A game within a game, within a game

Trump’s  super Eastern, high back, buttercup yellow chairs. 

Obama’s super Western,  low back, brown leather chairs with tacks.

Entertaining as the hearing today was, I can’t help but think that everyone is missing the actual point: The POTUS claimed to have been wiretapped to find out if he’d been wiretapped.

Weird as that sounds, it makes logical sense. Since the POTUS is not allowed to ask about information about current FBI investigations. The only way to find out if there was one,was is to create such havoc (via wild Twitter claims about wiretapping) that Congress asks the question for him, publicly. Then he gets his answer. So now, thanks to Congress, the POTUS knows, he’s under investigation.

A lot of what goes on in DC is games within games. For instance,  Trump believed his only route to the presidency was via Russian help that would discredit his opponent. So he took it. Republicans  thought the only route back to presidential power was Trump, so they backed him.

But I imagine that it was always the Republican view that once Trump had power, the GOP in Congress would find a way to knock him out of power, probably via the accusation of help from Russians. Hence all the leaks.

The POTUS thinks the leaks are coming from civil servants with Democratic (not democratic) leanings, the “deep state.” The reality, I suspect, is that all the leaks are Republican in origin and going to continue until he’s removed from office. Whether Pence gets dragged down as well, I don’t know. But it would make sense to remove the POTUS, his VP, and all of his confirmed cabinet appointees.

It’s possible we might end up with Speaker Ryan as the new POTUS. I expect the Republican party would prefer that. It does seem to be the end goal.

In the meantime,  look forward to more outrageous POTUS claims in a bid to attempt to extract more information about the investigation he is under. Because it’s all about him. Remember how long he spent saying he was legitimate president? Legitimate presidents don’t do that.

If the POTUS was innocent of collusion with the Russians, he wouldn’t worry about these investigations and would instead get on with running the government. That he’s obsessed with the investigations, just proves he thinks he’s guilty of something.

The upshot of all is that this administration is in trouble, deep trouble. People at home and abroad no longer see a POTUS, just an paranoid man who does nothing but diminish  American democracy and power. To quote the POTUS, “Sad.”

But I will say this. Without all this investigation, without all this revelation, I think the EU elections might have gone differently. If the scandal and mess that America has landed in has served as an alarm and a call to action and helped prevent other nations falling prey to fake news and Russian interference, that’s a good thing.

America is tough. Americans are tough. We can survive scandal and crappy presidents. We’ve done it before, we can do it again. America’s style of democracy is designed to be a self-righting. Political entities in Europe and organizations like the EU are way less resilient.

If having a train wreck like Trump in office, temporarily, helped save other democracies, it was worth it. Europe I think forgot what bad government really looked like, now they’ve seen it in action. They can save themselves.The Austrians and the Dutch heeded the warning and did the right thing. France and Germany will likely do the same.

Yep. It was worth it.

Trump’s 2005 IRS 1040? Really?

It’s a chipmunk people,  not a squirrel

When things appear out of thin air, I start to wonder. Mostly because a tax return, from our current president, is such a “nut to find” (ie “SQUIRREL”) to the media. Is it real? I dunno. But, I had to look at the documents for myself.

There are a number of interesting things you can learn from the documents.

• There seems to be 2 hole punches at the top. This might imply the original document was kept in a legal binder which suggests a legal office as origin.
• Melania filed using her legal name Melanija Knavs and not Melania Knauss.
• Donald gave $3 to the presidential election campaign fund. I guess he believed in fair elections free of billionaire and corporate money back then. Sad that $3 is really the only verified charitable donation we have on record for him.
• Barron had yet to be born, so no exemptions there.
• He had tax exempt interest and qualified dividends.
• Client Copy stamped on the bottom implies the document was lifted by someone from within the Trump’s own orbit. I don’t suggest he released it himself, but he certainly could have and a case could be made for him doing so. It would be a distraction from the epic fail of Trumpcare.
• The LHA printed at the bottom of the page means his accountant used CCH ProSystem tax software.
• Also, apparently, he filed his taxes late because the bottom has two notes indicating there was interest charged on unpaid taxes and a penalty. Penalties are usually 5% of the unpaid taxes for each month they are late.

