When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
President-Elect Trump Is Suing Washington D.C. (Again) Donald Trump is suing Washington D.C. and you probably won’t be shocked to learn why: to avoid paying taxes.
This is actually the second time that Trump – technically Trump Post Office LLC, an LLC owned by Trump and his children – has sued D.C. over the same incident. It all centers around the Trump International Hotel located in the Old Post Office Building – the hotel Trump mentioned repeatedly on the campaign trail as a sign of his business acumen.
Trump has long claimed that the District over-taxed the hotel.
Trump’s lawyers say that the this year’s $1.7 million tax bill was too high because for part of the year the hotel was still under construction. Also, the city claims that the lease for the property – which Trump Post Office LLC rents from the U.S. General Services Administration – is worth $91 million. The Trumps say it is only worth $28 million.
The first suit the LLC filed was tossed out last month.
The hotel has stood mostly empty since completion thanks in large part to the fact that rooms at the Trump International Hotel cost more than three times as much as rooms at comparable properties. Henry Grabar, writing for Salon, speculates that the hotel may fill up come January as politicos book the over-priced rooms as a way to curry favor with the president.
Soon this will be much less of a headache for Trump. As president he will be able to appoint the head of the General Services Administration, and that appointee will be negotiating future leases for the property with the new heads of Trump’s companies: his children.
No conflict of interest here....it's only the start...wait and see!
JUST BECAUSE SISSY SAYS SO DOESN'T MAKE IT SO...BUT HE THINKS IT DOES!!!!! JUST BECAUSE MC1 SAYS SO DOESN'T MAKE IT SO!!!!!
MOSCOW (AP) — The Kremlin accused U.S. President Barack Obama's administration Thursday of trying to damage relations with Russia to a degree that would make rebuilding them in the future a challenge.
Russian President Vladimir Putin's foreign policy adviser, Yuri Ushakov, said Putin's telephone conversation with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump this week revealed a "shared desire to join efforts in the fight against terrorism" that creates a "good basis for future work on the Syrian problem."
During the conversation, Trump supported Putin's call for normalizing U.S.-Russia ties, Ushakov told Russian news agencies. The two men agreed that bilateral relations "can't be worse," according to Ushakov, adding that Trump "expressed his readiness not only to normalize ties, but also develop them intensively in all areas."
Trump's office said in a statement following Monday's call that "President-elect Trump noted to President Putin that he is very much looking forward to having a strong and enduring relationship with Russia and the people of Russia."
Ushakov, meanwhile, alleged that the Obama administration of "doing everything it can to drive bilateral ties into such a deadlock that (it) would make it difficult for a new team to get them out from, if it wishes to do so."
Obama was in Berlin on Thursday for his final foreign trip as president. The White House declined to comment on Ushakov's accusation.
At the same time, Ushakov said that "it can't be excluded" that Putin and Obama would have a conversation at the sidelines of the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Peru this weekend.
The timing for a meeting between Trump and Putin hasn't been discussed yet, but their representatives plan to confer on scheduling, Ushakov said.
___
Associated Press Writer Josh Lederman contributed to this story from Berlin.
JUST BECAUSE SISSY SAYS SO DOESN'T MAKE IT SO...BUT HE THINKS IT DOES!!!!! JUST BECAUSE MC1 SAYS SO DOESN'T MAKE IT SO!!!!!
oh yes............the 'ASSociated Press' is telling the truth!!!!!!!
hey........i'm no fan of the donald....but i don't believe a word from the LAME STREAM MEDIA either!!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
oh yes............the 'ASSociated Press' is telling the truth!!!!!!!
hey........i'm no fan of the donald....but i don't believe a word from the LAME STREAM MEDIA either!!
oh yes, we know...you only believe what all your imaginary friends, cousins, uncles, acquaintances, sister-in-law's best friend, cousin's best friend's uncle, and the truck driver at the truck stop says...those are your factual beliefs!
JUST BECAUSE SISSY SAYS SO DOESN'T MAKE IT SO...BUT HE THINKS IT DOES!!!!! JUST BECAUSE MC1 SAYS SO DOESN'T MAKE IT SO!!!!!
oh yes, we know...you only believe what all your imaginary friends, cousins, uncles, acquaintances, sister-in-law's best friend, cousin's best friend's uncle, and the truck driver at the truck stop says...those are your factual beliefs!
