Two more weeks of regular NFL football season. I watched just one game this year. If I wanted to support NON-AMERICANS , play games, I would simply subscribe to foreign channels. By Non-American I am really saying NON-PATRIOTS. BUT…that is a part of living in this great nation. IT IS THEIR RIGHT. So long as they do not break the law. HOWEVER they have INFRINGED upon my right to enjoy what was once my enjoyment of the game. The SPINELESS OWNERS and COMMISSIONER, who chose not to enforce, POLICY/RULES. I have made it through this year. Maybe next year I won’t watch any games again. Or EVER. Baseball is one game I have not missed since the season of the BIG STRIKE. (Except 1 game). NBA has nothing to offer since they have changed all the RULES. (Allowing Palming the ball, Not counting Steps as travelling, Offensive Goal Tending). I was watching a clip of Michael Jordan. He dribbled 6 times bringing the ball down the court, taking a couple steps each time he palmed, (placing the hand under the ball between dribbles, and taking at least 2 steps. I also counted a MINIMUM of 4 steps before OFFENSIVE GOAL TENDING, [slam dunk, which allows the hand to occupy the imaginary area above the rim, {NOTE: Defensive players are not allowed in this area}. I am rapidly running out of sports. Maybe Austrailan Rules Football will gain popularity here. AND TOTALLY FORGET SOCCER. I am only talking about sports here. ICE HOCKEY I can enjoy, Maybe I will start watching more of it. I may find it has unpatriotic players too. Have to check it out. As for Olympians: Never think you are playing for the President or anyone but yourself, and your Country. (Few successful American Olympians are not quite well off financially. So you see they are playing for their own selves, representing your Country is merely a side affect). _______________________________________________ You can skip this part if you want. NON SPORTS RELATED Most of the RETIREES on Social Security I have spoken with, once again, are going in the hole with the so-called “RAISE”, The government claimed to give them. Everyone I spoke to either get a smaller check or stay where they have been for many years now. The “RAISE”, was eaten up in Medicare payments. The increased deductible, etc. Imagine if you will paying a portion of your check into a non-interest bearing retirement fund for 50 years. Your money would buy more when you invested it, than it will now. Imagine if you have not had a real raise for several years. Your employee insurance does not cover a great deal of your medical expenses, NO MORE Dental, “but you need dental work, all out of your pocket. You have to pay 15% of what you bring home for INSURANCE to cover the costs not covered by the employee insurance. EXAMPLE: YOUR GROSS PER WEEK $295 –(insurance) $32 =$263– (deductible) $43= $220 – (co-insurance to pick up what original insurance does not cover) $116= $104. Now subtract Dental, Vision, (I just got new glasses, cost me $1180). Utility bills, FOOD, Home/renters Insurance, Home Maintenance, Transportation costs, (Fares, gas, Insurance for auto, Maintenance, etc). Prescriptions not covered, Entertainment? And let’s not forget the little Over The Counter medicines, aspirin, cold, flu, allergy, etc. Gifts for your childeren, spouse, parents? How are you doing? OH yes I did forget SHELTER, didn’t I. WHAT CAN YOU GIVE UP??? Pets, If you live alone, you really need a pet. I know some of you are saying “YOU should have saved some of your own income for retirement”. I know people who did. However They lost a lot in the “RECESSION” pre -2009. The cut backs. Jobs lost due to closures. I know of one person who has 2 bachelor degrees, 2 masters, degrees, and 2 doctorals. After 25 years in his field, (too young for SS). Applied for an entry level job. Actually below entry level, ( in his field. Was told, “Sorry you don’t meet the minimum requirements”. In reality they were telling him TOO OLD. But since that would be discrimination…. Had to live on that savings for 8 years, until reaching SS retirement. Either OVER/UNDER qualified. Truthful now could you do it. MOVIE REVIEW: THE LAST JEDI After last year’s installment of the STAR WARS saga, I was ready to give it up. ROUGUE ONE, was the ABSOLUTE WORST of all Star wars movies. Pushing to worst movie of all time. I really did not want to pay that money if I was going to sleep through most of it, as I did Rougue One. A friend talked me into going (They paid). I was amazed how Last Jedi, returned to the greatness of past Star Wars. The story line was much more coherent, the cinemagraphics, was a GIANT leap, from Rougue One. The actors did not seem to be forcing lines, as they did in Rougue One. The use of 3-D excellent, (Rougue One, I had to keep checking to assure myself the movie really was 3-D). Even went out of the theater to be sure I was in the correct one. I was. By taking in a Noon showing on Sunday, it was like a private showing, only 17 of us in the theater. Goodrich Quality Theaters offered a Tuesday showing, (not 3-D) to loyalty members for $5. If not for prior commitments I would have watched it again. 