Interesting. Where did this info come from since he won't release it to Congress?
Edit: I would surmise that he didn't do this on his own. He's not smart enough. I'd bet he just let his tax lawyer(s) handle it and left if at that. He's not a career politician so I doubt he was worried that it would haunt him later. Not an excuse, but a plausible explanation...
@Balrog99: An anonymous source provided it to them. Despite the worry about the supposed unreliability of anonymous sources, the data they found apparently matched publicly available data.
Since the 2016 presidential campaign, journalists at The Times and elsewhere have been trying to piece together Mr. Trump’s complex and concealed finances. While The Times did not obtain the president’s actual tax returns, it received the information contained in the returns from someone who had legal access to it. The Times was then able to find matching results in the I.R.S. information on top earners — a publicly available database that each year comprises a one-third sampling of those taxpayers, with identifying details removed. It also confirmed significant findings using other public documents, along with confidential Trump family tax and financial records from the newspaper’s 2018 investigation into the origin of the president’s wealth.
@Balrog99: An anonymous source provided it to them. Despite the worry about the supposed unreliability of anonymous sources, the data they found apparently matched publicly available data.
Since the 2016 presidential campaign, journalists at The Times and elsewhere have been trying to piece together Mr. Trump’s complex and concealed finances. While The Times did not obtain the president’s actual tax returns, it received the information contained in the returns from someone who had legal access to it. The Times was then able to find matching results in the I.R.S. information on top earners — a publicly available database that each year comprises a one-third sampling of those taxpayers, with identifying details removed. It also confirmed significant findings using other public documents, along with confidential Trump family tax and financial records from the newspaper’s 2018 investigation into the origin of the president’s wealth.
Well, if true, that would explain why he doesn't want to release it to Congress. Again, I personally don't find it that terrible because honestly, if I were in his shoes I'd likely do the same thing. Nobody wants to give away more money than they have to. I don't expect politicians to be paladins. Nobody could have voted for any Kennedy in good conscience if they expect no skeletons in the closet. Old shady dealing, insider-trading and (possible) bootlegging money did well for that family...
It's one long string of embarrassing business failures one after another, year after year. The numbers are cross-referenced and verified. He lost over one billion dollars over the course of 10 years.
It's not that surprising. Folks in the business world have long been very well aware that Trump's business ventures routinely failed and that he constantly exaggerated his gains, and this is just one more nail in the coffin.
It's just so incredibly petty. He spent decades desperately touting himself as a master businessman, and yet he was the single biggest failure in real estate in modern history. How much time did he spend trying to convince people he was smart instead of actually working on his skills and trying to understand the market? How many years of his life did he waste on preening and fussing over his appearance instead of actually competing in the business world?
This is what happens when a successful businessman, Fred Trump, gets to funnel $400 million to his son. The money is wasted, because the son is grossly incompetent--and the son is grossly incompetent because he never had to earn his keep. This is what happens to family dynasties that grow so powerful that the children are weak and coddled and helpless on their own. They disintegrate.
There are always failures in the free market. But if you fail in a business venture, at least be honest with yourself and with other people about how it went. When a man spends his entire life refusing to admit his own incompetence, and struggles to this day to convince people he's good at his job, it's just pathetic.
What else is there to say?
I wonder if people have any true idea of just HOW MUCH the MYTH of Trump's business success played in his attaining the position he is in now. Because it was perhaps one of THE major factors in it. And it was all bullshit. He likely can only claim (given what has happened) that he is the most successful con-man of all-time, and I don't even think there is a close second. That isn't a compliment. America got played because for the 80s version of Trump they bought into "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" and in the 90s they bought into the reality TV bullshit of "The Apprentice". Trump is in every way, from his decency as a person, to his business acumen, to the idea of entertainment that he sells, the absolute lowest common denominator. He's an America drunk on shitty reality TV, tabloids, and the navel-gazing narcissism of social media.
Also, a word about Trump's taxes and Congress. There is this misconception that Congress is personally asking Trump for them. They aren't. There is a law (passed by a Congress and signed by a President) that REQUIRES the IRS to hand over the tax records of anyone Congress deems necessary for investigation. There is no wording exempting the President. Nothing even close to it. Steve Mnuchin is the head of the Treasury. He is required, BY LAW, to provide Trump's taxes to Congress. He is BREAKING the law by not doing it. Trump is absolutely, 100% telling Mnuchin to break this law, and they are just making reasons up out of thin air as to why they don't have to do it. There is no legal justification or precedent to what is being done here. Like with everything else, Trump just breaks the law and says "who is going to stop me??". And the answer, it's becoming increasingly clear, is that no one can.
an 1/4 Jew Pomeranian born in germany was considered "aryan" on nazi germany but an 100% Pomeranian born in Poland is "slav"... That is a problem with ALL racial ideologies.
How is the NYT piece about Trump's tax returns and debt news? Everyone should have already known Trump was billions in debt at one point. He wrote a book about it.