You my cyber friend are absolutely correct!! Straight from the horses mouth to my ears!!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Donald Trump may already be using the power of the presidency to further his business interests in Argentina, according to an Argentinian news report that Trump advocated for an office building project in Buenos Aires during a congratulatory phone call from that nation's president.
Trump’s Buenos Aires project has been delayed by a series of issues, including financing and permitting requirements. When Argentine President Mauricio Macri called Trump to congratulate him on his election victory, Trump asked Macri to address the permitting issues, according to Jorge Lanata, one of the country’s most prominent journalists.
“This still hasn’t emerged but Trump asked for them to authorize a building he’s constructing in Buenos Aires, it wasn’t just a geopolitical chat,” said Lanata, who is quoted in La Nacion, one of Argentina’s leading dailies. A translation was provided by Talking Points Memo.
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Conservative columnist Peggy Noonan tweeted that "presidents. can't. do. this."
During the campaign, Trump said Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton was guilty of "pay to play" by accepting donations to her family charity, the Clinton Foundation, from foreign countries like Qatar. There was never any indication she granted favors on behalf of those donors as secretary of State.
Trump has been receiving a flurry of calls from foreign leaders after his Nov. 8 election victory. The report comes as he is facing scrutiny over his business empire, which he says he will hand off to his adult children. The Trump team has called the arrangement a “blind trust.” Government ethics experts say it is not blind since his kids will be running it and that it raises significant concerns about foreign and domestic policy decisions he’ll face that would impact his global business networks.
Trump is also including his children in his transition team and his daughter, Ivanka, was seen attending a closed-door meeting last week with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The Washington Post reported over the weekend that about 100 foreign diplomats gathered for a reception in a ballroom at Trump Hotel in Washington in which many of them openly questioned whether staying at a Trump hotel will help them curry favor with the new president.
The New York Times reported that in the last week Trump met with three Indian business partners who flew from India to congratulate him. The trio is building a Trump-branded luxury apartment complex south of Mumbai. In a picture posted on Twitter, all four are smiling and giving a thumbs-up.
JUST BECAUSE SISSY SAYS SO DOESN'T MAKE IT SO...BUT HE THINKS IT DOES!!!!! JUST BECAUSE MC1 SAYS SO DOESN'T MAKE IT SO!!!!!
that might be all he's got...........he TOO, will be a puppet....they ALL are.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
that might be all he's got...........he TOO, will be a puppet....they ALL are.
PUPPET???? SERIOUSLY???? Did you even read the article? He's using the office to self promote and pay for play among other things. He's costing the taxpayers MILLIONS EACH DAY right now with all his antics and protection and movements and residences, etc. He's using his newly found power to advance his businesses. He's doing everything he has accused so many others of and your take is "he TOO, will be a puppet". WOW!!!!!
JUST BECAUSE SISSY SAYS SO DOESN'T MAKE IT SO...BUT HE THINKS IT DOES!!!!! JUST BECAUSE MC1 SAYS SO DOESN'T MAKE IT SO!!!!!
Donald Trump’s attorney general pick could destroy the recreational pot industry Attorney general nominee Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) is a fervent foe of marijuana legalization. But if he were confirmed as President-elect Trump’s top law enforcement official, would he really have any power to put his anti-pot views into practice?
To review the postelection state of play, a majority of states have legalized medical marijuana and eight (plus the District of Columbia) have legalized recreational marijuana. But the federal Controlled Substances Act still defines production and sale of marijuana as serious crimes.
The Obama administration issued policy memos that curtailed federal enforcement of marijuana laws in legalization states. But because such executive branch directives do not bind successive administrations in any way, an Attorney General Sessions could immediately come down on the marijuana industry like a 400 pound bale of pot.
JUST BECAUSE SISSY SAYS SO DOESN'T MAKE IT SO...BUT HE THINKS IT DOES!!!!! JUST BECAUSE MC1 SAYS SO DOESN'T MAKE IT SO!!!!!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
It's called COVERING YOUR a** before having to appear in court or have dealings that could potentially be used for impeachment proceedings:
Quoted Text
Trump Foundation apparently admits to violating ban on ‘self-dealing,’ new filing to IRS shows President-elect Donald Trump’s charitable foundation has apparently admitted to the IRS that it violated a legal prohibition against “self-dealing,” which bars nonprofit leaders from using their charity’s money to help themselves, their businesses, or their families.
