So — are CA politicians worth their pepper and SALTÂ ( State And Local Taxes = SALT)
States such as California and New York have the highest state and local taxes in the U.S.A.
No longer can people living in high tax states — such as California and New York — deduct their entire SALT taxes in their entirety from their federal tax bill. They can only deduct a maximum of 10 K.
As the Bay Area has a handful of counties where homeowners pay high state and local taxes — this matters mightily whether high income homeowners keep paying those rates and stay in CA.
Thus the underlying question — are CA politicians and their policies worth their SALT? Maybe it’s time to re-consider what CA taxpayers get for their money …..  written by Cameron JacksonÂ
Media bias? In an interview with David Axelrod for CNN’s “The Axe Files,†actor Tom Hanks said it “concerns†him how much President Donald Trump takes on the press.
According to Hanks, the Trump administration’s “insidious†behavior to “denigrate†outlets like CNN and The Washington Post helps out “agenda-filled†institutions.
“As an American, it concerns me, because it’s monkeying around with our Constitution,†Hanks told Axelrod in the interview that aired Saturday. “It’s relatively obvious, I think, as what is trying to go forward. When you tear down these institutions to a level to [where] you can’t believe anything that is in any of them, that raises the stock of those agenda-filled other institutions, whatnot, so that if you can’t believe them, well that means you get to believe some of the other stuff that is in these and so, what is happening is that dilution of the great — they’re throwing dirt and oil into a bucket of water.â€
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Firenze Sage: This is complete gibberish and like most actors Tom Hanks knows little of what he speaks and can hardly speak extemporaneously.
Center for American Progress President Neera Tanden, an immigrant from India, on the burning of Murdock’s mansion tweets There is a God.”
Glad that a wealthy man’s home burns — that improves the lives of Americans?   The Center for American Progress (CAP) is a progressive public policy research and advocacy organization. According to CAP, the center is “dedicated to improving the lives of all Americans, through bold, progressive ideas, as well as strong leadership and concerted action.”[2] The Center presents a liberal[3] viewpoint on economic and social issues. It has its headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Leftist Neera Tanden, president of the Center for American Progress (CAP) and a former campaign staffer for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, tweeted her glee that Fox News acting CEO Rupert Murdoch’s mansion in the Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles was burned down in a wildfire.
Tanden retweeted an NBC News report of Murdoch’s mansion going up in flames, with the caption: “There’s a God. And she’s unhappy.
“I grew up in a suburb of Boston, the child of two immigrants who had come from India decades earlier. We lived in a house in Bedford, Massachusetts, a quintessential middle-class town. But when I was 5, my parents got divorced and my dad left. My mother was on her own. Having never held a job before, she faced the choice of going back to India or going on welfare to support her two young children. In India, we would have been stigmatized; no one got divorced there in the 1970s. She knew that the children of a divorced woman would have limited life opportunities in India.
“So we stayed. We were on welfare. We were on food stamps. And we received Section 8 housing vouchers to help pay the rent. Thanks to a new law in Massachusetts, we were able to use those vouchers to move into an apartment in Bedford and remain in our town’s good public schools…..
Firenze Sage:Â Who joins let alone contributes to this despicable organization and hateful woman?
Sanctuary Cities: With San Francisco’s not guilty verdict for Kate Steinle’s shooter — an illegal alien felon who was deported five times to Mexico — San Francisco’s sanctuary city laws continue to protect illegals from federal immigration,  I.C.E. And the consequences likely to be?  Probably more public outcry to protect the safety of U.S. citizens and more support to build a Wall.
Tax cuts for the middle class:  No Democrats — House or Senate – support tax cuts for the middle class in 2017. Wow! What a change from the last time tax cuts were on the table. The last time — 16 years ago – there was major tax reform only 31 Democrats voted against tax cuts in the Senate and in the House 28 Democrats supported the bill including California. And what might be the long term consequences for this epic policy and political blunder by the Democrat Party? When the average voter has more money in their pocket book and the economy offers higher wages, voters will remember. The middle class has been leaving CA because of high taxes and high rents. Maybe the Democrat progressives will ‘face the music’ in next year’s elections. Especially if more sexual predators are identified in the Democrat controlled legislature?
Lies to the F.B.I.:  And General Flynn — that NSA adviser who Obama ‘unmasked’ now found guilty because e he lied to the FBI.  Flynn served as NSA adviser for about one month and was fired by Trump because he lied to his boss, Vice President Pence. Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner told Flynn to make the call concerning which he later lied to the F.B.I. Reports suggest that Kushner’s influence is waning fast.Â
Freedoms enjoyed in America have consequences ….   Speak up & comment!
written by licensed CA psychologist Dr. Cameron Jackson  PSY14762
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R., Ala.)Â wrote in an op-ed published Tuesday that she supports Republican efforts to repeal Obamacare’s individual mandate.
“I have always supported the freedom to choose. I believe that the federal government should not force anyone to buy something they do not wish to buy in order to avoid being taxed,” Murkowski wrote in her piece for the Daily News-Miner, an Alaska newspaper. “That is the fundamental reason why I opposed the Affordable Care Act from its inception and also why I cosponsored a bill to repeal the individual mandate tax penalty starting as early as 2013. And that is why I support the repeal of that tax today.”
Murkowski’s announcement comes as a welcome surprise to Senate Republicans, whose current tax reform bill repeals the individual mandate, which forces most Americans who do not have health insurance to pay a fine. Earlier this year, Murkowski was one of three Republican senators who did not vote for the Senate GOP’s so-called “skinny” repeal of Obamacare.
