"I really appreciate the support given to me by the evangelicals," Trump said. "They've been incredible. Every poll says how well I'm doing with them."

Trump then held aloft a worn Bible, which he said his mother had given to him "many years ago."

"In fact, it's her writing right here," he added, flipping to the first page of the book. "She wrote the name and my address and it's just very special to me."

This is not the first time the GOP front-runner has used the Bible as a prop on the campaign trail.

In September, Trump waved the same copy of the book while giving a speech at the Values Voters Summit hosted by the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C.

Trump has also repeatedly named the Bible as his favorite book -- though he has often faced criticisms for his inability to name his favorite Bible verses.

In the past, white evangelical voters have made up nearly half of Republican primary voters and caucus-goers. And in Iowa, conservative Christians make up an outsized portion of likely caucus attendees.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, whose presidential campaign kicked off at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University, has held a large lead among evangelical voters in Iowa throughout much of the primary season -- and he runs a close second to Trump in polls of the first caucus state.

But earlier this week, according to a CBS News battleground tracker poll, Trump has recently cut into Cruz's advantage among Iowa evangelicals.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-trump-bible-last-minute-pitch-to-evangelicals-ahead-of-iowa-caucuses-election-2016/

Donald Dick favourite quote in the bible?

Slaves, obey your earthly masters with deep respect and fear. Serve them sincerely as you would  

 serve Christ.   Ephesians 6:5 

Donald Trump brags about how well his businesses have fared in bankruptcy. And in fact, no major U.S. company has filed for Chapter 11 more than Trump's casino empire in the last 30 years.
"I have used the laws of this country ... the [bankruptcy] chapter laws, to do a great job for my company, for myself, for my employees, for my family," he said during the first Republican presidential debate on August 6.
Trump claims that successful businesses file for bankruptcy all the time. At the debate he said "virtually every person that you read about on the front page of the business sections, they've used the [bankruptcy] law."

But the facts don't back that comment up.
Despite high profile examples, including General Motors (GM), Lehman Brothers and most of the nation's major airlines, fewer than 20% of public companies with assets of $1 billion or more have filed for bankruptcy in the last 30 years, according to data from Bankruptcy.com and S&P Capital IQ.Trump has never filed for personal bankruptcy. But he has filed four business bankruptcies, which Bankruptcy.com says makes Trump the top filer in recent decades. All of them were centered around casinos he used to own in Atlantic City. They were all Chapter 11 restructurings, which lets a company stay in business while shedding debt it owes to banks, employees and suppliers.

Related: Trump - Tax the rich more
He makes no apologies for having much of his debt wiped out. "These lenders aren't babies. These are total killers," he said at the debate. "These are not the nice, sweet little people."
Here's a look at Trump's bankruptcy track record.
read more: http://money.cnn.com/2015/08/31/news/companies/donald-trump-bankruptcy/

MANY “ISMS” have been invoked to describe Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, or to define its ideology: nativism, protectionism, racism and, of course, fascism. There’s an element of truth, as well as hyperbole, in each of these descriptors; but none quite captures the essence of Mr. Trump’s improbable, troubling, run. For that, you have to bring in another “ism”: cynicism.

Obviously, politics is not for the ingenuous, and never has been. Politicians have been spinning and manipulating voters since George Washington’s time. Few, though, have done so quite as brazenly as Mr. Trump has. Early on, he touted his unprincipled past as a demanding financial supporter of both parties — “I give to everybody; they do whatever I want” — as if acknowledging participation in corruption qualified him to fix it. He disdained any serious attempt to lay out his policy plans, offering preposterously simplistic solutions instead (e.g., a wall on the southern border to keep out Mexicans, paid for by Mexico). And when confronted with reasonable challenges from the media or other candidates, he responded with schoolboy insults or outright lies (e.g., denying that he had advocated a 45 percent tariff on Chinese goods, despite a New York Times audiotape proving otherwise).

