In this week’s arc, a bunch of the loose threads in the sprawling Russiagate Saga seem to be coming together. Time for the re-emergence of a couple of spearcarriers from the pre-election interval!
First, a guy from the penthouse…
Mueller Probing Donors to Trump Inauguration https://t.co/MCD9VG6Z9x
— Taegan Goddard (@politicalwire) May 11, 2018
Per PoliticalWire’s source, ABC News:
… Those interviewed included longtime Trump friend and confidant Thomas Barrack, who oversaw the fundraising effort, as well as individuals familiar with the massive inaugural fund, according to sources with direct knowledge.
Barrack, a real estate investor, has long been described as a Trump “whisperer” whose close friendship with the president landed him a prime appearance during the GOP convention the night Trump accepted his party’s nomination.
The billionaire runs a fund with hundreds of millions in real estate and private equity holdings in the Middle East. Barrack oversaw the largest inaugural fundraising effort in U.S. history, bringing in $107 million – more than double what President Barack Obama raised for his first swearing-in festivities.
According to a source who has sat with the Mueller team for interviews in recent weeks, the special counsel is examining donors who have either business or personal connections in Russia, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. Several donors with those ties contributed large sums to the non-profit fundraising entity – gifts that topped out at $1 million dollars, according to public records…
Tens of unaccounted millions from sketchy corporations and foreign autocrats. And for that they got a sparsely attended 3 Doors Down concert with a plagiarized cake.
The Trump inauguration was a Gilded Age Fyre Fest. https://t.co/ZmjqDMpf2R
— zeddy (@Zeddary) May 11, 2018
To a reporter-bullying self-styled street brawler…
New from @lachlan: AT&T also looked to hire the lobbying firm founded by Corey Lewandowski https://t.co/kgjbhBefnB
— Betsy Woodruff (@woodruffbets) May 11, 2018
… [AT&T’s] discussions with the lobbying firm took place, shortly after Avenue was founded by former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and Barry Bennett, a senior adviser on the campaign. Avenue also brought on Ed Brookover, a Republican operative who helped the Trump campaign wrangle delegates at the 2016 convention, and Jason Osborne and Mike Rubino, two other senior Trump campaign hands who later founded their own lobbying firm, Turnberry Solutions.
At the time, Avenue was up-front about the value it could provide in the Trump era. “There are just so few people in Washington who know the president,’’ Lewandowski told The New York Times in February 2017. ‘‘It’s a comparative advantage.’’…
Wonder how many big companies that hired Corey Lewandowski are doing internal reviews right now of how it happened, what he did for them, who knew what, etc…
— Matthew Miller (@matthewamiller) May 11, 2018
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et Al.)
These people are such con men and con women. I can’t believe how honest and aboveboard Bush the Younger’s crew looks next to these clowns. I never would have guessed that anybody could make Alberto González look good, but these guys make him look like Lincoln.
TeezySkeezy (formerly the T S you hate)
Can’t wait to be told by Politico how naive I am for expecting things to be done any other way. After all, do you even know what K street is, rube???? And now you’re upset about foreign money??? LOLOLOL, I’m so stupid for expecting better, you’re right Anna Palmer. Reality check, in my face!
Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)
On a scale of 1 to 10, how much of a dick would you have to be to note that babushka properly means “grandmother?”
jc
Trump’s campaign was apparently run just like his presidency is: find the sleaziest operators (e.g. Cambridge Analytica), cut the dirtiest secret deals and seek out the ways to cheat the system at every turn. Hook up with Russian mobsters. And of course hide all the bad faith and illegality from the American public.
Corner Stone
Ah, late stage capitalism. I embrace you. We can builds Elysium naow?
PPCLI
Apparently this is what “draining the swamp” means.
NotMax
Open Thread?
Legally, this is all a BFD, even a VBFD*.
*V for Very
Corner Stone
Tweety seriously needs treatment for dementia onset.
Mnemosyne
@Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD):
What’s the context? I’ve heard “babushka” used to refer to the headscarf often worn by Russian/Eastern European grandmothers.
JPL
@Corner Stone: Since I can only stream, I am more than likely to listen to Erin on CNN at seven.
NotMax
People in favor of sane gun control are now labeled “terrorists.”
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
CBS is bringing back “Magnum PI” with a Latino (Jay Hernandez) staring as Magnum.
Not sure white people will be able to handle such a paradigm shift.
Baud
OT. This looks interesting. Via Reddit.
https://www.history.com/news/zora-neale-hurston-barracoon-slave-clotilda-survivor
zhena gogolia
@Mnemosyne:
I’m not sure what the context of his comment is. In Russian “babushka” means “grandmother.” Somehow in English it came to refer to the kind of kerchief that babushki wear (which is “platok” in Russian). And the stress is on the first syllable in Russian, but on the second syllable in English for some reason.
Baud
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: As long as they keep the stache, it’ll be all right.
zhena gogolia
@Baud:
Yes, this book looks incredibly interesting.
Mary G
@NotMax: Happy Birthday!
Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)
@Mnemosyne: A half-failed Twitter joke. I’ve always had an awareness that this second meaning is fairly common, but my first exposure to the term was its original meaning – I literally just found out the “headscarf” denotation is officially accepted like three hours ago.
