UNBIASED (8/29/24): TRUMP'S CEMETERY INCIDENT, HARRIS' UNREALIZED GAINS TAX, & MORE.

Intro welcome back to unbiased your favorite source of unbiased news and legal analysis welcome back to unbiased today is Thursday August 29th and this is your final news rundown of the week let's get Yelp Files Antitrust Lawsuit Against Google right into today's stories starting with a lawsuit filed by Yelp against Google so the reviews company Yelp has jumped into the litigation ring and filed a lawsuit against Google over its search engine as you may know because I did cover this a few weeks ago a judge just ruled against Google in a similar anti-rust lawsuit brought by the government in that case the judge ruled that Google had actually violated antitrust law by entering into these distribution contracts with browser developers cell phone manufacturers and cell phone carriers as a way to ensure that Google is the default search engine for the users of these goods and services and if you do want to hear more about that lawsuit you can check out my August 6th episode but in the wake of that ruling Yelp went ahead and filed its own lawsuit so yelp's lawsuit is based on the same premise that Google has El legally preserved its Monopoly by way of its search engines however yelp's lawsuit is a bit different in that it claims that the way Google has allegedly designed its search results page is what's illegal meaning that the way Google lowers the visibility of of specialized search engines like Yelp and Trip Advisor is illegal Yelp says that this scheme prevents business businesses from reaching customers without actually paying Google for sponsored search results and in turn starves these competitors of the traffic and revenues that would allow them to adequately compete with Google notably early on in the government's case the judge overseeing that case actually threw out a very similar claim citing lack of evidence so we'll see if yelp's claim can survive in its own lawsuit yelp's lawsuit is being overseen by an entirely different judge so maybe it works out a little bit differently for them in some What We Know About the Incident at Arlington National Cemetery other news the United States Army has issued a statement after the quote unquote incident that took place at Arlington National Cemetery on Monday I initially covered this story on Tuesday but at that point it was just sort of this he said she said as to what happened we didn't really know too much and we still don't really know too much because no one has seen the actual incident report that was filed but we can still talk about what we do know know at this point so let's start with the Army's statement which was released today it reads quote participants in the August 26th ceremony and the subsequent section 60 visit were made aware of federal laws Army regulations and DOD policies which clearly prohibit political activities on Cemetery grounds an ANC employee who attempted to ensure adherence to these rules was abruptly pushed aside consistent with the decorum expected at ANC this employee acted with professionalism and avoided further disruption the incident was reported to the jbm HH police department but the employee subsequently decided not to press charges therefore the Army considers this matter closed end quote the spokesperson added quote the incident was unfortunate and it is also unfortunate that thec employee an professionalism has been unfairly attacked end quote so to recap just a little bit Trump had attended a ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery on Monday to commemorate the third anniversary of the soldiers who died in the withdrawal from Afghanistan following that ceremony Trump then went to the grave sites of some of the soldiers in an area of the cemetery known as section 60 which is this portion of the cemetery that is mainly reserved for deceased Veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan now section 60 has its own rules and that is where this incident arose so to be clear pictures and videos were allowed they were fine at the actual ceremony but section 60 is treated a little bit differently according to ceremony rules only Cemetery staff are authorized to take pictures and videos in section 60 on top of that there's this issue surrounding a potential political conflict that was noted in the Army statement specifically title 32 part 553 of the code of federal regulations says that Memorial services and ceremonies at Army National military cemeter Aries will not include partisan political activities end quote the cemetery's own policy reads quot ANC will not authorize any filming for partisan political or fundraising purposes end quote now obviously there's this debate as to whether this was a partisan political activity right some could say that Trump's appearance was part of his campaign whereas others could say he was simply there to show his respects family members of the soldiers said that they were actually the ones that invited him to the grave sites in section 60 and gave approval for his photographer and V videographer but regardless of whether this was you know political or not Cemetery rules say that only Cemetery staff are allowed to take pictures and videos in section 60 it sounds like one of Trump's campaign staff tried to take pictures Andor videos in this area and that is when the altercation happened still a lot of he said she said happening the cemetery employees said the altercation was physical and verbal Trump's campaign says there was no physical altercation what we do know is that one Whatever type of altercation this was it was likely over the photography and videography rules two it stemmed from a campaign staffer being told that he or she couldn't take the photos or videos three an incident report was filed we just haven't seen it yet and four the employee isn't pressing charges we may know more in the days to come but that is what we know at this point now we can move on to Quick Quick Hitters hitters starting with an execution in Florida Florida is set to execute a man tonight who murdered an 18-year-old boy who was on a camping trip with his sister in 1994 now 57-year-old lauran Cole will be the first inmate executed in Florida this year his execution is scheduled for 6:00 p.m. tonight and he will receive the lethal injection which in Florida is a three drug cocktail as they call it the the first drug is a sedative the second drug is a paralytic and the third drug stops the inmate's heart in a new audit by the doj's Inspector General release today the FBI has continued to mishandle allegations of child sexual abuse in the Years following the investigation into USA Gymnastics Dr Larry Nasser in one example laid out in the report the FBI failed to follow up for more than a year on a tip about child abuse being committed by a registered sex offender the FBI also failed to report this allegation to local law enforcement and the abusers probation officer because of those failures the child continued to be abused for another 15 months the Inspector General also noted in the report that out of the 327 cases that were reviewed for the audit only 177% were reported with all of the required documentation and next month's debate between Harris and Trump will have the same rules in place as the last debate between Biden and and Trump a copy of the debate rules was provided