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United States Congress of Fail (Part 3)


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"John McCain flattens Fox News reporter: ‘Why would you ask something that dumb?’"

Spoiler

Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy is doubtless well-studied on the tensions between President Trump and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

In a Monday night speech in Philadelphia, McCain said, “To fear the world we have organized and led for three-quarters of a century, to abandon the ideals we have advanced around the globe, to refuse the obligations of international leadership and our duty to remain ‘the last best hope of Earth’ for the sake of some half-baked, spurious nationalism cooked up by people who would rather find scapegoats than solve problems, is as unpatriotic as an attachment to any other tired dogma of the past that Americans consigned to the ash heap of history.”

There was no direct mention of Trump, but there didn’t need to be. In a radio interview, Trump made clear his history of fighting back. “And it won’t be pretty,” he said.

The enmity goes at least as far back as July 2015, when then-candidate Trump said of McCain’s Vietnam service, “He’s not a war hero. He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.” The senator broke ranks with Trump in October 2016, following the release of the “Access Hollywood” tape in which Trump talked about sexually assaulting women. “Donald Trump’s behavior this week, concluding with the disclosure of his demeaning comments about women and his boasts about sexual assaults, make it impossible to continue to offer even conditional support for his candidacy,” said McCain.

McCain cast a pivotal vote against an Obamacare repeal bill in the Senate in late July, frustrating Trump.

Perhaps in light of all this, Doocy asked McCain in a reporters’ scrum: “Has your relationship with the president frayed to the point that you are not going to support anything that he comes to you and asks for?”

McCain bristled at the implication: “Why would you say something that stupid? Why would you ask something that dumb? Huh? My job as a United States senator, is a senator from Arizona, which I was just reelected to. You mean that I am somehow going to behave in a way that I’m going to block everything because of some personal disagreement? That’s a dumb question.”

Indeed it was. The supposition in Doocy’s question, after all, is that McCain’s tensions with the president are the fault and responsibility of the senator. As if McCain were the unreasonable one, and not the fellow who had the audacity to slime a man who spent more than five years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam. As if McCain were the intemperate one, and not the fellow who can’t think or talk straight about policy.

In other words, Doocy was channeling the sentiment that prevails on various Fox News opinion shows, including “Fox & Friends” and “Hannity.”

I don't always agree with McCain, but he can certainly make himself understood.

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31 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

"John McCain flattens Fox News reporter: ‘Why would you ask something that dumb?’"

I don't always agree with McCain, but he can certainly make himself understood.

I generally like John McCain. I don't always agree with him on policy but for the most part I think he is doing the job he was elected for. I would have even considered voting for him when he ran for president if he didn't go off the deep end during that time period.

These days reasonable, moderate republicans are hard to find so it is nice to see that they do exist in politics (I do know several moderate republicans in real life, but the politicians seem to be mostly nut jobs).

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Sadly, I've been waiting for some Einstein to suggest this:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/gop-lawmaker-says-emergency-rooms-163051252.html

Quote

Rep. Diane Black (R-Tenn.) proposed on Friday that hospital emergency rooms should be able to turn patients away to help keep health care costs down.

I've put the link above the quote box so you can read the full article.

So, in their idea to devastate healthcare in the United States to even worse than pre-Obama levels, I'm waiting for some Republican to also come up with the idea that medical bills should be treated like student loans are, that is, not dischargeable in bankruptcy. 

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@Audrey2 -- I was just coming to post that article. I wanted to scream when I read it. Yeah, I can see one of them, probably Ted Cruz or Rand Paul, suggesting that medical bills not be dischargeable.

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16 hours ago, Audrey2 said:

Sadly, I've been waiting for some Einstein to suggest this:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/gop-lawmaker-says-emergency-rooms-163051252.html

I've put the link above the quote box so you can read the full article.

So, in their idea to devastate healthcare in the United States to even worse than pre-Obama levels, I'm waiting for some Republican to also come up with the idea that medical bills should be treated like student loans are, that is, not dischargeable in bankruptcy. 

This woman's just shit-stirring. The hospital I worked in did not, in fact, treat people with non-lift threatening emergencies in the emergency room. There was a separate clinic on the hospital grounds for people who needed treatment for such things. There was also a separate children's emergency room and a separate ED for suspected heart problems. I think any hospital in a urban area has a similar set-up.  If you came through the doors with a problem such as a sore throat, you were directed to the clinic.

Of course, it was well-known that you didn't want to be in the waiting room of the main ED at that hospital anyway, it was a very tense place.

