“The problem is all inside your head,” she told the Czar.
“Hallucinating will not get you very far.
Just pack your bags and we will take them to the car.
There must be fifty ways to leave the White House.
Fifty ways to leave the White House.”
Just give up the con, Don.
Try a new scam, Sam.
You’ve pockets to pick, Dick.
It’s time you must flee.
Just walk on the lawn, Shawn.
Hop on the bird, Ferd.
Say “bye” to D.C., Lee.
You just gotta flee.
“These are the times that try men’s souls,” wrote Thomas Paine in the essay, “The American Crisis.” That was in 1776, when American patriots tore up King George’s lease and launched a war of independence. Their souls were tried by a despot who threatened “to BIND us in ALL CASES WHATSOEVER.” Ours are tried in The Year of Oh Lord 2020 by a Walter Mitty despot who wants to overstay his lease on The People’s House. He’s trying to BIND us into FOUR MORE YEARS OF A REALITY SHOW PRESIDENCY that is turning our country into “The Jerry Springer Show.” How many ways are there to get the Holdover-In-Chief (HIC) out of the White House?
She told the Czar, “Just think of it, it’s really clear.
It’s Mar-A-Lago where you want to live next year.
The White House is a place you find devoid of cheer.
There must be fifty ways to leave the White House.
Fifty ways to leave the White House.”
Just hop Air Force One, Hon.
Fly far away, Ray.
There’re pussies to grab, Ab.
It’s time you must flee.
The rubes worship you, Lou.
They give you their cash, Ash.
There’s money to make, Jake.
But first you must flee.
The HIC never figured out how to be president, but that was not the point. Since he knew nothing about governance and fought the temptation to learn anything about it, he created an imaginary, reality-show presidency, a part he could play like the faux tycoon of The Apprentice. He played it well; his presidency was what you’d expect from a fraud. Ultimately, his show drew an audience that dwarfed anything The Apprentice produced. When the final votes are counted, he’ll have a contingent of voters numbering upwards of 74 million. That’s a heck of a flock to fleece, a grifter’s paradise. Even if only half of them respond to his beggar emails, he could rake in enough cash to cover the loans and legal fees that will come due in 2021.
And, of course, he’ll launch a media empire. Or at least a media enterprise that he will claim is an empire (it’s a faux emperor thing). “(S)tarting some kind of media enterprise,” writes Paul Waldman in the Washington Post “even if it’s a subscription website — would be one logical way for Trump to tap into the thriving ecosystem of scammers and grifters who prey upon the millions of gullible and excitable Republicans just waiting to turn over their money to stop the libs from destroying our country.” Waldman notes that the HIC is not waiting until he departs the White House to start plucking. He “is already tapping into it; he’s soliciting contributions for a new PAC called ‘Save America,’ whose mission is to keep Democrats from stealing the election; in fact, it looks like much of the money will go to, you guessed it, Donald Trump.”
She told the Czar, “I think the future is real bright.
You’ll be on media that runs both day and night.”
The Czar said, “Are you really sure
That I’ll have fifty ways?”
She said, “Why don’t you grab your phone and tweet into the night?
You know they send you money when you get into a fight.
But pay attention man, because you know that I am right.
It’s time for you to leave the White House.
Time for you to leave the White House.”
Just shake down the flock, Jock.
Send emails and tweet, Pete.
Subscriptions galore, Thor.
Its past time to flee.
Say you’ll run again, Ben.
Just try once again, Ken.
They’ll give you the mon, son.
If only you flee.
Eventually, the HIC will figure out that his post-presidency will be more lucrative than serving in the Oval Office – and a hell of a lot less work. His advisers will conjure up various ways of making money, from speaking fees, a media outlet – likely digital, contributions for what will probably be a fake re-election campaign, a (ghost-written) book, real estate deals, and so on. Putin might even let him build his Moscow Tower. The sky is the limit, they will tell him. They will paint 50 ways to write his future, every path lined with gold, every fantasy indulged, all of it fueled with the giant sucking sound of 74 million pockets to pick. “It will be glorious,” they will tell him. Meanwhile, Leticia James and Cyrus Vance are convening grand juries.
As for me, I echo these words of Thomas Paine: “I should suffer the misery of devils were I to make a whore of my soul by swearing allegiance to one whose character is that of a sottish, stupid, stubborn, worthless, brutish man.” Paine envisioned the kind of a man who tore babies from their mothers’ arms and killed thousands of his countrymen by surrendering to COVID-19: “I conceive likewise a horrid idea in receiving mercy from a being who at the last day shall be shrieking to the rocks and mountains to cover him, and fleeing with terror from the orphan, the widow, and the slain of America.”
There must be fifty ways to leave the White House.
Get the hell out.
