My friend just sent me one of those chain emails with scary shit about Obama, this time focusing on taxes. It's a topic important to my friend cause he's a businessman making plenty of money. I checked it out and of course it was a BS email, but it lead me to some cool info. Check out how income tax will be under each candidate in 2009:
So if you make over 603K a year, then you probably wont' be a big fan of Obama's tax policy. Otherwise there's not much to bitch about when it comes to income tax.
Here's my reply to my friends email, with a link to the snopes article on taxes. I suggest you read it cause it's easy, clear and full of great info. I'll put the smear email in a spoiler so you can refer to that if you want...
NOT EXACT BUT VERY CLOSE TO PROPOSALS BEING MADE BY BOTH CANIDATES.
Subject: INTERESTING DATA JUST RECEIVED ON TAXES....Spread the word.....
Spread the word.....
This is something you should be aware of so you don't get blind-sided. This is really going to catch a lot of families off guard. It should make you worry.
Proposed changes in taxes after 2008 General election:
CAPITAL GAINS TAX
MCCAIN
0% on home sales up to $500,000 per home (couples)
McCain does not propose any change in existing home sales income tax.
OBAMA
28% on profit from ALL home sales
How does this affect you?
If you sell your home and make a profit, you will pay 28% of your gain on taxes.
If you are heading toward retirement and would like to down-size your home
or move into a retirement community,
28% of the money you make from your home will go to taxes.
This proposal will adversely affect the elderly
who are counting on the income from their homes as part of their retirement income.
DIVIDEND TAX
MCCAIN 15% (no change)
OBAMA 39.6%
How will this affect you?
If you have any money invested in the stock market, IRA, mutual funds, college funds,
life insurance, retirement accounts, or anything that pays or reinvests dividends,
you will now be paying nearly 40% of the money earned on taxes if Obama become president.
The experts predict that 'higher tax rates on dividends and capital gains would crash the stock market,
yet do absolutely nothing to cut the deficit.
INCOME TAX
MCCAIN (no changes)
Single making 30K - tax $4,500
Single making 50K - tax $12,500
Single making 75K - tax $18,750
Married making 60K - tax $9,000
Married making 75K - tax $18,750
Married making 125K - tax $31,250
OBAMA
(reversion to pre-Bush tax cuts)
Single making 30K - tax $8,400
Single making 50K - tax $14,000
Single making 75K - tax $23,250
Married making 60K - tax $16,800
Married making 75K - tax $21,000
Married making 125K - tax $38,750
Under Obama your taxes will more than double!
How does this affect you?
No explanation needed. This is pretty straight forward.
INHERITANCE TAX
MCCAIN 0% (No change, Bush repealed this tax)
OBAMA Restore the inheritance tax
How does this affect you?
Many families have lost businesses, farms and ranches, and homes
that have been in their families for generations because they could not afford the inheritance tax.
Those 'willing' their assets to loved ones will only lose them to these taxes.
NEW TAXES BEING PROPOSED BY OBAMA
* New government taxes proposed on homes that are more than
2400 square feet
* New gasoline taxes (as if gas weren't high enough already)
* New taxes on natural resources consumption (heating gas, water, electricity)
* New taxes on retirement accounts and last but not least....
* New taxes to pay for socialized medicine so we can receive the same level of medical care as other third-world countries!!!
Overall it rates as false. So mostly BS. And I'm glad you got me looking into it, cause it turns out that I was right that your taxes would go up under Obama, but not by close to as much as I originally thought. For example, income tax will go up a whopping… $12.00 for you under Obama… omg! (this is assuming you’re still making between 227k and 603k).
1) Capital gains WOULD go up under Obama, but not to 28%, but more likely to around %15. Also, this isn’t on “ALL HOME SALES” like they say – only when you profit over 500K in the sale does this kick in.
2) Obama wants to keep the dividend tax the same as capital gains, so that means %15, which is where it is now.
3) Like I already said, your income taxes would barely go up while everyone below you would get a tax break. Everyone underneath 112k would get a bigger tax break from Obama than McCain. So obama is definitely my man for cutting taxes.
4) All the death tax shit is totally off (inheritance tax). McCain wants to give people a bigger break on the inheritance tax than Obama, but Obama wants to give people a break from what it is right now. This section is kinda confusing so you gotta read it yourself, too hard to make it a short note.
