If only the cable news chyrons change, this Russia stuff will no longer be a problem https://t.co/Uz3sWinWzt pic.twitter.com/JMUcfriy7i
— Amanda Terkel (@aterkel) July 14, 2017
A key thing to remember is that Kushner isn't very smart https://t.co/AY4bYgipP0
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) July 14, 2017
.
Delicious cold dish for a summer evening! A Washington Post op-ed from Elizabeth Spiers, former Kushner Observer employee and Gawker editor — “The real lesson of the Trump family’s troubles? Nepotism doesn’t pay”:
… New York real estate is very dynastic and insular; a few families have run the largest companies over the course of several generations. One of them is the family of Jared Kushner, then the Observer’s owner and now a senior White House adviser and son-in-law to President Trump. Another, of course, is Trump’s. Both Kushner and Trump are second-generation executives in their family businesses (I would use the word “were” here, but neither of them have completely divested themselves), and Trump’s children are third-generation.
So when the Trump family business became running the United States of America, naturally, the head of the household could not resist installing his nearest and dearest in positions of senior management…
Trump has made it no secret that he views Ivanka as a potential successor of sorts — he once suggested he could name her as his running mate. So although it was wildly inappropriate, it’s not the least bit surprising that both of them thought it was fine for her to sit in for Dad at the G-20 summit. The conclave was not, of course, a Take Your Daughter to Work event. But for someone who recently claimed to “stay out of politics,” Ivanka didn’t seem to have any objection to being slotted into a position with very big political stakes. In her mind, apparently, it was hers to take. Similarly, her husband seems to feel qualified, despite a lack of anything resembling relevant experience or expertise, to assume the mantle of director in charge of everything the president doesn’t understand or wants to delegate or that Kushner would simply like to run…
Ultimately, the mess Trump and his administration have landed in was an obvious consequence of this most disastrous of family-run enterprises. People related to the president were put in senior positions, once again, despite having no being woefully unqualified or incompetent or both. They were, and are, regarded as un-fireable and not held to normal performance standards. And much of this is driven by the family patriarch’s fantasies of political dynasty…
***********
Family drama or otherwise, what’s on the agenda as we wrap up the weekend?
Mike in NC
No doubt Jared has cleared a special space on his desk for that Nobel Peace Prize coming his way.
Tokyokie
If the Trump family truly believed in the racehorse theory of genetics, as some of them are eager to say, the whole lot of them would have presented themselves to the glue works years ago.
debbie
Tough guy.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@debbie: “Bring it on”, cantaloupe boy.
SiubhanDuinne
@debbie:
I say, “Please proceed, Congressman.” Let ’em. Fuck ’em.
debbie
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
@SiubhanDuinne:
I agree. I hope they check into King’s past while they’re at ti.
efgoldman
@debbie:
Ya’ know, I almost, almost wish they’d charge Obama and Hillary. In the end, the grifter family and all their acolytes would be pantsed even more than HRC did to Gowdy.
Of course, the assholes are beyond shame, self-reflection, or intelligence… it’s like playing a practical joke on a three-year old – it always works so it gets to be not fun.
sukabi
@debbie: smells like desperation…here’s to king getting himself all caught up in Mueller’s probe.
Steeplejack (phone)
El Presidente needs to rework his travel ban. Eight of the top 10 finishers in the U.S. Women’s Open Golf Championship today—which he attended, at one of his own goddamn courses—are Korean. Sad!
Top American was at 11.
#MakeAmericaGolfAgain
Yarrow
If the best PR strategy you can come up with is to complain about chyrons, you are way out of your league.
efgoldman
@Steeplejack (phone):
All athletic young women. Just saying….
Must have been scheduled for his course years ago. I can’t see the LPGA booking it otherwise.
SiubhanDuinne
@efgoldman:
You would know this how?
Uncle Omar
@Tokyokie: Or the senior ones would have been gelded.
rikyrah
@debbie:
Bring it, muthaphucka.
Bring it?
efgoldman
@Yarrow:
I’m really surprised Junior can spell “chyron”, let alone know what it is.