As to whether a hospital should turn someone away because of insurance, that would seem to be a dangerous choice, legally.

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"Charity’s promised back pay to Roy Moore was not reported to IRS as income"

Spoiler

The Alabama charity once led by Senate candidate Roy Moore did not report to the Internal Revenue Service that in 2011 it guaranteed him $498,000 in back pay, according to an income report provided to The Washington Post by the charity itself.

Five tax law and accounting specialists said it appears the guaranteed payment should have been reported as compensation, a disclosure that would have triggered a federal tax bill of more than $100,000.

 Moore and his campaign have not responded to questions about whether he paid the taxes, or to requests that he release his income tax returns.

John Bentley, a board member and former chairman of the charity, the Foundation for Moral Law, said Moore once told him that he had sought advice on the financial arrangement from an accountant. Moore said he was told the compensation was not taxable until he cashed in on the promised back pay, Bentley said. Moore has not yet done so, he said. 

The tax issue is the latest in a series of questions over Moore’s financial ties to the Alabama charity where he worked after he was ousted from the state Supreme Court in 2003 for refusing to remove a Ten Commandments monument from a public building. Moore, 70, a Republican, is the front-runner in the race to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Moore served as president of the charity from 2007 to 2012, working 20 hours a week, tax filings show. The charity agreed to pay him a $180,000 annual salary in a deal that was not publicly disclosed until a news account by The Post last week. The group also said if it could not afford his full salary in a given year, it would make up for the shortfall when it was able to do so, documents show.

In 2011, the charity gave Moore promissory notes worth $498,000 for unpaid salary in previous years, backing them up with a second mortgage on the group’s historic building in Montgomery, Ala. The note entitles Moore to demand payment at any time or claim an equal stake in the building, which serves as the group’s headquarters.

David Walker, a tax law professor at Boston University, said IRS rules for compensation are complex. But he said that it appears Moore’s financial transaction with the charity became taxable the moment he was given the right to demand payment or foreclose on the group’s building.

“It’s a significant possibility,” Walker said.

Walker was one of five tax law and accounting specialists who reviewed IRS filings and other documents at The Post’s request.

Jane Searing, an accountant and nonprofit tax specialist in Washington state, said Moore did not have to be paid in cash to be taxed on the future proceeds. 

“Compensation can be anything. It can be chickens. It can be property. It can be cash,” Searing said. “It doesn’t make any sense to me why they’re not reporting it as taxable income.”

 In a statement issued to Alabama reporters last week, Moore’s campaign chairman, Bill Armistead, denounced The Post’s reporting and said the story on Moore’s compensation it published last week was distorted. He cited no specifics.

“The story was full of all of the same distortions and innuendos that characterized past political attacks on Judge Moore,” the statement said. “Voters in Alabama can see through the sleazy tactics of the Washington Post who are trying to discredit Judge Moore.”

The Foundation for Moral Law, now led by Moore’s wife, initially provided an array of documents in response to questions from The Post. Those documents include IRS income reports for Moore known as 1099 forms, which show he was paid as an independent contractor while serving as president of the foundation. 

The 1099 forms show the total compensation paid to an independent contractor each year. Employers provide copies of the forms to contractors and to the IRS annually, and the information is used to prepare and verify tax returns. 

... < screenshot >

Charity spokesman Martin Wishnatsky did not respond to repeated questions about the 1099 income reports.

In an interview, Bentley recalled a conversation he had with Moore about the back pay.

“I feel sure that he told me that he had talked to his accountant about it and the accountant felt it wouldn’t be taxable,” said Bentley, a state circuit court judge.

Moore’s compensation deal began in 2007, when the charity’s board agreed to pay him the $180,000 annual salary, documents show. The board allowed Moore to raise money toward that salary through an initiative called Project Jeremiah, a ministry to pastors and preachers. 

The charity assumed Project Jeremiah might not receive enough contributions to cover the salary and agreed to make up any shortfalls. If the charity did not have the cash in a given year, the debt to Moore would accumulate.

Over the next five years, Moore received between $55,000 and $115,000 in reported income each year, including up to $12,900 for medical insurance, the 1099 forms and other charity documents show.

... < link to 1099 forms >

In early 2011, the charity’s board agreed to pay Moore for “arrearages of salary during the past four (4) years,” according to the charity’s record of the meeting. The board issued a promissory note for $393,000 and arranged a second mortgage on the group’s building to back it up. In December of that year, the note and the mortgage were updated to guarantee Moore $498,000.

