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Abe Schwartz was called to testify to the IRS so he asked his accountant, Morris, for advice on what to wear. "Wear your shabbiest clothing. Let him think you are a pauper," Morris replied.
Then he asked his lawyer, Sheldon, the same question but got the opposite advice. "Do not let them intimidate you. Wear your most elegant suit and tie.”
Confused, Abe went to his rabbi, told him of the conflicting advice, and requested some resolution to the dilemma. "Let me tell you a story," replied his rabbi. "A woman, about to be married, asked her mother what to wear on her wedding night. 'Wear a heavy, long, flannel nightgown that goes right up to your neck.' But when she asked her best friend, she got conflicting advice. 'Wear your most sexy negligee, with a V neck right down to your navel.'"
Abe confused, asked: “But rabbi, what does all this have to do with my problem with the IRS?”
"Simple", replied the rabbi. "It doesn't matter what you wear, you’re gonna get screwed anyway!"
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Some of the differences between the sexes ...
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As my memo readers know, I served on The Board of Visitors of St John's College for 8 years. The liberal arts college is very self-selecting, has two campuses (Annapolis and Santa Fe) and SJ's curricula is The Great Books.
It also is the third oldest college in our Nation, beginning as St Mary's.
For those interested in how a small liberal arts college plans for its future so that it can continue to exist and offer a rigorous and unique education I am posting comments from the latest Board Meeting. (See 1 below.)
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For those who live on Skidaway.(See 2 below.)
Michael is an actuary.
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Oh my! (See 3 below.)
Meanwhile:
Bernie promises he will transform America once elected. Obama transformed America and, after Trump was elected, he reversed the direction and now America is moving ahead as the train is, more or less, back on a generally positive track.
If Democrats really love America why are they constantly trying to transform us? I guess they have to be unhappy so that gives them a reason to be busy changing everything. They are never satisfied. The glass is always half full.
Hickenlooper, who just announced he was running for president is the former governor of Colorado. He says we are in a crisis . Perhaps he is referring to the sale of Cannabis.
All their rationale for running reminds me of the play:" I love You, I Married You, Now Change."
The rest of the Democrat candidates are equally frightening and the more these candidates double down, trying to outdo each other, the better Trump's opportunity to be re-elected. However, don't tell the Democrats because they believe the mass media are their best friends and serve their greedy narrow interests.
Also, the Democrats are now in a full gear mode to impeach Trump since they seem to have concluded no collusion and need to go down another road to keep the heels of hate turning.
I understand why Democrats are disappointed and mad. Trump beat Hilary and then he did things that were effective but in a manner that caused them to go from disappointment and mad to hate and we want power back..
The issue is now joined and is between Make America Great Again or America Be Damned.
You choose.
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Dick
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1)
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Financial Reasons to Incorporate
To stay with the County, we would spend some $6 million a year from their recently upped 4.99 millage rate on the assessed values of our homes (still frozen by Stephens Day). Instead, our new city’s proposed 4.13 millage would save us 17% fairly quickly. And that rate can’t be raised without the new City Council conducting a referendum among voters here. While non-binding, such a resolution in other similar small communities is a powerful reminder to elected officials that “tax and spend” is not to be tolerated. Plus, there is the general principle that governance closest to the people is best.
On average, the County collects from Skidaway about $2.4 million for police protection, but we get hardly any service for that. A new outsourced contract for police could reduce that expenditure by about $2 million a year! We don’t need vPeten
Current County taxes amount to some $1 million for road work. Yet we only have 8.4 miles to worry about for the new city, because TLA already assesses for and handles maintenance of some 90 other miles on Skidaway.
Incorporation would get us back about $1.9 million a year as the allocated share of the Local Option Sales Tax refundable to cities, but not to unincorporated areas. Similarly, we would get about $460,000 in franchise fees from utility bills on Skidaway, plus another $600,000 from other revenues allocated to us as a city, but not to an unincorporated area.
We do have some start-up costs and a state requirement to build up a reserve fund. But if nothing untoward occurs in five years, we can build up a reserve of over $10 million, and then start returning more than $300 per household in lower taxes. This can also be done without adding large commercial retables which we don’t want or need. Skidaway Island’s per capita income is among the highest in the state of Georgia, without much commercial development.
