A Goddess verses the "Terrorists".

Welcome to the world of  **doublespeak. Why does the media have such a confusing , and hard time calling , and using the world "Islam" . Is it that there is a lot of "phobia" to the word "Islam". Perhaps the greatest example is how the US Government is calling the terrorist ( refusing to call terrorists ) by the name of ISLAMIC STATE . It's like a tongue  twister . Beneath it all is a vary angry Egyptian goddess named (1)>  ISIS that has had enough of them the "English speaking media" . For the last few years I have tuned in on my TV news reports . Either from the UK or USA , yea some of the linguist of the reporting goes like this " Isis had just beheaded ..........." You would kinda gasp at it . That most people who hear the name ( or named )  ISIS now  are being mistaken for a terrorist group. ‘This’ll make you laugh,’ looking up from the Daily Telegraph. It was a letter from the Pagan Federation complaining that the acronym Isis ‘is likely to form an inadvertent association in the minds of hearers between Sunni jihadists and followers of the goddess Isis’. These ‘may be caught up in unintended fallout’. So there are a number of pagans who worship this  goddess today . Most of the Wicca groups worship Isis .  It's not just strange , funny . May be inherently blasphemous. In a way it's like taking the (3)>  LORD's name in vain .   I think the majority of the western Christian media doesn't mind ( care ) or understand that using the word " ISIS" might not refer to some jihadist nazi in Iraq .How did the violent men with the black flags acquire the name Isis? After all, they are also called (2)>  Isil, especially in America, where the State Department chose that name. In Britain, newspapers and especially the BBC have cemented the Isis option. Isis stand for Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or for Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham. The alternative acronym uses Levant for al-Sham.Levant seems not to fit the ideological origins of the movement. A greater Syria was called al-Sham when the territory was conquered for the Umayyad Caliphate in the seventh century. Before that it was the Eastern Diocese of the Roman Empire. Al-Sham means ‘left hand’, as it is if you face east in the Hejaz region of Arabia. Yemen is ‘right-hand’, though others make it Arabia Felix. Al-Sham in the minds of the militants definitely includes Israel.

American government tongue  tied on "Islam".

The American and UK media have fallen into a "double speak" paralysis when it comes to naming a terrorist group as Islamic . I gather that is why their so stuck up the name "ISIS" that they can't seem to not offend the Muslims (pious) to they have to offend a goddess just because their so bad with their words ( as in fear of spreading Islamo-phobia ) among the general population . That not naming the problem I view only contributes to the problem . In order to exorcise the demon you have to mane it. President Obama as a leader , and his whole state department has become part of the phobia paralysis.  When you don’t call things by their real name, you always get in trouble. And this administration, so fearful of being accused of Islamophobia, is refusing to make any link to radical Islam from the recent explosions of violence against civilians (most of them Muslims) by Boko Haram in Nigeria, by the Taliban in Pakistan, by Al Qaeda in Paris and by jihadists in Yemen and Iraq. We’ve entered the theater of the absurd. I have heard leaders on the UK parliament stepping over their tongues over using  (4)> ISIL or ISIS  ( IS for short ) they can't even as much as our American congress get it right . As heads continue to be chopped off for media digestion, our wonderful American system seems powerless to save .What’s the president up to in saying such things? Doesn’t he understand the true nature of the threat against us? As Rudy Giuliani and others have surmised, maybe it’s his Islamic upbringing and heritage coming through. However, I don’t think that explanation holds water. To my knowledge, President Bush didn’t have an Islamic upbringing. All of this verbiage appears to be based on a simple confusion that Barack Obama somehow represents a politics of the "left".  It's as if the goddess Isis herself has confused their words 

NOTES AND COMMENTS:

