Escaping the Echo Chamber

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Frelga
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Re: Escaping the Echo Chamber

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You also need a copy of a tax return every time you apply for credit.
yovargas wrote:
Inanna wrote:Which a) reduces effort, and b) enables people to file their own taxes.
This is fairly OT (and will mean nothing to non-Americans) but - I've always taken the standard deduction and have long been baffled that so many people itemize. How do people have so many deductible expenses? Have I been overpaying taxes all these years??
Mortgage is usually the deduction that makes itemizing worthwhile, especially in places Ike the Bay Area, where housing is expensive. Then, you can deduct a variety of small things, like your Goodwill donations and the price of your tax preparation software.

Eta: criss posted with Griffy, with whom I entirely agree.
If there was anything that depressed him more than his own cynicism, it was that quite often it still wasn't as cynical as real life.

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Voronwë the Faithful
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Re: Escaping the Echo Chamber

Post by Voronwë the Faithful »

I also completely agree with Griffy, although I think it is a stretch to say that Trump should get "credit" for that.

As for the tax cut/reform bill, I don't think Trump should really get credit or blame for it, because it is not at all the type of tax reform that he campaigned on, and instead turned out to be the kind of traditional tax cut for the rich and for corporations that the establishment wing of the GOP has been clamoring for. And what gains middle-class and working class people experience are completely ephemeral because the bill is designed so that the corporate tax cuts and the cuts for the wealthy are permanent, whereas as the cuts for most people expire after a few years and will actually result in most people's taxes going up from where they were before the bill was enacted.
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Re: Escaping the Echo Chamber

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So, has Trump achieved anything positive?
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Griffon64
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Re: Escaping the Echo Chamber

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Yes. For myself, as I just said:

- He is harder on criminal illegal immigrants than the previous administration. In my opinion this is a good thing.
- He brought the racism, sexism and bigotry inherent in a lot of Americans into the open and broke down societal norms around suppressing or ignoring instead of discussing that behavior. I view that as a positive development for the long run, though the present certainly isn't very pleasant.
- From the article you linked at least, his administration is improving conditions for veterans. That is a positive.

I find it telling that an article touting his triumphs contains an item with a decidedly mixed benefit ( the energy sector one ). As I already stated, his efforts are also hurting the energy sector. Perhaps the best case scenario there is for his efforts to be neutral as opportunity and jobs shift from wind/solar back to fossil fuels. Counting that one as a naked positive is shaky.
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Re: Escaping the Echo Chamber

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Depends on how you define "positive". He has had a lot of success in nominating and confirming very conservative judges to the extent that he has succeeded in largely remaking the federal judiciary. From my perspective that will have disastrous results for a generation or more, but from the perspective of his supporters it is a huge win.

I am lukewarm at best about multi-national trade agreements like the TPP, but I still think that his pulling out of the TPP has potentially disastrous results because it has led to China essentially filing the void. His pulling out of the Paris climate change agreement is an unmitigated disaster in my opinion.

As for the items listed in the Fortune article, I disagree with all of them, for different reasons. Regarding energy policy, the Keystone Pipeline has only created temporary jobs and has already generated environmental harm, which will only get worse. Regarding immigration, that reporting is inaccurate because the main change in the way that ICE has enforced immigration is to reduce the focus on targeting illegal immigrants who have committed serious crimes (which was the policy under Obama) and instead has greatly broadened who is targeted, resulting in many deportations of individuals who have not committed major criminal acts, and in the forced separation of families. As for Veterans, the laws mentioned in the article were all initiatives that were begun in the Obama administration. I suppose Trump could take some credit for not preventing them from being completed but they were not his doing.

I suppose he could be credited with being such a bombastic, racist sexist jerk that he has succeeded in helping to bring those issues to the forefront, but I don't think that he deserves "credit" for that. So no, I really don't think he has achieved very much that is positive at all.
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Maria
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Re: Escaping the Echo Chamber

Post by Maria »

We always itemize. Not only is mortgage interest deductible, but so are IRA contributions and any business and farm losses one happens to incur. And when we had kids in school, their tuition and books bills were also deductible. We do our taxes ourselves on Turbotax, so it doesn't really cost us anything extra.

If we ever had any super large medical bills, we'd be deducting those too. If they don't go above some (?) percentage of your income, though, it doesn't count. We only went over the year my son was in the hospital for 9 days as a teen. It takes a LOT of expenses to go over.

