January 31, 2023: Fraud Tax, Songs of Greed, Shell Game

 

The so-called “Fair Tax”, or “Flat Tax”, once thought dead on arrival, is back on the front burner. This idiotic idea has for years been simmering below the surface rising, once again, like pond scum, or some hideous creature from Mariana trench of conservative depravity. The following is from a post written in these columns from March 2008 when the scheme last saw the light of day the only change is that instead of 23 per cent sales tax, the swine now propose a 30 per cent sales tax. Such is the cost of allowing the rich to walk away from the table:

Why is it that every time one sees a fundamentalist preacher turned politician campaigning for the Presidency he has the Bible in his left hand, his right index finger in your face and a tax cut for the rich in his back pocket? It is difficult to say, perhaps overweening ambition, perhaps the reluctance or the inability to understand something as complex as economics, perhaps intellectual laziness, perhaps a simple willingness to be a shill for wealth. But in any case we are now presented with another such spectacle this time in the form of Mike Huckabee, our very own Elmer Gantry.

He arrived late to the Presidential sweepstakes and took up the twin causes of God and good government in an effort to gin up the support of the fundamentalist wrong that heretofore were seen to have controlled the proceedings. Initially his message was a welcome variant from the old standard in which Christ was seen not as the apostle of greed but became, briefly in the hands of the Reverend Mike, once again the God of compassion. Accordingly Mike spoke eloquently, if only briefly, of our collective need to tend to the least among us. But his campaign, after Iowa, gained little traction with victories limited by religious and sectional boundaries. In order to breathe new life into his flagging effort, the Huckster has now transformed himself into a full-throated champion of the so called “Fair Tax”, not so much to win the nomination but to pick up the broken petard of Pat Robertson and become the new Champion of the idiot right.

Accordingly he is now out canvassing the country saying that “in Arkansas if it can’t be fixed with duct tape it cannot be fixed, and the tax code and the IRS cannot be fixed with duct tape”. There you have it in a ‘nut’ shell. If it cannot be fixed with duct tape it must go. Well Mike, I hate to break the news but you cannot fix the schools with duct tape, you cannot fix the military with duct tape, you cannot fix the roads with duct tape…..shall we get rid of those too? Talk to any heating and cooling contractor and you will learn that in fact one cannot fix anything with duct tape, not even ductwork. But it is by these standards that the Huckster wages his war to rid us of the onerous Internal Revenue Service.

No one, especially a progressive, is about to defend the present system of how we tax ourselves in these United States. The present tax code is as close to a ‘flat’ tax as we have seen in generations, with nearly all the progressivity having been taken out of it. But the problem of taxation in America is not that we are being taxed too much, for we rank near the bottom in overall taxation among industrial countries. It is that the near elimination of the graduated income tax of our forefathers has produced a society that has increasingly become more bifurcated between great wealth and the struggling rest of us. This tax proposal, coming as it does on the abject failure of a straight out ‘flat’ tax proposed by the likes of Pierre DuPont in his Presidential campaigns, is even more regressive. It would move the tax burden increasingly from the wealthy unto the backs of the working middle and lower classes; increasing the taxation on work while nearly eliminating the taxation of wealth.

When our forefathers introduced the graduated income tax they understood, as the ‘boomers’ apparently do not, that it is better to tax wealth than tax work. Reasoning from the tenets of Adam Smith, the founder of modern free-market capitalism, that work produces wealth, our forefathers rightly concluded that it would be counterproductive to tax work since it was through work that all wealth originates. Better, they said, to tax wealth at a higher rate. By taxing wealth at higher rates it leaves work with a relatively lighter share of the overall burden, freeing it to generate more wealth. This reasoning took the form of the distinction, in the terminology of our ancestors, between what was called “earned” and “unearned” income. Better they said to tax at higher rates unearned income (income from rents, interest and profits), than earned income (income from wages). Accordingly heavier taxes were laid upon the upper income tax bracket (in the 90% range), capital gains and estate taxes. The result was a more egalitarian society, one in which the fruits of our collective labor were generally shared, a society in which we witnessed the explosive growth of a large industrial middle class.

But the ‘Boomers’, the grand recipients of our forefathers collective wisdom, saw nothing in the lessons taught that we felt obliged to learn. Accordingly we have followed the siren song of greed introducing one tax ‘reform’ after another from the tax limitation craze set off by Howard Jarvis in California in the late ‘70s, to Ronald Reagan and the Republican assault on the graduated income tax, to the several flat tax proposals, and efforts to eliminate outright the capital gains and estate taxes. Let us take a brief look at the latest entry in the tax ‘reform’ craze put forward by the conservative stink tanks. The effort, such as it is, requires more from us than it deserves.

John Kenneth Galbraith once termed economics the ‘dismal science’, and although he was referring to the writings of Smith, Malthus and Ricardo, he can also be read to understand that approaching a study of economic theory or practice is like going to the dentist. Accordingly one approaches the study of the “Fair Tax” with all the enthusiasm of facing root canal work.

The idea came out of the bowels of Americans for Fair Taxation as a simple shell game in which the tax burden would be shifted from income taxes on profits and wages to what is, in effect, a national sales tax. Now even a flat rate tax of say 10 or 12%, as our friend Pierre DuPont proposed, has at least the appearance of ‘progressivity’ inasmuch as that the more one makes the more taxes one pays. But the so called “Fair Tax” proposes a 23% sales tax on all goods and services. It would eliminate taxes on savings and investments, all estate taxes, and virtually every other form of taxation. The result is that the tax burden would be shifted entirely onto consumption. What this means is that there becomes an inverse relation between income and the effective level of taxation. That is the lower your income the higher the percentage of your income to taxation. Those at the lowest levels, required as they are to spend virtually every cent on necessities, would pay the going rate. The higher one’s income the more can be put aside for saving and investment which, under this scheme, is shielded from taxation. Yes say the proponents but when it is withdrawn it is spent and taxes are paid on it. No say we critics because the interest on this money is earned and compounded while in the bank and is not subject to taxation. “Unearned” income, which is income nonetheless, is not subject to taxation unless and until it is spent. Suppose it is not spent, suppose it is left to constantly multiply itself over a period of time. Yes when it finally is withdrawn from the bank to make some purchases it is taxed but in the meantime it is tax free. Wages are not so lucky. One is presented then with the spectacle of the worker being taxed at every turn while the investor merely clips his coupons and watches his money grow.

