10 Questions about about the ethical questions related to President Trump’s businesses.

That’s a lot of turnover!   Sad!

I’m not going to watch the State of the Union address. I can’t stand to see and hear the lying bigot. I’ll read about it later.
The only speech I want to hear from Trump has to include “I was wrong to say a group of white supremacists included “very fine people” and I was wrong to say Haiti and nations in Africa were “shithole countries””. He will never say that because he doesn’t believe he was wrong and doesn’t want to offend the white supremacist part of his base.
He’ll get credit for acting presidential by giving a normal speech. The bar is really low for him compared to prior presidents.

Unemployment
He’ll take credit for the low unemployment rate which is largely a continuation of the trend under Obama. He’ll take credit for the low black unemployment rate but probably won’t note that it is much higher than the white unemployment rate. Having a racist in the White House will not improve that situation. Jay-Z was right to challenge Trump’s comments.
Remember when Trump lied and said that unemployment rates published by the government were phony and were really as high as 42%?  Somehow, the same statistics are accurate since he became President.
Stock Market
Trump will take credit for the stock market rise and he deserves some of it because of his tax law giveaway to corporations and wealthy people. Trump has never acknowledged that the stock market did extremely well under Obama and he inherited a great trend.
The stock market is not the same as the economy. Only about half of the country own stocks either directly or through mutual funds and retirement plans. The other half has not benefited from the stock market rise. Most of the value of the market is owned by rich people. 10% of the country owns 84% of the stock market.

Bipartisanship
Apparently, Trump will call for bipartisanship tonight but I am sure he will soon go back to lies and name calling on Twitter. This is who he is. He’s been president for a year and has not changed. It is not constructive to call names like “Cryin’ Chuck Schumer” or “Crooked Hillary”. It is not constructive to lie and say Obama wiretapped him. It is not constructive to run a campaign ad that says “Democrats who stand in our way will be complicit in every murder committed by illegal immigrants.”  It is not constructive to lie and say Democrats want open borders. Trump only cares about his base.

Infrastructure
Trump is supposed to talk about infrastructure tonight. There is certainly a need for upgrades to roads, airports, water systems, etc. and this is a bipartisan issue. However, Trump’s plan is expected to be short on federal contributions and long on state, local and private funding.

It’s a scam.

Immigration
Trump will probably tell his lies about the crime committed by immigrants.  Meanwhile, he is unwilling to do anything about the bigger problem of crime committed by white supremacists (who love Trump).
His terrible policies will also hurt the economy because of the economic contributions made by immigrants that will be lost through deportations or lower legal immigration.
Most American support DACA and oppose the wall. Thus, DACA should not be used as a bargaining chip to get the wall.

Trump may act presidential tonight but he will be back to his usual lying bigoted self in a day or two. That’s what has happened on the few occasions he has given an actual presidential-style speech.   Sad!

I am amazed that the there hasn’t been much reaction to the story that Trump allegedly had an affair with a porn star and paid her off to be quiet.  Evangelicals are showing themselves to be hypocrites.  Apparently, Trump can do anything immoral but it’s fine if he’s opposed to abortion.

Stormy Daniels appeared yesterday at a strip club in South Carolina.  This Washington Post article describes the scene.

Now there’s a Ben Roethlisberger role in the affair.

The payoff may have been an illegal campaign contribution.  Sad!

The media should stop referring to Trump’s properties by name.  That is giving him free advertising.  He should not even own the properties since he is president; that’s a conflict of interest.

We do need to know where he is.  They could just tell us the city and state.

Trump paid a porn star $130,000 before the 2016 election to keep quiet about an affair they had in 2006, according to the Wall Street Journal.  It should be noted that the Journal is a conservative paper which has supported Trump.  The Daily Beast had been in contact with her for an interview before the election but she backed out.

I don’t think that this would have affected the election had she told her story in 2016.  People knew Trump had flaws and voted for him anyway.

I am more concerned about the women who have accused Trump of sexual misconduct.  I believe them.  Trump supporters who believe Bill Clinton’s accusers but dismiss Trump’s are being partisan.  Sad!