Somehow this came up in conversation, and think it is useful information for everyone.
This is my review of Crispy The Shop Beer Co Blond Lager:
The military purchased an insane number of CBRNE masks over the years and due to quality control they rotate these things out from time to time. So the standard issued gas mask is the MCU-2/P mask. They can be purchased from this link here. Even though this site has them on backorder for reasons I will not speculate, there are a number fo fine retailers nationwide where one can be had.
To test the mask’s seal, one first must use a fresh canister to filter the incoming air. Then as the Squid in the picture to the left demonstrates, cover the filter. If the mask is properly sealed, the soft plastic screen should collapse on itself when you breathe in.
The first pertinent piece of information about this: simply give the mask canister 1/4 turn to loosen it slightly. Doing so makes it significantly easier to breathe in the mask. It even has the added benefit of still being able to pass the seal test, should an NCO wish to be a wise ass and try to catch you “cheating”, declare you “dead”, and tell you to “report to the medical unit”.
This mask protects against a variety of chemical and biological agents. One agent that may prove this mask come in handy in the future, is OC (Tear) gas. A common method of crowd dispersal used by police.
The second piece of pertinent information: should you find yourself in an environment with OC, and are utilizing the 1/4 turn trick…you will be breathing in tear gas.
Why do I think you may want to know this? No reason…but do use this information wisely.
This beer is local to me, but unlike the others in my area that load up the non-IPA space on store shelves with Kölsch, blonde ales, and lawnmower Pils this time of year, they throw us all for a loop and give us a Helles Lager. What the hell is a Helles? Common in southern Germany, it is similar in profile to a Pilsner but is distinctively German. A bit maltier is really the only difference between the two. This one goes great with pizza, whether the pizza is decent or not. Crispy The Shop Beer Co Blond Lager: 2.9/5
Does it go well with deep dish?
What, tear gas?
/thinks back to the 90’s when someone tried to use pepper spray to replace red pepper flakes.
That sounds suspiciously like the Voice of Experience there, Neph…
He wanted ghost pepper flakes, but didn’t have any.
“someone”
For once it wasn’t me that made a stupid decision. It was a friend’s older brother.
Thankfully they tried it at a house, instead of in the restaurant.
Remembers when *someone* found a can of pepper spray in the elevator in the college dorms, and sprayed it…
I remember when “someone” was having vigorous sex with his GF and broke the top off her pepper spray that was sitting on the bedside table which shortly thereafter resulted in two naked people standing outside in the dead of Winter.
That is unfortunate but it is a funny story by now.
I sure hope we don’t end up on the receiving end of crowd dispersal measures here in these United States. But the way things are going…
BTW, no masks will help if they turn an Active Denial system on and point it in our general direction.
*listens to the lady who knows what she’s talking about*
Dress in a Faraday cage.
That sounds like it would backfire terribly, and possibly even catch fire.
I just poured a double shot of Wild Turkey into this cinnamon breve. Can’t do the beer thing; it goes right to my gut.
Irish Coffee done right!
Those days are behind me.
Cheers!
(Also allergic to cinnamon, which is a real drag. Fortunately it’s not a life threatening allergy because cinnamon is EVERYWHERE!)
I recall years ago walking into a Kroger in Richmond, IN, with the previous Mr. GT. The entrance had multiple decorative “cinnamon brooms” on display, and the space smelled as if they’d detonated a cinnamon bomb.
I love the scent and flavor of cinnamon, but there IS such a thing as too much.
I’m not allergic to cinnamon, but I do loathe it.
Where do you stand on the critical but controversial cilantro question?
Strongly in favor!
But I do understand that some percentage of the population tastes an unpleasant aroma in cilantro that they describe as “soap-like”.
It’s genetic, as is the ability to smell cyanide gas. Some can smell the “bitter almond” scent but others lack the gene for it.
I’ve wondered but never been brave enough to ask how common the gene for cyanide detection is among Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews
Have we isolated the gene? We could just use dna testing.
UCS, yes they have isolated the gene several years ago as Los Alamos National Lab. That’s where I found out I can detect cyanide by scent.
Many years ago, when I was a bench chemist, I had to do many a cyanide test on water and sludge’s….
My nose could easily smell CN- at 9 PPM
It does not smell like “bitter almond”
but its close….
A coworker put in CN plating sledge in my vacuum distillation flasks. Normally a sold would have maybe 1 gram. He put in 50 grams in about 7 flasks (QC reasons) When he added the acid, he floded the lab with gaseous HCN. Fun times.
I don’t have the defect. But, cilantro can be over done.
