Dan Alexander, a senior editor at Forbes who covers Trump’s businessses, writes that Trump really is a billionaire. His net worth, he says, is about $2.5 billion. That’s after taking into account more than $1 billion in Trump debts.
That makes it even more scandalous that Trump employs every accounting trick to pay no taxes in most years (while deducting $70,000 for his hair stylist), and only $750 in two years when he actually paid something to the government.

$70,000 for his hair breaks down to $191.78 per day for hair care, 365 days a year.
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dump did sign his tax returns …. and HE LIES, LIES, LIES and STEALS, STEALS, STEALS.
He is unfit to serve a snake.
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How do you really feel?
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A dollar a day for each follicle of hair and/or implant. Each one does the work of 50.
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The mention of trump and work in the same sentence is inappropriate, even if we’re talking about his hair…lol
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LOL. Well said, Rex!
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Brent Terhune speaks for me:
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In recent weeks, I read that either he or Melania said that Melania cuts his hair and that he won’t let anybody else touch his hair.
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OOPS. Typo on my surname. It should be Eisenberg.
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Trump simply takes advantage of a system that was built by both parties. Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and the other liberal billionaires do the same thing, with help from the Democrats (who in turn get ample payback).
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/07/hillary-helps-a-bankand-then-it-pays-bill-15-million-in-speaking-fees/400067/
You can’t rag on Trump if you’re not willing to tear down the system. Voting for either Trump or Biden does nothing about the system.
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Dienne,
That is utter nonsense. The system will only get worse under Trump and you know it.
You don’t have to vote, but everyone else must to save our democracy, our environment, and our sanity.
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Dienne77 is correct but it will only get worse with 4 more years of Trump. I will vote Biden/Harris and hope for victory. If they win, “we the people” need to stay on the politicians so that they change the rigged system. This has been slowly going on for years and our politicians (both sides) took it to the next level with Citizens United (deals with the devil). It’s time that government starts to work for the people which it is supposed to serve instead of for the wealthy 1% that are able to buy influence. We have socialism for the rich and garbage for the rest of us….and I’m weary from it.
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She is so desperate to push the false pro-Trump narrative that is directed only to the left (“if you can’t tear down the system, then it’s perfectly fine to have Trump”.)
Her counterparts are posting on mainstream boards that Biden IS planning to tear down the system to frighten them into re-electing Trump.
What makes me exceptionally angry about these posts are they are done by people living in their white privilege bubble and therefore the ONLY thing that matters is themselves. Bernie Sanders and real Bernie supporters aren’t like that. I would put money on dienne77 bashing Bernie as not good enough if it ever came down to a choice of Bernie or the white supremacist Republicans. After all, Bernie is a lot closer to Biden’s position than the position of haters who want to tear down the system and have no problem sacrificing the most vulnerable people to get their way.
By the way, the best evidence that Trump’s tax return has nothing to do with some evil system that democrats built is that Trump went to extraordinary lengths to KEEP IT HIDDEN. It wasn’t proper, and he knew that it needed to be covered up.
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https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2020/09/28/trump-tax-returns-tax-avoidance-strategies/3563685001/
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LisaM: What I find SO frustrating is that the wealthy can get away with all sorts of tricks if they have wise accountants who can ‘game the system’. This is just fine.
However, the complaints of ‘socialism’ and “We can’t afford that.” show up on Medicare for All, subsidies on rent for poor people, increasing the pitiful Social Security payments for the elderly or disabled, helping the citizens of Flint to have clean water [actually, helping every city have clean water], Green New Deal, assisting Puerto Rico or helping our USPS.
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What is dienne’s solution? The reality is, it will be either Trump or Biden. I’m not crazy so I will be voting for Biden/Harris along with Diane Ravitch, Noam Chomsky, Bernie, Cornel West and many other certified progressives, just as progressive as dienne.
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All of those people voting for Biden are MORE progressive, not “just as progressive”.
In fact those people are REAL progressives. Progressives don’t sacrifice immigrants and non-white Americans and non-Christian Americans because the democrats will only expand health care to include a public option to buy into Medicare and raise taxes on the rich and prevent more environmental destruction and do a dozen other good things that Democrats will try to do unless the RIGHT WING SUPREME COURT prevents it.
People who still believe the democrats and republicans are the same are not progressives. They are liars.
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Oh come on folks. Dienne’s just calling a spade a spade. I seriously don’t think she’s trying to change you into Trump voters. Consider the audience [you & me]. Nor do I think she or any of us imagines the next Pres will sprinkle magic powder & cure ills which have been festering for decades. I suspect this is her way of reminding us of the heavy lifts remaining in the post-election future to turn things around.
But this is for you, Dienne: it’s absolutely legitimate to cry foul & raise a stink on a Pres who couldn’t even manage to meet the letter of the law & file taxes at all in 10 out of 15 years. Good reason for legislation, not just ‘norms’ requiring future candidates to provide the goods ahead of time. And pointing out his measly $750 bill two years in a row is pointing out to JCPublic (again, cuz he still doesn’t get it) that yes that’s probably legal & proves top earners aren’t paying into the system so tax system needs an overhaul—which means campaign laws need an overhaul. Otherwise we spawn the kind of caller-in on CSPAN today who said that only proves what a biz genius he is (why she’s voting for him again).
