Taxing My Patience

Are you bored with the elections? You shouldn't be, it's a circus of unprecedented magnitude. Elephants, donkeys, the high wire with no nets and a butt load of clown cars. At the center of it all a rainmaker the likes of which has never been seen in modern American politics, his name is Donald J. Trump and he may very well be the next President of the United States.

Contrary to media reports Trump has not had a bad week. He's had another great week because he is still constantly being talked about and he loves it. The revelations about him posing as his own publicist in the early 1990's has surfaced but it means nothing, because it's a dead and done story. It was proven at the time, the voice on the tape is clearly his and he admitted it at the time. Not only in print but in a court of law. He is now lying and saying it's not true. I guess he just loves to dispute facts but it will have no impact on his campaign or influence his supporters. So why are we hearing about this? The Washington Post received a tip along with the audio. The original reporter for People Magazine says only two people had the tape, her and Donald Trump. She says she didn't contact the Post and suggests clearly it was probably Trump himself. I believe her.

So why would he plant this story? Simple, in Trump world all media coverage is good coverage, he wanted a diversion from the steady drum beat about his taxes. Trump doesn't want to release his returns and has used his never-ending audit as the excuse for months. Now it looks like he won't ever release them. Let's make sure the facts are understood, there is nothing in the Constitution or election law which requires a Presidential candidate to release their tax returns. It has been customary to do so since the early 1950's. Does anyone believe that Trump will be afraid  to throw this tradition out of the window? Who knows why he's balking about it. Mitt Romney continues to say it contains a bombshell. More than likely it shows low charitable contributions, business in the Middle East and a very low effective tax rate. I don't know why he would care. He has always bragged about paying as little in tax as possible and he could always lie about the return not showing the true nature of his devotion to charity because after all it's what you do when no one knows that really matters. Will he suffer for not releasing his return? No. Anyone who supports him could care less, in fact they'd cheer him saying, it's none of your business.

Donald Trump won the Republican nomination fair and square. Those Republicans complaining about it need to get over it and most of them are. Some conservatives outside of the Party are standing their ground and that's good but it will change nothing. All of the talk about an independent conservative mounting a campaign is utter foolishness and Republican rank and file members are making it clear that it better not happen. It won't because it's too late and there is no one. Senator Sasse of Nebraska was being encouraged but over the weekend Nebraska Republicans  let him know he had better not do that. Another guy being courted was Mark Cuban. That's a winner, run another loud mouth billionaire against the one already in place, what a brain trust. Cuban's not doing it by the way.

Suck it up. Millions of Republican primary voters have chosen Trump to be their standard bearer, whatever those standards may be.

One by one they will all come around to the inevitability, this already includes some of Trump's former opponents who called him every nasty thing in the book. That douchebag from Texas, Rick Perry not Ted Cruz, has even offered himself up as a Vice-president for the man he said must be stopped.

For the record I haven't forgotten  The New York Times article entitled "Crossing the Lines" which looks at Trump's women issues. It simply doesn't matter. Again, his supporters don't care, including women. There is quite literally a ton of evidence demonstrating his deplorable treatment of women, things which would destroy any other candidate.

The great revelation of this election, so far, is not that Donald Trump is the Republican nominee, it is that millions of Americans put him there. It is they we should be looking at and wondering just how drunk were they when they cast their vote.