Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

If you still can’t see these things even now, maybe politics isn’t your forte and you should stop writing about it.

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

I conferred with the team and they all agree – still not tired of winning!

Bogus polls are all they’ve got left. Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls a year from now.

Everybody saw this coming.

The words do not have to be perfect.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

“I never thought they’d lock HIM up,” sobbed a distraught member of the Lock Her Up Party.

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

No Justins, No Peace

Happy indictment week to all who celebrate!

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

People are weird.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

with the Kraken taking a plea, the Cheese stands alone.

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

Trump’s legal defense is going to be a dumpster fire inside a clown car on a derailing train.

“That’s what the insurrection act is for!”

You are here: Home / Open Threads / LOL $350 Mil

LOL $350 Mil

by | 293 Comments

This post is in: 

The New York Trump fraud trial verdict is in:  $350 million and Trump is banned from running businesses in New York for 3 years.  Another win for NY AG Tish James and her staff.

Update:  The Post news alert (can’t link) says $354 million — a million here, a million there, it starts adding up…

Update2:  It’s $364 million according to the AP and Alison Rose.

Reader Interactions

293Comments

  1. 1.

    Alison Rose

    Reposting because LOL

    ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha fork over $364 million fuckface ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha oops I mean how terrible for Donald Trump
    — Jeff Tiedrich (@itsJeffTiedrich) February 16, 2024

    Also this one you gotta click for the photo.

  6. 6.

    Elizabelle

    I have no sympathy for this ahole.  Not saying any of you do, either.

    Kind of looking for old Howard Stern interview, where he says he asked DJT why he didn’t just retire and play golf.

    Trump brought all of this down upon his own head.

    Shakespeare would give up on this play as being too wild to believe.

  8. 8.

    Splitting Image

    Looks like Lord Trumpadder is about to get a visit from the Baby-Eating Bishop of Bath and Wells.

  10. 10.

    West of the Rockies

    Well, I’m sure the RNC will be happy to pony up a cool third of a billion.

    So much winning!

  11. 11.

    Elizabelle

    @eclare:  He may be in prison in three years (please, please).

    He may be 6 feet under.  A lot can happen to … a convicted fraudster and rapist.

  14. 14.

    Betty Cracker

    Fantastic! If what I’ve read is correct, he has to put the money in escrow to appeal, correct? Also, Junior and Eric were ordered to pay $4M each. Hahahahahaha!

    E Jean Carroll Tower

  16. 16.

    eclare

    @Elizabelle:

    So true about bringing this down on himself.  He could have retired to Mar a Lago, played golf everyday, and eaten shitty steaks with ketchup.

    I hope he goes broke (or at least is humiliated when he reveals how little cash he has) and ends up in prison for what he has inflicted on us.

  17. 17.

    Elizabelle

    @Baud:  Oh yeah.  I look in every now and then to see what has the reactionaries up in flames on any particular day.

    And, as with the Gilgo Beach serial killings, the Post can actually do some accurate and comprehensive reporting, when they try.

    Which they never do, with political stories concerning Democrats.  They were not fans of George Santos either, FWIW.

  18. 18.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    So the Trump organization continues to exist? Is that right? Will that retired judge still oversee it? I ask because Trump wasn’t supposed to be running it when he was president, but he still did.

  24. 24.

    Bill Arnold

    @West of the Rockies:

    Well, I’m sure the RNC will be happy to pony up a cool third of a billion.

    Maybe (place your bets!), but at least banks cannot: “And Trump is banned for three years from applying for loans from any financial institution chartered by or registered with the New York financial services department.” – that’ll be an additional constraint on him and funds.”

  25. 25.

    JWR

    @Alison Rose:

    Also this one you gotta click for the photo.

    Gotta love that!

    And lightweight Kristin Welker has been going on about how this should really kick his fundraising up a notch or three. Sure, Kristin. Dream on.

  27. 27.

    eclare

    @Elizabelle:

    You know it takes a team to slather on all that makeup and arrange the bird’s nest on top of his head.  I also look forward to a photo without that help.

  29. 29.

    eclare

    @Leto:

    Yep.  You nailed it.  Playing out in real time.  I heard DJTJ and Eric were banned from running a NY business for five years.  Has anyone else heard that?

    I see.  Sister Golden Bear says two.

  33. 33.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    $83,000,000 here, $364,000,000 there, and pretty soon you’re talking serious money

  34. 34.

    Leto

    @eclare: was seeing 2 years, but I’ll agree with everyone else: wanted a permanent lifetime ban on all of them from ever running anything again, including a lemonade stand. Unrepentant fuckwads.

  35. 35.

    Elizabelle

    Someone who has been barred from running a business in New York for 3 years has no business running the USA

    I mean, not that Trump ever did.  But this is ridiculous.

  36. 36.

    bbleh

    Only read the juicy last 20 pages or so of the opinion but Engoron didn’t spare the lash.

    I wonder whether he’ll keep Habba on as anything but window dressing for the appeal, or even that.  Since this debacle can’t be his fault, it’s probably mostly hers

    @West of the Rockies: ETTD.  They don’t seem to have got the memo.

  38. 38.

    grumbles

    @JWR:

    And lightweight Kristin Welker has been going on about how this should really kick his fundraising up a notch or three.

    Is there a word similar to ouroboros, only instead of a snake it is a journalist shoving their head up their own ass?

  41. 41.

    R-Jud

    @grumbles:

    Is there a word similar to ouroboros, only instead of a snake it is a journalist shoving their head up their own ass?

    I believe there’s a medical term: “cranio-rectal feedback loop”.

  43. 43.

    Leto

    @Elizabelle: really helps put a nail in the, “we need a businessman to run the country”. I know they’ll come back with, “oh, not this one…” whatever… all worthless

  46. 46.