Roger Moore
Corey Lewandowski tried to follow the rules for how to cash in on your government contracts legally by setting up a standard lobbying shop. Michael Cohen jumped directly to straight up bribery. I don’t know if I should respect Cohen less for being so blatant or Lewandowski less for pretense.
ruemara
@NotMax: This is only the beginning. Things will get uglier as we head towards the election.
zhena gogolia
@Mnemosyne:
There’s a pretty cool Tod Browning movie on with Robert Young, William Demarest, Henry Hull, etc.
jl
@Corner Stone:
” Ah, late stage capitalism. I embrace you. We can builds Elysium naow? ”
We’ve reached a degenerate stage of late capitalism that neither Marx nor Cordon Bleu banquet chefs ever imagined.
No turtle soup, cold lobster tartare, oysters and bone marrow pate, no braces of roasted duck or beef wellington, no dessert souffles au rum, slathered in a real egg and cream custard sauce.
Just well done utility steak with ketchup, big macs, and knock-off relabeled wedding cakes.
Very sad and I am in despair.
Frankensteinbeck
@PPCLI:
‘Draining the swamp’ means ethnic cleansing, governmental and/or societal. I have seen both used by conservatives. Remember, they believe that ‘special interest groups’ (read: black people) have bought off our politicians.
TenguPhule
@jl:
Excuse my drooling.
Major Major Major Major
@NotMax: unrelated: happy birthday!!!
p.s. I have a note that your step-brother is a headhunter in NYC, I can’t imagine you mentioned it just to taunt me… ?
Yarrow
I posted this earlier this week but no one responded. Any Ohio residents have insight into this district? Can she win?
Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)
@jl: Did you catch the “boring dystopia” thread on Twitter a few weeks back?
TeezySkeezy (formerly the T S you hate)
@jl: Oh, I think some people are eating that stuff. Never fear…there are some oligarchs with fine taste out there.
Major Major Major Major
@zhena gogolia:
Because the penult or (if available) antepenult tends to be where the stress goes on anglicised words.
Doug R
It’s the worst ever! I think our white privilege is showing
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-42718303
NotMax
@Major Major Major Major
As Medline Kahn said, “It’s twue! It’s twue!”
Unable to say how good he may be at it, just that he’s been doing it for over a quarter century. Believe he primarily places lawyers but can’t say with any authority that those are his only clients. I can call him up and ask as you get closer to relocating should you so desire (give me some idea of what types of positions you’re seeking then – in tech, obviously, I would imagine.) If it’s not the type of employment he generally handles, he probably knows someone who does.
jl
@Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): Thanks for heads up. I’ll check it out.
Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)
@jl: https://mobile.twitter.com/visakanv/status/990570131238473728
NotMax
@NotMax
Sigh. Madeline Kahn.
(Note to self: avoid typing and posting while on the phone with Mom at the same time.)
Major Major Major Major
@NotMax: wellll, I’m a programmer (web development most marketably), but I don’t have to work at a tech company. I’d be interested in starting as soon as August so it’s not a terrible time to start talking to recruiters. (There is a contact form if you follow the link in my nym, we can email and stuff)
Jim, Foolish Literalist
that’s some kind of very concise prose poem about the whole event. Maybe you’d need to put something in about “and the sadness of Melania” (and i have no sympathy for her)
TeezySkeezy (formerly the T S you hate)
@NotMax: Woof.
Major Major Major Major
@Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): heh some of those are great.
khead
@jl:
No Maryland crab meat.
Pretty sure this story has been discussed here – last weekend? – but Petula went on the full Cletus Safari in the WaPo.
Viva BrisVegas
@NotMax:
To be fair to Oliver North, he knows his terrorists.
He gave them job interviews in the 80s.
I’m just surprised that Trump is not taking advantage of North’s experience in negotiating with the Iranians.
Ghost of Joe Lieblings Dog
@Major Major Major Major:
… other than ‘penult’ and ‘antepenult’ …
rikyrah
LOL at the bus coming for Cohen
https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/995018153930436608?s=20
rikyrah
Once again..
John Kelly ain’t shyt??
https://twitter.com/HoarseWisperer/status/994933091817918464?s=20
Chet Murthy
@NotMax:
AHAHAHAHAA. “civil terrorism”. AKA peaceful political activism. What a moral imbecile, that Ollie.
Mnemosyne
Ugh. I picked a fight on Facebook with my Trumpster cousin, because fuck her “abortion is genocide!” meme when the US is literally deporting people on the basis of race, and now I don’t feel like going back to continue the fight. I’m sick of her I’m not a racist, but … excuses and her holier-than-thou insistence that she understands the Bible better than I do.
Major Major Major Major
@Ghost of Joe Lieblings Dog: the stress in both words is on the penultimate syllable. (Not 100% sure with antepenult but that’s what google seems to think)
TeezySkeezy (formerly the T S you hate)
@rikyrah: It’s funny how each time a new Trump darling gets some scrutiny, I find a lot of Trumpkins arguing at me, “what’s wrong with [such and such], you progressive snowflake…blah blah blah. He’s a more of a patriot than the [bleep] Hillary or Obama every could be!!!! ARGLE BARGLE!!!” Then once that person’s time under the bus comes, it’s, “that person doesn’t reflect on Trump! No one ever liked him! He’s a nobody! Why are you even talking about him! He was always with GOLDSTEIN!” Never. fucking. fails.
