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Celerity
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September 30, 2020
Trump literally just incited the Proud Boys and white supremacists to stand by (not stand down)
and then, in the same sentence, that Antifa needed to be dealt with (inferring that they should act).
September 30, 2020
https://www.businessinsider.com/dni-ratcliffe-declassifies-russian-intelligence-disinformation-clinton-election-2020-9?r=US&IR=T
Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe declassified a dubious claim from Russian intelligence sources alleging that former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton "approved a campaign plan to stir up a scandal" against then-Republican candidate Donald Trump and his ties to Russia.
Ratcliffe said in a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham that the US intelligence community "does not know the accuracy" of the allegation "or the extent to which the Russian intelligence analysis may reflect exaggeration or fabrication."
The DNI's move raised questions about why the nation's spy chief declassified information that had not been corroborated and which he himself admitted may be false or exaggerated.
Ratcliffe's decision to release disparaging information about Clinton also mirrors Moscow's ongoing disinformation campaign against the former secretary of state.
snip
Trump's spy chief just released Russian disinformation against Hillary Clinton that he acknowledged
may be fabricatedhttps://www.businessinsider.com/dni-ratcliffe-declassifies-russian-intelligence-disinformation-clinton-election-2020-9?r=US&IR=T
Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe declassified a dubious claim from Russian intelligence sources alleging that former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton "approved a campaign plan to stir up a scandal" against then-Republican candidate Donald Trump and his ties to Russia.
Ratcliffe said in a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham that the US intelligence community "does not know the accuracy" of the allegation "or the extent to which the Russian intelligence analysis may reflect exaggeration or fabrication."
The DNI's move raised questions about why the nation's spy chief declassified information that had not been corroborated and which he himself admitted may be false or exaggerated.
Ratcliffe's decision to release disparaging information about Clinton also mirrors Moscow's ongoing disinformation campaign against the former secretary of state.
snip
September 29, 2020
https://www.nationofchange.org/2020/09/29/how-donald-trump-abandoned-workers-after-promising-to-bring-manufacturing-back-to-the-u-s/
Robert B. “Bull” Bulman stood up to FreightCar America because of the poor pay and hazardous working conditions at its Cherokee, Alabama, factory. But the company savagely retaliated with threats to close the plant and relocate to Mexico. Then, after thwarting the union drive, FreightCar America opted to offshore those 500 jobs anyway in a greedy gambit to exploit low wages and weak laws south of the border. Although Donald Trump won the White House with a vow to reinvigorate a manufacturing base essential for America’s future, he failed to stanch the torrent of U.S. corporations absconding to countries with abysmal working conditions and lax environmental regulations.
Right under Trump’s nose, America lost hundreds of factories to offshoring, and corporations relocated nearly 200,000 U.S. jobs, all before the COVID-19 pandemic sent the economy into a nosedive. Some of these callous employers, including FreightCar America, even soaked taxpayers for millions of dollars in subsidies and other aid before they cut and run. “They’re like parasites,” observed Bulman, who will lose his job when FreightCar America abandons its mile-long, 2.2-million-square-foot factory by the end of 2020. “They get what they want and leave.” Bulman, who formerly worked at a United Steelworkers (USW)-represented paper mill, helped lead two organizing drives at FreightCar America because he knew a union would compel the company to provide safer working conditions and give a voice to those performing demanding, hazardous jobs.
But FreightCar America waged vicious anti-union campaigns that included threats to close the plant and—the company’s very name notwithstanding—move the jobs to Mexico. After defeating both organizing drives, the company still sold out its workers. Although Trump promised to stop companies from playing these heartless games with families’ livelihoods, he refused to intervene with FreightCar America or lift a finger to save manufacturing jobs in a state where workers deeply trusted he’d fight for them. He gave the cold shoulder to FreightCar America workers who called and emailed the White House with pleas for help, just as he ignored USW members who sought assistance early in 2020 before Goodyear closed its nearly-100-year-old Gadsden, Alabama, tire plant and moved several hundred remaining jobs to Mexico.