Peale
@debbie: go ahead. She’s not running for anything ever again. We know Wiener is a pervert, but he’s not running for anything either. For comey I have no answer. His use is as a witness. It’s up to a grand jury to decide whether his emails are a problem
Patricia Kayden
On what planet is Ivanka qualified to be President? I guess since Trump collaborated successfully with Russia to install himself into the White House, he thinks he can just choose his successor. I hope Mueller understands the urgency of finishing his investigation so that we can get this creep out of an office for which he is totally unqualified.
randy khan
@debbie:
The really funny thing about this is that he thinks it might scare the Dems. I suspect most of the Dems in Congress couldn’t care less and the rest probably would love to have the chance to do compare and contrast at the hearings. And it would fire up the rank and file even more, particularly if they decided to investigate Obama.
Also, in case he hadn’t noticed, the Dems are not the ones driving this – it’s journalists, none of whom feel any obligation to Clinton (as if!) or Obama, and federal law enforcement officials, who also don’t care what Congress investigates so long as it doesn’t get in the way of their investigations.
efgoldman
@SiubhanDuinne:
I had one, once. I had part of one, more recently. Just talked to her this afternoon, they’ll be here Thursday. (She’s only three for another ~three weeks)
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Steeplejack (phone): Athletic Korean women? I might start watching golf.
clay
@debbie:
Wut. Does he know what words mean?
Eric
@efgoldman: hey libtard. Notice tired hitlary could not make the cut. Sad.
/s. Just in case
randy khan
@efgoldman:
I wouldn’t bet that he knows how to spell them or what they’re called.
eclare
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Seconded. I wish a motherfucker would bring this shit up again….
Tokyokie
@Uncle Omar: Yeah, you’re right. Ivanka would be retained as a brood mare, the men all gelded, and, after their consistent failures, dispatched to a Belgian meatpacking concern.
Patricia Kayden
@debbie: This is the very reason why I still think Democrats would have every right to shut down the government. They’re not dealing with folks who want to govern. They’re dealing with fascists and authoritarians. Whatever the hell Republicans want to do, they can do with their majority in Congress. But that’s not enough for them. They want to shut down dissent and criticism just like Putin or Duterte or any other dictator would do. When do they start killing journalists? Or imprisoning critics?
Peale
@clay: nope. He’s relying on the fact that the memory of voters is flexible and easily replaced. If they can get people to believe that Comey selected his old pal, when that didn’t happen, they can erase why very corrupt racist liar Jeff Sessions lost the power to appoint someone.
hitchhiker
Comey’s writing a book.
That should drive them bananas.
Roger Moore
@randy khan:
I don’t think he cares about those distinctions. The people digging into Trump’s background are enemies who must be destroyed. Hillary is an enemy who is steadfastly refusing to admit she’s been destroyed, even though she obviously has been. Therefore, the obvious thing to do is to dig into Hillary’s emails some more.
Patricia Kayden
@Mike in NC: You mean the Nobel Prize which he has already won in the alternative universe where he and other White House occupants inhabit. You know — the world where Trump won the popular vote and had the largest inauguration crowds of all time. Thankfully with his sinking polls, it feels as if Trump is slowly going down. Hopefully it won’t be too long before he finally is forced out of office.
Steeplejack (phone)
@efgoldman:
Sponsored by the USGA. There were protests and suggestions to move it to another course, but they decided to keep it at Trump National in Bedminster, NJ.
All the tournaments are scheduled years in advance.
randy khan
I was thinking about the compare and contrast with the Romney campaign. The Romney kids were deployed as surrogates on the campaign trail, but I don’t think any of them had any kind of senior role in the campaign in either 2008 or 2012, even though they had lived through his campaign for governor of Massachusetts.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
Again, I hope Kushner feels the burn and shame of failure — not a hard-won failure that instructs and builds character, but the kind that reveals his fundamental flaws, highlights the nepotism he’s enjoyed for three dozen years, and the scorn millions now feel for his sour-faced arrogance.
Yarrow
@efgoldman:
Didn’t the LPGA try to get out of having this tournament at his course and Trump sued them to make them stay? Thought I read something about that.
Steeplejack (phone)
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Dude, you are missing out. Lots of good form on the tour.
Yarrow
@West of the Rockies (been a while): I really don’t care how he feels about it, but I want Kushner, along with all the other traitors, to rot in prison.
eclare
@Steeplejack (phone): I read somewhere that Trump threatened to sue if they moved the tournament.
Iowa Old Lady
@Peale: Without Obama and/or Clinton to malign, they don’t know what to do with themselves.
Steeplejack (phone)
@eclare:
Yeah, it all went down two years ago.
Dr. Ronnie James, D.O.
