Donald Trump Goes After The Terminally Ill Vote

Campaigning in Nevada last night, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump told terminally ill to make sure they get out and vote on November 8th before they die.

No – this is not The Onion.

“I don’t care how sick you are. I don’t care if you just came back from the doctor and he gave you the worst possible prognosis, meaning it’s over. Doesn’t matter. Hang out till November 8. Get out and vote. And then, all we’re gonna say is, ‘We love you and we will remember you always.’ Get out and vote.”

A Glimpse Of The Future From 1957

I happened to scroll past this today on Facebook, and something made me stop and watch.

This is a mashup of scenes from the 1957 film, A Face In The Crowd.

Official synopsis: An Arkansas drifter becomes an overnight media sensation. As he becomes drunk with fame and power, will he ever be exposed as the fraud he has become?

Very powerful, and quite the prescient warning. Let me know if this reminds you of anyone.

Near the end, music theater fans may get a small kick out of the “You’re gonna love me” section.

Posted on Facebook:

I try to stay as far away from politics on Facebook as possible. That said, I just cut together a few of my favorite scenes from Elia Kazan’s 1957 classic A Face in the Crowd. The entire film should be required viewing for everyone during this election

Donald Trump Threatens To Sue Those Responsible For “Nasty” Ads

Campaigning in Nevada today, GOP White House hopeful Donald Trump announced he’s going to sue whoever put together a “nasty” campaign ad showing military veterans criticizing his statements about Purple Hearts, sacrifice and more.

“I saw today, I left the room and I saw a commercial where it was really a nasty commercial, totally made up about me with vets. There is nobody that loves the vets more or respects the vets more.

“They’re spending hundreds of millions of dollars on false commercials and it’s a disgrace. So what we’ll do — I guess we’ll sue them. Let’s sue them. Right? Let’s sue them.”

Trump never names the ad or the group running the ad that got his back up.

But he’s gonna sue them. Believe me. (sarcasm intended)

(h/t JoeMyGod)

Hillary Clinton Asks: “What Kind Of ‘Genius’ Loses $1 Billion In A Single Year?”

On the campaign trail in Ohio today, Democratic presidential candidate brought up the Sunday talk show defense by Donald Trump’s surrogates regarding the weekend revelations of Trump’s 1995 tax return.

“What kind of genius loses a billion dollars in a single year?” Clinton asked.

Watch below.

Did Marla Maples Leak Donald Trump’s 1995 Tax Return?

Marla Maples

As political junkies and pundits wonder who might have leaked Donald Trump’s 1995 tax return to the New York Times, some folks have started looking in the direction of Trump wife number two, Marla Maples.

Since she was married to the Donald at that time, her name is on the joint return, and state laws in New York and Connecticut allow taxpayers to release returns to outside parties with only one of the filers signatures.

Medium has more details:

It’s also unlikely that she would be violating her confidentiality agreement with Mr. Trump by leaking these returns. I spoke to two lawyers that specialize in family law and both told me that they have never seen a restriction around tax returns in a prenup or settlement agreement. They have seen such restrictions when it comes to financial statements, investment records but it would be hard for Mr. Trump to demand that Ms. Maples own tax information be kept private. If Ms. Maples did indeed leak these returns, it would also absolve the Times of any criminal or civil penalties.

Despite the fact that the Trump campaign said that the Times is “an extension of the Clinton campaign”, they’re not (after all they broke the email server story in March of 2015). The Times had these returns for ten days and took their reporting on these returns seriously — even going so far as hiring tax experts to analyze the returns. They sought a comment from the Trump campaign, they spoke to the accountant who prepared and signed the returns.

So it would be highly unusual for them to not contact Ms. Maples about the tax returns given that her name is on all of the returns and her signature is on the New Jersey return. Yet the Times, in their story, does not indicate that they contacted Ms. Maples. Even if she didn’t return their calls or emails, they would still indicate that they reached out to her and had not heard back.

(h/t JoeMyGod)

When Donald Trump Criticized President Obama For “Only” Paying 20.5% Tax Rate

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/190866856624668672

In the aftermath of the New York Times’ bombshell article showing Donald Trump probably paid no personal income taxes for 18 years, it’s amusing to take a walk down Twitter Lane with the Trumpster.

Remember that time he criticized President Obama for “only” paying a 20.5% effective tax rate?

Now we find out Trump pays a 0% income tax rate. That means 0% for our military, 0% for our veterans, 0% for roads, bridges and schools.

And yet, Trump will rant about the poor status of our infrastructure and airports, etc.

Things that make you go “hmm….”

Rudy Giuliani: Trump Is A Genius For Losing $916 Million

Watching Rudy Giuliani on CNN’s “State of the Union” this morning was an adventure in twisted logic.

CNN’s Jake Tapper attempted get straight answers from Giuliani regarding the latest Trump bombshell concerning his income taxes via the New York Times, but to little avail. Giuliani appeared a bit wild-eyed at times trying to get his approved “talking points” across.

Watch below.

Trump Tax Returns: Business Failures May Have Kept Him From Paying Taxes For 18 Years

An anonymous source has mailed three pages of Donald Trump’s 1995 income tax returns to a reporter at the New York Times.

The pages indicate that Trump declared a $916 million loss that year in connection to the “mismanagement of three Atlantic City casinos, his ill-fated foray into the airline business and his ill-timed purchase of the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan,” the newspaper reports.

Trump lost almost $1 billion in one year running casinos??? Think on that for a minute.

According to the NYT, the loss could have allowed Trump to avoid paying federal income taxes up to $50 million for the next 18 years.

Trump’s campaign issued a statement which read, in part:

“Mr. Trump is a highly-skilled businessman who has a fiduciary responsibility to his business, his family and his employees to pay no more tax than legally required. That being said, Mr. Trump has paid hundreds of millions of dollars in property taxes, sales and excise taxes, real estate taxes, city taxes, state taxes, employee taxes and federal taxes, along with very substantial charitable contributions.”

“Mr. Trump knows the tax code far better than anyone who has ever run for President and he is the only one that knows how to fix it.”

The New York Times has obtained portions of Donald Trump’s 1995 income tax returns that indicate he may not have paid any federal income taxes for almost two decades.

The three pages from Trump’s tax returns, which were mailed to the NYT by an anonymous source, showed that Trump declared a $916 million loss that year due to “mismanagement of three Atlantic City casinos, his ill-fated foray into the airline business and his ill-timed purchase of the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan,” the newspaper reports.

The loss would have allowed Trump to avoid paying federal income taxes on up to $50 million for each of the ensuing 18 years, the NYT notes. One of Trump’s lawyers has already threatened to sue the NYT for publishing the returns, but his campaign appeared to confirm the validity of the newspaper’s report in a statement.

“Mr. Trump is a highly-skilled businessman who has a fiduciary responsibility to his business, his family and his employees to pay no more tax than legally required,” the statement said. “That being said, Mr. Trump has paid hundreds of millions of dollars in property taxes, sales and excise taxes, real estate taxes, city taxes, state taxes, employee taxes and federal taxes.”

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about the NYT’s scoop is the fact that the person who mailed the pages from Trump’s tax returns to the newspaper listed their return address as Trump Tower.