Mickey Ray Williams, the former president of Local 12, reached out to several administration officials and provided them with a presentation outlining Goodyear’s refusal to invest in the Gadsden factory even as it pumped more and more money into a Mexican site paying workers only a few dollars an hour. Goodyear’s offshoring of the Assurance All-Season tire developed—and long manufactured—in Gadsden was exactly the kind of nefarious practice Trump bragged he would curb. But after a few conversations that seemed promising, the Trump officials stopped returning Williams’ calls. He simply never heard from them again. “All we asked for was one tweet,” explained Williams. “It was like you flipped a switch, and they went as cold as Alaska,” Williams said of his administration contacts. “The way I figure it, there was no political benefit to Trump, so they cut me off. Trump and his administration did nothing to help Gadsden.” Trump’s red campaign hats mean more to him than American workers do.
snip
How Donald Trump abandoned workers after promising to bring manufacturing back to the U.S.
Although Donald Trump won the White House with a vow to reinvigorate a manufacturing base essential for America’s future, he failed to stanch the torrent of U.S. corporations absconding to countries with abysmal working conditions and lax environmental regulations.https://www.nationofchange.org/2020/09/29/how-donald-trump-abandoned-workers-after-promising-to-bring-manufacturing-back-to-the-u-s/
Robert B. “Bull” Bulman stood up to FreightCar America because of the poor pay and hazardous working conditions at its Cherokee, Alabama, factory. But the company savagely retaliated with threats to close the plant and relocate to Mexico. Then, after thwarting the union drive, FreightCar America opted to offshore those 500 jobs anyway in a greedy gambit to exploit low wages and weak laws south of the border. Although Donald Trump won the White House with a vow to reinvigorate a manufacturing base essential for America’s future, he failed to stanch the torrent of U.S. corporations absconding to countries with abysmal working conditions and lax environmental regulations.
Right under Trump’s nose, America lost hundreds of factories to offshoring, and corporations relocated nearly 200,000 U.S. jobs, all before the COVID-19 pandemic sent the economy into a nosedive. Some of these callous employers, including FreightCar America, even soaked taxpayers for millions of dollars in subsidies and other aid before they cut and run. “They’re like parasites,” observed Bulman, who will lose his job when FreightCar America abandons its mile-long, 2.2-million-square-foot factory by the end of 2020. “They get what they want and leave.” Bulman, who formerly worked at a United Steelworkers (USW)-represented paper mill, helped lead two organizing drives at FreightCar America because he knew a union would compel the company to provide safer working conditions and give a voice to those performing demanding, hazardous jobs.
But FreightCar America waged vicious anti-union campaigns that included threats to close the plant and—the company’s very name notwithstanding—move the jobs to Mexico. After defeating both organizing drives, the company still sold out its workers. Although Trump promised to stop companies from playing these heartless games with families’ livelihoods, he refused to intervene with FreightCar America or lift a finger to save manufacturing jobs in a state where workers deeply trusted he’d fight for them. He gave the cold shoulder to FreightCar America workers who called and emailed the White House with pleas for help, just as he ignored USW members who sought assistance early in 2020 before Goodyear closed its nearly-100-year-old Gadsden, Alabama, tire plant and moved several hundred remaining jobs to Mexico.
Mickey Ray Williams, the former president of Local 12, reached out to several administration officials and provided them with a presentation outlining Goodyear’s refusal to invest in the Gadsden factory even as it pumped more and more money into a Mexican site paying workers only a few dollars an hour. Goodyear’s offshoring of the Assurance All-Season tire developed—and long manufactured—in Gadsden was exactly the kind of nefarious practice Trump bragged he would curb. But after a few conversations that seemed promising, the Trump officials stopped returning Williams’ calls. He simply never heard from them again. “All we asked for was one tweet,” explained Williams. “It was like you flipped a switch, and they went as cold as Alaska,” Williams said of his administration contacts. “The way I figure it, there was no political benefit to Trump, so they cut me off. Trump and his administration did nothing to help Gadsden.” Trump’s red campaign hats mean more to him than American workers do.