*** Doublespeak is language that deliberately disguises, distorts, or reverses the meaning of words. Doublespeak may take the form of euphemisms (e.g., "downsizing" for layoffs, "servicing the target" for bombing), in which case it is primarily meant to make the truth sound more palatable.(1)> One of the most revered Goddesses in ancient history, Egyptian in origin, worshipped throughout the Greco-Roman world, even into the first centuries of the Christian era. Healer to Osiris, she represented the renewal of fertility in the ongoing cycles of life. (2)> The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, a dangerous organization of thugs who are trying to take over Iraq and Syria through horrifying violence, a jihad serving religious beliefs that are rigid, misogynistic, and violent.The band of thugs who disgrace the name of ISIS are the long term result of multi-century, multi-ethnic trauma. These are traumatized psychopaths who have lost homes and families, resulting in deeply wounded individuals who hunger for power and glory in violence. They are regressing to an earlier stage of savagery with a childlike understanding of spirituality—not dissimilar to the witch burnings of the Middle Ages or the “ethnic cleansing” of the Nazis.A  New York Times article, dated June 18, explained the problem from a linguistic perspective. The Arabic name, Al-Dawla Al-Islamiya fi al-Iraq wa al-Sham, is not effectively expressed in the most commonly used translation: The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. The jihadists’ mission, as reflected by their Arabic name, is to create a caliphate that incorporates a far larger region than the modern countries of Iraq and Syria. The translated name, and its acronym ISIS, do not clearly relay the group’s intent. BUT the Christian English speaking west is having a field day INVOKING the goddess Isis by name , it's not just poking fun at the name , but seriously it's turned bad luck for the American state while helping the spreading a dreadful terrorist group  as a marketing scheme . In essence the west has fallen into the propaganda trap that glorifies the terrorist group . (3)> Taking the Lord's name in vain can be much related to The tetragrammaton (from Greek τετραγράμματον, meaning "(consisting of) four letters")^[1][2] is the Hebrew theonym יהוה, commonly transliterated into Latin letters as YHWH. It is one of thenames of the national God of the Israelites used in the Hebrew Bible.^[3][4][5] While YHWH is the most common transliteration of the tetragrammaton in English academic studies, the alternatives YHVH, JHVH and JHWH are also used. You would not hear a any Jewish person using the name , and not as much a Christian cursing the name of "Jesus". (4)> The U.S. officially calls it "ISIL" — the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant; so, too, does Britain. France has settled on “Daesh,” a common Arabic name for the group, whereas the U.N. has decided on “ISIS”: Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.Meanwhile, journalists and editors struggle with wordy phrases such as "the self-styled Islamic State group.” So why can’t we all simply agree and settle on a single standard? 

2015 A SPACE ODYSSEY .

The Dawn spacecraft observed Ceres for an hour on Jan. 13, 2015,
 from a distance of 238,000 miles (383,000 kilometers).
 A little more than half of its surface was
observed at a resolution of 27 pixels.

This BLOG entry is a bit lengthily so bare with me . That's why it took me so long to write this. I have  put a bit of  more lore into it.

2015 A SPACE ODYSSEY. This year is going to be a pivotal year for astro-science. Right now there could be major discoveries . On MARS , on a COMET , CERES and PLUTO. Between January and July the news is going to be filled with amazing discoveries regarding the nature of two bodies dubbed " dwarf  planets" . In March, a NASA spacecraft will arrive there to begin the first close-up examination of a dwarf planet.It is not Pluto.
It is instead Ceres, 600 miles wide, the largest of the asteroids between Mars and Jupiter. “We’re going to reveal the fascinating details of a giant world of rock and ice,” said Marc Rayman, the chief engineer for NASA’s Dawn spacecraft.  It will also examine Ceres’ composition. Over the next several weeks, Dawn will deliver increasingly better and better images of the dwarf planet, leading up to the spacecraft's capture into orbit around Ceres on March 6. The images will continue to improve as the spacecraft spirals closer to the surface during its 16-month study of the dwarf planet.The best images of Ceres so far were taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope in 2003 and 2004. This most recent images from Dawn, taken January 13, 2015, at about 80 percent of Hubble resolution, are not quite as sharp. But Dawn's images will surpass Hubble's resolution at the next imaging opportunity, which will be at the end of January.Ceres is the largest body in the main asteroid belt, which lies between Mars and Jupiter. It has an average diameter of 590 miles (950 kilometers), and is thought to contain a large amount of ice. Some scientists think it's

Ceres as seen via Hubble
Space Telescope .

possible that the surface conceals an ocean. Dawn's arrival at Ceres will mark the first time a spacecraft has ever visited a dwarf planet.Astronomers have discovered direct evidence of water on the dwarf planet Ceres in the form of vapor plumes erupting into space, possibly from volcano-like ice geysers on its surface.Using European Space Agency's Herschel Space Observatory, scientists detected water vapor escaping from two regions on Ceres, a dwarf planet that is also the largest asteroid in the solar system. The water is likely erupting from icy volcanoes or sublimation of ice into clouds of vapor. At almost 1000 kms in diameter, icy Ceres is thought to be still warm enough inside to provide clement conditions for at least some sort of bacterial life.Models suggest that the dwarf planet coalesced within 5 million years of our solar system’s first formative salvos. And the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has determined that Ceres is likely to be differentiated. That is, with the help of radioactive nuclides, water ice melted into an icy mantle while rocky silicates sank to form its putative inner core. Another space craft is heading out to PLUTO some 4 billion miles a way, for the most part Pluto is as strange as Ceres . You might call these bodies the ultimo Thule of space science exploration . When get to Pluto we are

Pluto seen by
Hubble Space Telescope .

