Roger O Green

Y is for the year 2018 (ABCW)

Mars will make its closest approach to Earth since 2003.

2017 was so …interesting that I’m actually looking forward to 2018. The number, of course is not prime, obviously divisible by 2, but 1009 IS a prime number.

This coming February 9th through 25th, the Winter Olympics are scheduled to be held in Pyeongchang, South Korea. This will be very interesting for a couple reasons: the ongoing belligerence between the United States and North Korea which we HOPE doesn’t lead to all-out war; and Russia being banned from the Games because of a doping scandal, though some of their athletes may compete under the Olympic flag.

On April 4–15, the Commonwealth Games are scheduled to be held on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. Seventy countries will compete in athletics, badminton, boxing, hockey, lawn bowls, netball (for women), rugby sevens, squash, swimming, weightlifting and more. Sounds exciting, and less controversial.

The FIFA World Cup is scheduled to be held in Russia, mostly west of the Urals, June 14 – July 15. Unfortunately, the US did not make the cut.

On June 24, Saudi Arabia will allow women to drive. RADICAL!

Mars will make its closest approach to Earth since 2003 on July 27.

In the United States, about a third of the 100 US Senators (upper house) and all 435 members are up for reelection in November. There’s no secret that incumbents do quite well generally. Still, the changing political terrain has CNN dubbing 2018 the year of women; I’ve heard that before, but next year, it MAY actually come true.

Ericsson has identified 10 Hot Consumer Trends for the upcoming year, among them, Your body is the user interface and Augmented hearing.

Pinterest has also weighed in with The top trends to try in 2018. For instance, Food: Healthy meets tasty. Good to know.

Inc has sought 22 Predictions for 2018. Some of them seem to contradict each other. “The artificial intelligence (AI) hype bubble will burst.” “Artificial intelligence (AI) will drive smart video meetings.”

Hope your 2018 is grand.

For ABC Wednesday

Music throwback Christmas all over again

Here’s a great thing about when someone puts labels on posts on the Blogger platform: you can access Jaquandor’s Daily Dose of Christmas, not just for this year, but for several years back. You’re welcome.

A couple new tracks from this year:

Indigo Christmas -Theresa Olin, written by Linda Bonney Olin

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas – MonaLisa Twins

Away in a Manger – Pentatonix

You Ain’t Gettin’ S#!t (For Xmas) – Emily “Boo Boo” Miller

Some random older cuts I’ve come across:

Christmas Rappin’- Kurtis Blow, 1979

The Christians and The Pagans – Dar Williams

Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) – Darlene Love, from her recurring appearances on The Late Show with David Letterman

We Need A Little Christmas – Angela Lansbury, from the Broadway musical MAME

Winter Song – Sara Bareilles, Ingrid Michaelson

Chrissy The Christmas Mouse – Debbie Reynolds and Donald O’Connor

The 12 Gifts of Christmas – Allan Sherman

You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch

A Shadows of Knight mashup of a Christmas carol and a Dave Brubeck hit

Shepherd’s Hey by Percy Grainger, which I have on some holiday record or other

Plus: Coverville 1197: The 2017 Christmas Cover Show

Finally, some tunes I tend to play every year:

Every Valley – Handel’s Messiah, A Soulful Celebration; it was such a great surprise

The Christmas Song – Nat King Cole; my late mom was a huge fan of Nat

White Christmas – the Drifters; not just the song but this particular animation I love

Linus and Lucy – Vince Guaraldi, from a Charlie Brown Christmas

The Coventry Carol – Alison Moyet, from the very first A Very Special Christmas album in 1987

Christmas All Over Again – Tom Petty, from the second A Very Special Christmas album in 1992; I can’t believe he’s gone

Winter Snow – Booker T. and the MG’S (at 2:30) – Silver Bells is OK, but Winter Snow, which I first head on that first Stax-Volt box set, really gets to me

What Christmas Means To Me – Stevie Wonder; there are quite a few Motown Christmas albums and this is my favorite cut, the last song on the Someday at Christmas album from 1967

The Bells of Christmas -Julie Andrews; the version I have on vinyl skips the unnecessary instrumentation from about 1:08 to 2:02, which appeared on an album from Firestone tires in the 1960s. Oh, here it is at 17:05

I never voted for Jimmy Carter

It wasn’t that I disliked Jimmy Carter, or thought he was terrible.