snip
September 29, 2020
https://www.nationofchange.org/2020/09/29/tax-revelations-and-corporate-media-wont-defeat-trump/
The big banner headline across the top of the New York Times homepage as Tuesday got underway — “TRUMP’S TAXES SHOW CHRONIC LOSSES AND YEARS OF TAX AVOIDANCE” — might give the impression that Donald Trump is finally on the verge of political downfall. Don’t believe it for a moment. The same kind of mistaken belief has led many to put undeserved trust in a corporate-media system. But the New York Times isn’t going to save us. Neither is the Washington Post, MSNBC, CNN or any of the other mass-media outlets, “liberal” or otherwise. To a large extent, the corporate media — especially the TV networks that gave Trump billions of dollars’ worth of free airtime while raking in enormous ad revenues — made him president. The advertising-and-ratings-bedazzled head of the CBS network, Leslie Moonves, uttered an infamously emblematic comment eight months before the 2016 election, in the midst of a campaign that Trump dominated with TV coverage: “It may not be good for America, but it’s damn good for CBS.”
Now, after doing so much to help create a political Frankenstein, most of the big media organizations are largely disapproving. While the right-wing zealots at places like Fox News and aligned talk-radio and online entities are determined to re-elect Trump, the majority of mainstream media outlets are down on him. Yet the tenor of their coverage, including news of the latest polls, should not lull anyone into a false sense of security about Trump’s impending demise — a demise they’ve predicted before. Trump won in 2016 while the bubble inhabited by elite media was rarified and cut off from the everyday experiences, frustrations and anger of everyday people. As a consummate demagogue, he knew how to stoke and pander to resentments against elites — resentments that mainstream media seemed clueless about. The corporate media are part of a system that thrives on rampant income inequality, giving more and more power to the rich while doing more and more harm to people the less money they have. Media elites are apt to do fine whether Trump wins or loses the election.
Four years ago, Trump played off the elitism of the establishment to ply his toxic political product laced with racism, xenophobia and misogyny. He has governed the same way he ran in 2016, and he hopes to govern for the next four years the way he’s running in 2020 — using the broadly and vaguely defined establishment as a foil for his poisonous, pseudo-populist messaging. Amid the bombshell coverage of Trump’s tax records, it might be tempting to believe the tide has turned and will drown his election hopes. But that’s wishful thinking. It would take more than two hands to count the times during the last several years when Trump’s preposterous and vile statements — or the emergence of incontrovertibly damning facts — provided ample reasons for his political fortunes to turn into toast. Instead, he has continued to conduct a national master class in demagogy. Trump would like nothing more than to play his victim card yet again while media give the impression that he’s headed for defeat — a combination that worked like a charm for him in 2016. It could easily happen again. With voting now underway, healthy skepticism toward media spin is badly needed.
snip
Tax revelations and corporate media won't defeat Trump
Those who want to prevent another Trump victory should go all-out to show they won’t be fooled again.https://www.nationofchange.org/2020/09/29/tax-revelations-and-corporate-media-wont-defeat-trump/
The big banner headline across the top of the New York Times homepage as Tuesday got underway — “TRUMP’S TAXES SHOW CHRONIC LOSSES AND YEARS OF TAX AVOIDANCE” — might give the impression that Donald Trump is finally on the verge of political downfall. Don’t believe it for a moment. The same kind of mistaken belief has led many to put undeserved trust in a corporate-media system. But the New York Times isn’t going to save us. Neither is the Washington Post, MSNBC, CNN or any of the other mass-media outlets, “liberal” or otherwise. To a large extent, the corporate media — especially the TV networks that gave Trump billions of dollars’ worth of free airtime while raking in enormous ad revenues — made him president. The advertising-and-ratings-bedazzled head of the CBS network, Leslie Moonves, uttered an infamously emblematic comment eight months before the 2016 election, in the midst of a campaign that Trump dominated with TV coverage: “It may not be good for America, but it’s damn good for CBS.”
