Don’t rightly know what is meant by this “congruent” stuff, but it sounds vaguely disgusting.
I disagree. If that is the test, then Donald Trump can commit murder with impunity, given that the DOJ takes the view that a sitting president cannot be indicted for federal crimes.
Suppose Trump and Melania are staying overnight at his Washington Hotel, and she teases him about his … small hands. Enraged, he strangles her to death.
That’s got nothing to do with his office. They’re not on federal property, he’s not carrying out any presidential duties, it’s just a case of spousal murder.
But DC is not part of a state, so there’s no state law involved. The DC murder statute is a federal law. He can’t be indicted, because the DOJ takes the view that a sitting president can’t be indicted. And, if he’s immune from impeachment because murder is’t a “high crime”, then he just continues in office.
Conduct in office is more than just carrying out official duties.
Should a president commit murder in a DC hotel, I believe the DOJ would make an exception to their “can’t indict a president” policy. Policies are not handcuffs, they are merely blueprints for behavior in normal situations. If the DOJ would not indict, there would be a quick impeachment and then the agonizing trial in the Senate, in which Susan Collins would express deep anguish but wind up toeing the GOP line as she always does.
I would like to see the Donald in the orange jumpsuit and handcuffs being sent off to do hard time. As much as I oppose capital punishment, a part of me hopes that is his fate.
a president cannot overturn a civil case verdict . If the fine is civil I assume he cannot do anything about it.
I assume the Trump base will approve of the tax fraud. It will demonstrate that their man is smart and that he, like them, hates paying taxes.
Yes, the regime will have to make an example of Trump. The mirage of stability and competence is a key ingredient for tax collection.
“Security consultant and ex-National Security Agency (NSA) employee, John Schindler said he had received an email from a senior intelligence agent discussing the President.
It opened with the words: “He will die in jail”, he said.“
It’s amazing that the press is running with the “Trump had his best week ever” in a week where it was revealed that his entire reason for being president based on being a smart businessman was actually a handout from his dad combined with stealing money from the rest of us.
Yes maybe it would have had a greater impact if they hadn’t been saying it for three years.
Seems like an appropriate punishment… for his activities in Yemen. I wonder if you had the same fantasies for the butchers Bush II and Obama.
Bush was a stooge and a fool, but I never suspected he was a criminal. Obama of course had sterling character and will be remembered as the first great president of the 21st century.
and Kushner not paying taxes lately
This and the Trump article are really evidence of how left the media is and why they fail to get the attention of a large portion of the country.
As this article says, there are legal routes to reduce your tax down to something negligible. That is legal and the only reason to not do it (beyond patriotism), if you’re smart, is because you can’t afford the financiers to allow it to happen.
In business, if my competitor is selling widgets for $10 and I’m selling them for $12, because I have decided to not take advantage of the tax loopholes that the government has afforded me, when my competitor has, then I simply don’t sell any widgets because why buy a $12 widget when you can buy a $10 widget? My business shuts down and everyone is laid off. The government loses all the income tax that they would have been earning off of my employees. Everyone loses.
This isn’t to say that there shouldn’t be taxes that businesses pay (though, that is debatable), but it’s not bad for an individual business to be avoiding paying taxes when it is perfectly in their rights to do so.
In the case of the Trump article, there was a genuine newsworthy topic of malfeasance - self-dealing, in order to commit fraud. And that ended up buried under a bunch of stuff that was shady but legit. That should have been the full article.
There should then have been a second article talking about the question of whether real estate tax laws, and the IRS review process, are reasonable. And there you might focus on all of the dirty tricks that Trump and Kushner have used. But you would also mention why the laws exist - whether they were just lobbied for and approved by corrupt politicians, or if this is a matter that you don’t want to tax peoples’ retirement nest egg and real estate is often how people go about securing their retirement? You should have an open and honest discussion about what’s reasonable, what’s corrupt, and whether there are real strategies.
As is, the Kushner article is just a lot of, “Hey, look, he did something legal and smart. Damn him.” Great. Why is this news? What’s the context under which you are damning him if, as you yourself say, everything was on the up-and-up and complete legit?
You’re certainly not wrong about the need to point out that many of the rich who pay no taxes are legally taking advantage of provisions in the tax code that favor them, and that this should receive more emphasis (as opposed to the ‘oh, look at these rich crooks’ message, which is misleading).
I’d argue that there are journalists and politicians pointing out that the issue is the way those in power can and do rig the system to benefit themselves.
But it’s still useful to take note of the raw fact that Jared Kushner (for example) pays little or no income tax, because it’s another way to highlight the sheer bad argumentation used by the right.
We all recall this gem from the 2012 presidential campaign:
Romney's contempt for the '47 percent'
Embarrassing! Of course Mitt did NOT mean people like Jared Kushner…he meant those darker-skinned folks. Awkward that he said it, though. It was a bad argument then, and its application now is fair-if-inconvenient.
NY real estate person Leona Helmsley said that taxes are for little people , not rich folks like her. and then she went to prison for tax fraud.
Trump and his siblings do appear to be like the late unlamented Ms. Helmsley in having committed actual tax fraud.
I’m not sure the same can be said for Kushner, but I’m all for investigation into him to continue.
Kushner’s father was convicted of Tax fraud and the prosecutor was a guy named Chris Christie.
On an individual level, I Hope Kushner committed fraud so that his smug useless face ends up in prison. But, it’s a larger issue that this shit appears to be entirely legal.
But doesn’t this come over the limit of tax free gifts (I think it’s 10g). Did Trumps father set up some sort of corporation in Donald’s name when he was 10 years old?
We can only hope, can’t we?
I personally think that if/when Dumpster gets the ax, he’ll commit suicide rather than step down. Most people disagree with me, and that’s fine.
Nope, nothing to see here. It’s all perfectly legal.
Yeah, that’s fraud, even if it’s written into the tax code. If the properties did in fact appreciate in value and Kushner claimed depreciation, how in the fuck is that not corrected via audit?
It’s nice we have affirmative action programs for the rich.