The phrase that stands out here is "possible financial crimes."
https://t.co/9wa9MC7sCY— Philip Bump (@pbump) May 25, 2017
Good thing he doesn't have an assload of other shady dealings otherwise business record subpoenas might get awkwardhttps://t.co/PfyFitrOe1
— mOrb from Orb (@ZeddRebel) May 25, 2017
The Washington Post, under its ‘National Security’ subhead:
Investigators are focusing on a series of meetings held by Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and an influential White House adviser, as part of their probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and related matters, according to people familiar with the investigation.
Kushner, who held meetings in December with the Russian ambassador and a banker from Moscow, is being investigated because of the extent and nature of his interactions with the Russians, the people said…
FBI agents also remain keenly interested in former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, but Kushner is the only current White House official known to be considered a key person in the probe…
Kushner has agreed to discuss his Russian contacts with the Senate Intelligence Committee, which is conducting one of several investigations into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
In many ways, Kushner is a unique figure inside the White House.
He is arguably the president’s most trusted adviser, and he is also a close member of the president’s family. His list of policy responsibilities is vast — his foreign policy portfolio alone includes Canada and Mexico, China, and peace in the Middle East — yet he rarely speaks publicly about any of them…
This is Mueller's most plausible kill shot: connecting Russia's fake news distribution to Kushner's data operation. https://t.co/6sBCSeEmiA pic.twitter.com/yGilRhr79u
— Will Saletan (@saletan) May 26, 2017
As far as those who’ve dealt with him longest can tell, Jared Kushner is a slumlord and a legal corner-cutter who’ll make a deal with anyone who’s got money, ethics be damned. He’s a spoilt-rich-kid MBA whose commitment to screwing every last dollar out of his “investments” is rivaled only by his family attachments — to his father, real-estate developer & convicted felon; his father-in-law, real-estate performance artist / politician; and his spoilt-rich-kid MBA wife. And I wouldn’t bet a broken cookie on the odds that, should it come down to Jared suffering or his daddy/sponsor-daddy/wifey going to jail, that trio should be ready to get their affairs in order before the authorities show up. Just business, Ivanka — you of all people know how it is!
There are so many pictures where Kushner is glaring at Trump head like he's a Black Widow murderer waiting for the new will to be notarized. pic.twitter.com/XxepRDqAQF
— Schooley (@Rschooley) May 25, 2017
Dems: Suspend Kushner's security clearance while he's under FBI scrutiny https://t.co/9yJh7T5abu pic.twitter.com/La1HuA93dk
— The Hill (@thehill) May 26, 2017
Tidbit from Vanity Fair:
… Last week, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie told people that Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s 36-year-old senior adviser and son-in-law, asked him if Trump should hire a lawyer, according to two people familiar with the conversation. A spokesman for Christie, who was responsible for prosecuting Kushner’s father, denied that the governor talked to Kushner about anything related to seeking outside counsel. An administration source said that the conversation about retaining counsel “simply did not happen.” Both sides confirmed that a phone call between them took place, as the two talk frequently…
How hard was Christie laughing?
RE Kushner, don't forget he was part of why Christie & much of his team got fired from the transition cc @chrislhayes
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) May 26, 2017
Kushner is a perfect fall guy. Bannon's glad to blame a Jew, Priebus is glad to blame an outsider, and Trump would love Ivanka to be single.
— Amos Posner (@AmosPosner) May 25, 2017
ET
The Trumps and Kushners have operated in such a shady way that they likely don’t think anything of the way they operate is shady because they (though not Daddy Kushner) haven’t really been called on it up until now. Their frame of reference is such that was is out right corrupt, shady, or hinkey to us is business as usual to them. I don’t feel sorry for them of course.
Gin & Tonic
Like the fat man said to Wilmer: “If you lose a son, it’s possible to get another.” I guess that’s more so for a son-in-law.
amk
Can we haz at least some rico charges a la that al gangster guy?
Bruce K
@Gin & Tonic: Wonder how long it’s going to take them to realize that the only Falcon out there in the real world is the lead one?
germy
That’s odd. So Christie admits it but his spokesman denies it? Am I mixing up the timeline?
clay
When does Ivanka become too old for Trump?
clay
@germy: The Christie conversation is “according to two people familiar” with it.
Bruce K
@germy: From what I read, two people who heard the conversation said one thing, and Christie’s spokesman said the other.
Corner Stone
@ET:
And if Daddy Kush had not run up against the massive ego and ambition of Big Chicken he may have also skated.
The irony is so good.
Corner Stone
@clay:
She’d also have to ditch the grandkids. Too much baggage.
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
Fareed Zakaria called Kushner the “Deputy President,” which seems quite accurate. Apologies for no link.
Elizabelle
Great blogpost title, Anne.
