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Helen Lambie (Goldstein)

Nori, since you posted the 3 Black Men, 3 Different Positions photo you must agree with it. "In America color doesn't define your future, your choices do." This from ACT for America, what the Southern Poverty Law Center says "is listed as an anti-Muslim hate group because it pushes wild anti-Muslim conspiracy theories, denigrates American Muslims and deliberately conflates mainstream and radical Islam." Apparently Muslims aren't the only group it hates. I find posting garbage from hate groups offensive and would like to suggest you retink where you find the material you post.

Helen Lambie (Goldstein)

For all of you who feel betrayed by the “egregious lies dispatched to the public related to the Breonna Taylor case” here is the truth, from the Washington Post, if you care to believe it.

OPINIONS

Correcting the misinformation about Breonna Taylor

....“This was not a no-knock warrant.”  It absolutely was. It says so right on the warrant. Moreover, the portion of the warrant authorizing a no-knock entry cited only cut-and-pasted information from the four other warrants that were part of the same investigation. This is a violation of a requirement set by the Supreme Court that no-knock warrants should be granted when police can present evidence that a particular suspect is a risk to shoot at police or destroy evidence if they knock and announce. They didn’t do that.

The police claim they were told after the fact to disregard the no-knock portion and instead knock and announce themselves, because, by that point, someone had determined that Taylor was a “soft target” — not a threat, and not a major player in the drug investigation. But there are problems with this account. If Taylor was a “soft target,” why not surround the house, get on a megaphone, and ask her to come out with her hands up? Why still take down her door with a battering ram? Why still serve the warrant in the middle of the night?

For the complete article go to: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/09/24/correcting-misinformation-about-breonna-taylor/

Joanie Bender (Grosfeld)

Yes, Helen, another senseless death of an unarmed person...what is the value of her life. Apparently not much to those police officers. Love, Joanie

Jack Mallory

Nora tells us,

More poor choices?

By Nora's logic, reinforced by a hate group meme, if black people would just quit choosing to be black they wouldn't face systemic racism--QED! 
 

Jay Shackford

I don’t know how many of you subscribe to the electronic version of The New York Times, but if you do check out this feature to Sunday’s edition:

12,000 Feet Up, with a Storm Coming In

A summer romp in the Tetons with Jimmy Chin and his pals. 

Using a combination of video, still photography and text, it tells the story of Jimmy Chin and three of his mountain-climbing pals climbing the Grand Traverse – the 17.8 mile romp along the Tetons’ most thrilling skyline offering roughly 12,000 cumulative feet of climbing on seven major summits.  Chin estimates he’s climbed the Grand as many as 70 times.  

Chin and his wife, Elizabeth, won an Academy Award in 2019 for directing the documentary “Free Solo” about Alex Honnold’s climb of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. 

Here are a few excerpts from Chin’s romp in the Tetons: 

“Central to the mountaineer’s life – its curse and gift – is an itch for struggle, and a willingness to scratch it that Mo Anthoine, a great British climber,  called ‘feeding the rat.’”

“There are old climbers and bold climbers but no old bold climbers.”

“Nuking is snowing really hard.”

“Next came Mount Owen, a 12,928-foot peak steep enough to demand genuine rock climbing, free solo in this case, unroped in specialized sneakers and backpacks, but mostly on what climbers would describe as ‘good rock,’ solid and hard enough that it won’t crumble under a climber’s body weight – ‘Way more preferable,’ as Chin put it, ‘than scrapping around on what I call vertical kitty litter.’”

‘It is an oddity of human nature, though, discoverable only through experience, that a happy vibrant aliveness comes from what Chin calls ’feeding the bite’ – titrated danger, discomfort – and what fellow climber Conrad Anker called, ‘the anvil,’ that hard surface against which nature hammers us into a more resilient relationship to our own tenderness.” 

