#so essentially double social security when i retire

[terrorbirb]

I'm now doing a perfect job at work :) senior engineers found no problems with my work :) I know this was only two projects, but this has been my goal for 3-4 months and I'm finally there.

[eightyonekilograms]

Someone on the Discord brought up fertility

Just like last time I'm lazy and just going to dump it instead of editing.

[5:10 PM] Me: Oh boy, I have thoughts about this

[5:12 PM] Me: I haven't brought it up here but demographics has been one of my covid obsessions. I got a couple books about it (What to Expect When No One's Expecting, One Billion Americans, etc.), read all the articles, etc.

[5:15 PM] Me: I agree with you about a couple things: namely that if we had "infinite free energy" we'd be a a lot better off in many ways including demographically, but I disagree with most of your other points.

[5:18 PM] Me:

Also we need not assume decline in population growth is chronic.

This is a tricky statement because there's a social aspect and a mathematical aspect. Socially you're correct in the sense that whatever trends are driving the current decline could, in theory, reverse at any time. But mathematically, population decline is exactly symmetrical to population growth: it's exponential (technically it's logistic, but that's the same as exponential in the short term), because having fewer people means fewer people to make more people later on.

[5:20 PM] Me:

Infact there is some evidence to suggest that we actually did more science when we had 4-6 billion people.

I disagree with the implication here: we used to do more science because there was more low-hanging fruit, which is now plucked, and further discoveries require more resources (human and financial). Actually one of the big reasons I disagree with Ray Kurzweil and the other singularitarians is that when they show these impressive-looking exponential curves about scientific progress, they quietly hide under the rug that these increases are requiring ever-more investment (again, in both people and money) to accomplish. Just to pick a random example, every time chip manufacturers go to a new process (14nm -> 10nm -> 7nm -> 5nm -> 2nm etc.), the cost to build the fab basically doubles. I remember a couple years back Intel had to spend $5 billion to hit a new process shrink; now TSMC needs to spend $28 billion to hit their next target: https://www.wsj.com/articles/tsmc-to-spend-up-to-record-28-billion-in-advanced-chips-capacity-11610623587)

[5:23 PM] Me: I will try to find it but I came across a paper a little while ago laying out in detail that the cost of new scientific discoveries has been steadily increasing over time. It's not that there's anything necessarily going wrong with the scientific process, this is just what you'd expect as we pick low-hanging fruit: the later discoveries necessarily become harder. But if you extrapolate that trend out forever you eventually hit a point where every single person needs to be a scientist, and every dime of capital in existence, needs to be used to make any new discoveries.

[5:26 PM] Me: (In most fields we're a long way from that point, but it actually is here or nearly here in e.g. particle physics. What I have been hearing from leading-edge particle physicists is that we've got maybe one or two more generations of particle accelerators left before we reach a point where, to probe any further (e.g. to see if string theory is true), we'd need to build accelerators the size of the Solar System, which would take more raw material than the mass of the Earth. Barring some new theoretical breakthroughs, we might actually nearing the "end" of high-energy physics.)

[5:30 PM] Me: Fortunately most fields aren't at that point, but my point is that the more we discover, the more human capital is required to make further progress. That's a tricky enough proposition with a growing population, never mind a shrinking one.

[5:36 PM] Me:

I don't think it is safe to assume lowering population growth is a biological disorder so much as a conscious choice most people in the younger generations are making for a variety of obvious reasons.

I agree with this, but it's important to dig into that a little and understand the reasons. For example, I'm not yet convinced that there is a mass epidemic of people choosing childlessness because of anxiety about e.g. climate change. In internet comments sections you certainly see lots of people making that claim, but talk is cheap and randos on the internet can say whatever they want. In terms of the actual reasons, the data I've seen shows that number of children continues to track closely with a couple data points, mostly housing costs, expected lifetime income and uncertainly about future income flow.

[5:40 PM] Me: Third, I think you should give more weight to the concerns Rhys brought up than you currently are. The environmental stresses of more people is certainly a big issue, but I think it's one that can be dealt with without too much struggle with increased deployment of clean energy (one of the few optimistic data points lately is that there's a staggering amount of wind and solar power being deployed every year) and a couple of lifestyle changes like eating less meat. Not to say these are easy, but contrast with the pretty serious problems of population decline, particularly the social safety net.

[5:41 PM] Me: And I don't just mean the explicit ones like Social Security, but even market-based, privatized ones like retirement savings have a hidden reliance on a growing population.

[5:42 PM] Me: When you "save for retirement", you're not stockpiling food and water to live off when you no longer work, you're collecting financial assets that you expect to sell to someone else and live off that income. But if there's no one to sell to, that doesn't work.

[5:44 PM] Me: This is a problem that's starting to show up at the top end of the income stack: see this WSJ article about retirees who can't find anyone to buy their $3 million homes: https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-growing-problem-in-real-estate-too-many-too-big-houses-11553181782. It's easy to have schadenfreude here at those poor rich people who can't unload their huge mansion, but remember that this is inherently a problem which will start at the top of the income brackets and gradually make its way downward.

[5:46 PM] Me: You can push this problem back for a while by increasing taxes on the rich, and I do indeed think those should go up, but in a declining population that only buys you a little time. Remember that "money" is nothing but a claim on some fraction of total economic output. e.g. when you hold a dollar bill, you're essentially holding a note entitling you to one-zillionth of American GDP.

[5:47 PM] Me: At a certain point once population falls then total aggregate output necessarily falls too, and at that point taxing the rich hits rapidly diminishing returns: you're just claiming a bigger share of falling output

[5:49 PM] Me: One thing to keep in mind here is that most economies, but especially the U.S. economy, are primarily driven by consumer spending, i.e. normal people just buying and selling stuff to each other.

[5:50 PM] Me: This is why e.g. mass immigration isn't as huge a deal as a bunch of nativists like to think: immigrants get jobs, but they also spend money on goods and services just like anyone else: they generate labor demand as well as taking up supply

[5:51 PM] Me: But what I'm driving at here is that, again, a consumer-spending-driven economy with a falling population is going to get poorer pretty much by definition: fewer people buying stuff means fewer jobs to produce that stuff.

[5:54 PM] Me: Or to put another way, to use a ridiculously simplified model, GDP = Population X Productivity, and so if you take the derivative, then GDP' ~ Population' + Productivity'. So in a falling population environment, you need a lot of heavy lifting in terms of forever-increasing productivity in order for economic growth to be positive. And while there might be improvements down the pipe, frankly we kind of seem tapped out on productivity growth already

[5:55 PM] Me: Now, one possible response here is that we should work out how to have an economic system which delivers prosperity without endless growth, and I do agree we need that. But just saying that doesn't fix the problem that right now we don't have it and people will be poorer in a world without growth.

[5:56 PM] Me: And in such a world, I think it actually becomes harder to successfully transition to whatever post-scarcity economy can fix the problem, because people will be caught up in fighting over a shrinking pie.

[5:58 PM] Me: The neoliberal capitalist mindset of "a rising tide lifts all boats" isn't totally true and has been used to justify all kinds of nasty plutocratic behavior, but it isn't entirely false either. Without growth, at least in the system we have now, wealth distribution inherently becomes a zero-sum game. And that could get really ugly.

[5:59 PM] Me: So, that's most of what I have to say about why a falling population would be bad. But that's the easy part. Where this gets really complicated is why it's happening and what to do about it

[6:00 PM] Me: Now, I think one of the reasons I've been so fascinated by this is that it's been a pessimistic year, and falling birth rates are kind of the perfect pessimistic problem because I don't really see an easy way out. Also I'm just annoyed by partisans in general, and this is a perfect problem for that because it sort of frustrates partisans on all sides.

[6:02 PM] Me: e.g. the left mainly talks about the economic causes and proposes a variety of policy solutions, but an ugly little secret here is that government policy to increase birth rates has basically a perfect, unbroken track record of total failure

[6:03 PM] Me: All kinds of countries (mostly in Europe, but also in East Asia) have implemented all kinds of pro-natalist policies, and for the most part they have accomplished pretty much nothing. (Amusingly, this even goes back to antiquity: in the first couple centuries AD Roman Emperors were also concerned with falling birth rates, and implemented a variety of reforms that didn't do anything)

[6:03 PM] Me: You could always say they didn't go far enough, but at some point you're making an unfalsifiable hypothesis

[6:06 PM] Me: Meanwhile on the right, they're constantly talking about cultural factors, but this runs into two problems: it's again a set of mostly unfalsifiable hypotheses, but even worse since they're all tangled up in the Right's usual rants about The Way Things Ought to Be, but even if they turned out to be true, it seems like a hopeless cause because we basically have no levers to change culture.

[6:07 PM] Me: "Why does culture develop in the direction it does" is one of those huge questions I'm not sure we'll ever have a complete answer for, but I think it has to mostly involve technological determinism.

[6:08 PM] Me: https://www.sciphijournal.org/index.php/2017/11/12/why-the-culture-wins-an-appreciation-of-iain-m-banks/ <-- this is a great article explaining what I'm talking about, as well as explaining why you should read Iain Banks

[6:09 PM] Me: But my point here is that all the cultural changes the Right laments as causing people to have fewer children, assuming they're even correct which I am definitely not granting, are pretty much all products of industrialization. You can't roll them back without undoing the Industrial Revolution. At least not without an insane level of authoritarianism

[6:10 PM] Me: So on the policy side we have a bunch of levers which don't do anything, and on the culture side there are no levers at all.

[360degreesasthecrowflies]

The Pandemic & Empathy Thoughts...

It's been fascinating how so many people seem to have (or at least that's the narrative) become positively brimming with empathy they didn't previously have during this pandemic.

Mine has all but gone.

No, I don't want to sacrifice my health so that selfish older people who've consistently voted to impoverish and disenfranchise me can continue to go about their lives with as little interruption as possible.

No, I don't believe that we're all in it together when quarantine means I and other poorer younger people like me become restricted to living in one room, with no garden, for the benefit of people living in houses with multiple rooms and outside green space just for them.

When I have to take my life in my hands every time I go food shopping while the wealthy get theirs ready-delivered every week.

When I have to scrabble finding essentials due to food shortages because those with the space in their cupboards and with huge freezers have stockpiled more than they will ever need.

When I'm told its totally fine to not be able to make a single friend or go on a date for 12 months because silly me, I should have already been living in a nuclear family!

When I have to worry about paying my bills and keeping my social security because I lost my job because the owning class are wary of keeping 'unnecessary' people employed during times of uncertainty, while the rich retired get double what our unemployment allowance is every month in pensions - and don't have to pay rent out of it either!

When after all that I will be last in line for a vaccine because suddenly it seems that we're considered at low risk from the virus. But despite that, we have to hide away from it in case by chance we give it to someone at greater risk who also has much greater ability to comfortably self-isolate.

No, this isn't breaking the social contract; it's gleefully putting it through the shredder and taping our eyes open to make us watch. While insisting that to have even any tiny issue with it is PROOF that WE, not seniors, are the selfish generation.

[iceflame14rulez]

Here's an idea, and, it may sound crazy, so bear with me... why don't we have an electoral debate where ALL the candidates for presidency are able to participate? There were at least four people up for presidency, not two in the 2020 election. There are at least four parties, if not more, in the United States, not two. Trump and Biden were up for presidency, obviously, but there were more people on the ballot.

To those of you who don't know, the libertarian candadate, Jo Jorgensen, had this platform, which the media covered very little of.

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Healthcare and social security

Jorgensen supports a free-market healthcare system financed by individual spending accounts that could keep any savings, which she believes would increase healthcare providers' incentive to compete by meeting consumer demand for low-cost services. She opposes single-payer healthcare, calling it "disastrous".

Jorgensen supports replacing Social Security with individual retirement accounts.[25] In the final debate of the primaries, candidate Jacob Hornberger accused Jorgensen of "support[ing] the welfare state through Social Security and Medicare". In response, she called Social Security a "Ponzi scheme" and said she would allow people to opt out of the program on her first day in office. But she emphasized the constitutional inability of a president to unilaterally end the program without Congress's support, as well as the need for the government to fulfill existing Social Security obligations. Under Jorgensen's plan, those who opt out would put 6.2% of their payroll taxes in individual retirement accounts and receive prorated Social Security benefits for existing contributions as zero-coupon bonds for retirement.

Criminal justice and drug policy

Jorgensen opposes federal civil asset forfeiture and qualified immunity. She opposes the war on drugs and supports abolishing drug laws, promising to pardon all nonviolent drug offenders. She has urged the demilitarization of police.

Foreign policy and defense

Jorgensen opposes embargoes, economic sanctions, and foreign aid; she supports non-interventionism, armed neutrality, and the withdrawal of U.S. troops from abroad.

Immigration, economics, and trade

Jorgensen calls for deregulation, arguing that it would reduce poverty. She supports cutting government spending to reduce taxes.

Jorgensen supports the freedom of American citizens to travel and trade, calls for the elimination of trade barriers and tariffs, and supports the repeal of quotas on the number of people who can legally enter the United States to work, visit, or reside. In a Libertarian presidential primary debate, Jorgensen said she would immediately stop construction on President Donald Trump's border wall. During another primary debate she blamed anti-immigration sentiment on disproportionate media coverage of crimes by immigrants. She argued that immigration helps the economy and that the blending of cultures is benificial.

COVID-19

Jorgensen has characterized the U.S. government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic as overly bureaucratic and authoritarian, calling restrictions on individual behavior (such as stay-at-home orders) and corporate bailouts "the biggest assault on our liberties in our lifetime".

Jorgensen opposes government mask mandates, considering mask-wearing a matter of personal choice. She argues that mask-wearing would be widely adopted without government intervention because market competition would drive businesses to adopt either mask-required or mask-optional policies, allowing consumers the freedom to choose their preferred environment. Jorgensen has invoked the analogy of dollar voting to argue that consumer preferences would shape businesses' policies on face masks in the absence of a government mandate.

-------

The Green party's candadate, Howie Hawkins, was ALSO up for presidency. This was his platform.

--------------

COVID-19 EMERGENCY MEASURES FOR THE DURATION OF THE CRISIS

Medicare to Pay for COVID-19 Testing and Treatment and All Emergency Health Care. Defense Production Act to Rapidly Plan the Production and Distribution of Medical Supplies and a Universal Test, Contact Trace, and Quarantine Program to Safely Reopen the Economy. An OSHA Temporary Standard to Provide Enforceable PPE Protection for Workers. $2,000 a Month to All Adults Over Age 16 and $500 per Child. Loans to All Businesses and Hospitals for Payroll and Fixed Overhead To Be Forgiven If All Workers Are Kept on Payroll. Moratorium on Evictions, Foreclosures, and Utility Shutoffs. Cancel Rent, Mortgage, and Utility Payments; Federal Government Pays Those Bills; High-income People Pay Taxes on this Relief. Suspend Student Loan Payments with 0% Interest Accumulation. Federal Universal Rent Control. Aid to State and Local Governments Sufficient to Keep Essential Services Running. A 10-Year, $42 Trillion Ecosocialist Green New Deal for Economic Recovery through a Just Transition to 100% Clean Energy by 2030. Universal Mail-in Ballots for the 2020 General Election.

PEACE POLICIES

Pledge No First Use of Nuclear Weapons. Unilaterally Disarm to a Minimum Credible Deterrent. Negotiate with Nuclear Powers to Enact the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. End the Endless Wars—US Troops Home. Cut the Military Budget by 75%. Invest the Savings in a Global Green New Deal. Use Diplomacy and International Law to Promote Peace, Human Rights, and Democracy.

ECONOMIC BILL OF RIGHTS

Job Guarantee. Guaranteed Minimum Income Above Poverty. $20 Minimum Wage. Affordable Housing for All through Universal Rent Control and Public Housing. Medicare for All—A Community-Controlled National Health Service. Lifelong Free Public Education—Pre-K through College. Secure Retirement—Double Social Security Benefits

POLITICAL DEMOCRACY

Ranked-Choice National Popular Vote for President. Proportional Representation in Congress. End Party Suppression—Fair Ballot Access. End Voter Suppression—Restore the Preclearance Provision to the Voting Rights Act. Right to Vote Constitutional Amendment. Automatic Voter Registration. Voting Rights for Felons. Auditable Paper Balloting. Full Public Campaign Finance. We The People Amendment to End the Corporate-Personhood and Money-Is-Speech Legal Doctrines. DC Statehood

------

Had i known about this, about them, I would have proudly voted for Jorgensen or Hawkins, because, instead of being "the lesser of two evils", they actually sound like someone we genuinely need right now. We need to stand up for the people not getting their voices heard. I want a presidential election that has EVERYONE'S voice heard. To those of you who have been oppressed, beaten down, and learned to cope with being ignored just because someone didn't like what you had to say, you need to help the other candidates get their voices heard in the future. I don't know about you, but I want a United States that is concerned about the true freedom of speech, one which is fair and actually willing to hear what all our people have to say.

It's a dream that even Martin Luther King Jr. had. He saw the oppression of African Americans, and spoke out about having a dream that everyone could be heard.

When our country was founded, we were all immigrants. Everyone came from another place, even those we call Native Americans. Why is it that today, people are being rejected simply for needing to take refuge from a government abuser in some other country? We have lost sight of what our great nation is all about. We need to have our voices heard.

The next time there's a government position to replace, remember what I had to say. We are not sheep, who are to be headed toward the majority just because it's easy. We are human beings. We need to stop this suppression of the people's voices. We need to stand up to the government, to the media, to let everyone be heard.

Our nation is on the verge of a civil war, in part due to the oppression of the people. If you want to be heard, you need to stand up for what you believe in. Violence isn't necessary, but your right to free speech is. DO NOT LET THEM SUPPRESS YOUR VOICE.

EDIT: I would like to add, that in order for our POLITICAL voices to be heard, there is still something we need to change. If you would like to hear what is needed, there's a list of videos on the subject. If you really want to have your voices heard, we need to start here, with ranked voting. For more information, click this link.

[sweetsmellosuccess]

TIFF 2020: Days 1 & 2

Films: 5 Best Film of the Day(s): One Night in Miami

One Night in Miami…: I guess you could form an argument that basing a film on a pre-existing play would make the feature easier to put together, but that wouldn’t be taking into account the tremendous differences between the mediums, their relative strengths and weaknesses. For her feature debut, the Oscar-winning actress Regina King has cinematically adapted the stage play  by Kemp Powers about a fictionalized fateful night amongst four famous Black men in 1964. Those men, Malcolm X (Kingsley Ben-Adir), Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge), Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom Jr.), and Cassius Clay (Eli Goree), are all in town ostensibly to celebrate Clay’s beatdown of Sonny Liston to first become the heavyweight champion of the world at the tender age of 22. But the film puts them all together in Malcolm X’s modest hotel room, watched over by Nation of Islam security men, to spend a night, essentially, debating the merits of what they bring to the struggle for Black equality and economic emancipation, and arguing back and forth about their distinct positions. Here is precisely where many play adaptations falter, without the dramatic friction of a live performance to power the emotional core, such conventions generally fall flat on the screen, but King’s virtuoso acting instincts serve her able cast well, and her work with DP Tami Reiker allows the film to flow, seemingly organically between its few location movements. Working from a skilled script by Powers, the celebrated figures feel three dimensional, which gives even their more didactic diatribes (Malcolm), and pithy rebuttals (Cooke) enough weight to avoid sounding contrived. The cast work wonders on the material, granting a needed organic vibe to their nonfiction characters, echoing the essences without tipping into caricature. It’s a strong debut for King, and the film’s complex ruminations on the responsibility of successful Black people towards their community as a means of bringing attention to the country’s oppression couldn’t be more on point. At one point Clay tells Cooke the four of them will always remain friends, because they are among the few who can possibly understand what it’s like to be “young, Black, famous, righteous, and unapologetic.”

Shiva Baby: Danielle (Rachel Sennott) is in the midst of having a day. Turns out Max (Danny Deferrari), the sugar daddy with whom she has frequently been visiting as part of her regular prostitution gig, is somehow a friend or cousin of the deceased at the same Shiva she has come to attend with her well-meaning, but completely overwhelming parents (Polly Draper and Fred Melamed). If that weren’t enough in Emma Seligman’s spry comedy, Danielle is also horrified to find Maya (Molly Gordon), a successful young woman she’s known for years, and a recent ex, also there. Crammed into the Shiva house, full of cousins and aunts and uncles all kvetching about everyone else, and being physically grabbed and moved about by her mother, Danielle faces this house of horrors, with everyone commenting concernedly on her weight-loss (“You look like Gwyneth Paltrow  —  on food stamps!” her mother hisses at her), and her lack of job prospects when she graduates, and her parents telling scathingly embarrassing stories about her in front of Max and his shiksa wife (Dianna Argon), whose 18-month-old baby, her mom says is “freakishly pale  —  and no nose,” with no respite in sight. As a result of this sort of hyper-scrutiny, Danielle goes the only route that makes any sense: Lying to everybody about nearly everything, from her current major (“gender business”), to the many job interviews she has supposedly lined up. She’s just trying to get through the ordeal, one that Seligman, along with a continually spiraling score from Ariel Marx, ratchets up, until, near the end, poor Danielle is in a near fugue state, sweat glistening on her face, and the attendees, shot in unflattering slo-mo, and distorted lenses, take on the sheen of a waking nightmare. At a brisk 77 minutes, the film still doesn’t have quite enough to sustain its running time  —  at a certain point it begins doubling back on itself  —  but it’s still a lot of horrific fun, as Seligman expertly captures the absolute loss of agency one can feel, swallowed up in a claustrophobic family gathering, where escape feels futile.

