Precision

A lot of people watch MSM and see a headline that someone rich paid little in taxes for a particular year. Due to incomplete/misleading reporting and the stupidity of the viewers they infer that everyone rich doesn't pay their fair share in taxes. The truth is the top 10% of earners pay 74% of federal taxes.

The population of NH is steadily growing in large part due to residents of Metro-Boston leaving MA for NH. I can't help but think migration from cities is going to be a long-term trend when places like Boston can't hold population. In March the governor of MA (Healey) proposed reductions in taxes to stem the tide of people leaving MA.

The purpose of a message board is to benefit its members. This board is not here for you or me, it's for the community of posters. If the community doesn't want a poster here, collectively they should be able to ban them. I'm not in favor of banning people with different opinions, it's more about posters who are spamming and name calling on a consistent basis. Honestly, I only see 1 poster that needs to be banned but that's me.

Wind Turbines keep catching fire and an increasing number are falling over. If a turbine falls over, does it leave a carbon footprint or just turbine footprint? Here's the turbine fire in the Southern Tier in NY last month, not that anyone cares about that area of NY. Farmer: Wind turbine fire in rural Western New York caused contamination to family, livestock, and land

It warms my heart when you see karma happen. I'm sure this will have no impact on Chicago's low crime rate either!

I think a "community ban" feature would be useful. If a large enough percentage of active posters (say 90%) vote someone off the island they get booted. This would clean up a lot of irrelevant posts that come from a few individuals. I could see it as a help to Irv as it would likely push "problem children" off the board before he needs to intervene.

Good call on the refi, glad you were able to close before rates went up! When the market was peaking in 2021 (we were premature on the peak by a good 6 months) our advisors recommended we cash out of the higher risk investments. We took their advice but discussed moving some of that cash into real estate. I always liked the idea of having some debt and ours was low, so we used that toward the properties. It was a tough decision as many landlords were burned during Covid and it took a while to find properties we liked. For now, it looks like it's working ok. We have been lucky that our financial advisors have been a good resource for discussing strategies even though it may negatively impact their fee's.

I'm assuming this would be due to currency devaluation. As little faith as I have in the federal government, I don't see them stealing past a possible wealth tax. We have some funds that focus on foreign investments and have commodities. Debt is a great hedge against inflation, and we purchased some rental properties when rates were low for this purpose. We have thought about investing more abroad but are not intimately familiar with anyplace but the US. Because of that I would not invest somewhere I haven't had an extended period of "boots on the ground".

US Debt Clock

I would love to see a study discussing the energy efficiency of gas versus electric taking into account the grid and distribution systems for both gas and electric. A house can use natural gas "as is" whereas electric needs to be generated somewhere and distributed to a house. If the electric grid is using gas fired power plants the efficiency of the electric generation is under 65%. Other electric generation may or may not be better, but you will still have losses of around 5% for transmission. Can't help but feel this is a step backwards as even though the amount of power generated could be the same the efficiency is likely much lower from electric generation and distribution.

I have no idea what is best, I appreciate the information regarding the rock powder. I know they drill deep for the vertical loops and our well is 280' down. Not sure if that would have anything to do with it either, I would hope the loops for the pump would be shallower than the well. I have a fair amount of research to do before we pull the trigger and I've been negligent on this as we are still a couple of years away. Thank you for the information!

Correct. The quotes we received had the contactors backfilling with sand as that also tends to provide some give between the loop pipe and the rock. I'm not ready to give up the chainsaw just yet so it doesn't make sense to install it until I do. We have considered installing solar panels as well since the pool is an electric hog and with the home using electricity for the heat pump it makes a lot of sense. NH electricity rates are outrageous as we pay $350 a month all year long!

We're in NH and will install a ground source heat pump in the next few years. NH is all rock so we will need to install vertical loops rather than the horizontal "slinky" loops. The vertical loops require a well company to bore a number of holes as they would a well. This is expensive which is why we are delaying the installation until I have convinced myself to retire from harvesting wood. We currently use a Heat Siphon air source heat pump to heat our pool. It does well in warm and humid weather but the COP drops significantly as the temperature gets into the 50's. I would advise anyone looking into an air-source/mini-split to evaluate the COP in their climate as many areas require auxiliary electric resistance heat when it gets very cold outside.

