Borrowing from Howard Cosell in 1973 when George Foreman knocked down Joe Frazier for the first of six times, winning by a TKO in the second round, yesterday, President Donald Trump was floored by
The New York Times, reporting on ten years of his tax returns, then later into the night a Showtime miniseries,
The Comey Rule, put him down again. The third knockdown could well be tonight when part 2 of
The Comey Rule will be shown.
For those who subscribe to Showtime and missed part 1, it plays in Hawaii at 4:25PM today again, with part 2 to immediately follow at 6PM. If you don't have a recorder and can't make those times, Showtime 2 repeats from 8:30 PM in Hawaii through 12:15AM. I think the West and East Coast times are three hours later. That is, on Showtime at 7:25PM for P1 and 9PM for P2 tonight. If you don't have Showtime, you can get a free month trial, then pay $11/month if you continue. If you want to quit...good luck. Nah, just kidding.
The miniseries is based on James Comey's
A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership, The Comey Rule. ViacomCBS originally indicated that the first showing would be after November 3. However, Showtime, no doubt influenced by the film makers, especially Comey, prevailed for this timely viewing just before the first presidential debate tomorrow. A more apt title for the effort could well have been
The Comey Revenge.
Jeff Daniels plays Jim Comey. Could have been someone more lanky and younger. Trump is by Brendan Gleeson. He is not shown much in part 1, but will become prominent in part 2. Interesting that the Vladimir Putin character appears, and looks around 6'3" tall, The real one is 5'7". Otherwise, an effort was made to have actors look like the originals.
Rotten Tomatoes reviewers gave it only a 62% rating, while the audience upped it a bit to 71%. I thought the first half was lethargic, with too much uninteresting details. However, all those key encounters and controversies are inserted, especially one suggesting that Trump owes Russian oligarchs a lot of money, plus rigged ownership of those incriminating sex tapes.
About the Trump tax returns bombshell,
from CNN:
A stunning New York Times exposé of the President's tax returns Sunday revealed a pitifully inept businessman and a serial tax avoider crushed by massive debts that could expose him to conflicts of interest given his position as President and power to help undisclosed lenders.
To summarize from
TNYT and
U.S. News and World Report:
- Trump calls this false news.
- Has not paid any federal taxes in 10 of 15 years since 2000.
- One deduction is $70,000 to take care of his hair. Plus $95,000 for Ivanka's.
- In some years he has contributed more to several foreign nations than to the U.S.
- This alone could explain why he is so malleable by Putin.
- Is in huge legal trouble and could actually go to jail as soon as next year.
- The last two years covered showed he did pay something: $750, exactly, per year. He is not being challenged by the IRS for those years.
- From 2000 to 2017 he did pay an average of $1.4 million in federal taxes, but he is supposedly among the top 0.001% of Americans, and those in that category ANNUALLY paid $25 million in the same timeframe.
- He has due something approaching half a billion dollars in loans in the next few years. Where is he going to get that kind of money? Incredibly, on balance, I could well be be worth more than him. You too.
- This is another gift to Biden, especially in reinforcing his working honest man versus rich criminal opponent tactic.
- Oh, you can add his bungling of the coronavirus pandemic causing all those deaths, critique by generals and former staff members, attitude about science and global warming, and the list keeps increasing.
- Trump will maintain his core base even with this particular flim-flam, but if he loses just 2.5% of his voters, which means a 5% voting difference, especially in battleground states, he is super-doomed.
- I've searched, but can nowhere find how The New York Times got all this tax information. A deep throat? Or Mary Trump? Governor Cuomo?
Next, if you're new to this blog site, I'm counting down my favorite songs. #93 is
Hanohano Hanalei (
The Glory of Hanalei) by Bunny Brown and the Hilo Hawaiians. Ideal link to
#94 yesterday about a mythical Hanalei.
Way back in 1963 Pearl and I were sent to the Kilauea Sugar Company by C. Brewer. There were two classes of people there. The administration and the laborers. While I was a trainee, I still mingled with the privileged.
A typical week had a party or two, where a dozen to two dozen of us ate all kinds of puu-puu (
Hawaiian appetizers) and drank Ten High Bourbon or beer. People here bought Ten High, which was the cheapest whisky, by the case, and many were functional alcoholics. You can still find this brand (
formerly by Hiram Walker, now Sazerac) and it costs less than $10/bottle. Can you imagine what it was 57 years ago? Interestingly enough, something about sugar plantation societies, but when I then moved to the Hutchinson Sugar Company in Naalehu on the Big Island the following year, there was a bar across the street from the factory which only served beer and Thunderbird wine.
So anyway, on weekends some of us drove to Coco Palms, which was the classiest hotel on Kauai. Elvis filmed
Blue Hawaii at this location. There was a nightclub here, and we showed up to dance and listen to mostly Hawaiian music. The most popular group was Bunny Brown and his Hilo Hawaiians. As Pearl is from Hilo,
Hanohano Hanalei became our favorite.
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