Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

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

Not rolling over. fuck you, make me.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Shut up, hissy kitty!

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

In my day, never was longer.

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

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

Donald Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!

Disappointing to see gov. newsom with his finger to the wind.

Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!

This country desperately needs a functioning fourth estate.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

I’m starting to think Jesus may have made a mistake saving people with no questions asked.

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

The real work of an opposition party is to hold the people in power accountable.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Fake President (Open Thread)

Fake President (Open Thread)

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Those of you who speculated that Trump concealed his taxes because he’s broke, step up and collect your prize, which is a schadenfreude buffet. The Times:

Donald J. Trump paid $750 in federal income taxes the year he won the presidency. In his first year in the White House, he paid another $750.

Also, he wrote off $70K in taxes for hair styling. He wrote off more than $700K in “consulting fees” that suspiciously matched an amount collected by a Ivanka-owned consulting company. I am not a lawyer, but that sounds legally dubious. It may be perfectly legal since our tax code seems designed to allow rich people to perpetuate outrageous scams.

Anyhoo, I’ve long since stopped waiting for any revelation about Trump, no matter how repulsive or ridiculous or outrageous, to make the bottom fall out of his base of support. If 200K-plus dead Americans on his watch — with recorded evidence that he lied to us about the danger — won’t budge the needle, nothing will. Somewhere around 40% of our fellow citizens are dumb and/or malevolent chumps, and they’ll never admit they’ve been conned. Still, being exposed as a fraud has got to be a personal hell for a narcissist like Trump.

Sham

The thing to remember about narcissists is that for all their bluster and self-aggrandizement, they’re pathologically insecure, with no sense of self except what is reflected back at them by other people. Everything they do is about collecting praise and avoiding shame to protect their fragile egos.

So, no matter how furiously and desperately Trump denounces the NYT revelations as “fake news,” a headline like this inflicts a narcissistic injury. Good. I hope Joe Biden finds a way to pour salt into the wound tomorrow night. Open thread.

Reader Interactions

155Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    Hillary called it four years ago. We’re paying the price because people didn’t want to listen to a woman.

  2. 2.

    David C

    I think his base will stick with him, but this will prevent him from making inroads on those on the fence. One revelation after another has him on the defense. And we can’t forget that he’s pushing for the Supreme Court seat would he can get rid of health care for millions.

  3. 3.

    NotMax

    FYI.

    The man credited with the creation of a famous Hawaii cocktail celebrated a landmark birthday this weekend.

    Saturday marked Harold Yee’s 102nd birthday.
    [snip]
    Usually, the hotel puts on a special celebration for Yee on his birthday, but the coronavirus pandemic led to a different, scaled back birthday celebration at home. Source

  5. 5.

    Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman)

    Last night on Anderson Cooper, Michael Cohen described Trump perfectly.

    It’s not an exact quote since I’m going from memory, but his meaning was clear:

    “Trump’s sense of self-worth is based on his inflated net worth, so the more this (the tax issue) unravels, the more he’ll unravel”.

  7. 7.

    Kay

    The first thing Biden should do is put a team on the Trump campaign finances. These people did not collect hundreds of millions of dollars in campaign funds and spend it pursuant to rules. That didn’t happen. The campaign finance reports are as fictitious as the tax returns.

  11. 11.

    OzarkHillbilly

    I am shocked, shocked I tell you, to learn that I pay more in taxes every year than this welfare cheat has in the past dozen combined. I had thought it would be in his entire life.

  12. 12.

    What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?

    Sasquatch. The Jackalope. The Headless Horseman. Paul Bunyan and his blue ox Babe. Donald J. Trump, Successful Businessman…I mention but a few of the many mythical creatures of American legend.

  14. 14.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: Yep.

    Brad Parscale was hospitalized after threatening to attempt suicide yesterday. He’s a horrible person, but I hope he gets the help he needs. This makes me an awful person, but I can’t help but wonder why Parscale is unraveling now. I don’t think it’s necessarily exile from the warmth of Trump’s regard. Maybe several millipedes’ worth of shoes are about to drop on the campaign front.