I worked at Michael’s for a spell. Fall was murder for the cinnamon and pine scented overkill. Also, the holiday merchandise was so festooned with glitter I would arrive home looking like I had spent the day at the gentlemen’s club (and I was back in the framing department).
Hey, I worked in framing at Michael’s too! Fun job. Cool skill.
I LOVED the actual framing work. Because of our local demographics, the bulk of our business was framing ketubahs. It brought me such joy, knowing that my labor and skill was being invested in something that a couple was going to cherish forever.
I was a framer at Hobby Lobby for a Thanksgiving/Christmas season. I enjoyed the framing itself as well as helping people pick out a good looking frame and matte that fit their budgets.
I hate the way frame shops measure and up sell all sorts of things and then say “That comes to $400.” Which stuns the potential customer who now feels obligated to make the purchase after spending so long selecting everything.
I think that sales method is sleazy, so I always would tell customers who didn’t know where to start that there were 3 basic tiers to get something framed: get a precut mat and a cheap sectional frame; a permafrost nice frame and mats custom cut to make it fit the artwork well; and a totally custom job where they get whatever they want. Then I gave the 3 rough price ranges. That helped a lot and my manager got a few notes from customers about the same excellent service I provided. The store manager liked it, but the frame shop manager was pouty that she wasn’t the favorite.
Enjoy.
I’m off to bike to a brewery and earn the beers I’ll drink there.
Alright I was on topic twice so now I don’t feel too bad about this:
Anyone know what the “health equity metric” is? Is it good that it’s a low number? Is this a race thing?
Sounds like a reason to purge the government and install an autonomous zone.
It’s the bullshit measure Newsom instituted to measure spread in affluent versus poor areas. I don’t know if the actual method/equation has ever been made public.
It’s a measure of how racist white people are. It uses the same scale as the blood alcohol reading. 0.08% means you’re legally racist. What’s San Diego County’s reading?
Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
“Anyone know what the “health equity metric” is?”
I’m not going to beat around the bush with my answer. It’s a bunch of meaningless horseshit made up by really stupid people.
made up by really
stupidmendacious peopleNarrator: It is always a race thing.
CPAPs suck, or I guess blow. Oh, that isn’t what this is about? How do I fool my insurance?
These days you can get a CPAP off Amazon without a prescription.
You don’t have to screw with the sleep study, and the product is cheaper on the free market than it is through insurance.
I posted this a few days ago. Our betters in DC will also let people hear who can’t afford thousands of usually uncovered expense to pay of the the audiologist extortion racket.
Bose gets into hearing aid business with new FDA-cleared SoundControl hearing aids
Duly noted!
And Bose has a non-diagnostic hearing test on their website that was helpful!
Astral Codex has a post up discussing prescription phone apps. With some discussion on how regulations and insurance drive it.
Indeed. Being all dried out in the morning but feel a bit more rested has been a good trade off for me.
Trying to shed some pounds through dieting….
It’s not going well. Still the same weight I was 2 weeks ago. I need to stop cheating.
It’s a marathon, don’t get discouraged after just two weeks.
Minor deviations will happen, just keep making course corrections towards your goal of healthier eating.
This.
Also, I’ll suggest nothing thinking about it as “dieting” – that implies it’s a phase.
You are changing your lifestyle, a bit at a time.
Sincerely,
A dude who has been 45 pounds heavier and lost it, slowly, over the course of years.
Bah, slumbrewed it:
s/nothing thinking/not thinking/
^^^This guy gets it.
Yep. Trend lines are your friend.
/Down about 25 pounds this year
Thanks for the encouragement. I’ve taken a break from all of the construction work I was doing. The missing calorie burn from my diet is quite noticeable. If only there were a way to make beer, chocolate and deep fried thingies undesireable. WHY DO THINGS TASTE SO GOOD!?!?!?
Thanks for the tip about the mask.
Helles is good to have every now and then.
Yeah it doesn’t quite hit the spot like a Pilsner.
Deplorababes on Silicone Saturday.
https://archive.li/fr3Z6
A little short on guns to be a true Deplorababe gallery.
Minimal ink, which is nice.
30
Now I feel like Mitt Romney with binders full of women. I’ll celebrate Fouth of July with 1.
A friendly reminder in case it hasn’t already come up:
Today is Peace Officer Memorial Day. I’m sure each and every one of you is flying our National Banner at half mast to honor our heroes in blue who’ve fallen in the line of duty, taking as many people of color and dogs with them as they can.
I might hang up the Gadsden Flag today…
The Whiskey Rebellion flag has been the default at my house for well over a year now.
WHAT! WHAT! HOW DARE YOU!
/for HM
Phew… really had me going for a minute there.