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Minor correction. He always filed his tax returns. But in most years, he claimed so many deductions that his tax bill was zero.
According to what I just saw on Maddow Show, the average 1% pays 24% in taxes.
Not everyone goes scot-free.
If we all did was Trump does, the government would collapse.
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Dienne has been writing hostile comments about Biden, which I refuse to post; she writes explanations of why Trump is no worse than Biden, which I won’t print any more.
I do not understand her reasoning, but the election is too close and the stakes are too high for me to turn my blog into a place where people bash the only person who can oust Trump.
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Correction: I voted for Biden/Harris by mail, signed sealed and delivered by the USPS on Saturday.
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Thanks for the correction on it45 taxes Diane. I kind of wish he had broken the law but then the tax code itself should be illegal. I found the data Maddow was referring to: turns out that 24% applied to the top 1/10 of 1%: the 1% paid more [26.67%]! AND the Tax Foundation article says next year’s data incorporating it45’s greatest accomplishment (s/), the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, will show “a drop in average taxes rates across all income levels, but a somewhat larger drop for the highest-income earners !?#@
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Thanks for the research!
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p.s. I get it, Diane. Hey it’s your living room!
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What’s Joe Biden up to? 😁🔔
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Preparing for the debate tomorrow.
Practicing keeping his cool when Trump starts insulting him and his family.
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That’s good. 😁
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Good post. It’s a very informative article…..about the other world these fat cats live in.
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I think Trump needs to fire his hair stylist. $70,000 over time for a finished job that looks like a dyed rat’s mop isn’t worth keeping.
I’d volunteer my hair stylist but he also hates Trump.
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That’s good. I need a laugh. It was a long day.
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Dienne is a Trump supporter posturing as a holier than thou far leftist I suspect. Her posts have always shown that.
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One set of rules for the Trump crowd, a different set for the rest.
Notre Dame’s President implemented Covid rules for his campus but, he attended an Amy Barrett event in D.C. wearing no mask, shaking hands, and ignoring social distancing. (btw-People of Praise was aided in its founding by students and faculty at Notre Dame.)
The screen shot of the Barrett event is at South Bend Tribune, 9-28-2020.
Reminds me of Jerry Falwell’s two-tier system of rules.
Sen. Todd Young of Indiana lavished praise on Barrett. Indy Dems posted at its site that Young votes with the Koch agenda 94% of the time. Young co-sponsored many bills that please the Catholic hierarchy, to name three, No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion and Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act, School Choice Now Act, and Education Freedom Scholarships and Opportunity Act.
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The Fox News Powder Keg
On November 3, the network’s framing of the election narrative may help alleviate nationwide chaos—or sow it.
…According to a recent Pew Research Center survey, 61 percent of Republicans who only consume talk radio and/or Fox News say mail-in-ballot fraud “is a major problem.” (Trump voted by mail last month.) Baier, Wallace, and MacCallum might play it straight, but other voices on Fox are not held to the same standards. As the hours tick by, Fox guests will be free to interpret whatever election data happen to be available, then frame the information as favorable to Trump. Millions of Americans will hear these arguments, as will the president. The Trump campaign may also influence talking points that make it directly to air. This has happened before, on Election Night, on Fox News…
Read More:
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/09/how-fox-news-could-influence-election-day-2020/616512/?utm_source=atl&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=share
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Someone wrote this, on the Soulful Detroit site (I changed the name to Donald Trump):
Mt mother said don’t say anything bad about the dead. Only good. Donald Trump is (politically) dead. Good.
😐
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It must be quite shocking to many folks to learn that he is just a rank-and-file billionaire, who doesn’t really know how to do business. I wonder what $70,000 “Dony-the-P(h)ony’ haircut looks like.
I knew it’s coming since I listened to Dan Alexander’s interview on NPR Fresh Air last week. See the link below:
https://www.npr.org/2020/09/22/915609582/white-house-inc-author-trump-s-businesses-offer-a-million-potential-conflicts
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Taxes fund the common good. They are “the price we pay to live in a civilized society”. Neither of the above appeals to Charles Koch and the Trump-supporting religious.
Channeling William Barr, Amy Coney Barrett “spoke at a program founded to inspire a ‘distinctly Christian worldview in every area of law ‘ “. (WaPo)
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ABA Journal (9. 28. 2020) Barrett “co-signed an Oct, 2015 letter to Catholic bishops expressing fidelity to the doctrines of the Catholic Church”. Wapo – Barrett spoke 5 times at a program sponsored by the Alliance Defending Freedom. The website for the event stated the seminars were intended to further efforts to….preserve marriage as being between one man and one woman. In an article Barrett wrote, according to the Journal, she said a justice’s duty is to enforce the Constitution rather than precedent that conflicts with the document.
Will Senators at the confirmation hearing fear the false anti-Catholic charge, and avoid asking Barrett if she is like William Barr? Will they be bullied by a minority in this country who are conservative religious?
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