“Morning dawned clear but too cold and too much snow and ice for climbing.  Finishing the Grand Traverse was out of the question.  Chin and the others decided to stay put anyway, brew tea and talk.  Every climber knows the feeling: Mind and body calm with fatigue, mood light from dabbling in risk and also from the deep play – inventing challenges, tilting at windmills – unique to those whom Lionel Terray, the celebrated French mountaineer, has called ‘conquistadors of the useless.’ Also, of course, with nowhere to be and nobody expecting emails, mid-expedition down days open wide with hours of talk. ‘Those kinds of days are precious,’ Chin said. ‘There’s not much to do, and you get to hang out and catch up, chat about life.’”

Jack Mallory

Just read that great article in my Sunday NYT via electrons, Jay. Another example of the kind of multi-media journalism that can be done on-line.

I recommend this very strongly, also. "Laughtivism," the power of mockery."

"Authoritarians are pompous creatures with monstrous egos and so tend to be particularly vulnerable to humor. They look mighty but are often balloons in need of a sharp pin."

“The grins of the people are the nightmares of the dictators"

“'Every joke is a tiny revolution,' George Orwell wrote in 1945."

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/26/opinion/sunday/trump-politics-humor.html?referringSource=articleShare

(From the Orwell article, "A thing is funny when — in some way that is not actually offensive or frightening — it upsets the established order. Every joke is a tiny revolution. If you had to define humour in a single phrase, you might define it as dignity sitting on a tin-tack. Whatever destroys dignity, and brings down the mighty from their seats, preferably with a bump, is funny. And the bigger they fall, the bigger the joke. It would be better fun to throw a custard pie at a bishop than a curate.")

Glen Hirose

Jack Mallory

When there's nothing else funny, Glen, the sane person always has himself or herself to laugh at. If you can't laugh at yourself, it's time, with apologies to Kipling, to "roll to your rifle and blow out your brains." 

            The Young British 
                    Soldier

WHEN the 'arf-made recruity goes out to the East
'E acts like a babe an' 'e drinks like a beast,
An' 'e wonders because 'e is frequent deceased
Ere 'e's fit for to serve as a soldier.
Serve, serve, serve as a soldier,
Serve, serve, serve as a soldier,
Serve, serve, serve as a soldier,
So-oldier of the Queen!

Now all you recruities what's drafted to-day,
You shut up your rag-box an' 'ark to my lay,
An' I'll sing you a soldier as far as I may:
A soldier what's fit for a soldier.
Fit, fit, fit for a soldier . . .

First mind you steer clear o' the grog-sellers' huts,
For they sell you Fixed Bay'nets that rots out your guts - 
Ay, drink that 'ud eat the live steel from your butts - 
An' it's bad for the young British soldier.
Bad, bad, bad for the soldier . . .

When the cholera comes - as it will past a doubt - 
Keep out of the wet and don't go on the shout,
For the sickness gets in as the liquor dies out,
An' it crumples the young British soldier.
 Crum-, crum-, crumples the soldier . . .

But the worst o' your foes is the sun over'ead:
You must wear your 'elmet for all that is said:
If 'e finds you uncovered 'e'll knock you down dead,
An' you'll die like a fool of a soldier.
Fool, fool, fool of a soldier . . .

If you're cast for fatigue by a sergeant unkind,
Don't grouse like a woman nor crack on nor blind;
Be handy and civil, and then you will find
That it's beer for the young British soldier.
 Beer, beer, beer for the soldier . . .

Now, if you must marry, take care she is old - 
A troop-sergeant's widow's the nicest I'm told,
For beauty won't help if your rations is cold,
Nor love ain't enough for a soldier.
'Nough, 'nough, 'nough for a soldier . . . 

If the wife should go wrong with a comrade, be loath 
To shoot when you catch 'em - you'll swing, on my oath! - 
Make 'im take 'er and keep 'er: that's Hell for them both,
An' you're shut o' the curse of a soldier.
Curse, curse, curse of a soldier . . .

When first under fire an' you're wishful to duck,
Don't look nor take 'eed at the man that is struck,
Be thankful you're livin', and trust to your luck
And march to your front like a soldier.
Front, front, front like a soldier . . .

When 'arf of your bullets fly wide in the ditch,
Don't call your Martini a cross-eyed old bitch;
She's human as you are - you treat her as sich,
An' she'll fight for the young British soldier.
Fight, fight, fight for the soldier . . .

