Current Events Thread

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mict085 said:
I offered to stop but he keeps picking at it. Then you show up to defend your fellow far left comrade.

You throw insults at me all the time but when it comes back at you, you start crying. GMAFB.
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No I’m defending all the people who have a loved one that’s mentally challenged or has DS and you’re using it as a punchline to insult another person.
 
BCSooners said:
No I’m defending all the people who have a loved one that’s mentally challenged or has DS and you’re using it as a punchline to insult another person.
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I apologize to the entire board and to Steve for using an offensive slur. My apologies. That did get out of hand. Feel free to ban me.
 
mict085 said:
I apologize to the entire board and to Steve for using an offensive slur. My apologies. That did get out of hand. Feel free to ban me.
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I accept the apology, thanks for issuing it.
 
By the way, I have a sister with Down's Syndrome. I don't think I have ever mentioned it here.
 
Latest in the tightly contested states:

Biden up 5 in Pennsylvania
Biden up 1.7 in Florida
Biden up 6 in Nevada
Biden up 3.6 in Arizona
Biden up 6.8 in Wisconsin
Biden up 7 in Michigan
Biden up 1 in Ohio
Biden up 1.1 in North Carolina
Trump up 1.9 in Texas
Trump up 1.1 in Georgia
 
mict085 said:
I apologize to the entire board and to Steve for using an offensive slur. My apologies. That did get out of hand. Feel free to ban me.
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It happens.... These are tense times for everyone. Hopefully it calms down soon.
 
thebigabd said:
Latest in the tightly contested states:

Biden up 5 in Pennsylvania
Biden up 1.7 in Florida
Biden up 6 in Nevada
Biden up 3.6 in Arizona
Biden up 6.8 in Wisconsin
Biden up 7 in Michigan
Biden up 1 in Ohio
Biden up 1.1 in North Carolina
Trump up 1.9 in Texas
Trump up 1.1 in Georgia
Click to expand...

The interesting thing as that Biden doesn't need all these states. If he only wins the ones he is up 3 or more points in he will be elected. If he wins all of them except Texas and Georgia it will be an epic landslide. Trump needs all of these states except Wisconsin and Michigan.
 
mict085 said:
I apologize to the entire board and to Steve for using an offensive slur. My apologies. That did get out of hand. Feel free to ban me.
Click to expand...

I'm glad you chose to apologize. I deleted the offending posts so they don't get quoted.

These three threads on this forum have long derailed, but so many of you attack the poster instead of the post. At the end of the day, we're all Sooner fans, so let's keep it respectable.
 
Can we stop joking about dementia while we're at it? It's about as funny as cancer jokes.
 
New York Times Obtains Trump's Tax Returns
Maybe the October surprise is happening a bit early this year, as the New York Times has obtained Donald Trump's tax returns. Two people are now hopping up and down, angry as hell: Donald Trump and Marty Baron (the editor-in-chief of the Washington Post). The Times declined to explain how it got them, but it said it got them from sources that had legal access to them. This could be someone within the Trump Organization, within Mazars (his accounting firm), or someone in a different organization. The report on them went up on the website Sunday evening, but no doubt more will follow, as the Times is sure to hire some forensic accountants to scour them.

In 10 of the past 15 years, Trump paid no taxes at all because he lost more money than he made. In contrast, in 2016 and 2017, he paid $750 in federal taxes each year. That's right, $1,500 total in the first two years of his political career. Now it is starting to come into focus why he has fought tooth and nail to hide the returns: He is under a great deal of financial stress, with hundreds of millions of dollars in debt coming due soon on more than $300 million in loans that he has personally guaranteed. Also out there is a battle over the legitimacy of a $73 million tax refund he applied for and got. If he loses that audit battle with the IRS, that could cost him over $100 million.

One thing to keep in mind about the article and the follow-up articles is that the information comes from Trump's claims on his tax returns. They have not been audited by an independent agency and may not bear any relationship to the truth. The good news for Trump is that the returns do not reveal any previously unknown connections to Russia. The bad news for him is that he isn't a very good businessman. From the article: "Ultimately, Mr. Trump has been more successful playing a business mogul than being one in real life."

