2020 General Presidential Election Thread

[Northwestcoug]

Looks like Drumpf was just bluffing... Time to buys some votes:

https://apple.news/A6Simq1hJRqWBNNNMjoQjIw

Drumpf, what a joker.

These rare mild critiques of Trump from UT should be noted. Even if they are randomly generated from a bot

[Sullyute]

https://www.wsj.com/articles/trumps-...d=hp_lead_pos3

Good article on Trump's debt, which is coming due during the first term of Pres Biden

Couple interesting snippets:



Looks like Trump doesn't owe Russia anything that is due in the next four years, at least not directly. Seems like that concern can be put to bed.



So a manageable debt load and significant cash. He can still be a bad businessman but its clear he's not in the financial trouble think he is. Oh, and not paying taxes in most years, yeah, that doesn't mean he's not making money but I'm sure the internet CPAs like commando and wuap will tell me otherwise.



This is, IMO, the biggest concern in regards to his debt. The opportunity for corruption which is why his smoke and mirrors act of not divesting of his business while pretending to divest of them is such a big issue.

Thanks for the review. I was wondering when we would find out who holds the debt. He is such a polarizing person, it will be interesting to see how his businesses hold up after the pandemic and if he losses the election. Could be a rough road in the near future for Trump & Co.

[Commando]

Thanks for the review. I was wondering when we would find out who holds the debt. He is such a polarizing person, it will be interesting to see how his businesses hold up after the pandemic and if he losses the election. Could be a rough road in the near future for Trump & Co.

Well, when his golf courses are losing hundreds of millions a year and you don't make that much money... and you don't have your weekend presidential trips to funnel millions into them at a time, things will get rough. First his casinos, now his golf courses. Has he ever thought about taking some sort of money management course? Other people who inherit money like Paris Hilton seem to be much better stewards. What a dummy.

[Jeff Lebowski]

So a manageable debt load and significant cash. He can still be a bad businessman but its clear he's not in the financial trouble think he is. Oh, and not paying taxes in most years, yeah, that doesn't mean he's not making money but I'm sure the internet CPAs like commando and wuap will tell me otherwise.

Ann Coulter weighs in:

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[Uncle Ted]

Ann Coulter weighs in:

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50% of her income in taxes... LOL, Ann Coulter is dumb.

[Jeff Lebowski]

50% of her income in taxes... LOL, Ann Coulter is dumb.

That’s not supposed to be the conservative take!!!

[Uncle Ted]

That’s not supposed to be the conservative take!!!

Taxation is theft! I have to work hard to come up with tax write-offs, credits, etc. (Did I mention I am getting a tax credit for the solar system I am putting in? Thank you all you tax payers for helping me pay for it.) So I guess I am not a conservative.

[Moliere]

Well, when his golf courses are losing hundreds of millions a year and you don't make that much money... and you don't have your weekend presidential trips to funnel millions into them at a time, things will get rough. First his casinos, now his golf courses. Has he ever thought about taking some sort of money management course? Other people who inherit money like Paris Hilton seem to be much better stewards. What a dummy.

It's pretty clear in the WSJ that he's not losing hundreds of millions a year on his golf courses. He's definitely cash flow positive even before the weekend presidential trips, which are likely a drop in the bucket.

Ann Coulter weighs in:

Real estate taxation is definitely in need of serious reform. The rules are written to try to not impede transactions from taking place (1031 exchanges are a good example but they are abused) but that results in some very creative ways to avoid paying taxes. And "avoid" is the wrong word even if it's fairly accurate, the correct term is "defer" paying taxes. Just an educated guess, but I suspect that Trump is dumping money into more real estate to defer paying taxes. It's a popular scheme with midstream energy MLPs (real estate gets similar benefits) where the accelerated depreciation makes it so as long as you keep buying properties, the depreciation will continue to eat up the profits (from a taxable perspective) and you won't pay any taxes even though you are swimming in cash. It's risky in that you could end up with a large tax bill if/when the real estate market goes south and the tax bill comes due and that could happen but I have no idea how close they are to that. At that point you have to start selling assets to pay off debt, which is what hte WSJ article hints at. It's not that Trump can't pay the debt, it's that he might have to sell assets to do so, which they probably don't want to do. I've seen current tax bills change by hundreds of millions of dollars by taking one election over another and it all comes back to deferring payment as far as possible, becuase in a cash flow model pushing payments out farther means they impact you less.

