You can’t be that dumb.

1) these rich people pay our “leaders” to write unfair tax code so they can not pay taxes. Legalized by Republican pushes to allow unlimited corporate donations and bribes. In many cases, they DO in fact write the code, then hand it to those “leaders”.
2) these “leaders” writing tax loopholes for the super rich, all Republicans, are also rich people, legislating for personal gain.

If the top 1% made 80% of all income, they underpayed by more than half if flat tax were the law or in any way fair. In the 50’s, the time period conservatives want to return to, the top 1% paid 91% tax rates, and America was booming. Today it’s actually <24% and you whine.
How much did they pay AFTER their last massive tax cut, much less than 40%….not that I’m taking your word for those statistics, you are hardly a trustworthy source, the actual number in 2018 is 37% of personal income taxes, which ignores a lions share of non income taxes we all pay.

If you count ALL federal taxes, they payed <24% of taxes collected.
Their highest income tax rate for the rich was +-25% (before deductions, exemptions, loopholes, tax heavens, etc), 66% less than in the 50’s. Under Clinton they paid almost 40% income tax (not 24%), and the economy was again much stronger and growing much faster.

Edit: it was possibly the highest share of that portion of federal taxes paid by the top 1% since 1982, although your track record indicates that’s also a huge exaggeration, but if it’s even remotely true that would be because they took (not really earned) that much more income, not because they paid a higher percentage of earnings. In the 90’s they paid 40%, not today’s 25%…yet today they pay more….can you understand what that means? It means they take almost twice as much “income” as they did in the 90’s when the economy was strong.

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/fact-check-richest-1-dont-pay-40-of-the-taxes.html

Republicans are ALL stupid people who do not think, proven every time they are forced to think and realize they have everything backwards. You idiots think Covid is a fraud, the election was stolen, and CRT in grade school is a thing.

Such a nonsensical blatant red herring. They often do “just write a check to the irs” btw. I’m not rich, but I don’t take deductions I legally could because I want to pay my share, not weasel out of it. That’s called being patriotic, not attacking congress and shirking any and all civic duties.
Pushing for a fair tax code, unlike Republicans who plan to raise taxes on anyone making under $250k AND end social security, Medicaid, Medicare, and any other social safety nets they can think of, is not just the ethical and moral thing, it’s the only sane economic move based on ALL economic history ever.

Right, stop wasting, like billions wasted on useless monuments to failure (Trump’s failing fence), trillions more on stupid failed trade wars, billions on political stunts like blockading the border (Texas), trillions to try to fix the disastrous Covid (lack of) response thanks to insane mismanagement and the removal of safeguards, billions to fight the non existent CRT in grade school nonsense…etc. you are ecstatic to waste billions-trillions on idiotic Republican nonsense with absolutely zero return for the money, not complaining once while Trump tried to double the debt in 4 years (nearly succeeding), but not on programs that keep the poor from turning to crime because they have literally nothing to lose, or start to fix our crumbling infrastructure, you call that pork. 🤦‍♂️

So fucking stupid, bob. Delusional, dumb, prejudiced, and always wrong. You must be playing the character of ignorant moronic trumptard, no real human being is this deluded or dumb. Even a broken clock is right twice a day, you are like a clock specifically designed to NEVER show the correct time….you actively avoid being truthful.

Teacher here. It's made-up-nonsense. I don't give a shit what gender or sexual orientation a kid is and im CERTAINLY not going to try to convince anyone to change anything about themselves.

That said, I'm going to acknowledge that gay/trans people exist in authorship and literature as it arises. You can't read someone like Whitman (Leaves of Grass, arguably America's greatest poet) and not come across references to sexuality either implicit or explicit. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45472/i-sing-the-body-electric

It becomes relevant in passages like this:

5
This is the female form,
A divine nimbus exhales from it from head to foot,
It attracts with fierce undeniable attraction,
I am drawn by its breath as if I were no more than a helpless vapor, all falls aside but myself and it,
Books, art, religion, time, the visible and solid earth, and what was expected of heaven or fear’d of hell, are now consumed,
Mad filaments, ungovernable shoots play out of it, the response likewise ungovernable,
Hair, bosom, hips, bend of legs, negligent falling hands all diffused, mine too diffused,
Ebb stung by the flow and flow stung by the ebb, love-flesh swelling and deliciously aching,
Limitless limpid jets of love hot and enormous, quivering jelly of love, white-blow and delirious juice,
Bridegroom night of love working surely and softly into the prostrate dawn,
Undulating into the willing and yielding day,
Lost in the cleave of the clasping and sweet-flesh’d day.

