A business analyst would see the $3.50 he makes a stream while having a minimal cost of $200 (whisky bottle consumed per stream), him trying to pass off half a million worth of bullshit as tax deductions and the 80%+ revenue drop from one year to the next and would ask for every single cent of his honoraries in advance before he even said "pull up!".
Generally, something is no longer considered a "business" where you can deduct everything business-related when it isn't done with the expectation of profit. I'm not sure what he's deducting (if he deducted literally every dumbass fag having a midlife crisis purchase he would put his "business" into not-for-profit territory).
You're generally allowed off-years, but eventually, if the last X number of years haven't shown a profit, you aren't doing it with the expectation of profit and different rules apply.
This isn't a legal opinion, it's an accounting opinion (and I am not an accountant) based on having engaged in an activity where while I previously have done something for profit (and higher profit than my actual job at the time) for several years, I now do the same thing, but not really expecting significant profit, and therefore can't itemize everything related to it as a business deduction.
To some extent, when you have income like this, you can fudge it fairly safely to some extent if you are careful with what you try to itemize, because you don't want to itemize to the point you're literally lowering your "profit" to the point you disqualify yourself from treating it as a business. People who do that are living in a fool's paradise.
If Nick isn't doing something like this, it isn't because he's virtuous or anything either, he might actually save himself trouble by just being such a lazy loser he doesn't even put in the effort to lower his tax burden.
Steve is actually an important public prosecutor of defender, irrc. He’s actually accomplished in his field and has an adult son. @mindlessobserver or @AnOminous might know, but he’s actually a proper go in front of a judge lawyer.
He's an Assistant Public Defender but at the appellate level, which is substantially more prestigious. He isn't just juggling a couple dozen crackheads and wife beaters through plea bargains, but taking cases that make precedent.
It's not the highest paying job you could have, but it's a couple steps above the "any idiot who passed the bar can do this" job. You have to know your shit.
He also has a pretty respectable publication history in academic legal publications.
Unlike most of LawTube, if he opined on a legal issue, particularly one within his bailiwick of appellate criminal law, I'd take it seriously.