Limbo: If Scotland has a cinematic identity, as such, it seems like the kind of place, desolate and unforgiving, where individuals come to exit regular society and come to a land filled with eccentric loners (stoic and unique in their oddities), in order to get better in touch with their souls. Ben Sharrock’s serio-comedy captures both the pitiless beauty of the land, and the lonely plight of a Syrian immigrant, Omar (Amir El-Masry), waiting with a group of other men from across the Middle East and Africa, on an island off the mainland, for word from the Immigration Office that his bid for political asylum has been accepted. Omar, sweet-faced and approachable, was a musician by trade in his native Syria, and walks around everywhere carrying his precious oud, bequeathed to him by his grandfather, also a musician, even though his right hand is locked in a cast from an unspecified injury. Even without the cast, however, you get the sense that his heart really isn’t into playing, despite the entreaties from Farhad (Vikash Bhai), his Afghani roomie and self-appointed “agent and manager,” who wants him to enter a local music contest. Omar is carrying a significant amount of weight beyond missing his mother’s fragrant home-cooking. Talking to her on the lone payphone on the island, where other immigrants-in-waiting stand in line for a chance to hear from home, she implores him to speak to his older brother, who chose to stay behind in Syria and fight in the Civil War that has plagued the region for years. Omar feels guilty for having left, and suffers from having disappointed his father in the process. It doesn’t help him that the culture he finds himself in seems so foreign to him, despite his speaking flawless English. Sharrock’s brand of deadpan perfectly suits the setting, but as funny as the film can be (when asked in a culture/language class to create a sentence using the “I used to” construction, one immigrant offers “I used to be happy before I came here”), it doesn’t paint a rosy affirmation for Omar and his ilk, stuck as they are, as the title suggests, between countries and lives. Omar’s pain is real, and for every positive step forward he takes, it’s one further away from his family and his beloved home country.

Enemies of the State: Sonia Kennebeck’s challenging and curious documentary seems at first to present a case for its protagonist, Matt DeHart, a young teen hacker interested in social justice, who through his work with Wikileaks runs afoul of the U.S. government, and his beleaguered parents, Paul and Leann, who vigorously defend their only child against the evil forces conspiring against him. Through a series of personal interviews with Paul and Leann, both retired Air Force intelligence officers, who believe their country has turned against them for what Matt had downloaded from his computer into secret thumbdrives shortly before the FBI arrived at their door and confiscated all his equipment, and various lawyers they employed, first to protect Matt from what they claim as utterly bogus child-porn charges, then, after they slip away to Canada in the middle of the night, the lawyers trying to earn them asylum. While in Canada, under close supervision and confined to his parents’ apartment, Matt uses his charms, his hackavist bonafides, and his skill at PR, to generate enough interest in his case to become a digital cause celebe, along the lines of Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning. Protests are fronted, defense funds gathered, and pressure put on the government to come clean about why they seem so hard-driving against the young man. During a peculiar reenactment set in a Canadian immigration hearing  —  Kennebeck employs actors who apparently lip sync their lines in perfect time with the actual recorded audio  —  DeHart describes a harrowing ordeal earlier in the affair, after having moved to Canada to attend college, being abducted by the FBI shortly after crossing the border to renew his Visa, and tortured for days for information related to the material on the thumb-drives. Some documentation seems to corroborate his claims (even Paul and Leann, as fierce supporters as can be, were shocked to see just how ready the FBI were to snatch him), but as the film continues, and we hear more and more from the investigators and prosecuting attorneys about the original child-pornography crimes, it becomes clear that our sympathies are being played with by Kennebeck. By the end, the film itself becomes an indictment of our rapid-assumption culture, in which decisions of guilt and innocence are determined in seconds online and forever after based on the presentation of information before us.

The Way I See It: For non Trumpites, the switchover from eight years of the dignified, intelligent, and measured leadership of Barack Obama, to the perma-tanned tackiness of power-mad, narcissistic bloviating of Donald Trump, was like a double-feature that went from Citizen Kane to Kevin James’ Loudest Farts. One man better than most to measure Obama’s time in office against the subsequent regime is photojournalist Pete Souza, who served as the official White House photographer for both of Obama’s terms, and has gone on to become an outspoken critic of Trump by way of his devastating IG account, in which he juxtaposes stately Obama photos with Trumps scandal-du-jour. Lest you think he’s just another divisively partisan liberal, you have to take into account his previous turn in the White House, as one of the official photographers for Ronald Reagan’s presidency. In fact, Souza’s fly-on-the-wall quality was considered one of his strengths in the oval office. Documentarian Dawn Porter travels with Souza as he makes the media rounds promoting his newest book, Shade, a collection of those IG photos that have earned him millions of social media followers (a sort of companion piece to his previous book Obama: An Intimate Portrait). Hauling from far-off India (where he gets a standing ovation before he even takes the stage), to domestic conferences and speaking engagements, Souza emerges as a man becoming more used to being out from behind his ever-present Canon lens. Through that lens, as he displays to his rapturous audiences, he has taken many hundreds of indelible photos, showing Obama’s various interactions with foreign dignitaries, his council of cabinet members, and his more raucous time with his two daughters (one shot of Obama with his girls making snow angels on the rear lawn during a heavy snow storm remains his computer screensaver, Souza says with pride). As Porter moves from talking heads to public oratories, Souza’s remarkable photos  —  brilliantly composed, and inspiringly intimate, having been given nearly unlimited access to the president  —  play throughout, showing us a collection of images that capture the inspiring hope the president inspired and the agonizing rigors of the job he was elected to perform. The film spends little time on his Reagan years, except to note how media and image-savvy the former Hollywood actor and his wife were (Souza professes no political ill-will towards the Reagans, other than noting that while he didn’t always agree with him, he was a genuinely caring man, who at least understood the parameters of leadership). At first, the film trolls Trump by a sort of subtweet level of backhandedness: Without directly naming names, Souza makes it entirely clear who he finds failing in comparison to Obama’s empathetic, engaging deportment, but by the time the film comes around to his notorious IG account, there can be no doubt the subject of his ire. Souza maintains it has less to do with his partisan feelings (his political affiliation is never revealed), and more the way he finds the current president’s undignified manner and total disrespect for the office and the leadership it demands unacceptable. Trumpers will of course take great exception to the portrait the film portrays of the sitting president, but even the most hardcore GOP folks won’t be able to help noting the blatant differences between the loving, genuinely close Obamas; and the preening, viciously competitive Trumps, each trying to outdo the others in acting as their father’s primary sycophant.

In a year of bizarre happenings, and altered realities, TIFF has shifted its gears to a significantly paired down virtual festival. Thus, U.S. film critics are regulated to watching the international offerings from our own living room couches.

[wearejapanese]

Hi all this talk about Medicare for all has me wondering what is healthcare like in Japan? Obviously I’ve read the wiki page and some other articles but what is it like on a regular basis?

I’m going to divide this into two parts: a discussion of my personal experiences as a Japanese citizen with Japanese nationalized healthcare and an expanded discussion on why Japanese healthcare is the way it is (and how it is different from Medicare For All). The latter will be under the “Keep Reading” portion, if you aren’t interested. If this topic has piqued your interest, particularly given the upcoming American elections and Democrat primaries, I encourage you to watch an old 2008 series by PBS called “Sick Around the World.” The series is outdated in certain respects, but much of the information still holds. PBS takes a great look at Japan and other OECD nations that all do healthcare way better than the US for a fraction of the cost (Though…that is probably every other OECD nation). Japan is unique among OECD countries in that it has some of the best health outcomes at some of the lowest costs, but how feasible the Japan model is for America, I’m not sure.

As a Japanese citizen, the idea that I would avoid seeing the doctor because I can’t afford it is alien to me. When I was in university, I paid 10 USD a month in health insurance for the Japanese government to cover 70% of all of my healthcare costs. 10 USD per month. For 10 USD per month, not only could I see a physician of my choice, but I also had access to the ER, to rehab services, to medicine, and also holistic/ preventative services like acupuncture, Chinese medicine, chiropractic adjustments and so on. I think about healthcare the same way most people in the US think about the cost of the gas they put into their car (or auto insurance, for that matter). It’s an expense, sure, but it’s a part of my life and it’s not one that will ever break the bank even if something serious happens.

My uncle is the primary breadwinner for a family of 4, living at close to the median national income in a comfortable Tokyo suburb. The premiums he pays both to the the national government and as a portion of his income to his employer were easily a quarter of what many similar American families pay for their monthly premiums. Because he has two forms of health insurance (National and private, through his employer), he has access to additional perks like dental and vision, and preferred admission to the hospitals with which his employers’ insurance company had agreements. Within the last two years, he has had two serious surgeries (both requiring several months bed rest), and has made a complete recovery with almost no disruption to his income. Another relative had cancer, and health insurance paid for most of their expenses, chemo, and acupuncture sessions. If they had both been living in the US, I do not think either of them would be in as good health as they are now.

ERs in Japan aren’t as crowded as in the US because few people put off seeing the doctor. Many serious health problems are thus found earlier. Being a walk-in at my physician’s office is a lot like going to Urgent Care in the US, a bit of a wait, but frankly, if I called my doctor the day before, I would likely be able to make an appointment. In rural areas, I suspect the story is very different because there are so few doctors/ nurses/ clinics for very large regions.

The cons: Hospitals have an incentive to keep you hospitalized because they only get paid if they keep beds filled. Oral contraceptives are sometimes hard to access because OB/GYNs rely on abortions for much of their income (Most women in my family choose to give birth via midwife rather than see an OB/GYN, not because there aren’t competent doctors but because most Japanese OB/GYNs are men). Pharmaceutical policy is antiquated: many psychiatric medicines and painkillers widely available in other developed countries are either highly controlled or straight up illegal. Therapists are hard to find. Still, my chances of dying of old age in Japan are much better than in the US. There is simply more affordable access to care. Again, the story changes if you go to more rural parts of Japan where the population skews towards the elderly and healthcare infrastructure is much less available and there are fewer providers, and that remains a big problem that the current government is failing to address.

How Does it All Work?: Japan has a combination of nationalized health insurance and private not-for-profit insurance funds that collectively function to minimize the financial risk of health costs to the individual. To understand the low collective cost of Japanese healthcare, you need to understand the National Health Insurance (国民健康保険 or Kokumin Kenkou Hoken), health funds, and cost regulation.

NHI: The NHI program is mandatory. All legal residents, regardless of citizenship, are obligated to participate for however long they reside in the country. The monthly cost of this insurance is determined by your income. In exchange, the government covers 70% of all costs up to a certain ceiling, but who to see and how you attend to your health is your affair.

Health funds: Health funds are essentially the non-profit health insurance programs ran by employers or chosen by employers to cover any additional, necessary health costs for working individuals and their families not covered by NHI, particularly if the field is known to have any occupational hazards. Any company above a certain size employing salaried/ full-time workers must enroll these employees in such programs. The payments for these programs is usually deducted from your salary every month in conjunction with social security. This amount, again, is scaled according to your income. Japanese companies still are obligated to provide pensions to full-time workers who work at a company for more than 15 years, so I suspect this amount will increase over time for younger workers as companies have to sustain pensions for older employees who don’t pass away until they are in their 80s. In the US, only the government must provide pensions, so most companies use 401ks and Roth IRAs to generate retirement income for their employees instead, that, in theory, would be used to pay for any healthcare costs until they max out on Medicare spending plus assets and have to switch to Medicaid.

Cost Regulation: The Japanese government engages in very rigid and specific cost regulation for almost all aspects of healthcare expense. Everything, from medicine, to outpatient surgery, to preventative and rehab services to specialized therapies has a fixed cost. This final one is a big one, and a big part of why I suspect Medicare For All would be impractical in the US. The only way to get rich in Japan off of healthcare is to create new technologies that can be sold domestically and abroad (Hence why Japan makes specialized, expensive tools like endoscopy camera lenses and portable ultrasounds in addition to many pharmaceutical drugs). Most healthcare providers in Japan are not rich. They are relatively well-off, comfortable and have more stable incomes compared to the rest of the population, but very few doctors are earning salaries in excess of 250,000 USD per year. A PCP might earn between 80,000 and 120,000. A specialist would earn double that, but 250,000 is considered a base salary for many American PCPs (Of course, the cost of educating a doctor in Japan is considerably lower in the US, but the insistence in the US on the reliance of 12 years worth of education for physicians is a separate problem).

Similarly, private hospitals and clinics and very vulnerable to the local economy because they can only charge so much money per bed or per service. Many of the cons I mentioned about Japan’s healthcare stem from this cost regulation. If you (as a healthcare providers) are only allowed to charge so much per patient, you are incentivized to treat as many people as possible for as many conditions as possible. Furthermore, it eventually becomes economically prohibitive to see more than a certain number of patients when you have limited output. More popular hospitals and clinics may have reduced hours because they can only treat a certain number of people given their staff size. It may be impossible to see a very popular healthcare provider if they have a full patient load unless you have a personal connection to them. That said, the Japanese system, on paper, clearly works better. They have much better health outcomes for 11% GDP (it used to be 7.5% GDP in the 2000s, but I suspect much of the current cost is being driven by an aging population that needs regular access to medical services). The US has much worse health outcomes for 18% GDP and how young the country is.

How long the Japanese system will hold in its current form is uncertain because any healthcare system that determines how much you pay by your income needs a healthy middle class and heavy taxation of the wealthy to support the elderly and the poor. There is less social inequity in Japan than in the US, but this is rapidly changing as incomes drop, as life-time employment evaporates and as the wealthy are taxed less. The current government seems to think they can avoid this problem by ignoring it for as long as possible, but unfortunately, this is one of the few aspects of Japan that requires government intervention to thrive.

Is this Medicare For All?: In short, no. Medicare For All would be a single payer health insurance system controlled and ran by the government and funding through income tax. Japan, as you can see, draws money not only from private citizens but also from the private sector, from the companies themselves and, on top of that, heavily controls costs. If I remember correctly, they are allowed to do this because the Japanese Constitution explicitly says that health is a right, thus one that the government can regulate as it pleases. The Medicare For All currently being proposed looks the most like Taiwan’s healthcare system, which also produces excellent outcomes, but by the late 2000s became so expensive that the government had to restrict its access to Taiwanese nationals and permanent residents who had paid into the system for a certain number of years and initiate gatekeeping practices similar to those in the UK and Canada (wherein certain services are off-limits unless you have approval from your PCP). Ultimately, no national health insurance system works without the government stepping in in some way to regulate costs and minimize financial risk. This can be done by:

The government being the only healthcare provider (ex. UK, Canada)

Prohibiting private healthcare providers from making more than a certain amount of money (ex. Japan)

Forcing insurance to be non-profit (ex. Switzerland, Germany)

Mandatory enrollment of all residents into insurance programs to minimize financial risk for the individual (ex. Japan)

Heavy taxation via income to adequately fund all users (Japan, UK, Canada) 

Gate-keeping access to services to reduce inefficiencies (UK)

The root problem with healthcare in America is our rules have created a system that not only encourages for-profit business models but discourages healthcare providers from minimizing cost. We also have almost no political will at the national level to regulate private industry. I think most people in Japan would agree that health, like education and public infrastructure, is not something from which people should profit. I am not sure how readily the average American accepts that argument, or if they know that argument is even an option.

[50pence]

Will be able to Real Estate Still Be a Good Investment?

That's a question we are all expecting today. Why? Because of the many stock market investors who speculated in real estate, the problems surrounding sub-prime loans with the ending up foreclosures and bank failures, and falling home rates. If the late Dr . David Schumacher, my mentor for those past 10 years and author of the now-famous book, Any Buy and Hold Strategies of Real Estate, were however around, I know what he would say because he believed it during the last downturn in 1990-1995. He would tell us will not worry. This is only temporary and part of the normal circuit of real estate. It creates bargains that can benefit you will. This cycle has been happening since Montgomery Ward developed offering homes for $1, 500 through its fashion magazines. As sure as the sun rises and the seasons can be purchased and go, real estate will make those who own it rich more than a period of time. He would add that now is the best time to get incredible bargains in real estate. The Real Estate Cycle Real estate is still the perfect investment possible. It always has and always shall do well in the long run. This is the fourth real estate cycle I have been by means of and non-e of the downturns were fun. However , if you have had patience and look at the long term, your real estate will go right up in value more than any other investment. Do not treat realty as you might treat the stock market, worrying about the ups and down. Since 1929, real estate has gone up typically five percent a year; if you stay away from the obvious non-appreciating locations like Detroit, it is more like seven percent a year. Within that rate, properties will double in value through 10 years with compounding. Add a federal tax benefit of twenty-eight percent plus state tax deductions, the depreciation write-off for rental property, and the eventual pay-down of the payday loan and you have a strategy rich people have always utilized to accumulate wealth. Flippers Over the past 30 years I have watched many flippers who buy, fix up, and market. I do not know many who have much net really worth or are wealthy because of flipping. It is simply a highly risky way to make money. Those who have prospered are the ones who sadly are in it for the long haul and patiently watch their qualities increase in value over time. This past downturn was created through speculators who all flipped at the same time, putting too many components on the market for sale and rental. I guarantee that covering the long haul, you will always regret selling any property you will have every owned. Buy and Hold Since time tickets by anyway, the buy-and-hold strategy is a great way to turned into rich. Dr . Schumacher experienced at least five real estate cycles and did extremely well, acquiring an eventual net worthwhile of over $50 million. You just can't go wrong on purchasing an inexpensive condo, townhouse, or single-family home from a good location where there are jobs. Make sure you have a fixed-rate loan, make sure it cash flows, hold on to it for the purpose of 10 to 20 years, and you have a property that has bending or even quadrupled in value. When you need to retire, only do a cash-out refinance to live on or to supplement the retirement pension. For example , the first property I purchased pertaining to $75, 000, a townhome in Lake Arrowhead, FLORIDA, is now worth $650, 000. My first oceanfront property, which I purchased in Long Beach, CA, in 1982 for $112, 000 and used as my place, is now worth $500, 000. One-bedroom condos I paid for in Maui, HI, in the late 1990s for $80, 000 are now worth $400, 000. Homes I bought round the same time in Phoenix, AZ, for $75, 000 are actually worth twice that. I could go on and on and regarding. What are your Options? What are your options to building wealth in these days? The options are to buy real estate and build wealth or to not purchase property at all, to struggle a lot and possess nothing to show for it. 1 . You could do nothing. The particular 25 percent who do not own a home end up with no sources when they retire. They have a car loan and owe an average of $9, 000 on their credit cards. Those who do not purchase rental place may be forced to work past age 65 to supplementation their meager retirement income. 2 . You can try to depend upon your retirement. The above chart shows that you should not depend on your own retirement income alone to support you, because it won't. The on Social Security or most retirement programs land up living below the poverty line and are forced to be effective until they drop, so that is not a solution. Other investment decision options are not doing so well, either. 3. Invest in any stock market. We are definitely in a slowdown (I refuse to feel we will have a recession), so the stock market is not going to flourish for several more years. 4. Invest in gold and silver. They have already crafted their run; it is doubtful they will do much better. Silver and gold are used as a hedge against inflation and a weak greenback. It looks like oil prices are headed down as well as dollar is strengthening. 5. Invest in real estate. Those who commit to real estate almost always do well. The following graph shows how the finest one percent in income have acquired their huge selection. As you can see, the vast majority have invested in real estate. Don't Think Short-Term Real estate is not designed to be considered short-term. Right now, real estate will be down in value in many cities, but it is going together in many others. It is a terrible time to sell and retrieve any equity. Only about five percent of the properties will be for sale. Most homeowners and investors are simply holding on in their real estate and are waiting for the next upward appreciation cycle. Typically the Four Greatest MISTAKES People Make in Real Estate Realty always does well when purchased correctly. It is folk's choices and sometimes greed that mess up an essentially perfect investment. MISTAKE #1. Purchasing Property That is Dozens Can Afford Often individuals are attracted to and purchase a home they cannot afford to pay for. They struggle their entire lives just to make the particular payments. Then if they have an illness, job loss, or perhaps divorce, they are in big trouble. MISTAKE #2. Selecting Properties That Don't Cash Flow When rental properties 're going up rapidly, everything seems desirable and people purchase nightly rental properties that don't cash flow. Often that can lead to problems with large, negative cash flows when the market softens. Properties that cash flow are a no-brainer. They are great it doesn't matter what happens. These are the ones you want to buy and hold. Gradually they will be paid off. MISTAKE #3. Refying Too Much Out Once prices are going up, one is tempted to take out the maximum amount able on an equity line on one, s home or instigate a cash-out refi on a rental property. That is dangerous should one cannot make the payments or support typically the negative. It is like abusing one's credit cards, which often leads to bankruptcy. It is especially discouraging when values drop under the loan amount, as is happening with many individuals right now. One should not get discouraged, they will eventually bring back to their original value and then surpass that, usually with 2½ to 4 years. MISTAKE #4. Getting the Erroneous Loans We have all seen the problems with sub prime borrowing products. Those with low incomes were not the only parties using all these loans. Some bought million-dollar homes in a gamble construct y would up in value. Five-year Option ARMS even became popular, but they caused major problems to the real estate investor when they reset. Loans like these should be refinanced straight away. The same is true for adjustable-rate mortgages. Fixed-rate loans is the only suitable loan type for anyone who plans to keep on to his properties. Second Quarter 2008 Shows Best part Sales are up in 13 states, especially in the states hit hardest (California up 25. 8%, Nevada away 25%, Arizona up 20. 5%, and Florida " up " 10%), a strong sign that the market has bottomed as well as returning to normal. In addition , 35 cities across the U. Utes. show an increase in prices from the first to the subsequently quarter. Yakima, WA, rose 9. 9%; Binghamton, NEW YORK, rose 8. 7%; and Amarillo, TX, rose 7. 2% from a year ago. Conclusion It is never exciting to be in a down cycle and see the equity in your residence and rental property slip away. However , do not be frustrated, this is just part of the cycle of real estate. These downward cycles are always good times to pick up more property within great prices, but be sure you keep a reserve just for unforeseen problems (such as illness or job loss) so you can still make your payments. Make sure you purchase good real estate in good locations, priced below the median rate for the area, in markets that have good job development. Properties will return to their 7-plus percent appreciation then you can watch your wealth build once again.