----------------------------------
Maybe a conversation like:

"'Love flesh swelling' like he's in love with some woman and they...he...?"

"Probably not, he didn't have any serious female relationships as far as I am aware."

"But the title is 'The female form'"

"Well, it's possible, but it's not likely the case that he was talking about himself being in love with a woman. This poem is in the text but he wrote many other pieces about he-himself falling into and out of love with various men and we have letters documenting those relationships with his male significant others. Although, I'm not sure what to call them because gay marriage would have been illegal at the time. He's likely writing the poem in a way where he appreciates the female form and sees men who are drawn to it like the way I appreciate watching bees act obsessively driven to the middle of flowers. I like watching Bees in action, but that doesn't mean I'm going all pollen crazy, still I appreciate it for what it is."
-------------------

This is an example of how discussion of sexuality would come up in my classroom as I imagine it. Note how I'm not trying to convince the kid I'm talking to to turn gay like it's a big game of rainbow-red-rover or something. Nevertheless, knowing the author's sexual preference in this instance informs our understanding of the piece.


My own personal theory?
The people railing against things like this are the same shitheads that can't be bothered to read ANYTHING and instead giggle and guffaw at "hurhurhurhur he hadd'a boner" where I get to live an early stage of Idocracy.

Also, I agree that the "funky stuff" shouldn't be just avoided altogether. For goodness sake, just let teachers have the difficult conversation that everyone is avoiding. Reminds me of when Peggy Hill was struggling to say "Penis" when she was assigned sex ed.

Grief has a way of exposing the truth. You cannot experience grief without love.

All alone or in twos
The ones who really love you
Walk up and down outside the wall
Some hand in hand
And some gather together in bands
The bleeding hearts and the artists
Make their stand
And when they've given you their all
Some stagger and fall after all it's not easy
Banging your heart against some mad buggers wall -Pink Floyd

Love is all you need -Beatles

"You know you got to go through hell before you get to heaven" -Steve Miller Band

If you lose someone you love, remember where you put them. Through your senses , your eyes, your ears, nose, mouth and touch, you sent all that information to your heart. That is where to look for the one you love. This is where they are and you put them there. Some know exactly how to get into your heart because you let them in.

"And when you stop and think about it
You won't believe it's true.
That all the love you've been giving
Has all been meant for you." -Moody Blues

They went round the wrong way? Jeebus, Chile is a huge leeward shore to avoid... That bit about having to then fight the current to go 200 miles further west before you can turn north so that you have enough sea room not to get smashed onto the rocks of the Chilean coast when the weather turns rough... We had engines at least as a backup, but just in case of emergency. Plus we had weather radar and modern forecasts so we could plan a route to avoid the worst of what was to come. Respect.

I especially loved the part about how sailors on the upper yards like the royals or the masthead being "as close to heaven as a sailor ever gets".

"HEAVEN DRIPS" — A Bad Lip Reading of Dune: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXfSg7mLEdU

So....Has Bob lost his little voice?!

Come on Bob, you're an expert here....you're not going to explain how you don't really have it 100% backwards? You're not going to explain how even though this is your education and career, the one topic you think you know, you think you HEAR the beat first, weeks before you SEE it, even though all literature (including the instructions on Doppler machines) says it can be seen as a near microscopic twitch at 6 weeks+- and only heard after 12-20 weeks with special dopler listening equipment?

