Wednesday Open Thread

12 thoughts on “Wednesday Open Thread”

1. Morning.

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   1. Garrulous bastard.

       

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2. State Rep. Adrienne Benavidez of Adams County just became the latest to resign, barely in advance of the new session. She'll be replaced by her district's vacancy committee, not very many people compared to the 16,000-ish who voted in her mid-term general elections. Too bad, because she was a dedicated and detail-oriented legislator.

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   1. But not dedicated enough to stay after losing out on the speakership.  If I were a constituent, I would be royally pissed

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      1. I guess quitting when you don't get your way is better than what others have been known to do.

         She didn't throw her hands in the air screaming, 'STOP THE STEAL," and then insist that she was lawfully elected to be speaker of the House.

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         1. I think MC Hammer once wanted to say "It's Legit 2 Quit," but shuffled the mad rhyme in a more positive way. But should Benavidez' constituents have had a chance to know she'd quit if she didn't win Speaker? Should they have known before the election that they'd possibly wind up with a very different rep in Lorena Garcia? Both rhetorical questions, of course.

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3. Like one of the presenters of this video, I, too, have a favorite food: the cheeseburger.  That said, we can't ignore math.  If we're going to solve this western water crisis in the short term there is but one place we need to focus: agriculture.  Practices like rotational fallowing and deploying world-class irrigation technology can get us through this transitional period.  

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   1. I keep seeing the figure that 85% of water usage in the Colorado Basin is agriculture. (Not sure if that refers only to the lower-basin states). So, let's just cut 33-50% across the board… I think there are legal issues working against that.

      The problem is the huge issue of senior vs junior rights. I finally saw a journalist mention that agricultural interests own a lot of the senior rights. Does that mean that 50% cuts would come 100% from junior water rights, perhaps owned by cities?

      I mean, I think the rivers themselves should have the most senior rights… they should never run dry like the Rio Grande does in Southern New Mexico.

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4. Hey, let's talk taxes!  Here are two items proving ordinary Americans (i.e., not wealthy) are suckers when it comes to paying taxes.

   1) Chump's just released taxes uncover the benefits of being rich and the incompetence (corruption?) of the IRS.  Chump received a $916 Million tax loss in 1995 on losses that he wasn't even personally liable for (called "nonrecourse debt").  According to a friend who worked for a boutique Denver CPA firm that advised Chump, he took advantage of a supposedly legal loophole allowing him to claim those losses.  Those losses were carried forward which is probably why he showed tax losses as late as 2020.  I say a supposedly legal loophole, but don't know if it was ever audited by the IRS.  Hmm.

   Then, it's been disclosed that the IRS was "dormant" re: auditing his returns while he was president.  Once the House committee asked the IRS for his returns they immediately started an audit — by assigning one IRS agent.  Included in the just released returns are items like huge conservation easement deductions, and several sole proprietorships that reported lots of expenses and no revenue.  All IRS audit flags for, you know, ordinary Americans.  Hmm.

   In the meantime, FBI director James Comey and his deputy Andrew McCabe were somehow selected for incredibly intensive IRS National Research Program audits that are supposed to be randomly selected for statistical purposes.  Only 5,000 – 8,000 of these are conducted every year out of hundreds of millions filed returns.  Both individuals were highly critical of Chump.  Hmm.

   2) Beyond Chump's special treatment, taxpayers who own an S Corp or a partnership receive unbelievable tax breaks not available to, you know, ordinary Americans.  Recent boondoggles included the PPP tax free income program and the Employee Retention Credits.  Both were helpful for businesses that were truly affected by the pandemic, but the criteria were so loose that virtually any business could qualify.  (e.g., a 20% reduction in revenue for one quarter in 2021 compared to 2019 triggered up to $21,000 cash credits for each employee.  Sweet.)

   But the latest benefit for business owners started this year.  Because they were upset that state and local income taxes (SALT) were capped at $10,000 for itemized deductions, the wealthy came up with this workaround.  Now, they are able to have their entities pay the state income taxes on their business income and have it deducted from federal taxable income.  This is unprecedented.  And, wouldn't you know it, it had strongly bipartisan support.  In fact, CO is the first (and only) state to allow business owners to amend 2020 and 2021 tax returns to take advantage of this sleazy break.

   Bottom line: I pity the person who doesn't own an S Corp or partnership because you are being played for a chump.  And, it will continue indefinitely because no politician of any party wants to piss off their wealthy supporters.

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   1. I believe he claimed all of the bond holder losses from the Taj Mahal for himself with tax loophole that lets unequal distributions to be made from an LLC / partnership arrangement.   Wilbur Ross saved his ass on that deal – and went on to become Fat Donnie's SecComm.

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5. Dafuq?  BoBo stays seated while the chamber rose to applaud Zelenskyy?? 

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   1. She seems to want to convey she's on Putin's side of the war . . . Matt Gaetz, too. Someone might want to dig into this a bit.

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