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The Justice On Justice


 This post from “The Rude pundit” is indeed Rude an coarse however to keep it in context I have altered some words. And as an add of my opinion,: perhaps the “Justice” will answer to a higher Justice.
 
 
 3/03/2016

Samuel Alito: Supreme Dick (A Short One)

Yesterday’s Supreme Court hearing was on the insultingly dumb Texas law requiring family planning clinics where abortions are performed to meet rigid standards that virtually no other medical clinic where outpatient procedures are done must meet. The three women justices kicked so much ass that asses miles away felt it. Justices Ginsberg, Sotomayor, and Kagan, along with liberal male Justice Breyer, were all over Texas Solicitor General Scott Keller, taking apart the absurdity of his argument that the closure of all but 10 clinics in the entirety of Texas wasn’t an “undue burden” on the women of the huge fucking state.

Of course, back on the conservative side, Clarence Thomas didn’t say a goddamned thing, having gone back into a decade-long hibernation, like a particularly dumb and cruel cicada. Anthony Kennedy was at his weaselly peak in figuring out how not to make a decision. And John Roberts attempted to undo the arguments of clinics’ attorney Stephanie Toti. The ghost of Antonin Scalia was screaming from Hell.

But the king dickhead of the day was Samuel Alito, the bespectacled worm of the court. Alito took it upon himself to try to get Toti to admit that the clinics didn’t close because of the law. This mattered to him more than the lives of the women or the distance they had to travel or the money they had to spend or anything else, even though he was utterly f**king wrong:

JUSTICE ALITO: Well, there is very little specific evidence in the record in this case with respect to why any particular clinic closed. Basically, your argument is that the law took effect, and after that point, there was a decrease in the number of clinics…As to how many, of the total that you claim closed, do you have direct evidence about the reason for the closure?

MS. TOTI: Well, 11 of them, Your Honor, closed on the day that the admitting privileges took effect.

JUSTICE ALITO: Yeah. And as to how many…how many are you claiming total closed as a result of the law?

MS. TOTI: To…to date, roughly 20 clinics have closed.

JUSTICE ALITO: And of the 20, how…as to how many do you have direct evidence?

MS. TOTI: I…approximately 12, Your Honor, direct evidence.

JUSTICE ALITO: Because if…if you go through this ­­now we’re not talking about a huge number of facilities.

A few minutes later, Justice Kagan punched Alito right in the nutsack when she said, “Is it right that in the two­-week period that the ASC requirement was in effect, that over a dozen facilities shut their doors, and then when that was stayed, when that was lifted, they reopened again immediately?” Toti said that was true. Kagan then put mighty fist to tiny balls as she concluded, “It’s almost like the perfect controlled experiment as to the effect of the law, isn’t it? It’s like you put the law into effect, 12 clinics closed. You take the law out of effect, they reopen?”

Who knows how this will go at this point. But, obviously, there could be a law called “Keep That F**kin’ Baby, Whore of Babylon” and Alito would justify it somehow.

– See more at: http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2016/03/samuel-alito-supreme-dick-short-one.html#sthash.Er0p9Osn.dpuf

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TRUMPENSTEIN


 

Feb 26 at 10:15 AM

After Donald Trump’s third win in a row, pundits and political observers are beginning to accept a stark reality: This guy may become the Republican Party standard bearer in the 2016 presidential election. (The morning after the bigoted, bullying tycoon triumphed in the Nevada caucuses, the Drudge Report splashed a headline simply declaring, “The Nominee,” below a photo of Trump.) And tweeters, scribes, and analysts throughout the political-media world began wondering if the GOP elite could do anything to stop him from seizing control of the Republican Party. Whether possible or not to de-Trumpify the GOP at this point, Republican insiders, pooh-bahs, and bigwigs only have themselves to blame for Frankentrump. In recent years, they have fomented, fostered, accepted, and exploited the climate of hate in which Trump’s candidacy has taken root. For the fat-cat donors, special-interest lobbyists, and elected officials who usually run the Republican show, Trump is an invasive species. But he has grown large and strong in the manure they have spread across the political landscape.

