Paul Revere by Cyrus Dallin, North End, Boston

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Monday, September 28, 2020

America wants to know...

 is Trump the Al Capone of American presidents?


People who've been paying attention and who didn't fall for Trump's cons already were pretty sure he was a "tax avoider." His cultists will say he's smart to use loop holes, legal and illegal, to not pay the government what he owes. Meanwhile his cultists and the rest of us have to make up for what Trump and others like him worm out of paying.


"The Times exposé strips the sheen off Trump’s image-making like so much imitation gold leaf. We learn that Trump evaded income taxes for many years largely through his epic financial losses," --Greg Sargent, NYTimes




Trump has been a liar, cheat, and a fraud all of his life.











And from the woman Doanld J. Trump shagged while wife #3 was giving birth to his 5th child:







"One fact stands out far above all the others in its staggering implications: Donald Trump is personally responsible for $421 million worth of loans coming due in the next few years. Not his business. Him. Personally. He has no means of repaying them. He already refinanced his few profitable properties, and sold off most of his stocks to stay afloat. He appears short on liquidity. And we still don’t know to whom he owes the money. 

This fact has frightening implications for public policy and national security. Even minor debts are a frequent reason for the government to deny a security clearance, for the obvious reason that indebted and financially desperate public servants make easy marks for bribery, blackmail and potential treason. The potentially destructive power of that sort of hold on a President of the United States is beyond comprehension." --David Atkins



A Bad Night For The President (Josh Marshall/TPM) "I worried what this momentous night would bring. In the event I think it was somewhere between bad and disastrous for President Trump. The most important fact about this debate is that going into it President Trump was clearly behind. He needed to shift the dynamic of the race, force some major error, introduce some new factor. That didn’t happen. I saw nothing tonight that seems at all likely to improve things for President Trump. Nothing."

37 comments:

Les Carpenter said...

Don't know if he's an Al Capone (he might be), but one thing is for certain. He is one hell of an accomplised gaslighter.

Dervish Sanders said...

I hope they nail him on other crimes besides his being a bigly tax cheat. But that alone should send him away for the rest of his life :)

Al Capone said...


Why are liberals angry at Trump for using a tax loophole that was signed into law by Obama?

Ducky's here said...

Nifty analogy.

Shaw Kenawe said...

To Al: Trump took advantage of ONE tax credit that the Obama administration set up for businesses that were impacted by the Republican Great Recession. ONE. And that was probably illegal. Trump is by nature a cheat, liar, and fraud.

skudrunner said...

The rich have a lot of avenues to avoid paying to much in taxes and trump is part of the rich crowd. The NYT didn't say anything he did was illegal so I guess his accountants did their job. I guess some enjoy paying more taxes than they have to. This is the blockbuster of the day but for anyone who knows anything about finance knows it is a non entity. What would be accurate is to publish how much in taxes all the rich pay but this is just about trump.

Now if we had a fair tax system Everyone would pay their Fair Share which is something the elected elite preach but don't do anything about. It seems that 1% should pay more than the 40% of all taxes which seems fair to some.

Anonymous said...



Debate question for Trump: By paying no taxes, aren’t you defunding the police?

Shaw Kenawe said...

To answer skud's brushing off of Trump's miserable tax avoidance history:

"...what is far more terrifying for the country isn’t what lies in his past of tax avoidance. It’s the time bomb of debt that lies in Trump’s very near future. It’s about the mystery of who owns Trump’s outlandish debts, and the degree of secret power they may be wielding over the country.

The particulars of the Trump grift are sickening in both the details and grand scope. It’s not just an issue of his class: the scale of his tax avoidance far dwarfs that of most others in his income bracket. Despite posturing as a billionaire, Trump paid only $750 in taxes for the years 2016 and 2017. He tried to use the same trick to offload tens of millions in tax burdens by claiming business losses twice in as many decades, except that the second time he actually still retained partial ownership of the underlying business, and has been in a $72 million battle with the IRS for a decade ever since–a battle he should lose by all rights. His daughter Ivanka was hired as a consultant for the same work she was doing in her main job–an obvious and incredibly stupid tax-avoidance grift that could easily land her jail. He (likely illegally) deducted $70,000 in hair care for his TV show. And so on.