What the inventors of this scheme have done is take the entire cost of government and raise the money by levying a consumption or sales tax. The proposal, with the requisite misleading moniker of ‘Fair Tax’ has the appearance, like the flat tax, of fairness. Everyone pays the same tax, right? Wrong. Everyone pays the same tax, as now, at the checkout counter, but not everyone pays the same effective tax. Whole parts of the economy, principally the investment community, earn money but are exempt from taxation. So for instance, the poor slob earning $15,000. a year pays an effective tax at the going rate of 23% while the billionaire, because so much of his money is off earning income at compounded rates tax free, pays an effective rate of less than 2%.

What makes this shell game so appealing is the deceptively simple complexity of it. It reminds me, in a perverse way, of the objections modern Republicans raise to the idea of returning to a graduated income tax. “The rich already pay the lion’s share of income taxes”, they point out parroting the talking points of the Republican National Committee. The Rich do pay nearly two thirds of all income tax in this country. But that is precisely the problem. The fact that the upper ten percent carry such a burden is not due to the unfairness of the present system or to the horrors of re instituting the tax code of John Kennedy or even Jimmy Carter. It is due, quite simply, to the fact that the wealthy now own such a large share of the economic pie. No the answer is not to lower taxes on the all too heavily burdened upper classes, it is instead to raise those taxes and return a greater share of the wealth to those who labored to produce it in the first place. What is needed is a candidate for President to look the American people in the eye and tell them that what we want to see is the middle class paying 80% of the income taxes, because under this administration the middle class will control 80% of the wealth.

There are other problems with this so-called "fair tax" proposal:

There is the question of the effective tax rate. Proponents say that it is 23% but for the scheme to be income neutral—that is for it to generate as much money into the federal treasury as the current system—the effective tax on goods and services would be at least 30% and, according to the President’s Advisory Panel on Tax Reform, as much as a 34% in order to fund government at present levels. In fact according to economist William Gale of the Brookings Institution taxation at the 23% rate would blow a 7 trillion dollar hole in the budget over 10 years and he projects a more realistic rate of 31% or higher in order to reach present levels of funding.(seehttp://money.cnn.com/2005/09/06/pf/taxes/consumptiontax_0510/index.htm) This new tax would be levied at time of purchase on new homes, rent, interest on credit cards, mortgages and car loans, doctor bills, utilities, gasoline (current taxes would not be repealed) legal fees, ad nauseum.

Conservative radio talk-show host Neil Boortz contends that there will be a 22% reduction in prices as companies will be able to produce and sell goods and services cheaper because they would no longer be required to withhold taxes. This is a blanket admission, by one of the scheme’s principal proponents, that by passing the savings on to the consumer wages will in effect be cut by at least 22%. In other words the money now being withheld would not be returned to the worker but would instead be passed on to the consumer who would then realize the savings when the product is purchased. For the worker, on the other hand, the tax burden remains but must now be paid at the check out counter. The tax must be paid, albeit at the reduced price, not with one’s old ‘gross’ income but with one’s old ‘net income’ that is what was previously left after the old IRS got done with it. Assuming that all of the savings are passed on to the consumer this is at best a simple economic wash. No real savings emerges.

Now either prices increase or wages must fall. Either the employer pockets the monies formerly withheld and passes the savings on to the consumer in which case it is a dead wash—if, and it’s a big if, all of said savings are recycled back to the worker as consumer. The worker is then confronted with a giant leap in retail prices. If the schemers allow us to keep all our earnings and we have all of our former paycheck in hand then prices we will face will be as high as 34% greater. In any case the system, as presented, is a wash. The proponents contend that it will raise as much money as the present system. The question is why make the change?

The answer lies in the hidden agendas. Remember these are the same folks that have been toying with the tax code now for nearly a generation, killing with a thousand cuts the golden goose given us by our ancestors. It began at the 1976 Democratic National Convention when Jimmy Carter, as he accepted his party’s nomination for the Presidency, called the American tax code a “disgrace to the human race.” The problem facing the nation at the time was that the tax code as it had evolved in the postwar era had not been adjusted for inflation. Greater numbers of working Americans were now lifted, by the hyperinflation of the era, into higher tax brackets fueling a nation-wide tax revolt. Carter in calling for reform gave voice and legitimacy to this growing concern. Instead of simply adjusting the tax code for inflation the Democrats stalled and it was left to Ronald Reagan to do the reforming.

Posturing as a progressive Reagan, much as ‘Ol Two-Cows would do two decades later, put conservative stink tanks in overdrive spinning ‘tax reform’ that had the veneer of being progressive but in effect shifted the tax burden increasingly from wealth to work. Accordingly they cut the highest tax brackets from 72% to 35%; they cut the capital gains tax in half, made similar reductions in the estate tax. They increased Social Security withholding taxes and cut federal revenue sharing meaning that state and local governments, funded on flat rate income or sales taxes, were left to make up the difference. This had the effect of further shifting taxation over the entire spectrum from the graduated income to more regressive forms of taxation. To add insult to injury they eliminated the exemptions for consumer loans, most medical bills, and other previous exemptions that the middle class had enjoyed so as to raise the needed revenues. The result, as has been noted by Republican turned independent Kevin Phillips, is that there has been a growing gap between rich and poor and the middle class, now owning a smaller share of the national economy than at any time since before 1929, is shrinking relative to the rest of the economy. The economic high tides of the 80’s and 90’s did not, as Reagan had promised, raise all boats; and under the maladministration of ‘Ol Two-Cows, over 5 million have slipped through the now tattered safety net into poverty. It is from advocates such as these that the latest incarnation of ‘tax reform’ in the shape of the so called ‘fair tax’ comes. The question poses itself: why trust them?

