The economically insecure rubes who are voting for Trump will never figure this out:
Plenty of blue-collar workers believe that, as president, Donald Trump would be ready to fight off U.S. trade adversaries and reinvigorate the country’s manufacturing industries through his commitment to the Rust Belt. What they likely don’t know is that Trump has been stiffing American steel workers on his own construction projects for years, choosing to deprive untold millions of dollars from four key electoral swing states and instead directing it to China—the country whose trade practices have helped decimate the once-powerful industrial center of the United States.
A Newsweek investigation has found that in at least two of Trump’s last three construction projects, Trump opted to purchase his steel and aluminum from Chinese manufacturers rather than United States corporations based in states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin. In other instances, he abandoned steel altogether, instead choosing the far-less-expensive option of buying concrete from various companies, including some linked to the Luchese and Genovese crime families. Trump has never been accused of engaging in any wrongdoing for his business dealings with those companies, but it’s true that the Mafia has long controlled much of the concrete industry in New York.
***When Americans like Trump purchase their steel through Ossen, they are providing financial benefits to an array of Chinese companies and even the government. For example, Ossen corporate records show Chinese banks provide all of its short-term financing in the form of loans that almost all mature after one year, and then are replaced by new loans; most Chinese banks are arms of the state, tightly controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, and provide financing to companies that are competitors to American manufacturers in other industries. (For example, the Chinese companies that manufacture suits and ties for the Donald Trump Signature Collection also obtain loans from mainland banks; Trump has said he has been forced to use the Chinese for his clothing lines because no American company makes those kinds of products anymore. That is not true—for example, all Brooks Brothers ties are made in New York, while about 85% of the company’s suits are made in Massachusetts.)
Another recent Trump building that has used metal from China is Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago, which opened in 2009. For that project, Trump obtained loans from Deutsche Bank and three hedge funds that in turn used financing from George Soros, the business magnate who is the subject of many conservative conspiracy theories and is portrayed as a threat to the Republican Party.
The building required tons of aluminum and Trump elected not to purchase the metal from Alcoa or any other similar American producer, but instead turn to a subsidiary of a Chinese aluminum manufacturer. Because American businesses have been turning to cheaper aluminum from overseas, the industry is collapsing. For example, in just the last two years, more than half of the country’s aluminum smelters in states like Ohio, West Virginia and Texas have closed as a result of being undercut on price by competition from overseas.
It’s the same long con Republicans and some Dems in WV have been running on the coal miners here fort decades. Just scream “BRING OUR COAL JOBS BACK” loud enough and no one will pay attention to what they are actually doing.
Adam L Silverman
Eichenwald and Farenthold may have to do a Pulitzer Octagon cage fight to see who wins this year.
amk
nice groin kick there.
Major Major Major Major
@Adam L Silverman: real men fight in a meadow at sunset.
Bailey
Not that this exonerates him in any way, but I was under the impression that Trump was no longer truly the developer behind new construction but was just leasing his brand name on various buildings. Is this not correct?
the Conster, la Citoyenne
These morons didn’t reason their way into their support for Trump. They’re a cult of id driven nerve endings in a hive of white resentment. They’ll twist themselves inside out to justify their own screwing by Trump, because he’s going to build a wall to keep raping Mexicans and terrorist Muslims out. Most white people are hopelessly lost.
trnc
@Bailey: He’s been attempting to use that same brand to get his slimy hands on the treasury and the big red button. I don’t give a good goddamn if his brand plants him in the fucking funhouse.
MikeBoyScout
Those rubes are my family, my neighbor, my colleagues.
Those rubes have been voting against their best interests all of my adult life.
I’ve been very angry with those rubes.
But the fact of the matter is that after more than 40 years I can no longer blame those rubes for missing the point.
I gotta blame me for not being able to effectively communicate this plain as day message to the people I see every day and whom I very deeply love; those rubes.
I only know how to do one thing.
GOTV.
