To answer the question on everyone’s lips: Yes. Yes, the Nall/Derringer Co-Prosperity Sphere paid more than $750 in federal income taxes last year. I think our daughter, the penniless struggling musician, paid more than that. Virtually everyone did.
Which is, of course, not going to make an immediate, titanic difference in the polls or anything else. Because this is the stupidest country.
But it is instructive, if you have seventh-grade reading skills:
And within the next four years, more than $300 million in loans — obligations for which he is personally responsible — will come due.
Against that backdrop, the records go much further toward revealing the actual and potential conflicts of interest created by Mr. Trump’s refusal to divest himself of his business interests while in the White House. His properties have become bazaars for collecting money directly from lobbyists, foreign officials and others seeking face time, access or favor; the records for the first time put precise dollar figures on those transactions.
I can’t fucking stand it. But maybe we don’t have to stand it forever. Or even much longer.
Census-ing tonight was more of the same: Lots of dead-ender cases, with occasional glimpses of joy. One such case: I knock on the front door. After a few moments, the side door flies open with a loud WHO’S HERE, but not with a question mark. I peeked around the side, and there was a massive man, the size of a bison, advancing with an angry expression. I told him why I was there. WHAT’S THAT, he demanded. I explained the census and he immediately chilled. OK, we can talk about that, and we had a very productive survey.
I’ve enjoyed this interlude, but I’m looking forward to the end. I need to clean some bathrooms.
Tomorrow, more election training. Let’s get the week underway.
alex said on September 27, 2020 at 9:56 pm
In other Sunday evening news, Brad Parscale threatened to off himself and got dragged off to the booby hatch:
https://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/fort-lauderdale/fl-ne-brad-parscale-incident-fort-lauderdale-20200928-g4bcine3fbb7jhjniiroo3yuse-story.html
Not sure which will be the bigger humiliation for Trump — getting convicted of tax fraud or having his real net worth laid bare for all the world to chortle at.
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Peter said on September 27, 2020 at 10:04 pm
First off, the site I used to cite US cites by population is http://www.worldpopulationreview.com – us cities.
I can certainly relate to everyone’s stories about their parent’s possessions – my father passed away almost a year ago and one room of our house is filled with knick-knacks and items that we plan to distribute this Thanksgiving.
And about the Supreme Court – “Catholic Intellectual?” Isn’t that right up there with Army Intelligence? And I’m Catholic.
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Suzanne said on September 27, 2020 at 10:33 pm
The Trump revelations won’t make a hill of beans difference to Trumpsters.
A quick perusal of the Facebook comments on the posting of the story by the local news station assured me of this. They cheer that he got out of paying taxes, and everybody knows he was campaigning during 2016, using his own money to better the nation, you can’t trust the NYTimes anyway and he’s such a good businessman, he figured out how to manage his finances so he didn’t have to pay taxes.
He could rape most of his followers daughters and they’d consider a privilege. They truly would.
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Colleen said on September 27, 2020 at 10:39 pm
Suzanne, were you reading the same comments I was? Sure sounds like it.
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Sherri said on September 27, 2020 at 11:57 pm
It’s hard to even know where to start with trump’s tax returns, whether it’s the tax evasion, the corruption, or the incompetence, but $300M of debt? Boy, that sure seems like a lot, unsupported by the revenue stream. Why would Deutsche Bank lend him so much money?
(I hate to get into conspiracy rabbit holes, but I do wonder about the relationship between Anthony Kennedy’s son and trump.)
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basset said on September 28, 2020 at 12:07 am
Good Beatles reference, Nance.
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beb said on September 28, 2020 at 1:20 am
Conspiracy
ratrabbitholes are a dangerous thing to fall into but also, “every accusation is a confession” and Trump has made so many conspiratorial accusations I think it’s only reasonable to assume that he has been living off Putin’s float.258 chars
Dexter Friend said on September 28, 2020 at 2:15 am
One of the MSNBC attorneys who guests regularly has said when Joe is sworn in, Trump will immediately be whisked off to prison and immediately to the SDNY (Manhattan) court for many transgressions against the law. I just can’t believe that but I am no lawyer, either.
Trump will still come close of course, because Trumpers refuse to stop making excuses for him. We all have heard this bullshit. Trump still keeps mentioning HRC and Obama for the nation’s ills. Joe is still holding good leads in all the polls. Politics are weird though. This country’s voters gave landslide victories to that rotten bastard Ronald Reagan, when it was clear he was a deranged moron at worst, a pitiful Alzheimer’s patient at best. Trump is in this category, but Trump is a psychopath and only wants what is best for Trump. I see ads with Af. Am.s and Latinas and people dressed in servers’ uniforms praising Trump because “Biden will raise my taxes”, and other nonsense.