5 stars for 3-D version. Highly recommend this one for all Star Wars fans. ————————————————————————————— For those of you who do not know how confidence ranking works, let me explain. If we were playing an office pool,(which we ARE NOT). The object is to score the most points. To obtain the score YOU rank the teams by how confident you are a team will win its game. EXAMPLE: Say this week we have 16 games. The team you are most confident will win you would assign the number 16 and follow down to the team… Continue reading NFL Confidence Picks WEEK 16 12/23,23,24,25/ 2017
Tag: Social Security
Minimum Wage Debate (My View)
Do We Need A New National Minimum Wage?? There are arguments FOR and AGAINST. Most of you have heard the arguments FOR. Fast food restaurants, janitorial workers, migrant workers, etc, etc.. (Aside: Does a sentence ending in an abbreviation need 1 period, or 2; one for the end of the abbreviation, and one to end a sentence. If you know please tell me). I realize these are low paying jobs, with little benefits. BUT: what about the waitresses , for example. In the state I live, these people earn about $2-$3, an hour. The reason for this is the proprietors expect the patrons to pay their help. (TIPS), This is another topic for later. True some waiters/waitresses make big tips. I was speaking to a WAITER, who works in our State Capital, near all the Convention Centers, and Athletic Arenas. This restaurant is well known all across the USA. The wealthier clients entertain there quite often. He told me he and his colleagues earn between $60,000.oo and $70,000.oo, in TIPS a year. But away from there in your average town I have noticed the average tip is about $1.oo per Person. Therefore you can add that to the low wage paid and they are still making less than the average fast food server. In just this instance we have a huge difference in pay. So you raise the Minimum wage for the small town wait people, to lets say $10.oo an hour. That sounds good. Specially to the ones in the big City Fancy Restaurants who are making the $60-70,ooo.oo tips. (by the way the wait people in our area are required by the management to split their TIPS with the BUSBOY, COOK, DISHWASHER, and I have been told the owner of the establishment in some cases. So a minimum wage raise may help some people, and others even more. But how will this affect the Senior Citizen. The same Citizen who financed the bailouts, by not getting Social Security raises for 2 years running. When I calculated the money the government saved more than doubled the amount used for the bailout. My friend who was forced into retirement, and lost not only money in his 401k, but was forced to spend it to pay off bills that would have been paid, had he been able to work the next 6 years as had been planned. (His place of employment closed it’s doors. Although qualified and able he could not get a job. Why? AGE. Not what he was told but the real reason). Making him rely heavily on Social Security for his needs. He showed me his check, after working, and paying into Social Security for 45 years his check, after the government takes out for his MEDICARE. Oh yes they take that out of your Social Security check. Break the remainder down to a40 hour week, then down to per hour. His gross pay is $6.49 an hour. (Which puts him, I believe, below poverty level. This before he pays his Supplemental Insurance, which helps pay what Medicare does not. Plus he has to pay for Eye Care, Dental, and Medicine. This Supplemental Insurance costs him $150.oo a month, and his insurance agent tells him that will go up effective the first of August. He tells me this insurance goes up more each year the small raise he gets. In other words he goes further behind each year. Will he get a raise to even things out in purchasing power. Well not as long as Obama, is in office. So. What is my point you ask. Raising the minimum wage will put more money in some people’s pocket. Business knowing there is more money out there will merely raise their prices, thus negating the raise. It always happens. The government will take in more money, via taxes. People will cheer a Minimum Wage Increase. What they don’t understand is it is merely a sham. They won’t be able to live any better. So What Is The Point? T hat Is How I See It. PS: Sorry if I rambled on and strayed, but I think you get the idea. Views: 120
Obama On A Genocide Mission?
