“‘I never understood the theater until last night. Please forgive everything I’ve ever written. By the time you read this I’ll be dead.’—Clive Barnes”~ David Mamet (originally published in Mary Ann Madden, “New York Magazine Competition: Competition Number 395,” New York, October 13, 1980
“Don’t let luck pass you by.” A horseshoe and chimney sweep, superstitious symbols of good fortune Election blindness: It’s the end of the world economy as we know it — and we feel fine Salon
WikiLeaks, released excerpts from the multimillion-dollar Wall Street speeches that Clinton has refused to release – with the same stubbornness that has seen Trump refuse to release his tax returns
—Jonah Goldberg, “Character is Destiny.”
Welcome to Russia. Only dictators threaten to jail their opponent.
Disgusting. Horrifying. Sickening. Nightmarish...
Warren Buffett hits back at Donald Trump over tax loophole claim Warren Buffett Bites Back ...
About the most reliable method of doing in your head is to walk sober into a bar where a drunk is having an argument with a mirror. Anyone with a passing interest in US politics has been doing that for the past year. A fair slice of the world's population did it again on Monday by tuning TVs or computers to what was billed as a "debate" between Donald
Trump and Hillary Clinton Donald Trump v Hillary Clinton: like a drunk having an argument with a mirror
Trump: How That Was Pretty Bad, But Let’s Just Say You’re Going To Want To Save Your Energy’ Onion humorous bik polakis
Fact-checking the second Clinton-Trump presidential debate Washington Post
The Daily Beast, Trump’s Ex-Accountant Jack Mitnick: He’s No Tax Genius:
This past week, Donald Trump's campaign surrogates attempted to argue that the candidate is a "genius" for turning a nearly $1 billion loss into a tax avoidance strategy for up to 18 years. But now the accountant who compiled Trump's 1995 tax return — and helped verify it for The New York Times — has refuted that narrative in a series of interviews. Jack Mitnick, who handled Trump's taxes until 1996, told Inside Edition on Tuesday, “I did all the tax preparation. He never saw the product until it was presented to him for signature." Pushing back at Trump's own suggestion that he "brilliantly" used tax laws to his own advantage, Mitnick added, “I’m the one who did all the work."
The betting market had Trump go up from 16.8 to 19.0, with Pence falling by a fair amount. Stock market called it a draw. The peso observation comes from a tweet by Noah Smith
“I believe Trump’s candidacy is largely a creation of a TV media that wants him, or needs him, to be the central character in this year’s political drama.
What journalists say back when they are criticized for mishandling coverage of Trump
Robert De Niro has delivered a scathing attack on Donald Trump in a new video, saying he would "like to punch him in the face". "He's so blatantly stupid. He's a punk, he's a dog, he's a pig, he's a con, a bullshit artist," the Hollywood legend says Robert De Niro: 'I'd like to punch Donald Trump in the face'
How Donald Trump Is Like Jay Gatsby
Political scientist Amanda Friesen: “[He] is always flying around in his private jet. That must seem like a dream come true for some folks! By jetting off to Vegas, he’s doing things people are familiar with – things they might do if they had the money. In some respects, Donald Trump is Jay Gatsby, throwing the party and drawing people in with his excess and opulence. He’s Gatsby without the earnestness.”
Donald Trump (Photo by Isaac Brekken/Getty)
“He has always said he’s given to politicians his entire career and he thinks the system is broken. A review of Donald Trump’s political donations show that the Republican presidential candidate has made campaign contributions to several to state attorneys general while they weighed decisions affecting his business, particularly in New York. What’s that about a “rigged” system? [Wall Street Journal]
Greg Kyte, Exposure Drafts: Paying No Taxes Makes Donald Trump Rich, Not Smart (Going Concern)
David Herzig, The Big Tax Break Donald Trump Gets, But Ordinary Workers Don’t. “Bottom line: NOLs allow those with business income to, over the long haul, pay much less than if they were taxed based only on their yearly income.” Right, because if you have operating losses, you really don’t have income, over time. The Herzig piece is a good example of the bad populist argument against net operating losses. The refutation can be found here, and elsewhere
Here’s the best theory we’ve seen of how Trump paid so little tax Josh Barro, Business Insider. The Gitlitz Loopholesounds like a novel by Robert Ludlum, doesn’t it? “Here’s how the loophole could have allowed Trump to create a paper tax loss that he could use to offset his real income for over a decade, avoiding hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes in the process.” Legal. But also a genuine loophole — i.e., an unintended consequence of the law as written, and interpreted by the courts — hence not conforming to the Trump campaign’s narrative that in his case the tax system was working as it should. But very much conforming to this Trump narrative: “That makes me smart.” Or not! Very much worth reading in full.
Where Does the Hate Come From? Der Spiegel. The Ossies! Of course….