DOWN GOES TRUMP! DOWN GOES TRUMP! DOWN GOES TRUMP!

MY WORLD IS CHANGING.  THE SHIFT TO A NEW SYSTEM BY GOOGLE IS LIMITING THIS BLOG SITE.  I WILL CONTINUE A WHILE IN THE PRESENT FORM, BUT THIS LOCATION WILL SHORTLY BECOME THE SITE OF MY FUTURE BOOK DRAFTS FOR YOUR COMMENT.  MOSTLY, THOUGH, I WILL JUST TOSS IN INTERESTING STUFF.  THIS WILL CONTINUE AT LEAST UNTIL I REACH #1 OF MY FAVORITE SONGS AROUND THE EVE OF  THE NEW YEAR.

YOU ARE INVITED TO MY NEW BLOG SITE IF YOU WISH TO CONTINUE READING WHAT I'VE BEEN DOING FOR MORE THAN A DOZEN YEARS:

     WHY ARE WE HERE?  WHERE WILL WE GO?

From Worldometer:

           DAY USA   WORLD   Brazil      India   South Africa

June      9    1093    4732        1185       246          82

July     19      412    4606          715       675          85

           22     1205    7128       1293     1120        572

Aug      1    1462     6429       1191       765        193

          10       534     4813         593     1013        198
          12     1504     6556       1242       835        130

          30       369     4182         398       960          47
Sept     3     1094     5886          830    1083        174
            6       432     4129          456    1008        110
            9     1208     6222        1136    1168          82
           13      392     3905          389    1140          20
           14      480     4374          454    1054          52
           15    1197     6001        1090    1283        142

           16    1012     6085          967    1139          64

           17      879     5568          857    1174          67

           18      958     5464          826    1221          85

           19      657     5141          708    1149          83

           20      294     3891          330    1135          13  

           21      384     4129          455    1056          39

           22      979     5725          809    1056        126

           23    1112     6328          906    1152          88

           24      942     5872          818    1144          77

           25      895     5819          826    1093          29

           26      737     5306          732    1123          64

           27      276     3933          335    1040          22

Summary:  Don't get too happy about any Monday report.

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 taxes 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 averaged $1.4 million/year 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.

The song was written in 1924 by Alfred Unauna Alohikea, who grew up in Hanalei, and went on to sing for the Royal Hawaiian Band.  Here is a 1927 recording by the South Sea Islanders.  A more modern rendition by the Royal Hawaiian Band.  What I'm leading to is that I can't find the one by the Hilo Hawaiians.  Someday, I will find it and Hanohano Hanalei by the Hilo Hawaiians will be inserted here.

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