree with him then it quickly goes off the rails and turns into an everyone is against me discussion and everyone else is an idiot. It’s pretty easy to just skip on by. For those on team Derka, maybe spend a little less time arguing with Imma and a little more time explaining to Derka how sometimes you just have to do what you’re told by those in charge to get by. Saying all of that, the discussion in this thread and the number of people that always end up posting in it prove how much value Derka brings/has brought to the community. There are very few other posters that are going to get this many pages of discussion on their exit and it will be a net loss if he is gone. Derka needs to work his shit out with imma, take a break, and then he should be allowed back. Maybe ban him for a month every 6 months or so to give him a chance to reset.

Actually wasn’t bad. The King Air runs us about $20k, his helicopter is about $8500. Values are about 2:1, plane is older but has all new avionics.

Partner on my King Air bought a helicopter and is trying to get us to go in on it. He’s been flying it everywhere and it sounds like it might be worth it for the short hop trips we were considering getting a Cirrus for. The fuel burn on it is basically nothing especially compared with the King Air. He is also flying it from his house/shop straight to job sites, so it is no better than driving for him. I’m not sure how interested I am in a helicopter but it is intriguing. May need to up my life insurance first I suppose.

Sounds like you need a diesel, my friend. Traded off my 9 month old F250 that I said I was keeping forever this time last year. It was too big for what I need and where I drive and my back couldn’t take the ride. I need a truck for hauling and medium grade towing. I want to buy one more that will last me a while which keeps me from buying F150# whatever I’ve had at this point. Just checked F250 pricing, it has changed a lot in that time frame. I bought my Platinum out the door loaded for $77k, looks like it would take mid 90’s to get it now.

Checked towing and it looked fine, didn’t even think about payload. It looks like the newer ones are 1940 versus 3300 on the F150. Not sure that matters all that much since I’m only towing 16 foot trailers, boats, etc but that is well under what I would have expected.

Think I’m going to pick up a Tundra for towing/hauling and as an extra vehicle. Anything I should make sure to get on one? Looking at an SR5 because I don’t need all the extras at this point. Any big improvements or anything that I need to keep in mind in model years? I’m thinking about a new one unless I just happen to come across what I want within the last couple of years. It will probably stick around for a while as the 3rd vehicle, so I want something I don’t have to worry about.

I’m out, no time this year and not that into fantasy any more. Hopefully, you guys can find a few replacements.

Not around here, all of my kids (18/16) friends drink and no one really does drugs. My kids don’t do any of it other than an occasional drink at least to this point. My parents/stepparents are all severe alcoholics, so my kids have seen the bad side of drinking and just don’t have an interest currently. My wife and I don’t drink, so it also helps them make better decisions I think. From what we’ve seen the parents that are having a drink with every meal and looking the other way with their kids all have kids that are hitting it hard. My oldest gets a call almost every weekend to pick them up from parties and take them home.