At least people liked Carter. His presidency was a failure, but he was considered a good person. His work with Habitat for Humanity proves that out. I don't recall anyone calling Carter a liar. History will judge Biden's presidency as a failure, the purpose behind his election was to beat Trump. Not much of a platform there but he never really had much upstairs. What is unique to this presidency is the complete incompetence sprinkled with sleaziness in everything they do. A few examples off the top of my head: Terrible pullout from Afghanistan with people falling off planes in flight attempting to get out. Inability to even try and secure the southern border with overwhelmed states shipping migrants across the country. Draconian Covid measures and the tacit coverup regarding the source of the virus. Surge in crime across major cities as mayors implement (and now backtrack) on defund the police. Surge in homelessness across the country with no federal guidance or help (just leaving it up to the states). Historically high inflation driven by irresponsible federal spending. Raising a son who may have provided presidential access for money, uses drugs, uses hookers and can't even pay child support. What kind of crap parent/person/family do this? Really the trailer trash should be thrown out of the White House just because of this. If you can't raise a kid maybe you shouldn't be a president.

I wouldn't be surprised if there is something behind researching/deploying Covid and China trying to rectify their demographic problem. I have to think India will get their act together at some point. With a projected population of over 1.6 billion people.....wow, just wow!

China has a lot going for it, but their time is now. In the future, they won't be able to overcome their demographic problems. Far too many old people will be an issue for the economy as by 2050 they will have 330 million people over the age of 65. The cultural child preference for boys over girls currently has males outnumbering females by over 30 million. That will be a source of instability as many males will be angry and alone. This will also impact population growth as females will "be in the driver's seat" regarding family sizes. China's birthrate will decline (as is typical for countries as their economy matures). They will struggle over time as smaller and smaller populations are burdened by a larger population of elderly to support. China’s Aging Population Is a Major Threat to Its Future China's first population drop in six decades sounds alarm on demographic crisis In my opinion India will be a nation to watch after around 2050 although I won't be around to see it. The US population will be around 433 million by then!

Leaker had bombs in his kitchen.......

This is the best I could find from NIH, doesn't list statistics for children. "Suicide rate and suicidal tendencies among transgender community have been reported to be high compared to general population." "The prevalence of suicide remains high among transgender persons irrespective of disclosing their transgender status to others and undergoing sex reassignment surgery." Suicide and Suicidal Behavior among Transgender Persons

EV's in minor accidents are being totaled by insurance companies. The insurers can't take the chance that a damaged battery will fail catastrophically and cause injury. Insurance premiums for EV's are set to rise because of this. Scratched EV battery? Your insurer may have to junk the whole car

On top of that we are spending more than ever...... Total and current expenditures per pupil in public elementary and secondary schools: Selected years, 1919-20 through 2018-19

SAT score since 1972 are up very slightly (roughly 10%). This is especially troubling given the SAT resources now available. Also, there are no statistics cited regarding student that take the test multiple times or "super-scoring". In the age before the internet, you were lucky to find a book regarding the SAT (I was lucky, my parents found one for me at the mall). I knew no one that took the test more than once (mid 80's). Average SAT Scores Over Time: 1972–2022 The fact that scores have improved so little over 50 years speaks for itself.

Some interesting data but from 2015..... White On Black Crime vs. Black On White Crime: New Statistics Show More Killings Between Races For 2015 Black on white homicides: 500 White on Black homicides: 229 White on white homicides: 2574 Black on black homicides: 2380

I don't believe his numbers, but you are the one that called them into doubt. If you are saying the numbers are wrong, it is incumbent on you to prove they are incorrect. He already provided his data.

Would love to see statistics from a credible source, can you post them?

Any Democratic presidential candidate isn't going to stand a chance in NH after moving their NH primary date. Two primaries (one for each party) is a non-starter as most of the polling locations are at schools which require the school to be closed for the day. NH has voted blue recently but will likely flip red for the foreseeable future.