Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I desperately hope that, yet again, I am wrong.

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” is supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

I conferred with the team and they all agree – still not tired of winning!

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

We won’t go back.

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

Nothing worth doing is easy.

…and a burning sense of injustice to juice the soul.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

No one could have predicted…

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / No money, mo’ problems

No money, mo’ problems

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As many of you know, I’m fueled creatively by my massive hatred of the Washington Post editorial board. I hate Jeff Bezos too, not just because he’s reinvented the sweatshop but also because I hate smug bald people in general — Moby, Matt Bai, the Rock.

That said, the Washington Post newsroom is absolutely killing it with its coverage of Trump. David Farenthold should get a Pulitzer:

The Donald J. Trump Foundation is not like other charities. An investigation of the foundation — including examinations of 17 years of tax filings and interviews with more than 200 individuals or groups listed as donors or beneficiaries — found that it collects and spends money in a very unusual manner.

For one thing, nearly all of its money comes from people other than Trump. In tax records, the last gift from Trump was in 2008. Since then, all of the donations have been other people’s money — an arrangement that experts say is almost unheard of for a family foundation.

Trump then takes that money and generally does with it as he pleases. In many cases, he passes it on to other charities, which often are under the impression that it is Trump’s own money.

Reader Interactions

113Comments

  3. 3.

    Hunter Gathers

    Unlike what Trump’s BFF would do, Farenthold will only face a lifetime sentence in a classy Trump Supermax prison for having the temerity to question the motives of Our Glorious Leader.

  11. 11.

    JPL

    In case you are wondering where Tebow’s helmet or the painting is I have it on good authority that Master Barron’s room is decorated with the gems. btw leave the children out of it.

  14. 14.

    SiubhanDuinne

    That said, the Washington Post newsroom is absolutely killing it with its coverage of Trup. David Farenthold should get a Pulitzer:

    Fahrenthold has been amazing in his doggedness and the clarity and thoroughness of his reporting. Agree about the Pulitzer, and any other investigative journalism awards out there.

    If you haven’t read his full article, do so. And stay tuned: I’m sure there’s more to come.

  15. 15.

    lollipopguild

    Trump is a sleaze/crook. EVeryTHing he does is crooked or marginally legal. No tellin whats in his tax returns. He is incapable of being honest and changes what he says every 5 minutes. He has attracted low life cockroaches/rats from every sewer and garbage dump in the country. And it does not matter to 40-45% of people in this country. He needs to be the albatross around the GOP and reich wing media’s collective necks.

  19. 19.

    BR

    Please everyone — sign up to volunteer for the campaign. We’re down to one month before early voting starts. If you haven’t signed up because you don’t have time, please reconsider doing even one volunteer event. We have a new baby at home and decided this is too important and are squeezing some time out to do it. And we weren’t Clinton supporters in the primary.

  21. 21.

    opiejeanne

    @SiubhanDuinne: I’ve been following Fahrenthold tweets about this story for several days, and read this article this afternoon.

    He’s found 5 charities so far that, according to Trump’s filing with the IRS, received a total of $51,000; they have told him that they received not one nickel. As Bloody Mary in South Pacific said, “Stingy bastard!”

    I also have to question why the Palm Beach organization would spend that kind of dough for a room to hold a party.

  27. 27.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @opiejeanne:

    I know. The hinkiness unveiled just seems to beget more hinkiness. If Fahrenthold or anyone else can even begin to rip the veil off some of these scam artists, I’ll consider all the angst of this campaign well spent.

  28. 28.

    gogol's wife

    @BR:

    No, I’m terrible at it. I tried in 2008 and realized I was counter-productive. So I just throw cash at them.

  30. 30.

    Suzanne

    @SiubhanDuinne: I used up my monthly allotment of WAPO articles on Labor Day, because I’ve been loving watching them hate on Trump. Have also been loving how Carreyrou of the WSJ eviscerated Theranos.

    @Omnes Omnibus: Agreed that Beck is annoying. Maybe it’s the Scientology.

  31. 31.

    Brachiator

    Sounds like some good WaPo stuff about Trump. I will start looking at more of this. They still allow some free stories each month, right?

    Unfortunately, he has been around so long as a popular reality tv celebrity and now politician, that people including his supporters will shrug off negative reports, even if what is uncovered relates to how Trump might govern as president.

  32. 32.

    Suzanne

    @BR: I volunteer and I gave $15 today. We are tight money-wise right now but we have already gone out canvassing multiple times.

