Donald Trump


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OH ye, proponents of the free market; what will it be like if government steps back? If you have insurance through your work or if you are on Medicare, then you are saved from a life living in a card board box under a bridge while dying untreated from any number of medical conditions. Leprosy, the black plague, and small pox might make a comeback. But not to fear! Underdog is here!

Mashup from the press briefing today. It’s harder to find a place that takes your insurance. Doing nothing “is not a choice.” Letting each state, in turn, implode “is not a choice.” Leaving people with preexisting conditions without insurance “is not a choice.” They will engage with Congress to hear their ideas. The White House says their plan allows people to choose their medical insurance plan. American people and patients are losing under the current system. Increased competition drives down the price of medical care. We want to get the “strongest bill possible” through the Congress which will then be signed by President Trump with many lights flashing.

I just don’t think the world is a bleak place without government intrusion . . . . and Medical savings accounts and tax breaks sounds OK to this free market, motley fool. During the transition would the Republicans suffer death from future “sound bites” in the next election if they got on the freedom train?

Peter  

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On 3/12/2017 at 10:23 AM, william.scherk said:

This ancient video may play:

The above is sworn Congressional testimony, I presume.

I forgot or never knew that the biggest-earning casino on the East Coast was on the reservation of the tiny, tragic tribe of Pequot Indians -- and was competition to Trump's biggest in Atlantic City (in 1993).  Which goes some way to explain his attitude, if not his subsequent showdown with then-Connecticut Governer.  "Dirtbag"  "Fat Slob."  Ho hum.  Odd note: the Pequot did not become a federally-recognized and semi-sovereign "domestic nation" until 1983.  Start with bingo, and grow.  

***

In  jizzed-up scandal-mongering,  the nasty types at Lawznews couldn't help themselves with this headline. Surprised they didn't shoehorn "Pizza" in their somewhere:

Quote

President Trump on Witness List in Case Involving Pedophile Billionaire Jeffrey Epstein

by Rachel Stockman | 5:46 pm, March 14th, 2017
 
Screen-Shot-2017-03-14-at-5.01.03-PM-1.j

President Donald Trump is on the witness list for a civil trial, involving a Florida attorney, who represents convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein‘s alleged victims, and the disgraced billionaire himself.

“President Donald Trump has been identified as an individual who may have information relating to these allegations,” attorney Jack Scarola told LawNewz.com in an interview. Scarola is representing attorney Bradley Edwards, a party in the case.

Scarola told LawNewz.com that they have evidence that at least one of the now (former) employees at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club were recruited by Epstein’s agent to become involved in a pattern of alleged molestations.

The civil trial, which is expected to begin soon, is a complicated one and dates back to 2009.  It involves allegations of malicious prosecution, and defamation filed by Florida attorney Bradley Edwards. Edwards also represents several of Epstein’s alleged victims who brought separate civil cases against Epstein.  But, what is particularly interesting about this latest case is that it now appears to involve President Donald Trump himself. [...]

I thought that the basic facts-in-dispute were whether the president had been a guest on the private jet of Epstein a couple of times, and that was that.

***

-- this next bit might better be in a "Flake News" or "Conspuracy-theory is Objectivush goodness" thread, but.

First, did you know the Louise Mensch wing of Trump-Truthers is hunting yachting manifests and aircraft movement logs to try to link Trump with Marcia Marcia Russia?  Yep.  The object of their attention is the guy who bought that expensive Palm Beach property from the president back when. His private plane was twice on the tarmac with Trump. Ho. Hum.

In the latest up-marketing of the Menschists, the tiny leftist Palm Beach Post gets in on the game:

Quote

Yachts of Trump financial backer, Russian oligarch seen close together


 

The coincidences are piling up.

After disavowing any contact with President Donald Trump this past week, Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev’s state-of-the-art yacht Anna sat anchored in the British Virgin Islands on Friday night when another equally resplendent luxury liner, the Sea Owl, sidled up, according to a website that tracks the movement of yachts.

The owner of the dark-hulled yacht? President Donald Trump’s biggest financial supporter and Breitbart News moneyman, Robert Mercer.

Rybolovlev has repeatedly said he has never met Trump or had any dealings with anyone in his campaign. The oligarch did purchase a Palm Beach mansion from the developer in 2008 through a family trust, Rybolovlev’s spokespeople say.