5) 3 of the 5 “new taxes” by obama are complete lies and he never proposed any of them (2,400 sq ft homes, gas tax, retirement tax)
6) The “Natural resource consumption tax” is referring to the cap and trade proposal for reducing carbon emissions – making polluters pay more if they pollute more, encouraging em to go green.
7) The supposed tax for socialized 3rd world medicine is total BS – obama wants to use the money that comes by letting bushes tax cuts to the people making more than 603k a year expire. So it’s really semantics here.
Read the entire thing though, it’s pretty easy reading and clearer than my highlights.
Honestly, 95% of the email’s like this are full of shit from both sides, liberal and conservative. That’s why they’re sent out in emails like this. As soon as you get something like this in the mail, automatically assume it’s BS and you’re almost certain to be right. Then go to a place like snopes and check. On the rare occasion the email will be true, but you can probably go your entire life without ever receiving a true one, hehe.
This should be everything. Maybe a few hundred hands got lost here and there, but I asked PS for my lifetime hands before buying Holdem Manager and I've used HEM consistently for all my play since, so all my hands should be here. For cash games that is, not tournies.
When you look at the graph's you'll see the first one is in Big Blinds. I did that because it shows you a clearer picture of how I did at each limit, because when graphing by dollar with so many limits mixed in there's a huge skew as you'll see in the second graph.
Amazingly I'm a lifetime winner @ 3.94 BB/100 despite getting pwnd at NL200 and then a major downswing at NL100
This graph is the pretty graph
And this is just crazily skewed cause of the huge change of dollar amounts
A few important things to point out:
The lowest stakes (NL2, NL5, NL10) used to be prettier when I first won my way through them, but once I was playing NL100 I'd go to those 3 stakes while drunk and spew money around.
I peaked at NL200 and lost 6 BI there while trying to move up, then I went on a serious downswing for about 30 BI @ NL100. Been trying to recover ever since
There's no easy way to seperate out Full ring, 6 max and HU, so each level is a combination of all 3.
The second graph is a better representation of how it felt to me - winning small amounts for a long time and then suddenly hitting it big, and then losing it all and breaking even ever since.
My BR is pretty small right now cause I've cashed out quite a bit. I look at these results and wish I had a $4,000 BR so I could be playing NL100 comfortably!
I've been playing NL25 for the last month and a half after I started working a regular job again. At first I didn't take it very seriously and put in very few hands during which I was spewing a lot. The last 2 weeks I've started trying again, feeling crappy about being in the microstakes and really wanting to get back to at least NL100 where I know I can win, and then the wins will be some money I can actually use. Getting back into NL200 and winning there is my big goal, but I don't see it happening too soon.
I've been 8-10 tabling and it's going well. I still manage to play a solid 21/19 type of game, sometimes a bit tighter or looser. I've recovered mentally and can finally handle losing buyins again. Playing 8 tables helps cause I'm not so worried about every little mistake and don't get so upset when I get coolered. I think I basically lost my balls after the downswing and was playing scared for a long time. Playing with a big roll for my limit has allowed me to be more aggressive and that has brought my game back.
I've also spent a lot of time focusing on listening to my gut. There's been a lot of trial and error but through it I've found a lot of situations to bluff profitably or slow down to save money. I've learned to play much more by feel than anything formulaic, which I think is what I've been lacking. So I do believe my game has improved by grinding out NL25 recently. I'm excited to move up to NL50. I'm sitting @ $1,360 right now. I figure I'll move up @ 30 BI's, which is $1,500. So 6 BI to go, but I might just go for it @ $1,400 too, not sure. Depends on how I'm playing =)
That's all for now! Thanks for reading and as always, plz leave a comment on the way out.
Here's a good read I just found on Huffpost. The greatest irony is that I read this while the Bachelorette was playing on the TV...