“The entire principal balance will be due and payable on demand,” said the updated promissory note on Dec. 19, 2011.

...

In 2012, the amount was boosted to $540,000.

The five specialists consulted by The Post said they believe that the “on demand” provision transformed the charity’s promise of pay into taxable income.

“I think they made a mistake. I think they didn’t realize it was taxable compensation the moment he had a right to it,” said Marcus S. Owens, former chief of the exempt-organizations division at the IRS and a partner at the Loeb & Loeb law firm in Washington. “It’s not when he gets the payment; it’s when he has the legal right to it.”

If the specialists are correct and Moore did not pay taxes on that income, he and the Foundation for Moral Law could owe a variety of taxes, interest and penalties. In 2011, that would include at least $159,000 for federal income taxes alone, assuming the standard deduction, according to an analysis by Searing that she described as conservative.

 Philip Hackney, a former attorney in the IRS exempt-organizations division, said that because of the complexity of the law, it is impossible to say with certainty whether Moore owed taxes on the back pay. He said only the IRS could make that determination.

“There’s a good case that that was income at that moment,” said Hackney, a tax law professor at Louisiana State University.

The IRS audited the charity’s finances for 2013, after Moore had left. Owens said auditors generally do not examine prior years.  

The agency typically does not try to collect unpaid taxes more than three years after returns are submitted. But that window can widen to six years if there is a “material omission” in tax filings, Owens said. He said that in this case, the amount of compensation involved probably would trigger the longer review period, putting the deadline for review in spring 2018.

The 1099 forms provided to The Post conflict with the charity’s publicly reported information about Moore’s compensation over the years.

The forms show the payments went to a family company called Roy S. Moore LLC. Moore owned the company with his wife Kayla and their daughter Heather, who also worked at the charity, records show. 

The Foundation for Moral Law’s annual 990s — forms designed to improve accountability of charities by publicly revealing their finances — suggest that payments were made directly to Moore, rather than to a company, and that he was paid in some years as an employee, not as a contractor.

Moore received the benefits of an employee, including health insurance, and perks such as a bodyguard and a spacious office in the foundation’s refurbished headquarters, according to documents and an online video. 

In interviews, Bentley, the board member, has said that the organization was essentially run by the Moore family and has faulted himself for providing little oversight. He expressed surprise when he learned from Post reporters that Moore was paid as a contractor. 

“This is news to me. I’ve never heard of Roy S. Moore LLC,” Bentley said. “He was a foundation employee. Why else would we come up with a $180,000 salary?”

Hmm, can you say tax fraud?

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On 19-10-2017 at 4:44 AM, Audrey2 said:

Sadly, I've been waiting for some Einstein to suggest this:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/gop-lawmaker-says-emergency-rooms-163051252.html

I've put the link above the quote box so you can read the full article.

So, in their idea to devastate healthcare in the United States to even worse than pre-Obama levels, I'm waiting for some Republican to also come up with the idea that medical bills should be treated like student loans are, that is, not dischargeable in bankruptcy. 

So. Send patients away that need care because they're not the right color or have enough funds.

What about that hippocratic oath then? 'First do no harm'. Or doesn't that count for anything because Hippocrates was a Greek - and we all know what kind of reputation they have, right?

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3 hours ago, fraurosena said:

So. Send patients away that need care because they're not the right color or have enough funds.

What about that hippocratic oath then? 'First do no harm'. Or doesn't that count for anything because Hippocrates was a Greek - and we all know what kind of reputation they have, right?

This, actually everything, is now inclusive in the dogma of Trump supporters. In all things, only the deserving should receive the benefits. And they are the arbiters of who is deserving.

I feel most Trump supporters are small, punitive people. They want to punish someone and that's why they love Trump. He fires people. He bullies his employees. They love to see others humiliated and marginalized. They are vindictive and look for opportunities to exclude others so they can feel they are included, deserving, better than. They are petty people who have put aside any intelligence or moral inclination they might have to enjoy the high of watching others being attacked and denigrated.

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WTAF? "McConnell: Trump 'doesn't get nearly enough credit'"

Quote

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Sunday said President Donald Trump doesn't get enough credit on all that he's done, such as the appointments he's made, which McConnell said will "get the country growing again."

"I think President Trump doesn't get nearly enough credit for the changes that he's brought about that are unrelated to legislation," McConnell (R-Ky.) said in an interview with CNN's "State of the Union.