Can we go ahead and acknowledge that having a certain job doss not make a person a hero or confer sainthood on said person?
It’s a job. That you chose. Get over yourself.
To me, a hero is someone who risks (or even gives up) his life to save the life of another person.
So while there are opportunities for peace officers to be heroes, and some of them rise to that occasion, not all do.
I saw a sign at a local clinic that says “Save one life and you’re a hero. Save a thousand lives and you’re a nurse.” I wanted to pull it down. I disagree with both statements. Saving one life doesn’t make you a hero if yours wasn’t risked. The surgeons who saved my husband’s life are skilled surgeons who made some gutsy calls, and we are grateful to them. But they aren’t heroes. The nurses who were assigned to him weren’t heroes either. Some were great nurses and some sucked.
So I won’t be participating in any hero worship today based on what some guy is wearing.
As retired military and former Marine I cringe when people refer to veterans as “heroes”. I have known some honest to God heroes and not all of them wore a uniform.
Call us “patriots”, OK, yeah, that should be close enough. But to spread the word “hero” around so easily devalues the meaning. It shows a lack of either understanding or appreciation for the term.
It offends me deeply. It’s more collectivism bullshit. There are plenty shitbags in the military. The notion that they are heroes by affiliation lessens the meaning of the word for those individuals (notice I said individuals) who’ve earned the title.
I guess my reaction is a bit tempered from my early days in uniform less than a year after the fall of Saigon – when people felt justified to talk down to guys in the military. Nobody outright spit on me but I remember the few times when being being recognized as a servicemember was a positive experience because those were quite rare.
But I will admit that the first time I was “thanked for my service” it took me minutes to compose myself for a reply – and by then the moment had passed. I knew who should have been thanked and I wasn’t even in that grid square.
So, I’ve done some thinking on this over the past 20 years. I used to think the Hippies spitting on soldiers was an abomination. Clearly blaming the soldier for the acts of civilian leaders.
Now, they equate support for the soldier with support for the war. Somehow protesting the war means you don’t support the troops. So, in the long run, I think I’d rather trade getting spit on with a 3-4 year war (I know you can argue that Vietnam was longer…) for the adulation the military now gets in the midst of a 20 year long, multi trillion dollar fiasco.
I long for the days when most people thought wars were bad things
From your lips to G/d’s ears. I always thought of myself as a mercenary. I enlisted for financial reasons and while I was moderately patriotic at the time, my Army experience pushed me towards libertarianism and eventually anarchy.
I dunno. I just want everybody to hate war as much as the soldiers (who have to do it) hate war.
The only people who should be allowed to speak in support of a war should be those who will actually put their boots on that ground. Once that support dries up it’s time to bring them home.
And I do agree that the “adulation of the military” is overinflated – both pumped up more than it should be and filled more with air than actual substance.
Oh, and one final thought along those lines.
I, personally, would rather do away with Memorial Day altogether than go down the road of having a memorial day for every occupation under the sun..
“Taxi Driver Memorial Day, to honor all those heroes killed in the line of duty”
Memorial Day should be for remembering the Civil War.
And November 11 is only about World War I.
Hey now, some of those dogs might have licked humans. Perhaps even humans with open sores. Dogs are known shit-eaters. If a shit-eating dog happened to lick a human with an open sore it could lead to a staff infection and death. So…
Men in blue = HEROES!
FIGHT ME!
A Hero Ain’t Nuthin’ But a Sandwich.
A thousand times this HS. With regard to cops specifically, having spent 6 years cross-examining them I learned they are just like everyone else. A few are great at their job. A few are utter embarrassments who would have been fired but for public sector unions. Most are somewhere in between just earning their pay.
That is a fair descriptuo of the militaey as well. A few studs a bunch are fair to middling, and there are a significant number of window-lickers. Just like any other demographic.
Heraclitus of Ephesus. He made a good point.
I mean, there is something to be said for just showing up. However, a sigificant number of folks are all about being a war fighter until there is warfighter shit to do.
^^^This
I was in during the Panama/Desert Shield/Desert Storm times. I can only speak to people in my unit, but it seemed that the hard-charging, combat-ready, mouthy asshole, was the 1st to be shocked and look for a way out when it came down to “Conflict? I never planned on being in a war!”
We can certainly memorialize cops who died fighting murderers, kidnappers, slavers, or even criminals who moved in with violence to take advantage of prohibitory laws. Or that cop who got run down by vodka-woman after her anti-police rant on Facebook.
However, I don’t believe in innocence-by-association which makes every cop a hero based on the above.
So do we really need a whole day for three guys?
Best way to not get tear gassed? Don’t attend riots where you could get tear gassed.
