Donald Trump

Not a Shocker

Fandango11 Comments

Nope, not a shocker. Not a surprise. No wonder Trump has been so insistent on not releasing his taxes.

According to the New York Times, which has obtained Donald Trump’s tax information extending over more than two decades:

“The tax returns that Trump has long fought to keep private tell a story fundamentally different from the one he has sold to the American public. His reports to the IRS portray a businessman who takes in hundreds of millions of dollars a year yet racks up chronic losses that he aggressively employs to avoid paying taxes.

Now, with his financial challenges mounting, the records show that he depends more and more on making money from businesses that put him in potential and often direct conflict of interest with his job as president.”

The Times reported that Trump paid just $750 in federal income taxes the year he won the presidency. In his first year in the White House, he paid another $750.” I bet most of you who are reading this post typically pay way more in federal taxes each year than $750. I know I do.

And Trump paid no income taxes whatsoever in 10 of the past 15 years, beginning in 2000, because he reported losing significantly more than he made.

Of course, Trump has denied that he paid only $750 in personal federal income taxes in 2016 and 2017, but did not provide evidence and again refused to release his tax returns.

Will these revelations have any bearing on the upcoming presidential election? Probably not. His supporters already know that he’s a liar, a conman, and a crook and they just don’t care.

As to the rest of us, we will just sit and stew and wring our hands and it will be business as usual.

What the fuck, America? How did we let this happen to us?

Weekend Writing Prompt — Zany

Fandango9 Comments

“It has to be the Three Stooges,” Dave said.

“Nah, they weren’t zany,” Chuck said, “they were slapstick. “I’m going with the Marx Brothers.”

“Oh yeah,” Dave countered, “what about Abbott and Costello or Laurel and Hardy?”

“Monty Python was the very definition of zany,” Chuck said.

“The Smothers Brothers.”

“Martin and Lewis.”

“Donald Trump.”

“He’s not zany. He’s just plain crazy.”

(62 words)

Written for this week’s Weekend Writing Prompt from Sammi Cox, where the word is “zany.” Who do you think was (or is) the zaniest comedy team?

Unpresidented

Fandango28 Comments

King TrumpYes, I know that there’s no such word as “unpresidented.” However, what our current president is doing is “unprecedented,” and is unlike what any other president in American history has even hinted at doing.

A hallmark of our nation’s democracy has been the peaceful transfer of power between political opponents. The loser of every presidential election in U.S. history has peacefully surrendered power to the winner, despite whatever personal animosity or political divisions might exist.

But in an unprecedented move, our current president, Donald Trump, has outright refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power after the November election. “We’re going to see what happens. Get rid of the ballots and you’ll have a very peaceful — there won’t be a transfer, frankly. There will be a continuation.”

Oh my fucking God! “Get rid of the ballots”? “A continuation”? I think he means “a coronation.”

You may remember that this is not the first time that Trump has equivocated about the results of a presidential election. In 2016, prior to that year’s election, Trump also declined to commit to honoring the election results if his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, won, claiming that the only way she could win would be if the election was rigged. Even though she did win the popular vote by almost three million, she lost the Electoral College vote — don’t get me started on the Electoral College — giving the Office of the President to Trump. Yet still, his fragile ego would not allow him to accept that more people voted for Clinton than for him. Trump tried to claim that those three million votes for Hillary were fraudulent and/or illegal. Of course, there was no evidence to support such a claim.

As I posted yesterday, “Trump is going to do everything he can, with active help from his pal Vladimir, to stay in office regardless of the legitimate outcome of the election.” Now, Trump’s refusal to commit to what is perhaps the most fundamental tenet of American democracy, has cast serious doubt around the November election and its aftermath. And if he continues with his unfounded and insane rhetoric, and riles up his gun-toting, far right, white nationalist supporters, the days between the November 3rd election and the scheduled January 20th inauguration, will throw the United States into a chaos such as it hasn’t experienced since the American Civil War a century and a half ago.

As I’ve said on this blog many times over the past year (here and here, for example), buckle up, America, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.

By Hook or By Crook

Fandango11 Comments

The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) warned yesterday that “foreign malicious hackers” (i.e., Russians) will be spreading disinformation around election results later this year.

A CIA assessment that Russian President Vladimir Putin and his top aides “are aware of and are probably directing Russia’s influence operations” aimed at interfering in the 2020 election. Damn you, Putin!

The agencies specifically said that foreign actors will try to confuse voters by creating and spreading disinformation about “voter suppression, cyberattacks targeting election infrastructure, and voter or ballot fraud” after the polls close. Such disinformation is intended to create doubt about the legitimacy of the election.

Just like Donald Trump, with his lies and misinformation, and his Republican ass-kissers are doing.

Projections for this year’s election suggest that most Republicans will vote in person on election day, while many Democrats will be voting by mail due to COVID-19. That will lead to a significant increase in the use of mail-in ballots, which could mean that many states will have incomplete results on election night, since state and local officials typically require several days to several weeks to certify elections’ final results in order to ensure every legally cast vote has been accurately counted.

Donald Trump has repeatedly lied about voter fraud in U.S. elections and has questioned the legitimacy of the vote-counting process. White House officials have ignored warnings from election officials about delayed results and instead have stated that there should be a projected winner on election night, even if millions of mail-in ballots have yet to be counted.

Trump is going to do everything he can, with active help from his pal Vladimir, to stay in office regardless of the legitimate outcome of the election. He wants to be “re-elected” and he will do so by hook or by crook. Mostly by crook.

How Do They Sleep at Night?

Fandango30 Comments

This came across my newsfeed this morning.Why am I surprised that no Republicans in Congress possesses even an ounce of scruples?

Why would I think that any Republican in Congress, including those who previously insisted that they would not support filling a vacancy for a new Supreme Court justice in a presidential election year, are now saying that they will support, just 41 days before our next presidential election, filling the Supreme Court vacancy created by the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg?

These spineless, unscrupulous, lying, hypocritical Republicans want to reverse Roe v. Wade, thus taking away a woman’s right to manage her own reproductive healthcare. They want to destroy the Affordable Care Act, thus depriving millions of Americans of access to cost-effective healthcare. And with a solid, 6 to 3 conservative majority on the high court, that is exactly what the Republicans will be able to accomplish when pending cases on Roe v. Wade and the ACA come before the court.

Most important, these scuzzy Republicans want to give their Lord and Master, Donald Trump, a conservative majority on the Supreme Court so that when he contests the election — and Trump has already told us that is what he’s planning to do — he will have the support of the right-wing high court to declare him the victor.

Because of Trump, McConnell, Barr, and all of the Republican sycophants in Congress, democracy America is over. Putin has won. How do they look at themselves in the mirror? How do they sleep at night?

I am angry. I am frustrated. I am tired. I am depressed. I am without hope. And I’m heartbroken.