McConnell, who has long sought to cut back federal regulations, said that Trump's changes to regulatory agencies, such as the Securities and Exchange Commission, the National Labor Relations Board, and the Food and Drug Administration, have an "impact on the growth in this country."

"Donald Trump being elected president and Republicans having a majority in the House and Senate give us an opportunity to accomplish something really important for the country, to get it growing again," the Senate Majority Leader said.

"And I don't think president has been given nearly enough credit, by the way, for the other things that he's doing to get the country growing again."

McConnell also said that Trump will be able to add a legislative win to his list of accomplishments by the end of this year.

"We're going to score a big legislative accomplishment here on tax reform in the very near future," he said.

When asked by guest host Dana Bash whether he trusts Trump as a partner, McConnell said, "I do."

McTurtle has no shame. Oh, and he must love being screwed over by the tangerine toddler, who will turn on him again the minute things don't go the TT's way.

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15 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

"We're going to score a big legislative accomplishment here on tax reform in the very near future," he said.

"Sure, it will increase the deficit and take money from most Americans but our very wealthy donors are so excited. And that vile man will quit insulting me. Oh, and I'm fine with him no matter what because he gave my wife a high-paying job. The extra money pays for the rod that holds me upright since I have no spine."

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"McCain hits Trump where it hurts, attacking ‘bone spur’ deferments in Vietnam"

Spoiler

... < video >

After a week in which President Trump endured not-so-veiled criticisms from his two predecessors as president and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), McCain delivered another broadside that seems clearly aimed at Trump — in the most personal terms yet.

McCain, whose status as a war hero Trump publicly and controversially doubted as a 2016 presidential candidate, appeared to retaliate in kind against the president in a C-SPAN interview about the Vietnam War airing Sunday night. In the interview, McCain pointed to wealthy Americans who were able to get out of being drafted into service in the conflict in which he spent years as a prisoner of war. And he pointed to a very specific type of deferment which Trump just happened to use.

“One aspect of the conflict, by the way, that I will never ever countenance is that we drafted the lowest-income level of America, and the highest-income level found a doctor that would say that they had a bone spur,” McCain said. “That is wrong. That is wrong. If we are going to ask every American to serve, every American should serve.”

Trump received five deferments during Vietnam: four for his studies in college, and one for — you guessed it — bone spurs in his heel. As The Washington Post reported in July 2015:

For the previous four years, Trump had avoided the draft — and the possibility of being sent to fight in the Vietnam War — by obtaining four separate deferments so he could study at Fordham University and the University of Pennsylvania. With his diploma in hand and his college days over, he was suddenly vulnerable to conscription.

Trump’s exposure to the draft, however, didn’t last long. Two months later, on Sept. 17, 1968, he reported for an armed forces physical examination and was medically disqualified, according to the ledger from his local Selective Service System draft board in Jamaica, N.Y., now in the custody of the National Archives.

The ledger does not detail why Trump failed the exam — the Selective Service destroyed all medical records and individual files after the draft ended in 1973 and the military converted to an all-volunteer force.

In recent days, Trump, a Republican presidential candidate, and his campaign have said that he received the medical deferment because he had bone spurs in his feet. But rather than clear up all questions about why he did not serve in the military during the Vietnam era, they have given shifting accounts that are at odds with the few remaining documents in his Selective Service file.

Trump would later clarify the reason for his final deferment in a 2016 interview with the New York Times: “I had a doctor that gave me a letter — a very strong letter on the heels.” He said the condition was temporary and that it was “not a big problem, but it was enough of a problem.” His campaign continued to be cagey about providing documentation.

As with the previously mentioned criticisms of Trump, this one carries with it at least a whiff of plausible deniability. Plenty of wealthy Americans avoided being drafted into Vietnam, after all, and bone spurs (“a calcium deposit causing a bony protrusion on the underside of the heel bone”) are a somewhat common reason for such deferments.

But it would be a pretty big coincidence for McCain to bring up that particular ailment — especially in light of his regular criticisms of Trump and his clear allusion to Trump's “half-baked spurious nationalism” in a speech two days before taping this interview. Trump has recently targeted McCain for torpedoing the GOP's efforts to replace the Affordable Care Act, among other things.

For all the controversies Trump faced on the campaign trail and has confronted as president, his Vietnam deferments have not even been even close to chief among them. McCain just changed that at a very conspicuous time.

Cue the tweetstorm.

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I have to say, I'm rather 'enjoying' pissed off McCain.  

