CURRENT EVENTS July 14 - July 31

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GOP Reshapes Opportunity Zones to Target Trump Country​

New tax-and-spending law expands benefits for investments in sparsely populated regions​


šŸŽ ā€”> https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy...b?st=JiZhKf&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

ā€œā€¦ For Opportunity Zones 2.0, Republicans reshaped the program to aid rural America, testing whether bigger tax breaks can bring investment to areas largely left behind by a program for left-behind areas.

The new tax lawā€”the ā€œone big, beautiful billā€ that President Trump signed July 4ā€”makes Opportunity Zones a permanent incentive and creates targeted benefits for sparsely populated regions.

ā€¦ The program helped create a Los Angeles business campus, affordable-housing developments in Erie, Pa., and Charleston, S.C., and an emerging neighborhood 2 miles from the U.S. Capitol. But rural spaces in between didnā€™t get muchā€”just 8.5% of investment, according to the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation.

ā€¦ Starting in 2027, after governors designate new zones, capital gains placed into rural investments and held for five years can receive a 30% tax discount, triple the benefit elsewhere. Rural projects will qualify for incentives with lower thresholds for investments in existing structures.

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Even with bigger tax breaks, attracting rural investment might prove difficult. Counties far from major highways arenā€™t always great fits for distribution centers or factories. They donā€™t work well for real-estate developersā€™ standard fare of multifamily-housing projects. And they often lack the utility access necessary for industrial projects.

ā€œThe challenge isnā€™t Opportunity Zones. The challenge is rural,ā€ said Alex Flachsbart, chief executive officer of Opportunity Alabama, a nonprofit that works with Opportunity Zone sponsors and communities and manages its own fund. ā€œAn Opportunity Zone designation does not magically reverse trends or create assets where there arenā€™t any. What it does is elevate communities that would otherwise be overlooked.ā€ā€¦ā€
 
Mulberry Heel said:
Yep. And it's all because Trump has no damned clue as to what he's doing. He has an incoherent tariff/domestic production policy because he doesn't understand how tariffs work or anything else related to it. As in his first term, his "policies" are really based on his personal whims and resentments and petty vindictiveness, and as he's fickle and weak it changes by the day. One day he's for sharply raising tariffs on a country, the next day he backs off. He talks about reviving American industry and production, and then in another area - American agribusiness - he does shit like this. It makes no sense, because he doesn't know what he's doing and has no long-term plan - it's all based on his day-to-day whims and moods and whatever he sees on Fox.
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Correct. As has been said many times before, Trump loves tariffs because he thinks (incorrectly, although that's irrelevant with this SCOTUS) that they are an extortion tool fully within the power and discretion of the executive. Trump is far, far dumber than pretty much all mafiosos, which is why none of it is happening how he promised, but that's undeniably how he is attempting to run his second time in the captain's chair.
 
The good news that Trump is going to send tariff letters to 150 countries notifying them they will be sent payment notices for those tariif payments. He says these should be considered 150 deals he has made.

I just made a deal with Duke Energy to pay my latest monthly tariff of $205 and with Owasa for my monthly water and sewer tariff.

I haven't received my letter and monthly tariff payment notice yet from Spectrum and Dominion Energy., but I will be anxious to make a deal with them when those letters come.
 
Serious question -- are national Democrats aware of how unpopular Trump's policies have become, almost overnight? I get the impulse to let a gravedigger keep digging his own grave, but I'm REALLY close to getting incredibly frustrated that the Dems can't find a unified voice in this moment. Trump is making 20 mistakes every day that would have absolutely sunk any prior presidency (other than Trump 1.0). I just can't believe that after 10+ years of this shit, Dems are still so incapable of using his mistakes against him.
 
lawtig02 said:
Serious question -- are national Democrats aware of how unpopular Trump's policies have become, almost overnight? I get the impulse to let a gravedigger keep digging his own grave, but I'm REALLY close to getting incredibly frustrated that the Dems can't find a unified voice in this moment. Trump is making 20 mistakes every day that would have absolutely sunk any prior presidency (other than Trump 1.0). I just can't believe that after 10+ years of this shit, Dems are still so incapable of using his mistakes against him.
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I sympathise and agree with your thoughts. However, St. Donald of Mar-a-Largo is only half of a two part equation. The other half of the equation is that approximately half the country listens to St. Donald's ravings with rapt attention that I could only muster when while sitting around a fireplace on a winter evening listening to my grandfather recite tales from his youth when I was six years old. The key difference was that I understood the meaning of my grandmother's eye rolls at some particular point of a story that was just a bit too perfect. But the current GOP base has not such counterpoint and will believe and enbrace anything if (a) St. Donald says it and (b) they think it owns the libs.
 
lawtig02 said:
Serious question -- are national Democrats aware of how unpopular Trump's policies have become, almost overnight? I get the impulse to let a gravedigger keep digging his own grave, but I'm REALLY close to getting incredibly frustrated that the Dems can't find a unified voice in this moment. Trump is making 20 mistakes every day that would have absolutely sunk any prior presidency (other than Trump 1.0). I just can't believe that after 10+ years of this shit, Dems are still so incapable of using his mistakes against him.
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Even if Democrats found this unified voice you speak of, no one on the right would hear it. The right wing media bubble censors any criticism of Trump and other right wing radicals, and curates their message to reinforce the fantasies their audience has already been convinced is true. The problem for Democrats is far less about effective messaging than a lack of platforms to disseminate that message.
 
nycfan said:
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I know a former AUSA in WDNC who was fired last week due to work she had done on some 1/6 cases. She had been with that office for about 15 years and was highly respected as a prosecutor and among her colleagues. Apparently the US Attorney (her boss, who is actually a good guy despite being a Trump appointee) didnā€™t even get notice of her firing. Security came in and told her she needed to pack her things up and leave. I donā€™t think the folks in the office are happy about that. The officeā€™s discovery coordinator was also fired due to compiling/organizing discovery In 1/6 cases.
 
nycfan said:
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This might be a good GQPer strategy going into the 2026 elections :sneaky:

I didn't vote for Medicare and Medicaid cuts or raising taxes on working and middle class families to pay for tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires.

no way ! I just voted for the all of the good stuff in the bill that I didn't read ...
 
Who knew Republicans were after a nanny state after all!?

I donā€™t care all that much one way or the other about HFCS versus cane sugar. Thereā€™s plenty of reputable studies that show that thereā€™s minimal difference between the two in terms of affects on oneā€™s health- both are decidedly not good for you outside of moderate to light use. Itā€™s six one, half dozen the other IMO. Only way Iā€™d make a choice is based on taste.

The reason that companies choose HFCS instead of cane sugar is because of high tariffs on sugar, coupled with government subsidies on corn making HFCS a cheaper option for production. Remove the tariffs and end the subsidy, and I can almost guarantee companies like Coke would choose cane sugar on their own.

Its definitely hysterical though that Republicans now think that we need a nanny state to tell us whatā€™s good for us and whatā€™s not, or to tell private companies what ingredients they can use and which they cannot. We used to have a country! We used to have free markets!
 
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