The shell game gets complicated. The proposal calls for a “Prebate” program in which those at the lowest levels will be reimbursed for taxes paid giving the act a ‘populist’ veneer but this would ensure, under a revenue neutral standard, that the middle class will bear a greater share of the burden. And, to be fair, the proposal does for the first time shift social security funding in such a way as to make the rich belly up to the bar and pay more. But the fact remains that this is perhaps the most regressive tax proposal to ever have reached the national political debate since early in the nineteenth century. It is a shell game in which wealth walks away from the table nearly scot-free.

Nor does the ‘Fair Tax’ eliminate the IRS as the Huckster would have us believe. Some agency, however named, will have to collect the taxes. Taxes, in the new form would simply be collected not by the employer but by the merchant. How the retail industry will react to this burden is unclear. This proposal, by their own admission, will not cut the overall tax burden it will simply shift who will pay it. To suggest otherwise is to hint at a hidden agenda in which the real purposes are to simultaneously cut taxes on wealth and cut government revenue so as to further savage governance. It gets harder to fund the OSHA or the Consumer Protection Agency, when funding has gone dry. Whatever the real intent, one smells a rat under the kitchen sink.

It is doubtful that neither the Huckster nor Neil Boortz has studied Econ 101. If they had they would be able to recognize so obvious an economic shell game. Let us give them the benefit of the doubt and put this present misunderstanding down to a lack of proper schooling. To assume otherwise is to understand that they have become mere shills for great wealth, mere apologists for their corporate paymasters, and mere pimps for the GOP-- the Grand Old Prostitute.

In the immortal words of ‘Ol Two-Cows’, fool me once shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me, fool me three times, ‘won’t get fooled again’. No! No!

For another assessment of the impact of the “Fair Tax “proposal see:
http://www.factcheck.org/taxes/unspinning_the_fairtax.html

December 22, 2022: Like Tom Thumb’s Blues, Institutional Failure, Justice Delayed; Justice Denied.

 

“Now all the authorities

They just stand around and boast

How they blackmailed the sergeant-at-arms

Into leaving his post”

               ----Bob Dylan “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues”

 

On November 29, 2016 I wrote that we, the Generation of Swine, had failed our institutions.  I observed that by elevating the individual over the community we had defaced governance, savaged our educational system, brought low our public discourse and, as a final insult, promoted the most vile and corrupt man to ever disgrace the political stage to the presidency. (1)

 The succeeding years have seen the opposite: our institutions failing us.  We saw it first when the Electoral College failed to prevent Caesar Disgustus from assuming the office.  Then Robert Mueller, accepting the proscription that tRUMP’s finances were off-limits to his inquiry, compounded the scandal by shitting the bed; issuing a drab report full of legalese which, after a herculean effort to bend and twist the law, declared that he could make no definitive findings on Russian collusion with the 2016 tRUMP campaign. Witnesses were uncooperative, used coded messaging, and destroyed evidence, he complained.  Hell, he didn’t even call Disgustus or his larvae before the Grand Jury.  With tRUMP's toady William Barr poised to do what he did for George H.W. Bush the way was clear to, in the words of Assistant Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, ‘land the plane’.  That they did and Mueller, along with his ten citations of obstruction of justice, are now well in the rear view mirror. 

Clearly Mueller was more invested in defending his institution than in defending the republic; in protecting his much beloved Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Justice than prosecuting the scandal.  This becomes clear when one reads the report, its tone and its content.  Mueller was clearly trying to ‘depoliticize’ the institutional response so as to mute the damage done by James Comey’s ham-handed handling of the Clinton e-mail imbroglio.

It has taken nearly 4 years for the House Ways and Means Committee to get its hands on the fraudulent tax returns of Caesar Disgustus.  What is required by law, and what should have been achieved within days, was strung out nearly 4 years by continual judicial delay.  Then Secretary of the Treasury Steve Mnuchin, under whose jurisdiction lies the Internal Revenue Service, refused to hand over the documents to congress despite being legally required to do so.  Instead, the tRUMP toady appealed to the court, a friendly court.  It landed in the courtroom of one Trevor McFadden, a Disgustus appointee who sat on it for over a year before deciding, what was clearly obvious, that Donald had to comply.  This, of course was appealed to the federal circuit court which, after more delay, concurred with the lower court findings.  Of course, Disgustus appealed to the Supreme Court which, after further delay, likewise made similar findings but, iexplicably, remanded the issue back to the original court of jurisdiction, Toady McFadden again sat on it.  Finally, after working its way up the sewage pipe one more time to Robert’s court the issue finally came to resolution—mere days before the Democrats must relinquish the House to the Scum and when Disgustus had long since been booted from office. 

This is outrageous and calls to mind the effort by congressional committees to get White House Legal Counsel Don McGhan to testify in the Russian Scandal about tRUMP fabricating false statements as to the purpose of the Trump Tower meeting between his campaign managers, his larvae and Russian operatives.  It took TWO YEARS, to get him before the committees, not by the courts compelling his compliance but by agreement between McGhan and the committees about what content he would deign to testify to and, again, well after the scandal was in the rear-view mirror. 

Ditto attempts by congressional committees to compel witnesses to respond to Congressional subpoenas.  To date only Steve Bannon has been tried and convicted of criminal contempt for failure to appear and testify and for failure to supply documents subpoenaed by congressional committees.  Sentenced to a mere 4 months imprisonment he was inexplicably released allowing him to return to his 'war room' podcasts and gnaw at the foundations of the republic.  In the meantime, trials for others are still pending and the Department of Justice has yet to act, after over a year, on congressional citations for criminal contempt of congress issued to Mark Meadows despite his being at the center of the attempted coup.  

Then, of course there is this business surrounding the despicable behavior of Judge Aileen Cannon, another tRUMP toady emerging from The Federalist Society one of those conservative stink tanks hell bent on carving up the government and selling it for parts.  Roundly and embarrassingly condemned for stepping in and declaring unfounded jurisdiction in the Purloined Documents at Mar-a-Lago, she succeeded at gumming up the works by appointing a ‘special master’ to review said documents.  It took three months for the appellate court to step in and put an end to the madness.  Another instance of judicial overreach, judicial delay, judicial obfuscation, judicial vandalism. 

