The other big story is the release of the Paradise Papers, a treasure trove of information about the rich and famous. Just like the Panama Papers that ensnared many people, this latest news dump from the same people who broke the earlier story show a lot of very rich people hiding tax dollars from countries that number in the TRILLIONS! Now to be fair, just like earlier, everyone mentioned in these papers are not always tax dodging idiots. There are legitimate reasons to have a tax shelter or an off shore account, especially if you want to own property on an island like Bermuda. If you don't live there as a permanent resident you can get taxed up the wazoo for buying a house. Open an account there and those tax liens disappear. That is not illegal and many times the money being brought there has already been taxed in their home country. Some though are using these shelters to keep from paying high taxes too. Those are the people who deserve our scorn.
First and foremost in the list are the Queen of England, Bono, Prince Charles, half the cast of Mrs. Brown's Boys (funniest sitcom ever), Wilbur Ross, Gary Cohn, Rex Tillerson and even the campaign manager for Justin Trudeau. Again let me emphasize that just because their name is on the list does not mean they are tax dodgers. But in some cases, like Wilbur Ross, the current Secretary of Commerce, he may be a traitor as well. He left out on his vetting forms that he had business with a known Russian with close ties to Putin through a company, Navigator Holdings. Not only is he knee deep in this, but it also came out that he lied about his wealth by perhaps as much as two billion according to Forbes magazine. The Paradise Papers show yet another Trump crony with real ties to Russia but also forgot to disclose it, a recurring theme in this administration. How is it almost everyone in Trump's circle is also friends with Russia? Fake news my ass.
Now again, most of this perfectly legal. That doesn't make it right. We are losing trillions of dollars to offshore accounts that some estimates say may be as high as 200 trillion dollars. That's more money than the entire planet makes and some may be hoarding it. I am confident real trillionaires exist and stories like this show it is possible. Ross lied about his wealth to seem more important. What if others are doing the same just downplaying their wealth to not attract attention? If you had ten billions or ten trillion, how would you know? They'd be rich either way. As Ross shows, it is real easy to lie about your wealth and have people believe it.
Trump is allegedly a populist which is such a lie when you see this story. Robert Mercer, Trump's sugar daddy, used offshore accounts to hide $60 million in war chest assets in the last election. His current tax plan could save the rich 700 billion dollars to wealthy foreigners who own US equities. Republicans are rubes for believing any of this.
And of course it is not just people cheating the system. Corporations have to get their two cents in to. Facebook, Apple, Uber, Nike, Walmart, McDonald's and Uber are all seen avoiding billions in taxes. It's not like these companies are profitable or anything right? If Trump and the GOP were serious about tax reform, these are the kind of loopholes that if closed could have substantial benefits. But instead they will just take away everything we like and screw us over as always.
They better pray that news gets better because after yesterday's romp, as they are facing a steep headwall into 2018. They lost everywhere yesterday, only keeping a seat in Utah that no Democrat even had a shot at. The big story was turnout which was way higher than anyone predicted which skewered the polls in VA. Many thought it would be close when in actuality, Northam won by almost nine points. Polls are NOT good bellwethers lately as way too many of them are shoddily done. Qunnipiac did the best again, proving they are one of the top poll companies in the country. They nailed the VA race and the NJ one as well. The rest were way off in VA but dead on in NJ. Again the main reason for that was WAY more people showed up to vote, especially minorities who must see the current president as Orange Hitler as well.
Demographics also were a big thing in VA. Men were roughly fifty/fifty for each candidate, a place where Trump carried men by a wide margin. Worse for the GOP here were women who showed up in droves to vote against Trump by a 65-35% margin. Ouch. If those numbers continue into the election of 2018, the GOP is fucked .No way can they stand a wave of women overwhelmingly voting against them.
The GOP faces the hurdle of passing a tax bill no one likes, shades of the Obamacare debacle. Some are still pushing for things like a repeal of the individual mandate, which would kill insurance for all within five years if passed, an end to SALT taxes, which would double people's taxes in high earning states and a phase out of middle class taxes after ten years which would see them flat line after that as the rich make all the gains. Yeah good luck with that. If they get nothing done, which is entirely possible, they might get wiped out when big donors and pissed off voters sit home.
Momentum is behind the democrats right now. The GOP faces a possible dissolution of the entire party if treason charges start getting handed out. The only question left is how will the Democrats screw this up. Badly would be my guess. But let us hope that the bad news drags down Trump and his cast of morons until they all glow orange in their new jumpsuits before the left figures out a new, inventive way to lose.
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