President Trump built his reputation on his entrepreneurial savvy, but now it seems he got his money from his father after all. A New York Times investigation into the Trump family’s finances shows tax finagling writ large and avoidance of inheritance tax a major concern. This is not surprising. Rich men don’t like to pay taxes any more than the rest of us. What is notable is that the Trump fiction lasted for so long in the public eye. Were he not President, no newspaper would have dedicated a year’s worth of investigative reporting to find out his fund sources. Now, Trump has to live down his tale of personal success and his overweening self-praise for his business prowess. Trump is furious, and why shouldn’t he be? He has been shown to have clay feet.
Another Blow
NASA, SpaceX and numerous other companies are flogging the possibility of deep space travel to Mars. But, problems in doing so keep cropping up and here is another one. Sending astronauts on long journeys is likely to destroy their intestines and give them cancers. There is no effective shielding today from injurious rays that would affect them. This is not surprising. The human body is not made for space, and traveling off this planet means carrying everything with one to survive. The barriers so far do not appear to be insuperable, but the question arises again why NASA and others are so anxious to launch man into space when robots are so effective in doing the job. Nevertheless, the publicity continues.