A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon you are talking about real money!
New court filing: Trump's net worth was inflated by billions *more* than what the New York AG's office initially found.
Citing an extensive new analysis, James' office found Trump's net worth in any given year between 2011 and 2021 was overstated by $1.9 billion to $3.6 billion.
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) September 8, 2023
Totally open thread!
Sister Golden Bear
But who’s counting?
Jesse
Itbh this doesn’t interest me. I thought it was sort of understood that Trump’s net worth isn’t even possibly close to what he claims it is (don’t know and do t care about any particular number). And if Trump did have big bucks at one point, the working assumption is that it’s crooked money and rests on low wages, non-payment of bills, etc. and with the Russia thing, yet another working assumption is that he’s just being paid by Putin.
MattF
The big question, needless to say, is whether TFG’s net worth is greater than zero. The over/under wager in this case takes on metaphysical implications.
Scout211
And also, the trial will last 3 months. It’s not like he’s busy doing thing else right now, right? LOL Link
Added, the pre-trial Trump org. defense in the court of public opinion and social media (which is his usual pre-trial protocol):
Bill Arnold
Interesting. Mainly because it will absolutely get D.J. Trump extremely riled up, since his sense of self is so tied to his sense of wealth. He believes that the worth of a person is highly correlated with their financial net worth, so she is insulting his worth.
I wonder if he will be making demands to his lawyers to sue her.
trollhattan
And he only claimed $1.8 billion. Hey-ohh! {rimshot}
Michelle Wolf’s WHCD monologue remains the best summation of Trump I’ve ever seen, and boy did she drill into the Trump is broke meme.
Mr. Bemused Senior
Reminder: The Vanity Fair article with the report of Eric Trump [he denied it]
Don Jr., in 2008
cain
We’re gonna have to change our seasons
spring, summer, FAFO, winter
Old School
@Scout211:
His schedule is probably pretty open during that time frame. The primaries aren’t until next year.
VOR
In related news, water is wet and the Pope is Catholic. But this is important because the legend of Trump’s wealth is part of the attraction for his cult. Showing he is lying about money might be one of the few things which could break the myth.
smith
@MattF: As long as the Goobers keep sending him their Social Security, he will be able to pay the bills. On the other hand, there are rumors that the reason the DC grand jury is still meeting is to consider wire fraud charges against him due to his fundraising on the Big Lie. As I understand it, if found guilty on that, he might have to pay those donors back.
Sister Golden Bear
In this week’s #TransGenocide news…
Slate looks at the human impact of Florida’s ban on trans healthcare, which is forcing people to detransition by law—forcing trans people not to exist as trans people.
Erin in the Morning dives into how anti-trans bigots are only able to keep producing the same handful of de-transitioners, despite claims — mindlessly repeated by the media — that up to 80% to 90% trans people de-transition. (Narrator voice: The vast majority of the estimated 1% of trans people who de-transition do it not because of regret, but due to life circumstances, e.g. extreme job discrimination, trying to save a relationship, etc.)
cain
@Old School: But boy, he’s gonna start the year kinda poor.
trollhattan
Since it’s an open thread, here’s what a fight over homeless response looks like, as conducted between the city attorney and the county prosecutor.
https://sacramentocityexpress.com/2023/09/08/city-attorney-provides-point-by-point-response-to-county-das-letter-regarding-homelessness/
bbleh
So this is a CIVIL suit, so he DOESN’T have to be present in court, right? But what about the criminal trials, of which I think it’s safe to presume there will be more than one? Does he have to be there EVERY DAY? Won’t that really interfere with his tee times and Nuremberg Rallies and so on?
@VOR: the Cult will NEVER not believe he’s fabulously wealthy. For one thing, this is all a Hoax and a Witch Hunt. And for another, they all watched The Apprentice, and that was on for years so it’s gotta be true!
UncleEbeneezer
@Sister Golden Bear: He “tells it like it is.”
WaterGirl
@Jesse: It interests me because it will be humiliating for Trump.
Plus, I have to believe that at some point, some lie will tip a certain percentage of his voters. Maybe this one will tip the ones who believe he’s a good ::choke:: businessman.