Also, I have been wondering why after the draft dodging allegations against Bill Clinton and George W Bush, Trump got such a pass.  

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2 hours ago, clueliss said:

I have to say, I'm rather 'enjoying' pissed off McCain.  

Also, I have been wondering why after the draft dodging allegations against Bill Clinton and George W Bush, Trump got such a pass.  

Now that he's free from having to worry about re-election he's on fire! I half expect him to show up here on FJ next week.

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http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/the-buzz/article180391671.html

Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill spoke out on Meet the Press about Harassment she faced in the Missouri Capitol earlier in her career.

Quote

McCaskill, who served in the state legislature during the 1980s, described cautiously approaching the speaker of the Missouri House to discuss a bill she was sponsoring early in her political career.

“And I explained to him the bill I had, and did he have any advice for me on how I could get it out of committee?” McCaskil recalled. “And he looked at me, and he paused, and he said, ‘Well, did you bring your knee pads?’”

The speaker for the entirety of McCaskill’s state legislative career was Democrat Bob Griffin, who was convicted of federal corruption charges in 1998. McCaskill previously recounted the alleged exchange between her and Griffin in her 2015 book.

1
Spoiler
Quote

McCaskill, who served in the state legislature during the 1980s, described cautiously approaching the speaker of the Missouri House to discuss a bill she was sponsoring early in her political career.

“And I explained to him the bill I had, and did he have any advice for me on how I could get it out of committee?” McCaskil recalled. “And he looked at me, and he paused, and he said, ‘Well, did you bring your knee pads?’”

The speaker for the entirety of McCaskill’s state legislative career was Democrat Bob Griffin, who was convicted of federal corruption charges in 1998. McCaskill previously recounted the alleged exchange between her and Griffin in her 2015 book.

1

 

 

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21 hours ago, clueliss said:

I have to say, I'm rather 'enjoying' pissed off McCain.  

Also, I have been wondering why after the draft dodging allegations against Bill Clinton and George W Bush, Trump got such a pass.  

Because Clinton and Bush didn't tell people they are superior because their skin is light and they worship the right god.  Trump gets a free pass because he panders to them.

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What a surprise. Not. "Kid Rock says Senate ‘campaign’ was a stunt"

Spoiler

Robert “Kid Rock” Ritchie’s months-long flirtation with a Republican Senate bid in Michigan appeared to come to an end Tuesday in an interview with Howard Stern — moments before the rapper-singer suggested that he could still run if he felt disrespected by the press.

“F— no, I’m not running for Senate. Are you kidding me?” Kid Rock said on Stern’s SiriusXM show. “Who couldn’t figure that out? I’m releasing a new album. I’m going on tour, too.”

The interview appeared to confirm that Kid Rock’s three-month-old “Senate bid,” which began when his website started selling campaign merchandise in July, was a remarkably successful publicity stunt. A handful of tweets and blog posts, followed by rhyming “political speeches” in the middle of his concerts — delivered behind an official-looking lectern — led to numerous think pieces, to reporters descending on his “major announcements,” and to support from Stephen K. Bannon and the super PAC allied with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

“We’d be actually very interested in his candidacy,” said Steven Law, the president of the Senate Conservatives Fund, when asked by C-Span if the author of songs like “Black Chick, White Guy” and “Cadillac P—y” would be welcomed by Republicans. “I certainly wouldn’t count him out.”

But in the Stern interview, Kid Rock was clear: His “campaign” was a stunt that people had taken too seriously.

“I told Eminem’s manager the other night — I saw him at the Pistons game when he got cheered and I got booed, according to the New York Times — I said, let’s not let this divide us,” said the 46-year-old musician. “I said, ‘Dude, I started this s—. I’ve got motherf—ers thinking I’m running for Senate.’ People who are in on it are like, ‘Are you really doing it?’ I’m like: ‘Dude, you’re f—ing in on the joke! Why you asking me if I’m doing it?’ ”

Seconds later, tongue firmly in cheek, Kid Rock laid out the conditions for a possible run: If newspapers keep making fun of him, he will jump in and defeat “Debbie whatever-the-f — her name is” to get revenge.

Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) is up for reelection in 2018, though the Democrats’ surprise defeat in Michigan last year has not helped Republicans find a first-tier challenger. The only candidates running for the party’s nomination so far are former state Supreme Court justice Bob Young, former congressional aide Bob Carr, and Iraq War veteran John James. Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) has put out feelers to donors about a bid of his own.

