Biden/Harris Discussion

[flyingpylon]

Wow, seven pages of... not much.

Who can actually make a case FOR Biden/Harris?

Cortopassi thinks they can give good speeches and deliver "all the feels" (my words, not his). Okay. Is that it?

What about policies? For those longing for what used to be the status quo, it sure doesn't look like that's what Biden/Harris have in mind. What actual policies of theirs are most important to you?

[vnatale]

Wow, seven pages of... not much.

Who can actually make a case FOR Biden/Harris?

Cortopassi thinks they can give good speeches and deliver "all the feels" (my words, not his). Okay. Is that it?

What about policies? For those longing for what used to be the status quo, it sure doesn't look like that's what Biden/Harris have in mind. What actual policies of theirs are most important to you?

It's not all about policies. It's about hiring someone to do a job.

In prior campaigns who campaigned on policies on how they'd handle a pandemic, a financial crisis, a 9/11?

Therefore I want to hire someone to do the job who has the intelligence and competence and diligence to get the job done.

Trump seems to fail on all counts.

Biden is one of the worst choices the Democrats could have made but at least it would be an end to the reign of Trump. Someone who may or not be intelligent but refuses to be diligent in applying any intelligence to the tasks at hand and has proven to be incompetent in so many ways.

There was nothing to suggest he'd be qualified to do the job and his performance has just proven his how unqualified he was.

Vinny

[MarketIfTouched]

...There was nothing to suggest he'd be qualified to do the job and his performance has just proven his how unqualified he was...

Because anyone could design, build, pay taxes on, and manage a 98 story building in downtown Chicago?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trump_Int ... _(Chicago)

[Lonestar]

I remember that Trump leaned on the FDA to authorize hcq use for prospective randomized clinical trials. But when reports of cardiac arrhythmias surfaced, the trials were stopped. There are a number of retrospective, correlative studies with mixed results but these aren’t helpful.

If Trump had ordered the FDA to reverse its decision, you can imagine how that would have been reported. Pretty sure the media would have trotted out the H word. So I don’t think he had much choice really.

I would think prospective studies, directed towards the indication of Covid, would take a very long time

Not so. A couple of months at most, if conducted in hospitals crammed with COVID patients. No industry sponsor needed because the drugs are generic and cheap. In fact, I'm involved with a trial involving a generic drug (unrelated to COVID) right now, aiming to recruit just 10 patients. Research faculty and divisions generally have existing funds that could have been raided to pay for the HCQ & placebo pills, or you could have written a quickie NIH administrative supplement. IRB protocols were being super-expedited taking maybe 2 or 3 days to approval. If there's a big effect you don't need more than a handful of patients (maybe 30 or 40) in each arm - the trials requiring thousands of patients are because the drug has a minimal effect or only a small number of people are expected to have the outcome you want to avoid (e.g. death). That number would have been recruited in about a day in NYC back in March, where the daily new case counts hit 7,000. Then you just wait for outcomes, which is a matter of a few weeks. Given the situation, a report at 1 or 2 weeks, e.g. # recovered vs. still on vent vs. died, would have been appropriate.

If I were an infectious disease faculty member that's totally what I would have done. Sure, you could follow up with a bigger study if the small one was inconclusive, and you would have needed a bigger study (maybe 100 in each arm) if you wanted to see what happened when you gave it to, say, members of vulnerable populations at initial presentation.

I remember thinking that someone must be doing all these things at my hospital. I'm incredulous that this wasn't the case. There were some retrospective studies but those are honestly worthless for all kinds of reasons.

WiseOne, your comments are interesting. So are you saying a small study in a reputable institution involving 40 patients or less, testing a generic drug, can be submitted to the FDA with the possibility of approval for a new indication?

If that is the case, from the anecdotal reports I've read, it looks like HCQ shouldn't have much trouble getting approved for Covid treatment.

[pp4me]

Mandatory buybacks is just a another way of saying confiscation.

Yes it is but even more worrisome than that she promised that if elected she would give the congress 100 days to pass gun control legislation or she would do it by executive order.

I wonder how well that would work out. When I heard she was Jamaican I thought she grew up there but I've subsequently learned she grew up in Berkeley, CA. Still, she probably didn't have much exposure to those bumper stickers that said I'll give up my gun when they pry my cold, dead hands from it.