    Elizabelle

    A few weeks ago, I heard some young male NPR reporter mansplaining during a news break that the judge was likely to go easy on Trump in the penalty phase.  He was making it sound like a reasonable approach.

    Nope. Nope. Nope.

    I hope Judge Engoron and his family get a lot of protection in the coming months.

    NY Times headline.  “Pathological.”

    Trump Ordered to Pay $355 Million and Barred From New York Business

    The ruling in Donald J. Trump’s civil fraud case could cost him all his available cash. The judge said that the former president’s “complete lack of contrition” bordered on pathological.

  47. 47.

    Scout211

    CNN live update

    Judge Arthur Engoron also entered an order barring former President Donald Trump from applying for loans from any financial institution registered with the New York Department of Financial Services for three years.

    Cue up the Bank of Lara and all those foreign “friends” Trump is so close with.

  48. 48.

    dmsilev

    @JWR: in 2020, his campaign and so forth raised I think about 500 million dollars total, so this plus the Carroll verdict plus all of his legal costs would just about suck away all of his donor pool.

  50. 50.

    Elizabelle

    The FTF NY Times story does not mince words.  LOL.  “Crushing defeat.” “fantastical claims of wealth.”

    A New York judge on Friday handed Donald J. Trump a crushing defeat in his civil fraud case, finding the former president liable for conspiring to manipulate his net worth and ordering him to pay a penalty of $355 million that could wipe out his entire stockpile of cash.
    The decision by Justice Arthur F. Engoron caps a chaotic, yearslong case in which New York’s attorney general put Mr. Trump’s fantastical claims of wealth on trial. With no jury, the power was in Justice Engoron’s hands alone, and he came down hard: The judge delivered a sweeping array of punishments that threatens the former president’s business empire as he simultaneously contends with four criminal prosecutions and seeks to regain the White House.
    Not only did Justice Engoron impose a three-year ban preventing Mr. Trump from serving in top roles at any New York company, including his own, but the judge also applied that punishment to the former president’s adult sons for two years and ordered that they pay more than $4 million each. One of the sons, Eric Trump, is the Trump Organization’s de facto chief executive, and the ruling throws into doubt whether any member of the family can run the business in the near term.
    In his unconventional style, Justice Engoron criticized Mr. Trump and the other defendants for refusing to admit errors for years. “Their complete lack of contrition and remorse borders on pathological,” he said.

    He noted that Mr. Trump had not committed violent crimes and that “Donald Trump is not Bernard Madoff.” Still, he wrote, “defendants are incapable of admitting the error of their ways.”

  53. 53.

    Marmot

    @JWR:

    And lightweight Kristin Welker has been going on about how this should really kick his fundraising up a notch or three.

    Hahahahahahaaaa! Because the best way to make money is to lose a whole lot of money.

  57. 57.

    Alison Rose

    @dmsilev: I’d kind of love if that’s how they charged it. Have Tish James show up at Trump’s front door every morning at dawn, banging a couple pots together and yelling “HERE FOR THE NEXT MILLION, YOU RAGGEDY ASS BITCH”

  59. 59.

    CaseyL

    Well, seems to me Trump and his sons really need to get their hands on the RNC treasury now.  Never mind “Co-Chair,” he’s gonna want Lara to run the scam entirely.

  64. 64.

    Elizabelle

    More NY Times:

    Mr. Trump will appeal the financial penalty — which could climb to $400 million or more once interest is added — but will have to either come up with the money or secure a bond within 30 days. The ruling will not render him bankrupt, because most of his wealth is tied up in real estate.

    Honestly.  How much of the “real estate” does DJT actually own at this point?  We could be surprised.

  69. 69.

    marcopolo

    Guess this means Barron will have to run everything for a lil bit–can’t have a woman in that role in Trumpworld, lol.

  73. 73.

    Sister Golden Bear

    I’ll defer to NY lawyer jackals, but I’m seeing reports that there’s also pre-judgement interest accrued on the penalties (NY has a mandated 9% interest rate) that could push the totals up to $450 million or more.

  74. 74.

    Elizabelle

    Most liked NY Times reader comment:

    He gets the greatest verdicts. No one else gets verdicts like his. Many people tell him that.

  76. 76.

    Tony Jay

    The RNC can’t really allow Stinko Panto to leverage a hostile takeover of their funds, can it? Really? After this?

    Seriously. What we’re talking about is the fundraising machine for the ENTIRE NATIONAL REPUBLICAN PARTY being redirected towards paying Donald Trump’s stratospheric legal fees and fines only (checks notes) nine months before voters go to the polls.

    That’s… awesome.

  78. 78.

    Frank Wilhoit

    Putin could have printed $364M in counterfeit $100s since the verdict was announced.  The question is whether he thinks Trump can still do anything for him.

  79. 79.

    UncleEbeneezer

    And next month Alvin Bragg (who so many were happy to shit on just last year) is taking Trump to criminal trial.  The fun is just getting started.  Then there’s the DC criminal trial for 1/6 (that should happen before the Election unless SCOTUS decides to throw Trump a life-raft of delay).  And then the Mar-A-Lago Documents case (which will hopefully get a new judge courtesy of the 11th Circuit court of appeals).  And also Fulton County, which should get moving once this Fani Willis witch-hunt gets dismissed…lots of justice coming

  80. 80.

    Elizabelle

    @Tony Jay:  I see the RNC going to court to try to protect themselves from this predator  presumed nominee.

    I think Trump may not be the GOP candidate this fall.  What say you jackals?

  88. 88.

    bbleh

    @JWR: @dmsilev: fine by me, and ditto his taking over the RNC.  Every dime that goes into his pocket doesn’t get spent on elections, his or any other Republicans’

    @Tony Jay: by all accounts they’re VERY low on cash, and one of the main reasons is that he’s been sucking up all the donations. ETTD.

  95. 95.

