TAKE THE POLL: HOW LONG BEFORE TRUMP GETS IMPEACHED

[Deleted125623]

The Serious Problem with Treating Donald Trump Seriously
Media outlets and candidates alike are pondering how to take down Donald. Michael Kinsley writes that the answer might be quite simple.
by

• Michael Kinsley

October 12, 2015 9:00 am
LOSERS
Why are Trump’s opponents so reluctant to call him a goofball?
Illustration by Barry Blitt.
The trouble with Donald Trump is not, as Jeb Bush and others would have it, that he's not a true conservative from any perspective. The trouble with Trump is not that his policy positions on immigration, ISIS, health care, Social Security, or whatever don't stand up to a moment of casual scrutiny. That we're even talking about his “positions” means that we've already progressed to the dangerous Stage Two of the Trump phenomenon, as if his stated views are the standard by which Trump ought to be judged—a huge victory for him right there. The trouble with Trump is that he is, by temperament, by experience, and by character, utterly unqualified to be president of the United States. He is a buffoon. That's why his campaign is a joke, not the merits or otherwise of his alleged policies. All he brings to the table is a lot of money and a talent for publicity. These are not worthless assets in a presidential candidate. Trump is right, unfortunately, that his billions free him from the need to raise money, with all the dispiriting and time-consuming compromises that that entails. And, of course, he is not the first politician with a knack for drawing attention to himself.
But he may be the first who offers little more than that. Oh, a bit of wit and charm. A sense of humor that always leaves the listener wondering whether he's serious or not. But where's the wisdom? Where's the gravitas—or, as the Brits call it, less pretentiously, the “bottom”? Trump's self-designated role in our culture has been the clown who, because he doesn't give a damn, will say anything, including truths that more serious people will not utter. That's fine. I wouldn't mind having that job. But Trump is apparently tired of playing the Fool. He wants to be King Lear.

The press is so hostile to Trump that it has broken new ground in what reporters are allowed to say in ostensibly “objective” news articles and broadcasts. Even Richard Nixon, the man who kept an “enemies list” that included reporters he was going to get even with, was treated with more respect. But every insult from the hated media just makes Trump stronger.

A news article in The New York Times—not an op-ed piece, a news article—about Trump's immigration remarks dignifies them with the word “plan,” even while describing them as “mixing a little policy with a lot of fiery bombast” and pointing out that his plan is based on ideas that have been “broadly debunked.” Pretty tough. (And accurate.) But the truth is that Trump has no “plan” for anything. He just has a mouth.

A while back in the Times, Josh Barro started a debate about whether Trump is really a “moderate” who merely acts like an extremist because it sells. You might say that he isn't an extremist but he plays one on TV. Barro's argument was that if you take all of Trump's extreme views on Social Security, immigration, and so on, some of them classified as extremely right-wing and some extremely left-wing, they average out to be more or less down the center. Ezra Klein replied in Vox, essentially, that extreme views are extreme views, no matter how they average out. But looking for some kind of ideological thread in Trump's various positions is a fool's errand (and another victory for Trump). The appeal of Trump's alleged views on every issue is their extremeness. That, and their seeming simplicity. The fact that he hasn't thought them through and has more or less pulled them out of the air (or out of his ass, as Trump himself might put it) is a feature, not a bug, as they say in Silicon Valley. Trump stands for the proposition that you don't need to know much to run the government. You just need to use your common sense and to grow a pair, as Sarah Palin so memorably advised.

So, why are the news media and Trump's political opponents so reluctant to call him a goofball? Why do they enhance his respectability by taking his various off-the-cuff notions seriously in the very process of criticizing them? Why does Jeb Bush, of all people, try to get to Trump's right—wherever that may be, exactly—instead of saying, “Look, this fellow is not qualified to be president. I am.” (And like it or not, that is Bush's selling point. He is foolish to run away from it.)

The problem is populism. Talk like this sounds elitist. But our big problem as a democracy is our inability to acknowledge as a nation what we accept and deal with in our personal lives, which is that more of this means less of that. If we spend money on tax cuts, we can't spend it on education or infrastructure or all the other things the Republican candidates are promising. If we want to deal with global warming, we will have to give up plastic grocery bags and S.U.V.'s. Any coherent philosophy or agenda will bump up against this limit. With a cafeteria-tray approach, like Trump's, where one “idea” need have no connection to any of the others he tosses out, there is no such discipline.

That we’re even talking about his “positions” is a victory for Trump.

Illustration by Barry Blitt.
This analysis may be completely wrong, but it is not a refutation to say that it is “elitist.” Political journalists might report breathlessly that 23 percent of potential voters in New Hampshire agree with Trump that free cupcakes should be available on major holidays. They would present this as a challenge to the other candidates. Marco Rubio—what is your position on free cupcakes? Will you change it in light of this new evidence that voters favor Trump's position? You can see the headlines: RUBIO CONSIDERS FLIP-FLOP ON CUPCAKES. (Arianna says, “Darling, we had the cupcake story 17 minutes ago. Get with it.”)

Trump is just the latest among a series of business types who think they should run the country because they ran a company. Remember Ross Perot? This year there are two, the other being Carly Fiorina, who ran Hewlett-Packard—ran it into the ground. Businesspeople are an odd category of citizen to look to as a populist deus ex machina. True, they usually have some practical business sense and experience, which is not worthless. But their lives are different from those of people who are hurting, and increasingly so. (So are the lives of Washington journalists, but at least we are free to admit it.) Trump's business experience has been in real estate, professional celebrity, gambling casinos, and creative bankruptcy—not the kind of experience that is likely to be useful as president.

Even the most cynical and demagogic politician usually has something he or she truly wants to accomplish, some ideological goal or vision. Trump seems to be running because he thinks it would be cool to be president. No doubt that plays a role in the thinking of even as philosophical a candidate as Hillary Clinton. But with Trump, that's all there is.



How much of this turned out to be true?

 

[BigBlackBull76]

This is exactly why Trump is a dangerous ignominious lying idiot that needs to be removed. He spews the most stupid incorrect information that his team tries to spew as facts to misinform his followers and divert from the truth. Its complete spin at its finest but for those who uphold the truth especially from elected leaders this just raises your ire when they tell these bold face lies to the entire public.

Where there is smoke there is fire, and Michael Flynn is caught red-handed holding a box of matches and it ties back to Trump. The cuffs are coming for Flynn and this is just the beginning - lets make sure we LOCK EM ALL UP.

Bottom Line Up Front: President Donald Trump told Fox News on Friday April 28th that Michael Flynn was "already approved by the Obama administration at the highest level" when he was hired to serve as national security adviser in January.

Flynn, who headed the Defense Intelligence Agency from 2012 to 2014, came under renewed scrutiny earlier this week when the House Oversight Committee revealed that he did not disclose his payments from Russia's state-owned news agency, Russia Today, when he was renewing his security clearance in January 2016.

Rep. Elijah Cummings, the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, said earlier this week that while Flynn's negligence on his security-clearance forms could be punished by up to five years in prison, that decision was not up to the committee. Cummings called on the Defense Department in early February to investigate whether Flynn had violated the Emoluments Clause by accepting the $33,000 payment from RT.

The Defense Intelligence Agency warned former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn against accepting money or gifts from foreign governments after he left the agency, according to a recently unclassified letter the DIA wrote to Flynn dated October 8, 2014.


In the letter, the DIA said Flynn could violate the Constitution's Emoluments Clause, which prohibits retired military personnel from receiving payments from foreign sources without advance permission, and advised Flynn to "obtain advance approval from the Army" before receiving an emolument from a foreign government.


