Email of the Week (v17), With a Twist

THE LITTLE GARDEN IN THE VALLEY

SYRACUSE

NOTICE DATE: April 30, 2020

NOTICE NUMBER: URA0,45 (EN)

Donald J Trump

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW

Washington DC 20500

Your Self-serving Letter Has Arrived

My Fellow American:

As you noted in your email, “our great country is experiencing an unprecedented public health and economic challenge as a result of the global coronavirus pandemic.” I must say, I’m surprised you didn’t call it the ‘Chinese’ coronavirus pandemic, or the ‘Wuhan’ coronavirus pandemic; maybe someone convinced you, finally, that your rhetoric was dangerous, and perhaps ‘inspiring’ attacks on Asian Americans across our country?

What a chuckle I had reading you say “our top priority” is my health and safety. I mean, my top priority is my health and safety, but we all know your top priority is you. After all, 

• Isn’t that why your name is being put on the Economic Impact Payment checks?  
• And isn’t that why this letter is coming from you, not from the IRS, as was done in the past? 
• And isn’t that why your recent press conference/campaign rallies have been so egocentric, filled with your nearly 600 self-congratulatory comments (and over 100 comments blaming others), not to mention the multiple obligatory “Mr. President” callouts from every speaker?

In the midst of this unprecedented public health challenge, it was hard to miss you, the vice president, your daughter and her family, and other members of your administration repeatedly ignoring the guidance issued by your own experts. Good thing you didn’t have to spend a lot of time greeting “presidents, prime ministers, dictators, kings, queens,” over the past several weeks. And it was a good thing that most people ignored the example you set, and instead followed the guidelines to help slow the spread and flatten the curve.

We received our stimulus payment two weeks ago, making the letter telling us what we’d be getting, and how, even less meaningful than it would have been had it come from the IRS (as it should have) in advance. 

Given how much attention you pay to the news, particularly news about you and your administration, you should have known that it was widely reported in the “lamestream media” and of course on the Trump News Network how the payments would go out, how to find out the status of the payment, and who to contact in case of questions. In addition to the traditional media coverage, there have been ample notifications about this payment across multiple social media platforms, financial institution notifications, on the IRS website, and other outlets as well.

In keeping with your efforts “to protect hard-working Americans…from the consequences of the economic shutdown,” I believe it would be appropriate for your campaign committee to absorb the costs of this self-serving and wasteful letter.

In these challenging economic times, it’s disrespectful for you to spend our money tooting your horn.

Meanwhile Back in Albany (v35)

Nathaniel Brooks/NY Times

Everyone is so focused on the ethical shenanigans going on in Congress and the White House, where the even president himself has admitted to impeachable offenses, we sometimes forget that lots of other equally dubious stuff is going on in statehouses around the country, including here in New York State.

According to the Albany Times Union article linked above, our Sonofa Gov Andrew Cuomo has had his administration give as much as $1.2M more to a criminal defense law firm that was originally hired back in 2016 for the "Buffalo Billion" investigation. That's the one, you'll remember, that brought charges against several developers (including COR Development here in my neck of the woods) and others close to the gov.

Here's a bit of background on the contract with Morvillo Abramowitz, from the Times Union article:

For $950,000, the Executive Chamber originally retained Morvillo Abramowitz on April 29, 2016, the same the day administration was served with a sweeping federal subpoena from the Manhattan US Attorney's office. The document request was part of the upstate bid-rigging probe that included Cuomo's "Buffalo Billion" initiative.

After two extensions of the contract worth another $1.5M, the contract ended in July 2018 - the same month the second and final trial concerning state contract bid-rigging - featuring SUNY Polytechnic founder Alain Kaloyeros and others as defendants - ended with convictions.

But now? The firm is involved for a new reason: it seems the FBI is investigating Cuomo's administration for its practice of placing certain employees on the payrolls of state agencies and authorities, instead of on the Executive Chamber payroll where they belong.

Two years ago, the FBI was in the midst of interviewing Executive Chamber staffers in that manner as part of the probe. A Cuomo spokesman at the time dismissed the FBI inquiry as "absurd" and noted that governors had for decades engaged in the practice. 

