It’s far too early to write the history of RussiaGate / Stupid Watergate / TreasonGate (or whatever you want to call our long national nightmare). It’s still possible that the bad guys will win, and then they get to write the history.
But it’s not too early to recognize who’s playing the Woodward and Bernstein roles in our unfolding national crime drama, and it ain’t Maggie Haberman and Glenn Thrush. It’s a snarky adult film actress and her dishy lawyer.
In the early morning thread, Kay made the following observations:
It’s true – she’s not a whiner, that Stormy. She knew the assholes would fight her every step of the way. She expected nothing better from these people. Because she knows them.
We do a lot of worshiping of brave whistleblowers in this country and for some reason that hasn’t been applied to this porn actress. It should be. She’s up against some powerful people, and they’re mean as snakes. I believe the Trump thugs threatened her in a parking lot and I would bet 100 dollars she’s not the only one. I mean, Jesus. Just looking at the Russian dissidents who have “accidents” is scary. This is Trump’s scummy crew.
Would Stormy be treated differently if she were some upper manager who worked for Trump Criminal Enterprises Inc and blew the whistle on Cohen? Yes. So, why? They had a business relationship with Stormy. This wasn’t a romance.
It’s snobbery. She’s not a Edward Snowden figure because of the business she’s in and because of how she looks. She never would have gotten anywhere without a really aggressive and telegenic (and male) lawyer. The rest of the women who accused Trump were ignored.
Truth. As some wag on Twitter (I think) said, if the tag team of Daniels-Avenatti helps bring Trump down, statues of the pair should replace all the Confederate garbage polluting town squares across the South. It’s indisputably heroic, ridding your country of an incompetent clown (who’s in thrall to a foreign despot) and his corrupt crew.
But will Avenatti — and especially Stormy Daniels — get the hero treatment? Nah. Think about how not only Snowden but also Assange were/are lionized as truth-tellers who brought government perfidy to light. Their supporters would bristle at the suggestion that Stormy Daniels belongs in the Heroes of the Republic pantheon.
Assange and Snowden are described as “radical transparency” advocates, and I suspect their supporters would sneer at Stormy as a self-promoter (if they were feeling polite). The truth is, Assange and Snowden are a pair of self-promoting drama llamas, and any good they did was incidental to actions in service of their giant egos.
I find Stormy Daniels’ lack of guile about her purposes refreshing, to be honest. Same goes for Avenatti. They aren’t out there claiming to be selfless heroes, but if they succeed in helping to bring Trump down, they’re heroes all the same.
PS: Article 2, Section 4 of the United States Constitution:
The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.
Just saying.
The Very Reverend Crimson Fire of Compassion
Plus, there’s the added value that they would be statues of two highly attractive people, thus adding to the aesthetic value of their placement.
ruemara
Yeah but the super secret Republican version says “only applicable to Democractic presidents.”
To be blunt, we can find crystal clear evidence of treason, bribery, our top secrets handed out to Russia, proof that it’s cost American lives and I don’t even think the Trump wing in the FBI would rethink their idiotic treason. I fully & completely expect the GOP & their base and their nominal affiliates will be solidly saying out loud and all over the place that America has no right to have unaffected elections, it’s great to be a client state and sedition/treason for political ends is ok because jesus snowflake babies & icky gays. They’re lost until they’re destitute.
Kay
I love that, though. It’s populist, too! :)
LAO
How crazy is it that one day, high school students are going to study a porn star (and her lawyer) in AP history classes?
rikyrah
More from Avenatti
https://twitter.com/MichaelAvenatti/status/994242314062237696?s=19
Cermet
Most CEO’s are over paid whores; so, in the case of Stormy, I’d rather say she was an angel who tended to be paid for her good graces and giving nature. Sex workers are a honorable profession unlike money lenders (see whore bankers who are the worse sorta thieves.)
donnah
I tune in to watch the evening shows on MSNBC, and Avenatti is a frequent guest on Laurence O’Donnell’s program. I like him. He’s obviously intelligent and unafraid of attacks from the opposition. Is he cocky? Yessiree, but he’s not stupid and he doesn’t seem likely to make mistakes.
But even on these shows, guests who are supposedly on “our side” have made snide comments, especially those who are lawyers. They make subtle comments about Avenatti’s aggressive and smug behavior and I think they’re just a little jealous.
But he opened himself up to attention from both when he took Stormy on as a client. He probably suspected he was stepping into a hornet’s nest, but even he might not have anticipated the amount of information he would uncover. He and his team have worked their asses off gathering info on Cohen and now Trump. Good for him!
I hope he can help topple the corruption and lies that Cohen and Trump have created. With what he knows and what Mueller is compiling, hopefully there will be a reckoning in the end.
catclub
Paul Campos is also looking for some reporters to look into the payment related to Broidy – he claims that it only makes sense if Trump was the one who had an affair with a Playboy model.
over at LGM
PVDMichael
LGM law prof Paul Campos has an article in New York magazine where he >theorizesanother onenot< to speculate…
Roger Moore
In addition to the whole class/job business because she’s a porn actress, there’s also the whole sexism angle. It’s not just the sexism that she should be ignored because she’s a women, but the whole sexual double standard where a man having an extramarital affair is treated completely different from a woman doing the same.
LAO
@catclub: Campos’ piece at New York Magazine the other day was pretty persuasive. Article Link.
PVDMichael
@catclub: The playboy model has been raging on the Twitter for the past month about Narcissistic Personality Disorder… coincidence?
MattF
Porn star + her smart lawyer is better than we deserve, but I’ll take it.
JR
Snowden is the Mirabeau of our age.
Jeffro
(camera fades in, showing Bob Mueller standing behind one-way glass. He’s staring into a pretty standard police interrogation room. Seated at a square wooden table, face in hands, hair disheveled, is the president* of the United States. Across from him, a stony-faced G-man looks on and opens his mouth to speak.)
“Once more please, Mr. President. I know you’ve walked us through the basics of what happened, but now if we could, I’d like you to go back to the start and try your best to work through events chronologically, as best you recall.”
A few moments pass. The president* raises his head, shaking it back and forth slightly, eyes unfocused. “The deal is still the deal, right? I tell everything I know about Putin, the NRA, the RNC, and no RICO, right? You don’t take it all away? No charges on my kids?”
The G-man gives the president* a look that’s a mix of mild disappointment and deeply hidden satisfaction. “That’s not quite it, sir. We said no charges for Ivanka – she was too far out of the loop, it’d be too hard to prove. But for Don Junior, and Eric, and your son-in-law, they’ve already been charged with dozens of offenses from money laundering, to aiding and abetting theft, to conspiracy against the United States. We’re not pulling those back, sir.”
The president* pauses, sighs, sighs again – much more heavily this time. “O-kay. Okay. I guess that’s what we’ll do, then. She was the only good one anyway.”
The G-man waits three seconds, arches his eyebrows, and says, “So…shall we begin?”
And as Bob Mueller looks on, the 45th president of the United States starts in: “I first began taking large amounts of money from Russian criminal interests back in 2005. In real estate, it’s not hard to launder millions of dollars at a time, and nobody cared where it came from…”
trollhattan
@catclub: @PVDMichael:
That story angle looks like it could get legs, and Campos’ takedown is thorough and relatively easy to follow (about as easy as any Trump misdeed can potentially be).
Maybe instead of Shit Midas Trump is the Easter Crime Bunny. Eggs everywhere you look. “We’re gonna’ need a bigger basket.”
Kay
@Roger Moore:
It depends on where you are in your thinking, but people who are still insisting “this is FINE” are different than those who think this whole clusterfuck indicates a pretty big collapse of institutions. I’m in the latter group so I’m not “offended” that people who are considered unserious are doing some work with potentially big consequences. My attitude is “well, someone had to do something- why NOT these two?”
The army you have, and all that. I don’t care that it’s a fast-talking lawyer instead of a somber jurist – he seems to be making some progress on the Great Mystery of What Happened. That’s the objective. They have to tell us what happened. We deserve to know.
Elizabelle
The Trump era.
Where porn stars are the actual whistleblowers and the FTF NY Times** is staffed with whores. Where the DC press corpse acts like courtesans afraid to be banned from appearances at court.
ETA: ** not all of them. But we speak of Kneepad Maggie Haberman, defender of Sarah Sanders, and the crack (addled) political team, with their deadly “narratives.”
Jeffro
@Roger Moore:
Wait…if that’s true…you’re saying that Hillary Clinton cheating on her third husband with a male porn start shortly after the birth of her fifth child would be some sort of scandal? No way. The press would just blow it off (and so would HIllz’ Democratic enablers in Congress, I betcha!)
