More crimes come to light! [ProPublica]:
Documents obtained by ProPublica show stark differences in how Donald Trump’s businesses reported some expenses, profits and occupancy figures for two Manhattan buildings, giving a lender different figures than they provided to New York City tax authorities. The discrepancies made the buildings appear more profitable to the lender — and less profitable to the officials who set the buildings’ property tax.
For instance, Trump told the lender that he took in twice as much rent from one building as he reported to tax authorities during the same year, 2017. He also gave conflicting occupancy figures for one of his signature skyscrapers, located at 40 Wall Street.
I’m neither a lawyer nor an accountant, but that looks a lot like frauding while presidenting…
In other news, another Giuliani-Trump-RNC associate was nabbed attempting to board an international flight* at JFK:
JUST IN: David Correia, 1 of the 4 people indicted in an alleged scheme to funnel foreign money and violate FEC laws was taken into custody at New York's JFK airport this morning; the case includes Giuliani associates Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman – @Tom_Winter
— NBC News (@NBCNews) October 16, 2019
“Oh, for Pete’s sake! He’s fleeing the interview!”
This is going to end up with gumshoes kicking in the door at a Trump hotel while Trump tries to hoist his ass out the window, isn’t it?
*ETA: Looks like Correia was in arrivals, not departures, and he may have flown to New York to turn himself in, so, not as suspicious as Rudy’s other Florida clowns’ apprehension. But still — busted!
Yutsano
Honestly? If he were to fall out of said window and meet an ignominious end, I would not shed a tear. “Poor” Melania will be quite cranky when she gets nothing because his negative income crashes the whole estate.
MJS
Regulatory and media fail. 2017 is certainly not the first time Trump would have inflated/deflated numbers to serve his purposes. I suppose that it was too much of a bother for anyone to pursue the issue pre-November, 2016. Too many stories about emails to be investigated and written, I guess.
Spanky
Betty, do you have a brain bleach distributorship or something?
Jeebus.
Roger Moore
No. It’s going to end with Trump going on an official visit to a country that has Trump branded properties but doesn’t have an extradition treaty, never coming back, and calling himself the President in Exile for the rest of his miserable life.
Luciamia
Your Fargo reference? Man, if only!
germy
https://wnyt.com/politics/cuomo-signs-bill-allowing-prosecutions-in-ny-despite-presidential-pardon/5526164/?cat=10114
MattF
It’s hard to maintain two sets of books. And expensive— two sets of accountants, two sets of lawyers. At least!
Sebastian
@Roger Moore:
Meh, that’s what cruise missiles are for. We did the same thing with that cartel boss when he finally used his satellite phone.
Bobby Thomson
As the thread downstairs is dead, this is the part of the Kamala Harris quote that princess deliberately and dishonestly omitted to paint her as some kind of quiverful advocate:
. . . and it does not give any other person the right to tell a woman what to do with that body. It is her body. It is her right.”
Leto
@Roger Moore: I wonder if we’d pull an Israeli style Nazi snatch and grab to bring him back here to face trial/justice?
waysel
Frances McDormand was so great in that movie. Riding around in the ‘prowler’.
trollhattan
@Yutsano:
Believe the operant expression is “I really don’t care do U?”
Seismometers everywhere would leap upon Donny’s impact.
Mike in DC
Would love to see the Trump family indicted for tax and bank fraud by NY State and City, in the middle of the impeachment inquiry. I think that would be the coup de grace.
Mary G
ProPublica rocks. It’s good to have one journalism outlet that isn’t on the side of the right wing and corporations.
trollhattan
@waysel:
Yup. She’s simply one of the best actresses of our time. I treasure every movie.
waysel
@Bobby Thomson: Thanks. What a little context will do.
waysel
@trollhattan: +1
Sebastian
@Leto:
Any country that would host him would be committing an act of war against the United States of America.
Russia or China could get away with it. Anyone else would fold at the latest when all their bridges, power plants, harbors, and factories are bombed to pieces.
rikyrah
What’s with these guys getting arrested at the airport?
LOL
Cheryl Rofer
@Spanky: I salute Betty for taking on stories that I just can’t, like Trump’s attempt at matching the Jerry Springer Show today.
Sebastian
@rikyrah:
FBI likes to arrest people at airports because they know they are unarmed once the come through security.
Ruckus
@MattF:
Naw. Your accountant and attorney just need to be in on the deal.
Immanentize
@Bobby Thomson:
Glass House meet stone
dmsilev
@MattF:
You’re assuming he pays his lawyers and accountants.
trollhattan
@rikyrah:
I wonder if they’d consider setting up observation bleachers and opening a popcorn concession. I’d come!