 

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Congress has taken action!!!!!!!!!!  They are going to open two investigations into *wait for it* Hillary stuff!!!!!!   Emaaaiiiillllz!  Uranium! 

Quote

House Republicans on the Oversight and Judiciary committees announced they would be looking into the Justice Department’s handling of the probe into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server, while Schiff’s colleague on the Intelligence Committee, chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA), said his panel would investigate the Obama administration’s approval of a Russian uranium deal alongside the Oversight committee.

full test here: Schiff Blasts GOP For Following Trump’s Lead With Two New ‘Partisan’ Probes

Repubs better be damned careful about the private email server issue, because so many of the WH denizens have been reported to use them.  The alt right has been frothing about the uranium deal for over a year, so this is definitely red meat for the base, who are now wetting themselves with excitement. 

The Repubs are starting to stink of desperation and flop sweat.  They know they could be ejected in the midterms if they don't do SOMETHING, so they are reverting to a old reliable smear tactic. 

Jeff Flake has also announced that he will not run again and gave a blistering speech today. 

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I'm not sure how to feel about McCain and Flake. On one hand, I'm like congrats on finally realizing that this orange fuckface a POS but like why can't you guys do some action? They've been all talk and no action. It's just like you've known for the past two years almost how horrible he was and Flake voted 90ish% for his appointment and such. I think I'll be truly moved when one of them actually does something.

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On 10/20/2017 at 2:29 PM, GreyhoundFan said:

"Charity’s promised back pay to Roy Moore was not reported to IRS as income"

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The Alabama charity once led by Senate candidate Roy Moore did not report to the Internal Revenue Service that in 2011 it guaranteed him $498,000 in back pay, according to an income report provided to The Washington Post by the charity itself.

Five tax law and accounting specialists said it appears the guaranteed payment should have been reported as compensation, a disclosure that would have triggered a federal tax bill of more than $100,000.

 Moore and his campaign have not responded to questions about whether he paid the taxes, or to requests that he release his income tax returns.

John Bentley, a board member and former chairman of the charity, the Foundation for Moral Law, said Moore once told him that he had sought advice on the financial arrangement from an accountant. Moore said he was told the compensation was not taxable until he cashed in on the promised back pay, Bentley said. Moore has not yet done so, he said. 

The tax issue is the latest in a series of questions over Moore’s financial ties to the Alabama charity where he worked after he was ousted from the state Supreme Court in 2003 for refusing to remove a Ten Commandments monument from a public building. Moore, 70, a Republican, is the front-runner in the race to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Moore served as president of the charity from 2007 to 2012, working 20 hours a week, tax filings show. The charity agreed to pay him a $180,000 annual salary in a deal that was not publicly disclosed until a news account by The Post last week. The group also said if it could not afford his full salary in a given year, it would make up for the shortfall when it was able to do so, documents show.

In 2011, the charity gave Moore promissory notes worth $498,000 for unpaid salary in previous years, backing them up with a second mortgage on the group’s historic building in Montgomery, Ala. The note entitles Moore to demand payment at any time or claim an equal stake in the building, which serves as the group’s headquarters.

David Walker, a tax law professor at Boston University, said IRS rules for compensation are complex. But he said that it appears Moore’s financial transaction with the charity became taxable the moment he was given the right to demand payment or foreclose on the group’s building.

“It’s a significant possibility,” Walker said.

Walker was one of five tax law and accounting specialists who reviewed IRS filings and other documents at The Post’s request.

Jane Searing, an accountant and nonprofit tax specialist in Washington state, said Moore did not have to be paid in cash to be taxed on the future proceeds. 

“Compensation can be anything. It can be chickens. It can be property. It can be cash,” Searing said. “It doesn’t make any sense to me why they’re not reporting it as taxable income.”

 In a statement issued to Alabama reporters last week, Moore’s campaign chairman, Bill Armistead, denounced The Post’s reporting and said the story on Moore’s compensation it published last week was distorted. He cited no specifics.

“The story was full of all of the same distortions and innuendos that characterized past political attacks on Judge Moore,” the statement said. “Voters in Alabama can see through the sleazy tactics of the Washington Post who are trying to discredit Judge Moore.”

The Foundation for Moral Law, now led by Moore’s wife, initially provided an array of documents in response to questions from The Post. Those documents include IRS income reports for Moore known as 1099 forms, which show he was paid as an independent contractor while serving as president of the foundation. 