Within days of the election this past year, Trump’s and Rybolovlev’s jets were parked on the airport apron in Charlotte, N.C., on Nov. 3. Trump had a campaign rally that day in Concord, N.C. Rybolovlev said he was there for business.

The two planes were also in Las Vegas at the same time in October.

Since the CIA and FBI said Russia launched a campaign to interfere with the U.S. election in an attempt to benefit Trump, ties between one of America’s longtime nemeses and the president have surfaced on several fronts, including Rybolovlev.

Russia is the top suspect in hacking the emails of the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign, which were released through WikiLeaks.

The president’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort, his former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and former campaign adviser Carter Page all have had interactions with Russian officials. Trump has business ties with Russians who developed properties with him in Fort Lauderdale and New York.

There is also a possible connection through Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who has part ownership in the Bank of Cyprus, which has ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Rybolovlev also owned shares in the bank. Ross also has a home on Palm Beach where Trump owns Mar-a-lago, now dubbed the Winter White House.

Then there is the Deutsche Bank connection. The former CEO now runs the Bank of Cyprus. Deutsche Bank is Trump’s top creditor to the tune of about $300 million. Deutsche just paid $425 million in fines to the state of New York for laundering $10 billion in Russian money.

Now one of the president’s chief financial backers during the campaign has been spotted within one-tenth of a nautical mile of oligarch Rybolovlev in the aquamarine waters of the Caribbean. The yachts stayed near each other on Saturday then later motored away from each other, but were in the same vicinity during the weekend.

[...]

No wonder that house was torn down, it was hog ugly.  The target of the Menschists paid 95 million for it through a shell company, before selling it on ... 

From the link (a 2008 story updated in 2016):

Quote

Real estate mogul Donald Trump closed the sale of a Palm Beach mansion to a Russian billionaire Tuesday for the blockbuster price of $95million.

“I love breaking records,” Trump said Wednesday, “and this is a record.”

It’s believed to be the most expensive single-family home ever sold in the United States.

“At the same time, I believe the buyer made an absolutely fantastic deal, and time will prove this right,” Trump said.

The mansion, at 515 N. County Road, was sold to an entity known as County Road Property LLC. Russian fertilizer billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev acknowledged last month that he is the buyer. [...]

The sale marks a triumphant end to Trump’s bid to turn a troubled but prime piece of Palm Beach land into gold.

Trump scooped up the home, the former Abe Gosman estate, for $41.35 million in 2004 as part of the health-care magnate’s bankruptcy filing. Although Trump renovated the property, the 6-acre property’s real appeal is its 475 feet of unobstructed oceanfront.

The final price ended up lower than Trump’s initial asking price of $125 million, and a hair under initial reports of a $100 million contract sales price. The house’s final sales price was adjusted downward from $100 million during last-minute negotiations, sources said.

But the deal still is a victory for Trump and for the Palm Beach mansion market, which continues to prove resilient despite the crisis striking the real estate market throughout the country.

How did the Russian make his billions?

Fertilizer.

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At least we have the hard-hitting Rachel Maddow to take out President Trump and "speak truth to power."

Rachel Maddow Turned a Scoop on Donald Trump’s Taxes Into a Cynical, Self-Defeating Spectacle
By Willa Paskin
March 15 2017
Slate

Note: this is the same leftie Slate we all love to hate.

My favorite quote:

Quote

By playing into the network’s loyal liberal audience’s fantasy that there exists a Trump silver bullet, it instead delivered Trump a positive news cycle—the guy pays taxes! Who knew!...

:) 

Even sister-station CNBC is piling on:

Op-Ed: Donald Trump just got a nice victory, thanks, of all people, to Rachel Maddow

:) 

Lots of leftie bigwigs are bashing her. 

And the jokes are all over the Internet. (I'm not attributing some and paraphrasing those because the wording with the same point is varied at different places):

Rachel Maddow just knocked Geraldo Rivera out of first place in the most embarrassing TV moment...

From Newt: Rachel Maddow reports that Trump Tower is named after Trump.

From Mike Huckabee: Rachel Maddow tonight reveals Amelia Earhart & Jimmy Hoffa are found; they married and had a child--Snoop Dog, who paid no taxes ever!

People are thanking Rachel Maddow for debunking the myth that Trump hasn't paid any taxes in 18 years.