  17. 17.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    There is just no way the Trumps processed all those funds and didn’t steal some. I like campaign finance as a way to round up the crooks because there’s no questions about discretion or judgment calls- it’s rule-bound. They could have killed 200k people because they’re incredibly incompetent. Stealing 100 million dollars in campaign funds is easier to prove.

  18. 18.

    Betty Cracker

  19. 19.

    MJS

    @Betty Cracker: Yes, I suggest all sympathy for Mr. Parscale be held until we find out if his hospitalization is due to genuine need, or he’s attempting to evade the consequences for criminal activity.

  20. 20.

    Geminid

    I think Betty is right that the tax story hits trump where it hurts. And with his campaign running short on cash, his physical deterioration, the growing prospect of him being a Loser Nov. 3, trump’s evident psychological disintegration may accelerate.    At this point I see very few trump supporters switching to to Biden. But more supporters may quietly shift from “likely voters” for trump to unlikely, and stay home.          Trump’s 2016 vote total was second lowest of 10 major party candidates 2000-2016, not far ahead of McCain 2008. I hope that this year he sets a record for low votes that stands for the rest of this century.

  24. 24.

    John S.

    It will be interesting to see if “but his taxes” becomes the “but her emails” of 2020, or if the media finds some way to artificially “balance” their coverage.

  26. 26.

    lowtechcyclist

    Mornin’, Betty!  You’re up early today!

    Josh Marshall makes the point that we really need to know who the people/nations/entities are that have our President by the balls.  If it’s just Deutsche Bank, that’s not too bad, but we need to know.

    The Dems need to demand the answer to this question, accompanied by the threat of impeachment if he doesn’t either comply or resign within the week.  This is serious shit.  A superpower simply can’t have its head honcho deeply in hock to unknown entities.

    Which reminds me, when Trump took office, the Kushner family owed way more on 666 Fifth Avenue than it was worth.  That magically got resolved sometime early in Trump’s presidency.  Did the House ever investigate that deal?

  31. 31.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

    100 million?

    You aim low, Kay.

    Saw a tweet yesterday.

    They also need to investigate the company who got the contract for the border wall. $2 billion and they haven’t built shyt?

  32. 32.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Kay:

    There is just no way the Trumps processed all those funds and didn’t steal some. 

    How dare you imply this Soviet shitpile money-laundering mobster crime family aren’t on the up and up.

  33. 33.

    MomSense

    Anyone check the list of non extradition treaty countries lately?  I wonder which one he’ll pick.  Ir won’t be Russia or Belarus because it would be too easy for putin to get him there. There’s always Saudi Arabia but MBS probably doesn’t like loose ends, either. UAE and Qatar are expensive places to live and trump is broke. China, Mongolia, doubtful.

  36. 36.

    John S.

    @rikyrah: Yes, and I hope others follow suit. Any attempt to make baggage for Biden when Trump has an entire luggage store should be greeted with scorn and derision.

  40. 40.

    Betty Cracker

    @lowtechcyclist: Great point — The Times’ story indicates that Trump is personally on the hook for hundreds of millions of debt that comes due in a second term, should this country be stupid and evil enough to reelect him. We need to know who the creditors are as a matter of national security.

  41. 41.

    CarolDuhart2

    I always thought he was living on credit and cash flow.  What other billionaire wastes money with something like the “Apprentice”? Or Trump steaks, et al? Or needs to spend time at his golf courses and charges the Secret Service for this?  I would have thought that Trump would just put his money in a trust or something and just held off for the better branding you get being a successful ex-president when he could just regale members with all of the stories about being President.  Or Political Apprentice, when he could audition aspiring candidates.  The tell was when he didn’t do that.

  42. 42.

    Danielx

    @rikyrah:

    Big pile of cheese, and rats have to eat too.