We first started itemizing when we bought our first house in 1989. I soon opened a home daycare after that and we had to itemize to account for the home business income. We've had at least one home business going ever since then.

Itemization is MUCH easier with Turbotax, rather than doing it all by hand. :help:
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Re: Escaping the Echo Chamber

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Alatar wrote: So do you see anything positive to have come out of his Presidency yov?
I haven't but I am aware that I exists lately in a liberal bubble that would not likely report positive things if they existed. I'm sure if I looked closely at everything he's done I could find something that I thought was positive. But it's interesting and likely telling that, if V-man is correct, the only thing on that article's list you could get people to agree is a good thing was started before Trump got there (like the good economy numbers he's trying to take credit for).

Griffy: great posts. :) As usual. :love:
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Frelga
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Re: Escaping the Echo Chamber

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Alatar wrote:So, has Trump achieved anything positive?
I actually thought of something. Now, when someone says that women are too emotional and unstable to be in politics you just have to say, "Ahem, Trump?"
If there was anything that depressed him more than his own cynicism, it was that quite often it still wasn't as cynical as real life.

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Re: Escaping the Echo Chamber

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Perfect!
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Re: Escaping the Echo Chamber

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Alatar wrote:So, has Trump achieved anything positive?
If bump stocks are banned, then Trump would have achieved something unambiguously positive. To be honest, he's probably the only president who will be able to do so, so let's hope he does.
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Re: Escaping the Echo Chamber

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That's a genuinely positive move in fairness. If it happens.
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Frelga
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Re: Escaping the Echo Chamber

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If it happens, then yes it is. Trump does have a habit of promising to do things and never coming through. But if it happens it's a small but positive step.

In practical terms, banning bump stocks is not effective if you can freely buy an actual automatic rifle that the stock is intended to emulate. But, I will not deny that it will be a positive step.
If there was anything that depressed him more than his own cynicism, it was that quite often it still wasn't as cynical as real life.

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Re: Escaping the Echo Chamber

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After the shooting in Las Vegas, in which the shooter actually used a bump stock, even the NRA called for their ban. It still didn't happen, at least yet. If it does happen I agree that it will be a small positive achievement, but way, way, way, way, way too little.
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Frelga
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Re: Escaping the Echo Chamber

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Right, and it's not even on Trump, specifically. If one wanted to have a comprehensive reform to minimize gun-related deaths while still keeping guns accessible for reasonable use, that's not even close to the place to start. Still, for the purpose of this thread, it's an acceptable answer, IF.
If there was anything that depressed him more than his own cynicism, it was that quite often it still wasn't as cynical as real life.

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Frelga
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Re: Escaping the Echo Chamber

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And now he's talking about arming teachers, so I'm going to revoke the provisional brownie point until we know what he actually does.
If there was anything that depressed him more than his own cynicism, it was that quite often it still wasn't as cynical as real life.

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Re: Escaping the Echo Chamber

Post by Voronwë the Faithful »

But on the other hand, he is telling governors not to be afraid of the NRA, so I will give him credit for that.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/26/politics ... index.html
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Frelga
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Re: Escaping the Echo Chamber

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He also literally just twitted WITCH HUNT! I think I'll wait with the credit until he does something because running his balance sheet based on what he says is too terrifying.
If there was anything that depressed him more than his own cynicism, it was that quite often it still wasn't as cynical as real life.

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Re: Escaping the Echo Chamber

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Well, he didn't just tweet "WITCH HUNT" with no context. It followed two tweets quoting constitutional law expert (from my alma mater) Jonathan Turley and former Clinton witch-hunter, erm, I mean special prosecutor Ken Star both saying they didn't see any case for collusion. Of course there are plenty of other examples of experts who say that they do see a case and/or warn that what Mueller has discovered is not yet known, but at least he didn't just tween "WITCH HUNT" out of the blue with nothing else.
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Re: Escaping the Echo Chamber

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I'm aware, I'm just not sure that makes it any better.
If there was anything that depressed him more than his own cynicism, it was that quite often it still wasn't as cynical as real life.

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Re: Escaping the Echo Chamber

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To me it makes it marginally better than if he just randomly tweeted out "WITCHHUNT" with no context at all, but that is damning with very faint praise indeed!
"Spirits in the shape of hawks and eagles flew ever to and from his halls; and their eyes could see to the depths of the seas, and pierce the hidden caverns beneath the world."
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