V-O-T-E
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I believe him.
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I don’t actually want it orderly…I want the military to drag Trump out, kicking and screaming, like an exhausted parent at the grocery store with a toddler an hour after nap time should have started.
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Only trouble is, republicans are planning to screw with the electors come January. Even if Biden wins the popular vote and the electoral college, we may see see Trump claiming a win. I can see McTurtle claiming that’s “orderly.”
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Exactly. It will be a calm, well-organized usurpation.
That would be satisfying.
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Time to clear out the temple then.
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Oh fuck that fucking fuck
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I’m sure it’s all over the place, and it’s really no big surprise for anyone who’s been paying the smallest bit of attention, but…
(also, paywall warning, darn it. Possible to get in with a “free account”.)
Donald J. Trump paid $750 in federal income taxes the year he won the presidency. In his first year in the White House, he paid another $750.
He had paid no income taxes at all in 10 of the previous 15 years — largely because he reported losing much more money than he made.
As the president wages a re-election campaign that polls say he is in danger of losing, his finances are under stress, beset by losses and hundreds of millions of dollars in debt coming due that he has personally guaranteed. Also hanging over him is a decade-long audit battle with the Internal Revenue Service over the legitimacy of a $72.9 million tax refund that he claimed, and received, after declaring huge losses. An adverse ruling could cost him more than $100 million.
[…]
While Mr. Trump crisscrossed the country in 2015 describing himself as uniquely qualified to be president because he was “really rich” and had “built a great company,” his accountants back in New York were busy putting the finishing touches on his 2014 tax return.
After tabulating all the profits and losses from Mr. Trump’s various endeavors on Form 1040, the accountants came to Line 56, where they had to enter the total income tax the candidate was required to pay. They needed space for only a single figure.
Zero.
For Mr. Trump, that bottom line must have looked familiar. It was the fourth year in a row that he had not paid a penny of federal income taxes.
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Which, to a large portion of his base, makes him a hero. He’s doing exactly what he told him he’d do, and he’s getting away with things they can only dream about.
Until the IRS shows up and raids every single one of his properties simultaneously and hauls him out mid-shower, he’ll be their shining symbol of what’s possible if you really try. And now, at this point, if that does happen, they’ll say he’s a martyr, unfairly attacked by those evil feds.
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The reason he was able to pay so little for so long was a massive loss he reported years ago when he walked away from his casino in Vegas. However, the rule is he can’t take any ownership to claim that deduction. He still has a 5% ownership in that casino. So, if the IRS rules against him, he will have a 750 million dollar tax bill.
But a lot of what he does on his taxes seems pretty calculated to lower his tax bill, and it seems like the strategy is just to have an ongoing relationship with the IRS where they constantly fight over the returns. I appreciate the reporting. His taxes are really complicated.
I think the foreign entanglements and his conflicts of interests finally being clearer is the most useful part of the reporting.
It does seem like there are so real large losses dangling over his head and he lives on massive debt.
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A good summary of the Times piece that’s free
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Ms. Trump reported receiving payments from a consulting company she co-owned, totaling $747,622, that exactly matched consulting fees claimed as tax deductions by the Trump Organization for hotel projects in Vancouver and Hawaii.
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I am sure Mister Insecurity is totally fine with being the leading contender for poorest American of all time.
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