Flynn was paid about $33,000 by Russia's state-owned news agency, Russia Today, for a speech he gave in Moscow in 2015, but he did not disclose the payment on his security clearance application in January 2016, according to the House oversight committee.

Here is the truth on how the clearance process works as relayed by Susan Rice which is accurate. Trump's campaign and White House Administration team was and is responsible for the vetting process of their cabinet members.

"Let me explain how this process works. First of all, a former military officer such as General Flynn, who wants to retain his security clearance, would go through a process with his home agency, in this case the Defense Intelligence Agency, to have his clearance reviewed and renewed," Rice said, adding that clearance renewal happens at a "very routine level, never at a political level."


She continued: "But that's a very separate thing — the renewal of a clearance — from the vetting that goes into the appointment of any senior White House official, or any senior administration official. The Trump administration, like it’s — every previous administration, had an expectation and an obligation to vet, to their satisfaction, those individuals that the President was appointing to high positions, which is a separate and much more elaborate process than a security clearance."

ref: http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-obama-michael-flynn-security-clearance-2017-4

ref: http://www.businessinsider.com/susan-rice-trump-obama-michael-flynn-vetting-2017-4


ref: http://www.businessinsider.com/michael-flynn-russia-payments-investigation-2017-4


​

 

[Snowbunnybecky]

The first $10 trillion of our national debt can be attributed Ronald Reagan, the Republican party and their fallacy of "Trickle Down" economics, which our President Trump & Republican controlled congress desire to DO AGAIN ... so if you would vote Republican, you'd be contributing to the rising Nat'l Debt. Even George H Bush (Reagan's Republican GOP opponent) called it "voodoo economics".
Supply Side Economics (the way Republicans do it) is nothing more than a limitless credit card that no one intends to pay the balance off.

Wrong Reagans tax cuts uplifted the middle class and grew it unlike what weve seen under Obama ever increasing skrinking of middle class & also doubled revenue and debt was only 11 trilling after Bush it was only 2.5 t after Reagan and 6 trilling after Clinton ...Really doesn't matter if taxes were 99% because the government will spend our money and run deficits anyway ... Get your facts straight seems you ant think on your own @MacNfries & just repeating the Media Lies.

 

[Snowbunnybecky]

The Serious Problem with Treating Donald Trump Seriously
Media outlets and candidates alike are pondering how to take down Donald. Michael Kinsley writes that the answer might be quite simple.
by

• Michael Kinsley

October 12, 2015 9:00 am
LOSERS
Why are Trump’s opponents so reluctant to call him a goofball?
Illustration by Barry Blitt.
The trouble with Donald Trump is not, as Jeb Bush and others would have it, that he's not a true conservative from any perspective. The trouble with Trump is not that his policy positions on immigration, ISIS, health care, Social Security, or whatever don't stand up to a moment of casual scrutiny. That we're even talking about his “positions” means that we've already progressed to the dangerous Stage Two of the Trump phenomenon, as if his stated views are the standard by which Trump ought to be judged—a huge victory for him right there. The trouble with Trump is that he is, by temperament, by experience, and by character, utterly unqualified to be president of the United States. He is a buffoon. That's why his campaign is a joke, not the merits or otherwise of his alleged policies. All he brings to the table is a lot of money and a talent for publicity. These are not worthless assets in a presidential candidate. Trump is right, unfortunately, that his billions free him from the need to raise money, with all the dispiriting and time-consuming compromises that that entails. And, of course, he is not the first politician with a knack for drawing attention to himself.
But he may be the first who offers little more than that. Oh, a bit of wit and charm. A sense of humor that always leaves the listener wondering whether he's serious or not. But where's the wisdom? Where's the gravitas—or, as the Brits call it, less pretentiously, the “bottom”? Trump's self-designated role in our culture has been the clown who, because he doesn't give a damn, will say anything, including truths that more serious people will not utter. That's fine. I wouldn't mind having that job. But Trump is apparently tired of playing the Fool. He wants to be King Lear.

The press is so hostile to Trump that it has broken new ground in what reporters are allowed to say in ostensibly “objective” news articles and broadcasts. Even Richard Nixon, the man who kept an “enemies list” that included reporters he was going to get even with, was treated with more respect. But every insult from the hated media just makes Trump stronger.

A news article in The New York Times—not an op-ed piece, a news article—about Trump's immigration remarks dignifies them with the word “plan,” even while describing them as “mixing a little policy with a lot of fiery bombast” and pointing out that his plan is based on ideas that have been “broadly debunked.” Pretty tough. (And accurate.) But the truth is that Trump has no “plan” for anything. He just has a mouth.

A while back in the Times, Josh Barro started a debate about whether Trump is really a “moderate” who merely acts like an extremist because it sells. You might say that he isn't an extremist but he plays one on TV. Barro's argument was that if you take all of Trump's extreme views on Social Security, immigration, and so on, some of them classified as extremely right-wing and some extremely left-wing, they average out to be more or less down the center. Ezra Klein replied in Vox, essentially, that extreme views are extreme views, no matter how they average out. But looking for some kind of ideological thread in Trump's various positions is a fool's errand (and another victory for Trump). The appeal of Trump's alleged views on every issue is their extremeness. That, and their seeming simplicity. The fact that he hasn't thought them through and has more or less pulled them out of the air (or out of his ass, as Trump himself might put it) is a feature, not a bug, as they say in Silicon Valley. Trump stands for the proposition that you don't need to know much to run the government. You just need to use your common sense and to grow a pair, as Sarah Palin so memorably advised.

So, why are the news media and Trump's political opponents so reluctant to call him a goofball? Why do they enhance his respectability by taking his various off-the-cuff notions seriously in the very process of criticizing them? Why does Jeb Bush, of all people, try to get to Trump's right—wherever that may be, exactly—instead of saying, “Look, this fellow is not qualified to be president. I am.” (And like it or not, that is Bush's selling point. He is foolish to run away from it.)

The problem is populism. Talk like this sounds elitist. But our big problem as a democracy is our inability to acknowledge as a nation what we accept and deal with in our personal lives, which is that more of this means less of that. If we spend money on tax cuts, we can't spend it on education or infrastructure or all the other things the Republican candidates are promising. If we want to deal with global warming, we will have to give up plastic grocery bags and S.U.V.'s. Any coherent philosophy or agenda will bump up against this limit. With a cafeteria-tray approach, like Trump's, where one “idea” need have no connection to any of the others he tosses out, there is no such discipline.

That we’re even talking about his “positions” is a victory for Trump.
View attachment 1253099
Illustration by Barry Blitt.
This analysis may be completely wrong, but it is not a refutation to say that it is “elitist.” Political journalists might report breathlessly that 23 percent of potential voters in New Hampshire agree with Trump that free cupcakes should be available on major holidays. They would present this as a challenge to the other candidates. Marco Rubio—what is your position on free cupcakes? Will you change it in light of this new evidence that voters favor Trump's position? You can see the headlines: RUBIO CONSIDERS FLIP-FLOP ON CUPCAKES. (Arianna says, “Darling, we had the cupcake story 17 minutes ago. Get with it.”)

Trump is just the latest among a series of business types who think they should run the country because they ran a company. Remember Ross Perot? This year there are two, the other being Carly Fiorina, who ran Hewlett-Packard—ran it into the ground. Businesspeople are an odd category of citizen to look to as a populist deus ex machina. True, they usually have some practical business sense and experience, which is not worthless. But their lives are different from those of people who are hurting, and increasingly so. (So are the lives of Washington journalists, but at least we are free to admit it.) Trump's business experience has been in real estate, professional celebrity, gambling casinos, and creative bankruptcy—not the kind of experience that is likely to be useful as president.