LOL
Well, maybe if Hillary had her personal lawyer set up a shell company to pay the porn star to keep quiet just weeks before the election. Maybe THEN it would be a scandal. But otherwise, nah…
TenguPhule
In other news, Kim is playing Trump like a fucking fiddle by releasing 3 low value (to NK) US hostages.
The mark is begging to have his pockets emptied.
piratedan
I sure as hell wouldn’t place Avenatti and Daniels on the same level as Snowden and Assange, simply because the former are not bad faith actors…
All Snowden did was point out what so many of us already knew, that subcontracting your intelligence work is a goddamn stupid idea. If he was ever a whistleblower its a whole new Philbyesque definition of the word. Assange, well, I hope that some day his ass is extradited to face a judge or a court to have his day to prove his innocence (ha bleeping ha).
and all of this makes me wonder, just wtf are journos doing these days? Avenatti digs up this shit by doing the lawerly stuff he should be doing on behalf of his client. Don’t these people investigate things for a living or is there one guy doing research, and everyone else eats danish?
JPL
@LAO: It’s always better studying crimes and misdemeanors than gazing at Melania’s nude photos.
germy
Avenatti is offering to go on Hannity’s show, but for some reason that invitation has not arrived in his inbox.
Betty Cracker
@LAO: I found that pretty convincing too. Made non-political junkie hubby read it as a sanity check, and he agrees. Also, Broidy and Cohen were on the RNC financial committee. Huge scandal in its own right, but it goes by the boards because this is the most flagrantly corrupt, criminal enterprise masquerading as an administration in US history. Please, FSM, let justice roll like water.
TenguPhule
@Elizabelle:
A perfect summary of our Darkest Timeline.
JPL
Why did Rosenstein suggest letting the NY office handle the Cohen case? Since Trump seems to be tied up in Cohen’s affairs, I would have thought Mueller would handle it.
Trump is showing a lot of concern about the case.
Kay
So Mueller knew a year ago that Cohen was more than the Stormy payment. But imagine this story without Stormy and her lawyer. It would just go into the big and growing slush pile of Trump Administration corruption. Buried under layers of other shit.
Mary G
@Roger Moore: Yep, the Avenatti adulation bugs because he is having a ball, and enhancing his career astronomically, while she is taking the very real risk some nutjob will indeed track down and shoot her daughter to “put her in her place,” and gets no real credit for it. She was so grateful and excited to be on SNL, and that was sad. Kay was right on the money.
guachi
The Stormy Daniels pay-my-lawyer fund seems like money well spent for those who donated.
MJS
If it comes to pass that Avenatti and Daniels take down Trump, it will be all the more delicious because it never had to be that way. As Trump scandals go, having consensual sex with an adult film actress is far down on the list. Regardless of when that news came out, it was unlikely to change anybody’s mind in terms of who they would vote for. But because everyone in Trump’s orbit is incredibly stupid, they decided it needed to be not only addressed, but addressed in the most ham-handed way imaginable.
Suffragettecity
Sometimes you have to go with the Heroes you have, not the heroes you want.
Just remember we can be heroes, just for one day. to beat them forever and ever.
mai naem mobile
Avenatti is smart. He was the top grad of his GW Law School class. GW may not be Harvard but it is a top tier sxhool.
rikyrah
@donnah:
I like him too.
Oh, it’s obvious that they are jealous.
I don’t know why he took the case, but I’m glad he did. I think he took it for the publicity, and I think he knows that she was set up by her previous attorney, who was obviously colluding with Cohen, and that pissed him off. He has an interesting personality.
trollhattan
@JPL:
Wait, is that an option? (Asking for a friend)
LAO
@JPL: I think the Cohen investigation was “farmed out” to the SDNY as a means of protecting the investigation should Rosenstein and Mueller be fired. (And, yes I know that people are going to come and “yell” at me about Civil Service Protections, but I still think both men are going to be fired).
germy
@mai naem mobile: And Cohen went to Cooley Law School.
rikyrah
@Suffragettecity:
I love this. It’s so on point.
schrodingers_cat
Adding gate to every scandal is pretty stupid. Calling this assault on democracy Stupid Watergate is stupid^2.
One million people will lose their TPS in a year or less and will be kicked of the country for no fault of their own and their families will be torn apart. I am not laughing.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Noting that the Treasury IG is opening an investigation relative to…
Wait for it…
….leaks of Cohen’s banking records to Avenatti.
???
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@schrodingers_cat:
Sometimes you have to laugh or else you’ll lose your mind. But I understand why see this as no laughing matter. A lot of people are being hurt and more are going to be as well. It sucks but there’s little we can do right now. Just have to keep our eyes on the prize and beat these fucks.
Agree on the -gate thing. That’s lazy and stupid.
The Moar You Know
Just to be very clear: Edward Snowden is responsible for the largest and most damaging espionage attack ever conducted against the United States of America. He is a spy, not a “self-promoting drama llama”.
To also be clear, a “self-promoting drama llama” is Assange.
rikyrah
I find the Stormy Daniels story as forcing Dolt45 to fight on multiple fronts.
Yes, he has State Media of Fox….which is the only network that won’t invite Avenatti. But, he’s on the other networks, so it all balances out.
It does help that Dolt45’s legal team is pathetic.
He doesn’t pay and doesn’t listen, which pretty much eliminates ‘A’ and ‘B’ level firms from representing him.
The only people willing to represent him are the ‘ C’ listers.
The ‘ A’ level people that he has don’t want to be on television. We haven’t seen any of those folks on tv, which gives up that playing field to Avenatti, and I know that has to drive Dolt45 nuts.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Kay:
I’ll be happy to sign a contract with Novartis and deliver nothing for a fifth of the 100K a month that Cohen was getting. It’ll be a bargain.
I’d be pretty pissed off if I were a shareholder. In fact, I’d be expecting directors to be calling emergency meetings, demanding answers and digging to see if there were more high dollar-no delivered services contracts out there.
rikyrah
You know who has kept Avenatti out of their mouths and twitter feeds?
Uday and Qusay.
I find that interesting…..
Another Scott
@MJS: Yeahbut, remember the few details that have been reported/speculated about their brief interactions. The magazine, the spanking, and the rumored pictures. It would have at least had the potential to change the narrative about Donnie’s strength and alpha-male dominance just as Comey was cranking up the Hillary E-mails klaxxon again.
The race was close enough for Comey and the Russians to steal. Who knows what might have made it turn out differently.
:-(
Cheers,
Scott.
rikyrah
BWA HA AH AH AH AH HA
NOVEMBER 2017….
And, we just found out about this in MAY 2018…..
BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
Inventor
@rikyrah: One of those things that makes one go “hmmmm”.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@MattF:
It’s amazing that we have this sizable group of well-paid pundits working for 24/7 multibillion dollar news networks, and they’ve been outshone by a scrappy sex worker and her dogged lawyer.
Lapassionara
@JPL: The SDNY has jurisdiction over Cohen for executing the search warrant. Mueller will likely still be involved in the Cohen matter. But even if Trump fires Rosenstein and Mueller, he cannot get rid of the entire SDNY. So an extra layer of protection for that aspect of the investigation.
mai naem mobile
@germy: Hannity us dumb as a stump. Bill O’Reilly asshole that he is would have given Avenatti a ride for his money.
@Mary G: I worry about the whole lot of them Stormy,Avenatti, Comey, Mueller,McCabe. You just have to look at Russia and wee what Putin does there.
rikyrah
@catclub:
I will repeat..
Avenatti said as much on Morning Joke a couple of weeks ago.
He said that Cohen never said – UNDER OATH IN COURT – that Briody was his client.
But, no MSM has followed the logic behind his statement.
schrodingers_cat
I have a better name for what happened in 2016 than any of these assorted gates, it was a White Supremacist Coup.
Roger Moore
@LAO:
I’ve said before that I find the civil service protections angle unconvincing. Yes, it’s theoretically hard to fire Mueller, but that’s about terminating his employment. Civil service protection doesn’t guarantee he stays on the same high-profile job. AFAIK, they could shunt him off into some other position appropriate for somebody of his stature and put an apparatchik in charge of the Trump/Russia investigation without violating Civil service regulations.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@The Moar You Know:
My recollection is that some of Snowjob’s revelations got some of the retention/tracing/surveillance programs – the ones which would have helped address and curtail the 2016 manipulation – shut down.
schrodingers_cat
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: He was a big hero to many on the left and this blog too, including our blog host.