Chris wondered:
You voted third party? What made Jimmy Carter unattractive?

Hey, I was young and foolish and headstrong. In 1976, I wanted to vote for Eugene McCarthy in the Democratic presidential primary. Remember him, the guy who challenged President Lyndon Johnson in the 1968 New Hampshire primary and received 43% of the vote, which prompted LBJ not to seek reelection?

But the Carter forces in New York State got Clean Gene knocked off the ballot. I had no idea how or why at the time, but I now wonder if it was because, as the Wikipedia states, he had quit the Democratic party. In any case, that anti-democratic behavior really ticked me off.

In the race between President Gerald Ford and the peanut farmer from Georgia, I opted to vote for McCarthy; I don’t think he was on the ballot in my state, though he was in about 2/3s of the others, so I wrote him in.

I rather liked Jimmy Carter as President early on. He was saying enough of the right things for me, especially when he talked about conserving energy. Sitting in the White House wearing a sweater, he called the energy crisis the Moral Equivalent Of War. But it wasn’t what the country, already feeling down after Watergate and Vietnam, wanted to hear; his plan was ridiculed as MEOW.

Still, it was the Iran hostage crisis that began on November 4, 1979, that did him in. Maybe not immediately. But as the news networks started delaying their late-night programming in favor of 15 minutes of news from Tehran – DAY 42, DAY 108, DAY 159 – it made him appear weak, and the failed rescue mission even more so.

When Senator Edward Kennedy and California governor Jerry Brown challenged him in the primaries, this just codified that feeling that Jimmy Carter was ineffectual. I worried about Teddy running, fearing that if he had won, he would die in office, like Presidents elected in years ending with zero, going back to 1840, and the fact that all of his brothers (Joe, Jack, Bobby) had died violently. Despite that, and despite Chappaquiddick, I’m pretty sure I voted for him.

Of course, a battered Carter prevailed at the Democratic convention and faced the Republican, Ronald Reagan, who I disliked intensely from when he was governor of California. He was also challenged by Congressman John Anderson of Illinois. But I didn’t vote for ANY of them.

I figured that if I were going to throw away my vote, I had to REALLY toss it. I had read the 1971 book The Closing Circle by Barry Commoner, where he “suggested that the American economy should be restructured to conform to the unbending laws of ecology.” I voted for him – he was on the ballot in New York – and he came in fifth nationally, behind the Libertarian.

So it wasn’t that I disliked Jimmy Carter, or thought he was terrible. It was that he didn’t excite me, inspire me. I also figured that if Reagan were to get elected, the Democratic Congress would keep him in check. HA!

Of course, in hindsight James Earl Carter wasn’t THAT bad a President. And he is is, by far, the best ex-President ever.

City of Albany folks: You may be able to prepay 2018 property taxes

In effect, seniors will pay for tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy as automatic spending cuts are triggered because the tax cuts add $1.5 trillion to the national debt.

From the Honorable Darius Shahinfar, City Treasurer:

Given what is happening in Washington with respect to tax reform and the possible elimination or capping of the state and local tax (SALT) deduction, the City of Albany expects to be able to accept payments of 2018 property taxes on December 29, 2017. Albany’s authorization to accept these payments is premised on the expectation that Albany County will provide the City its Tax Warrant on or before December 29.

Please be advised that the authority for the City to collect 2018 property taxes on December 29, 2017 does not address the deductibility of such prepaid taxes for income tax purposes, as that issue is under the purview of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

– Upon advice from the New York Conference of Mayors

Payments can be made at:
Treasurer’s Office
City Hall
24 Eagle Street, Room 109
Albany, New York 12207
NOTICE TO TAXPAYERS
OF THE
CITY OF ALBANY

You may be able to prepay your 2018 property taxes on December 29 at City Hall.

