The Donald Trump Score Card

Trump loves to point to the stock market as a sign of his success. But since the election it's become clear: the market prefers Biden.

Trump said the stock market would crash if Biden won. The Dow just had its best month since 1987. - KVIA

 

Oath Keeper Pleads Guilty and Will Cooperate in Jan. 6 Riot Inquiry

excerpt:

"The Oath Keepers conspiracy case is one of two large cases in which prosecutors have charged rioters with hatching plans to commit violence at the Capitol after President Donald J. Trump lost the election in November. In the other case, prosecutors have charged four leaders of the far-right nationalist group the Proud Boys with planning an attack well in advance of Jan. 6 and then leading a mob of about 100 members and supporters past police barricades.

As part of the Oath Keepers case, the authorities have said they are investigating Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the group, who was at the Capitol on Jan. 6 but did not appear to have entered the building. Prosecutors have noted in court filings that Mr. Rhodes, a former paratrooper and a graduate of Yale Law School, was in close communication with his militia members throughout the day of the attack."

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/16/us/politics/oath-keeper-guilty-plea.html

excerpt:

"The Oath Keepers conspiracy case is one of two large cases in which prosecutors have charged rioters with hatching plans to commit violence at the Capitol after President Donald J. Trump lost the election in November. In the other case, prosecutors have charged four leaders of the far-right nationalist group the Proud Boys with planning an attack well in advance of Jan. 6 and then leading a mob of about 100 members and supporters past police barricades."

 

Trump dragged the big corporate entities into the culture wars that he concocted, such as the fight over kneeling during the national anthem.

Akin to the Meidas touch, it scored some cheap points for Trump in the short run by rousing his voter base but created longer term problems. Now he and the GOP are upset that some of the corporate world isn't aligning itself with their brand of politics and is expressing its view with dollar votes, such as pulling the All-Star game out of Georgia.



Culture wars strain once unshakeable bond between Republicans, corporate America
"Talking about corporate tax cuts and reducing burdensome regulations doesn't do it for our new voters," one Republican lobbyist said.
By Allan Smith
April 4, 2021, 4:30 AM EDT

Culture wars strain once unshakeable bond between Republicans, corporate America

excerpt:

"Such public dust-ups between businesses and members of the GOP are becoming more frequent, though the divide — possibly one of the most consequential in U.S. politics and society — is years in the making. The shift is the product of a Republican Party increasingly driven by "culture war" issues that animate a base invigorated by Trump and corporate powerhouses that are under more pressure than ever to align themselves with the left on voting rights, LGBTQ rights and anti-racist efforts.

The result is a fraying in relations between a GOP that has for years advocated for the kinds of libertarian economic policies that have widely benefited these businesses and companies that are using their might to help advance racial and social justice causes.

"We have long thought and still think of the big institutional drivers of this culture war as more in academia, the arts, the media, and corporate America has mostly sat it out until recently," retiring Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., told NBC News in an interview. He added that while he does not think of corporate America "as the biggest player yet," companies coming off the sidelines "can change the dynamic.""

 

Justice Department sues Trump ally Roger Stone, alleging millions in unpaid taxes

 

Roger Stone Sued For $2 Million In Unpaid Taxes

excerpt:

"WASHINGTON — Donald Trump pardoned his longtime ally Roger Stone in the final weeks of his presidency, wiping away the Republican political operative's convictions for lying to Congress, obstructing investigators, and tampering with witnesses during the Russia investigation.

But that wasn’t the end of Stone’s legal troubles. On Friday, federal tax prosecutors filed a civil lawsuit against him in Florida claiming nearly $2 million in unpaid taxes. The government is alleging that Stone and his wife, Nydia Stone, owe more than $1.5 million in federal income taxes from 2007 to 2011 — an amount that includes hundreds of thousands of dollars in late penalties and interest — plus an additional $400,000 in unpaid income taxes and penalties from 2018 alone.

Prosecutors are also accusing the Stones of placing more than $1 million into a corporate entity that their family controlled, Drake Ventures LLC, in 2018 and 2019 in order to keep it out of the hands of the IRS. The complaint alleges that the Stones used money from Drake Ventures to pay for personal expenses — “groceries, dentist bills, spas, salons, clothing and restaurant expenses,” according to the government — as well as make a down payment on a home, resolve some of their tax debt, and pay wages to relatives and other individuals without filing the required paperwork."

 

Capitol riot: Prosecutors get first guilty plea 100 days after attack

excerpt:

How many arrests so far?

The suspects in the Capitol riot are a varied group: they include an ousted West Virginia lawmaker, several police officers and a left-wing activist from Utah.