[feelingsdusk-writes]

Right, wrong and everything in between

Prompted by @lostwithoutmyanchor: The prompt I mentioned: Maybe Steter - meeting online in a supernatural forum/chat. maybe AU meeting first time or somewhere in canon and them not realising who the other is.

Peter supposes that as a baby, there must have been some moments when it happened, but as far as his memories go, he can't actually remember a time in his life when he was truly happy. He came too late, too unexpected, too different, and his parents, who were thinking about retirement in a couple of years or three at the most and an easy life where their toughest choice would be whether they wanted whipped cream with their pancakes or not, never were able to forget that he was the reason they couldn't do that. Which Peter resents quite a bit, mind you, because it's not like they didn't do it anyway, pawing him off to Talia again and again.

And Peter guesses that he wouldn't have minded if Talia had cared for him beyond an abstract sense of responsibility towards her family, if she hadn't been barely a teenager (and later an adult, when Peter would finally stop trying) that didn't want to be saddled with a baby brother when she had other more important things to worry about like school, her boyfriend, her cheerleader competitions, college, her marriage, alphahood, her pregnancy.

(But never Peter).

And so, what Peter remembers about his childhood is the burn of disappointmentpainanger when he'd try his best to be the ideal son (perfect grades, medals at competitions, always helpful, tidy, calm), and it only seemed to earn him the opposite effect when they left him even more alone. Needless to say, he stopped being a child pretty early and by the time Laura came along and he suddenly was expected to help take care of her because she was a precious baby that needed to be loved (what's wrong with you Peter?), he had developed a hide thick enough to not rage inside about the double standards.

Except they're paying attention to him now and Peter feels about to burst out of his own skin.

They've made him what he is. He's a neat freak, an obsessive perfectionist, a cynic, a sarcastic shit. He's loyal but distant, he's dependable but vicious, he's smart but devious. Everything he is is a direct result of their actions but they keep asking what's wrong with you Peter?

It was their choice to make him the enforcer too (theirs, always theirs) and at the time Peter stupidly thought that maybe he had found his place finally, that such a position in the pack would earn him recognition (instead of the love he used to want, but that's fine, because he stopped wanting it a long time ago) and respect. Or shouldn't they be grateful that Peter keeps the pack safe at the very least?

(Apparently, even after all these years teaching him better, Peter still hasn't learned. Shame on him.)

He comes back breathless and shaking from exhaustion after taking on a witch that wouldn't heed Talia's warnings about leaving their territory and they look at him and ask what's wrong with you Peter? An omega tries to trespass and Derek is on his way, so Peter does what he must, leaving the kid covered in blood by accident but otherwise unharmed, and they ask what's wrong with you Peter? And it can't be said that Peter doesn't learn from his mistakes, because he steps back and dials it down a notch, but they still ask what's wrong with you Peter?

And so, he feels cornered because their eyes are on him at all times -and why the hell did he wish for their attention before? It's unbearable!- and nothing he tries seems to be the correct answer. Because either he's too vicious or too soft, either he's too violent or too inefficient, but neither of those or anything in between is the right option and it's driving him insane.

And Peter is a neat freak, an obsessive perfectionist and a cynic. He's distant, vicious and devious! But he's also loyal and dependable, and, above all, smart and knows himself enough to know that he's almost at the breaking point and he might do something he will regret later, so he leaves.

(Because shortcomings apart, they're still family, they're still pack, they're still his, for the better or the worse.)

Which is why he's sitting on a swing at a park downtown, almost at the edge of town, contemplating his options. Because the reality of it is that if he leaves, he'll become an omega unless he finds another pack that will take him in. In normal circumstances, Peter knows he would have been able to prove his worth, but with the pull Talia has, who would dare take him in and go against her? Peter's lips pull into a snarl, because he himself is partly to blame for that. While Talia has gained a lot of respect for her ability to perform a full shift and her upfront way of dealing with the problems that come her way, Peter is the one she's sent into the shadows to do the dirty work for her when her method failed, effectively cementing her image as a powerful alpha. So, essentially, Peter has made his own bed and now has to lie in it.

A hand comes into his direct line of vision and Peter startles, instantly on guard, because he never heard anyone approach, and he should have, no matter how distracted he was. He frowns suspiciously when it turns out that the hand belongs to a five (maybe six, he does look around Cora's age) year old kid that's handing him some gummy bears with a face devoid of any emotion. Whatever his age is, it's way too late for a kid this small to be out at this hour of the night, Peter notices, but then he remembers his own childhood and keeps silent.

"What's your name?" the little boy squeaks suddenly, hand still extended towards him. "Because dad says I can't speak to strangers but if you tell me your name then you won't be a stranger anymore and then I won't be talking to a stranger and breaking the rules anymore."

"Peter," he answers blinking before he can think of it, too thrown off by the speed of the kid's speech. "And I don't really think it works that way, kid."

"Hi, Peter, nice to meet you," the kid continues unfazed, reaching to shake his hand and leaving the gummy bears behind when they unclasp hands.

The boy nods self-satisfied, as if having remembered to fulfill the social niceties is a success for him, and then he proceeds to hop onto the free swing beside Peter. It takes him three tries to actually achieve that but Peter manages to keep a straight face despite feeling his lips wanting to twitch. Then he tries to sway but he's too short and his feet don't reach the ground, and finally Peter snorts softly and reaches to give him enough momentum to be able to swing by himself as he sticks one of the gummy bears in his mouth.

"Thanks, sir," the kid chirps.

The boy continues swinging silently for the next five minutes and Peter honestly doesn't know why he doesn't leave, because if someone finds him with an escaped kid in the middle of the night there's going to be hell to pay. And an escapee he is, of that Peter has no doubt. More over, this is not the first time he's done this either because he's way too calm about being alone in the dark and too prepared, which tells Peter even more about him, because he remembers doing the same when he was a little older than this boy, and knows the difference between hiding and "hiding". And the kid is hiding for sure. He's not trying to manipulate his parents emotionally by disappearing on them, he really doesn't want to be found and has come accordingly prepared to last all night. He has somewhat warm clothes, food, drinks and has chosen a secluded park where no one will think to look for him, but secure enough that if something happens he has a lot of places to hide and a 24h fast food joint just across the street where he can ask for help if he needs to.

(Smart kid.)

A normal person would call the police. Peter, who thinks more of whatever the kid may have left behind, who can see himself in him and knows that some kids aren't really kids and can take care of themselves, doesn't.

(What's wrong with you, Peter?)

They sit in silence for a bit and Peter tries to think about his own situation but his mind is blank. For the first time in his life he doesn't know what to do and now that the anger that had pushed him before has burned out, he just feels numb. He rubs his forehead tiredly and sighs. The little boy, who had let the momentum die a while ago and now was just content swinging his own legs, as if he couldn't keep still, reaches to place his backpack on his lap and then rummages inside until he seems to find what he's looking for. He takes a batman tupper out and offers its contents to Peter after a little hesitation. Peter declines and the kid shrugs and starts eating himself. Then he blinks, stops and reaches to pass Peter the rest of his gummy bears. Peter's lips twitch involuntarily and he takes the offered treat with a murmured thanks.

Much later, he hears a car coming down the road and looks in that direction, pondering if he should warn his little companion or not. Noticing his attention is elsewhere, the kid blinks at him quizzically.

"Car," he murmurs finally making up his mind, and if he had any doubts about the boy's situation, they get completely erased when he springs from the swing and hurriedly runs inside one of those domes with a lot of holes that Peter has never bothered to learn the name of. "Well," he sighs and goes after him, because why the hell not at this point? It's not like he wants to have to answer to any questions if it's a patrol car, after all.

It's a tight fit and the boy is looking at him very intensely now, as if he's trying to understand why would an adult hide, because he probably thinks what every kid thinks, that adults don't have to respond to anyone and can do whatever they want. But he seems like a very smart boy, so maybe he thinks Peter is a criminal? In any case, whatever he's thinking, it's obvious he makes up his mind about it quite quickly, though, because he looks inside his backpack again and passes a bag of chips to Peter before going back to his own food.

"Well," Peter sighs again, because this is a new low for him. He was supposed to be on his way to a new life and instead he's hiding with a five-maybe-six year old kid at a park in the middle of the night and eating said kid's provisions too.

He opens the bag anyway.

(What's wrong with you, Peter?)

He looks at the boy's tupper absently and ponders about it. Peter has never had one of those, his have always been generic. For his birthday he would get clothes or practical (impersonal) things, always hastily bought items when they finally remembered his birthday must have already passed because it was November already. This boy has a batman hoodie with batman pajamas and shocks underneath and a batman tupperware. The clothes look slightly small on him and the tupper is on the small side too. Maybe he's reading too much into it, but he'd bet that things started to change at home when those still fit him.

Peter wonders which is worse, not having ever been loved by family or having known the feeling and then losing it.

His phone rings and he sighs. He considers not picking up, but then he admits to himself that if he really was going to leave, he would have already done so by now and wouldn't be lingering around. He picks up.

After he hangs up, he closes his eyes and just concentrates on his breathing for a minute. When he opens them again, the kid is looking at him and there's something like recognition in his eyes. Peter takes off his red hoodie to drap it over his little shoulders when he catches a shiver running through his small frame and then turns to leave without a backwards glance.

(What's wrong with you, Peter?)

He sighs and then sticks his head inside again. "Listen, kid," he starts and then bites his lip. "There's nothing wrong with you. Whatever is happening to you, it's not your fault. They're the adults that should be taking care of you and there's nothing more you have to do but be the way you are, ok?" The boy is not breathing, Peter can tell. His eyes are almost impossibly wide and his hands are clenched around the tupper. "There's nothing wrong with you, ok?"

"But-"

"No," Peter cuts him implacably. Because the kid could be a devil for all he knows, but if at five-maybe-six he's so skilled at hiding, at escaping his own home, and police aren't swarming the streets after the almost two hours they've been here, whatever is wrong is not his fault. "There's nothing wrong with you."

There's a pause and the boy finally unclenches his hands. He swallows forcibly and for a second his eyes don't leave Peter's.

"There's... nothing wrong with me?"

"There's nothing wrong with you."

"There's nothing wrong with me."

"Exactly," Peter nods as he turns to leave. "Take care, kid, and don't forget that."

"Peter?" He looks back towards the boy and finds himself caught by eyes that know more than they should. "There's nothing wrong with you either, right?"

"I-yes," he stutters caught off guard before taking a deep breath and regaining his footing. "There's nothing wrong with me either, kid."

"Ok," the boy nods and Peter suddenly remembers how to breathe. "Goodbye, Peter."

And so Peter leaves and goes to search for Cora, who isn't in her bed and no one has seen her since the movie night ended half an hour ago. He finds her "hiding", apparently sulking (and not just a little frightened about being alone in the middle of the night despite her thunderous scowl) because she's grounded for pushing one of her classmates to get a toy she wanted, grabs her by the ear and takes her home.

Things don't get any better on the family front after that, but Peter doesn't care anymore. He's still a neat freak, an obsessive perfectionist, a cynic, a sarcastic shit. He's still loyal, distant, dependable, vicious, smart and devious, but there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. So when Talia tells him to take care of this or that threat, he does it and doesn't care about the looks he earns for his methods. And when she orders him to take care of the Paige issue (because she's always the white queen and Peter has to be the black knight), he does so without contemplations, and when they ask what's wrong with you, Peter? afterwards, he says nothing, which will always be is his shameless answer no matter what happens onwards.

If the closest he can get to happiness is by achieving mental peace, Peter will take it and be, well, happy.

And then he's on fire, everything is on fire, the pain is unbearable and it just won't stop. At some point, when he can't feel anything anymore and the screams have died, he briefly wonders if the kid had more luck than him before he welcomes the blessed darkness that closes down on him.

---

There are intruders in the house and it's Peter's job to stop them but the pain is unbearable and everything is in burning hot agony and Peter can't move. Makeitstopmakeitstopmakeitstop. Peter can't stand it, Peter can't move, Peter is being dragged away, Peter can't protect his pack.

(What's wrong with you, Peter?)

(What's wrong with you, Peter?)

(What's wrong with you, Peter?)

Peter screams and screams. The remaining pack bonds stretch thinner and thinner and thinner and thinner. They snap. He howls. He tries to grasp them but they slip through his fingers like sand. He howls and howls and howls.

(What's wrong with you, Peter?)

(What's wrong with you, Peter?)

(What's wrong with you, Peter?)

Peter is trapped, he can't move, he's alone, defenseless, vulnerable. He rages and screams and howls but no sound comes out of his mouth. He wants to rip, to avenge but he's useless and his pack is dead.

(What's wrong with you, Peter?)

(What's wrong with you, Peter?)

(What's wrong with you, Peter?)

Peter will tear them apart, he will. And he will enjoy every second of it. His fangs will bite into flesh, his claws will tear into them, and he will make them feel every ounce of pain tenfold. One by one he will hunt them down and he will make them regret ever thinking of hurting his pack. Hurtful and dismissive and infuriating, but his. His and no one else's. They will pay for taking them from him dearly.

(What's wrong with you, Peter?)

(Everything.)

---

For the first time in years he can move. The window is open and he surges through it. His legs give out and he grunts upon impact. He forces them to support his weight and pushes himself until he reaches the edge of the woods. The earthy smells assault his nose and the soft sounds of the forest fill his ears. He howls at the moon, high, high in the sky.

(No answer comes.)

---

Peter resists the temptation to rip the woman's throat out and goes towards the woods instead. It's a near thing but for now he needs her, so he can't teach her how wrong she is for treating him like a dog that needs to be let out to take a piss at night. It will eventually come to that but he will wait until his skin stops feeling like cracking leather, until he doesn't stumble every few steps because his muscles are still atrophied, until his lungs don't protest at every effort he makes.

Peter dreams about it, though. Vividly. Her shocked face when she realizes that she has chewed more than she can swallow, her panicked breaths as she tries to flee, her choked screams as his claws tear into her.

(What's wrong with you, Peter?)

For now he has more important things to concentrate, though, since he has some murderers to hunt down and a pack to avenge. Besides, he has all the time to teach her why prey can't play with predators after she has outlived her usefulness.

---

A month passes and he has yet to kill his nurse, who still treats him like a dog, who still acts like she has the upper hand, who still thinks that she will get what she wants. So, so stupid, but she's still surprisingly useful for now so he ignores it. Instead, Peter digs and digs until he finds the ones responsible for the fire.

All things considered, it's disgustingly easy. He gets his hands on all the reports and news articles on the fire, and he comes to a clear conclusion: someone either bribed the ones responsible for writing them or they doctored the evidence before the officials arrived.

It gives him a place to start in any case.

He tracks down one of the culprits to a seedy bar on the outskirts of town. It doesn't take him very long to ascertain that the man is drinking in an effort to drown the guilt he feels for having participated on the whole thing, even if he only faked the information in the report.

Humans are funny things. The man wishes to atone for his sins so much that he even wants to die, but when faced with the real possibility of dying, he fights tooth and nail to survive. Which suits Peter just fine, because he wants to make them experience the terror, the helplessness and the pain his pack felt along with the asphyxiating certainty of defeat in the end.

He directs the terrified man to where he wants him and then he even lets him have some advantage before he gives chase. Peter makes him run for hours until the man lets himself drop in exhaustion to the ground, now too tired, too certain of his imminent death that he can't care anymore. Peter makes him care once more and then, only then, tears into him, pacing himself to make it last. Ultimately, the man dies of shock, his heart giving out, rather than because of the wounds Peter inflicts on him.

With the information he got out of that man, he tracks down a bigger prey, one that participated directly in lighting his house on fire. He learned his lesson from his first prey and knows to push him only so far before getting his hands on him. When he tires of the chase, he bites into his ankles so he drops to the ground with a scream, his tendons ripped and unable to run anymore. If the man wants to move he'll have to crawl, but before he makes it anywhere he'll die of bloodloss. That certainty is so, so sweet... but still not enough. Every new sound Peter extracts out of him is as satisfying as the last one and he only laments that he can't get more out of him, that his fragile human body breaks so quickly under his hands. He'll do better next time, but for now he's satisfied with having extracted more names from him before he lost his voice.

Then, one day, Laura appears and whatever good remains from the Peter from before the fire suffers a swift death just then when he realizes that it wasn't that he had been left packless because everyone had died, but because he had been abandoned; when he learns that she's only back because the news of the killings had reached her (the markings he instructed his nurse to leave on the animals to draw the ultimate culprits out calling her instead), not because she had finally come back for Peter.

He suspects it never even crossed her mind, just like with Talia a long time ago. But what did he expect? She (they, all of them) was taught that way, made that way just like Peter was made by them. But Peter learned from his mistakes so Laura will too?

"What's wrong with you, Peter?" she asks horrified when he tells her why he killed those men, and then she refuses to avenge the pack. "I'm the alpha," she growls. "I forbid you to continue."

Peter blacks out for a moment. When he comes back to himself, he feels nothing at the sight of his dead niece. Some part of him is vaguely dissapointed that it doesn't feel cathartic in some way that his claws took her life for her transgressions but, honestly, he feels nothing besides the need to scoff at the look of surprise and betrayal that will be permanently engraved on her face.

(What's wrong with you, Peter?)

---

Peter is stronger, faster, more powerful than he has ever been! It's an exhilarating and euphoric feeling and he can't have enough of it.

But he can get even better if he gets his own pack and since Peter has always been a firm believer of taking advantage of the opportunities that rise around him, there's no time like the present. He lunges forward towards the boy -Pretty healthy if with a slightly weak-looking body. Smells a little like medicine, but unless he has some mental illness, the transformation will take care of it. If not, Peter will take care of him like a good alpha should, and teach him to use what he has. If he dies, he will try again.- and he doesn't even get to scream before Peter's teeth are sinking in his side.

The kid takes off running. Peter is very amused at the pup and entertains the thought of playing with him for a while, but he can hear people drawing near and it's not like the teen won't come when Peter beckons him tomorrow anyway, so he lets him slip away and returns to his hospital room even though he wants nothing less. However, since he wants the pleasure of seeing Kate Argent's surprised face as he rips her throat out when she inevitably shows up, he'll bear with it for now. Which, sadly, also means that he can't get rid of his nurse either despite being self-sufficient again.

Well, they do say that what resists you is sweeter in the end.

(What's wrong with you, Peter?)

---

Well, look at who decided to finally show up.

Derek has grown up a lot since he saw him last, about six years ago. Gone are the baby fat and the awkward limbs but the bunny teeth that Peter used to vaguely find somewhat adorable remain. Viciously, Peter wishes Talia was still alive to see her son, to see what her ways brought upon them, what her negligent teachings resulted in. A mediocre daughter that couldn't even keep up with the most basic duty of an alpha (never leave a packmate behind) and a stupid son that trusted the hunter that killed them all, that's what. And now said daughter is dead and said son doesn't look capable enough to survive by himself. Peter really wishes he could bring his sister back from the dead to see, because this is ultimately her fault and it's not fair that she got the easy way out as always.

