2016 May 13^th

George Will’s column today is about Amtrak. Considering all of the urgent problems this country faces, from a Republican nominee for President who might well be certifiable, to a Russian  President intent on pushing fighter jets into barrel rolls around our observation planes, to a China constructing islands with airstrips so that they can extend their territorial limits, we have George Will singling out Amtrak for analysis. That’s exactly what he has done. Will is unhappy because Amtrak, a quasi-government entity is neither fish nor fowl.

Consider this final sentence in his column: “Now that both parties regard constitutional conservatism as an inconvenient anachronism, Amtrak is a harbinger of future bipartisanship: There will be the steady permeation of ostensibly, but not really, private entities with government presence, which for a century has been progressives’ consistent goal.” This is a splendid sentence; it is full to the brim of polysyllabic words; it will surely convince all readers that the writer is highly intelligent and well read…if very indignant; it has served its purpose. 

Now we can turn to Donald Trump who continues to make news; he clearly cannot help himself and it is unlikely that he wants to. First on the personal income tax front: During an interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC, Trump told Stephanopoulos that his tax rate “is none of your business.” Trump has continued with the fiction that he cannot release his income tax returns to the public while those returns are being audited. He has a problem with that because the IRS has said that releasing returns during an audit is no problem at all. At least it isn’t a problem for the IRS; it might well be a significant problem for Trump, and Clinton is quick to wonder publicly what Trump is trying to hide. Trump is not in an enviable position here. He won’t lose fans if they see him standing up to the hated IRS; he will lose face if he is seen as having lied about his income, his charitable deductions or other aspects of his financial bragging.

Then we go back twenty some years and find someone named John Miller and maybe someone else named John Barron who speak for Donald Trump but who sound suspiciously like Donald Trump. At about this time Trump is married to Marla Maples bur apparently not all that happily. John Miller who claims to know Donald trump very, very well has some less than complimentary thigs to say about Marla. Voice analysis finds remarkably similar speech patterns in the speech of John Miller and Donald Trump. It looks like the Donald was just trying on another persona back then in preparation for his current acting gig.

It is now apparent that Trump recognizes that his pronouncements about Muslims entering the country, the wall, tax policy and entitlements are all just “suggestions” because he recognizes that he isn’t the President yet. So once he becomes the President will these move from suggestions to demands? He is forgetting about the Congress.