The Treasurer’s office now offers multiple ways for you to obtain property tax bill information.

Save a trip to City Hall, view, print and/or pay my tax bill online at payments.albanyny.gov. Payment may be made directly from a checking account for a $.50 cent fee, or by credit card for a $.25 cent fee plus 1.95% of the total payment.

You can request a change to your billing address by emailing taxbilladdresschange@albanyny.gov.

You can request a copy of your Tax bill and/or receipts for payment by using the following addresses:

Receive an e-mail copy of a 2017 tax bill taxbill@albanyny.gov
Receive a paid receipt by emailing 2017paidtax@albanyny.gov

Or submit your information [on the page] to receive a copy of your 2017 tax bill or receipt within 24 hours.
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From the LA Times: Now that the tax overhaul has passed, here are five moves to consider before year’s end.

Under current law, employees are allowed to deduct unreimbursed business expenses if they total more than 2% of their adjusted gross income.

They include a home office, depreciation on a personal computer required for the job, dues to professional societies and subscriptions to journals and trade magazines.

All of those deductions would disappear through 2025 under the Republican tax bill, so you probably want to move as many of those expenses as you can to this year, such as by re-upping professional journal subscriptions.
***
From Nation of Change:

[The bill] mandates automatic Medicare cuts of at least $25 billion in 2018 and $400 billion over 10 years. In effect, seniors will pay for tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy as automatic spending cuts are triggered because the tax cuts add $1.5 trillion to the national debt. Automatic cuts altogether will total $136 billion in 2018 and include reductions in agriculture subsidies, student loans, military retirement and more. [Congressional Budget Office (CBO)]
***
This Tax Accountant’s Thoughts on the New Tax Law: This is a draconian tax bill for employees.

It also is insidiously designed to social engineer our society, away from wage earners and the benefits that employers are obligated to provide, to become an increasingly non-union and non-employee based economy of contractors and sub-contractors, with no benefits, sick pay, family leave, unemployment insurance, workers compensation, or vacation pay.

And, of course, no health insurance.

And still, the debt will grow by trillions…

Outside the comfort zone: Ask Roger Anything

Arthur, the Kiwi-American, wrote about blogging recently, prodded in part by an article I sent him. One of the takeaways is that bloggers spend more time on a typical blog post (up 39% from 2014 to 2017) and as a result, posts are published less frequently.

I shared the survey with this local blogging collective, maybe a dozen and a half folks who either presently or formerly blogged at a certain metropolitan newspaper, plus selected others. As I wrote, cheekily: “I love being in a collective! It’s so early Xian, or Soviet.”

It’s designed to be a safe place to kick around ideas, maybe gripe about the inevitable blog trolls we inevitably get. (Although I almost never get them here, I’m pleased to note.)

We answer questions about our writing process. “What inspires you to write about in autumn?” I asked if any of the others write ahead like I do. Well, no. unless a vacation is planned or one is crafting a fictional piece as part of a larger whole.

Someone posed this question: “What was the first time you wrote about something OUTSIDE of your comfort zone? I.e., something in which being a blogger inspired you to try something different?”

I can’t say for sure, but it was almost certainly something that one of you posed during what I call Ask Roger Anything, probably concerning race.

This is the time when youse folk get to inquire anything of me, and I must respond, generally within the month, to the best of my ability, obfuscating only when really necessary, which has not been as frequent as I would have thought, truth to tell.

As always, you can leave your questions below or on Facebook or Twitter; for the latter, my name is ersie. Always look for the duck. If you prefer to remain anonymous, that’s fine, but you need to SAY so; you should e-mail me at rogerogreen (AT) gmail (DOT) com, or send me an IM on FB and note that you want to remain unmentioned; otherwise, I’ll assume you want to be cited.