Yes.We.Can.
amk
@Bailey: He is just pimping out his brand name is not a great selling point, especially given that how he lies 24×7 that they are his “properties”.
trnc
@Adam L Silverman: There’s a couple o’ guys with funny sounding names that I bet HO supporters wish had been kept in the old country. :-D
Bailey
@trnc:
Nor do I — I’m just confused by the amount of actual development and construction work that the Trump company still does. According to the PBS Frontline “The Choice” episode, it seems as thought Trump has done very little of that since the 80s/90s and instead realized there was money to be made licensing his brand name. Hence all the commercials and work on “The Apprentice” as additional money making opportunities.
schrodinger's cat
@MikeBoyScout: Don’t blame yourself, you cannot awaken someone who is pretending to be asleep. That’s what my grandma used to say.
Bailey
@amk:
Okay, but per the Eichenwald article, is he still a developer that makes the purchasing decisions or not? Or is he just leasing his name?
trnc
@MikeBoyScout:
Not your fault. Every gene pool is rife with morons. And for that sunny thought, you’re welcome.
schrodinger's cat
@srv: Is your iPhone locally sourced and artisanal, produced in small batches?
Major Major Major Major
@srv: let me guess, al gore is fat.
Ceci n'est pas mon nym
@srv: Are we undercutting American-made iPhones?
Are we claiming to buy American iPhones while buying the Chinese-made ones?
Punchy
Trump sources his raws from overseas? True mark of a genius. He thus bigly grossed more net after-tax profit EDBITA margin value for his remaining employees, all of whom are yuuugely rich and classy. Shows that he can make jobs in other countries, so that gives him that foreign policy experience so lacking in his rival. Also, he didnt want to overtax the American steel workers with his yuuuuge steel demands and have them suffer an injury, giving him valuble insight on the garbage that is Obamacare.
RaflW
Didn’t Trump Hotels use Chinese made soft goods (towels, linens, etc) in the new D.C. hotel? Admittedly, most of the US fabric mills are already long gone. But he sure does scorn China when he speaks.
PIGL
@Major Major Major Major: nonsense. With real men, it’s pistols for two and coffee for one. At dawn.
? Martin
@srv: Are you suggesting that the US is worse off due to the iPhone? Consider that prior to the iPhone the vast majority of phones were designed/made in Canada or Finland. Apple added 75,000 US jobs on the strength of the iPhone and created hundreds of thousands of other US jobs that were built on top of the iOS platform.
This is idiotic short-term and narrow thinking.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Sherrod Brown was hammering pretty hard on this. I like to think Clinton won’t need Ohio, but it would be nice, and maybe Rob Portman will get caught with a goat or something…..
Someone on TV quoted Bill Bradley (ex-Senator) who had some dealing with Trump I guess in relation to AC, Bradley said that Trump’s full time job is manipulating his tax returns.
Omnes Omnibus
@PIGL: Pistols? Rubbish. Swords.
debbie
@Bailey:
Both.
Omnes Omnibus
@Ceci n’est pas mon nym: @? Martin: It’s fucking srv.
Chris
@MikeBoyScout:
They already do more than enough “blame the liberals among us for everything that’s wrong with our lives.” No need to pile on.
PIGL
@schrodinger’s cat: your grandma was a wise woman. Just as you can’t cheat an honest man, no more can you manipulate a good person into wickedness and folly.
Tim C.
@? Martin: ya know… GOP thinking!
Steve in the ATL
@? Martin:
A rare miss for srv
? Martin
But I’ve been wondering a bit more about the post-election outcome. It’s not uncommon post-election for a fair fraction of the losing candidate to be able to fairly critique their candidates shortcomings. For example, the lack of latino support and the 47% comments after 2012.
What happens if some fraction (doesn’t need to be a ton – 20% or so) conclude that the GOP pushed some con-man on them, who was willing to take their money, pocket a lot of it, make a bunch of promises on the stump but was planning on doing the exact opposite once if office? I wonder if they’ll just throw up their hands and step out of the electoral process?
Steve in the ATL
@Omnes Omnibus: swords? Rubbish. Rocks.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Found this:
Bailey
@debbie:
I just have a hard time believing–with all the other reporting coming out–that he’d be able to obtain financing for that kind of development at this point.