ETA: Its amazing how much the purity left gets played again and again.
LAO
@Betty Cracker: You and Frank Rich had the same thought:
LOLOLOLOLO
catclub
@Betty Cracker:
actually that fact is the one that Campos handles worst. He says that Broidy has no reason to contact Cohen to serve as his lawyer, when the fact that they are co-chairs for the RNC means that they have probably met.
Betty Cracker
@The Moar You Know: He’s both, IMO, in the same sense that Lee Harvey Oswald was both an assassin AND a self-promoting drama llama. How many arrogant young men, feeling that their genius is unappreciated and eager to “make their mark” on the world, have done awful things to puff up their already over-inflated egos? Drama llamas!
LAO
@Roger Moore: FWIW, I wasn’t directing my comment at you. And, I was very grateful the other day, when you explained the “Civil Service” angle to me.
germy
@Betty Cracker:
Here’s something I’ve never understood:
After making his mark on the world, why did Oswald call himself a patsy? It would seem more logical for him to say “Yes I did it!” and then give reporters his manifesto as to why his “heroic” act was justified.
I’m not going down any conspiracy ratholes because too many of them are absurd, but that one detail always puzzled me.
The Moar You Know
@Mary G: Bullets don’t give a fuck about your money or status. Avenatti is taking just as much of a risk as Daniels is.
ruemara
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: No, people who will really suffer are not laughing and didn’t laugh through all of 2016. I’m kinda tired of the jokes because it still feels like people are not getting the depth of the damage done, who’s affected and how fucking serious it is.
I’ll also say Stormy Daniels is not getting the credit she deserves because not only is she a woman, she’s a beautiful woman and they rarely get credit for brains, stamina, courage & ethics. It’s one of the key misogynistic tenets – a beautiful woman is crazy, a gold digger etc.
catclub
@LAO:
But given that Mueller did not farm out the Manafort case because it remains relevant to the Russia case, this suggests that the Cohen link is also NOT related to the Russia case – which it sure looks like it is if Vekselberg is paying Cohen large sums.
Maybe there are enough non-Russia things in Cohen’s case that everyone gets a shot.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@schrodingers_cat: “The Siberian Candidate”
schrodingers_cat
@ruemara: Agreed 100%. Stormy is both smart and beautiful and she doesn’t let people slut shame her. She has more spine than all Rs in Congress combined.
rikyrah
Absolutely.
That sketch is real, and one of these days, we’re going to have a real person to attach to it.
schrodingers_cat
@Formerly disgruntled in Oregon: Good one or the White Russian Candidate.
TenguPhule
@ruemara:
But then you get labeled a ghoul and a chronic downer if you don’t.
LAO
@catclub: I may be agreeing with you — I think that Cohen was involved in a massive amount of criminal conduct, and some of the conduct had nothing to do with Trump. To date, we have no idea what the remit is in the SDNY and what portion of the Cohen investigation was retained by Mueller. Time will tell.
JPL
@LAO: Thank you. Cohen is certainly connected to the Russian investigation, so I didn’t understand the reasoning. If he fires Mueller and Rosenstein, he will then pardon Cohen. It would be dangerous to issue a pardon to Cohen before the crimes are identified though, because it then opens the door for state charges.
TenguPhule
@rikyrah:
Didn’t it already link to Trump’s former chief bodyguard?
catclub
@Roger Moore:
which is what Ryan Zinke does at Interior and Pruitt does at EPA to senior scientists
Ella in New Mexico
Like I said on Twitter:
Roger Moore
@LAO:
I understand. I was trying to back up your idea that getting fired- or “reassigned” to some do-nothing job- is not as hard as the “but civil service protections” people think it is.
Joyce H
@rikyrah:
I think it’s funny to hear Trump’s surrogates call Avenatti an ‘ambulance chaser’ and imply he’s in it for the money, and a low rent moneygrubber at that. Listen, this guy recently won a judgment against a manufacturer for $450 million. His fee from that would be somewhere in the neighborhood of $150 million, maybe more. He doesn’t NEED money. He can well afford to take time off to take a wrecking ball to the Trump administration just AS A HOBBY.
Betty Cracker
@rikyrah: Huh. I hadn’t noticed that, but you’re right. And those slabheads — particularly junior — pounce on all of daddy-o’s high-profile critics in a pathetically transparent bid to curry favor. Hmmmmmmm.
JPL
@Lapassionara: Thank you for your comment also.
Hoodie
@rikyrah: I’m fine with these heroes. Avenatti is a sharp and creative lawyer. Stormy is smart and self aware, making her a great plaintiff. They both deserve to benefit from this because they’re doing a helluva job. I’m sure most lawyers would rather represent her than DJT, who is an unmanageable nightmare and will lie to you and throw you under the bus given any opportunity.
rikyrah
@ruemara:
I disagree with you. I think laughter is the only coping mechanism we have, when we can use it.
I’ve admitted that I’ve been in a consistent state of rage since November 2016. I can’t stop. I read these stories, and they keep the rage going. I see the damage being done to MY Country, and the rage persists. The other side wants to break you down. To get you to ‘accept’ these barbarians of evil as normal, and the answer to that is NO.
The only ones who minimize the damage being done are the ones responsible for us being in this situation in the first place:
Those who voted for Dolt45
Those who were purity ponies and couldn’t bother voting for Hillary
Those who didn’t vote at all, because ‘ both sides’. remember. They were so ‘ woke’. They just ‘knew that the system was flawed, so I’m going to be oh so smart and sit this out’.
Not n’er one of these groups is to be forgiven.
NONE OF THEM.
catclub
@LAO: The other part of Cohen link that is interesting is the 2006 switch in Trump’s funding/business model so that he started paying cash – like $400M – for golf courses. Which is really surprising for real estate investors, they never pay cash. It was in 2006 that Cohen joined Trump’s team, and Cohen had all sorts of links to Russian mob/oligarch money.
Brachiator
@LAO:
I want to read the whole thing later. But pressed for time now. A quick question: Why would this guy Broidy take the fall for Trump? Does Broidy have a family who would be hurt by being connected to a salacious pay-off scheme?
Of course, I wouldn’t be surprised at much that these rascals get up to.
Roger Moore
@catclub:
My assumption was that the Cohen matter was seen as more politically fraught than Manafort because of the potential attorney-client privilege matters, so farming it out to SDNY was a way of protecting it politically.
MJS
@Betty Cracker: They’ve also probably been slapped in the head enough times to know that when Daddy says, “Shut up”, he means it.
Elizabelle
Do we know how Stormy and Avenatti found each other? They do make a great team.
coin operated
@LAO:
This started as a counterintel op…farming it out also helps protect confidential sources *as well as* protecting the momentum of the case. I’d normally be one of those yelling at you about civil service protections, but there are several other factors at play that make SDNY handling of the Cohen case sensible at this time.
TenguPhule
@rikyrah:
Come sit by me.
JPL
@Ella in New Mexico: The trump goons are probably investigating Avenatti now, and they will report if they even catch him peeing behind a tree in the woods.
rikyrah
@schrodingers_cat:
they fall for the banana in the tailpipe all the time.
Roger Moore
@catclub:
That’s exactly what gave me the idea that civil service protections weren’t as valuable as everyone is making them out to be.
dnfree
Another journalist doing Woodward-and-Bernstein-caliber work is, I think, David Farenthold of the Washington Post. He’s come up with a lot of financial details on Trump’s charity and other dealings and is still finding stuff.
hitchhiker
@schrodingers_cat:
Yes. The racists among the white people of America, led by the man who made his political name by demanding that President Obama prove his citizenship, threw off their cover.
And then the effing media spent months and months going to interview them & produce delicately worded feature stories about their oh-so-difficult lives.
All this happened right in front of us … at this point all I care about is that they don’t get to write the history books.
schrodingers_cat
@rikyrah: I have nothing against laughter as a coping mechanism, just not in a mood today. I will laugh about the absurdities tomorrow.
Amir Khalid
Some Malaysian election news: With 188 of 222 seats in Parliament declared, Pakatan Harapan has won 102 seats to Barisan Nasional’s 68. Pakatan is just ten seats away from a historic win over the coalition which has ruled Malaysia since independence.
ETA: 105 seats to Pakatan. Now it’s just seven seats away.
Roger Moore
@Joyce H:
I think you’re missing the point of the “ambulance chaser” description. They’re angry at any lawyer who stands up for the little guy against big corporations, and the more successful they are at taking on rich companies the worse they are in the eyes of Free Market Jesus.
trollhattan
@rikyrah:
Have to laugh to keep from crying. Since there are effectively no conservative humorists the liberal use of liberal humor shall remain a key component of our arsenal. Keep the humor gap alive and well!