Answer: Everyone
In the name of full disclosure, we will admit that we enjoy watching trashy reality shows as much as the next girls. We'd call it a guilty pleasure, but we don't really feel guilty about it. "American Idol" and "Dancing With the Stars" helped us through the winter, just like "Hogan Knows Best" and "Living Lohan" got us through many hard workouts. That said, we also think that reality television is bad for so many reasons. It is dumbing down society, promoting the absolute worst values we can imagine, and changing the entertainment industry - we'd argue for the worse. Quality programming is becoming increasingly hard to find, but "Top Model" marathons and back-to-back episodes of "The Hills" are plentiful. As a result, we know tons of smart, educated people who are completely addicted to these shows, but we're not worried about them. We're worried about the impressionable young boys and girls out there who hang onto reality stars' words as if they're gospel and who actually base their lives around these shows. These are the people whose lives will be forever changed by reality TV:
#1 - Little Girls
Thanks to "The Bachelorette," little girls grow up seeing that if they can't find a husband on their own, they can just go on TV and make out with 25 different hot guys to magically find their Prince Charmings. Teenage girls, on the other hand, watch those nasty brats on "My Super Sweet Sixteen" and then turn into them by throwing hissy fits when all they get on their big day is ice cream cake and a key to the family Honda. What about "Keeping Up With the Kardashians"? In order to "keep up" with them, little girls are taught that all it takes to be a celebrity is to become a glorified porn star. Then there are the dozens of "makeover" shows that hire plastic surgeons to make "regular" girls look like they're favorite celebrities. We're certainly not saying that all reality shows are bad, but these examples are teaching our little girls the absolute wrong things about themselves - that they should strive to be uneducated, slutty brats with fake boobs. We urge you to steer your daughters' eyes away from the screen during these shows or to at least take the opportunity to explain why those women are pretty much the worst role models one could pick.
#2 - Little Boys
We think that little boys should be out riding their bikes, finding treasures in the gutter, and daydreaming about they're cute little crush at school. They should not be glued to the TV watching Flavor Flav hook up with the most classless, scantily clad, cat-fighting women we've ever seen. And we don't want them to be obsessed with watching Tila Tequila to see if she's ultimately going to choose a guy or a girl to be her partner, either. Boys have plenty of time to learn about bisexuality; they do not need some MySpace whore in a sting bikini and stripper heels encouraging them to think about girls on girls. They'll waste enough time thinking about that when they're good and ready.
#3 - Husbands
Our friend's ex-husband never missed an episode of "Laguna Beach." He was completely obsessed with those sixteen-year-old rich kids with blonde highlights. It turns out he was also living a double life. When he wasn't talking about Lauren Conrad and her nemesis, he was banging some other chick the whole time our friend was planning their wedding. Complete and total coincidence? Could be. But we think that reality shows are kind of like strip clubs - if your man visits one occasionally (like for a bachelor party) that's totally fine and harmless, but these shows (and clubs) can also suck your man in by showing him an alternate lifestyle where there are no rules, no repercussions, and all the fake boobs and equally fake tans he can feast his eyes on. We'd prefer to keep our man with us in the real world, instead.
#4 - Wives
The women on reality shows can make even the most confident women out there feel like they are not beautiful enough, skinny enough, or tan enough, and especially like they don't have enough shiny things. Does watching reruns of the Real World make you feel good about where you are in life? And does hearing Denise Richards explain that she needs a $9,000 grill because she likes things that are "a little bit fancier" make you feel better or worse about your lifestyle? We don't think that anyone should try to emulate the people on reality shows, and it's very sad that watching too many of them can actually impact one's self esteem. Women who are addicted to these shows and take them too seriously should try watching the news about the rest of the world - it's sure to make them feel better about the $35 grill in their own backyard.
#5 - Reality Stars
Yes, it may seem counterintuitive to say that reality shows are bad for the very stars that are taking the jobs away from real actors (and writers and directors) and are becoming rich and famous from these shows, but think about where some recent reality stars have landed. "Newlyweds" surely contributed to Jessica and Nick's breakup, and we wonder if "Hogan Knows Best" had anything to do with little Nick's horrible car crash and subsequent prison time. No, there may not be a direct correlation between reality show and prison, but these shows do inflate their stars' egos and make them believe that they are omnipotent, immortal creatures. Dealing with celebrity is hard enough for people who have actually earned it with their own hard work and talent. It must be even more difficult to handle when it comes overnight and for no good reason at all.
Obama recently switched his position on FISA and that pissed me off, and that was his first official "flip flop" that I've seen, but now they're trying to paint him as the biggest flip flopper in the world. It's such a weird argument considering how many times McCain has flip flopped - and it's a LOT. They're saying "see, you can't trust Obama cause he flip flops, so he shouldn't be president!" but the same argument works even BETTER against McCain. I feel like I'm in the twilight zone.
