Of course Trump cheated on his taxes.
Of course Trump low-balled values for tax purposes.
No one who has ever listened to Mr. Trump will be surprised if he hyped the value of his holdings in dealing with bankers. But then no one in New York finance would ever trust only what Mr. Trump claims before signing a document or lending him money.
No one could be so naive as to believe him and act on what he says.
Humorist Andy Borowitz made a joke of it with this parody news article:
The key thing for Democrats to understand is that Trump's flagrant misbehaviors are features, not bugs. Trump does not "fight fair." He is not "a good sport." He wins by hook or crook, and proudly so. Trump can be understood best by watching this 17-second scene from an Indiana Jones movie.
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Even stepping into the scene mid-movie, readers probably identified with Indiana Jones. Jones is an American. He was in danger amid foreigners. He won the fight by changing the implied rules of the confrontation. Indiana Jones didn't respect rules. Jones was cooly nonchalant. He shot and killed the guy. So what?
Most American movie-goers did not watch that scene and think Jones had some moral or legal obligation to give a warning shot. The scene is done for laughs. Ha! Fooled him!
There is a lot of Trump in that scene. Trump projects that Americans are beset by dangerous "others," both foreign and domestic. He doesn't respect them. He doesn't play by rules. He is smart. He wins. And he didn't sneak or apologize. He switched the rules and killed somebody, just like Trump said he could do on Fifth Avenue.
In the legal arena, Trump might possibly be in trouble, though I suspect not. In the political arena, Trump understands that his audience likes the swagger. He could win re-election from prison. American audiences identify with Jones. He is defending himself and his American project. In real life, Trump tells a story of constant peril. He finds enemies, foreign and domestic, because he likes the fight and is good at it. Of course he cheats. Of course he is ruthless. If he is "guilty" he is guilty of fighting too well to protect us.
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18 comments:
Sage.....you're a sick son of a bitch.
Hopefully, you'll die soon from a heart attack.
That would be cool.
The cardinal rule where Trump's legal vulnerability is concerned is, ironically enough, the same one in my view that proverbially governs real estate: location, location, location.
The vast bulk of potential jurors in New York City or Washington D.C. would likely walk into court assuming Trump is a fraudster, and be satisfied with prima facie from there.
In Florida, not so much. That goes double on the classified records kerfuffle, because unlike tax cheating this matter of Presidential rights and obligations is complex and opaque.
Makes it a bit difficult to be Rule of Law party.
The Anonymous comment written at 7:58 is one of a pattern I get from a local Republican and Trump supporter. The pattern of behavior that confounds the Republican and Trump brand locally.
I do a triage on posts. Most I publish. Some I discard into a permanent "save" file for use as evidence in potential civil or criminal trials either for defamation or identity theft. A commenter sometimes falsely uses the names of prominent local citizens as the purported author of comments.
A third group I sent to local law enforcement. The person I have evidence is the author of this comment was careless in the past. Now the commenter takes better care to wish/recommend the death of me, President Biden, Nancy Pelosi, and employees of the Mail Tribune newspaper. At long last the commenter is getting sufficient legal advice to do a better job of walking the line between an illegal "threat" and simply a free speech expression of a wish. Notice the commenter takes care to hope I die of a heart attack, not a murder the commenter intends. Good legal advice.
I don't expect publish more of these, but I did this time so that Republican readers of this blog can see what kind of headwinds GOP candidates face. This is the behavior of a Republican who gives a public face to the local GOP.
This supposedly-anonymous comment is the kind I send to law enforcement, with adds it to their file on this person.
Peter Sage
The Book of Virtues, "family values" (cheating on his 3 wives), "compassionate conservatism," the Moral Majority and the party of less regulation (abortion) are drain also. But apparently none of this is a problem.
Yes, he was impeached twice and he lost the election. Democrats are not responsible for the fact that most, but not all, Republicans are too self-serving and weak to do what needs to be done.
And before you gloat too much, there are still irons in the fire. Sometimes it takes a long time to catch a criminal and bring him to justice, including serial killers, terrorists, mobsters, drug lords, Jeffrey Epstein (and Ghislaine) , Bernie Madoff and many others.
Trump is a psychotic pathological liar, and yet the vast majority of Republicans are fawning members of his bizarre personality cult. People attribute his appeal to everything from racism to the “global elite” (the latest incarnation of that old Illuminati conspiracy theory) but for so many to grovel before one so mad, the only explanation is mass insanity. Scientific American offers an interesting insight: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-shared-psychosis-of-donald-trump-and-his-loyalists/#
By the way, the original script had Indiana Jones engage in a swordfight with the swordsman but Harrison Ford, suffering from dysentery, was in a hurry and suggested, “Just shoot the sucker,” so Steven Spielberg obliged.
It's fun to game it all out.
Here's my take.
It will be the documents. He won't risk a jury.
If you believe, as I do, that he actually does not want to run, and risk losing again, but simply continue grifting this is his out. A plea deal avoiding jail but banning from running for office should suffice. The pitch would be, "the fix was in, I had no choice, I was being railroaded", etc.
Doesn't really fix all the other Republican corruption though...