  33. 33.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I have never forgiven, and will never forgive, the Republicans for what they did to Max Cleland in 2002. In the course of my job I had the honor to meet him several times when he was Georgia’s Secretary of State and later U.S. Senator. He is a good and decent man who made a huge sacrifice, and it is just sickening the way he was treated.

  34. 34.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Suzanne: It’s the preening and smugness. I liked his first and second albums. Then I saw him in concert and just could.not.even….

  38. 38.

    cokane

    An important and necessary reminder that newsgathering and opinion-editorial often have basically nothing to do with each other within a traditional news outlet like WaPo

  40. 40.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    @Suzanne: “Private Browsing” (Firefox) / “Incognito Window” (Chrome) is your friend. It lets you get around monthly limits at most places.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  41. 41.

    Brachiator

    @gogol’s wife:

    I think “basket of deplorables” is going to be a good catchphrase for us.

    NPR has clutched the hell out of its pearls and scolded Hillary for making Republican voters feel bad.

    .
    Memo to candidates: Stop generalizing and psychoanalyzing your opponents’ supporters. It never works out well for you.

    The latest to fall into that trap is Hillary Clinton. The Democratic nominee, at a New York fundraiser Friday night with liberal donors and Barbra Streisand, said “half” of Trump supporters fit into a “basket of deplorables,” while the other half are people who feel the government has let them down and need understanding and empathy.

    The comments have rocketed around the Internet, infuriated conservatives and threaten to once again throw salt in the wound of the American cultural divide..

    The truth of the comments don’t matter, or the issue of Trump dredging the political sewers for some of his bigot aides and advisors. Hillary must be chastised for her lack of political decorum.

  42. 42.

    opiejeanne

    @BR:Thank you for your time and support.
    I’ve put in some time and gave them some money. The phone bank work was fun most of the time, but I have something wrong with my right hip, arthritis or bursitis, so by the time the second hour ended I was miserable, and at the end of the 3rd hour I was done forever. PT next week. I got good results with my phone calling until about 3:30 when suddenly no one was home or in their offices. Heading home, picking up kids from afternoon activities, shopping for something for supper, etc.
    So I gave them some more money and I’ve been very gently advocating when I meet people who don’t know who to vote for. The last one was a young guy working in a Big Bear restaurant who was a little wild-eyed because one of the RW ninnies who frequent the mountain area in SoCal had told him that UN troops were already staging somewhere in the US, and that the election was going to be called off. He was a nice guy, not well-informed, so we informed him. He is half AfAm half white (he volunteered that) and has had racist comments aimed at him, and did know that Trump is a terrible racist. Beyond that he was clueless.

  45. 45.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @Suzanne:

    Open a “private” or “incognito” window in your browser and go to town. It resets the article counter (every time you do it).

  47. 47.

    pseudonymous in nc

    The Foundation is the template for the campaign and probably the template for all of TrumpOrg’s business. Take other people’s money, spend it on your own shit, take all the credit, sue anyone who complains. It’s grift all the way down.

  48. 48.

    redshirt

    I just donated to Hillary for the first time and I feel dirty and used. I absolutely hate the web experience I just went through at her website.

    Wanted to make a donation so I did, which led me into a series of inescapable pop ups that make you choose your monthly donation level and not one way to exit. I’m not certain right now they aren’t going to start billing me whatever they think next month even though I didn’t check anything. I closed the browser tab. I’m pissed at this design and won’t donate again and will indeed be upset if I get auto deducted next month.

  49. 49.

    opiejeanne

    @SiubhanDuinne: It’s just stunning: the campaign, lack of intelligent planning, name-calling, quoting self-avowed racists/bigots, attacking women/POC/LGBTQ, lying, changing his statements and claiming he never changed a thing… the list goes on and on and on.

    Why is he considered a serious candidate?

  50. 50.

    Ken

    @opiejeanne:

    He’s found 5 charities so far that, according to Trump’s filing with the IRS, received a total of $51,000; they have told him that they received not one nickel.

    Lying to the IRS? That’s what they got Capone for.

  51. 51.

    Lizzy L

    @redshirt: There IS a way to exit, because I found it. I just don’t remember what it was. I remember getting pissed, thinking I was going to be forced to donate monthly even if I didn’t want to — and then I did X, whatever it was, and my one time donation was accepted.

    But I agree, it’s a lousy design. Complain. There’s gotta be a way to complain.

