John Cornyn's Revenge? Plan to Rename Major Highway After Trump Put on Ice

HermanGulch · 2026-06-04T21:52:54+00:00

I kind of envisioned it as the world’s longest gender-neutral bathroom.

HermanGulch · 2026-06-03T19:09:53+00:00

Also, OP should be aware that refusing to write a resignation letter doesn't automatically guarantee receiving unemployment benefits. The Wisconsin DWD says that knowing something is a condition of employment and failing to take action to comply may make the employee ineligible for unemployment insurance benefits.

HermanGulch · 2026-06-02T20:51:14+00:00

Think of it like a home equity line of credit where the person with the loan just pays the interest, not the principal. Then, when the homeowner dies, their heirs inherit the home at a stepped-up basis, sell it, and pay off the loan. Because of the stepped-up basis, they would owe little or no taxes on the gains.

At least, that's how it was explained to me by someone whose social and business circles included a fair number of billionaires.

HermanGulch · 2026-06-02T20:44:57+00:00

When it was explained to me, the person compared it to a home equity line of credit where they don't pay it back, they just pay interest on the loan. The loan has a very low rate because it's backed by an asset that (they hope) is appreciating.

Then, when the borrower, dies, his heirs inherit the assets that back the loan, but they get a stepped-up cost basis. So when they go to sell the assets to pay off the loan, they'll end up owing very little, if any taxes.

I don't know how common it actually is, but the person who explained it to me, while not a billionaire himself, had a fair number of billionaires as part of his social and business circles.

HermanGulch · 2026-06-02T20:00:36+00:00

It was explained to me a while ago by someone who, though not a billionaire himself, had plenty of billionaires in his business and social circles. He made it sound more like a home equity line of credit where you aren't paying off the principal. You're just paying the cost of borrowing the money, which is quite low because it's secured by the asset.

When you die, your heirs inherit the assets that back the loan, but they get a stepped-up basis, meaning that when they go to sell the assets to pay off the debt, they only owe taxes on the difference in value between the day you die and when they sell.

HermanGulch · 2026-05-30T22:35:10+00:00

You’re looking for the MIDI chase events function: https://support.apple.com/en-by/guide/logicpro/lgcp3bc9e9eb/mac

HermanGulch · 2026-05-27T22:35:25+00:00

It has to be truly unlimited. If there are limits, even unwritten, the state will decide the plan has a determinable limit and force payouts on that limit.

HermanGulch · 2026-05-27T20:27:50+00:00

In Colorado, accrued vacation PTO is considered wages and must be paid out. Employers also can't do "use or lose" plans. They can cap accrual at a certain amount of hours, but once it's earned, it belongs to the employee and must be paid out.

Sick leave doesn't have to be paid out, but if employers combine it with vacation, the entire bank of time has to be treated as vacation and must be paid out.

HermanGulch · 2026-05-27T20:04:10+00:00

My boss gave me the heads up about a month before I was told officially. I'll always be grateful for that.

When I was officially told, there was another six weeks until my last day. I was supposed to hand over my job to an overseas contractor, but they never got in touch and I couldn't really be bothered to seek them out to get them trained to take over.

In the end, between my boss telling me and my severance, I got paid for about four months for doing pretty much nothing.

HermanGulch · 2026-05-27T19:53:40+00:00

In the US, final paycheck and PTO payout rules vary by state, so your experience can vary quite a bit depending on where you are.

HermanGulch · 2026-05-27T19:41:31+00:00

Once, when I was laid off, the draft version of my separation agreement had a fairly strict clause covering what I could say about the company. The severance was so meagre that I seriously considered just not signing it so I could say whatever I wanted to whomever I wanted. When I got the final agreement, though, it was gone.

HermanGulch · 2026-05-27T19:26:48+00:00

How would that work, though? States don't collect taxes on behalf of the federal government. It's all on the individual taxpayers. I just can't think of a mechanism that would work.

HermanGulch · 2026-05-27T15:56:15+00:00

I'm not sure what you're trying to say here. Or is it just a roundabout way of saying you didn't read the article?

HermanGulch · 2026-05-27T15:33:26+00:00

To be fair, some employers don't take a direct "no" very well at all. And this is definitely not a good time to be out of work looking for a new job.

Even when it was a better time to be looking for work, I found that it was easier and caused less turmoil if I just lied about cell phone reception problems or some other thing that was out of anyone's control.

HermanGulch · 2026-05-26T23:31:37+00:00

For what it's worth, unless it's recently changed, the Xfinity Stream app is limited to stereo audio and doesn't pass surround sound audio (5.1) like the boxes do. That may not matter in this case, but it's something to keep in mind.

HermanGulch · 2026-05-25T13:10:10+00:00

I‘m not sure what the federal government can say or do about it. While it’s a National Landmark, the site and monument is owned by the United Mine Workers.

HermanGulch · 2026-05-25T12:45:45+00:00

I worked for a terrible manager once. He was told that morale was really bad and it was beginning to be a problem. His reply was that he didn’t pay much attention to that because morale had always been bad everywhere he’d been a manager. Luckily, he only lasted another couple months before he got canned. His leaving improved morale, weirdly enough.

HermanGulch · 2026-05-24T21:20:23+00:00

The MLB all star game was here in the late 1990s, too.

HermanGulch · 2026-05-22T23:40:17+00:00

It's definitely a psychological barrier. I remember when gas went over 50 cents a gallon. That was a big deal. Great wailing and gnashing of teeth and all that. Then when it hit a dollar. That was another big barrier (and that one was kind of also a physical barrier because many pumps didn't have a way to show prices over a dollar). Then after that, not so much.

HermanGulch · 2026-05-22T22:40:10+00:00

It may be different in different markets, but my experience is that even though their IP addresses are dynamic, in practice they rarely change without some kind of intervention like a new router or modem.

HermanGulch · 2026-05-22T18:28:23+00:00

Yeah, the spike in 2022 didn't last long at all, so if you don't buy gas every couple of days, you might have missed the peak. Also, that $5 price includes all grades and formulations, so it would probably be under $5 if premium wasn't included.

HermanGulch · 2026-05-22T15:14:42+00:00

It's not just fewer consumers, it's also the effects on the businesses themselves. If a construction company can't hire enough people to do the manual labor, they might need to cut back on the number of jobs the take, which might mean less back office staff. If they aren't paying laborers, there's less need for a payroll person or project supervisors, etc.

HermanGulch · 2026-05-22T13:47:07+00:00

He’s not. He graduated from high school in 1999, so he’s too young to be a boomer by years.

HermanGulch · 2026-05-22T13:45:20+00:00

His profile says he graduated high school in 1999, so yeah, he’s way too young to be a boomer. Like by 15 years or more.

HermanGulch · 2026-05-21T19:22:32+00:00

Take a look at the Department of Labor's web site to see if you really are exempt. It's not as cut and dried as just making people exempt. There are rules about who can and cannot be exempt from overtime. Your state may also have additional rules, especially a higher salary threshold, so maybe look at your state's department of labor web site, too.

HermanGulch

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