Now that we've learned that the big secret about Trump's taxes is that he doesn't pay any, I have a theory, as follows: his primary motive in not wishing to disclose his tax returns was shame. He isn't a money-making god. He loses money every year. And he can't bear that any of us know that.
Does anyone not know that he is a blowhard who loses money? That's been Michael Bloomberg's favorite song for the last three years, and The Atlantic magazine plays it frequently on their Top 40.
ReplyDeleteJonathan Capehart has an editorial in today's WaPo hoping that Biden will ignore his handlers and give Trump some righteous anger in tomorrow's debate. Capehart doesn't touch on taxes particularly, but feels that Biden needs to call out Trump for his lies.
Bernie would have just mopped the floor with Trump. Too bad Joe can't call in a second like they have in duels.
Bernie raked Trump over the coals in a speech Aug. 24 over his threat not to leave office: https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=emb_title&time_continue=25&v=NAAWxZGHJNo
Delete(H.T. to Crystal for linking it)
I don't believe Trump is a genius moneymaker, he's "all hat, no cattle." But I also think if he did make any money, he wasn't going to part with any of it, but parked it in an offshore account.
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DeleteThe sad thing is that his base will love that he only paid $750 in taxes because people who pay their fair share are stoopid.
DeleteJean, I agree - and probably not only his base; Republicans of virtually all stripes take an adversarial position toward the IRS. For a rich guy like Trump to get by with $750 in taxes paid sounds like a big victory. He'll figure this out and start bragging about it - just give him 1-2 more voter research sessions, which is to say, maskless rallies.
DeleteJust in time to be upstaged by the juiciest leak since the Pentagon papers, Forbes writer Dan Alexander's book on how The Don is raking it in by being president arrived on the shelves. The book is "White House Inc.", and the Times reviewed it Sunday before le deluge: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/22/books/review-white-house-inc.html
ReplyDeleteThe Times review begins on he 43rd floor of a San Francisco where there is an office with an unoccupied desk and a dead potted plant. The office is leased to the investment arm of the government of Qatar.
What need has Qatar for an empty office in San Francisco? Oh, you never know when an Emir will want to ride a cable car. Btw, the President of the United Stars has a 30% stake in the building, so he benefits from Qatar's rent. Qatar is a foreign country, also btw. It has money to spend and money to lend and money to send to a presidential friend. Oil, you know.
Here, my guilty pleasure is John Bolton's book, "The Room Where It Happened." You remember his reputation for kicking down and kissing up? It is on view here: Tell me who he is going to write about, and I'll tell you whether the person is a showboating nincompoop (Nikki Haley, Gen.Mattis) or a near genius (Mike Pence -- you never know). The Don himself gets pretty thoroughly trashed, but not one of his insincere exhales about Bolton's wise advice goes unreported. 500 pages. It is appalling, but one peek causes addiction.
So, does Bolton say anything about Trump we didn't already know? (But it doesn't make any difference because shooting somebody on 5th Avenue)
DeleteThere is some new stuff. A bunch of Venezuelan politicians have been running around Miami talking up votes for Trump. They obviously missed Bolton's take on why Nicolás Maduro is still in power back home. The US recognizes Juan Guaidó as the legitimate president and tried to help him. Giaidó's wife, who goes by her maiden name, visited the Oval Office and all Trump noticed (aside from the fact that she is a looker) is that she doesn't wear her wedding ring. He became fixated on the empty finger and decided Guiaidó is weak and Maduro is strong, so he lost interest. I'd love to circulate that chapter at the Versailles restaurant in Little Havana.
DeleteAnd there is a gloriously embarrassing description of a dinner with Jinping XI where Trump, winging it, gave up so much of the US position that "the Chinese probably hoped the dinner would go on all night."
But, no. Nobody has to read it and put money in Bolton's pocket. I happened to notice it at the library, started reading and can't put it down.
That story about Guiado's wife is a classic. Quite a window into El Trumpo's mind.
DeleteSome new book claims that Trump was fixated on having Ivanka run as his VP until the party operatives made it clear they were not as wild about her as Trump was. Any scuttlebutt on that?
Jim Bakker said he had a dream that the Trump family would rule America for many years to come. So let's hope that Bakker got his revelatory wires crossed.
Big debate night tonight. Dreading it, and think it might be better to have it filtered through Colbert or watch a tight cut of some type.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure I can watch this in real time, either. I hope they're standing behind podiums. Less chance for Biden to dodder. Of course, Trump may have some ambulatory problems himself. Thank the socialism-phobic Democratic primary voters for this setup.
DeleteThis forum is one of the few venues where I criticize Biden. I guess that's because it's full of, you know, adults.
DeleteIt'll end way past my bed time.
DeleteI will watch it, until I can't take it anymore. I've set the over-under for my breaking point at 45 minutes. If Chris Wallace is the moderator, he won't lob any softballs.
DeleteNot past my bedtime but I'm afraid if I watch it, I'll have a night of insomnia or nightmares.
DeleteRaber says he's making popcorn and promises not to scream at the TV. At least it's cold outside and the windows will be closed.
DeleteAnyone else seeing "Trump stores" popping up in town? We have one out here in he cornfield. You can buy Trump paraphernalia--flags, hats, plastic straws. Hoping they will not have a booth at the farmers market Saturday.
Yes. I've seen them around in my rural travels in the Northeast. It's like sports fans. That's probably the underlying dynamism to the whole phenomenon. It's a club that any crazy person can join.
DeleteShame??!!!! The Orange A$$hole was laughing all the way to the bank. He scammed the IRS who evidently wasn't sharp enough to audit his returns often enough. I have read that the $79+ million refund he got was NOT done properly. Evidently every refund over $2mm needs prior approval from one of the Joint Committee on Taxation. See: https://www.accountingtoday.com/articles/trumps-73m-tax-refund-stuck-with-little-known-panel
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ReplyDeletePhillip Bump in WaPo had an interesting pre-debate piece outlining how hard this (and other) debates will be for Biden:
ReplyDeleteWhen Wallace was moderating a debate in 2016, he declared that it was up to Trump’s then-opponent, Hillary Clinton, to correct what he said. Fair enough — except that Trump’s willingness (eagerness!) to say false things will necessarily demand that Biden leave some portion of them unaddressed. Or it will mean that all of Biden’s time is spent on rebutting Trump’s claims, meaning much of the conversation would be dominated by the subjects that Trump wants to discuss.
There’s not really a good solution here. Even a proactive moderator can’t spend the entire debate correcting the record, for a variety of reasons. Trump knows this; he’s perfected the approach of flooding the zone with nonsense, knowing that much of it will get through.
“They don’t have opening statements,” [former Hillary advisor Phillipe] Reines suggested, “but I would start with 'I’ve served with and for eight presidents before you, and I never thought I would say this to a president but most of what you hear from him tonight will be false.' "