https://fi.google.com/about/

Basically they're using other peoples' networks and infrastructure to give you cheap cell service. Only a few Nexus phones work with it currently and the network is absent from a large part of the midwest, but it could still be a decent option for anyone looking for an inexpensive cell plan. $20 for standard calls and texting and $10 per GB of data, with no fees for going over and unused data is rolled out via credit to the next month.

http://taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/2000639-an-analysis-of-senator-bernie-sanderss-tax-proposals.pdf

The Tax Policy Center (TPC) estimates that the Sanders tax proposals would increase federal revenue by $15.3 trillion over their first decade (6.4 percent of cumulative gross domestic product [GDP] over that period) and by an additional $25.1 trillion over the subsequent 10 years (7.0 percent of cumulative GDP), before accounting for any changes in the cost of federal borrowing or macroeconomic feedback effects.1 Approximately two-fifths of the estimated revenue increase would come from a new employer payroll tax on all earnings and an across-the-board increase in income taxes, which would pay for a new, government-administered, health insurance program. Net increases in individual income, payroll, and estate taxes paid by high-income and high-wealth taxpayers would account for another quarter of the increase, as would the elimination of tax breaks for health care– related expenditures. Higher taxes paid by businesses, a new tax on financial transactions, and a new tax on carbon would   account for the remainder. The proposal would raise taxes at every income level, but high- income taxpayers would face the biggest increases, both in dollar amount and as a percentage of income. Overall, the plan would raise tax burdens by an average of nearly $9,000, thereby lowering average after-tax income by 12.4 percent. However, the highest-income taxpayers (the top 0.1 percent, or those with income over $3.7 million in 2015 dollars) would experience an average increase in tax burdens of more than $3 million in 2017, nearly 45 percent of their $6.9 million average after-tax income. Households in the middle quintile of the income distribution would see an average tax increase of almost $4,700, or 8.5 percent of their average after-tax income. Those in the bottom quintile would experience smaller tax increases, averaging $165, or 1.3 percent of their average after-tax income.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/bernie-sanderss-plan-would-raise-taxes-by-34-1457114401?mod=e2fb

Mr. Sanders’s proposals would increase federal taxes by $15.3 trillion over the next decade, according to the Tax Policy Center. Mr. Sanders concentrates his tax increases on high-income households, which would face sharply higher levies on their wages, business income, capital gains and estates, as well as more limits on their deductions. The top 0.1%—those with incomes of $3.7 million under an expanded definition—would pay an average federal tax rate of 63.7% in 2017, up from 34.2%.

The middle 20% of households would face an average tax increase of $4,692 in 2017 and lose 8.5% of after-tax income. The lowest-income households would lose, too, but they would come out even by 2025.

“Sanders is clearly betting that people are willing to pay for his expansive new welfare state,” said Leonard Burman, director of the Tax Policy Center, who was a Treasury Department official under President Bill Clinton. “There’s a giant tax increase, mostly on the rich, but everyone would pay more.”

Season 1 > 4 > 2 > 3

Can't replicate Bill Murray.

A big tornado just blew through here after forming in Orange Beach half an hour ago.

The South will rise again, though.

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/02/why-bernie-sanders-cant-win-and-cant-govern/460182/

What then? The odds that a Sanders victory would lead to a Democratic House or a majority of more than one in the Senate are very slim. House districts have grown in partisan tilt; there is no room at all for a Democratic landslide, and not much for significant gains. Democrats have a real chance, if they win the White House, to pick up the four seats needed to recapture a majority, but it would be a very heavy lift to shift that number to seven, eight, or 10. So Sanders, like Obama, would face a divided government. It would be a very different situation than Obama encountered when he first entered the White House, and more like what he faced after the first, disastrous midterm election in 2010. Sanders has made it clear that he would have an extraordinarily ambitious agenda, including Medicare for all, reinstatement of Glass-Steagall, free college for all, and sweeping campaign-finance reform just to start with, along with stiff tax increases to pay for it.

[...]

So all of Sanders’s initiatives would start as non-starters. Here, his theory of election and governance comes into play. He would go to the public, a public disgusted with Washington and its corrupt ties to the billionaire class and to business, and force members of Congress to their knees, shifting the debate and the agenda his way.