(What's wrong with you, Peter?)

He has the sudden urge to just gouge his nephew's eyes out when they land on his scarred face and the nearly asphyxiating scent of despair and self-hate that clings to him threatens to overpower Peter's sensitive nose. He can't feel that remorseful if he's showing up now, probably just because Laura has dropped out of the radar without warning.

He contains himself, but just barely. It helps that Derek merely stands there looking at him just for five minutes, making no move to speak, and then leaves. If he had tried to touch him, he doesn't know if he'd been able to restrain himself. Peter doesn't like to be touched nowadays. It's more than enough that he has to bear with sponge baths, with being positioned here and there by complete strangers with no say whatsoever for the sake of keeping the farce up. If the touch wasn't so clinical the walls would have been painted red a long time ago, and that may still happen if a certain nurse makes another crude joke about some parts of his anatomy.

Peter's lips curl derisively for a second before he schools his face into a neutral expression once again. He lets his hands relax too when he notices he's about to twist the metal of the wheelchair out of shape.

He wonders about what he should do about Derek. His first instinct is to kill him, of course, because Derek is not pack and is in his territory. Besides, instincts aside and on a more rational note, he doesn't have any delusions about his dear nephew's reaction when he finds out he killed Laura. And he will, that's for sure, because they aren't pack anymore (if they were, Peter would have felt the bond with Derek at the same time the alpha powers settled, but nothing was there until that boy's bite took some hours ago and that fragile link sprouted to life), so there's no way the alpha powers would have gone to Peter instead of Derek if she had died naturally, and he can't sell someone else killing her and him taking revenge for her since he has already feigned still being comatose. However, after what he's seen in the scant minutes he was here, Derek might actually welcome death as it will be the end of his suffering and Peter doesn't want to give him the easy way out.

Choices, choices.

Well, Kate Argent is bound to appear soon and if Derek is here, she'll be inclined to think it was him who killed those people. Leaving his nephew alive instead of killing him or driving him out of the territory might prove to be useful to keep her attention off Peter while he approaches her.

If he proves to be too troublesome, Peter can always change his mind at a later date, after all, and drive him out of the territory.

---

The boy comes only once, completely feral and out of control, and, of all things, tries to save the bus driver from Peter. He bats the unruly pup away (he doesn't know better, after all) but in the end he has to leave because the boy is so out of it, so defensive, that to get what he wants he'd have to kill him and Peter doesn't want that. And even though the need to rid the world of that scum that is cowering and smelling like urine is almost irresistible, it's not worth the price right now. Besides, either the bus driver will die before help arrives or en route to the hospital, or he will end up not very far to Peter's own room, and his nurse has to keep being useful unless she wants to become expendable, after all.

After that incident, the boy won't come no matter how many times Peter calls. One part of him is peeved about the insubordination, but the other is reluctantly impressed because it demonstrates a great deal of the self-control that he lacked on their first encounter, so maybe he's had luck this time.

Except it doesn't take him too long to find out how wrong he is because he couldn't have found a more asinine teenager even if he'd tried. He won't submit, it looks like he resents being a werewolf despite all the advantages it has given him (he actually thinks of them as a compensation, which Peter finds pretty insulting, thank you very much) and, worst of all, he seems to share the same stupidity as Derek where the Argents are concerned. Peter would be able to work with that even if it's not the best foundation to start from, but add to that his obtuse refusal to be taught to round it all up and it makes his first beta a perfect failure.

How disappointing.

Peter is reluctant about how to proceed, though. While he can't afford to be weighted down by a liability, the boy is just a stupid pup, he doesn't know better, and however fragile it might be, he's pack, because that bond is still there. And Peter not only takes care of his messes -because this is undoubtedly his mess; a poor decision made hastily that he won't repeat ever again, sure, but that resolution doesn't change that it's his responsibility to deal with it- but he takes care of his pack no matter how lacking they may be. It's convoluted, he knows, but it's how things work, how good alphas must be.

Still, not everything is a loss and the whole situation may be salvageable yet, because the boy with his wayward beta is certainly interesting and could prove to be the piece he's missing to get his beta to come. With no apparent previous knowledge of the supernatural, he has managed to teach a newly turned wolf control to a certain degree, which is impressive. He also hasn't chickened out even when faced with a feral werewolf, and that shows a loyalty that Peter values above anything else. Even better, he doesn't seem afraid to do what's necessary to keep his people safe, demonstrating a callousness that makes Peter giddy to see what he would be capable of if pushed.

All of which means that no matter how everything evolves, he can't just take care of one Scott McCall even if he continues to refuse the bond and ends up breaking it completely (thus turning omega and not pack and not Peter's responsibility anymore), as it will earn him a vengeful teenager with enough smarts to actually take him down. Again, a trait that he appreciates, but not aimed at him.

Well, if the worst comes to happen, there are hunters in town and Scott is dating the daughter of one, so Peter is sure that at one point or another, if he turns omega, he will cross a line and get himself killed and save Peter the trouble. He has patience in spades, he can wait.

(What's wrong with you, Peter?)

----

Kate Argent finally comes into town. Peter expected her to come into his hospital room and try something but she doesn't. Peter doesn't know if he's disappointed or not about it, but part of him is relieved, because he knows that if she'd had the gall... And while it would have been an immensely satisfying thing, if anyone deserves Peter taking his sweet time to tear their world apart, it's her.

In the meantime, Peter tracks down another cockroach of the ones that helped burn his pack alive and goes to pay him a visit. As his claws are tearing into him without contemplations, he catches a wiff of something that is not human in a terrified girl that witnesses the whole thing along with another boy, and he files it out as something to investigate at a later date. He leaves the mangled corpse behind in clear sight, hoping that it will drive the message to Argent. You can run, you can hide, but his is what will happen to you no matter how much you try to avoid it.

Anticipation is part of the game, after all.

But still, Kate is a dangerous animal and confusing her would be worthwhile (and also Peter could use a little less of police patrols going around, to be honest), so he catches a mountain lion and releases it on the parking lot of the school and watches from far away as chaos reigns.

(What's wrong with you, Peter?)

---

He expected some kind of action from his wayward beta (prompted, no doubt, by Stiles), but being howled at to be lured at night to school is not precisely what he predicted. Nevertheless, he bites so to speak, and decides to make the most out of it and tricks the Argent girl into the school (maybe if she displays the common attitude of her family towards werewolves Scott will finally wake up?), getting the unexpected bonus of the boy and girl from the store, which is perfect, because he wanted to take a second look at her anyways.

It's a very... revealing night, that's for sure.

First, Lydia Martin is a banshee and she doesn't know it, which can prove to be really useful for Peter at a later date if he plays his cards right. Second, that boy from the store has been scratched by a werewolf (either Derek or Scott, but Peter is pretty sure it was the former) and is exhibiting some kind of reaction to it. Third... he still cares at least a little bit for Derek, which is vexing to say the least.

By all means, Peter should have taken the chance to kill him on that parking lot but he simply incapacitated him. True, he hurt him quite a bit (that he cares about him doesn't change the deep well of resentment he harbours, thank you very much) but he'll recover from it given enough time. Why? Derek is proving to be more of a hindrance than anything else, because not only do the Argents already know that he's not the alpha and are trying to use him to find Peter, but also, by the looks of it, he's teaching all sorts of nonsense to Scott that couldn't be more wrong. Which means that either Peter still cares about Derek or he still feels some kind of familiar duty towards his nephew. And he can't deny this because when he's shifted he acts more based on instinct, and he stayed away from vital organs... and it certainly wasn't because he wanted to prolong his suffering.

All in all, Peter is left floundering a little because he has to re-evaluate his stance on this matter. However, before he can decide exactly about how to proceed, he gets found out.

"You must be Stiles," he purrs, delighted to finally have a chance to asses Stiles' intelligence in person without any intermediaries.

Except apart from an admittedly good self-preservation instinct, he doesn't get to find out much because Derek intervenes.

(He sighs inwardly. Always so dramatic, his nephew.)

After the encounter, Peter abandons any semblance of subtlety and leaves the hospital entirely. He has managed to convince Derek that he killed Laura without recongnizing her. It's a little stretch of the truth, because he obviously knew it was her, but it's also true that he wasn't in his right mind when he killed her and he'd have probably not done it if he was. In any case, there's no way to prove it was otherwise and with the way he laid it out, Derek detected no lie, so Peter is pretty satisfied with the results.

While he waits for an opportunity to take Kate down, he does everything he can to make Scott accept the pack. Peter doesn't think it will get him anywhere, to be honest, but it has the added bonus of acting as a test for Stiles to see if he will be a worthy beta, because it's obvious that just winging it won't work for a person with the kind of luck Peter has. Sadly, Scott is more than proof enough of that. He's also sure that the only way to get Scott is to get Stiles, because they're attached at the hip, but at this point he'll be quite content with only getting the latter.

He tries to make Scott give up everyone in his life and Stiles metaphorically grabs at him and doesn't let go. It also serves to make his beta stay away from the Argent girl, but sadly, it only makes Scott even more infatuated because of their forbidden love.

He asks Scott's mother to a date, and the teen in question just gapes uselessly. Stiles crashes his jeep on Peter's car to stop them from having said date. He nearly laughs delightedly right there.

Derek disappears, so Peter decides to kill two birds with one stone. He crashes their prom night both to attack Stiles' date (because Peter always has backup plans) and to get Derek's whereabouts out of him, and the teen bargains for her life, terrified but sure. He gives up a way to locate Derek through Scott's phone, but Peter can see a plan already forming in his eyes, so he makes the teen go with him, because a person like Stiles can do a lot of damage out of sight, while Peter has control of the situation if he doesn't leave him behind.

"Do you want the bite, Stiles?" Peter asks instead of simply taking it and the teen says no. He's lying, he can tell, but Peter leaves anyway. He has more than enough time to convince him later.

(He doesn't.)

That night, he finally manages to slit Kate Argent's throat from side to side, so at least there's that. Unlike with Laura, this time it does feel cathartic because even if he doesn't get to tear stripe after stripe of skin out of her he can torture her with the prospect of losing her niece. -He instantly wishes he could revive Kate so he could kill her again, but this time drawing it out, just like she executed his pack (imperfect, neglectful, bastards most of the time, but ultimately his) agonizingly slow.- But drawing an apology from her provides nothing to Peter besides the pleasure of getting her to give something she didn't want to give, so while she's still conscious, he jumps at Allison, who is going to turn up like her aunt anyways, because that family is a poison like that.

In the end, he doesn't have time to convince Stiles, after all. He ends up on fire and Derek tears his throat out without an ounce of hesitation, just like Peter did with Kate. The little and deeply buried part of him that didn't want to kill Derek because it remembered dies a swift death, unlike Peter, who agonizes for a bit still on fire as he chokes on his own blood.

(What's wrong with you, Peter?)

(What's wrong with you, Peter?)

(What's wrong with you, Peter?)

---

Getting one Lydia Martin to do what he wants shouldn't be this easy, seeing the terrifying intelligence hidden under her almost too perfect strawberry blond curls, but it is. It helps that she's mostly ignorant about the supernatural world and that Peter keeps her terrified enough not to get her footing back, he thinks, because he doubts it would be this easy if she wasn't. As it is, though, it's just as easy as getting information from her about what's happening in Beacon Hills right now.

Part of him considers letting go for a moment, because so much stupidity is unbearable. Really? Peter had thought he had made a bad call biting Scott, but Derek is taking that to a whole new level. Then again, what can he expect? This is Talia's teachings working their magic, after all. She had barely started training Laura, but she never even bothered with Derek, not even just in case something happened.

(Peter kinda hopes that the afterlife is a thing so that she's watching.)

(What's wrong with you, Peter?)

It's not like he has any other options, though, because now that the ritual has started he has to finish it or face being stuck in this limbo of sorts for the rest of eternity or, with any luck, until this girl dies. And although with how things are progressing that doesn't seem too far off in time, really, with Peter's luck she'll die and he'll be haunting this place forever, so he better move things along before that happens.

His nephew's horrified face almost makes it all worth the trouble and he nearly stays to gloat. Instead, he leaves for now. He's already been left behind and killed by him once, and Peter always learns from his mistakes... or he tries to anyway, and he can tell that he's weaker than he was before he was even the alpha, so right now he wouldn't stand a chance if Derek tried to enact a kill uncle, take two.

He knows he can't stay away from his alpha (his lips curl derisively against his will) for long, though. Not only he can't afford to turn an omega right now, but his information about this ritual is limited (which is why he left it as a last resort), so for all he knows, it will unravel if he's not near the alpha that brought him back and he'll end up six feet under again and stuck in between. And while he doesn't want to touch what's going on in Beacon Hills right now with a ten foot pole, he's gone through too much trouble to stay alive to let it go to waste. Besides, while he's not as insane and hell bent on revenge as he was before dying -because there's no doubt about that, he was completely crazy... so crazy, sloppy and out of control he wants to cringe- he still has a little of that feeling inside. Enough, in fact, to seize the opportunity to take care of more Argents if it wanders by and doesn't pose a threat to his continued existence. Besides, staying alive as a big fuck you to the family that disdained his ways and ended up dying for not being more like him in the end is something he appreciates quite a bit too.

(What's wrong with you, Peter?)

So, all in all, he has to depend on Derek for now until he can get himself an alpha to kill and regain his independence again. Which means he has to find out why Derek turned on him at the last minute. He's not looking forward to that conversation now that he hasn't the upper hand, that's for sure.

But before that, he has to know what's happening exactly to be able to play his cards right. Because as much as he knows the information he got from Lydia to be true, it's also an incomplete and he hasn't ever been one to rely on intel he hasn't acquired by himself anyway.

So information gathering he goes... After getting a shower, clean clothes and a much needed haircut, of course, because he felt disgusting, thank you very much. Maggots and dirt is not a look he favours by any means, after all.

He gathers as much as he can before even contemplating coming back. From what he learns the Argent girl is as much of a psycho as her aunt (who called it? who?), Gerard Argent is the master of the kanima now and plotting something nefarious (nope, not worrying at all), Scott is double playing with him (which ratches up his decision to bite him right to the top of his not-a-good-call list because how can he be so stupid?), two of Derek's betas are about to risk becoming omegas just to leave this hellhole of a town (which simultaneously makes them idiots and smart and he never thought that possible) while the third is gravitating towards Scott (another idiot), and Derek is as an incompetent of an alpha as Peter expected him to be. Apart from that, the video store boy is the kanima, Stiles seems to be the same and Lydia still doesn't know why he had to use her for the ritual. Summarised, everything is going to go to hell in a nicely wrapped package and probably over the next few days at the most.

He could have certainly chosen to come back at a better time... if the damn ritual hadn't had a deadline, that is.

Well, no matter. Peter can use this to his advantage, actually, because Derek will need him in one way or another because of the situation and he won't be able to say no.

(What's wrong with you, Peter?)

As luck would have it, just the day he decides to give it a go, Derek's betas grow a backbone (one Peter still isn't sure is a smart or a stupid one) and tell him they're leaving. Peter swoops in while the wound is still gaping open, so to speak, and he gets thrown around for all his troubles. He takes it for a bit, waiting for most of the anger to burn itself out and when it doesn't seem likely, he finally snaps.

(Because no matter what, the one thing he won't do is beg.)

It works.

"See?" Peter mutters looking at his reflection with a grimace. The wound in his mouth is still sluggishly bleeding even if it is mending itself slowly. Derek is sitting a few feet away on the stairs' steps, face stony and silent. Peter doesn't let it deter him. "Fine example, right here. I'm not healing as fast. Coming back from the death isn't easy you know, I'm not as strong as I used to be," he states simply, as if the person that is with him isn't the one who killed him. Putting his weaknesses in the open leaves a sour taste in his mouth, but he sees no other way to put Derek at ease so it's a necessary evil. "I need a pack, an alpha. Like you." And God if this isn't humiliating for Peter, who even at his worst hasn't ever depended on anyone. "I need you as much as you need me."

"Why would I want help from a total psycho?" Derek grunts after he scoffs, not even turning to look at Peter.

"First of all, I'm not a total psycho," Peter corrects him before feeling the need to point out. "By the way, you're the one that slashed my throat right open, but we're all works in progress, right? So." Is there a flicker of regret he sees there? Oh, good, Peter feels better about wanting to find alpha powers somewhere else now that he sees some reciprocity on the familial front. "We need each other. Sometimes when you need help, you turn to people you'd never expect."

Derek's shoulders slump a little as his mouth presses into a tighter line and Peter knows he has gained a foothold, so it's time to use what always saved him the spot in his pack no matter what happened: his knowledge.

He shares what he knows about Scott and Gerard and tells him how to save Jackson, because for all that Derek's first inclination seems to be killing (which Peter finds equally amusing and hypocritical on his part), deep down he wants exactly the opposite.

Several hours later Peter is regretting deeply ever coming back to life. Jackson is about to turn into a gigantic creature that has wings (which implies flying, as if it wasn't sufficiently terrifying when it was earth-bound) and they have to rely on Tweedledee and Tweedledum to bring it towards them. Ah, and with the help of Chris Argent, wonderful! If that wasn't bad enough, Derek is doing as always and rushing in without any plan whatsoever, which is exactly what that geriatric fascist wants. This is the recipe for disaster and Peter can do nothing but to try to stay away from the crossfire and wait for an opportunity to either strike or beat it as fast as his legs can carry him because he really wasn't exaggerating (if anything, he was downplaying it) when he said he was weak.

Life has never been better.

(That was sarcasm, if anyone was wondering.)

Everything goes to hell, of course, no surprises there. Gerard makes his appearance after making Jackson maim Derek and the little mini Kate doesn't have any qualms about shooting her first love. Again, nothing surprising there. What is surprising is Scott using Derek to bite Gerard because he wants to be cured of cancer, even more so when it turns out the teen has been switching the man's medication with mountain ash filled pills so that if it came down to it, the bite would kill him. It's impressively cunning and Peter would find himself reluctantly impressed if he didn't dislike the sloppy execution (despite being at odds, no one can use Peter's family unless it's Peter himself) and didn't suspect someone else's hand at play in all this.

Nevertheless, Peter finds the image of a black goo vomiting Gerard a sight for the sore eyes. A sight that gets completed by the little bitch's expression of betrayal and self-loathing and Chris' revolted and pained one. Well, that earns Scott a descend to the still respectable second position on his not-a-good-call list, congratulations.

(Given his previous record, Peter is pretty sure he won't stay that low on the list for long, though.)

Everything devolves into a fist fight once again and why is everyone forgetting about the psycho bitch that was trying to kill them not a minute ago, Peter doesn't understand, not even in the face of a common enemy, so he keeps his distance.

Stiles chooses that moment to crash his jeep right through the walls and into the kanima, bringing Lydia with him. Peter would swear he hears a celestial chorus singing in the background, because yes! Someone else thinking with their brains and not their fists! Peter feels even more vindicated when the teen beats a hasty retreat right afterwards, because someone finally has an ounce of self-preservation instincts too!

Lydia goes forward, terrified but unwavering, holding her trembling hand up with what looks like a key. Peter is quite ambivalent about her, but he hopes she doesn't end up a shish kebab if only so that dealing with Jackson doesn't become even more difficult. He has already been thrown around quite a bit today and while a bed sounds heavenly right now, he won't get that until this matter is resolved. And that will happen certainly sooner if Lydia doesn't end up in a kanima claw skewer.

(What's wrong with you, Peter?)

She doesn't and Jackson turns back partially. He nods at Derek while Lydia cries, and while that is clearly a sign of acceptance to his fate, Peter doesn't want to risk it (especially since Derek goes for the frontal assault as always) so he attacks from behind too. And Jackson dies in a scene worthy of a movie that Peter would give an Oscar to.

Thank god it's over, Peter really needs that bed and cleaning this mess up is going to take a while.

Except since this is Beacon Hills, nothing is that easy, and Jackson comes back to life a regular werewolf. Color Peter confused, because he's never heard of this happening... but well, now he doesn't have to find a way to bring back a body to the morgue, so at least that's nice? And since there's no way that Chris Argent will not take care of his father's body, he doesn't get the pleasure of burning it either, so essentially the wish of a bed in his near future has become more of a certainty rather than a possibility.

"Is leaving him alive really wise?" he asks, because someone has to, because they don't know if this change is permanent.

Except for Stiles, who just purses his lips, and Chris Argent, who is as stony as ever, the rest turn to look at him horrified.

"What's wrong with you, Peter?" Derek hisses.

Peter smiles with all teeth.

(Ah, so it's going to be this way.)