Alas, I guess I don’t really care, it just seemed at odds with other reporting.
trnc
@Bailey: I hear you. I just don’t think it absolves him of anything the actual contractors might be doing. Any contract would probably stipulate that he could withdraw his name if he thought company practices were damaging his brand. But, of course, all he cares about is the quick buck.
I personally find it hilarious that the Donald Trump brand is taking a beating almost solely because of Donald Trump.
debbie
@RaflW:
Alec Baldwin pronounced it perfectly in his Trump impersonation on SNL.
cmorenc
@srv:
We’re not running for President, or even dog catcher. Trump is.
Bailey
@? Martin:
Trump not winning will mean they’ll never come to that conclusion. They’ll just conclude that the system was rigged and they were cheated.
PIGL
@Chris: @Omnes Omnibus: my source is the great Patrick O’Brian, sir. Pray, what is yours?
trnc
@Steve in the ATL: Man, that made me laugh really hard.
RaflW
@Ceci n’est pas mon nym: Maybe we’re hating on an imported troll. How do we know srv isn’t a 400lb man in a basement in some forsaken Russian outpost? srv might be stealing an American troll ‘job’.
Get the pitchforks and torches!
Omnes Omnibus
@Steve in the ATL: Fucking Neanderthal.
Omnes Omnibus
@PIGL: Sabatini. Dumas. Shakespeare.
Central Planning
@Omnes Omnibus: meh. Fisticuffs. Or Spatchcocks. (mostly just to be able to use either word)
MikeBoyScout
Thanks for the kind words, but I’m accountable and I’m responsible, and I’velearned democracy is kept and won with worn out shoes and no ability left to talk the day after an election.
Now get out there and GOTV!
Yes.We.Can
Omnes Omnibus
@Central Planning: Citations?
SiubhanDuinne, liberal mob enforcer bitch
@Omnes Omnibus:
From Gaudy Night, by Dorothy L. Sayers:
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
I always want to feel bad for people whose lives have been upended by our modern economy. I really do want to, but they make it so hard. So fucking many of them, the white ones, anyway, are so pissed off at the very people who are trying to help them, and are hell bent on kicking them in the balls, while kissing the asses of the people who are dicking them over. I can kind of understand how they don’t like the blahs or the Meckisans or the Islams or the homos. But how long do you have to get fucked by the same shitbags before it dawns on you that maybe the blahs and the Meckisans and the Islams and the homos are on the same fucking side? The people doing everything they can to help them are the same ones who are working their asses off to help you, you wretched, ignorant dumb fuckers! Let them do it, for fuck’s sake!
debbie
@BettyBowers:
“Veterans with PTSD are weak,” said Donald Trump, still emotionally fragile from his latest social media skirmish with a beauty queen.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
in other news, Pat Robertson is still alive, and rewriting Lysistrata
chopper
@RaflW:
no he doesn’t. now, “Jyna” on the other hand, he hates that fuckin’ place.
schrodinger's cat
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: ROTFLOL.
trnc
@cmorenc: More importantly, we aren’t complaining about trade deals with China while hiding profits from those same deals. We aren’t over-dramatizing how TERRRRRRIBLE things are in our country while withholding revenue needed to improve those things. We aren’t losing a billion dollars in PERSONAL income and then trying to bullshit people into thinking that he’s doing it for his employees. Really? Like the ones he regularly shafted?
But I guess if people like SRV insist on being marks, people like Deadbeat Donald will continue to take advantage.
Central Planning
@Omnes Omnibus: Since when do we need citations around here?
Mai.naem.mobile
@RaflW: I read somewhere the only American item at the new hotel were chocolates – not sure if it was the pillow chocolates or chocolates at the gift store.
trnc
@MikeBoyScout: You make a great argument. Here’s hoping that your persistence turns your loved ones around.
SiubhanDuinne, liberal mob enforcer bitch
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Ha! And this on the heels of his saying that Trump’s incessant sniffing during the debate was a sign that he was being visited by the Holy Spirit!!
gf120581
I don’t know if anyone’s mentioned this yet, but apparently Kelly Ayotte said tonight that Trump is a good role model for the children.