    And yes, writing a check to the IRS for more than he paid on top of payroll tax withholding…pisses me off something fierce. What pisses me off even more is that the methods he used are kinda-sorta legal if I read correctly.

  44. 44.

    sanjeevs

    The NYT story might not cause much erosion in his base.

    it will cause those officials at DoJ, HHS and elsewhere to think carefully before breaking laws on Trump’s behalf though.

  49. 49.

    debbie

    @Baud:

    Hillary called it four years ago. We’re paying the price because people didn’t want to listen to a woman.

    New Yorkers called it four decades ago.

  55. 55.

    Kay

    @rikyrah:

    $2 billion and they haven’t built shyt?

    The United States can sue on the contract. I hope Biden pursues the public funds the Trumps and their cronies robbed. It doesn’t have to go near the Supreme Court and we won’t need to deal with any lofty separation of powers issues or judgment calls by the President and his team. Just go after the money. I want it back.. The contractor will make himself uncollectible but we can bankrupt him.
    They’re small people. Petty people. Common crooks. The way to get them is to approach prosecutions like that. There’s no “ideological alliance” with Russia. Trump is up to his ears in debt and he operates US foreign policy based upon his personal interest. The money is the beginning the middle and end of this story. Aim low. That’s where they operate- the bottom rung. Sue and sue and sue. Every crony contract and fraudulent transaction. Every theft.

  57. 57.

    Princess

    I don’t think he’s actually broke. I think he has ben receiving kickbacks up the wazoo from Saudi Arabia and the Emirates, Turkey, India etc. etc. But it’s all offshore and hidden and it may be harder to access now.

  60. 60.

    Kathleen

    @John S.: I’ll try. Maggie Haberman tweet: “Trump tax returns could cause Biden campaign to overreach.” Or “Could Be A Problem For Biden.”

  62. 62.

    Princess

    @Betty Cracker: My guess is Parscale is also swimming in debt and now he’s not earning what he was, his creditors are circling.

     

    And what happened to him is a great example of how guns in the home are most dangerous to their owners and families.

  64. 64.

    Immanentize

    Mark it.  Trump’s supporters will just say paying no or very low taxes proves what an excellent and great business man he is.  Paying no taxes (but getting big benefits) is every Trumpatriot’s dream.

  68. 68.

    danielx

    @MomSense:

    The Google machine popped up a lengthy list but most of the countries on it are not places where It would care to live. I suppose Serbia is a possibility.

    However, anywhere in the former Soviet bloc would be pretty easy for Putin’s minions to penetrate and I don’t imagine Trump will be in a position to hire top shelf personal security.

  73. 73.

    Kay

    Steve Vladeck
    @steve_vladeck
    ·13h
    To me, the most alarming tidbit in the
    @nytimes
    ‘ story isn’t the $750 bill or the dubious refund; it’s that a President running for re-election would be on the hook for upwards of $421 million in loans during his second term. It’s not hard to imagine the incentives that’d create.

    That’s what I don’t understand. This is obviously a national security issue. You’re really telling me that with our vast and wildly expensive national security apparatus no one could demand the President turn over financials to safeguard national security? We just had to roll the dice until one of the thousands of people the Trumps have robbed released the information?
    All you have to do is stonewall and it’s “that’s okay- we’ll wait to find out if you personally are an imminent threat to national security”. Glad to see our defenses are so strong! Wow.

  75. 75.

    Sloane Ranger

    Doesn’t he get a salary for being President (allegedly)? I would have thought the tax on that alone would have been higher than $750.

    Or is that the reason he donates the money to charity (allegedly), so he can claim it as a tax deduction?

  77. 77.

    Kathleen

    @Baud: Boom! Cue flurry of NYT reporters scurrying to diners in rural Ohio who wax rhapsodic about Trump’s business acumen.

  83. 83.

    Immanentize

    @debbie: I feel like I’m pretty caught up about 320 days in.  Then I get a month off, then, back to atoning for the year I spent all that time atoning in for the prior year!  Exhausting!