  58. 58.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @opiejeanne:

    All of that — ANY of that — is why I continue to believe that he really at some deep level doesn’t want to be elected President and is doing his best, perhaps (probably) unconsciously, to sabotage his own campaign. It is stunning that the GOP and the media keep giving passes on these.

  60. 60.

    Tripod

    That the GOP establishment is lining up a “stolen” narrative for the dip shits is… ah… politically craven.

  62. 62.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I’ll tell you what really burned. When I retired three years ago, the person they hired to replace me was a guy who had been on Saxby Chambliss’ staff (GA office, not DC). First thing he did was put up a huge poster on his office wall of a little kid giving a faux-military salute to Saint Ronaldus. And yet a few years earlier I had been reprimanded for displaying the (obviously much smaller) official Christmas card from Barack and Michelle in the same office. Grrrr.

  75. 75.

    enplaned

    Hillary should not have apologized for the deplorables remark. She should have said “oh, so your issue is whether it’s a half or a third or a quarter? Would that make it so much better? Reality is Trump has based his campaign on hate and a lot of haters have crawled out from under the rocks. Trump has mainstreamed hate. Feel free to obsess about how many people this describes, but the reality is that they’re out and proud in a way that they never were before, and that’s the fault of Donald J. Trump.”

    Hillary needs to take control of some of the messaging, and the wrong thing to do is apologize.

  77. 77.

    hellslittlestangel

    I’ll bet Trump’s favorite charity is the Human Fund.

    No wonder he won’t release his tax returns. But if he were honest about his reasons, he would just plead the 5th.

  79. 79.

    Patricia Kayden

    @redshirt: Is there a contact phone# so you can make sure that you don’t get charged monthly? Too bad you had such a negative experience. Thankfully, didnt have any problems donating to President Obama in 2012.

  81. 81.

    normal liberal

    @Lizzy L:
    It may be that because I got to the donation page from an email, but I reached a screen where you could decline the monthly option – either a default checkbox or a no thanks option, I can’t recall. Once it confirms the one-time donation you can just go back to your browser default.
    This is not bad design, btw, it’s intended to steer you to the repeat options -it just works a bit too well. I wish they wouldn’t do it, but it’s pretty standard.

  82. 82.

    Patricia Kayden

    @enplaned: In her apology, she details Trump’s bigotry very clearly. It’s more of a “sorry if you felt offended” apology and gets her point across that Trump is a bigot. Not bad imho.

  83. 83.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @enplaned: She didn’t apologize. She said sorry for saying half, but… and then dropped the hammer on all the “deplorables.” Basically she said it all again.

  87. 87.

    Tazj

    @Brachiator: I guess they think that if she just ignored the racism, sexism and Islamaphobia it would just all go away. The author praises her recent speech on the alt-right as an example the nuanced way she should have handled these issues. I don’t remember that speech being described that way at the time, I remember people saying she was exaggerating the alt-right’s influence.

    There are so many things that bug the hell out of me about all this and this author’s piece. The right’s rhetoric has just increasingly gotten worse. It began when Obama took office. You can’t escape it. I see it everyday on lawn signs and bumper stickers, and confederate flags flying out of pick-up trucks. They all feel fine to broadcast their hateful beliefs and I believe the media has enabled them.

    However, I would never put a yard sign up for Hillary in my yard or put a bumper sticker on my car. I mean it’s not some incredible burden on me that I can’t but still I wouldn’t risk it.

  89. 89.

    normal liberal

    @efgoldman:
    Which is why the website gives you an option to decline a continuing contribution. They aren’t required to put it in 96 pt type. In fact, on the screen where you confirm your choice, it’s set in the same font and size as everything else.
    I’ve made at least eight contributions on the website during and following the primaries, and have yet to run afoul of a forced repeating donation. I got a bit annoyed with the constant emails asking for more, but hilariously they moved me to a list where I get invited to kilobucks-per-plate fundraisers.

  90. 90.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Major Major Major Major: She intentionally called out the GOP bigots. It was a campaign choice; I doubt this year’s Clinton campaign does shit without gaming it out. Yesterday’s language was calculated and today’s was the calculated response to the asshole and GOP (but I repeat myself) reaction. My guess is that they have internal polling that supports this gambit.

  92. 92.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Omnes Omnibus: @Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant): I’ve been operating on the assumption that she sort of misspoke. It’s obvious enough what she meant and her clarification does a good job redirecting to that. So I think what she did is right, she just apologized for what she said straightaway and now we’re talking about what she meant. Rather than not apologizing and then we’d still be talking about what she said.