A short history of GOP-approved hate could begin with the 2008 campaign. After Sen. John McCain selected little-known Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate, there was an explosion of right-wing loathing. Palin led this angry crusade of animosity. She accused then-Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, of “palling around with terrorists” and pushing socialism. She suggested that only certain areas of the United States were “pro-America.” (She had to apologize for that.) It was all part of a mean-spirited attempt to delegitimize Obama and his supporters. At McCain-Palin rallies, the atmosphere was ugly. Supporters of the Republican ticket wore T-shirts and carried signs branding Obama a communist. Some shouted “kill him” or “off with his head.” Little of this was discouraged. At a town hall meeting in Minnesota, one woman told McCain that Obama was an “Arab.” When McCain, to his credit, replied that this was not so, others in the audience shouted “terrorist” and “liar,” referring to Obama. McCain noted that he respected Obama and admired his accomplishments, and the crowd booed him. The hatred that Palin had helped to unleash was too much for McCain to tamp down.

And it only intensified once Obama took office. Of course, much of this was fueled by the conservative provocateurs and windbags, led by Rush Limbaugh and the like. But elected Republican officials and leading GOPers, who had adopted a political strategy of never-ending obstructionism to thwart Obama, often enabled the hate. While delivering a speech to a joint session of Congress in 2009, Obama was heckled by Rep. Joe Wilson, a South Carolina Republican who shouted, “You lie.” Wilson apologized, but following his outburst, he received a surge of campaign contributions and went on to win handily his next election. Meanwhile, a dozen or so GOP members of Congress were pushing birtherism—the notion that Obama had been born in Kenya, not Hawaii, and was some sort of usurper of the presidency. This conspiracy theory seemed tinged with racism, despite the denials of birthers, and ran parallel to other right-wing claims that Obama was a secret Muslim or a secret socialist or both. The big point was obvious: He wasn’t a real American, he had achieved power through furtive means, he had a clandestine agenda, and Obama hatred was fully warranted.

Top Republicans played footsie with all this. In the fall of 2009, then-Rep. Michele Bachmann called for a Capitol Hill rally to protest Obamacare. Several thousand people showed up. Protesters questioned Obama’s citizenship, depicted him as Sambo, or called him a traitor. Referring to Obamacare, the crowd shouted, “Nazis! Nazis!” The atmosphere was full of animus. And here’s the thing: The entire House Republican leadership, led by Rep. John Boehner, was there. Boehner did not admonish the crowd for its excessive rhetoric. In fact, he joined in, declaring Obamacare the “greatest threat to freedom I have seen.” Clearly, he and his lieutenants believed the hate-driven energy of these activists and voters could fuel the Republicans’ bid to take control of the House. So the more red meat, the merrier. Republicans fed the paranoia, claiming Obamacare would bring about “death panels” and ruin the country (as would Obama’s stimulus bill, his climate change bill, his budget, and almost every other initiative he advanced). In March 2010, after another Capitol Hill rally headlined by Bachmann, tea partiers reportedly hurled racial epithets at members of the Congressional Black Caucus and shouted anti-gay chants at then-Rep. Barney Frank. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) said one of the protesters had spit at him.

The Republican effort to portray Obama as the other never waned. In 2010, Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the House and a future presidential candidate, told two reporters that Obama was “outside our comprehension” and “that only if you understand Kenyan, anti-colonial behavior, can you begin to piece together [his actions].” He claimed Obama had played “a wonderful con” to be elected president, was “authentically dishonest,” and had a worldview that was “factually insane.” This was a heavy indictment, but one that echoed what conservative writers, bloggers, and talkers were saying. Though out of office, Gingrich remained a party leader, and his remarks were an indicator of the state of play on the right and within the party.

After the House Republicans’ bet on the tea party paid off and they gained control of the House in the 2010 midterm elections, the party’s dance with hate did not stop. In 2011, as the GOP’s 2012 presidential candidates jockeyed for position, they pandered to those voters who considered Obama a dangerous phony. While pondering a second presidential run, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee claimed Obama’s perspective was skewed because he had grown up in Kenya and had been subjected to plenty of anti-imperialist talk. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney did not go full birther. But he pitched a related line, declaring, “The Obama Administration fundamentally does not believe in the American Experiment.” In other words, Obama was not truly American. A top Romney campaign adviser, John Sununu, put it more bluntly, noting he wished the president “would learn how to be an American.” Romney also claimed (falsely) that Obama had gone on a global “apology tour”—another dig designed to suggest Obama was essentially a foreigner.