And yes, I’ve had one on one conversation with people saying such things to me. I wish I didn’t have to.
germy
PPCLI
@NotMax: North doesn’t mean it. If they were really terrorists, he would be funneling Iranian arms deal money to them.
jl
@rikyrah: Maybe because I grew up working besides all sorts of people from all sorts of places in rural areas, or maybe because I heard some of the history from oldsters and read about more of it, but the anti-Hispanic immigration stuff is just hilarious and disgusting, and Kelly is peddling a false BS history.
Large numbers of Hispanics, particularly Mexican, have flowed back and forth across the SW US border for over 150 years. No one consistently gave a shit, and after federal law created such a thing as illegal immigration, sometimes there were quotas and much of the flow into the US was illegal, but no one cared enough to enforce the law, or there were no quotas, and it was perfectly legal, and no one cared.
For various reasons (Mexicans were not seen as the threat that Asians, Italians, Jews, Slavs were, need for labor in the SW), they were never high on the priority list for keeping out undesirable aliens. Sometimes the on-again off-again unenforced quotas were lifted because of business pressure, sometimes just because no one thought to put them in.
Total 10000 percent BS from Kelly.
And, as I also commnted last night, in eighteenth century same things were said about German immigrants, except there were no federal immigration laws to violate.
Another Scott
@Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): Are you saying it’s all Melania’s fault??!
She wanted to test her husband,
She knew exactly what to do… (3:30)
Cheers,
Scott.
Baud
Let’s root against this guy.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/11/politics/kfile-democrat-pennsylvania-deleted-tweets/index.html
JPL
@Yarrow: Nope..
I voted in the GA democratic primary today, and in case you haven’t heard there are two Stacey’s running. The Kos Stacey is not as progressive as Stacey Evans. Abrams worked across the aisle to lessen regulations on banks, the hope scholarship and gerrymandering. She reached across the aisle. I wasn’t going to vote in the primary and just see how it played out. I changed my mind and voted for Abrams because as a moderate she might win, though unlikely. She might get out the vote and that would help with other races. Since there are several races, I did something I never did before. I didn’t research the candidate, just vote for the female when available. For the 6th, I voted with my heart and that is Kevin Abel. He’s running on a pro immigration platform, which has no chance here, but I like him.
Roger Moore
@khead:
I loved the quote from the guy blaming the Chesapeake Bay Foundation for blocking visas rather than Trump. I guess now the people who voted for the Leopards Eating Peoples Faces Party have progressed from surprise at having their faces being eaten to blaming it on aardvarks rather than leopards.
Citizen Alan
@Mnemosyne:
I just flat out tell Trumpers that they took the Mark of the Beast and are going to burn in hell. Right to their faces. I dread this Sunday b/c my sister’s Trumper b-in-law will be at the family get-together and I’ve told my mom and my sister that I won’t hold back if the dumb sunovabitch starts anything.
Mnemosyne
@Citizen Alan:
I’m going all Matthew 25:31-46 — the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats. She has driven me to it.
jl
@Roger Moore: It’s really rabid killer zombie sloths (all liberal, BTW) eating the faces. You just can’t face the truth, little snowflake.
Doug R
@Citizen Alan:
Daniel 11:32 With flattery he will corrupt those who have violated the covenant, but the people who know their God will firmly resist him.
Mary G
@Baud: He’s not even a real Democrat, from what I’ve read, just a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
Fair Economist
@Yarrow: Rachel Crooks has a substantial hill to climb but it looks possible. The Republican won 59-41 in 2014 (would be roughly 57-43 in 2016), but 2018 is going to be very different election. There may also be a Republican split because the previous officeholder failed to qualify for the 2014 election because of a technicality (didn’t sign a form) and the current Republican beat his wife, who I assume was running as a placeholder.
Peale
@Baud: yep. Lanny Davis and toe sucker Dick Morris. Now there’s two names that could match the filth that Trump brought in so the press could do a “both sides” as they tut tut us for not understanding K street. I am forever grateful to Obama for not hiring them so they’d leave the party.
Platonailedit
Presidencyamurka for sale – from day one.? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@Citizen Alan:
How do they usually react?
Baud
Revelation 13:5 And the beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months.
Hopefully, not quite that long.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@NotMax:
What a fucking snowflake. Only in a wealthy, developed country like the United States could such a moronic oxymoron be uttered, seriously or otherwise. Hey, Ollie why don don’t you go take a trip to some country we distabablized and see how “civil” their terrorism is.
khead
@Roger Moore:
I live in the same district (MD-1) as those folks even though I’m up in Cecil County. Because, gerrymandering. Soybean farmers on the Eastern Shore are also a bit….concerned.