I wouldn’t miss Tuesday night’s debate unless another family catastrophe develops.
I never felt like this before, but I am sort of glad I went to Vietnam, regarding how I learned to move from one horrible thing I witnessed to yet another, and another. Trump’s criminal presidency, my family’s latest health problems, just little stuff like that has not yet compared to dealing with rocket and mortar attacks and other stuff. But if Trump steals this election some fucking way, it will be be close to testing my limit. All that means is finding a path to navigate along towards destiny.
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David C said on September 28, 2020 at 5:57 am
I love it when anyone uses the word chortle Alex.
I’d rather be dead in a ditch than watch the debate. I can’t stand looking at him. I can’t stand listening to his idiotic voice. I can’t stand his whining. I’ve sent in my ballot and it’s been accepted. I just want to be in a coma until noon January 20. Then I want to see his orange ass carted off to prison or put on a plane to exile in Russia so I never have to think of him again except I will because we’ll be fixing all he’s messed up for the rest of our lives.
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Dorothy said on September 28, 2020 at 7:47 am
David I feel exactly the same about his voice, etc. but I think it’s must see t.v., and if I need to I’ll use the closed captioning anytime his lips are moving. I so want to see Biden clean Trump’s clock that I’m willing to watch the whole thing. I’m usually asleep by 9:30 or 9:45 but tomorrow I’m taking a melatonin around 1:30 or 2:00, taking a nice nap, and will be wide awake until 11:00 I hope.
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ROGirl said on September 28, 2020 at 8:35 am
What David C said.
My father left a houseful of…mostly junk. I took a few things, my brother took a few things. We called one estate sale service, they weren’t interested. We called a guy with a dumpster and he came and hauled it all away. Maybe he pulled a few things out to sell, I didn’t want to end up with a bunch of stuff in boxes in my basement.
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Deborah said on September 28, 2020 at 9:04 am
My husband calls her Amy Karen Barrett. On purpose.
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Julie Robinson said on September 28, 2020 at 9:26 am
Is anyone surprised by the article? Appalled, yes, but not surprised. And how many others are like him, using every legal tax break while chortling (it is a good word!) and sneering at the poor schlumps like us, paying middle class (higher) rates and grateful for our paltry little mortgage exemptions.
I may watch a few minutes of the debate, but I’m likely to get really angry and go watch another episode of The Repair Shop, my current zen jam.
When my grandparents died, the remaining four children argued about who was going to get what, but they had valuable things. My mom mostly has junk, and it’s just me. It’s gonna be the dumpster for almost everything, and I’ll be happy if I can find anyone who will take her silver-rimmed china and crystal. Her sterling silver may be worth more as a melt-down.
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diane said on September 28, 2020 at 9:41 am
I will not be watching the debate. I watched the primary debates avidly because I wanted to see the candidates and figure out who to vote for. I know who I am voting for now and nothing could happen on that stage to change my mind. Biden could drop dead of a heart attack and I would vote for his dead body (and he was my last choice among the entire cast of characters in the primary show). I think it might be painful to watch Biden; Trump supporters will crow that Trump “won” no matter what and I just want the whole thing to be over. To paraphrase something I saw on Twitter, just wake me up on Nov. 4, 2020 or Jan 21, 2024, depending.
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Icarus said on September 28, 2020 at 9:41 am
Peter @ 2: Exactly. As I commented on several of my friends who shared the story on FB:
Doesn’t matter. His following will spin it as “he’s smart and savvy enough to optimize* his tax return”
* they don’t really know what that word means though
On the last thread we talked about decluttering after a packrat relative passes (or even just a normal life’s worth of acquisition). I remember when I was a 20 something getting my first apartment, I would have taken any piece of furniture and even a china set (though a non fancy one was given to me by a relative).
Somethings no one wants (knick-knacks, Chachkies, etc). Somethings you can get a buck for (I got a lot of interest in our barrister bookcase on FB Marketplace) and some items you can give away for free to avoid the landfill.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on September 28, 2020 at 10:01 am
This whole thread was an interesting scaffolding atop the NYT story, which results in a fairly well grounded estimate of over $1 BILLION in debt, almost all due between now and 2025.
https://twitter.com/DanAlexander21/status/1310369495454801920
Of course, if Trump has about $200 million in actual net income per year over the next five, that’s just doing business, and he will come out just fine. So the questions of where and how he’s actually making money are of key significance. Because it looks like he nets about $30M tops most years in the last ten.
The Ivanka consultant deal could be very bad news . . . for HER. You can’t be salaried staff AND get a deductible consultant contract. And the Chicago Trump Tower and other related instruments is looking very shaky. I was downtown in 2009 when copters were putting the top spire on that blech of a building, and thought “how long before it gets a different name?” Of course, 11 years later, it still says Trump even if it’s a third empty. Could soon be the What-You-Talkin-Bout-Willis Tower, though.