I guess we're so out of ammo after years of a frenzied smear campaign where everything and the kitchen sink was thrown and all objectivity and journalistic integrity was cast aside, that we have to circle back to the old tropes. The classics, if you will.
And how about that Brian Sims character trying to dox teenage girls and old women on camera as a state representative. My state is really mad at him right now.
He's a failure. People shouldn't idolize him at all. I don't get why people have to excuse his failures and lies.
Yeah, because Al Gore and John Kerry gave away all their wealth to charity because they're such good guys. Oh wait...
I've yet to hear about Al Gore living in a normal-sized house while growing his own vegetables and not flying in a private jet. I won't be holding my breath (but maybe I should since my exhalation is a poisonous fume that is destroying the world). The 'Inconvenient Truth' is that Gore and his ilk want 'us' to sacrifice while rich pseudo-liberals like him and the Clintons do whatever the Hell they want...
Yeah, Trump "wrote" a book about it. Also, random blurbs from the Library Journal is like a movie having a quote from "Tex Willerson, WDAZ/Dallas" on your DVD case because no actual legitimate movie critic said anything good about it.
Yeah, because Al Gore and John Kerry gave away all their wealth to charity because they're such good guys. Oh wait...
I've yet to hear about Al Gore living in a normal-sized house while growing his own vegetables and not flying in a private jet. I won't be holding my breath (but maybe I should since my exhalation is a poisonous fume that is destroying the world). The 'Inconvenient Truth' is that Gore and his ilk want 'us' to sacrifice while rich pseudo-liberals like him and the Clintons do whatever the Hell they want...
I guess we're so out of ammo after years of a frenzied smear campaign where everything and the kitchen sink was thrown and all objectivity and journalistic integrity was cast aside, that we have to circle back to the old tropes. The classics, if you will.
Losses =/= Debt.
Also. Yes. Let's take Trump's self promotional books at face value while castigating the entire industry of journalism. Sure. That's a good bet.
If you want more good advice, I recommend Trump University. Definitely going to make you more money than getting a degree in the morally bankrupt industry of journalism.
Yeah, because Al Gore and John Kerry gave away all their wealth to charity because they're such good guys. Oh wait...
I've yet to hear about Al Gore living in a normal-sized house while growing his own vegetables and not flying in a private jet. I won't be holding my breath (but maybe I should since my exhalation is a poisonous fume that is destroying the world). The 'Inconvenient Truth' is that Gore and his ilk want 'us' to sacrifice while rich pseudo-liberals like him and the Clintons do whatever the Hell they want...
I guess we're so out of ammo after years of a frenzied smear campaign where everything and the kitchen sink was thrown and all objectivity and journalistic integrity was cast aside, that we have to circle back to the old tropes. The classics, if you will.
Losses =/= Debt.
Also. Yes. Let's take Trump's self promotional books at face value while castigating the entire industry of journalism. Sure. That's a good bet.
If you want more good advice, I recommend Trump University. Definitely going to make you more money than getting a degree in the morally bankrupt industry of journalism.
How soon we forget that (despite COUNTLESS claims to the contrary in the campaign he wouldn't settle) that while he was President-elect, he basically ADMITTED to running a fraudulent scam in Trump U by settling for 25 million dollars in a class action lawsuit. That story alone would have destroyed any other Presidential candidate in history. I mean shit, let's just do a quick rundown of NON-POLITICAL scandals this guy is up to his neck in (or should be if he wasn't constantly flooding the zone with more bullshit):
1.) Shady tax schemes and possible elder abuse of his father in trying to get him to alter his will on his deathbed.
2.) Running a fraudulent university.
3.) A decades long history of not paying contractors who worked for him.
4.) Using bankruptcy at least HALF A DOZEN times to escape financial ruin and leaving creditors and literally everyone else but him holding the bag.
5.) Inflating his assets for the purpose of getting loans.
6.) Possible insurance fraud in regards to questionable damage reported to his Florida resort after a hurricane (and I guarantee that story was just the tip of the iceberg).
That's just what I can remember off the top of my head in a 3 minute span. But yeah, he's great. Absolutely the person we want running the country. Saying you don't expect your politicians to be Paladins is not a useful fantasy point of reference to this guy. How about demanding they aren't fucking Vecna??
Whataboutism is just an offhand way of pointing out that your guys are not all that. You act like your alternatives are so much better but I just don't see it. Yeah I could vote for a Democrat when I don't believe in what they stand for, but why would I? Because it's the right thing to do somehow? Trump is an asshole but he's doing a fair amount of things I like and some things I don't. Your guy or gal would likely do a lot of things I don't like and maybe a few things I do. I'm sorry, that's not much of an option to me.
