Overvaluing, Undervaluing

SUPPOSE YOU own a house with an appraised value of one hundred thousand dollars. Then suppose that for purposes of property taxation you report the value of your home at, say, ten grand. Your property tax bill is calculated on that basis, and you pay it. Thus you have drastically underpaid what you should owe. Then, for purposes of securing a loan on favorable terms, you report to the lender the value of your home at one million dollars. On that basis you receive the loan. Because of the inflated reported home value, you receive more favorable terms on the loan than you atually should. You have committed financial fraud, a criminal offense. If a local prosecutor charges you with a civil offense, he or she does so only because it is only necessary, in a civil law suit, to prove a probability of fifty one percent that a civil violation has been committed. In fact, a crime has been committed. This is the circumstance in which Donald Trump is involved, and he has perpetrated this kind of fraud over..and over...and over again. Trump is facing a civil law suit, and should and probably will be indicted with a criminal charge. A good friend of mine, who is eighty four and has an eighth grade education, said: "They sure are going after Trump". Wary, I replied: "That's because he's a criminal". then I waited for the dung to hit the fan, in some way, shape, or fashion, as I knew it inevitably would. Trumpers are now left, and have long been left, with only gibberish and nonsense for justification. I wasn't disappointed. "No more of a criminal than any of the other presidents", was his rejoinder. I said nothing, tactfully. I was tempted to ask him exactly how much he knows about all the other presidents, but since I already know the answer, I refrained. Also, I know by now how utterly futile facts and reason are with cult members. Then too, my friend with the eighth grade education thinks he knows quite a bit more than he really knows, about most things, inclulding American history and presidents, about which he knows zilch. Alas, our great arrogant American tradition wherein we all think we know everything, or at least more than we actually do, but in reality, know very little, most of the time. Watch the interview of Trump with Sean Hannity, which happened just the ohter day. You can easily google it, or whatever. Everything Trump says is blitheringly incoherent. He looked frightened, red faced, and sounded schizophrenic, delusional. "Actually, I built the wall. I finished it. If I had been in office another term, it would have been completed. They wouldn't let me finish it. I declassified the top secret documents in my mind, by thinking about it."....So oblivious that he speaks two contradictory lies in rapid succession, making both lies obvious, making them sound delusional and pathetic. At some point, I hope sooner rather than later, those who still supprot this monstrous, mentally ill maniac are going to have to come clean, stop their support of Trump, and, trying to stand as tall as they can, simply admit that they made a big mistake. We'll be waiting.