The 1099 forms show the total compensation paid to an independent contractor each year. Employers provide copies of the forms to contractors and to the IRS annually, and the information is used to prepare and verify tax returns. 

... < screenshot >

Charity spokesman Martin Wishnatsky did not respond to repeated questions about the 1099 income reports.

In an interview, Bentley recalled a conversation he had with Moore about the back pay.

“I feel sure that he told me that he had talked to his accountant about it and the accountant felt it wouldn’t be taxable,” said Bentley, a state circuit court judge.

Moore’s compensation deal began in 2007, when the charity’s board agreed to pay him the $180,000 annual salary, documents show. The board allowed Moore to raise money toward that salary through an initiative called Project Jeremiah, a ministry to pastors and preachers. 

The charity assumed Project Jeremiah might not receive enough contributions to cover the salary and agreed to make up any shortfalls. If the charity did not have the cash in a given year, the debt to Moore would accumulate.

Over the next five years, Moore received between $55,000 and $115,000 in reported income each year, including up to $12,900 for medical insurance, the 1099 forms and other charity documents show.

... < link to 1099 forms >

In early 2011, the charity’s board agreed to pay Moore for “arrearages of salary during the past four (4) years,” according to the charity’s record of the meeting. The board issued a promissory note for $393,000 and arranged a second mortgage on the group’s building to back it up. In December of that year, the note and the mortgage were updated to guarantee Moore $498,000.

“The entire principal balance will be due and payable on demand,” said the updated promissory note on Dec. 19, 2011.

...

In 2012, the amount was boosted to $540,000.

The five specialists consulted by The Post said they believe that the “on demand” provision transformed the charity’s promise of pay into taxable income.

“I think they made a mistake. I think they didn’t realize it was taxable compensation the moment he had a right to it,” said Marcus S. Owens, former chief of the exempt-organizations division at the IRS and a partner at the Loeb & Loeb law firm in Washington. “It’s not when he gets the payment; it’s when he has the legal right to it.”

If the specialists are correct and Moore did not pay taxes on that income, he and the Foundation for Moral Law could owe a variety of taxes, interest and penalties. In 2011, that would include at least $159,000 for federal income taxes alone, assuming the standard deduction, according to an analysis by Searing that she described as conservative.

 Philip Hackney, a former attorney in the IRS exempt-organizations division, said that because of the complexity of the law, it is impossible to say with certainty whether Moore owed taxes on the back pay. He said only the IRS could make that determination.

“There’s a good case that that was income at that moment,” said Hackney, a tax law professor at Louisiana State University.

The IRS audited the charity’s finances for 2013, after Moore had left. Owens said auditors generally do not examine prior years.  

The agency typically does not try to collect unpaid taxes more than three years after returns are submitted. But that window can widen to six years if there is a “material omission” in tax filings, Owens said. He said that in this case, the amount of compensation involved probably would trigger the longer review period, putting the deadline for review in spring 2018.

The 1099 forms provided to The Post conflict with the charity’s publicly reported information about Moore’s compensation over the years.

The forms show the payments went to a family company called Roy S. Moore LLC. Moore owned the company with his wife Kayla and their daughter Heather, who also worked at the charity, records show. 

The Foundation for Moral Law’s annual 990s — forms designed to improve accountability of charities by publicly revealing their finances — suggest that payments were made directly to Moore, rather than to a company, and that he was paid in some years as an employee, not as a contractor.

Moore received the benefits of an employee, including health insurance, and perks such as a bodyguard and a spacious office in the foundation’s refurbished headquarters, according to documents and an online video. 

In interviews, Bentley, the board member, has said that the organization was essentially run by the Moore family and has faulted himself for providing little oversight. He expressed surprise when he learned from Post reporters that Moore was paid as a contractor. 

“This is news to me. I’ve never heard of Roy S. Moore LLC,” Bentley said. “He was a foundation employee. Why else would we come up with a $180,000 salary?”

Hmm, can you say tax fraud?

Say it loud, say it proud "Judge" Moore:  Tax Fraud!  I hope the IRS is all over this like a duck on a june bug.  Be interesting to see if anything comes of it. 

There is so much in this article.  First, it's a family charity, and it seems "Judge" Moore and his wife are the primary recipients of the charity with little oversight by the board.  And, hey, it's now led by "Judge" Moore's wife!  And he was being paid $180,000/year for working 20 hrs/week? Gimme a break.  Wonder what her salary is and what exactly does this charity do?  Where's the $$$$$ coming from.  It's apparently just a way to funnel $$$$ to the judge, in return for, um, influence, perhaps? 