“A key thing to remember is that Kushner isn’t very smart”
Matt Yglesias needs to be really careful criticizing someone who “only” has a BA from Harvard, yet feels entitled to tell the entire world what to do.
SiubhanDuinne
@efgoldman:
Ah, for some reason I thought the visit was already underway. Well, then, a few more lovely days of anticipation for you.
Hope you’re feeling, if not prime, at least as comfortable as possible. And hope your time with daughter and granddaughter takes your mind completely off your physical ailments.
joel hanes
Nepotism may be the least of the sins of the extended Trump famiglia
To my mind, the cynical, overt, and complete abandonment of good faith in word and in deed
is the overarching story — everything else flows from that. The Trumps are Petyr Baelish:
resentful, grasping, and completely without scruple.
ETA: but neither as clever nor as cunning as Littlefinger: the similarity is in their morals
Roger Moore
@Iowa Old Lady:
Nonsense. They know they can malign Pelosi and Schumer. Elizabeth Warren seems to be a popular target, too. They just want to keep going back to Obama and Clinton because some classics never get old.
SiubhanDuinne
@hitchhiker:
I will pre-order.
John Revolta
@Patricia Kayden: On what planet is Ivanka qualified to be President?
Bizarro World comes to mind.
JPL
@SiubhanDuinne: This is the one you want to pre-order. just sayin
Obama: An Intimate Portrait
MattF
@Roger Moore: I guess there’s a probably-true assumption that Clinton-hating is evergreen for the base. Also, “Squirrel!!”
JPL
@John Revolta: I doubt that he would have lost any votes with her on the ticket. Sad but true.
joel hanes
She’s only three for another ~three weeks
Envy.
My extended family has apparently quit having kids.
I need to volunteer at an elementary school or something …
JPL
Delta just smacked down Ann Coulter
MattF
@SiubhanDuinne: I’m not really much of a Comey fan. It could be, though, that he’s saved some good stuff for the book.
debbie
Speaking of emails…
John Revolta
@Patricia Kayden: When do they start killing journalists? Or imprisoning critics?
Well, they’re already throwing people in jail for laughing at them……
TriassicSands
But Ivanka just said she doesn’t like to get involved in politics. I guess she such a profound policy wonk that politics never enter her mind.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@TriassicSands:
Why should she use her beautiful mind on such matters?
John Revolta
@JPL: You’re probably right. Gawd ‘elp us.
piratedan
@efgoldman: they stayed at that venue because Trump threatened to sue them if they moved it.
John Revolta
@TriassicSands: Oh, I’m sure she’s got no problem with governing. It’s just politics she doesn’t like.
john fremont
@John Revolta: I was thinking Alex Jones’ Prison Planet. Jones would defend it to the hilt.
randy khan
@JPL:
I have no idea why they changed her seat, but her reaction is so totally out of proportion that it’s scary, including the apparent attempt to shame the woman who was given her original seat. I think Delta’s response actually is pretty measured in light of what she’s said and done.
Also, it’s kind of amusing that she obviously was traveling coach. I guess the books aren’t selling as well as they used to sell.
Chet Murthy
@piratedan: It’d serve him right if, when it came time for grip-and-grin, the female golfers all (ostentatiously) spat in their palms. Even better if they did so while wearing golf gloves.
Chet Murthy
@randy khan: There was a report of a man flying first class on United, who had it happen to him. At this point, it can happen to anybody who doesn’t have sufficient status, I suspect. And status is …. well, it’s a zero-sum game, innit?
All that said, damn, such a sweet little twitterstorm! Couldn’t happen to a more worthy victim!
Jeffro
@debbie: Every time I see Steve King, much less hear whatever nonsense he’s spouting on any given day…I…I just reflexively reach for a baseball bat. And I don’t even play baseball.
WaterGirl
@Patricia Kayden:
That would be Planet Palin, I believe. Brought to us by John F. McCain. (The F. stands for Fucking.)
grandpa john
@piratedan: You would think that an organization that has events at many different places, would always have a way to cancel clause in the contract.
JPL
@randy khan: She got a seat across the aisle, and delta refunded her extra $30.00. I’m glad they decided that they had it with her shaming of other passengers.
WaterGirl
@hitchhiker: I hate Comey for what he did to Hillary during the election, which is unforgivable. But it’s very clear to me that you fuck with Comey at your own risk. My guess is that he is working 15 hours a day writing this thing to get his side of the story out.