I think having his family go to jail is still not sufficient punishment for Trump. But it’s a damned good start.
mainmata
The link between the data collection/micro message marketing and Russian hacking/fake news makes intuitive sense. But is distributing fake news an actual crime? Did he actually facilitate the DNC hacking? I don’t think so. I’m thinking that they want to dig deeper into his affairs to get at money laundering. Still think that’s the big story.
OzarkHillbilly
@Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho: no apologies necessary.
efgoldman
@Elizabelle:
Kushkie is just a conduit to get to Daddy Dearest. If it looks like it’s going to work, what we’ll start hearing si “You know we were never that close. Ivanka chose him, I never did. He told me he could do things he couldn’t do, and I believed him….”
Yellowdog
@Elizabelle: No one will go to jail for this stuff. Remember that Trump can pardon them all, with no consequences. I think, however, that I read that Trump can’t pardon someone convicted on state level charges, which is why that alleged grand jury in New York may save us all.
clay
@mainmata: I don’t know if it’s a crime, but I think if it can be shown that the Trump campaign was in contact with and coordinating with Russian officials — even if the resulting actions weren’t technically illegal — then it’s over.
cmorenc
@Elizabelle:
I prefer that he be given work-release to work the grill at a fast-food hamburger franchise on work-release, but agree that he goes back to jail every night to sleep on a standard prison mattress in a standard prison cell.
NorthLeft12
Mr. Posner’s tweet is a triple play; nails the Odious Three perfectly.
Elizabelle
@cmorenc: After a very short shower.
MattF
And here I’d thought that the unnamed White House official being investigated for Russia ties was Bannon. And not without reason… Bannon is practically a stereotype of the sort of guy that the Russians chase after. Kushner looks like a baby in comparison. But, I see, a bad baby.
efgoldman
@Yellowdog:
Oh, there are consequences, the main one of which is: Once someone is pardoned, they can be forced to testify, since they no longer need fifth amendment protections. His lawyers should tell him (whether he listens is another matter) to be very careful who he pardons, and make sure the person can’t hurt him by testifying.
NorthLeft12
A little off topic, but as a Canadian I am sick and tired of the repeated calls for Canada and others to spend more on the military. I almost wrote defence, but it has been a long time [if ever] since NATO defended anything.
You guys have chosen to devote an incredible amount of your country’s resources to the military. Perhaps in the long run that has worked out for you, but that is a path I don’t want Canada to follow. If that means we are out of NATO, and/or vilified by the right wingers in Canada and abroad, so be it.
I can think of a lot more important things to do with those resources, and absolutely none of those things involves a tax cut.
Sab
@efgoldman: I don’t care if Kushner is just a conduit and not as important as Trump. We have laws in this country and if you break them you should go to jail . I know any number of of adolescents who paid for their crimes by doing hard time, and we are supposed to make excuses for this “kid” in his thirties with a law degree because his daddy and his daddy-in-law were both rich?
Another Scott
@efgoldman: Yeahbut, has that ever happened in the big cases? E.g. the people pardoned by GHWB? It seems like once a pardon is issued in a big case, the rest of the case just ends up drying up. I can’t think of a counter-example.
Of course, this is very much different from what we’ve experienced in the past, so may not be a guide to how it turns out if Donnie goes that route…
Cheers,
Scott.
hovercraft
@clay:
I think her shelf life may be longer than normal for him, she has his genes, so it’s like he’s screwing himself in the form of a “beautiful” blonde female. With the added bonus that she and Melania got their boobs at the same place, so he can pretend he’s as “young and good looking” as he was back when she used to put out for him.
Excuse me I need to go throw up, hard to avoid visuals, blegh!
kindness
What is promising is a line in the WaPo where they said the FBI is now looking into past financial dealings with the Trump businesses. Trump was involved with the mob back when he did do construction. When he lost it all when he bankrupted his casinos it was Russian mob money that kept him afloat. US/EU banks wouldn’t touch him.
As the investigation peels one layer off the next I imagine that is going to look like one big onion.
Chris
@NorthLeft12:
It’s interesting to note that although it’s existed for seventy years with the supposed purpose of protecting Europe by putting it under the American umbrella, NATO’s only invocation to date has been to defend America, after the 9/11 attacks, to which Canada and many European nations responded by committing troops.
Our NATO partners are the ones bleeding for us. Not the other way around. We haven’t bled for any of them since before there was a NATO.
Elizabelle
@MattF: We can still hope Bannon is of interest to them too. They are going to be pulling a lot of threads, to see where they lead.
SFAW
It would be interesting to compare the Bush Crime Family with the Shitgibbon Crime Cartel. One major difference is that the Bushes would be hard-pressed to make their shit as obvious as Shitgibbon and company have. I mean, we’re talking about 100-foot-tall billboard obvious. (Except to the RWNJs and other assorted traitors, of course.)
