Portrait Of Deplorable

When Hillary Clinton said  "You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump's supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables," the news media and Trump jumped all over it. As most politicians know stating percentages as a figure of speech rather than an accurate quantification is usually going to leave you open to charges of mis-characterizing the evidence, and the reaction to Hillary Clinton's statement was predictably critical: “how dare she disparage millions of voters!”

As reported by David Corn of Mother Jones, Trump said “that [claiming] half of his supporters were racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, and Islamophobic and belonged in a "basket of deplorables..." disqualifies Hillary Clinton because "you can't lead this nation if you have such a low opinion of its citizens."

Fortunately in this same article David Corn reveals Trump's hypocrisy by telling us that during a June 2015 interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News Trump disparaged millions of voters by railing against what he characterized as “so many people who don't want to work...” Trump went on to say that “we have a society that sits back and says we don't have to do anything. Eventually, the 50 percent cannot carry—and it's unfair to them—but cannot carry the other 50 percent.”

Trump, of course, is trying to make Hillary Clinton's “basket of deplorables” comment an issue by saying that it is comparable to Romney's 47% comment. I find that laughable. Is there really anyone who can look at Hillary's statement and the Donald's and not see how much closer Trump's statement is to what Mr. Romney said? Hillary thinks Trump is actually doing her a favor. She is so sure of this will not fly as an issue that she has walked back the quantification but not the characterization! The result is that the question of what and/or who is deplorable is rapidly becoming the issue, and that is much to Hillary Clinton's advantage.

As the Huffington Post reported in its article about Trumps racial comments: 

In addition to the endorsement and support of David Duke, Donald Trump's “...white supremacist fan club includes the Daily Stormer, a leading neo-Nazi news site; Richard Spencer, director of the National Policy Institute, which aims to promote the “heritage, identity, and future of European people”; Jared Taylor, editor of American Renaissance, a Virginia-based white nationalist magazine; Michael Hill, head of the League of the South, an Alabama-based white supremacist secessionist group; and Brad Griffin, a member of Hill’s League of the South and author of the popular white supremacist blog Hunter Wallace.”

Now that is certainly a something full of deplorables, but it gets much worse because of who Trump has brought into his inner circle, his campaign staff. In an article in Mother Jones entitled, “How Donald Trump's New Campaign Chief Created an Online Haven for White Nationalists” Sarah Posner wrote:

"We're the platform for the alt-right," Bannon told me proudly when I interviewed him at the Republican National Convention (RNC) in July. Though disavowed by every other major conservative news outlet, the alt-right has been Bannon's target audience ever since he took over Breitbart News from its late founder, Andrew Breitbart, four years ago. Under Bannon's leadership, the site has plunged into the fever swamps of conservatism, cheering white nationalist groups as an "eclectic mix of renegades," accusing President Barack Obama of importing "more hating Muslims," and waging an incessant war against the purveyors of "political correctness."

Not being content with the deplorable Mr. Bannon Trump added as his deputy campaign manager the deplorable David N. Bossie who, The Washington Post tells us, “...rose to prominence as a relentless Republican congressional staffer, hell-bent on tearing down the Clintons at all costs. After Bossie was caught engaging in unethical behavior, House GOP leader forced his ouster.”

It does not matter how much Kellyanne Conwoman tries to spin it, Trump's own well publicized statements about Muslims, Mexicans, women, etc. make it clear that his appointment of such a deplorable campaign staff is no accident, nor is it an accident that he has the support of white supremacists.

Apparently good things come in bunches as do deplorable things if you are Trump. At long last Donald Trump is drawing some very overdo scrutiny. Kurt Eichenwald in a News Week article entitled “How The Trump Organization's Foreign Business Ties Could Upend U.S National Security” writes in part that:

“...A close examination by Newsweek of the Trump Organization, including confidential interviews with business executives and some of its international partners, reveals an enterprise with deep ties to global financiers, foreign politicians and even criminals, although there is no evidence the Trump Organization has engaged in any illegal activities. It also reveals a web of contractual entanglements that could not be just canceled. If Trump moves into the White House and his family continues to receive any benefit from the company, during or even after his presidency, almost every foreign policy decision he makes will raise serious conflicts of interest and ethical quagmires.”

And that makes the refusal of Trump to produce his tax returns deplorable! What else is he hiding? We might find out some of it because according to Reuters “New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said on Tuesday he had opened an inquiry into the Donald J. Trump Foundation to ensure the Republican presidential nominee's charity was complying with state laws governing nonprofits.”

Gee I wonder why. Could it be because of what appears to be a bribe the Trump foundation paid to Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi. As Media Matters Reports the broadcast news media has chosen to concentrate on the very flimsy accusations about the Clinton Foundation rather than the very real scandal of the Trump Foundation. According to Media Matters:

“In 2013, the Donald J. Trump Foundation donated $25,000 to a PAC supporting Bondi’s re-election. As The Washington Post explained, “At the time, Attorney General Pam Bondi was considering whether to investigate fraud allegations against Trump University. She decided not to pursue the case.”

In addition to the bribery scandal there is what The Washington Post described as purchases by the Trump Foundation of a football helmet and a six foot Portrait of Donald Trump, both of which were then given to Donald Trump. I might add here that unlike the stellar contributions made by the Clinton Foundation the contributions of the Trump foundation are paltry and largely Trump serving.

So add Donald Trump to your list of deplorables!

 Where are your tax returns Mr. Trump? And where is the IRS letter informing you of the audit you allege?