September 22, 2016

This from Huffington Post: Dems Hijack IRS Impeachment Hearing With Skittles And Trump Taxes

While I saw this a day or so ago, I didn't read it until today. It's a good read.

WASHINGTON ― House Republican leaders managed to derail a House floor vote last week on impeaching the commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, but Donald Trump may wish they also squashed a hearing Wednesday on whether or not impeachment was a good idea.

That’s because Democrats hijacked the hearing with Commissioner John Koskinen when they got their chance to speak, and managed to skewer Trump’s refusal to release his taxes.

One Democrat, Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), elevated the exercise to A-level trolling by opening his round of questions while munching on a bag of Skittles in a reminder of Donald Trump Jr.’s recent gaffe about Syrian refugees and the likelihood that they “would kill you.”

But that was just pointed mockery.

The larger point was to turn a hearing that Democrats deemed a political stunt into a display that instead raised the serious issue of the Republican presidential nominee’s refusal to disclose his taxes.

All presidential nominees since the 1970s have released their tax returns, but Trump says he cannot unveil his because they are being audited by the IRS.

Plenty of pundits have called the excuse phony, so Democrats decided to nail it down with Koskinen.

Although the commissioner refused repeatedly to get into specific talks about Trump, Democrats got him to make the general point.

“Is there anything that would prohibit someone from releasing tax returns, if they want to, because they’re under audit?” Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) asked.

“No,” Koskinen answered.

-snip-

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/democrats-hijack-irs-impeachment-donald-trump_us_57e2a858e4b0e28b2b5170aa

September 22, 2016

Trump’s self-dealing scam to raid the U.S. Treasury

Courtesy of Daily Kos:

David Farenthold of the Washington Post on Tuesday broke a huge story about the rampant wrong-doing at the Trump Foundation. Donald Trump, Farenthold revealed, "spent more than a quarter-million dollars from his charitable foundation to settle lawsuits that involved the billionaire's for-profit businesses."

But if the Republican nominee's "self-dealing" as president of the Trump Foundation likely violated the law, the real estate magnate is trying to perpetrate a much larger scam to enrich himself at the expense of American taxpayers. And this other Trump con, a trillion-dollar shell game with the U.S. tax code, is utterly dishonest but completely legal.

Here's how the scheme works. Last week, Donald Trump unveiled the third version of his tax plan in under a year and the second in just the last six weeks. The biggest change from August was the decision to seemingly abandon his proposed 15 percent corporate tax rate for "partnerships, limited liability companies and other businesses known as pass-throughs." But as the New York Times documented on September 16, that announcement represented "Conflicting Policy From Trump: To Keep, and Remove, Tax Cut."

-snip-

But Trump's misdirection wouldn't just cost the United States Treasury an estimated $1.5 trillion over the next decade. Keeping that pass-through payday for plutocrats would also redirect millions of dollars from Uncle Sam to Donald J. Trump and family—every year.

-snip-

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/9/20/1572389/-Trump-s-self-dealing-scam-to-raid-the-U-S-Treasury

September 21, 2016

This from the Daily Beast: Team Hillary Recruits ‘West Wing’ Cast to Campaign in Ohio

On Wednesday afternoon, the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign announced that cast members from The West Wing—Aaron Sorkin’s acclaimed NBC series about a fictional Democratic administration and a beloved liberal president—will campaign for the Democratic nominee in Ohio on Saturday and Sunday.

-snip-

Martin Sheen, who portrayed President Jed Bartlet in the show, was left off the announcement, though he was included in a picture tweeted out by Clinton campaign aide Ian Sams about how the West Wing “gang is getting back together” for Hillary.

See more at:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2016/09/21/west-wing-cast-to-campaign-for-hillary-in-ohio.html?via=desktop&source=copyurl

September 21, 2016

Don't any of Trump's supporters realize just how UNSAFE he would make the world???

Lots of folks are voting Trump because he's got them running scared and he's touting this "Law and Order" bull crap. But if they stop and think for just a moment about what would happen....


-has no plan for ISIS
-piss off our allies
-make our enemies happy as can be
-increase domestic crime and violence with all of his rhetoric
-increase our security risk around the world with his tough talk and absolute "0" ability to speak coherently, let alone diplomatically

ad infinitum, ad nauseum...