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Jeff Borden said on September 28, 2020 at 10:18 am
It took awhile to work my way through the tRump tax story, but it is solidly reported and largely understandable even to a financial nincompoop like me. He’s a terrible, repugnant, despicable person who plays everyone for a sucker.
What’s more appalling is how our tax laws have been written to advantage assholes like tRump, wealthy corporations, etc. They have scores of ways to avoid, reduce or eliminate their taxes legally. Individual taxpayers have no such recourse. We received a bill last year for an error in our 2015 filings –prepared by a professional– so I wrote a check for a little under $300 including interest on the debt.
Debates? I’ve known who I was going to vote against in 2020 since election night 2016. Nothing will change my mind. The cancer that is tRump and the GOP must be removed. Period.
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Dorothy C Michalski said on September 28, 2020 at 10:47 am
Me too, Jeff Borden. I’ve known who I was going to vote for in 2020 as well. But I’m hoping for a really awful performance by Trump, one where he humiliates himself. A bonus would be if he pees or shits his pants and has to run off stage. We won’t see it, of course, if he stays behind the podium. But maybe a camera angled from the side might catch it!
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Suzanne said on September 28, 2020 at 11:00 am
If I watch the debate, it’ll only be to see for myself so I can counter all the social media posts that will come about his inability to string a few coherent words together because of his extreme dementia.
Or, I may follow a few select people on Twitter, who will give a blow by blow.
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Suzanne said on September 28, 2020 at 11:30 am
Also, if you think COVID will ever stop being a problem, I just had an interaction with a local attorney, who assured me that COVID is no worse than the flu, makes you sick for a few days, and then you get over it, those that die are people with comorbidities, diabetics, people with lung issues, the elderly etc. so the rest of us don’t have to worry about it any more than we have to worry about the flu.
In other words, you people who have any kind of chronic disease problems or are old can just go off and die already. I’d bet money she’s pro-lifer, too.
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Sherri said on September 28, 2020 at 11:38 am
Watching the debates would just make me madder than I already am. Why would I torture myself?
It seems very likely to me that in order to get the loans he has and in order to claim the losses he has for tax purposes, he has probably lied on one or the other, and probably both. I’m sure his supporters would say that all real estate developers commit bank fraud and tax evasion, but frankly, I don’t care about his supporters. They’ve made clear who they are, and they are deplorable.
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Peter said on September 28, 2020 at 11:41 am
Suzanne, people like that attorney should be placed on a rocket and shot towards the sun.
Last month I had my six month heart test. My doctor told me that the hospital we use, one of the largest in Chicago (over 1000 beds), at one point had two thirds of their patients in for COVID. He said his brother is a physician in NYC – the stories his brother told him kept him up at night.
His advice? Do everything you can to avoid getting COVID. It is NOT like the flu. It WILL leave you with lasting effects and probably disabilities.
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Julie Robinson said on September 28, 2020 at 12:20 pm
Peter, I’ve been reading a lot about heart damage too. I’m pretty sure my mom and I had Covid right after Christmas, when we each had a cold from hell with attendant coughing and muscle aches for close to six weeks. She now has a very low heart rate and adjusting meds haven’t helped her so far. Tomorrow she’s getting a full heart workup, one that lasts six hours with all the different tests they run, to see if there’s damage. Of course, she’s 88, so it could just be aging. It may be a difficult day.
Suzanne, Indiana University is going to require everyone on campus to get a flu shot, and unbelievably people are griping about that too. We got ours last week and were happy to have them. The nurse did tell us that more people are getting them, and earlier, than in past years, and they’re having trouble fitting everyone in.
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Connie said on September 28, 2020 at 12:21 pm
I wish I could show you a picture of my neighbor’s sign.
STD
Stop the Donald 2020
Don’t let the infection spread
Actually I can give you a link. Love the hair
https://stddonald.com/shop/
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JodiP said on September 28, 2020 at 12:23 pm
I just got out of a team meeting in which we had one of our epidemiology folks speak. (I work for a county) I asked about the latest news on the reliability of serum testing and immunity once exposed. Crap news on both fronts: no good serum test (which I was pretty sure was the case) and with immunity: not a lot of data right now and the best estimate is 90 days of immunity, which is devastating. We need to stop talk of herd immunity with this disease until more is known. The presenter stated that this means even if you’ve had COVID, mask up and stay away from people.
I am staying away from the debate. As this situation has gone on, I am finding I need to expose myself less to the news. Hearing Trump lie for however long is not good for my mental health. I am also finding that I really want to work elsewhere than at home, partly because I don’t have the choice not to. I am a social person, so really miss that part of work, too.