Even the most cynical and demagogic politician usually has something he or she truly wants to accomplish, some ideological goal or vision. Trump seems to be running because he thinks it would be cool to be president. No doubt that plays a role in the thinking of even as philosophical a candidate as Hillary Clinton. But with Trump, that's all there is.



How much of this turned out to be true?

When you get a control of terrorism in your Country and take pride in yourselves again @DaphneD then come speak Lies on the President

 

[Snowbunnybecky]

This is exactly why Trump is a dangerous ignominious lying idiot that needs to be removed. He spews the most stupid incorrect information that his team tries to spew as facts to misinform his followers and divert from the truth. Its complete spin at its finest but for those who uphold the truth especially from elected leaders this just raises your ire when they tell these bold face lies to the entire public.

Where there is smoke there is fire, and Michael Flynn is caught red-handed holding a box of matches and it ties back to Trump. The cuffs are coming for Flynn and this is just the beginning - lets make sure we LOCK EM ALL UP.

Bottom Line Up Front: President Donald Trump told Fox News on Friday April 28th that Michael Flynn was "already approved by the Obama administration at the highest level" when he was hired to serve as national security adviser in January.

Flynn, who headed the Defense Intelligence Agency from 2012 to 2014, came under renewed scrutiny earlier this week when the House Oversight Committee revealed that he did not disclose his payments from Russia's state-owned news agency, Russia Today, when he was renewing his security clearance in January 2016.

Rep. Elijah Cummings, the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, said earlier this week that while Flynn's negligence on his security-clearance forms could be punished by up to five years in prison, that decision was not up to the committee. Cummings called on the Defense Department in early February to investigate whether Flynn had violated the Emoluments Clause by accepting the $33,000 payment from RT.

The Defense Intelligence Agency warned former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn against accepting money or gifts from foreign governments after he left the agency, according to a recently unclassified letter the DIA wrote to Flynn dated October 8, 2014.


In the letter, the DIA said Flynn could violate the Constitution's Emoluments Clause, which prohibits retired military personnel from receiving payments from foreign sources without advance permission, and advised Flynn to "obtain advance approval from the Army" before receiving an emolument from a foreign government.


Flynn was paid about $33,000 by Russia's state-owned news agency, Russia Today, for a speech he gave in Moscow in 2015, but he did not disclose the payment on his security clearance application in January 2016, according to the House oversight committee.

Here is the truth on how the clearance process works as relayed by Susan Rice which is accurate. Trump's campaign and White House Administration team was and is responsible for the vetting process of their cabinet members.

"Let me explain how this process works. First of all, a former military officer such as General Flynn, who wants to retain his security clearance, would go through a process with his home agency, in this case the Defense Intelligence Agency, to have his clearance reviewed and renewed," Rice said, adding that clearance renewal happens at a "very routine level, never at a political level."


She continued: "But that's a very separate thing — the renewal of a clearance — from the vetting that goes into the appointment of any senior White House official, or any senior administration official. The Trump administration, like it’s — every previous administration, had an expectation and an obligation to vet, to their satisfaction, those individuals that the President was appointing to high positions, which is a separate and much more elaborate process than a security clearance."

View attachment 1253545
ref: http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-obama-michael-flynn-security-clearance-2017-4
View attachment 1253547
ref: http://www.businessinsider.com/susan-rice-trump-obama-michael-flynn-vetting-2017-4

View attachment 1253550
ref: http://www.businessinsider.com/michael-flynn-russia-payments-investigation-2017-4
View attachment 1253571

​

What have the Democrats done for you but stoke your anger and tell you its the other guys fault @bigblackbull76 while keeping the conditions in place that cause the problem. All along while dispacing you with foreignors taking your job - eating YOUR LUNCH & funding terrorists on YOUR DIME! & y'all wanna complain about Trump?

 

[subhub174014]

What have the Democrats done for you but stoke your anger and tell you its the other guys faul

and just what has your man done to unite or do anything for the country?
even his "rallies" are gearded towards his supporters while spinning yarns about everyone else... supposed to be a uniter.... he hasn't done any of that.... he could have worked with the dems to repair/replace the ACA... he chose not to.. instead wotk with the freedom caucus to do away with more benefits to get their votes...
the guy is a blowhard and a phoney... and those that don't see it are just ignoring the facts
everything so far just benefits the wealthy AND himself!
The democrats are just trying to stop him from restocking the swamp and hurting the average worker/American... like his health care... he doesn't care if people are dropped or lose coverage... he just wants a "win" in the house.... at the expense of americans... all so he can say he fulfilled a campaign promise of doing away with aca and putting in something "better"?
his tax plan... which he still maintains he will pay more.... but every analyst that has looked at it says he will save millions and that most middle class will pay more!
you can defend the man all you want.... just a snakeoil salesman... and you bought in!

 

[Deleted125623]

When you get a control of terrorism in your Country and take pride in yourselves again @DaphneD then come speak Lies on the President

Ohh pleaase... Deflection is a sign of a weak argument. And tell me once again what terrorism attack has the Netherlands suffered?????

Also, we 'Dutchies' have a huge amount of pride in ourselves

The damage that is being done to the US and its citizens is going to be irrepairable for the years to come.

If you tell an adult something once or even twice you think okay maybe they are not used to this. When you say something 'ELEVEN TIMES before they undertsand thats stupidity at work. But when you get the masses who support to him failing to actual listen and look at the facts...(The real facts and not some fantasy tw@tter or disgracebook posting claiming it as true).

You quickly realise what you are talking too, is in fact a.​

And no. This one isn't on the US Mexican border.
​

A hundred days of promises. A campaign that was filled with boasts , claims, and threats. And not a single one has been delivered.

To anyone supportingTrump I offer this gift.



Because you voted for a man who cannot be believed.

Cannot be trusted.

Is continualy abusing the American public for his own enrichment.

And is destroying America's credibility as a world leader.

A list of Trumps best qualities .

1. - a grandiose sense of self-importance
2. -is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love
3. -believes that he or she is "special" and unique
4. -requires excessive admiration
5. -has a sense of entitlement
6. -is interpersonally exploitative
7. -lacks empathy
8. -is often envious of others or believes others are envious of him or her

These facts alone are enough for many who like Americans as a people to feel their pain and suffering at the hands of a narcissist and dishonest liar!

So excuse me if if I don't take you seriously.

​

 

[Snowbunnybecky]

Ohh pleaase... Deflection is a sign of a weak argument. And tell me once again what terrorism attack has the Netherlands suffered?????

Also, we 'Dutchies' have a huge amount of pride in ourselves

The damage that is being done to the US and its citizens is going to be irrepairable for the years to come.

If you tell an adult something once or even twice you think okay maybe they are not used to this. When you say something 'ELEVEN TIMES before they undertsand thats stupidity at work. But when you get the masses who support to him failing to actual listen and look at the facts...(The real facts and not some fantasy tw@tter or disgracebook posting claiming it as true).

You quickly realise what you are talking too, is in fact a.​

View attachment 1254022

And no. This one isn't on the US Mexican border.
​

A hundred days of promises. A campaign that was filled with boasts , claims, and threats. And not a single one has been delivered.

To anyone supportingTrump I offer this gift.

View attachment 1254037

Because you voted for a man who cannot be believed.

Cannot be trusted.

Is continualy abusing the American public for his own enrichment.

And is destroying America's credibility as a world leader.

A list of Trumps best qualities .
​

1. - a grandiose sense of self-importance
2. -is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love
3. -believes that he or she is "special" and unique
4. -requires excessive admiration
5. -has a sense of entitlement
6. -is interpersonally exploitative
7. -lacks empathy
8. -is often envious of others or believes others are envious of him or her

These facts alone are enough for many who like Americans as a people to feel their pain and suffering at the hands of a narcissist and dishonest liar!

