One day until the election...

MikeHawthorne

Essential Member
Microsoft Community Contributor
Joined
May 25, 2009
Location
Ada Michigan
Hi

I can't believe it, I made it, one day until the election.
I'm so ready to have this over with!

The whole thing has been embarrassing, I can't believe that this is happening in our country.
It's like something you would see in a movie parody.

Hillary is the luckiest candidate in history, I don't think that she could beat anyone but Trump.
But she got to run against someone so repugnant that having the Clinton's in the White House again looks like a good thing by comparison.

I'm not saying that she isn't qualified, she is, but I think I'd rather have had Bernie, or Biden.

But now we'll get 4 more years of the Republican's trying to block everything on general principles even if it was originally their idea, investigating the same things over and over and getting nothing done.

I used to be a Republican, Betty and Gerald Ford were my wife's aunt and uncle, and I voted for Nixon and the first George Bush, as well as Regan.

Everyone will lament the fact that manufacturing jobs are on the decline while ignoring the fact that the world is changing and there won't be jobs in China pretty soon either, just as there aren't in Japan now.

Remember when they were going to take all our jobs away?

The robots are coming.

Which gets me to my main complaint about our government.

They can't think more then a month ahead!

When is the last time you heard any discussion about long term planing for the future.
I guess if you think the world is only six thousand years old you don't see any reason to.

The world is changing, computers, and mechanization are replacing jobs everywhere.
Is anyone thinking about that, there aren't going to be jobs for anyone in the future.

Even jobs at McDonald's will disappear, they are already working on completely robotized fast food pickup windows.

The world will be a vastly different place in 50 years, we need to plan ahead.

I know I was around 78 years ago and I've seen the changes, I can actually remember a few horse drawn commercial vehicles on the streets, and when a DC3 was high tech.

My father was an engineer and he used a slide rule!
He would have loved computers.

I can even remember before there was TV!!!
Not to mention cable news.

I miss Walter Cronkite.

We are always going to be on the edge of a crises unless we start thinking ahead, but the odds on that seem pretty slim.

Mike
 
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Horses are before my time but I do remember when people could add up change in their heads and knew their own phone number as well as a couple of others.
Does the average American know the difference between Republican or Democrat party today... Is there in fact any different?
 
Hi Everyone.

I was wrong, Hillary didn't win the election.

I didn't really think that there were enough people in the U.S. who would think that Trump was acceptable as president under any circumstances.

So I guess it was Trump who was lucky and ran against the only person that he could beat.

I hear the Canadian immigration web site actually crashed tonight! This is true!

I think that if I was young I'd think about moving to New Zealand.
It's too late for me, but I can't foresee how this is going to work out well.

For one thing no other country is going to trust the U.S. in any kind of negotiation, and I don't think that the president of France is going to like being called "Little Francois" or that "Truffle Sucker".

What will happen in the Middle East, will Trump do what he said and bomb them out of existence no matter who's in the way.
Will he reengage with American troops and fight another 10 year war?

Who knows?

Well at least it's going to be interesting, though I'm going to do a lot of channel switching to avoid seeing him on TV.

Fortunately I'm not on Obama Care, don't need a job, I'm not a minority or an immigrant and I'm too old to be drafted.
But I'm not expecting my taxes to suddenly go down either.

And I'm betting it's going to take a while for my retirement account to recover.

Mike
 
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new-zealand is nice place … australia is nice place too … lots of awesome geographical features (not to mention the wildlife). and the aboriginals are so warm and sincere.



edit:
"features" s/b "formations".
 
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I heard England has been known to rain sometimes and they talk funny but if that's ok then you may want to consider it?
 
Hi

Surprise, my retirement account recovered already.
I'm surprised, I though it was going to take a hit.

I bought stock in Tesla earlier this year, and they just got 300,000 paid deposit preorders for the new Tesla Model 3.
I bought the stock because of their battery plant, but the cars are a plus.

However I'm planning on buying a Chevy Bolt, if they ever get to the dealers.

It's too late to get the federal tax discount on a Tesla, and I don't want to pay the full price.

I always thought that New Zealand sounded like a great place to live.

My cousin John and his wife Both PHDs, moved to Australia back in the 70s to work as teachers because they couldn't find teaching jobs in the same place in the US, and they lived there for about 15 years before coming back here, Jack to teach at the University Of Michigan and his wife Barb to work as an executive for Ford.

Their son was born there and lived there until he was around 12.

While there John became "Jack", and grew a beard, and now says thing like "audi maite", or something like that.

I used to think of moving to Ireland, my racial origin, but it's too late to do that now.
I guess I'm stuck where I'm at until I pass on to the cloud, Trump or no Trump.

A big wave to the people who are out protesting!
I still can't really believe that this guy is going to be president.

To USSNorway....

On the adding up change thing, yesterday my wife and I went through the drive in window at a local Mexican restaurant.

We ordered two taco dinners one with 3 tacos and one with 4 tacos.
The cashier replied that they didn't have 4 taco dinners.

I said Just add an extra taco, she said I don't have a button for that.
I said do you sell individual tacos, she said yes.

I said then I want two 3 taco dinners and and add an extra taco.