Fortunately, I had a lovely weekend: safe get togethers with friends, a bike ride and gardening. Also: tulip and daffodil bulbs on their way for planting!
Dexter, I thought about you and your family a lot over the weekend as well.
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Jakash said on September 28, 2020 at 12:44 pm
I’ll second most of Diane’s comment. Like the debate could possibly make any difference to anyone with a lick of sense and decency.
I’d like to see Biden clean his clock, but I don’t believe it *can* be cleaned in a forum like that, and if it can, I sincerely doubt that Joe is the man to do it. When the baseline is that he’ll unrepentantly lie at any time to suit his purposes, and that any fact that he doesn’t like is “fake news,” there’s only so much one can do.
That being said, I think he figured all along that this tax information would come out. When Hillary was debating him and nailed him about not paying taxes, his first interjection was not to lie about it, but to say that it showed he was smart.
I understand his supporters not wanting to pay any more taxes than they have to. I don’t understand how they think we can have a government, or, oh let’s say ROADS as an example, or our top-gun military, if NOBODY pays any taxes. How much sense do you need to have to realize that, if immoral, fat-cat millionaires with teams of lawyers pay nothing in taxes, regular blue-collar folks with no lawyers wind up having to pay more?
JodiP: “As this situation has gone on, I am finding I need to expose myself less to the news.” Big thumbs up. I’ve largely checked out since Ginsburg died. I did the same in 2012, after Obama under-performed in the first debate, and it worked out well that time!
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David C said on September 28, 2020 at 1:14 pm
It sounds like Covid cases are exploding here in Wisconsin and especially in our county. Oddly enough, the Oshkosh prison which houses 2000 inmates with a capacity of only 1500 is safer than the University. Probably because the warden is a woman.
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Jeff Borden said on September 28, 2020 at 1:26 pm
I recently learned that a young couple I’m friends with are anti-vaxxers –I mentioned I was getting a shingles vaccine at my physical Wednesday– who believe in herd immunity. They think the governor of Florida is a genius for opening up the Sunshine State while all the other states are keeping things tight, framing it as away for Florida to make a bundle while other timid states lose a fortune. I just can’t. . .
What are you folks thinking about the holidays? I know there is going to be a lot of pressure on my at-risk wife and me to engage in the usual Thanksgiving and Christmas family gatherings, but we’re extremely wary, especially with models predicting a skyrocketing return of the virus combined with the flu this fall. (We had a tapas-style dinner with friends on their patio Saturday night, wearing our masks except when eating. It was the first meal we’ve enjoyed with others since February.) How am I going to convince my sibling that this is just a bridge too far for us without igniting a firestorm?
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Julie Robinson said on September 28, 2020 at 1:29 pm
One more comment on cleaning out possessions, from the business coach Daneen Skube, as printed in the morning paper: “Things you hold onto but never use are placeholders for a time you haven’t digested or let go of. The reason these items are so hard to go through is they stir up your unfinished past. Sorting through these physical things mean you have to get present with your present. Then you can see who you were and who you are and only keep what is useful to your current self”.
For myself, for the hoarders I’ve known, this absolutely nails it.
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LAMary said on September 28, 2020 at 1:45 pm
My ex had a lot of heirlooms. His great grandfather was involved in the creation and production of Lotus Ware in East Liverpool. The maternal side of the family had lots of silverware and china and the ex being the only child of two only children got it all. 99% of it was kind of ugly. When he moved out he took most of it. He sort of forgot the rest.I was more than happy to liquidate what he left. Paid the mortgage for two months with one of the sets of silverware.
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Suzanne said on September 28, 2020 at 2:01 pm
Julie, that is absolutely it! I tend to hold on to things and that’s why. For example, I was cleaning out closets during the lockdown, but there is this little blue coat our daughter wore when she was about 5 and I couldn’t part with it! It’s such a connection to a time past, when I can see her with her blond, blond hair and blue eyes walking around in this powder blue coat. Totally irrational, I know. But I can’t bring myself to putting it in the Goodwill bag and moving it on.
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Sherri said on September 28, 2020 at 2:14 pm
The only thing in my parents house that I want when they’re gone is a quilt that was made by someone who was more of a grandmother to me than one of my grandmothers was (she was also more of a mother to my dad than his mother was, and she was my third grade teacher.) She and her husband lost their only child at age six, and were close neighbors to my dad, and more or less adopted my dad. It’s a beautiful quilt and she meant a lot to me. I already have a quilt from my mother’s mother.
The rest of the stuff, I don’t care about. If my brother wants it, he can have it. My parents and my brother and I had this conversation a year ago, and we’re all clear on what’s going to happen when they’re gone. My parents have had to deal with cleaning up the messes of their parents, and siblings behaving badly, and wanted things clear, and so summoned both of us home last year to go over everything.