 Finally, as noted in the previous post, the Department of Justice had no intention of prosecuting tRUMP or his minions.  It is clear from the J6 Committee (2) findings that the failed coup d’état nearly two years ago involved all three branches of the federal government as well as elected officials at the state and local levels along with partisan political operatives.  It involved several members of the House and Senate, it involved the wife of a Supreme Court justice, a line of communication established to sound out which way the court would rule, it involved the Secret Service, the Departments of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense, the Department of Justice, and White House staff—especially Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.  It involved Roger Stone and Steve Bannon, Rudy Giuliani and Alex Jones. It involved the ‘war room’ at the Willard Hotel.  It involved the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers and other brown-shirt fascists It involved hundreds of other operatives organizing the bussing of rioters to the capital. It involved the transportation and the assembling of arms and munitions.  It involved the creation of fake electors to the electoral college. It was a conspiracy to overthrow the government. 

It has been nearly 700 days since tRUMP attempted to seize power.  To date we have the conviction of Elmer Rhodes and a few Proud boys, and some of the foot soldiers of sedition.  We have yet to have a single indictment of any of those who organized and incited this assault upon the republic.  Justice delayed is justice denied.

This has always been the modus operandi of Caesar Disgustus.  Throughout his entire adult life tRUMP has responded to legal challenge by using the system to delay, obstruct, obfuscate hoping for time to run out or to exhaust the resources and patience of those who seek justice.  By assuming the role of a lowly subcontractor seeking payment for work done on one of his properties, the government has failed to respond in a timely manner to the existential threat to the republic.  By failing to understand that the federal government has vastly more resources than even Caesar Disgustus, it has literally frittered away precious time while the cancer that is tRUMP and all he represents metastasizes in the body politic.  The authorities have fiddled while the Republic burns. The Sergeant-at-Arms has been blackmailed into leaving his post. 

 

An Br’er Putin, he jus’ laugh and laugh

 

Indict Prosecute. Convict. Imprison.

_________

 

1.     See Protagonist: November 29, 2016: Failed our Institutions, Circling the Bowl, Trumped the American Dream (wandererandshadow.blogspot.com)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

November 28, 2022: 676 Days, King-Hell Rat, The Awful Truth

 

It is day 676 of the Biden Administration.  For 676 days, nearly two years, the King-Hell rat, Donald J. tRUMP has been allowed to gnaw at the foundations of this republic.  For 676 days he has been allowed to roam the landscape spewing his venom and spreading the cancer that is tRUMPism threating this government’s very legitimacy.  For 676 days no subpoenas have been issued, no indictments have been handed down.

 Where is justice?

 It has taken over 1,300 days for the courts to finally rule that Disgustus must comply, and the Internal Revenue Service must submit tRUMP’s tax records to Congress.  The law is crystal clear on this matter reading that these records MUST be, not perhaps, maybe, handed over upon request.  Still, it has taken nearly 4 years, for the judicial system to enforce the law of the land. 

 It has taken nearly two years for the Attorney General to appoint a Special Counsel to investigate Disgustus for his attempted coup d’état, still referred to as an attempt to overturn the election.  It was more than that.  It was an unconstitutional attempt to overthrow the government of the United States.  It was sedition, domestic treason, and he has yet to be held to account. 

 The awful truth is that Garland, as his predecessor William Barr, knows that Disgustus is guilty, but he is loathe to charge a former “president” with his demonstrably serial crimes.  The awful truth is that Garland had no intention of bringing action against tRUMP but he has been shamed by the January 6 Committee into finally taking some action.  The awful truth is that this appointment of Jack Smith as Special Counsel is 18 months too late, and the damage done to this republic is incalculable. 

 Disgustus should have never been allowed to leave Washington.  Citing mechanical delay, the plane should have been held at the airport awaiting the swearing in of Biden on inauguration day.  At high noon, Disgustus should have been immediately placed under arrest and brought before a magistrate, charged with 10 counts of obstruction of justice (as cited by Robert Mueller’s report) and with conspiring with Michael Cohen to violate campaign finance law, declared a flight risk and held for trial.  Then, as these cases were being adjudicated begin the investigations into Disgustus and his immediate underlings in relation to the attempted coup only a few days before. 

 It has been nearly a year since the House sent a criminal referral to Garland for the failure of former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to testify before the January 6 Committee and for his failure to provide documents relating to same.  It has yet to issue subpoenas to either Disgustus or Mike Pence.  With the Scum about to retake control of the House and close the investigations Pence, breathing a sigh of relief, declared with a straight face that Congress has no right to his testimony.  The arrogance of these bastards.

 Disgustus has been allowed to roam free, taunting and stalking this administration, almost daily committing crimes and openly begging to be incarcerated.  Clearly, this administration had no intention of bringing Disgustus to justice. That is, until the appointment of Special Counsel Smith. 

 Disgustus cannot be shamed.  What he hasn’t calculated is that this isn’t true of everyone.

 An’ Br’er Putin, he jus’ laugh and laugh

 Indict. Prosecute. Convict. Imprison.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

November 26, 2022: Gagging the Maggot, Seeking the Exits, Containing the Exodus

 

On the evening of November 15, Caesar Disgustus made the announcement that he had been telegraphing for weeks, that he would once again mount an assault upon the republic of the United States.   Unlike 2015, when he first smeared the national political stage, there were no paid actors assembled to feign adoration.  Instead, Disgustus took to the podium and addressed a crowd largely composed of old white folk, members of his ‘club’ down at Mar-a-Lago, who greeted the bloviating idiot with all the enthusiasm of an upcoming root canal.

 It was, to put it mildly, a tepid performance.  Disgustus, a parasite, feeds from whatever his host can give him, be it money or adoration.  This audience was not up to the task, having heard his bullshit for seven years, now finding itself trapped in a ballroom and forced to listen were soon overpowered by the stench.  Indeed, shortly after delivering the line that he was again running for president of the United States, many of the assembled quickly sought the exits.   Finding them blocked by tRUMP’s ‘security’ detail they were recorded returning to their assigned seats in clear disgust.  tRUMP was gagging the maggot.

 With no ‘energy’ in the room, either real or imagined, Disgustus fell into a soft, ‘low energy’ sing-song cadence repeating for the millionth time his long list of grievances in a transparent attempt to convince the audience that his travails were theirs as well.   The assembled, all well-heeled country club ReSCUMlickans, were having none of it. This wasn’t the adoring crowds of the rural countryside, the Qanon wackos or the Jesus Junkies worshiping their anointed ‘messiah’.  This was a crowd of rock-ribbed conservatives who are world-wise and know that if he succeeds in gaining the nomination the ReSCUMlickan Party will take a beating. 