---

And now the alpha pack is in town, isn't that wonderful?

Why was he so adamant on staying alive besides for being a contrary bastard?

(Peter has to remind himself a lot of the sweet sight of a destroyed Argent family these days.)

---

"What's wrong with you?" seethes Derek before throwing Peter into a wall and leaving.

Peter picks himself up, a satisfied smirk never leaving his face, and dusts his clothes. Riling his nephew is so easy and at the same time so immensely satisfying... His day isn't complete if those words haven't left his mouth and if he gets him to lose it enough to get physical, he counts it as a win, because lately that doesn't happen that much for some reason he can't discern. What? He'll take pleasure from everything he can these days. And since Stiles is here most of time helping with the search of Erica and Boyd, he's become his unwitting accomplice, because boy, does he irritate Derek. Peter would go as far as to consider it a gift the teen has.

He'll never admit it to the teen, of course, but he really enjoys the verbal matches he has with him. Stiles has always been mouthy, but now that he doesn't think likely that Peter will attack him (although Peter knows he keeps mountain ash on himself at all times, the smart kid) his invective is a thing of beauty.

Out of all the people that Peter could have been saddled with, he has been lucky, indeed.

(Part of him mourns that Stiles wasn't the one out there in the woods or that he didn't accept the bite when Peter could give it to him. The possibilities... Ah, it would have been glorious, wouldn't it?)

"Anything you want to share with the class, Stiles?" he drawls to the teen, who has been staring fixedly at him since Derek left to drag Isaac into another patrol through the woods, hoping to find something that wasn't there yesterday, or the day before, or the day before (and so on) and that Peter bets that won't be today either.

"You know, I was a kid so I had an excuse, but what's your deal?"

Peter arches an eyebrow and levels the teen with an unimpressed stare. Stiles huddles in his too big red hoodie and raises both eyebrows at him, unrepentant. Peter blinks slowly, because he wasn't wearing that before and because it feels familiar. Suddenly, his breath catches because he's pretty sure that if he looks on the back of it, he'll find a 01 accompanied by his last name in big bold letters.

"There's nothing wrong with you? What a load of bullshit." Peter can't breathe and he's insanely grateful that Stiles can't hear that. "There's something wrong in everyone, so who fucking cares?"

"Wha-"

"There's something wrong in everyone, Peter," Stiles repeats, his intense eyes never leaving Peter's, "so who fucking cares? Right, wrong, who cares? Whoever says that there's nothing wrong with them is either delusional or a child or plain stupid."

"There's... something wrong with me?" Peter finds himself unconsciously parroting back and this is ridiculous, this shouldn't affect him this much, shouldn't feel as if he's having an epiphany. "And there's nothing wrong with that?"

"Not unless the wrong in you tries to have another go at my people, because then my wrong would come out to play, and everything would be wrong with that... for you, capiche?"

"Duly noted," Peter answers as dryly as he can, because his world feels off its axis right now.

Then, Stiles extends an arm, hand clearly possed for a handshake and Peter is reaching before he can think of it. When Stiles lets go, gummy bears have been left behind.

Peter can't help it. He laughs.

(And for the first time, he feels happy.)

What's wrong with you, Peter?

Who cares?

[patriotsnet]

Are Republicans Trying To Get Rid Of Social Security

New Post has been published on https://www.patriotsnet.com/are-republicans-trying-to-get-rid-of-social-security/

Are Republicans Trying To Get Rid Of Social Security

Trumps Scheme To Sabotage Medicare And Social Security

Republican Introduces Legislation To Completely Gut Social Security

Dont get too comfortable with your Social Security and Medicare.

Thats the warning President Trump sent from his New Jersey golf course Saturday as he announced a package of coronavirus relief that turns out to be more of a cynical and cruel campaign stunt.

Heres why its cynical:

Democrats and even some Republicans are questioning the legality of his new executive orders, which depend in large measure on the voluntary cooperation of employers and cash-strapped state legislatures.

The cut in payroll taxes that finance Social Security and Medicare is actually a deferment that workers or their employers would have to cough up next year. But Trump vowed to make the cut permanent.

The temporary $400 in weekly supplemental unemployment benefits turns out to be only $300. States would be challenged to kick in another $100, but most legislatures are cash-strapped and forbidden by constitutions or laws to run deficits like the federal government can. They cant print money either. Trump would filch the $300 of federal money from funds budgeted for natural disasters in hurricane season no less and that is certain to be challenged in court.;

The order to resume a moratorium on evictions is nothing more than an instruction to government agencies to consider whether it needs to be done and to look for money in their existing budgets to help terrified renters.

Hes raising false hopes for everyone else. Thats what makes it cruel.

This is what he said:

Trumps Plan To Defund Social Security

On August 8, at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, President Donald Trump announced that his administration is seeking to delay much of the payroll tax that funds Social Security1 of 4 unilateral actions he took in lieu of negotiating with Congress on meaningful economic relief legislation. The president also said that if he is reelected, he wants not only to turn the delay into a tax cut that would result in significant revenue losses for Social Security, but also to eliminate employee payroll taxes for good. As our analysis based on the Social Security trustees projections shows, eliminating employee payroll taxes along the lines that the president has proposed would, absent additional action, completely exhaust the Social Security trust fund by 2026 or earlier and result in steep benefit cuts.

Trump has made clear that he wants the tax that is delayed this fall under his unilateral action to be permanently forgiven, which would result in a permanent revenue loss of about $100 billion for Social Security. At the Bedminster press conference, President Trump also stated, If Im victorious on November 3rd, I plan to forgive these taxes and make permanent cuts to the payroll tax. Trump doubled down on these comments on Monday, August 10, reiterating, After the election, on the assumption that it will be victorious for an administration thats done a great job, we will be ending that tax, well be terminating that tax.

Social Security Is Facing A Nearly $17 Trillion Funding Gap

If Biden wins in November, he’ll have a host of issues to immediately tackle, including the ongoing response to the coronavirus pandemic, job creation, and growing the U.S. economy. But don’t overlook perhaps the biggest long-term challenge facing the president: Social Security’s widening cash shortfall.

Every year, the Social Security Board of Trustees releases a report that examines the short-term and long-term outlook for the program. In each of the past 35 years, the Trustees have cautioned that long-term revenue collection won’t be sufficient to cover outlays. This is a fancy way of saying that the existing payout schedule, inclusive of cost-of-living adjustments , isn’t sustainable. Social Security is facing an estimated $16.8 trillion funding shortfall between 2035 — when the Trustees anticipate the program will exhaust its $2.9 trillion in asset reserves — and 2094. Benefit cuts of up to 24% may await retired workers as a result.

Something needs to be done soon to shore up Social Security; otherwise, our nation’s retired workforce could be in big financial trouble in less than 15 years.

However, Biden has a plan.

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President Trump Wont Destroy Social Securitybut Hes Not Going To Save It

Former Vice President Joe Biden is running campaign ads that claim President Trump signed an executive action directing funding cuts for Social Security and proposed slashing hundreds of billions of dollars from the Social Security Trust Fund every year.;

The problem is, however, that this just isnt so.

A Biden campaign TV ad falsely claims that a government analysis of President Donald Trumps planned cuts to Social Security shows that if Trump gets his way, Social Security benefits will run out in just three years from now, says FactCheck.org.;

The cliche politics aint beanbag exists for a reason: Campaigns use overhyped rhetoric to distort their opponents positions and make them appear less electable. Seniors should rest easy and understand that their Social Security benefits arent going anywhere.

But this dynamic of misleading charges belies a more fundamental problem: Something will eventually need to be done to buttress Social Securitys finances. Episodes like this dont bode well for future attempts to reform Social Security.

President Trumps Record On Social Security

In 2016, the president distinguished himself from other Republicans by promising to leave Social Security alone. Over the past four years, hes pretty much done just that.

There have been no Bush-like privatization plans from the Trump administration, no Simpson/Bowles-inspired murmings over cutting benefits or raising the full retirement age. Theres been no real plan to do much of anything. The Biden campaign ad is as close as theres been to a controversy, and even that misrepresents the presidents aims.

Should Trump win in November you can expect more of the same.;

I haven’t seen anything discussed on Social Security reform, Andrew Biggs, a research fellow at the conservative-leaning think tank AEI told Forbes Advisor. The president has argued against any Social Security benefit cuts but hasn’t waded into how Social Security’s long-term funding should be secured.

While this should assuage any fears about changes to the Social Security status quo and soothe soon-to-be retirees worried about cuts to their monthly checks, its less than ideal that the Trump administration has no plans to shore up Social Securitys long-term finances.;

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Switch The Program’s Inflationary Tether To The Cpi

Fourth and finally, Biden has suggested that the inflationary tether for Social Security be changed from the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers to the Consumer Price Index for the Elderly .

The CPI-W has been the program’s inflationary measure since 1975, and while it’s resulted in a positive COLA in 42 of the past 45 years, the purchasing power of Social Security dollars has been slashed by 30% since 2000. That’s because the CPI-W doesn’t do a very good job of accurately measuring the costs that seniors are contending with. Even though more than 80% of Social Security beneficiaries are seniors, the CPI-W tracks the spending habits of urban and clerical workers, who often aren’t seniors or receiving Social Security benefits.

Under Biden’s plan, the CPI-E would become the new inflationary tether. The CPI-E specifically tracks the spending habits of households with persons aged 62 and up. In theory, this should result in a more accurate COLA each year.

Democrats Oppose Relief For Essential Workers Just Because Of Politics

Payroll taxes are the largest taxes most workers pay, and during the economic lockdown, many families have gone from earning two incomes to earning just one. Thats why Congress ought to provide an instant payraise for the frontline workers who are keeping this economy running by supporting Rep. Kevin Bradys Support for Workers, Families, and Social Security Act. The bill forgives employee …

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They Aim To Fix Social Security Through Long

Finally, Republicans do want to fix Social Security, but they are at the opposite side of the spectrum from Democrats on how to do that. Whereas Democrats prefer raising revenue to make up for an expected $13.2 trillion cash shortfall between 2034 and 2092, Republicans want to reduce the program’s long-term expenditures.

How, you ask? As noted, they’d implement the Chained CPI, which would result in lower annual COLAs, and thereby reduce the amount of expenditures heading to beneficiaries over the long run.

Republicans are also big proponents of raising the full retirement age, or the age at which you become eligible for your full retirement benefit. Currently, set to peak at age 67 for those born in 2022 or later, Republicans would like to see this gradually increased to as high as age 70. This would require retired workers to either wait longer to receive their full payout, or to accept a steeper monthly reduction if claiming early. Either way, it reduces the lifetime benefits paid out by Social Security, and thereby saves the program money.

Some Republicans, including Donald Trump, have called for a form of means-testing, which would reduce or eliminate Social Security benefit payments for those folks or couples who are wealthy.

Do Republicans In Congress Want To Take Away Social Security Medicare Medicaid

Republicans Are Lying About Social Security

Its been a time-tested Democratic attack line: Republicans are going to take away your Medicare, or maybe your Social Security. We gave a variant of the line our 2011 Lie of the Year.

Now the talking point has re-emerged, in a , from Oregons Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee:

“#TrumpTax was only the beginning. After giving massive tax giveaways to wealthy & powerful shareholders, Republicans in Congress are plotting to take away Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.”

#TrumpTax was only the beginning. After giving massive tax giveaways to wealthy & powerful shareholders, Republicans in Congress are plotting to take away Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

Ron Wyden

In reality, the notion that congressional Republicans are scheming to “take away” Medicaid, Medicare or Social Security is inaccurate.

The Democratic news release

The first piece of evidence undercutting the tweets message is actually linked in the tweet itself.

An accompanying Senate Democratic press release, dated March 27, starts by saying, “Its only been a few months since Republicans jammed through their massive giveaway to corporate executives and wealthy shareholders. Now theyre planning on paying for it with huge cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, despite President Trumps promises that he wouldnt do so.”

These quotes suggest the Republican in charge of the House continues to seek overhauls of the entitlement system.

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Biden To Meet With Senate Republicans About Covid

The cuts can be avoided, budget experts say, only with 60 Senate votes leaving Democrats back where they started, because it’s unclear whether Republicans would vote to prevent the cuts after having opposed a partisan relief package.

“It’s Medicare. It’s farm subsidies,” said Marc Goldwein, a budget expert at the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. “It’s a bunch of programs that would be cut.”

The size of the reductions in Medicare and other social safety net program would depend on the size of the package, but they’d be significant even if the price tag fell under $1 trillion. Social Security and low-income programs would be exempt.

“The cuts would be huge,” said Paul Van de Water, a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal think tank. “It’s a critical issue, which, at some point, is going to have to be dealt with.”

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who will shepherd the reconciliation process and has been a supporter of expanding safety net programs, will work to prevent the cuts, said his spokesman, Keane Bhatt.

Bhatt pointed to the last time budget reconciliation was used to make a big change when Republicans passed a costly tax cut on a partisan vote, which triggered $25 billion in Medicare cuts. But Democrats joined Republicans to prevent the cuts from taking effect in a government funding measure that was passed subsequently.

NBC News app for breaking news and politics

Republicans Are Pushing Myths About Social Security

Republican politicians want to cut Social Security. They never say so out loud, but their 2016 platform reveals the truth. In the section labeled, Saving Social Security, it proclaims, As Republicans, we oppose tax increases Since Social Security cannot deficit spend and is projecting a shortfall in 2035 if Congress doesnt act, that only leaves benefit cuts.

Representative John Larson , the Chairman of the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Social Security, is trying to force his Republican colleagues into the open. Larson is the sponsor of the Social Security 2100 Act, which increases Social Securitys modest benefits. Additionally, it raises enough revenue to ensure that all benefits can be paid in full and on time through the year 2100 and beyond. Ninety percent of the Democrats in the House of Representatives are co-sponsors, but not a single Republican. Given their refusal to back his bill, Rep. Larson has urged Republicans to offer an alternative proposal to no avail.

Non-action is not an option, unless your goal is to cut Social Security. The most recent Social Security Trustees’ Report projects that with no action, benefits will be automatically reduced by 20 percent in 2035. As Chairman Larson has plainly stated, The hard truth of the matter is that Republicans want to cut Social Security, and doing nothing achieves their goal.

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Trump White House Claim The Tax Relief Will Not Impact Social Security

On Sunday, as he boarded Marine One, Trump told reporters that the executive order deferring;payroll taxes for some Americans;will “have zero impact on Social Security.”;

“We protect Social Security,” he added, according to Fox News.

An official from the;White House told USA TODAY on Tuesday that the Social Security Trust Fund is not at risk, since payment deferral is only temporary, and at present, must be paid back early in 2021. The official confirmed, though, that the president;called;on;Congress to make the;deferral permanent,;thereby eliminating the tax.

Garrett Watson, a senior policy analyst at the Tax Foundation, an independent tax policy think tank, told USA TODAY that eliminating the tax is not the same as eliminating Social Security.

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“Strictly speaking, Social Security could be funded using general fund revenue or alternative revenue source, so terminating a tax and terminating a program are distinct things,” he;wrote in an email.

“However, it would be reasonable to ask what would happen with the program absent an alternative plan to fund it,” Watson added.

On Wednesday, Trump suggested an alternate source for the first time the general fund of government revenues ;per Fox Business.

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Republicans Demand Social Security And Medicare Cuts Is It Reported

Yesterday The Hill reported, in House GOP says sequester is leverage in next budget battle, that Rep. Paul Ryan is pushing for cuts in Social Security and Medicare:

In a meeting with House conservatives, Rep. Paul Ryan , told rank-and-file lawmakers that, as the partys chief budget negotiator, he would push instead for long-term reforms to entitlement programs in exchange for changes to sequestration spending cuts that Democrats are expected to demand.

Rep. Matt Salmon said that during the GOP meeting, Ryan pointed to sequestration as the partys leverage with Democrats and said the Republican negotiators would not accept revenue increases in exchange.

Were going to try to push for some substantial reforms on entitlement spending and our backstop is sequestration, Salmon said in describing Ryans remarks.

Most Americans dont read The Hill. And most Americans dont know that long-term reforms to entitlement spending specifically means cuts to Social Security and Medicare.

Reuters is pretty much the only outlet carrying this news, in;U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan wants narrower focus for new budget talks,

Thats about it. So lets go back to a few weeks before The Hills report, and see if there have been reports in the major media that spell out for the public that, having dropped their demand to get rid of Obamacare Republicans are demanding cuts in Social Security and Medicare.

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Democrats Risk Unintended Medicare Cuts If They Pass Partisan Covid Relief

WASHINGTON Democrats considering a maneuver to forgo bipartisan support to pass Covid-19 relief are confronting an unintended consequence: Doing so could automatically cut Medicare.

Many Democrats want to pass President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief proposal, which includes $1,400 stimulus checks and aid to local governments. A group of Republican senators is pushing for a smaller plan that would provide $1,000 checks.

So Democratic leaders are preparing to use a process known as budget reconciliation, which would allow them to pass Biden’s proposal without getting 60 votes in the Senate, which would require at least 10 Republicans.

But under the Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010, known as PAYGO, new laws that raise the national debt automatically trigger offsetting cuts in some safety net programs.

They Haven’t Taken A Dime From The Social Security Program That Isn’t Accounted For

Another misconception is that the Republican Party stole money from the Social Security Trust and used it to fund wars. More specifically, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush have come under intense scrutiny for borrowing from Social Security and “not putting the money back.”

However, the truth of the matter is that Congress has been able to “borrow” Social Security’s excess cash for five decades, and it’s happened under every single president over that stretch. In fact, the Social Security Administration is required by law to purchase special-issue bonds and certificates of indebtedness with this excess cash. Please note the emphasis on “required by law” that I’ve added above. The federal government isn’t simply going to sit on this excess cash it borrows from Social Security. It’s spending this cash on various line items, which may be wars and the defense budget, as well as education, healthcare, and pretty much any other expenditure you can think of.

This setup is actually a win-win for both parties. The federal government has a relatively liquid source of borrowing with the Social Security Trust, and the Trust is able to generate significant annual income from the interest it earns on its loans. Last year, $85.1 billion of the $996.6 billion that was generated by the program came from interest income.

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[dipulb3]

Analysis: The racist 'replacement theory' has it all backward

New Post has been published on https://appradab.com/analysis-the-racist-replacement-theory-has-it-all-backward/

Analysis: The racist 'replacement theory' has it all backward

But that racist “replacement theory” inverts the real consequence of immigration for its target audience of Whites uneasy about social and racial change: Many of the Whites most drawn to the far-right argument that new arrivals are displacing “real Americans” are among those with the most to lose if the nation reduces, much less eliminates, immigration in the decades ahead.

With or without immigration, the White share of the population will decline in the coming decades, census projections show. But if immigration is reduced or eliminated, America will grow older, with many fewer working-age adults available to support an exploding number of retirees. And that would not only slow overall economic growth, multiple projections have found, but also would increase pressure for cuts in the Social Security and Medicare benefits that provide a lifeline to the older Whites most drawn to the right’s anti-immigrant arguments.

“The projections show we are going to be dealing with lower population growth and an aging population, and the only way we are going to be able to keep our labor force growing and vital is through immigration,” says William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program. “It’s a matter of math. I never understood why people who are anti-immigration can’t understand the math of the whole thing, because it’s quite simple.”

If the nation severely restricts immigration, the fiscal impact would be to “double the load on working-age people of all these seniors,” warns Dowell Myers, a demographer at the University of Southern California’s Sol Price School of Public Policy.

“Replacement theory,” sometimes called the “great replacement,” gestated in the swampy waters of far-right White supremacist groups. But in the Donald Trump era it has migrated closer to the GOP mainstream. Fox News Channel host Tucker Carlson, who often spreads xenophobic arguments, has ardently embraced the charge that Democrats are “trying to replace the current electorate — the voters now casting ballots — with new people, more obedient voters from the Third World.” Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, both Republicans, have echoed him in recent public statements. The far-right Republican House members, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who floated plans for a Trump-like “America First Caucus” before scrapping them, declared in a recruiting document disclosed last week by the Punchbowl website that large-scale immigration threatens “the long-term existential future of America as a unique country with a unique culture and a unique identity.”

White population share declining either way

Immigrants have indeed steadily increased as a share of America’s population since 1965, when Congress rewrote the immigration laws, which had severely restricted immigration since 1924. Immigrants now compose just under 14% of the US population — almost triple their share in 1970 and approaching the all-time high of around 15% in the “melting pot” era around the turn of the 20th century.

But new immigration is no longer the primary driver of the growing racial, ethnic and religious diversity that unnerves much of the GOP coalition. In a recent paper, Frey explored Census Bureau projections that examined the racial composition of American society through 2060 under scenarios that anticipated four different levels of future immigration. Under all four scenarios, the White share of the population significantly declined and the minority share rose.