Though Romney did not contend Obama was a covert Kenyan, he warmly accepted the endorsement of the nation’s most prominent birther: Donald Trump. Appearing with Trump at his Las Vegas hotel before Nevada’s GOP caucus in February 2012, Romney praised the real estate magnate and noted it was awesome to be backed by Trump: “There are some things that you just can’t imagine happening in your life.” By this point, Trump had sent investigators to Hawaii—or said he had—to investigate Obama’s birth, and he had even suggested Obama might be a Muslim. With this meeting, Romney signaled that Trump was fine company for the GOP. Trump’s over-the-top birtherism was not a disqualification. The Republican tent had room for this reality-denying reality television celebrity. (Romney, his former strategist Stuart Stevens tells me, did say no to Trump’s requests to campaign with Romney and to speak at the GOP convention.)

After Obama’s reelection, the hate machine churned on. Republicans continued to whip the false meme that Obama was bent on taking all guns away from Americans. They routinely claimed not that his policies were wrong but that he was feckless and weak—or dictatorial and authoritarian. Last year, Rudy Giuliani said, “I do not believe the president loves America.” And Dick Cheney claimed Obama operates as if he wants to “take America down.” (That’s a theme Sen. Marco Rubio has, uh, repeatedly, pushed on the campaign trail, contending that the president is deliberately weakening the United States.) Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Sen. Ted Cruz, another presidential wannabe, gave credence to the wacky notion that Obama was going to invade and seize control of Texas.

It’s been a long run of Republicans accepting, encouraging, and exploiting uncivil discourse, anti-Obama hatred, and right-wing anger. (Republicans also welcomed nearly $300,000 in campaign contributions from Trump since he went birther.) The GOP raised the expectations of its Obama-detesting base and primed the pump for Trump. There is not much wonder that a xenophobic and misogynistic bigot and bully who bashes immigrants and calls for a Muslim ban—and who also slams the Republican insiders for rigging the system—should now find a receptive audience within the GOP’s electorate. For years, Republicans gave their voters a taste for the reddest of meat. That increased the appetite for more. And here comes Trump the butcher with a heaping plate.

Oh, the clichés abound. You play with fire. The chickens come home to roost. Hoisted on your own petard. You reap what you sow. The call is coming from inside the house. The GOP elite laid the foundation on which Trump is building the biggest, classiest—really classy—most beautiful insurgent presidential campaign in all of US history. And there may be no emergency exit.

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How Long Can You Expect Your Roof or Fridge to Last


 

In case you need to know or not.

An inspection won’t always reveal the state of your plumbing, especially if it’s inside a slab and walls.

A major home repair can tax any budget. But you don’t have to be surprised when something in your home goes kaput.

It’s possible to know, more or less, how long most home components are likely to last and plan for their replacement. Plus, knowing the life span of appliances and home fixtures can help you decide when to repair and when to replace.

The most expensive components of a home are generally the roof, electrical system, plumbing, furnace and air-conditioning systems. The stakes are high for homeowners because replacing any one of these systems can mean a bill of four or five figures.

“The main systems are 90 percent of repairs of a house,” says Cannon Christian, president of Renovation Realty, which repairs and sells homes in Southern California. “Everything else is pretty much minor.”

]

Exactly how long your heating, plumbing, roof, air conditioning, water heater and other home components will last varies, of course, based on the quality of the items, how well they’ve been maintained and where you live.

Knowing the life span of home components is also helpful if you’re looking at homes to buy. A home that needs all its major systems replaced can cost you a lot more than the purchase price. That’s a reason to get a thorough home inspection, pin down the age of major systems and then negotiate from there.

“Each of these things is really ammunition for buyers,” Christian says. If systems are old, ask for concessions or a lower price. “Are you going to get everything you asked for? No. More than likely, you’re going to get some help buying it.”

An inspection won’t always reveal the state of your plumbing, especially if it’s inside a slab and walls. But if a home was built with galvanized pipe, used in most homes before the 1960s, anticipate that it will need to be replaced sooner rather than later. “You can’t tell what’s going on until you notice something” is beginning to fail, Christian says of plumbing. “As soon as you do, you want to correct it immediately.”

