Dumb and Dumber

 

        There is a popular “when all else fails” Trump worshiper fall-back which goes something like this: “Donald Trump is the only president to give his salary to charity!” (as if this excuses the lies and shitty policy decisions.)  Trump has made that claim himself, numerous times. He’s been wrong every time, too! In fact, two other 20^th century presidents gave their entire salaries to charity. They just didn’t think it necessary to stroke their own egos by bragging about it.

        Trump has made a show of giving away his paycheck, donating his salary to the National Park Service, the Department of Education, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Small Business Administration, the Surgeon General's office and the Department of Agriculture.

        Thirty-first president Herbert Hoover was the first American executive in chief to refuse a salary. Hoover was a multimillionaire before assuming office from a previous career as an engineer and businessman and donated his paycheck to charitable causes.

        In like manner, John F. Kennedy was born into wealth and prestige. When Kennedy took the oath of office in 1961, he was the richest man in history to do so. The Kennedy family fortune was valued at $1 billion and allocated a $10 million trust fund to JFK. Kennedy refused both his congressional salary from the House and Senate and his presidential salary, though he kept his $50,000 expense account for “public entertaining he must do as President.” Unlike Trump, the bulk of whose donations went to governmental agencies, Kennedy quietly donated primarily to The Boy Scouts and Girls Scouts of America, the United Negro College Fund, and the Cuban Families Committee. See any difference there?

        The other huge difference between the previous two and Trump is that both men placed their assets in a blind trust and made zero profit from the presidency.  Trump, however, has enriched the Trump organization in numerous ways, yet none of the taxpayer dollars have been reimbursed.

        The U.S. government (you know – taxpayers) has paid at least $1.3 million to President Trump’s company since Trump took office — including payments for more than 1,600 nightly room rentals at Trump’s hotels and clubs, according to federal records. None has been reimbursed. Add to this, the fact that both Donald Junior and Eric (Forrest) Trump have done several overseas sorties strictly for Trump Organization business   with secret service protection. These are not government business, but profit opportunities for the Trump Organization, and, by extension, its de facto ruler. All protective services costs should be, but aren’t, billed to that entity, not the Government.

        Eric Trump visited a Trump property in development in Uruguay from January 8 to 9, 2019, a two-day business trip that cost taxpayers at least $80,786. Records obtained  through the Freedom of Information Act add to the massive bill of Secret Service protection related to the Trump family’s management of the president’s business empire. The 2019 trip brings Eric Trump’s total up to at least $178,616 in taxpayer funds to work on development of the Trump Organization’s Punta Del Este property alone.

        Another time, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr's trip to the United Arab Emirates cost taxpayers a minimum of $73,000 in Secret Service fees. Donald Trump’s eldest sons travelled to Dubai to meet business partner Hussain Sajwani and visit Trump-brand properties in the area, according to a Trump Organization spokesperson. The two conducted no government business.  This isn’t family travel or family vacay, this is Trump Organization business, with protection paid for on the taxpayer’s dime. Private business for private profit, paid for by you and me.

        Even odder, Trump's businesses got paid, not only when he visited, — but, sometimes, when he didn't. This past spring marked the first known instance of a Trump club billing the government while it was closed. The Bedminster club temporarily closed down operations on March 17, after the N.J. Governor imposed new restrictions on businesses and social gatherings because of the pandemic. Bedminster's general manager, David Schutzenhofer, wrote to club members in an email that day, that the club would be closed, with staff offices open but employees encouraged to work from home. No golf, no visitors, no President, no secret service.

        On that same day, Schutzenhofer signed a contract allowing the Secret Service to rent the club's Sarazen Cottage for the next 13 nights. When that contract expired, the Secret Service signed another for 16 more nights, until April 15, according to copies of the contracts released by the Secret Service. The rate was $567 per night. Although the club was vacant through April, the charges continued. In fact, on some nights the Secret Service appears to have been charged for even more rooms than usual — not just the Sarazen Cottage, but one or two additional rooms as well. The rates for the extra suites ranged from $142 to $283 per night. Considering the cottage alone, that’s another $17,000 plus for an empty cottage in an empty club. Of course, the money went to the Trump Organization.

        In summary:  giving away $400,000 annually and taking in more than that from the same government to whom you “donated” is almost money laundering. I find it interesting that those same folks who cried crocodile tears every time the Obamas took a family vacation, even though the expenses were paid to local economies, are silent as Trump enriches his business with private business trips by his adult children with the taxpayer being billed for what should be business expenses.  

 

        On another and even more amazingly stupid note: Two words - Ben Carson. Housing and Urban Development are hard to fuck up and Carson’s hands-off style is probably for the best.

In case you forgot just how dumb the man is, where are a couple of quote “reminders” up front:

" Fox News as the only thing keeping the United States from becoming Cuba."….Or…."Hey guys, everybody attack him. He may shoot me, but he can’t get us all,'"…..or…."Obamacare is really I think the worst thing that has happened in this nation since slavery." And “First of all, we have to understand how the Constitution works. The president is required to carry out the laws of the land, the laws of the land come from the legislative branch. So, if the legislative branch creates a law or changes a law, the executive branch has a responsibility to carry it out. It doesn’t say they have the responsibility to carry out a judicial law. And that’s something we need to talk about.” (No, Ben, YOU need to understand how the Constitution works!)

Here’s my all-time Carson fave:

        “The pledge of allegiance to our flag says we are one nation under God. Many courtrooms in the land on the wall it says, ‘In God We Trust.’ Every coin in our pocket, every bill in our wallet says, ‘In God We Trust.’ So, if it’s in our founding documents, it’s in our pledges, in our courts and it’s on our money, but we’re not supposed to talk about it, what in the world is that? In medicine it’s called schizophrenia and I, for one, am simply not willing to kick God to the curb.”

        Sounds good, doesn't it? Sort of like “Hot Fudge Sundae.” Say it fast enough and you might almost think Carson knows some shit. Relax, he doesn’t even suspect all that much. The problem is that both Ben Carson's statements and the implications thereof are egregiously incorrect.   Where to begin?

        First and foremost, our pledge of allegiance wasn’t written until 1892, when all the “founders” were long dead. If a national pledge of allegiance was even moderately important, I’ll bet the writing team of Hamilton and Madison could have written a hum-dinger to include in the Constitution…. but they didn’t, did they? Actually, it came from the pen of a Socialist (gasp) Baptist minister, Francis Bellamy.

        The words “under God” weren’t added until 1954. So, neither our pledge nor the words “under God” have anything to do with our Founding Fathers, documents, or the values on which this nation was founded.  In fact, 104 years lapsed between the Constitution's adoption and the Pledge of Allegiance. Another 62 years passed before in a flurry of McCarthy fueled jingoism, we added "Under God."   As far as “In God We Trust” being on our currency, that didn’t happen until 1864. Again, 77 years after our nation had already been founded. And, again, after the founders were long dead. As far as our nation’s motto becoming “In God We Trust,” that didn’t happen until 1956, again during the Cold War as some kind of asinine knee jerk response to “Godless” Communism. Once again, this was a move that had nothing to do with our Founding Fathers or the creation of this nation.

        For folks like the Carsons, Pences, etc., it is insufficient for us to allow them the freedom to worship the cosmic muffin of their choice. We must, as one, bend over backward, say "Ahh", and swallow it too.