When shakin' their bustles like ladies so fine,
The guns o' the enemy wheel into line,
Shoot low at the limbers an' don't mind the shine,
For noise never startles the soldier.
Start-, start-, startles the soldier . . . 

If your officer's dead and the sergeants look white,
Remember it's ruin to run from a fight:
So take open order, lie down, and sit tight,
And wait for supports like a soldier.
Wait, wait, wait like a soldier . . .

When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains,
And the women come out to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains 
An' go to your Gawd like a soldier.
Go, go, go like a soldier,
Go, go, go like a soldier,
Go, go, go like a soldier,
So-oldier of the Queen!

Helen Lambie (Goldstein)

True, Glen, we are living in tough times, but there is always time for a little musical levity. https://youtu.be/TI8RZhhoBM0

Joanie Bender (Grosfeld)

Helen Lambie (Goldstein)

Oh boy! It looks like the NYTimes has gotten hold of Trump's tax information. Hold on to your seats, ladies and gentlemen, the show is about to begin.

Jack Mallory

We're a team, babe!

Perhaps I've been wrong along. Maybe there is a god. It's an incredibly long, detailed article. By the time I've read it there will be summaries and syntheses out everywhere. But I'll post the fun bits as I read.

"The Times obtained Donald Trump’s tax information extending over more than two decades, revealing struggling properties, vast write-offs, an audit battle and hundreds of millions in debt coming due."

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/09/27/us/donald-trump-taxes.html?referringSource=articleShare

Jack Mallory

• Mr. Trump paid no federal income taxes in 11 of 18 years that The Times examined. In 2017, after he became president, his tax bill was only $750.

• He has reduced his tax bill with questionable measures, including a $72.9 million tax refund that is the subject of an audit by the Internal Revenue Service.

• Many of his signature businesses, including his golf courses, report losing large amounts of money — losses that have helped him to lower his taxes.

• The financial pressure on him is increasing as hundreds of millions of dollars in loans he personally guaranteed are soon coming due.

• Even while declaring losses, he has managed to enjoy a lavish lifestyle by taking tax deductions on what most people would consider personal expenses, including residences, aircraft and $70,000 in hairstyling for television.

• Ivanka Trump, while working as an employee of the Trump Organization, appears to have received “consulting fees” that also helped reduce the family’s tax bill.

Jack Mallory

Perhaps the rare NYT opinion piece that everone on the forum could agree with?

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/27/opinion/social-media-trump-election.html?referringSource=articleShare

********

The Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee reporting into the 2016 election warned against the kind of unfounded allegations Mr. Trump is making about “rigged” elections. My emphasis.

“Sitting officials and candidates should use the absolute greatest amount restraint and caution if they are considering publicly calling the validity of an upcoming election into question,” the report said, noting that doing so would only be “exacerbating the already damaging messaging efforts of foreign intelligence services.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/27/technology/2020-election-security-threats.html?referringSource=articleShare

Joanie Bender (Grosfeld)

Dr. Robert Redfield who heads the CDC,  has expressed great concern over Trump's appointed corona task force advisor. He said he has no infectious disease experience and he is spreading disinformation. Here is the article. Redfield said that "everything he says is false." Of course Trump parrots lies all the time about the virus as was pointed out in Bob Woodward's book. Love, Joanie

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/redfield-voices-alarm-over-influence-trump-s-new-coronavirus-task-n1241221

Jack Mallory

A friend of mine's uncle's brother-in-law saw on a Tweet that a guy named Ivan reposted to Facebook that the White House gets its drinking water shipped in from Texas!

!

Jack Mallory

At the VA this morning. Only place I've ever worked where someone would occasionally shout down the hallway, "Don't step in the blood trail!"

********

​People sometimes complain when historians, or journalists, anyone with a critical eye, focus on our national problems.