I don’t see why anyone goes to these ‘protests’ anymore. You’re just being added to lists. Your ‘demonstration’ isn’t doing diddly. Granted, i think I could show up to one where everyone wears penis hats and gets drunk on national talk like a pirate day….. I could get behind a movement like that.
I’m looking forward to the food riots.
That’ll never happen. None of the ruling class would ever shut off the food, they don’t have the stomach for it.
They can just use bulldozers instead
Not true! You get to hang out with your friends, parrot slogans, break shit, and feel superior.
And meet chicks. Never forget that part – the primary draw for all hetero males who attend.
I wanna start a revolution from my bed.
I support the shouting of random buzzwords!
This should be fun as “fine art” also fits under this definition.
eBay will enact a sex ban starting June 15th
Poor Q…
What, no ban on male breasts? Problematic.
I’m kind of surprised this hasn’t come up already in our “gender is a social construct” brave new world.
And also, some dudes shouldn’t go topless at the beach.
you can remove the “at the beach” clause,
What if breastfeeding is involved? I thought open displays of female breasts with a suckling infant was a Feminist “plank”.
Wokeness rules change too quickly for me to keep up.
National Geographic haz a sad…
Puritans gonna puritan.
The more things change…
Woe unto thee!
https://www.ebay.com/itm/353484200715?hash=item524d4cdb0b:g:3H8AAOSw56Rgk5pl
Time to get some work done in the yard… after lunch. What a day for procrastination! Eventually I’ll stop procrastinating and get yard work done.
Fuuuuuuuuck.
Back from grocery shopping.
One dude was maskless as we were walking in and he was walking out.
That left us as the only unmasked people there. Gf caved and fell victim to peer pressure. She tried, and I’m not the boss of her.
I, however, am peerless. No one questioned me or ran away in fear though. Still raised my anxiety level a bit.
I’ve stopped wearing them unless somebody asks me to, and they never do. The only exception recently was the airport/airplane, where I knew I would get hassled for not wearing a mask, so I wore one without being told to.
Yo! Sharpshooter!
Long after the fact I saw your article with the question about lime in Cervesas and I thought I might add my dos centavos to the discussion of lime in Mexican beer.
You might have noted that I have mentioned before that I grew up in El Chuco during the 60’s and 70’s, and then was back there for my undergrad in the early 80’s. As most of my friends or their parents were first generation immigrants I would say I was well exposed to the local scene.
Up through about 1985 I remember that the only beer I ever saw anybody drink with a lime was Tecate – and it also was the only Mexican beer which came in cans at the time. I can state that it was still the only Mexican beer which was available in cans until at least 1993 because that was the last time I walked across the border to buy a case of beer and I bought Tecate specifically because it was in cans and thus lighter to carry than bottles. I believe that the main reason why people had a lime with Tecate was because there was a place to put the lime on top of the can. I never thought of it nor questioned it at the time.
To this day I tell bartenders to leave the lime out of my Corona (or Dos Equis, or Bohemia, etc) because, I tell them, “that’s for tourists”.
I like lime in Corona, but prefer Dos Equis without.
I like other beers much better, but on a hot summer day outside I have no issues with a Corona with lime.
I don’t get all you weird people whose taste is somehow dictated by temperature.
Beer is best served ice cold, I mean right before it freezes, I don’t know, 34F?
If you don’t serve it that way in Brazil, there will be a riot, seriously. Maybe an insurrection if you’re sufficiently right wing.
/hides all imperial stouts and sours from Hyperion
So… You have a goatee, right?
I usually try to keep it out of the beer.
I’m not saying I can answer your unspoken question but maybe it has something to do with life in a hot, dry desert. ¿Quien sabe?
The best Messican beer is the Negra Modelo with a slice of lime. The rest is all meh at best.
Sensei gets it.
The lime “thing” started with drinking shyte quality Tequila which required lime and salt to choke it down. Somehow that drifted to beer drinking. Probably because they finished the bottle of shyte Tequila and still and a bunch of limes left.
All I know is what I saw back in the day.
Is it really that simple? Hefeweisen is served with a slice of lemon floating in it. The Belgians have combined fruit in beer for quite some time. I suspect this is a taste that is cross-cultural.
Hefeweisen is served with a slice of lemon floating in it
Only if you are a philistine.
If the beer should have fruit in it, the brewer should add it into the beer.
Thankfully, the random putting wedges of fruit on a beer glass has faded in the past couple decades.
Excellent. Laster last Saturday I bought a 24 oz Corona and threw one of the many limes I always have on hand.
Soy tourista.
Wait… where’s the hipster juice?
