The Donald Trump Score Card

'Satisfied' is an ambiguous term. Either the lender forgave Thomas's loan for the lavish RV or he didn't.

It matters greatly in the context of ethics and tax laws.


Justice Thomas’s R.V. Loan Was Forgiven, Senate Inquiry Finds

excerpt:

"The Senate inquiry was prompted by a Times investigation published in August that revealed that Justice Thomas bought his Prevost Marathon Le Mirage XL, a brand favored by touring rock bands and the super-wealthy, with financing from Anthony Welters, a longtime friend who made his fortune in the health care industry.

In a statement to The Times this summer, Mr. Welters said the loan had been “satisfied” in 2008. He declined to answer whether that meant Justice Thomas had paid off the loan; nor did he respond to other basic questions about the terms. But while a number of questions remain, he gave a much fuller account to the committee, which has the authority to issue subpoenas and compel testimony."

 

The loan Thomas received for his RV sounds as murky as Trump's Stormy Daniels payments.


Clarence Thomas took 3 undisclosed trips on private jet provided by GOP megadonor, committee says

excerpt:

"That is a distinction the I.R.S. does not make. Assuming that the loan was entered into genuinely, and not intended from the start as an outright gift, the I.R.S. would treat the forgiven $267,230 — as well as any missed interest payments — as income to Justice Thomas, according to Mr. Hamersley and other experts."

 

Harlan Crow financed jet flights for Thomas.

Thomas and Alito are arguably Trump's biggest cheerleaders on the U.S. Supreme Cout.


Clarence Thomas took 3 undisclosed trips on private jet provided by GOP megadonor, committee says

excerpt:

"Nearly $4.2 million in gifts and even that wasn't enough for Justice Thomas, with at least three additional trips the Committee found that he has failed to disclose to date," Judiciary Committee chairman Dick Durbin said in a statement. "The Senate Judiciary Committee's ongoing investigation into the Supreme Court's ethical crisis is producing new information — like what we've revealed today — and makes it crystal clear that the highest court needs an enforceable code of conduct, because its members continue to choose not to meet the moment."

 

Explanations for Trump's rise in popularity after the 2020 election.


3 theories for why Donald Trump’s popularity is rising

excerpt:

"In reflecting on that exchange, Osnos acknowledged the perplexing conundrum the press faces in covering Trump’s current campaign: that, at a certain point, it’s hard to communicate to the public when to pay attention to truly jarring and disturbing moments because there’s only so much Trump can do to shock. He pointed to the lack of media coverage of Trump’s first major campaign rally in Waco, Texas — on the 30th anniversary of the deadly FBI raid on the far-right Branch Davidian religious cult’s compound — where the Trump campaign played a version of the national anthem sung by incarcerated January 6 rioters while displaying images of the Capitol attack. The moment seems to have been forgotten."

 

One of the most sick-minded stunts by Trump.

He's still starting his rallies with his rioters, the J6 Choir, singing the National Anthem while he salutes them as supposed heroes and victims.

 

Trump and extrinsic values.


To beat Trump, we need to know why Americans keep voting for him. Psychologists may have the answer | George Monbiot

excerpt:

"But the shift goes deeper than politics. For well over a century, the US, more than most nations, has worshipped extrinsic values: the American dream is a dream of acquiring wealth, spending it conspicuously and escaping the constraints of other people’s needs and demands. It is accompanied, in politics and in popular culture, by toxic myths about failure and success: wealth is the goal, regardless of how it is acquired. The ubiquity of advertising, the commercialisation of society and the rise of consumerism, alongside the media’s obsession with fame and fashion, reinforce this story. The marketing of insecurity, especially about physical appearance, and the manufacture of unfulfilled wants, dig holes in our psyches that we might try to fill with money, fame or power. For decades, the dominant cultural themes in the US – and in many other nations – have functioned as an almost perfect incubator of extrinsic values."

 

Trump is the ultimate promoter of an empty-soul society immersed in extrinsic, material values.

He's the entire ensemble: TV personality, billionaire, politician, advertiser, agitator, provocateur, convicted felon.

While he has all of the wealth and power, he's still able to portray himself as a victim to chime in with people who have little to no money or power, right down to people who would take out a loan just to be able to donate more money to him or give up their job or even their own life to riot for him (whom he would later praise, like he does himself, as warriors, heroes, and victims).

 

Truck with mobile video billboard showing Trump's riot follows Trump to the Capitol.


DNC to tail Trump with mobile billboard of Jan. 6 attack during visit to Capitol Hill

excerpt:

"The Democratic National Committee plans to launch a mobile billboard ahead of Trump’s visit that will aim to follow the former president as he moves between meetings with House and Senate Republicans.

The billboard will play a loop of an 11-minute video montage from the riot and Trump’s speech before it. The video was released by the House committee that investigated the attack.

