Why do folks keep saying Trump should release his tax returns so we can see what his net worth is? Tax returns don’t show how poor or rich someone is but rather they show declared income. Have these folks ever filled out a tax return? Nowhere do they show someone is a billionaire, a multimillionaire, a millionaire, “broke”, or whatever since one’s assets and liabilities aren’t shown. In other words from an accounting perspective, income tax returns are like an income statement rather than a balance sheet. I can’t believe I haven’t seen anyone clarify this simple fact on TV even one time!
you are absolutely right!
Furthermore, his countless golf courses, hotels, etc etc are most certainly all incorporated.....separate legal entities. If you wanted to dig into Trump's financial affairs, you would have to dig into everyone of his corporations.
Well... i guess we could. Let's start another 2-year investigation.
I think what some are hoping for is that scrutinizing his tax returns will somehow indicate some sort of illegal activity. And of course, his assorted tax attorneys and CPAs as well as the IRS probably missed something that a NYT reporter would pick up on in a New York minute.
Each of his yearly returns, including his assorted corporate returns would file a room full of file cabinets.
What we'll get, should the returns be made available, is a few cherry picked misinterpreted line item(s) much like Romney's dancing horse. More entertainment for those who find such nonsense entertaining, but nothing of any real value.
"What we'll get ... is entertainment for those who find such nonsense entertaining, but nothing of any real value."
You may be right ... but why is he fighting so hard not to comply? Oh yeah, none of their business.
"but why is he fighting so hard not to comply? Oh yeah, none of their business. "
He's under no obligation to provide them, legally or morally, in spite of the NYT's manufactured claim that he "owes it to the voters", it's no ones business outside of Trump, his accountants and the IRS, and he has absolutely nothing to gain by doing so. Unless of course you can convince that that the liberals clamoring for the data will suddenly fall in love with him after reading his tax returns.
"He's under no obligation to provide them, legally or morally."
I'll argue morally, since he did say he'd comply when he was campaigning.
IMHO, the man has something to hide, otherwise why would Barr and Munchin risk Contempt of Congress to not comply?
dems biggest problem now and why they are attacking so much is that after this near 3 year witch hunt Trumps approval is nearly as high as at his inauguration.....that is what they are fighting
"IMHO, the man has something to hide,"
That sort of argument has been used many times in many places. "If you have nothing to hide, why would you object to us searching your home? Why would you lock your doors? Why have a password on your phone?"
It's the reason the founders included the 4th amendment.
After 2.5+ years, this admin is the most vetted/investigated/scrutinized in the countries history. When is enough enough?
"dems biggest problem now and why they are attacking so much is that after this near 3 year witch hunt Trumps approval is nearly as high as at his inauguration.....that is what they are fighting"
http://fortune.com/2019/05/10/trumps-approval-rating-2019/
"And while Democrats in Congress are not yet ready to accept the purported conclusions of the Mueller Report, it appears that the American public feels otherwise—or else the strength of the economy is giving them enough reason to hold their president in higher esteem. Trump’s approval rating steadily climbed in April 2019, from 45% to 46%, and hit a near-historic high of 91% among Republicans.
Even approval by Democrats broke the single digits in the most recent poll, climbing to 12%."
"After 2.5+ years, this admin is the most vetted/investigated/scrutinized in the countries history. When is enough enough?"
metmike: Before the release of the Mueller report, the story below pretty much summarizes the tone of expectations based on the fake news we had been fed for 2 years. If you repeat a lie over and over and over(like the fake climate crisis) after awhile, even people on the fence start assuming it's true.
There's no overstating how shocking and devastating this report was to sources like the one below. Imagine the damage to ones credibility in being so wrong about something so important for so long on a topic that people trusted your insights/reporting about?
There is no precedent that comes close to this(other than the fake climate crisis-that continues in spite of CO2 being completely exonerated long ago). So part of this response ties into damage control for salvaging their credibility. Can you imagine anything else? Like, instead, we would hear "Sorry President Trump for persecuting you relentlessly for something that you didn't do......or even, ok, we admit that we were wrong on the collusion and have learned from that and will stop this witch hunt.
The investigation was started under false pretenses and was part of the objective to destroy Trump. Right after the release of the Mueller report, CNN had Dan Rather on the set. Their discussion was revealing. CNN was clearly devastated but Dan Rather gave them a boost in stating (paraphrase) "It's not over yet, Trump may have won this battle, but the war is not over and we'll win this war"
Clearly defining the objective.........not to determine guilt/innocent but to win a war against the enemy..........Donald Trump.