Keep in mind, though, that this is just what we know of from his own personal reporting to the IRS. It’s not a forensic accounting document. These financial statements are Trump’s best foot forward to the government, with no knowing what criminal rot lies in the details.

Many rich tax cheats will tell the IRS they are broke while hiding their true wealth elsewhere. But Donald Trump isn’t just a tax cheat pretending to be broke for the feds. He appears to actually be broke. He inherited money from his father, squandered it on failed casino investments, offloaded the losses onto creditors, and then remade himself as a personal brand machine selling the rights to his name. He played a fake billionaire on TV and made significant money from doing that. Remarkably, adopting a fake reality TV show persona for public entertainment value may be the closest thing to honest work Trump has ever done. But rather than being content to invest those proceeds wisely, he went on another foolish real estate spending spree. His properties old and new are losing ridiculous amounts of money–he has lost a shocking $315 million dollars in the last 20 years at his golf courses alone."


For skud, this is a nothing burger, except if a Democrat were the president and doing this.

Shaw Kenawe said...

The above is from the link to David Atkins on my post.

Paula said...

No wonder he hid his taxes. Someone is in big trouble. So much for the image of a rich, smart business man. He is and always has been a fraud.

Shaw Kenawe said...

From Thomas Clay, Jr.:

He cheats on his taxes.
He cheats on his wives.
He lies about...everything.
He insults the war dead.
He makes fun of the disabled.
He pays porn stars hush money.
He calls our general’s pussies.
He berates women.
He mocks Gold-Star families.
He has no loyalty.
He incites violence.
He has no class.
He sexually assaults women.
He sucks up to dictators.
He ignores bounties on our military.
He fires patriots.
He calls a pandemic a hoax.
He guts climate legislation.
He embarrasses the US globally.
He promotes division.
He abuses taxpayer money.
He is responsible for 200,000+ dead Americans.
He is a racist.
He is a fraud.
A charlatan.
A con.

He is the worst of humanity.

Shaw Kenawe said...

From Michael Moore:

Dear Suckers & Losers Who Pay More Than $750/yr in Taxes:

Donald Trump here. So sorry you had to hear it from the fake media that’s what I paid in taxes in 2016 & 2017. I wanted to tell you myself! And that for 15 out of 20 years, I paid zero! ZERO! That just shows you how smart I am! You want a smart president, right? I screwed the IRS! How ‘bout that! Vote for me and I’ll send you a special instruction booklet on how YOU TOO can be a tax dodger — and you don’t even need bone spurs! Build the Wall! Lock her up! Blame Obama!
MAGA,

DJT

skudrunner said...

I am sure he would have rather made money than lost it. He has always worked on margin and that can catch up with you.
Stupidity is responsible for a lot of those 200,000+ dead. I still question how the majority think trump lies yet they follow his guidelines of not wearing a mask, that is stupidity.

After all the press and we are still showing an increase in cases it may not be our corrupt politicians who are to blame. This does show how chasing a losing cause may not turn out in your favor. The impeachment was all politicians were thinking about even thought the knew it was a lost cause.

Fed Up in Rutland said...

Trump's Tax Returns Have Exposed Him as a Massive Failure Who Thrived in the Age of Plutocracy

The New York Times report is the final and conclusive evidence that the president failed at a time in which politics and government were rearranged to keep his particular genre of failure ever from being fatal.


Trump's presidency is a failure and he's a failed human being.

Shaw Kenawe said...


skud, where on earth did you get that stat? That "the majority" don't wear masks? I don't know about where you live, but here in Boston and vicinity, EVERYONE, with rare, rare exception, wears a mask. We understand, unlike the foolish president, that masks protect ourselves and our neighbors.

Trump KNEW how lethal the Covid-19 was, he withheld that info, yet he held indoor rallies with people not wearing masks and not social distancing. He never encouraged the American people to wear masks! That's negligent homicide IMO, because he's on tape saying he knows Covid can spread through the air. What kind of sick malicious leader does that to his own people?

Where the hell have you been? How do you not know this? How can you ignore these facts about Trump?

Lee Arnold said...