Forms that should be attached to this filing include — but no one has yet seen —

• W2s for Wages, salaries, tips, etc
• 1099-INT. Taxable interest is usually money other companies pay you. Tax exempt interest is also declared on a 1099-INT .
• Statements, at least 9.
  • Statement 1 is about  Other income. List type and amount .
  • Statement 2 about his Taxable refunds, credits, or offsets of state and local income taxes,
  • Statement 4 is about Melania’s Taxable refunds, credits, or offsets of state and local income taxes,
  • Statement 6 about alimony he paid or didn’t pay, and
  • Statement 9 is about Excess social security and tier 1 RRTA tax withheld.
  • I can’t tell what Statements 3, 5, 7, or 8 are about. I just know they exist.
• Schedule A Itemized deductions
• Schedule B for taxable interest.
• Schedule C about his business profits.
• Schedule D about his capital gains.
• Schedule E about Rental real estate, royalties, partnerships, S corporations, trusts, etc
• Schedule SE One-half of self-employment tax, which he paid.
• Form 6251 Alternative minimum tax
• Form 1116 Foreign Tax Credits
• Form 3800 General Business Credit
• Form 4136 Credit for Federal Tax Paid on Fuels  For is airplane I guess.
• Form 4868, because he requested an extension on his filing.

I think the weirdest thing was at the very bottom. Weiser LLP, (now called Mazar) the accountant firm who prepared this 1040 is listed at 3000 Marcus Ave, Lake Success, NY. Oddly The Donald J Trump Foundation Inc, had it’s offices there too.

When you live and work in Manhattan — where plenty of accountants exist — having your accountant 20 miles away is weird. Having it 20 miles away and in the same building as your “charitable” foundation that does no charity work? Super weird.

Also there is a claim by Trump that 2005 was the only year Weiser LLP did his taxes. Interesting fact, Wieser LLP prepared a 2004 Statement of Financial Condition on Trump and his entities. That means Wieser LLP was doing multiple years of Trump’s audit work.

A partner in Weiser LLP, Gerald Rosenblum, who worked on the Statement, stated, and I quote from Trump vs O’Brien http://caselaw.findlaw.com/nj-superior-court-appellate-division/1579526.html

Rosenblum “was asked in his deposition whether he was aware of all liabilities of Trump and his related entities. He responded: ‘I asked the client to provide me with a list of liabilities as they existed at June 30th, 2005. The client presented me with a list, in essence. I was not certain to this day that I was aware of all Mr. Trump’s liabilities at that point in time, and I sought no corroboration.‘ “

Clearly Mr Roseblum isn’t exactly a great CPA. He’s one of those guys that does what makes his client happy. He doesn’t really do his job. He relies on his clients to be honest, knowing that they probably aren’t but not really caring and filing such probably false statements with the IRS and others. Nice.

To me, it seems like the POTUS  just wanted something, anything to cause a stir and distract from the DOA his own party is handing Trumpcare. So he sent out a couple pages of an old return. Pretty typical.

If you think it isn’t typical, just read this excerpt from the rest of the trial.

While O’Brien may have had “unprecedented” access to evidence of Trump’s financial position, nothing in the record suggests that such access was sufficient to permit an accurate estimate of his net worth. Further, it is indisputable that Trump’s estimates of his own worth changed substantially over time and thus failed to provide a reliable measure against which the accuracy of the information offered by the three confidential sources could be gauged. The following exchange from Trump’s deposition is illustrative of this point:

Q Now, Mr. Trump, have you always been completely truthful in your public statements about your net worth of properties?

A I try.

Q Have you ever not been truthful?

A My net worth fluctuates, and it goes up and down with markets and with attitudes and with feelings, even my own feelings, but I try.

