Trump Putin connections

Manchurian Candidate?

If journalism was still the Fourth Estate, this story would dominate the news cycle until The Donald specifically addressed his financial connections with Russia. This guy hasn’t even released his tax records.

nittany ram wrote:

Dak wrote:

If journalism was still the Fourth Estate, this story would dominate the news cycle until The Donald specifically addressed his financial connections with Russia. This guy hasn’t even released his tax records.

George Will thinks Trump won’t release his records because they will show financial ties with Russia. Others speculate that Trump is hiding tax fraud. If his records are released, independent tax experts will go over the taxes even more rigorously than the IRS. Stuff the IRS has been missing could come to light and lead to criminal charges. Of course, all this is speculation, but Trump’s excuse of not wanting to release the records during an audit makes no sense. The audit is irrelevant to the release. Other candidates have released their records during audits.

All of that is true. Trump has thousands of lawsuits against him right now, most of them dealing with business fraud, cheating his partners, clients and students. He’s also lied repeatedly about his supposed charitable giving, which he likely claims on his taxes but doesn’t actually exist. The WaPo did an extensive investigation and couldn’t find any evidence that he gave any money to charity.

And another reason for him to hide them: He’s likely not a billionaire, much less a billionaire several times over. He’s been faking it until he makes it for decades, and New Yorkers have long known this. No one in the know sees him as some great titan of business. They see him as a huckster, con-man and used-car salesman. He inherited something like 40 million from daddy, but has managed to bankrupt his companies six times that we know about.

He’s afraid the tax returns will show him for the complete fraud and huckster he’s always been.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 4 months ago by Billy_T.

wv wrote:

nittany ram wrote:

George Will thinks Trump won’t release his records because they will show financial ties with Russia. Others speculate that Trump is hiding tax fraud.

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Honore de Balzac (1799-1850): “Behind every great fortune is a crime.”

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Me: that’s a metaphor Mr. Balzac. Not an applicable excuse in this case.

…

Well, my own interpretation of Balzac-Ram’s comment is different.
I dont think he was ‘excusing’ anything — i think he was ‘accusing’.

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v

We agree, WV.

j’accuse, etc. Which, of course, was in a different context, and Zola, not Balzac. But, anyway . . . .

It’s one of the big reasons why right-libertarians drive me crazy with their trumpeting about “property rights” above all others. It’s pretty much mathematically impossible to accrue a fortune without screwing over one’s workers, and then you get the long trail back in time of exploitation and theft to even get to that point.

They really think capitalists start out as “innocent” and remain that way.

Yes and I don’t think it applies.

Using that quotation in this context amounts to saying that yeah Trump has done bad shit but what rich people haven’t.

No, he’s worse.

His worseness, IMO, cannot be excused or written off or diminished or rationalized or downplayed.

To me people doing that come in 2 types. (1) Trump advocates, and (2) people who don’t realize yet HOW bad he is.

Again, ZN, it’s not just that Trump is odious. His party is too. It’s a package deal, with Pence likely being the actual president behind the scenes.

Just like with Ron Paul . . . if there were some things Trump would do better than Clinton, I’m guessing his own party would make sure they never saw the light of day. Even if Trump is telling the truth about things like NAFTA and wars — and I don’t believe him for a second on that — his own party wouldn’t pass it. A majority would likely vote against it, and a good portion of the Dems as well. So we’d basically be left with nothing but “Bad Trump,” and “Good Trump” would be blocked — if such a thing actually exists, and I don’t think it does. In fact, I’m about at the 99% range of being certain it doesn’t exist.

zn wrote:

His worseness, IMO, cannot be excused or written off or diminished or rationalized or downplayed.

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Well again, i don’t see that quote as “excusing” or “diminishing”
or “rationalizing” or “downplaying.” I see it as accusing.

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