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Well... it's Trump... again. #47, here we go.

crazyfingers said:
It would be extremely disruptive. But is Trump smart enough to care about that more than cooking the books for talking points?
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Are you joking? Clearly Trump cares nothing about his country. His family (and Kushner's) now have enough grifts going to each score many more billions. All he really cares about now is the ego-fulfilling thrill of having his knob polished by the likes of Musk, Putin and other centi-billionaires.

To the extent that he is concerned with his legacy, destruction of America's greatness is a feature not a bug. He hopes to be remembered by our grandchildren's grandchildren with even more contempt than Germany's infamous moustached man.

Am I exaggerating? Maybe, but not by much.
 
Sabrina Haake asks "Will our allies ever forgive us for Trump?"

Trump’s unhinged proposal to take Gaza, “relocate” more than a million starving people to an unspecified locale, and turn their bombed homes into a resort for the wealthy didn’t go over well. Following his threats to Colombia, Panama, Mexico, Canada, Denmark, and Greenland, the civilized world is aghast at the madman at the helm, and has learned a new lesson: that America betrays her allies. It is a dangerous lesson from which the US may never recover.

Anti-American forces, on the other hand, are giddy.

Russia and China can stop infiltrating our social media with bots, Trump is doing their work for them. Putin has long known that Trump and Musk would destroy the U.S. government from within while abandoning our allies, and he is elated to watch his hopes materialize. China’s Xi takes a more economically calculated approach but likes what he sees. Even Islamist militants will thank Trump for breathing new life into their Great Satan propaganda.

No one knows how seriously to take Trump’s insanity. It could all be a non-stop ruse to distract from his robbing the treasury as Musk dismantles it.

Last week’s outrage-du-jour, Trump’s tariff drama, was merely put on hold, which means we have to watch Trump cosplay as a “strong negotiator” all over again in just 30 days.
. . .
[Canada's tariffs target red states, or red regions like southern Pennsylvania]. Their targeted response suggests our neighbors know more about our domestic politics than most Americans do. It’s oddly comforting, like the whole world isn’t getting stupid, it’s just us.
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A well-written article, of which I've only quoted some opening paragraphs.
 
Swammerdami said:
Sabrina Haake asks "Will our allies ever forgive us for Trump?"

Trump’s unhinged proposal to take Gaza, “relocate” more than a million starving people to an unspecified locale, and turn their bombed homes into a resort for the wealthy didn’t go over well. Following his threats to Colombia, Panama, Mexico, Canada, Denmark, and Greenland, the civilized world is aghast at the madman at the helm, and has learned a new lesson: that America betrays her allies. It is a dangerous lesson from which the US may never recover.

Anti-American forces, on the other hand, are giddy.

Russia and China can stop infiltrating our social media with bots, Trump is doing their work for them. Putin has long known that Trump and Musk would destroy the U.S. government from within while abandoning our allies, and he is elated to watch his hopes materialize. China’s Xi takes a more economically calculated approach but likes what he sees. Even Islamist militants will thank Trump for breathing new life into their Great Satan propaganda.

No one knows how seriously to take Trump’s insanity. It could all be a non-stop ruse to distract from his robbing the treasury as Musk dismantles it.

Last week’s outrage-du-jour, Trump’s tariff drama, was merely put on hold, which means we have to watch Trump cosplay as a “strong negotiator” all over again in just 30 days.
. . .
[Canada's tariffs target red states, or red regions like southern Pennsylvania]. Their targeted response suggests our neighbors know more about our domestic politics than most Americans do. It’s oddly comforting, like the whole world isn’t getting stupid, it’s just us.
Click to expand...

A well-written article, of which I've only quoted some opening paragraphs.
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good and accurate article. What our dipshit in chief doesn't' realize is the impact of his threatened 200% tariff on aluminum will do to the American made, all aluminum best selling F150 pickup (that a lot of MAGA folks like)
 
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Where to put this.

Grift?
Screw the base 'till they love it?
Keep the base uninformed?

Top broadband official exits Commerce Department with sharp Musk warning

“Stranding all or part of rural America with worse internet so that we can make the world’s richest man even richer is yet another in a long line of betrayals by Washington,” Evan Feinman warned.

Key context: Feinman’s lengthy email, totaling more than 1,100 words and shared with POLITICO, is a sign of deep discomfort about the changes underway that will likely transform the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment Program. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick recently pledged a vigorous review of BEAD, with an aim to rip out what he sees as extraneous requirements and remove any preference for particular broadband technologies like fiber.