    Frank Wilhoit

    @Elizabelle: I say the RNC hasn’t got, or got access to, $360M, except over the span of some number of years.  I say Trump’s efforts to get hold of the RNC’s operating budget poses a direct threat to the livelihoods of a lot of people who are not pure ideologues.  But I also say they would need to actually do something to avoid it; and they have forgotten how to do anything.

  99. 99.

    Leto

    @UncleEbeneezer: Never shitted on him, because I want all of these lawsuits to succeed. Last night on Joy Reid, they compared these early trials to appetizers if this was a meal course. And I’m fine with that comparison. It’s all part of the meal, just working your way towards dessert :)

  102. 102.

    Tony Jay

    @Elizabelle:

    They really have to, don’t they? To hell with what the MAGAts think. This isn’t nickel and dime stuff, this is a full on liquidating all remaining fungible assets to stave off the bailiffs level crisis. If Aromagat gets his tiny hands on that money not a single solitary cent of it will go anywhere near a political campaign this year. It will all go into paying his lawyers and covering his losses.

    Who would have thought it? The GOP finally killed off by the kind of One Cool Trick an evil Michael J Fox could have come up with in an 80s movie.

  103. 103.

    PAM Dirac

    Just finished bottling the first wine from my 2023 vintage; a rose. Turned out great. I have to wait til my wife gets home from work at 6:30 before I get anything more than a few sips, but we will be toasting to 364 million.

  106. 106.

    MCA1

    @Elizabelle: Solid message for every Democrat to start trumpeting.  “This guy’s been determined unfit to run a hot dog stand in New York, and he’s asking us to let him run the Executive Branch of the United States government?”

  107. 107.

    Elizabelle

    @glc:  Dog with a whistle.  But yeah.

    The FTF NY Times, for a while this morning, had some story way up on the front page of the website about Hunter Biden’s controversial $6.5 million legal bill sponsor/patron and protector.  With a photo of Hunter next to this critter who looked like he’d just rolled in from Skid Row.  Steve Bannon level grooming, without the extra shirts (that I could see).**

    OMG Hunter Biden hangs out with the skeeviest of skeevy people!

    Why yes, Kenneth Vogel is one of the 3 white guy reporters on this byline.

    Under that story, was a discreet headline about the arrest of the FBI informant for lying.

    Not linking, but I have never seen such an unflattering photo (not of Hunter).

    ** Um, there are extra shirts.

  109. 109.

    Soprano2

    Wanted to post this somewhere today, this could give Florida man a run for his money:

    Willow Springs man staged farm accident, paid someone to cut off his feet, authorities say

  110. 110.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Elizabelle: Yep, came in to quote that figure ($355 M).

    Also this bit:

    Mr. Trump will appeal the financial penalty — which could climb to $400 million or more once interest is added — but will have to either come up with the money or secure a bond within 30 days.

  111. 111.

    patrick II

    If there is a disparity between what Trump evaluated on his loan applications and his tax returns is the IRS going to be involved eventually?

  112. 112.

    Tony Jay

    @bbleh:

    All they apparently have left are the bigger dollar donors, and the prospect of that graceless moron from Queens attempting to shove his teeny, tiny paws into their pockets should cause wallets to snap shut at the speed of Fuck No!

  117. 117.

    Betty Cracker

    MAGA dopes aren’t the brightest bulbs in the chandelier, but I do wonder if they’ll be dumb enough to keep ponying up in terms of money and political support. Maybe they’ll get tired of all the losing.

  120. 120.

    Tony G

    This is certainly hard to understand.  According to that very factual documentary, “The Apprentice”, Donald Trump has always been a brilliant businessman.  This must be somebody else’s fault.

  124. 124.

    Scout211

    @Jackie: Since Ivanka isn’t a part of this decision, could she run the business? Would she even want to?

    Newsweek already started speculating a few weeks ago.

    Ivanka Trump Poised to Take Over Her Father’s Empire

    Not that Newsweek is a reliable source, but why not speculate?

    My guess is that she will take over.  And maybe that’s why she and Jared have become more newsworthy in the past few weeks.  ??

  126. 126.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Tony Jay: He told Ronna Romney McDaniel he didn’t like her middle name, she stopped using it. He told the RNC Ronna’s out, she’s out. Now he’s telling the RNC that Lara will be taking over, and all future donations are to be directed to the following routing / account numbers, it’s going to happen. His control of them is complete and unbreakable.

  130. 130.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Tony Jay:

    The RNC can’t really allow Stinko Panto to leverage a hostile takeover of their funds, can it?

    Last I heard she doesn’t have the job yet and people are just taking it for granted the RNC will cave.  That’s not inevitable.  They have ignored his demands for money before.  We’ll see.

    @Frank Wilhoit:

    I also say they would need to actually dosomething to avoid it

    If they do nothing, IE don’t give her the job, they avoid it.

  131. 131.

    Kelly

    Just came back from trip into town. Sorta bummed out as I drove past a half dozen brand new “Trump 2024” flags out here in rural Oregon. On Monday our new heat pump was installed by an otherwise polite guy with a Trump tshirt. This news brightened my day.

    Hahahahahahahahahah

  132. 132.

    Bill Arnold

    @Alison Rose:
    The image dates back to 2006, and is indeed modified, but not via AI, pretty sure. Here’s the
    first instance (via tineye.com/web archive)

    The original has somebody that looks like they are smoking a cigarette.

  133. 133.

    NotMax

    “If we raise the greens fees to $500,000 per round we’ll have this paid off in no time.”
    //

  134. 134.