[Uncle Ted]

It's pretty clear in the WSJ that he's not losing hundreds of millions a year on his golf courses. He's definitely cash flow positive even before the weekend presidential trips, which are likely a drop in the bucket.



Real estate taxation is definitely in need of serious reform. The rules are written to try to not impede transactions from taking place (1031 exchanges are a good example but they are abused) but that results in some very creative ways to avoid paying taxes. And "avoid" is the wrong word even if it's fairly accurate, the correct term is "defer" paying taxes. Just an educated guess, but I suspect that Trump is dumping money into more real estate to defer paying taxes. It's a popular scheme with midstream energy MLPs (real estate gets similar benefits) where the accelerated depreciation makes it so as long as you keep buying properties, the depreciation will continue to eat up the profits (from a taxable perspective) and you won't pay any taxes even though you are swimming in cash. It's risky in that you could end up with a large tax bill if/when the real estate market goes south and the tax bill comes due and that could happen but I have no idea how close they are to that. At that point you have to start selling assets to pay off debt, which is what hte WSJ article hints at. It's not that Trump can't pay the debt, it's that he might have to sell assets to do so, which they probably don't want to do. I've seen current tax bills change by hundreds of millions of dollars by taking one election over another and it all comes back to deferring payment as far as possible, becuase in a cash flow model pushing payments out farther means they impact you less.

Hey, don't forget the new opportunity zone stuff that Drumpf added. These can be completely tax free cap gains investments! God bless Drumpf.

[Bo Diddley]

Taxation is theft! I have to work hard to come up with tax write-offs, credits, etc. (Did I mention I am getting a tax credit for the solar system I am putting in? Thank you all you tax payers for helping me pay for it.) So I guess I am not a conservative.

Someone has to pay my salary and coming pension!

[Northwestcoug]

I’ve hitched my wagon to the left for some time now, but I used follow Jonah Goldberg and his like. I think he’s a decent guy, even though some of his associates (D’Souza) are blech. He can turn a phrase. I haven’t followed closely lately, but he seems to have been a reliable never-ish Trumper, so I cannot cry hypocrisy at him. And I think he has the current state of the electorate spot-on here:

Which brings me to the next month, which is going to be like riding a mobius strip through an animatronic insane asylum, particularly as he feels more cornered and his backers scramble to come up with a blame-shifting explanation for it. I have a theory about why Trump is tanking. All the punditry about erosion of support among seniors, debate performances, COVID, the economy, etc. has its merits. But I think one missing piece of the puzzle is simply that Trump is the incumbent and, more importantly, he’s making people crazy, pro and con. In 2016, enough people wanted a “disrupter,” but they didn’t really want a feeling of constant disruption. It’s fine to want to shake things up when the economy is doing well (as it was in 2016) and you think the “establishment” is calcified or corrupt. It’s fine to want to keep the shake-up going when things were going good and politics remained a spectator sport. But wanting a shake-up is very different than wanting to constantly be shaken around. With the economy in tatters, COVID being so not under control that the White House is literally a hot spot, and the president spending his last days before the election yammering about miracle cures, his own physical perfection, dropping F-bombs on the radio, and scorning his own Cabinet officials as failures for not indicting his political opponents, people just want to stop the madness.

[frank ryan]

I’ve hitched my wagon to the left for some time now, but I used follow Jonah Goldberg and his like. I think he’s a decent guy, even though some of his associates (D’Souza) are blech. He can turn a phrase. I haven’t followed closely lately, but he seems to have been a reliable never-ish Trumper, so I cannot cry hypocrisy at him. And I think he has the current state of the electorate spot-on here:

I don’t like Goldberg’s politics but I respect his principles. D’Souza is a grifter, plain and simple and his movies are cartoonish garbage.

[Commando]

It's pretty clear in the WSJ that he's not losing hundreds of millions a year on his golf courses. He's definitely cash flow positive even before the weekend presidential trips, which are likely a drop in the bucket.

Most of Mr. Trump’s core enterprises — from his constellation of golf courses to his conservative-magnet hotel in Washington — report losing millions, if not tens of millions, of dollars year after year.

His revenue from “The Apprentice” and from licensing deals is drying up, and several years ago he sold nearly all the stocks that now might have helped him plug holes in his struggling properties.

The tax audit looms.

And within the next four years, more than $300 million in loans — obligations for which he is personally responsible — will come due.

Seems like he's kicking ass... I dunno...

[Commando]

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[Uncle Ted]

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Yes, I have been saying that Drumpf is a master sh*tposter for some time... I am a student of his posts.