wasupaloopa
wasupaloopa's JournalSmoke from the wild fires up north have moved into Santa Barbara County
This from an email I just got:
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — The Santa Barbara County Public Health Department and the Santa Barbara County Air Pollution Control District issued an Air Quality Watch for Santa Barbara County through the weekend. Smoke and ash from wildfires burning throughout the state are affecting local air quality, and may continue over the next several days. Even when wildfires occur outside of our county, air quality can be affected by wildfires miles away.
NAHB and NAR Divided Over Mortgage Deduction
NAHB and NAR Divided Over Mortgage Deduction
Oct 5 2017, 11:03AM
Is it time to bid farewell to an American-as-Apple-Pie tax deduction?
Maybe.
After 75 years of supporting it against all assaults, the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) has abandoned its defense of the mortgage interest deduction (MID) one of the more sacred cows in the U.S. tax code. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) however is standing tough.
snip:
The split between NAHB and NAR over the proposed changes comes down of course to the constituency of each. NAHB is more vested in protecting the low-income tax credit, which the proposed changes would not affect. Its chairman, Granger MacDonald said in part, "By lowering the pass-through rate, the plan will reduce the tax bill of thousands of small businesses and help to spur job and economic growth. More importantly, the blueprint maintains the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, the most indispensable tool to help produce affordable rental housing. The plan also retains a business interest deduction for small businesses, which would ensure that our future tax code is truly pro-growth."
snip:
For its part, NAR is standing behind the deduction, and has started running ads defending it. Those ads claim the proposed changes could drive home prices down as much as 10 percent while raising taxes for most middle-income homeowners.
William E. Brown, current NAR president, calls the proposed changes "a backdoor elimination of the mortgage interest deduction for all but the top 5 percent who would still itemize their deductions." NAR, he said "believes the result would all but nullify the incentive to purchase a home for most, amounting to a de facto tax increase on homeowners, putting home values across the country at risk and ensuring that only the top 5 percent of Americans have the opportunity to benefit from the mortgage interest deduction."
http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/10052017_mortgage_interest_deduction.asp
Listening to MSNBC experts talking about the Las Vegas shooting.
They are basically saying we are impotent when it comes to being able to prevent mass shootings.
The ten thousand pound gorilla in the room is that the gun lobby has us by the nuts and will squeeze us as hard as they can if we talk about gun control.
Just learned we have a family member who was shot at the Los Vegas shooting.
She is alive in the hospital.
Not a religious person I don't offer thoughts and prayers yet I don't have the words to say to her.
Can't say "so sorry" or hope you get well. She will live with this tragedy the rest of her life. She is in her 30's.
I just am at a loss
We saved West Berlin with the Berlin air lift
So we have a model to use for Puerto Rico
I never thought I could learn more about the Vietnam war until the PBS documentary
this week.
I was drafted in 1966 and spent most of 67 and part of 68 in the war. I knew we were being lied to but I thought that was to keep us from questioning.
But watching the PBS Vietnam special I now know they didn't know how they were ever going to get out of the war even before I got there and the escalation or why I went to war was for Johnson and his administration to save face.
I didn't die but what a fucked up reason to make me fight for survival for a year.
This documentary is going to bring back a lot of shit we stuffed way back in our minds.
I wonder if John McCain was watching the PBS series on the Vietnam war last night?
They showed John McCain after his capture by North Vietnamese talking to a French journalist. He was laying bed with broken bones and he was crying and telling the journalist to tell his wife he loved her.
Maybe those memories are part of why he is against this bill. He knows what suffering is.
I don't understand Bernie's Medicare for all
He just said on "All In" that with Medicare for all your insurance premiums would go away.
I have Medicare and I pay premiums for part B and D and for a suplimental plan.
And I paid for part A with payroll deductions.
I think calling Bernie's plan Medicare is a misnomer because with Medicare you pay premiums.
Medicare and Health Net are my insurance companies
Why aren't we hearing or seeing what IRMA
is doing to Cuba right now or the 8.4 earthquake in Mexico that hit today?
Florida folks, Will Sanibel and Captiva suvive IRMA?
I spent some of the best times of my life there.
I hope they recover if need be.
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