Before you replace your air-conditioning system, furnace, water heater or appliances, see if your utility company offers any rebates or incentives, Christian suggests. Kansas City Power & Light, for example, offers rebates on air conditioning systems and Energy Star-rated refrigerators and freezers. You can check for rebates at your utility company or at the Energy Star website.

In general, if an appliance is more than six or seven years old, and the repair will cost more than half the amount of a new one, it’s better to purchase a replacement, advises Angie Hicks, founder of Angie’s List.

“Replacing an appliance with a newer, more efficient one can also save in energy costs,” Hicks wrote on the Angie’s List website. Angie’s List has an info graphic giving the average cost of appliance repairs, average maintenance cost, cost of a replacement and some advice on deciding whether to repair or replace.

The National Association of Home Builders did a survey of manufacturers, trade associations and researchers in 2007 and produced a report called “The Life Expectancy of Home Components,” with estimates of life spans for everything from appliances to windows. Based on the association’s research and the research of others, here is how long you can expect these 10 home components to last.

Roofs: Slate, copper and tile roofs can last more than 50 years. Homeowners with wood shake roofs should expect them to last about 30 years, while fiber cement shingles last about 25 years and asphalt shingle/composition roofs last about 20 years, the NAHB found. Climate and weather conditions, such as snow, hail and hurricanes, can cut the life span of all types of roofs.

Air-conditioning system: These last 10 to 15 years. Having your unit serviced every year or two, keeping filters clean and trimming bushes around the outdoor unit can keep your it working longer, but eventually the components wear out.

[Water heater: A conventional electric or gas water heater typically lasts about 10 years. If you have a tankless water heater, expect it to stick around for about 20 years.

Appliances: Expect most popular appliances to last no more than 15 years: refrigerators (six to 15 years), ranges (10 to 15 years), washers and dryers (eight to 12 years) and dishwashers (eight to 10 years), Angie’s List reports. The NAHB estimates the life span of a microwave to be nine years. In its report, the NAHB also noted that appliances are often replaced before they quit working because consumers want new styles or technology.

Furnace: A furnace lasts 15 to 20 years. If your furnace is nearing the end of its life, upgrading to a newer, more energy-efficient model can also cut your heating bills.

Decks: Because of weather, the life span of a deck varies. In optimal conditions, a wood deck can last 20 years, the NAHB study found. A deck can last 20 to 25 years in dry areas, but is likely to last only 10 to 15 years in the South, where there is more rain and humidity.

Doors: Exterior doors made of fiberglass, steel and wood will last for decades, or the lifetime of the house, as will closet doors, according to the NAHB study. Screen doors last about 40 years, and vinyl doors typically last about 20 years.

Floors: Wood floors last 100 years or more, as do marble and slate floors if they are maintained well. Tile floors can last 75 to 100 years, and terrazzo lasts more than 75 years. Linoleum lasts about 25 years and vinyl up to 50 years, while laminate floors have a life expectancy of 15 to 25 years. Most carpet needs to be replaced every eight to 10 years, even if it’s maintained well.

Gutters: Aluminum gutters last about 20 years, while copper gutters last about 50 years.

Windows: Wood windows can last more than 30 years, while aluminum windows are expected to last 15 to 20 years.

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American Police Learn New Tactics


There is a video on Sky News showing a group of American police chiefs how the English handle suspect armed or not without killing them.

How To Avoid Gun Use

American police chiefs have been to Scotland to learn new techniques in how to avoid shooting violent suspects.

As numerous fatal police confrontations cause public anger across the US, officers are rethinking when, and how, they use force.

The results are part of a hard-hitting documentary to be shown on Sky Atlantic and Sky News. Last year, police in the US shot and killed around 1,000 civilians, many of them unarmed.

Former hostage negotiator with the Boston police department Chuck Wexler brought the team across the Atlantic in an attempt to cut the use of fatal force.

As the two sets of police officers met, Mr Wexler described how if confronted by a suspect holding a rock an American officer would pull out his gun.

“You’re going to kill someone for throwing a rock. That’s what you’re gonna do,” said Mr. Wexler.

“How would society over here think about you shooting someone with a rock? They would not accept it.”

The senior American officers, from forces such as the NYPD and LAPD, watched demonstrations at Police Scotland training centres.

