I think I had a breakthrough with Pete the Puppy on the potty-training front today. It’s the same breakthrough I’ve had with all the dogs I’ve trained (a total of five, including Pete): when they learn to bark at the door to request to be let out. I’ll probably still have a few stray puddles to mop up and an errant turd or two to flush before we’re 100% there, but it’s a big day.
Speaking of bothersome turds, I was reading something a while ago about the NY AG’s investigation into Trump’s business practices. From the Associated Press:
The New York attorney general says her investigators have uncovered evidence that former President Donald Trump’s company used “fraudulent or misleading” valuations of its golf clubs, skyscrapers and other property to get loans and tax benefits.
Basically, the investigators are saying he inflated the value of assets when angling for loans and cried poor when the tax man came around. Is there anyone, friend or foe, who doubts that Trump did exactly that? At every opportunity? That impulse — to inflate or deflate assets to maximize his personal advantage — is who he is at his core.
An analysis of his every utterance, by turns braggadocious or self-pitying, would find the same principle underlying all. (Well, maybe not lunch orders and such, but everything else, including the three marriage proposals.)
Anyhoo, open thread.
PS: Looks like folks were working on posts in the backroom, and if that’s you, please feel free to squash this post immediately. But the old thread is getting way long, so I’m setting out a new sandbox.
SiubhanDuinne
Pete is a good boy, the BEST BOY, yes he is!
alhutch
What a super cute photo of Pete & Badger!
SiubhanDuinne
Hoping we’ll have a post where we can liveblog Biden’s press conference, and point and laugh at the stupidity of the Washington Press Corpse. (Presser scheduled to begin at 4:00 EST, but “scheduled” may be doing a bunch of heavy lifting there).
MazeDancer
Watching and listening to the Senate debate on voting rights, really makes one support return to the talking filibuster.
Of course, I mute most of the GOP.
But Cory Booker was on fire. Patty Murray, who came up after wimpy Lisa Murkowski was forceful.
Where to watch: https://www.senate.gov/legislative/floor_activity_pail.htm
Baud
Butt pillows!
Nicole
Congrats on the housetraining breakthrough! Good job, Pete; we’re all proud of you.
Hardly surprising about Trump; the question will be if James can prove it. Awful lot of rich NYers do exactly the same.
SiubhanDuinne
@alhutch:
Oh, it’s adorable (it hadn’t loaded yet when I made earlier comments, or for sure I would have squeeeed loudly).
Gravenstone
That’s essentially what Michael Cohen was telling anyone and everyone who would listen a couple of years ago. So yeah, absolutely no surprise that Trump and the Trumplings continue to lie, cheat and steal for their own self enrichment.
Omnes Omnibus
@MazeDancer: Whitehouse is putting forward a grind it out strategy that could get voting rights past a filibuster.
Suzanne
WTG PETE!!!
Covid test is NEGATIVE, I just have the same sore throat that I have for about 25% of the time.
Baud
@Omnes Omnibus:
That’s news to me.
RaflW
Have folks seen Amy Klobuchar just goin’ at it on mail in voting? She’s really, really stepped up compared to a couple of years ago. That she has sharpened her elbows this much (she used to be quite cautious) tells me she grasps how knife-edge our politics are right now
I’d like to know who the reporter is that she shut down for interrupting, too.
RaflW
@Nicole: Oh, would Donald end up ruining it for the other rich tax cheats? How sad.
Soprano2
Well, I’m doing stuff that’s incidental because our main database has been down since around 8:30 due to an update they installed yesterday. Evidently they patch it all the time to fix things, then when an update is pushed by the company that maintains our database it gets rid of the patches, which soon shows up. The woman who runs it assures me that they test it, but that must be a lie, because if they tested it why has it been down most of the day???!!!! If I didn’t have this to do I might as well take a vacation day. Guess I could clean my office, that would take about an hour or so. Aaaarrrggghhhh……..
trollhattan
Pretty dang cute doggie bundle, there. Housetraining seems a very on/off thing, once they get it, they get it. Although I suspect the bladder sometimes can sneak up on them while they’re still growing.
We were super lucky with our current doggie and from bringing him home at ten weeks, he had very few accidents and none at all after a couple of weeks.
That left more time for clothing theft and destruction.