I’m having a Heineken 5.9/5
I had a Jalapeno IPA and am currently sipping a dark Mexican lager. Contemplating heading over to another brewery.
Yeah, contemplating.
Alright, so I stopped at another and had their pilsner. Then stopped and picked up macarons for the girlfriend (and me).
Off to
– whack some weeds,
– clean some carpet (not all of it, by any means,)
– run various errands,
– get in some treadmill time, and
– catch up on some correspondence
before I allow myself to indulge in a Saturday afternoon nap.
I hope that third mug of iced coffee was enough to get me through all that.
These euphemisms.
I read something about smoking week and munching rug…. NTTAWWT.
***weed***
Where’s muh edit feature?
@GT, from dedthred, re cleaning. I get inspiration/comfort from r/neckbeardnests when I’ve run out of Hoarders episodes. Makes me feel normal.
I….don’t even want to search for that.
Birds in facial hair? No thanks.
It takes a bit of a cast iron stomach.
speaking of cast iron, what’s the best way to revive a rusty cast iron frying pan? I recently found mine. I was apparently using them as weight to keep a fan in place.
Depends on how rusty it is.
First step is to strip off all the rust, rinse it all off, then start freshly seasoning it.
That sounds like a lot of work.
at least I’ve got steel wool.
Some suggest allowing it to soak in vinegar, I’ve had some success doing that but the pan was really rusty. If you do use vinegar you need to rinse and dry very well and season immediately. Something about the vinegar seems to make the clean pan rust very quickly if not oiled.
Would it be wrong to sandblast them?
Nope.
No idea. Don’t have cast iron because they seem like they are high maintenance. Also, I don’t cook much.
I have to cook, since having other people cook for me gets expensive real fast.
they seem like they are high maintenance
Not really. Season them. Scrape them when dirty. Don’t wash them in soap. Water only.
And dry them immediately. Forgot that.
Don’t worry so much about soap, but invest in a stainless steel chainmail scrubbie. Best investment ever for a cast iron pan.
Rotary sander
I used this with much success on the aforementioned very rusty pan.
This
^^^ same for new pans with a rough finish. I’ve used my multitool to sand down the inside so it’s ready for seasoning and use.
Once properly polymerized from seasoning, soap should not affect the surface.
In the past few weeks alone I have been in two hoarders’ homes. One was not too smelly, just massive amounts of paper products and piles of canned food and such. It was at least waist high in every bedroom and on the stairs. The second was disgusting. There was even a cat carcass in the kitchen.
We finally fired up the grill yesterday. I have shrimp thawing and just ordered bunch of ribeye from Costco to be delivered in about an hour. Decided to grill away the weekend. Wife is making farofa and vinegrete and I’m supposed to be making a gallon of fresh salsa, but I’m lazy just sitting here for now…
I grilled up some store made bacon cheddar burgers and put them on top of some salad greens with jalapeno crunchies and topped with asiago peppercorn sauce.
#Lazycook
Thinking about going across the street for a tri-tip.
Going to the VFW later on to celebrate a friend’s cancer remission and end to his chemotherapy and radiation.
Ribeye is the dish of the evening.
Yummm.
That’s a good thing to be celebrating.
You piqued my curiosity & I took a look at the Costco site – which ribeyes are you buying?
The VFW is providing the ribeye, so no idea.
Sorry, I should have been clear – I was wonder which ribeyes Hype ordered.
Ribeyes provided by someone else are always the best ribeyes 😉
I didn’t order nay ribeyes.
He was referring to the real Hype.
Huh, funny, I don’t see then when I go straight to the Costco site, only on Instacart’s Costco.
“which ribeyes are you buying?”
I’d have to look again, but I think it was the only ones I saw. It was like 6lbs, they look great.
Just ordered the wife a bottle of wine she wants. The Prisoner. $55? What the hell is in that shit, cocaine?
That doesn’t sound right. $10-20 range.
That’s a little spendy for The Prisoner, but not utterly wrong.
It’s solid wine.
I’m a fan of this Vietti in terms of being widely available and a reasonable price.
“That doesn’t sound right. $10-20 range.”
You have a link?
You have a link?
I believe she was saying that’s too much to spend on _any_ wine.
Uh, I dunno. The label with convicts and Snoop Dogg on it? Haven’t bought it but it looked in the teens price-wise.
Ah, gotcha – you’re thinking of 19 Crimes, which is indeed in that range.
He bought The Prisoner by The Prisoner Wine Company, which is ~ $50.
I haven’t had the former – the latter is very nice.
Oh, sorry. /blushes yet again
It is for me. But my wife wanted it, gifts can come with benefits.
