• About Us
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
Wednesday, January 27, 2021
26 °f
Platte
36 ° Fri
41 ° Sat
34 ° Sun
36 ° Mon
The Platte County Landmark Newspaper
  • Home
  • Local News
  • Opinion
  • Landmark Live!
  • Looking Backward
  • Home
  • Local News
  • Opinion
  • Landmark Live!
  • Looking Backward
No Result
View All Result
The Platte County Landmark Newspaper
No Result
View All Result

Taxes, common sense and bank of Bud Light

Guy Speckman by Guy Speckman
October 2, 2020
in Ponder the Thought
Common sense
7
SHARES
171
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare via Email

Before we get started, let me be clear. If the New York Times is correct, I have paid more taxes than President Trump over the last ten years. If I must release my returns to continue this column, I will trust them to Publisher Foley for dissemination.

Let us also be clear. I’m super jealous of The Donald. Dude been living the high life and he figured out a way not to pay the government. If that doesn’t qualify him to be President, then I am at a loss for what you want. Just as we suspected, he’s half Republican and half Democrat and all Donald. On one hand he’s using his corporate entities as a tax shelter haven and on the other he was grabbing a tax refund as his own personal version of socialism. What a great country! Carry on.

RelatedNews

Badges, Patrick and law

Sedition and snow fleas,

Parade routes, history repeats


Somebody wake up Joe Biden and tell him he’s been paying way too much in taxes.


It’s a rule that you can’t write a column in 2020 without bringing up COVID-19. Here’s my mandatory segment. I’m impressed by at least four Missouri school districts that decided to punt the convoluted and marginally effective quarantine procedures in effect at most schools.

Tired of wiping out entire groups of students with one positive test, schools in Diamond, East Newton, Neosho and Seneca announced last week that exposed students would no longer be required to quarantine and could return to in-person learning. The Newton County health department helped the decision along by allowing students with “exposure” inside school buildings, despite being a potential carrier of all that consumes us now.

These Joplin area schools were quarantining 25-31 students for every one positive case. The new policy is more in line with the better known “essential worker” type policy that sends people home if they start to show symptoms. I’m no COVID-19 expert, but this sure passes the common sense test. Maybe more districts and health departments will see the results and begin to make similar changes.


How many years will schools cite COVID-19 as the rationale for poor test scores in the future? I’m predicting 10. I suspect schools will create a new administrative position in the future. “Covid-19 Remediation Director.” They will oversee blaming institutional failures on the pandemic of 2020. It will require a six-figure salary and such. Probably have to cut a teacher salary or two to make it happen, but when administration bloat calls, you gotta answer the phone.


I officially attended a live sporting event on Saturday as I watched the Alabama Crimson Tide wipe out my favored Missouri Tigers. If you are still waiting to attend a sporting event until more normal times, I don’t blame you. It was exhausting. Rules upon rules, upon rules. Approximately 50% of fans completely ignore the rules and the rest of us were perplexed on how to follow them completely. You have no idea how much you have to drink if the rule to keep your mask off is if you are eating or drinking. $8 beers combined with a mask mandate prove a ball game is both financially and physically exhausting; I tried hard to boost the local economy through the bank of Bud Light and my credit card says I was reasonably successful in leaving some dollars in Columbia.

Anyway, it’s worth it just to see a COVID-era event. Do a Chiefs or Tigers or Jayhawks game before this thing is over and you’ll have a neat story to tell your grandkids someday who ask you about all the weird pictures of you with a mask on.

(Guy Speckman can be reached at gspeckman@me.com or hiring a tax attorney)

Tags: covid-19taxes
Guy Speckman

Guy Speckman

Guy Speckman is a Landmark contributing columnist with his Ponder the Thought column. Speckman is the former owner of the Savannah Reporter, where the column appeared for nearly two decades. Speckman is a former city government manager, serving as city administrator in Maysville, Plattsburg and Savannah before entering business. He is a graduate of Northwest Missouri State University (1989). He is originally from Plattsburg, Missouri. He and his wife own and operate a real estate valuation firm and a daily legal newspaper and are the parents of two grown children.

Related Posts

COVID-19

Want the vaccine? Complete this survey

by Landmark Staff
January 22, 2021
0

It's a way to get on the waiting list Platte County Health Department (PCHD) has used the 225 doses allotted to the department to vaccinate individuals in Phase 1A (Residents and Employees of Long-term Care Facilities; Patient-facing Healthcare Workers; EMS)....

Platte County Health Department

Three want spot with health department

by Ivan Foley
January 11, 2021
0

Teresa Hills steps down, temporary replacement named Dr. Teresa Hills, a dentist, has resigned from the Platte County Health Department Board of Trustees due to a relocation of her residence and dental practice out of this area. On Monday, a...

Get your popcorn ready for health board meetings

Get your popcorn ready for health board meetings

by Ivan Foley
January 8, 2021
0

Our most recent account of Love Notes From Nan, in which we feature actual official communications from the keyboard of Parkville Mayor Nan Johnston, is printed to the right of this column. Proceed with some caution if you're easily offended...

Proposal would allow sports betting in Missouri

Proposal would allow sports betting in Missouri

by Landmark Staff
January 8, 2021
0

Missouri would join the growing list of states to legalize sports betting if the General Assembly approves legislation sponsored by State Rep. Phil Christofanelli. HB 730 would provide a legal avenue for Missourians to bet on sports online and in...

Next Post
Eighteenth birthday

Hey, Eighteen

Popular News

  • Jakob Scroggins

    Things ‘just make sense’ for North Platte senior

    35 shares
    Share 14 Tweet 9
  • Want the vaccine? Complete this survey

    13 shares
    Share 5 Tweet 3
  • Six candidates for two Park Hill positions

    10 shares
    Share 4 Tweet 3
  • Dicks and Karens

    10 shares
    Share 4 Tweet 3
  • Kevin Kietzman announces his plan

    251 shares
    Share 100 Tweet 63
  • About Us
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
Call us at 816-858-0363

Copyright © 2019-2020 The Platte County Landmark Newspaper - All Rights Reserved

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Subscribe Online
  • Local News
  • Opinion
  • Landmark Live!
  • Looking Backward

Copyright © 2019-2020 The Platte County Landmark Newspaper - All Rights Reserved