Thirty Reasons to Vote: #29

 

 

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….

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…. An adverse ruling could cost him more than $100 million.

From Russ Buettner, Susanne Craig, and Mike McIntire. “Long-Concealed Records Show Trump’s Chronic Losses and Years of Tax Avoidance,” New York Times. September 27, 2020.

Thirty Reasons to Vote: #15

 

UPDATE, 18 September, 2020: Ruth Bader Ginsburg has died. It is exceptionally painful that she did so on Erev Rosh Hashanah, a time that is supposed to be focused on renewal. At the moment, I feel as if my hope has vanished. The federal judiciary is already stuffed with TWO HUNDRED white, male, ultra-conservative judges who are lifetime appointees — ten of whom are considered unqualified by the ABA¹ — and who will inexorably make their way up the ranks, gaining more and more power as they go. We don’t feel it much now because the current judges in the upper echelons are more centrist or liberal than the ones snapping at their heels. The damage will affect generations to come — if our country, our species even lasts that long. Justice Ginsburg made it known. that

“My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed,” Ginsburg told her granddaughter just days before her death, according to NPR

Despite this last wish of a revered, iconic hero, despite McConnell’s conveniently forgotten assertion that justices should not be confirmed in an election year,³ McConnell and Trump have already declared that they WILL shove another judge onto the bench.

I am terrified. I see the erosion and eradication of reproductive rights, women’s rights, and voting rights, the suppression of social justice for Black/BIPOC Americans, for  the LGBTQ+ community, for those of us who adhere to minority religions or no religion at all. I see support for corrupt politics that are driven by wealth, the continued degradation of the environment in get name of “the economy,” as if we can have an economy if we can’t live on the planet.

Call your senators. E-mail your senators. Write. your senators. Drop in on your senators. And VOTE.

 

  1. Sophia A. Nelson. USAToday, “White, male and conservative: Trump’s damaging legal legacy.” July 3, 2020.
    “As of September 1, 2020, the ABA had rated 256 of President Trump’s nominees; 180 were rated ‘well-qualified,’ 66 were rated ‘qualified,’ and 10 were rated “’not qualified.’” Ballotpedia, “ABA ratings during the Trump Administration.” September, 2020.

    “Barack Obama did not nominate any of candidates who received a “not qualified” rating from the ABA….”; Holmes Lybrand. Washington Examiner, “Fact Check: Were Any Clinton or Obama Judicial Nominees Deemed ‘Not Qualified’ by the ABA?” November 13, 2017.
  2. 2. Fox News, “Ginsburg’s last wish was to ‘not be replaced until a new president is installed’: report.” September 18, 2020.
  3. 3. Eric Bradner. CNN, “Here’s what happened when Senate Republicans refused to vote on Merrick Garland’s Supreme Court nomination.” September 18, 2020.