Scientists analysed data on plastic from 79 sampling sites along 57 rivers
Their results showed that 10 rivers account for the majority of plasticÂ
Eight of these are in Asia, including the Yangtze and Indus rivers
Targeting these rivers could halve the amount of plastic waste, experts predict
More than half of the plastic waste that flows into the oceans comes from just five countries: China, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam and Sri Lanka.
The only industrialized western country on the list of top 20 plastic polluters is the United States at No. 20.
The U.S. and Europe are not mismanaging their collected waste, so the plastic trash coming from those countries is due to litter, researchers said.
China is responsible for 28%, the U.S. for only 1 percent.  While China is responsible for 2.4 million tons of plastic that makes its way into the ocean, nearly 28 percent of the world total, the United States contributes just 77,000 tons, which is less than one percent, according to the study published in the journal Science.
Taking a knee — during a football game in Mexico.
Before the NFL game in Mexico City between the Oakland Raiders and New England Patriots, Raiders running back Marshawn Lynch demonstrated an historic cluelessness.
Running back Lynch takes knee protesting U.S. anthem in Mexico and stands for Mexican flag
Lynch, a regular kneeler this year during the playing of the national anthem before the games, actually stood for the Mexican national anthem — before protesting the U.S. flag by taking a knee.
What black football running back Lynch does not know about skin color and racism in Mexico – skin color dominates Mexican society.
Overall, one’s skin color is the major determinant of that person’s place in Mexican society- educationally, occupationally, connection-wise and status-wise. Dating back almost 500 years to when the Spanish conquistadors’ blood began mixing with that of the indigenous population, in Mexico lighter skinned people have been considered to be more desirable, more worthy and more beautiful than darker skinned individuals.
Just take a look at who is employed where. Generally speaking, the most sought after, best, most important and highest paid jobs are disproportionately filled by those that have the lightest skin. Lighter skinned persons dominate such professional fields as medicine, dentistry, engineering and architecture. The same can be said about the upper echelons of politics and in academia. Conversely, the lowest paying jobs and those with the least social status such as housekeepers/maids, construction workers, street vendors, restaurant kitchen workers, and public transportation employees are unfortunately the “birth right†of those with darker skin.
Nowhere is this racial/ethnic discriminatory dichotomy in Mexico more visually apparent than in the worlds of entertainment and advertising. In the country’s numerous and popular telenovas/soap operas usually the lead roles are portrayed by light skinned performers with darker skinned persons normally portraying “subservient†roles as maids, cooks or gardeners or “villains†such as criminals.
How could that running back not know? Get a bite to eat for an hour in any small taco/ burrito shop in the U.S. with Mexican music and TV playing.  One does not have to go to Mexico to see how light skin is depicted via TV.
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  Firenze Sage:  It is not racism that is the problem. Let us start with ignorance.
  Baltic clams and worms release as much greenhouse gas as 20,000 dairy cows
New study shows that oceans with worms and clams enhance the release of methane into the atmosphere up to eight times more than oceans without them
Scientists have shown that ocean clams and worms are releasing a significant amount of potentially harmful greenhouse gas into the atmosphere.
The team, from Cardiff University and Stockholm University, have shown that the ocean critters are producing large amounts of the strongest greenhouse gases – methane and nitrous oxides – from the bacteria in their guts.
Methane gas is making its way into the water and then finally out into the atmosphere, contributing to global warming – methane has 28 times greater warming potential than carbon dioxide.
A detailed analysis showed that around 10 per cent of total methane emissions from the Baltic Sea may be due to clams and worms.
The researchers estimate that this is equivalent to as much methane given off as 20,000 dairy cows. This is as much as 10 per cent of the entire Welsh dairy cow population and 1 per cent of the entire UK dairy cow population.
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Firenze Sage writes:Â Â Governor Brown, moonbeam California , proposed methane bags for cows. Will he propose teeny weeny clam bags?
Where do homeless people poop in Aptos & Santa Cruz County? This is a major health hazard beter managed with easy access to portable toilets.
But few portable toilets exist in Aptos and nearby Santa Cruz, CA.
Most of the time, the bathroom doors are locked at most Aptos churches and in most public facilities.
Since plastic bags are now outlawed, homeless cannot readily clean up after themselves. There are a few portable toilets — but not many.
The California hepatitis A outbreak is on the verge of reaching statewide epidemic status, as cases have spread through homeless tent cities from San Diego north to Sacramento.
California health officials have reported that at least 569 people have been infected with the hepatitis A liver disease and 17 have died since a San Diego County outbreak was first identified in November. Cases have migrated north to homeless populations in Los Angeles, Santa Cruz, San Francisco and Sacramento over the last 11 months.
Although local and state authorities have tried to underplay the risks and severity of the outbreak, the most recent annual totals for cases of hepatitis A in the United States was 1,390 in 2015, according to the Center for Disease Control (CDC). California only reported 179 cases during the same year.
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Aptos Psychologist Dr. Jackson writes:   Are portable toilets just one more thing that taxpayers have to pay for? Looks like yes.  Human poop is a major health hazard in CA.
How might churches and other community organizations help control disease problems related to human poop? Let’s get the issues on agendas of various Aptos and Santa Cruz community organizations.Will that really happen? Mmmmm.
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written by Cameron Jackson  DrCameronJackson@gmail.colm
So — are CA politicians worth their pepper and SALTÂ ( State And Local Taxes = SALT)
