Romney, etc are wasting their time trying to corner Trump with the tax return stuff.
It isn't gonna show anything anyone cares about. Dude said he is going after Amazon for anti-trust violations and no one cares. I like Romney but how out of touch can you be? Nobody gives a shit that Trump made 50M instead of 100M in 2015 or whatever else he thinks is in there.
It isn't gonna show anything anyone cares about. Dude said he is going after Amazon for anti-trust violations and no one cares. I like Romney but how out of touch can you be? Nobody gives a shit that Trump made 50M instead of 100M in 2015 or whatever else he thinks is in there.
Trump fever in Appalachia raises warning signs for Clinton in coal country
Hillary Clinton may not be able to count on support in mountain and mining states in the same way Barack Obama and her husband did
Bill Clinton returned to Appalachia this week with a familiar song ringing in his ears.
Fleetwood Mac’s Don’t Stop (Thinking About Tomorrow) was a campaign anthem that helped the “Big Dog” win two presidential elections in the 1990s in this mountain region.
It played him off stage again in Kentucky on Thursday afternoon and by the time he arrived in the state’s hard-pressed eastern coalfields that evening, it was to serve as the theme of a speech designed to rally his wife’s campaign in 2016.
“The problem is that people think every tomorrow is going to be just like yesterday,” he told a group of miners in Prestonburg. “The question is, are we going to get back in the future business, and are you going along for the ride?”
The miners had booed when he walked on stage. These days the mountains appear instead to belong to a politician offering something more potent than hope.
Even among Republicans, Donald Trump divides opinion in many parts of the country. Not so in Appalachia, where his success in the party’s recently completed primary elections here was universal enough that it could serve as a new definition of the region’s rugged borders.
Of the 420 counties seen as sharing a culture that transcends state lines, Trump won all but 16 , including a sweep of western Pennsylvania, eastern Ohio and the western uplands of Virginia with potentially profound ramifications for the general election.
Hillary Clinton may not be able to count on support in mountain and mining states in the same way Barack Obama and her husband did
Bill Clinton returned to Appalachia this week with a familiar song ringing in his ears.
Fleetwood Mac’s Don’t Stop (Thinking About Tomorrow) was a campaign anthem that helped the “Big Dog” win two presidential elections in the 1990s in this mountain region.
It played him off stage again in Kentucky on Thursday afternoon and by the time he arrived in the state’s hard-pressed eastern coalfields that evening, it was to serve as the theme of a speech designed to rally his wife’s campaign in 2016.
“The problem is that people think every tomorrow is going to be just like yesterday,” he told a group of miners in Prestonburg. “The question is, are we going to get back in the future business, and are you going along for the ride?”
The miners had booed when he walked on stage. These days the mountains appear instead to belong to a politician offering something more potent than hope.
Even among Republicans, Donald Trump divides opinion in many parts of the country. Not so in Appalachia, where his success in the party’s recently completed primary elections here was universal enough that it could serve as a new definition of the region’s rugged borders.
Of the 420 counties seen as sharing a culture that transcends state lines, Trump won all but 16 , including a sweep of western Pennsylvania, eastern Ohio and the western uplands of Virginia with potentially profound ramifications for the general election.
These three states are regarded as “purple” battlegrounds in part because they remain diverse, with blue Democratic cities that tend to balance out a red shift in the hills. ButHillary Clinton may not be able to count on their support in the same way Barack Obama and her husband did.
Despite retaining a clear opinion poll lead over Trump at the national level, the Clinton campaign was jolted this week by a new survey suggesting three purple states – Ohio, Pennsylvania and Trump’s second home state of Florida – may now be too close to call.
The Quinnipaic poll put Trump four points ahead in Ohio and only one point behind in Pennsylvania and Florida. It may prove an outlier, but no presidential candidate since 1960 has won the White House without taking at least two of these three battlegrounds.
To add insult to injury, the same survey showed Clinton’s otherwise struggling Democratic opponent Bernie Sanders doing better against Trump in each of the battleground states – adding to momentum he gained this week with his victory in the West Virginia primary, something he will hope to replicate in Kentucky on Tuesday.