They’d probably cross at a border, but you know, Wall!
germy
@rikyrah:
A lawyer could get rich that way.
Roger Moore
@rikyrah:
The FBI apparently likes arresting people at the airport. They’re going to be in a known place at a scheduled time, and once they’re inside security you can be reasonably confident they aren’t armed.
Immanentize
@Ruckus: In such instances, it is important that you accountant is also your attorney. Seriously.
Attorney/client privilege and all….
MattF
Bear in mind that Correia was the one who had not been arrested at an airport. So, his diabolically sneaky plan was to wait two days and THEN go to JFK.
Marcopolo
Hey folks, halfway through the week. If you haven’t called your Congress critters to weigh in on impeachment, our betrayal of the Kurds, and Don’s adventures in the Ukraine yet, now’s the time. Keep the pressure on!
202-224-3121 will connect you with the Congressional switchboard.
Use https://www.contactingcongress.org if you’d like the number for a local office, an email address, or want to reach out to them via their twitter or Facebook.
Please share this with your friends & thanks in advance.
Immanentize
@Roger Moore: Also, once in the security zone there really is no where to run. Also, if you are in the gate areas with a ticket, they have evidence of intent to flee which can be introduced at trial as evidence of guilt. Especially when you know there is an outstanding indictment.
ETA also this is good evidence of flight risk which means high or no bail.
Can’t these guys take a greyhound to Canada? Or Mexico? Dopes.
D Gardner
@MattF: Trump barely has one set of lawyers, at least at any given time.
Gin & Tonic
Correia was arriving at JFK, not looking to depart. He was apparently coming to NY to turn himself in.
TomatoQueen
@Yutsano: He is probably not above stealing a great Marx Bros. routine.
Immanentize
@Gin & Tonic:
Ah — that is quite a different scenario. Thank you for that tidbit!
Kay
@rikyrah:
I love the airport arrests too. Presidential true crime! Every day there’s a new episode.
Cacti
The librul media could have found all the information that’s trickling out now back in 2015.
But they didn’t want to. Hillary had to be put in her place, because reasons.
germy
@Kay:
Now that would make a great reality show.
Elizabelle
@Immanentize:
Don’t give them any ideas.
Immanentize
@Cacti:
FTFY
The Moar You Know
@germy: Showboating bullshit. As Cuomo does. This question was settled by the Supreme Court way back in the 1920s. Unanimously. United States v. Lanza if you’re interested. Unless the state in question specifically forbids state charges following federal charges (or vice versa) the state absolutely can prosecute. Even if pardoned by the President.
Also, while researching the Taft court, came up with this doozy: McGrain v. Daugherty. Guilani and anyone thinking about ignoring a Congressional subpoena might want to have a look at that one.
Elizabelle
@Cheryl Rofer:
Incidentally, did you see how the Dunn family’s spokesman described the attempt:
From the Daily Beast link.
FWIW, Nincompoops on the Run fits this blogpost too. Sadly, some wag might append it to the Dem debate threads too.
laura
@rikyrah:
The rats are not only fleeing the sinking ship, they are literally on the run from the long arm of the law.
They are as bad at pulling a runner as they are at criming. And yet, gym jordan and mark meadows and kevin McCarthy will still stand by their man in an ever increasingly pathetic fanboy fashion.
trollhattan
@Immanentize:
God help me I’m now getting echoes of Hillary’s treatment in what’s being slung at Warren. It’s making me want to sling a few items.
MattF
I’m not watching it, but Trump’s press conference with the Italian president is reportedly a doozy-and-a-half.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I can’t watch him anymore, but it sounds like The Oaf is putting on quite a show. The second performance of the day
I wonder if anyone’s asked the Italian president what he thinks of trump’s, ‘oh they’ll all just go to Europe’ comment about escaped ISIS fighters.
I saw Brave, Brave Sir Willard say, well, it’s like the old saw about the farmer who realized his barn was empty because all the proverbial horses had escaped, so to speak, after the door to the barn elevator was left ajar.
ETA: I exaggerate, but… Willard really is his own sort of word-salad-spinner
trollhattan
@laura:
At least one of the arrested Rooskies has donated to McCarthy. The mind boggles.
KithKanan
@Elizabelle: Is it too early to nominate “Nincompoops on the run” for a rotating tagline?
The Moar You Know
@Immanentize: Does not apply in any way, shape, or form if your attorney is part of a crime. Someone might want to let Trump know that.
germy
Martin
@Sebastian: Additionally it gives them evidence of attempt to flee jurisdiction which goes to consciousness of guilt, which is key in many fraud and similar cases. It’s pretty hard to argue you didn’t know what you did was wrong when you’re caught fleeing the country.
