The press versus the president - Columbia Journalism Review

[Pio1980]

He deliberately finds the most crowded elevator car to crassly fart in for attention, of course he gets it.

[Chicks]

The media is blowing Biden’s documents ‘scandal’ out of proportion
https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...garet-sullivan

Whell only feels butt-hurt when his Fuhrer is "mistreated" by the press.

[whell]

Originally Posted by finnbow

The whole premise of the article that the press has been unfair to Trump is BS. The press and Trump had a symbiotic relationship, without which (along with Russia's help) he never would have become President. Besides, a career criminal who spouts lies at a documented 20x daily rate doesn't deserve kid-glove treatment. Fuck him and the press he rode in on.

Of course, if you actually read the article, you would have found that the author makes that very point.

Of course, I've never heard you rage against Clinton or Ukraine, or call Hillary a puppet of Kiev, when the Ukrainians interfered in the 2016 election to help her candidacy. Are you just as pissed about that? I somehow doubt it.

What has this "career criminal" been convicted of, by the way? I must have missed the trial, sentencing, and accompanying jail sentence for this "career criminal."

[finnbow]

Originally Posted by whell

Of course, if you actually read the article, you would have found that the author makes that very point.

Of course, I've never heard you rage against Clinton or Ukraine, or call Hillary a puppet of Kiev, when the Ukrainians interfered in the 2016 election to help her candidacy. Are you just as pissed about that? I somehow doubt it.

What has this "career criminal" been convicted of, by the way? I must have missed the trial, sentencing, and accompanying jail sentence for this "career criminal."

He has been a tax fraud for decades which the recent criminal convictions of the Trump Organization demonstrated. More indictments and convictions forthcoming.

[nailer]

Originally Posted by finnbow

He has been a tax fraud for decades which the recent criminal convictions of the Trump Organization demonstrated. More indictments and convictions forthcoming.

Nope, an organization is not an individual and allegations mean nothing at all. You continue to be clueless, but nevertheless highly amusing.

[finnbow]

Originally Posted by nailer

Nope, an organization is not an individual and allegations mean nothing at all. You continue to be clueless, but nevertheless highly amusing.

Are you hereby asserting the the Trump Organization was not convicted of multiple felonies? And allegations of Trump's tax fraud, bank fraud, election fraud, insurrection, and sexual assaults mean nothing at all? Maybe not to you, but that's a commentary on you, not Trump.

Oh, and welcome back to another Trump apologist. I need someone else to beat up on. 😜

[whell]

Originally Posted by finnbow

He has been a tax fraud for decades which the recent criminal convictions of the Trump Organization demonstrated. More indictments and convictions are forthcoming.

That conviction demonstrated that an employee of the Trump organization - their CFO - copped a plea and cooperated with an investigation into paying employees non W-2 wages to company execs. Did Trump know this was happening? Maybe, maybe not.

You specifically called Trump a criminal. I'm still waiting to hear what crime he committed, when his trial and conviction were, and when he served his jail term.

By the way, not excusing what Trump's company did, but the non-W-2 wage payments totaled $1.7 MM over 10 years or about $140K per year.

About 2 miles from my house, there's a light industrial business park, with about 60 or 70 businesses there. Most of these are small to medium-sized employers. I'd be willing to bet that these smaller businesses collectively payout at least $1.7 MM per year in payments that should have been classified as W-2 income, or they paid out W-2 income that was not correctly or fully taxed.

Here are just a few examples of payments that are often not correctly characterized as W-2 wages, or not taxed properly:

- payment of bonus wages.
- giving an employee gift card (i.e., as a performance bonus or incentive) and not recording the payment as wages.
- employee moving expenses
- mileage reimbursements
- business travel expense reimbursements, including entertainment expenses.
- employment of contractors who are paid via 1099 but should have been treated as employees under IRS rules and paid W-2 wages.
- taking health benefit premium deductions from employees who participate in an employer-administered health plan on a pre-tax basis without having legitimate bonafide plan documents, plan testing and tax filing in place.
- Same as above but for 401(k) or 403(b) plan deductions.
- failure to properly withhold local taxes from employees' pay.
- etc.

This happens in America every day. In the case of the business park near me (and other small and medium-sized businesses across the country), this non-compliance would be fueled by small and medium size employers likely not being aware of certain requirements under the US or local tax codes. Sometimes employers are aware of elements of the tax code but choose to incur the risk anyway.

I know that there's a very strong likelihood that there are other employers in New York that are evading tax regs by engaging in similar actions as those listed above. I wonder when Leticia James is going to start investigating them?

[finnbow]

Originally Posted by whell

That conviction demonstrated that an employee of the Trump organization - their CFO - copped a plea and cooperated with an investigation into paying employees non W-2 wages to company execs. Did Trump know this was happening? Maybe, maybe not.

You specifically called Trump a criminal. I'm still waiting to hear what crime he committed, when his trial and conviction were, and when he served his jail term.

I'm entitled to my well-founded belief that Trump is a career criminal based upon gobs of reporting, court filings, documents and his own statements.

You too are entitled to believe that Biden is the head of a crime family (the title of a thread you started) with scant evidence to support your assertion.

The wheels of justice turn slowly. We'll see who's right.

[whell]

Originally Posted by finnbow

And allegations of Trump's tax fraud, bank fraud, election fraud, insurrection, and sexual assaults mean nothing at all? Maybe not to you, but that's a commentary on you, not Trump.

Did the multiple claims of sexual assault against Bill Clinton mean anything to you, or were your comments about these women derisive?

Do the allegations surfacing in the media about the Biden family's involvement in potentially influence-pedaling and receiving payment from foreign governments mean nothing at all to you?

Do the lucrative payments that Hillary received for speaking engagements and other services prior to the 2016 election mean nothing to you at all?

Natalie Mayflower Sours Edwards is a hero to the left. She was convicted of illegally leaking suspicious activity reports (SAR's) which ended up getting published in Buzzfeed and elsewhere. SAR's are not an indication of a crime. Banks issue them when transactions "appear suspicious". When the Treasury receives SAR's from the banking community, less than 95% of them spark interest from law enforcement, but some do become leads that then become cases that go to trial.

Paul Manafort's tax cases what buttressed by SAR's, some of which were a part of the info that Natalie Mayflower Sours Edwards leaked. She was called a "whistle-blower" that was heroic in her efforts to expose financial crimes in the media. Of course, she didn't "blow any whistles" via any appropriate reporting process, and committed a crime by leaking what is considered very confidential info, but I guess that doesn't bother anyone in the media. Does it bother you?

Does it bother you that the Biden family businesses have been cited in about 150 SARs? Does it bother you that repeated requests for these SAR's by Congress have not been responded to by the Treasury Department?

Sounds like you think folks should be bothered by a lot of stuff. Wondering if any of this stuff bothers you? And if it doesn't, what does that say about you?

Just curious...?

[whell]

Originally Posted by finnbow

I'm entitled to my well-founded belief that Trump is a career criminal based upon gobs of reporting, court filings, documents and his own statements.

You too are entitled to believe that Biden is the head of a crime family (the title of a thread you started) with scant evidence to support your assertion.

OK cool. At least I understand from what bias your bloviating proceeds from. My "crime family" post was actually a spoof on the Trump Crime family thread. That thread has, to date, had a pretty lousy track record of predicting outcomes. We'll see which thread fares better, though I'm not actually cheering for any findings or convictions like some of that thread's participants are.