WaterGirl
@Jesse: And, it’s an open thread, so feel free to talk about whatever it is that does interest you.
jonas
In the deposition he gave in this case, PAB’s response to all of this was “Sure I give bullshit inflated numbers when talking about my properties. So what?” Supposedly when the Trump Org applied for loans and stuff, there was always a disclaimer saying to disregard any valuations given on the forms.
So this raises the question: either banks just took for granted that the Trump Org *always* lied about its valuations and just did their own due diligence as a matter of course and didn’t say anything because they made a lot of money off him, or Trump had insider loan officers at various banks whom he knew would look the other way.
trollhattan
Schiff and Porter effectively tied in race for senate seat. Too far away to get into the weeds with this, just yet.
Was Steve Garvey a baseball player?
Quaker in a Basement
The questions not answered in that short tweet are crucial: Overstated to whom? And to what end? This trial is going to get deep in the weeds quickly.
Gravenstone
@trollhattan: Yes, former San Diego Padre and LA Dodger most famously. More than a bit of a preening ass, too. But I guess that’s to be expected as a Republican.
Quaker in a Basement
@trollhattan: Shiff and Porter would both make fine senators. Porter would be my choice if I was voting in CA. She seems a bit more focused on actual governance, even when the subject matter doesn’t give her a chance to jump in front of a TV camera.
Scout211
@Old School: You’re probably right, but I am hoping that Judge McAfee goes along with Fani Willis’ plan to try all the conspirators as a group on October 23rd for the RICO charges. One can dream.
VOR
@bbleh: Sadly true. I had a conversation with a colleague who claimed Trump was constantly donating to charity and anonymously paying people’s medical bills. He brought up the trip to the train derailment where Trump brought cases of branded water bottles. That very day there was an incident where Trump was in a restaurant, promised to pay for everyone’s meals, and then left without paying. He didn’t believe me because Fox News wasn’t covering the story.
Anoniminous
Ninja’ed.
JPL
@jonas: I still wonder if this is tied to Kennedy’s retirement.
This was from law and crime
The son of former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy helped Donald Trump in 2005 secure nearly $700 million in loans to construct a skyscraper in Chicago, despite Trump’s reputation for defaulting on business loans, the New York Times reported on Tuesday evening.
jonas
@Sister Golden Bear: Thanks for posting this. I noticed this too early on as conservatives started to gin up this whole trans panic bullshit — they keep trotting out the same one or two de-transitioners while claiming that it’s “just the tip of the iceberg” or something. There’s no there there, and even if a very small number of people detransition for whatever reason, that’s not an argument against the many thousands who have been helped immeasurably — even whose lives have been saved — by access to gender-affirming care.
Sister Golden Bear
@Sister Golden Bear:
Brynn Tannehill discusses a new randomized clinical trial that finds that the treatment group receiving trans healthcare saw a 55% reduction in suicidality, compared to 5% of the control group.
It’s the latest in a line of studies finding trans healthcare saves lives. (Almost none are randomized control trials — as are 90% of medical studies — because the effects of hormones become physically apparently after only a few months.) The anti-trans “journalists” who have spent years asking for this type of study will be shifting the goalposts shortly, just have to get their talking points in order over the group chat. A NYT debunking is six months out.
It looks like the epidemic of bomb threats across the U.S., targeting the LGBTQ community, is being done by a troll farm in Nigeria. There is a strong possibility that this is being sponsored by a nation state such as Russia.
smith
@jonas: There were perhaps three such insiders at Deutsche Bank, it seems likely, and I’d not be at all surprised to learn there were others at other banks
lowtechcyclist
@WaterGirl:
OK, but what’s the connection to the NY civil suit? Why is this a court filing? Connect some dots here?
wjca
“Alas, due to a (very carefully timed) computer crash, all records of who donated and how much have been lost. So we can’t pay them back, and will have to just keep the money.”
schrodingers_cat
Infinity + 1 is also infinity.
Scout211
@Quaker in a Basement: I am just thrilled with the wonderful candidates we will have for Senate in 2024. I look forward to the California jackals here agreeing and disagreeing with each other before the primary next year. There are quite a few of us on board here and we are not likely to agree with each other until the primary is over.
On the other hand, not even then. The top two will likely be Schiff and Porter, so we will have another 8 months to argue about it. Sweet!
At this early point, my vote is for Schiff, but I could be persuaded.