I quoted a few days ago from Wilkerson's book Caste on how we should approach flaws in our social and governmental system. This morning I found in the book another very eloquent description of why we should constantly be on the watch for weaknesses in our systems--Jay, I think you'll really like this:

"America is an old house. We can never declare the work over. Wind, flood, drought, and human upheavals batter a structure that is already fighting whatever flaws were left unattended in the original foundation. When you live in an old house, you may not want to go into the basement after a storm to see what the rains have wrought. Choose not to look, however, at your own peril. The owner of an old house knows that whatever you are ignoring will never go away. Whatever is lurking will fester whether you choose to look or not. Ignorance is no protection from the consequences of inaction. Whatever you are wishing away will gnaw at you until you gather the courage to face what you would rather not see.

"We in the developed world are like homeowners who inherited a house on a piece of land that is beautiful on the outside, but whose soil is unstable loam and rock, heaving and contracting over generations, cracks patched but the deeper ruptures waved away for decades, centuries even. Many people may rightly say, “I had nothing to do with how this all started. I have nothing to do with the sins of the past. My ancestors never attacked indigenous people, never owned slaves.” And, yes. Not one of us was here when this house was built. Our immediate ancestors may have had nothing to do with it, but here we are, the current occupants of a property with stress cracks and bowed walls and fissures built into the foundation. We are the heirs to whatever is right or wrong with it. We did not erect the uneven pillars or joists, but they are ours to deal with now.

"And any further deterioration is, in fact, on our hands.

"Unaddressed, the ruptures and diagonal cracks will not fix themselves. The toxins will not go away but, rather, will spread, leach, and mutate, as they already have. When people live in an old house, they come to adjust to the idiosyncrasies and outright dangers skulking in an old structure. They put buckets under a wet ceiling, prop up groaning floors, learn to step over that rotting wood tread in the staircase. The awkward becomes acceptable, and the unacceptable becomes merely inconvenient. Live with it long enough, and the unthinkable becomes normal. Exposed over the generations, we learn to believe that the incomprehensible is the way that life is supposed to be."

Wonderful example of the English language put to its best possible use. And a reminder to us that we need someone in the Oval Office who has the vision to see this house for what it has been, what it needs to be, and how to make repairs.

Jay Shackford

(Here is a very insightful column on Trump’s tax troubles by Catherine Rampell, a columnist for the Washington Post.)  

Trump’s long-hidden tax returns make him look like a terrible businessman, or a cheat. Probably both. 

Opinion by 

Catherine Rampell

Columnist

September 28, 2020 at 9:43 a.m. EDT

Richard Nixon famously said, “People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I’m not a crook.” That comment was not about the Watergate break-in, but rather, some funny business in his tax returns. Under public pressure, Nixon ultimately released those returns, revealing a major underpayment on his income taxes and creating a new norm for at least partial tax disclosure that all his successors complied with.

Until President Trump, that is.

And now it may be clear why. Bombshell reporting Sunday from the New York Times — based on the examination of thousands of personal and business tax records — suggests that Trump, like his disgraced predecessor, engaged in a lot of financial activity that also looks pretty crooked.

Trump reportedly paid only $750 in federal income taxes in 2016 and 2017, and none at all in 10 of the previous 15 years.

Remember when Mitt Romney was caught on tape condemning the moochers of America, the 47 percent who pay no income taxes? Turns out he was talking about Trump.

Trump claimed no tax liability for so many years because, according to the documents reviewed by the Times, he sustained mindbogglingly huge, chronic losses. The magnitude of these reported losses suggests he has been a thoroughly incompetent businessman or has been cheating Uncle Sam.

Most likely both.

Alan Garten, an attorney for the Trump Organization, said the Times report was inaccurate, and that Trump has paid “tens of millions of dollars in personal taxes to the federal government,” a characterization that appears to conflate income tax payments with other kinds of taxes (such as those for Social Security). For his part, Trump has previously argued that shirking his tax obligations made him “smart.” He suggested that he merely took advantage of legal loopholes, the kind available to deep-pocketed Americans who can afford top-notch tax preparation advice. And as I’ve written before, the real estate industry enjoys tons of loopholes and other opportunities for legally minimizing tax obligations, most notably through depreciation deductions. But per the Times, Trump’s “three European golf courses, the Washington hotel, Doral and Trump Corporation reported losing a total of $150.3 million from 2010 through 2018, without including depreciation as an expense.”

That is: They were money pits.

