Trump Tax Bombshell: President Trump paid only $750 in federal income tax the year he was elected and none at all in 10 of the previous 15 years, The NY Times reports. The paper says it has obtained more than 20 years of the President’s tax information.

  Trump said at a press conference late yesterday, “That’s fake news. That’s totally fake news. Made up, fake.”

  The Times says Trump also paid only $750 in federal tax his first year in the White House. He has steadfastly refused to reveal his returns.

  The paper says, “His finances are under stress, beset by losses and hundreds of millions of dollars in debt coming due that he has personally guaranteed. Also hanging over him is a decade-long audit battle with the Internal Revenue Service over the legitimacy of a $72.9 million tax refund that he claimed, and received, after declaring huge losses. An adverse ruling could cost him more than $100 million.”

  Trump continues to say he can’t reveal his taxes because they are under audit, but there’s no law  that prevents him. The Times says, “His reports to the IRS portray a businessman who takes in hundreds of millions of dollars a year yet racks up chronic losses that he aggressively employs to avoid paying taxes.” 

  It says, “Most of Mr. Trump’s core enterprises — from his constellation of golf courses to his conservative-magnet hotel in Washington — report losing millions, if not tens of millions, of dollars year after year.”

  The Times story comes to the conclusion that, “Ultimately, Mr. Trump has been more successful playing a business mogul than being one in real life.”

On Drugs: The same day the curtain was opened on the Wizard of Oz, President Trump claimed that his opponent Joe Biden is on drugs and both candidates should take a drug test. He tweeted, “His Debate performances have been record setting UNEVEN, to put it mildly. Only drugs could have caused this discrepancy???”

 Almost certainly knowing that The NY Times was about to publish the tax story, Trump called a rare Sunday  press conference in which he went on about President Obama spying on his 2016 campaign, Obamacare, and mail ballots, as well as his accusation that Joe Biden takes drugs. “I mean I’m willing to take a drug test,” Trump said, “I think he should too.” 

Campaign of Fear: The President is waging a campaign of fear, and the primary fear he wants voters to have is that the election will be corrupt.

  Trump is campaigning against the use of mail ballots in the midst of a pandemic that could spread if crowds of voters go to the polls rather than vote from home.

  “Now, they’re talking about tens of millions of these fake ballots going all over the place,” Trump said to a campaign crowd Friday night in Newport News, Virginia. No one other than Trump has mentioned tens of millions of fake ballots.

  He said, “We’re not going to lose this, except if they cheat. That’s the way I look at it. We can’t let them cheat.” 

  At the same time, Trump is peddling fear of Joe Biden. “And if sleepy Joe Biden wins, your second amendment will be eliminated and your firearms will be confiscated,” Trump said, as if a President could just eliminate a constitutional amendment. No one, not Joe Biden or any politician with half a brain has ever … ever … suggested the policy of confiscating hundreds of millions of guns from Americans.

Advise and Consent: As President Trump’s nominee to the Supreme Court begins a hurried process to get her sworn in before the election, a clear majority of voters want the winner to fill the seat left by the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, according to a NY Times/Siena College poll 

  Fifty-six percent said they prefer to have the election be a referendum on who should fill the vacancy. Only 41 percent said they wanted Trump to fill the seat before November 3.

  Trump and Senate Republicans are rolling the dice on a gamble that could turn into a big loss for them. Sixty-two percent of women, 63 percent of independents, and 60 percent of college-educated white voters said they wanted the winner of the election to fill the seat.

  In announcing his nomination of Amy Coney Barrett on Saturday, Trump indicated clear expectations for how he expects her to vote. “Rulings that the Supreme Court will issue in the coming years will decide the survival of our second amendment, our religious liberty, our public safety, and so much more,” the President said. “To maintain security, liberty and prosperity, we must preserve our priceless heritage of a nation of laws and there is no one better to do that than Amy Coney Barrett.”

  Barrett clerked for the late Justice Antonin Scalia, a strict constructionist who didn’t believe in reading into the law for its intent. The law says what it says. Barrett said Saturday, “His judicial philosophy is mine too, a judge must apply the law as written. Judges are not policymakers and they must be resolute and setting aside any policy views they might hold.” 

The Bulletin Board: Fighting broke out over the weekend between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces over the disputed separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The territory’s defense ministry said 16 soldiers and two civilians have been killed and more than 100 others wounded. — President Trump’s former campaign manager Brad Parscale entered a hospital yesterday after threatening suicide with a gun inside his Florida home.

Viral News: This morning, the world is on the brink of 1 million coronavirus deaths; 998,145. With just over four percent of the population, the US accounts for more than 20 percent of those deaths; 204,762.

Tangled, Spangled and Spaghettied: The NY Times also reports that President Trump deducted $70,000 from his taxes to have his hair styled for his show, “The Apprentice.”

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