[Libertarian666]

Mandatory buybacks is just a another way of saying confiscation.

Yes it is but even more worrisome than that she promised that if elected she would give the congress 100 days to pass gun control legislation or she would do it by executive order.

I wonder how well that would work out. When I heard she was Jamaican I thought she grew up there but I've subsequently learned she grew up in Berkeley, CA. Still, she probably didn't have much exposure to those bumper stickers that said I'll give up my gun when they pry my cold, dead hands from it.

The only good news is that even this Supreme Court would explain to her that she couldn't do that.
The bad news is that they are already planning to pack the court if they get the Senate.

[flyingpylon]

It's not all about policies. It's about hiring someone to do a job.

In prior campaigns who campaigned on policies on how they'd handle a pandemic, a financial crisis, a 9/11?

Therefore I want to hire someone to do the job who has the intelligence and competence and diligence to get the job done.

Trump seems to fail on all counts.

What in your opinion are the most egregious examples of Trump's failure of leadership? What evidence can you offer to show that Biden would do a better job in those situations?

While I agree that's it's not all about policies, policies are the things that are getting implemented while everyone is distracted by the crisis du jour. So they are absolutely important (in my opinion) and shouldn't just be dismissed.

Are you (or anyone else reading this) in favor of the policies being proposed or supported by Biden/Harris?

[pp4me]

It's not all about policies. It's about hiring someone to do a job.

In prior campaigns who campaigned on policies on how they'd handle a pandemic, a financial crisis, a 9/11?

Therefore I want to hire someone to do the job who has the intelligence and competence and diligence to get the job done.

Trump seems to fail on all counts.

What in your opinion are the most egregious examples of Trump's failure of leadership? What evidence can you offer to show that Biden would do a better job in those situations?

While I agree that's it's not all about policies, policies are the things that are getting implemented while everyone is distracted by the crisis du jour. So they are absolutely important (in my opinion) and shouldn't just be dismissed.

Are you (or anyone else reading this) in favor of the policies being proposed or supported by Biden/Harris?

At least here in this forum we can ask vnatale to give specific examples of what mistakes Trump made and what he thinks should have been done different.

We'll need to give it some time but so far it seems to be the strategy of the Biden/Harris campaign to not answer any such questions. Looks like they plan on sending Kamala out to rip on Trump with nothing but generalities and then refuse to answer any questions from the media.

[vnatale]

...There was nothing to suggest he'd be qualified to do the job and his performance has just proven his how unqualified he was...

Because anyone could design, build, pay taxes on, and manage a 98 story building in downtown Chicago?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trump_Int ... _(Chicago)

He's just the BEST! Is it possible anyone had tax losses that exceeded his??!!

Trump Had Losses of $1.17 Billion Over a Decade, NYT Reports

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... yt-reports

Vinny

[vnatale]

It's not all about policies. It's about hiring someone to do a job.

In prior campaigns who campaigned on policies on how they'd handle a pandemic, a financial crisis, a 9/11?

Therefore I want to hire someone to do the job who has the intelligence and competence and diligence to get the job done.

Trump seems to fail on all counts.

What in your opinion are the most egregious examples of Trump's failure of leadership? What evidence can you offer to show that Biden would do a better job in those situations?

While I agree that's it's not all about policies, policies are the things that are getting implemented while everyone is distracted by the crisis du jour. So they are absolutely important (in my opinion) and shouldn't just be dismissed.

Are you (or anyone else reading this) in favor of the policies being proposed or supported by Biden/Harris?

My examples would be quickly dismissed so no sense in listing any. As bad as Biden is, I could hardly imagine him doing any worse than Trump.

I'm an independent. Today I listened to a lot of Democratic Attorney Generals talking among themselves for about an hour. Not a lot of what their priorities were thrilled me.

But for me, Trump and the Republican party are generally bad news.

Vinny

[shekels]

He's just the BEST! Is it possible anyone had tax losses that exceeded his??!!

Trump Had Losses of $1.17 Billion Over a Decade, NYT Reports

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... yt-reports

Vinny

This is the reason they want Trumps tax Records..
They will use the records as propaganda to further there agenda of hate against the Wealthy..