To understand why some traditional Democratic bulwarks now look vulnerable for Clinton, the Guardian travelled along this wide arc of Appalachian counties that make up the core of Trump’s support among white working-class men and have become a symptom of her struggle to despatch Sanders.
The Ohio city of Steubenville lies 300 miles north of Prestonburg, but shares the same hilly topography and deep scepticism of the Clinton school of optimism.
While Bill was president, this once proud industrial community experienced the sharpest drop in population of any urban area in the country. It has continued to shrink since, as the collapse of the local steel industry leaves an economic vacuum that remains to be filled.
As in other steel towns in nearby Pennsylvania, here previously loyal Democratsare now flirting with Trump’s unique brand of Republicanism in growing numbers.
“I think Trump is nuts, but I’d love to have him as a president to see what happens,” says Edward Tucker, a 68-year-old retired carpenter from Steubenville, who says he has no regrets about twice voting for Barack Obama in previous elections.
“I wouldn’t want to end up in some kind of war or anything,” he adds hastily. “But something is going to change if he’s president; we just don’t know what.”
Nevertheless Tucker is sceptical of any politician claiming to be able to return all the jobs to the area and does not simply blame China for taking away the steel mills.
“There is nothing the president can do,” he says. “The problem with jobs is our advancement in technology and they are not going to reverse that. They are going to keep trying to make things easier and better. That’s the way it’s going to be.”
It is realism echoed by the local director of economic development, Evan Scurti, who doubts high-volume steel mills will ever return to the area and is focused on trying to attract smaller companies back instead.
With a pause even in the local natural gas boom and lack of flat development land, it is a tall order. “There are a lot more Trump posters going up around here,” he notes.
But other parts of Ohio have shown that manufacturing jobs can return, if enough effort is made.
Sara Marrs-Maxfield coordinates economic development for Athens County, which has just tempted back a tyre mold manufacturer which decided to close up six years ago in the face of cheap foreign competition.
Persuading Athens Tire & Mold to reopen its abandoned factory was not easy and required sizeable grants and assistance from local development bodies. Yet it will bring 60 jobs back to a site that would otherwise have been converted into student housing instead. “It comes down to a matter of political will,” says Marrs-Maxfield.
Among Trump supporters, there is more going on than a simple belief that he will work harder to encourage such “reshoring” of US manufacturing.
Standing outside a Lowes DIY store in Steubenville, Edward Tucker acknowledges a personal distrust of Hillary Clinton too, although he denies any suggestion of sexism.
“I like Trump, and Sanders. I don’t like Hillary Clinton at all. I never did like her. It has nothing to do with her politics, I just never liked her. I don’t like her attitude,” he says.
“It’s not because she’s a woman; I think she’s arrogant. I don’t know, she might be just fine, but she comes across as arrogant.”
Back in Prestonburg, some of the Trump supporters who have picketed the Bill Clinton event also acknowledge a personal antipathy that is peculiarly focused on the former secretary of state.
“It think it was a smart move to send him instead of her. Bill is more likely to go down well with Democrats here in eastern Kentucky,” says Terry Adam, a 49-year-old small businessman from Letcher County, shortly before he is moved on by a secret service agent.
There are plenty of men in the line of Democratic supporters at the event too though.
“My daughter here looks up to Hillary,” says Jeff Krejsa, a 40-year-old defence engineer who has travelled from Richmond, Kentucky, with his daughters, aged seven and 10. “I like the fact that she is at a young age and is seeing a woman run for president.”
Inside the event, there is also palpable excitement at the prospect of the first female president that transcends any easy stereotyping of Appalachian menfolk.
But the issue that Bill Clinton grapples hardest with is what to do about Trump’s appeal to economic nostalgia in a region that may never recapture the job security it once had.
“I think [the Trump slogan] ‘Make America Great Again’ is actually ‘Make it like it was in the 1960s’,” says Clinton. “If you think you can do it, have at it. If you really believe you can go back to the 1950s and make it like it was then, have at it.”