Additionally, Times reporters Russ Buettner, Susanne Craig and Mike McIntire include details of tax practices that were, at best, extraordinarily aggressive and, at worst, suggest possible fraud on a massive scale.

These include deducting lifestyle expenses, such as the cost of haircuts, as if they were business expenses. Or appearing to pay Ivanka Trump consulting fees on the same hotel deals that she helped manage as part of her job at her father’s business, an arrangement that may have been a way to transfer assets without paying gift taxes.

Or, writing off $2.2 million in property taxes as a business expense supposedly on an investment property that appears to instead be a vacation residence. According to the Times:

The tax records reveal another way Seven Springs has generated substantial tax savings. In 2014, Mr. Trump classified the estate as an investment property, as distinct from a personal residence. Since then, he has written off $2.2 million in property taxes as a business expense — even as his 2017 tax law allowed individuals to write off only $10,000 in property taxes a year.

Courts have held that to treat residences as businesses for tax purposes, owners must show that they have “an actual and honest objective of making a profit,” typically by making substantial efforts to rent the property and eventually generating income.

Whether or not Seven Springs fits those criteria, the Trumps have described the property somewhat differently.

In 2014, Eric Trump told Forbes that “this is really our compound.” Growing up, he and his brother Donald Jr. spent many summers there, riding all-terrain vehicles and fishing on a nearby lake. At one point, the brothers took up residence in a carriage house on the property. “It was home base for us for a long, long time,” Eric told Forbes.

Now, it’s unclear whether voters will care, after all this time, that Trump has apparently paid less in taxes than the typical teacher, waitress, retail clerk or whoever else was usually cast as “moochers” and “takers.” Trump supporters seem willing to forgive almost anything; and taxes may seem too arcane for the general public to care about, especially if voters believe Trump’s spin that he practiced “smart” tax avoidance rather than illegal tax evasion.

But a few other points are worth considering.

Even Trump joined Romney once upon a time in demonizing Americans who didn’t contribute adequately to Treasury coffers:

And when asked what really bothers them about the tax system, Americans’ top complaints aren’t that the poor are shirking, or that the tax code is too complicated, or even that their own tax bills are too big. They’re mad that corporations and the wealthy aren’t paying their “fair share,” legally or otherwise.

via Pew Research Center, 2019. (Pew Research Center)

Let’s consider Trump’s tax bill in another context: Trump spent 87 times as much to allegedly pay off his porn-star mistress as he paid in federal income taxes in 2016 and 2017, combined. Those taxes fund our military, roads, health-care system, etc. It’s hard to imagine such numbers sitting well with most Americans.

Whatever the optics surrounding fairness, the reason the public should care most, as I have long argued, involves conflicts of interest. These financial entanglements — whom the president is getting money from, owes money to and on what terms — are likely influencing executive-branch policy, presumably rigging it in favor of cronies and creditors and against the public welfare.

The Times report documents conflicts of interest up the wazoo. Previous reporting has revealed as much, though not with such precise dollar figures. Hordes of people and corporations have bought access to the president by patronizing Trump properties, such as Mar-a-Lago (his Palm Beach social club) or Trump National Doral (a golf resort near Miami):

Profits [at Mar-a-Lago] rose sharply after Mr. Trump declared his candidacy, as courtiers eagerly joining up brought a tenfold rise in cash from initiation fees — from $664,000 in 2014 to just under $6 million in 2016, even before Mr. Trump doubled the cost of initiation in January 2017.

Some of the largest payments from business groups for events or conferences at Mar-a-Lago and other Trump properties have come since Mr. Trump became president, the tax records show.

At Doral, Mr. Trump collected a total of at least $7 million in 2015 and 2016 from Bank of America, and at least $1.2 million in 2017 and 2018 from a trade association representing food retailers and wholesalers. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce paid Doral at least $406,599 in 2018.

Those buying access, and presumably hoping for favors, included executives, lobbyists and foreign nationals. Exactly how much their patronage to Trump businesses might be influencing policy is unclear, though there have been plenty of hints.