 Disgustus, in foreshadowing his grand entrance—billing it as the greatest announcement since Moses announce the departure for the Promised Land—thought that having led the Scum to landslide victory with the great ‘Red Wave’ he would have the wind at his back.  Moreover, he convinced himself that his hand-picked cabal of seditionists running for office in swing states would win offices that, whatever the outcome of the 2024 popular vote, would aid and abet his next attempt at a coup d’état.

 But something happened on his way to the Forum. The people had spoken and every one of the scums he foisted upon the party, with the lone exception of J.D. Vance in Ohio’s senate race, lost.  Down went Dr. Oz and Mastriano in Pennsylvania, tRUMP’s handpicked candidates for the U.S. Senate and Governor in the state. Down went the ReSCUMlickan candidate for governor of Wisconsin who openly declared that, if elected, the Scum would never lose another election in the state again. “If”

 Down went Kari Lake in Arizona along with his handpicked candidates for Secretary of State and Attorney General.  Down went Tudor Dixon in Michigan, along with his handpicked candidates for Secretary of State and Attorney general.  In fact, such was the beating in the ‘swing’ state of Michigan that the Scums lost control, for the first time since 1982 of both houses of the state legislature.  Now only Herschel Walker, facing a run-off against incumbent Raphael Warnock remains standing.  Instead of gaining 40-60 house seats and retaking the U.S. Senate, the Scums will emerge with a 5 or 6 seat majority in the House and have lost the Senate.

 So, there he was addressing a crowd that knew how to read the tea leaves, knew much more about politics than he does. In any case they sat upon their hands through most of the event giving Disgustus only halting applause. They were too old and, being people of property and standing, had too much self-respect to fall upon their knees and worship the golden swine.  

 Greeted with only a smattering of polite applause he droned on for over 40 minutes.  Even Murdoch’s Maggots at Faux News couldn’t stomach it as tRUMP acolyte Seen Hannity cut away shortly after Disgustus declared that once again he was bringing the circus back to town. 

 Speaking of Murdoch, his New York Post coverage of the event consisted of a banner on the bottom of Page One reading simply “Florida Man Makes Announcement” see page 26.  Turning to page 26, tRUMP was nowhere in the headline. 

 Today Farron Cousins of “The Ring of Fire’ podcast quoted a poll taken late last week showing Disgustus has hemorrhaged 9 percent of his support among Republicans since he made his announcement.  Many have grown tired of the Drama Queen.  Many have grown weary of the constant whining and name calling.  Many are sick of the chaos and incompetence. Many are seeking the exits.

 Disgustus took the podium and delivered not a rousing clarion call to action but the welp of a beaten cur; a miserable bitch nursing its wounds. 

 To use another metaphor, Pepe LePew is back in the arena and the stench is gagging the maggots sending them and their contributors scurrying for the exits.  It remains to be seen how long Disgustus can contain the exodus or how long they stay away.

Indict. Prosecute. Convict. Imprison.

 

November 14, 2022: At the Trough, Pay to Play, Disgusting Swine

 

It is no wonder our disgraced, twice-impeached and twice rejected Caesar Disgustus clung to tenaciously to his ill-gotten political office.  He was making money hand-over-fist while pretending to be the ‘stable genius’ at the helm of the nation.  It was all about grift, how he could line his pockets using the Oval Office if not as an extortion racket then at least an ATM machine.

MSN just published an article by Anna Schecter of NBC about a report issued by the House Oversight Committee on the uses Caesar Disgustus put to the property leased to his company by the Federal Government while he stank up the oval office.  I’m referring here to tRUMP International Hotel in Washington D.C. which his company operated during his maladministration.  The following is the article in its entirety:

 Trump D.C. hotel receipts reveal $10,500-a-night rooms for foreign officials seeking to influence U.S. policy

 Anna Schecter

During Donald Trump’s presidency, the governments of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Turkey, China and Malaysia spent hundreds of thousands of dollars at the Trump International Hotel in Washington at the same time they were trying to influence U.S. foreign policy, according to investigative findings released Monday by the House Committee on Oversight and Reform.

Hotel receipts obtained by the Oversight Committee show that the then-prime minister of Malaysia and his delegation spent $259,724 at the hotel during a one-week stay in September 2017, including a $10,000 room and $1,500 “Personal Trainer” for embattled Prime Minister Najib Razak, and $9,229 for “Coffee Break[s].” At the time, Razak was unsuccessfully lobbying the Trump administration to drop an investigation into a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund he had co-founded.

 The Saudi Ministry of Defense spent $85,961 during a one-week stay in March 2018, including renting several $10,500 suites, according to the Oversight Committee findings. The Saudi revenues for the Trump hotel came during a period when Saudi Arabia and the UAE were lobbying the Trump administration to support them during their blockade against economic rival Qatar.

 For their part Qatari officials and connected companies spent at least $307,941 at the Trump hotel from late 2017 through mid-2018, according to the Oversight Committee’s findings. actually spends, meaning it saves a fortune because if they were to Trump hotels charged Secret Service more than five times recommended government rate.

 The hotel ledgers were released to the Oversight Committee by the Trump Organization’s former accounting firm Mazars USA as part of the committee’s ongoing investigation into the former president's businesses and potential conflicts of interest. The bulk of the ledgers released Monday show line-item charges for rooms, room service, laundry, restaurant meals and banquets incurred during the fall of 2017 through the spring of 2018.

 The House Oversight Committee chair, Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D.-N.Y., detailed the new findings in a letter Monday to acting Archivist Debra Steidel Wall of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).

 “These documents sharply call into question the extent to which President Trump was guided by his personal financial interest while in office rather than the best interests of the American people,” Maloney said.

 In the letter she requests presidential records from NARA that could be related to attempts by foreign governments and lobbyists working on their behalf to influence the Trump administration by spending money at the Trump Hotel. A spokesperson for NARA said, "We are in receipt of the letter and will respond in accordance with the Presidential Records Act (PRA)."