Steeplejack
@MattF:
Yeah, I’d like to know what is Trump’s actual (i.e., estimated) net worth, not the relative amount overstated. My net worth could be overstated by a billion or two, but (trust me!) that’s not really accurate.
jonas
Again, this was schtick from The Apprentice. People still think that was a “reality” show. Remember how a lot of the challenges were about fundraising or marketing for some charity he was supposedly working with or something? Made him look like this big philanthropist. It was all bullshit. Not only did he never willingly give a dime to anything in his life, as we all know, the one family charitable foundation he was running was shut down because it was a massive fraud.
smith
@wjca: Might work better than flooding the basement, as long as their IT guy doesn’t flip.
WaterGirl
@Quaker in a Basement: Wow, I hold the opposite view! I think Porter is better suited to the House, I think Schiff has 10x the gravitas, which I think suits him for the senate.
I think Schiff is WAY more substantive than Porter.
Plus, Porter’s House seat staying D is not a sure thing by any stretch of the imagination.
Kelly
@cain: I thought our 5 Oregon seasons were winter, spring, summer, smoke and fall
trollhattan
@JPL:
A damn good and as yet unanswered question. Here’s hoping the newfound focus on SCOTUS Griftocracy tosses a net large enough to snag Kennedy with the other skells.
WaterGirl
@schrodingers_cat: Ha ha ha. But infinity minus one would not be infinity, correct?
...now I try to be amused
@smith: Actually, I don’t want Trump’s marks to get their money back. They’d only waste it on other charlatans, some of whom might be effective GOP politicians or PACs.
smith
@Kelly: In the Midwest, we have only two: winter and road repair.
wjca
@smith: it wouldn’t be that surprising if all the records which existed in the first place were of who the
marks/suckersreliable donors were. Why keep track of unimportant details like how much they donated? (Except maybe the whales.)Kelly
@WaterGirl: Nope still infinity
Sister Golden Bear
@Sister Golden Bear:
Scariest of all, right wing thinkers at the Heritage Foundation are circulating a 920-page blueprint for the next president (full PDF here), which chillingly includes having the next president declare the mere existence of trans people pornographic.
Step 1 is reclassify all gender nonconformity as porn.
Step 2 is ban all porn.
They put it quite vividly: declare any trans content to be porn, imprison those who make it , put teachers who discuss it on the sex offender registry, and force companies that host it to close (Youtube, Xitter, Meta, Reddit, and Tumblr).
These are not cranks, this is the Republican policy establishment.
Jay
also posted down thread,
https://nitter.net/JuliaDavisNews/status/1700144796277301737#m
smith
@…now I try to be amused: Don’t worry, he won’t pay it back. That’s when he’ll suddenly realize he has no assets, and then fundraise on the totally non-fraudulent grounds that he’s broke. The grift goes on forever.
Old School
@lowtechcyclist:
The New York lawsuit is that Trump fraudulently misstated the value of his assets in financial statements while conducting his business there.
This filing says that the financial statements were off even more than initially thought.
trollhattan
I’m not going to dig up those Country Joe & the Fish albums just yet.
Jay
@Kelly:
in BC the past decade, it’s been winter, floods and smoke.
The forecast for late 2023 well into 2024 is drought and smoke.
MattF
@jonas: See David Fahrenthold’s work at WaPo. He tracked down Trump’s claims of charitable donations in specific and gruesome detail and came to the consistent conclusion that the actual donated amount was ZERO in pretty much every case. Fahrenthold now works for the NYT.
Elizabelle
I really would like to see DOJ and states’ AGs go after the corruption. It seems that Trump’s disputed “wealth” is based on money laundering.
And I would bet there is a lot more out there, not just about Trump. Tinfoil hat time for me, but the FTF NY Times is always crowing about its increase of subscribers. Really? Could they be another real estate empire that is propped up by a newspaper?
And the state GOP organizations that find themselves bereft of funds, now that the US has cut off foreign funding — ie. Russian — inflow.
Go after the corruption, and make these fuckers pay a fair share of taxes. (Personally, I am good with Eisenhower era rates for the billionaires, high millionaires and C suite corporate pirates. They have bought our government, and private equity is preying on everything it can. Homes, apartment buildings, nursing homes and assisted living, healthcare.)
trollhattan
@smith: Pat Robertson [still dead!] never stopped collecting from the rubes and I’m guessing figured a way to take some with him to the grave, too.