also heading into bizarre territory of a mini world surrounded by a dozen or so small moons , and one large moon that is almost nearly the same size of Pluto . The encounter phase of the New Horizons mission officially began Thursday, 180 days before the spacecraft’s closest approach July 14. New Horizons, launched in 2006 on a three-billion-mile trip to Pluto, came out of hibernation in December and is still 135 million miles away, closing in at a speed of more than 30,000 miles per hour. It will start photographing Pluto on Sunday, and by May, those photographs will be sharper than the sharpest taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. Pluto’s demotion from planethood in 2006 left fuzzy notions of what a planet is and is not. The International Astronomical Union, the organization in charge of astronomy nomenclature and names, invented a new category, dwarf planets, to place Pluto and Eris, an object discovered a decade ago that is a virtual twin of Pluto in size.Up until now, the best images of Pluto have been a few pixels shot by the Hubble Space Telescope. The images, released in 2010, took four years and 20 computers operating continuously and simultaneously to produce, according to Marc Buie of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado.New Horizons is aiming its Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) telescope at Pluto to help navigate the final 135 million miles (220 kilometers) of its 3 billion mile journey. Besides LORRI, the space probe is packed with cameras and other instruments. By mid-May, we should get "better than Hubble" photos. We'll also see Pluto's five moons: Charon, Nix, Hydra, Kerberos and Styx. New Horizons will also carry the ashes of Pluto's discoverer . It's been  85 years,  really isn’t that long, when you think about it. That’s how long it took Clyde Tombaugh to go from the discovery of the now-dwarf-planet Pluto to an eventual visit. Though people could barely believe in the existence of such a world in 1930, by Tombaugh’s death in 1997 NASA has already decided to go there. The astronomer had a simple request: to have his ashes transported to the distant orb he discovered. Now, after almost a decade en-route, the New Horizons probe has entered Pluto’s vicinity, and in so doing allowed Tombaugh to complete his relocation. It is now beginning the Pluto approach phase of its mission, culminating in a much-anticipated close flyby this July.

The Voyage to a Comet. 

Four image mosaic comprising images taken on
21 January 2015 by Rosetta's Navigation Camera (NAVCAM).

Last year was an extraordinary year for Comet lovers . It began when Rosetta arrived at comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko last  August, then surveyed candidate landing sites for the mission’s piggyback Philae landing craft. Philae dropped to the comet’s nucleus Nov. 12 and bounced to rest near the face of a cliff made of rock and ice, beaming back unprecedented measurements from the surface of a comet for two days.Imagery from Rosetta’s main camera has seen 70 percent of the comet’s surface, revealing it to be rugged and diverse, ranging from jagged knife-like rock outcrops to dust dunes up to several meters deep that appear to be blown by wind on the airless body.Scientists believe gases flowing from jets on the nucleus could drive dust particles across the surface, creating features similar to sand dunes on Earth.The origin of the comet’s irregular shape — a subject fascinating to scientists and the public alike — remains a mystery, scientists said in an ESA press release.Comet 67P has two distinct lobes separated by a narrow neck, resembling the head and body of a duck. t is noticeable how similar this formation is to many others on 67P, in particular the larger "basin" of Hatmehit seen in the Jan 18th image. I can imagine, given what we know so far, a possible scenario for the erosion of a circular scarp to give the current appearance of these formations, but how these cliffs or mountain ridges are formed still evades me. Their scale makes it difficult to imagine sublimation is involved, and impacts making that size of dent in the comet, given its porosity, would surely have smashed it to pieces.One plausible suggestion might be large scale voids beneath the surface and their collapse. This just moves the

This odd ball comet
poised a landing problem.

problem on to the mechanisms for the development of such voids in the past.Another mechanism may be due to internal mass loss and the subsequent contraction in volume of the comet. This could lead to fracturing and buckling of the sintered ice sub-surface crust, which gives the appearance of being relatively hard and solid, but brittle. Certainly the large scarps and mountain ridges in the Ash area near Cheops look to be formed in this way and the OSIRIS team suggest there is evidence for such tectonic forces. Again, how do you loose such large amounts of mass from well below the surface and sub-surface of the comet? scientists at theEuropean Space Agency (ESA) are deliberating to send Rosetta spacecraft, which is still orbiting the comet, to swoop down just six kilometres over the patch where the lander is thought to be.Since its batteries ran out just days after a bumpy landing on the comet named 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (C-G) in November last year, Philae has been silent and its exact location remains a mystery, scientific journal Nature reported.But Rosetta has only limited fuel and any attempt to look for Philae would mean scrapping another flyby, sacrificing a chance to image the comet in a shadow-free shot that should reveal unprecedented detail.Of the regions of the comet imaged so far, scientists have found 19 distinct areas and named them after Egyptian deities, which is a naming theme for all features identified on the comet. These

A rather nice place for vacation
gray ice and dust.

regions are grouped by the terrain that dominates each sector.The five basic regions are dust-covered (regions Ma'at, Ash and Babi), pits and circular structures underlain with brittle materials (Seth), those with big depressions (Hatmehit, Nut and Aten), those with smoother features (Hapi, Imhotep and Anubis) and those with rocklike surfaces, which encompass all of the remaining regions.Based on observations so far, scientists think the comet is about 70 to 80 percent porous, assuming that the comet is made up mostly of ice and water. "The interior structure [is] likely comprising weakly bonded ice-dust clumps with small void spaces between them," ESA officials said.