Musk, who runs the Starlink satellite broadband service, stands to reap a greater share of these subsidies under the revised rules.
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There is (or was -- I'm not up-to-date) a cute trick regarding the deduction of state income taxes on the federal 1040:

Pay the 2023 state tax early in 2024. Then pay the 2024 state tax in December 2024. You get to deduct TWO years of state taxes on ONE year of federal income. Repeat in each even-numbered year; take the standard deduction in odd-numbered years.

It may SEEM like fraud but my friend/preparer told me it was well-known and perfectly legal.

Loren Pechtel said:
Derec said:
As it stands, SALT deduction remains a tax cut for the rich. It is only rank partisanship that has people on here defend it.
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You think I'm Republican???

I defend it because it's part of what used to be considered being fair in taxation. It's just the standard has been raised high enough to whittle away the value of itemization for most of the middle class.
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You DEFEND it because it USED to be (past tense) fair. Raise your hand if you see why this combination of present and past tense, while perfectly grammatical, surprises.

Loren Pechtel said:
Shadowy Man said:
Elixir said:
If they have deductibles exceeding the standard deduction, they’re probably not all that poor.
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Derec is acting as if it’s an extra benefit that the rich get that the poor can’t access but the reality is that they don’t access it because the government gives them a better deal with the standard deduction.
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Who was it that had the famous quote: "A homeless man living under a bridge has just as much right to give million-dollar bribes to politicians as a billionaire has"?

Loren Pechtel said:
Shadowy Man said:
Maybe I’m missing something in what he’s saying. I’m not giving it too much thought right now I’ll admit.
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What's been happening is that rather than expand the lower tax brackets they have raised the standard deduction. This has been combined with moving things from the employer to the employee as a stealth tax increase (my boss paid some relocation expenses--oops, accounting squawked, even though it was at my employer's request it showed up as taxable income for me....
And I'm quite partial to the system being fair even though in this particular case I gain nothing.
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Again you defend the system being rigged for the high-income folk. Are you surprised to be called a "Republican"?

I don't think I ever itemized deductions except the time my friend/preparer applied the trick I mentioned above.

I did claim expenses on Schedule C, but it was only tiny pittances. In hindsight I should have treated my junkets to Asia as stress management therapy to maintain the mental acuity I needed for work.
 
blastula said:
www.usatoday.com

'Null and void': Trump says Biden 'autopen' pardons are no good

The former president signed a batch of preemptive pardons before leaving office covering Anthony Fauci, Liz Cheney and others.
www.usatoday.com
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More from the unrepentant Scumbag in Chief. I don't think that a judge will accept this repugnant argument.
Laws are signed with autopen all the time. There's Trump wasting money to further his evil retributions.

That stimulus checks he had sent out in term one were signed by autopen. I still have a photo of it.
 
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Swammerdami said:
There is (or was -- I'm not up-to-date) a cute trick regarding the deduction of state income taxes on the federal 1040:

Pay the 2023 state tax early in 2024. Then pay the 2024 state tax in December 2024. You get to deduct TWO years of state taxes on ONE year of federal income. Repeat in each even-numbered year; take the standard deduction in odd-numbered years.

It may SEEM like fraud but my friend/preparer told me it was well-known and perfectly legal.
Click to expand...
Yeah. Grouping deductions and itemizing in alternate years has been a strategy for a long time for those on the edge of itemizing. State taxes are simply one such thing. Note that this is only useful to those near the cutoff, the rich gain nothing from it.

Swammerdami said:
Loren Pechtel said:
Derec said:
As it stands, SALT deduction remains a tax cut for the rich. It is only rank partisanship that has people on here defend it.
Click to expand...
You think I'm Republican???

I defend it because it's part of what used to be considered being fair in taxation. It's just the standard has been raised high enough to whittle away the value of itemization for most of the middle class.
Click to expand...

You DEFEND it because it USED to be (past tense) fair. Raise your hand if you see why this combination of present and past tense, while perfectly grammatical, surprises.
Click to expand...
Just because much of the fairness is gone doesn't mean one should not defend what's left.

Swammerdami said:
Loren Pechtel said:
Shadowy Man said:
Elixir said:
If they have deductibles exceeding the standard deduction, they’re probably not all that poor.
Click to expand...
Derec is acting as if it’s an extra benefit that the rich get that the poor can’t access but the reality is that they don’t access it because the government gives them a better deal with the standard deduction.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

Who was it that had the famous quote: "A homeless man living under a bridge has just as much right to give million-dollar bribes to politicians as a billionaire has"?
Click to expand...
What's the relevance? It's irrelevant to the poor.