Additionally, the Times reports that Trump is personally responsible for loans and other debts totaling $421 million, most of which comes due within four years. If Trump were still in the White House during that time, this creates some bad incentives. (The article does not provide details, alas, on the identity of all those lenders; hopefully, more reporting is forthcoming.) Further, an Internal Revenue Service audit over the legitimacy of a $72.9 million tax refund he received a decade ago has taken an unusually long time to resolve, possibly indicating it has stalled or been paused while Trump remains in office; an adverse ruling could cost him more than $100 million, the Times estimates, inclusive of interest and possible penalties.

One might reasonably wonder why Trump, who appears to tweet, watch TV and golf more than he exercises his duties as president, has ever wanted a second term. Well, in addition to his desire to finally build his border wall or continue dodging potential indictments, we now know that Trump has about a half-billion dollars’ worth of motivation to stay in office four more years.

As Nixon advised decades ago, Americans have a right to know whether their president is a crook. As Trump’s tax returns illustrate, Americans should know whether their president is governing in the people’s interests, or his own.

Jack Mallory

OK, I'll stop after this. The book continues at this level of eloquence, but I can't paste the whole thing into the Forum. I include this because it addresses very directly the claim that any American can simply choose their own place and future in society.

"What people look like, or, rather, the race they have been assigned or are perceived to belong to, is the visible cue to their caste. It is the historic flash card to the public of how they are to be treated, where they are expected to live, what kinds of positions they are expected to hold, whether they belong in this section of town or that seat in a boardroom, whether they should be expected to speak with authority on this or that subject, whether they will be administered pain relief in a hospital, whether their neighborhood is likely to adjoin a toxic waste site or to have contaminated water flowing from their taps, whether they are more or less likely to survive childbirth in the most advanced nation in the world, whether they may be shot by authorities with impunity."

Jack Mallory

Trump's evasion of service in Vietnam did not mean that one less person served there (or five, depending on how we count his deferments). His evasion of taxes, legal or il, doesn't mean that tax money doesn't get spent on our military, our roads, health care, etc. as Jay points out.

In both cases, someone else serves or pays instead. It's like going out for dinner or drinks. Some ass-hat ducks on their part of the bill doesn't mean that part of the bill's not owed, just means that you other chumps have to cover it. The story of Trump's attitude toward society: somebody else's money, or blood, will cover his share while he rakes in the $. This is why he says not paying taxes makes him smart, and why he says he didn't serve in Vietnam because he's not stupid.

Being President of the United States is, or should be, an honor as well as a commitment to serve the nation. Trump does not deserve the former, and shows no sign of commitment to anything but himself and $.

Nora Skinker (Morton)

Haha! Good thing you guys are around to set me straight: that Jesus would be called names today (like he wasn't then?); that the Attorney General of Kentucky is a lying SOB; that thanks to the unsourced, undocumented, unbiased NYT, we can rest assured that our President pays diddly in taxes while apparently everybody else gets nailed by the IRS; that the color of our skin does indeed dictate our destinies. Thanks to Nancy Pelosi for telling me we should get rid of Presidential debates. Thanks to Jill Biden, the word "gaff"  is off the table for discussion by any journalist at any time. Thanks to all those who have indicated their dismay that dutiful Catholics should not be deciding Supreme Court cases but who thought Ruth Ginsburg was just fine because her Jewish faith was not a big part of who she was. (How they know this is beyond me!) Thanks, Joanie, for setting me straight about where the bullets went & didn't go & who fired them on the occasion of Breonna Taylor's death. I guess the jury must have missed those "facts". Thank, too Joanie, for telling me that the time & money I choose to donate to those less fortunate is meaningless & that I am not aware or caring or empathetic towards those less fortunate. Thanks, (again Joanie) without knowing, for stating that Breonna Taylor's life meant nothing to the police officers there. Thanks, Helen, for sharing that our classmate, Suzy Sarbacher, was just in the right place at the right time without knowing squat about her OR her husband OR family OR their service to our country. Thanks, too, Helen, for pointing out organizations I should not peruse (let alone agree with) & those (like WashPo's opinion page) that I should. Thanks all for not sharing a mention or showing an ounce of appreciation for what was done for Native Americans after their wait of over 70 years for restitution. 
      That said, here's a list of areas we may agree on. Feel free to add to these "Laws of Life": 

Jack Mallory

Helen, what's your fire situation? I see a couple near you.