Someone doesn’t want to be a senator anymore.
trnc
@debbie: Oh, snap.
amk
schrodinger's cat
@Omnes Omnibus: I recommend a battle of wits.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@SiubhanDuinne, liberal mob enforcer bitch: good christ, I missed that. It almost makes me sad to think there are people who take that man seriously
Omnes Omnibus
@SiubhanDuinne, liberal mob enforcer bitch: As Valdivia would say: huge grin.
@Central Planning: Everyone else offering choice of weapon has stepped up.
Omnes Omnibus
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!
schrodinger's cat
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Apparently a hoax according to Snopes.
Mai.naem.mobile
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Trump is not that smart and he is not a good real estate developer. Trump committed the classic mistake of instead of sticking to what he knew well he went to a level that he was incapable of succeeding. He should have stuck to Queens instead of trying to do Manhattan. Similar to Katie Courier moving from the Today show to CBS nightly news.
Mike E
@Central Planning: we don’t need badges, either
Mary G
@Omnes Omnibus: That’s what most of the wives are saying.
SiubhanDuinne, liberal mob enforcer bitch
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
It’s TWUE!!
Felonius Monk
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Or more to the point, people that keep giving that fucking idiot their hard earned money. A con man and grifter who can not pass from this mortal coil fast enough.
Major Major Major Major
@Central Planning: I see you haven’t met Omnes.
gf120581
@Mai.naem.mobile: Or more recently, Matt Lauer trying to be a serious journalist and failing miserably.
burnspbesq
@amk:
One imagines that Trump’s companies pay mob-controlled concrete companies (which likely deliver substandard product) on time and in full.
? Martin
@Bailey: No, I think that’s true for a lot of his supporters, but it won’t be all of them. Trump is also campaigning on the ‘they’re ripping you off’ line, which is going to resonate with people that believe they’re getting ripped off. Those people aren’t going to suddenly turn into ACORN theorists, and we heard a number of people in the focus groups after the debate say ‘Yeah, he’s a racist pig but maybe he’ll get the government to stop ripping me off’. They see him for the racist pig that we see him as, but they’re looking for some sort of economic justice they believe is owed to them. They’re predisposed to question whether he was actually ripping them off – and they probably won’t let that cognitive wall fall until he can no longer offer them any relief. Like I said, we saw some of that after 2012.
Felonius Monk
@Mike E: I think to be grammatically correct, it is : “We don’t need no stinking badges.”
? Martin
@burnspbesq: Well, I haven’t lived in NY in a long time, but back then, it was damn near impossible to get concrete delivered in the city from a business that wasn’t mob controlled. Same for trash pickup.
Central Planning
@Omnes Omnibus: I’m pretty sure one of the early drafts of LOTR has Gandalf using a spatchcock to remove the spell that Theoden was under. However, Tolkien changed it because no one rides around the wilderness with a spatchcock. When you have one, you cook it and eat it. He went with the staff instead.
Like I said, pretty sure. Not 100% though.
sukabi
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: and THAT’S a yuuuuge win for the ladies.
burnspbesq
@srv:
Show us your Union-label, made-in-USA cell phone, shithead.
Omnes Omnibus
@Central Planning: Weirdo.
The Lodger
@Major Major Major Major: Real men duel in Weehawken, N.J.
Mike in NC
@srv: Oh go fuck yourself, moron.
Central Planning
@Major Major Major Major: Not in person.
@Omnes Omnibus: Yup.
Major Major Major Major
@The Lodger: Real men duel with puns.
Kropadope
@debbie:
I am appropriating and attributing that.
Mike E
@? Martin: shorter: the sheriff is near
Punchy
@chopper: he hates China so fuckin bad and wants them out that he’s now threatening to build a wall there, too.
burnspbesq
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
It took the Catholics and Protestants in Ulster just over 300 years.
lamh36
So…Kelly Ayotte stated sure she consider Trump a role model at the. NHSen debate
but quickly took to twitter to issue this statement to take back what she said…and this is the best she could come up with:
Neither Trumo nor HRC are role models for her kids
Really Kelly… Sure…okay??
