Twenty-seven days to E-Day, and for the vast
majority of people, it cannot get here quickly enough. I would have to imagine Clinton supporters
are slightly more interested in getting it over with, based on today’s polling,
since Mrs. Clinton leads in most polls at the moment.
Last week I wrote about the first of the
Campaign’s infamous October surprises, which dealt with Mr. Trump’s taxes, and
the smart, brilliant, genius way in which he has, despite his alleged $10
billion worth, he has avoided paying any, perhaps for the better part of two
decades. In Sunday night’s second
Presidential Debate, he asserted that Mrs. Clinton’s wealthy donors had used
the same strategies he does, specifically identifying the Carried Interest
Forward provision, and naming Warren Buffet among those donors.
Mr. Buffet, who does support Mrs. Clinton, and
who backed President Obama before that, responded quickly to that claim, to
which he took great exception. After
advising that Mr. Trump had clearly not seen his taxes, Mr. buffet noted that
he has paid taxes every year for 72 years, dating back to 1944 (incidentally,
two year longer than Mr. Trump has been alive), and added that he has copies of
all 72 returns. He also indicated he has
never used the Carried Interest Forward provision. He not only cited specifics about his own
taxes, he revealed details about his 2015 return, including, according to
Business Wire:
·
Adjusted Gross Income - $11,563,931
·
Deductions - $5,477,694
·
Allowable Charitable
Contributions - $3,469,179
·
With the exception of
$36,037, the difference between deductions and charitable contributions went
toward State Income Taxes
·
Total Charitable
Contributions - $2,858,057,970
·
Of that number, more than
$2.85 billion was not taken as deductions (and never will be), based on tax law
limits to charitable deductions
·
Total Federal Income Tax -
$1,845,557
Mr. Buffet said his contributions for previous
years reflected similar contributions, deductions, and tax rates. Forbes Magazine has pegged Mr. Buffet’s worth
at $65 billion. In his most pointed
comments direct at Mr. Trump, he revealed that he had been audited by the IRS
on multiple occasions, including currently, and that he has no problem making
his tax information public while being audited.
He added that neither would Trump – at least not a legal problem.
Of course, in the week that has passed since my
last post, there has been another October surprise that rocked Trump
World. Last Friday a video was released
showing Mr. Trump making remarks that a vast segment of the American population
characterizes as him describing his propensity to commit sexual assault on
women. Mr. Trump apologized, then
downgraded his remarks to what he called “locker room talk,” then he attempted
to further inoculate himself by claiming Bill Clinton said far worse to him on
the golf course. All in all, it is
unclear whether Trump is attempting to minimize the negativity of his own
comments, or once again trying to insert Bill Clinton into the role of bad guy,
to lower the temperature of the fix in which he finds himself.
This latter imbroglio led to a number of
prominent republicans rescinding their endorsement of Mr. Trump, some of whom
declared they would not be voting for him, and a few who actually indicated
they would be voting for Mrs. Clinton.
Even the Speaker of the House has said he will no longer defend Donald
Trump, and that he will, for the next four weeks, focus on electing down ballot
Republicans. Not surprisingly, Mr. Trump
responded by attacking Speaker Ryan, calling him weak, and a few other not so
positive things.
While much of the current conversation around
the GOP Nominee centers on his “sexcapades,” or at least his potty mouth, I
want to highlight another of his high profile escapades…and he has had many,
before, and during his campaign. He has:
·
Employed racist comments,
tactics, and actions
·
Demeaned women
·
Roiled anti-Muslim sentiment
·
Disparaged Mexicans
·
Embraced harassment of blacks
at his rallies
·
Attacked the notion that John
McCain was a war hero
·
Antagonized a Gold Star
family
·
Belittled a former Miss
Universe
·
Alleged the President was not
born in America
·
Ran an ad calling for the
State to kill five schoolchildren
The list above is not intended to reflect a Top
10 of Mr. Trump’s offensive deeds or actions.
In fact, it is an acutely abridged version of what some might refer to
as his parade of despicable antics. I am
going to briefly elevate the last of the preceding bullets notated. That bullet summarizes the Central Park
jogger case, which summarizes
a 1989 case familiarly known as the Central
Park 5.
A woman was attacked while jogging in New York City's Central Park, on April 19,
1989.
The encounter consisted of violent assault, rape, and sodomy. The 28-year-old victim remained in a coma
for 12 days.
The New York Times characterized the assault as one of the most widely
publicized crimes of the 1980’s.
When the story broke, it was detailed by police
and prosecutors as a band of young people, part of a larger gang, rampaging
Central Park, and mercilessly beating and assaulting the jogger. The story exploded upon the public sphere,
having been fanned by both politicians and sensationalized media stories.
Five black and Hispanic men, ages 14 to 16 were
arrested, ad subsequently convicted.
Despite the fact all of them asserted that the incriminating statements
they gave had been coerced by authorities, their statements were ruled admissible,
and led to convictions in 1990.
In 2002, the Manhattan District Attorney (DA)
found DNA and other evidence that the woman had not been beaten and raped by
the five teens. Instead, another man, a
convicted rapist and murderer who had confessed to acting alone in the
attack. The DA concluded that the new
evidence, if available, could have resulted in a different verdict during the
trial. He joined a defense motion asking
that the convictions be vacated.
In 2014, the five men agreed to a $41 million
settlement from New York City to
resolve a civil rights lawsuit over their arrests and imprisonment. The settlement averaged about $1 million for
each year the men were imprisoned.
Current Mayor Bill de Blasio deemed it a “moral obligation to right this injustice.” The suit alleged false arrest, malicious
prosecution, and a racially motivated conspiracy to deprive them of their civil
tights by the city’s police and prosecutors.
It is worth noting, the previous Mayor, Michael Bloomberg vigorously
denied and fought against in federal court for more than a decade.
Let’s
rewind. On May 1, 1989, Mr. Trump
published an ad in the New York
Daily News calling for the State to kill the five teenagers who had been
arrested, convicted, and as we now know, confessed to the crimes under police
coercion. Though convicted, they were
not guilty, a fact later proved by DNA and other evidence.
In retrospect,
it is clear the possibility that the Central Park 5 might be innocent never
occurred to Donald Trump. Apparently, it
still hasn’t. He concluded with a clarion call to anger and fear:
“BRING BACK THE DEATH PENALTY. BRING BACK OUR POLICE!"
When the city offered to
settle the case, Mr. Trump again took to the New York Daily News with an op-ed full of
disgust. He insisted it was
“ridiculous” that the city offered a settlement, and that “settling doesn’t
mean innocence.” This is his position
even after their exoneration, and moreover, after DNA evidence established
without a doubt that someone else (who also confessed) was the culprit.
Just last week Trump told CNN in a
statement "they admitted
they were guilty. The police doing the original investigation say they were
guilty. The fact that that case was settled with so much evidence against them
is outrageous. And the woman, so badly injured, will never be the same."
This choice to
embrace some facts, yes those things happened, while ignoring others, such as
the new DNA evidence and corresponding confession, are emblematic of what I
have come to consider the Trump Way.
This is an artful design with seven key principles. He has already written The Art of the Deal (1987), and The
Art of the Comeback (1997). Perhaps
his next tome should entitled, The Art of
“Deny,Decry, Defend, Deflect, Divert, Dissemble, and Dismiss: The Trump Mantra!”
I’m done; holla
back!
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