Trump made $427 million from "The Apprentice" and related projects. He invested most of it in money-losing golf courses. In fact, his financial condition in 2015 was so bad that it lends credence to the idea that he ran for president not because he thought he could win (or even wanted to win), but because he thought the attention from the run would boost the value of his brand. In 2018, Trump announced that he made $435 million in revenue and seemed proud of it. But revenue is only part of the story. He somehow forgot to mention his bottom line: a loss of $47 million. Many of his businesses lose money. His golf courses and hotel in D.C. lose millions—maybe tens of millions— of dollars year in, year out. Years ago he sold all his stocks to help him plug financial holes. The picture that emerges is that of a man in deep financial doodooo, not a brilliant businessman raking it in.

What also emerges from the tax documents is how Trump is trying to milk the presidency for all it is worth to cover his debts. His hotels have become magnets for (foreign) lobbyists wanting to get into good graces. He needs that money badly to cover the loans soon coming due. Much of this is probably in violation of the Constitution's emoluments clause.

So how did Trump manage to avoid paying any taxes in so many years? By 2005, he had used up the $1 billion in losses from his failed casinos and earlier projects. He went on a buying spree using the money he earned from "The Apprentice." But nearly all the businesses he bought ended up losing money. Consider the Trump National Doral golf club in Florida. Trump bought it in 2012 for $150 million and has pumped another $213 million into it since then. Yet the bottom line on it is negative $162 million. It's a giant money pit into which money flows and never comes back. The other golf courses aren't any better. His three courses in Europe have lost $63 million. On all his courses combined, he has lost $315 million. His hotel in D.C. lost $56 million through 2018, the last year of tax returns the Times got.

Now on to the Trump Corporation. It has lost $134 million since 2000. The President kept it afloat by personally pouring in his own money. However, Trump Tower has made a profit of over $20 million a year.

The article is very long and goes on and on about details and tax maneuvers. It is too long to summarize all of it here. Suffice it to say that Trump is a terrible businessman and there is much in the returns that show deductions that are questionable at best and downright illegal at worst. Indeed, one could argue that he is, in effect, running a Ponzi scheme in which he moves money around as necessary in order to keep the whole house of cards from collapsing.

The political fallout from the first article is hard to predict. Many of his supporters will be shocked to learn that they voted for him because he claimed to be a great businessman and it turns out he is a fraud. But once they have committed to him, probably most of them will not be willing to admit they were duped and switch to being Biden fans. So the impact could be minimal. Also, true to form, Trump has labeled this fake news and dismissed the report. But the Times has already said there will be more articles, and they could be even more devastating than this one.

We will find out soon how Trump reacts. Will he sue the Times for invasion of privacy? He could, but it is tough for someone as public as the president to claim much privacy. Further, per the Streisand Effect, a lawsuit would serve to draw even more attention to the matter. And the Times lawyers would have a field day getting the judge to issue subpoenas for all kinds of stuff that Trump does not want disclosed.

Is this the whole article or is the following also included in the article?


"The Times also explained that in 2016 and 2017, Trump requested an extension to file his main tax form 1040, but each time he paid what he thought he might owe in taxes – “$1 million for 2016 and $4.2 million for 2017,” the Times reported. The outlet reported that “virtually all of that liability was washed away when he eventually filed, and most of the payments were rolled forward to cover potential taxes in future years.” This means the IRS kept the $1 million and $4.2 million that Trump paid during those years — he did not get it back. The $750 figure being cited by media outlets is in addition to what he already paid in taxes; it is not his total tax payments for the year. Trump also paid $24.3 million between 2000 and 2017 due to the alternative minimum tax."
 
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Some of you all should leave the financial/tax discussion to the professionals. A LOT of bad information posted here. It is VERY likely Trump did nothing illegal in terms of his taxes. It's also very likely they've already been audited. Most large companies and/or high income individuals pay a small amount of taxes. It's called smart tax planning. It's the reason investing in golf courses/clubs makes a lot of sense. They often lose money, but they generate cash and the land value rarely drops, and often increases. Perfect from a tax perspective.

And Trump's businesses not always operating in the black is no surprise. Most have known that for many years.
 
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