Peale
@rikyrah: Jesus. I can’t wait for the day the screws finally turn on Jared and they say “as far as we know, he’s never been married to Ivanka”
Fair Economist
@zhena gogolia:
English is mostly a two-footed language (stress every other syllable) even though it limps quite a bit, so there’s a tendency for people to pronounce words with the stress on the second-to-last syllable.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
I have problem with this because I think it’s lazy. Remakes, sequels, and adaptations are the norm because they’re seen as safe; they’re already established and have a track record of marketable success. However, if it pisses off Tom Selleck I’ll be pleased, no matter how much I enjoyed him in the original.
Steeplejack
@NotMax:
Get back to me when Wayne LaPierre is lynched.
germy
headline:
In this country, that would be like a Tuesday or something.
germy
Manyakitty
@Corner Stone: He looks AWFUL. Jeebus.
rikyrah
@NotMax:
The kids are ready???
https://twitter.com/cameron_kasky/status/994948207368171520?s=20
rikyrah
@NotMax:
The kids continue to be ready
https://twitter.com/davidhogg111/status/994980600590274561?s=20
JPL
Avenatti put this up and I’m lost as to what it means
I’m beginning to think he is being fed info, so the story is told and not buried.
rikyrah
@germy:
They have made the OFFICIAL POLICY OF THE UNITED STATES THAT PARENTS AND CHILDREN SHOULD BE SEPARATED.
They are running on this. And, these voters are ok with it.
Accept what that means, and deal with it accordingly.
Citizen Alan
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:
Lots of angry sputtering. It’s awesome.
JPL
@rikyrah: Those are the same folks who were so sad when a Syrian baby was washed up on the Greek shores. If I believed in hell, that is where they would go. Same with the pro-fetus folks who don’t believe health care is a right.
jl
@JPL: Avenatti said in this week’s interviews that his firm had more info on where the Essential Consultant LLC inflows went, the connections to Trump, and it would be announced after more vetting and a better understanding of what was going on, and also, more bombshells (and I have a hunch the those two may be related).
Looks like his research staff have enough figured out for him to make more interesting news. Look for more interviews next week, I guess.
Edit: and yes, Avenatti said that it turns out there are a lot of people who are following the Stormy case and are eager to help. So Avenatti suggested that himself on TV, and he said that is one reason for his insane media profile for this case. Though he also said his office is doing its own independent and aggressive investigation (maybe to avoid being accused of just relaying sketchy tips that come his way).
Jim, Foolish Literalist
as near as I can tell, and I looked at the transcript for context, Kelly is trying to say that a reporter told him the press is out to get him because he’s too effective.
Just today, he’s reported to be protecting the woman who was snarking about McCain’s imminent demise, n stepped on his protege Nilson’s walk-back of her near resignation. John Bolton is in the White House. Kelly was named as the source for the story about Tillerson being on the crapper when Kelly (I think?) called to fire him. Kelly has not denied he thinks the wife-beater was treated unfairly because those broads won’t suck it up and get on with their lives… Yeah, John, people fear your bigly competence.
Scrolled through the transcript, I don’t see the words “Frederica Wilson”. Good job, NPR.
germy
headline:
NotMax
@Major Major Major Major
Expect he’ll call later today. Shall try testing the waters then.
Aleta
Tonight: Stephen Feinberg appointed to head the Intelligence Advisory Board.
July 2017 story in the NYer, by Stephen Witt:
germy
2015:
link
Manyakitty
@germy: This is EXACTLY it. God damn.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@JPL: @germy: where does Avenatti go on Friday nights, CNN or MSNBC?
jl
@jl: And I read that Avenatti has won big settlements against some Trump scams in last decade or so. So likely that he has sources from previous cases against Trump that are still good. That has not been mentioned at all in news stories I’ve seen, in fact I think I read it on his firm’s website.
Edit: Avenati also said that he has had most of the important info since before the case was filed, since he likes to go to court with ‘all the ducks in a row’. So, if he is being fed stuff, this has been planned out for months. I doubt he is sitting there hoping for new info on scandalous shit to arrive in the mail every day.
NotMax
WaPo link. McCain:
SATSQ: Dolt 45 has no convictions aside from personal puffery and aggrandizement.
Aleta
@NotMax: He made his name as an int’l arms salesman.
germy
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I don’t know, we have antenna TV. His twitter account is active and interesting. The replies he gets are all over the place.
Manyakitty
@Aleta: This seems bad. I wonder if Adam has thoughts about it.
NotMax
FYI.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Both. CNN’s NYC offices is only 8 minutes away from MSNBC’s NYC offices
JPL
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I have no idea but it appears that the lawyer Stormy was told to use has an office near that phony place. It is weird. or what germy said.
I think the Fed is leaking.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@germy: everything Drumpf touches dies.
Brachiator
OT. Out having a quick bite. CNN is on with some stuff about the White House aide who made a cheap joke about “dying McCain.”
What a waste of time. This White House reflects its head. Trump is crude, and he doesn’t back down after delivering an insult.
Why does this bad behavior surprise anyone? Why are these fools prattling on about dignity and decorum?
Manyakitty
@NotMax: Makes you wonder how many ordinary Sikhs got hassled like that. Shameful.
JPL
@germy: Did you see this
https://twitter.com/jonswaine/status/995095325651202048
jl
@JPL: Avenatti said in several interviews he had important info and documentation for outline of the facts before he even filed the case. So, as I said above, I doubt he is sitting there waiting for a stooly to feed him crucial stuff.