MORE TO COME...............................................

Changing the face of "Islam".

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei of Iran must
realize that western youth
are being exposed to
these images of  Islam.

With any "religion" in the world , Islam has a vary bad image . Recently Iran's Supreme Leader has written a letter in English asking Western youths not to judge Islam based on the Charlie Hebdo terror attacks, in a message published on the cleric's website and Twitter account.In the post, titled "To the Youth in Europe and North America," Ayatollah Ali Khamenei calls on young people to seek out their own understanding of Islam, and he criticizes the media's portrayal of Muslims following the massacre of 16 people at the French satirical magazine and at a kosher supermarket in Paris this month. I have to comment here  , Mr. Khamenei has to first condemn the violence in the Muslim world . More Muslims are being killed by Muslims in any era in record numbers  The Irony here is that even though his invitation is gracious . The problem with the Islamic world now is that it is  drenched in bloody hypocrisy ,if ### Muhammad were alive today , he wold bold denounce the Islamic State . The

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei  addressing
 young people in the West to ignore media
 portrayals of Islam.

Prophet of Islam would also be disgusted that Islam is fraction-ed  into many sects.  Each like the Christian world interpreting it's holy scripture ( ^^^ Holy Quran , Bible & Torah ) to suit the political aims of sectarianism . I have great praise for the Shia state in Iran . It's not a backward nation like Saudi Arabia under  (1)> Sunni Wahhabi extremists who stone  and ***"behead" women in public, but Iran is a nation of it's own extremes .  Islamic extremists  have  degenerated the whole middle east into a quagmire . It's hard for a western person to look the other way. I have read the Quran , and I know what it is  and it is  just like the Bible it relates the same story  . The two Holy Books share a common heritage , both claim to trace their origin to Abraham the patriarch .  So the most violent acts carried out  by extremists  are the same ones that "Claim" to follow the faith of Abraham , and yes (00)>  "Jesus". ( Jesus is also a "prophet" in Islam ) So when I see Muslim's killing Christians , or persecuting Jews I turn my head and stagger . I can't believe how Muslims have distorted their own religion . For Muslims Abraham , Jesus and David  familiar names out of the Jude o-Christian  bible are also accepted as Prophets . The Holy Quran ( as I respectfully call it ) is a beautiful book , it is full of much as we might call poetry , but it carries the same faith that was drawn out of the Torah of Moses, the Psalms  and Gospels . So NO RELIGION is basically free from hypocrisy . My Message to Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is to denounce the Islamic State , and renounce violence in the Muslim world. Some of the reasons are good but nothing can prevent religion or religious people from changing, reforming and evolving. Some of the reasons are good but nothing can prevent religion or religious people from changing, reforming and evolving. I am more interested in modern humans than ancient religions. Muslim rulers have been using Islam for their own interests. They keep people in ignorance, keep women in slavery, and allow the persecution of the people of different faiths. They do not allow criticism of Islam. You suppress critical thinking means you suppress the ability to think clearly and rationally, to engage in reflective and independent thinking. If criticism of Islam were allowed in the Muslim countries, many Muslims would have become agnostic or atheists, or secularists who could ask for a secular state with secular laws and secular education. It is not true that Islam can be changed. Islamic laws have been slightly reformed in different Islamic countries. But this is not enough. It doesn’t matter how much you sugarcoat myths, myths will never be facts. Revolution is always better than reformation.If Muslims will follow the rules of Islam then it will be happened, Muslims can change these evils, Whose are now try to protect it.

SAUDI ARABIA. 

Holding hands ?
Does anyone want to remember the special
status given to Saudi Arabia by George "Dubya" Bush?