So excuse me if if I don't take you seriously.

​

DAMAGE been done by The Globalist Left ..Terrorism is on the rise, they guilt weak people like @DaphneD to feeling bad even pitying their terrorists ... Obama left the World a Mess = North Korea, Iran, Syria, Libya @MacNfries

 

[Deleted125623]

DAMAGE been done by The Globalist Left ..Terrorism is on the rise, they guilt weak people like @DaphneD to feeling bad even pitying their terrorists ... Obama left the World a Mess = North Korea, Iran, Syria, Libya @MacNfries

Wow you truelly are a triggered snowflake.

qoute: When you get a control of terrorism in your Country and take pride in yourselves again @DaphneD then come speak Lies on the President"

So once 'again' having disproven your attempt as irrelevent to my Country. I camme back to discuss your presidents lies..... Yet you cannot post proof of my Countries lack of Terrorist control..... You see what going on here...You are acting like a typical trump snowflake with no real idea as to what you are saying. Where I post 'ACTUAL EVIDENCE AND FACTS...From multi sources...

 

[Deleted125623]

Donald Trump's Many, Many, Many, Many Ties to Russia
Jeff Nesbit
Updated: Aug 15, 2016 10:39 AM ET | Originally published: Aug 02, 2016
Poison Tea

Russian intelligence agencies have allegedly recently digitally broken into four different American organizations that are affiliated either with Hillary Clinton or the Democratic Party since late May. All of the hacks appear designed to benefit Donald Trump’s presidential aspirations in one fashion or another.

When asked about this, and his affection for Russian president Vladimir Putin, Trump said any inference that a connection exists between the two is absurd and the stuff of conspiracy. “I have ZERO investments in Russia,” he tweeted after the Democratic National Committee was apparently hacked by Russia and the emails released by Wiki Leaks on the eve of the DNC convention to nominate Clinton as its 2016 presidential candidate.

Related

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Most of the coverage of the links between Trump and Putin’s Russia takes the GOP presidential nominee at his word—that he has lusted after a Trump tower in Moscow, and come up spectacularly short. But Trump’s dodge—that he has no businesses in Russia, so there is no connection to Putin—is a classic magician’s trick. Show one idle hand, while the other is actually doing the work.

The truth, as several columnists and reporters have painstakingly shown since the first hack of a Clinton-affiliated group took place in late May or early June, is that several of Trump’s businesses outside of Russia are entangled with Russian financiers inside Putin’s circle.

So, yes, it’s true that Trump has failed to land a business venture inside Russia. But the real truth is that, as major banks in America stopped lending him money following his many bankruptcies, the Trump organization was ****** to seek financing from non-traditional institutions. Several had direct ties to Russian financial interests in ways that have raised eyebrows. What’s more, several of Trump’s senior advisors have business ties to Russia or its satellite politicians.

“The Trump-Russia links beneath the surface are even more extensive,” Max Boot wrote in the Los Angeles Times. “Trump has sought and received funding from Russian investors for his business ventures, especially after most American banks stopped lending to him following his multiple bankruptcies.”

What’s more, three of Trump’s top advisors all have extensive financial and business ties to Russian financiers, wrote Boot, the former editor of the Op Ed page of the Wall Street Journal and now a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Trump’s de facto campaign manager, Paul Manafort, was a longtime consultant to Viktor Yanukovich, the Russian-backed president of Ukraine who was overthrown in 2014. Manafort also has done multimillion-dollar business deals with Russian oligarchs. Trump’s foreign policy advisor Carter Page has his own business ties to the state-controlled Russian oil giant Gazprom. ... Another Trump foreign policy advisor, retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, flew to Moscow last year to attend a gala banquet celebrating Russia Today, the Kremlin’s propaganda channel, and was seated at the head table near Putin.

Manafort denounced the New York Times Monday for a deeply reported story that broke over the weekend showing that secret ledgers in Ukraine contained references to $12.7 million in payments earmarked for him. The Times report said that the party of former Ukraine president and pro-Russia ally, Viktor Yanukovych, set aside the payments for Manafort as part of an illegal and previously undisclosed system of payments.

“Once again, the New York Times has chosen to purposefully ignore facts and professional journalism to fit their political agenda, choosing to attack my character and reputation rather than present an honest report,” Manafort said in a statement first reported by NBC News. Manafort said that he has never done work for the governments of Ukraine or Russia—but that “political payments directed to me” in Ukraine were for his entire political team there that included operatives and researchers.

In response, Hillary Clinton's campaign manager, Robby Mook, issued a statement: "Donald Trump has a responsibility to disclose campaign chair Paul Manafort's and all other campaign employees' and advisers' ties to Russian or pro-Kremlin entities, including whether any of Trump's employees or advisers are currently representing and or being paid by them."

But it is Trump’s financing from Russian satellite business interests that would seem to explain his pro-Putin sympathies.

Read more: This Is How the Trump Campaign May Have Interfered With Russia Policy

The most obvious example is Trump Soho, a complicated web of financial intrigue that has played out in court. A lawsuit claimed that the business group, Bayrock, underpinning Trump Soho was supported by criminal Russian financial interests. While its initial claim absolved Trump of knowledge of those activities, Trump himself later took on the group’s principal partner as a senior advisor in the Trump organization.

“Tax evasion and money-laundering are the core of Bayrock’s business model,” the lawsuit said of the financiers behind Trump Soho. The financing came from Russian-affiliated business interests that engaged in criminal activities, it said. “(But) there is no evidence Trump took any part in, or knew of, their racketeering.”

Journalists who’ve looked at the Bayrock lawsuit, and Trump Soho, wonder why Trump was involved at all. “What was Trump thinking entering into business with partners like these?” Franklin Foer wrote in Slate. “It’s a question he has tried to banish by downplaying his ties to Bayrock.”

But Bayrock wasn’t just involved with Trump Soho. It financed multiple Trump projects around the world, Foer wrote. “(Trump) didn’t just partner with Bayrock; the company embedded with him. Bayrock put together deals for mammoth Trump-named, Trump-managed projects—two in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, a resort in Phoenix, the Trump SoHo in New York.”

But, as The New York Times has reported, that was only the beginning of the Trump organization’s entanglement with Russian financiers. Trump was quite taken with Bayrock’s founder, Tevfik Arif, a former Soviet-era commerce official originally from Kazakhstan.

“Bayrock, which was developing commercial properties in Brooklyn, proposed that Mr. Trump license his name to hotel projects in Florida, Arizona and New York, including Trump SoHo,” the Times reported. “The other development partner for Trump SoHo was the Sapir Organization, whose founder, Tamir Sapir, was from the former Soviet republic of Georgia.”

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Trump was eager to work with both financial groups on Trump projects all over the world. “Mr. Trump was particularly taken with Mr. Arif’s overseas connections,” the Times wrote. “In a deposition, Mr. Trump said that the two had discussed ‘numerous deals all over the world’ and that Mr. Arif had brought potential Russian investors to Mr. Trump’s office to meet him. ‘Bayrock knew the people, knew the investors, and in some cases I believe they were friends of Mr. Arif,’ Mr. Trump said. ‘And this was going to be Trump International Hotel and Tower Moscow, Kiev, Istanbul, etc., Poland, Warsaw.’”

The Times also reported that federal court records recently released showed yet another link to Russian financial interests in Trump businesses. A Bayrock official “brokered a $50 million investment in Trump SoHo and three other Bayrock projects by an Icelandic firm preferred by wealthy Russians ‘in favor with’ President Vladimir V. Putin,’” the Times reported. “The Icelandic company, FL Group, was identified in a Bayrock investor presentation as a ‘strategic partner,’ along with Alexander Mashkevich, a billionaire once charged in a corruption case involving fees paid by a Belgian company seeking business in Kazakhstan; that case was settled with no admission of guilt.”