Worse Than Watergate
Kevin M. Kruse and Julian E. Zelizer Professors of history at Princeton University
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/01/trumps-crimes-are-worse-watergate/579541/
"But Watergate’s time as the gold standard of presidential malfeasance might well be coming to an end. If the multiple charges against President Donald Trump prove out, he’ll easily displace Richard Nixon at the top of the Crooked Modern Presidents list. Here’s why."
James Carville said in the 1990s: "It's the economy, stupid." or something similar. That's Trump's best hope to get reelected. But if the economy were to tank over the next 1.5 years, you can very likely say goodbye to Trump just like we said goodbye to McCain in 2008 and to some extent Bush in 1992.
Despite what many cons now think, many libs are confident Trump will lose because most of them feel the Mueller Report didn't at all exonerate him and that he won't take the rust belt like he did in 2016, especially if Biden is the nominee. They expect future investigations to find him guilty. Most of them hate Trump more than ever and fear for our country even more than before. If they ever met him, some have said they wouldn't shake his hand and would instead spit on him. Some have even said they hope he dies in office (of natural causes).
My feelings about Trump have not changed. I'm a right of center/semi-conservative who in the past has voted mainly GOP and who loved Reagan. Trump? Not at all because I think he's an awful human being who I've never supported and who I'd have a very tough time ever supporting. He's like an immature bullying child and he lies constantly. He has a lot of very dangerous white supremacist/Neo-nazi supporters who feel more emboldened than in a long time like those disgusting hate filled protestors in WV, and he's not doing enough to show that he disapproves of their horrible views. "Fine people on both sides" was a terrible thing to say. Joking about that person at the FL rally saying "shoot them" when referring to migrants at the border was very wrong for a POTUS. He should have done what McCain did in 2008 to defend Obama twice. Trump is not a great POTUS. He mainly only cares about cons. I have complained a number of times about Obama fostering divisiveness, especially with his lack of defending the police as an institution. I think Trump is worse. There was more hatred than ever in my lifetime toward Obama from cons with much of it due to racism. The overall hatred for Trump seems a lot worse but a lot of it is due to his awful behavior. The press' hatred for Trump is as bad as I can recall for any POTUS but a lot of it is his own fault.
The US is no longer one nation and hasn't been in many years. Extreme folks on each side have more hatred for the other side than for enemy country leaders. The US is in bad shape with the extreme divide.
If Biden were to win the nomination, I expect to vote for him. But I think it is going to be tough for him to get the nom.
Outstanding thoughts Larry. Thanks for sharing your sincere thoughts.
I agree completely with just about all of it. Trump is very divisive.
I especially agree with this comment:
"The press' hatred for Trump is as bad as I can remember for any POTUS but a lot of it is his own fault."
This is actually the crux of the problem. The MSM are supposed to be professionals that practice objective journalism. They have always been liberal and biased towards one side. I was raised in Detroit as a democrat, still think very highly of Carter, who was the first president that I voted for, and disliked Reagan.
My dad would often say this about Reagan "he's a professional actor playing his greatest role ever as the president of the United States"
In fact, many don't remember Reagan's job hiring freeze of all new federal employees in 1981..............a few months before I graduated and planned to work for the NWS. I ended up persuing a completely different career as a television broadcast meteorologist because of that action. Maybe it didn't turn out as well for others planning careers with the government that were seniors in college that year but you can imagine my mindset, as a democrat at the time. Not a big Reagan fan!
With the media(Indiana CBS affiliate 1982-1993) I was in good liberal company. I''ll never forget our extremely liberal news director's comments(who opposed Reagan's policies) one time during one of Reagan's national address's to America. "How can you not like this guy??" over and over.
Trump has the polar opposite personality but with similar agenda. Interestingly, Trump also did a federal hiring freeze on new employees in 2017. Trumps character and personality flaws, however are way off the charts and he makes comments that inflames and taunts his opponents contrasted to Reagan's disarming them with his highly refined communicating and acting skills.
I can imagine this same news director today, Jon Ester and all the other news directors and reporters today watching Trump (as he expresses similar ideas or agenda as Reagan might have back in 1985)and not one of them thinking "how can you not like this guy" leaving room for objectively in reporting of him/his policies, like they did for Reagen but instead, dwelling on how much they hate him.......personally hate him in many cases and looking for opportunities to twist facts and use whatever he says and does against him.
Human nature.
So, Larry, you are right that this is Trumps fault...............for being Trump, the cut throat, in your face, not very tactful personality, business guy. And this was Reagan's fault for being Reagan, the professional actor previous to his presidency.........likeable, tactful, funny and knowing all the right things to say.