© 2020 by Mike Tully
<<< YOU CAN READ / DOWNLOAD A PDF VERSION BY CLICKING HERE >>>
Pop Goes the Weisselberg
The most intriguing language in the indictment against the Trump Organization and its Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg is near the bottom of page nine: “Weisselberg occasionally submitted requests that the Trump Corporation pay for personal expenses for his homes and for an apartment maintained by one of his children.” To Whom did he submit the requests?
Chief Financial Officers don’t submit requests downhill. Would anybody in management submit a request to somebody they outranked? Requests for benefits of that sort go to the boss. Weisselberg would have submitted the requests to somebody who outranked him. That somebody had to approve his unlawful requests.
The indictment covers fifteen years, before, during and after the Trump presidency. Just before Trump assumed office, he resigned his position with the Trump organization and appointed Donald, Jr. and Eric to run it, along with Weisselberg. The Official Board website displays an organizational chart that shows Trump and the two sons outrank Weisselberg. It’s likely that Weisselberg’s requests were submitted to Donald Trump before he became President, and to one or both of the sons afterward. Trump and at least one of his sons were almost certainly aware of and approved them. If so, they engaged in a fraudulent scheme.
Timothy L. O’Brien, writing for Bloomberg, noted Trump and Weisselberg “routinely worked jointly to prepare summaries they shared with banks that were trying to assess Trump’s financial wherewithal.” It was clear the two worked closely. Trump admitted many of the allegations in the indictment in a recent speech. He feigned ignorance of taxable fringe benefits and asked rhetorically, “Does anybody know the answer to that stuff?” (Spoiler alert: the D.A. does.)
Trump denounced the charges as “politically motivated,” but the rot was institutional and Weisselberg wasn’t the only beneficiary. “The purpose of the scheme was to compensate Weisselberg and other Trump Organization executives in a manner that was ‘off the books,’” states the indictment. “(T)he beneficiaries of the scheme received substantial portions of their income through indirect and disguised means, with compensation that was unreported or misreported.”
The indictment doesn’t identify other executives who participated in the scheme. Presumably they know who they are and are not sleeping well. Weisselberg even collected refunds he was not entitled to. He and the other unnamed executives stiffed the United States, as well as the State and City of New York.
The fraudulent activity directly benefitted the Trump Organization. “(T)he scheme involved the failure of the Trump Corporation and Trump Payroll Corp. to withhold income taxes on wages, salaries, bonuses and other forms of compensation paid to certain employees,” states the indictment. “The scheme also allowed the Trump Organization to evade the payment of payroll taxes that the Trump Organization was required to pay in connection with employee compensation.”
The issue of who granted Weisselberg’s requests is not the only untied loose end. After noting requests for “such items as new beds, flat-screen televisions, the installation of carpeting, and furniture for Weisselberg’ s home in Florida,” the indictment notes “the Trump Corporation issued checks to pay the expenses.” Who signed the checks? The company “tracked the payment of the expenses internally as part of Weisselberg’s annual compensation. However, the payments made for these ad hoc purchases were not included as compensation on Weisselberg’s W-2 forms or otherwise reported to federal, state, or local tax authorities.”
The former President ran a company that kept two sets of books: a secret one, and the one they showed the government. Trump swore to uphold and defend the Constitution while simultaneously defrauding his country.
The case is about more than fringe benefits. The indictment charges the defendants with unlawfully mischaracterizing salary as self-employment income.
“(T)he defendants misreported portions of the employee compensation paid to certain Trump Organization executives, including but not limited to Weisselberg,” states the indictment. The Organization paid certain executives a salary and discretionary annual bonus. “The salary and, in most instances, a portion of the executives’ end-of-year bonuses were paid to the executives by Trump Payroll Corp. and reported,” states the indictment. “However, for Weisselberg and other executives, a substantial portion of their end-of-year bonuses was paid in the form of checks drawn on other Trump Organization entities.”
How were those payments characterized? “The end-of-year bonus checks drawn on entities other than Trump Payroll Corp. were routinely reported to tax authorities as non-employee compensation and set forth on United States Internal Revenue Service 1099 Forms.” The deception was deliberate. “By reporting portions of employees’ bonus payments as non-employee compensation, the defendants made it possible for those employees to report the payments as self-employment income.”
Mischaracterization of wages as independent contractor payments allowed the Organization to dodge employment taxes and report the payments as a routine business expense. Self-employed individuals enjoy an array of deductions that are not available to wage-earners, such as home office deductions. There are also benefits. Weisselberg took out a Keogh plan, a tax-deferred pension that is legally available only to self-employed individuals.
Allen Weisselberg is innocent until proven guilty and is entitled to his day in court. But if the case against him is as strong as the indictment suggests, he’s looking at spending most of his remaining life in prison. Whether he does may depend on his loyalty to a man who would sacrifice him without an afterthought. What happens when Weisselberg realizes his only chance of remaining free is to spill the beans on a psychopath?
Pop goes the Weisselberg. Down goes The Donald.
© 2021 by Mike Tully
<<< YOU CAN READ / DOWNLOAD A PDF VERSION BY CLICKING HERE >>>