Trump Soho was so complicated that Bayrock’s finance chief, Jody Kriss, sued it for fraud. In the lawsuit, Kriss alleged that a primary source of funding for Trump’s big projects with Bayrock arrived “magically” from sources in Russia and Kazakhstan whenever the business interest needed funding.

There are other Russian business ties to the Trump organization as well. Trump’s first real estate venture in Toronto, Canada, was a partnership with two Russian-Canadian entrepreneurs, Toronto Life reported in 2013.

“The hotel’s developer, Talon International, is run by Val Levitan and Alex Shnaider, two Russian-Canadian entrepreneurs. Levitan made his fortune manufacturing slot machines and creating bank note validation technology, and Shnaider earned his in the post-glasnost steel trade,” it reported.

Finally, for all of his denials of Russian ties lately, Trump has boasted in the past of his many meetings with Russian oligarchs. During one trip to Moscow, Trump bragged that they all showed up to meet him to discuss projects around the globe. “Almost all of the oligarchs were in the room” just to meet with him, Trump said at the time.

And when Trump built a tower in Panama, his clients were wealthy Russians, the Washington Post reported. “Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets. We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia,” Trump’s *******, Donald Jr., said at a real estate conference in 2008, according to a trade publication, eTurboNews.

The only instance that Trump acknowledges any sort of Russian financial connection is a Florida mansion he sold to a wealthy Russian. "What do I have to do with Russia?” Trump said in the wake of the DNC hack. “You know the closest I came to Russia, I bought a house a number of years ago in Palm Beach, Florida... for $40 million and I sold it to a Russian for $100 million including brokerage commissions."

But it should be obvious to anyone trying to pay attention to these moving targets that Trump is saying one thing and doing something else. When it comes to Trump and Russia, the truth may take awhile to emerge.

Bloomberg reported in June that the Clinton Foundation was breached by Russian hackers. “The Russians may also have acquired the emails that Hillary Clinton sent as secretary of State. Putin might be holding back explosive material until October, when its release could ensure a Trump victory,” it reported.

In the 1970s, burglars broke into the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate office complex. President Richard Nixon, a Republican, was ****** out of office for the White House cover up of its involvement in the DNC break in.

Now, a generation later, a digital break in to the national headquarters of one of our two major parties by a foreign adversary in order to leak information that benefits the other national party’s presidential candidate seems to be just the normal course of doing business. The Trump era, it is safe to assume, is like nothing we’ve ever seen before.

Walter A. Saurack of Satterlee Stephens LLP, Bayrock's attorney, provided the following statement after publication: The allegations made by Jody Kriss in the lawsuit are completely baseless and unsubstantiated. The allegations of tax fraud, as well as other allegations from his original complaint that are quoted in this article, were not included by Kriss when he filed a second amended complaint in the lawsuit.


ll the lies Donald Trump told in his election night infomercial
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Donald Trump with Trump Wine and Trump Water at his press conference in Jupiter, Florida, on Tuesday night.
Image: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
By Jonathan EllisMar 09, 2016
Donald Trump had plenty to celebrate on Tuesday night after winning the Republican primaries in Mississippi and Michigan.

But that didn't really matter. He was still pissed at Mitt Romney for making fun of his companies.

So Trump turned his election night victory speech into an infomercial for Trump-branded products.

Here are some of the great deals he had to offer.

Trump Steaks
Romney said that Trump Steaks was among The Donald's many failed businesses. So Trump had to prove him wrong. "We have Trump Steaks," he said.

The only problem was, the steaks weren't actually Trump Steaks. In fact, they said Bush Brothers on them.

The actual line of Trump Steaks has been discontinued, according to The Wall Street Journal. They were sold at The Sharper Image, which has a commemorative page for them on its website.

Trump Water
Romney "talked about the water company," Trump said. He didn't actually mention it. But Trump wanted to make sure everyone knew he does have his own bottled water.

Being responsible at the open bar at the Trump press conference with some Trump-branded water pic.twitter.com/M7Usaq9Lvi

— Ben Terris (@bterris) March 9, 2016

The official Trump website does say that Trump Natural Spring Water is "proudly served at Trump Hotels, Restaurants and Golf Clubs worldwide."

It's one of the "purest natural spring waters in the world," the site says. "Try its refreshing taste and you will agree—the difference is clear."

That said, a reporter at the press conference noticed the labeling on the bottle:

According to the Village Springs website, its products "are available in the Village Springs label or with your own private label. Village Springs bottles private labels for various convenience stores, grocery stores, and has many distributors that offer home delivery."

So basically, Trump Natural Spring Water is the same water you can buy at a gas station.

Trump Vodka and Trump Wine
"He mentioned Trump Vodka," Trump complained.

Trump then launched into a long discussion of Trump Winery. That really does exist.

But Trump Vodka was discontinued in 2011, the Journal reported.

Also, Trump Winery appears to be affiliated with Trump's ******* Eric and not with Trump himself:


Trump Winery is a registered trade name of Eric Trump Wine Manufacturing LLC, which is not owned, managed or affiliated with Donald J. Trump, The Trump Organization or any of their affiliates.

Trump did offer the reporters a free bottle of the wine.

Trump Magazine
Romney also cited Trump Magazine in the list of failed ventures.

"I thought I read one two days ago," Trump replied.

Image: Fox News

He grabbed a magazine and waved it in the air.

"This comes out and it's called The Jewel of Palm Beach and it all goes to all of my clubs. I have had it for many years. It's the magazine. It's great. Anybody want one?"

Well, it is not actually the magazine.

Trump Magazine folded in 2009. It looked like this.

The Jewel of Palm Beach is published by a separate publisher called Palm Beach Media Group. Here is how they describe it:

The Jewel of Palm Beach, the exclusive publication of Donald J. Trump's spectacular Mar-a-Lago Club, highlights the elements that make this club one of a kind—from the star-studded events to the extraordinary fashions, cuisine and activities that members enjoy. This annual magazine is distributed at Mar-a-Lago and Trump International Golf Club in the Palm Beaches, as well as at all Trump properties in New York.

So, yes, Trump owns a club and that club has a glorified brochure published about it once a year.


Trump Airline
"Whatever happened to Trump Airlines?" Romney asked last week.

A Trump Shuttle at LaGuardia Airport in 1991.

Image: David A. Cantor/ASSOCIATED PRESS

"Well, I sold the airline," Trump said. "I actually made a great deal. Complicated — and in really terrible times, the economy was terrible — and I made a phenomenal deal."

According to the Journal, Trump bought the assets of a defunct shuttle airline for $385 million in 1989 and tried to make it into a luxury business. That didn't work because passengers just wanted convenience.

Trump with Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., in happier times for the airline.

Image: ASSOCIATED PRESS

"The airline carried a high debt load and eventually defaulted,"the Journal reported. "It was later sold to USAir."

"What's wrong with selling?" Trump said Tuesday night. "I mean, every once in a while you can sell something."


Trump University
Trump University has been pretty well documented at this point — it's the real estate education program that charged students tens of thousands of dollars and often left them mired in credit card debt.

On Tuesday, the Better Business Bureau confirmed that the university (which was later renamed the Trump Entrepreneur Initiative because it wasn't an accredited university) had a D- rating in 2010. The only reason its rating later rose to an A+ was because it began to shut down and no further complaints came in.

Don't let that stop Donald Trump, though.

"We're putting it on hold," Trump said of the university Tuesday night. "We're gonna start it up as soon as I win the lawsuit."