SNL had a person on last night who looked identical to Rachel Maddow... oh, wait...

From T. J. Quinn (ESPN): Why won't Rachel Maddow release Donald Trump's tax returns? What's she hiding?

From Sam Adams (editor of Slate): Rachel Maddow announces she will release Donald Trump’s tax returns as a 10-episode Netflix series.

From many Republicans: Thank you, Rachel Maddow.

Stay tuned because more will be coming, memes, videos, etc. 

But before you go... Wait! There's more!

The story some anti-Trump folks are now trying to sell is that President Trump secretly leaked that tax return to MSNBC to make her look foolish.

It should be a crime to have this much fun.

:)

Michael

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Channeling Snoop dog, Michael quoted that Objectivixen Rachel, “And did Rachel Maddow get schlonged by Trump?”

 

Well, maybe she’s a Che Rivera –vixen, but for that to happen it would need to be day 365 on a desert island with just the Prez and Rachel, and her cloths had disintegrated from the island heat. I wonder what she would look like if she cleaned herself up and wore a hula skirt? After a year, would she even desire relations with a man?

Peter

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"Truth may be stretched but cannot be broken. It always gets above falsehood as oil does above water." Miguel de Cervantes.

 

William quoted CNN who say they quoted: “GOP Rep. Devin Nunes says he has seen no evidence of President Trump's wiretapping claim against President Obama.”

 

Show me your badge! Is that proof or puff n stuff? Well, the tax bombshell backfired. Trump paid taxes! Some are speculating that the leak was FROM the Trump camp.

Peter

 

Gorden Lightfoot is 78 and still touring a little.

Early Mornin' Rain by Gordon Lightfoot

In the early mornin' rain
With a dollar in my hand
And an aching in my heart
And my pockets full of sand
I'm a long ways from home
And I missed my loved one so
In the early mornin' rain
With no place to go

Out on runway number nine
Big 707 set to go
Well I'm out here on the grass
Where the pavement never grows
Where the liquor tasted good
And the women all were fast
There she goes my friend
She's rolling out at last

Hear the mighty engines roar
See the silver wing on high
She's away and westward bound
For above the clouds she flies
Where the mornin' rain don't fall
And the sun always shines
She'll be flying over my home
In about three hours time . . .

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From another article on the Nunes press conference:

Quote

In a Wednesday press conference, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) said officials “don’t have any evidence” that the Obama administration ordered wiretapping of Donald Trump while he was running for president. “Are you going to take the tweets literally?” he asked. “If you are, then clearly the president is wrong.” However, Nunes also said that it’s “very possible” Trump’s communications were somehow “swept up” in FBI surveillance of Russians, if he was in communication with Kremlin authorities. The first public hearing regarding the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election will take place March 20.

 

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Trump's 2005 Form 1040 is shown here w/o the supplemental schedules/forms, e.g. Form 6251 - Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT). Page 2 shows a pre-AMT tax  = $5,310,616, AMT tax = $31,261,179, resulting in a total tax = $36,571,795. 

Line 21 on Trump's 1040 page 1 is -$103,201,242. Taxable income for AMT purposes ignores this loss, which probably explains most of Trump's AMT tax. The mysterious Line 21 is the same one Trump used in 1995 to declare a loss > $915 million. 

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Is it not an objectivist belief that taxation is theft "legalized" and enforced by coercion and even initiation of force by government?  So if someone were to use every legal means at his or her disposal to minimize that would that not be an objectivist inspired moral prerogative?

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11 hours ago, Jules Troy said:

Is it not an objectivist belief that taxation is theft "legalized" and enforced by coercion and even initiation of force by government?  So if someone were to use every legal means at his or her disposal to minimize that would that not be an objectivist inspired moral prerogative?

The "objectivist belief" you give is quite different from what's here. Also, note the conditional clause, in a fully free society, which isn't reality. The belief you give is an anarchist one, and Ayn Rand was emphatically against anarchy. 

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Here's a little more about the presser from Axios:

The highlights from the Trump-Merkel presser

Quote

... to cap it off, when asked about wiretapping, Trump told Merkel that "at least we have something in common," referencing reports that the NSA wiretapped Merkel under the Obama administration.