I've never seen you admit a mistake, so I expect to not hear from you for days, then on a different topic, hoping this thread fades into obscurity. What a sad way to live. Very Trumpy. Scream to the high heavens that you're right, you're experienced, that all the other Slim Shadys are just imitating, then when proven wrong again, move on to the next outrageous claim and never, ever look back at your trail of failed ploys and plots, never admit you were mistaken, and accuse anyone bringing it up of changing the current subject...which is exactly what you're doing, changing the subject to avoid admitting you're w-w-w-wrong.

always hear about 'common ground' this well should be it. Whether if you want to cite civil liberties or the golden rule - this is unacceptable.

partially agree w/bob, the Pasco Sheriff P.D. should be sued down to blue jeans, chambray shirts, and whistles as full police issue. but it's a shame to rely on lawyers to get public officials to act in a manner appropriate to serving the public. other government overseers should be the first in line at the gauntlet to flog the wrongdoers.

as bob would say, what is happening is unconstitutional. there is agrement on that. likely a case that this behavior infringes anywhere for the 4th to 8th amendments.

as bob should say but is unlikely to speak against his own party members, it reeks of fascism, nazis, and Gestapo tactics. as it started with the lowest and they worked their way up the ladder of undesirables...very much so in the way the GOP did w/Flake, up to Romney on to Cheney...difference/dissent is death.

it's like asking demons to uphold order in heaven.

but gives one faith, that even 33 can see the obvious...or some of the obvious...if he can see this, he can see Jan 6.

https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/politics/100000007606996/capitol-riot-trump-supporters.html?src=vidm

One would have to love someone to be sent to Hell. Not everyone makes it through the fire into Heaven. One would judge Oneself because One would discover One was the Creator all along. Have sympathy for the Devil. Hope you guess Ones name.

You know you got to go through hell
before you get to heaven -Steve Miller Band

All alone or in twos
The ones who really love you
Walk up and down outside the wall
Some hand in hand
And some gather together in bands
The bleeding hearts and the artists
Make their stand
And when they've given you their all
Some stagger and fall after all it's not easy
Banging your heart against some mad bugger's wall -Pink Floyd

The words of the prophets
Are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls
And whispered in the sounds of silence -Paul Simon

2 Peter 3:1-7 Beloved, I now write to you this second epistle (in both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder), 2 that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior, 3 knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, 4 and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.” 5 For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, 6 by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. 7 But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

Thank sweet zombie Jebus you were wrong on all counts with your predictions.

I'm usually the biggest cynic in the room, so I couldn't exactly deny your theory, but I am incredibly glad civil adults did get the reigns of the country back, and that America did end up deciding black lives do matter, at least a little bit when our noses are rubbed in our murderous racism.

How's the visa fight going? Does getting vaccinated make a difference? Good luck over there....I've never had any desire to visit France, but I'm a weirdo. My perfect vacation is a secluded house on a secluded warm beach in the middle of nowhere and seeing only family all week....I'm not into culture or large groups of people. Give me unspoiled unpopulated nature instead please. Last January we did exactly that outside Mahajual, S Mexico. It was heaven for me except when we went to town.

I remember the first time I saw the Ring Nebula through my Dobsonian and thought "man, that thing is really far away". Then I swung my scope to Cassiopeia's "W" and looked at the ghostly smudge of the Andromeda Galaxy. I tried to fathom the distance and came up lacking. My eyes were better then and I could see things in the mid-6s, but even with full night vision and using averted vision, I couldn't make out any detail; it was just a little wisp of light where the middle was a touch brighter than the edges.
That was the day I fully became an atheist. It made no sense that God would put a smudge of light 2.5 million light years away that was actually a trillion purposeless stars. I had no answer for that. Standing on that runway in the Sierra mountains, enveloped in blackness and looking at Andromeda, I felt a direct link between myself, time and the universe. I didn't need heaven anymore and I never felt the existential dread of death ever again. I understood that I was part of infinity and that was enough.

And I was thinking to myself,
"This could be Heaven or this could be Hell"
Then she lit up a candle and she showed me the way
There were voices down the corridor,
I thought I heard them say...
Welcome to the Hotel California

"The bleeding hearts and artists
Make their stand."

Love is not complete without grief.

"You know you got to go through hell before you get to heaven"