MazeDancer
@Omnes Omnibus: Saw that and was impressed.
But the media will cover the weeks as Dems trying to cheat or being too boring or whatever the GOP wants them to say.
And Sinema and Manchin won’t go for it anyway. And Murkowski will pout her Why Can’t We All Get Along trope like she did today.
trollhattan
Assholes gonna asshole.
Steeplejack (phone)
Pooch pic—aww!
“Speaking of bothersome turds . . .” Nice segue!
jonas
How is it that someone like Trump gets to basically tell the tax board or a bank how much he “feels” his property is worth? Don’t these institutions have impartial appraisers that do that sort of thing (or at least take an average between Trump’s appraisal and that of an outside professional)? When I got a HELOC, I wasn’t allowed to tell the bank “Oh, sure, yeah, my place is totally worth a million dollars!” and walk away with a huge loan. But I don’t have what they call a “private banking relationship”, either. I guess that’s the difference.
Soprano2
@Suzanne: Yay! That’s such a sense of relief, isn’t it?
JCJ
@alhutch:
I am not a dog person, but that picture is totes adorbs.
Omnes Omnibus
@RaflW: I think Klobuchar also knows that she had her shot at the presidency and didn’t make it. Sometimes it is good for a senator to have that ambition snuffed out. They focus on their job as a senator without worrying about how it will affect their presidential chances down the road. Ted Kennedy didn’t become the Lion of the Senate until after 1980.
John S.
@MazeDancer:
Sinema will be looking for the first opportunity to strut around with her little backpack on and give a thumbs down. That’s her “brand”.
But that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t play hardball and move forward with the plan to exhaust Republicans with arcane procedures.
Gravenstone
@trollhattan: Nice of them to say in advance that they no longer wish to participate in the business of the committee. The Select Committee is showing how well things can be done in the absence of Republican obstructionists. Let’s spread that throughout the House.
Betty Cracker
@Omnes Omnibus: Interesting. I interpreted the same data as evidence she’ll make another run, but who knows.
SiubhanDuinne
@trollhattan:
If we run out of questions for Mr. Schiff tonight (fat chance!), we could ask him to expound on this. //s
Comrade Colette
Taco bowl, anyone?
catclub
@Gravenstone:
Of course, this is what I bet a very large number of businessmen do, as well. The key point is not to get noticed by the prosecutors. Doing it, and then running for president so it gets noticed is trumps special touch. Trump had been doing this for 40 years and it was ignored.
ETA: As a similar crime that very many people do ( i am certain statute of lims has run out for me. ha!)
is get a loan/gift from parents that never gets mentioned on mortgage applications.
WereBear
@Omnes Omnibus: that sounds thrillingly possible. And now it’s Out There.
stinger
Badger and Pete — so cute!
Mallard Filmore
@trollhattan:
Go forth and kill. It’s what White Jesus wants.
eclare
Such a cute photo! Much needed on a rainy Wednesday.
stinger
@MazeDancer: Thanks for the link. Per the comments here, I may have missed some good stuff already. I’ll go back and watch the earlier part of this debate when it’s all over.
MazeDancer
The juxtaposition of the fire and vitriol of the Senate debate to Mr. Biden’s solid, strong competency at his opening remarks right now continues to make me think his approval ratings are lower because of his calm.
He earnestly cares. He has given the US the best economy in the world. He keeps trying to save the GOP from genocide.
But his lack of fireworks make people think he isn’t trying.
Baud
@MazeDancer:
Meh. If our side is addicted to performance art, we shouldn’t be in power.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
Right wing media is all negative all the time when a Dem is in office and the opposite when a GOPer is. Left wing media is negative most of the time, regardless of who is in office. The MSM is sometimes negative and sometimes positive. There is nothing at all a Democrat can do to overcome that asymmetry.
narya
@catclub: My sense of this is that everyone does it, and auditors know this, but you have to keep it w/in reasonable limits, and his stuff flies WAY past those limits. You can push it a little and they’ll roll their eyes, but it’s too expensive to go after you, whereas this is so wildly full of shit that it’s a ripe target.
Baud
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony:
Agree.