Less well-known are other statements that Moonves also made while speaking to a Morgan Stanley conference in February 2016. “Man, who would have expected the ride we’re all having right now?” And: “The money’s rolling in and this is fun.” And: “I’ve never seen anything like this, and this is going to be a very good year for us. Sorry. It’s a terrible thing to say. But, bring it on, Donald. Keep going.” And: “Donald’s place in this election is a good thing.” At the same time, CNN president Jeff Zucker — who presided over the network’s “all-Trump-all-the-time” policy during the 2016 primaries — was privately offering guidance to candidate Trump. Zucker had helped build the Trump myth years earlier when he was at NBC presiding over Trump’s “Apprentice” show, which turned out to be financially and politically crucial for his path to the White House. Under the ongoing reign of the casino economy, the corporate house is set up to always win.
Now, after doing so much to help create a political Frankenstein, most of the big media organizations are largely disapproving. While the right-wing zealots at places like Fox News and aligned talk-radio and online entities are determined to re-elect Trump, the majority of mainstream media outlets are down on him. Yet the tenor of their coverage, including news of the latest polls, should not lull anyone into a false sense of security about Trump’s impending demise — a demise they’ve predicted before. Trump won in 2016 while the bubble inhabited by elite media was rarified and cut off from the everyday experiences, frustrations and anger of everyday people. As a consummate demagogue, he knew how to stoke and pander to resentments against elites — resentments that mainstream media seemed clueless about. The corporate media are part of a system that thrives on rampant income inequality, giving more and more power to the rich while doing more and more harm to people the less money they have. Media elites are apt to do fine whether Trump wins or loses the election.
Four years ago, Trump played off the elitism of the establishment to ply his toxic political product laced with racism, xenophobia and misogyny. He has governed the same way he ran in 2016, and he hopes to govern for the next four years the way he’s running in 2020 — using the broadly and vaguely defined establishment as a foil for his poisonous, pseudo-populist messaging. Amid the bombshell coverage of Trump’s tax records, it might be tempting to believe the tide has turned and will drown his election hopes. But that’s wishful thinking. It would take more than two hands to count the times during the last several years when Trump’s preposterous and vile statements — or the emergence of incontrovertibly damning facts — provided ample reasons for his political fortunes to turn into toast. Instead, he has continued to conduct a national master class in demagogy. Trump would like nothing more than to play his victim card yet again while media give the impression that he’s headed for defeat — a combination that worked like a charm for him in 2016. It could easily happen again. With voting now underway, healthy skepticism toward media spin is badly needed.
snip
September 29, 2020
https://thebanter.substack.com/p/the-proud-boys-are-waiting-for-trumps
This past weekend, The Proud Boys headed to Portland. The fascist group of white nationalist put out the call to their members all over the country to head to what is essentially Ground Zero for American civil unrest for yet another attempt to get their long-dreamed race war going. It did not go well. There were, in a positive sign of democracy, more people on line in Fairfax County, VA. for the first day of early voting (Hint: they weren’t there to vote for Trump). One gets the feeling the enthusiasm for conflict wasn’t quite there.
https://twitter.com/PDXzane/status/1309919199674773505
Not So Much Fun When They Shoot Back
The right was super jazzed up about Kyle Rittenhouse murdering two people in Wisconsin so you’d think their Brownshirt marches would be growing. After weeks of escalation, in which various white nationalist terrorist groups began showing up with weapons (both lethal and otherwise) to confront protesters, Rittenhouse finally fulfilled the fantasy of every fascist and pulled the trigger. Trump humpers were ecstatic and crowed in delight that a mighty blow had been struck against the evil forces of Antifa or BLM or George Soros or pedophiles or whatever bad guy their conspiracy theory-addled brain conjured. Sure, Rittenhouse was arrested the next day but that night? The police might as well put a badge on him. The fascists knew they had an ally in law enforcement.