Here “so far” are some key takeaways from the Times’ reporting:
* TRUMP PAID JUST $750 IN TAXES IN BOTH 2016 and 2017.
* TRUMP HAS FINANCED AN EXTRAVAGANT LIFESTYLE WITH THE USE OF BUSINESS EXPENSES.
* MANY OF HIS BEST-KNOWN BUSINESSES ARE MONEY-LOSERS
* FOREIGN VISITORS HAVE HELPED SUPPORT TRUMP’S PROPERTIES
* TRUMP WILL FACE FINANCIAL PRESSURE AS DEBTS COME DUE

Dave Miller said...

Lee and others...

The key takeaway is this...

"No one would get the needed security clearance to be a janitor in the FBI building cafeteria with this amount of debt."

So says Frank Fugliuzzi, former Assistant Director for Counterintelligence at the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Skud... any thoughts about a president open to being blackmailed and/or bribed?

Shaw... is it any wonder the HMS Mothership and the rest of the fleet are showing a Spencer Tracy retrospective in the Absurd Theater as opposed to talking about this.

Ray said...

skudrunner may want to educate himself and read this:

"Americans are, of course, the most thoroughly and passively indoctrinated people on earth. They know next to nothing as a rule about their own history, or the histories of other nations, or the histories of the various social movements that have risen and fallen in the past, and they certainly know little or nothing of the complexities and contradictions comprised within words like “socialism” and “capitalism.” Chiefly, what they have been trained not to know or even suspect is that, in many ways, they enjoy far fewer freedoms, and suffer under a more intrusive centralized state, than do the citizens of countries with more vigorous social-democratic institutions. This is at once the most comic and most tragic aspect of the excitable alarm that talk of social democracy or democratic socialism can elicit on these shores. An enormous number of Americans have been persuaded to believe that they are freer in the abstract than, say, Germans or Danes precisely because they possess far fewer freedoms in the concrete. They are far more vulnerable to medical and financial crisis, far more likely to receive inadequate health coverage, far more prone to irreparable insolvency, far more unprotected against predatory creditors, far more subject to income inequality, and so forth, while effectively paying more in tax (when one figures in federal, state, local, and sales taxes, and then compounds those by all the expenditures that in this country, as almost nowhere else, their taxes do not cover). One might think that a people who once rebelled against the mightiest empire on earth on the principle of no taxation without representation would not meekly accept taxation without adequate government services. But we accept what we have become used to, I suppose. Even so, one has to ask, what state apparatus in the “free” world could be more powerful and tyrannical than the one that taxes its citizens while providing no substantial civic benefits in return, solely in order to enrich a piratically overinflated military-industrial complex and to ease the tax burdens of the immensely wealthy?"

Fed Up in Rutland said...

Trump went from calling the news about his taxes "fake news" to defending his smart use of "tax loop holes."

In other news, his followers are fools!

Shaw Kenawe said...

There's a certain Republican who often comes to this blog and writes about how useless Obama was as president because he never held a real job (lie) and didn't understand how business is run. So here's a "businessman" who conned that same Republican and millions more like him:

"Trump sold himself as a top-notch manager with a Midas touch: not some useless politician, but an actual businessman, someone who knew how to make things happen in the real world.

The Times report paints a different picture — one of a bad businessman who successfully played a good one on television. Some of his early real estate investments are still making him money, and there’s considerable income from his minority interest in property managed by someone else. But over the past 20 years, most of his profits, more than $400 million, came from “The Apprentice” or licensing deals. That income, however, was almost completely absorbed by gargantuan losses at the actual businesses where he had to make things happen in the real world.

How could the numbers grow so large? The most charitable and likely explanation is that Trump spent too long playing a businessman and could no longer distinguish his reality show from reality.

So instead of tucking those hundreds of millions into safe, boring investments where they’d keep throwing off income forever, Trump bought a string of golf courses, then lost buckets of money running them. Dubious tax strategies and aggressive borrowing helped keep the leaky boat afloat. But now, he has hundreds of millions of debt coming due in the next few years, and, if he loses his audit dispute with the Internal Revenue Service, potentially a nearly $100 million tax bill to boot.

All this helps explain his decision to run for president, with all the scrutiny that comes with it. After all, scrutiny is great news for a showman looking to revive a flagging brand as his income from “The Apprentice” declined."