Edit: Nobody in either party would have picked this trade fight with China and the EU. That alone is something I've wanted to at least be tried. Whether it works or not is irrelevant to me. What matters is we can at least see what happens instead of speculating. The North Korea and Iran spectacles are another thing we're getting an actual look at instead of navel-gazing. Now we're putting the screws on Europe to buy our natural gas instead of Russia's. Interesting, would either of our parties have had the balls to try that one on for size? There are some advantages to having this dickhead run things for a while. I'm an analyst by nature and Trump has been a treasure-trove for new data (good and bad).
Whataboutism is just an offhand way of pointing out that your guys are not all that. You act like your alternatives are so much better but I just don't see it. Yeah I could vote for a Democrat when I don't believe in what they stand for, but why would I? Because it's the right thing to do somehow? Trump is an asshole but he's doing a fair amount of things I like and some things I don't. Your guy or gal would likely do a lot of things I don't like and maybe a few things I do. I'm sorry, that's not much of an option to me.
Edit: Nobody in either party would have picked this trade fight with China and the EU. That alone is something I've wanted to at least be tried. Whether it works or not is irrelevant to me. What matters is we can at least see what happens instead of speculating. The North Korea and Iran spectacles are another thing we're getting an actual look at instead of navel-gazing. Now we're putting the screws on Europe to buy our natural gas instead of Russia's. Interesting, would either of our parties have had the balls to try that one on for size? There are some advantages to having this dickhead run things for a while. I'm an analyst by nature and Trump has been a treasure-trove for new data (good and bad).
North Korea just launched another rocket and Bolton just moved us even closer to a war with Iran this week. So I'm not even sure what we're talking about here. NOTHING has happened on North Korea except alot of media coverage amounting to exactly jack shit and Trump destroyed a deal that was 100% effectively preventing Iran from developing a nuke. He owns BOTH of them now, and nothing remotely positive has come out of either situation.
Anyone who think Kim Jong-Un is going to give up his nuclear program after seeing what Trump and Bolton did to the Iran deal when they were in total compliance is out of their goddamned minds. Why would he give up the ONE thing that is guaranteed to keep him in a position of strength when anyone can clearly see that the word of the United States isn't worth the paper it's printed on??
He's a failure. People shouldn't idolize him at all. I don't get why people have to excuse his failures and lies.
Yeah, because Al Gore and John Kerry gave away all their wealth to charity because they're such good guys. Oh wait...
I've yet to hear about Al Gore living in a normal-sized house while growing his own vegetables and not flying in a private jet. I won't be holding my breath (but maybe I should since my exhalation is a poisonous fume that is destroying the world). The 'Inconvenient Truth' is that Gore and his ilk want 'us' to sacrifice while rich pseudo-liberals like him and the Clintons do whatever the Hell they want...
This attack is whataboutism and it's silly.
So if Gore renounced capitalism the bad faith right would screaming "bloody communist", he identified a threat to the planet and wants to improve things and the bad faith right complains "ah but he flies in a jet!"
Whataboutism is just an offhand way of pointing out that your guys are not all that. You act like your alternatives are so much better but I just don't see it. Yeah I could vote for a Democrat when I don't believe in what they stand for, but why would I? Because it's the right thing to do somehow? Trump is an asshole but he's doing a fair amount of things I like and some things I don't. Your guy or gal would likely do a lot of things I don't like and maybe a few things I do. I'm sorry, that's not much of an option to me.
The difference is: the argument wasnt made that "our guys" are all that. There are PLENTY of flaws with the D's. The argument is just that Trump is terrible.
Bad for Healthcare. Bad for the deficit. Bad for debt. Bad at business. Bad at foreign policy. Bad at empathy. Bad at being a good person. Bad at telling the truth. Bad at defending core values of US democracy. Bad for the environment. I could go on, but frankly, it's depressing.
Selectively, every candidate in the 2020 field may check a few of the above boxes. None check them all. Trump will go down in history as one of the most flawed presidents. He'll be in the 4th quartile, hovering around GWB range. Conversely, early returns on Obama place him at the threshold of the first and second quartile.
Not all Democrats are good. Not all Republicans are bad. This guy is an absolute dumpster fire.
Whataboutism is just an offhand way of pointing out that your guys are not all that. You act like your alternatives are so much better but I just don't see it. Yeah I could vote for a Democrat when I don't believe in what they stand for, but why would I? Because it's the right thing to do somehow? Trump is an asshole but he's doing a fair amount of things I like and some things I don't. Your guy or gal would likely do a lot of things I don't like and maybe a few things I do. I'm sorry, that's not much of an option to me.
Edit: Nobody in either party would have picked this trade fight with China and the EU. That alone is something I've wanted to at least be tried. Whether it works or not is irrelevant to me. What matters is we can at least see what happens instead of speculating. The North Korea and Iran spectacles are another thing we're getting an actual look at instead of navel-gazing. Now we're putting the screws on Europe to buy our natural gas instead of Russia's. Interesting, would either of our parties have had the balls to try that one on for size? There are some advantages to having this dickhead run things for a while. I'm an analyst by nature and Trump has been a treasure-trove for new data (good and bad).