My next writing has to do with Saudi Arabia . That rich and corrupt oil kingdom that has been a "three way " and "two faced" kingdom in the politics of the middle -east . For my American readers ,I have such low view of  how our American leaders have been playing kissy footy with the Saudi royals who for years have been funneling money to terrorists (2)>  , and at the same time holding hands , and yes  +++kissing our Presidents! Yes it all about OIL , and the west are slaves to the Saudi's . So much I believe we have been suckers that Saudis were like buffer to "peace" in the region . There are illusions . Now the kissing and hand-holding are going to their highs . World leaders have gathered in Saudi Arabia to pay their respects following the death of King Abdullah. These world leaders paying their lip service , and bowing for more oil The dignitaries from more than 10 countries have met with the new ruler, King Salman.He has pledged continuity in the country's foreign and energy policies.The new king moved swiftly to appoint heirs and ministers, including one prince from the ruling dynasty's third generation.Mr Obama also called King Salman ahead of his visit to "personally express his sympathies" for the death of King Abdullah, the White House said.The former king died on Friday, weeks after being admitted to hospital with a lung infection. President Barack Obama will shorten his trip to India and divert to Saudi Arabia, paying respects after the death of King Abdullah and meeting with the oil-rich nation's new monarch, the White House said Saturday.Critics are taking Western leaders to task for singing the praises of King Abdullah, the recently deceased 90-year-old monarch of Saudi Arabia, whose regime they claim was marred by countless human rights abuses, warmongering and corruption.US Secretary of State John Kerry described the late king as “a brave partner in fighting violent extremism who proved just as important as a proponent of peace." The British establishment, meanwhile, remembers the King warmly, going so far as to request that flags around the country be flown at half-mast all day in honor of Abdullah. A government website notes that “local authorities are not bound by this request but may wish to follow it for guidance.” Critics note that the monarch repeatedly moved to engineer further conflict in the Middle East. For instance, Abdullah had called on the US to provide more backing to the Sunni rebels fighting to overthrow the Assad regime in Syria.In an Elysee Palace statement, France also lauded King Abdullah’s "vision of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East."Despite limited efforts, characterized by Human Rights Watch (HRW) as “marginal advances that failed to secure the fundamental rights of Saudi citizens to free expression, association, and assembly,"Abdullah was unable to curtail his kingdom’s routine rights’ violations, including public floggings of dissidents and executions for sorcery.All are showering praise because of free flowing oil suppl, these Saudi monarchs are not good for democracy. why US never thinks of establishing democracy here. Incredible, a good example of the Opposites Principle - he was the major supporter of the Jihad movement with his sponsorship of Wahabi schools for poor Saudis, thus creating to current generation of killers. The time has come for lovers of freedom, both in the West and in the Arab world, to peel off some of the layers of hypocrisy regarding this regime. All the more so for the man who sits in the White House, the one who bowed down and danced in the club that is filled with the smell of oil.Lovers of freedom, wherever they are, must distance this smell from their noses and stand erect when dealing with the kingdom of darkness. Just as Obama said to Mubarak a years ago, “Now is now,” we expect him to tell the Saudi government: “Enough is enough!”

NOTES AND COMMENTS:
###My impression of Muhammad as a man is that he seems to have started off as a humble and honest merchant, but the second half of his life shows that some major transformation took place: he behaved no differently from an average Arab warlord of that era (not that I am judging it by modern-day ethical standards — just observing), and it looks like the military conquests, multiple wives and influx of concubines and slaves just went to his head. ^^^ Muslims only believe that portion of the bible which complies with the Qur'an. Rest is assumed to be addition or subtraction to the bible. Also, even if the bible says many things which might seem illogical but still it could be part of the bible. The Jews have always broken the covenant with God due to which God used heavy punishment and tough language in the bible. The bible was meant only for the children of Israel.The Qur'an – the revelation Muslims believe was given to theprophet Muhammad as a remedy – identifies three sets of books from the Bible as genuine divine revelation given to trusted messengers: the Tawrat (Torah) given to Musa (Moses), the Zabur (Psalms) given to Daud (David) and the Injil(Gospel) given to Isa (Jesus). Together, the Qur'an, these books and the now-lost Suhuf Ibrahim ("Scrolls of Abraham") constitute Islam's scripture (00)> Muslims respect and venerate Jesus Christ. They consider him to be one of God’s greatest messengers to humankind. The Qur’an re-affirms his miraculous birth and his miraculous abilities. Furthermore, his mother Mary is regarded as one of the most pure and exalted women of all creation. As the Quran says:

“Behold! the angel said: ‘God has chosen you and purified you and has chosen you above the women of all nations. O Mary! God gives you the good news of a word from Him, whose name shall be Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, honored in this world and the hereafter, and one of those brought near to God’” (3:42).

Yes that in the Quran ! So EXPLAIN to me why Christians are being killed in Muslim lands ? Vary strange and hypocritical .