********

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2020/09/28/us/trump-vs-biden-elections?referringSource=articleShare

*******

Words from an honorable draft-resister, with a true record of commitment to the United States. Probably paid far more in income tax than the TEC (Tax Evader in Chief). Certainly sacrificed more for his country. In the interest of full exposure, David was once a staff writer for the NYT. 

An excerpt:

"The goal of demonstrating is to reach people who otherwise would not take up the cause of racial justice. The message is most effective when it is accessible, compelling fellow citizens to rethink hidebound attitudes and prejudices. Threatening people and shouting them down will only sabotage this dynamic — as will burning buildings, wearing body armor, throwing projectiles, breaking windows and picking fights. If it is to have any chance of advancing, the quest for racial justice needs to jettison threatening tactics. Frightening people is always counterproductive, even if it is sometimes emotionally satisfying. The objective should be to convert everyone with whom you have contact, whoever they may be, police included . . ."

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-09-27/1960s-activist-gives-advice-to-portland-protesters

*********

Jay Shackford

Donald Trump Barely Pays Any Taxes: Will Anyone Care?

By David Remnick/ The New Yorker

September 28, 2020

Three enterprising reporters for the New York Times published a bombshell report Sunday evening on Donald Trump’s financial life, making it clear that the President of the United States is a desperate, cash-hungry grifter who paid no federal income taxes at all in ten of the fifteen years leading up to his run for office and has, in his frenzied quest to stay afloat, “propped up his sagging bottom line” by exploiting his office.

Readers learn that Trump, who inherited an immense fortune from his father, found countless ways to squander his capital. And, like his old man, he also found countless ways to short the government, including, according to the Times, paying his daughter Ivanka legally dubious consulting fees. At the same time, Trump has accumulated hundreds of millions of dollars in debt that he must soon repay. He is an almost comically inept businessman; he is the sum of his debt and bankruptcies. Nearly everything he touches turns to lead. Were it not for his investments in Trump Tower, “The Apprentice,” and little else—and were it not for the tireless ministrations of his accountants—he would likely be on his back. The question is: Will anyone care?

Readers inclined to think of Trump as a liar and threat to national well-being will doubtless relish every detail in the Times report, not least because it confirms, with documentary evidence, what so many have always suspected and what reporters such as Wayne Barrett and Tim O’Brien were writing decades ago: that Trump is a shady and conniving operator whose practices betray contempt for everyone from his contractors and employees to the federal government. The Times article 

is hardly the first to provide evidence of Trump’s grift, but its details are particularly numerous and galling. Moreover, it comes two days before Trump’s first debate with Joe Biden and five weeks before the election. Are there undecided voters in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida, Georgia, Wisconsin, and beyond who will come upon this new information and finally say to themselves, “This is too much. No more,” and not vote for Trump? It’s hard to know.

The President’s reaction to the story was entirely predictable: deny, deflect, and cast blame elsewhere. Accompanied by his lawyer Rudy Giuliani, he came to the White House press room shortly after the story dropped and attacked the Times(“Everything was wrong; they are so bad”) and the Internal Revenue Service. The Twitter storm saying that he was only playing by the rules of the game is sure to follow.

Trump has long been convinced, as he so memorably put it, four years ago, that “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters, O.K.?” And it is probably true, that for many of his supporters, his character—the dishonesty, the bigotry, the incompetence—is a given. It’s “baked in,” as the Washington cliché has it. No matter what Trump does, no matter what journalists go on revealing, he has, for the “base,” delivered on his promise to upend “the system” and inflame the élites. Some supporters believe that he has lowered their taxes (he hasn’t), defanged North Korea (he hasn’t), and ironed out the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (he hasn’t). For the Republican leadership, Trump remains tolerable because he appoints right-wing judges and cossets corporate interests.