I think more important is that he has gone up against Trump in lawsuits before and won big. So, he has established sources, and info on where to look for dirt. but that is just my guess, assuming Avenatti is telling mostly the truth in his interviews.
germy
@JPL: Lots of places suddenly going off line.
Drumpf winning the election will be the downfall of these people, including drumpf.
schrodingers_cat
@Manyakitty: Too many.
NotMax
@jl
They wouldn’t recognize dignity or decorum if either came up and kissed them. With tongue.
jl
@NotMax: From way primary elections have gone, there may be quite a few Sikh’s in local councils, state and federal legislatures next year. Will be interesting to see if they start to get treated well, or harassed in more outrageous ways.
Manyakitty
@schrodingers_cat: Breathtaking ignorance
germy
jl
@NotMax: You sure you are replaying to the comment you thought you were?
JPL
@jl: My comment at 99 was from the Guardian, which makes me think that I need to support them. Something is afoot . just sayin
Platonailedit
@Brachiator: Really? So, we just normalize the crude crud’s regime and move on?
Chet Murthy
@Manyakitty: It doesn’t make it OK to target Muslims in America, but: Sikhs get targeted b/c Cletuses think they’re Muslims (aka “ragheads”). That Sikh temple in Wisconsin got attacked [eta: it was a mass shooting]. ISTR at least twice when Sikhs were specifically targeted in California — one time a guy got hit with a car. And a quick search for “sikh attack california” yields several attacks around the country.
Major Major Major Major
San Francisco June ballot looks to be on the wrong side of half a centimeter this year.
Manyakitty
@Chet Murthy: Yeah, I’ve heard this before. Again, breathtaking ignorance.
Aleta
August 2017: In leaked audio, Jared Kushner says VA-Cerner decision happened in ‘2 weeks’
Tonight’s stunner: (By Arthur Allen in Politico) Kushner-backed health care project gets ‘devastating’ review.
I heard it wouldn’t scale. Was very slow on four sites where they tested it.
Chet Murthy
@Manyakitty: [somewhat apropos of] My Lyft driver today (back to DFW airport) told me that in that area an Indian couple out for a night on the town was denied admission to a nightclub. The owner offered to comp them their evening at a different club instead. I was shocked (she was shocked also, which was why she was telling me).
NotMax
@jl
Whoopsie, Should have been @Brachiator
My bad (age is showing). Thanks for catching that.
schrodingers_cat
#HeyJohnKelly
jl
@JPL: My guess, which may be wrong, is that Avenatti knows from his previous winning lawsuits against Trump, he has sources and knows where to look. Though he has more or less admitted that people following the case are ‘helping’ in real time.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@germy: talk about projection
Brachiator
@germy:
Also, look for the NRA to use this to prove that gun laws don’t work.
Chet Murthy
@Manyakitty:
It’s a depressing thing. The racism exceeds the ignorance, b/c even *if* these Sikhs were Muslims, it’s precisely as conscience-shocking. But then to find out that, yeah, they don’t even have the intelligence to know who they’re attacking and why, well, yeah, I guess that level of dropped-on-the-head-ness is pretty breathtaking.
NotMax
@Aleta
Jared has an inordinate love of and faith in the cloud. Not to worry, though, IT super genius Barron will be dragooned to get right on it as soon as the school year is over.
;)
JPL
@jl: Now we have to spend the rest of the night trying to figure out what it all means. The other choice is let The Guardian chase down leads. I pick door number two.
Aleta
jl
@JPL: I’m not going to try. I’ll wait for the bombshells.
It does kind of please me that Avenatti may not be depending on leaks from anybody on the inside, but just knows what to do based on his understanding of the anatomy of Trumpster dirt from previous court cases, and maybe he decided that this is is his chance to take a bigger chunk out of the miserable crook.
germy
germy
The Pale Scot
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
The dude doesn’t rock the ‘stashe, Magnum has to have a ‘stashe
Major Major Major Major
@NotMax: danke.
jl
@germy: Am I correct that it would be good if every GOPer running in November flocks to that call?
H.E.Wolf
@>Platonailedit:
I’m curious about your ‘nym. What, in your opinion, did Plato nail?
(Please bear in mind that philosophy is a closed book to me, as music is to the tone-deaf.)
Millard Filmore
@Mnemosyne:
How much government taxmoney does she think should be allocated to make sure these un-aborted kids should get to make sure they live fulfilling and productive lives? For a typical right-winger, the answer is zero. Yeah, I too can be a very upstanding religious Christian if someone else has to do the work, spend the time, and its not my money.
I certainly want to get to heaven on someone else’s dime. On the cheap.
germy
rikyrah
@schrodingers_cat:
Love it.
germy
JPL
@jl: The one thing about Avenatti is there will be bomb shells. I hate the teases though.
rikyrah
@germy:
Rudy’s writing checks his azz can’t Cash ?
jl
” the answer is zero. ”
Probably could think of some ways to squeeze whatever they have out of them for the benefit of very rich people, though They would serve their purpose on this earth.
Manxome Bromide
@Fair Economist: It’s interesting to me because I grew up in the Southwest, and the rules for Spanish tend to default just about everything to the penult except for things like the infinitive forms of verbs. Some of it is also the similariity of the vowel inventories, but it’s always struck me that Japanese loanwords in particular were always pronounced as if they were Spanish.
