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Beware of Dog -
This Letter Exposes The Absurdity Of Donald Trump’s Excuses About His Tax Returns
by Aaron Rupar May 13, 2016 12:26 pm
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump says he won’t release his tax returns so long as they’re being audited. This week, Trump told the Associated Press he probably won’t be releasing any returns before November, which suggests he doesn’t expect the audits to be wrapped up anytime soon. That means Trump could potentially become the first major party candidate in 40 years to not release his taxes.
Why wouldn’t Trump at least release old returns no longer under IRS scrutiny? A March letter written to Trump by his accountants notes that “your tax returns for the years 2002 through 2008 have been closed administratively.” That leads one to believe there shouldn’t be any issue with at least releasing those returns.
But not so fast. The same letter says, “Your returns for these years [2009-2015] report items that are attributable to continuing transactions on activities that were also reported on returns for 2008 and earlier. In this sense, the pending examinations are continuations of prior, closed examinations.”
In short, the letter asserts that transactions included in pre-2009 returns are part of a never-ending link that continues into the recent returns. Since Trump’s accountants regard all the returns as connected in this way, the letter not only provides Trump with a ready-made excuse for refusing to release returns dating back to 2002, but it could also be used to refuse to release any tax returns altogether.
There’s no good reason for Trump to refuse to release under-audit tax returns in the first place. As Paul Krugman writes in his Friday column, “the fact that he’s being audited (or at least that he says he’s being audited) should make it easier for him to go public — after all, he needn’t fear triggering an audit!”
On Wednesday, 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney published a Facebook post opining that “It is disqualifying for a modern-day presidential nominee to refuse to release tax returns to the voters, especially one who has not been subject to public scrutiny in either military or public service… Further, while not a likely circumstance, the potential for hidden inappropriate associations with foreign entities, criminal organizations, or other unsavory groups is simply too great a risk to ignore for someone who is seeking to become commander-in-chief.”
The “potential for hidden inappropriate associations with… criminal organizations” line is more than just idle chatter in this case. In February, then-presidential candidate Ted Cruz noted, “There have been multiple media reports about Donald’s business dealings with the mob, with the mafia. Maybe his taxes show those business dealings are a lot more extensive than has been reported.” Fast Company reports that in 1992, the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement looked into multiple allegations about Trump’s links to organized crime, but didn’t take any action.
Another explanation for Trump’s refusal to release his taxes is that it could represent an attempt to hide the fact he’s not as “really rich” as he says. After all, Trump’s primary case for the presidency is that he’s a wildly successful businessman who would bring his shrewd deal-making skills to the Oval Office. If his returns reveal he’s not as successful as he portrays himself to be, that could undercut his fundamental narrative.
Whatever the reason, Trump’s stonewalling extends beyond his tax returns to questions about how much he pays in taxes.
During a Friday morning phone interview on Good Morning America, George Stephanopoulos asked Trump, “What is your tax rate?”
“It’s none of your business,” Trump responded. “You’ll see it when I release [my returns] but I fight very hard to pay as little tax as possible.”
In 2012, Romney’s tax returns became politically problematic in part because they revealed he paid an effective tax rate of 13.9 percent — a rate not only less than what many middle-class Americans pay, but also well below what wealthy people pay.
But during his interview with Stephanopoulos, Trump indicated he has no shame about the fact he tries to pay as little taxes as possible.
“This country wastes our money,” Trump said. “They take our tax money and throw it down the drain. They spend $4 trillion in the Middle East and we can’t fix a road or a bridge… that’s part of the problem so I fight very hard to pay as little tax as possible.”
Just how successful Trump’s fight is toward that end will remain a mystery unless he releases his returns.
LINKComment
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Uh, which spokesperson is that?...
Donald Trump masqueraded as publicist to brag about himself
Originally posted by sadaistComment
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What a lying asshole!
Eternally Under the Authority of Satan
Originally posted by SockfuckerComment
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Crossing the Line: How Donald Trump Behaved With Women in
Interviews reveal unwelcome advances, a shrewd reliance on ambition, and unsettling workplace conduct over decades.
By MICHAEL BARBARO and MEGAN TWOHEYMAY 14, 2016
Donald J. Trump had barely met Rowanne Brewer Lane when he asked her to change out of her clothes.
Donald was having a pool party at Mar-a-Lago. There were about 50 models and 30 men. There were girls in the pools, splashing around. For some reason Donald seemed a little smitten with me. He just started talking to me and nobody else.
He suddenly took me by the hand, and he started to show me around the mansion. He asked me if I had a swimsuit with me. I said no. I hadn’t intended to swim. He took me into a room and opened drawers and asked me to put on a swimsuit.
–Rowanne Brewer Lane, former companion
Ms. Brewer Lane, at the time a 26-year-old model, did as Mr. Trump asked. “I went into the bathroom and tried one on,” she recalled. It was a bikini. “I came out, and he said, ‘Wow.’ ”
Mr. Trump, then 44 and in the midst of his first divorce, decided to show her off to the crowd at Mar-a-Lago, his estate in Palm Beach, Fla.
“He brought me out to the pool and said, ‘That is a stunning Trump girl, isn’t it?’ ” Ms. Brewer Lane said.
Donald Trump and women: The words evoke a familiar cascade of casual insults, hurled from the safe distance of a Twitter account, a radio show or a campaign podium. This is the public treatment of some women by Mr. Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president: degrading, impersonal, performed. “That must be a pretty picture, you dropping to your knees,” he told a female contestant on “The Celebrity Apprentice.” Rosie O’Donnell, he said, had a “fat, ugly face.” A lawyer who needed to pump milk for a newborn? “Disgusting,” he said.
But the 1990 episode at Mar-a-Lago that Ms. Brewer Lane described was different: a debasing face-to-face encounter between Mr. Trump and a young woman he hardly knew. This is the private treatment of some women by Mr. Trump, the up-close and more intimate encounters.
... Con'td at The New York TimesComment
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Eternally Under the Authority of Satan
Originally posted by SockfuckerComment
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Even MORE pseudo-left horseshit from your slave, ladies and douchebags.Comment
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