"If I become president, that means Ivanka, Don, Eric and my family will start it up," he continued, referring to his three grown children. "But we have a lot of great people who want to get back into Trump University. It's going to do very well, and it will continue to do very well."

Call now!
"I think what this shows is that advertising is not as important as competence," Trump said. (He was talking about the negative ads against him.)

Trump also talked politics Tuesday night. But he had already made his pitch.

UPDATE, March 9, 9:47 a.m.: Corey Lewandowski, the Trump campaign manager, spoke with Mashable to clarify some of Trump's statements. He didn't agree that Trump was making it look like some of his shuttered businesses were still operating.

Asked about Trump Steaks, he said Trump had made it clear that "he doesn't go out and butcher the cow." He also acknowledged that Trump Water is provided by a third party and Trump "puts his name on it. He doesn't go out and bottle the water himself."

Trump has had many magazines over the years, Lewandowski said, not just the Trump Magazine that folded in 2009. "His magazines now are primarily driven for the memberships of his clubs. The magazine that he has now is distributed among all his properties."

You can still get Trump Vodka at some Trump clubs, he said. It's "predominantly not sold to the public, but used in his facilities." As for Trump Winery, Lewandowski said that Trump's ******* Eric "does run that business for him."

He agreed that the Trump airline carried "a significant amount of debt," but reiterated that Trump "got a great deal" when he sold it. "He never defaulted on the airline," Lewandowski said. (The airline itself, however, did default.)

Lewandowski repeated Trump's assertions that Trump University had been rated as high as A+ by the Better Business Bureau. He acknowledged that its current rating is "No Rating," despite Trump's claim last week that it has a current A rating. He did not dispute that the rating had once been D-, but said the BBB ratings fluctuate: "Just because you've been given a rating today, that doesn't mean it's going to be the rating in perpetuity."

The BBB says Trump University's rating rose from D- in 2010 to A+ in 2015 — but only because the company was winding down its operations, and old complaints fell off the charts while no new complaints were received.

 

[Deleted125623]

Donald Trump’s history of corruption: a comprehensive review
Updated by Andrew Prokopandrew@vox.com Oct 31, 2016, 10:47am EDT

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David A. Grogan/CNBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty
In the big-picture conversation around the 2016 presidential election, the major negative narratives about Donald Trump have tended to focus on his racism, his temperament, or his tendency to tell lies.

Yet there’s another important Trump trait that’s gotten some attention but really needs to get much more — he’s corrupt, and in a consistent way.

Whenever Trump has been in positions of power or authority, he has demonstrated a pattern of trying to enrich himself by abusing the trust others have placed in him — whether it’s creditors, contractors, charitable givers, Trump University students, regulators, or campaign donors.

Over the past several months — and, indeed, the past few decades — reporters have unearthed many alarming stories that show this. They’ve reported on Trump’s many shady business practices. His shady charity. His shady fake university scam. His shady campaign spending. His many shady associates. And, last but by no means least, there is Trump’s refusal to release tax returns or other financial information that would shed further light on his business practices, associates, and philanthropic undertakings.

Now, sometimes Trump’s abuses of trust entail breaking the law, and sometimes they’re within the bounds of the law. And sometimes the legality of Trump’s actions isn’t yet clear — as in the case of Trump University, which will face a fraud trial shortly after the election, and with some of the controversies around the Trump Foundation.

But the common thread is that Trump screws people over to benefit himself. And despite the plethora of excellent reporting on this topic, many voters seem to be unaware of his troubling history here, and may view him primarily as a successful businessman who says some offensive things. A recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, for instance, found that Trump had a 10-point advantage over Clinton on “being honest and straightforward.”

Indeed, he is betting his campaign on his hopes that he can frame himself as an independent outsider free of special interest influence, to contrast with Hillary Clinton, whom he has dubbed “crooked.”

But Trump’s record makes it crystal clear that he’s more interested in rapaciously extracting what money he can and doing what he wants, with little regard to laws, rules, or people who aren’t Donald Trump. Furthermore, he’s repeatedly proven willing to violate norms about what sort of behavior is acceptable and ethical.

And most importantly of all, if elected president, Trump would wield incredible power. Yet if you look at what he’s done with power in the past, suddenly this theme in his biography — his corruption — becomes among the most troubling of his many troubling qualities. There are many, many reasons to be concerned about a Trump administration’s ethics and potential to abuse power. Here are just a few.

Trump has a history of shady business practices

Trump in his helicopter in 1987. Mob-connected Robert LiButti was wiretapped bragging that Trump took him for a helicopter ride.
Joe McNally / Hulton Archive / Getty
First off, the way Trump has run his businesses for the past few decades should raise grave doubts about how he’d run the federal government — he’s allegedly been willing to break rules, break promises, and discriminate against nonwhite people.

There are the hundreds of accusations that Trump refused to pay contractors and workers what they were owed, which the Wall Street Journal and USA Today compiled this year. “The actions in total paint a portrait of Trump’s sprawling organization frequently failing to pay small businesses and individuals, then sometimes tying them up in court and other negotiations for years,” USA Today’s Steve Reilly wrote. “In some cases, the Trump teams financially overpower and outlast much smaller opponents, draining their resources.” (Trump told Reilly that if he ever didn’t pay, it must have been because he was unhappy with the work.)

And recently, Republican consultant Brian James Walsh further corroborated these accusations with his own personal story:


Next, there’s the housing discrimination case against him from the 1970s. The Department of Justice alleged that Trump and his ******* discriminated against black applicants for apartments in Trump-owned buildings. One superintendent said he had been instructed to write “C” (for “colored”) on every application from a prospective black tenant, and others described similar racial “codes,” as the Daily Beast’s Gideon Resnick has written.

The government argued that black applicants would repeatedly be told there were no vacancies in Trump-owned buildings, but white applicants would then inquire and get offers. The Trumps denied the claims and fought back in court, but eventually settled — “with no admission of guilt,” Trump pointed out during Monday’s debate, which is not exactly saying he was innocent.

Then there was Trump’s illegal financial maneuver back in 1986. That year, he tried to take over two rival casino companies by buying up their stock. But the law required him to disclose his large purchases to the Federal Trade Commission in advance, and he failed to do so. The matter ended up in court, and he was eventually ****** to pay a $750,000 penalty as a result.

And there’s the matter of Trump’s alleged contacts with the mob. Now, to be fair to the GOP nominee, the Mafia’s influence was pervasive in the New York City construction industry at the time. Still, when reputed mobster Robert LiButti was a high-dollar gambler at the Trump Plaza in Atlantic City, the Trump Plaza worked very hard indeed to keep him happy, as Michael Isikoff of Yahoo News reported:

• When LiButti demanded that women or black card dealers not be allowed on his games, the Trump Plaza kept them away from him — and it was later fined $200,000 for violating state nondiscrimination laws.
• The Trump Plaza also gave LiButti nine luxury cars as gifts, all of which he quickly exchanged for a total of $1.65 million in cash. But cash gifts from casinos to high rollers were then illegal in the state, so the Trump Plaza was slapped with another fine — this one for $450,000.
• LiButti was wiretapped bragging that he was “very close with” Trump and that he rode in Trump’s helicopter.

And Trump’s reputed mob contacts didn’t stop there. “I’ve covered Donald Trump off and on for 27 years, and in that time I’ve encountered multiple threads linking Trump to organized crime,” reporter David Cay Johnston wrote in Politico Magazine in May. “No other candidate for the White House this year has anything close to Trump’s record of repeated social and business dealings with mobsters, swindlers, and other crooks.”