***In the past two weeks, Saudi Arabia beheaded 10 people. Last year it beheaded nearly 90, a sharp spike from 2013. The “crimes” vary but the absurdity of the theocratic judicial system does not. Critique of the king is banned by law. Liberals are flogged, women drivers jailed and dissidents tortured. Saudi religious police ban “tempting eyes” and assert the right to cover any woman’s seductive gaze. Women cannot travel without a man’s permission. (1)> Saudi Arabia produced and sponsored 'Wahhabism' which is the most intolerant version of Sunni Islam and upon which the beliefs of all terrorist groups are based. (2)> However, prior to a 2013 law which banned terrorist financing, Saudi Arabia had been described as“the most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide,” according to US diplomatic cable leaked by WikiLeaks . Another leaked cable revealed that Saudi King had urged the US to strike Iran in order to destroy its nuclear program. Abdullah was recorded telling America to “cut off the head of the snake,” in a 2008 meeting with General David Petraeus. ( two faced , rightly so)
+++Officials in Washington are now playing their favorite game: Praise the Tyrant. Here’s how the game works:

Step 1) Identify an Arab dictator who heads one of the most repressive regimes on Earth

Step 2) Pretend that every brutal policy is way outside of his control

Step 3) Seize on any statement of his more tolerant than IS (Islamic State )

Step 4) Praise the dictator for being a courageous reformer

Step 5) Express shock when actual reformers feel betrayed as you praise their tyrant

Step 6) Pat yourself on the back for maintaining (faux) stability

Step 7) Buy his oil

Step 8) Sell him weapons

Step 9) Repeat

The 2015 " State of the Union", Taxes.

Taxing the rich has been tried before ,
how about a lowing the taxes
on everyone nation wide.

2015 brings Mr. Obama's " State of the Union" . It's also the year for some tax hikes that effects most of every state in America .President Barack Obama is turning to his biggest television audience of the year to pitch tax increases on the wealthiest Americans and put the new Republican Congress in the position of defending top income earners over the middle class.President Obama released his fiscal year 2015 budget yesterday. Overall, the president proposes to (1)>  increase revenue by $1.759 trillion over ten years. This new revenue comes in the form of a couple large tax changes, numerous small tax changes, and new fees First , The Affordable Care Act "tax" takes effect.  H&R Block, the nation’s largest retail tax preparation company warns that the newly released Obamacare tax code, officially called the Affordable Care Act, is likely to confuse millions of taxpayers who try to tackle their tax returns for 2014.“Now that the Affordable Care Act has made health care a tax issue, no one can understand it,” H&R Block flatly tells taxpayers in a video that resides on its dedicated Obamacare web site. ***Illustrating H&R Block’s point is IRS Publication 5187, which attempts to explain to taxpayers how to comply with the new Obamacare tax requirements. That publication runs for a total of 21 single-spaced pages.Here’s a full list of ObamaCare Taxes. The 21 new Obama Care tax hikes and breaks impact us all, but which ObamaCare taxes will you actually pay? Find out how the tax related provisions in the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) will affect you, your family, your business, and your tax returns for 2014 and beyond.While a few of the changes directly affect the average American, tax increases primarily affect high earners (those making over $200,000 as an individual or $250,000 as a family), large businesses (those making over $250,000 and those with 50 or more full-time equivalents), and the health care industry. However, tax credits primarily affect low-to-middle income Americans and small businesses (those with less than 25 full-time equivalents, making less than $25,000 in average annual wages).SURPRISINGLY Obama's Union speech is going to ask for more tax increases . There’s a section in the Obamacare application process that requires you to report “Family Income Changes” so the IRS can figure out how much you are owed, or owe back to the government.So how many families will find themselves caught up owing more than they were initially promised? About 38% of households that qualify for subsidies,according to researchers, might have to pay something back to the IRS. Some of them could owe big sums of money, even on small gains in income.But the decision to present the plan during Tuesday’s speech marks the start of a debate over taxes and the economy that will shape both Mr. Obama’s legacy and the 2016 presidential campaign. 

What's missing from Mr. Obama's Union speech.

He's always looking for more revenues and taxes from taxpayers. Why isn't he addressing the bloated Federal spending budget? Our national debt went from $6 trillion to $18 trillion+ now, under his watch. What did he do with the additional $12 trillion he borrowed? The jerk now wants to expand tax credits for education and child care and get tax relief to the middle class. What's baffling is why this was not done with the $12 trillion he borrowed?So now that he has wasted $12 trillion, he wants the taxpayers to cough up more billions and trillions to fund more of his dreams? Never has he talked about cutting spending and down-sizing govt to balance the budget like real Americans do.Even more shocking is that he has never mentioned comprehensive tax reform. The reason is this would interfere with his agenda to spend the country into bankruptcy.

What's in his plan?