In short, the Trump campaign seems built on proving H.L. Mencken’s observation that “no one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people.” Or, as Mr. Trump rather chillingly put it: “I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters.”

read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-ism-that-describes-mr-trump-best/2016/01/30/48cbeac6-c6c3-11e5-a4aa-f25866ba0dc6_story.html?hpid=hp_no-name_opinion-card-c%3Ahomepage%2Fstory

America's AgitatorDonald Trump Is the World's Most Dangerous Man

By Markus Feldenkirchen, Veit Medick and Holger Stark

Donald Trump is the leader of a new, hate-filled authoritarian movement. Nothing would be more harmful to the idea of the West and world peace than if he were to be elected president. George W. Bush's America would seem like a place of logic and reason in comparison.

Donald Trump recently spoke about American football. No other game more fully embodies his country's character. The sport is about capturing territory, and players need to be tough and fearless to win. A player who is afraid of being tackled by someone from the opposing team while running has already lost the game. "I don't even watch it as much anymore," Trump told a crowd of his supporters in Reno, Nevada. "The whole game is all screwed up."

A growing number of studies point to the devastating consequences of the many tackles in the game, in which players try to stop their opponents by throwing themselves at them head-first: brain trauma, depression, suicide. New rules have been created, and there are now stiffer penalties for the most glaring fouls.

On the stage in Reno, Trump said he missed "what used to be considered a great tackle, a violent head-on tackle." He slammed his fists together and repeated himself, vulgarly pursing his lips as he said the word "violent." "You used to see these tackles and it was incredible to watch, right?"

And today? "Bing! Flag!" Trump shouted. "The referees, they want to all throw flags so their wives see them at home."

"Football has become soft," he said, repeating the sentence as if it were a key hypothesis on the state of the nation. "Football has become soft like our country has become soft!" As he held up his index finger, the crowd cheered and people held signs up in the air that read: "The silent majority stands with Trump."

Trump Wants A Ruthless America

"Believe me, I'll change things. And again, we're going to be so respected. I don't want to use the word 'feared,'" he told the audience. But that is precisely what Trump wants: to be feared. His bid for the White House, long ridiculed, is a fight for a ruthless, brutal America. Behind his campaign slogan "Make America great again!" is the vision of a country that no longer cares about international treaties, ethnic minorities or established standards of decency.

Trump wants to attack head-first again. The 69-year-old embodies a new harshness and brutality, and both a physical and emotional crudeness. Trump has launched an uprising of the indecent, one that is now much bigger than he himself, a popular movement of white, conservative America that after eight years under Democratic President Barack Obama, yearns for a leader who will usher in the counter-revolution.

Former Obama campaign manager David Axelrod wrote recently that Trump's success is based on the same principle as the campaign victories of his former boss. In fact, he added, he had explained this recipe for success to Obama himself when he first ran for president: When a president leaves office after eight years, voters tend to prefer a candidate who is as different as possible from the incumbent, in terms of politics, character and habits.

By that logic, Obama the integrator, who fought against discrimination against blacks and gays, would be followed by a President Trump who stirs up hatred against minorities and claims that "political correctness" is the greatest threat to the United States. While Obama sought to explain complex problems, often sounding like an intellectual in the process, studies have shown that Trump speaks at a fourth-grade reading level. Problems, according to Trump, are "totally easy" to solve. And while Obama appealed to the common "we" in his campaign slogan "Yes, we can!" Trump's version reads "Yes, I can!" -- the solution of a strong leader.

Currently, America is running the risk of falling for a self-proclaimed leader with a low opinion of fundamental democratic values. Shortly before the Iowa Caucuses on Monday, all national polls showed Trump as the leading Republican candidate by a wide margin. He is also polling at the top of the Republican field in almost every state in the country. In Iowa itself, with its large religious population, the race could end up being a close contest between Trump and Texas Senator Ted Cruz, a Christian hardliner.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/donald-trump-is-the-most-dangerous-man-in-the-world-a-1075060-druck.html

Trump’s defeat was welcomed by establishment-oriented 10th-district Republicans for reasons beyond their distaste for the man or their sense that he could prove unelectable in the fall. They also fear that his nomination would prove toxic to Republican candidates further down the ballot in November, potentially diminishing the GOP’s majorities in Congress.

read more; https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/a-sigh-of-relief-in-swinging-northern-virginia-when-trump-fell-short-in-iowa/2016/02/02/1f48fb36-c9d3-11e5-a7b2-5a2f824b02c9_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_goprelief-655pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory

Not that TrusTED (Cruz) is much chop either...