Bill E Pilgrim
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Uh Pat, telling women that they’ll stop getting screwed by men if they vote for Hillary isn’t going to persuade many of them, sorry. It’s kind of the whole point
Steve in the ATL
@Central Planning:
Only when there are lawyers creeping around. And maybe honorary members of the bar like efgoldman and Roger Moore.
jonas
@Bailey: From what I can tell, the big Trump hotel project in Chicago in the mid-00’s was the last major hi-rise construction project Trump actually oversaw from start to finish. And he famously tried to welch on one of the major loans for that by claiming that the financial crisis fell under the contract’s “force majeur” clause. After that it’s been mostly golf resorts and sundry “branding” schemes and other outright grifts like Trump U.
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman: Good point.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@lamh36: I’m not surprised Ayotte won in 2010, I am surprised she’s doing so well this time around. I think she and Hassan (former gov?) are pretty much tied.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@Bailey:
Or they’ll conclude that Trump was not sufficiently conservative (hateful and bigoted) enough.
Sm*t Cl*de
@Omnes Omnibus:
Trebuchets.
Obligatory Goya.
Steve in the ATL
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Pat Robertson. Matt Bevin. Mike Allen.
Am I the only honorable W&L person around?
Felonius Monk
@srv: You really should stop reading the Daily Idiot News.
And while I’m thinking of it, I know everybody has to be somewhere, but could you give us a break and go somewhere else?
Bill E Pilgrim
@Omnes Omnibus:
Hmm, I’ve heard of duels using the first and third, but not the second.
Kropadope
@Steve in the ATL: W&L?
Tripod
Economically insecure? rubes? I’m thinking misogynist assholes is closer to the marks primary motivation.
Omnes Omnibus
@Sm*t Cl*de: Oooh! Artillery.
Still, cannons, howitzers, mortars, catapults, trebuchets, and the like are not appropriate for person on person disagreements. Unless the persons are 14-17th century monarchs.
Omnes Omnibus
@Bill E Pilgrim: Try Alphabet City in 1977.
Bill E Pilgrim
@Omnes Omnibus: I was thinking Staten Island or Jersey, but couldn’t quite formulate the joke.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@Bill E Pilgrim: Snopes, BTW, is saying Robertson did not say such a thing. Plenty of stupid shit he did say though.
Bill E Pilgrim
@West of the Rockies (been a while): As long as he makes a good straight man, I don’t care if it’s real or imaginary Pat Robertson.
Omnes Omnibus
@Kropadope: Washington and Lee. It is a LAC.
Steve in the ATL
@Kropadope: Washington and Lee University, though my boss didn’t get the memo that I’m supposed to be really highly paid
Bailey
@jonas:
Are his children of the corn kids start to finish developers even? I just assumed that “running the business” meant, for them, just doing the administrative work behind all of Trump’s bullshit business models.
Again, the Echenwald reporting is a win-win for Clinton either way: she can hammer him on the China purchases (even if he had nothing to do with it) or she can force him to admit that he’s not really a real estate developer any more at all and just whores his name out.
SenyorDave
@lamh36:
but quickly took to twitter to issue this statement to take back what she said…and this is the best she could come up with:
Replies to her tweet are pretty funny, she would have done better to just live with it. If she thinks Trump is a role model, her bar must be a shade low.
burnspbesq
@Steve in the ATL:
“Am I the only honorable W&L person around?”
I don’t count, because I was only there for one year.
Mike Pressler.
And Linda Klein, the President of the ABA (who I dated briefly in undergrad) is W&L Law.
SFAW
@lamh36:
Someone should ask Ayotte if she’s channeling Nathan Thurm. “I never said that!”
Unsurprising to see that Ms. Sweetness-and-Light is just as slimy as any other Rethug.
Frankensteinbeck
@West of the Rockies (been a while):
I was worried for a minute by Pat Robertson of all people recognising that women like sex and have libidos. Have you listened to him lately? His response to kids playing the game Undertale was hilarious.