The idea of trying experiments, irrespective of the potential damage they could do and without knowing what the potential benefits are - seems scary and reckless to me.
The Iran situation is getting steadily worse. The US is moving forces of various kinds to the Gulf in response to unspecified threats to their existing forces there. I can't know of course whether they are actually preparing for war or not, but whatever the intentions of the US government the situation is becoming increasingly dangerous.
The Iranians have threatened repeatedly to close the Strait of Hormuz, which would block a lot of movements of oil. In the current climate I struggle to see any other response to that by the US than reopening it by force and that would have a good chance of precipitating a general war.
Let's just take a reality check about what war would mean.
Is it conceivable that the US could destroy the bulk of Iranian forces - yes, absolutely.
Is it conceivable that the US could install a puppet government - less likely, but possible.
Is it conceivable that the puppet government would be able to control the country and end the war - not in a million years.
It may not be so obvious to Americans, but the reputation of the US internationally is now extremely low and that will have impacts in the event of a war with Iran. There is no chance of the sort of general international coalition forming that there was for the first Iraq war. The only support the US could get would be from countries seeking to improve their own direct position in the region (Saudi Arabia and Israel).
It may also not be generally understood by Americans just how strong the feeling against them is in Iran. It is the case that the US has historically behaved far, far worse to Iran than vice-versa. A significant part of that was the first main CIA dirty tricks campaign that was used to overthrow the Mossadegh democratic government in the 1950s as part of securing US access to Gulf oil, but there have been plenty more actions that fall outside generally accepted means for conducting international diplomacy. There's no more likelihood of the Iranians now accepting a government forcibly installed by the US, than there would be of Americans accepting a government forcibly installed by Russia.
It is conceivable that Bolton and Trump believe a good outcome would be to spend a month or two of fighting to destroy the ability of the existing Iranian government to function - before then just withdrawing.
However, I can't see that being a good outcome for anyone in the longer term - including the US. Despite US rhetoric, Iran has been much more a victim of terrorism than a promoter of it in recent years - but destroying its government would almost certainly change that. There would also be a general destabilization of the region, which would imperil rather than secure access to oil. That would have knock-on effects internationally which would affect the US indirectly, even if direct access to the oil is less important now than it used to be.
@Balrog99: An anonymous source provided it to them. Despite the worry about the supposed unreliability of anonymous sources, the data they found apparently matched publicly available data.
Since the 2016 presidential campaign, journalists at The Times and elsewhere have been trying to piece together Mr. Trump’s complex and concealed finances. While The Times did not obtain the president’s actual tax returns, it received the information contained in the returns from someone who had legal access to it. The Times was then able to find matching results in the I.R.S. information on top earners — a publicly available database that each year comprises a one-third sampling of those taxpayers, with identifying details removed. It also confirmed significant findings using other public documents, along with confidential Trump family tax and financial records from the newspaper’s 2018 investigation into the origin of the president’s wealth.
Well, if true, that would explain why he doesn't want to release it to Congress. Again, I personally don't find it that terrible because honestly, if I were in his shoes I'd likely do the same thing. Nobody wants to give away more money than they have to. I don't expect politicians to be paladins. Nobody could have voted for any Kennedy in good conscience if they expect no skeletons in the closet. Old shady dealing, insider-trading and (possible) bootlegging money did well for that family...
BUT, in recent years he has been purchasing property with actual cash. If he has lost that much money, where did he get the cash to buy his golf courses.
That is what he is hiding. That is what legitimate worriers want to know. Who does he owe money to and could those lenders use it to blackmail him into favourable positions. And you know what? I don’t care if Russian Mobsters lent him billions of dollars. All I care is if they did, anything involving Russia, he just recuse himself with it and allow Pence or some other underling deal with it in the best interests of the American people.
Now that’s me, not the IRS or anyone else who may want to string him up for tax fraud or anything else that may come out of these things being released but the transparency must be there.
@jjstraka34 Apprentice was from the aughts. First aired in 2004. In the 90s he starred in Home Alone 2 though.
@Balrog99: An anonymous source provided it to them. Despite the worry about the supposed unreliability of anonymous sources, the data they found apparently matched publicly available data.
Since the 2016 presidential campaign, journalists at The Times and elsewhere have been trying to piece together Mr. Trump’s complex and concealed finances. While The Times did not obtain the president’s actual tax returns, it received the information contained in the returns from someone who had legal access to it. The Times was then able to find matching results in the I.R.S. information on top earners — a publicly available database that each year comprises a one-third sampling of those taxpayers, with identifying details removed. It also confirmed significant findings using other public documents, along with confidential Trump family tax and financial records from the newspaper’s 2018 investigation into the origin of the president’s wealth.
Well, if true, that would explain why he doesn't want to release it to Congress. Again, I personally don't find it that terrible because honestly, if I were in his shoes I'd likely do the same thing. Nobody wants to give away more money than they have to. I don't expect politicians to be paladins. Nobody could have voted for any Kennedy in good conscience if they expect no skeletons in the closet. Old shady dealing, insider-trading and (possible) bootlegging money did well for that family...