Sky News cameras joined them as they went out on patrol in Glasgow, and watched as unarmed police dealt with a variety of potentially violent situations.

The four-day visit showed how Scottish police step back from confrontation, using shields and vehicles for protection.

They also saw examples of how in Scotland officers use language and negotiation in a different way to their American colleagues.

Scots police train how to tackle a violent offender Sergeant Jim Young trains hundreds of Scottish police recruits every year.

“The American style of policing, it’s very authoritative,” he said.

“There’s a difference of going in, straight up at this level, whereby you’re ordering people, you’re shouting at them. You can’t go anywhere after that.

“But if you start down low you can adjust your communications to suit.”

In the US there are an estimated 300 million firearms in circulation.

The documentary shows the American police officers, while accepting both countries are very different, learning lessons in how to approach volatile situations.

Many American forces adopt what is informally known as the “21-foot rule”.

Police officers keep that distance from someone with a sharp weapon, but will shoot if the suspect closes that gap.

Some see the controversial tactic as a ‘licence to kill’.

Scots firearms officers have shot civilians only twice in the last decade.

The last officer to be killed on duty through criminal violence in Scotland was in a stabbing in 1994.

“It’s about time that we step up and this is our chance,” said Mr. Wexler.

“It’s a crisis but it’s also our chance to do the right thing.”

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Ignorance Loses


Now that the Federal court in Texas has cleared Planned Parenthood of any wrongdoing in the “selling” of fetal tissue and indicted the “secret videographers”, the clamor has not dies down (see Blue line at the end of this post). It appears that modern politics has fallen to the depths of “yellow” journalism and outright lies. Do you suppose people in Texas will change their minds about Planned Parenthood and the valuable work they do? Probably not. The astounding thing about people is, once a seed of information  (or misinformation) is planted in the fertile soils of their bias, it is really hard to alter the thought output. As a thought, is wrong to think that people can ( or should) accept  an issue that or service that has value in spite of their personal beliefs?

 

Planned Parenthood cleared by Texas jury over videos, activists indicted

By Jon Herskovitz

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) – A Texas grand jury has indicted two anti-abortion activists in a case involving covert videos on fetal tissue procurement talks with Planned Parenthood and found there was no wrongdoing on the part of the health group, a district attorney said on Monday.

The grand jury decision was a result of a probe launched last year under Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, who accused Planned Parenthood of the “gruesome harvesting of baby body parts.” No evidence was provided by Texas to back the claim.

The videos released last summer led Texas and several other Republican-controlled states to try to halt funding for local Planned Parenthood operations.

“After a lengthy and thorough investigation by the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, the Texas Rangers, and the Houston Police Department, a Harris County grand jury took no action Monday against Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast,” the Harris County District Attorney’s office said in a statement.

Planned Parenthood has denied the accusation and called the probe politically motivated.

David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt have been indicted by the grand jury for tampering with a governmental record, said prosecutors for the county in which Houston is located.

The two were involved in covert videos last year in which a discussion was held with a Planned Parenthood official on the procurement of fetal tissue.

Daleiden, founder of the Center for Medical Progress that released the videos, was also charged with violating a prohibition on the purchase and sale of human organs, a misdemeanor, the Harris County District Attorney said.

The videos purported to show Planned Parenthood officials trying to negotiate prices for aborted fetal tissue. Under federal law, donated human fetal tissue may be used for research, but profiting from its sale is prohibited.

Shortly after the release, Texas, the most populous Republican-controlled U.S. state, said it would launch a probe of Planned Parenthood.

“These people broke the law to spread malicious lies about Planned Parenthood in order to advance their extreme anti-abortion political agenda,” said Eric Ferrero, vice president of Communications for Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

“As the dust settles and the truth comes out, it’s become totally clear that the only people who engaged in wrongdoing are the criminals behind this fraud, and we’re glad they’re being held accountable,” he said.

The Texas governor said: “Nothing about today’s announcement in Harris County impacts the state’s ongoing investigation.”

In October, Texas raided several Planned Parenthood facilities in the state.