September 21, 2016

From Occupy Democrats

Help air this awesome TV ad made by Informed Citizens:

bit.ly/KillerSurgeon

https://vimeo.com/181272264

September 21, 2016

This is NOT about choosing between "The Lesser of Two Evils"

I hope you don't mind my rant on this...

This meme needs to be proven false. This is about choosing a candidate who is perhaps the MOST QUALIFIED PERSON ever to run for the presidential office and a con man who is ignorant, petulant and in my humble opinion a criminal.

It seems to be all about the narrative and spinning lies until they are heard so many times that they resonate as truths.

Fear mongering seems to be working to some extent. Hillary Clinton, her surrogates, the DNC and other groups all need to slam and shame Trump for what he really is - a con man, a fraud, a racist, a cheater, a liar and a sexual predator. Hillary is calm; Trump is chaotic. Hillary is intelligent; Trump is ignorant. Hillary is prepared to be the President; Trump is petulant and predatory.

About fear - how to deal with this fear mongering? Talk about it in terms of reduced crime rate and all the positive things that have taken place during the past 8 years. We are safer - not less safe. The problem is that we hear about this stuff day in and day out and so we are believing we are less safe than ever before.

Fear plays into the enemies hands. They want us to feel fear and to restrict our liberties -- that's how they win and we lose.

September 19, 2016

Tell the F'ing Media to do their F'ing job!

I am so royally pissed off at the media for NOT doing their job. I know, I know -- it's a ratings game. All about viewership and entertaining and getting people off of social media and back to watching the TeeVee. But give me a break. All this pandering to Trump has led us to a dangerous precipice. The entire world is watching us with baited breath and takes us for a bunch of racists and ignorant citizenry.

So -- what do we the people need to do to get the media to do their job and divulge what a lying sack of sh*t Trump is? Someone once put up a bunch of twitter account information and explained how easy it was to lodge a complaint, only I didn't really get it.

Emails? Old fashioned letters to the editors? phone calls? what do we need to do to make the media understand that "We the (sane) people have had enough of this BS"? As much as I'm hoping that Trump put his only foot in his mouth enough times to make a mockery of himself (which he does daily and MSM seems not to notice), I think it's time we protest and make the media do their job. I'm ready -- I'm fired up and ready to call the media out.


Phwew -- I feel a bit better now after that rant.

September 19, 2016

Is the Hillary Campaign trying to win back OH and ensure Florida goes blue?

Or is it too late?

Are there campaign speeches planned? GOTV? Ads? Is the RNC just slamming the hell out of the airwaves to get this shift? I'm not sure I fully understand how so many swing states became so competitive in these last couple of weeks. I'm also wondering what is being done to try to turn the tide. Is Ohio a lost cause? Is Iowa a lost cause?

September 19, 2016

So - is there anything that Trump could say or do to alienate his supporters?

It seems like Trump can get away with saying whatever the hell he pleases and the more fiery his rhetoric, the more his supporters go bonkers. Perhaps this is a stupid question, but I keep wondering -- is there anything, anything, anything at all that tRump could say or do that would alienate his supporters?

The flip side of this is this -- is there anything that can come forward (and so much stuff has come forward that for any other candidate s/he's be dead int he water) that could totally cripple tRump's presidential campaign?

I'm familiar with all of the lists and websites that go into detail of all of the lies and deceit and fraud and downright terrible things tRump has done. None, none, none of it seems to matter to his supporters....so what would matter???

September 17, 2016

Alleged Russian mobster, wanted by Interpol, got VIP treatment at Trump's Miss Universe contest

It’s almost like Six Degrees of Separation: a reputed Russian mobster indicted for allegedly trying to fix the skating competition at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics is the same guy under indictment by the U.S. attorney in Manhattan for allegedly providing protection for a high-stakes illegal global gambling ring operating out of Trump Tower, and he is the same guy who turned up as a VIP on the red carpet at Donald Trump’s Miss Universe contest in Moscow in 2013.

Trump has tried for years to establish business ties with Russian companies and holding the Miss Universe contest in Moscow was part of that effort.

-snip-

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/9/15/1570446/-Alleged-Russian-mobster-wanted-by-Interpol-got-VIP-treatment-at-Trump-s-Miss-Universe-contest#view-story