[vnatale]

He's just the BEST! Is it possible anyone had tax losses that exceeded his??!!

Trump Had Losses of $1.17 Billion Over a Decade, NYT Reports

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... yt-reports

Vinny

This is the reason they want Trumps tax Records..
They will use the records as propaganda to further there agenda of hate against the Wealthy..

Losses of $1.17 Billion over ten years suggest what type of competence?

Vinny

[shekels]

Wow, seven pages of... not much.

Who can actually make a case FOR Biden/Harris?

Sorry. I am all out of ideas, I can not think of any good reason that Harris or Biden would make a good President.

[shekels]

He's just the BEST! Is it possible anyone had tax losses that exceeded his??!!

Trump Had Losses of $1.17 Billion Over a Decade, NYT Reports

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... yt-reports

Vinny

This is the reason they want Trumps tax Records..
They will use the records as propaganda to further there agenda of hate against the Wealthy..

Losses of $1.17 Billion over ten years suggest what type of competence?

Vinny

Dude that is Business (s), or are you suggesting that the Billion is from his Personal assets?

[vnatale]

He's just the BEST! Is it possible anyone had tax losses that exceeded his??!!

Trump Had Losses of $1.17 Billion Over a Decade, NYT Reports

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... yt-reports

Vinny

This is the reason they want Trumps tax Records..
They will use the records as propaganda to further there agenda of hate against the Wealthy..

Losses of $1.17 Billion over ten years suggest what type of competence?

Vinny

Dude that is Business (s), or are you suggesting that the Billion is from his Personal assets?

Of course it's business. Therefore, I again ask, what type of competence did this represent for an individual to have such HUGE, tremendous losses over a ten year period? Can you think of anyone else who had had such an "achievement"?

Vinny

[shekels]

He's just the BEST! Is it possible anyone had tax losses that exceeded his??!!

Trump Had Losses of $1.17 Billion Over a Decade, NYT Reports

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... yt-reports

Vinny

This is the reason they want Trumps tax Records..
They will use the records as propaganda to further there agenda of hate against the Wealthy..

Losses of $1.17 Billion over ten years suggest what type of competence?

Vinny

Dude that is Business (s), or are you suggesting that the Billion is from his Personal assets?

Of course it's business. Therefore, I again ask, what type of competence did this represent for an individual to have such HUGE, tremendous losses over a ten year period? Can you think of anyone else who had had such an "achievement"?

Vinny

Sorry i don"t travel in those circles.
But google Largest corporate annual losses of all time and see what you find.

[vnatale]

He's just the BEST! Is it possible anyone had tax losses that exceeded his??!!

Trump Had Losses of $1.17 Billion Over a Decade, NYT Reports

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... yt-reports

Vinny

This is the reason they want Trumps tax Records..
They will use the records as propaganda to further there agenda of hate against the Wealthy..

Losses of $1.17 Billion over ten years suggest what type of competence?

Vinny

Dude that is Business (s), or are you suggesting that the Billion is from his Personal assets?

Of course it's business. Therefore, I again ask, what type of competence did this represent for an individual to have such HUGE, tremendous losses over a ten year period? Can you think of anyone else who had had such an "achievement"?

Vinny

Sorry i don"t travel in those circles.
But google Largest corporate annual losses of all time and see what you find.

His tax returns do not represent corporate annual losses. They represent his share of the losses, which would come from either Sub S corporations and partnerships. Doubt he has an sole proprietorships but who knows. Sub S corporations are limited to 75 shareholders so we aren't talking about large entities with that relatively few amount of shareholders. Therefore, Trump again was at his absolute "Best"! Only this time it was the Best at losing money!

Vinny

[boglerdude]

He's done nothing to take the printing press away from the bankers

[WiseOne]

I remember that Trump leaned on the FDA to authorize hcq use for prospective randomized clinical trials. But when reports of cardiac arrhythmias surfaced, the trials were stopped. There are a number of retrospective, correlative studies with mixed results but these aren’t helpful.

If Trump had ordered the FDA to reverse its decision, you can imagine how that would have been reported. Pretty sure the media would have trotted out the H word. So I don’t think he had much choice really.