Roger Moore
@D Gardner:
One set of actual lawyer lawyers. He always has lots of “lawyers”, i.e. people who are licensed by the bar but who he hires to do all kinds of non-legal (and illegal) stuff in the belief their law license will protect their communications under attorney/client privilege.
rikyrah
Parker Looks Up: Michelle Obama’s Biggest (and Littlest) Fan Just Published Her First Book
Maiysha Kai
36 minutes ago
She’s been a viral sensation (more than once), has had a dance party with the forever first lady, and has published her first book—all before the age of five. The adorable little art lover known as Parker Curry can now add “author” to her pre-K resume, as on Tuesday, she and her mom, parenting blogger Jessica Curry, released the picture book Parker Looks Up: An Extraordinary Moment.
The extraordinary moment in question is, of course, when a then-two-year-old Parker first saw Amy Sherald’s portrait of Michelle Obama in the National Portrait Gallery (Sherald also wrote the foreword for the picture book). The toddler was transfixed by the image, believing she was gazing up at “a queen” (of course, she was).
Now, other little ones aged 4- to 8-years-old can share in the wonder of that moment, too. Per a synopsis on Amazon:
PST
@The Moar You Know: Lanza settled the question of double jeopardy under the US constitution. The trouble in New York is that it has its own prohibition against double jeopardy that has been interpreted more strictly. So the new legislation Cuomo signed is not mere showboating.
germy
@trollhattan:
https://dailygazette.com/article/2019/10/15/indicted-ukrainian-donated-to-faso-s-campaign
Lately I’ve been seeing a lot of anti-Delgado ads on TV (paid for by the RNC). He’s the guy that (fortunately) beat Faso.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@germy: I heard The Oaf mention “Clapper and some other beauties” before I hit mute.
I’d love to see some of the retired general trump has dragged through the mud campaign for Jaime Harrison
Wumpus
@The Moar You Know
“Showboating bullshit. As Cuomo does. This question was settled by the Supreme Court way back in the 1920s. Unanimously. United States v. Lanza if you’re interested.”
Not sure what you’re talking about. New York state had a law, until today, that specifically prohibited New York state from prosecuting a case if the defendant had been found not guilty in a Federal court of the same underlying offense (or was pardoned by the president for same.)
US v Lanza held that both Feds and a state have the option of prosecuting for the same offense, which is not the same thing.
Steeplejack (phone)
@KithKanan:
The Nincompoops were a great band until they got famous and sold out. But Nincompoops on the Run is an excellent “basement tapes” live album. Gritty.
ChrisS
@The Moar You Know:
Well, Trump is also under the impression that he is king and congress can’t investigate him.
Duane
Want fraud guaranteed? Investigate the RNC.
Martin
@The Moar You Know: NY did forbid state charges following federal:
So NY law was that if Trump pardoned an individual, NY couldn’t indict. That’s the law that was changed. The ACLU held up NYs law as the ideal and opposed the change allowing a state prosecution attempt. I would normally side with the ACLU, but given that there is no check on a presidential pardon, this seems like a practical solution until one is introduced.
Jeffro
@Yutsano: In the movie version of this low-rent afterschool special on money laundering and civics, trumpov does indeed take a header out the 77th floor of trumpov Tower.
Everyone else goes to jail.
I’m sorry that’s it, that’s the whole ending. I never said it was good.
Cheryl Rofer
@Elizabelle: I did not read the Daily Beast story. I’ve got a lot going on this morning, and that incident just makes me ill.
Jeffro
@Yutsano: In the movie version of this low-rent afterschool special on money laundering, civics, and shell corporations, trumpov does indeed take a header out the 77th floor of trumpov Tower.
Everyone else goes to jail.
I’m sorry, that’s it, that’s the whole ending. I never said it was good…
mrmoshpotato
All.
The.
Crimes.
Give yourself a round of applause, Ms. Sarandon.
Jeffro
@germy: Did he do another soft-pron version of the lovers’ text messages?
As gross as it is, we need a lot more folks than his dumb rally crowds to see that crazy, sick nonsense. We might get him down past the Crazification Factor with that psycho stuff.
Immanentize
@trollhattan:
It’s going to happen to Warren, Harris, and Klobuchar should any or all get popular.
laura
@trollhattan: would that be the canna king of sacto?
Brachiator
@Roger Moore:
Works for me. I would love to see this happen. He could even turn it into a reality TV show, The Exile
germy
@Jeffro:
I didn’t watch, so I don’t know. Just checked a few of Daniel Dale’s livetweets.
Immanentize
@The Moar You Know: Everyone keeps saying this — and it’s true! But first you must prove the attorney was involved in a crime. And us saying so on a blog will not convince a judge to pierce that privilege.