Today, Whites make up about 60% of the population. At the immigration levels America experienced during the first half of the past decade — a little over 1 million new entrants per year — that would decline by 2060 to 44%. With immigration levels reduced to about half that, roughly as the Trump administration and most congressional Republicans proposed in 2018 legislation that ultimately failed, the number still shrinks to 46%. Even if the US shut off all immigration in the coming decades, Whites would still decline to just over 51% of the population, the census projections concluded. (At an accelerated level of immigration, the White share fell to 42%.)

Under all four scenarios, the total number of Hispanics, Blacks and mixed-race Americans increased over the coming decades, as did Asian Americans in each scenario except the extreme case of entirely shutting off immigration. But in all four census projections, even the one that completely eliminates future immigration, the total number of Whites declined.

The reason is straightforward: As a group, Whites are aging and producing fewer children. Not only is the White share of the youth population steadily declining, but so are the absolute number of White kids. From 2010 through 2019, Frey calculated in another recent paper, the number of Whites under 18 fell by 3.2 million nationwide; in a striking 44 states, there were fewer White children in 2019 than in 2010. The number of Black kids also slightly fell nationwide over the past decade.

Asian Americans, mixed-race and, above all, Latinos added more children over the past decade, but not enough to completely offset those declines: After growing substantially in the 1990s and modestly in the 2000s, the total number of American kids fell from 2010 through 2019, an ominous milestone. And while that number is expected to shift back slightly into positive territory over this decade, fewer children today establishes an unmistakable implication for tomorrow: fewer adults available as consumers, workers and taxpayers.

Just as the Census Bureau forecasts growing racial diversity under any future level of immigration, it likewise projects ominously slow growth in America’s working-age population without more immigration. Under the immigration levels of the early 2010s, America’s population aged 18-64 will rise by only about 4% through 2035, a historically slow increase. At the reduced level Republicans sought, it would remain virtually stagnant, and with no immigration it will actually shrink by 4%. Only in the high-immigration scenario does the workforce experience significant growth: about 8%.

Working with the economics department at George Mason University, an institution whose work conservatives often cite, the pro-immigration group FWD.us issued a recent paper that looked out further, projecting the size of the workforce through 2050. Those forecasts likewise showed that the number of workers increases only very slightly through the next three decades under a lower level of immigration similar to what Trump and the GOP sought, and contracts severely (with 17 million fewer workers then than now) if immigration is entirely shut off. Like the Census Bureau, the study found that only with accelerated immigration does the working-age population experience significant growth.

Senior population is rising fast

These forecasts don’t map just some hazy, distant future. The total US population may have increased more slowly over the past 10 years than in any other decade in American history, census projections show. In 23 states, the working-age population already declined from 2010 to 2019, Frey has calculated. Topping those numbers are West Virginia (down almost 9%), Vermont (5%), Maine (4%) and Illinois and Wyoming (between 3% and 4%). In the years ahead, more states are certain to join that list, Frey says, especially those that can’t attract either immigrants from abroad or domestic migrants from other states.

“You’ve got tons of baby boomers who are retiring and there are not enough White workforce entrants to match the outflow,” agrees Myers.

Because population growth is an essential component of economic growth, these numbers would be foreboding enough under any circumstances. But to demographers they are especially troubling, because the working-age population is stagnating exactly as the nation’s senior population is exploding, with the retirement of the huge baby boom generation born between 1946 and 1964.

In every state, Frey’s figures show, the senior population grew far faster over the past decade than those of working age. (In fact, the senior population grew faster in every state than the working-age cohort did in any state.) That dynamic will only accelerate in the coming years: the Census Bureau’s projections show that under any immigration scenario, the number of seniors in America will grow by about 40% through 2035.

An increasing number of seniors, coupled with a stalled working-age population, means a deteriorating balance in what demographers call the “dependency ratio” or “senior ratio”: that is, the number of seniors who must be funded in retirement for each working-age adult available to pay the taxes that support them.

Today, the US has about 27 seniors for every 100 working-age adults. As Myers notes, that itself represents an increase, driven by the retirement of the first baby boomers around 2010, from levels that had remained fairly constant (at just under 20 seniors per 100 working-age adults) during the final quarter of the 20th century. But that growth represents only the first tremors of the coming earthquake.

“We are going to see that ratio really ramp up quickly in the years ahead,” says Phillip Connor, a senior demographer at FWD.us.

Even at the relatively higher levels of immigration common in the first half of the past decade, the number of seniors per 100 workers would rise to 37 by 2050, the FWD.us study found. At the lower levels of immigration Republicans sought under Trump, or no immigration at all, it would soar to 40 or more. Another study released in February by the National Immigration Forum reached similar conclusions.

Such numbers would leave the US facing dependency ratios now common in European countries like Germany, France and Spain — where there are about 33 seniors for every 100 working-age adults — whose aging profiles have been a headwind against economic growth. The US, in those scenarios, would even approach the dependency ratio evident in Japan, a society deeply resistant to immigration, which today has nearly 50 seniors for every 100 workers.

And even projections based on the 18-64 population, Myers notes, might understate the problem, because they include young adults in their late teens and early 20s, many of whom will be in school, not the workforce. That’s why he thinks the share of seniors to actual workers, in practice, could roughly double over the coming decades, also leaving the US with only about two workers for every retiree, the unenviable position Japan confronts today.

“We’ve never had that number before,” he says. “We deserve all our entitlements and we earned it, but someone has got to carry the load and it’s these working age people.” An America so tilted toward seniors, he says, would be “top heavy,” producing a burden for supporting seniors that will be “crushing” on the constricted number of workers.

‘The brown and the gray’

Indeed, the FWD.us study found that if immigration is reduced to roughly the lower level that Republicans pursued under Trump, Social Security, to maintain current benefits, would need to pay out $400 billion more in 2050 than the system is projected to raise in revenue; with no immigration, the shortfall would rise to nearly $450 billion.

Deficits that large would require either big tax increases on the working-age population or benefit cuts for retirees, who will remain mostly White for decades to come (because of the extremely limited immigration between 1924 and 1965). Low, much less no, future immigration “is certainly not sustainable in terms of keeping … what we have today” in federal retirement benefits for the elderly, Connor says.

One of the great ironies of 21st-century America is that the older Whites who are often the most receptive to anti-immigrant arguments like the “replacement theory” will be relying on an increasingly non-White workforce to fund their retirement through the payroll taxes they pay. In that way, the fates of what I’ve called the “brown and the gray” — the mostly diverse younger and preponderantly White older generations — are linked: There is no financial security for the “gray” without greater economic opportunity for the “brown.” But few of the conservative Whites at the core of the GOP coalition apparently see that connection.

In polling by the nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute, about three-fifths of Republicans in both 2019 and 2020 agreed with the harshly worded statement that “immigrants are invading our country and replacing our cultural and ethnic background.” Among Whites who described themselves as very favorable toward Trump, more than three-fourths in each year endorsed that idea, according to detailed results provided by the institute.

In 2019, nearly half of all Whites 50 and older agreed with that statement, which echoes the language of the “replacement theory” conspiracy; that number declined somewhat in 2020, but few opinion analysts would be surprised if it rises again with Trump out of office and conservative media, like Fox News, incessantly fanning alarms over undocumented immigration and unaccompanied minors at the southern border. Already the Public Religion Research Institute polling shows that Republicans who receive most of their information from Fox News are more likely than others in the GOP to embrace the “invading” argument.

The economic realities facing the nation suggest that the “replacement theory” has the equation almost exactly backward. Carlson, Johnson and other proponents of the theory are telling their audience centered on older and working-class Whites that they should fear being “replaced” by immigrants. But the real threat to those constituencies, as more of them step into retirement, is that they won’t be replaced by immigrants in the workforce and the tax base.

Without more immigrants, those culturally anxious Whites face the virtual certainty of more financial pressure on their federal retirement benefits and slower economic growth for American society overall.

“You talk about ‘replacement,’ well, they need to be replaced in the workforce — that’s the issue,” Frey says. “Growing the younger age groups and particularly the younger workforce age groups is essential for us to not get into a situation of accentuated age dependency.”

It’s far from the first time, but in pushing the racist “replacement theory,” the voices of the populist right are stirring cultural anxieties to mobilize their blue-collar and older White constituencies behind economic policies that harm their own interests.

[orbemnews]

The Coronavirus Crossroads: the Vaccinated, the Stymied and the Waiting For a vast majority of Americans, a coronavirus vaccine is like sleep for a new parent: It’s all you can think about, even if you have no idea when you will get it. People are scrolling through perpetually crashing websites at 3 a.m., or driving 150 miles each way in the snow. Others are lining up at grocery stores for hours on end, hoping to snag a leftover shot, or racing to hospitals amid rumors of extra doses. Many more are tossing in bed in the dark, praying that tomorrow will be their mother’s lucky day. A small portion — about 11 percent — have received one or two shots of the vaccine, leaving the nation in a medical and cultural interregnum. Some of those with only one shot are in a precarious limbo, in states snarled over second-dose distribution. Byzantine rules setting up tiers of the eligible mean most will be holding their collective breath for months down the road, as another set moves gingerly toward the restoration of their lives on the other side of the divide. “I’ve been struck with the outpouring of grief and loss that the obstacles to getting the vaccine has generated,” said Niti Seth, 73, a psychologist and department dean at Cambridge College in Boston. She has been unable to get a vaccine appointment, despite spending all hours of the day and night online reading and clicking. “A glimpse of the possibilities of reclaiming our lives has led, paradoxically, to a more palpable sense of what we had to give up,” Ms. Seth said. Debates over masks, indoor eating, testing availability and school reopenings all now center on a single axis: the lagging rollout of the vaccine. It is the alchemy of “unrelenting waves of exhaustion, fear, hope, uncertainty and pandemic fatigue,” said Lindsey Leininger, a health policy researcher and a clinical professor at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth in Hanover, N.H. “I stay focused on the lotus mud metaphor and think about how gosh-darned beautiful we are all going to be when we come out the other side.” Still, although cases and hospitalizations continue to decline, and as the pace of vaccinations picks up, some Americans — including those now vaccinated and ostensibly protected — are approaching the spring and summer with quite a bit of trepidation. The divide is still quite wide between the haves and the have-nots, and many fear that even a vaccinated nation and world won’t restore a sense of safety or security. Weeks into the rollout, there are stories of heroism, supreme luck and perseverance, and those of ignominy, and widespread inequality. Some post their injections and vaccination cards on social media, while their friends and neighbors contemplate a spring of double masking, a tool in the race between vaccines and the new, more contagious variants of the virus snaking their way across the nation. The Nextdoor website has become an outpost for sightings of vaccination sites, as neighbors rush to refresh their browsers. There are tales of resentment and stories of guilt. Marsha Henderson has become a bit of a shot whisperer with her friends in Washington D.C., after securing doses for herself, her husband and their 40-year-old daughter who works in health care. Many of the sites on the city’s websites turned out to not have any vaccines, so she realized she needed to only check times for grocery stores. She gamed out times to recheck. “You have to have the ability to be on a computer in the middle of the day and sit there,” said Mrs. Henderson, who is 71. She became so good at it, an ambassador’s wife called her for tips. Still, she said, her second shot on Wednesday,“won’t change my behavior.” “I am more comfortable with the Comcast man to fix my computer, and there is some rain damage I need to get fixed,” she said. “But I will be doing carry out and outdoor dining probable for another year, in part because we don’t know the variants.” In New York, Jamie Anderson emailed a nonprofit group in northern Manhattan on behalf of her father, Jimmy Mattias, who is 66. “The nonprofit called me on Tuesday to get his details,” said Ms. Anderson, who lives in the Bronx, not far from her father in Washington Heights in Manhattan. “He was called on Wednesday to confirm an appointment, and Thursday morning he had his first dose. It was so fast, I truly couldn’t believe it.” Mr. Mattias, who works as a manager at a storage center, said extra efforts had been made to vaccinate people his age, but he had no intention of making the effort on his own because he feared missing work. “She’s my daughter, and she is looking out for me,” he said. His co-workers and bosses are all younger, jealous yet thrilled for him, while friends his age are skeptical. “Some don’t think the system was designed to create a vaccine that quickly,” he said. “I tell them this is not the 1800s, things happen faster. Let’s face the facts, this is a horrible situation.” Catherine Sharp, a freelance photographer in Brooklyn, like many New Yorkers, has had less luck. Ms. Sharp, 26, relocated to Illinois recently to help her parents, a relocation that has developed into a part-time job trying to get shots for her father, 67, who has been living in Katonah, N.Y., and her mother, 65, in Morris, Ill. “It was like a sneaker drop,” she said. “You are not going to get the Off-White sneakers. It’s just impossible.” As she waited, both she and her mother contracted the virus, and her mother, a cancer survivor, was hospitalized. “This is my worst nightmare,” Ms. Sharp said. “I know some of my mom’s friends have gotten it. I just don’t understand the algorithm. A good 40 percent of my time is spent on this. I wake up, I get my coffee and say, “I gotta do this.’” For a few of those at the back of the line — largely younger, healthier people who are working from home — luck and perseverance can pay off in a split-second, sometimes with a side of guilt. Darla Rhodes lives in Pasco, Wash., is 47 and works remotely for a start-up. Even though she has diabetes, she did not think she would be getting a vaccine anytime soon. But when the assisted living center where her grandmother lives offered vaccines to residents, and some of them refused them, the vaccinators had 30 minutes to get those shots in people’s arms or supplies would perish. Her sister, who happened to be dropping off groceries for their grandmother, got the ball rolling. Ms. Rhodes likened the sudden access to flying standby. “It was utterly unexpected,” Ms. Rhodes said. “But I jumped in the car, drove 15 minutes, filled out some paperwork and got a shot.” After posting about her experience on Facebook, she said, “One person said, ‘Hey I can’t even get a shot for my grandma,’ and my response was it was either that or it goes to waste.” Doug Heye, a Republican consultant in Washington, D.C., had heard about the trick of lining up at grocery stores, in the hopes of getting any remaining doses that were not used for residents given high priority, like those ages 65 and older, or frontline and essential workers. “The more needles we get into arms, the faster we can move past this,” Mr. Heye, 48, said. “That applied to me, personally, as well.” So he recently positioned himself at his local Giant supermarket at 5:15 a.m., where he found himself second in line in the pharmacy section. “I spent nine hours in a grocery store. Lunch was beef jerky and barbecue potato chips. It is too bad they don’t have the vaccine at Whole Foods or Balducci. It was like camping out for Bryan Adams tickets back in the day, and there’s no V.I.P. line or anything like that.” At the end of a long day staring into other people’s grocery carts, he and four others drew the last doses. “Obviously, it’s a flawed process, and there can and should be better ways of doing this like letting seniors register for any extra doses first, for instance,” he said. “But that’s just not happening. I wasn’t cutting in a line, no V.I.P. concierge nonsense, didn’t call in any favors.” Mr. Heye said he was considering how to get his life back, scanning Facebook for friends who had received their two shots so that they could resume some semblance of a social life. Those with two shots — just over 2 percent of the total population as of Sunday — at this point essentially live alone on private islands. Some may be in professions like health care where many of their co-workers are also inoculated. Others are in a sort of suspended animation, more comfortable at a grocery store or hugging a grandchild, yet still waiting for the rest of the nation before they swim ashore. “I feel very fortunate to have already received both doses of the Moderna vaccine,” said Pamela Spann, 68, who lives in Daingerfield, Texas. When the only pharmacy in her county offered shots in the last week of December, she was first told that she was too young to get the first dose. But a clerk did write down her name in a notebook. “I was so surprised when I was called that evening for an appointment the next day,” Ms. Spann said. She received a second dose on Jan. 26. Having missed out on her first year of retirement travel, Ms. Spann is waiting for others in her circle to get shots. “I am most looking forward to visiting my family again,” she said. “I also look forward to visiting and playing games with friends.” Still, she and many others who have been vaccinated or developed antibodies by contracting the virus feel a sense of trepidation. “I think life will never be as carefree as life before,” Ms. Spann said. “I will be more aware of new viruses throughout the world and what they might mean to me.” Mr. Mattias, of New York, described himself as a loner who, because he worked every day, said he hadn’t felt that deprived over the past year, beyond missing a trip with his wife to a Cracker Barrel restaurant on their annual vacation in Pennsylvania. “I am looking forward to spending time with my grandkids, walking my dog and not having to cross the street so people don’t have to walk away from me first,” Mr. Mattias said. “My mother is 89 years old, I haven’t hugged in a while, so that’s another one. Really, my whole life is little things. I am counting on getting them back.” Source link Orbem News #coronavirus #Crossroads #Stymied #vaccinated #Waiting

[nkossovan]

8 Radical Suggestions to Jump Start Canada’s Job Growth After COVID19

With all the free time you now find yourself with, I am sure you have been scrolling through social media feeds. Have you noticed posts asking along the line of, How much longer can we keep our economy shutdown? Last moth #EndTheShutdown was trending on Twitter.

People are starting to get unnerved by the economic fallout; especially when it comes to their personal finances.

COVID19, and the resulting rapid economic downturn, is being compared to the 1918 Spanish flu, the Great Depression, SARS and the 2008 financial crisis. While comparisons can be made, the fact is the world is navigating uncharted waters. Our reaction to COVID19 has created a double edge sword… shutting down the economy, with the exception of what is deemed to be “essential”, in an attempt to control the spreading of a virus. Health vs. money.

If the shutdown goes on much longer, the economic damage, if not so already, will be irreparable in the short-term. We already have globalization, automation, robotics, AI eating away at jobs. Now COVID19 comes along and for better or for worse we bring the entire economy to a crawl, even decimating entire industries such as hospitality, food service and retail.

When we talk about economic recovery we are talking about reversing the enormous increase in unemployment created by shutting down Canada’s economy. Hoping, with crossed-fingers Canada’s economic recovery will be as fast as the fall is wishful thinking. Imagine you fell off a steep cliff. Climbing out, if you are uninjured and physically in shape to do so, will take much longer than it took you to fall in.

To be expected, post-COVID19 business models will be leaner. Employees will need to work harder, be more engaged in their employer’s success and keep their sense of entitlement in check.

So far, there is no date when the shutdown of non-essential businesses will be lifted. When this happens, we will see what businesses remain standing. It will not be pretty. Discussions how to kick start Canada’s post-COVID19 economy should be happening now. It is not too early to talk about how the Canadian government, and our individual consumerism, will be instrumental in restarting Canada’s economy (READ: Get unemployed Canadians back to work ASAP.), which just five weeks ago was robust.

To start the discussion here are eight radical suggestions (suggestions some will find politically incorrect or be offended by), or maybe not so radical, to jump-start Canada’s job growth after COVID19:

1. Mandatory retirement at 65.

I will begin with my most radical suggestion, mandatory retirement at 65.

According to Statistics Canada, in 2015, 1 in 5 Canadians, over the age of 65, reported working during the year. That is almost 1.1 million Canadian seniors!

We need to make room for younger workers, especially recent graduates. Youth unemployment has always been on the higher side of the national average, According to Trading Economics, the youth unemployment rate in Canada increased to 16.80% in March, from 10.30% in February of 2020. You can expect youth unemployment to skyrocket unless steps are taken now.

Making retirement at 65 mandatory for those who are on a company payroll (business owners, those self-employed, contractors, would be exempt, as would be certain professions such as doctors and nurses) would immediately open up jobs. I see this as a low hanging fruit. This will come across as being harsh, but someone who has worked 35 – 40 years has had their chance to earn a living, to create their financial future. The number of jobs available is finite. By default when someone retires they are giving another person the same opportunity they had. With unemployment now at the height it is this make makes economic and social sense.

As a caveat Canada’s Old Age Security (OAS) pension should not be taxable.

2. Consumer tax on items that can be manufactured or grown in Canada.

When applied strategically taxes can guide consumer spending.

Jobs are created when demand for a business’s products or services supports the requirement for employees. The more demand a company has for its offerings, the more employees needed. Bottom-line: Canadians supporting Canadian businesses, via their spending, creates jobs.

Consumers purchasing foreign-made goods because it is “cheaper” is the reason Canada imports so many products that can be manufactured or grown in Canada. Consumers paying a nominal tax upon purchasing imported goods that can be produced or grown in Canada would create revenue for the government. However, the core purpose of this tax would be to have Canadian consumers gravitate towards “Grown in Canada” and “Made in Canada.” Of course, there would be exceptions. Fruits such as oranges, bananas and pineapples would be exempt from this tax, while garlic from China, or blueberries from Chile, would have an import tax consumers would pay upon purchasing..

3. Cross border tax.

Canadians travelling within Canada, thus spending their money within the country supporting local businesses, creates jobs.

A nominal cross border tax, for non-essential travel, creates revenue for the government and makes Canadians think twice about which economy they are supporting. Imagine if just 30% of Canadians deferred their travel from outside the country to within Canada how much of an economic boost that would be to Canadian businesses.