HumboldtBlue
@Scout211:
Only the best dollars for Donnie, perfect dollars, and clauses.
JaySinWA
@schrodingers_cat: But some infinities are bigger than others.
M31
@Kelly: lol infinity is really messed up
my fave infinity joke is about the hotel with an infinite number of rooms, all full, and another guest shows up, so they move the person from room 1 into 2, and 2 into 3, and it’s fine — 1 is now empty so the extra person has a room
THEN an infinite number of new guests show up, so they move the person from room 1 into room 2, and 2 into room 4, and 3 into room 6, etc. This frees up all the odd numbered rooms, so the infinity new guests have rooms now, *phew
lowtechcyclist
@Old School:
That still isn’t much context. With four different sets of criminal indictments, I’ll confess I’ve lost track of what this civil suit was all about. Who is suing him? How were they allegedly victimized by his false financial statements?
MattF
@JaySinWA: Yes, and there’s a big difference between ordinal and cardinal infinities.
trollhattan
@Jay: El Nino on deck.
Historically, El Nino brings rain to the southern Pacific coast, and dry to the north. There are other oscillations involved and it’s too early to do anything more than speculate.
CA reservoirs are still in good shape from last season’s bounty, so a dry year won’t put us in dire straits but we won’t skip fire season, either.
Old School
@lowtechcyclist:
Alison Rose
@lowtechcyclist: It was brought by the NY AG because by inflating his assets/worth, the Trump Org was able to get loans and other things through fraudulent means — presumably, loans that would not have been given if the financials had been presented accurately.
Geminid
@WaterGirl: That horse is out of the barn. Porter is committed to the Senate race and her district’s Democrats will have to defend the seat without her. They ought to be able to come up with a good candidate, and a Presidential year electorate should be more favorable to them than the midterm bunch who reelected Porter by 2 or 3 points. The guy she beat is running again.
There is a similar situation in my Congressional District, where incumbent Abigail Spanberger has let Democrats know she will forgo a reelection race in order to concentrate on a run for Governor in 2025. Like Porter, Spanberger flipped a Republican seat in 2018. She’s a perfect fit for the 7th CD, but the way I see it, Spanberger has paid her dues and done the work and its time for district Democrats to do ours.
She’ll be a strong candidate for Governor and will make a very good one, I think. Spanberger would be the “Old Dominion’s” first female Governor. And she’d finish her term January, 2030, just in time to run for Tim Kaine’s Senate seat. Both Kaine and Mark Warner were Governors before they were Senators.
Jay
@trollhattan:
normally, here, in a bad fire season, (and this is the worst ever recorded, and more fires starting), we count on winter to put out the worst of the fires.
Not going to happen this year, several of the fires are predicted to keep burning through the winter and spring, but might be in a condition to be put out next summer, if conditions are right for fire crews.
HumboldtBlue
@trollhattan:
Yes, for the Dodgers in the 70s and 80s, he’s always been a prick.
snoey
@smith: The FTNYT article doesn’t say that Deutsche Bank loaned Trump the money, it says that DB brokered loans for unspecified clients looking for high risk/reward investments.
If legitimate, Trump was paying through the nose for the money.
Money laundering and payoffs are other possibilities.
boatboy_srq
Billionaire’sMillionaire’sThousandaire’s valuation at last approaching accurate.mrmoshpotato
@Jesse:
Yeah. Isn’t it common knowledge that the orange shitstain is also a decades-long conman?
smith
@Alison Rose: And at the same time low-balling the values of those properties to avoid tax liability.
Dan B
@Sister Golden Bear: It’s an awful feeling to be targeted by a country like Russia for being LGBT+. When I was in Gay Liberation in the early 70’s we thought this would happen to us, and it did -Mafia and Vice Squad – but it wasn’t an entire country.
