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Are you better off today than you were four years ago?


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9 hours ago, The Frankish Reich said:

Currently at 1.187 deaths. So ... the estimate was off by a factor of about 5.

Even if you discount that number by 50% (the old "died with coronavirus rather than because of coronavirus"), that's still over half a million deaths.

We shouldn't forget how awful this pandemic was, and how, despite an initial comedy of errors, we were able to take prudent (and sometimes exceptional) steps to work our way out of it.

 

Then tell me why we had as many deaths under Joke's first year as in Trump's last year? 

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9 hours ago, The Frankish Reich said:

Currently at 1.187 deaths. So ... the estimate was off by a factor of about 5.

Even if you discount that number by 50% (the old "died with coronavirus rather than because of coronavirus"), that's still over half a million deaths.

We shouldn't forget how awful this pandemic was, and how, despite an initial comedy of errors, we were able to take prudent (and sometimes exceptional) steps to work our way out of it.

What would you consider to be exceptional steps? 

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Finding Qanon "prudent steps"

 

:lol:

 

A PCR test with a cycle threshold cutoff of 40 was/is comical, to name just one of the "prudent" (read: criminal) steps taken during the pandemic.

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Welp.  According to the data and the constant complaining on social media.  Doesn't seem the younger generations are dealing this "amazing economy" 

 

When one grows up without overcoming obstacles, everything is a wall.  Or an opportunity to play the victim. 

 

 

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1 minute ago, Tommy Callahan said:

Welp.  According to the data and the constant complaining on social media.  Doesn't seem the younger generations are dealing this "amazing economy" 

 

When one grows up without overcoming obstacles, everything is a wall.  Or an opportunity to play the victim. 

 

 

Taxes: I'm doing mine now. I'm missing a 1099 that the issuer knows I should have. I can't seem to shake it out of them.

My question: I received notice from the issuer that they were informing the IRS of a distribution. In other words, reporting it on a 1099. So the IRS already has this information. Why on earth do I need to get it myself to report it on my 1040? Why do I have to pay a third-party provider like TurboTax to re-report what's already been reported?

For years critics of the IRS have demanded direct filing, cutting out the middleman. And for years Congress has blocked that in response to Intuit, Block, and others lobbying to preserve their source of income. There is no better example of broken government.

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18 minutes ago, The Frankish Reich said:

Partial shutdowns, Operation Warp Speed were the big two.

Are you referring to the sort of shutdowns that had mom and pop shut down but Target going full speed ahead? Is there data out there to suggest partial shutdowns were of any value? 
 

 

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1 minute ago, JDHillFan said:

Are you referring to the sort of shutdowns that had mom and pop shut down but Target going full speed ahead? Is there data out there to suggest partial shutdowns were of any value? 
 

 

What I'm saying is this: nobody has any evidence in support of the counterfactual, that things would have been better (or at least not any worse) had we just continued with life as usual.

We made mistakes. Understood. But here we are 4 years later having emerged from a pandemic in pretty damn good shape.

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Just now, The Frankish Reich said:

What I'm saying is this: nobody has any evidence in support of the counterfactual, that things would have been better (or at least not any worse) had we just continued with life as usual.

We made mistakes. Understood. But here we are 4 years later having emerged from a pandemic in pretty damn good shape.

I’m just trying to follow your thinking. 
 

You - Partial shutdowns were an “exceptional” step

 

Me - Why?

 

You - why not?

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4 minutes ago, JDHillFan said:

I’m just trying to follow your thinking. 
 

You - Partial shutdowns were an “exceptional” step

 

Me - Why?

 

You - why not?

Umm, because we've never had that type of shutdown in response to an infectious disease in recent memory?

In other words, it was an "exception" to our typical response. We might call that "exceptional."

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I see the conflation of the two meanings of "exceptional" with that whole thing about "American exceptionalism."

As I've always understood the term from a historical perspective, it was not intended to mean "America is exceptionally good, the greatest nation on earth." Rather, it was intended to mean that other countries are formed by "nations" - a collection of people united by ethnicity/language/etc. "The French people," "The German people" or nation-state. America, rather, was a country defined by an ideal, as expressed in the Declaration of Independence, and an ideal that people from many nations/backgrounds/languages could accept and in turn be accepted as an American.