I’d always figured it was a local bias, but maybe not!
Also, apropos of both English meanings of babushka, some cats: https://i.chzbgr.com/full/9161271296/h7DCA2BF5/.jpg
Chet Murthy
@Millard Filmore: I was recently educated (by, IIRC, Karen @LGM) about (to me) the “killing joke” retort. If abortion is genocide, then obviously is hoarding organs. This woman needs to give up one of her kidneys, part of her liver, and as much blood, plasma, and bone marrow, as needed, to save other lives. Probably other organs too, but we’ll start with those. B/c there are innocent people, real people who are alive and breathing and thinking on this Earth, who are dying, b/c this woman is hoarding her organs.
If a woman can be required to donate her body to keep an “innocent child” alive, this forced-birther should be required to donate her body to keep innocent living people alive, too.
germy
@rikyrah:
You’re right. He’s never encountered anything like this and it’s making him crazy: Someone competent and knowledgeable answering back to him.
trollhattan
@H.E.Wolf:
Missus Plato.
mainmata
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: If Hernandez has a giant mustache, no problem replacing Selleck.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I didn’t know what a David Boaz was. He’s one of them fancy libertarian intellectuals
mainmata
@jl: He’s also getting tips.
germy
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Platonailedit
@H.E.Wolf: This. Among many.
randy khan
The guy at AT&T who decided to hire Michael Cohen has been let go. He was the head of government relations and had been a high-ranking government relations executive for years. One bad decision . . .
Okay, one *really* bad decision.
efgoldman
@zhena gogolia:
When I was doing classical radio in the 70s-80s, we were told that the second syllable of Eastern European (but not necessarily Russian) proper names got emphasized: Ros-TROP-o-vich (not the American “Ros-tro-PO-vich”); “Vish-NEV-sky-ah”, not “Vish-nev-SKY-ah”
Brickley Paiste
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
Thomas Magnum was hispanic in the original. His real name was Antonio Petrirojo but he took the name of his commanding officer who was killed when TC was drunk and crashed the chopper they were all in. Magnum covered for him and stepped into the shoes of his namesake because he wanted to escape the domination of his extremely wealthy family.
But the family found out and they were the ones who owned “Robin’s Nest” the estate. Petrirojo is Robin in Spanish. The family wanted to provide for him without letting him know.
And this is why TC was forever in Magnum’s debt and would do any stupid thing he was asked to do
NotMax
@efgoldman
Don’t get us started on Shostakovich, Rimsky-Korsakov and Ippolitov-Ivanov.
:)
Noted in passing that both Maddow and O’Donnell took my birthday off. Which is, I guess, as it should be.
:)
efgoldman
@NotMax:
Blame ze muzzer. Iz alvayz ze muzzer’s fault.
Platonailedit
White peeps doing dumb shit. And with a kid in tow too.
Ruckus
@NotMax:
Well if people who want “sane” gun laws are terrorists, then we might as well go all the way and have insane gun laws and be safer. I mean if we are going to be terrorists, then let’s go all the way and confiscate all guns. Or at least have them all held in armories and anyone who wants to own them and check them out has to go through 10 weeks of basic gun training, at their expense. Based upon the training that people in the military get except this is only about handling guns.
Millard Filmore
@germy: David Boaz was a well known name in Libertarian circles back when I was young. Ron Paul flounced in and out of the party to be its presidential contestant, the same as Wilmer became a Democrat in modern times … that was disturbing to my foolish idealism. And now Boaz is loudly declaring it was all strictly a scam, right from the git go.
Way back then there was some incidental knowledge that a very rich person was providing most of the funds for the Libertarians, the fact that we were working in the service of his interests was very well hidden.
Steeplejack
@jl, @jl:
Could you flesh out with links or citations Avenatti’s “previous winning lawsuits against Trump”? And the assertion that “he has gone up against Trump in lawsuits before and won big. So, he has established sources, and info on where to look for dirt.”
All I have seen are stories, like this one from the New York Daily News in March, that refer to a single case in 2006:
Sounds more like a run-of-the-mill intellectual property case than anything else, with run-of-the-mill document discovery implied.
On this site and some others I have seen a gradual mythification of Avenatti lately as he seems to be the main person successfully (overtly) taking the fight to Trump and his minion Cohen. Don’t get me wrong; I think he’s doing God’s work, and I think he has excellent sourcing on the stuff he has revealed so far. But a track record of “winning big” against Trump is quite a stretch. The way things are going, I’m expecting to read next week that he combs his hair with a wagon wheel and once killed a b’ar with his bare hands.
Manyakitty
@Chet Murthy: What? I don’t even know what to say.
NotMax
@Steeplejack
When he was only three!
;)
Millard Filmore
@Chet Murthy: We need to start building Larry Niven’s organ banks! Break some people up for spares. //
https://www.google.com/url?q=http://larryniven.wikia.com/wiki/Organ_Bank
Manyakitty
@Chet Murthy:
? that’s it.
