You are what you eat.
Hillary Clinton proved that once again by demanding that the deplorables be eaten.
Not exactly physically eaten – Bill’s a vegan after all – but emotionally, spiritually, and intellectually eaten by being sent through a formal “deprogramming” process.
Hillary, you see, thinks that anyone who disagrees with her is in a cult and, therefore, needs to be fixed (definitely figuratively and, given the chance, probably literally.)
Being pro-Clinton, you see, is not a cult like being pro-Trump, no matter that Hillary is an “election denier” who believes she was wrongfully denied her rightful office, no matter that she demands utter fealty and financial munificences from her minions (see Clinton Global Initiative,) and refuses to ever answer questions honestly. And then there’s her, um, devoted followers:
and
But, no matter, Trump is a cult – everybody knows that! Former journalist Christiane Amanpour not only did not press her in the CNN interview with even a “wait a second, really?” when Hillary made her de-programming pitch, she actually giggled along with her.
A second deplorable situation is the one surrounding Donald Trump. He’s been indicted on – oh, I don’t know – a bunch of charges and is facing multiple civil actions.
But just because the cases are grossly political – if not abjectly unconstitutional - in nature and would never ever ever be brought against anyone else, they can still raise, um, awkward issues he certainly wishes were not raised.
In the alleged fraud case – note, he’s not accused of defrauding anyone or anything specifically – the issue of property valuations is the key, with the allegation being Trump inflated them for borrowing purposes and probably deflated them for tax purposes. In other words he told the banks his stuff was worth more so they would lend him money at a better rate and kept lower (read probably real) valuations on his internal books, at least in part to keep his taxes down.
In almost any other state, this would be an issue solely between Trump and his lenders – none of whom have complained (recently) about the practice - but New York does have a special law that says that kind of thing is a no-no.
One thing that people seem to gloss over is that before he was an omni-salesman and a politician, Trump was a property developer and, no matter how honest they are, all property developers are liars to one extent or the other.
I dealt with many, many developers in my government career and none of them ever told the whole truth. The good ones told most of the truth and could be counted on to not screw things up, but every developer is at the very least a fabulist. They have to be – their industry demands it.
“Hi, bank – I’ve got this 1,000 acres in the desert so give me a $100 million dollars and then wait for 20 years to see if you get your money back” is an honest but very unsuccessful pitch (same with REIT investors.)
This is not meant as an actual criticism – it’s just a fact and other people in the industry – construction types, planners, architects, government officials, land entitlement types, etc. – all know and expect this and just steer clear of the really bad ones (usually defined as the ones that don’t pay their bills.)
So, did Trump inflate property values for the banks to get more favorable terms? Yes – I have absolutely no doubt he did.
Would any other developer not actually accused of specifically defrauding a bank or an investor would have you ever faced a case even remotely similar? No – I have absolutely no doubt no one else would.
The final deplorability for the day involves edenic San Francisco and a visitor it will get soon – Chinese Premier Xi - no he doesn’t look like Winnie-the-Pooh and if you say he does you will be shot – Jinping.
Xi - https://californiaglobe.com/fr/president-biden-chinese-president-xi-jinping-set-to-meet-in-san-francisco-next-month/ - will be in town in about five weeks to talk circles around a winded and deluded Biden at the Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting.
For Xi, this will be a glorious look at his successful handiwork, a first-hand experience of how much China has rotted the United States from inside.
I cannot but help to think of one thing when I hear “Xi in San Francisco”:
What has happened in San Francisco is only the most obvious manifestation of how successful Xi’s perma-war against the United States has been. Covid? China. Fentanyl? China. Jobs offshored? China. Ultra-woke politics and policies? China (just check the funding sources.) Screen stupor? China. Lowered hope? China.
What San Francisco is today Xi hopes – and works tirelessly to ensure – that the rest of the country will be tomorrow.
Short of the declaration of actual war and/or Xi and Biden making out on the Golden Gate Bridge – it is the city itself that will be the star, or child star, or child star with a meth addiction, or child star whose parents stole all his money so he now offers certain services in alleyways in exchange for fentanyl.
The world has been watching San Francisco’s abject decline for some time now and it will be on all of its glorious display for the international summit. Maybe – one can hope the city already has a fleet of buses filled with drugs ready to drive around town enticing people to hop on board and take a little trip for a couple of weeks.
To be honest, short of a cataclysmic flood to wash the city clean, I’m not sure how they are going to pull it off. The media will focus on the meeting, with earth shaking communiques! bilateral agreements!! frank climate change discussions!!! starring in most of the headlines.
But even they will not be able to completely overlook the sewage while they are standing in it. If the city pulls it off and manages to not look as disgusting as it is, it will be a feather in its cap.
Of course, that will lead to the obvious question – why can’t it be that way all the time?
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