Let's See Your Taxes, Donald !

The release of candidates' tax returns has become an important part of the American electorate's vetting process. In hiring someone to lead the country for four years, we have the responsibility and right to look at their finances through their tax records. While not written into law, all candidates for President and Vice President since the Nixon Administration have all disclosed their records. But not Donald Trump.

Hillary Clinton has followed this tradition. She has gone way beyond what is expected of a candidate. She has disclosed 32 years of tax returns. But not Donald Trump. We have no record of votes and public service on which to judge Trump. He asks us to elect him solely based on his business career. So in Trump's case, the full disclosure of his tax returns is even more important.

Instead, Trump has stalled. He has dodged. He has weaved. He has told lies about not being able to disclose tax forms while his most recent taxes are being audited (he can). Even if that falsehood was actually true, it would not stop disclosure of decades of pre-2012 returns.

It is not as if Trump doesn't know the importance of candidates releasing their tax records. In 2012, he urged Mitt Romney to release his returns, saying that Romney "was hurt very badly" by his delays. However, in a May interview, Trump implied that he won't ever release his own returns, saying that the voters would not be interested and that "there is nothing to learn from them".

Based on Trump's long history of shady business practices and outright fraud, we wonder just exactly what he is hiding. The secrets that Trump is keeping from the American public must be far worse than the negative reaction to him not coming clean. For example:

Underworld ties. There have been rumors of Trump's underworld ties for years. It would be difficult to be involved in gambling casinos without such organized crime associations. The same for being in real estate development in New Jersey/New York. (I know. I watched the Sopranos). Only opening-up Trump's tax returns will start to put these rumors to rest.

Putin ties. Evidence of the disturbing and dangerous bromance between Trump and Russian dictator Vladimir Putin keeps piling-up. All Americans should be concerned about this. Could there be damning evidence of financial transactions between the two in Trump's tax returns? Could there be evidence of dark and shady business deals with the Russian oligarchs surrounding Putin? George Will has suggested as much. Only opening-up Trump's tax returns will start to put these rumors to rest.

Extensive offshore accounts. Patriotic Americans have a distaste for the rich shipping their money overseas to avoid paying US taxes. Could Trump be using such tax dodges? Only opening-up his tax returns will let us know for sure.

Blending personal and business expenses. Trump's byzantine business empire provides the perfect conduit to pass-off personal expenses as business ones. How much of the Trump family's personal food, transportation, clothing, and housing are being written-off in his taxes? Only opening-up his tax returns will let us know for sure.

Crooked deals. We know that Trump has frequently stiffed contractors. We know about his Trump University scam. The "morally flexible" Trump has been involved in over 3,500 lawsuits. What other crooked deals are hiding in his returns? Only opening-up his tax returns will let us know for sure.

Paying no taxes. (But when the taxman comes to the door-Lord, the house looks like a rummage sale, yeah). Mitt Romney was derided for paying low taxes. With all of the available business write-offs, it is possible that the self-proclaimed "very, very rich" Trump pays no taxes at all. This is not mere speculation. For the only three years that we know about (1978, 1979, 1984), billionaire Trump indeed paid absolutely no Federal income tax. Only opening-up his returns will let us know if he paid no tax at all in building his empire.

Donating little to charity. As with everything else in his life, Donald Trump loves to brag. He often crows about how much he gives to charity. How much of this is real and how much is fiction? There have certainly been questions about Trump's claim of donations to veterans' groups. Only opening-up his tax returns will start to put these rumors to rest.

Secret love child. Is Trump claiming even more dependents than we saw on the RNC stage last week? He seems to be fixated on comedienne Rosie O'Donnell, speaking of her often. Could he and his friend Rosie have had a love-child and kept it from the public? Only opening-up Trump's tax returns will start to put these rumors to rest.

Donald Trump thinks that the American public is stupid. He thinks that we will accept his view that "there is nothing to learn" from his tax returns. However, the only way that he can halt the rampant allegations and speculation is to do what he urged Mitt Romney to do in 2012-release his taxes for the last 20 years. Until that time, the public is free to speculate on what Trump is hiding by his astounding and intransigent refusal to come clean.

McConnell and Ryan Fiddle While Rome Burns

During the Comedy of Errors that is the Republican National Convention, the most outrageous and ironic incident happened on the second day. The theme for Tuesday was "Make America Work Again". Yet, among the evening's speakers were Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan.

Rather than acting to make America work again, McConnell and Ryan are the poster boys for the complete paralysis of our federal government. During one of the most serious public health crises in decades, the two are responsible for total governmental inaction. Compounding their irresponsibility, they put Congress on a seven-week vacation until after Labor Day.