Merkel:

  • Merkel kicked off her opening statement with a dig at POTUS — "It's much, much better to talk to one another than about one another."
  • Asked about Trump's style, Merkel said, "Sometimes it's difficult to find compromises, but that's what we've been elected for."
  • Merkel advocated for helping refugees and added, "This is obviously what we have an exchange of views about."

Trump:

  • Trump reiterated his "strong support for NATO," but added, "It is very unfair to the United States. These nations must pay what they owe."
  • Trump said "immigration security is national security" and stated that "immigration is a privilege, not a right."
  • Trump on trade: "I'm not an isolationist. I'm a free trader, but I'm also a fair trader."
  • Trump "very seldom" regrets his tweets and called them a way to get around the media.

Cordial, but tense.

Michael

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2 hours ago, Michael Stuart Kelly said:

Here are his exact words...

And here is the video:

Notice President Trump's perfect comedic timing to let the audience grok the humor. If you look right, you can see him purposely wait for the laugh.

btw - I think the "very talented legal mind" he mentioned is Mark Levin.

Michael

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17 hours ago, Michael Stuart Kelly said:

I think the "very talented legal mind" he mentioned is Mark Levin.

Some people are saying the mind he mentioned was Andrew Napolitano's.

“All we did was quote a certain very talented legal mind who was the one responsible for saying that on television [...] That was a statement made by a very talented lawyer on Fox [News]. And so you shouldn’t be talking to me, you should be talking to Fox.”

...

Some people:

Quote

During a Thursday briefing, Spicer read a report by a Fox News legal analyst that claimed Obama used the Government Communications Headquarters intelligence agency to surveil President Trump during the campaign, reading aloud from Andrew Napolitano's statement on air.

 

Edited by william.scherk
Did Mark Levin spy on Britain's GCHQ?
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32 minutes ago, william.scherk said:

Some people are saying the mind he mentioned was Andrew Napolitano's.

William,

There is something fishy about the way the press is doing this. Especially due to the following from the article you linked:

Quote

Napolitano first made his claims about GCHQ spying on Trump Tuesday, three days before the president faced German reporters challenging his accusations against Obama.

Shep Smith had a hissy fit over this and everybody is treating it as if President Trump said it was Andrew Napolitano. He didn't.

Obviously, GCHQ is not pleased and it's probably squeezing everyone from the Murdochs to high-level politicians to get some goddam damage control on this fast, otherwise, embarrassing secrets will come to light, goddam it. :) But that still doesn't make time travel possible. 

Here's what I mean. While it is true that Napolitano said some things, it's also true that Mark Levin did, too.

Like, for instance, here on March 5:

Levin laid out his case in public before President Trump tweeted and, if I am not mistaken, this was talked about on Fox even before the video above. I recall this being a big deal in the press at the time.

So the question remains, how did President Trump time-travel to listen to Andrew Napolitano three days before the presser with Merkel, then go back in time one month before to make a tweet?

Is there nothing this new president can't do?

:)

If the current media-orchestrated pointing to Napolitano doesn't sound like fake news to me, I don't know what does. Now... why the entire press corps thinks their audience is a pack of braindead zombies, I don't know.

I haven't read anyone else yet noticing what I notice here, but I know I can't be alone. This is waaaaaay too obvious.

Michael

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I want to add a thought to the post above.

I might be wrong, but I think a bombshell is coming about former President Obama's involvement in wiretapping President Trump.

(My finger-tips always get physical pleasure when I type that word "former" next to Obama. :) )

Releasing a bomb  at the last minute is a typical media buildup and Trump is a master of manipulating the media against themselves. Hell, even having Spicer mention Napolitano in overly-qualified language would be a good misdirection strategy.

But the thing is, even if this is a big fizzle, Trump still wins.

I don't know if you can feel the following, but I can. Before Trump made his accusatory tweet, there was a kind of media halo around Obama. Even when someone talked about hating his policies, there was a kind of moral deference to a man pure of heart. A former president. A great man.

Trump's tweet and the ensuing shit storm punctured and deflated that balloon. Now there is a sliver of doubt in Obama's personal aura when people talk about him. And even among his staunchest admirers, there is an overly-aggressive defensiveness that wasn't there before.

It signals a shift in public perception and this shift is not a good one for Obama.

Score one for President Trump. And that's the worst case scenario.

As for me, I'm sitting patiently waiting for the bomb. I know there is a small chance it might not come, but still, this is fun.

Not tired of winning yet.

:) 

Michael

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