BTW, What's with Drazen's "career politicians are rotten to the core" ad? Seems like the Governor's race is turning a bit dark.
Trump’s behavior is less like the heroic character Indiana Jones and more like a virus.
A successful virus has the ability to evade the body’s immune system. Like the virus Trump cloaks himself by a surround of lawyers giving the justice system a difficult task to control as the virus like Trump uses the system’s own defenses as its shield. If the virus is successful, it defeats the immune system. If it can’t defeat the immune system the virus, like Trump, “hides” in a part of the body where the immune system can’t reach. In Trump’s case he hides in plain sight in the body politic. Attack Trump and you must attack the system that keeps him there. In so doing, the system itself wrecks havoc on the body. I see the Judicial system as our body politic’s immune system.
Further, the hallmark of a virus is its ability to successfully replicate within the host and make more copies of itself. I see this happening with Trump and the new breed of Trump infected Republicans. You have to look no further than the current crop of Republican candidates.
I measure the success of the Trump virus by the malaise in the body politic that questions voting rights and the checks and balances enshrined in the founding documents. I see and hear this daily as people question the integrity of the vote for Biden. I see the effectiveness of the Trump virus in his ability to defy a cure and unite the country’s ability to fight him. I see a clear and present danger if he is indicted, tried and acquitted. That must be the concern Merrick Garland is weighing.
The question remains, if the JOD is successful how can it stop a variant of the Trump virus from getting loose and successfully taking over the host - that is us?
Trump is a psychotic pathological liar, and yet the vast majority of Republicans are fawning members of his bizarre personality cult. People attribute his appeal to everything from racism to the global elite (the latest incarnation of the old ‘Illuminati’ conspiracy theory). But for so many to be so devoted to someone so mad, the only explanation that makes any sense is mass insanity. Scientific American offers an interesting insight: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-shared-psychosis-of-donald-trump-and-his-loyalists/#
By the way, the original script had Indiana Jones engage in a swordfight with the swordsman but Harrison Ford, suffering from dysentery, was in a hurry and suggested, “Just shoot the sucker,” so Steven Spielberg obliged.
To prevent the spread of the “virus,“ we need to improve the health of the host. I would suggest working hard to undo the damage that the globalist elites have done to the working class of this country over the past four decades.
Mentioning the “globalist elites“ is not an “illuminati conspiracy theory.” Someone decided to export most of our industrial jobs to China. Could it have been elites with a globalist perspective?
It was companies looking for cheap labor and no labor or environmental regulations. Not complicated or a secret conspiracy.
The Illuminati are the global elites seeking to establish a new world order. Be very afraid.
Back to basics again, I fear, in order to save time, or rather to not waste it.
A conspiracy is an undertaking among two or more individuals/entities to do something illegal, or at least illicit. It’s typically surreptitious for that very reason. A “conspiracy theory” is a comparatively far-fetched accusation of conspiracy.
Like-minded individuals/entities acting in concert under shared or overlapping ideological or economic auspices is not a “conspiracy” thereby. Nor does a proffered critical description of the motivations and conduct of like-minded players and related conduct constitute a “conspiracy theory” thereby. Within the realms of reasonableness, then, a debate on the substantive merits ordinarily should ensue, not sloganeering references to straw men in order to avoid addressing said merits, or to beg the question concerning the merits themselves.
Within the realms of reasonableness, then, a debate on the substantive merits ordinarily should ensue, not sloganeering references to straw men in order to avoid addressing said merits, or to beg the question concerning the merits themselves.
There is someone among us who can’t seem to stop indulging in these passive-aggressive and destructive conversational tactics. Maybe Peter could talk to him offline about this bad behavior.
I made the mistake of posting as "anonymous" maybe a week or so ago? I wrote: "Nuclear war is My White Pill.( and of course you can't leave a statement like that without that iconic music)..."we'll meet again, ...don't know where, don't know when, but, I KNOW..."
It's definitely one thing to see Slim Pickens rodeoing that bomb down to its destination, but it is truly hilarious when Doctor Strangelove (aka, Peter Sellers, of his many characters in this film) jumps out of his wheelchair and says, "Mein Fuhrer! I can walk!!" ...and then of course the bombs go off.
... oh the humanity.
I forgot to post it as "David in Ashland" because I was long into my Seltzer's and Bong hits at that point, not to mention, I don't think that statement had anything to do with what the topic of discussion was, so I was very surprised that Peter posted it anyway. but it is a funny/ironic statement nonetheless. Particularly since I am very much black pilled, and unapologetically pro apocalypse. Like you Peter, I am no longer Christian, but not because of anything that has to do with Jesus, but because the pseudo/anti Apostle Paul spent far too much time in the Roman bathhouses and got his head shoved up his bum a little too deep, and basically, as I like to say, "pandered to the pagans". That's why they had to crucify him upside down just so his head would slip out of his gluteus maximus.
I suggest to all of you dem-wits that you consider that example
I just got to say after almost 7 years of the federal government investigating every oriface and cavity of Donald Trump, his family, and his businesses, the Democrats have proven ...beyond a reasonable doubt, that Donald Trump is the cleanest, most honest politician America has ever had.
My most recent post was not directed at LD. I was agreeing with him.
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