She still didn't get it, and I said just give me 2, 3 tacos dinners, is that ok, she said yes.

Then I said I want to place another order, I want one taco.

She said Ok, that we finally go our dinners.

This is a true story, and it really did happen yesterday. LOL

Reminds me of Jack Nicholson in the movie, Five Easy Pieces.

Jack Nicholson in Five easy pieces, Video - - Yahoo Video Search Results

Mike
 
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in the stead we're not getting too far off topic here …

yah … supposedly costco already offered an online "configurator" for chevy's Bolt … insideevs.com apparently retained it's snapshots. since then, the configurator has been removed. heck … i had no idea costco offered vehicles!

or … one might always consider le-eco's LeSEE (ruminate china) which, purportedly, has plans on being featured with the next iteration of "transformers" franchise. the lesee is pictured below:
leeco-lesee-10(cropped).png


personally … my heart is, and will always be, set on what has become elon-musk's flagship(?) … would love to own a Model-3. fwiw … similar to you, mike, donald-trump probably also has a vested interest in tesla-motors-inc stock. :^)

ref:
www.insideevs.com
www.autoblog.com
cnet3.cbsistatic.com
www.cleantechnica.com
www.google.com (tsla-stock)

note:
the link to the tsla-stock ticker needs flash enabled for viewing.
 
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Hi

I've been to the local Chevy deals a couple of times and they have no idea when the Bolt will be available here in Michign.

You would think that GM would at least keep them in the loop.

Any way they know we are serious and said they will let us know as soon as they hear any thing.

But it looks like it won't be before next spring.

Mike
 
agreed … as it is, seems california 'n oregon get first dibs. you right, though, one would think michigan gets some say in the matter. as for the federal incentives … s'not what people are led to believe.

well, matey … carry on.
 
Hi

As I understand it I get a $7,500 tax credit if I buy one of the first twenty thousand.
Lowering the a actual cost to around thirty thousand.

It's too late to do that on a Tesla, or non plug in hybrids.
But still available on full electric cars.

Mike
 
that part seems correct, mike. s'the next part which boggles many people … $7,500 gets applied to the amount you owe uncle-sam at end of year. let's say you owe $1,500 at end of year … instead of paying that $1,500 from you savings account … it gets chopped out of the $7,500 … and so on. one does not get a check from uncle-sam for $7,500. however, i don't know of this can be accrued, annually, until the principal runs out or not.

for myself … i never "owe" … so the incentive offers diddly-squat.

again, mike … i could be wrong in my understanding of the above scenario.
 
Hi

I'm pretty sure that it's not what you owe above the amount you have already paid but your total tax bill.
Since my federal tax bill is in excess of $7,500 I believe that I can deduct the whole $7500 at the end of the year.

If it worked the way you suggest almost no one would be able to claim much in the way of a rebate.
I do know that it has to be claimed within one tax year.

However I'll do some research and come back if I find a definite answer.

Here's the form, but I can't figure it out, I've found the answer stated both ways, and the IRS doesn't say anything about it having to be from the amount due at the end of the year.

Just that it can be applied to your tax for the year you start driving the car.

One source said that the excess will be refunded to you just like any other tax refund when your deductions cause the amount you have paid to exceed the amount you owe.

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f8834.pdf

From the IRS...

You may be eligible for a credit under Section 30D(a), if you purchased a car or truck with at least four wheels and a gross vehicle weight of less than 14,000 pounds that draws energy from a battery with at least 4 kilowatt hours and that may be recharged from an external source.

You must have purchased it in or after 2010 and begun driving it in the year in which you claim the credit.

The credit ranges between $2,500 and $7,500, depending on the capacity of the battery.

The credit begins to phase out for a manufacturer, when that manufacturer sells 200,000 qualified vehicles.

I don't do my own taxes, I've used the same accounting firm for almost 50 years.
I guess if I can't figure this out I'll give them a call.

I have some investments that are not tax sheltered, I suppose that I could take the money for the car out of one of those and pay the tax on it, that would be a substantial amount of money on say $40,000, added to what I always owe anyway,

Then I could get it back at the end of the year with the refund.

I'm going to have to pay the taxes on it at some point anyway, maybe that would be to my advantage, I could then replace the investment money with cash that has already had taxes assessed on it.

This is making my head spin. LOL

Mike
 
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Well I found a page where it says that people who are misinterpreting the idea that you actually have to owe $7500 at the end of the year and that it only means that your taxes owed for the year exceed $7500.

It gave the example that if you bought a Nissan Leaf and your taxes owed to the IRS for the year were, $5000 then the amount of the tax credit you get is $5000, they won't send you a check for the remaining $2500.

This is what I understood it to mean...

What one "owes" as in US/federal tax "Amount you owe" line 78 of 1040 (balance due) is irrelevant, as long as total federal/US taxes for the year of purchase is greater than electric/plug-in tax credit amount, the filer/buyer will get the full tax credit, which would include a refund of any overpaid/withheld taxes.

The article example is easily misunderstood and should be clarified.

But I don't know for sure that this is correct either, I'll have to check with an expert.
If the people who wrote the stuff for the IRS were a little clearer it would be a big help, but it does appear that when the IRS say taxes owed then mean for the year not after deductions.
 
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