  87. 87.

    Geminid

     

     

    @debbie: Deutsche Bank AG is chartered by and regulated by the German government, so I think that ultimately Angela Merkel and her Finance Minister are the ones who have the bank by the balls. And almost every week the bank’s criminality is exposed, lately by an international consortium of investigative journalists who laid out documents showing massive money laundering by Deutsche Bank. Will the German government drop the hammer on trump’s biggest lender? I like to think they are waiting until he has less time to retaliate. I could just be naive. But Merkel et al see Russia as a threat and need to curtail its influence. And as for trump, I think Merkel, Xi, and most other world leaders see him as a rabid dog that has to be put down.

  89. 89.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    People are tweeting about how the IRS goes after them for $40 in unpaid taxes and that’s certainly true but that’s money. There was a massive hole in our national security defenses for three and a half years and they only found out about it when someone tipped the NYTimes. None of their lawyers could come up with a single approach to get the President’s financials in the interest of protecting the country from the fact that he is obviously compromised and vulnerable on debt? I just don’t believe that. Did they even try?

  93. 93.

    danielx

    Let he who has not illegally taken an 8-figure tax return, is not facing $300,000,000 in balloon payment loans from shady sources, does not write off having a dead raccoon on his head, and does not pay income tax, like… ever… cast the first stone.
    — Ben. Paid More Than $750 in Taxes. (@BJS_quire) September 27, 2020

  94. 94.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @CarolDuhart2:

    Whats bugged me for years about him as a golfer is his obsession with his own courses – he never plays other courses for the challenge of the unknown. I’d thought of it as a form of cheating (easier to play holes you’re accustomed to playing for a home field advantage and bragging rights), but now it looks like maybe he was also motivated by no-cost golf, with a pile of earnings since he took office.

  95. 95.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    Too busy prioritizing hypothetical crimes committed by Democrats and antifa (but I repeat myself).

    I wonder how Biden can best leverage the news about the national security threat.  Which set of voters would that help with?

  96. 96.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Princess: I don’t think he’s actually broke. I think he has ben receiving kickbacks up the wazoo from Saudi Arabia and the Emirates, Turkey, India etc. etc. But it’s all offshore and hidden and it may be harder to access now.

    Very likely the kickbacks were used to service Trump’s debts to other people.

  97. 97.

    WereBear

    At least since W there has been a deliberate plan to ignore stock market abuses and go after little people instead of rich ones via the IRS.

  100. 100.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Curious comment from A+ President for Life Trump Cerebrum Maximus ;

    The President went on to ramble about how he’s been under IRS audit for “a long time.”

    “The IRS does not treat me well, they treat me like the tea party and they never treat me well, they treat me very badly,” Trump said.

    The tea party is now on the enemy’s list?

  101. 101.

    lowtechcyclist

    @danielx: The Google machine popped up a lengthy list but most of the countries on it are not places where It would care to live. I suppose Serbia is a possibility.

    Andorra might not be too bad – it’s a tiny country on the France-Spain border.  Or there are a few island nations on the list.

    Of course, in January 2021, will any of them be allowing anyone from the U.S.A. to cross their borders?  The Covid-19 situation here won’t be any better in January than it is now, and it may well be worse.

  103. 103.

    Kay

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    He’s referring to the wholly fake “IRS selectively audits the Tea Party scandal” Republicans used to discredit the IRS and which all of media fell for, although it was entirely, 100%, false. That’s why it disappeared. It was fake.

    I love Kevin Drum but he fell for it too, which was very disappointing. The claim was the IRS selectively went after conservative political organizations to shut down political speech. None of it was true. Jake Tapper promoted it probably more than any of the others who were duped.

  104. 104.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Kay:

    Bunches.

    Can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to tell people the old adage of “you don’t invest money with the guy you met at the bar at the country club”.

    Trump is the pitchman at the bar.

  106. 106.

