US Joe Biden News Megathread - The Other Biden Derangement Syndrome Thread (with a side order of Fauci Derangement Syndrome)

Let's pretend for one moment that he does die before the election, just for the funsies. What happens then? Will the nomination revert to option number 2, aka Bernie Sanders? Or will his running mate automatically replace him just the way Vice-President is supposted to step in after the Big Man in the White House chokes on a piece of matzo? Does he even have a running mate yet?

 

[The Pink Panther]

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That third video is fucking great.

Yeah. I love the irony of his comments and this what happens either. Political satire irl.

 

[Iwasamwillbe]

View attachment 1601205

Yeah, I didn't really care for the last time you were anywhere near a healthcare plan, thanks.

I never quite got why it was apparently particularly necessary for any given president to have a comprehensive "health care plan", instead of just tweaking some things to make the health care system run more smoothly for everybody. A complete overhaul, if needed, can be developed later, after we've done away with obnoxious memes like "universal American health care" in the discourse.

 

[X Prime]

Suddenly, off in the distance, @Syaoran Li gets a gigantic erection that just will not go down. He does not know why this is. When he eventually returns to this thread, he will know why:

https://twitter.com/APIAVote/status/1305919806781104129

He will scream "VINDICATION!" unto the heavens, before passing out from inadequate blood flow to the brain.

(What these hacks on Twitter left out was this is actually a double digit boost for Trump.)

 

[Reverend]

Suddenly, off in the distance, @Syaoran Li gets a gigantic erection that just will not go down. He does not know why this is. When he eventually returns to this thread, he will know why:

https://twitter.com/APIAVote/status/1305919806781104129

View attachment 1601470

He will scream "VINDICATION!" unto the heavens, before passing out from inadequate blood flow to the brain.

(What these hacks on Twitter left out was this is actually a double digit boost for Trump.)

"Favorability" is weasel word nonsense that doesn't mean jack shit. You can personally hate someone but will still vote for them. Hell I don't mind Joe Biden, he's funny, big time gag guy, I'd hang out with him and have some beers. Would I vote for him? EL OH EL no.

Trump is a sociopathic narcissistic asshole memelord. Would I vote for him? Yes.

Difference being is the issues that each candidate is running on/for which align with my interests and vote for them.

 

[Absolutego]

Trump's plan is to leave it up to the market. Which worked pretty well until you and Barry forced everyone to get on insurance. Which resulted in the ins companies to raise everyone's premiums to cover deadbeats.

Fuck you Joe and the horse you came on.

Well no, it didn't work "well" because the market pre-Obamacare still let insurers and hospitals act as an unaccountable cartel and gouge every customer for their life savings, but putting the federal stamp of approval on that system turned out to be a very poor way to do anything besides getting credit for saving healthcare, which is apparently all that mattered to Obama.

 

[CrippleThreat]

Some wealthy Americans are already prepping their finances for a Joe Biden presidency — here’s how
(archive)

One San Francisco accountant finishes every client conversation with a discussion about what a Biden administration could mean for portfolios

San Francisco accountant Scott Hoppe had a client who was planning to stretch the sale of founder shares in a tech-sector company over a three-year period.

Instead, the client compressed the installment sale into a one-shot transaction this month.

What accelerated the deal?

The 2020 presidential race. “Assuming all else was equal, that was the driver of the choice,” said Hoppe, principal of the accounting firm Why Blu.

Right now, Hoppe’s client, worth between $10 million and $20 million, will be taxed on capital gains at a rate of 23.8%.

If Democratic candidate Joe Biden beats President Donald Trump — and Democrats retain the House of Representatives and flip the Senate — that client could have potentially been staring at a 39.6% tax rate in two out of the installment sale’s three years.

The compressed transaction, then, could have saved the client approximately $320,000 in taxes on the $6 million sale. “The seller, for sure, was motivated, and the buyer had the wherewithal” to pay the full price upfront, said Hoppe.

Biden’s tax plan would put the marginal rate for top earners back at the Obama-era 39.6% rate, up from the current 37% rate. That 39.6% rate would apply to the capital gains of people who earn more than $1 million. It’s one aspect of a tax proposal where the top 1% of earners would pay for almost 80% of an increase in taxes, according to a budget model from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business.