No, but the person that took a piss in the barrel in 1994 happened to be on cocaine.
As long as I still get a buzz…
My cynical take on the Great Abrupt Mask Aboutface:
It has been just long enough after the election that they can pretend that the mask thing was about seizing control of the federal government. Plausible deniability.
Miz HE, husband and baby OK?
Sorry to hear your morale report.
Hubby is good. Baby is still stubbornly in the oven.
Nice day out though.
And I crushed my morale problem with my mind vise.
Jacarandas are blooming…
I hear you about wishing to repair to the central time zone. But the yuck seems to have infected there too, e.g., this, and all sorts of stuff out of Norman.
https://kfor.com/news/local/gov-stitt-removed-from-tulsa-race-massacre-commission-1-week-after-he-signed-law-banning-teaching-of-critical-race-theory-in-oklahoma-schools/
https://mobile.twitter.com/ThatF_ckerYote/status/1393420803061002240
LOL
That got a literal laugh out loud.
Good find.
It has been just long enough after the election that they can pretend that the mask thing was about seizing control of the federal government. Plausible deniability.
Maybe somebody finally noticed we’re past the 100 days mark.
Speaking of which- the FAA/TSA just announced masks on planes for the foreseeable future. Have they walked that back yet?
We are still taking our shoes off nearly 20 years after the dumbest attempted terrorist attack ever.
No and they are not going to. Biden still wears a mask and he is going to make sure we do too.
Made the same four miles today. time unchanged.
Just keep going, you’ll pick up speed eventually.
I’m more happy that I didn’t end up settling for two miles.
Good for you UCS.
You’re inspiring me. /nosarc
I guess I have to keep walking now 😀
Rocketlab, a small competitor to SpaceX had a launch this morning. Didn’t quite work out. https://techcrunch.com/2021/05/15/rocket-labs-20th-electron-launch-ends-in-failure-with-the-loss-of-its-payload/
But, here’s the launch anyways: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfHaWj1mTf8
So I changed my mind about Mr. Mojeaux’s Guy™ and I’m going to let him have a crack at it. It’s a hobby for him and while he has done complex projects successfully, he wants almost nothing to do it (which is not enough and I will insist on more), and he is itching for the challenge. My husband is that way about computers and I’m that way about ebook formatting, so I totally get that. It’s a risk, but it’s one I’m willing to take. Otherwise, I just really am not in the mood for a new-ish car, car shopping, or inheriting someone else’s problems I don’t know about.
here’s hoping.
A progressive relative sent me this article. I didn’t read the whole thing, maybe someone else has already studied the subject.
“In 1985, President Ronald Reagan called for a simple tax filing system under which most people would not have to fill out a tax return. Instead, they’d just receive a form from the IRS showing their refund or tax liability. In 2010, a White House advisory board proposed the same idea, noting that Americans spend billions of hours and hundreds of billions of dollars annually preparing their taxes. In 2019, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) also proposed a free, easy filing system that would allow the bulk of taxpayers to avoid the unpleasantness of filling out returns that are dozens of pages long, with complicated sheets of instructions. She’s recently been promoting that bill again, ahead of Tax Day 2021….
“Much like a public option in health care, a public tax filing option would save many people across the country significant time and money. But it doesn’t get created because powerful corporate interests don’t want to dent their profits.”
https://www.mic.com/p/how-tax-prep-companies-conspired-to-make-filing-your-taxes-so-damn-hard-76137738?fbclid=IwAR0AwTENe4s7PcGS_3qbPOthZ9g8kq6Nm2lFTRAnNnn–Eu1qIcJaxMD0tc
Nope.
Repeal the 16th, end income taxes, and cut spending.
it doesn’t get created because powerful corporate interests don’t want to dent their profits
lmao. Yeah, *that’s* why it doesn’t get done. It has nothing to do with the federal government losing its ability to do social engineering via the tax system.
Oh, and the TCJA, passed by Republicans and signed by Trump, but completely opposed by Democrats, simplified taxes for about 30 million Americans just a few years ago.
Preparation H sales would decline significantly.
That’s us. We were teetering on the edge because we’re close to paying off the mortgage and the Trump change pushed us out of itemized deductions. No more need to account for charitable donations and a host of other details.
In Sweden, the state takes almost all of your taxes directly out of your paycheck so you don’t really see the totals. Plus your employer pays another huge tax per employee to the government, and you never see that sum either.
I’m sure Dems would love to do that here so that we wouldn’t see that total taxes paid line on our tax returns.
More shopping updates from newly unmasked PA:
CVS still requiring masks. No suprise, I didn’t go in.
Lowes had more unmasked people, but the maskers were still the majority. Outdoors at the plant section. OFFS.