The Times Union has been reporting on this for a while; it was their story in 2016 that 89 of 209 Executive Chamber employees were on other payrolls; that prompted the current investigation. Another group of employees, more than 20 of them, came on board in the spring of 2017, all but five of whom were paid outside the Executive Chamber.

Although the no-bid contract extension was originally denied by Comptroller Tom DiNapoli's office for being too broad, it was eventually approved and runs through the end of 2020. According to DiNapoli spokeswoman Jennifer Freeman,

We asked them to be specific about why they wanted to extend the contract. they provided us with justification for why they wanted to extend the contract and what the services were for and we approved in early 2019.

The article notes that Morvillo Abramowitz has worked for Cuomo not only on the Buffalo Billions case, and the hiring practices case, but also a third case, from 2014, when Cuomo shut down his Moreland Commission investigation into public corruption. (You can read posts about that debacle here). But what was different then was that Cuomo's campaign picked up that tab, whereas we taxpayers are carrying the load on the recent investigations.

What's telling here is that the Sonofa Gov apparently thinks it's OK to do this because others have done it too. And they probably have - honestly, I have no doubt about that - but the point is, being ethical and honest is an individual choice.

Making the decision to be ethical in spite of how others have acted in the past, are acting today, or are likely to act in the future is exactly as easy as making the decision to be unethical because of those same factors. That Cuomo and his advisers don't know this, or choose to ignore it, is a stain on them, but it's consistent with past behavior.

Need an example? Cuomo said we needed to close the LLC loophole in NY's campaign finance laws, that it was wrong and needed to be fixed, at the exact same time he was benefiting from it.

It's no secret that Cuomo happens to be the biggest beneficiary of  LLC donations. He has reported raising $16.54M from them since taking office in 2011. By comparison, his past three opponents - Republicans Carl Paladino and Rob Astorino and Democrat Zephyr Teachout - raised $8M from all of their contributors combined... 

Since Cuomo took office, 574 committees associated with candidates for one of the Legislature's 213 seats have received at least one donation from an LLC. Combined, those hundreds of individuals have reported raising $16.5M from LLCs, just slightly less than Cuomo's total.

And the Senate Republicans who bear the brunt of Cuomo's criticism? They've raised $6.4M from LLCs, or 39% of Cuomo's total. 

And, of course, we know that he rests peacefully at night because he knows he's ethical. Because he told us he is, back in 2014.

I'm going to make the decision that I think is right for them because at the end of the night I go home and I put my head on the pillow and I have to be able to fall asleep and I can't fall asleep if I don't believe I'm doing the right thing.

And somehow, five years later, that means taxpayers are on the hook for lawyers to help defend him in an FBI investigation for what (at the very least) has the perception of being unethical and dishonest.

Sleep well, Governor.

Meanwhile Back in Albany (v28)

Nathaniel Brooks/NY Times photo

With so much focus on how quickly New York's 'trifecta' government got out of the gate this year, it's easy to understand how some recent news may have flown under the radar, but it surely is as important as the legislative agenda we're seeing passed with record speed.

Here's the lede from an Albany Times Union article earlier this week:

New York state is facing an unexpected $2.3 billion shortfall - the most significant in eight years - due to a sharp drop in income tax collections for December and January, state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo revealed on Monday.

The governor, who had announced his $175 billion spending proposal for 2020 last month, cast blame on the federal government, attribution the drop largely to the 2017 federal rollback of the state and local tax deduction, known as SALT, which he said was designed to penalize Democratic "high-tax" states. "Everything we did economically is right," Cuomo said Monday. "We tightened our belt, we cut taxes, we're creating jobs, and here's a penalty just because we are Democrats."

The article in the Buffalo News started out with this:

Less than three weeks after he proposed his 2019 state budget, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo on Monday raised red flags over slipping tax revenues and suggested that some popular items in the fiscal plan, including state aid to schools, could face cuts from what he offered in mid-January. 

