Republican Tax Charade

Well, today is day 3 of a 6 day stretch, then I have 2 days off in a row, and it's less than 2 weeks until my surgery.  I can't wait.  This morning I planned to put a half an hour on the bike (doesn't effect my core muscles... much) and discovered there was a firmware update.  They always take a while, so there was no ride today.
The Republicans released their fake tax overhaul yesterday and surprise, surprise, people are already saying it's pro-rich.  Oh, and in case you're wondering, approval for this sorry mess is relegated to core Republicans.  They will never learn.  They love Trickle Down economics because they get to give tax breaks to their wealthiest donors who don't use it to create more jobs.  Nope, they bank it, or plop it into safe investments.  As a co-worker of mine said, the rich are not going to suddenly increase their spending because they get a tax break.  They're not going to look for a start-up and say, "hey, the odds of you succeeding are poor, but let me give you money to hire people anyway."
They are saying that the average family should pay about $1860 less a year, which breaks down to around $36 per week.  Now I'm sure that Idiot Jerk supports are ecstatic about that figure since for them it's about... oh, 6 or 7 cases of beer (they only buy the good stuff, you know?).  The single personal deduction goes from $6000 to $12,000, and that sounds good... except you lose a $4700 personal exemption, which means you only get about a $1300 deduction increase.  This is the line item that's going to effect most single people.  However, if you look at least year's tax charts that $1300 deduction will net you about... a $360 tax break, or about $7 per week. Wow!
If you happen to be a single homeowner who itemizes, you can still deduct you mortgage interest, but not you state and local taxes (which includes school and property taxes).  That's a big chunk of change you can no longer deduct.  For me, here in Central Pa, that's a $4500 deduction I'm going to lose.  Oops, there it goes.
Anyway, I'm not really concerned about this tax charade.  Remember, we're dealing with the 'do-nothing party' here.  They always make a big 'to do' about their legislation and then it falls flat.  Expect nothing.
Oh, and the Idiot Jerk is leaving for Asia.  My guess would be they're terrified that the North Koreans are going to shoot off one of their long range missiles while he's there.  Oops, there he goes.

My nuts

So, it's Tuesday morning.  I have about 180 lbs of dogs jumping around on the bed playing with their squeaking, purple squirrel, and from all of the squeaking it sounds like they're having a grand old time.
Last week, when I was down in Lebanon and stopped by the Gingrich Memorial Pool, I picked up a bunch of walnuts.  My first thought was to husk them and eat them when I got home, however, I got to thinking.  Wouldn't it be really neat to take some Lebanon walnuts and plant them here in Enola, forty-three miles away.  They're fast growing trees, producing fruit in  5 - 6 years.  True, in 30 years they can reach a height of 100 feet but let's face, I'm not going to be living here in 30 years.  Out of all the walnuts I brought back, only 2 are viable - but that's all it takes since they are cross-pollinators.  I'm excited!  Sometime tomorrow morning I'm going to plant my nuts.

Also, in 3 days Assassin's Creed - Origins gets released.  This game is already garnering some major accolades.  It's still not too late to buy some stock in Ubisoft because this game is going to make a fortune (thinks hundreds of hundreds of millions).  Here's the final release trailer.  I can't even imagine how great it would be to climb up the face of the Sphinx.

And, if you're interested in the "Do Nothing Party's" shitty tax plan, well, evidently there's already heaps and heaps of issues going on behind the scenes, what with the Idiot Jerk saying 401K's aren't going to be touched and the GOP desperately trying to find some small way to keep from diving head first into the Cesspool of Debt.  I'll bet they're terrified that their Kansas failure is going to slap them silly.  Kansas, you ask?  Yepper.  They've already used a conservative spin on that state's failed tax system and things went horribly wrong.  Corporate tax breaks don't create jobs, they merely pad pockets and provide bonuses.  Conservatives are great believers in "do as I say, not as I do."