Tonight we will see the final big-stage performance of the long-running production of Donald Trump: Unshackled!, when he and Hillary Clinton take part in the final debate. He and his advisors must know that they are running out of time and, going by the poll numbers, have to do something dramatic to avoid going down to defeat next month. Although it is not clear how much these big set piece political events influence the race, this will be the last chance for Trump to speak directly to a large nationwide audience and I expect him to come out with both guns blazing as he tries to unsettle Clinton as well as lash out at anyone whom he sees as working against him. His list of enemies is, of course, a long one by now and growing longer by the day as more reports emerge about his predatory activities.
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Despite a recent survey that showed that Indian Americans had some of the lowest levels of support for Donald Trump, he is not entirely without friends in that community. A Hindu nationalist group called the Republican Hindu Coalition held an event in New Jersey at which he received an enthusiastic reception when made a brief appearance and said, “I’m a big fan of Hindu, and I’m a big fan of India”, suggesting by his use of ‘Hindu’ rather than ‘Hinduism’ that he does not seem to realize that ‘Hindu’ refers to a person who follows the religion of Hinduism.
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Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! is one of the finest reporters around, covering stories that the mainstream ignores, especially those involving the marginalized sectors of the country. She recently covered the protests by American Indians against an oil pipeline that was being built in North Dakota that tribes who live in the area say threatens their water supply and cultural heritage. The security firm hired by the Dakota Access pipeline company used dogs and pepper spray to attack the protestors and the video that Goodman’s crew shot went viral.
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As the bad news for Donald Trump keeps coming (one of the latest is the way he used to walk unannounced into the dressing room backstage of the Miss USA contest that he ran in order to see all the contestants naked), some people are suggesting that his running mate Mike Pence should be at the top of the ticket, especially since he has on occasion tried to distance himself from some of Trump’s more incendiary remarks.
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For a change, I will actually post something about policies in this election and not about all the other sensational things in this wild and crazy election. The Tax Policy Center has analyzed the Clinton and Trump tax proposals and according to them, for Trump’s plan:

Federal revenues would fall by $6.2 trillion over the first decade before accounting for added interest costs. Including interest costs, the federal debt would rise by $7.2 trillion over the first decade and by $20.9 trillion by 2036

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As has become increasingly clear, one business strategy of Donald Trump is to persuade bankers to lend him money for his projects and then pass on the enormous debt to investors while using the loss to write off his own taxes. I will not even pretend to understand how this is done, even with the expert help of tax reporter David Cay Johnston.
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