Wednesday wonderings - 6/26/2019

The funeral for Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department's Deputy Joseph Solano was held this past Monday.  Unless someone discovers a motive, this was a completely random act of violence.  Senseless.  The accused shooter, Rhett McKenzie Nelson, is alleged to have murdered another person an hour earlier.  Nelson is also charged with two armed robberies that same day in Long Beach.

Nelson, who is 30 years of age, was reported missing by his family in Utah prior to these shootings and robberies.  They mentioned he suffers from mental illness and an addiction to opiates.  They also said he had a gun with him.

We need to know just how Nelson got his hands on a gun.  Whether or not his mental illness was just the parent's opinion or if he had been diagnosed.  There are questions to be answered.

Meanwhile, there is a Go Fund Me page to help the Solano family.

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Speaking of the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department, the Los Angeles Times reports that ICE is still able to have occupants of the county jail transferred to them upon release for deportation.

That flies in the fact of campaign promises made by Alex Villanueva during his successful run for his current position as the County Sheriff.

I'll let you read the story for yourselves, but something is rotten in Los Angeles as opposed to Denmark.

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Rounding out L.A. County issues, the Times also reports on attorneys for the county asking for information on sources reporters used to gather information.  This is tied to a lawsuit filed by the Times seeking records that the county is refusing to disclose.

Yet another example of the importance of a free press.

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Newly released documents show that the Trump Transition Team "red-flagged" retired four-star General David Petraeus from consideration as Secretary of State because of his publicly-state opposition to the use of torture.  

I'm opposed to torture.  Given enough painful stimuli, the victim of torture will say anything to make the pain stop.

But I'd oppose General Petraeus from serving in any high government position based on his having pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor charge of mishandling classified information.  In fact, he had provided his biographer/mistress Paula Broadwell with information classified Top Secret - SCI.  That is disqualifying in my eyes.

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Love this quote from NBA Hall of Famer Charles Barkley.  In the wake of LaVar Ball's latest gaffe (he made an offensive comment regarding ESPN's Molly Qerim), Barkley said, "Wherever LaVar Ball is, there's a village missing an idiot."

Believe me, believe me

Donald Trump went to one of his favorite catchphrases when claiming the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act would be bad for him.  The following quote is from a CNN article published in November of 2017:

"America's tax code is a total dysfunctional mess. ... It is riddled with loopholes that let some special interests, including myself, in all fairness -- it is going to cost me a fortune, this thing," Trump said. "Believe me, believe me, this is not good for me." 

In the aftermath of the passage of the Trump Tax Plan, there were a number of articles that claimed Trump's statement was a falsehood.  But because #DonTheCon has never released any of his federal income tax returns, we had no way of really knowing.  However, we have the two pages of #DishonestDon's 2005 tax return, thanks to it being leaked to the media.  So I decided to take the data from that return and prepare a return involving the same items of income under the Internal Revenue Code in effect for the year 2018.

When  I first started this project, I was in agreement with the authors of those articles.  The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act would actually result in Trump paying less tax.

Because I did not have all of the forms and schedules from that 2005 return, I had to make a few assumptions.

In 2005, Trump had itemized deductions of just over $17 million.  I have to assume that most of that was deductions for payment of state and local taxes.  A deduction that is limited to only $10,000 in 2018.  But knowing that Trump was still donating to his personal non-profit foundation until 2008, I gave him credit for $1,000,000 in itemized deductions.

Not having the prior and subsequent years of tax returns, I assumed the Net Operating Loss reported on Line 21 of page 1 of the 2005 form 1040 was from a prior year being carried forward.  That assumption is based on the fact that Trump claimed nearly $1 billion in Net Operating Losses in 1995.

On his 2005 tax return, under older tax law, Mr. Trump paid $38.4 million in federal income tax on his Form 1040

The income items from Trump's 2005 tax return are listed below:

Wages - $998,599
Taxable interest income - $9,460,371
Ordinary dividends - $314,320
Business income (from self-employment) - $42,395,804
Capital gains Income - $32,185,114
Pass-through entity income - $67,383,658
Other Income (Net Operating Loss) - ($103,201242)

That income was reduced by $17,034,485 in itemized deductions.

