Among the many tax benefits that religious clergy get is that any housing allowance that they are given is exempt from taxes. But if they buy a house and then use that allowance to pay the mortgage they can then, like the rest of us, deduct that mortgage interest from any taxable income that they might have. This is a form of double dipping.
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In Search of the Light: The Adventures of a Parapsychologist (1996) is a memoir by Susan Blackmore. Blackmore became convinced even before she went to college that the paranormal existed and decided to study it as a career. In her first year of college she also had a vivid out-of-body experience (OBE) that made a huge impression on her and she also found that she was an accomplished Tarot card reader, with her clients extremely impressed with the accuracy and quality of the things she told about them, persuading her that she too had psychic abilities.
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The Dutch investigative journalism team Zembla has been looking into Donald Trump’s shady business history, especially his dealings with dubious characters in Russia and Eastern Europe who may be involved in organized crime and money laundering. I linked to part 1 and part 2 of the documentary series and they have now released the third part.
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I had expressed some surprise at the fact that Donald Trump agreed to deals with the Democrats on raising the debt ceiling and funding the government at least through December 12 without demanding anything in return. I had expected him to demand funding for his precious border wall as part of the deal. He also indicated that he was willing to do something to accommodate the so-called Dreamers, those undocumented immigrants who had been brought here as children and had led normal lives here.
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Tennessee senator Bob Corker, a Republican who has announced that he will not run for re-election in 2018, clearly feels free to speak his mind now about what he really thinks about Donald Trump, without fear of consequences. In an extraordinary statement last week, Corker said that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly “are those people that help separate our country from chaos.”
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The rapid succession of shooting tragedies has resulted in people realizing that the phrase ‘ sending our thoughts and prayers’ has become so routine in public discourse. As a result, the instinct of politicians to say they are sending their ‘thoughts and prayers’ to the victims of mass tragedies has started to come in for considerable well-deserved scorn as it is becoming seen as merely a cost-free way for politicians to act as if they care without having to take any action. Ridiculing it out of existence, so that politicians hesitate to use that trite phrase, may be a good way of getting some actual action.
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The people of Puerto Rico continue to suffer and John Oliver discusses their plight.
Seth Meyers also weighs in on Trump’s embarrassing visit to Puerto Rico and throws in Rex Tillerson ‘moron’ comments for good measure.
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Late last evening juts before going to bed, I read a news report that said that after a meeting with his senior military advisors, Donald “Moron” Trump had ominously told the people present that what they were witnessing was the “calm before the storm”. When asked what he meant, he had added “You’ll find out”. While trying to drop off to sleep, I honestly worried that he was about to launch an attack on North Korea that would unleash unpredictable consequences.
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