Among the other Obama proposals are increasing the investment tax rate, eliminating a tax break on inheritances, giving a tax credit to working families and expanding the child care tax credit -- in total roughly $320 billion in tax hikes over the next 10 years. The president also wants to impose a financial fee on some of the country’s largest financial firms. His full fiscal 2016 budget is scheduled to be released to the GOP-led Congress next month. will use much of the proceeds -- $320 billion over 10 years -- to expand tax credits for higher education and child care and create a new break for two-earner couples. The White House released details of the plan Saturday.He would increase the top tax rate on capital gains and dividends to 28 percent from 23.8 percent. The rate was 15 percent when Obama took office in 2009, meaning that he’s proposing to almost double it over his two terms in office.Taxes on the rich should be cut not raised: Flood the rich with a waterfall of cash and a few tiny drops trickle down to the others. Like this the rich keep on getting richer and the poor and middle class keep getting poorer. Trickle down works exactly as intended. Imagine the middle class would have more money. They'd just go out and spend most of it, creating a virtuous economic circle. Far better we let the 1% get even more so they can hoard a few billion more while trickling down a few cents.That cushion is now deflated. The U.S. can no longer fulfill the dreams of Wall Street, the Pentagon, and the Middle Class. At least one dream must die. Despite partisan differences, both political parties have agreed to sacrifice the people. An economic recovery will eventually create more jobs, predicts Faux, but most will no longer pay a middle class salary. On our present track, real incomes by 2024 will be dramatically lower than they are today.

Taxes never lower in California.

If you live in California the term " tax break " or " tax cut" is nothing but double talk . California is one of the few , not many states with large taxation . Just how would President Obama's tax plan even work so the average Californian will get more money in his , or her's wallet . Californians pay the highest gas tax, sales tax and income taxes in the nation and the state is routinely cited as one of the highest-taxes states in the nation. We are already paying $7 billion more in state taxes this year and the state has a $5 billion surplus.  Yet the Sacramento politicians continue to want more. We need to hold the politicians accountable and hold the line on more tax increases. The California Taxpayers Association and the Tax Foundation spell out the details on California’s high-tax status. In addition to paying the highest gas, sales and income taxes in the nation, many other taxes we pay are among the highest. Read more at CalTax And, we’re paying these increased annual California state taxes on top of more than 70 local tax increases and bond measures approved in 2012 as well as increased taxes at the federal level. ccording to a recent study, “The Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council ranked California 50^th in an extensive index measuring state policy measures on small business.” Read more at Fox and Hounds Raising taxes again will only hurt California families and businesses; cost jobs and continue to stifle our economic recovery. California taxes were just raised by $7 billion annually, the proposed state budget spends more than ever before and we still have a $5 billion surplus left over. This is not the time for Sacramento politicians to be raising taxes even higher.

NOTES AND COMMENTS:

***Ready for a knee-slapping chuckle? If you're an illegal alien filing a return under a Taxpayer ID number instead of a Social Security number, you pay absolutely NO PENALTY if you did not have insurance. In fact, you don't even have to provide proof of insurance. We hand out $4.6 billion per year in tax credits to illegal aliens with no strings attached. They still use the emergency room free, and YOU THE TAXPAYER pay for it. If you're a struggling American or legal resident, YOU WILL PAY 1% OF YOUR INCOME THIS YEAR, 2% NEXT YEAR without insurance. Isn't that a chuckle what Obama and the Democrats have done to the working class and poor? Hysterical! (1)> Why are we raising taxes.  Even though I am not in the top 1%, I feel that burden.  I pay a huge amount of my pay to taxes between, income tax, state income tax, SS tax, sales tax, property tax, gas tax, the list goes on and on.  I have had to make cutbacks just to get by, and then we get ObamaCare?  Now I have to cover my own health insurance because my employer dropped coverage.

Gas price plunge before the "STORM"

Let's enjoy these gas prices
before they tax it
up again. 

With gas prices so low . COULD IT BE THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM?  Oil prices per barrel is now around $48. Correspondingly, the price at the pump has fallen in the last three months by more than a dollar to about $2.20 per gallon. It's also vary strange that the DOW was dropping hurting Wall Street while Main Street was doing better . However the money saved in our pockets may soon change . As a result, some in Congress are talking about a 10- or 20-cent hike in the federal tax to use for infrastructure spending. SO The average American buys about 12 gallons of gas a week. Washington would be soaking him for $12 in extra taxes.Strangely enough people care about the cost of living and any reduction in that cost is worthy of celebrating,,,,,and oil impacts prices across a huge spectrum. Good for us and bad for the radical enviro's and our major global enemies. EITHER case it's brewing . Recently Washington Post, columnist Charles Krauthammer proposes a $1/gallon increase in the federal gas tax in order to pay for a revenue-neutral cut in Social Security (FICA) taxes. He argues that taxing work is more damaging to growth and jobs than would be taxing gasoline consumption. It also comes at a time when leading Republicans, like Senators Inhofe, Thune, and Hatch,House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Whip Richard Durbin, D-Ill., and even Republicans such as Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee have linked arms with the entire road-building industry and green groups that want the cost of fuel to go up. They  are opening-up to raising the gas tax to fund the near-bankrupt Highway Trust Fund. Remember Throughout 2013 (1)> , the oil industry and its allies warned that California’s gasoline prices would soar in January, when the state’s cap-and-trade system to fight global warming would expand to include fuels. ***The change, they argued, would amount to a clandestine tax on California families, who could end up paying 76 cents more per gallon as a result. January is now halfway through — and California’s gas prices are falling. The state’s average for a gallon of regular has dropped 10 cents since the start of the year to reach $2.54 on Friday, according to AAA. Not since May 2009 — during the recession — has California never  seen gas this cheap.Consumers Union (CU) in Sacramento is cautioning state regulators to keep a "close eye" on oil markets in the new year.CU, the policy arm of Consumer Reports, delivered a letter Tuesday to the California Energy Commission’s Petroleum Advisory Committee asking them to be on the lookout for possible price manipulation starting in January 2015.A CU news release stated, "In January 2015, the state is scheduled to extend cap and trade to include transportation fuels. Oil companies must hold enough allowances to cover their emissions, and are free to buy and sell allowances on the open market. Despite knowing this timeline for years, oil interests have been vocal in their opposition to capping emissions on transportation fuels and have tried—and failed—numerous times to delay the start of the program." “Oil companies launched a ballot initiative, backed a number of failed bills to dismantle clean energy efforts and have spent over $70 million lobbying Sacramento politicians. Through it all, consumers have been steadfast in their support of clean energy and energy efficiency,” said Shannon Baker-Branstetter, policy counsel for Consumers Union.