Steve in the ATL
@burnspbesq: don’t know Mike but Linda is good people, even if you defiled her!
SFAW
@burnspbesq:
Isn’t she kinda young? I mean, Julius Erving (yay Long Island) is 66, and it’s unlikely that she would have been that much younger than the players …
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman: Bad link.
SFAW
@efgoldman:
There’s a big future in it.
Suzanne
Trump sucks, of course, but the thing about picking concrete over steel for some buildings due to cost is not evidence of suckage. This is a basic part of every building project, and the decision is almost always based on cost and availability, since material prices fluctuate. And I would be willing to bet that almost every building in that part of the country has some Mafia subcontractors or products. (I understand that one third of all of the windows in Manhattan are installed by Mob-tied companies, for example.) Again, Trump unquestionably is a hypocrite and a cheat and an asshole. But that specific bit of evidence is just a basic part of development.
Kropadope
@Steve in the ATL: Whose did?
burnspbesq
@SFAW:
She was two years behind me in undergrad, which would make her 57-58.
ETA: Well played, sir.
burnspbesq
@Steve in the ATL:
I wish.
Mnemosyne
In the midst of my campaign work this weekend, here’s how a mean white lady led me to give $20 to some people who really needed it:
On Sunday, I was doing my voter registration thing out in front of the 99 Cents Only store for about an hour with no problems — at one point, the security guard even asked me to go stand in a parking spot next to the door for a minute so he could move his car into it, which I did. But then a mean white lady who worked at the store came out of the door and told me I had to leave, so I did.
I called my other team members and they were at the strip mall across the street, so I started walking over there. I was starting to get pretty cotton-mouthed thirsty and went back to the 99 Cents Only store to get a cold drink, but they only had Pepsi.
So as I was trudging across the street and the parking lot to get to the rest of my team, a guy with a cooler asked me if I wanted to buy a bottle of water and I was like, Meh. And he said, “You wouldn’t think it would be so hard to sell water in the desert, but it seems like nobody wants to buy it.” He and his girlfriend were standing there trying to sell water to get the bus fare home, at least.
So I looked in my wallet, and all I had were a couple of $20 bills. I looked at the two of them and, I can’t explain it, but I just got a good vibe from them. I can usually tell when people are trying to scam me, and they genuinely seemed to want to sell me a bottle of water. So I said, “Okay, I’m going to do something a little crazy, but, here,” and I gave the guy a $20 bill.
I think I made their day, week, month, and possibly year. They gave me three bottles of water and his girlfriend insisted on hugging me.
The thing that kind of made it feel like fate was that his girlfriend said to me, “You know, I’ve been sober for a while now, but I was sitting here and getting so frustrated and thinking that I was going to leave and go get a shot, and you just stopped me from doing that. So thank you.”
So the mean white lady who made me leave the 99 Cents Only store put me in a location where I could help a couple of people out who were having a rough time. Thanks, mean white lady!
RaflW
Roger Stone, never one to be mild mannered, is completely bonkers.
My hero Julian Assange. Let that marinate for a moment.
randy khan
@Bailey:
The DC hotel is his project. I can’t speak to other ones.
Mary G
@Mnemosyne: Love that, bless you and them.
RaflW
@Mnemosyne: Wow. This is the perfect tale from the campaign trail to send me off to bed feeling like there is some sliver of hope for humanity.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I”m sure Trump will just roll with this story and we shouldn’t expect any elaborate tantrums
Donald Trump’s Business Decisions in ’80s Nearly Led Him to Ruin
my favorite part….
There was a Hayes segment debating whether or not Trump was a good businessman. It was pretty much three on one (the one being Michael Steele), but not one of them mentioned Trump’s regular reliance on his father’s money.
SFAW
@burnspbesq:
Damn, you’re almost as old a fart as I am! I thought you were younger.
Suzanne
@Mnemosyne: You are a great person. Love this.
Mnemosyne
@RaflW:
Honestly, I almost never do stuff like that. It just happened to be the perfect combination of circumstances for all of us.
SFAW
@Mnemosyne:
Wonderful story.
