Trump's abuse of another office

The focus on President Trump's abuse of his presidential office for personal and political gain risks overlooking his admitted gargantuan abuse of his "charitable" foundation.

This week, a New York judged slammed Trump with $2 million in damages for his foundation's skeevy grifting. The judgment was part of a settlement agreement in which Trump stipulated that his foundation:

• Provided improper political help to his presidential campaign and another political campaign;
• Improperly paid more than a quarter million dollars in different legal settlements for Trump's businesses;
• Paid $47,000 for advertising, artwork, and other expenses for Trump's businesses;
• Had a sham Board of Directors--the Board did not meet from 1999 through November 2018, provided no oversight, and did not adopt a required conflict of interest policy.

By converting his foundation into his personal piggy bank, Trump corruptly turned taxable activities into tax-free activities, cheating the federal and New York state governments and passing his bill to other taxpayers.

As part of the settlement, Trump had already agreed to dissolve the Foundation, pay its remaining $1.7 million in holdings to genuine charitable causes, pay other penalties, and adhere to strict rules and monitoring if he ever serves on the board of another charity.

Trump is now prohibited from running a charity without a host of guardrails, yet somehow his Republican enablers see him as qualified to run the country.

For any other president, these penalties for mismanagement and self-dealing would be an all-consuming scandal. For Trump, it's just more of the same.

Can't keep their lies straight

On Friday Donald Trump denied that he was even aware of intelligence evidence proving that his disgraced national security adviser and Russian toadie, Michael Flynn, discussed sanctions with the Russian ambassador--"I don't know about that. I haven't seen it. What report is that? I haven't seen that. I'll look into that." 

Today he wants us to believe that he has been on top of the situation for weeks, determined that the discussions were legal, but pushed him out this week because of a lack of trust.

Wouldn't the lack of trust be a firing offense when it was discovered, not weeks later? If Trump was aware of the nature of Flynn's discussion weeks ago, doesn't this mean that he and his administration have covered it up in the meantime? 

Nothing that Trump says is believable. Watch for the fake explanations to change in the coming days.

The rantings of this so-called president

A so-called president who fell three million votes short in the popular vote, whose election was tainted by Russian meddling and possible Russian collusion, and who is daily violating Constitutional prohibition against foreign payments questions the legitimacy of a federal judge.

That takes some brass.

Trump TPP Two-fer Hurts Greensboro and Helps China

An ill-considered stroke of Donald Trump's pen on Monday removed the U.S. from the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) and in the process dampened prospects for jobs and growth in Greensboro but brightened the prospects for Chinese hegemony in the Pacific.

The TPP, which included 11 other countries but excluded China, would have eliminated those countries' tariffs on all U.S. manufactured goods and farm exports and greatly lowered tariffs on other goods. By doing so, it would have increased trade between countries that account for 40 percent of the world's output AND given the U.S. a trade advantage over China within that huge block.

The TPP would have also strengthened intellectual property protections to allow the U.S. to better benefit from its thought capital and would have bolstered environmental regulations, labor standards, and human rights in the partner countries in ways that would have leveled the playing field for U.S.

A substantial portion of Greensboro's economy, including emerging high-tech manufacturers like HondaJet and RFMD, involves exports. Figures from the International Trade Administration show that the Greensboro-High Point metropolitan area exported $3.3 billion worth of goods in 2015 (the latest year for which figures are available) of which $1.6 billion went to TPP countries. Other important Greensboro employers, including FedEx and UPS, provide services that support this trade. Good-paying jobs at all of these companies are put at risk by the withdrawal from the TPP, and Greensboro is hurt.

At the same time, China benefits. Without the TPP, China's exports to the other partner countries will remain relatively competitive. With Trump making the U.S. unreliable and unsteady, the other countries have an incentive to look elsewhere. And to the extent that Trump's action and other "America First" rhetoric signal a withdrawal from the Pacific, our partners have less support to stand up to China. China couldn't be happier about this.

It really makes you wonder who Donald Trump is working for.