    Alison Rose

    Trump owes around $355,000,000 and there are roughly 8,500,000 New Yorkers, that means Trump owes each of us about $42 dollars.
    You can buy a nice 13 gallon touchless garbage can for 42 bucks. I think we each should get one, courtesy of Trump, to remind us to throw away the trash
    — Elie Mystal (@ElieNYC) February 16, 2024

    Ok, but only if his picture is on the inside of the lid
    — Nattering Nay Bob 🇺🇲🇺🇦🍒⬜🦉🦉 (@NatteringN) February 16, 2024

  135. 135.

    HumboldtBlue

    In other news, Matt Gaetz is gonna need a hug.

    This attorney told The Daily Beast on Thursday that the woman, in fact, received payments in connection with multiple sex parties with people in Gaetz’s circle. Her lawyer said that, in response to a subpoena, she testified about her experiences to the U.S. Attorneys investigating Gaetz. And she turned over text messages, photos, and other evidence to the Justice Department as part of its child sex trafficking inquiry into the Florida congressman, the lawyer said.

    The Daily Beast has obtained some of those messages and photos, which match the documents described by ABC News.

    While the lawyer said he has not yet been contacted by House investigators, as ABC reported, the House Ethics Committee is now reviewing this evidence as part of its inquiry into whether Gaetz paid for sex with women and with an underage teen. In fact, the Ethics Committee met Thursday afternoon behind closed doors to discuss the Gaetz case, which also involves allegations of public corruption, solicitation of prostitution, habitual use of hard drugs, bribes or impermissible gifts, campaign finance violations, and exhibiting nude photos of sexual partners on the House floor.

  136. 136.

    patrick II

    Trump has asserted that Mar-a-lago is worth 1.1 billion alone, so that should pretty much cover it.

  139. 139.

    marcopolo

    According to some sharp folks, the thing to worry about now is with Trump on the hook for all this money what kinds of shit is he going to get up to with countries/leaders who do not have the best interests of the US high on their priority list.  Pretty sure he still has lots of useful information he could share to leverage money (or other considerations like election fuckery).

    Edited to add: on a positive note, maybe he’ll be forced to do something that will get him charged!  More criming!

  141. 141.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    @Elizabelle: I’ve got one can of ginger ale left in the fridge, and I don’t care that it’s half past eleven, I’m gonna crack it.

    And that order about barring Trump from taking out loans from a bank chartered or registered in New York … is there any even marginally reputable bank that doesn’t fit that description?

  146. 146.

    Scout211

    @patrick II: Trump has asserted that Mar-a-lago is worth 1.1 billion alone, so that should pretty much cover it.

    Ha! Engoron covered that quite nicely. CNN

    Engoron wrote that Trump’s 2002 deed gave away the right to use Mar-a-Lago as a single-family residence, meaning that Trump paid significantly lower property taxes and that it could not be valued as highly as he claimed.

    “Nonetheless, Donald Trump insisted that he believed Mar-a-Lago is worth ‘between a billion and a billion five’ today, which would require not only valuing it as a private residence, which the deed prohibits, but as more than the most expensive private residence listed in the country by approximately 400%,” Engoron wrote.

    In a footnote, Engoron noted of Trump and the deed: “A fact of which he is well aware, having signed the deed himself.”

    “There is no legal gray area surrounding the permanent nature of the deed restrictions,” Engoron later wrote in his ruling. “Accordingly, there can be no mistake that Donald Trump’s valuation of Mar-a-Lago from 2011-2021 was fraudulent.”

    Added link

  147. 147.

    CaseyL

    It’s just occurred to me that another reason Trump desperately needs to be President again is to pay off the loansharks who will now be circling him and tasting blood.

    From the Federal Treasury.

    Our tax dollars and all that.

  149. 149.

    ...now I try to be amused

    @marcopolo: MICE. Trump’s got Money and Ego covered, and probably Compromise too. However, Trump’s too much of a chickenshit to betray his country for Ideology alone.

  150. 150.

    hueyplong

    @Scout211: I so wish I had been in a position to do some of the drafting on that order, but am pleased to see that Engoron plainly did not need outside help.

  152. 152.

    Geminid

    @rikyrah: Democrats got their counter-cyclican spending in early, in the ladt Congress. Like you say, the Infrastructure bill is having an effect and we are still spending the last of the American Recovery Act money. The IRA is spurring investment and one estimate is that it will generate as much as $3 trillion in private investment.

    The CHIPS+ bill will trigger more private investment. I think the Commerce Department will be awarding that money soon, and then construction will begin on some very large factories.

    The best thing is that these are smart investments that will benefit the country through this decade and well into the next.

  156. 156.

    eclare

    @Scout211:

    I think the most expensive family residence is on the CA coast, just purchased by Beyoncé and Jay-Z.  IIRC my People magazine, it was around $400M.

  157. 157.

    gvg

    @CaseyL: I don’t think the RNC has ever had that kind of cash. And a lot of people don’t want their money going to legal fees. those donations are supposed to be ads and campaign events. Even people who are willing to vote for Trump have not felt like donating for his legal costs instead of campaigning. Even if he gets that cash, its not enough. Also may be further breaking the law and another trial. It certainly should be illegal

  158. 158.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kelly: In 2019, we had a contractor show up wearing a MAGA hat in a truck that had every offensive Trump bumper sticker and pulling a utility trailer that was covered in MAGA garbage.

    I had to let the sumbitch in the gate when he arrived and was super tempted to tell him to fuck off and call someone else. But it’s hard to get contractors to show up at all back here, so I let him in. He was quiet and polite while working, thank dog.

  159. 159.

    eclare

    @Geminid:

    It is scary how dependent we are on Taiwan for computer chips, which are in everything these days.  It will be a good thing to make some of those here.

  163. 163.