MazeDancer
@Baud: Not talking about true blue Dems
stinger
Dear Sen. Fischer (R-NE), you don’t have any “Democrat colleagues”. And yes, the last election had record turnout — and Republican legislatures across the country are doing their best to prevent that from happening again.
Edited to fix her title.
Miss Bianca
Badger and Pete
My life is complete
In other news, I’m listening to our public health director waffling on and on about COVID statistics for the county. Dude is clueless.
Suzanne
@Soprano2: Yes, trying very hard to keep this away from the Spawns!
stinger
Geez, I’m basically just in time to hear Manchin declare that his right not to vote in the Senate overrides my right to vote in elections.
Nutmeg again
Hard to believe either of those cuties ever defaced your living quarters!
debbie
The Ying/Yang of Doggie!
Feathers
@jonas: You don’t have enough property to make it worth a shady appraiser’s time to make a bogus valuation. Appraisers often have relationships with real estate agents, who can push business their way if they like the numbers they get.
Mallard Filmore
Apparently, voting is an evil left wing conspiracy.
RaflW
@Omnes Omnibus: I do think that plays a role. I also think Tina Smith getting re-elected let Amy know that MN is not the risky purple state that pundits still kinda sorta try to claim it is, and that she can go after issues with more gusto and stay in office.
HeleninEire
Late to the thread. Just wanna say I love me some Badger and Pete. ❤
J R in WV
Our older dogs appear to help teach new/young pups about things. We watched our first dog show “her” pup how to jump into the back seat, she jumped in and out three times, walked away looking at her pup like “Now you do it!” and she did, with much ear scritching.
Our newest dogs grew up in a barn yard with a herd of goats. They didn’t know to bark to come into the house… didn’t know dogs were allowed in houses! But they also didn’t need any toilet training, have never had an accident in the house.
Once, the bigger boy was very anxious to get out, I forget why but we had a reason to be keeping him in, after several attempts to get us to open the door for him, he drained some because he couldn’t hold it any more, and was mortified. We were apologetic, and let him out promptly now.
==================== ======= =====================
It looks to me that President Biden has spent longer responding to real questions already than TFG did in his whole 4 year term. Calm and reasoned answers to all the questions, even when the reporter has a heavy accent.
TFG wouldn’t let a foreign looking reporter ask any questions, ever… if he made a mistake and called on one by accident, he would cut them off and give an inappropriate nonsense answer. Biden won’t do that, ever. Because he’s a real President, not an imposter like TFG.
TheronWare
Great pic of Pete and his packmate – yay!
Shana
@RaflW: You have to wonder why banks didn’t automatically check the tax records when doing their due dilligence over every loan application they’ve ever received. And why taxing authorities did’t routinely check with loan documents when they were inevitably challenged on their tax assessments
Given the hoops we ordinary folks have to jump through you’d think it would have been a routine task for the “big guys”.
Mike in Pasadena
@RaflW: That video of Klobuchar was worth every second. She was good! Thanks for posting the link.
sab
@MazeDancer: An hour of David Axelrod et al on MSNBCbefore his speech telling us he isn’t trying doesn’t help.
Mike in Pasadena
@trollhattan: Rethuglicans will not comply. . .
Color me unsurprised.
RaflW
@Shana: Most of Tr*mps shitty loans were written when any old schlub could get a liar loan. Heck, we had an entire financial crisis over it.
Loan underwriting standards have improved post-2008. Though once one is rich enough, ‘stated income’ has I believe made a comeback.
Kalakal
Just seen this. heh
https://www.baynews9.com/all-boroughs/news/2022/01/19/supreme-court-trump-records-january-6?firebaseString=true&cid=app_share
UncleEbeneezer
I’m so over all the Twitter Leftists purposely taking Biden’s “I had no idea…” statement literally and in bad faith as if they have no idea what he was actually saying with that statement. As if politicians don’t use rhetoric and turns of phrases to make a point. Ugh…I fucking hate people who pull that bullshit.
Also irritated that watching The Australian Open is so damn complicated because ESPN wants to only show daytime/live coverage on ESPN+, not on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3 etc. In addition to the crazy time zone challenges, watching tennis has become really complicated, every year since different channels buy the rights to footage and many of them split coverage between their cable channels and online apps.
On the upside, feeling better today and got an easy PCR test for Covid which I should get results for in 72 hrs.