It is not that the Democrats don’t believe in progress, simply that they are more realistic about how it will be achieved, claims Bill.
“I grew up in a place like this. I hope to be the last American president to grow up without an indoor toilet,” he says. “Everybody believed they could make tomorrow better than today … but we are not going to get anywhere screaming at each other.”
The trouble is that tomorrow did arrive in many parts of the US, and not everyone liked what it looked like. For now, the voices shouting loudest about it – not just in rural Appalachia, but in cities across the US where the middle class is shrinking – are perhaps the ones more voters want to hear.
Dan Roberts in Prestonburg, Kentucky
@RobertsDan
Saturday 14 May 2016 17.44 BST
Nevertheless Tucker is sceptical of any politician claiming to be able to return all the jobs to the area and does not simply blame China for taking away the steel mills.
“There is nothing the president can do,” he says. “The problem with jobs is our advancement in technology and they are not going to reverse that. They are going to keep trying to make things easier and better. That’s the way it’s going to be.”
It is realism echoed by the local director of economic development, Evan Scurti, who doubts high-volume steel mills will ever return to the area and is focused on trying to attract smaller companies back instead.
With a pause even in the local natural gas boom and lack of flat development land, it is a tall order. “There are a lot more Trump posters going up around here,” he notes.
But other parts of Ohio have shown that manufacturing jobs can return, if enough effort is made.
Sara Marrs-Maxfield coordinates economic development for Athens County, which has just tempted back a tyre mold manufacturer which decided to close up six years ago in the face of cheap foreign competition.
Persuading Athens Tire & Mold to reopen its abandoned factory was not easy and required sizeable grants and assistance from local development bodies. Yet it will bring 60 jobs back to a site that would otherwise have been converted into student housing instead. “It comes down to a matter of political will,” says Marrs-Maxfield.
Higher-end, specialized manufacturing is still a fast growing industry. Tons of job openings in these fields for the right people.
But the lower-end, basic assembly stuff that like 2-3 billion people in the world are capable of doing just isn't going to comeback besides in small pockets. Even if these jobs were to comeback, they wouldn't pay very much.
Seems like a lot of the realists in those areas understand that.
Romney got ripped-and rightly so-for only releasing a few returns when others-including his own father-realized a decade or more (Hillary and Bill have released 33 years, for example). Frump wants to release zero, nada, bupkus...until after the election. Good luck getting THAT to fly-not to mention, Frump himself said the tax thing hurt Romney(as he now conveniently forgets that stance), so, I'd say he disagrees with your "nobody cares stance."
Ya but Trump as a political figure is way more bulletproof than Romney or other candidates when it comes to stuff like this.
I'm just saying if he releases it and there is something in there that the political class thinks will be a big deal to voters, I'm doubting it will be. Unless he is donating $ to Hezbollah then people aren't really going to care. I think most people realize he embellishes his financial prowess a bit, it is mostly priced into his support at this point.
It's like I always tell you "It's getting late early out there" Romney needs to understand that.
Let me assure you you don't have to worry about a fascist rising because of a Trump Presidency,
just a correction with the pendulum swing back 180 degrees. No 'Dragons re-appearing in the Fields.
You would enjoy listening to Christy Moore - Viva la Quinta Brigada. Live at Barrowland Glasgow ...
Ten years before I saw the light of morning
A comradeship of heroes was laid
From every corner of the world came sailing
The Fifteenth International Brigade
They came to stand beside the Spanish people
To try and stem the rising fascist tide
Franco's allies were the powerful and wealthy
Frank Ryan's men came from the other side
Even the olives were bleeding
As the battle for Madrid it thundered on
Truth and love against the force of evil
Brotherhood against the fascist clan
- SHARE PICTURE
+5
"Mr Trump wants to halt, dismantle and rebuild a horrifically corrupt, broken and useless immigration system."
'Hillary Clinton is as guilty as the day is long, and as responsible for the deaths of 4 Americans, including an ambassador she was sworn to protect.'