Election Day is eight weeks away, and the mass of expected mail-in ballots could prolong the wait for a final result, with many states not beginning to count absentee votes till the polls close. Though polling averages in swing states currently give Biden an edge over President Donald Trump, and he’s held a steady lead in national polls for most of the year, polls indicated right up till Election Day in November 2016 that Hillary Clinton would best Trump.

Either way, though, many of America’s affluent households, and the experts who advise them, aren’t waiting.

Hoppe finishes every client conversation with a discussion about what a Biden administration could mean for portfolios vs. a second Trump term. One Illinois financial-planning firm has carried out approximately 50 Roth IRA conversions this year with an eye on the election.

One adviser’s left-leaning clients don’t think a Biden win will negatively affect their finances, but the adviser’s right-leaning ones think a Biden win could send their portfolio to ‘hell in a hand basket.’
In Houston, Scott Bishop, executive vice president at STA Wealth Management, has fielded election-related calls and emails from half his clients in the past two months.

Bishop’s liberal-leaning clients want to hear about potential opportunities and tend to downplay the idea of new tax rules upending their finances. As for Bishop’s conservative-leaning clients, “they think this is going to hell in a hand basket” and want to get ready to quickly lock in rates and minimize tax exposure if Biden wins.

Bishop — who recalls talking down one client who wanted to “sell everything” when Trump won in 2016 — counsels everyone to think things through. “I try to get them to not act on their biases,” he told MarketWatch.

The flurry in planning comes at a time when income inequality is more dramatic than at any time in the past 50 years — and the coronavirus pandemic, it is feared, could further deepen the gulf between the rich and poor. Biden says his tax plan would make sure corporations and wealthy Americans pay their “fair share.”

‘We are working in the boundaries that are given to us.’
— Scott Hoppe, Why Blu

Is it unfair that wealthier Americans are availing themselves of tax rules that work to their advantage? “We are working in the boundaries that are given to us,” Hoppe said, echoing a point numerous sources made to MarketWatch. Tax rules are written to discourage or encourage all sorts of activity, he said — like a lower capital-gains rate to promote financial investments. When lawmakers “want to change our behavior, the code evolves.”

The Biden campaign couldn’t be reached for comment.

Below, a description of three ways affluent Americans are taking the tax-planning bull by the horns weeks ahead of the election.

Estate planning
Americans will inherit $765 billion this year in gifts and bequests, and that sum will generate $16 billion in taxes, according to New York University Law School professor Lily Batchelder, who says that’s barely a 2% effective tax rate.

The Republicans’ tax overhaul of late 2017 elevated the threshold at which the 40% federal gift and estate exemption phases out. Starting in 2018, the exemption level went from $5.45 million to $11.4 million for individuals ($22.8 million for married couples), and it’s indexed for inflation.

The provision ends in 2025, but observers say Biden wants to end it a lot sooner and bring the estate tax back to its “historical norm.”

Biden also wants to end the so-called step-up in basis. This tax rule states that if an heir sells an inherited asset (like 7,000 shares of Apple AAPL, -2.95% ) capital-gains taxation on any future sale is pegged to an asset’s value at the time of inheritance, not the date of the original purchase. If an asset appreciates greatly over time, the step-up in basis saves an heir plenty in capital gains.

Michael Whitty, a partner specializing in estate law at Freeborn & Peters in Chicago, is telling his clients to schedule one-hour calls with him now to game out election contingency plans.

How much to give away and what to give away are some of the topics, he said. Whitty wants to have the talks sooner rather than later — especially in light of the fact that lawmakers in the past have been known to make new estate-tax rates retroactive.

‘The client who waits until after Election Day, and some will wait until towards Thanksgiving, well, we’re going to be really behind the eight ball to put together a well-prepared, well-documented transfer.’
— Michael Whitty, Freeborn & Peters

“The client who waits until after Election Day — and some will wait until towards Thanksgiving — well, we’re going to be really behind the eight ball to put together a well-prepared, well-documented transfer,” Whitty said.

