Wednesday, October 5, 2016

A taxing situation [Politics]

Donald Trump tweeted, “@BarackObama who wants to raise all our taxes, only pays 20.5% on $790k salary. http://1.usa.gov/HFZJKH  Do as I say not as I do.”
Donald Trump tweeted, “Facebook billionaire gives up his U.S. citizenship in order to save taxes. I guess 3.8 billion isn't enough for (cont) http://tl.gd/hdnk92.”
Donald Trump tweeted, "@conservativeJT: @bluejoni @realDonaldTrump Trump is an American that will pay more taxes in one year than you pay in your entire life.”
This was his position until he got caught in the open being a rich tax freeloader.
The New York Times got hold of Trump’s 1995 tax filings in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. He lost $916,000,000. How does losing almost a BILLION dollars in a good economy in the casino business work out to him being a financial genius? Well, I have to admit that I’m not sure an amateur could lose that much money but that would just make him a professional loser.
In 2014 Donald Trump said that he would release his tax returns. Period. The video of him saying it is available online. http://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2016/09/16/donald-trump-2014-taxes-comment-nr.cnn
Donald Trump has vacillated for months now about releasing his tax returns. He’s milking the attention he’s received from the media that he claims is biased. He received billions in free media coverage during the primaries and is doing so again during the general election. Does Trump really hate being picked on? Here’s what he said in his book “The art of the deal.”
 “Even though the publicity was almost entirely negative, there was a great deal of it, and that drew a tremendous amount of attention to Trump Tower. Almost immediately we saw an upsurge in the sales of apartments. I’m not saying that’s a good thing, and in truth it probably says something perverse about the culture we live in. But I’m a businessman, and I learned a lesson from that experience: good publicity is preferable to bad, but from a bottom-line perspective, bad publicity is sometimes better than no publicity at all. Controversy, in short, sells.” [PP 175-176] 
Only in this case just substitute “supporters” for “the sales of apartments”.
But Trump is, after all, a braggart. I don’t mean that to be insulting. It’s his nature it’s what he does. He does it continually. Well, except for when he takes a breather to insult people. He brags about whatever he does including his failures and even if it’s a complete fabrication. When he does fess up, and that isn’t often, he will immediately blame someone else like the whole birther movement. I mean he was Captain of the Birthers. Make that Emperor. (Being a Captain is beneath him like joining the military when he had the chance.)
However, it should be troubling even for Donald Trump supporters that he’s gaming the system and won’t release his tax returns. Trump often places himself above the law. He’s different than the rest of us. He has over 3,400 lawsuits to prove it. He’s lost or settled about a third as best I can determine. He has paid millions settling out of court to keep from going to trial and being found guilty.
Now I understand that it isn’t the law and there isn’t any rule making it mandatory that candidates release their tax returns. But he is the first candidate in 40 years that hasn’t released his in a timely fashion, with the exception of Richard Nixon. Nixon didn’t release his until after he was elected and ended up owing almost a half million in taxes. If I remember correctly that was almost half his net worth. That’s reason enough to want to see a candidate’s tax returns
You would think that he would revel in rubbing people’s nose in his vast wealth. He’s so rich that he was going to self-fund his campaign except he couldn’t. He’s so rich that he can owe hundreds of millions to bankers. He’s so rich that he doesn’t need government subsidies except he did. He’s so rich that he has given millions to charities but his Trump Foundation has been funded with other people’s money for the last few years. Now we discover that his foundation hasn’t been operating legally.
He says that his lawyers and accountants advised him not to release them. Were the other candidates advised by their lawyers not to release theirs? Doesn’t matter. They released them anyway. At this point everyone, including Trump supporters, should understand that he has zero legitimate reasons for refusing to release his tax return unless he’s gaming our system of government yet again.
My favorite excuse of his is when asked to release his tax returns Trump says that he will when Hillary turns over 33,000 DELETED emails. Does he understand what the word DELETED means? Perhaps he does. It’s the perfect excuse for never releasing his tax returns.
Here’s the deal. Hillary Rodham Clinton has been investigated and been found NOT GUILTY. To expand that: in over 2 decades of investigations by those who hate the ground she walks on, they have never been able to find her guilty. The HRC haters heading the 8 Republican committees that investigated her could not find her guilty of committing any chargeable offense. Also, she has released her tax returns.
His son maintains that if his dad releases his tax returns he’ll lose votes. He should know.