M31
amazing how the news that Trump’s fraud was billions of dollars larger than previous reports seems like such small fry
I mean, I guess in contrast to “attempted violent overthrow of the the results of a legitimate election” good old fashioned NYC real estate sleazebag fraud seems kind of quaint
Jeffro
@cain: <snort>
”ah yes, FAFO, when the leaves are turning…and so are the ex-president’s staffers…”
nonrev
No American Bank and now no foreign bank will loan him a dime to keep his decades long con game going. This is a clear sign he’s in financial trouble. Not totally unexpected though
Alison Rose
@HumboldtBlue: <Giants Fan>Well, if he played for the Dodgers, being a prick is a given.</Giants Fan> ;)
mrmoshpotato
@MattF:
Is that before or after he pays his debts to the Russkis?
jonas
@Steeplejack: Whatever it is, it’s definitely getting smaller. Commercial real estate is tanking, esp. in NYC. Whatever banks or investors have been propping Trump up over the past couple of years had better have some soap on hand, ’cause it’s bath time.
I don’t think his usual routine of declaring bankruptcy, walking away from the mess, and then restarting the grift with some different marks is going to work this time. Especially if he’s busy commuting between three or more courtrooms at the time.
Alison Rose
@Sister Golden Bear: Yeah, I’d guess that if transphobia didn’t exist, detransitioning would be even rarer. The bigots create a problem and then blame the target of their hatred for it.
M31
maybe some of Dark Brandon’s 30,000-strong IRS army could focus on NYC real estate sleazebag fraud, I bet there’s good pickings there
Jeffro
@Geminid: Spanberger will indeed ROCK as Governor and I look forward to donating to/volunteering for that camapaign!
M31
that is brilliant
some Category 5 FAFO is overdue this season
Scout211
I thought those were payments for services rendered.
Jeffro
@mrmoshpotato: yes on the ‘common knowledge he’s a con man’ thing…even his supporters know that, and they don’t care.
They won’t care when it comes out that he’s broke.
But some of them might care if/when it comes out that he’s been bankrolled by Vlad for a long time and laundering money for the Russian mob. Not many, but some.
...now I try to be amused
@boatboy_srq:
When Trump is down to his last dollar, will be a Derriaire?
Geminid
@Jeffro: I was happy to see that Spanberger will run for Governor. Seventh District Democrats will come up with a good candidate to take her place.
HumboldtBlue
@JPL:
Of course it is.
smith
@nonrev: You’d think he’d have long ago been written off as an unacceptable credit risk, but they kept giving him money. It’s a shame he won’t be testifying in this trial, judging from this bit of comedy from his deposition:
The bankers just couldn’t give him enough money. They had tears in their eyes, and said, “Sir…”
wjca
But…but… Those tax rates were confiscatory! And would result in totally trashing the economy! Just look at how bad it was then! . . . Oh, wait, the 1950s was the Golden Age, wasn’t it?
/snark
Fair Economist
@trollhattan: Schiff vs. Porter would be an interesting general.
wjca
It will be soooo amusing to discover that my net worth exceeds Trump’s.
ColoradoGuy
TFG has been an asset for the Russian mob a long time.
lowtechcyclist
@M31:
And if you think infinity is messed up on account of that, that’s just countably infinite that we’re talking about here – the easiest-to-understand kind of infinity.
An infinite set is countably infinite if it can be put into 1-to-1 correspondence with the ‘counting numbers’ – 1,2,3,… And it’s uncountable if it can’t.
For instance, the rational numbers are countably infinite, but the real numbers are uncountable.
As @JaySinWA: says,
And uncountably infinite sets are bigger than countably infinite sets, which I’m sure is the sort of thing Jay had in mind. There are bigger infinities still, but I’m just as happy to stay away from those fuckers.
trollhattan
@wjca:
Yeah, when you press a MAGA on “great” to define what we’re again-ing, they end at the ’50s. Certain Southerners I suspect are thinking the 1850s but they’re a special bunch.
Ike’s tax tables? You’d need to fiddle for inflation but yes, let’s.
wjca
Well, sure. But if he was a prick compared to other Dodgers, that’s gotta be next level.
Alison Rose
@WaterGirl: I have to agree. I like Porter in general and I’d certainly have no issue with her as one of my senators, but the white board thing wore thin a long time ago (I don’t know if she still does it) and it sort of feels like she thinks she should run for the Senate because of some clips of her with the white board going viral. I don’t doubt that she is smart and capable, but I think the House makes more sense for her, as it does for many.
Scout211
Big Pharma has filed their appeal to SCOTUS to overturn the appellate court ruling on mifepristone. Link
. . .