4. No income tax on the first $35K earned.

The more money Canadians have in their pocket, the more they will spend (hopefully locally). Since purchases are taxed, the income tax not collected would be made up via the increased taxes collected on the increased spending.

5. Lower payroll tax.

An employer’s most significant expense is their payroll. Make it as inexpensive as possible to hire employees.

6. Long-term interest-free business loans.

Businesses hire employees. They spend money on supplies, rent, and utilities. Upon providing a solid business plan, and a passing a credit check, offer a business loan of up to $250K to be paid back, interest-free, in monthly installment starting in 5 years. Canadians starting businesses inevitably will lead to job creation.

7. Those currently employed cannot apply for a new job outside their company.

When COVID19 finally passes the objective should be to have unemployed Canadian get back to work as fast as possible. Those who were fortunate enough to have kept their job throughout the pandemic should remain in their current job/company (you can move within your organization) until January 1, 2022. Finding work in the best of times is difficult. To apply for a position post-COVID19, you need to show you are currently unemployed. Removing the added competition from candidates who are employed, which employers end to gravitate towards, will go a long way helping those who are unemployed find work quickly.

8. Offer tax incentives to industries (sectors of the economy).

In 2009 Jim Flaherty, Canada’s federal Minister of Finance (2006 – 2014), introduced in the Federal Budget a temporary Home Renovation Tax Credit for eligible home renovations and alterations. Basically the HRTC provided a 15% tax credit to individuals for eligible expenditures in excess of $1,000 but not more than $10,000 made in respect of eligible dwellings. I often wondered why this type of tax credit was not continued. To assist various industries a tax credit similar to the HRTC could be implemented with various industries. One year there’s a tax credit for home renovations, the next year for automobiles, the following for appliances, and so forth. Such a tax credit, the eligibility requirement focusing as much as possible on “Made in Canada”, would stimulate spending which inevitably would create jobs.

All I have offered here are rough suggestions, which can be temporary with a hard stop date, can be adjusted to consider seasons (Importing strawberries in January has merit to warrant not having an import tax.) and resources constraints.

The objective is to start the discussions around how will we get back as many Canadians to work. There will inevitably be business closures. Sectors of the economy, which depend on discretionary spending ( Sports, entertainment and the hospitality sector rely on people going out and spending what disposable income they have.) will not be recovering in the near future. There will be opportunities for new businesses to start up.

How do you envision Canada’s employment recovery post-COVID19?

[onlinemarketinghelp]

The Most Common Tax Deductions https://ift.tt/33sPKpK

Tax time is here! More accurately, tax time is always here.

If you’re looking to maximize your savings and minimize your tax bill (legally), there are important things you need to understand and do today, so you can minimize your tax bill on April 15th.

Here are a few of the most common tax deductions that young people might miss on their tax forms.

Most Common Tax Deductions

Mileage Expenses for Your Side Hustle

Itemized Deductions

Retirement Contributions

Student Loan Interest (Even If Your Parents Paid It)!

Top Tax Credits for Young Adults

How to Claim a Deduction

Bottom Line

Mileage Expenses for Your Side Hustle

Do you have a small business or a thriving freelance side hustle? If you’re self-employed in any capacity, you can legally deduct all legitimate business expenses. That includes:

Communications expenses: Your business cell phone bill and your Internet expense may be deductible.

Supplies: Printer ink, paper, pens, and other costs associated with running the business.

Advertising: Your website, business cards, and any ads you run may count as business expenses.

Business-related travel: Did you attend industry conferences or visit customers to complete a sale? These costs are deductible (including 50% of all meals eaten out during travel).

Tangible property: Did you buy a cell phone, tablet, or computer for your business? If so, you can either depreciate these assets over time, or, in some cases claim the full cost as an expense the year that you buy it.

Legal and accounting fees: Do you pay an accountant or bookkeeper (or pay for accounting software)? If so, be sure to deduct the expenses.

Mileage expenses: Does your side hustle involve driving a car? If so, you can claim $0.58 per mile driven related to the expense. The trick with this deduction? You have to track your mileage throughout the year. These are the top apps for tracking your mileage.

Optimizing your business expenses is critical for minimizing your taxes. As a self-employed person, you have to pay 15.3% of your profits toward Social Security and Medicaid. Plus, you have to pay Federal, state, and city taxes on that profit. Every dollar you can legally claim as an expense will save you anywhere from $0.15 to $0.50 or more in taxes.

But the key to saving this money is tracking the expenses throughout the year. Use an app or bookkeeping software to track expenses and income. Keeping your business finances organized also has the added advantage of making it easier to estimate your quarterly taxes as a freelancer.

By the way, if you’re completely self-employed you may be able to claim your health insurance premiums as an adjustment to income (it lowers your expenses). Be sure to talk with an accountant to understand all the costs that may be deductible.

Itemized Deductions

In 2019, a single person can claim a standard deduction of $12,200, and a married couple (filing jointly) can claim a standard deduction of $24,400. Most people will claim the standard deduction, but if you’re a high-income earner, a homeowner, a major giver, or someone with outsized medical expenses, itemizing deductions may be the right move for you.

Here are a few of the major itemized deductions you can take:

Charitable contributions: Itemize up to 60% of your adjusted gross income. While most givers aren’t approaching the 60% limit, any giving to a 501(c)(3) organization can be itemized.

State and local taxes: You can itemize up to $10,000 worth of state and local taxes including your property taxes, state income taxes, and city taxes.

Mortgage interest: You can deduct all your mortgage interest on up to a $750,000 loan on your property (up to $1 million if you secured your loan before December 15, 2017). That includes upfront mortgage points.

Medical expenses (over 10% of your income): Did you have a bad year for medical expenses (or perhaps you gave birth while on a relatively lower income)? Any medical spending (not including health insurance premiums) above 10% of your income can be deducted. If you’re earning $60,000 per year, and you spend $7,000 on medical expenses, you have $1,000 worth of itemized deductions. When you add that to the other deductions, you may find your tax bill lowered when you itemize.

Retirement Contributions

If you contribute money to a traditional IRA, or a workplace retirement plan such as a 401(k), 403(b), 457, or a self-employment plan (Individual 401(k) or SEP-IRA), these contributions can be made with pre-tax dollars. When you withdraw the money, you’ll have to pay income tax on them, but in the meantime, these contributions can help lower your tax bill.

When you combine the tax savings with the possibility of employer matches, retirement contributions become the ultimate in wealth-building tax deductions. If you’re self-employed, be sure to open your retirement account before the end of the year. You can contribute to it until the April 15th tax filing deadline.

Make sure you also keep up with the contribution limits:

IRA Contribution Limits

401k Contribution Limits

Student Loan Interest (Even If Your Parents Paid It)!

Do you have student loans? If you’re paying interest on them, you may qualify for an “above-the-line” deduction of up to $2,500. An above-the-line deduction means you don’t have to itemize your deductions to qualify for this. You simply claim the deduction on your tax form (Form 1098-E), and your taxable income is lowered.

Top Tax Credits for Young Adults

What’s better than a legal tax deduction? A legal tax credit.

In the eyes of the law, deductions reduce your income, thereby reducing the amount of tax you have to pay on the income.

Tax credits are even better. When you claim a tax credit you have a straight-up reduction to the amount of income tax you owe. Perhaps you owed $3,000 in income tax, but you can claim a $500 tax credit. In that case, your total tax burden falls to $2,500.

Earned Income Tax Credit

The Earned Income Tax Credit is a “refundable” tax credit that helps working Americans who have low income lower their tax burden or even boost their income (essentially through a negative tax).

The maximum credit amount is:

$6,557 with three or more qualifying children

$5,828 with two qualifying children

$3,526 with one qualifying child

$529 with no qualifying children

In years when you have a low income (for example, the first few years of college or when you’re starting a business) you may qualify for this credit.

A quick note on income: This is your adjusted gross income. So if you’re a super saver who contributes a ton of money to retirement accounts, you may qualify for this tax credit even if you’re earning a decent salary.

Header

Maximum Income If Claiming Zero Children

Maximum Income If Claiming One Child

Maximum Income If Claiming Two Children

Maximum Income If Claiming Three Children

Single, Head of Household or Widowed

$15,570

$41,094

$46,703

$50,162

Married Filing Jointly

$21,370

$46,884

$52,493

$55,952

If you qualify for the credit, be sure to claim it on your tax form. Most tax software services allow you to claim the EITC using the free version of the software.

Education Credits

American Opportunity Tax Credit

Are you an independent adult paying your way through your first four years of higher education? If so, look out for the American opportunity tax credit. You need a Form 1098-T from your educational institution to claim the credit.

This credit allows you to claim a tax credit (meaning every dollar you owe in tax is offset by this expense) for 100% of the first $2,000 of qualified education expenses you paid for each eligible student. You can also offset up to 25% of the next $2,000 of qualified education expenses you paid for an eligible student.

If you don’t qualify for this credit, your parents probably will, so let them know about it.

Lifetime Learning Credit

Going back to school? If so, you may qualify for the lifetime learning credit. This credit allows you to have a dollar-for-dollar credit for up to $2,000 of educational expenses per year.

You can claim this credit if your modified adjusted gross income is less than $57,000 (filing as a single person). If you earn between $57,000 and $67,000, you will qualify for a partial credit. For married couples filing jointly, the required income is less than $114,000 with a phase-out credit between $114,000 and $134,000.

Saver’s Tax Credit

If you’re a lower-income earner who contributes to a retirement plan (including a Roth IRA, a traditional IRA, or any workplace plan), you could get a credit worth 50%, 20%, or 10% of your contribution up to $2,000 worth of contribution (so a maximum credit of $1,000). (Double the numbers for married couples who file a joint return.)

This is another one of those amazing credits for super savers who have a moderate gross income, but sock away a ton in retirement accounts.

As long as you’re not a full-time student, over 18, and can’t be claimed as a dependent (and of course, you make retirement contributions), this credit can be yours.

Credit Rate

Married Filing Jointly

Head of Household

All Other Filers*

50% of your contribution

AGI not more than $38,500

AGI not more than $28,875

AGI not more than $19,250

20% of your contribution

$38,501 to $41,500

$28,876 to $31,125

$19,251 to $20,750

10% of your contribution

$41,501 to $64,000

$31,126 to $48,000

$20,751 to $32,000

0% of your contribution

More than $64,000

More than $48,000

More than $32,000

How to Claim a Deduction

If you qualify for one or more of these deductions, you can take steps to claim the deduction at tax time. Here are the steps to take.

Keep Good Records

It is up to you to keep track of any deductions you qualify for.

I recommend using a bookkeeping software program or an app to track your income and expenses associated with self-employment income. Be sure to upload pictures of your receipts so you don’t have to keep a literal shoe box with your expenses.

I also recommend keeping a “tax file” where you can store receipts from medical expenses, educational expenses, and debt repayments. Come tax time, it should be fairly easy to figure out your deductions.

Use Tax Software

Tax software makes it easy to claim deductions when you’re filing taxes. There is no reason to use pen and paper when you can use free or low-cost software to file your taxes.

Consider Consulting a Professional

Not everyone needs advice from a CPA. When you have a simple financial life, you can figure out tax deductions and credits on your own.

But as your financial and personal life become more complex, you may start to see the value in paying for professional advice. In particular, if you have multiple sources of income (rental properties, self-employment, traditional employment, etc.), and a higher income, professional advice can be well worth the price you pay.

Bottom Line

When you know about the tax code, you can work to arrange your finances to minimize your taxable income. These deductions and credits are 100% legal, so make a point to see whether you qualify.

The post The Most Common Tax Deductions appeared first on The College Investor.

from The College Investor

Tax time is here! More accurately, tax time is always here.

If you’re looking to maximize your savings and minimize your tax bill (legally), there are important things you need to understand and do today, so you can minimize your tax bill on April 15th.

Here are a few of the most common tax deductions that young people might miss on their tax forms.

Most Common Tax Deductions

Mileage Expenses for Your Side Hustle

Itemized Deductions

Retirement Contributions

Student Loan Interest (Even If Your Parents Paid It)!

Top Tax Credits for Young Adults

How to Claim a Deduction

Bottom Line

Mileage Expenses for Your Side Hustle

Do you have a small business or a thriving freelance side hustle? If you’re self-employed in any capacity, you can legally deduct all legitimate business expenses. That includes:

Communications expenses: Your business cell phone bill and your Internet expense may be deductible.

Supplies: Printer ink, paper, pens, and other costs associated with running the business.

Advertising: Your website, business cards, and any ads you run may count as business expenses.

Business-related travel: Did you attend industry conferences or visit customers to complete a sale? These costs are deductible (including 50% of all meals eaten out during travel).

Tangible property: Did you buy a cell phone, tablet, or computer for your business? If so, you can either depreciate these assets over time, or, in some cases claim the full cost as an expense the year that you buy it.

Legal and accounting fees: Do you pay an accountant or bookkeeper (or pay for accounting software)? If so, be sure to deduct the expenses.

Mileage expenses: Does your side hustle involve driving a car? If so, you can claim $0.58 per mile driven related to the expense. The trick with this deduction? You have to track your mileage throughout the year. These are the top apps for tracking your mileage.

Optimizing your business expenses is critical for minimizing your taxes. As a self-employed person, you have to pay 15.3% of your profits toward Social Security and Medicaid. Plus, you have to pay Federal, state, and city taxes on that profit. Every dollar you can legally claim as an expense will save you anywhere from $0.15 to $0.50 or more in taxes.

But the key to saving this money is tracking the expenses throughout the year. Use an app or bookkeeping software to track expenses and income. Keeping your business finances organized also has the added advantage of making it easier to estimate your quarterly taxes as a freelancer.

By the way, if you’re completely self-employed you may be able to claim your health insurance premiums as an adjustment to income (it lowers your expenses). Be sure to talk with an accountant to understand all the costs that may be deductible.

Itemized Deductions

In 2019, a single person can claim a standard deduction of $12,200, and a married couple (filing jointly) can claim a standard deduction of $24,400. Most people will claim the standard deduction, but if you’re a high-income earner, a homeowner, a major giver, or someone with outsized medical expenses, itemizing deductions may be the right move for you.

Here are a few of the major itemized deductions you can take:

Charitable contributions: Itemize up to 60% of your adjusted gross income. While most givers aren’t approaching the 60% limit, any giving to a 501(c)(3) organization can be itemized.

State and local taxes: You can itemize up to $10,000 worth of state and local taxes including your property taxes, state income taxes, and city taxes.

Mortgage interest: You can deduct all your mortgage interest on up to a $750,000 loan on your property (up to $1 million if you secured your loan before December 15, 2017). That includes upfront mortgage points.

Medical expenses (over 10% of your income): Did you have a bad year for medical expenses (or perhaps you gave birth while on a relatively lower income)? Any medical spending (not including health insurance premiums) above 10% of your income can be deducted. If you’re earning $60,000 per year, and you spend $7,000 on medical expenses, you have $1,000 worth of itemized deductions. When you add that to the other deductions, you may find your tax bill lowered when you itemize.

Retirement Contributions

If you contribute money to a traditional IRA, or a workplace retirement plan such as a 401(k), 403(b), 457, or a self-employment plan (Individual 401(k) or SEP-IRA), these contributions can be made with pre-tax dollars. When you withdraw the money, you’ll have to pay income tax on them, but in the meantime, these contributions can help lower your tax bill.

When you combine the tax savings with the possibility of employer matches, retirement contributions become the ultimate in wealth-building tax deductions. If you’re self-employed, be sure to open your retirement account before the end of the year. You can contribute to it until the April 15th tax filing deadline.

Make sure you also keep up with the contribution limits:

IRA Contribution Limits

401k Contribution Limits

Student Loan Interest (Even If Your Parents Paid It)!

Do you have student loans? If you’re paying interest on them, you may qualify for an “above-the-line” deduction of up to $2,500. An above-the-line deduction means you don’t have to itemize your deductions to qualify for this. You simply claim the deduction on your tax form (Form 1098-E), and your taxable income is lowered.

Top Tax Credits for Young Adults

What’s better than a legal tax deduction? A legal tax credit.

In the eyes of the law, deductions reduce your income, thereby reducing the amount of tax you have to pay on the income.

Tax credits are even better. When you claim a tax credit you have a straight-up reduction to the amount of income tax you owe. Perhaps you owed $3,000 in income tax, but you can claim a $500 tax credit. In that case, your total tax burden falls to $2,500.

Earned Income Tax Credit

The Earned Income Tax Credit is a “refundable” tax credit that helps working Americans who have low income lower their tax burden or even boost their income (essentially through a negative tax).

The maximum credit amount is:

$6,557 with three or more qualifying children

$5,828 with two qualifying children

$3,526 with one qualifying child

$529 with no qualifying children

In years when you have a low income (for example, the first few years of college or when you’re starting a business) you may qualify for this credit.

A quick note on income: This is your adjusted gross income. So if you’re a super saver who contributes a ton of money to retirement accounts, you may qualify for this tax credit even if you’re earning a decent salary.

Header

Maximum Income If Claiming Zero Children

Maximum Income If Claiming One Child

Maximum Income If Claiming Two Children

Maximum Income If Claiming Three Children

Single, Head of Household or Widowed

$15,570

$41,094

$46,703

$50,162

Married Filing Jointly

$21,370

$46,884

$52,493

$55,952

If you qualify for the credit, be sure to claim it on your tax form. Most tax software services allow you to claim the EITC using the free version of the software.

Education Credits

American Opportunity Tax Credit

Are you an independent adult paying your way through your first four years of higher education? If so, look out for the American opportunity tax credit. You need a Form 1098-T from your educational institution to claim the credit.

This credit allows you to claim a tax credit (meaning every dollar you owe in tax is offset by this expense) for 100% of the first $2,000 of qualified education expenses you paid for each eligible student. You can also offset up to 25% of the next $2,000 of qualified education expenses you paid for an eligible student.

If you don’t qualify for this credit, your parents probably will, so let them know about it.

Lifetime Learning Credit

Going back to school? If so, you may qualify for the lifetime learning credit. This credit allows you to have a dollar-for-dollar credit for up to $2,000 of educational expenses per year.

You can claim this credit if your modified adjusted gross income is less than $57,000 (filing as a single person). If you earn between $57,000 and $67,000, you will qualify for a partial credit. For married couples filing jointly, the required income is less than $114,000 with a phase-out credit between $114,000 and $134,000.

Saver’s Tax Credit

If you’re a lower-income earner who contributes to a retirement plan (including a Roth IRA, a traditional IRA, or any workplace plan), you could get a credit worth 50%, 20%, or 10% of your contribution up to $2,000 worth of contribution (so a maximum credit of $1,000). (Double the numbers for married couples who file a joint return.)

This is another one of those amazing credits for super savers who have a moderate gross income, but sock away a ton in retirement accounts.

As long as you’re not a full-time student, over 18, and can’t be claimed as a dependent (and of course, you make retirement contributions), this credit can be yours.

Credit Rate

Married Filing Jointly

Head of Household

All Other Filers*

50% of your contribution

AGI not more than $38,500

AGI not more than $28,875

AGI not more than $19,250

20% of your contribution

$38,501 to $41,500

$28,876 to $31,125

$19,251 to $20,750

10% of your contribution

$41,501 to $64,000

$31,126 to $48,000

$20,751 to $32,000

0% of your contribution

More than $64,000

More than $48,000

More than $32,000

How to Claim a Deduction

If you qualify for one or more of these deductions, you can take steps to claim the deduction at tax time. Here are the steps to take.

Keep Good Records

It is up to you to keep track of any deductions you qualify for.

I recommend using a bookkeeping software program or an app to track your income and expenses associated with self-employment income. Be sure to upload pictures of your receipts so you don’t have to keep a literal shoe box with your expenses.

I also recommend keeping a “tax file” where you can store receipts from medical expenses, educational expenses, and debt repayments. Come tax time, it should be fairly easy to figure out your deductions.

Use Tax Software

Tax software makes it easy to claim deductions when you’re filing taxes. There is no reason to use pen and paper when you can use free or low-cost software to file your taxes.

Consider Consulting a Professional

Not everyone needs advice from a CPA. When you have a simple financial life, you can figure out tax deductions and credits on your own.

But as your financial and personal life become more complex, you may start to see the value in paying for professional advice. In particular, if you have multiple sources of income (rental properties, self-employment, traditional employment, etc.), and a higher income, professional advice can be well worth the price you pay.

Bottom Line

When you know about the tax code, you can work to arrange your finances to minimize your taxable income. These deductions and credits are 100% legal, so make a point to see whether you qualify.

The post The Most Common Tax Deductions appeared first on The College Investor.

https://ift.tt/32ibraA November 06, 2019 at 11:15AM https://ift.tt/2pK7JsQ

[ineffablecolors]

BLUNDERS AND (HAPPY) BEGINNINGS [4/?]

