Monday Reading

As always, please go to the links for the full articles/ op eds.

Less than 48 hours before the first Presidential debate, dynamite goes BOOM!

The bombshell of Mango Mussolini's tax avoidance, business incompetence and mountain of debt (much held by foreign entities) is another story that would bury any other president or politician.  But, as we know, the committed Trump Cultist hears and sees only what its Dear Leader wants them to.  However, the average Joe Lunchbucket taxpayer should be bristling at the thought that the supposed billionaire paid ZERO taxes for many years and only $750 in 2016. In other words, he's paid more in hush money to his porn star hookups than he has in taxes. His enormous debt, with payments coming due, and the real prospect of undue influence by foreign debt holders is a huge national security red flag.  Needless to say, this is a huge story with major on- going implications.

File under "I Hire The Best People":

Brad Parscale, the former campaign manager for Donald Trump who was replaced by the President less than four months before the 2020 election, was armed with a gun and threatening to harm himself at his Fort Lauderdale home on Sunday afternoon, according to police and campaign officials.

Police responded to a home in the upscale Seven Isles neighborhood around 4 p.m. in reference to a man barricaded inside a house. When officers arrived on the scene, they made contact with the woman, the man’s wife, who had called 911. She told police that her husband was armed, had access to multiple firearms inside the house and was threatening to kill himself.  (our emphasis)

What a collection of crooks, psychopaths and traitors.

No surprise here.  The Washington Post endorses Joe Biden for President this morning:

In order to expel the worst president of modern times, many voters might be willing to vote for almost anybody.

Fortunately, to oust President Trump in 2020, voters do not have to lower their standards. The Democratic nominee, former vice president Joe Biden, is exceptionally well-qualified, by character and experience, to meet the daunting challenges that the nation will face over the coming four years.

Those challenges have been, to varying degrees, created, exacerbated or neglected by the incumbent: the covid-19 pandemic, which has claimed more lives in this country than anywhere else in the world; rising inequality and racial disparities; a 21st-century, high-tech authoritarianism ascendant in the world, with democracy in retreat; a planet at risk due to human-caused climate change.

Underlying them all is the question of whether U.S. democracy is any longer capable of meeting even one such challenge, let alone a host of them. Here is where Mr. Trump has done the most damage — and where Mr. Biden is almost uniquely positioned for the moment. He would restore decency, honor and competence to America’s government.

The Post led up to this endorsement in an eight- part series they called "Our Democracy in Peril."

Biden also got endorsements over the weekend from former Pennsylvania Republican Gov. Tom Ridge, who served as the first Secretary of Homeland Security under Dumbya, and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson (14.8 million Twitter followers).

Moody's Analytics has a message for voters who still think Mango Mussolini and Republicans would be better for the economy:

Moody’s Analytics, an economic-research firm, has published an economic forecast weighing the effects of Joe Biden and Donald Trump’s proposals. It finds Biden’s plan would produce dramatically faster job growth and higher wages for most workers.

Biden’s proposals would lead to 18.6 million new jobs during his first term, and the average American’s income (after taxes) would increase by $4,800. Trump’s policies would lead to an increase of 11.2 million new jobs by 2025, with minimal real income gain for average households.

The main reason Biden’s plan would produce a faster recovery is that it would increase short-term deficit spending. With interest rates very low and demand depressed, an infusion of deficit spending can accelerate growth quickly. (our emphasis)

Here's how they chart out job and GDP growth under several scenarios (click on images to enlarge):

As always, we strongly recommend heading over to Infidel 753's latest link round- up for many more roads to enlightenment (or at least some finely curated links to posts on multiple topics from around the Internet).

Grifting Like There's No Tomorrow

The Trump era will be recalled for many things: mentally unstable Donald "The Chosen One" Trump's cruelty to families at the Mexican border, his bullying of individual citizens, his undermining of our alliances and support for Moscow's strategic goals, his racism and misogyny, his pathological lying, his impeachment and so much more. Certainly, the pervasive, open grifting by Trump, his family, and his allies will go down in history as unique and perverse.

Aside from his nepotistic children, one of the glaring examples of shameless grifting is Trump's 2020 campaign manager, bearded alt-right propagandist Brad Parscale. Parscale has been profiting handsomely from his position, siphoning off donor funds to his and other allied businesses, buying multi-million dollar homes and a Ferrari. He's made sure to grease the palms of Trump family members and hangers-on, including Eric Trump's wife Lara and Greasy Don Jr.'s mistress Kimberly Guilfoyle, as a recent New York Times article noted. That same article describes how Parscale has managed to rope the Republican National Committee into the Trump campaign (and his own business dealings):

"President Trump’s campaign manager and a circle of allies have seized control of the Republican Party’s voter data and fund-raising apparatus, using a network of private businesses whose operations and ownership are cloaked in secrecy, largely exempt from federal disclosure. 

Working under the aegis of Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, with the cooperation of Trump appointees at the Republican National Committee, the operatives have consolidated power — and made money — in a way not possible in an earlier, more transparent analog era. Since 2017, businesses associated with the group have billed roughly $75 million to the Trump campaign, the Republican National Committee and a range of other Republican clients. [snip] 

Elected Republicans have learned the political peril of insufficient fealty. Now, by commanding the party’s repository of voter data and creating a powerful pipeline for small donations, the Trump campaign and key party officials have made it increasingly difficult for Republicans to mount modern, digital campaigns without the president’s support."  (our emphasis)

Rest assured that that "powerful pipeline for small donations" will find a way into Parscale's ever deepening pockets. Perhaps by November, he'll have enough to buy another million-dollar mansion and a second Ferrari, to which we say to Trump's gullible base, suckers!

(photo: Big-time grifter Parscale hawking a "KAG" cap, that he gets a piece of the sales for.)

Grifters Gonna Grift -- Trump Campaign Edition

Never fear, red hat suckers patriots!  Your contributions to the re-election of life- long grifter Donald "Rump" Trump are being put to good use!

Brad Parscale has been promoted from President Donald Trump’s digital media manager to his 2020 campaign manager. Since the promotion, he’s been blowing millions on cars and real estate, even though his stated salary is only $15,000 a month.

This year alone he’s bought a $2.4 million waterfront mansion in Fort Lauderdale, a $78,300 BMW, and a $146,000 Range Rover, according to the Daily Mail. This was just months after Parscale and his wife had spent $2 million on condos in the Fort Lauderdale area.

In the mid-2000s, Parscale and his family lost their company to bankruptcy. Which is why his recent spending spree raised eyebrows, given his relatively meager salary based off donations.

According to the Daily Mail, Parscale also earns a percentage of all contributions to the Trump 2020 re-election campaign, and from the Republican National Committee which has paid his company Parscale Digital $7.3 million so far this year.  [snip]

In what is described as a “highly unusual arrangement,” Washington insiders told the Daily Mail that Parscale’s companies and their subsidiaries get a percentage of most of the contributions to the Trump 2020 campaign, which now top $56.8 million. In total, according to the AP, Parscale is on the payroll of five companies with ties to the campaign.  (our emphasis)

Parscale, as you likely remember, is a key figure in the nexus of the shady "data" firm Cambridge Analytical, Russian intelligence and the 2016 Trump campaign.  He's as bad a dude as there is in the Trump orbit.  His living large off the red hat suckers is simply a mirroring of his mentor's business model.

Think of it this way, though:  every buck that ends up in Parscale's pocket is one that isn't being applied to four more years of Trump continuing to destroy our country.  (Note to Parscale: Given your boss's policies  on global climate change, you may want to start looking for future waterfront property in, say, Orlando.)

So, keep fleecing those sheep, Brad!