Tax Evasion

TAX EVASION

At the debate the other night Hillary launched her "October surprise" on Trump, suggesting that he refuses to show us his birth certificate oops I mean tax returns because he doesn't pay any taxes.

Then a copy of Trump's tax return for 1995 is mysteriously "leaked."    It showed that he claimed a nearly billion dollar loss and subsequently paid no taxes.    Trump says, "That makes me smart." Accountants say this is legal, since tax rules that favor wealthy filers would have allowed writing-off up to $50 million in taxable income per year for up to 18 years.

By stark contrast, a middle-income earner reporting a $30,000 loss would only be allowed to take a maximum of $3,000 as a write-off for that tax year.  And the carry forward loss is capped at $3k per year, even if there are further losses.

I am reminded of Leona Helmsley the hotel heiress who famously remarked "We don't pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes." (She went to jail for tax evasion, sentenced to 16 years, but was able to buy her freedom after only 19 months.)

Mark Cuban thinks the"loss" was probably a quasi-legal tax shelter.  I think it was tax evasion.

A Non Pundit View

It seems every self-styled pundit is opinionating about the events in the world, I might as well toss my two cents into the pot.   

I must warn you in advance that I do not think of myself as a "pundit".  The amount of research and erudition for such a title is way beyond my intellectual energy. 

Plus, my aptitude for evangelism is nonexistent.

Most of the people I know who write blogs seem to think that they are possessed with a keener insight than the average citizen.  In fact, they often refer to those who might disagree with them as "low information voters"*.     

In addition, they feel a spiritual "calling" to try to bring the less-informed among us up-to-speed.  In case you have not been paying attention, the world is rapidly turning to shit.  And the single individual who is most responsible for the erosion of American values and the American Way of Life and the American Dream is none other than Barack Hussein Obama.  (Note that they like to remind you that his middle name is Hussein, in case you forgot that he is secretly a Muslim and a fascist).

After perusing many of these blogs, I find it difficult to believe that one person could be so flawed:
He takes too much vacation,  doesn't pay attention at security briefings, is considered a joke by other world leaders and much of the voting public,  squandered the treasury surplus that he inherited from his predecessor,  wasted trillions of dollars and thousands of lives on unnecessary military adventure... --oops forgive me, I was reading the Bush rap sheet by mistake.  

Sorry, I should have been sticking to the point.  Now where was I ,
....Fakes his birth certificate, hangs around with terrorists, hates white people, plays too much golf, can't speak without a teleprompter, was an affirmative action student, never published a piece in the Harvard law review, voted "present" as a Senator from Illinois, has no experience as an administration or manager, bows to foreign royalty,  lies to congress and the American people every day, is on the wrong side of any issue that you can think of (Climate change, pipeline construction, minimum wage, immigration, border control, taxation and income inequality, health care, and especially foreign policy.)

The aforementioned pundits seem to feel that cherry picking articles from fringe media  is sufficient research.  They have no problem articulating the things that should have been done. 

You are probably thinking, "Monday morning quarterbacking is no substitute for intelligent, balanced research."  But it's not as simple as that.  The psychological condition of many pundits is known as "confirmation bias. **"     

None of us is immune to confirmation bias.  It is natural for us to be attracted to people and ideas that agree with our strongly-held beliefs.  We literally tune-in to the programs and voices that preach the gospel we want to hear.  We tend to tune-out information that casts doubt on our sacred beliefs.   

It is nearly impossible for a lay person to decide which group of scientists is telling the truth when they talk about global warming.  The "evidence " is buried deep in the arcane source materials which ordinary people cannot understand - much less evaluate.  The Scientific majority say "Human activity is tied to Global Warming."  A small group of dissidents claim that the earth's temp has not risen in ten years. 

Even a casual student of history recognizes that over the eons scientific consensus has been wrong more that it has been right, so we tend to equate "consensus" with "opinion." 

Evangelists promote their beliefs as facts.  But we have to keep in mind that "fact" is just a word.  A fact is often just an opinion in disguise. 

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*(Anyone who voted for Obama)  

**confirmation bias refers to the tendency to selectively search for and consider information that confirms one's beliefs.

Choosing A VPOTUS

The last presidential election was scary.  Even if you don't believe the unflattering characterization of Sarah Palin in the HBO movie "Game Change," an honest reflection of her qualifications makes you think twice about the process for selecting and vetting the VP candidates.   It is probably true that she had more administrative experience than did Barack Obama, but the big difference is that Mr Obama was chosen by voters, not a secret committee behind closed doors.

To be honest, I was not encouraged by the selection of Joe Biden either.  Despite his many years of experience in the congress, he has distinguished himself as a buffoon because of his penchant for the gaffe.

Another previous VP nominee, John Edwards,  is currently on trial for misuse of campaign funds (although his real crime in the opinion most everyone is that he was carrying on an affair with a campaign aid while his wife was struggling with  breast cancer.)

It all makes me wonder why nobody seems to think the system for finding a presidential running mate needs to be fixed.  Why should the party nominee for the highest office be the one who chooses the successor?  Rather than an afterthought to a campaign, VP candidates should be vetted and selected by the same process that should elect the president - popular vote.   Yes, that reminds me, the Electoral College is another concept that is astoundingly irrelevant to modern times.    Let's get rid of that while we are tweaking things, shall we?