Trump has used other people’s donations to his charity to benefit himself
Donald Trump has a charitable family foundation to which, in recent years, he has given hardly any money, instead raising the vast majority of its funds from others. That’s rather dishonest of him, since he constantly claims that the foundation’s donations are from his own pocketbook. But the more serious problem is that he’s then used several hundred thousand dollars of that foundation money in deeply questionable ways that may well have run afoul of laws against “self-dealing” with charity money.

For instance, in September, the Washington Post’s David Fahrenthold — the reporter who’s absolutely owned the Trump Foundation beat — reported that Trump used $258,000 of the foundation’s money to settle legal problems involving his for-profit businesses.

• First, in 2007, Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club was fined $120,000 by the town of Palm Beach, Florida, because the height of its flagpole violated town rules. An eventual settlement entailed the town waiving the fines and Trump committing to donate $100,000 to a veterans charity. But Trump used his foundation, not any of his businesses, to make the donation.
• Second, in 2010, a guy named Martin Greenberg sued Trump’s golf course, claiming he was cheated out of a promised million-dollar prize for getting a hole in one during a charity tournament. The golf course agreed to settlement in which it would donate to Greenberg’s charitable foundation — but the $158,000 sent over was instead from the Trump Foundation, not any of Trump’s businesses.

Again, what Trump seems to have done here is used other people’s charity donations to get his own businesses off the hook for lawsuits. Which seems ... pretty corrupt. (The Trump campaign sent out a statement that attacked Fahrenthold but did not dispute any facts in his story.)

And eventually, Farenthold found another bombshell. Businessman Richard Ebers bought almost $1.9 million worth of goods and services from Trump or his businesses, but he was told to pay Trump’s tax-exempt foundation instead, according to Fahrenthold’s sources. But according to the law, Trump should have paid taxes on that money as income — and his campaign refuses to say whether he did so.

And those are just the latest Trump Foundation controversies. Fahrenthold has also reported on an illegal $25,000 donation the foundation made to Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi’s political group around the time she was weighing whether to investigate Trump University, for which the foundation was hit with an IRS penalty. (The Trump campaign claims this was a mistake.) There was also that time Trump spent $12,000 of the foundation’s money to buy a football helmet autographed by Tim Tebow, plus a jersey, at a charity auction. And much more.

Law professor Adam Chodorow writes in Slate writes that all this, together, seems to indicate Trump is using his tax-exempt charity as a “personal piggy bank.” He continues that the foundation should likely “lose its tax-exempt status’ and “Trump arguably should report the money it spent on his behalf as income,” adding: “If I worked at the Internal Revenue Service, I would refer Trump to the Justice Department for a criminal investigation.” Another law professor, Philip Hackney, makes a similar argument at The Surly Subgroup blog.

Trump University is facing a fraud trial

Donald Trump establishes Trump University in 2005.
Carvalho/FilmMagic
Repeatedly during the campaign, Trump has admitted that he has been “greedy” in business — but he’s argued that as president, he would channel that trait to benefit the American people. “I want to grab all that money. I’m going to be greedy for the United States,” he’s said.

It’s a dubious claim, made even more dubious by his behavior in the matter of Trump University. This was the GOP nominee’s seminar business that purported to be able to teach its students secrets of real estate investing. Former students sued Trump, claiming they were bilked out of their money, and he’s set to face a trial for fraud in the matter shortly after the election. The New York attorney general’s office has also sued, claiming Trump University made deceptive claims.

"[The instructors] were unqualified people posing as Donald Trump's 'right-hand men,'" Jason Nicholas, a former employee, said in one deposition. "They were teaching methods that were unethical, and they had had little to no experience flipping properties or doing real estate deals. It was a façade, a total lie."

The business model was, apparently, to try to hook the gullible with a free seminar and pressure them into signing up for more and more expensive installments that promised to teach students how to invest in real estate.

But these “classes” were, apparently, worthless. "To my knowledge, not a single consumer who paid for a Trump University seminar program went on to successfully invest in real estate based upon the techniques that were taught," former employee Ronald Schnackenberg said in another deposition. Read Libby Nelson for more.

Trump won’t release his tax returns, which is unprecedented for a recent presidential candidate

Trump signing his tax return in 2015. He refuses to publicly release his tax returns, breaking with decades of precedent for presidential nominees.
Trump’s Twitter account
Every major party nominee in the past three decades has released his or her tax returns. But Donald Trump is still refusing to do so, and is giving a nonsensical justification for it.

Trump says he won’t release his returns because he’s currently under an IRS audit. But as the IRS has confirmed, being audited doesn’t mean he has to keep his returns secret. Furthermore, Trump has many previous years of tax returns that are no longer being audited that he could release — but he refuses to.

So there has naturally been a lot of speculation on what Trump is trying to hide here. Do the returns show he’s not as rich as he says he is? That he’s given far less to charity than he claims? That he’d rarely even paid taxes? That he has a lot of money offshore?

“How much tax is Trump paying or sheltering domestically vs. in foreign jurisdictions? That needs to be known to ascertain which nations Trump has financial ties to and where he may be susceptible to pressure,” Richard Painter and Norm Eisen write at the Washington Post. Until Trump releases his returns, we won’t know.

Trump has spent millions of dollars of campaign funds on Trump businesses

Matthew Busch/Getty
As of August, the Trump campaign had allotted 7 percent of its total spending so far — more than $8.2 million — to companies owned by Trump or his children, according to an analysis by Politico’s Ken Vogel. Payments went to various Trump venues, an aviation company Trump owns, Trump Tower for office space, his corporate staff, and various other vendors.

Now, it’s not as if Trump should have donated his company’s stuff for free — indeed, that would have been a prohibited corporate contribution. And the Trump campaign tends to respond by emphasizing that Trump put $54 million of his own money into the campaign. Still, he has deliberately chosen to spend his campaign money (which includes millions raised from other people) on companies he or his children own rather than on independent vendors.

Meanwhile, taxpayers are chipping in too — the US Secret Service has paid $1.6 million to travel on a plane operated by one of Trump’s companies, according to another report by Vogel and Isaac Arnsdorf. Again, Secret Service reimbursement to a campaign for travel is common. But as the authors write, since Trump owns the aviation company, “the government is effectively paying him.”

And about that Trump Tower rent — shortly after the Trump campaign shifted from a largely self-funded model to one more reliant on donors, Trump nearly quintupled the rent that Trump Tower was charging the campaign for office space, according to the Huffington Post’s S.V. Dáte. This came at a time when the campaign didn’t expand its staff size, though Trump’s team later told CNN that they were paying for two new floors “in anticipation of more staff.”

Donald Trump has surrounded himself with shady people during this campaign

Trump transition chief Chris Christie, whose aides are on trial for Bridgegate, and Trump adviser Roger Ailes, who stepped down from Fox News after sexual harassment allegations.
David A. Grogan/CNBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty, Drew Angerer/Getty
Throughout the campaign, Trump has claimed not only that he would be an excellent president but that he’d be excellent at hiring. “I’m going to surround myself only with the best and most serious people,” he said last year.

Instead, he has surrounded himself with people who’ve not only demonstrated a history of unethical behavior but also abused their past power, often to try to intimidate critics or opponents.

Trump appointed New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to head his transition, giving him a key role in recommending candidates for hundreds if not thousands of federal jobs. Yet two of Christie’s job appointees in New Jersey are currently facing trial for their involvement in the Bridgegate scandal — prosecutors say they conspired to cause a serious traffic jam in Fort Lee, New Jersey, to punish the town’s mayor for refusing to endorse Christie’s reelection campaign. Another aide, David Wildstein, has already pled guilty in the matter.

Furthermore, prosecutors also asserted in court in September — and Wildstein testified — that Christie knew about both his aides’ actions and their motivations while the scheme was being carried out. (Christie has long denied this.) Wildstein tesitfied that he bragged to Christie about what he was doing when he saw him at an event, and that Christie laughed and responded with jokes.