(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Matthew Lewis, Bernard Orr

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Taxing Information


This election season has brought several tax reform speeches from candidates but many of outside the accounting world understand what they are talking about and some omissions of details cause the raising of hackles and railing against  taxes. Just remember that without taxes this country or any others could not function. If the government were to access each of us our fair share for the amount needed to run the country, would it be more or less than the existing taxing system? We would be better served understanding the tax brackets and then looking at anything that “reform” the tax code so that it works better and  pressuring our Congress to make rational (reasonable) reforms. These reforms should consider the many European countries whose taxing system allows for free (mostly) education K-through college. If this works in smaller countries (by size and population) then why can’t the USA, being one of (if not the) the wealthiest countries in the world? The consideration is that we have people speaking for us (and we allow it) but using buzzwords and sound bites that will not stand close scrutiny. The information below is not a complete explanation but it will allow you to see what the taxing standards are.These figires provided by Credit.Com.

How Many Tax Brackets Are There?

How Tax Brackets Work

How much you pay in federal income taxes depends on how much you make, whether you are married or single and whether you are head of household.

There are seven major tax brackets – 10%, 15%, 25%, 28%, 33% 35% and 39.6% — and there are separate sets of brackets for single tax filers, married tax filers who file jointly, married tax filers who file separately and tax filers who are single and file as head of household.

You will find tax brackets for 2014 and 2015 below.

Let’s say you are single and had $30,000 of taxable income in 2014, after your deductions.

For the first $9,075, you are in the 10% tax bracket and would pay $907.50, a 10% tax on this portion of your taxable income.

For the remainder of your taxable income, $20,925, you would fall into the 15% tax bracket ($9,076 to $36,900)
 and you would pay $3,138.75, a 15% tax on this portion of your taxable income.

This holds true for the other tax brackets as well. So you only pay the higher tax rates on the portion of your income that falls into that particular tax bracket. And you pay the lower rates associated with the lower tax brackets for those sections of your taxable income.

Am I the Head of Household?

To file as head of household, you must meet certain requirements.

You must be single on the last day of 2014

You have to have paid more than half the cost of keeping up a home for a year.

A qualifying person, such as a child, stepchild or foster child, has lived with you in your home for more than half a year.

If you are divorced by the last day of the year, you are considered unmarried for the whole year and if you had a child live with you for more than half a year, you may be able to file your taxes as head of household.

If you do, your tax rate will usually be lower than the tax rate for a single filer or if you are married and filing separately.

I’m Married. Should We File Jointly?

When you file a joint tax return with your spouse, you report your combined income, deductions and exemptions. Both you and your spouse are held responsible for the payment of the taxes that you owe.

So with a joint return, if your spouse fails to pay his or her share of the taxes due, you may be required to.

If you don’t wish to be held responsible for any taxes due if a spouse fails to pay, you may wish to file your taxes separately. For tax year 2014, there are seven major tax brackets –10%, 15%, 25%, 28%, 33%, 35% and 39.6% — and how much you pay in taxes depends on your income and whether you are single, married or the head of your own household.

Which Tax Bracket Are You In?

For single filers, the 2014 tax brackets are:

10% – up to $9,075

15% – $9,075 to $36,900

25% – $36,901 to $89,350

28% – $89,351 to $186,350

33% – $186,351 to $405,100

35% – $405,101 to $406,750

39.6% – more than $406,751

For married couples who file their taxes jointly, the 2014 tax brackets are:

10% – up to $18,150

15% – $18,151 to $73,800

25% – $73,801 to $148,850

28% – $148,851 to $226,850

33% – $226,851 to $405,100

35% – $405,101 to $457,600

39.6% – more than $457,601

For married couples who choose to file their taxes separately, the 2014 tax brackets are:

10% – up to $9,075

15% – $9,076 to $36,900

25% – $36,901 to $74,425

28% – $74,426 to $113,425

33% – $113,426 to $202,550

35% – $202,551 to $228,800

39.6% – more than $228,801

If you were single and the head of your household at the end of the year, your 2014 tax brackets are:

10% – up to $12,950

15% – $12,951 to $49,400

25% – $49,401 to $127,550

28% – $127,551 to $206,600

33% – $206,601 to $405,100

35% – $405,101 to $432,200

39.6% – more than $432,201

The Tax Year 2015 Brackets

For single filers, the 2015 tax brackets are:

10% – up to $9,2255

15% – $9,226 to $37,450

25% – $37,451 to $90,750

28% – $90,751 to $189,300

33% – $189,301 to $411,500

35% – $411,501 to $413,200

39.6% – more than $413,201

For married couples who file their taxes jointly, the 2015 tax brackets are:

10% – up to $18,450

15% – $18,451 to $74,900

25% – $74,901 to $151,200

28% – $151,201 to $230,450

33% – $230,451 to $411,500

35% – $411,501 to $464,850

39.6% – more than $464,851

For married couples who choose to file their taxes separately, the 2015 tax brackets are:

10% – up to $9,225

15% – $9,226 to $37,450

25% – $37,451 to $75,600

28% – $75,601 to $115,225

33% – $115,226 to $205,750

35% – $205,751 to $232,425

39.6% – more than $232,426

If you were single and the head of your household at the end of the year, your 2015 tax brackets are:

10% – up to $13,150

15% – $13,151 to $50,200

25% – $50,201 to $129,600

28% – $129,601 to $209,850

33% – $209,851 to $411,500

35% – $411,501 to $439,000

39.6% – more than $439,001

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Notes From Far Afield


This in from Huffington Post:

 

We Obtained Sarah Palin’s Notes From Her Trump Endorsement Speech

“SQUIRMISH!”

01/20/2016 03:57 pm ET

On Tuesday, the question that had been keeping you up all hours of the night — “Who is Sarah Palin endorsing for president?” — was finally answered.

Palin appeared alongside with — drum roooooollllllllll — Donald Trump to officially endorse the business-man-turned-reality-star-turned-waster-of-precious-oxygen for president.

Her speech was groundbreaking in that it was clearly the first she’d ever written. We got hold of her speech notes so that you could see how it all came together as it journeyed from brain, to paper, and then on the tiresome trek back up to her brain. See for yourself:

HuffPost Comedy

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The Divide Whitens


The Racial division of the United States has not lessened no matter what the surface appearances are. We have seen the evidence in the election of Barack Obama and to another degree in the recent Oscar Nominations. What is wrong with the so called movers and shakers? These are the people we as Americans have selected, elected or chosen to be representatives of our views ( are these our views?). While the Oscars are not world changing events , they are major events in America. Folks will still go to see the non nominated movies out of curiosity or genuine interest but will never voice an opinion about the lack of inclusion by non white judges or who ever makes the selection of nominees. How many have ever heard of “Oscar Micheaux”  ? A turn of the century Black film maker who has a star on the Hollywood walk of fame and the listed honors and legacy below ( From Wikipedia):

Legacy and honors

Poster for the 2014 documentary film Oscar Micheaux: The Czar of Black Hollywood.

If not now, when? We have seen the divide and we need to immediately start the work to build the bridge beginning  with who we elect to office. Keep in mind that behind closed doors the “dirty, racial and demeaning names” are still being used as divisive tools. It is well to want to believe that the divide is closing but the reality remains as an uneasy layer under our public persona.

 

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Ok Ted, What’s Up?


“Conservatives are so pure either” Something like glass houses and stones?

Ted Cruz did not disclose 2012 Senate campaign loan: NY Times

 
U.S. Republican presidential candidate and U.S. Senator Ted Cruz greets audience members at a Second …

(Reuters) – Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz failed to disclose to the Federal Election Commission a loan from Goldman Sachs for as much as $500,000 that was used to help finance his successful 2012 U.S. Senate campaign, the New York Times reported on Wednesday.

The loan does not appear in reports the Ted Cruz for Senate Committee filed with the FEC, in which candidates are required to disclose the source of money they borrow to finance their campaigns, the newspaper reported.

Other campaigns have been fined for failing to make such disclosures, which are intended to inform voters and prevent candidates from receiving special treatment from lenders, the Times said.

Cruz has surged in recent opinion polls and now leads billionaire businessman Donald Trump in Iowa, which on Feb. 1 holds the first contest in the process to choose the Republican nominee for the November presidential election.

In 2012, Cruz was campaigning for the Texas Senate seat as a populist firebrand who criticized Wall Street bailouts and the influence of big banks in Washington, and the loans could have conveyed the wrong impression about his candidacy, the Times said.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday after a campaign event in Dorchester, South Carolina, Cruz called the failure to disclose the loans to the FEC a “technical and inadvertent filing error.”