Calling the situation "as serious as a heart attack," the Democratic governor said revenues are $2.3 billion below projections for the fiscal year that ends March 31. That is on top of a $500 million revenue dip form personal income taxes that the Cuomo administration recently projected when it put together a budget plan last month. 

And here's how City and State NY presented the news:

The flashy and progressive $175.2 billion executive budget Gov. Andrew Cuomo presented last month just rain into a roadblock earlier this week when the governor and New York state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli announced a $2.3 billion shortfall in income tax revenue - on top of the $500 million dip in revenue at the end of last year. Cuomo and DiNapoli both have pointed to the 2017 federal tax law capping how much of their state and local taxes (known as SALT) that income tax filers can deduct from their federal tax liability as a force that caused some of the state's high earners - who contribute a significant amount to the state's income tax revenue - to flee to states with lower taxes. 

Let's take a deeper look.

The Update Desk: Casino Gambling

It's almost hard to imagine that I'm able to write - again - on New York's great experiment with casino gambling.

Most recently, in this post, we learned about the downgrading of del Lago's rating by Moody's, and it's accompanying gloomy outlook that del Lago is not viable without some restructuring, and in this post, we learned that del Lago and at least one of the other new casinos was looking for a better tax deal from the state. (These are just two of several posts I've done on this subject over the past four or five years.)

And then, just a couple of weeks ago, we got news that the newest, the biggest of the four approved casinos (please, don't let them build any more of the darn things!) is also in a bit of a pickle.

It seems that Empire Resorts, which built the new Resorts World Catskills casino, lost over $58 million in the first five months it was open. The company also owns the Monticello Raceway, what we here in NY call a 'racino' as it has both harness racing and slot machines. According to the company's SEC filing from June 30,

We cannot be certain that our business will generate sufficient cash flow from operations, that our anticipated earnings from the Casino will be realized, or that future borrowings will be available under our existing debt arrangements or otherwise to enable us to service our indebtedness or to make anticipate capital expenditures... Our future operating performance and our ability to service our debt will be subject to future economic conditions and to financial, business and other factors, many of which are beyond our control. 

As it did with del Lago, Moody's downgraded Resorts World Catskills' rating.

Now, I know the language used in SEC filings is almost as carefully crafted as a Hollywood script or a politician's concession speech, but you can see that they're struggling with cash flow and debt, the same as del Lago and Rivers. Tioga Downs, in the Southern Tier, may be doing a little better.

The latest article notes that 'informal' requests for help from the state, the ones made by del Lago and Rivers, were rejected.  And it has a link to another article that proves what most of us knew all along, and what the experts have been saying for a couple of years: the upstate market is over-saturated with gambling opportunities.

How so, you say? Well, take a look; in addition to the four new  under performing Vegas-style casinos, we have

• seven Nation owned casinos
• six racinos (including Tioga Downs and Vernon Downs, which has had its own issues)
• one thoroughbred track
• 120 Off-Track Betting locations and
• three Nation-owned electronic gaming locations

Add in the ready availability of online gambling, and legalized sports betting (likely coming to New York in the near future), and it's hard to imagine anyone would think we're over-saturated, right?  

Time will tell whether all those things that are beyond the control of the casino owners will turn in their favor or turn against them like a bad hand of cards. What remains important is that we taxpayers aren't called upon to bail them out. 

After all, while the local casinos are happy to show us pictures of their lucky winners, we never see any pictures of people the casinos bailed out after a losing streak.

You Really Can't Make This Stuff Up

So if the people who paid the taxes were the only ones allowed to vote, we'd have landslide victories, but you're allowing people to vote. This explains everything! People with conflicts of interest shouldn't be allowed to vote. If you collect welfare, you have no right to vote. The day you get off welfare, you get your voting rights back. The reality is, why you are allowed to have this conflict of interest that you vote for the politician who wants to keep your welfare checks coming and your food stamps and your aid to dependent children and your free health care and your Medicaid, your Medicare and your Social Security and everything else?

Oh dear.  I laughed so hard, I think I pulled something. Seriously.  

Those are the words of Wayne Allyn Root, Trump supporter and author of the book you see at right. As a public service, I'm including the link where you can purchase it (hard copy or ebook) for the same low price of $24.99. And, I can assure you, I neither want nor receive a single red cent from any purchases. 