to the Associated Press today on the condition of anonymity and according to those rules there will be no live audience a candidate's mic will be muted when they're not speaking and they will not be allowed to have written notes and finally don't forget that the Harris walls sitdown interview with CNN will air tonight at 6 p.m. eastern time this is both the first interview that they have done together and Harris's first interview since launching her campaign so again that's CNN 9:00 p.m. eastern time tonight Thursday on to the new segment Rumor Has It that we all love rumor has it this is where I address some recent rumors and either confirm them dispel them or add some contexts so that we're all as informed as possible going into the election let's do it rumor has it that Trump is hosting a fundraiser for January 6th defendants let's add some context the Trump National Golf Club in bed Min New Jersey is hosting an event on September 5th called the j6 awards Gala Trump was invited but his campaign says he will not be in attendance the awards Galla will be benefiting stand in the Gap Foundation which is a nonprofit that provides financial support for the legal bills of the roughly 1200 January 6th defendants moving on rumor has it that Trump supports cutting Social Security not true this rumor came from a recent Harris rally where she said that project 2025 is a plan to weaken the middle class and that Donald Trump intends to cut Social Security walls then made a similar claim in his initial campaign speech saying Trump will quote gut Social Security Harris got this idea from an interview Trump did with CNBC where he said that there was a lot you can do in terms of entitlements in terms of cutting Trump had said that what he meant in that interview was cutting back on fraud not cutting Social Security the truth is neither Trump nor project 2025 support cutting Social Security in fact Trump's agenda 47 which is his own policy plan reads quote under no circumstances should Republicans vote to cut a single penny from Medicare or Social Security end quot similarly the official Republican platform reads quote fight for and protect Social Security and Medicare with no Cuts including no changes to the retirement age end quote next one rumor has it that California is enacting a law that provides homeown payment assistance to illegal immigrants that is true but let's provide context California Assembly Bill 1840 just passed both the house and the senate in California and is currently waiting on Governor Newsome's desk what the bill says is as follows quote an applicant who meets the requirements for a loan under the home purchase assistance program shall not be disqualified by the agency solely based on the applicants immigration status end quote now under this home purchase assistance program in California qualified applicants can receive a 20% down payment or up to $150,000 for their first home that loan is to be repaid once the home is sold or transferred so under this bill anyone who qualifies would be eligible for this assistance regardless of immigration status which can of course include those undocumented at this point Governor Newsome has not said whether he will sign the bill into law and finally rumor has it that Harris's new proposal for tax on unrealized capital gains will tax you annually on the extra value of your home for 99.9% of us this is not true what that rumor is referring to is your unrealized capital gain on your home so if you let's just say as a hypothetical you bought your home in 2005 you sold it in 2018 you profited let's say $600,000 on that sale that would be the capital gain and you would be taxed accordingly it's known as a capital gains tax same thing with stocks too you buy a stock those shares increase in value over time hopefully when you go to sell you pay a capital gains tax on whatever your profit was but let's say that you bought that house in 2005 and you still own it you haven't sold it therefore you have not realized your profit despite its value increasing that is an unrealized capital gain what Harris is proposing is a tax on these types of gains so taxing individuals while they still possess their holding before they've sold it and realized the profit here's the catch though and this is the part A lot of people are missing Harris's proposal only applies to people with more than $1 100 million in assets if you do not have more than $100 million in assets you will not be taxed on your unrealized capital gains if you do not have more than $100 million in assets you will not be taxed on the extra value of your home that you still own if you are in the less than 1% that does have more than $100 million in assets then yes this minimum 25% unrealized capital gains tax would apply to you should Congress act on it because remember this would ultimately be in the hands of Congress I also want to note that this tax on unrealized capital gains is actually something President Biden proposed as part of his 2025 budget plan Harris's proposal came by way of support of that budget plan as well as everything else included in Biden's budget plan so that's where this unrealized capital gains tax proposal is coming from now I want to continue on Daily Critical Thinking Exercise the discussion of an unrealized capital gains tax for today's critical thinking segment on one hand you have the argument that this type of tax on unrealized capital gains is essentially a wealth tax given that it only affects about 10,000 people or 10,000 of America's richest people right the argument on that side is just that those people will be just fine having to pay the tax they'll still be rich and the government will bring in more money to pay our ever growing debt debt furthermore it's a way to address income equality and raise revenue for social programs on the other side you have constitutionality and legal arguments when it comes to the government's ability to tax as well as these arguments about economic effects right so this type of tax May discourage investment and capital formation because there's less incentive to invest in assets like stocks real estate or business and this could ultimately lead to slower economic growth also so Innovation if there's less investments in startups we may see slower Innovation less Innovation then there's a more General argument that it's not right to tax profits that we don't actually have in our pockets so as always there's arguments on both sides of this but to think about this critically think about all of those arguments we just went over think about how such a tax makes you feel do you like the idea or not like the idea and why what is your number one reason for either opposing the tax or supporting the tax and then whatever that number one reason is I want you to try to rebut it this is something we call Steel Manning it's actually a debate technique that allows us to refine our arguments by pointing out the arguments on the other side and as I always say I don't expect you to have an answer right away nor do I want you to have the answers right away critical thinking requires us to challenge the answers that come to us instinctively so take your time with it that is what all of this is for and that is what I have have for you today thank you so much for being here I hope you have a fantastic weekend and I will talk to you on Monday [Music]