Sanders as president would be left with two main options: reduce his goals to aim for more incremental progress, or adopt a defensive approach to keep Obama’s policies from being rolled back—exactly what he has condemned in Hillary Clinton’s approach to governance. And while Sanders has been a more effective lawmaker than Cruz (or Rubio, for that matter, as demonstrated by Rick Santorum’s embarrassing failure on Morning Joe to find one accomplishment for his endorsee) there is little evidence that he has or could build the kinds of relationships with other members of Congress, or find ways to move the now humongous boulder up the hill (or Hill) of a thoroughly dysfunctional governing process. And, of course, he would face the deep disappointment of the activists he has inspired.

Could Clinton do better? Yes. First, she has an entirely realistic understanding of where American politics are, something she would carry into the White House on the first day. Progress can be made, on health delivery, financial regulation, the tax system, energy and infrastructure, but it will be a series of incremental steps, a tenth or a quarter of a loaf at a time. Second, in her time in the Senate she showed an impressive ability to build relationships with her Republican colleagues; many of them privately praise her even as they will do their duty and condemn her through the campaign. And she knows enough about the executive branch to use its tools effectively early on to protect the Obama legacy and extend it a bit further. Some progressives, like Bill Press, have expressed disappointment with Obama’s failure to further their agenda; to one who has watched the lawmaking process up close and personal for more than four decades, his ability to move the ball in the face of challenges from his own party and Republicans, and in the face of huge headwinds from the conservative wind machine, has been extraordinarily impressive.

The same studio that did Coraline, Paranorman, and Box Trolls. Here's hoping it's better than the latter. Looks great now, though.

This is a review of sorts.

On a whim I picked this book up from Amazon, not knowing anything about it or who the author is. Turns out the author, David Mitchell, is the author of several highly-acclaimed books like The Bone Clocks & Cloud Atlas -- yeah, the book that inspired the mediocre, experimental film starring Tom Hanks and Halle Berry. He's a master of -- I don't even know what to call it -- intersecting narratives? It doesn't follow one character, it follows different characters each chapter who all experience recurring characters and themes. In Cloud Atlas you see it in reincarnated souls meeting across various eras; in The Bone Clocks the story is told by various characters who all encounter the same protagonist as the timeline of the story progresses.

Slade House tells the story of five characters who are drawn to the titular Slade House for a mysterious reason, encountering the villains of the story, a pair of twins that prey on people every 9 years, for reasons that are gradually explained throughout the book. Each chapter follows a formula: the characters encounter the house, meet the twins, are lured upstairs, and then murdered, at which point the twins give exposition detailing a little more about their motives and abilities. I don't want to spoil too much of the book (and I'd worry about even telling you the pattern of the book, though it's gradually subverted as it progresses).

The first character is a socially awkward kid that regularly gets doped up on Valium, and it just gets better from there.

Mitchell's writing is fast-paced and doesn't get cluttered on unnecessary information, so many people have no trouble reading the entire book straight-through (it takes about 4 hours to read). What really solidifies this as great writing is his ability to fully envelop the personalities of each character; each one feels fresh, from the words they use to the structure of their own internal monologue.

My biggest criticism of the novel is that because it's a supernatural thriller that disguises itself as anything but, it requires some clunky exposition later in the book; the fourth chapter of five is basically just pure exposition about the backstory, motives, and methods of the villains. It works okay for what it is, though. At the end of it I would have been happy knowing none of it, but it provides some world-building for Mitchell's universe, as this book takes place in the same world as The Bone Clocks, though it's not at all a direct sequel.

If you're looking for something that qualifies as light reading that is just as good as some other heavy series out there, I strongly recommend you pick it up.

I usually try to present this stuff without tainting it with my own bias, but I'm sharing this exclusively because of how insane it is. This is the literary embodiment of white, upper-class liberal Westernism. Masturbatory, masochistic, navel-gazing laments about how awful it is to be white and have so much privilege -- simultaneously accusing white people of not recognizing their own privilege while viewing every single political issue from the perspective of an entitled caucasian that thinks people of color just get shit on at every turn, and it's his job to stand up for them.

If you can stomach nonsense that drones on well past where it should have ended, read on.

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jan/10/white-man-pathology-bernie-sanders-donald-trump

Preview:

So I'm moving to Norfolk, VA later this year, and I wanted to see how they handle liquor sale -- and apparently, it's ridiculous.

All liquor sale is monopolized by the state; there are zero independent liquor stores outside of military PX package stores.