BUT, in recent years he has been purchasing property with actual cash. If he has lost that much money, where did he get the cash to buy his golf courses.
That is what he is hiding. That is what legitimate worriers want to know. Who does he owe money to and could those lenders use it to blackmail him into favourable positions. And you know what? I don’t care if Russian Mobsters lent him billions of dollars. All I care is if they did, anything involving Russia, he just recuse himself with it and allow Pence or some other underling deal with it in the best interests of the American people.
Now that’s me, not the IRS or anyone else who may want to string him up for tax fraud or anything else that may come out of these things being released but the transparency must be there.
@jjstraka34 Apprentice was from the aughts. First aired in 2004. In the 90s he starred in Home Alone 2 though.
IIRC it was a cameo of like 5 seconds.
I say string the bastard for tax fraud. No different than Al Capone, and should be in jail for such.
First, because it's right.
Second, because it's legal.
Third, because it sends a message to all the other tax frauds, MOST OF WHOM ARE IN THE REPUBLICAN PARTY, that this shit ends. There's a good reason the IRS budget, and the budget of other countless agencies that return more tax dollars than they spend, have been gutted so that they are so hampered.
Fourth, because the party of "law and order, jusice, and the American Way" has totally lost its way and is dragging America off the rails, into a ditch, and over cliffs both financially and politically.
Nobody in either party would have picked this trade fight with China and the EU. That alone is something I've wanted to at least be tried. Whether it works or not is irrelevant to me. What matters is we can at least see what happens instead of speculating. The North Korea and Iran spectacles are another thing we're getting an actual look at instead of navel-gazing. Now we're putting the screws on Europe to buy our natural gas instead of Russia's. Interesting, would either of our parties have had the balls to try that one on for size? There are some advantages to having this dickhead run things for a while. I'm an analyst by nature and Trump has been a treasure-trove for new data (good and bad).
What other good data would you like? Pulling the trigger on nuclear war? We've never done that before. Let's see if America REALLY has enough nukes to cover the Earth 5 times over. The breaking up of ALL of America's treaties? Just how strong can one nation be isolated, let's find out.
We don't have ONE goddamned long-term ally left we haven't pissed off. Perhaps Japan.
"Putting the screws on Europe to buy our gas instead of Russia's"? What the actual fuck? That's right up there with the Iraq War to secure a supply of oil.
Some shit is obvious and why BOTH parties agree to not do it.
After 8 years on death row and nearly a year moving from safe house to safe house, Bibi has finally been permitted to leave Pakistan. All of this because someone accused her insulting their imaginary friend's BFF.
What other good data would you like? Pulling the trigger on nuclear war? We've never done that before. Let's see if America REALLY has enough nukes to cover the Earth 5 times over. The breaking up of ALL of America's treaties? Just how strong can one nation be isolated, let's find out.
We don't have ONE goddamned long-term ally left we haven't pissed off. Perhaps Japan.
"Putting the screws on Europe to buy our gas instead of Russia's"? What the actual fuck? That's right up there with the Iraq War to secure a supply of oil.
Some shit is obvious and why BOTH parties agree to not do it.
And it's not like Republicans will learn from this data. Trickle down economics failed hard under Reagan but they've kept at it because it personally benefits them and their donors -for a while - at the expense of the middle class. They still did the Bush tax cuts and the Trump tax cuts.
Because of Trump things will get worse with China and the next Republican genius will be like we have to be more hostile and we need more tariffs!
We launched nukes before and everyone agreed hey maybe we should never ever do it again. Maybe we should make treaties to prevent am arms race. Trump threw out our treaties with Russia and he's such a liar no one wants to deal with him.
Lessons learned! But Republicans are like hold my beer let's do it wrong and see what happens.
You know, it's really interesting (given Trump's admission this morning that what he did in the 80s and 90s was for "sport") that the poster child for success in American capitalism on the right has become losing more money than literally ANY OTHER American taxpayer and taking advantage of bankruptcy laws and suspicious tax loopholes with money handed to you by your father. Real Horatio Alger story going on here. If everyone ran their business like Trump, we'd be living in Calcutta.
It's sad how people think Hollywood actually reflects reality.
Even if you just take ONE famous crime boss in America, John Gotti, this is just ridiculous. Sense of honor?? Sammy Gravano turned on him to save himself. Not involving civilians?? There was jury tampering at his earlier trials and he had the person who accidentally hit and killed his son in a car accident murdered.
This reminds me of nearly every comment section of clips of The Sopranos, where it's clear 75% of the people opining missed the point entirely, and that somehow David Chase and company were trying to PRAISE the lifestyle, rather than portraying an obvious portrait of a irredeemable sociopath and his underlings. So even IN Hollywood (outside MAYBE the first Godfather movie, certainly not the sequel with how Michael is portrayed) they are not meant to be seen as heroes. Tommy in "Goodfellas" was not meant to be a sympathetic character. There is an episode in the Sopranos where Paulie smothers an old woman to death because she catches him trying to steal money from under her bed.
