SUNDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2016
Today’s Good News And Bad News
From Our Local Political Junkie We’ll Call “Cincy Dave”

FIRST OCTOBER SURPRISE
Donald Trump declared a loss of $916 million on his income tax returns for 1995, and — because of tax rules that favor wealthy real-estate investors — he could have used that loss to avoid paying any federal income taxes for up to 18 years, according to a report in The New York Times. The information comes from three pages that appeared to be from tax returns Trump filed in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. The tax info was mailed to the Times by an anonymous snitch inside the Trump organization – probably a disgruntled employee (or maybe a Hillary mole) and has been authenticated by the Times. They went to Trump’s long-time tax accountant and he agreed that it was authentic, based on several criteria. Additionally, neither Trump nor his campaign has denied that it is real. So, maybe the joke from Saturday Night Live that he has never paid any income taxes in his whole life isn’t too far off the mark. Maybe he only paid taxes half of his life. However, The Times may face legal problems by publishing Trump’s return and it is a good bet that The Donald will try to pursue that avenue, either by demanding a federal investigation, filing a civil lawsuit or both. 

SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE PARODIES BOTH CANDIDATES
In case you missed it, you can watch it here: 

SECOND DEBATE ONLY ONE WEEK FROM TODAY
That is, if you don’t count the Junior debate on Tuesday night. The VP debate is unlikely to produce any real theatrics as both men are experienced professionals. Their biggest job will be to try to explain away all the scandals of their bosses.

FORMER MASS. GOV. SAYS HILLARY IS MOST QUALIFIED
This is news? Normally, no one would think so, especially with Massachusetts being so Democrat leaning. But what if it was a Republican Former Governor? What if it was a Republican former governor that is now running against her? Impossible? Well, it really happened. Bill Weld, the current Libertarian candidate for Vice President actually said that he was not sure that anyone was more qualified for president than Hillary. That would naturally include his own running mate, the forgetful or unknowledgeable presidential candidate, Gary Johnson.  There is also another former Republican governor of Massachusetts that will not vote for the Republican candidate this year. Some may remember him – he ran for president last time.

TRUMP STILL CLAIMING HE WON THE DEBATE – WANTS TO TALK ABOUT BILL’S AFFAIRS
Despite all evidence to the contrary, The Donald is still proclaiming that he won the first debate, “despite the really bad microphone.” Then he opened up a new line of attack on Hillary. Well not exactly a new line, actually a very old one – her marriage and Bill Clinton’s affairs. One would expect that Hillary is well prepared for this line of attack, after all, she has had since the beginning of time to come up with answers – it isn’t like some new issue. Moreover, when Bill was president and the Republicans impeached him over the Monica affair, Hillary’s approval rating actually went up. Bill didn’t suffer any permanent damage either, because he left office with a higher approval rating than even the sainted Ronald Reagan. It is a risky area to get into and political pros don’t recommend it, but we will see if Trump has the bad judgment to bring it up in the next debate. It would be interesting to see what her answer is. It might include the words, “people in glass houses…” 

TRUMP’S CUBA PROBLEM
Some politicians actually do one thing and say another. Imagine that! In 1998 Trump apparently spent $68,000 on a trip to Cuba to explore business opportunities, even though doing business in Cuba was illegal at the time. In fact, travel to Cuba by Americans was also prohibited, although there were ways around that. The Donald didn’t manage to do any business there but in this campaign he has strongly criticized Obama for trying to normalize relations with Cuba. This is important because Cuban-Americans are a big voting bloc in Florida. They have traditionally voted Republican but in recent years have been more evenly divided. The anti-Castro Cuban-Americans aren’t going to like the fact that he was trying to do business in Cuba and the ones who want to normalize relations so they can go back and travel freely aren’t going to like his current stance.

TODAY’S MEANINGLESS POLL
Everyone knows that Nevada will be close. There are plenty of Hispanics there and whether or not they get out and vote will probably determine who takes Nevada’s 6 EVs.

— More Good News And Bad News Tomorrow —