We also do not have to build a city hall. Just sublet office space in the Village for the few employees needed full time to monitor the outsourced work. And for meeting space for City Council meeting
The Case for Local Decision Making
I trust our local residents to make better decisions than those made off-island. And we have immediate recourse, as our electorate is very engaged (witness the fury of today’s controversy).
There is no shortage of talent to participate in our own governance. Others like us have formed new cities successfully. Tybee and Bloomingdale are much smaller, as are Kiawah Island and Sullivan’s Island.
The Opposition CaseThe intensity of it is baffling. I believe some of the opposition is lobbying on behalf of developers who don’t want Skidaway residents meddling in their plans for replacing the old Village Market. Or maybe they want to build new housing outside the gated communities.
We need to have a say in this new development. How close did we come to having a “roundabout” built against 95% of our residents’ wishes?
3) Trudeau In TROUBLE: Canadian Prime Minister Is Facing A Political Crisis, Possible ResignationMichael A. Walters8 Pineside LaneFellow and Past President, Casualty Actuarial SocietyLandings Resident since 1998++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Canada's heart-throb Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, has had a rough week, and things may only be getting worse.
According to the BBC, Trudeau is facing claims that he exerted intense political pressure on Canada's female, indigenous attorney general, Jody Wilson-Raybould, to "abandon prosecution" of Quebec-based engineering firm SNC-Lavalin, a "corrupt company" with alleged ties to Trudeau and some of his closet political pals. When Wilson-Raybould refused to call off an investigation (and subsequent prosecution) into SNC-Lavalin over fraud and corruption charges, the story goes, Trudeau fired her.
For some time, the story remained uncorroborated — a mere rumor that circulated around Canada's government officials. But last week, Wilson-Raybould testified in front of Parliament, telling her story in "meticulous detail," according to Canadian reporter Ezra Levant, parsing out "how Trudeau and his staff tried to get her to drop criminal charges against a corrupt company that he liked."
"[Wilson-Raybould] refused to bend the law for Trudeau's cronies. But they didn't stop. Trudeau; his chief of staff; his principal secretary; even the finance minister. They met her ten times, phoned her ten more. trying to get the charges dropped. She wouldn't. So Trudeau fired her as A-G," Levant tweeted in a short "primer" for American audiences — an account substantiated by The Washington Post. Trudeau eventually appointed Wilson-Raybould to a lesser position, handling veteran's affairs.
Because Wilson-Raybould was silenced by attorney-client privilege, only Trudeau was able to speak fully on the matter, according to Levant's account, but after weeks of pressure, and several high-profile departures from Trudeau's inner circle, Wilson-Raybould was invited to testify in front of Parliament, and Trudeau waived privilege.
The result was a bombshell testimony that appears to implicate Trudeau in a major political scandal.
"For a period of approximately four months between September and December 2018, I experienced a consistent and sustained effort by many people within the government to seek to politically interfere in the exercise of prosecutorial discretion in my role as the Attorney General of Canada in an inappropriate effort to secure a Deferred Prosecution Agreement with SNC-Lavalin," Wilson-Raybould testified.
"These events involved 11 people (excluding myself and my political staff) – from the Prime Minister’s Office, the Privy Council Office, and the Office of the Minister of Finance. This included in-person conversations, telephone calls, emails, and text messages. There were approximately 10 phone calls and 10 meetings specifically about SNC-Lavalin that I and/or my staff was a part of," she added.
It's against the law in Canada to exert pressure on an attorney general, leaving Trudeau potentially exposed to criminal charges. Wilson-Raybould testified in front of Parliament that she did not know whether any laws had been broken, but that it should be clear "she was not prepared to help the company avoid a trial and that she believes it was why she was demoted in a Cabinet shuffle in January."
Trudeau denies the allegations, and told the BBC that he "disagreed" with the '"characterization' of events and maintained his staff followed the rules."
"The prime minister said he had full confidence in an inquiry by a parliamentary justice committee into the affair and in an investigation by the federal ethics commissioner, and would 'participate fully' in that process," he added.
To make matters worse, The Washington Post reports, the issue has captured the attention of China, which is now accusing the Trudeau administration of exerting political pressure over lesser ministers who tried to cut a deal with China to release prisoners held in Canada on U.S. charges. The two prisoners are awaiting extradition to the U.S. rather than facing justice in Canada, much to China's dismay.
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