If Deadbeat Donnie were in your place, he would have demanded three bottles, given them 25 cents total, then mumbled something about his “fiduciary responsibility” and “so sue me.”
amk
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
when it comes to welshing, deadbeat donnie is an equal opportunity fraud and cheat.
SFAW
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
So it sounds like the family bailout is now up to at least $37 Mil. Of course, his acolytes are still into the “self-made man” bullshit.
Suzanne
@srv: God DAMN. McNegan must need a new Thermomix or some shit. No amount of Himalayan pink salt is worth that degree of whoring.
Mnemosyne
@SFAW:
I can’t claim that I was unaware that I was walking around wearing Clinton for President bling, so there was also a little consideration in my mind of who I was representing at that moment and the kind of country I was working towards by being there in the first place. Another way in which it just happened to be the right circumstances at the right time for all of us.
SFAW
@srv:
Ah, McMegan, creating straw men and moronic arguments out of thin air. Bless her heart.
SFAW
@Mnemosyne:
Buy you did it, whatever the (multiple) motivations. Can you let us give you some kudos, without feeling guilty? (I don’t actually know if you’re feeling any guilt about the possibility of multiple motivating factors — but if you are, you shouldn’t.)
Mike J
@Mnemosyne: Did you see who the guest is on this week’s Axe Files?
Aleta
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: well that will backfire
Mnemosyne
@SFAW:
I’m not really feeling guilty about being cynical and not doing it more often (okay, I’m feeling a little guilty). But it really felt like The Hand of Fate and not a consciously chosen action, except for that moment when I looked into my wallet and saw I didn’t have anything smaller than a $20. That was when I made a conscious decision to do it, and I’m glad I did.
@Mike J:
I saw, but I haven’t downloaded it yet. As I’ve said before, if I as a fan can’t keep up on all of his media appearances, I have NO idea how he finds the time to do them all!
Major Major Major Major
@Suzanne: Yeah, even for her that’s… that’s just bad. Not dumb and wrong like normal when she’s bad, just blatant shilling.
Mai.naem.mobile
@Mnemosyne: hey hey hey Random Acts of Kindness. Awesome story.
Aleta
@Mnemosyne: Stay hydrated, no matter what occurs! They will find you. No matter how long it takes, no matter how far! They will find you.
: )
Mary G
Adam, have you gone to bed? I am trying to decide if I’ll shut off the PC, but not if there’s a Bundy Bunch update.
Prescott Cactus
Union-Made Halloween Treats
We have to start somewhere. Run in conjunction with Dentists for a Larger Swimming Pool LLC.
SFAW
@Mnemosyne:
As are we all.
Miss Bianca
@SiubhanDuinne, liberal mob enforcer bitch: Funny..I had occasion to quote that very passage to another BJ-er not too long ago. One of my favorites from one of my very favorite books.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
Anyone heard speculation on what Ass(ange) may have up his rapey sleeve for HRC? I’ll be glad when this particular turd gets flushed from the bathroom of life.
Aleta
deleted (my mistake)
? Martin
@West of the Rockies (been a while): Whitey tape is finally going to drop.
Mai.naem.mobile
David Cay Johnston did a pretty good job of explaining the Donald’s tax dodge on NPR this AM. I still don’t quite understand why the Alternative Minimum Tax doesn’t kick in since he had at least $7M in interest income off some account.
Eric U.
@West of the Rockies (been a while): This whole Assange thing is pretty funny. I think the Equadorians told him he could stay at their embassy, but using the balcony to hold an audience was not going to happen. And anyway, if he had anything, it would be out. He’s just using the delay to get more publicity
Does anyone know if he has previously given speeches from the balcony?
? Martin
@Mai.naem.mobile: Generally losses offset income in these cases. You take your net operating loss and apply it to your AGI before calculating taxes – including AMT. AMT is designed to protect against other deductions serving as a tax shelter, but NOL is seen as a loss of real dollars (as opposed to an outflow of money in return for some other benefit – mortgage, etc.) Any residual NOL after the AGI has been zeroed out can then carry forward to the next year, and so on for the 15 years reported.
