Texas Jeff

Well, maybe none if your employer just pockets the money .... but if they do some other employer might want to talk to you about a new job with a raise. Also, lots of folks who have enough to stop working but need the healthcare might quit, making space for younger people to move up the ladder. Some others might quit because they've always had some idea of a business to start, but the need for healthcare coverage kept them at a big employer. With the link between employment and healthcare severed, you might end up at an innovative startup. So, no guarantee of a higher paycheck but I think you'll see eventual higher pay and more innovation once companies don't have to think about healthcare for their employees.

Just because our government is currently run by septuagenarians does not mean that we should discount the ability of younger Americans to lead our country. Thomas Jefferson was 33 when he wrote the Declaration of Independence. James Madison was 36 on the day he walked into the Constitutional Convention. At age 29, Meriwether Lewis set off to explore the continent. At age 38, Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. If elected, Buttigieg would be 39 on the day he takes office, over the hill compared to that group. We often see our predecessors through dusty portraits made long after their contributions. Don't let that view cloud your judgement of what is possible.

Software takes time to jell, especially life-critical software. If they knew that the first airplane was just missing a feature that was already developed and tested they could just turn on the missing feature. An actual software change would easily take months to identify, develop, test and deliver a fix to a real problem.

I am calling them the One-Handed Generation because they will not let go of their phones. If they can't do it using a phone it is unlikely to happen.

Well, just a guess here but I suspect he had Russian "investors" who were propping him up after his casino failures, and those came with strings attached. They are discussing the strings and how we don't want to tell anyone else about the strings. Trump seems to have respect for Putin either as a leader or as someone who has information that could be used against Trump.

It's possible that Trump is not guilty of collusion because he is a moron. Trump on the campaign trail mostly held rallies where he belittled people to the cheers of the crowd, attended debates where he belittled people to the cheers of the crowd, and tweeted deragotory stuff about people to the cheers of the twitterverse. He also wore a hat. That seems to be about the extent of his efforts. There were others around him who were smarter and more devious and were trying to help him win so that they could affect policy at the highest levels of the US government. And, to their surprise, they won. And, then they had to govern, which was probably boring. Trump returns to the rallies again and again because that's his thing, ranting to a friendly crowd and looking powerful by firing and insulting others. It's entirely possible that he is not guilty (but others around him are) because he just was not plugged into the mechanics of the campaign, because he is a moron.

/ Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

The NY Times had a graphic that showed 220,000 different scenarios, each one either with a tax cut or a tax hike. About 75% of the scenarios resulted in a tax cut, but the average overall cut was about a dollar a day. You can hover on the graphic and see the scenario behind each dot. Some folks got a cut and some got a hike, and the effect is more extreme with higher earners.

“I prefer astronauts who actually land on the moon”

Man, Austin's water reeks right now. In theory this was caused by a two-inch layer of zebra mussels on the water intake pipe, but we have gone from zero to super smell in 24 hours and it does not seem to be getting better, although Austin Water has said it should be over soon. Anybody understand how this could suddenly happen? Did they clear out the pipe and cause a ton of zebra bits to flow into the system?

Trump brought a 10 year old cancer survivor who smiled, waved, and according to the photo above stayed awake. We know he wants $5 billion for a wall ASAP and he's willing to shut down the government to get it. But in his speech he also proposed $500 million in new cancer research over the next ten years. I thought at the time he mis-spoke. Surely curing cancer, especially in children, merits a bigger number. I thought maybe he was supposed to say $500 billion over the next ten years. I checked the transcript and googled a bit to see if he misspoke. He did not. He brought that little girl to the speech and then proposed $50 million per year to help her, in a country of 325 million people. I am no fan of Trump but a call to action to spend $50 billion per year to eliminate childhood cancer would have impressed me. That is an audacious goal I could get behind. A gift to humanity like antibiotics and vaccinations. That's still around $150 per person per year, less than fifty cents per day per person. Fifty million per year seems like window dressing, a token payment for a nation that could do more.

BTW this is a cheddar cheese warehouse in the UK. Why does England need this much cheddar? Why do they suck at stacking it? England, stop eating so much cheese -- you are endangering people!

Casis/O'Henry/Austin High is fine today, but I can understand why people choose another path. A lot of parents feel they have to "make a move" in 5th grade so they go private or try a magnet, but the regular track was fine for our kids. O'Henry is shrinking a bit in population but is becoming "wealthier" because they are mostly losing low-income kids. The band program is great at O'Henry and Austin High. O'Henry does needs some major repairs or a complete redo, like many AISD schools. The AISD master plan has it slated for a "full modernization" in a future bond package, planned for the next 6-12 years. Austin ISD voters are putting up big bucks to improve schools district wide and improvement is really needed.

What makes Anderson different than any other area HS? Test results, demographics, other measurements look similar.

What could possibly go wrong? Is school also shut down? After 9/11, I remember National Guard/Army guys with weapons at checkpoints, something I had only seen before in Europe. We have come a long way...

You would probably first have to explain that there *is* a Big Bend ... start with the basics.

We just passed the mid-point of the eclipse

Live tracker here, if you want to see what phase of the eclipse is happening now: https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/lunar/2019-january-21

The Earth is going to get between the Moon and the Sun tonight, starting in about an hour or so. Skies in Austin just cleared and the Moon is about to go away for a bit. I think it starts around 9:30 and the maximum eclipse is around 11:12 central time. This is a "blood Moon" so it might turn red or orange during the eclipse.

Unfit Mitt Slovenly Romney

Here's another Hauser (one of the 2 Cellos) piece:

Everyone gather 'round the pole and celebrate, today is Festivus! ... I've got a lot of problems with you people! 🙂

Eventually, thoughts and prayers for some group, same as always....

I think there is still a requirement to have coverage, but the penalty for not having coverage is $0. Technically the tax is still there -- it was not repealed, it's just set to zero right now. It could be set to something other than zero by a future Congress.

Please let the pool boy be named Jesus...