    Kathleen

    @Kay: I’m watching Comey Rules on Showtime and several people in the FBI brought up Trump’s vulnerability to blackmail very early in FBI investigation. It should have been front and center in news reporting.

  110. 110.

    Kathleen

    @Kay: Old enough to remember when local Sinclair station held Town Hall for concerned citizens to voice their outrage. IRS center un Cincinnati was in the crosshairs. Now you’ve reminded me of my outrage around the Tea Party and how local and national media coddled them because Democrat who is Black had the nerve to be President.

  111. 111.

    Geminid

    @Geminid: What reading I do on German bank regulation indicates strong disincentives for strong regulation. The composition of corporate boards tends to prioritize jobs and economic activity. And under German law a bank employee is prohibited from contacting regulators, and required to report problems only to their supervisors. I just wonder if business as usual will prevail, or if exceptional circumstances will impel the German government to take action against Deutsche Bank. Maybe that is wishful thinking.

  112. 112.

    What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @Kay: That’s one of the reasons he wants control of the courts. The SCOTUS could have expedited review of whether he had to disclose his financials but instead they’re slow-walking all those cases. The Justices all know which way the law ultimately dictates how they have to rule so the goal is hope they can slow it down in the lower courts long enough that the problem goes away. That way Roberts and company don’t have to screw over their own side. That fact that there’s a national security risk…well I guess that’s not important to them. Maybe someone should ask their new nominee something along those lines.

  113. 113.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Gin & Tonic: Back when my shoulders still worked I’d split some wood most evenings spring/summer/fall. Not much, just a few logs. Didn’t put the hurt on me at all that way.

  114. 114.

    Snarki, child of Loki

    “he wrote off $70K in taxes for hair styling”

    That’s what, $5K per hair?

    Sounds plausible.

  115. 115.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Geminid: The business they do in the IS is subject to US laws. I’m not sure exactly how that all shakes out. Probably enough gray area that Barr could find a way to weasel trump out.

  116. 116.

    Richard Guhl

    Thinking about tomorrow night’s debate, I would say that Biden’s best strategy might be to mock Trump every chance he gets.

    For instance, if Trump starts in with the name-calling and insults, I would have Biden ask, “What are you, an eight-year old? That stuff might have impressed on the elementary school playground, but here, it’s just sooo lame. You need to up your game, man.”

  117. 117.

    danielx

    @Snarki, child of Loki:

    Well, you have to admit that styling his hair would be a pretty demanding task, not only for the actual difficulty but for being in close contact with his noxious person for an extended period every day. I don’t have an issue with the stylist charging whatever the market will bear, but Trump being allowed to write off the expense? Not so much.

  118. 118.

    SFAW

    Every time he says “fake news” about this, some enterprising reporter should respond “then show us the fucking tax returns, as you promised, and prove that it’s wrong.”

     

    That said: as many jackals have commented, the MAGAts will say it’s a testament to his bidness acumen, and he pwned the IRS, usw.

  123. 123.

    Amir Khalid

    @Princess:

    If there were people willing to grease the palm of my country’s PM with hundreds of millions of dollars, over and above what he stole from the people, I’m sure there would be people willing to do even better for your president.

  125. 125.

    Quinerly

    @Immanentize: I got out of the boat and dipped in the on line comment sectons of NC and MO newspapers… Especially our St. Louis Post Dispatch. That’s exactly what his supporters are saying. “he’s a great businessman and has great lawyers, accountants.” True believers see it as as sign of his brilliance.

  128. 128.

    PJ

    @CarolDuhart2: Trump was always going to use the Presidency as a vehicle to enrich himself and his children.  In 2016, I said that if that’s all the damage he does, we’ll be lucky.

    We weren’t lucky.

  129. 129.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Amir Khalid: True believers see even the dumbest and meanest things he says and does as more signs of his brilliance.

    Tru dat. There’s no point in bothering to engage them.  They’re impervious to facts, reason, and common sense.

