Crooked Donald and his crooked financial practices

[luzribeiro.livejournal.com]

"Donald Trump was in a tuxedo, standing next to his award: a statue of a palm tree, as tall as a toddler. It was 2010, and Trump was being honored by a charity — the Palm Beach Police Foundation — for his “selfless support” of its cause. His support did not include any of his own money. Instead, Trump had found a way to give away somebody else’s money and claim the credit for himself."

Full WaPo article here.

Here's the thing. Until 2008, Trump's foundation was doing pretty fine, as far as charity goes. But then... a few things changed...

First, Trump stopped giving money to his charity. Instead, he started "delegating" this to others, convincing them to give money to his foundation, then gave the money to charity and made it look as if the donations were coming from him like before. Now, as legal as that may be, in terms of being ethical, it doesn't get the cake. It's not just unethical, it's disgusting.

Second, Trump started using his foundation as his personal piggy-bank. There was an occasion where during an auction, Trump was the highest bigger for a signed football jersey; at another auction, he was the biggest bidder for a huge portrait of himself. On both occasions, he used money for these bids that didn't come from his own purse - he used funds from his "charity" foundation. Other donors' money, remember?

There's more, of course. Much, much more. The article is pretty extensive in that respect. Of course Trump is either going to outright deny all of this, or make some bullshit excuse, or just declare "What's your problem, we want to make America great again!" And of course, none of the above is going to deter the mindless Trump supporters who are still going to vote for him no matter what.

Crooked Hillary, you say, Donald? What about your own crooked practices!?

Comments

[dexeron.livejournal.com]

It's one of the most frustrating things (to me) about this entire political cycle. There are lots of good reasons to not support Clinton for President. I can understand some folks being concerned about her "hawkishness" and are concerned about the continuation of an American foreign policy that seems unconcerned with starting more fires in places that have already seen enough conflict. I can understand simply disagreeing with her solutions to common problems and her policy ideas for reaching common goals.

What I can't understand is this insistence by so many on believing that she is corrupt (uniquely and utterly) based entirely and utterly on rumors and innuendo that started the moment the GOP got uncomfortable with a strong liberal woman influencing the executive policies of her husband. For decades now, they have thrown everything they can at the wall, hoping that something would stick. Nothing has - the wall remains unstained, and yet so many impacts have dented it.

And people, hearing these accusations, even if they later find out that they were untrue, do have their trust eroded. It's just human nature. And so they are that much more credulous when the next accusation comes along, and it becomes a cycle, almost a self-fulfilling prophecy.

So we have people literally demanding that she be thrown in jail for imagined "crimes," saying that she is the most corrupt politician ever, that she's a consummate liar, that she's elitist, and cold, and conniving, and two-faced: that she's a literal monster. And yet people who know her describe her as a champion for great causes, meticulously principled, one of the most honest politicians currently in the field, one of the most consistent when it comes to core principles, and one of the most willing to change course if shown that her current position actually contradicts her principles, the most able to give an intelligent nuanced answer to a problem that isn't so easily put in simply black/white terms.

(Another frustrating aspect of this incessant Clinton bashing is that it makes calling out her actual failings very difficult. So many criticisms of her are so baseless that calling out real areas of concern are going to be met by her supporters with shrugs of "it must be false, like everything else" and met by her detractors with "see! More proof that she is wicked!" It makes an intelligent analysis of her strengths and shortcomings almost impossible.)

But for Trump, who is literally in court fighting charges over his fraudulent "university," whose foundation actually was (seemingly) corrupt, to have the gall to continually call Clinton crooked. Irony and shame no longer exist in American politics. We've gone completely over the cliff, and if the short fingered vulgarian and his "basket of deplorables" wins this November, I'll lose a lot of the faith I have left in our political process.

[johnny9fingers.livejournal.com]

I think you have pretty much nailed it on the head here. The hatred of Hills started, for those of us with long memories, with Bill's first term. And they have thrown everything including the kitchen sink at her ever since...and almost none of it is true excepting she stood by the Little Rock Casanova. WJC must be quite a charming fellow, but that doesn't explain the hate.

She has been hawkish, true, and legitimate criticism has been stifled because of all the bullshit and character assassination that folk with the wit to can see. I have a sense of injustice about it all; not that will ever influence things one way or the other. But I agree with what you say.

[mikeyxw.livejournal.com]

"the GOP got uncomfortable with a strong liberal woman influencing the executive policies of her husband."

This actually had more to do with her crafting and implementing executive policies for her husband. She was one of the major forces behind Clinton's health care reform policies. Really, she was acting like a senator or a cabinet member without bothering to be elected or appointed. Perhaps Mr. Clinton should have appointed Mrs. Clinton to a cabinet position, this would be nepotism of course but at least she'd have the authority and accountability to match what she was doing. Of course, if it seems somewhat suspect that a president would appoint his wife to a cabinet position, why is it better for her to act as he had done so without making it official?

Of course since then, she has been elected and appointed to quite a few positions and shown herself to be capable and intelligent. Maybe people didn't agree with what she did, but she is obviously no lightweight, as those jokers who kept asking her about Benghazi found. She has also continued to act in ways that seem to avoid accountability. To me, the most troubling thing about her use of a personal email server as the Secretary of State is not that she may have sent out classified information but rather than she seems to be avoiding transparency. She, uniquely for a Secretary of state in the past few decades, never sent an email from her @state.gov account during her entire tenure. Emails sent from government accounts are archived, subject to FOIA requests, and generally used to review actions by government employees and make sure there is transparency... except if you're Mrs. Clinton because they don't exist.

[johnny9fingers.livejournal.com]

Pretty much.

Mind you, after the way folk have gone after Hills for more than two decades, it is unsurprising that she leaves so few paper trails. If I'd been treated like her, I would have even shredded my cereal boxes, never mind my mail, email, bank statements, bills....

[paft.livejournal.com]

The reason for this "she's JUST as bad" meme we keep encountering is simple.

It's easier.

Talking about the nuts and bolts of Hillary Clinton's policies, why they are good, why they are bad, requires more mental heavy lifting than just rolling one's eyes, emoting, exaggerating, typing in over-the-top adjectives, and dismissing with contempt anyone who disagrees. This kind of reflexive approach to political discussion is especially appealing now because making a case for her being worse (or even just as bad) as Trump is likely to fall apart at the first brush of reality.



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[dreamville-bg.livejournal.com]

The whole political zoo is crooked, not just these two. We've only been presented with some of the more extreme manifestations of that crookedness this time.

[johnny9fingers.livejournal.com]

Pretty much spot on. Trump is so "unclean" it is a joke.