Lemme try and put this into a different context. This is a weird hypothetical but it's all I can think of: It's like Elky and I were competing for the same job, and Elky started arguing that I wasn't qualified for the job because I played starcraft. It's true, I did play starcraft and occasionally still do. But he played a hell of a lot more than I ever did and he was a pro-gamer. If having a background of starcraft disqualifies someone for the job, he's a million times more guilty of it than I am. It's a pretty insane argument to make.
The crazy thing about what's going on now is that some people are actually BUYING this line of argument. By McCain's own logic he should be completely disqualified from the race for the presidency, and he's out there spouting this BS over and over again, and people are stupid enough to fall for it.
Oh yeah, I also gotta mention one other insane thing that just happened. McCain and Bush both opposed the new GI bill till the last minute, but when it passed they took credit for it! "No, we must stop this bill! What, it passed? Oh, I just want to say I'm proud of all the hard work I did to push this bill through. Your welcome!" WTF. That's some insanity. Who does that? What kind of shady shit is that? Wow. One thing I have always respected about Republicans is that they have some fucking balls. Sadly they always use em to push for shit I don't want. Damn Democrats are running on issues I agree with but they're a bunch of pussies.
There's a local band called the "Flobots" that we've worked with at my job for the past 5 years or so and recently they've hit national scene. They're a bunch of great people and their music is awesome. I just saw that they did Leno and got a great response, which makes me really happy to see. I really hope they keep doing well cause they all have great hearts and they've been very gracious and giving in all that they do.
Here's the Leno spot which is worth watching cause they are awesome live. They give a great performance and sound just as good on stage as in the studio. (Fuck, youtube won't let me even link to the leno spot, here's the only thing I could embed)
They're shooting a new music video tomorrow here in Denver and they've invited everyone at my work to come down and be in it. Should be fun!
Sorry, politics again guys. I'm busy with boring stuff lately (work mostly) and therefore have nothing exciting to post about. Only playing microstakes poker right now cause I don't wanna do anything too serious with poker at the moment. It's going just fine so nothing to post about there. This means that when I get a hankering for a post it ends up being something political that I come across that entertains me. Here's the latest:
WISCKOL: I'd like to ask you a couple questions suggested by voters here. They're not reporter-type questions.
McCAIN: Sure. It'd be a pleasure.
WISCKOL: When was the last time you pumped your own gas and how much did it cost?
McCAIN: Oh, I don't remember. Now there's Secret Service protection. But I've done it for many, many years. I don't recall and frankly, I don't see how it matters. I've had hundreds and hundreds of town hall meetings, many as short a time ago as yesterday. I communicate with the people and they communicate with me very effectively.
The writer goes on to make some points which made me laugh:
Okay. A few things here.
1) John McCain doesn't know what gas costs, because the Secret Service protects him from finding out, possibly because they're afraid the knowledge will kill him. Not a healthy man.
2) John McCain isn't an elitist or a big government bureaucrat. He's a maverick who has certainly pumped his own gas at some point in his life, perhaps during the single 18-month period when he wasn't in the navy or in congress, but was living off his wife.
3) It doesn't matter. How do we know it doesn't matter? Because John McCain says it doesn't matter.
4) John McCain may not know what gas costs or when he last pumped any, or performed any other act not connected to politics or outpatient care, but he's had hundreds of town hall meetings, many as short a time ago as yesterday. Which somehow answers questions about gas prices, but it's not clear exactly how.
5) John McCain communicates with people and they communicate with him very effectively.
.......
John McCain has spent the last three months -- since he floated his gas tax holiday -- pretending to care about the cost of driving. He should have had a slightly better answer than "I've had hundreds of town halls."
Or he could look out the window while driving to one of those town halls and check out what the billboards at the gas stations say, or watched the news...
2 of my favorite people came together - Kimmel and Obama. It made for a fun interview.
Now that Craig guy who does the other late night talk show needs to interview Obama. He's fucking hilarious. They had him at the white house correspondents dinner and he pulled it off better than Colbert did...
Man I'm on a video whoring spree lately. Guess it's easier than typing long posts.
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