Immanentize
@rikyrah: Yes, but will that get the kid into Stanford?
Kay
She’d never bring it up because it’s not her thing, but if you want what is to me the best example of sexism this cycle it’s Amy Klobachur.
The centrists need a strong candidate as an alternative to Biden and they are inexplicably passing over Klobachur.
She’s a very successful politician! They don’t need Bloomberg. They could have someone who has actually won elections. The money people should be flocking to her, and I think they would be, BUT FOR the female part.
NotMax
@Jeffro
Reminiscent of the ending of Winter Kills.
(Couldn’t find a clip solely of that full scene in a fast search.)
Just Chuck
@Roger Moore: I suppose what with all his lawyers needing their own lawyers, he transitively has the hyoogest legal team around.
tomtofa
A nice taste of his financial records and tax returns. It should ramp up public interest in what’s hiding in the rest of them – more double-booking, Stormy payoff, etc.
mrmoshpotato
@Brachiator:
Fuck. That.
Drag all their Soviet shitpile traitorous Trump trash crime family asses back here and install bulletproof glass cubicles in the courtroom.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
this is from the first episode today, The Server.
raise your hand if you think trump could even come close to, could get in the neighborhood of, explaining what a “server” is
Jeffro
@NotMax: That would be ideal, yes.
There was some movie that was made in the late 80s/early 90s, back in the days before CGI (duh), where a stunt man had to essentially run full tilt, turn, and crash backwards out of a 30+ story building for a scene. I remember watching some “Making of (movie title)” special and looking back it was just nuts that this stunt guy crashed through breakaway glass several hundred feet up, only to land on The World’s Biggest Bouncy House, walk over, and collect a pay check.
But THAT scene would be even more ideal…’cause in the movie, no Bouncy House! =)
germy
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Oh come on. He knows what a server is.
It’s the guy in a white shirt and black vest who brings his hamberders and diet coke on a tray.
Amir Khalid
@dmsilev:
If he’s not paying his bills there’s no upside to abetting a crooked client, and there’s the very big potential downside of losing their professional credentials or even their liberty.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Joe Biden gets concise. For once. At least in this quote.
That’s a Joe Biden who could win. IMHO.
Amir Khalid
@Kay:
Klobuchar.
mrmoshpotato
@Just Chuck: “I’m tremendous at the legal!”
germy
@Just Chuck:
My
Attorneys
Got
Attorneys!
Jeffro
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Just for the record, my hand is not up.
He does know his supporters, though…’The Server’…the object of all paranoid fever dreams, where the evidence every Killary scandal EVER (both real and imagined, and since there were no real ones they’re all imagined) resides.
I picture it as like a big black octopus-looking thing, oily tentacles, with just a few blinking lights and a CD-ROM slot in the center. Well actually I picture it as an empty spot in space, since it doesn’t exist except in the Swiss cheese of Twitler’s brain. But I bet that’s how HE pictures it, and wants his supporters to picture it, too.
mrmoshpotato
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: “It’s a server. Many people are saying it servers things.”
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Yup. I posted that clip for fun, and I do believe trump’s brain is broken, but I think this is one of those rare cases where trump’s babbling is strategery. The Republican trick with HRC on emails and Benghazi was to never accept an explanation, to never take yes for an answer. trump has now conjured an imaginary physical object, without which the mystery will never be solved, for the mouth-breathing, knuckle-dragging goobers, gomers, cletuses who come to his rallies to hoot and stamp their hooves in half-understood rage.
Barbara
@The Moar You Know: But my understanding is that is what New York law actually did. Do you know that it didn’t?
artem1s
Sooooooo glad Nancy Smash didn’t rush the impeachment hearings. I can only imagine how Barr and McConnell would have conspired to limit the scope to only the Mueller report and so narrowly that none of this stuff would have come out. The longer this drags on, the more rope these guys will take to hang themselves.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: It’s a “macguffin”!
Kent
Honestly I would not be surprised if this comes down to Al Capone and they actually get him on taxes. I mean why the fuck is he trying to hard to hide them?
There would be some poetic justice somehow if when all is said and done, Trump gets locked up like a petty criminal for tax evasion. As we all know that’s what his entire multi-generational family empire is built upon.
Belafon
@Cacti:
As an optimist, I still believe our democracy will survive. But some people really do have to learn the hard way that it can happen here.
Martin
@Gin & Tonic: Are we sure about that? JFK is a VERY common layover for international flights. Miami -> JFK -> foreign country. Seems to me he could have turned himself into any FBI office in the country and they’d have arranged for his travel to SDNY.