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Connie said on September 28, 2020 at 2:16 pm
I find myself unable to throw out the clothes I made for my daughter when she was little.
My husband will be up in Flint tomorrow to do more sorting of their mothers stuff with his two sisters. Where are his two brothers you ask?
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Jeff Borden said on September 28, 2020 at 2:43 pm
The major takeaway for me of the NYT expose of tRump’s finances is that the motherfucker ran for preznit because his revenue stream from “The Apprentice” was running out and he needed to boost his so-called brand. This fucking country…
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Dorothy said on September 28, 2020 at 2:57 pm
Jeff @ 28: My daughter and her partner are coming Tuesday or Wednesday of Thanksgiving week, staying at our house. They both work from home and have done so since April. The only other bodies coming for Thanksgiving are 3 – my son, his wife and their daughter. Tell your sibling that this year there will have to be sacrifices. No one wants to do it this way (stay apart) but if we all want to have more get togethers in the future, we have to separate now. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. For many years if we had fewer than 30 at the dinner table that was unthinkable. But I moved away from Pittsburgh 18 years ago and little by little I got used to (but not happy about) smaller gatherings. It will bother me that we can’t have more family around but it’s just one year. Instead of thinking about it as a pandemic, if we think about it as being a blizzard and being homebound, maybe it’ll be easier.
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Julie Robinson said on September 28, 2020 at 4:55 pm
Oh, I have a little coat saved too, and two quilts from my grandma and great great aunt, and an oil painting as well as a few larger family photos in beautiful frames. When we were moving to the apartment we took a lot of pictures and scanned papers, and if the kids don’t want the drive they’re on, well, I’ll be gone.
Our reality is that five people and four animals are going to live in a 1300 sf home with a 700 sf addition, one car garage and no basement or attic. We tried to put up a shed last year and the city wouldn’t approve it. The stuff has to go.
Right now we’re planning to go to Orlando for Christmas but I suppose it might not happen. The only family member with a large enough home for Thanksgiving is fairly paranoid about health so I doubt that will happen either. It does feel like Thanksgiving should be a big gathering, instead of only two or three people, so that will make me sad. But of course, not as sad as burying a family member.
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Sherri said on September 28, 2020 at 6:01 pm
We haven’t done Thanksgiving with family for years, since we live so far away, but we’ve done it with three other families for twenty years or so now, so it’s like family. Our kids have grown up and now contribute to the feast. Alas, it seems unlikely that we will be gathering this year.
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Dave said on September 28, 2020 at 7:42 pm
How did I write a post a few hours ago, post it, saw that it was posted, and now it’s disappeared? Just wondering.
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Deborah said on September 28, 2020 at 8:49 pm
We’re going back to NM (driving) for Thanksgiving to spend it with LB where we’ll stay through New Years and then who knows.
I made 2 trips to the Apple Store today, the big, beautiful, relatively new one on Mich Ave next to the river. I got my iPhone camera fixed, it turned out not to be broken from spraying it with alcohol. I also got my laptop fixed all my files are not lost, as I had worried about and I’m about to back everything up tomorrow onto our external drive. Learned my lesson. It also cost way less than I expected.
Wow, the Brad Parscale story escalated.
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basset said on September 28, 2020 at 9:41 pm
Just be happy that you have family to get all crowded with. Not gonna bore you with my whole story, I will say that big family gatherings were not part of it until I connected with Mrs. B. Not many relics either, but I do have a three-notch Lodge iron frying pan from my grandmother which lives on top of the stove and sees almost daily use.
Shameless self-promotion for a minute… did some Civil War video that’s gonna be on Outdoor Channel Wednesday night, more on that if anyone shows any interest.
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Heather said on September 28, 2020 at 11:08 pm
Re: the holidays, no family gatherings for me, as depressing as that is. Just too dangerous. I’m probably going to be spending the holidays home alone. A friend and I were thinking about renting a place in Wisconsin or Michigan for one of the holidays–we both live alone, work from home, etc., so we feel pretty safe with each other, whereas with my family, the kids are all running around, etc. But she got a stress fracture in her leg about a month ago, so I’m not sure she’ll be up for it or want to spend the money.
With Trump I think the big story is not necessarily how little he paid in taxes, but how much he is in debt. Talk about a security risk.
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LAMary said on September 29, 2020 at 12:00 am
He actually wanted Ivanka to be his running mate in 2016. Can you imagine her sitting there presiding over the Senate? Holding a pen?
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Dorothy said on September 29, 2020 at 7:08 am
Basset I just scrolled through all the channels we have on DirecTV but didn’t see an Outdoor Channel. Where would I be able to see that if I don’t have that channel available on my cable list?