A reader of the Times bombshell, then, can reasonably ask, how is this different from the last bombshell? How is it different from the memoirs by Mary Trump and Michael Cohen? From calling fallen U.S. soldiers “suckers” and “losers”? From all the generals, intelligence officers, and government officials telling Bob Woodward in “Rage” that Trump poses a threat to national security that is even more grave than anyone imagines? Four years ago, Tony Schwartz, Trump’s ghostwriter for “The Art of the Deal,” told The New Yorker’s Jane Mayer, “I genuinely believe that if Trump wins and gets the nuclear codes there is an excellent possibility it will lead to the end of civilization.” This might have seemed overheated at the time—the result of a former collaborator’s guilty conscience—and yet, in Woodward’s new book, we read of Secretary of Defense James Mattis sleeping in his clothes at night for fear that he’ll have to race back to the office because the needless war of words between two erratic leaders, Trump and Kim Jong Un, might lead to an unspeakable conflagration.

The Times story does not make for breezy reading, particularly for a reader without a legal or accounting degree. This is hardly the fault of its authors. It is, by nature, a knotty unloading of many years of murky tax schemes, byzantine business deals, devious agreements with foreign partners, and complex legal maneuvers. And yet the reporters, Russ Buettner, Susanne Craig, and Mike McIntire, begin with a memorably simple paragraph:

Donald J. Trump paid $750 in federal income taxes the year he won the presidency. In his first year in the White House, he paid another $750.

The second paragraph is similarly terse: “He had paid no income taxes at all in 10 of the previous 15 years—largely because he reported losing much more money than he made.”

For years, Trump has advertised himself as a sui-generis brand of populist—the kind who somehow has golden bathroom fixtures, mansions, and private aircraft—and yet pretends to be the champion of the working and middle classes. Perhaps it is also “baked in” that many of his admirers enjoy his sense of spectacle and contradiction. It is hard to imagine, though, that every Trumpist—or, more important, every undecided voter in the swing states—will relish hearing that he paid, while in office, seven hundred and fifty dollars in federal income taxes. That is a stark number. How many teachers, nurses, grocery clerks, farmers, factory workers, bus drivers, truck drivers, and countless others will find that acceptable? How many will fail to compare it to their own tax bill?

Trump knows that he has certain factors on his side. As a demagogue, he is a master. He also operates in a modern information universe in which long, complex investigative articles are often ignored, distorted, or turned on their head. On Sunday night, while Anderson Cooper was talking with a panel on CNN about the details in the Times, Mark Levin, on Fox News, was interviewing Mike Pompeo about the many-splendored wonders of Trump’s foreign policy. The Fox News Web site responded to the Times article with the headline “Everything Was Wrong”—meaning, for millions of readers and viewers, that the news was not the evidence or the charge; the news was the dismissive reaction of the autocrat.

So who cares? How much do these near-daily bombshells change anything? The election is the only way to know. Trump, whose shamelessness knows no limits, seems intent on distorting that process as well.

Jack Mallory

Helen evacuated herself around midnight last night as the Glass Fire exploded just NW of her neighborhood in Santa Rosa. Her house is barely a mile from the mandatory evacuation zone, with the fire 0% controlled and high winds spreading it throughout the area. 

I just talked to her. She's been evacuated several times in the last few years. It's getting to be more than a bit too much. 

Her house located approximately at the red X just SW of the red zone. 

I know she wouldn't think it at all inappropriate to remind us that these are fires with strong connections to the climate change fueled by Trump's policies and science skepticism.

Jack Mallory

This one's for you, Helen.
 

"we can rest assured that our President pays diddly in taxes while apparently everybody else gets nailed by the IRS"

Apparently.

"In 1977, President Jimmy Carter had a problem, according to presidential tax historian Joseph Thorndike. Carter’s federal tax burden for 1976 had been zeroed out by a massive investment tax credit he earned for purchasing equipment and buildings related to his peanut farm."

"Carter was upset, as he told The Washington Post at the time, because he had a “strong feeling” that wealthy people like him should pay at least some taxes. So he voluntarily paid the Treasury Department $6,000, the equivalent to 15 percent of his adjusted gross income and slightly more than the 14 percent paid by average taxpayers that year."

"How times have changed." https://apple.news/A0jeeOiiMTgq2NWK8cMuN3w