Hildebrand
Speaking of Coen Brothers movies – I am think this whole thing goes the way of Burn After Reading. J.K. Simmons stepping in to make sense of the whole thing on national television would be perfect.
Gin & Tonic
@Martin:
Martin
I figure we’re just a few weeks away from Trump hollering ‘but her emails!’ repeatedly at one of his rallies.
Kent
@Roger Moore:
Trump Hotel Turkey.
That’s why the Kurds are being sacrificed.
Connect the dots.
Martin
@Gin & Tonic: Well, that settles it. Thank you.
mrmoshpotato
@Kent:
Years and years of travel expenses listed as “Trip to Moscow to launder Russian mob money”?
Gin & Tonic
@Jeffro: Too bad he never talks to Barron, who’s really good at the cyber, and might explain to him that Step 0 in any forensic examination is to take a clone of the PC/server you are examining. You would never take possession of the actual machine.
NotMax
@Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
Are You Being Servered?
:)
trollhattan
@germy:
Citizens United is the g(r)ift that keeps giving. Goddamn balls ‘n strikes Roberts….
“Vat, ve can go America and buy election? Let’s go airport!”
trollhattan
@germy:
Upvoted for awesomeness.
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax: Less painful than Are You Being Severed?
trollhattan
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
The “not very hot” Guatemalan who brings Trump his taco salad?
Kent
@mrmoshpotato: It’s Trump. I see no evidence that the man is disciplined enough to limit himself to just one type of crime and one type of criminal to get in bed with. He is probably a giant tornado of criminal activity and there are probably hundreds of crimes burried in there that we haven’t even thought of yet.
mrmoshpotato
@Gin & Tonic: “They have this thing called vee emm, vee emm.”
And then he just screams out, “Bleachbit! Lock her up!” since he’s still obsessed with Hillary.
Someone should ask her how gaudy the inside of his head is.
catclub
@Formerly disgruntled in Oregon: macguffin brand servers
mrmoshpotato
@Kent: Ok ok. Years and years of travel expenses listed as “Trip to Moscow to do crimes. All the crimes.”
NotMax
@mrmoshpotato
Prince MbS: “Alexa, book all the cutting rooms.”
;)
trollhattan
@laura:
“An associate” yes. Beginning to think it’s time for an Orkin man visit.
mrmoshpotato
@catclub: Sausage, egg and cheese MacGuffin or bacon, egg and cheese MacGuffin?
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax: Wasn’t even thinking of that. Ugh.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@Kay:
Amen.
Uncle Cosmo
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I understand wanting to crap all over Rmoney, but try not to make a goddamned fool of yourself in the process. That’s not “word-salad” but a venerable old saying.
Sheesh.
Repatriated
@catclub: Protected by MacGuffin™ Antivirus.
NotMax
@mrmoshpotato
Tongue with Russian dressing on a Kaiser roll.
Roger Moore
@Kent:
My gut feeling is that there’s all kinds of illegality hiding in those taxes. Remember that there’s a whistle blower from the IRS who’s said there are shenanigans with the mandatory audit of the president’s taxes. IOW, there’s something in there that can’t remotely withstand scrutiny from an actual audit, unlike the phony claims of audit that Trump has claimed as an excuse for not releasing the tax records.
Uncle Cosmo
@Roger Moore: And he’ll be able to continue calling himself that for about a week after the Kurds find out where he is. Those folks have lonnnnnnnng memories.
WhatsMyNym
@MJS: 3rd paragraph of ProPublica article –
ETA: I misread your comment.
ETA:
Jamie
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
My god, man. This is ART.
NotMax
@WhatsMyNym
Same finagling with numbers he does with the golf courses in limey land.
Martin
@trollhattan:
Of course he did! McCarthy is the one who claimed:
You think he got that information from their tax returns? No, he got it from some Russians that passed that dirt onto him. McCarthy is merely delineating between Putin paying a person vs paying a person’s campaign. See, there’s a big difference there. One is totally ethical and one is bad, bad, bad.
Gin & Tonic
@NotMax: Ooh, that sounds good.
Kent
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony:
I don’t think it is inexplicable. First, they don’t NEED an alternative to Biden. They aleady have Biden. Second. They passed over a whole bunch of other centrist senators and governors. Those guys from CO, OH, and MT who I don’t even remember, for example. I think Klobuchar’s real problem is that she is trying to be a “safe” centrist choice when the actual safe centrist choice by definition is a middle aged white guy. Nominating a woman is by definition not the “safe” choice because we have never elected a woman president ever (Clinton winning 2016 nothwithstanding). So Klobuchar is kind of threading a tightrope. The people who are going to be excited about a woman candidate are going to be even more excited about an exciting woman candidate like Warren or Harris. The people who are most concerned about picking a safe centrist type who can appeal to the white working class in PA and all that bullshit are unlikely to make a woman candidate their first choice. She is between a rock and a hard place.