Donald Trump claims Ted Cruz 'stole' Iowa caucuses and calls for new election

The businessman, who came in second in Iowa, tweets that Cruz committed fraud by telling voters that Ben Carson was quitting the race...

keeping his hair on...

Responding to questions over recent comments indicating that as president, he would renegotiate US national debt rather than pay creditors in full — which could spur a global financial shock — Trump said the notion that he would default on national debt is "crazy."

"People said I want to go and buy debt and default on debt, and I mean, these people are crazy. This is the United States government," Trump told CNN on Monday "First of all, you never have to default because you print the money, I hate to tell you, OK?"

Late last week, Trump said that as president, he would "borrow, knowing that if the economy crashed, you could make a deal." He added, "And if the economy was good, it was good. So, therefore, you can't lose."

read more: https://www.rt.com/usa/342407-trump-debt-default-minimum/

My toon at top exactly...

Read more:

https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/donald-trump-...

See toon at top. Note the date...

The United States has its first government shutdown in nearly five years after senators failed to reach a deal to keep the lights on. 

An effort by Republicans to keep the government open for one month was rejected in a vote on Friday night after they failed to address Democratic concerns about young undocumented immigrants known as Dreamers.

Republicans needed 60 votes to advance the bill but the legislation only received the support of 50 senators. Five red state Democrats broke ranks to support the bill while four Republicans voted against.

Despite the vote’s failure, senators mingled on the floor to try to reach a deal before the midnight deadline.

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jan/20/us-government-faces-shut...

The US, the world’s leading debtor nation, has reached another questionable milestone in its seemingly headlong rush into economic oblivion.

The combined debt of the United States has topped $21 trillion for the first time, according to government statistics, following an announcement a mere six months ago that the debt had hit $20 trillion for the first time.

read more:

https://sputniknews.com/business/201803181062642752-US-National-Debt-21-...

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Billionaire hedge-fund manager George Soros lost nearly $1 billion as a result of the stock-market rally spurred by Donald Trump’s surprise presidential election.

Read more:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/billionaire-george-soros-lost-nearly-1-bill...

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See also:

Meanwhile at search for trump taxes headquarter:

Shambolism — now replacing the weak system of communism and the ruthlessness of capitalism with a stronger sense of undemocratic Chaos.

Donald J. Trump paid $750 in federal income taxes the year he won the presidency. In his first year in the White House, he paid another $750.

He had paid no income taxes at all in 10 of the previous 15 years — largely because he reported losing much more money than he made.

As the president wages a re-election campaign that polls say he is in danger of losing, 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.

The tax returns that Mr. Trump has long fought to keep private tell a story fundamentally different from the one he has sold to the American public. His reports to the I.R.S. 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. Now, with his financial challenges mounting, the records show that he depends more and more on making money from businesses that put him in potential and often direct conflict of interest with his job as president.

The New York Times has obtained tax-return data extending over more than two decades for Mr. Trump and the hundreds of companies that make up his business organization, including detailed information from his first two years in office. It does not include his personal returns for 2018 or 2019. This article offers an overview of The Times’s findings; additional articles will be published in the coming weeks.

The returns are some of the most sought-after, and speculated-about, records in recent memory. In Mr. Trump’s nearly four years in office — and across his endlessly hyped decades in the public eye — journalists, prosecutors, opposition politicians and conspiracists have, with limited success, sought to excavate the enigmas of his finances. By their very nature, the filings will leave many questions unanswered, many questioners unfulfilled. They comprise information that Mr. Trump has disclosed to the I.R.S., not the findings of an independent financial examination. They report that Mr. Trump owns hundreds of millions of dollars in valuable assets, but they do not reveal his true wealth. Nor do they reveal any previously unreported connections to Russia.

Read more:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/09/27/us/donald-trump-taxes.html

Incompetence pays...

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