This definitely is a big effing deal. They filed early to make sure the court rules on the case in by next summer.
patrick II
@WaterGirl: Not just humiliating, but perhaps it will cause him real trouble paying for lawyers himself. He has been using contributions so far but that gambit may be stymied by a possible fraud indictment. Maybe he’ll be selling Trump steaks again.
Geminid
@Jeffro: I’ve run into some anti-Trump, pro-Ukraine Republicans whlie searching Ukraine Twitter. One is Randy Mott, who is a board member of the George S. Patton Foundation-Poland Division and tweets from Warsaw. Mott* is harshly scornful of “Magats” and Republican tankies. Right now he has a good thread pinned to the top of his Twitter account titled, “How did Tucker Carlson become a Russia TV star?”
* Not to be confused with the GM executive. This Randy Mott is a retired Army Reserve Officer and tweets as @randymot4.
lamh36
Lordt…literally just now have time to get online after a long half workday and trying to get my things together for my LA trip tomorrow, but
@WaterGirl. I responded to your comment on the previous thread about the OTR posts.
If you didn’t see that comment, just email me and I’ll def try to send some pics thru for a post or even two.
The fam and I went to Italy last year for my birthday (Milan, Venice, Florence, Rome) and this past May we went to Tokyo cause I wanted to and they tagged along. I can def submit pics galore!
trollhattan
@Alison Rose: When I ponder which I’d like to see on Judiciary, Schiff would get my nod.
It’s a full reset, though, so California will have two baby senators for a good while, based on seniority.
Baud
@smith:
https://youtu.be/l_LeJfn_qW0?si=L9CSdf4P8bRJpjOP&t=213
HumboldtBlue
@Jeffro:
Perfect.
@ColoradoGuy:
Yeah he has, they say it goes back at least 40 years.
WaterGirl
@lamh36: Wow, Italy and more! I will go check out your comment in the previous thread.
lollipopguild
@Jeffro: They know exactly what he is and they still defend him and compliment him.
Nelle
@WaterGirl: A guy on the next stationary bike at the gym was yammering on his phone. Strike one. Then he said, “I’m just a Trump guy. I was in banking and he’s such a good businessman. And I want integrity. That’s what Trump has. Integrity.”
Seriously, how could he even balance on a stationary bike, being of such unbalanced judgment? All out of strikes for him. F’s for me.
Searcher
@mrmoshpotato:
Can you ever pay off your debts to the Russkis?
Geminid
@Alison Rose: Rep. Porter became a “star” like Rep. Ocasio-Cortez had before her. I’m not sure if the public adulation and media attention was good for their political development.
prostratedragon
A little American flamenco:
“Shake’em on Down,” Mississippi Fred McDowell.
The song is by Booker White, and is thought might refer to dome of his roughneck shenannigans during his railhopping days.
Elizabelle
@MattF: Had missed that David Fahrenthold moved to the NY Times. He sure did.
That’s a shame. I wish the FTF NY Times was not considered the apex of daily journalism. But I guess the tinfoil hat must come off, and I can’t wonder if they are a front for foreign money and influence any more. Cuz he would have checked that out first, no?
Anyway, he is doing good work there. A lot of bylines. The guy who opened 76 misleadingly named “charities,” allegedly in midwest states, from one mailing address [in Staten Island!], and the gutted IRS approved them all. Every single one. And he had previously been convicted of fraud. Yikes.
It will be great to have Biden more fully staff the watchdogs.
Not a gift link:
76 Fake Charities Shared a Mailbox. The I.R.S. Approved Them All.
The tax agency is the gatekeeper for America’s charity system, but reduced vetting has opened the door to scams.
Shalimar
Video from Lindell’s depositions in one of his libel lawsuits was attached to a court filing requesting another deposition, and he is off-the-wall bonkers even for him. Doesn’t even attempt to answer simple questions, constantly insults the plaintiff’s attorney, and walks out repeatedly. I’m not sure what is wrong with him*, but he’s going to get a directed verdict against him if he keeps acting like that.
*edit: ok, i would bet money that narcissist-on-meth is wrong with him, but can’t be positive without a drug test.
Jeffro
@Geminid: will check it out – thanks!
Frankensteinbeck
@Nelle:
The guy who lied on day one of his presidency about the crowd size and weather at his inauguration, to the face of people who had been there and seen he was wrong. He has integrity.
