GENIUS!

The NY Times reports that Donald Trump likely paid zero taxes for as long as eighteen years. No cheating- he was able to pull this off because he was smart enough (I gather...) to lose more than $900 million dollars in a single year. He took advantage of the rules. Who does that?

Welfare recipients, that's who. Welfare is perfectly legal and millions of Americans ingeniously take advantage of it every year. Who could find fault in anyone who so wisely takes legal advantage of the system? 

Republicans, that's who. It's genius for an alleged billionaire to game the system and pay no taxes but, criminal when poor people take advantage a pittance of money, just to survive.

We do love people who steal big. Finance your lifestyle with a bogus charity or play legal hardball with people who do work for you but you don't want to pay- as Trump does- and you are a genius. Steal a loaf of bread to feed your family- you go to jail! You can steal more with a pen than you can with a gun. America respects that. So many of us root for the gangsters. Bonnie and Clyde cinematic-ally at least, were heroes for robbing banks. In reality though, they mostly robbed the mom and pop grocery stores of the day. Their press got better in later years.

Trump complains about our crumbling infrastructure. Well, our race to the bottom of infrastructure begins with a congress unwilling to spend money on roads, bridges and the like because it does them no personal good and, in the case of the last eight years, could make a certain black, democrat president look good. Who the hell thinks like that?

Republicans, that's who. Not doing stuff is perfectly understood by many in the electorate. You cut welfare because that's how your team wins. You don't fix roads and bridges to win too. Same goes for USSC justices. You don't allow him to pick one because he'll pick a winner that won't overturn Roe v. Wade, the ACA and the 14th Amendment.

Politics is a team sport and your team has to take advantage of everything they can to win. But, just as important, is the other team losing. It no longer matters what is best for the country and that is so clear this season. People actually believe that a candidate who refuses to release his tax returns- likely because he paid no taxes for close to two decades- is a genius for not doing that, especially if it's true.

Taxes paid by an (alleged) billionaire like Trump could have prevented that bridge collapse in Minnesota in 2007. It could have repaved untold miles of streets and highways or levees in New Orleans. But, no. Trump is like a bizarro Oskar Schindler putting on an expensive watch, marveling at the tragedy that enabled him to buy it. And that makes him a "genius"?