WhatsMyNym
I guess FTFNYT makes too much off of Real Estate ads to look closely at this kind of thing.
lgerard
It seems that trump and his flunkies have now joined the Sovereign citizen movement, believing that they are not subject to any laws.
How long until the Bundys and their snack team arrive at the White House and set up a perimeter?
WereBear
@WhatsMyNym: One of John Sanders’ excellent crime novels had a criminal laundering drug money with apartment buildings. Report a higher occupancy that you have, and hide the income as rent from non-existent tenants.
NotMax
@Gin & Tonic
Appropriated from Mom, who once described what the Trump sandwich at the deli would be as that plus an extra small pickle.
:)
Jeffro
@Kent: @Roger Moore: Well there are the actually illegal things (like undervaluing assets, phantom assets, “loans” from Russians that aren’t really loans, THE SERVER for all we know) and then there are the things that would actually embarrass trumpov even more, like the fact that he isn’t worth jack/shit much less an actual billionaire.
It’s the one thing he’s mortally afraid of; that the whole world will know he’s beyond broke, and laugh at him. The ghost of Fred Trumpov would laugh hardest, and he’s terrified of that.
Jeffro
@WereBear: Which is exactly what he’s doing with his hotels.
WhatsMyNym
@Kent: And she doesn’t have any name recognition to speak of, I just found out that she is a Senator (thought she was a Rep.).
Ksmiami
@Sebastian: Believe me, China doesn’t want him
Kent
@WhatsMyNym: And she started off on a bad foot for the cognoscente who were actually paying attention back then (like us BJ-ers) when she got all the bad press from former aids who were spilling the beans about what a horrible boss she was as a Senator and DA. So I think she had more initial skepticism than some of the other female candidates like Warren and Harris.
Kent
@WereBear:
And if Trump owns any car washes he could be Walter White.
Real estate is actually the perfect venue through which to launder money because they paperwork and disclosure requirements are so much less than with other businesses. As long as you pay your property taxes there are barely any. In some states you don’t even have to disclose sale prices. Even casinos have a lot more regulation than real estate because you have to have casino licenses and there are strict gaming laws.
NotMax
@Ksmiami
Hole up, Howard Hughes style, at an Adelson property in Macao?
Immanentize
@Uncle Cosmo: I’ve had that same thought. Does he think Keyser Söze will just let this go?
Jeffro
@Kent: Both Warren and Harris are more charismatic, and neither goes out of their way to try and constantly tout their bipartisan bonafides. They are effectively covering the left-leaning and moderate-leaning “lanes” (and as female Senators with higher profiles and/or from bigger states). Klobuchar is wasting her time here.
Immanentize
@NotMax:
Yes, but the Mormons will not protect him
Kent
@NotMax: Connect the dots. It’s Trump Hotel Turkey. That’s why the Kurds were sacrificed.
NotMax
@Immanentize
No corroboration but think one could count all the Mormons in Macao on one hand and have five fingers left over.
VOR
@Kent:
Trump doesn’t actually own Trump Towers Istanbul. A local Turkish real estate person owns it. Trump merely licensed his name and gets a licensing fee. Many “Trump” properties are similar, he doesn’t actually build that much.
Litlebritdifrnt
Don’t know if anyone has mentioned in the comments above but Twitler just threw Boris under the bus over the Dunn debacle. “Boris made me do it!”
NotMax
@Kent
Cut me some slack, was riffing off the mention of China.
Immanentize
@Jeffro:
Are there any recordings of Fred Trump? Boy would I love to help fund a Fred T AI that would be like Harry Mudd’s wife, Stella (at the end of the episode).
Jeffro
FWIW, preznit Swiss cheese brain is now blaming all this “corruption” on…Obama. Yes, how could we not have seen that the complete lack of scandals for 8 MF-in years was really the Greatest Scandal of All.
I hear that Strzok and Page met using a secret Obama-developed dating app for Deep State “lovers”
Also: THE SERVER is actually in the basement of the Obama Library, even though that has not been built yet, did y’all know that?
Immanentize
@NotMax: You ignore those on mission at your peril.
Jeffro
@Immanentize: None that I know of. I have been surprised along the way that none of his 2016 primary opponents, nor Hillary, nor any of his current enemies (Dem or GOP) have thought to bring up ol’ Fred as a way to send trumpov right the heck over the edge.
In a debate: “The way you constantly run people down instead of answering for your own behavior – did you learn that from Fred, trumpov?”