    Alison Rose

    Mary Trump, the only good* Trump:

    BREAKING NEWS: Alina Habba responds to the verdict and defames Letitia James:

    “This verdict is a manifest injustice- plain and simple. It is the culmination of a multi-year, politically fueled witch hunt that was designed to take down Donald Trump,’ before Letitia James ever…
    — Mary L Trump (@MaryLTrump) February 16, 2024

    Full text:

    BREAKING NEWS: Alina Habba responds to the verdict and defames Letitia James:

    “This verdict is a manifest injustice- plain and simple. It is the culmination of a multi-year, politically fueled witch hunt that was designed to take down Donald Trump,’ before Letitia James ever stepped foot into the Attorney General’s office. Countless hours of testimony proved that there was no wrongdoing, no crime, and no victim.”

    Alina Habba, the human embodiment of pounding the table.

    Let’s make one thing clear: this verdict was just and it was fair.

    *I don’t know much about her except that she’s Trump’s niece and she hates him.

  164. 164.

    Leto

    @Alison Rose: was hoping for a Robocop style ending, but that’ll work as well. I just want all their projection style bullshit to continually bite them in the ass, as they all have to resign in disgrace. Their voters will continue to be as dumb as rocks, but yeah.

  165. 165.

    Tony Jay

    @rikyrah:

    Isn’t it sweet?

    Pay the tribute, empty those coffers into the black hole of Trump’s failure, lose winnable races from sea to shining sea.

    Say hell no, break their precious political party down the middle… and lose winnable races from sea to shining sea.

    Porky Nose Doss

  167. 167.

    Paul in KY

    @Bill Arnold: I wonder how many financial institutions do business in….fucking New York!! Maybe the 1st Socialist of Pyongyang can loan him some beets…

  168. 168.

    Leto

    @eclare: part of the CHIPs act (as you’re well aware), and also part of the problems with outsourcing literally everything possible. Another big Biden win there. I don’t know if those will be Union jobs, but I hope so.

  171. 171.

    Elizabelle

    Once again, would love to be the Invisible Jackal, in the room with Mitch McConnell and the other GOP “leadership.”  Wherever they are .  As they contemplate the predicament they so richly deserve.

    Very much like (sexist alert) watching your mother in law go over the cliff in your new Range Rover, no?

    FWIW, McConnell may be busy with family stuff.  Elaine Chao’s youngest sister, Angela, aged 50, just died this week in a car that crashed into water in Texas.  Youngest of six sisters, and the CEO of the family’s dry goods ocean shipping firm.

  174. 174.

    Geminid

    @eclare: Yes, there is a very significant national security component to the CHIPS+ bill. Joe Biden can tell voters: my opponent talks tough, but talk is cheap; I’m the one making the U.S. stronger.

    I read about one of the projected factories north of Syracuse, and it was mindboggling: four adjacent facilitiess, each centered on a $200+ million machine with many more millions worth of equipment, requiring a skilled, highly-paid work force.

  177. 177.

    Tony Jay

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    You’re not wrong. They simply can’t do it.

    But this isn’t Trump asking for funds. This is Trump demanding the keys to the safe and a helicopter to Santa Prisca – or else.

    You love to see it. Really, this is fantastic.

  178. 178.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @HumboldtBlue:

    He wouldn’t know what an ideology was if it slapped him in the face. The man is purely transactional.

    Trump has gone out of his way, spent money of his own, taken acts of questionable political value, to promote white supremacy.  He has been virulently hateful towards brown people all his life.  He has been consistent and zealous about it in his Presidential actions.  That is an ideology, and one that he feels strongly about.

    He also sees women as sex and nothing else, with the contempt that involves, but I’m not sure how much that counts as an ideology.  It mostly fits into his “What can X do for me?” mindset.

  179. 179.

    Roberto el oso

    Could be wrong but I thought the RNC (at present) only has $8 million in their coffers, along with a debt of $1 million. I’d like to be a fly sitting atop the ketchup bottle when Trump broaches the possibility of a ‘small loan’ from Jared and Ivanka.

  180. 180.

    West of the Rockies

    @Tony Jay:

    But Trump will still need to spend cash on his campaign to bolster his thin chances of winning.  Failure to do so means certain death in prison.

    Why, yes, I am an optimist by nature.

  181. 181.

    Brit in Chicago

    @Elizabelle: ” I see the RNC going to court to try to protect themselves from this predator  presumed nominee.”

    It’s a nice thought (“Let’s you and him fight. I’ll hold your coat.”) But I think you underestimate how completely in the tank the party is for him now. It’s all the way—and I hope all the way down.

  183. 183.

    Kelly

    @Betty Cracker: @Baud:

    As best I can tell all the local small business folk are Trumpish. Around here Trump’s share of the vote went UP in 2020. After his complete fiasco of an administration.

  184. 184.

    Paul in KY

    @Frank Wilhoit: I’m hoping TFG, if & when he puts up the bond, will have to have a legit place it came from.  St. Petersburg S & L at least…

    Edit: Wouldn’t it be rich if all Putin’s lackeybanks were authorized to do business in NY and thus could not do business with him! Buwahahahahaha!!!!

  185. 185.

    Elizabelle

    Knocks this story off the front page:  WaPost:

    The FBI’s former top spy hunter in New York was sentenced in Washington on Friday to 28 months in prison for concealing at least $225,000 in payments he received from a former Albanian intelligence official while working for the bureau.

    Charles McGonigal will have to serve his punishment on top of a 50-month prison term he received separately in New York last year for illegally conspiring with a Russian oligarch who wanted to be removed from a U.S. sanctions list.

    McGonigal, 55, is one of the highest-ranking FBI agents ever convicted of criminal charges, and federal prosecutors on Friday urged U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly to stack the sentences after the 22-year veteran of the bureau admitted to committing the very violations he was sworn to investigate.

    McGonigal was special agent in charge of the counterintelligence division of the FBI’s New York City office from 2016 to his retirement in September 2018.

    Ah yes.  The vaunted NYC FBI field office.

  186. 186.