Dervish Sanders said...

Dotard is in danger of being foreclosed on. He may be cash poor (I heard he might have 800k) but he has properties. btw, you can't pay employees consulting fees as Dotard did re his daughter. Dotard's dad funneled money to his son (on his dad's payroll from age 3) and Dotard is doing the same re his daughter. It's an inheritance tax avoidance scheme.

So Skud's claim of nothing illegal is wrong given what we know. Dotard's tax avoidance is likely bigly illegal given what we don't know. And the impeachment was not "political". Dotard was impeached for trying to strong arm the Ukraine president into announcing a fake investigation into Joe and Hunter Biden to help his re-election chances.

Frank Clyburn said...

The whole point is the double standard. the Democrats and Biden keep attacking Trump for using accountants to minimize his taxes while Gropin Joe Biden did the same thing, but they don't care about that.

Frank Clyburn said...

Facebook is facing a lawsuit from the US Internal Revenue Service, who claims that Facebook owes NINE BILLION Dollars in unpaid taxes, according to Reuters.
But all we are hearing about is that Trump took advantage of loopholes to reduce his taxes. Something that anyone would do.

skudrunner said...

Ray, You had some interesting points and some of them I agree with. Our healthcare system has been broken for decades. It provides excellent care but is bogged down with bureaucracy and wasteful spending. Why do we not pressure congress to provide basic care for everyone and not the sham known as obamacare which was for the few. Do like England and have care for all and if you want to pay receive more. Many countries ration care and I am not sure that is acceptable to anyone. If we didn't have the best in the world why would world leaders come here for care. Our military is far to expensive unless there comes a time we have to defend ourselves. When we let our military shrink we become vulnerable so what is worse.

I also agree we do not get what we pay for with taxes and that is the reason I support the Fair Tax. It is easy to blame someone for taking advantage of our tax codes but we should blame politicians who allow them to exist. Joey is all over trump about his taxes yet in the 40 years he has occupied a seat in congress he has done nothing to prevent abuse. Why should religion and charities not only not pay taxes but the giver can deduct his contribution.

The one advantage this country provides is freedom of choice over your life. Many choose to seek a higher education and work hard so they can reap the rewards and be scorned by those who choose a different path.

Shaw Kenawe said...

To Frank Clyburn @11:10 AM,

Biden Paid Over 4,900 Times More in Taxes Than Trump in 2017

"Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden paid thousands of times more in federal income taxes than President Donald Trump in 2016 and 2017, despite the incumbent Republican being far more wealthy.

According to Biden's tax returns, which he released publicly in July 2019, the former vice president and his wife Jill Biden paid $1.5 million in federal income taxes in 2016 and $3.7 million in 2017. The New York Times, which obtained nearly two decades of Trump's closely guarded tax returns, reported on Sunday that the president paid just $750 in both years. That means the Bidens paid 2,000 times as much in federal income taxes in 2016 and more than 4,900 times as much in 2017."


Why do Trumpers always step in it when they try to defend of deflect from Trump's corruption? Joe Biden is NOT corrupt. Trump is.

Shaw Kenawe said...

Derv, skud has said words to the effect that Trump is not honest, but he then tempers that criticism by reminding us that Mr. Obama said there were 57 states.

When all is said and done, and the Trump Era of Corruption is over, maybe skud will have the courage to face the fact that the GOP supported and encouraged the MOST CORRUPT AND DISHONORABLE MAN who has ever sat in the Oval Office in modern American history.

This will be the GOP's legacy -- their stubborn refusal to see Trump for the crook that he is.

And I, for one, will not allow them to forget their folly.

Shaw Kenawe said...

Frank Clyburn @12:05 PM,

Facebook is NOT running for re-election to the presidency. Also, Trump and Barr have all the tools at their disposal to go after fb if what you wrote is true (I am not familiar with that information) and you did not link to any story about it.

Ask yourself why, if it is true, didn't AG Barr go after fb and do something about it?

skudrunner said...

Ms Shaw, I will address two comments you made;

"You don’t believe that SS and Medicare are a forms of socialism?" No I do not because medicare is a prepaid medical plan for which I paid into for decades and continue to pay into after I could participate.