On the campaign trail: “I have no doubt that when trumpov’s taxes are eventually revealed, they’ll show fraud on an epic scale…just like he and his siblings committed with their dad, Fred trumpov”
And so on.
NotMax
@Immanentize
They’ll have to take a number, like anyone else. There’s a lo-o-ong line ahead of them.
:)
trollhattan
@Jeffro:
And under that basement, pizza and the sexytime slaves, doin’ it Chicago-style.
Kent
@VOR: From what I understand, he doesn’t actually own much of anything. It’s all either licensing deals like Turkey, or stuff actually owned by the banks like Deutsche Bank.
Still, there has to be something venal and transactional about the Turkey and Syria thing. That’s the only way Trump knows how to operate.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Schiff says the House is making a criminal referral on Erik Prince.
Jeffro
btw folks the ‘cream cheese sculpture’ himself is calling (in the WaPo op-ed page) on trumpov to refuse to participate in any debates, since…RWNJs don’t trust the media.
That’s right. The GOP has scrambled its own voters’ brains with propaganda for so long, and its leader has proclaimed anything negative about him to be “fake news”, so the result is…don’t participate in any debates hosted by the Commission on Presidential Debates. Only participate in ones that the RNC directly negotiates with the DNC on. Gee, I wonder what THOSE terms would look like?
NotMax
@Kent
Impulse power is of benefit in science fiction, in real life a terrible and dangerous way to govern.
Emerald
@Jeffro: The Obama Library and hence, the SERVER, are cleverly concealed in the nonexistent basement of that pizza parlor.
MattF
@Jeffro: Can’t decide whether Hugh’s just owning the libs or actually believes what he’s writing. Not that it matters.
LivingInExile
@Brachiator: Hey! Wait a minute. Not with me.
Yutsano
@Jeffro: I think more WOPR from “War Games”.
*SHALL WE PLAY A GAME?*
SRW1
@Hildebrand:
You’re possibly a generation or two early. But that’s definitely going to be how the current maladministration will be explained to our grand-kids.
trollhattan
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Oh please, oh please, oh please. Then get his sister in the dock.
The Moar You Know
@Jeffro: God doesn’t love America enough to spare us from this. OF COURSE Trump will do any debate he can, the only condition is that it be televised. More time stalking the stage, doing his best Mussolini “pouting from the balconies” imitation, yellin’ “LOCKERUP” and ranting about servers and whatever else his prion-infected brain can manage to puke out.
If we really luck out he’ll treat us to another soft-core pron rendition of the Strzok/Page texts.
He will do anything to be on national TV. Anything. That’s his drug, right there.
catclub
@WereBear:
I loved the title “The Sinister Pig” – which pig was actually an object (filled with drugs? cash?) that was shuttled in a pipeline across the border.
Mandalay
@Jeffro:
Well she’s not going to get the nomination, and she’s certainly not my cup of tea, but I’m not so sure that she’s wasting her time. She comes across as a very safe pair of hands, and will surely be offered a cabinet position if Trump loses.
I was surprised to see this from 2016:
Is that something worth bragging about, or is it like bragging about how many friends you have on Facebook?
Duane
@trollhattan: Trumpov knows what a server is. It’s the person who will hand him his arrest warrant.
sm*t cl*de
@Jeffro:
Trump never saw a jackboot he didn’t want to lick. The beaten child inside is coming to the surface as the dementia progresses. He’s desperate for Daddy affirmation.
catclub
@trollhattan:
really deep(state) dish, IYKWIM
dww44
@Kent: Does it say something about Klobouchar that many Republicans would like to see her get the nod? That they obviously view her as a safe Democratic nominee and one they could tolerate as President?
SFAW
@Jeffro:
If I were Marty Baron (or maybe it’s Jeff Bezos?), I’d tell the ambulatory cream cheese sculpture to have a great life working for OANN.
Yeah, Hugh, that’s great — the media shouldn’t be trusted. Fucking asshole.
Uncle Cosmo
@Immanentize: Cf. Stephen Hunter, The Second Saladin (1982), wherein the Kurd antihero sneaks into the US (illegally crossing the Mexican border!) intent on waxing a never-named former Secretary of State he blames for abandoning his people to the tender mercies of one Saddam Hussein years before.
Mnemosyne
@Kay:
I think that’s because the “centrists” are primarily embarrassed Republicans, not Democrats. They’d like to get back to reaping huge financial gains without all of the nasty bigotry attached, thank you.
catclub
@SFAW: It is still routine for both WAPO and NYT op-ed pages to host these RWNutjobs as if they had anything useful
to say. And while they rant against the liberal media establishment.