But then, just a few days later, one of their own was shot and killed in Portland. And the next day, someone allegedly opened fire on a Trump caravan antagonizing people in Los Angeles. No one was hurt and the car whose tires were blown out allegedly wasn’t part of the caravan but bullets only randomly fly around LA in the movies. The message was loud and clear: “You have guns? So do we.” It’s important to take note that for all their tattoos and body armor and guns and posturing, white nationalist terrorists are, at their core, utter cowards. Motivated by a deep and inescapable fear, they engage in cosplay as fearsome warriors and rove in mobs looking for small groups to attack. But it’s one thing to shoot unarmed protesters, it’s another to know you can get shot in return. Just because you dress like you’re in the military doesn’t mean you have the training or you’ve seen actual combat. Even though most of the terrorists masquerading as “patriots” are cowards doesn’t mean they can’t be motivated to violence on a massive scale.
Their Master’s Voice
It’s no secret that Trump expects to steal the election. Specifically, it’s no secret because Trump keeps telling us that’s what he plans to do. A large part of this plan hinges on the courts but a not so small part will rely on his army of red hats attacking, quite literally, the election. This is not a new tactic for Republicans. In November of 2000, while Florida was struggling with a messy recount, the Republican Party did not have a mob of useful idiots to do their dirty work. Instead, they flew dozens of Republican operatives to the Miami-Dade polling headquarters and had them launch a physical assault on the officials rechecking the ballots. The “Brooks Brothers Riot” stopped the recount long enough for the Republican-controlled Supreme Court to hand George W. Bush his presidency. But that was a single recount in a single location; a bottleneck that will not be reproduced again. The 2020 election will require a much larger effort spread across several states and that’s where groups like the Proud Boys come in.
snip
The Proud Boys Are Waiting For Trump's Signal To Start A Civil War
This is how democracy dies.https://thebanter.substack.com/p/the-proud-boys-are-waiting-for-trumps
This past weekend, The Proud Boys headed to Portland. The fascist group of white nationalist put out the call to their members all over the country to head to what is essentially Ground Zero for American civil unrest for yet another attempt to get their long-dreamed race war going. It did not go well. There were, in a positive sign of democracy, more people on line in Fairfax County, VA. for the first day of early voting (Hint: they weren’t there to vote for Trump). One gets the feeling the enthusiasm for conflict wasn’t quite there.
https://twitter.com/PDXzane/status/1309919199674773505
Not So Much Fun When They Shoot Back
The right was super jazzed up about Kyle Rittenhouse murdering two people in Wisconsin so you’d think their Brownshirt marches would be growing. After weeks of escalation, in which various white nationalist terrorist groups began showing up with weapons (both lethal and otherwise) to confront protesters, Rittenhouse finally fulfilled the fantasy of every fascist and pulled the trigger. Trump humpers were ecstatic and crowed in delight that a mighty blow had been struck against the evil forces of Antifa or BLM or George Soros or pedophiles or whatever bad guy their conspiracy theory-addled brain conjured. Sure, Rittenhouse was arrested the next day but that night? The police might as well put a badge on him. The fascists knew they had an ally in law enforcement.
But then, just a few days later, one of their own was shot and killed in Portland. And the next day, someone allegedly opened fire on a Trump caravan antagonizing people in Los Angeles. No one was hurt and the car whose tires were blown out allegedly wasn’t part of the caravan but bullets only randomly fly around LA in the movies. The message was loud and clear: “You have guns? So do we.” It’s important to take note that for all their tattoos and body armor and guns and posturing, white nationalist terrorists are, at their core, utter cowards. Motivated by a deep and inescapable fear, they engage in cosplay as fearsome warriors and rove in mobs looking for small groups to attack. But it’s one thing to shoot unarmed protesters, it’s another to know you can get shot in return. Just because you dress like you’re in the military doesn’t mean you have the training or you’ve seen actual combat. Even though most of the terrorists masquerading as “patriots” are cowards doesn’t mean they can’t be motivated to violence on a massive scale.
