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Years before ‘Aleppo moment,’ Gary Johnson showed little interest in details of governing

 

For state lawmakers here who used to work with Gary Johnson, something is familiar about the former governor’s baffled looks, which have turned into an embarrassment for his third-party presidential campaign.

 

Longtime state Sen. Stuart Ingle ® recalled how Johnson, soon after taking office in 1995, mostly shrugged and stared during their first meeting together. As Ingle asked Johnson questions about his agenda, Ingle said, Johnson’s most common refrain was, “I don’t know.”

 

At the end of the meeting, Ingle said, Johnson revealed the one position on which he would hold firm: The state’s budget should not grow. And if legislation to do so passed, the new governor added, “I will veto it.”

 

Over the next eight years, New Mexico lawmakers would struggle to work with a governor who paid little attention to details. Those who worked closely with Johnson, then a Republican elected as a political novice vowing to shake up the established order, recall a chief executive who would speed through meetings and often preferred to discuss his fitness routine than focus on the minutiae of policymaking.

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10/4/16 Trump Scandal Count: 1

 

Trump Used Foundation Funds for 2016 Run, Filings Suggest

 

“It was a quiet donation that came with a simple cover letter,” Smith said. It read: “Great meeting with you and your wife in my office,” dated May 6, 2011. Enclosed was a check for $10,000 from the Donald J. Trump Foundation.

 

That check is one of at least several donations to suggest Trump used his private foundation, funded by outside donors, to launch and fuel his political ambitions. Such contributions, if they were made solely for Trump’s benefit, could violate federal self-dealing laws for private foundations.

 

But RCP’s review of IRS filings by the Trump foundation turned up a fresh conflict: a 2013 donation of $10,000 to The Family Leader, a 501©(4) established to “develop, advocate and support legislative agenda at the state level.” Unlike a 501©(3), or a nonprofit organization, a 501©(4) can effect policy and engage in limited political activity, and thus is subject to greater restrictions on contributions from charities.

 

If the Trump foundation sent its money to The Family Leader and not its affiliated nonprofit, it did not properly note it in the filing and might have failed to earmark the money for charitable purposes, a violation of IRS rules. If the money was sent to the Family Leader Foundation, it was not recorded as such.

 

“There’s a mistake somewhere,” said Fei. “It might be a really substantive mistake, or it could just be a reporting error or sloppiness. But improper reporting is still a violation of tax law. That’s something the IRS would look at.”

 

The donation also appears to have been geared toward boosting Trump’s political prospects, raising the specter of another possible violation for self-dealing.

 

lmao Trump's entire empire collapsing and his brand name becoming worthless is how this is all gonna end, isn't it?

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QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Oct 4, 2016 -> 10:33 AM)
"KKK leader Robert Byrd"

 

A good sign you're dealing with an idiot

This is a really strong indicator that the person saying it doesn't actually give a s*** about any kind of civil rights issues.

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QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Oct 4, 2016 -> 09:07 AM)
the screenshot Milo made of bad things hillary has done vs bad things trump has done is hilarious. Im sure greg has it as his background

 

 

IMG_1226.JPG

 

Yeah, Trump is missing a few. That pesky no federal tax thingy for one.

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Some interesting info on why the heroin epidemic is hitting white people harder than black people:

 

A 2000 study out of Emory University found that at a hospital emergency department in Atlanta, 74 percent of white patients with bone fractures received painkillers compared with 50 percent of black patients. Similarly, a paper last year found that black children with appendicitis were less likely to receive pain medication than their white counterparts. And a 2007 study found that physicians were more likely to underestimate the pain of black patients compared with other patients.

 

Old stereotype assumptions about "black people feel less physical pain" lead to fewer black people being prescribed pain killers which leads to lower rates of opioid addiction.

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Daily Beast with a breakdown of Trump losing almost a billion dollars and dodging taxes

 

Art of the Steal: This Is How Trump Lost $916M and Avoided Tax

 

Trump claimed to be worth billions in 1990, just as he does now, yet he could not pay his bills. He stiffed hundreds of small-business suppliers, including those for the Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City, which will go out of business next week. In all he owed more $3 billion, nearly a third of his debt secured by nothing more substantial than his signature on bank loan papers.

 

 

Last May, Trump revealed that he took on debt with no intention of paying it all back, which strikes me as fraud. “I’ve borrowed knowing you can pay back with discounts,” he told CNBC in May, boasting “I’ve done well with debt.”

 

 

Back then Trump threatened endless litigation unless 70 banks he owed money gave him millions more in new loans at low interest rates and provided him with $5.4 million a year for personal spending, the equivalent of $10 million in today’s money.

 

 

Back then, one billionaire told The New York Times he didn’t know how to spend that much on himself and his family.

 

Oh and a couple of days ago, someone did a calc and found that Trump accounted for just shy of 2% of entire national Net Operating Loss all by himself.

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QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Oct 4, 2016 -> 01:56 PM)
Daily Beast with a breakdown of Trump losing almost a billion dollars and dodging taxes

 

Art of the Steal: This Is How Trump Lost $916M and Avoided Tax

 

 

 

Oh and a couple of days ago, someone did a calc and found that Trump accounted for just shy of 2% of entire national Net Operating Loss all by himself.

Everyone defending this by saying "it just shows he's a great businessman" doesn't know or care HOW he lost all that money - he over-leveraged his casinos with mountains of debt (intentionally), then milked as much for himself personally as he could while leaving the other investors out to dry through the bankruptcy(ies). And of course he left thousands of contractors out to dry who never got paid for their work (which he says is substandard, while bragging about how great his buildings are).