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Incidentally, for those feeling gloomy that Trump’s NYC connections might fix any State of New York prosecution. Avenatti pointed out that the actually bribe happened in San Francisco.
The Moar You Know
@Amir Khalid: BBC’s been doing some good coverage about this over the last week. Good enough that even this dumb American can realize that this is a huge, huge BFD.
JPL
@dnfree: I read that Trump was pretty upset with Farenthold’s latest article about his using cash to buy up properties.
Betty Cracker
@Amir Khalid: Good thing or nah?
Kay
@Roger Moore:
I was waiting for “frivilous lawsuit”. They dropped that, I think.
He’s an “ambulance chaser” compared to serious legal scholar Rudy Guiliani, who has spent the last decade appearing on Fox News playing the part of some horrible, cackling ghoul.
Please. They should be ashamed of what ridiculous snobs they are.
Betty Cracker
@dnfree: Definitely! He richly deserved that Pulitzer!
hitchhiker
@Elizabelle:
I once worked for a very well-known Formula One driver/trainer and got a little window into that world. Think super-rich, type-A, bold, focused, risk-loving men. No surprise to read that Avenatti is part of that world — he’s basically a prototype for its members.
We know that Daniels worked the rich-guy golf tournament circuit, and it wouldn’t surprise me at all to learn that there’s a similar phenomenon at the race tracks (tho’ my friend is about as straight-arrow as a man could be).
Maybe she and Avenatti just got to talking in the bar one night …
different-church-lady
Define “we”.
Yes. She might be dead by now.
That ain’t “us”. As we found out the hard way, that’s purity pony-bros and the grifters who use them for marks. Took us a bit, but we figured it out.
LAO
@Brachiator: Briody does a lot of business with the federal government, the assumption is that the $1.6 million is a bribe.
Jeffro
@LAO: Oops, Frank Rich said “racketeering” – I’ll assume that was on purpose, as it should be.
Roger Moore
@Amir Khalid:
Something tells me the investigation into 50+ years of Barisan corruption is going to make Trump’s malfeasance look petty. At least I assume 1MDB is just the most recent and public aspect of systematic corruption.
different-church-lady
Oh, and while we’re taking about Assange and Snowden, let’s not make the same mistakes with Daniels and Avenatti as we did with the former two characters. We’ve got a lot of reasons on the table to believe the latter two, but that doesn’t mean we should just give them 100% of our credulity on every detail (like we do every effin’ time…)
TenguPhule
@Kay:
Sadly, they have no shame. Which is why I think all the calls for them to be publicly shamed miss the mark. When dealing with lizard brains, the punishments have to be more primal to make the point.
LAO
@Jeffro: Well, I laugh because Cohen was definite running a racket — a highly successful and lucrative racket. May it all comeback to bite him and his cronies (including Trump) on the ass.
Leto
@Betty Cracker: Drama llamas the world over take umbrage with being compared to Snowjob and Embassy Man.
Amir Khalid
@Betty Cracker:
Too soon to tell. Najib and Barisan are out of power at the federal level. On the other hand, the incoming PM Dr Mahathir. held the job before from 1981 to 2002, and was perhaps the most autocratic PM in our history. Also too, Dr M returns to the job at the age of 92, and you have to wonder if he can see out a five-year term.
LAO
@Roger Moore: @Kay: We all know (as does Avenatti), when they start calling you names, you’re winning.
PS — has anyone ever read The Sweet Hereafter by Russell Banks, it totally changed my concept of the term “ambulance chaser.”
WhatsMyNym
@Ella in New Mexico: I won’t quote you about Stormy’s lawyer, but you might want to do some research on him. Don’t bother putting him on a pedestal.
VeniceRiley
@rikyrah:
Good catch! I missed it. Given how they cackled with glee over Schneiderman, it is something to note.
I’m still mad as [insert mad thing here] about Iran and sitting by you.
Can the MSM get it’s act together and give Stephanie Clifford her own talk show already? Maybe fill ratings loser Megyn Kelly’s slot?
Mnemosyne
@germy:
Self-pity. Also because he realized too late that JFK was actually popular in the rest of the country and was trying to downplay his actions. Remember, JFK was so unpopular in Texas that people were posting mock “wanted” posters calling for his assassination.
I also wouldn’t be surprised if there were people in his life who egged him on, since that seems to be a common feature of assassinations and mass murders. He might have felt afterwards that those people were responsible for what he did and he was just the poor, innocent patsy who listened to the wrong people.
Jeffro
@LAO: Amen.
I’m already picturing the look on Trumpistas’ faces when they realize that Mr. Drain-The-Swamp was routing slush fund payments – not to 3rd-rate-burglars, not to Contras or cake-eating Ayatollahs, not to Halliburton – but to his own greasy pockets!
Just straight-up pay-to-play, baby! Make America Grift Again!!
different-church-lady
@VeniceRiley:
That’s quite an analogy you got going there.
trollhattan
@WhatsMyNym:
Ooh, sounds ominous, new person.
different-church-lady
@Jeffro: The look of momentary confusion followed by justification?
Yutsano
@Amir Khalid: Seriously? They couldn’t find a younger party leader in all that time?
Yutsano
@WhatsMyNym: @trollhattan: Just a thought, but if you have some information to share with the class, you should do so. Being coy does nothing for your credibility.
WhatsMyNym
@trollhattan: Been here since Cole was still a repug. Took a break from commenting and forgot my nym.
Seattle Times had an article about his vulture capitalism with a local coffee chain for one.
ETA. It’s really hard to wade thru google search using his name now,,,, for some reason.
Mnemosyne
@TenguPhule:
There’s a difference between What’s currently going on is really bad and I will extrapolate from current events to predict how the current really bad situation will become exponentially worse!
You tend to do the latter.
raven
@LAO: It was a strange film with the great Sarah Polley.
LAO
@raven: I never saw the film, the novel was amazing.
raven
@LAO: Just one of the reviews:
Amir Khalid
@Roger Moore:
The corruption we have here is mostly discreet and modest. (Certain noteworthy exceptions aside.) There is definitely systemic corruotion here, and I’m sure the new government will be working to expose it, but fortunately it hasn’t kept Malaysia from doing a fairly decent job of running itself in most respects. I’d be a little surprised if there were anything else on a scale like 1MDB. One development I do expect in that matter is that The Official One might not remain a free man much longer.
LAO
@WhatsMyNym: I saw the article. I have a shocking revelation for you — high profile litigators are assholes and generally, not nice people. Additionally, they like to hear themselves speak, they enjoying appearing on TV and are relentlessly self-promoting. People shouldn’t fall in love with Avenatti but we can certainly appreciate his effectiveness. I know I am.
Mary G
@The Moar You Know: My point was that he’s going to make a lot more money off it than she will. I follow her on twitter and for every snarky response there is a “I got a new fan!” that tells me that she’s not exactly raking it in.
WhatsMyNym
@LAO: I agree, I would have no concerns in hiring him for certain cases.
I just warned about putting him on a pedestal.
rikyrah
‘$500 and He’s a Ghost’: White Man Wanted a Hit Man to Kill His Black Neighbor, Feds Allege
Brandon Lecroy, of South Carolina, is accused of asking an undercover agent to kill his neighbor, then hang him from a tree.
ELISHA BROWN
05.09.18 12:53 PM ET
A white man thought he’d hired someone to murder his black neighbor and plant a “flaming cross” in his front yard—but the hit man turned out to be an undercover agent, according to federal authorities.
Brandon Cory Lecroy of Greenwood, South Carolina, was indicted on Tuesday after being accused of plotting to kill his neighbor. According to court documents, the 25-year-old asked an undercover agent who he thought was a hit man to hang the neighbor from a tree and put a “flaming cross” in his front yard. Lecroy, who was charged with murder for hire, is undergoing mental evaluation at a Massachusetts prison hospital as ordered by a federal judge, the Charleston Post and Courier reported.
In March, the Federal Bureau of Investigations was informed that Lecroy wanted to contact a white supremacist organization for advice on how to murder his black neighbor, according to an affidavit. An undercover agent recorded a call with Lecroy the next day.
“$500 and he’s a ghost,” Lecroy allegedly told the agent. Lecroy also brought up the burning cross, and suggested a good time frame for the crime, according to court papers. He wanted the man to use an untraceable “ghost gun” to kill the neighbor, and suggested he had plans to take over the property next door, the feds said.