Four Republican senators who voted to convict Trump during his subsequent impeachment trial on charges of inciting an insurrection told NBC News they will not attend the meeting with Trump because of "conflicts.""


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Trump hasn't paid the $380,000 to Steele that the U.K. high court ordered.


https://www.hindustantimes.com/worl...r-losing-uk-dossier-case-101717848540075.html

excerpt:

“We're talking about perhaps the next president of the US here, who is running for office and claims to love and respect the UK, and in fact is treating our legal system with contempt,” he said.

He further claimed that the former US President has been attempting to postpone many of these legal issues, fines, and costs until after “what he thinks will be his re-election in November, in which case he will just tell us all to go jump, basically.”

 

Just pay some of the interest. Forget about the principle of the loan and hope no one else notices.


Justice Thomas’s R.V. Loan Was Forgiven, Senate Inquiry Finds

excerpt:

"Mr. Welters’s representatives told investigators that he believes there may have been additional interest payments — and, with less certainty, perhaps payment of some fraction of the principal, according to an aide to Mr. Wyden. But “none of the documents reviewed by committee staff indicated that Thomas ever made payments to Welters in excess of the annual interest on the loan,” the report said.

“No bank behaving in a commercially reasonable, arms-length manner would have given that loan in the first place,” said Mr. Hamersley, the tax expert. “And a bank doesn’t just say, ‘Oh gee, you’ve paid a lot in interest — we’re good, no need to pay back what you actually owe.’”

 

Trump met with GOP Congressional members at Capitol Hill in person on Thursday.

Some Republicans are calling on Democratic governor of NY to pardon Trump.

Trump wants Speaker of the House Johnson to somehow undo his felony conviction in NY.


Report: Trump Demanded Mike Johnson Use the Federal Government to Overturn His Conviction, and Johnson’s Response Was Basically, “I’m on It, Boss!”

 

“Let’s Talk about Paul Ryan and Trump being unfit”

-Beau

 

“Let’s Talk about Trump, Taylor Swift, Nancy Pelosi, and a GOP meeting”

-Beau

 

Speaker Johnson said he knows justices on the Supreme Court and that he thinks they might help Trump in the NY hush money conviction.

Why Johnson thinks the U.S. Supreme Court would take the case is not clear, assuming it acts rational and not for some emotional attachment to Trump.


Appellate Issues in the Trump Hush Money Case: The Extraordinary Ordinariness of Justice Merchan’s Adjudication

excerpts:

"The defense has some nontrivial issues for appeal, but the conviction hardly bears some grave constitutional taint."


"This case is going to move through New York appellate courts, just like any other case would. That is, before the case could ever find its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, it must first make stops at the First Judicial Department of New York’s Appellate Division and then at the New York Court of Appeals. Review at those courts will be thorough and, in virtually any other New York criminal appeal, they would have the last word. The case presents some issues of federal law, but New York courts are fully empowered to decide them. State courts decide federal issues all the time."

 

Boxer Garcia endorses Trump.


Boxer Ryan Garcia backs Trump after becoming a full-blown conspiracy theorist

 

Jake and Logan Paul endorse Trump.

Trump gave Logan Paul a T-shirt with his mugshot from his GA indictment on it.


Trump must be counting on 'cool' to win out over credibility with endorsements like Jake and Logan Paul's

excerpt:

"The underlying message of Trump’s alignment with these figures seems clear: to suggest to voters that his lurch toward authoritarianism isn’t as bad as liberals claim. In fact, these influencers would have you believe it’s actually pretty cool. Conservatives like Rep. Matt Gaetz, Sen. Mike Lee and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson have already shown their affinity for such figures in their fawning over El Salvador’s authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele, the self-proclaimed “World’s Coolest Dictator.”

This is helpful context for the support Trump is receiving now from internet influencers Jake and Logan Paul. Jake Paul has fashioned himself into a professional boxer, a kind of modern-day “Great White Hope.” And Logan Paul is a professional wrestler in the WWE, an organization with a long history of working with Trump and promoting his businesses. (Trump has kept in contact with his friend and beleaguered former WWE chairman Vince McMahon)."

 

Oh please. More senseless shenanigans and meaningless endorsements.

 

Some of the wealthy boxers endorsing Trump are incorporating conspiracy-truther narratives into their business model to become even wealthier.

It's been a trend in recent years to use a spread-spectrum technique that incorporates politics, ideology, religion, populism, truther narratives, and whatever else can be concocted to sell to the public and make money..

Everything from 9/11, COVID, alternative foods, weight loss diets, cancer treatments, and protection from space aliens are all being rolled up into one unit to sell to the public by media personalities.

 

While publicly challenging Biden to a competency test, Trump mistakenly referred to his former doctor as Ronny 'Johnson' instead of Ronny Jackson.

Trump said everyone knows Ronny 'Johnson'.


Trump challenges Biden to a cognitive test but confuses the name of the doctor who tested him – KXAN Austin