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QUOTE (farmteam @ Oct 3, 2016 -> 10:37 PM)
How is that a straw man? You used the phrases "least regard" "fakest facade" and "most egregious." Soxbadger asked about the most obvious culprits to put those claims in doubt. I didn't read Soxbadger's post as excusing American hegemony.

 

Unfortunately other people have been blowing up urban dictionary with the word "trumping", but I was going to say that what raBBit's post show is the "trumping" of America. That is where you basically just say how terrible America is, without providing any proof or evidence to support the claim. Its not that I "excuse" what America is doing, its that I try and point out the reality that without America the world likely would be a far worse place.

 

Maybe its because people cant be bothered to learn about anything before 1980, but it is as if people forgot how terrible the world really can be. Yes I get that America probably kills people they shouldnt, yes I get that there is probably some collateral damage/innocents, etc due to our war on terrorism. But at some point people have to accept that we live in reality, and that sometimes you have to make hard decisions and that maybe sometimes, no decision is a good decision. But that is the way the world works.

 

I guess I am just tired of hearing how terrible America is and that we should go back to some time in the past when America was so great. Because I call bulls***. Yes, I concede that if you were an anglo saxon white land owner life may have been better in the 19th century. Yes I concede if you hate minorities, outsiders, others, that America may have been better in the past. But I will never concede that America is not better today than it has ever been. Just because some jobs are moving to other countries doesnt mean that we are any worse, if anything it shows the evolution of our economy. Again, a lot of this requires actually reading about history before 1980, some of it may even require reading about history before the 18th century. But when you look at things like the industrial revolution and how at one point Britain was the manufacturing capital of the world, only to be replaced by the US, you begin to understand that no amount of taxes, protectionism, etc can change reality. As your country progresses your workers will require higher wages. Eventually there will be another country that is less advanced that will be able to produce the goods cheaper.

 

When you start to chase the past, you lose. Globalization is here. Manufacturing goods in other countries will only become cheaper and easier as the cost to transport goes down. Even China faces this reality as they lose manufacturing plants to cheaper places in South East Asia ( http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/201...facturing-crown ). In economics they call it the "race to the bottom", where a country basically tries to do anything it possibly can to compete with the cheaper labor of foreign countries. But there is no way to win, the US has "left the barn" there is no way to go back to slavery or to paying people $.50 per hour its just not reality.

 

After I wrote all of this I see that it is not at all relevant to anything that was being originally discussed, but I just cant hide my frustration with Americans right now. Maybe its always been this way, but it just seems that now people have absolutely no clue about how good they have it here. That is not to say America is perfect, or that we cant try to make it better, but enough is enough of this doom and gloom bulls***.

 

/end rant

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more Trump Foundation fun from WaPo's David Fahrenthold

David FahrentholdVerified account

‏@Fahrenthold David Fahrenthold Retweeted Brian Mittendorf

That's right: in 2009, @realDonaldTrump used $5K from his foundation to pay the winner of "Trump pays your bills" contest on TV show Extra.

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QUOTE (Ezio Auditore @ Oct 4, 2016 -> 01:08 PM)
Everyone defending this by saying "it just shows he's a great businessman" doesn't know or care HOW he lost all that money - he over-leveraged his casinos with mountains of debt (intentionally), then milked as much for himself personally as he could while leaving the other investors out to dry through the bankruptcy(ies). And of course he left thousands of contractors out to dry who never got paid for their work (which he says is substandard, while bragging about how great his buildings are).

 

People defending it also dont seem to understand the difference between a corporate loss and a personal loss. Without the full return I cant tell what is in statement 1, but we can likely assume that the loss derived from 2 events, the bankruptcies of Trump Taj Mahal and Trump Plaza, that were then reorganized into Trump Hotel & Casino Resorts in 1995. Most likely Trump owned stock in those 2 companies. When they went bankrupt there is a chance that the value of those stocks effectively became 0. The loss is actually likely not true. The stock was likely never worth $900mil.

 

Its all speculation, but I would bet not many individuals have ever claimed a loss that big.

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QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Oct 4, 2016 -> 02:28 PM)
People defending it also dont seem to understand the difference between a corporate loss and a personal loss. Without the full return I cant tell what is in statement 1, but we can likely assume that the loss derived from 2 events, the bankruptcies of Trump Taj Mahal and Trump Plaza, that were then reorganized into Trump Hotel & Casino Resorts in 1995. Most likely Trump owned stock in those 2 companies. When they went bankrupt there is a chance that the value of those stocks effectively became 0. The loss is actually likely not true. The stock was likely never worth $900mil.

 

Its all speculation, but I would bet not many individuals have ever claimed a loss that big.

He said some bulls*** about a "fiduciary responsibility" but that's his personal taxes and there's no such thing.

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QUOTE (raBBit @ Oct 4, 2016 -> 02:04 PM)
This isn't directed at you my guy, but why do people get so pissy about people using tax law to their advantage?

Somebody with as much money as Donald Trump shouldn't be paying less in taxes than me and you, period. There's a whole philosophical debate about legal vs. ethical that is pointless to have here, probably.

 

What really bothers me about it, though, is the Republican spin on it. If you have ever s*** on lazy poor people for taking welfare and mooching off society but want to try to paint Trump as a genius for getting away with this, seriously, go f*** yourself.

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