Writing about Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, Schilling said: 'His love of the "Nordic Model" is understandable, who wouldn't like free stuff.'
However, Schillings argued 'It CANNOT SCALE from a policy covering 6-10 million people to covering 300+ million people in a country with 19+ trillion in debt and the worlds largest defense budget.'
Curt Schilling has revealed that he's endorsing presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
Schilling published an essay on his blog 38 Pitches on Friday about the choice.
He wrote that he trusts the billionaire businessman, noting: 'I don't agree with him on many things, that's cool.
'I also know that there is and never will be a candidate anywhere that I will agree with on everything. That candidate doesn't exist.'
Who are you, Yogi Berra, lol? We'll see, but everybody and everything has its limits, people on the right are already grumbling that, suddenly, he is saying that earlier stances such as banning Muslims and building the wall were "suggestions." Those comments obviously resonated with a lot of them, and he's already walking them back? I'm DYING to see who he taps as VP, there's a string of candidates, most notably Prick Perry, who tore him a new one several months ago but who are now on his dick to be VP. You can bet yer bottom dollah the Dems are gonna be cranking THOSE tapes up soon,...
Curt Schilling has revealed that he's endorsing presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
Schilling published an essay on his blog 38 Pitches on Friday about the choice.
He wrote that he trusts the billionaire businessman, noting: 'I don't agree with him on many things, that's cool.
'I also know that there is and never will be a candidate anywhere that I will agree with on everything. That candidate doesn't exist.'
Sick Brit Twit is NOTHING if not consistent, now he's slobbering over the words of a fascistic nitwit who pissed away an enormous fortune with an incredibly stupid business deal and just got fired 5 minutes ago from ESPN for OTHER bonehead, stupid remarks. Yeah, THAT'S the guy I wanna hitch MY wagon to, lol... w-thumbs!^
ointer:
He was even a Psychopath earlier, in 1985, when owning and running into the ground the Jersey Generals of the USFL:
[h=1]Reporters say they suspected a Donald Trump alter-ego back in 1985[/h]
BY ABBOTT KOLOFF
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
As a sportswriter more than 30 years ago, I called Donald Trump’s office in New York and was put on the phone with a man who said he was John Barron, a spokesman for Trump who sounded so much like his boss and used many of the same phrases that I kept interrupting him.
“Wait, is this Donald?” I asked at least three times during the interview.
“Oh, no” the man calling himself John Barron said, adding something along the lines that it was an interesting thought.
On Friday, the Washington Post reported what sports writers covering the New Jersey Generals of the United States Football League discovered in 1985 — that Trump, who owned the Generals at the time, often posed as someone else in order to praise himself or to say something he could later deny.
Related: Trump denies he posed as his spokesman during tabloid days [audio]
Trump’s apparent ghost spokesman sometimes spelled his name “Barron” — Trump named his youngest son Barron and reportedly admired hotel magnate Barron Hilton — and sometimes Baron. He also used the name John Miller, according to the Washington Post.
After that phone call from 1985, I called Trump’s secretary and was told that John Barron was not on any of the company’s organizational charts but was Trump’s right-hand man. You could almost hear the wink in her voice.
Trump at one point reportedly acknowledged posing as someone else when he didn’t want to be quoted directly. On Friday, he denied doing that. [See Washington Post, NBC's "Today"]
Here is a column written about Trump and his alter ego by Record sports columnist Vinny DiTrani that was published on Sunday, June 2, 1985:
AND DOES HE CHANGE IN A TELEPHONE BOOTH?
Have you ever seen Donald Trump and John Baron together?
Occasionally, callers to Trump Tower, anxious to speak with the Generals owner about pro football, are connected with Baron, an alleged executive vice-president of the Trump organization. It was Baron who a few weeks ago told United Press International that Trump thought it would be nice for the other United States Football League teams to chip in and pay Doug Flutie’s salary.
The next day Baron called UPI to say Trump was angered by the story.