Craziest of all, Donald Trump himself has long said that Christie “totally knew about” his aides’ actions in Bridgegate. Yet this suspicion that Christie was fine with his aides’ abuse of power in a petty revenge plot seems to have been no obstacle for Trump in his determination that Christie is the best-qualified person to help him staff the federal government.

Another current Trump adviser is Roger Ailes, who was pushed out of his job as CEO of Fox News just in July over allegations that he sexually harassed multiple women, which, if true, is clearly an abuse of power. (Ailes denied the allegations, but some of his harassing comments were caught on tape, according to New York magazine’s Gabriel Sherman, and Fox settled with accuser Gretchen Carlson for the hefty sum of $20 million.)

Furthermore, while at Fox News, Ailes also used company money to try to orchestrate smear campaigns against journalists from other outlets who were reporting on him. Yet according to BuzzFeed News’s McKay Coppins, Ailes is “playing a much larger backstage role in handling Trump than most people realize.”

And then there is Jared Kushner, Trump’s *******-in-law, who by some accounts has effectively been running the Trump campaign for a few months. Kushner is a real estate heir who took over his *******’s company after his ******* was sent to prison for tax evasion, making illegal campaign contributions, and witness tampering. When Kushner’s holdings ran into some financial trouble in the wake of the economic crisis, he asked fellow mogul Richard Mack for a write-down on a loan Mack had extended him — but Mack refused.

Not long afterward, Kushner apparently wanted revenge on Mack, and he sought to get it by using the newspaper he owned — the New York Observer. Kushner had heard a rumor about Mack, and he wanted his reporters to publish a story about it. “There's a guy named Richard Mack, and we've got to get this guy,” Kushner told one reporter, according to Esquire’s Vicky Ward. Reporters were put on the case and failed to corroborate the rumor, but Kushner kept pushing to move the story forward anyway, as the Observer’s then-editor, Elizabeth Spiers, recounts. It never saw the light of day, but it’s deeply concerning about how Kushner operates.

What’s most troubling of all, though, is that Trump is surely aware of everything I’ve mentioned in this section but doesn’t seem to mind. He puts a man whose appointees are facing trial in charge of government appointments. He invites an alleged serial sexual harasser who tries to intimidate critical journalists to be a key adviser. This should set off alarm bells.

Trump’s corruption is a threat to our norms of governance

Christopher Polk/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images
“Americans pride themselves on our politicians' respect for the rule of law, on the checks and balances that protect us from the powerful,” Ezra Klein wrote earlier this year. “But as often as not, our real protection is found not in laws but in norms.”

And that’s the deeper problem underlying all this — that Trump has repeatedly shown he has little respect for norms of ethical or acceptable behavior.

There’s been much discussion about how Trump has repeatedly violated political norms of acceptable behavior — with his proposed Muslim ban, his constant vicious attacks on critics, his attempts to discredit a judge because he happens to be Mexican-American, and countless other actions.

But his decades-long track record in the business sector and the nonprofit world, and his management of his current campaign, suggests he’s willing to violate ethical norms too. He treats rules or laws as inconveniences. He ignores conflicts of interest. He takes what he wants, regardless of who gets hurt. And all this is when he is simply a wealthy businessman.

Yet if Trump wins in November, he becomes the most powerful person in the world, with a nuclear arsenal, the US military, and thousands of government appointees who can carry out his wishes at his disposal.

No one can say for sure what will happen then. But we can’t say we weren’t warned.

 

[Deleted125623]

Ok snowflake. You come to me , start your rant, then run away when confronted by your own style of replies... You Run away like a true little snowflake. Its all you can do... But as usual you denialists won't read replies but expect people to read you inane Bullshit.... Off you go snowflake..

 

[Snowbunnybecky]

NO ONE'S GOING TO READ ALL THAT .. BOTTOM LINE @DaphneD

Obama taught America TO HATE someone with a different skin color, blacks to hate white ...women hate men ,,,gays hate straight .. all the while releasing terrorists and criminals ..OBAMA, RICE, HILLARY AND PODESTA should be in jail!..Not this baby talk on impeaching Trump like the illiterate embrassment to black folk Maxine Waters says

is the World better off for Obama? is Libya, is Syria ..is North Korea? is Europe with a terrorist attack EVERY WEEK @DaphneD ...is Africa with Obama telling them that the World will boil if they have cars or air conditioners for his false climate change which is NOTHING but seperating you from your freedom and money & controlled by Elites"



BOTTOM LINE : Trump has taught us skin color dont matter ..Only colors that matter of RED WHITE AND BLUE ...Unlike Obama WHO ENCOURAGED blacks to hate white and hate cops ... encouraged women to hate & envy men ....etc ...etc.. give it up @DaphneD @MacNfries STOP BEING RACIST!

 

[Snowbunnybecky]

Ok snowflake. You come to me , start your rant, then run away when confronted by your own style of replies... Run away little snowflake. Its all you can do... But as usual you denialists won't read replies but expect people to read you inane Bullshit.... Off you go snowflake..

I'm not the snowflake who believes everyone gets a Trophy and wants a BIG NANNY STATE to make it fair boo hoo make it fair thats you and @MacNfries @DaphneD GIVE IT UP ... OBAMA HILLARY, PODESTA SHOULD BE IN PRISON FOR IRAN & RUSSIA ..ITS THEM NOT TRUMP ..GET REAL! ...

besides you Live in the Netherlands worry about "The Netherlands" seems to me your country has a BIG TERRORIST PROBLEM due to Liberal Weakness @DaphneD

 

[Deleted125623]

Bye snowflake...You really are triggered with your NWO , globalist BS and rants....

Ps snowflake...If they work for you. YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE.....Its how life works...

 

[Snowbunnybecky]

Bye snowflake...You really are triggered with your NWO , globalist BS and rants....

Ps snowflake...If they work for you. YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE.....Its how life works...

Bye snowflake...You really are triggered with your NWO , globalist BS and rants....

Ps snowflake..

Bye snowflake...You really are triggered with your NWO , globalist BS and rants....

Ps snowflake...If they work for you. YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE.....Its how life works...

.If they work for you. YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE.....Its how life works...

...yeah be careful with all those terrorists in Netherlands @DaphneD @bigblackbull76 @MacNfries ...Weakness only invites conflict ...When will they Learn? ...Think y'all should be trying to help Trump rather than the enemy Obama funded who wants to blow you up ... Stay safe

Ludicrous on impeachment talk ..GROW UP! Learn to THINK ON YOUR OWN ..Not have them think for you!

 

[subhub174014]

Trump has taught us skin color dont matter ..

you better look closer at your idol!

 

[subhub174014]

Think y'all should be trying to help Trump rather than the enemy Obama funded who wants to blow you up ... Stay safe

You have to be a Trumpie..... your facts are just like his... nothing factual at all...you have that backwards.....do you even read the papers or listen to the news.... you do know that Russia put Trump where he is!

did you read anything posted above.... or to much for your limited attention span?

oh yes and trump sent some missiles into Syria..... can you mention anything of damage?... the runway/airport was used the next day... with Syria planes using barrel bombs... all that was just publicitiy to take people off the Russian connection.... he is famous for creating a diversion when the press gets on something he doesn't like

 

[MacNfries]

Snowbunny, will you please point yourself out in this pic ... just wasn't sure which is YOU ....



Trump could be filmed beating an old person to death in a wheelchair, with a puppy, and the Trump Zombies would follow Trump.

 

[MacNfries]

....President Andrew Jackson was really upset about the Civil War ... really upset, believe you me!