That admission was contained in the Donald J. Trump Foundation’s IRS tax filings for 2015, which were posted online Monday evening at the nonprofit-tracking site Guidestar. A Guidestar spokesman said the forms were uploaded by the Trump Foundation’s law firm, Morgan, Lewis and Bockius.
The Post could not immediately confirm if the same forms had actually been sent to the IRS.
In one section of the form, the IRS asked if the Trump Foundation had transferred “income or assets to a disqualified person.” A disqualified person, in this context, might be Trump — the foundation’s president — or a member of his family, or a Trump-owned business.
The foundation checked “yes.”
Another line on the form asked if the Trump Foundation had engaged in any acts of self-dealing in prior years. The Trump Foundation checked “yes” again.
Such violations can carry penalties including excise taxes, and the charity leaders can be required to repay money that the charity spent on their behalf.
During the presidential campaign, The Washington Post reported on several instances in which Trump appeared to use the Trump Foundation’s money to buy items for himself, or to help one of his for-profit businesses.
But the new Trump Foundation tax filings provided little detail, so it was unclear if these admissions were connected to the instances reported in The Post.
The Trump Foundation tax forms did not, for instance, describe any specific acts of self-dealing. They also did not say whether Trump had paid any penalties already. That kind of detail would be submitted on a separate IRS form, which was not included in the information posted online Monday.
Spokespeople for Trump’s presidential campaign did not respond to a request for comment sent early Tuesday morning.
The New York Attorney General’s office is investigating Trump’s charity, following up on reports in The Post that described apparent instances of self-dealing going back to 2007. A spokesperson for state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman declined to comment, other than to say “our investigation is ongoing.”
The IRS also did not immediately respond. That agency has not said if it is investigating the president-elect’s charity.
The Trump Foundation has existed since 1987. This appeared to be the first time that it had admitted committing such a violation.
Philip Hackney, a former chief counsel for the IRS who now teaches at Louisiana State University, said he wanted to know why the Trump Foundation was now admitting to self-dealing in prior years — when, in all prior years, it had told the IRS it had done nothing of the kind.
“What transactions led to the self-dealing that they’re admitting to? Why weren’t they able to recognize them in prior years,” Hackney said. He said that, since the prior years’ returns were signed by Trump, that opened the president-elect to questions about what and how he had missed.
During the presidential campaign, The Post revealed several instances — worth about $300,000 — where Trump seemed to have used the Trump Foundation to help himself.
In two cases, The Post reported, the Trump Foundation appeared to pay legal settlements to end lawsuits that involved his for-profit businesses.
In one case, Trump settled a dispute with the town of Palm Beach, Fla. over a large flagpole he erected at his Mar-a-Lago Club. The town agreed to waive $120,000 in unpaid fines, if Trump’s club donated $100,000 to Fisher House, a charity helping wounded veterans and military personnel. The Trump Foundation paid that donation instead — effectively saving his business $100,000.
In another, Trump’s golf course in Westchester County, N.Y., had been sued by man who’d won a $1 million hole-in-one prize during a tournament at the course. The man had later been denied the money, because Trump’s course had allegedly made the hole too short for the prize to be valid. The lawsuit was settled, and details on that final settlement have not been made public. But, on the day that the parties told the court that their lawsuit had been settled, the Trump Foundation donated $158,000 to the unhappy golfer’s charity. Trump’s golf course donated nothing.
In three other cases, Trump’s foundation paid for items that Trump or his wife purchased at charity auctions. In 2012, Trump bid $12,000 for a football helmet signed by then-Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow.
In another case, from 2007, Trump’s wife Melania bid $20,000 on a six-foot-tall portrait of Trump painted by a “speed painter” Michael Israel during a gala at Mar-a-Lago. And in 2014, Trump bid $10,000 to buy a four-foot painting of himself by artist Havi Schanz at another charity gala.
In all three cases, the Trump Foundation paid the bill. Tax experts said that, by law, the items had to be put to charitable use. Trump’s spokespeople have not said what became of the helmet or the $20,000 portrait.
The $10,000 portrait was, however, located by Washington Post readers, following coverage of the Trump Foundation. It was hanging on the wall of the sports bar at Trump’s Doral golf resort, outside Miami.