The breakdown of the taxes paid on the 2005 return are as follows:

Income tax - $5,310,616
Alternative minimum tax - $31,558,179
Self-employment tax - $1,887,596
Credit for foreign taxes paid - ($23,940)

Total tax - $38,435,451.

When you apply those same items of income using 2018 law and the assumptions made above, the tax breaks down this way:

Income tax - $12,211,637
Alternative minimum tax - $27,536,871
Self-employment tax - $1,135,423
Affordable Care Act Tax - $2,210,429
Credit for foreign taxes paid ($23,940)

Total tax - $43,070,420

We have to adjust out the ACA tax as it was not in effect in 2005.

Adjusted total tax - $40,859,991

Trump pays just over $2.4 million more in taxes under the new tax law.  Why?

Because of the cap of the deduction for State and Local Taxes (SALT) of $10,000.

I wonder if the Democrats who are seeking to repeal that cap realize that the people who benefit the most from that repeal are the wealthiest Americans, not the working-class so many of last night's debate participants were talking about representing.

As to who really benefitted from the Trump Tax Plan, this chart still works:

Let us never forget this day

Historical estimates are that over 156,000 Allied soldiers were involved in Operation Overlord.  What is better known today as "D-Day."  Over 127,000 who landed on the five beaches of Normandy and more than 23,000 who came from the sky.  97 year old Tom Rice recreated his parachute jump into Normandy the day before the anniversary.

The sacrifices made on this day in the battle to establish a beachhead in German-occupied Europe were many.  In 1944, Bedford, Virginia was a town with a population of 3,500.  35 of Bedford's sons were serving on D-Day.  21 of them died during the landings at Normandy, 19 of them within 15 minutes.  Two others died serving in different units.  

Today, Bedford VA is home to the National D-Day Memorial, a cause championed by one of Bedford's sons who survived landing on Normandy on D-Day.  Sergeant Bob Slaughter rose to prominence in 1994 when he led then-President Bill Clinton on a tour of Omaha Beach.

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That is Corporal Waverly Woodson.  One of roughly 900 African-Americans who were part of the Allied forces who were part of the D-Day invasion of Europe.  CPL Woodson was a medic and he spent 30 hours treating his fellow soldiers on the beach before collapsing and being evacuated to a hospital ship.  He insisted on returning to Omaha Beach less than a week later.

CPL Woodson died in 2005.  His family wants to see his bravery on the field of battle honored with the Medal of Honor.  General John Lee, the man in charge of supplying troops in the European theater of operations wrote a note about CPL Woodson's achievements:

“Here is a negro from Philadelphia who has been recommended … for a big enough award so that the president can give it personally, as he has in the case of some white boys.”

General Lee has most of the African-Americans soldiers serving in the theater under his command and he wanted to give those who were volunteers the opportunity to serve in combat units.  His idea for integrating these men into infantry units were dismissed but he was able to form 37 African-American rifle platoons from volunteers.

The films about D-Day and other major World War II battles usually give short shrift to the African-Americans who served, fought and died alongside their Caucasian counterparts.  Kudos to 2001's Pearl Harbor for telling the story of Doris "Dorie" Miller.  The only sign of the presence of CPL Woodson and the other members of his all African-American unit to be seen in the D-Day sequence in 1998's Saving Private Ryan are the barrage balloons in the skies over the beach.  Those balloons were there to prevent German dive-bomber aircraft from attacking the landing forces.  The razor-sharp steel wires they lifted into the air could slice the wing right off of a plane.

Spike Lee took issue with how Clint Eastwood's 2006 film Flags of Our Fathers had no African-Americans in it.  Eastwood's response was that the film was about the raising of the flag atop Mount Surbachi and there were no black faces in the group that raised that flag.

Mr. Eastwood is correct, but there were hundreds of African-Americans ferrying ammo to the Marines in the landing force.  Most of them were forced to get into the fight with their own rifles in the chaos of combat.