Trump isn’t very bright, but he’s particularly stupid when it comes to evaluating who to pick a fight with. I suppose that’s because in any fight so far, his money has won.
artem1s
Idjits assume that the Dems are afraid of another investigation? We can only hope they are that stupid. HRC took trophies and scalps the last time they tried this. It might take Obama a few minutes to get into the spirit of it, but I’m betting he’s got game. They really believe they are on a reality TV show and they are completely in control of the script. Jeebus wept
TriassicSands
@John Revolta:
I suspect you meant to write “ruling” instead of “governing,” but you were too polite to do so.
artem1s
@WaterGirl:
All his fights so far have been civil, not criminal. Jared probably has a better idea of the real stakes of miscalculating the outcomes in a criminal case. That’s why my money has always been on him to be the first to turn and plead out.
JMG
Steve King is a complete punk, Won’t debate his Congressional opponents in Iowa. Gets on cable because he’s outrageous (meaning horrible person) and that gets eyeballs. Nothing will come of his bullshit. Apparently the people of his Iowa district all are horrible people too. Adults of the Corn.
Frankensteinbeck
Seriously. He comes up with a plan an 11 year old would think of, including the amount of detail, and whines because he’s convinced if people just followed it right, supreme success would happen! Because he’s a genius! All the talking heads say so.
@West of the Rockies (been a while):
Sadly, of everyone involved in the Trump White House, I think Kushner is incapable of feeling shame. Trump won’t admit he’s wrong, but you can see how he writhes in his inferiority complex. What I’ve read about Kushner suggests a true solipsist. He will go to jail angry at the people who should have followed his genius orders that would have fixed everything.
@debbie:
HA HA HA HA HA HA!
John Revolta
BTW did anybody notice that the Secret Service just called Trump’s lawyer a fucking liar?
Frankensteinbeck
@artem1s:
Yes, but the lesson he learned from that was that it is the job of everyone in the entire world to fall on their swords for him, and how dare anyone who doesn’t.
WaterGirl
@John Revolta: No, I did not see that. Do you have a link or a quote? That would be fun.
John Revolta
@TriassicSands: If it gets people talking about what a polite guy I am, then sure, let’s go with it.
TriassicSands
@WaterGirl:
One of the things I’ve found most amazing about Trump is the inverse relationship between how poor a judge of character and competence he is and how good he thinks he is. He’s constantly remarking about what great rapport he has with this person or what a great relationship he has with that one. It’s often after his first meeting with someone, and it never rings true, for a variety of reasons, not least of which is that two weeks later he’s tweeting to the world what a terrible person his recent BFF is. The guy’s an idiot.
Being a terrible judge of character and people in general is consistent with your contention that he doesn’t know who to pick a fight with. My guess is that his main, if not sole, criterion is money. If his bank account is way bigger than the other person’s bank account, then he picks the fight. But now he’s in an arena where money is less likely to win the day.
Schlemazel
@Chet Murthy:
What came to light from the incident you remember is that the airlines can move or remove anyone and they choose based on ticket price. If you got a great price on the 1st class ticket & 1st class is overbooked you are getting moved. My guess is the guy that got his ass handed to him for not giving up his seat in coach got a ticket via Hotwire or PriceLine. It is not right but it is the world of deregulated air travel.
John Revolta
@WaterGirl: Linky
debbie
@JPL:
Such a snowflake!
debbie
@WaterGirl:
I wonder whether he’d lose any supporters if he walked out on Fifth Avenue today and shot someone.
debbie
@John Revolta:
He also tweeted a critic that he would make him his bitch. Not very seemly.
debbie
@John Revolta:
Does this mean they’ve stopped accusing Loretta Lynch of letting the Russian attorney into the country?
Chyron HR
@debbie:
I wonder if he’d lose any supporters if he went to one of his rallies and shot someone.
psychobroad
@Steeplejack (phone): I read somewhere that Dump threatened to sue if they moved it.
Aleta
Is this diplomat Kushner who is leading negotiations with the Mid East, Mexico and China? Or Innovation SWAT Team leader Kushner who believes “We should have excellence in government. The government should be run like a great American company. Our hope is that we can achieve successes and efficiencies for our customers, who are the citizens,” but can’t be fired and won’t step down, even though he is under investigation?