In September, a Trump campaign spokesman rejected the idea that Trump had done anything wrong, by using his charity’s money to buy art for his bar. Instead, spokesman Boris Epshteyn said, sports bar was doing the charity a favor, by “storing” its art free of charge.
Tax experts said that this argument was unlikely to hold water.
“It’s hard to make an IRS auditor laugh,” Brett Kappel, a lawyer who advises nonprofit groups at the Akerman firm, told The Post then. “But this would do it.”
In the new 2015 tax filing, the Trump Foundation acknowledged for the first time that it owned these items. But it listed market values far below what the foundation had paid: the helmet was valued at $475. The portrait purchased for $20,000 was valued at $700. And the portrait purchased for $10,000 was valued at $500.
The tax filing did not give any details about where these items are, or what charitable use Trump has in mind for them.
The Trump Foundation’s tax filing also shows that — for the first time in six years — the foundation received a donation from an entity controlled by Trump himself.
It lists a donation of $566,370 from the Trump Corporation, an entity 100 percent owned by Trump himself. It also lists a $50,000 gift from Trump Productions, a Trump-owned business that produced “The Apprentice.”
Previously, the last donation to the Trump Foundation from Trump or one of his businesses had come in 2008. Trump’s spokespeople did not respond to a question about the reason for these new gifts.
In addition, the Trump Foundation reported a $150,000 gift from the foundation of Viktor Pinchuk, a powerful Ukrainian steel magnate. That was the first such gift from Pinchuk.
Pinchuk, who supports closer ties between Ukraine and western nations, had also pledged large donations to the foundation of Trump’s presidential opponent, Hillary Clinton. Those donations, pledged to the Clinton Foundation while Hillary Clinton was secretary of state, raised questions about whether Clinton had conflicts of interest when she met with her family foundation’s donors.
A spokesman for Pinchuk’s foundation said that the gift was made as part of an agreement for Trump to speak — via video link — to a conference Pinchuk organized in September 2015. The conference, called the Yalta European Strategy Annual meeting, was held in Kiev. At the time of his 20-minute speech, titled “How New Ukraine’s Fate Affects Europe and the World,” Trump was already a presidential candidate.
Trump’s spokespeople did not respond to a question about Pinchuk’s gift.
The Post was first alerted to the 2015 tax filing by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a liberal watchdog group. In a written statement, CREW spokesman Jordan Libowitz said many questions remained to be answered.
“Why were the Trumps unable to provide locations of the Foundation’s assets like paintings and football helmets..when they clearly remain in the possession of the Foundation? What assets do [they] admit to transferring to a ‘disqualified person?’” Libowitz wrote. “It’s pretty clear at this point that the IRS needs to investigate.”
In all, the 2015 tax filing shows that the Trump Foundation took in $781,000 and gave away $896,000 in grants during 2015. That left it with $1.1 million at year’s end, slightly down from the year before.
An early look at its outgoing grants showed a familiar pattern: Trump gave to a smattering of New York and Florida charities, plus a few connected to friends and business partners. Also, as he entered the presidential race, he gave to several nonprofits connected with conservative causes.
One of them was Project Veritas, the group run by conservative provocateur James O’Keefe, which has used hidden-camera stings to target liberal groups. Stephen Gordon, of Project Veritas, said that its point of contact had been Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s one-time campaign manager.
He said they had a brief meeting with Trump in 2015, at Trump Tower. Trump gave $10,000 from his foundation to the group, which is an IRS-certified nonprofit.
“We showed him a couple of videos. He thought that was really cool. And we walked out with a check. It was a typical donor meeting,” Gordon recalled.
JUST BECAUSE SISSY SAYS SO DOESN'T MAKE IT SO...BUT HE THINKS IT DOES!!!!! JUST BECAUSE MC1 SAYS SO DOESN'T MAKE IT SO!!!!!
.....okay....so here comes the first promise he broke!! Yup, he's bought and sold too!! if that were the average 'joe q. citizen'..........our a$$ would have been in jail l-o-n-g time ago!!! ...unless of course she is terminally ill and he's gonna give her a pass. but again....would they take that into consideration if that was one of us 'slaves'?
Quoted Text
Trump won’t pursue charges against Clinton By Daniel Halper November 22, 2016 | 8:35am
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
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