  130. 130.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Matt McIrvin: The NYT splashing this all across the front page is already a big, big difference from their treatment of Trump in 2016.

    Hell, it’s a big, big difference from their treatment of Trump up through the day before yesterday.

  131. 131.

    trnc

    @Betty Cracker: This makes me an awful person, but I can’t help but wonder why Parscale is unraveling now.

    This does not make you an awful person. Wishing for a suicide would (even with these assholes), but hoping for criminals to potentially be caught and prosecuted is never a bad thing.

    Yes, I suggest all sympathy for Mr. Parscale be held until we find out if his hospitalization is due to genuine need, or he’s attempting to evade the consequences for criminal activity.

    Excellent point, MJS. 5-7 in the slammer might be just what the doctor ordered.

  132. 132.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @PJ:  Trump was always going to use the Presidency as a vehicle to enrich himself and his children.  In 2016, I said that if that’s all the damage he does, we’ll be lucky.

    Going by the NYT article is sounds like A+ President for Life Trump the Big Brained needs the presidency just make his loan payments.

  133. 133.

    trnc

    @John S.: It will be interesting to see if “but his taxes” becomes the “but her emails” of 2020, or if the media finds some way to artificially “balance” their coverage.

    Nope. DT’s taxes have been a story one way or another since 2015, including a couple of big stories along the way. They got enough coverage to say they weren’t completely ignored, but the media sure as hell didn’t blow it up into a thing like they did the risotto recipes.

  134. 134.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Betty Cracker: I don’t think it’s necessarily exile from the warmth of Trump’s regard. Maybe several millipedes’ worth of shoes are about to drop on the campaign front.

    Considering how stupid and shortsighted everyone around Trump is, it could be Parscale was borrowing money on the expectation that he would be grifting Trump threw the election, that didn’t happen and now the payments are due. Pascale’s Wager if you will.

  136. 136.

    Quinerly

    @Amir Khalid: I am amazed at the twisting and turning they do. I have no Trumper friends/acquaintances in real life (new neighbors are but I haven’t gotten friendly enough for any interaction) I do run into an acquaintance of a FB friend on FB when that acquaintance disrupts my friend’s very few anti Trump/pro Biden posts. I have to believe the Trumper is truly nuts. He bellows how he was a member of the Communist Party in the 1960’s. He’s seen the “light.” He sees Trump as God like, Biden as senile and drooling. Oddly, though, he has been quiet for 2 days. Some would say don’t waste my time reading his posts on my friend’s page and the comments in local papers.  And I’m about done with this little 5 month quest. There’s no way to explain these people. It truly is a cult, imo. Mental illness. Brainwashing.

  138. 138.

    Anonymous At Work

    Kinda curious why no one is making hay out of Trump’s larger payments to foreign nations than his own.

  139. 139.

    Barry

    @OzarkHillbilly:   “Much ado about nothing. The Qataris have no interest in swaying US Middle East policy.”

    They paid a half-billion or so to the President’s son-in-law, who also hold several high governmental appointments.

    That is a very serious matter.

  141. 141.

    Fair Economist

    @Baud:

    “The Republican claiming to be independent who we always go to for quotes says his support for Trump has not wavered.”

    Interview was short because he had to get back to his job on the local Republican campaign committee.

  142. 142.

    sdhays

    @Princess: This is what I’m thinking too. I don’t think he’s as worried about being revealed to be broke than he is to be revealed as massive fraud. It’s virtually a given that he’s been laundering money from Russia – is that showing up on his taxes?

  144. 144.

    Ken

    @Barry: They paid a half-billion or so to the President’s son-in-law, who also hold several high governmental appointments.

    I thought Jared was never given an actual government job with a salary and security clearance[*]? In retrospect that may have been to avoid conflict-of-interest and anti-bribery laws, although that probably attributes more forethought to this gang than they deserve.