Their Master’s Voice
It’s no secret that Trump expects to steal the election. Specifically, it’s no secret because Trump keeps telling us that’s what he plans to do. A large part of this plan hinges on the courts but a not so small part will rely on his army of red hats attacking, quite literally, the election. This is not a new tactic for Republicans. In November of 2000, while Florida was struggling with a messy recount, the Republican Party did not have a mob of useful idiots to do their dirty work. Instead, they flew dozens of Republican operatives to the Miami-Dade polling headquarters and had them launch a physical assault on the officials rechecking the ballots. The “Brooks Brothers Riot” stopped the recount long enough for the Republican-controlled Supreme Court to hand George W. Bush his presidency. But that was a single recount in a single location; a bottleneck that will not be reproduced again. The 2020 election will require a much larger effort spread across several states and that’s where groups like the Proud Boys come in.
snip
September 29, 2020
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/09/28/racial-wealth-gap-federal-reserve-422658
The average Black family had less than 15 percent of the wealth of white families in 2019, a trend that barely budged despite economic gains among minorities over the past three years, the Federal Reserve said on Monday. According to a Fed survey of consumer finances conducted every three years, the median wealth of white families was $188,200, compared with only $24,100 for Black families. Central bank economists attributed that gap to “many complex societal, governmental, and individual factors that play out over the life cycle and across generations.”
For example, more young white families are able to get financial assistance from their parents for a down payment on a house than young Black or Hispanic families. “In addition to direct transfers or gifts, families can make investments in their children that indirectly increase their wealth,” according to a Fed paper on the survey results. “Families can invest in their children’s educational success by paying for college or private schools, which can in turn increase their children’s ability to accumulate wealth.”
“For these reasons, wealth (or a lack thereof) can persist across generations and reflect, among other factors, a legacy of discrimination or unequal treatment in housing, education, and labor markets,” it adds. The median Black family in the under 35 age group had only $600 in wealth, compared with $25,400 among young white families. The findings underscore how different racial groups entered the coronavirus pandemic on uneven footing, as incoming data continues to suggest that the crisis has exacerbated many of these disparities as millions remain out of work.
The stock market has recovered after panicked sell-offs in March and early April — a boon to anyone with those investments. The Fed survey shows that more than half of white families have equities, while only 34 percent of Black families and 24 percent of Hispanic families own stock. Similarly, white families have more emergency savings. The survey, which examines shifts between 2019 and the previous snapshot in 2016, more broadly demonstrates positive economic trends in the twilight years of the longest economic expansion in U.S. history.
snip
Black families average less than 15 percent of wealth of white families, Fed says
The findings underscore how different racial groups entered the coronavirus pandemic on uneven footing.https://www.politico.com/news/2020/09/28/racial-wealth-gap-federal-reserve-422658
The average Black family had less than 15 percent of the wealth of white families in 2019, a trend that barely budged despite economic gains among minorities over the past three years, the Federal Reserve said on Monday. According to a Fed survey of consumer finances conducted every three years, the median wealth of white families was $188,200, compared with only $24,100 for Black families. Central bank economists attributed that gap to “many complex societal, governmental, and individual factors that play out over the life cycle and across generations.”
For example, more young white families are able to get financial assistance from their parents for a down payment on a house than young Black or Hispanic families. “In addition to direct transfers or gifts, families can make investments in their children that indirectly increase their wealth,” according to a Fed paper on the survey results. “Families can invest in their children’s educational success by paying for college or private schools, which can in turn increase their children’s ability to accumulate wealth.”
“For these reasons, wealth (or a lack thereof) can persist across generations and reflect, among other factors, a legacy of discrimination or unequal treatment in housing, education, and labor markets,” it adds. The median Black family in the under 35 age group had only $600 in wealth, compared with $25,400 among young white families. The findings underscore how different racial groups entered the coronavirus pandemic on uneven footing, as incoming data continues to suggest that the crisis has exacerbated many of these disparities as millions remain out of work.