Gf held strong this time. ?
Farmers market the unmasked were still the minority, but a decent amount of faces to be seen. Fresh roasted cashews. Yum.
Going for take out bbq later, we’ll see how that goes.
Lowes today was maybe 1/4 unmasked, up from just me previously.
Guess there’s still a backlog of virtue remaining unsignaled to work thru.
Who was at the door checking to see if you’ve been fully vaccinated?
In 2019, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) also proposed a free, easy filing system that would allow the bulk of taxpayers to avoid the unpleasantness of filling out returns that are dozens of pages long, with complicated sheets of instructions. She’s recently been promoting that bill again, ahead of Tax Day 2021….
#JUSTTRUSTHER
Yeah, we know. Instead of all that hassle filling out forms, we just automagically steal 60% of your income.
Not senators, not according to Warren. https://www.mediaite.com
That didn’t work.https://theurbantwist.com/2021/03/28/amazon-elizabeth-warren-was-on-twitter-war-because-jeff-bezos-was-mad/
I’d be totes OK if Smeagol and White Squaw kill each other on live TV.
Elizabeth Warren’s simplified tax form.
Golly, I wonder where those returns that are dozens of pages long, with complicated sheets of instructions came from.
Sounds about right.
Oops, that was supposed to be to Fatty B.
This sure is a quiet and tame crowd today.
It’s almost like I came to the wrong site. Is this the wrong site? Tulpa finally took over?
Depends what site you were trying to visit.
The one with the shitposting shitlords.
This sure is a quiet and tame crowd today.
Have you considered eating a dick, Tulpa?
Is that better?
Sounds like sexual harrasment.
CANCEL MS!
Shouldn’t it be Banh Mi (and Noodles)?
Is it spotted?
The hell…?
That’ll teach him to call us “quiet and tame”.
MS, U OK?
And I didn’t even leave a hipster juice comment today. Must be that time of the month.
/looks up at comment 14.
That was a NOT hipster juice comment. Totally benign and 100% innocent of intent.
I am fine, laughing at my dry wit.
I, on the other hand, am laughing at my drywall.
I don’t know. That doesn’t sound very nice to me.
/looks at the sunny and 70 degree day
Can’t understand why people would be outside instead of sitting in front of a computer.
/goes back to sitting in front of the computer
I had my outside time, now I’ve overdosed on vitamin D.
The girlfriend keeps yelling at me to put on sunscreen for my short bike rides. I’m trying to develop my cycling tan lines again. Long rides require the sunscreen unless I want to get second degree sunburn again.
I don’t tan. I’m now a literal redneck.
🙁
I get a base burn, then a distinct line where the bike shorts and jersey are.
/deletes the Darth Maul incident when the girlfriend mocked me.
I get a base burn. Then I peel. Then I get another base burn. And I peel….[repeat ad infinitum]
I guess it’s time to get back in the habit of using sunscreen more assiduously. I should do so before I do yard work. Or before I walk from the house out to my car…
Me too, GT, me too
My problem is that even when I think of it, I dislike using most sunscreens. Neutrogena’s “dry touch” varieties are about the only ones I don’t mind using. I think I need the SPF that’s about the equivalent of a week in a darkened, windowless room.
Relevant
It was gorgeous today. Went on a motorcycle ride across NE PA, SW NY, and NW NJ.
Timeloose keeps his sunscreen game strong after loosing some of his nose due to Basil cell. Also a big poofy hat.
Most of my rides are through the parks, which have enough tree cover that it doesn’t get bad. I have taken to wearing “faggy little cycling caps” (thanks Tonio) after quite a bit of sunburn through a cycling helmet.
speaking of cast iron, what’s the best way to revive a rusty cast iron frying pan? I recently found mine. I was apparently using them as weight to keep a fan in place.
You could put some vinegar in it on low heat and then scotchbrite it back to raw cast iron and then re-season it.
Under duress
Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, whose criticism of former President Donald Trump led to her ouster from House Republican leadership, said Friday that several Republican members of Congress had voted against impeaching Trump out of fear for their own lives.
Telling CNN’s Jake Tapper on “The Lead” that there are “more members who believe in substance and policy and ideals than are willing to say so,” Cheney cited the impeachment vote earlier this year, in which she was one of only 10 House Republicans who voted to hold Trump accountable for the Capitol riot.
“If you look at the vote to impeach, for example, there were members who told me that they were afraid for their own security — afraid, in some instances, for their lives,” she said. “And that tells you something about where we are as a country, that members of Congress aren’t able to cast votes, or feel that they can’t, because of their own security.”
Sure Liz. I believe you.