At Playfair Planning in Brooklyn, CEO Kim Bourne is advising clients more than ever to file estate-tax returns even when they don’t have to. This gets asset valuations on paper — a move that will ease cost-basis determinations later on, she said.

Bourne’s clients aren’t speeding up gifts right now, but she is recommending they think about loans among family members. A loan doesn’t eat into the gift and estate exemption, and it can always be converted to a “gift” later on, once planners know the legal landscape. “Intrafamily loans are a simple way to navigate the uncertainty and take advantage of the low-interest environment,” she said.
The election is influencing other long-term financial planning.

The coming election “was a very critical component, but it wasn’t everything that was discussed,” when Randy Bruns’s Naperville, Ill.–based financial advisory firm, Model Wealth, carried out approximately 50 conversions this year from IRAs to Roth IRAs.

Investors pay tax on IRA distributions once they start tapping the account. With a Roth IRA, they pay taxes during the contribution, and the money comes out tax-free at distribution — so the reasoning for a Roth account is to avoid a higher tax rate in the future.

‘This is all going up and you may never see it as good as it is now.’
— Randy Bruns, Model Wealth

When Bruns explains the election implications to clients, he’s not taking a political stance on the merits of potential tax hikes, he notes. Focusing on rates, he tells his clients, “This is all going up, and you may never see it as good as it is now.”

Capital gains and ordinary income
Unlike vanquished rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, Biden is not proposing a “wealth tax” on the highest earners. But he does want to reset the top income-tax bracket at 39.6%.

He also wants the rich to pay more into Social Security. Employers and employees currently pay a combined 12.4% in payroll taxes on the first $137,700 an employee earns. Biden’s proposal would restart payroll taxation, still at 12.4%, at the 400,001st dollar a person makes.

Under the circumstances, Stacy Francis, CEO of Francis Financial in Manhattan, says she’s telling clients expecting a bonus or other special end-of-year compensation to see if they can arrange for the money to arrive by the end of this year and not at the start of next year.

Capital-gains rates are another consideration. Biden would raise the capital-gains rate to 39.6% for people making at least $1 million. That would go up from 23.8% (which is the 20% rate, plus the 3.8% net investment income tax).

That’s “nearly doubling the tax bite for higher earners,” Francis pointed out — and it could have repercussions for people with large transactions coming up. For example, if a family needs to sell off a brokerage account because of an upcoming college tuition bill or a house purchase, Francis said “it makes sense to do that sooner than later.”

‘It’s only if you know that you’re going to have to sell investments in the next year or so that we recommend you do that now versus later.’
— Stacy Francis, Francis Financial

Francis is not advising investors with long-term positions and goals to contemplate selloffs now.
Election Day 2020 is uncertain, but the uncertainty only increases from that point forward. “Ten years from now, the tax landscape is so uncharted,” Francis said. “It’s only if you know that you’re going to have to sell investments in the next year or so that we recommend you do that now versus later.”

‘We can only protect what we know about’
Broader tax rules are one way to generate more revenue. Another is making sure taxpayers are paying all their taxes to begin with.

The 2020 presidential campaign comes with an increasingly short-staffed Internal Revenue Service auditing fewer returns. The agency data show the IRS audited 1.73 million returns (almost 1% of all returns) in fiscal year 2010. The IRS audited just over 770,000 returns in fiscal 2019, which is fewer than 0.5%.

Figures like former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers — a Biden campaign adviser — say the IRS could reap an extra $535 billion if it brought audit rates back to their level of 10 years ago and trained its focus on the super-rich.

This summer, the IRS announced it would be launching hundreds of new audits of high-net-worth individuals. Around the same time, Biden unveiled a plan for universal preschool and higher caregiver pay; the campaign says it’s a $775 billion plan underwritten, in part, by increased “tax compliance for high-income earners.”

Tax attorney Cameron Hess expects both parties to support increased high-net-worth audits.
Political attitudes about the IRS’s audit rates swing like a pendulum, said Hess, a partner at the California-based law firm Wagner Kirkman Blaine Klomparens & Youmans. At one point, starting around the 1990s, the IRS was seen as too aggressive.