Gen·o·cide [jen-uh-sahyd]: A noun. The deliberate ans systematic extermination of a national, racial, political, or CULTURAL GROUP. Since Mr. Obama has taken office it seems he has pinpointed the elderly as the means to balance his budget. Or should I say slant things to his pet projects. What do you do if you want to spend money you don’t have. You eliminate things you don’t need. Divert that money to what you want. That my friends is just what Mr. Obama has done. First on his agenda was to bail out his buddies in the banking, and manufacturing industries. (Rich helping Rich get Richer). To do this he refused to admit the costs of living rises (Medicinal, Utilities, and yes gasoline) . He even wants to change the formula for figuring these costs, because he says they project a false and higher cost of living than is a true cost of living . Therefore not giving the elderly the raises they deserved, since he has been in office. To subsidize his buddies, the elderly have, by not getting a raise for 2 years. Has amounted to between $45 and $90 trillion dollars. That more than paid the trillions given to the bail out effort. These people have paid into this account for 40 to 50 years. It is not their fault the Government gave that money to other Government agencies. (Which fail to pay it back. let alone pay interest). merely a mismanagement of funds. Some of you will think the amount paid in does not equal the amount paid out….HOWEVER… Let us not forget the INTEREST which this money had been properly invested. How many of the people who have paid in never receive a check, because of death. Or just drop out of the system. How much of this money is being spent on people who never paid in a cent. How about planning our own retirement income. I did this. I invested the maximum I could. Two years later it was all gone. My company shut the doors, Not my fault. Due to EMERGENCIES, and the need to get by until I could find another job, (which has been 3 years now). I have no money. The barter system works fairly good but I still have to do without a lot, So you see that doesn’t help either. So how does this relate to GENOCIDE? By denying the elderly people the money needed to exist on. The poverty level is $10,890 a year. If I were to be on Social Security now I would be getting about $13,800 a year. But as of now I would have about $1392 a year subtracted before I get my check for MEDICARE, Which I have also been paying for all my working life. That takes me to $12,408, a year. Now let us not forget we need a supplement insurance. This cost is around $125 a month (according to friends paying it). This is another $1500 gone. Leaving us with $10,908. This puts you at just $18 above poverty level. Now subtract a conservative average of $600 a month for rent or mortgage. There goes $7200. Let’s see, that takes us to $3708 dollars to pay utilities, and buy food, house or renter insurance, life insurance and let’s not forget MEDICINE, Car insurance if we are lucky enough to have one. But then you would not be able to put gas in it. And let’s not forget we have to pay SALES tax on everything. Including our utilities. It seems that Mr. Obama’s plan is eliminate the elderly as quickly as possible. After all they are a drain on his economy. Genocide or what. I see it as an attempt to eliminate the elderly. That Is How I See It. How many people do we have die of starvation or heat, or just plain a lack of compassion by our leaders. more than between find merely find find Views: 180
Social Security Shortage
The GOVERNMENT keeps harping on the fact the Social Security Fund is running out of money. Why? Because we have more people drawing Social Security. Well that is a partial truth. This is what I have learned. 1. There is no Social Security Fund. The money collected for Social Security actually goes into the General Fund. 2. We have more people drawing upon our Social Security that have never paid into Social Security. These are the two big drains. The way I have been informed is the Government makes “LOANS” from the General Fund. That is to say MONEY is taken out but rarely if ever is paid back. I surmise that if pressed to do so, our Government could not even account for all the money taken from the General Fund, which was intended to be Social Security Funds. The money has been so intermingled, ‘LOANS’ to other agencies, not actually accredited as coming from collected Social Security monies. Poor Bookkeeping???? Our Legislators spend this money with only an IOU then rely on taxpayers to pay off the IOU. It is a vicious circle Whether the Government will admit it or not there are many Illegal Aliens, and probably others that collect but do not contribute. Is there an answer? YES! Our Government needs to track all of these “LOANS” and have the agencies, or whoever borrowed the money pay it back with INTEREST. Track down the non-contributing recipients, collect the money, with INTEREST . Will this ever happen. NOT LIKELY, That would probably make too much sense. The way our Government operates they would probably spend more money researching, diagnosing the research, discussing the diagnosis, and paying someone to pretend trying to collect the money, than would be recovered. Any way We The People will PAY. That Is How I See It. Views: 123
Social Security Receipients to Bear More Burden
I hate repeating topics but according to an article I just read, the Federal Government has decided that The retired people should pay more of the deficit. Now People have paid into this fund for more years than they will probably be receiving benefits. As I noted before The elderly have not received and will not receive a raise now for 2 years. Not only does this affect their current costs. Believe it or not every thing has gone up in cost while the Government denies a Cost of Living. Food, Utilities, Food, Gasoline, what has not gone up. That makes them paying for the Bailout. But two years without a raise goes deeper. An example of this would be…. If you are offered a 10% raise today and a 10% raise in 6 months. Or a 20% raise in a year. Which would give you the best deal? Let’s say you are making $10 an hour now. You get a 10% raise today. You are now making $11 an hour that on a 40 hour week equals $40 extra a week. take that time 26 weeks and you have made $1040.00 during the 6 months. You get your second 10% after that 1st 6 month period. Only now instead of a $1 an hour raise you will get a $1.10 raise now you are making $12.10 and hour a raise for that year of $2.10 an hour. Say you selected the 20% raise after the year. You have lost that $1040 from the 1st 6 months, and you are only going to get a $2 raise taking you to $12 an hour. In other the no raise for 2 years is carried on forever even if you get a raise the third year because it will be based on the $10 you have been making. Therefore you are still making less. I hope you understand my analogy. Never mind the Federal Government has for years, decades actually, loaned at no interest to other government agencies who have never paid principal or interest back into the Social Security coffers. They want to raise the age for full benefits to 69. Use a less generous cost of living adjustment. (Less than a Zero adjustment used now. Does this mean the elderly will have to start paying the government a cost of living adjustment). They want to double the gasoline tax to 15 cents a gallon. Also reduce corporate income tax by 8%, and stop taxing overseas profits of U.S. based multinational corporations. I think what President Obama’s gang wants is to eliminate the elderly and/0r make them dependent upon their children. After all they are filthy rich and plan to stay that way and take care of their corporate buddies. That Is How I See It. Views: 112