Amir Khalid
@Yutsano:
For a while we all thought Anwar Ibrahim was going to be the guy, but back in 1998 he got kneecapped by the PM at the time. And a decade later it happened to him again.
LAO
These muthafuckers. I WILL NEVER VOTE A REPUBLICAN:
ETA: Click on the link to see that actual ad.
Mnemosyne
@WhatsMyNym:
Whistleblowers are rarely saints. If you ever see The Informant!, the moment when Matt Damon’s whistleblower character casually reveals that he’s been embezzling from the same company he’s informing on to the FBI is completely factual.
Vulture capitalism, meh. Blackout drunk who abuses women like Schneiderman? That’s more the kind of thing I’m worried about.
TenguPhule
How do you move mountains of unwanted weed?
Legalization leads to Hilarity ensuing.
Mnemosyne
@rikyrah:
Thank goodness for that anonymous friend or family member who called in the FBI. A lot of people would have just assumed it was big talk and let it slide until the asshole managed to find a real hit man. ?
LAO
The NY Daily News goes there:
But her emails!!!
@VeniceRiley:
I think she’d be better on The View. I believe she is (or was) a Republican, so she’d be an interesting conservative voice on the show and seems to have the wit and snark to go up against the liberals on the show. She also brings the only two things Megan McCain appears to bring to the show, so Stormy would be a good replacement for her.
Amir Khalid
@TenguPhule:
So marijuana is subject to the same market forces as any other legal commodity. Were you actually surprised by this?
satby
@Elizabelle: if you don’t tweet that I will (with atrib)
Jeffro
@LAO: Wow. Here we go, folks, down the rabbit hole…had no idea that Dems were the real traitors here per that ad(!)
TenguPhule
@Amir Khalid: No, just surprised that so many people thought it wasn’t.
Wild Cat
@LAO: The Demolition Derby scene that closes out the novel (not the film) is the perfect metaphor for the US.
Chyron HR
She’s not a Edward Snowden figure because
of the business she’s in and because of how she looks.she’s not a lackey of the hostile foreign power that controls the US government and probably a good portion of the mass media.Mnemosyne
@TenguPhule:
There’s a reason why the biggest opponents to legalization in California were the illegal growers in Humboldt County. Legal weed was always going to be a LOT cheaper than the illegal stuff.
gene108
@ruemara:
You give them too much credit. Even after they are destitute, they will still stand by Trump.
What choice do they have? Support liberal socialist communist Democrats?
LAO
@Jeffro: I’m enraged.
Betty Cracker
@LAO: Reminds me of that line from Legally Blonde: “He’s the top defense attorney in the state! Of course he’s an ass!”
boatboy_srq
@Elizabelle: It still amazes me how happily personable you are in real life, yet how salty you can be in print.
Elizabelle
@satby: It’s yours!
beef
Someone asked upthread why the Cohen investigation was farmed out to SDNY.
Protecting the investigation is a good bet, of course. But I think it’s possible that Mueller is passing the Cohen case off because it’s not the main course. Handing it to SDNY protects it, gets the story into the public eye, and frees up resources.
WhatsMyNym
@Mnemosyne: Avenatti is just a lawyer who Stormy could fire at anytime if needed. He’s very good, but Stormy is doing the hard work without the reward that Avenatti will get.
Gex
@Jeffro: That won’t bother them. So long as the money isn’t going to the undeserving (brown people) they won’t care. Prosperity Gospel has them utterly worshiping the white men stealing everything they have.
Mnemosyne
@WhatsMyNym:
I don’t think we need to tear down either one of them for the enormous public service they are both doing. YMMV.
satby
@Amir Khalid: Who are the good guys here?
Barbara
@LAO: So it’s Max Cleland all over again.
LAO
@Barbara: That’s exactly where I went. And then I though about how much I hate Rick Wilson, even though I follow him on Twitter.
lollipopguild
@gene108: Thousands of people in the GOP and the right wing media made a decision that selling out to Russia in order to stay in power was a good thing and a morally correct decision to make.”If he has any scruples he must have stolen them from someone else”. “Of course I have moral values, I have all kinds of moral values, would you like to see a price list?”
SiubhanDuinne
@rikyrah:
I was reading the Wikipedia entry on Avenatti (which is illustrated by an absolutely drool-worthy gorgeous portrait of him, just mentioning) and found this paragraph interesting (my emphasis; also, I deleted the footnote reference numbers because I find them irritating out of context):
trollhattan
@Amir Khalid:
Need to make that “legal commodity*”
*Not legal according to Jeffrey Beauregard Sessions and forty-plus states.
Having no particular personal interest or knowledge I’ll guess clandestine weed is cheaper than reported, regulated, taxed weed. Calif’s tax haul is about half of what was projected. Hopefully they weren’t counting on that money to resurface I-5.
Jeffro
@LAO: Much worse than when Rod Paige called the NEA “a terrorist organization” about a year after 9/11. Actually wait, pretty much the same playbook. Come on, Dems, PUNCH BACK!
Jeffro
@beef: Here’s Twitter Richard Nixon’s take:
So there you go – you and Tricky are on the similar pages, and you’re both right. ;)
Dave
@Mnemosyne: Yep Avennati is probably a total assholes albeit one that most people end up liking regardless but and here is the important part he appears to be the sort that plays by the rules and understands that the rules are necessary. Unlike say every single SOB in Trump’s circle.
Stormy is someone I have even more respect for and that should be acknowledged more than we do. She + Avennati are the perfect media foils for Trump. She’s just risking a hell of a lot more for a hell of a lot less.
Roger Moore
@gene108:
Worse. They’d have to accept that women and minorities are people and deserve the same rights as white men. That’s far worse than socialism.
lollipopguild
@TenguPhule: It’s the invisible hand of the Free Market! Capitalism unleashed!
TenguPhule
@trollhattan:
Doubtful. The legal growers have so much money investing in them that the supply is outpacing demand and crashing prices.
Hoodie
@WhatsMyNym: assumes facts not in evidence, you don’t know what’s in their engagement agreement. He’s probably fronting the expenses and waiving his fees, and is protecting her from Trump’s legal goons. Moreover, if he gets the nda voided, she’ll make megabucks selling the story, pictures, whatever.
JPL
Cohen was selling access to the president, but what is unknown is what happened to the money. Did he split it with the asshole .
Mandalay
Just from this thread:
And this is in a thread where in the OP Betty quotes Stormy Daniels mocking someone who called her a “whore”.
Brachiator
@TenguPhule:
It’s like Tulip Fever, with weed. Sad, though, that some growers end up in financial jams, and cannot use bankruptcy laws because of federal drug policy.
TenguPhule
Breaking story at Wapo.
/I’m sure its just fine //
LAO
@JPL: Well, I have to ask, does Trump seem like the type of guy who’d be okay with others profiting off his name? IDk, I’ve never met the guy, but it seems unlikely to me. This Cohen stuff is terrible, and beyond my vivid imagination.
JPL
This is pretty funny
https://twitter.com/nycsouthpaw/status/994290313853308929
rikyrah
Well well…
Look who was in business with the Russian that gave the money to Cohen
https://twitter.com/DavidCornDC/status/993972653521358848?s=19
Amir Khalid
@satby:
I used to be sure it was Pakatan Harapan (the Coalition of Hope), but now that they’ve got in bed with Dr M I just don’t know.
ETA: the MalaysiaKini site, which I’ve been following tonight, says Pakatan has won 118 seats which is definitely a majority in Parliament.
trollhattan
@TenguPhule:
The cartels are still operating on public lands in both states.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@SiubhanDuinne:
When he was gracing Anderson Cooper last night, It was the first time the Countess had seen him (she’s not much of a news watcher, unless there is a big event).
I’ll be scrubbing the drool off the screen still this weekend.
eclare
@LAO: Saw the movie, haunting.
Roger Moore
@trollhattan:
Probably so. My brief exploration of the issue makes me think the big thing that’s happening now is that there are a lot of legitimate-looking but unlicensed pot shops. They’re selling the same kinds of products you can buy in the legitimate places, but I’m willing to bet they aren’t paying taxes on them. To the typical customer, it doesn’t make much difference except the illegal shop is charging less and may be more convenient because they aren’t waiting for the local government to get off its ass and license the place. I think the government is reluctant to crack down right now because there has been a legitimate problem with getting enough licensed places, but I doubt they’ll be as forgiving once all the kinks get worked out of the system.
Yarrow
@Jeffro:
No. No, no, no. Ivanka is not far out of the loop at all. She’s right in the middle of it. She’s guilty.