Gotta love the whattaboutism. The current administration is so bankrupt morally, financially, and leagally that its impossible to defend. You just can't do without looking like a loon, there is too much evidence and record of incompetence and illegal activity. The reasonable response would be, "Wow, we really hecked it up with this guy. We should fix this." But no, all the republicans know is to attack someone else and hope that everyone forgets. "Trump is putting children in concentration camps!" "Well yeah, but Hilary is unlikeable! Its her fault Trump is president!"
Trump has now officially asserted Executive Privilege in regards to the unredacted Mueller Report. You know, the one that totally exonerates him. Any student of history knows Executive Privilege is the last refuge of a scoundrel.
Trump has now officially asserted Executive Privilege in regards to the unredacted Mueller Report. You know, the one that totally exonerates him. Any student of history knows Executive Privilege is the last refuge of a scoundrel.
Ha! We might yet see an attempted impeachment. Oh the drama. I'm still not sure I want to see a President Pence, but if Trump is ousted that'll open up the primary field for conservatives I actually like. Believe it or not I'm all for impeaching this doofus as long as it's not a horse-and-pony show political ploy to garner points by the Democrats (meaning at least some Republican Senators would need to get on-board or its a waste of time and effort).
@Balrog99: You've mentioned before that you would prefer Trump to Pence. Why is that? I would have thought Pence would be the less objectionable president on most subjects, both for conservatives and liberals.
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Edit: I would surmise that he didn't do this on his own. He's not smart enough. I'd bet he just let his tax lawyer(s) handle it and left if at that. He's not a career politician so I doubt he was worried that it would haunt him later. Not an excuse, but a plausible explanation...
Well, if true, that would explain why he doesn't want to release it to Congress. Again, I personally don't find it that terrible because honestly, if I were in his shoes I'd likely do the same thing. Nobody wants to give away more money than they have to. I don't expect politicians to be paladins. Nobody could have voted for any Kennedy in good conscience if they expect no skeletons in the closet. Old shady dealing, insider-trading and (possible) bootlegging money did well for that family...
I wonder if people have any true idea of just HOW MUCH the MYTH of Trump's business success played in his attaining the position he is in now. Because it was perhaps one of THE major factors in it. And it was all bullshit. He likely can only claim (given what has happened) that he is the most successful con-man of all-time, and I don't even think there is a close second. That isn't a compliment. America got played because for the 80s version of Trump they bought into "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" and in the 90s they bought into the reality TV bullshit of "The Apprentice". Trump is in every way, from his decency as a person, to his business acumen, to the idea of entertainment that he sells, the absolute lowest common denominator. He's an America drunk on shitty reality TV, tabloids, and the navel-gazing narcissism of social media.
Also, a word about Trump's taxes and Congress. There is this misconception that Congress is personally asking Trump for them. They aren't. There is a law (passed by a Congress and signed by a President) that REQUIRES the IRS to hand over the tax records of anyone Congress deems necessary for investigation. There is no wording exempting the President. Nothing even close to it. Steve Mnuchin is the head of the Treasury. He is required, BY LAW, to provide Trump's taxes to Congress. He is BREAKING the law by not doing it. Trump is absolutely, 100% telling Mnuchin to break this law, and they are just making reasons up out of thin air as to why they don't have to do it. There is no legal justification or precedent to what is being done here. Like with everything else, Trump just breaks the law and says "who is going to stop me??". And the answer, it's becoming increasingly clear, is that no one can.
I guess we're so out of ammo after years of a frenzied smear campaign where everything and the kitchen sink was thrown and all objectivity and journalistic integrity was cast aside, that we have to circle back to the old tropes. The classics, if you will.
And how about that Brian Sims character trying to dox teenage girls and old women on camera as a state representative. My state is really mad at him right now.
Yeah, because Al Gore and John Kerry gave away all their wealth to charity because they're such good guys. Oh wait...
I've yet to hear about Al Gore living in a normal-sized house while growing his own vegetables and not flying in a private jet. I won't be holding my breath (but maybe I should since my exhalation is a poisonous fume that is destroying the world). The 'Inconvenient Truth' is that Gore and his ilk want 'us' to sacrifice while rich pseudo-liberals like him and the Clintons do whatever the Hell they want...
Whataboutism.
Losses =/= Debt.
Also. Yes. Let's take Trump's self promotional books at face value while castigating the entire industry of journalism. Sure. That's a good bet.
If you want more good advice, I recommend Trump University. Definitely going to make you more money than getting a degree in the morally bankrupt industry of journalism.