SS is another government program that I paid into for decades so it is a forced income plan that after receiving is taxed. I was not presented an option if I wanted to take seized funds private because my contributions paid for those receiving SS. We can thank our elected elite for not protecting SS contributions.

As to wearing of masks. Not all of us live in an elite sophisticated city such as yours. Some of us are from the heartland where we do not congregate in mass and respect others space. I will assume from your response you do not watch the news and see parties, bars, colleges where people do not wear masks. Also I see very few peaceful demonstrators wear masks as they are burning down a business. It is impossible to say what percentage of the population wear masks so I will take your opinion of over 51%. I congratulate you and your city on being socially prudent but not everyone is. I do agree with many who say mandate masks but do we throw someone in jail who doesn't wear one. If I don't feel comfortable being around someone I will move away from them, again that personal responsibility thing.

Your comments about our elected elite early on not paying enough attention to covid is just but after six months people need to think for themselves.

Frank Clayburn said...

Biden’s Son makes over 600K for doing nothing!
Yet YOU CONSTANTLY. talk about Trump Jr.

Shaw Kenawe said...

Frank Clayburn @1:56,

You seem to have a large problem with the truth. I have never mentioned Donald Trump Junior on this blog.

Also, it appears you're a troll.

Good-bye.

Shaw Kenawe said...

skud, we pay, with our local, state, and federal taxes for services, schools, libraries, fire and police protection, roads, bridges, national parks, and countless other amenities we all enjoy. We PAY with our taxes for those things and we all enjoy and are protected or use them.

Social Security, for example, is taken out of our salaries. You pay Social Security taxes based on your earnings, up to a certain amount. In 2020, that amount is $137,700. You pay Medicare taxes on all of your wages or net earnings from self-employment.

The government, not individuals or businesses, runs the Social Security system. It tracks Social Security earnings and benefits, runs the website that lets people check their benefits record, approves or denies retirement benefit applications, collects Social Security taxes, and distributes retirement benefits.4 5

Because the American government plays such a dominant role in the U.S. Social Security system—deciding how much and when employees and employers pay into the system, how much individuals receive in benefits when they get them, and preventing almost everyone from opting out—it only seems fair to call the Social Security program a form of socialism.

We live in a mixed economic system of capitalism and socialism. A mixed economic system is a system that combines aspects of both capitalism and socialism. A mixed economic system protects private property and allows a level of economic freedom in the use of capital, but also allows for governments to interfere in economic activities in order to achieve social aims.

So yes, Medicare, Social Security, is a form of socialism. You and your GOP pals need to get over your unrealistic fear of socialism. You actually benefit from it in our mixed economy.

Dave Miller said...

Shaw... this question, from the HMS Mothership might explain why we're struggling to understand continuing support for Mr. $750.00.

"...on the LOW TAXES PAID thing and Trump, isn’t it amazing that the NYT columnist could write 35,000 words in an article the same day the news broke?"

Isn't it amazing that on the day the story broke, the NY Times could write that big an article about the news? Are they that unaware that the NY Times broke the story? And now everyone is talking about the subterfuge that must have happened so the Times could be ready the moment the story broke.

Simply no understanding of how news organizations investigate, and the report.

Again, this person is a teacher, responsible for teaching kids.

Sheesh...

Les Carpenter said...

Shaw, forgive me because I might be the only one wondering this but here I go, why do you continue to spar with skud? skud is a polite generally respectful guy yes. But in no way will skud ever be swayed by your logic, reason, and truth. Like so many millions of Americans he will continue to believe that which he WANTS to believe regardless whether or not it is supported by reality.

Les Carpenter said...

Yeah, Frank Clayburn has a huge problem with the truth. He is, along with Franco, one of WYD's biggest liars.

Les Carpenter said...

And no doubt Frank is somebody's sock puppet.

Shaw Kenawe said...

RN, I don't think my back and forth with skud will change his opinions. I'm not trying to change him; I'm trying to clarify what I believe and know.

Shaw Kenawe said...

Dave, she doesn't understand that the NYTimes' investigative reporters broke the story and that story ran in the newspapers? What?

However, I'm not surprised. They are, afterall, Trump cultists.