    NotMax

    “Mr. Musk, there’s an urgent call for you. I didn’t quite catch the name. Donald something or other.”
    //

  188. 188.

    Shalimar

    @Elizabelle: We just had a year of the GOP trying to find anyone other than Trump to be the nominee.  They failed miserably.  I don’t see how Trump can be the nominee, but I don’t see anyone who could take his place without a maga mutiny either.

  189. 189.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Alison Rose: I’m so old I remember back in 2016 when she was in the “reporters’ cage” at a TFG rally, and TFG really revved up the crowd with, y’know, accusations at the media.  The crowd was really angry and made it plain to the reporters present.  It was so dangerous that the Secret Service escorted Tur and all the other reporters away from the rally site after it was all over.

    Tur wrote about all this in her book.  Seems she didn’t learn jack-shit from literally having her life threatened by TFG.

  190. 190.

    H.E.Wolf

    @Wapiti: ​
     Heh. Good one.

    From “War is a Science”, in the musical “Pippin”:

    Then we’ll cut off reinforcements and retreat of any kind
    Bearing principles of enfilade and defilade in mind.

    Here’s to a more successful implementation by Engeron of those tactics than in the musical. :)

  191. 191.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Chetan Murthy: It’s the cost of doing business. Trump is great for the political media’s bottom line. If he tells people to kill them on occasion, it’s just part of the job.

  193. 193.

    Scout211

    I just checked Trump’s TruthSocial page and I was planning to post his deep thoughts here.  But reading through the posts that he added after the verdict today, I decided, nah.  His angry, whiny, self-important screeds are downright boring and pretty much a rerun of all the ones before related to his crimes.  Poor me, crooked judge, I did nothing wrong, racist Attorney General, MAGA! .  Zzzzzzzzzzzz.  Boring.

    I don’t know who posts that crap for him but his posts really don’t sound like convincing legal arguments. LOL.

    Just whining, whining, whining.

  195. 195.

    Princess

    @marcopolo: Yeah, that’s my concern too. There are probably a lot of foreign billionaires who’d like to own a potential president. Foreigners can’t donate to PACs or to election campaigns but I don’t see why they couldn’t give him the money to pay his debts. It’s a lot of money but there are several who have it and a leveraged buyout of a US president is probably worth it.

  196. 196.

    Bill Arnold

    @NotMax:

    “Mr. Musk, there’s an urgent call for you. “

    350/400 million dollars doesn’t move around anonymously, if people are watching.

  200. 200.

    ...now I try to be amused

    @Kelly:

    As best I can tell all the local small business folk are Trumpish.

    Poujadists. Trump has the mind of a small businessman, and the Trump Org is run like a small business.

  202. 202.

    Tony Jay

    @Paul in KY:

    FTFNYT Headline – In Show Of Strength Trump Defies Critics And Cements Control Of Election Fighting Machine

    FTFNYT Page 15, halfway down the page – At Private Event McConnell Announces Formation Of New National Republican Fundraising Committee.

  204. 204.

    p.a.

    @Elizabelle: Wasn’t McGonigal the lead agent whose report dismissed the evidence of Putin’s influence in the Orange Shitstain’s 2016 campaign?  While in hock to Deripaska?

  206. 206.

    Bill Arnold

    @MazeDancer:
    They’ll pay in Bitcoin (parody of gold), or maybe 6+ tons of real gold? (Russia paid Iran in gold. Russia has like 2000 tons of it.)

    (edited after looking up current price of gold.)

  207. 207.

    Kristine

    @Chetan Murthy:

    Tur wrote about all this in her book. Seems she didn’t learn jack-shit from literally having her life threatened by TFG.

    Not trying to trivialize that danger, but it has crossed my mind that some of them might want that again. Steady-Eddie government will never provide that war correspondent rush that few if any of those reporters had ever faced before. That they’re the Press with a capital P meeting threats on a daily basis.

    Happy to be wrong. But given the number of journos who held back important information for their books, that inability to see past their own careers seems way too common.

  209. 209.

    cmorenc

    @Jackie: re: Trump & sons disqualification to run business in NY:

    – true, he could turn it over to Ivanka, but even better, Jarad the Ace business person is also available now that some foreign entity bailed Jarad out of a $2B underwater real estate investment.

  210. 210.

    HumboldtBlue

    @Frankensteinbeck: ​ 

    I think you give him fat too much credit. Racist bigotry was what he was raised with, he didn’t have to learn it to form a racist ideology by himself, it was just the natural part of his being.

    And even then, it’s still transactional, just look at the “Black for Trump” bullshit or the fact he’ll throw up any black person as a token if it helps him get his way.

    He’s got the intellectual depth of a dew pond, creating and operating by ideologies is a foreign concept to him, even if his actions line up with one.

  211. 211.

    Princess

    @Elizabelle: Wow, that’s a weird story. NYT is calling Chao’s death the result of a “crash” but there’s no suggestion there was another car but hers. Her car was found in a pond on private property. The police are saying no sign of foul play, but I don’t think that covers suicide.

  213. 213.

    Geminid

    @Scout211: Trump has a rally scheduled in Michigan tomorrow evening. I expect he’ll deliver a more measured response to Judge Engeron’s ruling then.

  214. 214.

    Another Scott

    One for David [emoji] Topical-Word [emoji] Koch. ;-)

    Jo
    @JoJoFromJerz
    2h

    Taylor Swift made $370 million from her Eras Tour ticket sales and merchandise.
    In other words, $6 million more than Donald Trump and his sons were just ordered to pay in the NY business fraud case.

    [ gif ]

    Feb 16, 2024 · 8:17 PM UTC

    Unfair comparison. She did that all in a few months, while the Turnip Organization took years of criming to build up a verdict that high.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  215. 215.