Last week an out-of-town reporter, who had dealt with Trump in the past, was put onto a line with John Baron. After talking with Baron, he told friends: “The guy sounds just like Donald the same voice, the same mannerisms. During the conversation, he even broke in and said, `Let me ask you this? What do you think about that? “
The questioning of the questioner is one of Trump’s favorite moves.
The reporter called Trump Tower again the next day to check on the spelling of Baron’s name and his title in the organization. Eventually a secretary asked him, “What did Donald tell you yesterday? “
“I wasn’t speaking to Donald, I was speaking to John Baron,” was the reply, which may have been only half correct.
Baron never shows up at General games, something unusual for someone Trump trusts on matters concerning the football team. Further, the “J” in Donald J. Trump stands for “John,” and there’s no doubt that he qualifies as a modern-day “land baron. “ Callers to the Tower who ask for Baron usually are told he’s in a meeting or out of town, but there is no John Baron on the organizational chart.
Email: koloff@northjersey.com
[h=1]Reporters say they suspected a Donald Trump alter-ego back in 1985[/h]
LUIZ RIBEIRO/AP
In this April 9, 1991 file photo, Donald Trump is seen in New York.
BY ABBOTT KOLOFF
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
As a sportswriter more than 30 years ago, I called Donald Trump’s office in New York and was put on the phone with a man who said he was John Barron, a spokesman for Trump who sounded so much like his boss and used many of the same phrases that I kept interrupting him.
“Wait, is this Donald?” I asked at least three times during the interview.
“Oh, no” the man calling himself John Barron said, adding something along the lines that it was an interesting thought.
On Friday, the Washington Post reported what sports writers covering the New Jersey Generals of the United States Football League discovered in 1985 — that Trump, who owned the Generals at the time, often posed as someone else in order to praise himself or to say something he could later deny.
Related: Trump denies he posed as his spokesman during tabloid days [audio]
Trump’s apparent ghost spokesman sometimes spelled his name “Barron” — Trump named his youngest son Barron and reportedly admired hotel magnate Barron Hilton — and sometimes Baron. He also used the name John Miller, according to the Washington Post.
After that phone call from 1985, I called Trump’s secretary and was told that John Barron was not on any of the company’s organizational charts but was Trump’s right-hand man. You could almost hear the wink in her voice.
Trump at one point reportedly acknowledged posing as someone else when he didn’t want to be quoted directly. On Friday, he denied doing that. [See Washington Post, NBC's "Today"]
Here is a column written about Trump and his alter ego by Record sports columnist Vinny DiTrani that was published on Sunday, June 2, 1985:
AND DOES HE CHANGE IN A TELEPHONE BOOTH?
Have you ever seen Donald Trump and John Baron together?
Occasionally, callers to Trump Tower, anxious to speak with the Generals owner about pro football, are connected with Baron, an alleged executive vice-president of the Trump organization. It was Baron who a few weeks ago told United Press International that Trump thought it would be nice for the other United States Football League teams to chip in and pay Doug Flutie’s salary.
The next day Baron called UPI to say Trump was angered by the story.
Last week an out-of-town reporter, who had dealt with Trump in the past, was put onto a line with John Baron. After talking with Baron, he told friends: “The guy sounds just like Donald the same voice, the same mannerisms. During the conversation, he even broke in and said, `Let me ask you this? What do you think about that? “
The questioning of the questioner is one of Trump’s favorite moves.
The reporter called Trump Tower again the next day to check on the spelling of Baron’s name and his title in the organization. Eventually a secretary asked him, “What did Donald tell you yesterday? “
“I wasn’t speaking to Donald, I was speaking to John Baron,” was the reply, which may have been only half correct.
Baron never shows up at General games, something unusual for someone Trump trusts on matters concerning the football team. Further, the “J” in Donald J. Trump stands for “John,” and there’s no doubt that he qualifies as a modern-day “land baron. “ Callers to the Tower who ask for Baron usually are told he’s in a meeting or out of town, but there is no John Baron on the organizational chart.
Email: koloff@northjersey.com