Last night was another family zoom at 7 PM but usually it’s just 6 or 7 of us. Last night it was five: me, youngest sister, and my three older brothers. The boys told some stories I had never heard before. I thought I had heard all the tales. Joe (5 years older than me) said one time my dad was given two tickets to opening day of the Pirates game. He worked for the Post Office so maybe there was a raffle or something. Joe went to school in the morning and then had a note to leave at lunch time and head home to eat lunch and get ready to go to the game. We didn’t have a car so they took the street car. He said our Mum talked to him before Dad was in the room and said “Now you know he won’t have any money to buy you any treats. So don’t embarrass him by asking for anything. You can sit through the game without buying anything to eat or drink.” Of course she meant popcorn, hotdog, soft drink. I knew money was tight but boy, did that ever bring it home. This was probably 1962 or so – Joe would have been 10 perhaps. I can only remember one time my dad taking me to something where it was just me and no siblings. We went to the movies to see Mary Poppins. It felt magical.
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Deborah said on September 29, 2020 at 7:42 am
I for one will be watching the debate tonight if it occurs, and by that I mean that I’ll be kinda surprised if Trump shows up. I expect to see Biden mop up the floor with Trump. I’m sure that Biden’s team has coached him what to do when Trump encroaches on his physical space which he will undoubtedly try to do, as he did with Hillary. Trump will try to intimidate by name calling and interrupting and every other bully tactic there is to try to make Biden look wimpish. Trump’s deplorable base will eat it up as usual. I think Biden will use humor and intellect and maybe get a few digs in to rile and rattle Trump. I won’t miss it. Except I have to find out what time it starts CDT.
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basset said on September 29, 2020 at 8:12 am
Not gonna watch at our house, don’t think we could stand it. May go with our usual weeknight Andy Griffith and Gomer Pyle on MeTV.
Dorothy, that video will probably go onto YouTube at some point, that’s probably the easiest option.
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Julie Robinson said on September 29, 2020 at 8:17 am
bassett, we don’t have cable at all but if it’s ever on any of the streaming services, we have a bunch of those.
VP Ivanka…hilarious, except it shows how his mind works.
Dorothy, my dad had a prestigious in name only position, and he got all kinds of free tickets. Without being told, we knew to never ask for food, drinks, or souvenirs. And we turned out just fine!
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Dorothy said on September 29, 2020 at 9:01 am
We all turned out okay, too, Julie. I’m the only one of the 10 kids who doesn’t have a college degree. I just didn’t want to go to college when I was 18 but now it’s my main regret in life. But it’s not the end of the world. I have other accomplishments to be proud of, and that’s enough for me.
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Mark P said on September 29, 2020 at 9:01 am
Anyone with Trump’s financial situation would almost certainly never be given a security clearance. He’s at too high a risk of being compromised, and that’s not just snark. His finances are a textbook example of the kinds of things that security clearance holders are told to report to their security office if they see it in another cleared person.
My wife and I haven’t had a family Thanksgiving for years. Everyone is dead or off doing their own thing. For the last few years we went to a restaurant on Thanksgiving. It’s closed for good now. We’ll probably have frozen dinners.
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Peter said on September 29, 2020 at 9:01 am
As usual, I fixate on the little things, and something bothered me about the $70,000 for Fearless Leader’s hair styling on The Apprentice, and it hit me when a tax attorney said something about it.
He stated that if you spent money getting makeup on for a guest appearance, then wash it off when the show is over, that’s tax deductible, but you can’t do that for a haircut, because the benefits of that haircut last longer than the interview.
And that’s where it hit me – of course HE didn’t pay for that haircut – that comes out of the show’s budget, just like the buffet table and the bottled water. Even if you’re a producer of the show, or part of the network or ownership, you can’t use that as a deduction – it’s expensed against the show’s budget. I don’t think you can even bring in your own hairdresser and pay for that person out of your own pocket and deduct it – there’s precedent on that. That’s one reason concert riders seem so strange (green M&M’s only..) items like that are expensed against concert revenue to reduce the overall profit of the event for tax purposes.
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Suzanne said on September 29, 2020 at 9:06 am
This is quite interesting.
“He will impose his will upon everyone, whether everyone is telling him he’s wrong, whether someone tells him these things called facts that are going to get in the way and he shouldn’t say it, he doesn’t care. Donald Trump believes what Donald Trump believes. And he really, truly believes that given the chance, he can convince anyone of anything and that they will listen to him.”
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/interview/surya-yalamanchili/
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Jim said on September 29, 2020 at 9:20 am
basset: I’m seeing lots of bow hunting shows Wednesday. And Ted Nugget. I’ll be happy to watch if you drop a crumb for me to follow.