The stock market has recovered after panicked sell-offs in March and early April — a boon to anyone with those investments. The Fed survey shows that more than half of white families have equities, while only 34 percent of Black families and 24 percent of Hispanic families own stock. Similarly, white families have more emergency savings. The survey, which examines shifts between 2019 and the previous snapshot in 2016, more broadly demonstrates positive economic trends in the twilight years of the longest economic expansion in U.S. history.
snip
September 29, 2020
https://twitter.com/MeidasTouch/status/1310700817037627394
Hasta la vista Chump! MeidasTouch and @BetteMidler are proud to present our very special version of
‘You’re Moving Out Today.’https://twitter.com/MeidasTouch/status/1310700817037627394
September 29, 2020
If I was a bird and Rump was a pre-teen now
https://twitter.com/RexChapman/status/1310590020127010822
September 28, 2020
https://thebanter.substack.com/p/hes-broke
Contrary to Donald Trump claims that he is a successful billionaire, he is in fact a broke, potentially tax cheating fraud. “Donald J. Trump paid $750 in federal income taxes the year he won the presidency. In his first year in the White House, he paid another $750.” That was the New York Times yesterday in a bombshell report that finally revealed details on Trump’s tax returns from the past two decades. Trump paid almost nothing “largely because he reported losing much more money than he made.” According to the Times, Trump is also involved in a “decade-long audit battle with the Internal Revenue Service over the legitimacy of a $72.9 million tax refund that he claimed, and received, after declaring huge losses. An adverse ruling could cost him more than $100 million.” The Times report doesn’t just blow away the myth that Trump is a successful business mogul, it paints a picture of a desperate man engaged in extraordinary financial skulduggery in order to maintain his luxurious lifestyle and cover up his failings.
Most of Trump’s key businesses are losing money and he owes hundreds of millions of dollars in loans that he personally guaranteed. The report reveals for example that he paid Ivanka Trump, who was a full time employee of his company, $747,622 in consulting fees on hotel deals, and then wrote off the consulting fees as a business expense. Trump has written off “some $26 million” in consulting fees since 2010, millions of dollars in property taxes by claiming his properties are for investment purposes only, and has only made money from the Trump Tower in New York, his work on ‘The Apprentice’, and licensing out his name. Notably, the Times notes that, “the reported losses from the operating businesses were so large that they often fully erased the licensing income, leaving the organization to claim that it earns no money and thus owes no taxes.” It has not been proven in court (yet) that Trump is a tax cheat, but the evidence does not look good. More importantly though, Trump’s tax returns reveal he has cheated the American public by pretending to be a successful billionaire. He didn’t want to release his tax records for a reason: they reveal the true state of his financial affairs, and they are a complete mess. Trump of course dismissed the Times report as “totally fake news”.
“We went through the same stories, you could have asked me the same questions four years ago, I had to litigate this and talk about it,” he said at a press conference. “Totally fake news, no. Actually I paid tax. And you’ll see that as soon as my tax returns – it’s under audit, they’ve been under audit for a long time. The [Internal Revenue Service] does not treat me well … they treat me very badly. You have people in the IRS – they treat me very badly.” Trump could clear this up quickly if he did reveal his tax returns (he can, because the IRS does not forbid anyone under audit from releasing them), but of course he won’t because he knows the story is true — or perhaps even worse than the findings Times report has revealed. If Trump really is the billionaire he claims to be, then he has clearly defrauded the federal government of hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue. No real billionaire pays almost no federal taxes for close to two decades. The most likely scenario is spelled out in clear detail by the Times report: Trump is broke, and he has engaged in various forms of tax fraud.
Will this make a difference in the election? It is impossible to predict much in the volatile era of Donald Trump, but the story is truly extraordinary and there’s a strong chance it could help shift the needle further to Biden. The more the Emperor is revealed to have no clothes, the harder it is for Trump to win over voters in key demographics needed to beat Biden. Trump is losing with women, independents, and college educated whites — voters he desperately needs to court if he wants to catch up to Biden. The closer it gets to the election, the more attention these voters will be paying to stories like this, making the timing of the story extremely bad for the president. The revelation also gives Joe Biden a chance to hammer Trump over the issue in the presidential debate tomorrow alongside a huge list of his catastrophic failures while in office. Biden already has vast amounts of ammunition to create a powerful narrative about Trump’s unfitness to serve as president, and this will help solidify in many voters minds the notion that he is an active threat to democracy. Biden must remind viewers that Trump’s history of failure spans through all aspects of his life, and that the tax returns complete a deeply troubling psychological profile of a man who destroys literally everything he touches.