The Zika virus is slowly and inexorably spreading through the US. According to the CDC, 2,905 locally-acquired cases have been reported in US territories (Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, American Samoa). Although no locally-acquired cases have yet been reported in the 50 states, fully 1,305 travel-related cases have been confirmed. Nine such cases have been reported in Wisconsin. Zika is here. It is spreading. It causes awful birth defects. Yet, the GOP leadership in Congress has done nothing but play cynical political games with our health.

As so often, President Obama has done his job. Last February, he requested $1.9 billion in emergency funding for vaccine research, mosquito control, healthcare, and education efforts. Yet, the GOP majority in both houses has still not authorized one cent to fight this awful disease.

The Senate passed a bipartisan bill last May, authorizing $1.1 billion to fight the virus. Tammy Baldwin voted for this bill. Ron Johnson did not.

A different House bill passed, mostly on partisan lines. Jim Sensenbrenner voted for this bill which provided no new funding and limited the money for Zika to only a third of what the Obama Administration had requested. And in an obvious pay-out to lobbyists, the bill sneaked-in a relaxation of limits on toxic pesticides.

Without allowing input from Democrats, House and Senate Republicans got together to add even more poison pills to the final bill. More than half a billion dollars was cut from the Affordable Care Act (of course). Despite Zika being sexually-transmitted and causing birth defects, the funds were prohibited from going to women's clinics (of course). The new version needed a new Senate vote. With all of the noxious additions, the Senate Democratic minority (including our own Tammy Baldwin) voted down the GOP-self-negotiated bill.

Senate Minority Leader, Harry Reid said of the GOP bill, "It's a disgrace. It's a mockery of how Congress should treat an emergency." When Senate Democrats asked to actually have some input and compromise on the poison pills that the GOP negotiated among themselves, Senate Republican McConnell cynically replied, "The time for a debate about the content of it is over. "

The Republican bill is so toxic and overloaded with a Tea Party wish-list that President Obama has threatened to veto the badly-needed funds if it reaches his desk.

While he should be in Washington dealing with this emergency, McConnell had better things to do. He was giving a Tuesday speech at the Trump love-in in Cleveland. He had the unmitigated gall to blame Democrats for the impasse, saying in his mush-mouth accent, "As we sit here tonight, a terrifying mosquito-borne illness threatens expectant mothers and their babies along our southern coast. Just last week, Clinton Democrats in the Senate blocked a bill aimed at eradication before it can spread." 

Huge bipartisan majorities of Americans believe that the government should provide funds to research Zika, fight its spread, and to provide reproductive choices to those afflicted. However, the GOP majority in Congress does nothing but go on extended vacation. Republican mismanagement of the Zika crisis has proven that they can't be trusted to run anything. They stall, add far-right poison pills to a critical bill, and play politics with the health of America.



 

Some Things I Boycott

I have a confession to make. I am a serial boycotter. I cannot stand to spend my hard-earned money at businesses whose policies I find reprehensible.

Our vote is only one tool that we have to promote political and social change. Perhaps a much more powerful tool is our money and how we choose to spend it. It is very painful for companies to deal with organized and sustained boycotts of their products. Most will change policies to avoid such boycotts.

I remember the first thing that I boycotted for political reasons. When I was in college, the 2nd California grape boycott was in full force and I participated enthusiastically. Since that time, I have often made spending decisions based on the economic and political policies of companies. For example, you will never see me at Chick-Fil-A because of that company's anti-gay activism. I won't set foot in a Hobby Lobby because of the company's legal wrangling to deny its employees insurance coverage for some forms of contraception.

Organized boycotts and boycott threats can be quite effective in forcing policy change. For example, after Rush Limbaugh's awful Sandra Fluke harangues of several years ago, thousands of sponsors stopped supporting the flaming Nazi gasbag. Some larger stations have stopped carrying the talking jackass. The Rush franchise has definitely been harmed.

After Florida passed a "stand your ground" gun law, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) promoted similar model legislation in many states. The murder of 17-year old Treyvon Martin under the pretext of "stand your ground" led to public pressure on corporate sponsors of ALEC. Negative publicity and threats of boycotts led 127 corporate members to sever ties with the right-wing organization, including giants such as Coca-Cola, GE, Microsoft, Ford, and Shell.

My family has personally boycotted several local businesses. Although they will never know it, our refusal to buy from the repugnant enterprises has resulted in hundreds and thousands of dollars in lost sales. For example, when looking for an estate lawyer to update my will, I ruled-out several candidates for their donations to Scott Walker. As a frequent Ford buyer, I will not shop at Sorens in Brookfield due to their sponsorship of hate-radio jack-ass, Jay Weber's podcasts.