Q Let me just understand that a little bit. Let’s talk about net worth for a second. You said that the net worth goes up and down based upon your own feelings?

A Yes, even my own feelings, as to where the world is, where the world is going, and that can change rapidly from day to day. Then you have a September 11th, and you don’t feel so good about yourself and you don’t feel so good about the world and you don’t feel so good about New York City. Then you have a year later, and the city is as hot as a pistol. Even months after that it was a different feeling.

So yeah, even my own feelings affect my value to myself.

Q When you publicly state what you’re worth, what do you base that number on?

A I would say it’s my general attitude at the time that the question may be asked. And as I say, it varies.

Further, as defendants note in their brief, other sources recognized the difficulty of estimating Trump’s net worth and the wide spread of plausible values. Defendants quote a September 9, 2004 article in The Washington Post, which stated:

Actually, it’s hard to know exactly what percent of Trump’s net worth is tied to the casino business, because most of Trump’s portfolio is in privately held companies that don’t report earnings. He’s described himself as “a billionaire many times over,” but who knows? There are skeptics out there who believe Trump has $300 million, tops. And the guy has a reputation for, let’s say, shading the news in a light that reflects his enthusiasms.

An April 12, 2004 article, published in Time magazine stated:

How rich is the Donald? To interviewers, he hints that his wealth is somewhere between $2 billion and $6 billion. Rival developers estimate it’s nowhere near even the lower figure.

The article continued by reporting on his successful redevelopment of a building at 40 Wall Street, but then balanced it with a report of his casinos “[s]wamped with debt” and the statement that “Trump has become more front man than hands-on developer.”

An older Fortune article, published on April 3, 2000, noted that

Trump delights in the sort of elaborate shell games and impenetrably complex deals that frustrate the most conscientious efforts to assess a person’s true worth. “It’s always good to do things nice and complicated,” he once told an interviewer, “so that nobody can figure it out.”

That difficulty is compounded by Trump’s astonishing ability to prevaricate․ [W]hen Trump says he owns 10% of the Plaza Hotel, understand that what he actually means is that he has the right to 10% of the profit if it’s ever sold. When he says he’s building a “90–story building” next to the U.N., he means a 72–story building that has extra-high ceilings.

And, finally, defendants point to a January 19, 2000 article in The Wall Street Journal that noted Trump’s boasts of his success but then stated:

But a look at the major sources of his wealth, including the Trump Place apartment development on New York City’s west side, the 70–story Trump World Tower project and the midtown General Motors Building, shows that several of his billions are based on profits that are far in the future—and far from guaranteed.

In summary, we find no evidence to support Trump’s conclusion that the confidential sources utilized by O’Brien were fictitious

Did the POTUS release the pages of his tax return? He seemed to have a pretty cogent response when asked about it. One that cast him as a victim to get sympathy. I’d say the odds are 50/50.

Did Rachel Maddow go overboard hyping on this issue, yeah a little. She gets overexcited sometimes, but that what happens when real journalists who’ve been starving for some truth finally find a kernel of it. Good on you, Rachel!

 

 

Benedict Arnold at least served his country before betraying it

As a registered Independent who didn’t vote for any Republicans this election, I would rather have Mike Pence as president. Just want to go on record as saying that. Pence has government experience. He’s apparently more than a bit gullible, I think of him as Trump’s mushroom — constantly in the dark about everything, but I can live with that. On the other hand, I draw the line at having an actual traitor (or traitors) in any office.

Seriously.

It’s obvious Trump has never had even a basic level of knowledge about the Constitution, how to run a government, or how to do things legally.  I get that. He’s lived in a world where he was just the brand and everyone else did the real work but reported to the brander in chief.

Think about it. He doesn’t have a daughter, she’s a brand. There are no actual people in the family. His sons are just parts of his brand. He doesn’t have a wife, she’s a brand. She just filed a suit in the UK stating she plans to use her term as First Lady to build her brand and make millions of dollars.