Steve in the ATL
@Mnemosyne: I haven’t logged into Facebook in a few weeks, not since all that news broke. I find that I don’t miss it al all, and I’m not an anti-social media crank.
efgoldman
@germy:
That’s what they get for depending on alumni donations.
Steeplejack
@Manxome Bromide:
The rule in Spanish is very simple: if a word ends in a vowel or n or s, the accent is on the penultimate syllable, otherwise it’s on the last syllable.
ETA: This can, of course, be overruled by an accent, e.g., Cádiz, José.
Ruckus
@Brachiator:
Because they have none and think someone should sell them some? For a very cheap price.
Steve in the ATL
@JPL: let’s be honest here. There is no way in hell a black woman is going to win a statewide election in Georgia in 2018.
It’s hard enough for anyone from metro Atlanta to do so, but only a white male can even come close.
I don’t like it either but that’s the reality of the racist as shit state we live in.
Steeplejack
@NotMax:
Forgot that detail.
Happy birthday, by the way.
efgoldman
@The Pale Scot:
And a Testosterona.
Promo fir a cable detective show. Male lead to daughter: “Just think of me as a modern Magnum PI”
Daughter: “Who?”
Ruckus
@Chet Murthy:
They may have been dropped on their heads, but the big problem is that because of where they’ve decided to park their heads, up their asses, where there is there is little available oxygen, leading to the inability to have cognitive thought.
Mnemosyne
@Steeplejack:
Look, you may not believe the stories that Avenatti carved the Grand Canyon on his horse Widowmaker, but I do!
zhena gogolia
@efgoldman:
It is Ros-tro-PO-vich. But you’re right about Vishnevskaya — accent on the NEV.
Brachiator
@Platonailedit:
Who are you going to protest to? This is the same CNN panel that clutched their pearls over Michelle Wolf’s comedy routine.
The only real solution is to defeat the Republicans and take back the White House.
Also, the few Republicans who now protest let Trump take over their party even though he had insulted McCain for being a POW.
And the same Republicans who once tried to slime McCain for having a black daughter.
The Beltway class normalized crude slime a long time ago.
Ruckus
@randy khan:
One really bad decision that you know of. Wanna bet there might be more?
Peale
@NotMax: and there aren’t any law enforcement agents even trying to protect them. There might be dns attacks on their web pages and they have to pay higher rates than they did for insurance before, which is so obviously like having your house firebombed and kids killed in a church, it points to parallels more eerie than Kennedy havinig a secretary named Lincoln.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Mnemosyne: he controls the British crown
He keeps the metric system down
He robbed the cavefish of its sight
He rigs every Oscar night!
zhena gogolia
@efgoldman:
The problem with Russian is that word stress moves around — you can’t predict it, you just have to know it, especially in proper names. And some names are pronounced differently by different families, so Ivanov can be i-VAN-ov or i-van-OV.
jl
@Steeplejack: I just watch the Avenatti interviews on youtube to watch the bombshells explode, and maybe some of what he says there is just big talk. So, all I can suggest is to watch those. May be the guy is embellishing.
I will try to find the source about Avenatti’s previous encounters with Trump. I remember more than what you quote. Some of it must have been from a story I read. Wonder if he was in some other cases and not lead counsel.
OTOH:
” Sounds more like a run-of-the-mill intellectual property case than anything else, with run-of-the-mill document discovery implied. ”
Are you implying there is a good chance that any investigation into Trump business practices is run-of-the-mill?
I don’t mean to make the guy a big hero. I watch the clips because they are newsworthy and with a sense of wonder and dread, wondering if they guy is gong to fall on his face this time, or will reveal himself to be completely mad. But, so far he is delivering the goods, it seems.
Maybe if Trump gets smart, and it’s not too late, and settles the Stormy case to Stormy’s satisfaction, this lawyer will disappear from the TV and then we can be mad at him for not bringing down Trump.
B.B.A.
I see Sheldon Silver’s name trending, and briefly worry that he’s been named the new AG.
Not to worry, he’s just been convicted of corruption, under the post-McDonnell interpretation.
(Which, by the way, Congress should pass an actual law against corruption instead of stretching the definition of wire fraud beyond all recognition.)
efgoldman
@zhena gogolia:
Because of the feminine ending?
I don’t pretend to speak Russian, but twenty years of classical radio taught me to fake it in all kinds of languages, Russian and Eastern European being common.
For instance, if you KNEW that a name was Hungarian, you emphasized the first syllable.
piratedan
@Aleta: guess they should have gone with Sunquest instead…..
Steeplejack
@Mnemosyne:
Totally believe it, just need help finding the YouTube video.
Origuy
@germy: He spends summers in Florida and winters in Michigan. Yeah, ideas aren’t his strong point.
Steeplejack
@jl:
I don’t think The Apprentice was representative of “Trump business practices.” Trump was the star and made a boatload of money, but the show was created and produced by Mark Burnett, who has a legitimate track record in Hollywood. Trump was on-screen talent; I doubt if his involvement in the “business side” went beyond cashing his checks.
Mnemosyne
@Steeplejack:
This video seems to indicate it was the Rio Grande, not the Grand Canyon (at about 2:50). I demand a recount!
jl
@Steeplejack: I admit I can’t find the story about his involvement in other Trump cases. But he bought Tully’s coffee out of bankdruptcy! So, a true hero.