How soon we forget that (despite COUNTLESS claims to the contrary in the campaign he wouldn't settle) that while he was President-elect, he basically ADMITTED to running a fraudulent scam in Trump U by settling for 25 million dollars in a class action lawsuit. That story alone would have destroyed any other Presidential candidate in history. I mean shit, let's just do a quick rundown of NON-POLITICAL scandals this guy is up to his neck in (or should be if he wasn't constantly flooding the zone with more bullshit):
1.) Shady tax schemes and possible elder abuse of his father in trying to get him to alter his will on his deathbed.
2.) Running a fraudulent university.
3.) A decades long history of not paying contractors who worked for him.
4.) Using bankruptcy at least HALF A DOZEN times to escape financial ruin and leaving creditors and literally everyone else but him holding the bag.
5.) Inflating his assets for the purpose of getting loans.
6.) Possible insurance fraud in regards to questionable damage reported to his Florida resort after a hurricane (and I guarantee that story was just the tip of the iceberg).
That's just what I can remember off the top of my head in a 3 minute span. But yeah, he's great. Absolutely the person we want running the country. Saying you don't expect your politicians to be Paladins is not a useful fantasy point of reference to this guy. How about demanding they aren't fucking Vecna??
Edit: Nobody in either party would have picked this trade fight with China and the EU. That alone is something I've wanted to at least be tried. Whether it works or not is irrelevant to me. What matters is we can at least see what happens instead of speculating. The North Korea and Iran spectacles are another thing we're getting an actual look at instead of navel-gazing. Now we're putting the screws on Europe to buy our natural gas instead of Russia's. Interesting, would either of our parties have had the balls to try that one on for size? There are some advantages to having this dickhead run things for a while. I'm an analyst by nature and Trump has been a treasure-trove for new data (good and bad).
North Korea just launched another rocket and Bolton just moved us even closer to a war with Iran this week. So I'm not even sure what we're talking about here. NOTHING has happened on North Korea except alot of media coverage amounting to exactly jack shit and Trump destroyed a deal that was 100% effectively preventing Iran from developing a nuke. He owns BOTH of them now, and nothing remotely positive has come out of either situation.
Anyone who think Kim Jong-Un is going to give up his nuclear program after seeing what Trump and Bolton did to the Iran deal when they were in total compliance is out of their goddamned minds. Why would he give up the ONE thing that is guaranteed to keep him in a position of strength when anyone can clearly see that the word of the United States isn't worth the paper it's printed on??
This attack is whataboutism and it's silly.
So if Gore renounced capitalism the bad faith right would screaming "bloody communist", he identified a threat to the planet and wants to improve things and the bad faith right complains "ah but he flies in a jet!"
The difference is: the argument wasnt made that "our guys" are all that. There are PLENTY of flaws with the D's. The argument is just that Trump is terrible.
Bad for Healthcare. Bad for the deficit. Bad for debt. Bad at business. Bad at foreign policy. Bad at empathy. Bad at being a good person. Bad at telling the truth. Bad at defending core values of US democracy. Bad for the environment. I could go on, but frankly, it's depressing.
Selectively, every candidate in the 2020 field may check a few of the above boxes. None check them all. Trump will go down in history as one of the most flawed presidents. He'll be in the 4th quartile, hovering around GWB range. Conversely, early returns on Obama place him at the threshold of the first and second quartile.
Not all Democrats are good. Not all Republicans are bad. This guy is an absolute dumpster fire.
The idea of trying experiments, irrespective of the potential damage they could do and without knowing what the potential benefits are - seems scary and reckless to me.
The Iran situation is getting steadily worse. The US is moving forces of various kinds to the Gulf in response to unspecified threats to their existing forces there. I can't know of course whether they are actually preparing for war or not, but whatever the intentions of the US government the situation is becoming increasingly dangerous.
The Iranians have threatened repeatedly to close the Strait of Hormuz, which would block a lot of movements of oil. In the current climate I struggle to see any other response to that by the US than reopening it by force and that would have a good chance of precipitating a general war.
Let's just take a reality check about what war would mean.
Is it conceivable that the US could install a puppet government - less likely, but possible.
Is it conceivable that the puppet government would be able to control the country and end the war - not in a million years.
It may not be so obvious to Americans, but the reputation of the US internationally is now extremely low and that will have impacts in the event of a war with Iran. There is no chance of the sort of general international coalition forming that there was for the first Iraq war. The only support the US could get would be from countries seeking to improve their own direct position in the region (Saudi Arabia and Israel).
It may also not be generally understood by Americans just how strong the feeling against them is in Iran. It is the case that the US has historically behaved far, far worse to Iran than vice-versa. A significant part of that was the first main CIA dirty tricks campaign that was used to overthrow the Mossadegh democratic government in the 1950s as part of securing US access to Gulf oil, but there have been plenty more actions that fall outside generally accepted means for conducting international diplomacy. There's no more likelihood of the Iranians now accepting a government forcibly installed by the US, than there would be of Americans accepting a government forcibly installed by Russia.