‘Perhaps there’s more support by Democrats than Republicans, but there is a push to swing the pendulum back the other way.’
— Cameron Hess

Now it’s a question of whether the IRS is doing enough. “Perhaps there’s more support by Democrats than Republicans,” said Hess, “but there is a push to swing the pendulum back the other way.”

Looking ahead to Election Day and beyond, Hess has been telling clients, and tax-business colleagues, how important it is for them to have access to permanent records related to the costs of their capital assets. That’s something the IRS has become increasingly curious about, Hess said.

When Hoppe talks to clients about the election, one thing he’s doing is flagging the potential for an audit. Specifically, Hoppe is making sure he knows about all the offshore accounts a client may have, or if a client has any cryptocurrency holdings he might otherwise be unaware of. Hoppe says he’s already meticulous in his documentation, but still, “We can only protect what we know about.”

tl;dr: There's a lot of money ridin' on/with Biden.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Biden: I trust vaccines. I trust scientists. I don't trust Trump.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Woman says she's voting for Biden because Trump dodged her question in town hall
(archive)

One woman said she's voting for Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden because President Trump dodged her questions during ABC News's town hall in Philadelphia on Tuesday.

Ellesia Blaque is an English professor at Kutztown University and questioned the president Tuesday night about health care and what his administration can do to offer those with preexisting conditions, such as herself, who are paying over $5,000 in copays for a condition she has had since birth.

"Mr. President, I was born with a disease called sarcoidosis, and from the day I was born, I was considered uninsurable. That disease started in my skin, moved to my eyes, into my optic nerves, and when I went to graduate school, into my brain."

Blaque asked Trump, "Should preexisting conditions, which ObamaCare ... brought to fruition be removed?"

"I want to know what it is that you're going to do assure that people like me who work hard, we do everything we're supposed to do, can stay insured," she added.

Trump told Blaque his administration would not hinder anyone with preexisting conditions from seeking affordable plans and choosing the doctors to treat their medical needs, arguing that his opposition in the election would attempt to remove coverage for preexisting conditions.

"If you look at what they want to do, where they have socialized medicine, they will get rid of preexisting conditions, if they go into Medicare for All, which is socialized medicine. And you can forget about your doctors and your plans, just like you could forget under President Obama," Trump said.

Following the interview, CNN contacted Blaque to hear her perspective on Trump's response, to which she said, "He didn't answer my question."

She added that she left the event upset, but decided that she would participate in this year's Nov. 3 election after previously qualifying for ABC's town hall as an uncommitted voter.

"I'm going to vote for Biden," she said, adding the president "reanimated me to vote."

I'm getting Obama vibes. The illusion that everything can be perfect again once you get rid of the red menace is crazy one.

EDIT: Either that, or this chick is someone who couldn't care less about voting, but was selected to be brought on to see how Orange Man Bad™. Reanimated me to vote? You can't be serious...

 

[Billy "the Bot" Bobson]

"Favorability" is weasel word nonsense that doesn't mean jack shit. You can personally hate someone but will still vote for them. Hell I don't mind Joe Biden, he's funny, big time gag guy, I'd hang out with him and have some beers. Would I vote for him? EL OH EL no.

Trump is a sociopathic narcissistic asshole memelord. Would I vote for him? Yes.

Difference being is the issues that each candidate is running on/for which align with my interests and vote for them.

I'd take Trump over Biden for beers. The man owned the WWE for a period of time, there's fun stories. I hear enough stories about fun times with underage girls from my regular pals.

 

[GuntPunt]

Suddenly, off in the distance, @Syaoran Li gets a gigantic erection that just will not go down. He does not know why this is. When he eventually returns to this thread, he will know why:

https://twitter.com/APIAVote/status/1305919806781104129

View attachment 1601470

He will scream "VINDICATION!" unto the heavens, before passing out from inadequate blood flow to the brain.

(What these hacks on Twitter left out was this is actually a double digit boost for Trump.)

That's shockingly less than the 65 points Clinton won with Asians. Trumps is about the same at 31 to 30.

