Two Sets of Books

Last week the Chief Financial Officer of the Trump Organization, Allen Wiesselburg, was handcuffed and brought to court on the charge of a scheme for tax fraud and grand larceny by The Manhattan District Attorney, Cyrus Vance, and the New York Attorney, Letitia James.  He did not do this to line his own pockets, of course, he did this at the direction of his long-time boss, Donald Trump.  He didn’t do it to steal from his boss, he did it to help his boss steal from the taxpayers. 

The biggest news of this story, however is that Wiesselburg kept two sets of books – the real and the fraudulent.

This is just the first in a long series of criminal charges to come against the long-time criminal and corrupt Trump organization - and Trump himself.  The criminal charges will just keep coming at the Trump Organization, the Trump children, and the former guy himself.  I hope they get to the Russian money laundering before they are through.

The former guy’s defense is, hey what the heck?  Everybody tries to avoid taxes, what’s the big deal?  Ask Al Capone who served 8 years of an 11 year Alcatraz prison sentence who was released to die of syphilis soon after.  Tax evasion is a criminal offense.  The CFO is facing death in prison.  Trump is clearly the author of the crime and his time is coming.

But, let’s say the former guy manages to escape prison for tax fraud.  What else might happen?  Banks.

As his long-time personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, testified under oath to Congress, his former boss was guilty of bank fraud as well as tax fraud.  Bank fraud?  Isn’t that a prison-able crime as well?  And what about the banks themselves?  Do you think they will want to see the two sets of books kept so carefully by the CFO? 

Maybe prison isn’t the only fate in store for the former guy.  Maybe the banks get to see the off the record books and call in their loans.  Trump doesn’t have hundreds of millions of dollars to pay of the massive loans outstanding.  He faces three bad outcomes for him – prison for bank fraud, bankruptcy, and loss of his adoring MAGA Cult worshipers who have long been fooled into believing he was very successful and very rich – no more Mr. President for the former guy.

Stay tuned for the entertainment as one of the dumbest criminals in history meets his fate.

 

“Border Security”, “Critical Race Theory”, & inner city crime – Republicans’ only issues (racism)

It’s not Trump - it’s Republicans.  It’s not Republicans - it’s white supremacist “Republicans” – and white supremacist evangelical “Christians”.

What are the issues that Republican office holders and office seekers are running on?  Border security and opposition to Critical Race Theory and inner city crime.  To clarify that a bit – keep brown people out, and refuse to admit the impact of systemic racism against blacks, and be very afraid of inner city black and brown people.  Add to that the scores of new voter suppression measures in every Republican state.  We just got news that the governor of South Dakota wants to send troops to the border.  South Dakota?  Mexicans are over-running the streets in South Dakota? I guess she has ambitions for higher office in the “Republican” Party. Really disturbing.

Issues not being addressed by Republicans?  Climate change, fouling of rivers and oceans, fouling of the atmosphere, effective suppression of COVID-19 via vaccines, punishing the attempt by right wing crazies to overturn an election, staggering increase in economic inequality, hollowing out of the middle class, living wages for jobs that have been deemed essential work during this pandemic, building of infrastructure including all aspects of physical and human infrastructures, etc. etc. – i.e. actual catastrophic issues facing America.  Forget all of that, say Republican politicians.  Just attack brown and black people.  And, while you’re at it, attack yellow and red people too.

Keep the suckers distracted by trivialities so that the Oligarchy can continue to loot and despoil the country. 

How does a super-billionaire have a midlife crisis?  He builds a space ship so he can take a really fast ride into space.  Golly gee….

Real Republicans are turning away from the MAGA Trump Cult Republicans.  

But the Cult has captured the Republican Party. And if one is a Republican politician one has to out-MAGA other MAGAs, and out-MAGA the former guy himself in order to be elected by the Cult.  We are watching a party destroy itself.  Unfortunately, it is destroying a lot of America along the way.  

I have written often that the Republicans are going the way of the Whigs into oblivion – split by the racist slave owners vs. abolitionists in the 1800s and split by the racist MAGA Cultists vs. issues oriented Republicans of today.  I left the Republican Party long ago, and remain saddened as to why any stay in that party today.

Only 60 harvests left on the planet?

The earth has lost 40% of its topsoil. In 60 years some say it will all be gone.  Do we have only 60 harvests left on the planet?  Some dispute that certainty, but clearly the corporate mono-culture, chemical spraying, over-plowing agriculture, and the federal governments that it controls, are turning nutrient rich, carbon storing soil into barren, empty dirt, and throwing vast amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere.  

I just re-watched the “Kiss the Ground” documentary. It presents solutions. Regenerative farming is a major solution.  It re-greens the land, produces harvests every month of the year, grows beef and chicken as well as nutrient rich plants, and pulls carbon out of the atmosphere rather than throws it up into the atmosphere. 

Portland and Seattle are experiencing Over 100 degree temperatures. This is unthinkable. Texas had an extended freeze a few months back that crippled their sadly deregulated power grid and over a hundred died. Arctic permafrost is melting which throws CO2 into the atmosphere, which causes warming, which melts permafrost, etc. 

Time has run out. Climate Change is here.  It is deadly. Multiple species are becoming extinct. Humans are one of those species being threatened. 

This is one of many movies that shows solutions. Any series with David Attenborough does the same. He shows the wonder and beauty of our planet, sounds the urgent alarms, and offers solutions.  We have lost our connection to, and love of nature. We are killing ourselves with our indifference. 

We can turn this around, and I have great hope and expectation that our youth understand this very clearly, and will act.

 

The Jim Crow Party strikes again

 

As expected, the Republican Party killed the fair election bill in the Senate.  This allows Republican states to enact the scores of voting suppression laws they are enacting all around the country, including closing polling booths in black and brown areas, eliminating voting drop boxes for early voting, restricting mail in voting, etc.  In other words, the Republicans in the South, and around the country, are doing what the Democrats in the South did during the Jim Crow era after 1876 – doing all they can to keep minorities from voting – i.e. white supremacy rule.

One of the reasons I left the Republican Party long ago was because of the voter ID laws they wanted. At the time, I thought voter IDs were a fine idea, what would be wrong with that?  But, what I soon had to admit was that the Republicans did one thing – required voter IDs – and didn’t do what was necessary – political outreach to make voter IDs free and easy to get in areas (brown and black areas) where people didn’t have driver’s licenses.  So I reluctantly saw that the Republicans were not concerned about voter fraud, but rather they were concerned about people of color voting at all.

Going forward, I am happy for voter ID requirements if and only if they are as free and easy to get as driver’s licenses.  Meaning, government locations throughout minority, and poor white, communities where free IDs are easy to get.

The Republican Party has become the Jim Crow Party.  They have to other way to cling to power, or at least that seems to be what they admit by their actions.