A survey recently conducted by Consumers Union found that Californians overwhelmingly support requiring oil companies to produce cleaner fuels (81 percent). The survey also found that consumers believe requiring cleaner fuels would result in more consumer choices (82 percent), and that oil companies should use their vast profits to pay for any costs to clean up consumer fuels (84 percent).

 After months of seeing gas prices sink ever lower, Californians will ring in 2015 by paying more at the pump as a result of the state's landmark greenhouse-gas emissions law.But how much more we'll pay, and whether it's worth it, remains bitterly debated among oil companies, some state lawmakers and environmentalists.Starting Thursday, gasoline and diesel producers will be subject to the state's cap-and-trade system, forcing them either to supply lower-carbon fuels -- which are more expensive to produce -- or to buy pollution permits for the greenhouse gases created when the fuel is burned. In the short term, at least, that will mean higher prices at the pump.groups backed by the oil industry have claimed prices will rise 16 to 76 cents per gallon, although that's admittedly based on an underlying price of about $4 per gallon -- far higher than recent prices. On Monday, drivers in the East and South Bay were paying about $2.68 per gallon for regular gas, according to the American Automobile Association.A couple months ago, consumers and anti-tax advocates were in a frenzy, fretting that new rules taking effect Jan. 1 would cause a $0.15 to $0.75 spike in prices at the pump. Meanwhile, plunging oil values have flipped California gas station marquee digits down $0.31 in the past month, according to data from AAA. An environmental bill long championed by the Obama administration and environmental groups was quietly signed into law this week. The bill, initially expected to fail, was bolstered by last-minute support from a group of moderate Republicans seeking reelection in predominantly Democratic leaning states. The bill strengthens environmental pollution penalties, emission standards and creates a surprising new three dollar a gallon tax increase on gasoline.When gas prices go up, motorists typically blame oil companies, Arab sheiks and Wall Street speculators. This time they can blame Sacramento and former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for passing a bill requiring California to reduce carbon emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.

NOTES AND COMMENTS:

***"a. A tax credit for individuals and companies who invest in Hybird, Fusion and Electric cars. Make it a no brainier to get one of these vehicles. 

b. Change this law so the cost of the permits and construction is borne by the Oil Companies. We do live in a Capitalist Economy, Right?" So it is a "tax credit" for the businesses and individuals you prefer and "Capitialism" for those you don't. Spoken like a true Democrat. (1)> Cap-and-trade, also known as bait-and-switch. Remember in 2012 when Gov. Brown borrowed $500 million in cap-and-trade funds for the general fund? They're still working on getting that paid back. And his new proposal for cap-and-trade is to use a third of the money to fund the High Speed/Low Speed rail project (HSR). Two problems with that are that a) taking money from cap-and-trade to give to HSR won't help California meet it's carbon reduction goals; and b) it's clearly outside the voter approved funding for Prop 1A. Now that his hobby train project is going off the rails he's starting to act like a less than benevolent dictator.Starting January 1st, though, those declining gas prices aren't expected to go any lower. The beginning of 2015 also brings with it what some are calling California's new hidden gas tax, which could range from 15 cents per gallon to up to 75 cents. Some in the Central Valley aren't happy about the extra cost at the pump. the bill Arnold signed was to reduce, not tax. How is Taxing reducing? It sounds to me like a spin the blame game, we'll tax and say that it's because of this bill!! We are 5.5 years away from 2020 still. This tax has no effect on the oil companies, they are quoted saying, we'll just pass the buck to the consumer, no worries!! So a tax like this only hits the lower income folks, not big money. It's not going to pay for some "air cleaning machine", just a pocket of money to be used for what they deem fit.