US Politics, October 2018: next week will be even longer

Yeah thats where the dodgy russian mob stuff is supposed to come in

By age 3, Mr. Trump was earning $200,000 a year in today’s dollars from his father’s empire. He was a millionaire by age 8. By the time he was 17, his father had given him part ownership of a 52-unit apartment building. Soon after Mr. Trump graduated from college, he was receiving the equivalent of $1 million a year from his father. The money increased with the years, to more than $5 million annually in his 40s and 50s.

Fred Trump’s real estate empire was not just scores of apartment buildings. It was also a mountain of cash, tens of millions of dollars in profits building up inside his businesses, banking records show. In one six-year span, from 1988 through 1993, Fred Trump reported $109.7 million in total income, now equivalent to $210.7 million. It was not unusual for tens of millions in Treasury bills and certificates of deposit to flow through his personal bank accounts each month.

I really can't more of this

otm

absolutely unthinkable that the illegal behavior between Fred and Donald Trump described in the NY Times article is not happening with Donald Trump and his own children

— Simon Maloy (@SimonMaloy) October 2, 2018

In an interview, Mr. Von Ancken said that because neither he nor The Times had the working papers that described how he arrived at his valuations, there was simply no way to evaluate the methodologies behind his numbers. “There would be explanations within the appraisals to justify all the values,” he said, adding, “Basically, when we prepare these things, we feel that these are going to be presented to the Internal Revenue Service for their review, and they better be right.”

The I.R.S. determined that the Trumps’ assets were worth $57.1 million, 38 percent more than the couple had claimed. From the perspective of an I.R.S. auditor, pulling in nearly $5 million in additional revenue could be considered a good day’s work. For the Trumps, getting the I.R.S. to agree that Fred Trump’s properties were worth only $57.1 million was a triumph.

Cool fucking system.

"That makes me smart"

this all reminds me of that The State sketch, where the warden says the only way out of prison is to walk out the open gate, but that the open gate is "off limits", and is shocked when an inmate escapes that way for the first time.

tbf every super-rich american family does this estate tax-avoidance stuff (and i'll bet the scheme to fuck over new york city renters is not unique either)

the longest of the long cons.

SCHUMER: of Dems take over the Senate, we will have to look at setting the SCOTUS nominee requirement back up to 60 votes

— Lisa Desjardins (@LisaDNews) October 2, 2018

smdh

he should promise to only do that under a Democratic president just to be extra fair

any chance of him being challenged for his leadership position?

in other "failing to read the room" news:

Nancy Pelosi Not On Board With Impeaching Brett Kavanaugh “That would not be my plan.”

I like the artful use of the passive voice though. "It's not my plan, but, hey, if y'all are considering it, I might play!"

ha, true

self-made
u just affiliated

That NYT story is pretty thorough, and shouldn't be hand-waved away with "all rich people do this." There are a bunch of straight-up illegal activities detailed in the story, though mostly (AFAICT) past the statute of limitations.

I’m sure he continued to do similar things in recent years

You've convinced me, he shouldn't be president.

it definitely does answer the question of how someone so incredibly inept and moronic could have any sort of "business" success whatsoever. I always assumed this guy had *some* sort of business acumen back in the 80's

But a lawyer for Mr. Trump, Charles J. Harder, provided a written statement on Monday, one day after The Times sent a detailed description of its findings. “The New York Times’s allegations of fraud and tax evasion are 100 percent false, and highly defamatory,”

so much of his defense for all the various scandals going on amounts to "nuh uh."

Oh I missed that. nvm.

CHARLES J. HARDER

CHAZ HARDSLAB

Stump Beefknot esq

…I'm hearing from my producers that it's actually "Beefknob", I regret the error

What my father really gave me is a good (great) brain, motivation and the benefit of his experience-unlike the haters and losers (lazy!).

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 29, 2013

lol

these lazy losers who didn't get $413 million from their fathers

I was too lazy to ask my dad

I haven't read the story but I know of one particular reporter who's about to connect a lot of dots this week

One story I'm looking back at today: this @propublica story about @realDonaldTrump selling condos to Eric Trump in 2016 for much below market price in April 2016. https://t.co/MMz4rBkyEI https://t.co/iMkFgYmAFZ

— David Fahrenthold (@Fahrenthold) October 2, 2018

Yeah that...wait.

In 80s letter preemptively leaked to Federalist, Kavanaugh reportedly suggested to Beach Week friends that they "warn the neighbors that we’re loud, obnoxious drunks with prolific pukers among us" https://t.co/SiERhqFWO6

— Jon Swaine (@jonswaine) October 2, 2018

Sensitive stomach bro give him a break

it is kinda funny how none of this came out about Gorsuch, as Harris pointed out

xpost Oh, I'm sorry.

Seriously, what the shit

lol amazing, ”brett was the most organized designated rager coordinator” pic.twitter.com/azfiEzjAqd

— Kilgore Trout (@KT_So_It_Goes) October 2, 2018

what talent!

surely this diplomatic talent will make him the Brennan of the right when he joins the Court

Bork would have never

T or F: if, during his second hearing, brett kavanaugh would have just admitted that he drank way too much during his youth and did a bunch of things he regretted doing, he'd be sailing toward a confirmation right now despite the whole him being a sexual assaulter thing

Absolutely true.

Hell, he'd already be sworn in at this point.

kiiiiind of ironic that a candidate for the highest court in the land didn't understand how important it was to tell the truth

Or to shut up and not incriminate yourself at the very least

someone ask him if he likes big butts

someone ask Clarence Thomas

Seriously, one of the creepier parts about one of Jeffrey Toobin's recent books about SCOTUS was learning that Thomas kept a framed photo of a former clerk and her female companion on his desk; Toobin adduced it as an example of his warmth.

"he drank way too much during his youth and did a bunch of things he regretted doing" is kind of the narrative the Dems are trying to push though

still I agree that it would've been a vastly preferable strategy, given the sheer amount of "holy shit Brett K lied about a lot on Thursday" takes I've seen these last couple days. the "he said she said" thing doesn't work when one party obviously has something to hide.

It's the coverup, etc.

not convinced that any republican has any strategy beyond "triggering the libs" to be honest

big bucks no cucks trump 2020