snip
He's Broke
The bombshell New York Times story reveals everything we need to know about Donald Trump's taxes, and why he is completely unfit for office.https://thebanter.substack.com/p/hes-broke
Contrary to Donald Trump claims that he is a successful billionaire, he is in fact a broke, potentially tax cheating fraud. “Donald J. Trump paid $750 in federal income taxes the year he won the presidency. In his first year in the White House, he paid another $750.” That was the New York Times yesterday in a bombshell report that finally revealed details on Trump’s tax returns from the past two decades. Trump paid almost nothing “largely because he reported losing much more money than he made.” According to the Times, Trump is also involved in a “decade-long audit battle with the Internal Revenue Service over the legitimacy of a $72.9 million tax refund that he claimed, and received, after declaring huge losses. An adverse ruling could cost him more than $100 million.” The Times report doesn’t just blow away the myth that Trump is a successful business mogul, it paints a picture of a desperate man engaged in extraordinary financial skulduggery in order to maintain his luxurious lifestyle and cover up his failings.
Most of Trump’s key businesses are losing money and he owes hundreds of millions of dollars in loans that he personally guaranteed. The report reveals for example that he paid Ivanka Trump, who was a full time employee of his company, $747,622 in consulting fees on hotel deals, and then wrote off the consulting fees as a business expense. Trump has written off “some $26 million” in consulting fees since 2010, millions of dollars in property taxes by claiming his properties are for investment purposes only, and has only made money from the Trump Tower in New York, his work on ‘The Apprentice’, and licensing out his name. Notably, the Times notes that, “the reported losses from the operating businesses were so large that they often fully erased the licensing income, leaving the organization to claim that it earns no money and thus owes no taxes.” It has not been proven in court (yet) that Trump is a tax cheat, but the evidence does not look good. More importantly though, Trump’s tax returns reveal he has cheated the American public by pretending to be a successful billionaire. He didn’t want to release his tax records for a reason: they reveal the true state of his financial affairs, and they are a complete mess. Trump of course dismissed the Times report as “totally fake news”.
“We went through the same stories, you could have asked me the same questions four years ago, I had to litigate this and talk about it,” he said at a press conference. “Totally fake news, no. Actually I paid tax. And you’ll see that as soon as my tax returns – it’s under audit, they’ve been under audit for a long time. The [Internal Revenue Service] does not treat me well … they treat me very badly. You have people in the IRS – they treat me very badly.” Trump could clear this up quickly if he did reveal his tax returns (he can, because the IRS does not forbid anyone under audit from releasing them), but of course he won’t because he knows the story is true — or perhaps even worse than the findings Times report has revealed. If Trump really is the billionaire he claims to be, then he has clearly defrauded the federal government of hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue. No real billionaire pays almost no federal taxes for close to two decades. The most likely scenario is spelled out in clear detail by the Times report: Trump is broke, and he has engaged in various forms of tax fraud.
Will this make a difference in the election? It is impossible to predict much in the volatile era of Donald Trump, but the story is truly extraordinary and there’s a strong chance it could help shift the needle further to Biden. The more the Emperor is revealed to have no clothes, the harder it is for Trump to win over voters in key demographics needed to beat Biden. Trump is losing with women, independents, and college educated whites — voters he desperately needs to court if he wants to catch up to Biden. The closer it gets to the election, the more attention these voters will be paying to stories like this, making the timing of the story extremely bad for the president. The revelation also gives Joe Biden a chance to hammer Trump over the issue in the presidential debate tomorrow alongside a huge list of his catastrophic failures while in office. Biden already has vast amounts of ammunition to create a powerful narrative about Trump’s unfitness to serve as president, and this will help solidify in many voters minds the notion that he is an active threat to democracy. Biden must remind viewers that Trump’s history of failure spans through all aspects of his life, and that the tax returns complete a deeply troubling psychological profile of a man who destroys literally everything he touches.
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