The effort to get proper recognition for CPL Woodson is going to be difficult as most (if not all) of the survivors who witnessed his gallantry have also passed on.

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Carlton W. Barrett
John E. Butts
Robert G. Cole
Arthur F. DeFranzo
Charles N. DeGlopper
Walter D. Ehlers
John D. Kelly
Jimmy W. Montieth, Jr.
Carlos G. Ogden
Frank D. Peregory

John J. Pinder
Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.

The Army history website has the citations that each of these men received to accompany the award of the Medal of Honor for their actions on D-Day.  Nine of the awards were made posthumously.

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We must never forget what these intrepid men did on that fateful day 75 years ago.  

Does the headline tell the whole story?

Judd Legum is an independent journalist who does excellent work.  Here are two tweets from his Twitter feed about a story on his website.  These tweets are for a story he felt was so important that he removed the paywall so that anyone can read it.

1. Yesterday, @netflix said it may pull out of Georgia if the courts uphold the state's new abortion ban

The company wants to be known as a champion of women's rights

So why has CEO @reedhastings given so much cash to legislators pushing abortion bans? https://t.co/lT9RmZ8LRO pic.twitter.com/jj7e7ZAz4J

— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) May 29, 2019

2. Over the last 10 months, Netflix CEO @reedhastings has donated $143,000 to 73 Republican members of the Missouri legislature (and Governor Mike Parsons)

Missouri just enacted an abortion ban nearly as restrictive as Georgiahttps://t.co/lT9RmZ8LRO

— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) May 29, 2019

It is a fact that Netflix CEO Reed Hastings did give $143,000 to Missouri's governor and Republican legislators between July 6, 2018 and February 14, 2019.

It is a fact that all but one of the Republicans in the Missouri legislature who on the list of contributions made by Spencer voted for the abortion ban; in the final vote that passed it.

When I read the story, I wondered if there was a true connection between these contributions and the abortion ban.  So I checked.  Turns out that all but $9,100 of those contributions were made before Missouri HB126, the abortion ban was introduced into the Missouri legislature.  Hard to find a connection between that bill and donations made before it was a bill.  Particularly in light of the fact that there was an election in 2018 and it seems a lot of those donations were made to support the election of those Republicans rather than in support of either the abortion or the charter school bill Mr. Legum references in his article.  The link in his article to that bill shows it wasn't introduced until January of 2019.  Only $3,600 of the aforementioned $143,000 in contributions was made after introduction of that bill.

Yes Virginia, bills can garner contributions prior to their introduction.  Was all of the $143,000 in contributions done in support of HB 126?  I do not believe so.  To imply they were is what some would call "spin."

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What does it mean when a corporation's CEO and/or primary shareholder makes political contributions that are the opposite of a position taken by the corporation?  It is clearly an issue that can be exploited.  Let's suppose for a moment that Reed Hastings would give an honest answer to the question, "why would you contribution to legislators that oppose a woman's right to choose, when your company has staked out a position in support of that right in a different state?"  He could say that the corporation's position is a business decision while what he does personally with his money is his business.  A lot of people would not like that answer.

Just ask Margie Christofferson.  In 2008 there was a firestorm of political controversy in California as Proposition 8 was on the November ballot.  It was a ballot initiative that would have ended the right of same-sex couples to marry in California.  Ms Christofferson was then the owner of the El Coyote Restaurant.  Opened in 1931 it has been a fixture on Beverly Boulevard forever.  Notorious for being the eatery where Sharon Tate had her last meal, in 2008 it was a "gay hangout" with many gay employees.

Ms Christofferson is a devout Mormon and she donated $100 of her own money to the campaign in favor of Prop 8.  No big deal until a list of donors for and against the proposition was distributed.  It led to a boycott of El Coyote that was devastating to the joint.  Ms Christofferson took a leave of absence.  It took a long time for El Coyote to recover.

If people want to boycott Netflix over the political contributions of Mr. Hastings, they should do so.  Nothing wrong with that.  I just wonder how many of those whose immediate reaction to the story on that $143,000 in contributions would have felt as strongly if they had all of the facts.