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Bat Guano

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Everything posted by Bat Guano

  1. Bat Guano

    Tax reform

    Does it make a substantial positive impact on peoples' lives? Sure, as I said most people will pay less; but how much less? I'd say if it doesn't make enough difference for them to notice that they got a cut, then no, it's not a substantial impact. Maybe your special lady is not most people; it's one case. And the middle-class part of the tax reform will get smaller over the next few years and eventually disappear. All that equals a bust. A bust can also be defined politically: if Trump was counting on people to appreciate their tax cuts and vote for him based on them, then it was definitely a bust, based on the anecdotal evidence in this thread.
  2. Bat Guano

    Tax reform

    Withholding probably went down a bit for most of them; it did for me. But it wasn't alot, and as predicted the increase in take-home doesn't seem to have been enough for most people to notice. So that's cut down a little more by a smaller refund, and the bottom line is people just aren't that much better off; in other words, tax cut was a bust for most people.
  3. Beatles fanbois not going away. Overrated, to me, has a specific meaning: were they as good as people say they were? Influence is a different category, and in fact if they weren't that good, and were still extremely influential, this just reinforces the argument that they are overrated. They played gummy, pedestrian pop that echoed the stuff from postwar British pop, along with elements from other genres, especially early rock and roll. They couldn't even play their instruments well enough to keep up with the tempo Ringo tried to set for them on their first US tour. Musically, they just weren't as good as the godlike status many people ascribe to them. Culture, hairstyles, Eastern religion - what the fuck does any of that have to do with the actual music they produced?
  4. Put some teeth into the laws against hiring illegals. They don't get jobs, they don't come, except for the relative few who are applying for asylum. Of course, you'd need a hugely expanded guest-worker program, or half the agricultural, restaurant, landscaping, domestic, and construction work in the country would not get done.
  5. Well, credit where it's due - Donald has opened up a whole new swamp - a whole region graft and corruption nobody has ever exploited before*. *Maybe they have, but I've never heard of it.
  6. Have you tried it? Chocolate with bacon is a thing, and a pretty popular one.
  7. I defy you to name a food that bacon doesn't go with. Just one. I won't be waiting; there is none. Bacon goes with everything. Thus it is not possible for bacon to be overrated.
  8. 2 sets of knives is genius. Gonna have to do that. I have a run-of-the-mill set of Sabatier knives, but I keep them sharp; last week the gf was trying to cut a spaghetti squash in half with the chef's knife, and it slipped and damn near cut her thumb off (no pics, you surly bastards). She got mad at me because the knife was too sharp.
  9. Don't you have to feed them something if you expect them to poop?
  10. What if the dip is for the chips, smart guy? Huh? What then?
  11. I think it's simpler than that; if a band sucks and lots of people think it's the greatest band in history, then it is, by definition, overrated. Maybe 'sucks' is too strong to apply to the Beatles, but they were not, objectively, as good as their reputation. Teenage girls in the 60s didn't have infallible taste, and popularity does not equate to quality. As for influence, that's a function of popularity; and I'll note that the bands that most closely copied the Beatles sound sort of sucked, too (Oasis comes to mind). Beatles created the rock industry? That's pure nonsense. They created rock music? Chuck Berry says you're full of shit.
  12. Because of the roll-down. It only happens if the jackpot reaches a certain level without a winner, and then that jackpot money rolls down to the lower-tier prizes, bettering their odds for the player. That means the money that goes to the roll down is from previous draws, which people bought over the weeks beforehand and for which there was no winner. State got its money then. Jerry played the lower prize tiers, and won in line with the odds. Not a damn thing wrong with it, and the state didn't lose a penny, you can be sure of that.
  13. OK, the only one I'm really serious about is the Beatles. They have maybe 2 or 3 good songs. Most of their early stuff is ear-wormy, inane bourgeois pop, which morphed into pretentious self-indulgent sludge after they started doing more drugs. Maybe this should go in the Unpopular Opinions thread....
  14. The Beatles Frank Gehry Abraham Lincoln James Joyce Beef tenderloin Canada
  15. My grandfather had a pump with a B&S engine, bought in the early 60s. We ran that thing for over 50 years, about a month or two every year (pumping water at a summer house). Changed the oil at the end of every season, cleaned/replaced the plug as necessary, the whole nine yards. The damn thing was always a bitch to start; I still remember my grandfather cursing as he tried to start it at the beginning of each season - the only time I've ever heard him curse. He broke the starter rope at least a couple of times by repeatedly pulling on it. It ran great once it finally started, but damn that thing was a PITA to get going. Finally replaced it about 5 years ago with a Honda pump. It literally starts on the first gentle tug on the rope, even after a full winter of sitting idle. So my anecdote contradicts yours.
  16. No. He has no leverage. Comprehensive immigration reform and NO FUCKING WALL. Rub his nose in the pile of shit he deposited on the carpet.
  17. Any generalizations made about an entire generation are necessarily overgeneralizations - this country is way too large and complex for it to be any other way. Nevertheless, the boomers caught capitalism's sweet spot, when a relatively large amount of wealth went to the middle class. Many of them did well enough to have financial security and a shot at the dream for their family by working ONE job that in eras before and after that sweet spot would be enough to barely scrape by, if the spouse was working as well, and if you were lucky. As people do, they thought they deserved this historically unprecedented level of reward and had earned it, when they were really just lucky. Sure, they tried to hold onto it; who wouldn't? And when they felt it slipping away anyway, lots of them became bitter and vindictive. Not all of them, though; it's a lot of people, and some of them turned out just fine. It was just a large generation that had a good thing going for a while, that's all.
  18. She's gotten a taste of power, and she likes it. She was able to tweet in Trump's ear and get him to reverse course; now it's gone to her head. He's created a monster. Well, she already looked like a monster, but now she really is one.
  19. No. You're missing the bigger principle. You can't let the president usurp that kind of power from Congress. Constitution out front shoulda told you.
  20. Nope. Nancy owns him now. She has his tiny balls hanging on a hook in her office. He's backed down to her publicly for the second time in just over 24 hours. He's done.
  21. Nancy owns Trump now. She has his tiny balls hanging on a hook in her office. He's done; she's calling the shots now.
  22. Who said I'm tired of winning? I heard some people were tired of winning, not me, I'm never tired of winning, believe me. But some people are just tired, so I don't want them to be exhausted from all the winning, you know, so I'm just taking a break from winning. Just a three week break, then it's back to winning. Look, everybody needs a break now and then, I get it. But we'll be back to winning again, believe me. And nobody does winning like me, nobody. It'll be so much winning you'll get tired of winning again. But I won't take a break next time. It's going to be nothing but winning from now on, so get ready.
  23. Immanuel Can't in the house!
  24. I've been thinking about this question for 2 years now. I don't think there is anything that would make the diehard Trumpkins - and that's the only kind that are left now - turn on him.
  25. Does the female form make you uncomfortable, Mr. Futureman?
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