What We've Learned This Week: A House is Not a Home, National Polls Aren't What We Need to Look At, Nudity Clauses on, "The Apprentice," Don's Latest Tweet, the Cost of Deportation, and Trump's First TV Ad

Here is what we have learned this week.

First: Stephen Bannon, the CEO of Mr. Donald Trump's presidential campaign, is registered to vote in Miami-Dade County, Florida. The address on his registration--which he is required to, "actively" live at according to Florida voting laws--is a house that has been deserted for months and is scheduled to be demolished in the next few weeks.

According to a report in The Guardian, Bannon rented the place for his second wife, who he has been divorced from for seven years. People in the neighborhood told investigators they have never seen Bannon, or any one even remotely resembling him at the property, although they did notice a 20 something, "Latino looking," man hanging around.

The story goes on to say Mr. Bannon sometimes stays in a $2.4 million Washington town house, near the Supreme Court building which he calls his own and is referred to as, The Breitbart Embassy. The Breitbart staff offices are located in the building's basement. The town home actually belongs to an Egyptian business man, Mostafa El-Gindy, who is a former member of his country's parliament and presumably a Muslim. You know--one of those people Bannon's candidate wants to ban from entering the country as immigrants, or have tailed relentlessly by security forces if they're already here.

Second: The latest Reuters/IPSOS national poll shows Hillary Rodham Clinton ahead of Don Trump 39% to 36%. Libertarian candidate, Gary Johnson pulled in 7% and Jill Stein received 3%.

What the Reuters/IPSOS people and everyone else should know is that at this point in a presidential campaign, national polls, while mildly interesting, don't mean shit. From now until election day it is far more important to pay attention to state by state polls thanks to something called the electoral college. Just ask Al Gore. In 2000 he won a majority of the national vote, but lost the election thanks to some shifty things going on with Florida's official ballots.

Third: The Daily Beast reported people wanting to participate on Trump's TV show, "The Apprentice," had to sign an NBC contract containing some interesting clauses. One stated contestants had to agree to be filmed, "...whether I am clothed, or partially naked, or naked and whether I am aware, or unaware of such video taping, filming, or recording."

Yes, it would seem the evangelicals are backing their kind of guy once again. The next logical step is for Trump to name Josh Duggar as his choice for Secretary of Health, Human Services, and Blow Jobs.

Fourth: Proving you just can't keep the man off of Twitter, Don Trump had this to say  earlier today, "Dwayne (sic) Wade's cousin was shot and killed walking her baby. Just what I've been saying. African Americans will VOTE TRUMP!"

Indeed, Trump's connection with the black community is lengthy. Today, The New York Times ran with a story which notes he first showed up on its front page in 1973. That's when the Justice Department sued Trump Management, specifically naming him and his old man, for housing discrimination. His immediate  response was to claim the government was attempting to force him to rent to, "welfare recipients."

It's unclear at this point if his connection also caused Trump to misspell Wade's first name in the tweet. That's right Don, as one social media responder observed and any NBA fan can tell you, it's Dwyane, not, Dwayne.

Fifth: A CNBC report speculates Trump's new found squishiness on immigration may have more to do with Roger Ailes explaining the real consequences of mass deportations to him rather than some epiphany of moderation. The on line story states it will cost $600 billion to send the estimated 11 million undocumented workers in the country back to wherever they came from. In addition, if he was to somehow pull it off, the U.S. economy would take an immediate $1.6 trillion hit.

Finally, we have the first Trump TV ad. It claims if Hillary Clinton is elected all those illegal immigrants will be able to, "skip the line," during her administration and reap social security benefits. Fact Checker went to work and found there isn't a living soul in this country who can get social security benefits if they don't have an on the books job and pay taxes for at least 10 years. Well, who needs a few inconvenient details fouling up a snazzy ad which also features a flashing neon sign over a voting station saying, "Rigged."

Hey, let's face it, at times like these, something as minor as the truth just gets in the way of the greater goal.

And so there we have it on a muggy Saturday. Given the current level of madness, as you can well guess, the bar is most certainly open.



8-27-16