It's also the fault of the media, that is supposed to report independent facts with objectivity in a professional way.......fulfilling an obligation to their viewers who trust them. This is their job. Because of freedom of the press, there is no entity holding the media accountable to do their job, however for when they twist the meaning of things, speculate, manufacture and create fake news, acting as political activists against president Trump.
That sounds like a pretty extreme statement describing the media but that's exactly what just happened the past 2.5 years with regards to the Mueller probe into Trump.
After the report was released, in a just universe, the MSM and democrats would have been bombarded and crushed with outrage from everybody that cares about truth and fairness/rights because of what they reported over the previous 2.5 years.
But no. This is Donald Trump with the unprecedented character flaws that are his own fault, so he deserved it and deserves everything else used to attack him.
Put another way. If we took every detail of this story and substituted in a guy with Ronald Reagen's personality, none of this would be happening.
There are many kinds of discrimination that are widely recognized and a problem in our world today. Race, gender, sex orientation and so on. I contend that personality discrimination might be the one which affects more people in a more powerful way than any of them.
If we like somebody................we believe them. We treat them nicer, give them more promotions, want to be their friends.
If we don't like somebody...........we distrust them. We shun them, look for reasons to fire them.
Granted, a good personality is often "the" key element in being successful, certainly in bringing people together, like is important for a president's job but this trait is over weighted in many realms which creates unfair treatment of some over others under similar circumstances.
In many professions, personality traits are part of how you judge them. This is understandable(this gets presidents elected or rejected) but make no mistake about this. In reporting of facts in the news, the personality trait of the characters should not be a factor, let along the main factor.
This being the main factor has never been more obvious than with Trump.
I think WX has different priorities than I for POTUS. I think Biden would be a terrible choice..
I cringe every time Trump opens his mouth, but his agenda is probably the best for the US of any president in quite a few years. Certainly since Reagan.
But I think he and I both know that we will have to agree to disagree on this and it's not the main point of my response.
I think the term "political extremist", like so many others, has been bent out of shape. I'm sure that I, a constitutional conservative, would be labeled as an extremist by many... Many here as a matter of fact. But I think adhering to the basic principles of the founding documents, the formula that was the bedrock of the most successful experiment in government in the history of humanity, is kind of a baseline.
For me, political extremists are those who support racism, oppression, oppose equal opportunity and some of the most extreme, IMO support socialism.
Bidens's appeal for me has fallen off of a cliff this year based on hearing him talk and learning more about his actual positions. He went from the top of my list of dems to somebody I could never vote for.
https://thehill.com/hilltv/442351-analyst-biden-china-comments-inexplicable-absolutely-incorrect
"He’s absolutely incorrect," Chang declared, adding "you know, one can argue that China doesn’t pose for instance a robust challenge to the US, we can argue that we will prevail. But to say as the vice president said that they’re no competition to the US is just inexplicable."
Chang's comments come after Biden mocked President Donald Trump's position on China at a campaign rally last week saying “China is going to eat our lunch? Come on, man...they can’t even figure out how to deal with the fact that they have this great division between the China Sea and the mountains in the east, I mean in the west.”
Biden continued "they can’t figure out how they’re going to deal with the corruption that exists within the system. I mean, you know, they’re not bad folks, folks. But guess what, they’re not, they’re not competition for us.”
Chang also took issue with Biden's characterization of Chinese leaders saying "he also said Chinese leaders are good folks, we know those same Chinese leaders are committing crimes against humanity. Locking up 1.1, maybe 3 million Uighurs, in concentration camp-like facilities where a not insubstantial number of them are dying. I just don’t understand why he made that comment."
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/443182-cnn-resurfaces-biden-remarks-calling-for-a-border-fence
"Biden has been a fierce critic of Trump’s immigration policies." This is one issue that clearly Trump is trying to lead the way on and is being blocked by democrats, who oppose everything he does, partly because they want to just block his agenda.
He also came out this week with a position of giving free health care to illegal aliens. I understand the compassion part of it, once they are in this country but if the position is to not manage the massive influx of illegal aliens invading your country AND, then to provide them with free health care paid for by tax payers.............then there's a problem
It's an invitation for even more illegals to come here to get plenty of free goodies at our expense.
On this topic, I don't think that withdrawing foreign aid to Central American countries is going to help the situation.
We should actually BOOST foreign aid to help those poor people to do better in their home land and take away their incentives for leaving home to come here illegally by keeping them from getting in illegally. The barrier issue has been 100% settled by the law of physics(in unison with the vast majority opinions of all border security entities). ..it's the democrats and MSM with a manufatured alternate universe that apply "political" laws that don't exist to this reality that are the problemo.
I haven't seen Biden's climate plan but he is for re entering the fraudulent climate accord based on the fake climate crisis, so this was already a big negative for me.