I would think prospective studies, directed towards the indication of Covid, would take a very long time

Not so. A couple of months at most, if conducted in hospitals crammed with COVID patients. No industry sponsor needed because the drugs are generic and cheap. In fact, I'm involved with a trial involving a generic drug (unrelated to COVID) right now, aiming to recruit just 10 patients. Research faculty and divisions generally have existing funds that could have been raided to pay for the HCQ & placebo pills, or you could have written a quickie NIH administrative supplement. IRB protocols were being super-expedited taking maybe 2 or 3 days to approval. If there's a big effect you don't need more than a handful of patients (maybe 30 or 40) in each arm - the trials requiring thousands of patients are because the drug has a minimal effect or only a small number of people are expected to have the outcome you want to avoid (e.g. death). That number would have been recruited in about a day in NYC back in March, where the daily new case counts hit 7,000. Then you just wait for outcomes, which is a matter of a few weeks. Given the situation, a report at 1 or 2 weeks, e.g. # recovered vs. still on vent vs. died, would have been appropriate.

If I were an infectious disease faculty member that's totally what I would have done. Sure, you could follow up with a bigger study if the small one was inconclusive, and you would have needed a bigger study (maybe 100 in each arm) if you wanted to see what happened when you gave it to, say, members of vulnerable populations at initial presentation.

I remember thinking that someone must be doing all these things at my hospital. I'm incredulous that this wasn't the case. There were some retrospective studies but those are honestly worthless for all kinds of reasons.

WiseOne, your comments are interesting. So are you saying a small study in a reputable institution involving 40 patients or less, testing a generic drug, can be submitted to the FDA with the possibility of approval for a new indication?

If that is the case, from the anecdotal reports I've read, it looks like HCQ shouldn't have much trouble getting approved for Covid treatment.

The FDA has nothing to do with it. It's already an approved drug, and the FDA (at Trump's urging) had already approved it for off-label use. The clinical trial, if it shows an effect, gives clinicians the justification they need to use it off label. The FDA is not involved at any stage of the clinical trial - that's between the investigators, the IRB panel, and the funding agencies.

If they wished, the FDA could have decided to add COVID to the list of indications, but that wouldn't have made any difference practically speaking. That's because drugs are used off-label all the time, whether the FDA blesses it or not. In my specialty a large proportion of the patients I see are being treated that way. It's only a problem if the patient decides you did something bad and wants to sue you. Which is highly unlikely in the COVID scenario.

[WiseOne]

He's just the BEST! Is it possible anyone had tax losses that exceeded his??!!

Trump Had Losses of $1.17 Billion Over a Decade, NYT Reports

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... yt-reports

Vinny

This is the reason they want Trumps tax Records..
They will use the records as propaganda to further there agenda of hate against the Wealthy..

Losses of $1.17 Billion over ten years suggest what type of competence?

Vinny

I would say excellent competence. Tax losses are part of how you make money in real estate. For example, a commercial building is depreciated over 37.5 years, and you get to claim the annual amount as a "loss" which offsets earnings but doesn't actually cost you anything. Also, landlords with multiple buildings manage things so that some of them produce losses at any given time, for the same reason. Per everything I've read, this is why there are so many empty storefronts in Manhattan - the landlords are benefiting from the tax losses, given the high tax environment, and have no incentive to reduce rents.

Why don't you do a little reading on real estate tax structures before you make such statements. There's a reason why so many early retired folks are going for real estate as part of their retirement income, as opposed to simply investing all their savings in the markets.

[vnatale]

He's just the BEST! Is it possible anyone had tax losses that exceeded his??!!

Trump Had Losses of $1.17 Billion Over a Decade, NYT Reports

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... yt-reports

Vinny

This is the reason they want Trumps tax Records..
They will use the records as propaganda to further there agenda of hate against the Wealthy..

Losses of $1.17 Billion over ten years suggest what type of competence?

Vinny

I would say excellent competence. Tax losses are part of how you make money in real estate. For example, a commercial building is depreciated over 37.5 years, and you get to claim the annual amount as a "loss" which offsets earnings but doesn't actually cost you anything. Also, landlords with multiple buildings manage things so that some of them produce losses at any given time, for the same reason. Per everything I've read, this is why there are so many empty storefronts in Manhattan - the landlords are benefiting from the tax losses, given the high tax environment, and have no incentive to reduce rents.

