David Cay Johnston Opines On The Donald

David Cay Johnston talks about Donald Trump:

Well, I think—see, I don’t think people know about his actual record. He is appealing to the worst instincts in us. He is appealing to racial instincts. And, you know, let’s recognize that, well, in polite society, you can’t say, "I don’t want to sit next to a black person or a brown person or an Asian person on the airplane or in a restaurant or at work." You can’t say that. And so, there’s an undercurrent of people who hate that. They want to live in a white society. They want to imagine this is a Christian country, even though the Constitution expressly in Article VI makes clear it’s not a religious country in any way. And Donald has provided a way for those people who harbor these bad thoughts, I would argue, they harbor these inhumane thoughts, to channel them through him.

And they are so enamored of this, they ignore the fact that he is proposing to create a massive police state, to round up people, to have a—we were required to have adjudicatory hearings, although Donald likes to think he would be dictator—and spend enormous amounts of money on removing people from the country, including children born here who are citizens, and erecting a wall, which will do absolutely nothing to stop people coming here in an effort to find a better life. So, people who harbor these awful feelings and suffer from the social disease of white skin privilege just aren’t really thinking through what Donald is proposing, which is a massive new government program that’s totally contrary to the Republican promise of less government.

David Cay Johnston

From Pulitzer Winner David Cay Johnston on Times Buyout List by John Koblin:

And joining Pulitzer winner Linda Greenhouse on the payout line, is Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter David Cay Johnston, who has submitted an application to volunteer for a buyout (Media Mob needs to qualify because technically the paper has the final say and will be reviewing applications for the next 45 days).

“I want to do books full time,” Mr. Johnston told Media Mob. “With a buyout, I can do them twice as fast. I want to do long-form magazine work, too! And I have documentarians talking to me about TV and theatrical releases.”

“My job is about reading the paperwork and not listening to the politicians,” he said. “Instead, I find people—human beings—to illustrate the problem.”

Mr. Johnston said his favorite story was uncovering inequities in the tax system—how the I.R.S. is more likely to audit the poor than the rich—which earned him a Pulitzer in 2001.

From Another Journalistic Buyout... by Brad Delong:

There was once a Dilbert cartoon about buyouts: "management says we have to pay the competent people to leave."

At coffee I discover that David Cay Johnston had taken a buyout from the nyt and is now out on his own as an independent journalist.

David Cay Johnston is the author of the excellent book Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You with the Bill). I'm glad to hear that he wants to write more books. He's probably better off without the New York Times anyway.

The New York Times should also buyout the sellouts David Brooks, Maureen Dowd, Bill Kristol, and Tom Friedman. As cheaply as possible. For like, nothing.