 

[Snekposter]

Just gonna point out that Mexicans and other south of the border types absolutely love their borderline tacky, over the top party shit. Trump would totally get a big boost in Latino voting if he did some hilariously kitschy dance with an absurd Coronavirus mascot (obviously not Corona-chan herself, blacks and their unironic weebery would love Trump on stage with her twerking to some rap song with him smacking dat ass). Would it be shameless pandering? Damn straight. But Mexicans love guys who know how to have fun, especially since he'd totally drink the worm and play up the whole "Yes I'm white as fuck but I'm still trying to fit in" thing.

 

[Jimmy Durante's Ballsack]

Just gonna point out that Mexicans and other south of the border types absolutely love their borderline tacky, over the top party shit. Trump would totally get a big boost in Latino voting if he did some hilariously kitschy dance with an absurd Coronavirus mascot (obviously not Corona-chan herself, blacks and their unironic weebery would love Trump on stage with her twerking to some rap song with him smacking dat ass). Would it be shameless pandering? Damn straight. But Mexicans love guys who know how to have fun, especially since he'd totally drink the worm and play up the whole "Yes I'm white as fuck but I'm still trying to fit in" thing.

Hmmm I wonder...

 

[XYZpdq]

an absurd Coronavirus mascot

Santo fought Corona fairly recently

 

[he who has thus come/gone]

EDIT: Either that, or this chick is someone who couldn't care less about voting, but was selected to be brought on to see how Orange Man Bad™. Reanimated me to vote? You can't be serious...

I looked up her academic info on the Kutztown University website. I cross referenced the classes listed on her profile and 3 of the 4 are just intro english bullshit. The last one?

Yeah, the assistant professor who teaches black literature was totally weighing her options on whether to vote for Trump or not. Fucking ridiculous. At least use somebody who isn't obviously just a leftist academic according to public information.

 

[Salubrious]

Trump fielded more genuine questions in that town hall alone (to the point Ben Shapiro was telling Trump to stop doing it) than Biden will have fielded in this entire 4-year election cycle.

 

[HTTP Error 404]

https://twitter.com/RedPillMaC/status/1306352923941777409

https://archive.vn/CPMcZ

Will Biden even live until November?

 

[XYZpdq]

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https://twitter.com/RedPillMaC/status/1306352923941777409

https://archive.vn/CPMcZ

Will Biden even live until November?

I was expecting more of a slip or a flub than WELP TIME TO GET THE LIST OUT

 

[Snekposter]

@XYZpdq That settles it, we need a Luchador match between El Aguilar Naranja and Corona. Let Trump use that prior WWE experience on the campaign trail, but I don't think they make the opposite of fat suits, as much as it would be needed.

 

[Doctor of Autism]

I was expecting more of a slip or a flub than WELP TIME TO GET THE LIST OUT

Biden is barely cognitive and it's so blatant, like I seriously question why people would vote for him if it's not just because they hate Trump? Are there any actual Joe Biden supporters who believe he's right for the country regardless of his political party and not being the current president?

 

[usernames can change now!]

can someone with more video editing skills than me slam some clips together?

>open with dramatic music
>DUHHHNNMN
>white text, centered, "WHO WILL ANSWER THE CALL", background is Kamala saying "a harris administration with joe biden"
>second background clip, joe biden saying "a Harris-Biden administration"
>DUUUUHHHNNN
>when the lights are on
>background clip is now the despacito gaffe
>DUUUUHHHNNN
>and nobody is home
>im joe biden, I'm running for United states senate, if you like me look me over, if you don't vote for the other biden

 

[GuntPunt]

Trump fielded more genuine questions in that town hall alone (to the point Ben Shapiro was telling Trump to stop doing it) than Biden will have fielded in this entire 4-year election cycle.

Trump is doing a trial by fire in this small town hall where noone would pay attention after 1 day. He gets the benefit of literally getting all their talking points for the first debate, trying out his responses, and course correcting for prime time. It's smart, especially since it has extremely small downsides.

 

[SteelPlatedHeart]

Biden is barely cognitive and it's so blatant, like I seriously question why people would vote for him if it's not just because they hate Trump? Are there any actual Joe Biden supporters who believe he's right for the country regardless of his political party and not being the current president?

Because anyone but Trump, apparently.