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

OMG alfred I read that as “David Brooks” and had a heart attack and died.

David Brock is a weirder guy than David Brooks

Mercer: that which does not kill me makes me a moron

And a worse person. He wrote a book defaming Anita Hill. Almost forgot

He apologized for it. Brooks has never apologized for anything.

He never did anything as bad—he just writes columns and gets interviewed on NPR. Brock is an extremely untrustworthy character. Switching from a hard right political mercenary to an equivalent position on the left is very strange. If you really had that radical a change of heart you’d leave politics because you’d recognize that your judgment isn’t to be trusted.

He’s an opportunist.

where's the

A YEARLONG @NYTIMES INVESTIGATION INTO TRUMP’S TAXES JUST DROPPED https://t.co/22oWnOa0LK

— Sam Dolnick (@samdolnick) October 2, 2018

Oh man, i want to read this right now so bad. Tempted to just wuit my job and run to the nearest coffee shop.

before the NY Times fails

The Times’s findings raise new questions about Mr. Trump’s refusal to release his income tax returns, breaking with decades of practice by past presidents. According to tax experts, it is unlikely that Mr. Trump would be vulnerable to criminal prosecution for helping his parents evade taxes, because the acts happened too long ago and are past the statute of limitations. There is no time limit, however, on civil fines for tax fraud.

i don't think it will amount to anything beyond trump being upset that everyone now knows he got his money from daddy

Love to know who exactly they're dragging here:

“I built what I built myself,” Mr. Trump has said, a narrative that was long amplified by often-credulous coverage from news organizations, including The Times.

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,”

ah, yes, this piece of shit again

100%, huh?

more and more the old man seems like King Lear - will ivanka or Baron be the first to instigate war?

Gosh, imagine if the Times had been able to spare a couple of reporters for this assignment back in late 2015 and early 2016.

How long have they been working on it?

President Trump: "It's a very scary time for young men in America when you can be guilty of something that you may not be guilty of."

Full video here: https://t.co/eIalSfbn4x pic.twitter.com/QOIB2tE8DF

— CSPAN (@cspan) October 2, 2018

Here is what can be said with certainty: Had Mr. Trump done nothing but invest the money his father gave him in an index fund that tracks the Standard & Poor’s 500, he would be worth $1.96 billion today. As for that $1 million loan, Fred Trump actually lent him at least $60.7 million, or $140 million in today’s dollars, The Times found.

none of these tax returns are recent, correct? the interesting bit isn't so much how he "built" his empire but how he managed to recover after going broke over and over again

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