The real question in this is how did Trump lose $916M in real dollars? That seems almost impossible which is why everyone is suggesting that the IPO of Trump Resorts was used as a vehicle to move debt and create artificial losses for himself which would allow him to get his finances in order by eliminating his tax burden, putting some of his personal debt on investors, and using investors to transfer money back to him personally so he could pay off his debts. He’s right that he never personally declared bankruptcy, but I bet if the IRS and SEC compared notes, they’d probably find a conspiracy to defraud investors in there by passing the bankruptcies onto investors.
Major Major Major Major
@Eric U.: The Daily Fail says that he’ll be announcing something in the morning. And yes, apparently he has, there are photos.
Tripod
@Tripod:
I should add racist. Because it’s always about the other. Whether it’s trade policy or domestic policing. We don’t even import much Aluminum from China. It’s the fucking Canadiens (and a strong dollar) that are killing stateside smelters. But they are polite, white and (mostly) speak English, so American meatheads don’t regard them as the other.
Ruckus
@Frankensteinbeck:
Pat and I are not on speaking or listening terms. Me because I’m smart enough not to and him because if he listened to me utter 4 words in his direction, he knows he’d burst into flames, considering the language.
Ruckus
@SFAW:
Pffftt. He’s just a child at that age.
mike in dc
@West of the Rockies (been a while):
My guess is that it’s another piece of “evidence” that Clinton “conspired” to “fix” the outcome of the primary.
Eric U.
@? Martin: I’ve been wondering about securities fraud. Really surprised it hasn’t been investigated to death in the past.
SFAW
@Ruckus:
Well, I’m pretty childish, too.
Origuy
@Mnemosyne: Jon Carroll of the SF Chronicle used to write a column every December about the “Untied Way“. You go to the ATM and withdraw some money; not enough to really hurt, but enough to feel it. Then go to where people are likely to ask you for money. Wnen they do, give them a $20 from the stash. They might have a really good meal; they might be able to get a bed for the night; they might just buy liquor. Not your problem, it’s untied.
SFAW
@mike in dc:
Seems unlikely, He knows that ship has sailed.
Ruckus
@SFAW:
That’s good, we make the best adults.
Major Major Major Major
@SFAW: Maybe that’s why he’s kind of trying to meh out of it by claiming some BS about a drone strike.
Dmbeaster
@srv:
Well, we know you could care less about lying to people losing their jobs as they are shipped overseas. Anything is fair game for Trump lovers.
Another Scott
@Mnemosyne: Thanks for doing that and sharing the story!
Cheers,
Scott.
Mary G
Politico has a story up about how much KellyAnne is raking in from other gigs besides Trump this election.
Dmbeaster
@srv:
Just the usual GOP nihilism. Move along.
Just like the GOP 911 let’s sue the Saudis! legislation, which after passed over Obama’s veto, they complained about its unintended consequences and blamed Obama.
So more GOP stupid venality is just another day.
Bruce Webb
@schrodinger’s cat: ” I recommend a battle of wits.”
NEVER engage in a battle of wits with a half-armed man!
amk
The idiot racist troll is increasingly panic posting. The internal polls must really suck.
Major Major Major Major
@amk: Which one’s that?
amk
amk
And fool more rubes.
Mike E
@amk: with everybody insisting on feeding srv, the poor wretch will eventually weigh 400 lbs and Trump will be proven right about…something
laura
@Origuy: I miss Jon Carroll so much, and follow the untied way every year – thank you for the remembery!
In 2007 we took all our holiday and vacation money to NOLA and did our best to give it away to the working stiffs and wish they were working stiffs.
Best non-Christmas ever.
Uncle Cosmo
@srv: Fuck off & die, shitstain. (You don’t even deserve italics or bolding anymore.)
artem1s
I hope the media people in Clinton’s campaign are paying attention to this. this one thing could tip Ohio and Pennsylvania and solidify Michigan and Wisconsin. game over. Sherrod Brown and Ted Strickland should be shouting this from the floor of every factory in Cleveland and Youngstown.