kanesrealm

There's a new book out by Michael Wolff called "Fire and Fury", chronicling the dysfunction of the Trump Campaign and inside the Whitehouse. Explosive would be a mild word to describe it. Among the headline grabbing excerpts are the statements made for the book by Stephen Bannon, including his belief that Donald Trump Jr.'s meeting with a Russian lawyer in the summer of 2016 was "treasonous and unpatriotic." Bannon asserts that Special Prosecutor Mueller will get President Trump through Mannefort, Trump Jr. and Kushner and it's all about "money laundering". A close billionaire friend of the President is quoted as saying Trump is not only crazy, he's stupid. According to Wolff when the late Roger Ailes, who was a campaign advisor, recommended to Trump that he consider asking John Boehner to be his Chief of Staff, he didn't know who that was. Other insiders in the Whitehouse believe the President is barely semi-literate. It should be ...

Donald Trump wants to change the tax code and accomplish something that so far has eluded him, a legislative victory. Our tax code absolutely needs serious reform but preliminary indicators suggest that's not what this is. Trump insists that the rich, including himself, will not benefit from the changes he and the Republicans are proposing. So we begin with a lie, how then do we trust anything else in the legislation? The old drum is once again beating it's favorite tune, the elimination of the estate tax. Currently for an individual the first 5.49 million dollars is exempted from this tax which means for most people this is never a factor. The argument for repeal of the estate tax has always been about the family farm and small business owners, it is a false argument. There are no real small businesses or family farms worth more than the exempted amount. Let's, just for the hell of it, act like it's true. The tax, which is 40%, doesn't kick in until after the exem...

Over the weekend The New York Times dropped what should be a bombshell with the publishing of Trump's 1995 tax returns showing over nine-hundred million dollars in losses and setting the stage for not paying federal income tax for up to eighteen years. His unwillingness to release his returns raises eyebrows with those who have a fully functional brain but no so much for others. He has bragged about exploiting the system and paying as little in taxes as he possibly can so I've never understood his reluctance to release his returns. One important thing that I hope we have all learned is that real estate developers apparently have major loopholes provided for them, maybe we should do something about that. His hardcore supporters, the poor to middle class, don't care that he hasn't paid federal income tax, they think it's cool that he's stiffing the "man", of course he's really stiffing them but good luck making the argument. His chief surrogates Rud...

You can't escape death and taxes, so the saying goes. You can however avoid a lot of taxes if you're wealthy and powerful enough to lobby Congress and twist the tax code into a pretzel. Contrary to what you hear from the corporate media, think tanks and wealthy political candidates or candidates who are solely owned subsidiaries of the wealthy, it is not the rich of this country who pay the bulk of the taxes, it is the working poor and the middle class. Without them this country would fold and their voices are all but ignored on the issue of taxes. Taxes are necessary, there can be no society without them but in our country all you hear about is income tax, but that is just one tax. When I have debated taxes with people and start to argue that everyone pays taxes and then proceed to list them I have literally been told, "let's stay focused on income tax", I of course say let's not. Absolutely no one, including the poorest among us who qualify for Earned Inco...

You can't escape death and taxes. That's not entirely true, the super wealthy do a pretty good job of beating the tax man. Nothing illegal mind you, I would never suggest such a thing. Our tax code is so bloated and complicated it's as though it were specifically written to aid powerful forces at the top, nah. The House of Representatives passed it's bill to eliminate the so called death tax. It's actually the estate tax but years ago it was dubbed death, it sounds much more sinister and who would support taxing a dead person, creepy. It's fascinating how Republicans despise modern Europe but they sure love old Europe. A place where vast wealth was passed from generation to generation guaranteeing a small ruling class. Here in the U.S. of today there is no estate tax for individuals with under 5.4 million dollars in assets and for couples it's around 10.9 million. Are you leaving behind anywhere near that? No, didn't think so. The elimination of the ...