Here is what  happened, quietly, on January 1, 2015:
Medicare tax went from 1.45% to 2.35%   (there goes your SS increase)
 
Top Income tax bracket went from  35% to 39.6%
PUNISH THE WORKERS....TO REWARD  THE NON WORKERS
 
Top Income payroll tax went  from 37.4% to 52.2%  
MORE PUNISHMENT FOR WORKING HARD!
 
Capital Gains tax went from  15% to 28%
MORE TAX UPON  INCOME THAT HAD ALREADY BEEN TAXED!
 
Dividend tax went from 15% to 39.6% (darn!)
MORE PUNISHMENT FOR INVESTING  WISELY AND MAKING GOOD DECISIONS!
 
Estate tax went from 0% to  50%  
PUNISHMENT FOR SAVING FOR THE NEXT GENERATION!  
 
Is this what the left wants?  

Best regards,

My history with shocking but by the way bogus chain emails is interesting. I have a number of ultra-conservative friends who used to blast every scandalous forward they got to their whole address book, including me.

For a good long time I would read one and just from following current events would know it was either completely false, or part true but part false, or factually true but being seriously misinterpreted in some sinister way. But I would take a bit of text and put it in a search engine, and immediately, two seconds later, be reading the history of that chain email and what was wrong in it.

What was interesting was, I would usually get several copies of the email from different people, and even more interesting, some of them would have been forwarded as is but some had been edited to make them even more outrageous. People get these things and add to them before sending them on. They morph... and get worse and worse.

I finally got tired of fact checking these fwds and got my buds to quit sending them, which they were glad to do. But most oddly, they never seemed to care when I pointed them to the errors and weirdness in these things. It's like it didn't matter to them if it any of it was true as long as it supported their narrative. Not good.

The thing to know is, this goes way back in American culture. Mark Twain, one the best American writers ever, has great stuff on what incredible liars Americans in the 1800s were... he marvels at it in books like Life on the Mississippi and Roughing It, but really, all through his work. It's still true to this day in America, the crazy lying and conning, and the web and email supercharges it.

It won't ever go away. It's just something to expect and not be buffaloed by. Then you can kind of chuckle at it. No point in getting ulcers over  nonsense.

Sonny, You're OK. Even if you are from Tex-ass, you're OK.....

Contrary to popular belief Texas has a good percentage of people who want and look for facts. Understanding that the media, politicians and schools are much more interested in promoting propaganda to support an ongoing idea, a grasp of reality, that doesn't actually exist. Some promote one lie, others, another, and the people run get in line supporting the ones who come closest to telling about how they'll push harder for the elimination of the evils one set sees, to work against those, and for the good thet see, press hard to continue.  And, at the end of the day,nothing changes. It is and has been a steady downhill run since the inception of the Fed.

Serowbot wrote on 08/16/15 at 07:57:51:


I live in a fallout shelter, and breathe through a little straw poking up through the parched dirt.  

Naw, really, Texans come in all shades of red blue and purple, like anywhere else. I try to appreciate the majesty of the process, like Pappy Bush said...

I saw some old people ( WTF.....thats me now   )  looking over the canned dog food, and asking aloud if anybody has tried this one, beef banquet....??

Then I heard a woman say her dog likes it a lot.

The old folk said it ain't for their dog, they can't afford one anymore, its for them. They heard that their SS was going to be taken away from them and they are just trying to survive on less.

That's when I piped up and said, "It has a weird after taste with a lot of gritty texture, but you hardly notice it if you just flush it down with that dirty water the conservatives give us to drink......  

WebsterMark wrote on 08/16/15 at 06:09:53:


Facts... can... never... be checked...

Must... watch... only... Fox News...

All... other... planetary information... coming from... underground mind control Cray supercomputer... operated... by... secret... Kenyan... black Muslim Antichrist...!    


Just kidding, man -- all in fun. That's not actually true... oh god, wait, don't forward that!    

old.indian wrote on 08/16/15 at 11:16:21:


Well, and one of my oldest and best friends is from ABQ. He lives down near Austin now, which is crazy and I tell him so. He grew up hiking in the glorious Sandias under that cobalt blue New Mexico sky, and now he's stuck in a traffic jam on I-35 south. Go figure.

I think it's his wife's fault. She is some kind of regional honcho for the VA down there.