    Alison Rose

    @Kristine: Oh, absolutely. They hate boring, and for aaaaaaall his faults, Trump isn’t boring in that sense. And while she is a woman, she hits every other rung on the privilege ladder, near as I can tell, and her wealth would protect her from a lot of the shit that occurred in his first term and would occur in his second.

  221. 221.

    Another Scott

    @Scout211: I hope Nikki stays in the race another couple of months.  Make the RNC continue to tie itself in knots that they can’t be his piggybank as long as there’s a contest for the nomination.  Make him sell a few of his golf courses to George Soros.  Make him have a yard sale at Xanadu to pay his lawyers and hair stylist.  Etc., etc.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  225. 225.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @Tony Jay: I’m curious you have more details about your PM making an anti-trans jibe during a recent session of Parliament attended by the mother of Breanna Grey — a trans girl murdered by her classmates in a high-profile hate crimes case. I’ve heard it finally sparked some pushback against the TERF-driven anti-trans moral panic.

  227. 227.

    Another Scott

    @NotMax: Made me look….

    Let’s see – down 4% today.

    Company Information
    Digital World Acquisition Corp is a blank check company. The Company is formed for the purpose of effecting a merger, capital stock exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, reorganization, or similar business combination with one or more businesses. The Company intends to focus on companies in the healthcare industry in the United States. The Company is not engaged in any business operations and has not generated any revenue.

    (Emphasis added.)

    WTF?? Is that what they call this stuff these days??!

    Points off for not mentioning “AI”.

    [ groucho-roll-eyes.gif ]

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  229. 229.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Bill Arnold: 350/400 million dollars doesn’t move around anonymously, if people are watching.

    People are watching.

    The continued presence of the financial monitor was part of the judge’s order as I understand it. She’d requested more power, the ability to take action immediately rather than start a new court case for each hanky or panky she uncovered. I suspect she got it.

  230. 230.

    ReadWrite

    So, Trump’s fraud penalty is $1 per person in the United States (current population about 341 million). That’s a start.

  232. 232.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kelly: Yep, small business owners are notoriously Trumpy around here too. It’s a pleasure to encounter one who breaks the pattern.

  235. 235.

    smith

    I think the total amount he’s on the hook for, combining the $355 M in this case and the $83.3 M in the E. Jean Carroll case, when you add a couple years of interest at 9% as NY requires, is somewhat north of half a billion.

    This morning Michael Popok had a detailed rundown on the current financial condition of his PACs and campaign funds, as well as that of the RNC. They were all in pretty desperate straits even before this ruling, such that he might not even have enough to pay his legal bills, much less fund a campaign. Even without Engoron’s prohibition, getting a loan of this size from a bank was never going to happen. So, he either gets bailed out by a foreign dictator, which I’m guessing is legally dicey and hard to hide, or he starts selling off property. He will have a monitor watching if he chooses the latter, so it will be hard to pull off any funny business there. In summary: He’s screwed.

  236. 236.

    eclare

    @phein64:

    At 9% per year, that interest is going to skyrocket if he appeals.  The only reason why he may not is if his holdings are underwater.  I just saw Michael Cohen interviewed, and he said that all of TIFG’s NY properties are mortgaged to the hilt.  It will be interesting to see if he can post bond.

  238. 238.

    Geminid

    @Another Scott: Also, the longer Nikki Haley stays in the race  the more Teump has to campaign against her. I think his team was hoping to put away the competition early so he could cruise to the Milwaukee convention, but now their guy has to stay out there on the stump.. Sometimes competition can make a candidate stronger, but that is unlikely to be in Trump’s case.

  242. 242.

    Bill Arnold

    @NotMax:
    That (Digital World Acquisition Corp) is seriously annoying. Long ago time to give all billionaires an everything-above-one-billion-dollars haircut. (Or their head; their choice.)
    Semi-serious.

  244. 244.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Elizabelle: I don’t know, but I do know that there are A LOT of people who would love, love, love to see him kicked out of Bedminster and Scotland. Forever.

  245. 245.

    Jackie

    Good news just keeps happening!

    “Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s (R) criminal trial appears poised to begin in two months after a judge on Friday denied his request to dismiss charges,” the Dallas Morning News reports.

    “Paxton’s long-awaited trial is set to begin April 15 in Houston on nearly 9-year-old charges of felony securities fraud. He has pleaded not guilty.”

  248. 248.

    Jackie

    @Geminid: Is TIFG holding any rallies this wknd? The venues had better demand CASH in advance, along with the required police presence for security…

  254. 254.

    Geminid

    @Baud: Under normal circumstances Haley would  be dropping out soon, and that may happen. It would fit the tupical pattern.

    But I remember something Bitecofer said after the New Hampshire primary, that this race could be different, and that Haley may be able to stay in the race because some Republican donors are through with Trump and want to take him down however possible. Haley may be willing to go with that program.

  255. 255.

    Baud

    @Geminid:

    I think it depends on where she sees herself in 2028. She’ll look a lot more pathetic if she stays in.  But who knows with that cohort?

  256. 256.

    Chris Johnson

    @marcopolo: Nothing further he can do that he hasn’t already done all of. That part doesn’t worry me more than he’s always worried me.

  258. 258.

    Tony Jay

    @Sister Golden Bear:

    Oh yes, that did not go down well at all. It’s one thing for a silly little person in Sunak’s position to toss around In Defence Of Gender shit-talk most of the time; he’s got a Kulturkampf wing to keep happy and the UK Media love the High School bitchiness of it all.

    But for him to throw in that jibe, just after Britain got to see the faces of the messed up teens who murdered that lovely girl, just after he’d been told her mother was up in the public seats… wow. It was a jarring, screeching of the brakes moment that cast Sunak’s (and the wider Conservative Party’s) utter political ineptitude and base inhumanity into clear relief.