Why don't you do a little reading on real estate tax structures before you make such statements. There's a reason why so many early retired folks are going for real estate as part of their retirement income, as opposed to simply investing all their savings in the markets.

Sorry. How many corporate or entity tax returns have you prepared?

I'll try to explain it to you simply.

For cash I buy a building for $1,000,000. Pretend I hold it for 20 years and am able to fully depreciate it for tax purposes over that same 20 years, giving me a depreciation expense of $1,000,000.

Over those 20 years I had $2,000,000 in income and $2,000,000 in expenses (not counting depreciation expense).

So I break even on the expenses aside from depreciation. From that I have NO extra money in my pocket.

The only way I have a tax loss from this is if my building is now worth ZERO. Which means that tax loss of $1,000,000 was due to me getting nothing back from my initial $1,000,000 investment. Therefore, my tax loss of $1,000,000 equals a real cash loss of $1,000,000.

Feel free to explain to me with some detail how: "Tax losses are part of how you make money in real estate."

Vinny

[shekels]

This is a Great reason WHY Biden's handlers will not let him take questions Live from the press or anyone else.

Even if he gets the question beforehand, Biden has NO Teleprompter to go by.

Now let's see if the Joe Biden's Handlers let him out of the basement to Debate Pres.Trump.

Got Corn POP ? Popcorn
https://youtu.be/YGJGI1d96Ns

[shekels]

He's just the BEST! Is it possible anyone had tax losses that exceeded his??!!

Trump Had Losses of $1.17 Billion Over a Decade, NYT Reports

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... yt-reports

Vinny

This is the reason they want Trumps tax Records..
They will use the records as propaganda to further there agenda of hate against the Wealthy..

Losses of $1.17 Billion over ten years suggest what type of competence?

Vinny

I would say excellent competence. Tax losses are part of how you make money in real estate. For example, a commercial building is depreciated over 37.5 years, and you get to claim the annual amount as a "loss" which offsets earnings but doesn't actually cost you anything. Also, landlords with multiple buildings manage things so that some of them produce losses at any given time, for the same reason. Per everything I've read, this is why there are so many empty storefronts in Manhattan - the landlords are benefiting from the tax losses, given the high tax environment, and have no incentive to reduce rents.

Why don't you do a little reading on real estate tax structures before you make such statements. There's a reason why so many early retired folks are going for real estate as part of their retirement income, as opposed to simply investing all their savings in the markets.

Sorry. How many corporate or entity tax returns have you prepared?

I'll try to explain it to you simply.

For cash I buy a building for $1,000,000. Pretend I hold it for 20 years and am able to fully depreciate it for tax purposes over that same 20 years, giving me a depreciation expense of $1,000,000.

Over those 20 years I had $2,000,000 in income and $2,000,000 in expenses (not counting depreciation expense).

So I break even on the expenses aside from depreciation. From that I have NO extra money in my pocket.

The only way I have a tax loss from this is if my building is now worth ZERO. Which means that tax loss of $1,000,000 was due to me getting nothing back from my initial $1,000,000 investment. Therefore, my tax loss of $1,000,000 equals a real cash loss of $1,000,000.

Feel free to explain to me with some detail how: "Tax losses are part of how you make money in real estate."

Vinny

How many Businesses/Corp does Trump have or had over the course of the 10 Years?

[shekels]

He's done nothing to take the printing press away from the bankers

They can't stop. It is addictive.
What would happen if the Illusion of the Fed Reserve system was shattered.

But I agree, it's Graft that leads to Slavery and should be dealt with.

[Cortopassi]

You know, this was supposed to be a Biden Harris discussion, but of course, like everything, gets coopted by Trump stuff.

Hey, how about that very fine lawyer that the Donald just happens to read about Harris possibly not being able to run for VP? How did that work out this time? Not so well. Campaign guys needed to hem and haw on the talk shows this morning.

Said Trump is not going to pursue this angle....but would not ever just flat come out and say she is qualified to run. So keep a little doubt in people’s heads.... I’m sure if I sat down with my dad for an hour this would probably come up...

With the post office, COVID, the conventions and debates, going to be a interesting two months.