There's a 20% excise tax on liquor in addition to 5% sales tax. In 2014 they generated $140 million in profit from this. Holy shit.

Anyways, are your state's laws awful? I came from AZ where you can buy booze in any grocery store, any time, so this is a huge change.

https://berniesanders.com/issues/how-bernie-pays-for-his-proposals/

Plan:
Rebuild America Act: Sen. Sanders has proposed a $1 trillion plan to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure and put 13 million Americans to work.

Payment:
Paid for by making corporations pay taxes on all of the “profits” they have shifted to the Cayman Islands and other offshore tax havens, which the Congressional Research Services estimates may currently create losses that approach $100 billion annually, and other loopholes.

Cost: $1T/10y
Revenue: $100B/y

Plan:
College for All: Sen. Sanders has proposed making public colleges and universities tuition-free and substantially reducing student debt, in a plan that would cost about $75 billion a year.

Payment:
Paid for by imposing a tax on Wall Street speculators that would generate about $300 billion in revenue.

Cost: $75B/y
Revenue: $300B/y

Plan:
Expand and Extend Social Security: Sen. Sanders has proposed expanding Social Security and extending the solvency of this program until 2065.

Payment:
Paid for by lifting the cap on taxable income above $250,000 so that the wealthy pay the same percentage of their income into Social Security as working people.

Cost: $1.2T/10y
Revenue: $1.2T/10y

Plan:
Youth Jobs Program: Sen. Sanders has proposed a $5.5 billion youth jobs program to create 1 million jobs for disadvantaged young Americans.

Payment:
Paid for by ending the carried interest loophole that allows billionaire hedge fund managers to pay a lower tax rate than nurses and truck drivers.

Cost: $5.5B/2y
Revenue: $15.6B/10y

Plan:
Paid Family and Medical Leave: Sen. Sanders has proposed at least 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave to all workers.

Payment:
Paid for by a payroll tax that would total $1.61 a week for the typical American worker. According to Sen. Gillibrand’s office, this would be “a self-sufficient program that would not add to the federal budget.”

Cost:
Revenue: $319 billion/10y

Plan:
Protect Pensions: Sen. Sanders has introduced a plan to prevent cuts to the pensions of over 1.5 million Americans.

Payment:
Paid for by closing two tax loopholes that allow the wealthy to avoid taxes on money they inherit and  expensive artwork they collect.
 
Cost: $29B/10
Revenue: $29B/10y

Plan:
Renewable Energy and Clean Jobs Transition: Sen. Sanders has a plan to invest in clean, sustainable energy sources powered by the sun, wind and Earth’s heat. He also has a plan to provide comprehensive benefits to workers as they transition to making the solar panels, wind turbines, and batteries of tomorrow.

Payment:
Paid for by stopping taxpayer-funded giveaways to oil, gas and coal companies.

Cost: $110B/10y
Revenue: $135B/10y

Some good, some bad, some utterly ridiculous.

Anybody else making their way through this show? For the uninitiated, it's a true-crime documentary about a man arrested for murder shortly after being released from jail for a wrongful accusation 18 years prior.

I'm not finished yet, and while I don't want to spoil anything this doesn't really seem like a show that really can be spoiled; it's all taking place 8 years ago and the conclusion of the case can be read online.

I graduated from my current program today and was assigned to the E-2C Hawkeye. It wasn't my first choice , but whatever. It's a pretty badass plane.

They're stationed out of Point Mugu, CA; Norfolk, VA; and Atsugi, Japan, which is what I'm hoping for.

Post about any other life changes you've got going on. I'm not sure if this fits in Serious, but I thought I'd share it with you all.

About a month after adopting Charlie he had a sudden behavioral change that resulted in extreme anxiety when he's home alone. If he's in a crate he'll chew anything he can get his mouth on, pant excessively, or scratch the crate and attempt to break out (which he's done several times). Outside of the crate he'll run around eating anything he can, peeing, and scratching at the door. He displayed none of these symptoms prior to that behavioral change, and he's displayed it in two separate houses, so it's not just environmental. Having another dog in the room doesn't help, and he's completely fine in the same place (out of sight) at night.

We've tried pheromones, puzzle toys, white noise, and everything else you can think of. Now we're moving on to medication and then potentially behavioral therapy.

Has anyone else had to medicate their dog for anything like this? Did it work?