    Any politician with an ounce of talent would have dropped the “doesn’t know what a woman is” line from his prepared script when he heard who was watching. Any speechwriting team worth paying would never have put the line in there in the wake of the Brianna case. The fact he didn’t and they did, it tore open the cosy veils of ‘performance’ that the Media cloak the Westminster circus with and people were genuinely shocked to the core.

    Shorter – Sunak made everyone watching pick a side. Most people found they didn’t want to be on his.

  259. 259.

    Geminid

    @Jackie: I don’t know about the financial arrangements, but Trump’s team has a rally scheduled in Waterford Township, Michigan tomorrow at 7 p.m.

  260. 260.

    Kristine

    @Baud: I wish I could find the posts. Even if he were just taking part in the discussions, it would aggravate me.

    He did post some good stuff a couple of weeks ago about the Biden economy. I liked this comment:

    This is both the best economic management of any president in my life and the most progressive in terms of creating conditions of high growth where the most rapid and significant wage gains are in the lowest part of the labor distribution.

    It’s basically the center left version of the Reagan revolution: applying a host of progressive ideas to economic policy in a time of crisis and coming out the other side with an economy that is both better and now on a different trajectory in ideological terms.

    I may be judging him too harshly.

  262. 262.

    Miss Bianca

    @PAM Dirac: Congratulations!

    D and I just brewed.our first batch of mead in well over a year – twill be a raspberry-hibiscus blend. Bubbling merrily as of this morning – should be ready to bottle in another month or two. Cheers to you and the missus!

  264. 264.

    Dan B

    @Alison Rose: Mary Trump is a Psychiatrist (psychologist?) who has done extensive armchair analysis of him.  TFG stole the inheritance from her father.  She’s lesbian.  And she’s great at social media.  A good / great egg!

  266. 266.

    Another Scott

    @Geminid:

    🎶 If you can make it there 🎶

    🎶 You can make it anywhere 🎶

    🎶 It’s up to you, Waterford Township, M I !!! 🎶

    :-/

    Dunno where he’ll be there.  Maybe the Lakeland Arena (an ice hockey rink)?  Do you suppose he’ll be able to sell it out for a change??

    I hope they’re getting paid in advance…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  267. 267.

    Brit in Chicago

    @Bruce K in ATH-GR: “And that order about barring Trump from taking out loans from a bank chartered or registered in New York … is there any even marginally reputable bank that doesn’t fit that description?”

    Deutsche Bank? The Saudi sovereign wealth fund? Putin’s cronies?

  268. 268.

    Geminid

    @Baud: Haley probably has 2028 on her mind. But if she is a realist, she can see plenty of prospective candidates with as good or better a chance of winning the 2028 Republican nomination as she has, whether she drops out sooner or later. So Haley might choose her path without regard to future positioning and let the chips fall where they may.

  273. 273.

    Dan B

    @Bill Arnold: Musk can’t access the money at present.  He’s a mega billionaire on paper but can’t liquidate his stock.  Some combination of shareholder issues and Xitter is the problem.

  275. 275.

    Tony Jay

    @Sister Golden Bear:

    It’s events like this that fix national moods. The Hard Right have enough fellow travellers in place throughout the Media that they’ve been able to drive their kulturkampf narrative to the fore without much ‘respectable’ opposition. There’s a ‘debate’ about trans-rights, people have ‘strong opinions’ that simply must be given air-time, there are ‘questions’ to be asked, etc etc. The Opposition certainly haven’t given much pushback. Starmer’s newnewlabour have made it clear that the problems of ‘those people’ are considered to inhabit a space a bit too far out there on the Left for a party looking for votes on the Right.

    The horrific murder of Brianna, and the sick brutality of Sunak’s leaden jibe, seems to have put a stake in that. People have been given a very clear image of what anti-trans rhetoric leads to in the real world and suddenly all that oh so clever edgelord “just asking questions” fuckery looks and sounds like the bullying it always was.

    Here’s hoping it sticks.

  276. 276.

    evodevo

    @Brit in Chicago: ​
      I don’t know, but I would imagine any bank that does business out in the world would have a branch in NYC, and evidently you have to be “registered” with the state to do so. So….

  279. 279.

    PAM Dirac

    @Miss Bianca:

    D and I just brewed.our first batch of mead in well over a year

    Cool! I did a pyment last fall; Norton grapes with buckwheat honey. First mead for me in about 5 years. I think it is going to be fantastic. Might have to find a way to get a bottle to you.

  281. 281.

    Roberto el oso

    In an earlier comment I mentioned that the RNC appears to have $8 million on hand, with $1 million in debt. Ballotpedia says: $257 million raised and $230 spent so far, so $17 million still in the coffers. Even putting Lara T in charge of the RNC …. this is still a drop in the bucket.

    Given his profligate ways, I wonder if Musk will pony up for Trump, in the interest of “leveling the playing field”, of course. Or perhaps Bill Activist Man can begin to charge a cover at his dinner parties? They can pass the tiara between the ortolan course and the truffles spangled with jizz-o-goldflake. Stupider things have happened.

  283. 283.

    sdimond

    @eclare: I live 5 miles east of the Samsung Austin fab. It produces 5% of the world supply of semiconductors. Samsung is nearing completion of a new fab, 12 miles north of me, in Taylor,Texas which will be more than three times the size of the Austin fab. Also remember that the foundry business is not the entire semiconductor industry. Intel has been profitable far out of proportion to the total quantity of chips it has produced.

  292. 292.

    Paul in KY

    @Sister Golden Bear: If he really has $100 billion or some kind of valuation like that, he should have $1 billion in cash somewhere (secret volcano fortress or whatever). Don’t have that and gee what a sad, sad ‘billionaire’…

  293. 293.

    Paul in KY

    @sdimond: If I was going to live in Texas, Austin area looks mighty nice (superficially. Have been to 2 ACLs). Worried about high cost of living there and real estate.

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