The biggest loser

[hudebnik]

I was just saying to myself while walking the dogs this morning, "Calling Donald Trump a liar doesn't bother him, because he doesn't see anything shameful in being a liar. Calling him a cheater doesn't bother him, because he doesn't see anything shameful in being a cheater. Calling him a pussy-hound doesn't bother him, because he doesn't see anything shameful in being a pussy-hound. The only thing you could call him that would embarrass him is 'loser'."

Half an hour later, I read this: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/05/07/us/politics/donald-trump-taxes.html

<GalaxyQuest>It's the little things you treasure...</GalaxyQuest>

Comments

[conuly]

None of that is really news, of course.

[hudebnik]

Well, not the general principle that he's taken every conceivable opportunity over the years to avoid paying taxes -- we knew that. This just provides some details: that over a ten-year period, he reported a negative AGI almost every year, usually measured in tens or hundreds of millions of dollars, even while earning $52 million in interest one year and $69 million in salary another year. It means at least one of three things happened: (1) he massively understated his net income year after year to avoid paying taxes; (2) somebody massively subsidized his losses year after year, and presumably owns his soul; or (3) he managed to foist all of the actual losses on his investors while claiming them on his personal tax returns, in which case one wonders whether the investors ALSO claimed enormous business losses at the same time.

New York Magazine says it's probably #3, using a tax loophole that was closed in 2002.

[conuly]

You think he has a soul?

[siderea]

No. Poor Putin, bought a pig in a poke.

[conuly]

And he got a pig, so he's got nothing to complain about!