@schrodingers_cat:
Agreed. Calling it a “gate” minimizes it. It needs its own name.
lollipopguild
@LAO: Trump is fine with other people making money off of trump’s name as long as trump gets his cut. Cohen did all of this with trump’s knowledge and approval. Cohen was calling people on behalf of trump with trump’s ok in order to see which companies would pay up to get access to trump. Cohen was also the money pipeline from Russia to trump, at least one of the pipelines.
Hoodie
@JPL: This has overtones of a shakedown a la Maurice Stans during the Nixon admin
Mnemosyne
@Dave:
One of the reasons I like Avenatti is that he seems to be genuinely pissed off on Daniels’ behalf at how Cohen cheated her with the agreement she was coerced into signing. He found this one shady thing that Cohen did to Daniels (Cohen basically controlled the lawyer who was supposed to be negotiating for Daniels) and now the whole thing is unraveling.
But none of this would be happening if Avenatti hadn’t listened to Daniels and taken on her case. She is his client, and he is fighting on her behalf.
Brachiator
@trollhattan:
A few complications may be affecting things. Some communities don’t want to grant licenses, cities which approved sales are still slow to grant licenses. Zoning restrictions prevent people from being able to open shops. And taxes may be having an impact as well.
Amir Khalid
@Yarrow:
The Trump cabal’s criminality extends way beyond the penny-ante stuff of Watergate.
different-church-lady
@Mandalay: You’re not fooling anyone here, even if they take your bait.
ruemara
@rikyrah: Laughter helps keep people sane, I get that. But I can tell you that it also minimizes. They’re laughing at it too much to see what’s going on. A lot of people were laughing at trump. Him winning was incredulous. The minute he cinched the primary, I took him extra serious. There’s 2 choices, if they didn’t choose the right one, we would be stuck with him. It’s the same thing. Mocking him for the fuck ups is one thing, but people are too much all joke all the time.
I’m guessing much of you aren’t sitting there wondering if the minimization & focus on shiny shit will mean you can be rounded up by ICE if the Repubs retain control of both sections of Congress. They may be fools & crooks, but they pulled on over on the smart folks – FOR DECADES. Disenfranchisment was not taken seriously. The jokes are great for those of us who understand & pay attention. But think about the people you know who are barely aware of what a democracy is. I stick to my point – joking all the time isn’t helping. See also, the wonderful, educating Jon Stewart, for whom saying go vote was just a big joke and not worth his time. But people act like he did something.
Jeffro
@Yarrow:
it was just a short work of fiction…I plead “creative license” =)
TenguPhule
@trollhattan: I don’t see them undercutting $4 a gram quality bud and making a profit on it. They may try a Saudi approach to avoid losing market share, but they’re fighting a losing battle.
different-church-lady
@Mandalay: And come to think of it, Daniels isn’t even taking exception to the whore part; she’s countering the “stupid” part.
Mnemosyne
And since I’m saying what I like about Avenatti, I should say what I like about Stormy Daniels: I like that she’s totally unapologetic about wanting to be treated fairly. She does not accept any suggestion that people should be allowed to dump on her and cheat her because of what she does for a living. I really admire her for that.
Elizabelle
@Mandalay:
There are sex workers, Mandalay.
And there are whores.
We understand the distinction, Mandalay, even if you do not. Go wag your finger at someone else.
N
Looking on Wikipedia, Avenatti graduated UPenn in 1996, which means that he missed Don Jr. (Penn 2000) by just a hair.
TenguPhule
@ruemara:
I fully expect violence to erupt in that scenario. Nothing I can do about it other then try and flee the country for political asylum.
Mandalay
@different-church-lady:
Fuck off you smug worthless asshole.
different-church-lady
@Mandalay: Love you too, you longtime-troll-in-good-standing.
ruemara
@gene108: I’m way too positive minded on the subject, I suppose.
@TenguPhule: Good, I need cheaper anti-anxiety gummies and frankly, why not have interstate trade in weed be legal? Oh, I know KKKeebler AG would get his elfin britches in a snit but hopefully a bag of flour will crush him.
KithKanan
@Brachiator:
Those are definitely factors. A lot of legal weed is grown in my county, but the closest legal recreational store is 140 miles away in the next county over.
My city council just voted to allow recreational dispensaries last week, but now the city departments need to come up with the regulations and I believe nothing will open before/until voters pass a new tax which would be on the November ballot.
PAM Dirac
@JPL: I’d like to know how Novartis and ATT and whoever knew that Cohen’s front was the place to send the bribe money.
The Moar You Know
@trollhattan: No, interestingly enough. The friends who indulge tell me the legal is about 10% cheaper, and far better quality-wise.
CA will catch up quickly and overproduce like OR is, though, and then those prices will fall through the floor. Which will cut the tax revenues even more. Shit will get interesting at that point.
ETA: Upthread someone mentioned zoning. That is a huge issue in SoCal. Some people would have to drive 40-50 miles to find a legal shop. Those places are where the illegal weed is still flourishing.
eclare
@Barbara: That was my thought as well, Max Cleland part deux.
Cheryl Rofer
geg6
Totally agree with every word, Betty. Every damn word. They are my heroes right now and I love them both.
wenchacha
@catclub: Remember when 45 was getting all philosophical about abortion? He mentions “a friend” who was considering abortion with his girlfriend. The story goes, they decided not to, and it was the best thing ever, etc.
I think that tale covers Tiffany’s birth, and maybe one or more abortions from 45’s past. His “Viet Nam” days.
rikyrah
@Jeffro:
UH UH
She needs her own orange jumpsuit.
Brachiator
@LAO:
Did not read the novel, but agree with the high praise of the film version. The director, Atom Egoyan, is a master.
The washed up attorney played by Paul Newman in the great 1982 movie, The Verdict, is also a two bit “ambulance chaser” who has a change of heart.
James Mason is outstanding as the villainous high-profile attorney.
ETA: I’m just hearing about a co-worker who was in a fairly serious accident last Friday. Even though witnesses gave statements that a car driven by a teen girl plowed into him, they got an attorney and have filed a suit saying that he hit the teen and her friends. With the side of his car.
ruemara
I’m fascinated why so many Playboy models and porn actresses are Republicans. Also, weightlifters. It’s … strange.
@Brachiator: My urge to say “guess the race” is huge. Sadly, they can do that. You can find a lawyer to field a ridiculous claim. I hope he countersues & wins.
Gex
@The Moar You Know: Interesting. I’m guessing the illegal stuff is pricing in risk then.
Roger Moore
@PAM Dirac:
The story is now circulating that he cold called them. I can easily see people in the early days thinking everything was for sale and going along.
zhena gogolia
@Elizabelle:
If you look at the responses on Avenatti’s twitter feed, it seems that Hillary Clinton is behind the whole thing — financing and everything else. She probably put Stormy and Avenatti up at her beach house for a week so they could cook up the scheme.
afanasia
@schrodingers_cat: I’ll go with that. Thanks.
Mnemosyne
@ruemara:
This. Using humor to deflate conservative pretensions is one thing. Using it to distance oneself from what’s really happening is morally wrong, and I feel like that’s what people like Jon Stewart do. Keeping an ironic distance as people are being rounded up and their families are being broken apart is being complicit in those actions.
JPL
@Roger Moore: Southpaw called it dialing for dollars
@PAM Dirac: I think you raise a good point. Before a company turns over 1.2 million they want some assurances, that their bribe will pay off.
I wonder where Cohen’s money went. hmmm
Manyakitty
@ruemara: Daddy issues? They’re looking for an authority figure who was missing from their lives.
Cacti
Well, that’s one interpretation.
Another possible “truth” is that they’re Russian intelligence assets.
Mnemosyne
@The Moar You Know:
Those people must not live in LA County. I could probably walk to the closest legal weed shops even on my gimpy knee.
Elizabelle
@boatboy_srq: LOL. It’s true. (And hello there.)
But the NY Times political crew, and press corpses everywhere, make me especially angry because they have a special duty to us — it’s amazing to have a perch like that from which to investigate and inform on what’s really important, they’ve been given the First Amendment to protect them, and then they elevate the worst careerists and clique members you ever saw. Sad!
It’s infested the whole media ecosystem. I got into trouble a few weekends back when I was clumsy commenting that I hope Trump’s eventual fall takes them all down too. (I left out the “fall” part, and so it looked like a plea for Trump-run media, which would never be my point.)