There are a raft of reasons that I avoid WalMart. They have single-handedly destroyed many small downtowns. They underpay their employees. They squeeze their suppliers. They import about $49 billion in goods from China each year, displacing an estimated 40,000 American workers. They fight unionization at their stores. I haven't spent a dime in a Walmart in over 30 years.

I never patronize restaurants that insist on subjecting their customers to the GOP propaganda of Fox "News". One such frozen custard shop in Germantown (Robert's), lost my business years ago. (and I eat a lot of frozen custard!) Ditto for Fox "News"-loving McDonalds franchises in Brookfield and Menomonee Falls. Who needs to have their appetite ruined by O'Reilly or Hannity? If these restaurants must have a TV on, couldn't they just play game shows and sporting events?

Scott Walker's assaults on public and private workers have opened-up a whole new landscape for politically motivated boycotts. As an individual, I don't have any occasion to avoid huge Walker supporters like ABC Supply or Badger Meter. However, I can and do boycott big Walker donors like Menards, Kwik Trip, and the Rickett Family's Chicago Cubs.

Few big political donors have done as much damage to Wisconsin as the infamous Koch brothers. Boycotting the Koch companies is difficult, as their conglomerate makes everything from carpets to building materials to toilet paper. However, available lists of Koch products can help us end the siphoning of money from our pockets directly into the campaign coffers of anti-worker politicians.

Businesses have enough trouble staying solvent without alienating half of their potential customers. I fail to understand why owners insist on making large political contributions, or support regressive social policies, or impose political propaganda on patrons. However, as long as they do, I will exercise what little economic leverage I have by making conscientious choices about where to spend my money.

Walker Has a Lot of Nerve !

I enjoy the Fourth of July as much as anybody. As a former band geek, I especially like the parades with all of their marching bands. On Sunday, my wife and I went to Menomonee Falls to see one of the biggest parades around. It was a nice, cool evening. Everybody seemed in good spirits, watching the clowns, and floats, and Shriner vehicles. But midway through the parade, the festive mood suddenly took a dark turn.

Walking down the middle of Appleton Avenue came the worst buzz-kill of a politician in America- Scott Walker ! I guess that deep red Menomoneee Falls is one of the few areas of the state that our corrupt governor is not afraid to show his face. You will never see him in parades in Madison or Milwaukee or Racine or Shorewood. However, even in a core GOP stronghold like the Falls, there were plenty of people booing and yelling "Go home !". One guy was shouting "Go back to Iowa !" (OK, that guy was me.)

The most amazing thing was that Walker was wearing a red University of Wisconsin shirt. You know, the University for which Walker tried to re-write the mission statement. After facing unexpected statewide opposition, he backed down, calling his attempts at changing the Wisconsin Way a "drafting error". For months, Walker resisted open records requests until ordered by a judge to turn-over communications on his sordid scheme. Turns-out that this wasn't a "drafting error" after all, but a concerted plot initiated by the Governor himself. 

Yes, Walker was proudly wearing a University of Wisconsin shirt. You know, the system whose flagship campus is in Madison- a town that Walker would eject from his state if he could. In talking about the epicenter of the 2011 protests, Walker said "You've got a world driven by Madison, and a world driven by everybody else out across the majority of the rest of the state of Wisconsin."

Walker was wearing a Wisconsin shirt. You know, the university system that he tried to cut by a staggering $300 million in the last budget before the JFC whittled it down to only $250 million. The system that has seen a total $282.9 million cut over Walker's three 2-year budgets.

Walker was wearing a UW shirt. You know, the school that has already lost many top faculty to other universities because of his weakening of tenure protection. The school where Walker stripped students and faculty of much or their shared governance rights, putting more power in the hands of administration.

Walker was wearing a University of Wisconsin shirt. That is the same system whose faculty at Madison and Milwaukee and La Cross and Green Bay voted "no confidence" in Walker's hand-picked Regents and system President. The system whose faculty Walker blasted for standing up for their rights, whining, "Some faculty bodies, including faculty at UW-M today, appear more interested in protecting outdated ‘job for life’ tenure than about helping students get the best education possible."

For the next parade, Walker should probably refrain from wearing University of Wisconsin garb. He should not wear clothing honoring something that he seems determined to destroy. Maybe instead, he could wear a shirt depicting something he actually represents. Like the NRA logo. Or the letters WMC. Or a picture of Diane Hendricks.