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diane said on September 29, 2020 at 9:51 am
Suzanne, that sounds exactly right. And why wouldn’t he think that? He has never succeeded at an enterprise in his life and here he is, president of the United States. He really is the GOAT grifter. Only now the cost is in people’s lives and a Democracy itself.
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Brian stouder said on September 29, 2020 at 10:08 am
Basset – I’ll be looking for it! Were you at a battlefield?
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LAMary said on September 29, 2020 at 10:26 am
Of course the show did his hair. Even game show contestants get some makeup and hair services, so of course the donald would. Especially the donald. I imagine his contract required all sorts of services be provided.
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LAMary said on September 29, 2020 at 10:40 am
Sarah Palin makes a video.
https://tinyurl.com/y2pmy3mt
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basset said on September 29, 2020 at 11:40 am
Brian, we were… Stones River near Nashville. I don’t appear in it, wrote and produced the stories. Short version: Confederate soldier loses his rifle during a huge battle, metal detector guy finds it in the river in 2019 (still capped and loaded!), we get into who carried it, what happened to him, how the gun came from England on a blockade runner, how relic hunters are looking for more.
The show is “Shooting USA,” 8 Central tomorrow night on Outdoor Channel… repeats at 11 and at 2 pm Thursday. Our part starts about 27 minutes in.
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basset said on September 29, 2020 at 12:53 pm
Another reason for green M&Ms and so forth: a music business accountant told me about a client, wouldn’t say who, whose performance contract required diet Evian water. Promoters sometimes would chase all over trying to find it and finally tell the client they couldn’t locate any, to which the response would be something like “that’s fine, it doesn’t exist, we just put that in there so we’d know you read the whole contract.”
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Julie Robinson said on September 29, 2020 at 1:06 pm
All sorts of services…hahaha.
I can’t get the video to load, very poor connectivity here at the Heart Institute. Mother’s doing well so far and has requested ice cream on the way home. It just so happens there’s a Culver’s close by, so I can easily indulge her.
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Suzanne said on September 29, 2020 at 1:49 pm
This one is good, too.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/interview/anthony-scaramucci-2/
“There are new waves coming in, new political waves coming in. He is not the right surfer for these waves, and those waves are going to take him out, they’re going to annihilate him.”
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Brian stouder said on September 29, 2020 at 2:58 pm
When my lovely wife and I were married, we went to Nashville for our honeymoon, and later I dragged her off to Shiloh – which is a beautiful (and terrible) place…as are most such places. Or as our current president might say, there were LOTS and lots of ‘suckers and losers’ in the 1860’s, indeed
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alex said on September 29, 2020 at 3:10 pm
Diet Evian Water. Sounds like the kind of poison pills we were supposed to watch out for when I was writing for one particular travel publisher. They were too cheap to send us traveling to write about travel, so we rewrote content from other travel guides but had to cover our tracks by fact-checking the minutest of details lest we get busted.
Basset, that segment sounds fascinating but we are limited to broadcast channels these days. If there’s a way to watch on the internet I’d be eager to check it out.
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basset said on September 29, 2020 at 5:44 pm
Not sure if it’s going onto YouTube or not, should know before long.
CW sites are all over the place here, Tennessee had more battles than any state except Virginia.
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LAMary said on September 29, 2020 at 8:18 pm
There were three things I wanted from our house when my dad died: a quilt my great aunt made for me, a cocoa set that was my great grandmothers, and a set of china my mother had hand painted. The cocoa set and china were in boxed marked “for Mary.” The quilt was in my room. A brother who has a reputation for ripping the rest of us off took all three of those things. He was not the brother who inherited the house and its contents. None of the things he took from me were valuable to anyone but me. It’s been nearly fifty years and I’m still pissed.
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alex said on September 29, 2020 at 8:56 pm
The ABC pre-game show is so fucking repulsive I’m almost ready to skip the game. Lamestream media indeed.
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Mark P said on September 29, 2020 at 9:56 pm
We managed to watch 50 minutes of the “debate”. Trump was his usual self, which means a disgusting, psychopathic loudmouth spewing lies and bullshit, all the while talking over Biden. It was so frustrating we couldn’t watch any more. If I were Biden I would refuse any more debates unless they put Trump in a soundproof cage. Nancy Pelosi was right.
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alex said on September 29, 2020 at 10:10 pm
I said a long time ago that subjecting oneself to a “debate” with that psychopath would be a fool’s errand and it is. I don’t think it would cost Biden any support if he refused to engage further. Kudos to Chris Wallace for calling him out for lying and being an asshole.
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Jeff Borden said on September 29, 2020 at 10:35 pm
I’ve been embarrassed by my country before. Tonight, I’m ashamed. As Pogo said some 50 years ago, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”
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Deborah said on September 29, 2020 at 10:46 pm
It was way, way worse than I thought it would be. I had to get up and go in the kitchen and pour myself some straight gin so I could watch the rest of it. The only thing Trump didn’t do that I expected is that he didn’t physically intrude on Biden’s space. It was awful.