“Those loans have been disclosed over and over and over again on multiple filings. If it was the case that they were not filed exactly as the FEC requires, then we’ll amend the filings. But all of the information has been public and transparent for many years,” he said.

Catherine Frazier, a spokeswoman for Cruz, said Cruz had taken out the Goldman Sachs loan against his own assets and had paid off the loan in full.

Cruz and his wife, Heidi, who is on leave as a managing director at Goldman Sachs, also received a loan from Citibank for up to $500,000, but it was not clear whether that money was used in the campaign, the newspaper said.

There was no evidence the Cruzes got a break on their bank loans, which were disclosed in personal financial statements filed with the U.S. Senate, according to the newspaper.

(Writing by Eric Beech in Washington; Additional reporting by James Oliphant in Dorchester, S.C.; Editing by Peter Cooney)

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GOP Pitch


Interesting Meeting of GOP Maimliners.

 

GOP candidates pitch conservative path to fight poverty

By BILL BARROW and SERGIO BUSTOS 16 hours ago

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Republican presidential candidates said Saturday their party must do more to convince poor Americans that conservative policy — and not an active federal government — will expand economic opportunity.

But the White House hopefuls, addressing a conservative economic forum in the early voting state of South Carolina, didn’t agree on all the details, particularly on taxes.

Moderated by House Speaker Paul Ryan, the event gave a half dozen candidates the chance to champion long-standing conservative ideas about alleviating poverty, such as letting states spend federal money on safety net programs without federal strings, and spending public money on independent charter schools and vouchers for private-school tuition.

Yet when New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie bragged that he doubled a key tax credit for low-income workers in his state, he met opposition from 2016 rival Ben Carson, who countered that the federal Earned Income Tax Credit is a “manipulation” of the tax code.

Carson calls for an across-the-board tax rate, with no deductions or credits for any household or business. He criticized progressive income tax rates — the framework that has endured though decades of Republican and Democratic administration. “That’s called socialism,” he said. “That doesn’t work in America.”

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee pitched his “fair tax,” a single-rate consumption tax to replace all other taxes on wages, investments and inheritance. “It’s a powerful unlocking of the economy,” Huckabee said. However, he said he would allow something similar to the Earned Income Tax Credit to ease the tax burden on low-income households.

Responding to Carson, Christie said he does not necessarily prefer the complications of the existing tax code. “If we were starting from the beginning … we could do things a lot differently,” Christie said. But, “We have to be practical.”

Missing from the lineup Saturday were two leading GOP contenders: businessman Donald Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.

During his remarks, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio was interrupted multiple times by protesters angry about his immigration policy.

“He has brought fear to our community and we are here to tell him that our community needs to be treated with respect and dignity,” said Yadira Dument of New York, one of several protesters escorted from the forum by police and security guards. As a pair of protesters shouted, Rubio said, “We are going to enforce our immigration laws.”

Rubio was key in a bipartisan effort to overhaul immigration law and backed away from the initiative when it failed in 2013. He now calls for a piecemeal approach that only offers a pathway to legalization after the influx of illegal immigration is stopped.

The conference came as Republicans try to improve their standing among poorer Americans, who favored President Barack Obama in 2012, according to surveys of voters leaving the polling station.

Ryan said the old “War on Poverty,” a phalanx of government programs largely from Democratic administrations, “has been a stalemate.” Conservatism, he argued, “can open up a renaissance,” dismantling a system that “isolates the poor.”

About one in seven people lives below the federal poverty rate, which in 2014 was measured at about $19,000 per year for a two-parent household with one child, the government says.

The candidates Saturday mostly agreed that traditional welfare discourages work, rejected a minimum-wage increase and said the private sector and religious community should take on more responsibility for fighting poverty.

“Compassion is not measured by how much money you spend in Washington,” former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said. “It’s acting on your sense of consciousness.”

Bush has proposed eliminating several federal programs and shifting money to states in the form of block grants to help poor families.

Christie and Ohio Gov. John Kasich said the federal government should empower states, but Christie said Obama “doesn’t trust governors,” Democratic or Republican, to enact locally tailored programs.

And Christie said his party must reach out in ways it hasn’t. “We need to be going into African-American churches … into the Hispanic community,” he said. “We need to go there, show up and campaign in places where we are uncomfortable.”

Mexico: Drug lord located thanks to interview with Sean Penn