    * One of the things I’d love to see happen would be for Biden to announce he was overriding protocols to get his son a security clearance.  Then after the howling to say “Oh, now that’s an issue?”  Of course it will never happen since Biden isn’t a, what is our preferred phrase, corrupt orange conman shitpile Russian stooge.

  145. 145.

    Chris Johnson

    @lowtechcyclist: I can see a reason for the NYT to be both compromised AND doing this. It’s the same reason that the Russians are not trying to actually flip votes, but are trying to manipulate people’s opinions on a massive scale with things like QAnon.

    They can still be serving Russia while also throwing Trump under the bus, because Russia does not want strong American parties, even if they are the Republicans. I can’t underscore that enough. Trump has been a fall guy from the word go, put in BECAUSE he was a complete asshole and useless and deeply compromised. He’s not expected to win, he’s there to fail and smash everything.

    The purpose of the NYT throwing him under the bus is as follows: if they can’t get an actual Trump victory, and they can’t get a ‘court throws it to Trump’ because the margin could well be too great, then the correct Russian move would be to present the appearance of a total blatant leftwing coup on a scale beyond belief. The correct move is to SABOTAGE Trump directly at the last minute and go for a Dem landslide on an unprecedented scale.

    That’d help us, to an extent, but the real purpose is to take all the QAnons and the Trumpist Republicans and drive them totally insane, because they were always meant to be domestic terrorists from the start. Having them run the government wasn’t intentional. They were meant to be enemies from within. Now there’s more of them, more entrenched, so the whole point is to make them wage war on us as we try to rebuild.

    As such, the NYT can be pulling a heel turn and attacking Trump, but still be serving the same interests. The idea is to make the Biden victory look like North Korea shit, while claiming it is completely fake, and run with that. Not a great plan but that’s what it is, I think.

  146. 146.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:  I don’t want to be a jerk about it, but…is there some reason why your posts consistently misspell “through” as “threw”? Many here have had their struggles with Otto Korrekt, but I haven’t seen this particular hiccup from anyone but you.

  149. 149.

    J R in WV

    @MJS:

    Yes, I suggest all sympathy for Mr. Parscale be held until we find out if his hospitalization is due to genuine need, or he’s attempting to evade the consequences for criminal activity.

    Unable to stand trial by reason of mental defect and instability!?!! That will be the Donald’s plea also.

  150. 150.

    way2blue

    I’m bracing for whatever new distraction Trump is cooking up—to get this tax news & analysis off the front page.  Something more than goading Biden about a urine test I think.  But.  According to Mike Madrid of The Lincoln Project, non college, white male support for Trump is weakening in the Mid West & Rust Belt.  Something to watch for…  Plus.  Paul Krugman is wishfully speculating that a few senior citizens of your great state might be appalled enough about the tax cheat to switch their votes.  That would be epic.

  151. 151.

    J R in WV

    @trnc:

    but the media sure as hell didn’t blow it [the taxes] up into a thing like they did the risotto recipes.

    Now wait just a daggone moment here…

    Anyone who cooks knows that a really good risotto recipe is virtually priceless~!!!~   ;~)

  152. 152.

    StringOnAStick

    Usually I can’t tolerate watching these debates, but I’ll be watching tomorrow night.  I think history will be made, I’m just not sure how but I do hope Joe has enough physicality in his background to block an i crazy/angry punch from the desiccated orange.  It’s going to be hard for FOX to spin something that insane.  The Koolaide drinkers will go with “Biden deserved it, calling our Mighty Leader a tax cheat”; everyone else will be repulsed.

  153. 153.

    'Niques

    @sdhays: I think broke is far more important to trump … if you’ve ever known a wealthy person, fraud is a badge of honor, while poor is unforgivable.

  155. 155.

    brantl

    Biden should hold out $750 dollars, cash to Stump, and say “Here, I’ll pay this years taxes for you Donny, but make sure you declare it next year, I’m claiming it as a charitable donation to a down-and-outer.”; I’m pretty sure Donny’s aneurism would stream blood out of his ears.

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