 Trump handed over day-to-day control of the D.C. hotel to his sons during his presidency. In a statement, Eric Trump said, “As a company, we went to tremendous lengths to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest, not due to any legal requirement, but because of the respect we have towards the office of the presidency. We walked away from billions of dollars in new deals, ceased all international expansion, engaged with an outside ethics advisor to review any material transactions and furthermore, have voluntarily donated all profits from foreign government patronage at our properties back to the United States Treasury on an annual basis. Moreover, my father is the first president in history to donate his annual salary back to the United States government. No president has made a greater financial sacrifice for the benefit of the country.”

 The Malaysian expenditures at the Trump Hotel were the most extensive in a one-week period found by the Oversight Committee to date.  The Malaysian sovereign wealth fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) was under investigation by the Justice Department for embezzling billions in funds and laundering them through American financial institutions to buy exclusive properties in the U.S., a yacht, and fine art by Monet and van Gogh.

 The Justice Department proceeded with its civil forfeiture and returned hundreds of millions of dollars to the Malaysian people in 2021. Razak was voted out of office in 2018 and in August of this year a Malaysian court ordered him to begin a 12-year prison sentence for his conduct related to 1MDB. A spokesperson for the Malaysian Embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

 Elliott Broidy, a Republican fundraiser and Trump ally who was later convicted of acting as an unregistered foreign agent for Malaysia and other countries, also spent more than $5,000 at the hotel during the week the Malaysian delegation stayed there, according to hotel receipts obtained by the Oversight Committee. As part of his plea, Broidy admitted to illegally lobbying Trump and then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions to drop the civil forfeiture proceedings against 1MBD

 Broidy spent another $2,970 at the Trump International Hotel in October 2017 while lobbying on behalf of the UAE during the Qatar blockade, according to the Oversight Committee. In January 2021, Broidy was pardoned by Trump. Broidy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

 In total, Saudi Arabia and the UAE spent at least $164,929 at the Trump Hotel from the latter part of 2017 through the middle of 2018. Spokespeople for the embassies of Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

 In May of 2017, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan visited Washington. According to the Oversight Committee, documents from Mazars show the Turkish Embassy sponsored two stays at the Trump hotel around the time of Erdoğan’s visit. Hotel records show an account for the “Embassy of Turkey Delegation” was closed on May 9, 2017, and an account for the “Embassy of Turkey” was closed on May 23, 2017, according to the Oversight Committee. The documentation obtained did not show how much the embassy spent at the hotel during either of these stays.

 The documents did show that a lobbyist for Turkey, Trump donor Brian Ballard, spent $21,209 over 37 nights at the Trump hotel from September 2017 to April 2018, according to the Oversight Committee.

 In a statement, Ballard said, “Prior to purchasing a residence in Washington in 2018, I stayed at a number of hotels in Washington, including the Trump Hotel, and paid fair market rates for those nights. There is nothing unusual, newsworthy or noteworthy about that fact.”

 The Turkish Embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

 In August 2017, the Embassy of China delegation spent $19,391 at the Trump International Hotel, less than three months before Trump’s visit to Beijing, according to the committee’s findings.

 The committee noted that the casino magnate Steve Wynn, a Trump friend who had significant business interests in China, stayed at the Trump hotel twice in the fall of 2017, spending $9,370. The Justice Department sued Wynn seeking to compel him to retroactively register as an agent of China. Last month a judge dismissed the lawsuit. Spokespeople for the Chinese Embassy and Wynn did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

 Maloney said Mazars continues to share Trump hotel-related ledgers with the Oversight Committee.

 In a statement, Mazars said, “Due to our industry’s professional obligations Mazars cannot discuss any clients — current or former, the status of our relationships, or the nature of our services in a public forum without client consent or as required by law. We remain committed to fulfilling all of our professional and legal obligations."

 This article was originally published on NBCNews.com

 Here are yet more examples of foreign governments, foreign nationals, and more than a few domestic interests meeting the extortionist price for access.  Grift and Graft.  As tRUMP observer David Kay Johnston has observed from when tRUMP and larvae stepped out of their limousines during the Inaugural Parade back from the swearing-in at the Capitol to the White House and stood before their newly minted hotel, the message was clear.  It was pay to play. 

 This underscores the outrage of Robert Mueller accepting the prohibition imposed by Rosenstein that investigating tRUMP’s finances were off limits to the special counsel.  It has always been about the money.  Bailing tRUMP out of his financial collapse in the late 80’s is how the Rooskies got their clutches into him.  Failure to follow the money, including Manhattan D.A  Alvin Bragg’s complete dereliction of duty constitutes a monumental failure of justice.   

 Why it has taken six years and we still don’t have his tax returns strains the bounds of justice.  The wheels of justice turn much too slow, especially for our Orange Mussolini for justice delayed is justice denied.

 Indict. Prosecute. Convict. Imprison.

 _____________

 

1.      https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-d-c-hotel-receipts-reveal-10-500-a-night-rooms-for-foreign-officials-seeking-to-influence-u-s-policy

October 22, 2022: In Order To Survive

 

This republic, in order to survive, had to confiscate the wealth of the slave owners, then the richest men on the planet. Today we are confronted with a group of billionaire oligarchs holding the fate of the nation, indeed the world, in their hands. It is time for the nation to once again confiscate wealth and do it in the name of the republic.

----Quotations of Chairman Joe

September 29, 2022: Maggots Fed Up, Bloviating Gas-Bag, End Of His Tether.

 

Yahoo News published a report on the 23^rd of this month stating that the maggots may be fed up with Donald tRUMP. Dwindling attendance at his hate rallies; declining poll numbers even within the Republican Party, and now awful fundraising returns indicate that perhaps the bloviating gas-bag may well be at the end of his tether. Eric Garcia, reported that in the month of August, the 'Make America Gag Again' Super PAC, which recently shelled out 3 million in attorney fees, to keep the long arm of the law at bay, took in a paltry $40.00 in August. That's right, forty dollars total. Here is Garcia's report:

“Former president Donald Trump’s super PAC raised only $40 in the month of August, in a sign that his name doesn’t have the fundraising pull it once did.Along with the low August numbers, the Make America Great Again, Again! super PAC only raised $351,000 in July and nothing in June. By comparison, in the final fundraising quarter of last year, the super PAC raised $4m to $5m.