But he is completely open in his hate and selfishness, while simultaneously praising himself as the most selfless and benevolent person ever. If you’re an asshole, that’s true integrity. He says what they are thinking.
WaterGirl
@Nelle: Crazy. Good that you didn’t yell “you fucking idiot!” from across the way. :-)
Chris T.
@Sister Golden Bear:
The first clause does not follow from the second.
(Not saying that the second part is not true, just that the Establishment Repugnicans are cranks.)
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Very glad of this.
Frank Wilhoit
Trump has always been underwater, living on debt. If you want to make a difference, go after his lenders, every single one of them, for breach of their fiduciary responsibility to their ownership and to their other customers, by taking on the unacceptable risk of dealing with Trump. Mostly the situations involved the lenders making exceptions to their own, documented internal risk policies, otherwise enforced with deadly seriousness.
hotshoe
@Geminid:
The town where I was born, and partly raised, had some benefits of philanthropy from old Charles Stewart Mott (co-founder of GM). I don’t know if the Randy Mott “GM exec” is a descendant of CS Mott, or if the Randy Mott “Warsaw/Ukraine supporter” is a descendant — or both, or neither — but it warms my heart a bit to think that pro-Ukraine Randy Mott might have learned something from elder Mott about using money and status to actually help other people.
Of course, I also have to be a bit suspicious of any man who still identifies as a Republican.
But good is as good does.
rikyrah
@Sister Golden Bear:
Thank you for posting this. Got to get this out to as many eyes as possible
Geminid
@hotshoe: Don’t know much more about the Warsaw Randy Mott except that he is/was an attorney. His Twitter picture shows a stern-looking man in aviators with a big cigar sticking out of his face.
hotshoe
@Geminid:
Yeah, and looking at his nitter.net stuff, his political comments are every bit as shitty as you’d expect from a cigar-smoking white Repug guy.
Stowed in between the Ukraine / Poland / NATO info are some typically-stupid R conspiracy stuff:
Biden’s pressure on Ukraine about Shokin was really about protecting Hunter,
etc,
etc.
But if he convinces even one other Repug to have faith in Ukraine instead of giving in to Russia … well, it’s probably a good trade after all.
Geminid
@hotshoe: It’s better than nothing. I’ll take what I get from conservatives like Mott. I don’t think he’ll ever come over to my side like Ron Filipkowski has, but Trump and his fanatical followers really are a plague and it’s good that a few Republicans like Mott denounce them. And Republican division is a particular study of mine, so I’ll probably check in on Mott from time to time.
boatboy_srq
@…now I try to be amused: He’s been that from the beginning.
Ruckus
@Bill Arnold:
SFB thinks that all that is required to be special is money, although he thinks he’s so special any way. It’s likely why he always over states his actual wealth. I remember it wasn’t all that long ago he came out on Forbes 400 wealthiest list in the mid 390s while he thinks (OK sorry, it’s not actual thinking, it’s more like dreaming to him and a nightmare to the rest of us) that he should have scored far wealthier. His stick has always been bluster and bullshit. But he’s at the felony FO stage of life now, not the normal, funny FAFO level.
Ruckus
@Scout211:
They are both good and either seems to me to be a good choice.
But.
I like Porter because she strikes me as someone not quite as refined as Schiff, a bit more outspoken, maybe a bit more emotional just a bit more like a lot of people I know. Schiff strikes me as a very good college professor and not quite as emotionally charged, Porter strikes me as a mom or possibly a smart school teacher that knows all the tricks. And I’m not saying that Schiff doesn’t, Porter just comes across like she absolutely knows BS when she hears it, and pushes back when she hears it.
Once again I think either one will do the job well.
Ruckus
@smith:
The grift won’t go on forever. He’s 77 yrs old, He takes exceedingly shitty care of himself and thinks he knows everything and will live forever. He won’t. Now I’m not saying he won’t live a while longer but I think he’s not going to ever be close to the longest living asshole. One of the biggest, but not one of longest living. I give him mid 80s at best and to me that’s longer than he’s got. So I’m going 6-8 years. At our worst.
Ruckus
@Searcher:
Yes but the repayment delivery is to first jump out of a 10 story window. After that you are all paid up.