Nov 2023 Mod notice:
There may be other, more specific, threads about some aspects of US politics, but this one tends to act as a hub for all sorts of related news and information, so it's usually one of the busiest OTC threads.
If you're new to OTC, it's worth reading the Introduction to On-Topic Conversations
and the On-Topic Conversations debate guidelines
before posting here.
Rumor-based, fear-mongering and/or inflammatory statements that damage the quality of the thread will be thumped. Off-topic posts will also be thumped. Repeat offenders may be suspended.
If time spent moderating this thread remains a distraction from moderation of the wiki itself, the thread will need to be locked. We want to avoid that, so please follow the forum rules
when posting here.
In line with the general forum rules, 'gravedancing' is prohibited here. If you're celebrating someone's death or hoping that they die, your post will get thumped. This rule applies regardless of what the person you're discussing has said or done.
Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
Trump explains his businesses lost so much because he was avoiding tax
In early morning tweets, the US president appeared to confirm much of what was detailed in an explosive report about his financial losses between 1985 and 1994, and claimed avoiding taxes among real estate developers was then considered "sport".
"Real estate developers in the 1980’s & 1990’s, more than 30 years ago, were entitled to massive write offs and depreciation which would, if one was actively building, show losses and tax losses in almost all cases," Mr Trump tweeted.
"Much was non monetary. Sometimes considered 'tax shelter,' you would get it by building, or even buying. You always wanted to show losses for tax purposes....almost all real estate developers did - and often re-negotiate with banks, it was sport.
"Additionally, the very old information put out is a highly inaccurate Fake News hit job!"
Mr Trump's outburst followed a New York Times story which detailed how tax information obtained by the newspaper showed the self-proclaimed billionaire paid no income tax for eight out of 10 years detailed in the documents.
The newspaper said Mr Trump reported business losses of $46.1m (£35.4m) in 1985, and a total of $1.17bn (£900m) in losses for the 10-year period.
The records - printouts from Mr Trump's Internal Revenue Service (IRS) tax receipts - represent the most detailed look into the president's personal taxes yet, after years in which Mr Trump had sought to keep the documents private.
According to the report, Mr Trump's losses mostly came from his business holdings in casinos, hotels, and retail apartment space in his buildings.
It alleges he lost more money than almost any other American individual taxpayer during that time, according to a comparison of his taxes to an annual comparison of high income earners compiled by the IRS.
Mr Trump's defence of his financial behaviour cited "depreciation", which is a special benefit in the US tax code that lets owners of commercial real estate take a deduction from taxable income for a building's natural loss in value.
As reported by Forbes, although the term implies loss, in real estate investing it is a positive with regards to income. Even though the building itself - including the toilets, sinks, rooves etc - depreciates in value, the land does not depreciate.
That means the owner of the asset can take a deduction for the building's depreciation, while simultaneously seeing the value of their real estate investment increase.
The documents obtained by the NYT do not cover the years of interest to congressional Democrats, who are set to engage in a legal battle with the Trump administration after the Treasury refused to release the president's tax returns.
However, they do provide valuable insight into Mr Trump's business history, and further damage his long-cultivated image as a self-made billionaire with a history of business success.
A lawyer for the president said the tax information was "demonstrably false", and reporting "about the president's tax returns and business from 30 years ago are highly inaccurate". He did not say what specifically was wrong.
The House Ways and Means Committee has asked the IRS to provide Mr Trump's personal and business returns for 2013 through to 2018.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who oversees the IRS, refused to do so on Monday, saying the panel's request "lacks a legitimate legislative purpose".
His move, which had been expected, is likely to set a legal battle into motion. The chief options available to Democrats are to subpoena the IRS for the returns or to file a lawsuit.
Mr Trump is the first president since Watergate to decline to make his tax returns public.
Edited by DrunkenNordmann on May 8th 2019 at 7:49:31 PM
We learn from history that we do not learn from historyRelated: 5 Takeaways From 10 Years of Trump Tax Figures.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/07/us/trump-tax-figures.html
Serious question: how much more evidence does anybody need that he is clinically deluded? He's lost billions of dollars to the refrain "Just as Planned" — this ain't functional.
That bit in the article about his complaints over Facebook and Google's supposed "anti-conservative" bias certainly didn't instill me with confidence in this man.
Disgusted, but not surprised![]()
We also shouldn't race to ban sugar just because Hitler likes it.
Edited by TobiasDrake on May 8th 2019 at 12:13:21 PM
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.I will say, in regards to Trump's $100 million/year loss - it's not exactly Tax Fraud/Evasion if the money was actually expended - it's definitely Loophole Abuse, but it's still legal. Similar to a situation at one of my old jobs, in which there was a guy who deliberately held a low-paying job just so he could screw his ex-wife on child support payments.
And with the Colorado shooting, it's rather unique - apparently the shooter is female
, not male. The headline reads "identified as female", but I'm not sure if that's in regards to being trans, or if it's that the police identified the subject as female. If the latter, I wonder if what happened in BoJack Horseman will happen in real life.
Edited by ironballs16 on May 8th 2019 at 2:18:41 PM
"Why would I inflict myself on somebody else?"![]()
![]()
I'm not for banning sugar. But, do I think sugar should get a warning label, be sold with pamphlets about how to spot the signs of diabetes and have measures in place for it to not get sold to kids in 1kg packets (and over) just before Mischief Night — with maybe a tax on it so those who do get diabetes can be paid for by their industry-stoked, life-impacting habit.
Edited by Euodiachloris on May 8th 2019 at 7:19:22 PM
No one but the companies are happy with microtransactions, and it's not unreasonable to think of lootboxes as gambling. And since the proposed bill targets banning selling such things to minor children, I don't see any initial downsides. So it's not really accurate to use the Hitler ate Sugar trope here. Microtransactions tend to be predatory in nature. I'd be more concerned if the guy was adding in something unrelated that was harmful, since that seems to be a favored tactic of the Republicans.
But yeah, let's wait and see the whole of the bill first.
Fixing verbage problems, filling holes, and keeping an eye out for any problematic riders would be the point of reaching across the aisle and doing some bipartisan legislating. "A dude wants to introduce a bill" is the first step of the lawmaking process, not the last.
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.The bill could also be gutted in committee, lobbied at very hard (though I'm not sure that the major publishers have a particularly strong presence in DC, I guess they figured they were safe after video games were ruled as covered by the 1st Amendment), or fail to pass the House if it does (due to a poison pill), or simply fall by the wayside because Congress has other stuff to do.
Microtransactions are annoying but what really gets me is the random nature of lootboxes and similar stuff. That is goddamn gambling, advertised to children, and there is no reason it should not be regulated as such, or banned if they can't keep up.
Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.I am completely fine if Congress limits or bans predatory microtransactions in games.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"The Evil Turtle proposed a "ban" on underage vaping that was clearly aimed at driving teenagers to proper cigarettes (and would have also legalized a lot of smoking as an aside), so I 100% agree with M84's concerns. Nothing that any Republican senator proposes should ever been taken in good faith.
That, and I cynically suspect that this whole thing is a nothingburger that is aimed at fixing something that isn't really commonly a problem.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman

I hate it on the principle that Hawley is my least favorite senator and everything else he’s said has made me scream into a pillow and cry over what bad taste my state has. There’s a catch in there, because this man is terrible as a matter of course.