Even in April and May, it raised $864,000. Among some of the merchandise Mr Trump’s political action committees is selling are his son-in-law Jared Kushner’s memoir of his time working in the Trump White House, Trump wine glasses, a rally speech signed by the former president and the opportunity have their name engraved on the “donor wall”.

The numbers come as Save America political action committee foots the bill for Mr Trump’s legal fees. Last month, it spent $3.8m on legal fees, the most it had spent on such fees for a month the entire 2022 campaign cycle, with $3m going to Critton, Luttier & Coleman, a law firm based in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Most recently, New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a $250m lawsuit against Mr Trump, the Trump Organization and his three adult children for “engaging in years of financial fraud”. In addition, Mr Trump faces ongoing questions about the storage of presidential documents after the FBI executed a search warrant at his Mar-a-Lago estate last month.

Mr Trump’s fundraising network features seven political action committees, which altogether have $122m on hand. Despite this, he has spent little on supporting candidates for the 2022 midterm elections as Republicans hope to win back the House and Senate.” (1)

This came to my attention this afternoon watching a David Parkman podcast in which he cited this article as well as showing video of our intrepid con man begging for money citing a certain self-imposed 'deadline' for contributions no doubt to cover his legal expenses. The walls are closing in, the well is drying up and, perhaps, justice is at long last at the door.

Indict. Prosecute. Convict. Imprison

__________

1. https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/trump-super-pac-raised-just-155403468.html

September 1, 2022: Storm Is Brewing. Had Enough, tRUMP Is Done

 

In an essay written by a weekly columnist for the publication Salon, longtime White House correspondent Brian Karem wrote—in tone and in terms very much like those in these columns—his assessment of ReSCUMlickan prospects for November and the reasons why. Herein his essay in its entirety:

“One afternoon in college I found myself picking up trash at a Wendy's parking lot on the Business Loop in Columbia, Missouri.

I can't remember what happened the night before — no nefarious story there.

I simply cannot remember the mundane routine of most days compared to the shock of that one. It began as a beautiful sunny day. Warm. Calm. Nice. I picked up the trash as part of my employment requirements that afternoon and glanced up to enjoy the sun. I looked toward the horizon and in the sky saw what looked like a fat dark purple line drawn by a Sharpie marker. 

I wasn't sure what I was looking at.

In a short time I found out. The squall furiously assaulted Columbia and sent the outdoor garbage cans I had just emptied, flying into the air like rockets.

Rain and hail exploded onto the ground; the combination caused near-immediate flooding and was responsible for broken windows, dented cars, downed trees, downed power lines and many damaged roofs. 

As a lover of big weather, it was memorable.

As strong as it was, that storm is nothing compared to the political storm brewing this fall.

The future of the country is in the balance. Vegas oddsmakers could go either way. The latest polls, current conventional wisdom and some cautionary words for the GOP from Mitch McConnell (who stands out not only for his narcissism but also because he's one of the few Republicans who can count) suggest that the GOP may recapture the House while failing to take the Senate. 

Trump followers, who've evidently studied the Beer Hall Putsch, believe the Trumplican party will be victorious and consume its enemies in hellfire, congressional hearings and a never-ending belittlement on conservative media. Some Republicans with gavel envy and a lust for power are reportedly looking at swatches for their new offices.

They preach civil war and destruction should they not prevail, or if Trump is denied a return to his golden throne. They say those things even as they drive their SUVs less than a mile to go grocery shopping, visit their doctors and hit the drive-through for their favorite cholesterol burger and then a convenience store for smokes and liquor. 

No one's going to risk a real civil war while those things are readily available — not for a period of time longer than it takes to march to the Capitol and get arrested. 

A recent NBC poll reports that "persuadable" voters — which means registered voters who are not core Democrats or Republicans — are "breaking toward the party controlling the White House and Congress," which would be the Democrats.

The Hill recently published an opinion piece that said the GOP's embrace of extremism has dimmed its midterm hopes. Perpetual Republican cheerleader Anne Coulter just announced the political demise of Donald Trump, using the words millions have already mouthed: "Trump is done."

Maybe she's right. Of course, we've heard all this before and that's part of the problem. When it comes to Trump, there's nothing new. It's just reruns and Trump's ratings are wearing thin. People are sick and tired of his pre-pubescent drama. 

Every single person I spoke with in a month-long trip across the country said they'd "had enough" of the ongoing Trump melodrama. They want it canceled.

In a recent month-long trip across the country I visited 15 states and cities, from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C. Some were large, and some were as small as Millersburg, Missouri. Everywhere I visited, and every person I spoke with — more than 100 in 30 days — expressed exhaustion and frustration with politics. And while registered voters of both major parties blame both parties for the sorry state of affairs in this country (while failing to place the blame on themselves), every single person I spoke with said they've "had enough" of the ongoing Trump political melodrama. They want it canceled.

Finally, at a Mexican restaurant in Fulton, Missouri, I met a woman who said she was afraid there is no "United" left in the United States. She had spoken recently with a close relative in Kansas City and that relative was apparently equally fearful about the future. "I'm just so tired of it all," she said to me. She blamed Trump for a lack of civility, as well as other politicians and, of course, the media.

Progressives. Conservatives. Black. White. Immigrant. Hispanic. Male. Female. Gay. Straight. Trans. Rock n' Roll. Country. Bib overalls, G-Wagon, homeless or anything else. Everyone is tired of it. Well, except the ultra-rich. They're fine with it, since it doesn't adversely affect the bottom line, at least so far. But the rest of us are seriously exhausted by the vitriol in this country — vitriol we've all been intricately involved in creating. OK, some of us more than others.

Inflection point: Now.

The disgust with the lack of civility has converged with a growing anger brought about by the recent Supreme Court case reversing the 50-year-old Roe v. Wade decision. "The Catholics did that to us," one conservative Baptist told me in West Virginia. (Five of the six justices who voted to overturn Roe are conservative Catholics.) In Los Angeles, a rabbi told me, "I don't need to be preached to by other faiths about morality." 