Frankly, the Congresscritters should be more in fear of their lives for the actions they’ve taken.
What a steaming pile of BS.
Surely she can produce evidence of these credible threats to congress critters.
several Republican members of Congress had voted against impeaching Trump out of fear for their own lives.
Good. Seriously. They should be damn afraid of repeatedly crossing their constituents. They can effect violence and suffering the world over and nary a peep is made, but a few idiots riot at the capitol and now they’re all victims. Screw that. It’s good that they get a taste of how real politics is to us unwashed masses.
“several Republican members of Congress had voted against impeaching Trump out of fear for their own lives”
Hey Lizzy, congress really only needs one AOC.
That’s interesting. Didn’t know Army had a new gas mask. I came in in ’04 and we used the “old” ones – thought they were still standard. Hated the fit on those things – got through our annual training in Korea by wearing them all morning and playing softball for PT (in mopp suit too IIRC) – in February – wasn’t as bad. Always got a migraine from the fit across my forehead.
When I left my last ship in 2014, we were still using the “old” ones too – haven’t seen anything recently though. My previous unit was exempted from CS training during our 2019 field problem for some scheduling reason.
We were using M17 promasks when I came in, so M40’s are still the “new” mask to me.
Yeah, M40 is the only one I’ve used.
Great. The is a gigantic “Free Gaza” protest downstairs. Glad I got my shopping done early.
I wouldn’t mind so much if they had had the decency to leave their exploding-muffler automobiles at home. For a couple hours I wanted to go down there and crack some skulls. Though now the crowd is too thick so that noise has died down.
+1 Corriedozer
Oh no uou di-int!
(Solid burn, man!)
More like crushing it 😉
You should fire rockets at them and tell them it’s your support for their cause.
Oh yeah…re my yard drainage issues – nearly broke down and bought a weeping willow today, but the “wet” spot has actually been really dry the last couple of weeks (enough for me to reseed the grass today). Will probably try and get a Trident Maple next month when I can free up some cash – there’s a really nice new nursery just a couple miles away and they were really helpful.
I guess part of the issue is that I’ve only been here a year so I don’t have a great picture of the yard status.
I did get a planter and some anti-mosquito herbs (flowering citronella, rosemary and sweet peppermint).
Also….think I asked about this a bit before. There are 2 4×8 planters in the back yard, slightly raised. Not much in the way of weeds, but a lot of grass overflow that I’m trying to get rid of so I can plant some vegetables. Are there any tips for getting rid of that – mostly grass, a few weeds? Someone recommended Preen, which I bought, but reading the label doesn’t really look like what I need. Do you think I should just dump Roundup on it and follow up a few days later with some bags of topsoil? Or just the topsoil….?
Spray some roundup on it.
Preen is a pre emergent so if you’re planting seeds they won’t come up.
Roundup is perfect for that application. It is rendered inert in 3ish days, so give it a week to do its stuff and then proceed as usual.
Final PA update for today:
Picked up the bbq.
Some masks still being worn indoors. Seems employees are still being required to wear masks. We’ll see how long that lasts.
https://trolleybarnpublicmarket.com
This place was clearly marked at the doors that they are following new CDC guidance. Plenty of faces to be seen, but that was sort of the case prior, because food is served there.
Food prep is one of those place employees should have been wearing a mask all along, along with hairnet, washing their hands, keeping the area sanitary, and staying home when sick with a communicable disease.
It’s too bad that the few social improvements that could’ve come out of this (increased hygiene in certain situations) is going to be lost in the noise of “wear your mask, deplorable!”
Had to venture to the local supermarket to get another tank of propane. Went inside and grabbed a few things and I did not see one unmasked person anywhere. I think some of the people are institutionalized. They like being in the jail.
I have accomplished nothing today and have decided to not feel guilty. I’m even going to order pizza and beer before the zoom. Laundry can wait.
Join the crowd. Now I’m going to drink beer and eat steak and shrimp and still not feel guilt. Even though children are starving in China and some dude ran over turtles on purpose.
Got the back yard and one side yard whacked before the battery crapped out. (The weed whacker’s – not mine.) Found most of what I was after on my errands. Continued my correspondence, but not “caught up” because he already replied, dammit! I’m at 17 minutes on the treadmill at this moment at 3 mph. Didn’t get to carpet cleaning yet, but that’s why weekends have 2 days.
Just gonna say…that pic on the front page reminds me of a ton of old, friendly guys I’ve met while living in SE Asia. Slightly offputting the first time you see a smile like that but most of the time, they’re pretty cool.
I don’t like my own smile, but even toothless people with genuine, joyful smiles always make them more attractive.