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11 hours ago, candygirl200413 said:

I'm not sure how to feel about McCain and Flake. On one hand, I'm like congrats on finally realizing that this orange fuckface a POS but like why can't you guys do some action? They've been all talk and no action. It's just like you've known for the past two years almost how horrible he was and Flake voted 90ish% for his appointment and such. I think I'll be truly moved when one of them actually does something.

They believe in God and don't want to go to hell. They think this will save them. As to actually doing something that might hurt their masters, why how dare you suggest such nonsense! They're still on the payroll, when they're actually out of the Senate they'll write books, make more millions and flame pretty much everyone they now support. That's the conservative 'Christian' way.

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20 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

What a surprise. Not. "Kid Rock says Senate ‘campaign’ was a stunt"

  Reveal hidden contents

Robert “Kid Rock” Ritchie’s months-long flirtation with a Republican Senate bid in Michigan appeared to come to an end Tuesday in an interview with Howard Stern — moments before the rapper-singer suggested that he could still run if he felt disrespected by the press.

“F— no, I’m not running for Senate. Are you kidding me?” Kid Rock said on Stern’s SiriusXM show. “Who couldn’t figure that out? I’m releasing a new album. I’m going on tour, too.”

The interview appeared to confirm that Kid Rock’s three-month-old “Senate bid,” which began when his website started selling campaign merchandise in July, was a remarkably successful publicity stunt. A handful of tweets and blog posts, followed by rhyming “political speeches” in the middle of his concerts — delivered behind an official-looking lectern — led to numerous think pieces, to reporters descending on his “major announcements,” and to support from Stephen K. Bannon and the super PAC allied with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

“We’d be actually very interested in his candidacy,” said Steven Law, the president of the Senate Conservatives Fund, when asked by C-Span if the author of songs like “Black Chick, White Guy” and “Cadillac P—y” would be welcomed by Republicans. “I certainly wouldn’t count him out.”

But in the Stern interview, Kid Rock was clear: His “campaign” was a stunt that people had taken too seriously.

“I told Eminem’s manager the other night — I saw him at the Pistons game when he got cheered and I got booed, according to the New York Times — I said, let’s not let this divide us,” said the 46-year-old musician. “I said, ‘Dude, I started this s—. I’ve got motherf—ers thinking I’m running for Senate.’ People who are in on it are like, ‘Are you really doing it?’ I’m like: ‘Dude, you’re f—ing in on the joke! Why you asking me if I’m doing it?’ ”

Seconds later, tongue firmly in cheek, Kid Rock laid out the conditions for a possible run: If newspapers keep making fun of him, he will jump in and defeat “Debbie whatever-the-f — her name is” to get revenge.

Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) is up for reelection in 2018, though the Democrats’ surprise defeat in Michigan last year has not helped Republicans find a first-tier challenger. The only candidates running for the party’s nomination so far are former state Supreme Court justice Bob Young, former congressional aide Bob Carr, and Iraq War veteran John James. Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) has put out feelers to donors about a bid of his own.

 

Lately, I've been missing an option in the votes, that the wtf one doesn't quite cover.  The eyeroll :roll: would be such a good one here!

17 hours ago, Howl said:

Congress has taken action!!!!!!!!!!  They are going to open two investigations into *wait for it* Hillary stuff!!!!!!   Emaaaiiiillllz!  Uranium! 

Repubs better be damned careful about the private email server issue, because so many of the WH denizens have been reported to use them.  The alt right has been frothing about the uranium deal for over a year, so this is definitely red meat for the base, who are now wetting themselves with excitement. 

The Repubs are starting to stink of desperation and flop sweat.  They know they could be ejected in the midterms if they don't do SOMETHING, so they are reverting to a old reliable smear tactic. 

Jeff Flake has also announced that he will not run again and gave a blistering speech today. 

Hot damn!

Will they ever get over the fact that they won the election?

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30 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

Will they ever get over the fact that they won the election?

To these folks, it's not enough to win, you have to complete decimate and demoralize your opponent. It's like the anal orifice of a football coach who continues to leave his first team in and run up the score on an overmatched opponent. It's also like the story of the Romans salting the soils of Carthage after the Third Punic War ( if I correctly remember the story my Latin teacher told us.) You can't just defeat your opponent, you must destroy your opponent so he/she is permanently destroyed ( "crooked Hillary"). I abhor these new political times.:tw_dissapointed_relieved::argumentative:

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