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dexter said on September 29, 2020 at 10:51 pm
Absolutely horrible shit show. Disgusting, bullying by loudmouth Trump. If you didn’t hate Trump before and watched, you should now. How did we ever get here? Future 2020 debates should be cancelled. Trump said he won’t accept election results and told the Proud Boys to “stand by “. Chaos awaits. It was awful.
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Dave said on September 29, 2020 at 11:06 pm
That was terrible but the most upsetting thing is that we know there’s people right now talking about how he really showed that Biden. We’re at such a low point in our history.
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LAMary said on September 29, 2020 at 11:35 pm
The Proud Boys and their like are standing back and standing by. Is that disgusting enough?Jeez.
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Peter said on September 29, 2020 at 11:50 pm
As a client of mine would say after a contentious meeting, well that was a something.
Let’s just say this wasn’t Chris Wallace’s finest moment, although there were times he was trying to put the toothpaste back in the tube.
I was disappointed in Biden during the first part of the debate. I think Warren, Harris, even Klobuchar would have handled the crybaby better. I think at times Biden looked very pale and uncomfortable. But I did notice as the debate went on, that when Trump and Wallace would argue over the rules, Biden would turn to the camera, give a look like “can you believe this crap?”, and speak directly to the audience. I think that was a really smart move.
Deborah, I’m surprised you went into the kitchen to get a drink during the debate. We had ours on the coffee table ready to pour into plastic cups so we wouldn’t break the TV when we threw them.
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Sherri said on September 30, 2020 at 1:35 am
What is the point of the debates? Does anyone really learn anything from them? I didn’t watch tonight, but I was grossed out by the commercials for the debate that I saw. The commercials were more appropriate for a MMA fight than a presidential debate.
It’s just more horse race fodder, and we don’t need more of that. Sure, trump refused to denounce white supremacy, but how many more times are we going to be shocked that he refuses to denounce white supremacy? He’s been asked to before and refused.
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Dexter Friend said on September 30, 2020 at 2:01 am
I have always watched all the Presidential debates starting in 1960 when I was a wee laddie.
Robert Gates said “the commission” must now take charge and if the two future debates go forth, rigid , changed rules must be enforced. Brian Williams joked of a mic kill-switch; Gates laughed but said , well, after last night, it might be a good idea. Trump is just deranged, again dissing Beau Biden, saying “you mean Hunter? I don’t know Beau, I know of Hunter.” Biden was enraged but kept cool enough to carry on.
Robert Costa of WaPo said his Republican confidants are scared Trump will lose in a Goldwater massive landslide. I think so too but none of my correspondents do. 🙂
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Deborah said on September 30, 2020 at 3:13 am
Twitter was aghast last night. I’m finding it hard to sleep. If somehow Trump manages to get re-elected I’ll be a mess. So much death and divisiveness, it’s so depressing.
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Dorothy said on September 30, 2020 at 5:43 am
9:47 pm – i just randomly hit buttons to get to another channel instead of throwing the remote at the television. I had already yelled and swore loudly enough that Nestle jumped down off the bed and slunk out of the room. Poor puppy. Around 10 pm I took a melatonin and shut off the t.v. Maybe Trump’s behavior will give Democratic senators ammunition to shut down the SCOTUS nominee – I’ll pin my hopes to that premise. But God almighty he was even worse than I thought he would be and that’s saying something. When you have zero expectations and then you see that, well it was enough to underscore my hope that Biden will win in a landslide, and I can go to bed on November 3 at 10:30 knowing hope is once again ours.
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Suzanne said on September 30, 2020 at 7:40 am
I watched to the bitter end. I drank all the scotch I had, which wasn’t enough. I thought Biden did ok considering that he was constantly interrupted by a raging bull. I think many people cheered when he finally told Trump to just shut up.
Chris Wallace ruined whatever bit of a career he still had. There was circular activity seen underground at Mike Wallace’s grave. But Trump was never going to listen to him, never going to follow debate rules, never not going to give the Proud Boys the green light or denigrate Biden’s dead son. He doesn’t have it in him.
Compare him to Hitler, and his followers strongly object. Tell them that Hitler was duly elected in Germany, and they stare with silent surprise. But reject him? No, they won’t.
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Deborah said on September 30, 2020 at 8:24 am
I kept wondering if Amy Coney Barrett was watching with her 7 children. You’d think she’d be humiliated to be nominated by such a horrible man, you’d think she’d refuse to be a part of that chaos, confusion and corruption. She will forever after be associated with that monster if she gets the job, even more so than Kavanaugh or Gorsuch because Trump has clearly, beyond a doubt revealed who he is.
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