RUSSIAGATE.

Did the Russians really try to mess around with our election process? Of course they did. It’s a ‘no brainer’. If they didn’t they wouldn’t be doing their job, now would they. For crying out loud, we, yes we, the US of A has been doing it to other countries for so long I can’t even remember. But that, my friends, is a whole other story.

By now I am getting very impatient. Impatient because I want to know now, not in 2020 but now, exactly how many votes were the Russians able to swing away from Hillary to Trump. The public has a right to know and we as Americans must insist that the powers that be tell us without any beating around the bush what the revised tally of votes would really have been if the Russian hackers were not up to the task.

And what is more important, which are the guilty communities, those cities or states that were so lax in their procedures so as to let the Russians come in whenever they felt like it to hack away at our Democratic institutions and alter our votes – and what have they done about implementing safeguards so as to prevent future incursions into the way in which we run our elections?

THE NEW TAX LAW.

Whatever the final number is on the amount of the tax reduction, it will definitely help the economy because – the money will for the most part not be saved or used in some magical altruistic manner but be spent. When it is spent and spent it will be, the overall effect on the economy is that it will be subject to the ‘multiplier effect’, which in simple terms means that for every dollar spent, by the time it makes its rounds with all of the buyers, sellers, suppliers, manufacturers and subcontractors, the ultimate effect will be as though five dollars was spent.

Who will benefit the most from this new law? If this law is anything like the laws that preceded it, we probably won’t really know until it has gone through at least one and possibly two tax cycles. Why? Because like with all new laws, if we ask ten experts who have actually taken the time to read the new law, which is already in excess of 1,000 pages, we will get not ten answers but most likely at least a dozen or more answers. Why? Because these different experts will have different interpretations which may all be correct. And also such laws are rarely ever so precise so as not to permit any leeway thereby leaving us with only one singular interpretation.

Case in point. Your CPA has been doing your tax returns the same way for any number of years or your Actuary has been calculating your tax deductible pension contributions for a number of years but for whatever reason you made a change to a different CPA who now does your tax return in a different manner so that you now save on your taxes or a different Actuary who comes up with much higher pension deductions. Which CPA or Actuary was correct? In most instances they could both be correct. Then why are the results not the same? Interpretation, my friend, which is sometimes referred to as expertise.

The most important thing is that people, especially Politicians, do not go off half cocked making comments that are not proven by actually applying the law and all of its provisions in real life situations and that this testing or comparison should be done by more than one CPA in similar circumstances.

SO WHOSE CAPITAL IS IT.

It was always my understanding that a country can decide on its own where their Capital is to be. In the case of Israel their Capital was in Jerusalem some 2,000 years ago and had been there for 1,000 years before. But the Jews were kicked out by the Romans around 73 CE and didn’t officially return until after Israel became a country in 1948.

A little bit of history if you will. Although there were settlements in the area around 3500 BCE, it was not official until King David actually named Jerusalem as the Capital of the United Kingdom of Israel in 1003 BCE. During its existence, the city was laid siege to some twenty three times, attacked fifty two times, captured and re-captured a total of forty four times and actually destroyed twice. Those who today are protesting the re-establishment of Israel’s Capital in Jerusalem are those who would protest in any event, no matter what. This is just the latest of the continual ranting about the total destruction of Israel.

At present, Jerusalem is divided into two sections, west and east, where the west section is part of Israel but not recognized as such by a number of countries and the east section, which is part of Palestine and presumably the location of its own future Capital.