  94. 94.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @opiejeanne:

    Why is he considered a serious candidate?

    Because A) somewhere around half the white people in this country love what he’s saying, and will not listen to any explanation of why he is not serious. And B) While it may or may not be true, people believe that when the media takes someone seriously, the rest of the country must be doing so as well. In the media’s case, the Republican Party must never, ever, under any circumstances, be revealed as basically racist. That is a thing they cannot accept, a question they refuse to even ask. We have seen all of the gyrations possible in that denial over the course of this campaign.

  96. 96.

    Aleta

    @redshirt: It is horrible, all the way around, the manipulative vibe on the websites. And good for you for donating anyway. First real donations for me were with the Obama campaigns. Doing that has so much increased the phone calls; and I hate almost every time the phone rings to begin with. And I never even got my 2008 mug !!! Still, our house is giving coin to HRC every so often, (Never over the phone though.) The most recent call even told me what they had calculated I might pay now so we could try to win the House. I said no, I couldn’t pay that. But I can bear it; I just want the Rs out like a burnt out bulb; and HRC in; and I can bear it. So, good for you, braveheart. : )

  98. 98.

    Aleta

    @redshirt: I thin closing the browser is the way to go, I’ve done that myself in that kind of situation. I doubt very much you’ll get billed a nickel more. If it happens, one call and they’ll have to take it off.

  101. 101.

    patrick II

    Political organizations that are 501 c 3 organizations are often political, Karl Rove’s “Crossroads” pac for one. Donors do not need to be named and taxes can be deducted. So, I wonder what percentage of the Trump foundation’s contributions went to real charities, and how many to “charities” that helped Donald Trump influence politicians.

  103. 103.

    Aleta

    @redshirt: I’m sure of it, that just exiting in the middle of the maze works perfectly well. It’s so much worse when one still cares, and believes that websites should not take advantage and not take up your time either. I hate so much about the permanent political industry. Still, don’t let the undertow take you down. Float.

  107. 107.

    sukabi

    @Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant): saw that one the other day…her ad strategy so far has been to let drumpf shit all over himself, which he can’t seem to stop doing…

    Funny thing about it, drumpf can’t really claim she’s going negative, as he’s doing all the talking — in clips that have been played from his beautiful, yuuge rallies using his best words.

  108. 108.

    sukabi

    @Tazj: it started in earnest in early 2000…I had been without cable for a couple of years and got “reconnected” prior to the (s)election…it was shocking to say the least the vile crap that was being “mainstreamed” by the likes of Hannity, O’Reilly and most of the yappers on what would have otherwise been a pretty boring olds yap fest… it was aimed mostly at evil liberals at the tiMe, but differing political view points was turned into othering then. Obama being elected turned the already mostly deranged into fully deranged, and now drumpf has given permission to the deranged to take action.

  109. 109.

    shomi

    OMGzzz Doug, tacky lyrics, J notices that WaPo has been committing random acts of journalism lately. So instead of fixating on NYT and their both sides do it journalism like a lot of other wankers around here, he actually notices that there are other news outlets in America. Seems rather far fetched but could DougJ actually, for once, have a clue?

  111. 111.

    Ramalama

    Also – wasn’t the WAPO banned from covering Trump live and up close? And so this is what they’re doing in response…. reporting (and kicking ass)?

    Does this not show us all that ‘access’ does not = coverage, something that news people covering the W Bush administration used as a crutch for their lousy reporting?

  112. 112.

    Blueskies

    @enplaned:

    Hillary needs to take control of some of the messaging, and the wrong thing to do is apologize.

    I so very much agree with this. Once she’s said it, there is not one damned advantage to apologizing on any level. This just drives me crazy. So basic.

  113. 113.

    Elie

    @Major Major Major Major:

    I disagree. She should double down as others have recommended. Its the damned truth and that is that. She aint gonna win one of those people or their sympathizers. Trump has been trying to appeal to whites who are scared off by racist rhetoric. Time to nip that in the bud as well. No more lies. If you vote for this guy, you ARE voting for a racist. If that doesn’t bother you, YOU are a racist. You are on the wrong side of history and the revolution has passed you. You can join America in the modern age or stay home and pout, but you won’t get to run things as racists and nationalists. Its over. THAT is/should be her implicit message IMHO.

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