(Just a little digression on what I consider to be a misunderstanding based on an older use of the term "exceptional")

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54 minutes ago, Doc said:

 

Yes, I was forced to be, to continue to work.


Good… and you’re thankfully still here.

 

Wish more on the right did the same but for all the good Trump did getting the vaccines expedited; he sabotaged those efforts.

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2 hours ago, The Frankish Reich said:

Taxes: I'm doing mine now. I'm missing a 1099 that the issuer knows I should have. I can't seem to shake it out of them.

My question: I received notice from the issuer that they were informing the IRS of a distribution. In other words, reporting it on a 1099. So the IRS already has this information. Why on earth do I need to get it myself to report it on my 1040? Why do I have to pay a third-party provider like TurboTax to re-report what's already been reported?

 

 

The answer to your question is obvious.

First, if the IRS already has the 1099 data, which they do, and you don't think you need to provide it, that would mean they are doing your tax return.

That isn't how it works.

You file your tax return using, hopefully, the same data that is provided to them.

If there is a discrepancy, expect a letter in about two years.

It used to be that the 1099 data, ie., interest, dividends, capital gains etc., was provided to the IRS by the individual on his tax return.

Now they have the financial institution provide it, and weigh that data against what you submit.

It's quite easy to drag the 1099 into the return.

 

Second, you don't need to pay a third party.

You can still do your tax return and submit it without assistance from a commercial tax assistant. 

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Remember, expert epidemiologists from Harvard, Stanford and Oxford were censored and canceled by the very same idiots who demanded that we FOLLOW THE SCIENCE!!!

 

Silencing scientific debate in the name of following the science. 

 

Morons 

 

It doesn't get any more anti-science than that.

 

 

 

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9 minutes ago, BillStime said:

Good… and you’re thankfully still here.

 

Wish more on the right did the same but for all the good Trump did getting the vaccines expedited; he sabotaged those efforts.

 

I am healthy and odds are that I would have been fine without it and just as easily could have had serious side-effects from the vaccine.  I pray there are no long-term sequelae, which is why I didn't want to take one, not because of nanoparticles or any of that other conspiracy stuff.

 

I waited as long as I could to get vaccinated to see what would happen.  I saw they didn't prevent people from getting Wuhan virus or passing it to others.  Which told they lied about the reasons why we were being forced to get it.

 

Vulnerable populations should absolutely have gotten it.  And they should have been prioritized.

 

And Trump never once told people not to get it.  As you said he was instrumental in getting them out and everyone, especially his supporters, knew that.  Whereas Kamala actually said she wouldn't trust the vaccine.  It's another example of Trump being blamed for telling people to do things when he never said anything of the sort.

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Some quintile is doing amazing in this economy. 

 

Taylor Swift among 141 new billionaires in ‘amazing year for rich people’ | Rich lists | The Guardian

 

Taylor Swift among 141 new billionaires in ‘amazing year for rich people

Combined assets of $14.2tn are more than the GDP of every country except China and the US

 

There are more billionaires than ever before. The world has 2,781 people with fortunes exceeding $1bn (£800m), an increase of 141 on 2023, according to Forbes’ annual ranking of the world’s richest people – with Taylor Swift among those making the list.

The billionaires are also collectively worth more than ever, with combined assets estimated at $14.2tn – a $2tn increase on 2023 and more than the GDP of every country except the US and China.

Their collective wealth has risen by 120% in the past decade, at the same time as billions of people across the world have seen their living standards decrease in the face of inflation and the cost of living crisis.

“It’s been an amazing year for the world’s richest people, with more billionaires around the world than ever before,” said Chase Peterson-Withorn, Forbes’ wealth editor. “A record-breaking 14 centibillionaires [$100bn] have 12-figure fortunes. Even during times of financial uncertainty for many, the super-rich continue to thrive.”

 

The richest person on the planet is Bernard Arnault, the majority owner of the luxury goods conglomerate LVMH, whose fortune, according to Forbes, increased by 10% to $233bn. Elon Musk is in second place with $195bn, an 8% increase on last year.

 

https://youtu.be/0BAEUksdLCs?si=YHtn-4VU93GdkZYn

 

 

Edited by Tommy Callahan
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