bfargin

Yes I had them shipped. It just shocked me because TN also has such high sales tax (9.75%) it makes it difficult to think any investment has a 10% hit (added base) the day you get it. I thought about having it sent to my brother in TX but just had it sent straight to me. I get that I'm buying the precious metal but if the US puts a legal tender value, you'd think it wouldn't be taxable. If I go to the bank I don't get charged for buying a roll of quarters (legal tender). I was just surprised and frustrated, so thought I'd see if anybody else had been hit by that lately.

Alright, a question for any of you that invest in bullion. So I recently bought some Platinum Eagles. How can a state charge sales tax on what is officially United States legal tender? I realize the face value is only $100 but according to the mint's own website it is legal tender (even if the face value is a nominal value). The wholesalers I checked with (Cal Numismatic, JM bullion, apmex)) all say states are now collecting sales tax on bullion coins sales (even ones that are US Mint products and are U.S. legal tender). I've never paid sales tax on US coins before and it doesn't seem right to pay on official US minted coins.

https://babylonbee.com/news/are-you-a-groomer-9-things-to-look-for?fbclid=IwAR2XQyyjXmlMiXRiiLRYGkOsS4uGz2RM_tzgzUD16yvn4tKm5SSxwxQYcz4

The trailer only showed F-18s, I wonder if Fat Amy will make an appearance in the new Top Gun. History: I had completed my T-38 contact check and was prepping for the form check when the original came out. Some of us went together to check it out and of course were throwing penalty flags on some of the BS/hype but we still enjoyed the attention it got us at ASU's Devil House and other locations around Tempe/Mesa after its debut.

Here are the date points from the same Our World in Data source used by NSPlayr. I don't know where the Prager U speaker got his data/information but this data shows he wasn't far off with the 2% change in energy consumption from Solar and Wind. This graph shows it went from less than 1/2 a % in 2000, to just over 3% in 2019 (their latest validated year for world energy consumption that I could find). Obviously my stated bias is Nuclear but I do see a role for solar and other renewables (I've had solar on my roof since January 2016 and haven't paid an electric bill since - and get a yearly check for my roof's production surplus). I calculated an 8 to 9 year oay-back when I installed the system and am on track to reach payback at 9.5 years. Without the 30% TVA tax credit it would have been closer to a 20 year payback. I admit my personal hypocrisy in accepting the government tax credit while advocating for less government interference. At my age I wouldn't have made the move without the credit. If I had been in the same financial situation when I was 30 I might have still done it without a government subsidy/tax credit. I'm for pretty much anything other than coal for electricity production (though I recognize that the industry continues to improve on the efficiency and cleanliness of coal). And, I guarantee any of you guys who are north of 50 like me, can attest to the improvement in our environment over the past 40 years (water and air). We need to be good stewards but we can't let emotion and the leftist shrills screw up everything in the name of another crisis. Slow and steady wins most races and is usually the best policy.

https://www.prageru.com/video/how-much-energy-will-the-world-need?utm_source=Iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=campaign_3965824 Interesting summary of energy trends and cost. Bottom line, we've only moved 2% of energy usage away from fossil fuels to wind and solar (over the past 20 years) in spite of governments spending more than 5 Trillion on solar and wind technology and incentives.

Now I know why everyone here is bailing from USAA...they have to put a plan in place to stop your money laundering.

Lots of new fuel sources are being tested/developed. I read this article last year on where some of the technology for nuclear power generation is heading. Substantially less initial fuel required and less waste as a result. The French (Germans were - but not sure of their current efforts) are seeking ways to recycle nuclear waste resulting in even less waste going forward. https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2021/07/20/new-nuclear-fuel-can-be-here-even-faster-than-new-reactorsaneel/?sh=55792faccc19

The Chase Amazon card has 2% on certain things and 5% on anything bought from Amazon and whole foods. A great deal if you buy from Amazon, and a decent deal if you don't. No annual fee. I use it more than my USAA card.

Wind is a terrible energy source for mass production. Nuclear is the cleanest and safest energy source we have available. We even have the ability to make power from elements that can't be weaponized and can be recycled almost to zero remaining waste. Let's spend some money and energy getting that in place (to at least eliminate coal usage). There is no excuse for us to depend on coal for more than 20% of our power generation. https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=427&t=3

There is truth in your words of iron ... (sorry, I just watched Outlaw Josie Wales again.)

I'm just hoping we never have all three (house, senate, potus) controlled by the same party. I absolutely love a slow cumbersome government that has to convince everyone that the cause du-jour is a good idea. It's not foolproof, as evidenced by the Patriot Act among others, but it usually works better than either party does alone.

And on a side note, a couple of the smartest guys in my UPT class washed out. Intellectually they made the rest of us (including the IPs) seem like special ed students. So even if he had washed out, it doesn't mean he doesn't have the smarts to logically crush anybody else's arguments/thoughts.

I'm wondering what rational person listened to that feces and thought "yeah, he seems to have it all under control". I get that his supporters know what he is and accept it, but how did that dumpster fire of a speech positively sway anybody's opinion??

You're shitting us right? Our energy policy is totally about politics. it shouldn't be but, in the US everything is politics now. We still have decades and decades of energy in the ground under the US. The newest Nuclear technology is the cleanest and most green energy source we have available right now, but sadly it's out of fashion.

no doubt Putin got a hold of one of Hunter's crack pipes, but there is still no fargin way he goes nuclear!

There is no way Putin drops nukes (tactical or otherwise) in Ukraine! So far the Russian troops seem to be diligently trying to minimize deaths. Putin is in the wrong to invade, but he fully outlined his reasoning and intent. goingkinetic is dropping some strong acid with the "war crimes" talk.

A couple of years ago I did an intentional search for nails made in the USA. At the time there was one remaining manufacturer that supposedly made nails in the US. I can't say my search was 100% exhaustive, but it made me do a similar search on other manufactured products and it confirmed how little we produce here at home. For many items we source the raw material and send it to China (or elsewhere) to have it fabricated and sent back. Pretty shocking how little we actually make and that it's cheaper to send product to China and back rather than make it here. I know I'm unique here in the US, but having grown up in Taiwan it worries me how serious the threat really is to one of the few young democracies in the world. Taiwanese have grown from an autocratic more or less dictatorship (KMT run and controlled) while I was there (1970-1980) into a fully functioning democracy fighting for it's very existence in a world that fails to recognize them as an independent state. General CKS basically doomed Taiwan to the current situation by being so dogmatic that he was the ruler of all of China when the UN in the early 1970s chose the CCP as the official Chinese government.

We buy and source everything consumer based from CCP controlled outlets in China. We (the USA and most of the West) don't have the resolve anymore to sacrifice personal comfort for a cause, even a major cause like basic human rights. I forecast (if CCP invades Taiwan) we pontificate a lot (and I mean a lot), we drum up a few superficial sanctions, and we lobby the UN to make a statement that China was bad in this action but.....

those pussies, the A-Team flew a tank by firing it at appropriate times

Too funny not to share!

Alright, which one of you FedEx or UPS bubbas snuck the snake on the plane? https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/pilot-calls-emergency-landing-snake-162818830.html

I might have missed it, but don't think I've seen this one here yet.

That makes sense Dirk. It just hit me wrong when I saw it and flashed back to 1990/91 with desert shield and storm.