Chet Murthy
@Schlemazel: 99% agree with you. In the case I cited, ISTR the guy was paying full-fare for his first class seat. He just didn’t have enough status to keep it, was all. But I could be wrong about that. So I’d amend that to “remove anyone they choose based whatever criteria they wish to use that minute”. Regardless, your larger point — that (surprise surprise, Ann!) anybody can be moved, anytime, b/c it’s a zero-sum game all the way down (Ann!) is precisely correct.
PST
Matt Yglesias and Jared Kushner were college classmates, so comments the former makes about the latter’s intelligence may be based on more than just reading the papers.
WaterGirl
@TriassicSands: Only an idiot draws attention to the stuff they are not good at! He is either impaired in some way or has not developed socially like a normal person does. How did we even get to where someone like that can get to be President of the United States?
rhetorical question, you do it with money and lies and hate and corruption and assistance from a foreign power that is not your ally.
edit: and stupid, gullible people. millions of them.
Chet Murthy
@Schlemazel: It occurred to me that ppl like Coulter really have no leg (to stand on) for a completely different reason. All she had to do, was open her wallet and start handing the flight attendant benjamins. At some point, she’d have won, and gotten her extra seat. B/c that’s how laissez-faire capitalism works.
Aleta
@debbie: How much taxpayer money have they spent on these investigations already? Let’s investigate their spending records up til now, have them testify under oath about their decisions and ask if they’re willing to pay for the next one themselves.
eta And poll to see how many taxpayers are willing to pay X million for another.
WaterGirl
@John Revolta: Thanks!
WaterGirl
@debbie: That might just be the one thing Trump has been right about in the past year.
WaterGirl
@debbie:
Are you talking about Donald Trump tweeting that? It’s onion quality stuff, so I have to ask.
psychobroad
@Patricia Kayden: what planet was trump qualified to be president? She’s just as qualified as he is, maybe more so because she doesn’t seem to have that hair trigger.
Omnes Omnibus
@psychobroad: Um, he is a dude. You gotta consider that.
sm*t cl*de
@Chet Murthy:
The cream of the jest: at the time, Coulter responded to Dr Dao’s beating by calling for him to be stripped of citizenship and deported, for his lack of immediate obedience to Authoriteh.
WaterGirl
@sm*t cl*de: Of course she did.
randy khan
@WaterGirl:
Linky
TS
@Patricia Kayden:
On the same planet that Trump Snr is qualified to be President. We discovered in 2016 that anyone is qualified to be President.
psychobroad
@Omnes Omnibus: Ooops, I forgot that all-important dick. Sad!
J R in WV
@clay:
Some of them. But collusion is way too long and complicated for any of them to explain to him.
SFAW
@debbie:
Different attorney. Jay Sekulow was the one trying to blame the Secret Service, Marc Kasowitz — who I think was a Roy Cohn acolyte — was the one doing the threatening.
The world would be a much better place if everyone who learned at Roy Cohn’s knee (so to speak) would suddenly disappear.
J R in WV
@sm*t cl*de:
But we can’t deport dear Ann C, because who would take her?
J R in WV
Evidently Donnie Jr was not yet being protected by the Secret Service when the Russian lawyers and spies met with the Trump campaign.
And in any case, if he had been, the function of the Secret Service is limited to ensuring that attendees at meetings cannot harm a protected person.
So Fuq you Trump lawyers!!!
Wait, the Secret Service didn’t say that last sentence. Gotta be careful!!
moops
I don’t think anyone’s Whitehouse job is to launch surrogates to counter bad press. Is it? does the WH have an official role for propaganda control? Not the press secretary office, but actually coordinating media surrogates and scandal control?
WaterGirl
@moops: oh dear god, I hope they do not.
moops
@WaterGirl: I was pretty sure the job of putting lackeys on news programs was your Party apparatus, not a federal job description. “Business Man” Kushner likely has no idea what that last sentence even means.
William Miller
“Political dynasty”? Maybe, but I’m thinking Trump imagines himself the world’s most powerful mafia don, given that’s the environment he came from and the business model he knows best.
The Fat Kate Middleton
@debbie:OMG. Rep. Steve King. I’m mortified – yet again. As an Iowan, I apologize for this fucker … yet again
different-church-lady
Folks, the chyron thing isn’t about improving the actual situation or the administration’s image. It’s about getting the guy at the top to stop lashing out at everyone else in the office. Good chyrons are the only way they can get him to stop stepping on his own dick for a news cycle.
TenguPhule
@efgoldman:
When did you start wishing for this Civil War to kick off?