A "devoutly" conservative woman I spoke with from rural Kentucky was most poignant. Her niece had an abortion because of a life-threatening condition. A "close" family member had an abortion because of an unwanted pregnancy from an abusive common-law husband she later left. 

"No one should tell us how to lead our lives," she explained to me. "That's what the Republicans used to be about. It was my body and my choice not to get vaccinated. The Republicans wanted government to leave us alone to make our own choices. But they don't want that anymore." 

A "devoutly" conservative woman in rural Kentucky told me, "No one should tell us how to lead our lives. That's what the Republicans used to be about: Leave us alone to make our own choices."

A growing number of people now understand the Republicans as a brazen group of feckless bullies. Welcome to the party. The woman I spoke with in Kentucky said something echoed by at least a couple dozen others I spoke with in the last month: "I don't usually vote. I am this year. I've already registered — and I'm not voting for a Republican." 

That continues to be the key for the Democrats. If the voter turnout is large, then the Republicans are done, since there are more registered Democrats. Issues? The Republicans have already conceded on the issues. All the Republicans have left is fear — and that, like Trump, grows wearisome. 

Elie Mystal, a writer for the Nation, said on Mary Trump's livestream show Tuesday that it comes down to whether or not white women have "had enough" with the Republican Party. He's not wrong. But it's not just white women who are ready to flee the GOP. It turns out people don't like it when a civil right they've taken for granted for the last 50 years is suddenly yanked away. Ironically, it is the Republican Party's greatest victory — the Dobbs decision, delivered by a politicized Supreme Court — that may prove to be its undoing. 

Bottom line: Any person capable of cogent thought is fleeing Trump and the Republican party. Anne Coulter proves that even those not capable of cogent thought are fleeing Trump.

Trump is done. Trumpism? Well, waiting in the wings is Ron DeSantis, who already prides himself on limiting access to the media. Even those who love him hate him. Fortunately for the rest of the world — that is, the world outside Florida — DeSantis currently has the popularity of a malignant tumor. Of course, that's never stopped the Republicans. They excel at finding malignancies and helping them metastasize in the body politic. 

*  *  *

I finished my travels this week with a visit to Annapolis. 

There I saw the Reflecting Fools, the new political satire theater group that sprouted from the ashes of the Capitol Steps. The show left me feeling nostalgic for a future filled with education, science and a sense of humor.

I wasn't alone. One line delivered in a skit was met with thunderous applause. "Pay teachers more and Congress less" nearly got a standing ovation. It gave me hope that the United States may yet endure — if we can laugh at ourselves.

Trump can't do that, though he'd probably watch the show — he'll take any attention you throw his way — even when he's being mocked. DeSantis may be the true menace. He struggles to control media access with an il Duce like focus. Hell, when DeSantis frowns, he looks like Mussolini with hair.

A racial skit by the Reflecting Fools, featuring a Kermit the Frog impression, ended on a hopeful note: "We can all talk to each other civilly." It struck a resonant chord among the audience — a diverse, packed house with an average age of around 45, and at least progressive enough to laugh.

The show also featured a skit that posited that Democrats will prevail this November but still, somehow, find a way to "muck it up." It's long-running conventional wisdom that the Democrats will find a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, but this year it's in vogue to believe that Democrats, despite their propensity for self-immolation, have a real chance to win and solidify their majority in both houses of Congress. If that's what happens, Trump is done and the GOP is screwed. 

If the Republicans could only understand that they did this to themselves. In the end, history mat note it was the compulsive need for self-gratification that ultimately soured the most zealous of the Trump Republicans. It's one thing to get screwed. It's quite another to watch someone who wants to screw their own side more than they want to screw their supposed enemies; that's when it becomes too kinky. 

There's little hope for what's left of the GOP. We're watching it die, in a coming tempest that will reshape the political landscape for a generation. It looks to be Ron DeSantis' party now — and he's a true menace.

There's little hope for what's left of the GOP. Lindsey Graham will probably soon be an inmate in a rubber room or wearing orange. Mark Meadows has gone MIA. Jim Jordan was recently seen on television sporting so much flop sweat that he looked like he just walked out of a college locker room. Jeffrey Clark got dragged out of his house in his pajamas. Rudy Giuliani is the target of a criminal investigation in Georgia. A 23-year-old assistant turned the tables on the former president in a highly publicized edition of the Jan. 6 hearings, and Donald Trump is apparently so upset that he's painting his walls with ketchup after being stupid enough not to return government documents — and lying about them repeatedly while also saying they were planted by the FBI and he declassified them anyway — maybe after he traded them for favors.

We are watching the Republican Party in its death throes.

That death is the nexus of a tempest that will reshape the political landscape for the next generation, and perhaps beyond. Whatever is left of the GOP looks to be DeSantis' party, and he's one of the most vile pieces of political excrement ever flung onto the scene.

So, yes — there is a storm coming. It's not a civil war. It's a reckoning — and I reckon the GOP would rather not face it. All the Democrats have to do is show up and vote, and the Republicans' beloved Supreme Court gave them an excellent reason to do so.

The FBI search of Trump's Mar-a-Lago home was merely an affirmation that those eager to flee the GOP needed, to let them know their instincts were right. When the facts are understood, Donald, it turns out that nobody likes a traitor.” (1)

As if to drive home the point tRUMPist Sarah Palin the disgraceful half-term former governor of Alaska lost last night in her bid to fill the vacant seat of the state's sole congressman. In a ranked order voting process she finished three points behind her Democratic competitor. Yes, Alaska now has a Democrat holding state wide office. This morning Palin, like Caesar Disgustus, whines about the outcome complaining that it was the process not the outcome that ran afoul. It's always the process. In an effort to discredit the process and, therefore, the legitimacy of the outcome, Palin refuses to recognize that yes the good people of her state had more choice in who to vote for but in exercising that choice they didn't pull the lever for her.

This is the second special congressional election that the ReSCUMlickans have lost in a week. The storm is coming and, perhaps, it's not blowing in the direction the scum think it is.

Indict. Convict. Imprison

________________

1. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/a-storm-is-coming-it-might-sweep-trump-and-the-gop-into-history-s-dustbin/