Most of the rioters were allowed to leave the crime scene, forcing investigators to conduct a national manhunt for the pro-Trump crowd that stormed the halls of Congress.

Investigators for the District of Columbia says they have identified over 540 suspects and charged some 400 people in connection with the Capitol siege.

Just weeks after the rampage in January, FBI officials said they had already been inundated with 140,000 videos and photos from members of the public.

Officials say they are considering filing serious charges of seditious activity against some individuals who were involved in the siege on the Capitol.

According to federal criminal code, seditious conspiracy means an effort to conspire to overthrow the US government. The punishment is severe: up to 20 years in prison.

 

My impression is that at least since the 1990s and the Clintonization of the Democratic Party, that Corporate America/Wall Street supports Democrats as much as Republicans but it is small business/Main Street that overwhelmingly supports Republicans over Democrats. Corporate America has the money, the clout and the army of lobbyists to get what it wants/stop what it doesn't want from Congress no matter which party controls Congress. Small Business America doesn't have any of that. Look at how many of the biggest corporations essentially pay zero taxes, something small businesses find almost impossible do. Populists/Liberals complain about the flat standard of living since the 1970s but the federal govt has been under nominally liberal Democratic administrations for 20 of the last 44 years, under Republican administrations 24 of those 44 years. I guess my point is that both established political parties are almost equally responsible for what has happened over the past few decades. Biden, Pelosi & Schumer may tweak around the edges of things like raising the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28% (but the same corporate tax lawyers will still be able to find ways to see that many of their clients continue to pay zero or near-zero taxes) and I am highly skeptical that any fundamental structural changes will be made to our current economic & corporate system.

 

Trump’s post-presidency makeover: Former president losing weight, cutting back on M&Ms and ditching spray tan, report says

excerpt:

"It’s been three months since Donald Trump left the White House in disgrace, and he’s never looked better, his advisors say.

The twice-impeached ex-president has lost about 15 pounds, quit his M&M habit, and replaced his spray-tanning with natural Florida sun, according to interviews Insider conducted with some of his confidantes.

“When I saw him, he looked healthier and in better physical condition than I had seen him in a long time,” an advisor told Insider."

 

Personally I always felt he reminded me of the Penguin!

 

Indiana is big Trump supporter country. Mike Pence is from Indiana. Our Indiana newspapers this morning are saying Jon Ryan Schafer is the founder of the Oath Keepers and has just pleaded guilty to his part in the riot and invasion of the United States Capitol on January 6th during the year of Our Lord 2021 right here in America. The founder of the Proud Boys is also from Indiana.

 

I heard that he is cooperating with the FBI, but who knows if he is telling the truth. They are going to put him in the witness protection program.

 

HA HA HA HA! So he goes to the witness protection program to keep his oath? HA HA HA HA WEEZ WEEZ CAUGH CAUGH!

 

Too bad.

 

Trump loyalists start ‘America First Caucus’ to promote U.S. as ‘uniquely Anglo-Saxon’
Amy B Wang and Colby Itkowitz
April 17, 2021 at 1:08 a.m. UTC

https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...first-caucus-promote-us-uniquely-anglo-saxon/

excerpt:

"Far-right Republicans in Congress are forming an “America First Caucus” that would promote nativist policies, according to materials outlining the group’s goals first obtained by Punchbowl News.

Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Paul A. Gosar (R-Ariz.) are reportedly behind it, with Reps. Barry Moore (R-Ala.) and Louie Gohmert (R-Tex.) signed on as early members. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who faces federal and House Ethics Committee investigations over allegations of sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, tweeted that he was joining Greene in the caucus.

“We will end wars, stop illegal immigration & promote trade that is fair to American workers,” said Gaetz, who has denied all allegations against him.

A seven-page document that lays out policy positions for the caucus includes nativist language and perpetuates the falsehood that there was widespread fraud and corruption in the 2020 election. According to the document, the group says it seeks to advance former president Donald Trump’s legacy, which means stepping “on some toes” and sacrificing “sacred cows for the good of the American nation.”

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif) and Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) disagreed Feb. 24 on former president Donald Trump's role in the Republican Party.

In a section on immigration, the document describes the United States as a place with “uniquely Anglo-Saxon political traditions” and argues that “societal trust and political unity are threatened when foreign citizens are imported en-masse into a country, particularly without institutional support for assimilation and an expansive welfare state to bail them out should they fail to contribute positively to the country.”"

 

Hasn't it always been about that ... a White Christian Nation?

 

Code for white supremacist.

 

Sick......

 

Stone's black and white attire makes him look more like the Penguin than the Penguin.