Blunders and (happy) Beginnings; CHAPTER 4; ~ 2, 200 words; FF.NET || AO3

It’s that Jane Austen CS AU you have (not) been reading *g* This chapter is from Killian’s POV, maybe a bit darker but it was time we got a glimpse of his inner workings as well. So hope you enjoy! 

Contrary to what most people throughout the ages have said, believed, set on paper or even, on occasion, experienced firsthand, Captain Killian Jones never believed nights to be time and place where loneliness lurks, bids its time and lunges at unsuspecting gentlemen and ladies alike, thinking themselves safe in the comfort of their library or bedchamber.

Killian, to his surprise as much as the reader’s we are sure, has rarely come to know this dark face of the later hours. No. Nights are too calm for all that – all light dimmed, all sound shushed, all conversation ceased and all social ‘graces’, that lacked the very essentials of grace (frankness and sincerity), stripped away.

Loneliness did not have time enough to sneak under his threadbare sleepshirt and sink into his weary heart when his bones were so heavy, when his head was already sunk so deep into the pillow and he was miles and miles from the overeagerness of his brother’s nudges, the overagreeableness of his friends’ conversation, the overrichness of ink on bills he still had little habit of dealing with and would probably never acquire any, the overheaviness of the contraption he strapped on his left forearm every morning with barely a shuffle and took off every night with an exhausted clang and a curled lip.

No, indeed, nights were somewhat safer for Killian Jones than most writers wrote them, with much softer tones than most painters painted them and much shallower sounds than most musicians played them. Safer in their being an end and not an unknown and unpredictable beginning, softer in their being dulled by tiredness and insensibility, shallower in their being too shrouded to need to dig deeper for even denser shadows.

For him, the evil was to be found in mornings. In their crispness, the sharp colours, the bright and painfully distinguishable forms, the strong and freshly unearthed smell, the rejuvenated and unrelenting birds’ songs.

For him, all the weight of all the loneliness in the world managed to squeeze itself into a couple of seconds, into two drops – if drops it had been – less than a spoonful of sorrow, into a sliver of semi-consciousness, into the place between sleep and awake, that place where you still remember dreaming.

For Captain Killian Jones, the world made contact and shattered into uncountable pieces and then, just as quickly, came back together – a little crooked, a bit bent, a tad not right – in the few blurry and yet so unreally clear seconds when wakefulness tore him from dreams. And it did not matter to him, much like it never matters to any not-quite-incandescently happy person, whether the dream had been a good one or not. It was the stumble, the jarring act of waking up into a world that could be anything – only to discover that it had chosen to be the exact same thing that it had been when you retired to bed the night before – that tore at him morning after freshly-washed but still dirty-grey morning.

It was in that place between sleep and awake that he would reach to the side, curl his fingers only to realize there was nothing – no one – to curl them around, curl his fingers only to realize there were no fingers to curl.

 On occasion, an occasion occurring much more often than he could admit without some discomfort, Captain Jones considered the indisputable fact that his first meeting with Miss Emma Swan might have and could have gone quite differently, if it had not taken place on a morning. A particularly bright morning when he was feeling particularly justified in shunning that brightness and all sociability and yet found himself forced by promises previously given (extracted from him by an enchanting woman armed with a bow and the most honest and persuasive eyes he had ever seen) to move in the orchestrated manner of sociability and endure the combined brightness of a summer morning and the Nolans’ household.

He might have, when faced with what was nothing short of the ethereal beauty of Miss Emma Swan, bowed longer and deeper, as was his custom when making the acquaintance of a lady who he knew every man with half his wits about him will give a pretty penny to make the acquaintance of. He might have, when confronted with the clear and alluring, almost inviting, greeting of Miss Swan, spared a genuine smile, responded in a way that might have left a door slightly ajar through which a tentative friendship to someday slip. He might have been the kind of attentive and irreproachably police gentleman that his brother had taught him to be. He might have been the kind of engaging and slightly provocative man that he had taught himself to be after he had firmly made his way into society.

But he hadn’t been any of that for much too long by then and he had not done or thought of any of those steps into propriety, let alone potential friendship, for even longer.

So all he had managed to be was dazzled and all the more discontent for it.

After that first meeting –

Discontently dazzled by Emma Swan

- things have progressed steadily without bringing Captain Jones much more comfort.

 Miss Swan, because hair spun from pure gold and eyes made of inimitable gemstones was not sufficient (no, not nearly sufficient enough to torture only one of Killian’s senses), was also sharp as a whip, witty and entertaining to banter with to a fault, and determined to always have the last word (a vice of which he himself was in possession and which, to double the strength of the impact, he was quite fond of  as well).

“You refuse to go because there will be a number of people there?”

“There will be a large number of people there. My idea of a pleasant time, incomprehensible as it is to our benevolent hosts, does not, in fact, involve having trouble in securing a place for one to stand, let alone sit, and coming in forced contact with virtual strangers at a criminally frequent rate.”

“Goodness, Jones, you don’t like crowds! Just say you don’t like crowds. Or people for that matter.”

“I quite simply do not-“

“No, I beg of you, I’m starving! You can turn “I dislike people” into a three-page manifesto when I have a plate of roasted potatoes and some of those birds you brought in front of me.”

Killian knew that she was unwilling to have anybody one up her yet she seemed particularly against letting him do so. Thus, time and time again, he found himself –

Willingly outsmarted by Emma Swan

 And Emma, being Emma (which he tried not to call – not even in the private recesses of his mind where he occasionally allowed himself the privilege), didn’t draw or play the piano. No, of course. That would be too “proper and set”.

(It was a phrase of hers – “this is too set” and “that is too set” and “why do they have to be so set?” and “what would you like my bookshelves to be, Swan? flying all over the place?” and he never quite knew what she meant from one moment to the next with her setness and he rarely dared hope he was not set himself and was mostly convinced he was, in the worst of ways). But, oh, Emma would never be considered set, that much was certain.

She played the harp, and not nearly as masterfully as many young ladies he had listened to, and yet she always managed to make everything else, everything but her capable fingers, recede into an inconsequential blur, just background noise, static that shimmered at the edges of the space she cast her spell over and he always managed to find himself within it, right in the middle it seemed, where her pull was the strongest.

(“it’s like it doesn’t want me to play it.” “indeed, it sounded quite well to my little experienced ears.” “all is well when that thing is not biting into your fingers, punishing you for waking it up and making it exert itself.” “all part of the choice of instrument, no?” “yes, well, I didn’t consider that. was thinking how I dislike the way people hover when someone sits at the piano.” “you cannot hover over a harp?” “oh, you can but it is not really done. at least I haven’t seen it. and it is so different if you look up close, if you see its glint from the right angle, it can- come, I’ll show you.”)

She had the most haphazard pattern of reading and, when a party including Emma had been visiting Neverland for a mere afternoon, Killian would not even wonder anymore at finding at least four different books, faces down, pages flung to the side, spines bend and wrinkled, scattered in different corners, different rooms even.

(“you have so many. i cannot help myself. i cannot choose.” “exercise some restraint, Swan, some patience and you might enjoy getting to the end of one.” “that’s so set.”)

She was a self-proclaimed nightmare with a paintbrush but she danced. He had seen her once but he just knew – the way you know the tide has come in even when you weren’t there to meet it – she danced. Often. When no one was there. Not the way people danced at balls or the way they sway by a piano or the way they tap their foot at a particularly irresistible gig. No, Emma danced. And he’d only seen it once and yet it took him that step further –

Irrevocably enchanted by Emma Swan

 After that he’d been resolute. More set in his mind than he’d been in years. He was not to take that last leap that would lead him into pure madness, into a folly from which there would be no coming back.

And then his brother, the meddler, had gone and ruined him completely. And he’d be so proud of himself, if he knew.

He’d received Liam’s letter mere days after Miss Swan had come back, a month ahead of Lady Ingrid and her nieces, to stay with the Nolans. He’d felt long-abandoned superstitions pressing in on his heart and had yielded under the belief that he shouldn’t share Liam’s pending return until he had his brother himself at his gate at Neverland. He excused himself from making appearances at the Nolans’ with a mild illness and set about preparing his and his brother’s home for Liam’s arrival. He did not account for the repercussions of a prolonged absence after an announced illness. He did not account for Miss Emma Swan.

Yet there she had stood on his doorstep, not even a week after he’d made his excuses to Mary-Margaret. Her hair wild in the wind that had been blowing steadily all day and slightly damp from the rain that had been trying to fall and her cheeks flushed and her chest rising faster than normal from the slight climb that was required to reach Neverland and maybe from something else, something that came along with the breathless, soul-crushingly (that being Killian’s soul) relieved “oh, you are all better”.

There she had stood and her eyes had scanned him almost anxiously, almost… And Killian didn’t think… But then he couldn’t… So he told her about Liam and led her in and showed her his letter and didn’t seem to even grasp at the sheer impropriety and improbability of her being in his house, by herself, because…

There she had stood and then impossibly closer and grasping his hands – one his, one not quite, but did he have time to react when – she was beaming and talking and almost turning him in a circle like little children in a garden with the strength of her hold and the energy of her and –

Completely enamored with Emma Swan

 Captain Killian Jones had done his reckoning and he decided early in their acquaintance, much earlier than Miss Swan had worked her unsuspecting magic on him, that Emma was the kind of woman that few men could have and even fewer deserved.

And the more she had unraveled before him, the more resolutely could he exclude himself from either list.

Which was a rather fortunate circumstance. Captain Jones had never and would never run the risk of attempting to court Miss Swan, barely even skirt the borders of being more than acquaintances (singular instances, likely prompted by Mary-Margaret’s worry, lending false closeness to their relations, being strictly excluded and non-considerable despite having played a devastating part in rooting and nourishing his unfortunate feelings).

They were – him and Miss Swan – to anyone with even the barest knowledge of either – an unlikely pair. And to Killian himself – quite obviously – completely impossible.

It is a rather melancholy note to exit this gentleman’s mind (and heart) on, but I’m afraid we’ve already dwelled here well past the point he, if not the reader, would be comfortable with, and, as we have seen, Captain Killian Jones had very few sources of comfort and it would be indeed abominable of us to remain and take any of what little he has of it

[airoasis]

REAL ESTATE TIPS: What is a mortgage? How to find the right lender? | Oceana Estates

New Post has been published on https://hititem.kr/real-estate-tips-what-is-a-mortgage-how-to-find-the-right-lender-oceana-estates/

REAL ESTATE TIPS: What is a mortgage? How to find the right lender? | Oceana Estates

Howdy, that is Arthur with Oceana Estates. Have you ever ever questioned, what is a loan or how you can in finding the right lender? In this video presentation we’ll speak about some key steps any potential purchaser would need to take so as to acquire a real property mortgage. On the whole when watching for a property one of the crucial first key steps is to search out the right bank or lender that you are going to work with with a purpose to acquire a loan. The whole procedure could seem intimidating with questions around the down payment, rates coverage and taxes. The principal thing to do is to learn the loan approach and identifying the proper mortgage.With a lot expertise online it may look complicated to many as where to start. In latest video i’ll explain lots of the key accessories of a mortgage so that you could confidently pick your exceptional lending alternative. First step for a knowledge customer is to get a pre-accredited. This may increasingly function an evaluation as to how so much that you may manage to pay for. This number may be an assumption relying on the worth and location of the property. Moreover, you could must opt for the form of mortgage you might be watching to receive. Whilst a 30-yr fixed is also a trendy alternative a 15-year fixed and armed that are adjustable cost mortgages, are becoming more and more general. Realizing your selections offers you the vigor to make a just right selection. Allow me to provide an explanation for. A 30-year constant personal loan. This loan enables the borrower to grasp precisely what their payment might be for the life of the mortgage. Even as this option may seem attractive with cut back monthly payments recollect that you are committing to a complete of 360 repayments meaning that with this option you may pay potentially extra for interest.Now let’s talk a few 15-year constant. Whilst this option is really similar to a 30-year fixed month-to-month payments will likely be higher but you are paying down the loan twice as quick which means that complete repayments for curiosity will be vastly scale down. Now let’s talk about an adjustable expense loan or ARM. This can be a non-constant choice that makes it possible for for adjustment in interest charges relying on market stipulations. Even as every now and then this choice will have cut down curiosity expense that can all exchange as the market fluctuates. One of the most important questions that we hear rather in general is how so much do I must shop for the down payment in order to make my buy? The usual notion that we hear is 20% down but that’s not the case. Enable me to intricate. A traditional mortgage. Even as this choice makes it possible for you to position down as so much as you desire to the minimal for a conventional loan is just 5%.FHA or Federal Housing Administration this can be a variety of mortgage that is a popular choice for many who would choose to start with a smaller down fee. With this kind of loan the minimal down fee is solely three.5%. VA mortgage. This loan is best available to america veterans offering choices to buy without a down fee and benefits across the interest premiums. Even though, the highest warranty amount does have a cap Some restrictions and extra advantages may apply. What is fundamental to understand is that when you do buy a residence with a down payment less than 20% the lender would require you to acquire coverage for the personal loan referred to as confidential loan coverage or PMI. Although, as you continue to make your repayments on time and the mortgage-to-worth ratio reaches 80% or minimize you may ask your lender to dispose of the PMI. Getting pre-authorised with the aid of a lender may require you to provide particular documentation reminiscent of your credit report or employment verification.Listed below are the details. Credit score report Your credit history will have to be in good standing this may occasionally check if you’re threat to the bank and may play a tremendous position in the interest expense that the lender will approve you for. Employment. The lender will require you to exhibit proof of revenue so as to verify that you’re equipped to pay again the mortgage. This can be in the type of your most contemporary two years of tax returns with W2s up to date pay statements and another assets such as financial institution statements retirement bills or investments if you’re self-employed be prepared to provide two years of individual and industry tax returns. It’s primary to don’t forget to not incur any further debt in the course of or before the loan process as in an effort to impact your credit score score and the amount the lender can approve you for.Almost always, it is going to take 30 to forty five days to method and shut a mortgage mortgage. Not to disregard that whilst downpayment is essential a skills buyer ought to additionally show that they have money left over for the closing rate. As this may be between 2 and 5% of the purchase cost. Additionally, I would like to explain what a monthly fee will look like. As we have spoken so far the personal loan consists of foremost and curiosity or PI. Yet in addition to the PI the multi payment can even incorporate taxes and coverage or TI. It is most important to note that whilst personal loan repayments is also fixed coverage and tax could fluctuate. In result the entire payment which includes PITI may just trade from year to year.While the whole thing we acknowledged for this reason a ways applies to residents of the U.S. With a valid social safety quantity. A almost always asked questions is whether advantage consumers dwelling and working overseas are competent to apply and get accepted for a mortgage in the USA. In short, the answer is sure. The popularity of non-residents seeking to search out lending in the us is called overseas nationals.And even as they are able to apply for lending in the us the phrases fairly vary from a resident. Listed below are a few details. A overseas countrywide is one who lives and works abroad does now not have a social security number right here in the U.S. And isn’t on work visa yet does have a non-US legitimate passport. Expertise lenders to overseas nationals could ask for earnings documentation from the country of foundation supply of dollars for down cost and any credit score references the purchaser will have from their country. Lenders ordinarily require a forty% down fee when lending to foreign nationals and the curiosity is also moderately larger but no longer accomplishing double digits as each exclusive lending. I’m hoping you determined this presentation priceless and now you know your lending choices quite higher. For more valuable understanding similar to exploring areas the place to purchase or what kind of house to purchase use the link under to down our presentation and subscribe to our channel. .

[batterymonster2021]

REAL ESTATE TIPS: What is a mortgage? How to find the right lender? | Oceana Estates

New Post has been published on https://hititem.kr/real-estate-tips-what-is-a-mortgage-how-to-find-the-right-lender-oceana-estates/

REAL ESTATE TIPS: What is a mortgage? How to find the right lender? | Oceana Estates

Howdy, that is Arthur with Oceana Estates. Have you ever ever questioned, what is a loan or how you can in finding the right lender? In this video presentation we’ll speak about some key steps any potential purchaser would need to take so as to acquire a real property mortgage. On the whole when watching for a property one of the crucial first key steps is to search out the right bank or lender that you are going to work with with a purpose to acquire a loan. The whole procedure could seem intimidating with questions around the down payment, rates coverage and taxes. The principal thing to do is to learn the loan approach and identifying the proper mortgage.With a lot expertise online it may look complicated to many as where to start. In latest video i’ll explain lots of the key accessories of a mortgage so that you could confidently pick your exceptional lending alternative. First step for a knowledge customer is to get a pre-accredited. This may increasingly function an evaluation as to how so much that you may manage to pay for. This number may be an assumption relying on the worth and location of the property. Moreover, you could must opt for the form of mortgage you might be watching to receive. Whilst a 30-yr fixed is also a trendy alternative a 15-year fixed and armed that are adjustable cost mortgages, are becoming more and more general. Realizing your selections offers you the vigor to make a just right selection. Allow me to provide an explanation for. A 30-year constant personal loan. This loan enables the borrower to grasp precisely what their payment might be for the life of the mortgage. Even as this option may seem attractive with cut back monthly payments recollect that you are committing to a complete of 360 repayments meaning that with this option you may pay potentially extra for interest.Now let’s talk a few 15-year constant. Whilst this option is really similar to a 30-year fixed month-to-month payments will likely be higher but you are paying down the loan twice as quick which means that complete repayments for curiosity will be vastly scale down. Now let’s talk about an adjustable expense loan or ARM. This can be a non-constant choice that makes it possible for for adjustment in interest charges relying on market stipulations. Even as every now and then this choice will have cut down curiosity expense that can all exchange as the market fluctuates. One of the most important questions that we hear rather in general is how so much do I must shop for the down payment in order to make my buy? The usual notion that we hear is 20% down but that’s not the case. Enable me to intricate. A traditional mortgage. Even as this choice makes it possible for you to position down as so much as you desire to the minimal for a conventional loan is just 5%.FHA or Federal Housing Administration this can be a variety of mortgage that is a popular choice for many who would choose to start with a smaller down fee. With this kind of loan the minimal down fee is solely three.5%. VA mortgage. This loan is best available to america veterans offering choices to buy without a down fee and benefits across the interest premiums. Even though, the highest warranty amount does have a cap Some restrictions and extra advantages may apply. What is fundamental to understand is that when you do buy a residence with a down payment less than 20% the lender would require you to acquire coverage for the personal loan referred to as confidential loan coverage or PMI. Although, as you continue to make your repayments on time and the mortgage-to-worth ratio reaches 80% or minimize you may ask your lender to dispose of the PMI. Getting pre-authorised with the aid of a lender may require you to provide particular documentation reminiscent of your credit report or employment verification.Listed below are the details. Credit score report Your credit history will have to be in good standing this may occasionally check if you’re threat to the bank and may play a tremendous position in the interest expense that the lender will approve you for. Employment. The lender will require you to exhibit proof of revenue so as to verify that you’re equipped to pay again the mortgage. This can be in the type of your most contemporary two years of tax returns with W2s up to date pay statements and another assets such as financial institution statements retirement bills or investments if you’re self-employed be prepared to provide two years of individual and industry tax returns. It’s primary to don’t forget to not incur any further debt in the course of or before the loan process as in an effort to impact your credit score score and the amount the lender can approve you for.Almost always, it is going to take 30 to forty five days to method and shut a mortgage mortgage. Not to disregard that whilst downpayment is essential a skills buyer ought to additionally show that they have money left over for the closing rate. As this may be between 2 and 5% of the purchase cost. Additionally, I would like to explain what a monthly fee will look like. As we have spoken so far the personal loan consists of foremost and curiosity or PI. Yet in addition to the PI the multi payment can even incorporate taxes and coverage or TI. It is most important to note that whilst personal loan repayments is also fixed coverage and tax could fluctuate. In result the entire payment which includes PITI may just trade from year to year.While the whole thing we acknowledged for this reason a ways applies to residents of the U.S. With a valid social safety quantity. A almost always asked questions is whether advantage consumers dwelling and working overseas are competent to apply and get accepted for a mortgage in the USA. In short, the answer is sure. The popularity of non-residents seeking to search out lending in the us is called overseas nationals.And even as they are able to apply for lending in the us the phrases fairly vary from a resident. Listed below are a few details. A overseas countrywide is one who lives and works abroad does now not have a social security number right here in the U.S. And isn’t on work visa yet does have a non-US legitimate passport. Expertise lenders to overseas nationals could ask for earnings documentation from the country of foundation supply of dollars for down cost and any credit score references the purchaser will have from their country. Lenders ordinarily require a forty% down fee when lending to foreign nationals and the curiosity is also moderately larger but no longer accomplishing double digits as each exclusive lending. I’m hoping you determined this presentation priceless and now you know your lending choices quite higher. For more valuable understanding similar to exploring areas the place to purchase or what kind of house to purchase use the link under to down our presentation and subscribe to our channel. .