However, even as a removed as he is from reality, Trump the candidate must have known undermining the US government’s attempt to curb Russian aggression through sanctions in order solely to benefit himself and become president was treason. Having Gen. Flynn on his campaign staff, as his national security adviser, communicating directly with the Russian diplomats about removing sanctions, was undermining the US govt, and hence, treason.

The most likely scenario, one that I’m sure is on tape at the DOJ, FBI, or CIA somewhere and will come to light shortly, is that Trump promised the Russians relief from sanctions during the campaign, via Flynn, in return for the Russians helping him win the election. I know the focus has been “did Russians hack voting machines” (they didn’t). But that’s not what I mean when I say helping him.

Everyone seems to agree that the Russians hacking the DNC to obtain documents that might be damaging to Clinton, and then releasing them, did something to sway some voters minds. The real issue however, that is very much overlooked, is Russian data mining, normally used in phishing and other scams, that was used to target voters open to suggestion.

Russians are adept at feeding just the right kind of persuasive fake news to people on the voter mailing/email lists, as well as posting such news on various sites where persuadable people who vote, but tend not to do basic fact checking, hang out. That’s targeted marketing, which drives people (misinformed about the facts) to vote the way they’ve been led to. It’s that kind of hack the vote and helping I’m talking about.

I’m not surprised by Trump’s act of treason, for a couple of reasons. American traitors tend to be greed-driven egotists that feel undervalued. That’s Trump’s brand all over. This is not a man that gives a rat’s tail about America or its people. He only cares about himself. Period.

Consider this, Louisiana gets ripped apart by tornadoes and declares a state of emergency last week. What does Trump tweet about? How unfair Nordstroms is being to Ivanka. What does Ms Conway do? She acts as a shill for Ivanka’s brand from the White House press room on live tv (in clear violation of ethics, yet  fails to get dismissed for that).

Or take Oroville, California. It is facing the most massive dam collapse in the history of the country. Does our president tweet that there will be federal support? That this will be part of the much ballyhooed infrastructure bill? Nope. He instead rants about “so-called” justices being unfair and how he has 17th century monarchical absolute power as president. And then talks about sending his son-in-law, a real estate guy, to broker peace between Israel and Palestine.

Sadly, this new administration does nothing but lie, lie, lie and try to trot out distractions when they get caught. No one can believe anything they say. Sean Spicer might as well be a puppet with Trumps hand up his backside. MS Conway lives in the world of alternate facts. Try to do diplomacy when no other country believes you or takes you seriously.

China has already brought Trump to heel. Mexico will likely do the same. That’s not because Mexico or China are great at diplomacy, it’s because Trump is completely irrational. He imagines himself to be PT Barnum and the world his circus. Unfortunately, in reality, the POTUS is a clown and the elephants are just going to sit on him and then the lions are going to eat what’s left of America.

If you’ve got any doubts about this, just look at this morning’s news. The whole of the GOP, including Paul Ryan, came out to talk about Obamacare, to try to get the news cycle away from the fact the Flynn affair should be investigated and that would probably lead to Trump being impeached as a traitor. Of course, that’s only if Jeff Session had any integrity at all.

And what’s really incredible is how today they announce that another former, disgraced, general is to be considered for Flynn’s spot. For those of you that forgot the David Petraeus scandal, it was a an extramarital affair between retired four-star general David Petraeus, then Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and Paula Broadwell, his biographer. It became public, thanks to the media, and led to the discovery that this former general and current director of the CIA was giving his mistress/biographer classified information.

In other words, Petraeus betrayed his country for an easy lay and this the person Trump is considering for the National Security position Flynn just left. Seriously. This is how completely insane this administration is. I do not understand at all why the majority party Republicans don’t stand up for the USA and end Trump’s administration? Are they all involved in some scandal? Are they being bribed? Or blackmailed?

To me, all this only proves once and for all, the Republican party is not something one should vote for ever again.