I suspect the rot at the Times emanates from the publisher’s suite and executive editor’s office, but I cannot think of anyone on their political desk that I really think is good. Rather more the reverse. Amy Chozick: couldn’t even get through a book excerpt in her own newspaper home without misreporting on Chelsea Clinton. Got called on it, and edited. Haberman? Patrick Healey (who I think is now head of the politics unit) … Jeff Zeleney, who’s now at CNN? They’re so bad, I know their names for that. Maybe Adam Nagorney is OK (he’s out in LA now).
It was telling that a recent NYT article on annointing the publisher’s son as publisher mentioned Jayson Blair as a mistake, but not word one about Judith Miller. What war did Blair help lie us into?
They often seem like villains wearing a Superman cape, and that is not gonna end well.
I feel the same way about NBC corporate. This is not to say that every story is false, but it’s what gets emphasized, and what gets totally ignored. Editorial choices.
Elizabelle
@zhena gogolia: I’ll pass, thanks!
Roger Moore
@The Moar You Know:
The whole issue of where to buy is maddening. Even given plenty of time, most local governments ignored the issue of licensing, so there was no way for shops to set up legally. Not to mention that the Bureau of Cannabis Control hasn’t bothered to do something sensible, like have a map with the location of legal sellers so people can find them. There are third parties that provide location information, but they don’t seem to give a damn if the places are legal or not.
schrodingers_cat
@Mnemosyne: Jon Stewart fell for O’ Keefe’s smearing of ACORN. He was as both-sidery as an MSM journalist.
Elizabelle
@Brachiator: Just scored a DVD of The Sweet Hereafter at a library sale this past weekend. Haven’t seen it since its release, and it was haunting.
LOL. Just looking at it; one DVD extra is an Atom Egoyan interview from The Charlie Rose Show. Oh joy.
Mnemosyne
@Elizabelle:
Blair was Black, so hiring him was obviously a mistake they’ll never make again. ?
Turns out it wasn’t Blair’s lies that bothered them — it’s that he was the wrong kind of person to get away with lying.
PAM Dirac
@JPL: Those must have been some very interesting conversations. Odds are Mueller’s team have known all the details for months. It also makes me wonder about the pullout from the Iran deal. Seems like there are exceptions from the sanctions that can be made. Call now for special low rates! I heard Boeing has $20 billion in business at stake. I’m sure a $19 bilion deal is better than zero, am I right?
The Moar You Know
@Mnemosyne: San Diego County, along with San Bernadino and probably Riverside, is going to stand in the fucking schoolhouse door and violate the shit out of state law until they are made to quit. The county has blanket-banned it, so the only place you can go is to the actual city of San Diego. For some people, especially in the northeast part of the county, that’s an easy fifty mile trek.
Roger Moore
@ruemara:
I can think of two reasons:
1) They’re in an industry that suffers from genuinely oppressive government regulation, so the Republican story about wanting to get the government off the little guy’s back resonates with them.
2) They’re white
Mnemosyne
@schrodingers_cat:
Yep. He was so desperate to believe that both sides were equally bad that he only managed to twist himself into knots. Stephen Colbert managed to keep his eyes open and realize what the actual problem was.
ruemara
@Manyakitty: Until I hung out with my current housemate, I had no idea how many inadequate males zoned in on pretty women with that or attention needs as an emotional con to get younger/conventionally pretty women to fix theirego needs. Circle of dysfunction.
@The Moar You Know: hunh. Well, I will keep that in mind.
Mnemosyne
@The Moar You Know:
San Bernardino County grows a lot of illegal weed. A LOT. They have an incentive to keep legal weed out even if they aren’t admitting it.
Manyakitty
@ruemara: Truly. And it’s a tough cycle to break. What a world. :-(
Roger Moore
@Mnemosyne:
Are you sure it’s legal? There are plenty of places out there that have nice storefronts but aren’t licensed. I’ve looked, and there’s basically no legal shop in the whole SGV. There are storefronts selling, but they aren’t legal.
debit
@Jeffro: It was good, but there’s no way Trump would take a bullet for anyone. Not even Ivanka. He’d watch her with a stone face and his little pursed lips as she was frog marched out the door, crying and pleading, “Daddy! Please!”
JPL
@PAM Dirac: Tearing up the Iran deal strengthens Putin. For the asshole it’s all about payback.
Obvious Russian Troll
Weedmaps has been advertising fairly heavily here in Toronto.
Non-medicinal marijuana is not legal in Ontario yet; there are at least half a dozen medical dispensaries within walking distance of me. The number keeps changing, though, as for some reason Toronto and Ontario police have been putting a fair amount of effort into shutting down illegal dispensaries. Which seems stupid to me.
Mnemosyne
@Roger Moore:
Honestly, I’m not interested in weed, so I haven’t investigated whether or not the places are genuinely legal. I’ve just driven past them.
To me, the really smart shopkeepers are the ones who combined it with a legit bakery next door. ?
Mnemosyne
@debit:
Yep. She may be the one who goes last, but if he thinks he can save his hide by turning on her, he’ll do it in a heartbeat.
Yarrow
@Jeffro: I hear you, but even given ‘creative license’ it’s a bad idea to make Ivanka look innocent. She’s gotten away with stuff her whole life because of who she is and how she looks. She is all up in this treason mess, including lots of treasonous dealings in China, pure fiction that she’s somehow innocent and separate and outside it all. That’s what she wants everyone to think and it’ll be part of her defense. It’s wrong and we need to be hammering home that she’s just as involved and just as guilty as her brothers and dad. They’re all traitors. All of them.
Manxome Bromide
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: I’m really more amused than I should be by the fact that this is a highly-publicized legal case about a porn star and a recurring theme is what a total hotling her lawyer is.
JPL
Sarah’s up and she is referring everyone to outside counsel again.
ruemara
@Mnemosyne: My business plan
afanasia
@schrodingers_cat: I’ll go with that. Thanks.@rikyrah: A difficult color for blondes :) :) :)
Elizabelle
@Mnemosyne: I think what Blair exposed was that no one was watching the store, with him, and with who knows who else? And that reporters did their own fact-checking, which seems a horrible system to me. (If you don’t know you’re wrong on something basic, you don’t know.) I think The New Yorker is way better known for fact-checking, which is why we found Jane Mayer’s story about Schneiderman more believable.
Blair was an engaging writer, as was Stephen Glass from The New Republic. Just not in that metier. I’ve heard of a few authors who said they left journalism because they realized they’d rather make up stories.
What do we do with folks like Chozick who embellish, and live in an ecosystem where — since she’s a Clinton Derangement person too — that’s just fine? It’s The Narrative. People make careers of that at the NY Times. (See Dowd, Maureen. Who, if memory serves, was considered a fine and accurate reporter, although that was pre-internet …)
clay
@schrodingers_cat:
The Coup Cucks Klan?
JPL
@clay: omg.. how true.
I’m beginning to think that Mueller thinks Trump is a crook. A racist pig for sure but a crook too.
VeniceRiley
@different-church-lady: Church Lady! I am blushing!!!
rikyrah
@Amir Khalid:
NO LIE TOLD
randy khan
@rikyrah:
Good lawyers often find bad lawyers offensive, just on general principles.
rikyrah
@ruemara:
I always took him seriously because of his hate.
I’ve never had the luxury of not taking him serious.
Elizabelle
@rikyrah: Schrodinger’s Cat has mentioned numerous times about the giggly gals on the PBS Snooze Hour. All a joke.
Maybe day before yesterday, NPR’s All Things Considered, their amused sounding female anchor leading into the Black Cube story with comments about it sounds almost unbelievable. That’s one way to look at it. Another way is “terrifying.”
mozzerb
@Elizabelle:
I always thought the breast-beating over Jayson Blair was wildly overblown — as far as I could tell he made up some details on secondary stories, but never produced anything of major import. (And it seems very unlikely that no other journalist ever winged it in a similar manner.) In other words, it was a case where the NYT could make a song and dance about apologising in order to show how Ethical they were, without having to actually examine or retract reporting about anything important.
Of course, there may have been something about Jayson Blair that made him different from the average NYT reporter. I’m sure it couldn’t be anything obvious though.
randy khan
@Yarrow:
True story: One of the reasons that everything is “-gate” is that William Safire, former Nixon speechwriter who became a fine New York Times columnist (also the author of a statement for Nixon written in the event that the 1969 Moon landing failed, which is worth looking up) decided to append it to every scandal, small or large, in the Carter Administration. His precise goal was the kind of minimization you’re talking about.
randy khan
@PAM Dirac:
Apparently he called Novartis directly, so it’s not hard to figure out how they knew where to send the money.