Swammerdami said:
Loren Pechtel said:
Shadowy Man said:
Maybe I’m missing something in what he’s saying. I’m not giving it too much thought right now I’ll admit.
Click to expand...
What's been happening is that rather than expand the lower tax brackets they have raised the standard deduction. This has been combined with moving things from the employer to the employee as a stealth tax increase (my boss paid some relocation expenses--oops, accounting squawked, even though it was at my employer's request it showed up as taxable income for me....
And I'm quite partial to the system being fair even though in this particular case I gain nothing.
Click to expand...
Again you defend the system being rigged for the high-income folk. Are you surprised to be called a "Republican"?

I don't think I ever itemized deductions except the time my friend/preparer applied the trick I mentioned above.
Click to expand...
I've never itemized. There were two years I ran the calculations, in every other year I knew there was no point. There was one year that had the government been on the ball we would have itemized, but they were slow to update the fact that there was now a house there. The next year when the property tax was right we had paid it down a bit and the numbers came in just below itemizing.

Swammerdami said:
I did claim expenses on Schedule C, but it was only tiny pittances. In hindsight I should have treated my junkets to Asia as stress management therapy to maintain the mental acuity I needed for work.
Click to expand...
C is basically totally separate, a mini corporate return inside a personal return. There's no standard deduction, everyone that files a C "itemizes" it unless they have no expenses at all and I very much doubt anyone in such a position is really self employed. Even pure labor situations have supplies and equipment to do said labor.
 
crazyfingers said:
blastula said:
www.usatoday.com

'Null and void': Trump says Biden 'autopen' pardons are no good

The former president signed a batch of preemptive pardons before leaving office covering Anthony Fauci, Liz Cheney and others.
www.usatoday.com
Click to expand...

More from the unrepentant Scumbag in Chief. I don't think that a judge will accept this repugnant argument.
Laws are signed with autopen all the time. There's Trump wasting money to further his evil retributions.

That stimulus checks he had sent out in term one were signed by autopen. I still have a photo of it.
Click to expand...
You think he will care if a judge accepts it? But I still feel politicians should be hoisted by their own petards. If he says autopen pardons are invalid then any autopen pardons he issues should be considered invalid. J6ers?
 
Loren Pechtel said:
What's the relevance? It's irrelevant to the poor.
Click to expand...
It’s currently relevant because Cheato plans to tax ALL income below the standard deduction, by levying tariffs on virtually every product that poor people have to buy.
 
Loren Pechtel said:
crazyfingers said:
blastula said:
www.usatoday.com

'Null and void': Trump says Biden 'autopen' pardons are no good

The former president signed a batch of preemptive pardons before leaving office covering Anthony Fauci, Liz Cheney and others.
www.usatoday.com
Click to expand...

More from the unrepentant Scumbag in Chief. I don't think that a judge will accept this repugnant argument.
Laws are signed with autopen all the time. There's Trump wasting money to further his evil retributions.

That stimulus checks he had sent out in term one were signed by autopen. I still have a photo of it.
Click to expand...
You think he will care if a judge accepts it? But I still feel politicians should be hoisted by their own petards. If he says autopen pardons are invalid then any autopen pardons he issues should be considered invalid. J6ers?
Click to expand...
Well yeah, but his declaration carries no legal weight in court. So the J6'ers can continue walking about like the totalitarian pricks they are because there is no legal authority to put them back in prison, both because only Congress has the standing to fight it and they can't cite Trump's bogus declaration as authority.

Trump's bogus declaration of authority only matters as being bogus if Congress decides a dictator is a bad idea. Ultimately, Trump can have the military ship Dr. Fauci to Cuba, and there is nothing to stop him... but the military and Congress.
 
bilby said:
Loren Pechtel said:
Americans living in other countries would be royally screwed if it didn't work this way.
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America is, I believe, unique in that she taxes the income of non-resident citizens. Literally no other OECD country does that.
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In the stupid incoherent words of DJT, no other country does it, therefore we have to get rid of it.
 
GenesisNemesis said:
bilby said:
Loren Pechtel said:
Americans living in other countries would be royally screwed if it didn't work this way.
Click to expand...
America is, I believe, unique in that she taxes the income of non-resident citizens. Literally no other OECD country does that.
Click to expand...
In the stupid incoherent words of DJT, no other country does it, therefore we have to get rid of it.
Click to expand...
No other Country has a 34X convicted felon heading its government. We have to get rid of it.
 
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