It is conceivable that Bolton and Trump believe a good outcome would be to spend a month or two of fighting to destroy the ability of the existing Iranian government to function - before then just withdrawing.
However, I can't see that being a good outcome for anyone in the longer term - including the US. Despite US rhetoric, Iran has been much more a victim of terrorism than a promoter of it in recent years - but destroying its government would almost certainly change that. There would also be a general destabilization of the region, which would imperil rather than secure access to oil. That would have knock-on effects internationally which would affect the US indirectly, even if direct access to the oil is less important now than it used to be.
BUT, in recent years he has been purchasing property with actual cash. If he has lost that much money, where did he get the cash to buy his golf courses.
That is what he is hiding. That is what legitimate worriers want to know. Who does he owe money to and could those lenders use it to blackmail him into favourable positions. And you know what? I don’t care if Russian Mobsters lent him billions of dollars. All I care is if they did, anything involving Russia, he just recuse himself with it and allow Pence or some other underling deal with it in the best interests of the American people.
Now that’s me, not the IRS or anyone else who may want to string him up for tax fraud or anything else that may come out of these things being released but the transparency must be there.
@jjstraka34 Apprentice was from the aughts. First aired in 2004. In the 90s he starred in Home Alone 2 though.
IIRC it was a cameo of like 5 seconds.
I say string the bastard for tax fraud. No different than Al Capone, and should be in jail for such.
First, because it's right.
Second, because it's legal.
Third, because it sends a message to all the other tax frauds, MOST OF WHOM ARE IN THE REPUBLICAN PARTY, that this shit ends. There's a good reason the IRS budget, and the budget of other countless agencies that return more tax dollars than they spend, have been gutted so that they are so hampered.
Fourth, because the party of "law and order, jusice, and the American Way" has totally lost its way and is dragging America off the rails, into a ditch, and over cliffs both financially and politically.
Shit, just say this aloud:
What other good data would you like? Pulling the trigger on nuclear war? We've never done that before. Let's see if America REALLY has enough nukes to cover the Earth 5 times over. The breaking up of ALL of America's treaties? Just how strong can one nation be isolated, let's find out.
We don't have ONE goddamned long-term ally left we haven't pissed off. Perhaps Japan.
"Putting the screws on Europe to buy our gas instead of Russia's"? What the actual fuck? That's right up there with the Iraq War to secure a supply of oil.
Some shit is obvious and why BOTH parties agree to not do it.
After 8 years on death row and nearly a year moving from safe house to safe house, Bibi has finally been permitted to leave Pakistan. All of this because someone accused her insulting their imaginary friend's BFF.
And it's not like Republicans will learn from this data. Trickle down economics failed hard under Reagan but they've kept at it because it personally benefits them and their donors -for a while - at the expense of the middle class. They still did the Bush tax cuts and the Trump tax cuts.
Because of Trump things will get worse with China and the next Republican genius will be like we have to be more hostile and we need more tariffs!
We launched nukes before and everyone agreed hey maybe we should never ever do it again. Maybe we should make treaties to prevent am arms race. Trump threw out our treaties with Russia and he's such a liar no one wants to deal with him.
Lessons learned! But Republicans are like hold my beer let's do it wrong and see what happens.
- Sense of honor. They don't make false promises
- The code of condute is clear an simple, no millions of arbitrary regulations/laws
- When they go in a war, they tend to avoid collateral damage. War make the state stronger but for Mafia is bad for business
- They don't go in war against those who commit crimes without victim
- When you buy protection, you get protection.
- The mafia protection is less expensive htan the state(they usually take less than 15% of profits)
- They know that running your business is bad for their business, so they don't impose a lot of stupid regulations and overtax you.
More here >(...)
It's sad how people think Hollywood actually reflects reality.
Even if you just take ONE famous crime boss in America, John Gotti, this is just ridiculous. Sense of honor?? Sammy Gravano turned on him to save himself. Not involving civilians?? There was jury tampering at his earlier trials and he had the person who accidentally hit and killed his son in a car accident murdered.
This reminds me of nearly every comment section of clips of The Sopranos, where it's clear 75% of the people opining missed the point entirely, and that somehow David Chase and company were trying to PRAISE the lifestyle, rather than portraying an obvious portrait of a irredeemable sociopath and his underlings. So even IN Hollywood (outside MAYBE the first Godfather movie, certainly not the sequel with how Michael is portrayed) they are not meant to be seen as heroes. Tommy in "Goodfellas" was not meant to be a sympathetic character. There is an episode in the Sopranos where Paulie smothers an old woman to death because she catches him trying to steal money from under her bed.
Ha! We might yet see an attempted impeachment. Oh the drama. I'm still not sure I want to see a President Pence, but if Trump is ousted that'll open up the primary field for conservatives I actually like. Believe it or not I'm all for impeaching this doofus as long as it's not a horse-and-pony show political ploy to garner points by the Democrats (meaning at least some Republican Senators would need to get on-board or its a waste of time and effort).