Frankensteinbeck
@The Moar You Know:
But the violent conservatives who fire them care what your gender is. I do think Avenatti is being brave, but I guarantee Daniels is facing several times as much harassment and threats. Misogyny is one of the cornerstones of Republicanism, and misogynists see women as vulnerable targets they can hurt without retribution.
@TenguPhule:
Whatever happens if a deal is not made is what will happen. Is that NAFTA expiring, or NAFTA continuing without any alterations?
@ruemara:
Do we have numbers on this? My understanding was that adult film actors/actresses overwhelmingly skew liberal, but I don’t think I’ve seen statistics, just heard the positions of their advocates. The only Playboy models I’ve heard discuss politics were Republicans of the ‘sheltered well-to-do white girl’ variety, but since that’s like three or four total, it’s not exactly a representative sample.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@randy khan:
Avenatti is clearly a lawyer’s lawyer. I love watching the guy work – he’s got that “I’m practiced at the facts and law of this case as opposed to PR rhetoric, and am three steps ahead at all times” thing going on.
I think that’s what we’re finding so refreshing – somebody in a TV discussion who is neither speculating nor playing intellectual foil because he’s a mere contrarian.
randy khan
@Jeffro:
I was thinking that a more realistic scenario was that she would get off, but only because she’d agreed to testify against her brothers and her husband along with Daddy, and that he’d agreed so long as she got off.
randy khan
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Facts can be remarkably effective in the hands of someone who knows how and when to use them.
debit
@randy khan:
I first heard it on a radio drama, a “what if the moon landing was a disaster?” and it just gave me chills.
TenguPhule
@Frankensteinbeck:
Expiring. Asshole Trump invoked the withdrawal provision, so its renegotiation or exit.
chopper
@Mandalay:
actually daniels is mocking the dude for calling her a “dumb” whore, saying instead that she’s a smart one. i can understand how that went over your head.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@randy khan:
Plus, it’s on the biggest goddamn stage in the world. He appears to have Deadbeat Donnie’s withered ballsack in a visegrip, and he’s twisting them off in as slow and painful a fashion as possible.
Maybe he finishes Trump off by announcing that he’s banging Melania. That would be cause for a three day drunk on my part.
Yarrow
@rikyrah: Remember when the Huffington Post put coverage of Trump in their Entertainment section because they said they couldn’t take him seriously. That’s how he won–people didn’t take him seriously and he snuck in. Never again. NEVER. Take every one of these people seriously. Believe them when they say what they’ll do.
Yarrow
@randy khan: Yes, I’m aware of that. It’s interesting that Iran-Contra wasn’t a “gate.” I don’t know what the Trump/Russia story’s name will be but it sure as hell isn’t a “gate.” I’m always disappointed to see it as “Russiagate” here. It’s much bigger than that. We need a better name.
Brachiator
@mozzerb:
Stephen Glass was much worse than Blair, but they both made shit up and got punished for it. Maybe not surprisingly, a lot of editors who should have known better strongly supported Glass for a while, and were made to look foolish. Glass, by the way, went to law school, but was rejected when he tried to get a license because they found him to be morally unfit.
Two big NY Times editors, Executive Editor Howell Raines and Managing Editor Gerald Boyd resigned in the aftermath of the Blair incident, so it’s not like Blair was left out in the cold by himself.
Judith Miller is a different kind of cat. She never really fessed up to her sins. She is also connected. Her husband, Jason Epstein, is a big deal in the New York literary scene.
Chris Johnson
@Jeffro: You are dreaming if you think that guy cares that much about anybody not himself, or is that much in touch with reality.
Yarrow
@randy khan: I really want to see Ivanka in an orange jumpsuit and find out what color her hair really is. No deals for her.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mnemosyne: Hmmm, I’ve not seen any here in beautiful downtown Glendale.
stinger
@SiubhanDuinne:
Ooh, thanks for the tip!
catclub
@JPL:
For the asshole it is all about wiping out anything done by Obama. The fact that Russia OPPOSED the US breaking the Iran deal did not matter here.
catclub
@Roger Moore: 3) start paying someone a whole lot of money and they often become republicans
Look at rich black football players who become republicans: JC Watts comes to mind
pulling up the ladder is a fine old US tradition, the ones who defy it are called traitors to their class.
Ivan X
Not that I have any interest in defending self-righteous people like Snowden (who, despite his personality, did us a service), and oily people like Assange (who has done us a disservice, many times), but there are more factors in play than just the respective professions of the whistleblowers (not that I disagree with Betty that it matters).
The problem with Trump and his crew is that they are corrupt, likely to the point of being traitors, but that corruption can only provoke moral or patriotic outrage — its actual effects aren’t felt at a visceral, personal level. I think Snowden’s revelations were different, because it did feel like the government was invading each individual’s expected privacy in a visceral, personal way. Not in a way that I was remotely surprised or even all that bothered by, but I get the outrage at a personal level, and the desire to make a hero out of the person who exposed that invasion.
With the current situation, you have to give a crap about the Republic and how it conducts its business to get upset, and not everyone does. But everyone cares when they feel like their bedrooms and offices are being secretly monitored. (Also, I think actual public sentiment towards Snowden is considerably mixed at this point. He’s not…likeable.)
Mnemosyne
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I’m right on the border of North Hollywood, so …
Mnemosyne
@Ivan X:
That’s how it was initially presented in the sensationalist stories, but when you looked at the actual information, it was all about capabilities and possibilities, not what was actually happening.
Snowden got people — mostly white men — so freaked out about what could theoretically happen that they didn’t notice that he stole massive amounts of US national security data and ran to China and Russia with it.
And then Russia stole the election for Trump while all of the techbros were scrutinizing the wrong government, just like the Russians wanted.
Brachiator
@chopper:
Reminds me of an anecdote about Nell Gwynn, mistress of English King Charles II.
Stormy Daniels is quite a human being. She’s got a lot of courage and wit. Another example of a smart woman who Trump underestimates to his peril. I enjoy seeing her get the better of all the dopes who try to bring her down.
grandpa john
@donnah: Some times perhaps we should listen to what our appoints are saying we might learn something
J R in WV
@mozzerb:
Jayson Blair’s big mistake was staying in NYC while pretending to be covering stories all over the nation… not giant stories, just routine reporting. So he made up details to add to the drift he got from other publications.
He also made up expense accounts for the travel to – I dunno – WV, KY, IN, OH, charged the NYT for all the travel he DIDN’T DO. I think he got fired as much for expenses fraud as for fake reporting. He didn’t make up the stories, they really happened, he added better quotes or framing, descriptions of accused sweating when no such thing happened.
But then he submitted expense account data that was false… they won’t stand for that! Not even it the expenses were realistic, because he was actually at a friend’s apartment in Queens instead of covering a trial in Quebec. Or visiting a guy in Brooklyn instead of Boise, Idaho.
But you are all correct, Judith started a war with no motive, and all Jayson Blair did was cheat on his expenses. Who get fired in that picture? If you’re a bean counter, Jayson, right? Right!
No One You Know
@The Very Reverend Crimson Fire of Compassion: All that, plus the very Biblical reference to Rahab, who delivered the Jewish spies. She’s a heroine for our times, and should be recognized in the tradition of “poorly behaved” women who made history from the even more poorly behaved men who held their lives and well-being cheap.
oaguabonita
I bristle at this invalid lumping of Snowden and Assange:
Frankly, that indiscriminate lumping mainly reveals your lack of discernment, imnsho.
Please explain, with evidence, how and why Snowden is not a
Likewise that
I’ve seen Citizenfour (have you?). Thus I know that Snowden specifically cited James Clapper’s perjury under oath before Congress, baldly lying in response to a clear, direct question from Sen. Ron Wyden, as a primary motivation for his actions. Also that he accepted exile in Russia as the consequence of his principled whistleblowing. Also that, if not for that whistleblowing, we still might not know about the NSA’s unwarranted (literally), illegal, and unconstitutional spying on, literally, all of us. Presumably, you’d see that as a good thing?
What’s above probably reasonably tags me as a “supporter” of Snowden. Yet, (how could this be possible?) I do not
Nor do I
In fact, my response to Stormy’s revelations is, roughly, “you go, girl!” I’m completely happy to place her in the same “pantheon” of truthtelling whistleblowers in the public interest with Snowden.
In its indiscriminate lack of discernment and unfounded (and wrong!) presumptions just detailed, the quoted passage above has got to one of the worst, sloppiest pieces of “writing” [note: edited from my initial characterization] I’ve ever encountered here at bj.