Comments by RandomMember (page 15)

Among the key findings of The Times’s investigation: Mr. Trump paid no federal income taxes in 11 of 18 years that The Times examined. In 2017, after he became president, his tax bill was only $750. He has reduced his tax bill with questionable measures, including a $72.9 million tax refund that is the subject of an audit by the Internal Revenue Service. Many of his signature businesses, including his golf courses, report losing large amounts of money — losses that have helped him to lower his taxes. The financial pressure on him is increasing as hundreds of millions of dollars in loans he personally guaranteed are soon coming due. Even while declaring losses, he has managed to enjoy a lavish lifestyle by taking tax deductions on what most people would consider personal expenses, including residences, aircraft and $70,000 in hairstyling for television. Ivanka Trump, while working as an employee of the Trump Organization, appears to have received “consulting fees” that also helped reduce the family’s tax bill. As president, he has received more money from foreign sources and U.S. interest groups than previously known. The records do not reveal any previously unreported connections to Russia.

@Wavey- It's too bad this story is behind a paywall for most people.

I can't believe the NY Times got hold of Trump's taxes. Amazing! Kudos! We elected the greatest tax cheat in the country's history!

@Warrior: "I have to admit, I didn't even look at that graph last night. I was totally familiar with the website that rickdugan posted" ____________ Lol, got it @warrior and I'm in favor of anything that allows you to save face avoid humiliation in front of the rest of the group.

@Justin: "Percentages of positive tests is not a very meaningful statistic." ________________________________ Yes, it's a meaningful statistic. The CDC and WHO use the positivity rate as a crude rule-of-thumb to decide when it's safe to end lockdowns. Usually 5%. Johns Hopkins has the FL positive rate at 11% whereas Dugan's site lists under 5%. The huge difference is, of course, suspicious and there's no way to get into the weeds to see how Hopkins filters and scrubs the data. I know from personal experience (a family member) that Hopkins has some of the most competent researchers on the planet. It's very @Dugan-esque for him to state that his site is more reliable than Hopkins without any justification. Reminds me of Dugan's March post from the WSJ that the death toll would be no worse than a bad flu season. Then he trashed the very same study after we more than tripled that death rate. FL is opening too soon with daily deaths averaging about 100 and the positivity rate at 11% The spike in deaths will come, maybe after the election -- and that's what you get with a Trump sycophant like Desantis.

Another rant on spelling & grammar etiquette on a site without an edit feature. From @Meathead, our very own semi-literate clod.

All of this is happening within a backdrop of a fraction of the per capita deaths that NY and NJ experienced __________ We'll see how ut plays out.. If Desantis is lucky the rise in deaths will occur after the election.

You found a FL source that does not agree with Johns Hopkins. That's the content of your post

Dugan: "Randumb, your data is meaningless. Instead of looking for someone else's re-interpretation of the data," __________________ I took a look at your source. You can tell me if you agree: the Johns Hopkins data shows about 140K tests per week whereas your source shows about 400K tests per week. Why are the raw numbers so vastly different? Whatever the discrepancy, it has nothing to do with a "re-interpretation." As a guess, I wouldn't be surprised if your FL source is including serology antibody tests, which should not be included in the calculation. Calling the data "meaningless" is your assessment of the finest teaching hospital and researches in the US (Johns Hopkins). Lol, "someone else's re-interpretation." But I give you credit being able to read the graphs -- unlike @Warrior who, like a fifth-grader, can't seem to understand the different scales on the left- and right-hand side of the plot.

Lol, look at the stream of anonymous downvotes and not one person will challenge me based on the actual presentation of theJohns Hopkins data. Anyone? Lol

Anyway, last post: The graph presents "Daily Total tests" and "Daily positive tests" as bar graphs in orange. The left axis marked as an absolute number (eg. 20K, 40K, 60K). Dividing the "daily positive tests" by the "Daily total tests" and averaging gives the blue line, which is the positivity rate that everyone cares about. Use the right axis to read the percentage of positive tests. Florida is currently sitting at 11% positivity rate whereas the country as a whole is at 5%. You can always tell when someone doesn't know what they're talking about because they spew some names and disappear.

No you're ditching the conversation because you didn't understand the presentation of the graph. And you made a complete idiot out of yourself.

Warrior: You are so fucking stupid, I'm not wasting my time. ______________ Got it, you didn't see the graph has an axis on the left and the right and you're too fucking small to admit your error.

read*

For those of you who care, @Warrior doesn't know how to red the graph. Use the left axis to read the absolute number of daily total test and the Daily positive tests. Use the right axis to read the positivity rate as a percentage. That's what everyone cares. What a dipshit, @Warrior.

@Warrior wrote: "The daily number hasn't been above 10% in almost 6 weeks. It's been below 5% for about 2 weeks" ______________________ A "daily number" is not a percentage. The graph has the absolute number on the left axis and the percentage on the right. You're not reading the graph correctly. You're making an idiot out of yourself.

We're talking about a percentage. DO you understand?

Look at the graph and the blue line: https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/testing/individual-states/florida Do you understand English? The blue line is labeled as a seven-day average of the percentage of positive tests at 11%. That's number is twice the national average. That's the figure-of-merit that everyone cares about. That's why it's highlighted in blue.

@Wallanon wrote: "So is this a good thing or a bad thing? Having the people closest to the situation deciding for themselves sounds like a decent idea." _________________________ It's a very odd situation where acknowledging science, using masks, social distancing where possible, splits along party lines. @GammaNu is not as annoying as some of the others here because, at least, he acknowledges that the virus threat is not overhyped compared to the flu. He just doesn't give a shit about anyone else if he doesn't get sick. It's the guys who deny the stats or who can't differentiate b/w an infection-fatality-RATE and a death toll who are especially annoying.

Everyone here knows you have nothing whatsoever to do with underage girls, 25. Just ignore him.

It's the blue line if you know how to read

No your facts are wrong. The seven day average positivity rate is about 11%. I posted the Johns Hopkins data above.

Eh...my only comment is that I like the new format because it no longer lets the @OP mute comments in his own thread. Of course unpopular opinions will be downvoted. Who cares?

... per day

New York and New Jersey also have about 1/20th the average death rate.