I’ll keep looking for the story, since I am pretty sure I read he’s been involved in more Trump cases, but maybe not as a bigshot .OTOH, maybe I’ve been taken in by his bravado, and he’s lying about having all this stuff from his own investigation and insight into Trump from previous experience. Maybe someone inside an investigation has just been feeding him stuff. We’ll find out sooner or later. In the meantime, I’ll just hope he is not as crazy as the Trumpsters.
Manxome Bromide
@Steeplejack:
This is something I’m kind of unclear on, honestly. I remember back when the Stormy Daniels case was just another pebble in the constant avalanche of sleaze as opposed to one of the main events, and I recall the attitude here and elsewhere being basically “oh man, discovery is going to be epic.” How much of the drumbeat we’re getting now is just the kind of stuff that would be coming out in discovery, just showing up in the media because nobody else can get the media to pay attention?
I’m pretty sure it’s not all of it—after all, he says people are approaching and telling him important things that he’s then checking out—but there’s a lot of distance between “not all of it” and “barely any of it”.
@Mnemosyne: Look, we all know the Grand Canyon got carved when Paul Bunyan had one too many and his axe slipped, chopping Arizona in half. Avenatti’s the guy that helped settle the property damage lawsuits. The settlement was partially sealed, though, so I can’t confirm or deny that flooding it to make the Colorado River was part of it or just something else Bunyan did on his own.
Steeplejack
@Mnemosyne:
Ha! Just what I expected.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Steeplejack:
It’s all true Steep.
Believe me!
Brachiator
The conservative press has been loudly trumpeting that “America is back baby, and Trump is the undisputed leader of the Free world! He is sticking it to Iran and he is about to take all of Korea Rocket Man’s nukes away!!”
Meanwhile, in the real world. From USA Today.
Funny how Putin is the man stepping up to build a new coalition.
A new question for the Russiagate investigators. Does Putin pay Trump a lump sum or a monthly stipend?
efgoldman
@Brachiator:
He agrees month by month not to release the kompromat.
Steeplejack
@jl:
Jeez, don’t sweat it. I’m not trying to embarrass you. I was just making an observation about a phenomenon that is all too common, when a group of people—like, say, an almost-top-10,000-blog crowd—discusses some ongoing issue over time and the lines get a little blurry between what is actually known, what is theorized and what is hoped for (or feared).
For what it’s worth, I haven’t seen any evidence of Avenatti misrepresenting things. I’ve seen him only on MSNBC shows—and clips those shows play from other networks—but his comments seem pretty factual and measured. And I haven’t seen him overselling some past track record of multiple big wins against Trump. He does tease “future attractions” a bit, but he has consistently delivered so far, and he’s beating Trump at his own game there. The only misstep I can think of is when he sort of hyped the CD or DVD presumably containing bombshell information and then didn’t follow through with that (so far).
Kraux Pas
@Brachiator:
Why do you think he wanted Trump in office in the first place? Diminishing American prestige was bound to create an opportunity for him to raise his own and his nation’s.
Aleta
@NotMax:
Happy Birthday
randy khan
@Ruckus:
Oh, probably. It was mostly a joke about how bad the decision was.
IIRC, one of his recent predecessors lost his job because he was too bullish about AT&T’s attempt to acquire T-Mobile (basically, the company convinced itself, with his enthusiastic encouragement, that the deal would be approved, which it was not), so there’s something of a history for people in that job.
trollhattan
Grrl power, NBA edition.
NotMax
@Aleta
:)²
Vhh
@Major Major Major Major: One of the less advertised challenges in learning Russian is the different and tricky set of stress rules.
jl
@Steeplejack: No problem. I did remember reading Avenatti being involved in more than on case. So, now I am curious about it, But OTOH, don’t have time to go look thogh everything. I’ve just been reading as watching things as they pop up in the news.. But I’ll keep an eye out for his litigation history.
I may have gotten it from a detailed article on all the big lawsuits against Trump, and that article was quite long. I should look for that, just to be a responsibly informed citizen.
I will be interested to see how much of this information he and his firm did develop itself, and how they got it. That will take awhile. And there is the danger the Trumspter will settle, and then if Avenatti is the client-centered lawyer he claims to be, then he’ll go away and not save the country. Which would be sad.
Yarrow
@Steeplejack:
Mark Burnett owns “The Apprentice” videos. Trump is rumored to have said and done questionable things to women and minorities. Burnett has refused to release anything.
Burnett is also a big time Christian. He introduced Trump at the 2017 Prayer breakfast. Remember that Russians have cultivated evangelical Christians for years. There’s a lot of overlap in all those circles.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@Yarrow:
What if someone stole the tapes and released them?
Dev Null
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I could be wrong; the thread is ambiguous, but I think Boaz might be indulging in an ironic quote:
https://twitter.com/David_Boaz/status/994920413015805953
seeing that the original comes from here:
https://www.wfyi.org/news/articles/before-trump-rally-supporters-line-up-around-the-block
A Boaz comment downthread suggests disapproval of the quote, but is hardly dispositive.
That said, a public figure who traffics in ambiguous quoting is failing to exercise due diligence.