Kelly
@VOR:
I remain completely amazed that anyone would ever have wanted to license Trump’s name to anything. He’s always been tacky.
trollhattan
@catclub:
Sometimes I’m down for casserole-like pizza consumed with a fork (otherwise you’re handholdling lava) purists be damned. DeepState dish FTW!
trollhattan
@Kelly:
“I want my building plastered with Trump’s name. Did you know his daddy was arrested at a KKK rally? Winning!”
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax: Now that sandwich is even more disgusting.
Gin & Tonic
@trollhattan: If you want lasagna, order the fucking lasagna.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
so… um…. we bombed our own facility to prevent it from falling into the hands of… a NATO ally? am I reading that right?
mrmoshpotato
@Jeffro: No scandal! No scandal! You’re the scandal!
And everyone knows THE SERVER is under Giants Stadium next to Hoffa. Many peoples are saying this.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
stipulating that the Republican cult of Reagan is a set of childish delusions… the guy who handed our election process over to Russia is being compared to The Great Waver? The man who brought down the Soviet Union and the Berlin Wall with B-list studio actor affectations of gravitas?
Redshift
I was looking at Steve Benen’s story about Trump’s delusional blathering about Syria, and I was struck by his excuse for why we shouldn’t care about our recent allies getting slaughtered: “they’re no angels.”
Gee, where have I heard that before? Oh yeah, describing every black victim of a police shooting!
White supremacist asshole…
Mary G
OMFG:
We have a kindergartener for president. Every day there is more to be ashamed of.
Kent
Just watching CNN this afternoon while doing a little cooking.
The female anchors and commentators were really roasing Biden for his condescening comments to Warren when she was talking about the Consumer Protection Bureau. I mean really ripping him a new one. I guess this exchange really hit a sore spot with them. Especially the part where he says “you did a good job”
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/10/biden-snaps-at-warren-my-help-secured-your-signature-legislative-achievement/
It’s perspective I guess. I’m a guy and I didn’t really pick it up the first time around. But they were infuriated.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@mrmoshpotato: it occurred to me that bringing up HRC”s server is a “no puppet, no puppet, YOU’RE the puppet!”. Since people are talking about trump’s phone calls with foreign leaders being hidden on a top secret server, he’s preparing the whataboutism for the anti-anti-trump crowd, to give Collins and Gardner talking points.
Live report from the White House, via MSNBC: Pelosi and Hoyer and Schumer just walked out of a meeting with trump after he called Pelosi a third rate politician and communist sympathizer.
mrmoshpotato
@trollhattan:
LOL What?
Mnemosyne
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Looks like someone in command is aware that the Russians will be scouring the base for every scrap of information they can find and wanted to forestall what happened to the other base that the Russians put footage of up on social media.
Mary G
Got put into moderration, so I’ve taken some links out of this tweet:
We have a kindergartener for president. Every day there is more to be ashamed of.
catclub
@Kelly:
Newt Gingrich – stupid person’s idea of a smart politician
Donald Trump – stupid person’s idea of a rich playboy-politician
rikyrah
@Mary G:
THAT wasn’t a joke?
It wasn’t The Onion?
mrmoshpotato
@Gin & Tonic: You want some cheese with that whine? :)
NotMax
@Mary G
Kindergartener who flunked out and was held back. Multiple times.
Immanentize
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Is that walk out real? Or great snark?
Communist sympathizer? What communists? The only ones left really are China and North Korea and I think I know who sympathises most with them
mrmoshpotato
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Makes sense.
Ummmm….what the crazypants?
Immanentize
The Trump kids — at least the smart one, Ivanka — must be wondering how to get out of this mess, and get their father out of the Whitehouse, all the while keeping their loot.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Immanentize: I always said Ivanka married Jared cause she knew the truth about his father’s books, and hers.
Immanentize
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: It is kind of a crime family planned marriage to make some street peace or maybe a big deal. Or maybe I’ve been watching Wu Assassin too much?
Gin & Tonic
@mrmoshpotato: Hey, I love lasagna. I love pizza, too. But they’re different things.
Redshift
@Gin & Tonic: Lasagna doesn’t have that crust. Mmmmm…
mrmoshpotato
@Redshift: Mmmmm…..that salty, crispy yet chewy crust.
Mnemosyne
@Immanentize:
I think that Vietnam is still an officially Communist country, too. Or maybe he’s accusing her of being too sympathetic towards Cuba. ?
There ain’t many communist countries left, that’s for sure.
sm*t cl*de
@Mnemosyne:
And Laos!
The Lodger
@Mnemosyne: Save your blood pressure trying to assign meaning to this shit. T is just tossing word grenades at this point.