I don't even know where to start with this one.  Well, that's not true.  Let's start with Social Security.  Do we really want to call that a welfare program?  After all, we pay for that via a payroll tax. You know. sort of like a savings account that we partially fund, and our employers fund the rest.  

In  July 2016, more than 57,000,000 people were receiving Social Security, not including those who receive only SSI or both SSI and Social Security. More than 42,000,000 of these folks are over 65.  I'd hazard a guess here that a majority of those folks are white folks, given that the white employment rate has historically been better than the employment rate for people of color; I'd also hazard a guess that a good portion of them were middle-class people before they began collecting.  

According to the Pew Research Center,  as of April 2016, there were some 69,700,000 Baby Boomers (age 52 - 7o) of voting age and another 28,000,000 Silent/Greatest Generation (ages 71 and up) of voting age. Has the Angry White Male done the math here? 

Root was the 2008 Libertarian vice presidential candidate. Back then, and today as well, Libertarians wanted the income tax abolished. So, let's move on then, and look at tax welfare and how that might limit the ability of Angry White Males to vote. 

Raise your hand if you have one or more children. Keeping your hands up, how many of you have taken a deduction on your taxes for those children?  Now, still by a show of hands, how many of you consider your bouncing baby deduction to be a form of tax welfare?  Are there any hands still up? 

My guess there is that better than 99% of parents claimed their available deduction for all of their eligible kids, and that an equal number does not think they took a 'welfare' payment, any more than they consider a daycare deduction to be a welfare payment. 

What about all of these deductions, just some of those listed in the 2015 IRS instructions for filling out your 1040? 

• Charitable donations? 
• Mortgage interest? Expenses on a rental property? 
• Contributions to a Health Savings Account, or health care costs?
• Home office? 
• Travel for business? 
• Student Loan Interest deduction, tuition and fees deduction, education credits? 
• Educator expenses? 
• Moving expenses? 
• Parking reimbursement? 
• Alimony? 
• How about the Domestic Production Activities deduction, for putting up a building in the US, or helping design one?
• Or how about business owners filing personal taxes instead of corporate taxes?

I could keep going here, but the point should be clear by now.

Our entire tax code is a giant welfare system, and there are huge benefits for the Angry White Male, if for no other reason than white men make more money on average than most other demographic cohorts, and frankly, can afford to pay someone to find them all of these welfare handouts. For reference, according to the IRS, for tax year 2013, 69% of taxpayers took the standard deductions, and more than 29% claimed itemized deductions. That's a boatload of people who shouldn't be allowed to vote, right?

Farm subsidies, for farming and for not farming (because of course we pay for both), and food price supports?  Yeah, that's welfare too, so they can't vote. And let's not forget all that corporate welfare -- even though companies don't actually vote (because of course, they're not people as we all know), there's huge benefit going to people from that, too.

Listen, Angry White Males, we are all getting some form of welfare from the government; most of us get something not only from the federal government, but also from our state governments, and even localities, in many cases. If everyone who took a penny in government benefits was not allowed to vote, there wouldn't be a single person in line come election day. 

The blurb for Root's current book opens with the statement below. I have added more than a little emphasis. 

The mainstream media and ultra-liberal Democrats can't understand why white voters, especially white men, are so angry. Wayne Allyn Root is an angry white male, and he knows why.  This is his story, his testimony, and a look at what's happening to an entire group of good people: law-abiding, tax-paying, hard-working, middle-class people. They're being targeted, silenced, intimidated, persecuted - virtually wiped off the planet - in order to make guilty, politically correct white liberals feel better about themselves. 

It's open season on white males!!!

If they're intimidated by all of their targeted benefits, so be it, the poor things. If they're so fearful of getting wiped off the planet, maybe they should grab hold of their jockstraps or bootstraps or jackboots or strap on a life jacket or something, and come back to reality. 

Because if they really want to get rid of welfare, they need to get the hell out of the Trump column and get to know the Libertarians, Root's former party -- for they are the only ones who truly want to end welfare for everyone.