The Yankee ethos would shy away from that kind of “Fucking LOOK AT ME, will you??!?!?!” mindset which as part of All Things Shitgibbon. So the Bushes have that going for them. [And in the background — i.e., the Voices in my head — I can hear Bill Murray saying “Gunga galunga.”]
hovercraft
@mainmata:
This is David Frum’s new hobby horse. As much as we liberals want them thrown in jail, a lot of what they did is not illegal, it’s morally reprehensible and traitorous but not illegal. He said that we need to not let them get away with the bullshit parsing that’s already begun, this emphasis on “evidence” of collusion, and the implication that if there’s no “slam dunk”, everything is okay. The WH and the GOP are trying to distract us, we can’t be distracted. Just what we know so far is terrible, we must emphasize that these people at the very least with a wink and a nod helped or allowed a hostile foreign power to affect the outcome of our presidential election, that is unprecedented and as a result we may now have an administration that said hostile nation has penetrated at the very highest levels. So while of course seeing them all behind bars would be great, we need to get everyone to see them as illegitimate until they come clean and can assure us that they are working in our best interests, not Putin’s.
Tom
@Chris: I think that the primary purpose of NATO is to keep things from getting to a shooting war by presenting a uniform, formidable front. Given the frequency of European wars prior to NATO and the relative absence of them since, I think its served this purpose brilliantly.
amk
very good tweetstorm / tweetdeck
OzarkHillbilly
@cmorenc: Don’t forget the standard prison shower.
SFAW
@NorthLeft12:
You damn Canucks should be getting down on your collective knees every night, thanking God that the US is here to prevent you ungrateful bastards from being invaded by Greenland. So when we ask for just a TEENY bit of manning-up, you’ll do as we say, and you’ll like it.
Hoodie
@Elizabelle: Bannon is probably too smart to get caught doing that. Based on what’s described in the article, Jared was the ideal mark for the Russians. It looks like he is overextended financially, thinks he’s smarter than he actually is and has a direct line to trump.
SenyorDave
@clay: When does Ivanka become too old for Trump?
I think Ivanka’s window is closing, she has a five year old daughter.
amk
schrodingers_cat
Didn’t BS campaign for Quist? Was he badmouthing Dems as his wont during the campaign. Another one bites the dust. Didn’t some Berner assure us how popular BS is in Montana, a couple of days back. Well, not popular enough.
hovercraft
@SFAW:
The Bushes have a lot more practice at this, don’t worry by the time Javank’s spawn take over they’ll have it so that no one even notices that the Treasury Building is now the headquarters of JAUSANKA Inc.
MattF
@hovercraft: One can distinguish between political and non-political crimes– and the procedure for dealing with political crimes is impeachment (and then conviction and removal from office). Unfortunately for the country, the House is never going to impeach Trump.
Corner Stone
@amk: What was very good about it?
schrodingers_cat
@hovercraft: Please no. They should all discredited and/or in jail a long before then.
Chris
@Tom:
True. “Protect Europe from the Russians” is the simplified version that conservatives understand. “Keeping Germany down, Russia out, and America in” is the slightly less simplified but more accurate expression that was coined at the time.
Somewhat more self-interestedly, I would say that NATO serves the purpose of attaching one of the world’s largest economic centers to us. It means the nations of Europe are less likely to embark on their own foreign policy adventurism that would conflict with our interests, less likely to start devastating wars that ultimately will affect the U.S. whether it wants to be or not, and less likely to cut deals with genuinely hostile powers like Russia. Basically, NATO massively reduces the number of players on the superpower field by putting most of them on our team (while other alliances, i.e. with Japan or with the Anzacs, reduce the number even further – ultimately there are only two, maybe three major powers in the world that aren’t dependent on us). Meanwhile, the money they don’t spend on nineteenth century style imperial expansion and early twentieth century style global wars are reinvested into their domestic problems, which helps create a continent full of customers ready to buy our shit. NATO, and our alliance system in general, is a fantastic deal for the United States.
(Of course, understanding this would require an actual sense of rational self-interest, i.e. the ability to look further than this month’s profits and into things like long-term investments. Which is something our contemporary business/political class, never mind the population, is simply abominable at – all they see is that they’re having to spend some money, and someone else is benefiting too. This goes back to the whole “sane billionaires versus insane billionaires” argument).
MattF
@Chris: I think ‘enlightened’ self-interest is the non-economic way of putting it. But enlightenment is, pretty specifically, not part of Trump’s Zeitgeist.
rikyrah
@amk:
That is what I want to see..
Some good old RICO charges.
rikyrah
@mainmata:
It’s not either/or.
It’s both/and
hovercraft
@MattF:
That’s what he’s pissing and moaning about, his beloved conservatives are bowing down to the man who is holding the door open while Putin ravages our democracy, remember neocons are first and foremost cold warriors. The lack of “principles” on display from elected republicans is shocking to him! Shh no one tell him that water is wet, he may die of shock!
Gin & Tonic
@schrodingers_cat: Nobody in the Trump family will ever spend a night in jail. You can take that to the bank.
schrodingers_cat
@Chris: They don’t understand the difference between rational self interest and selfishness. Also, they only understand zero sum games. They don’t allow for the possibilities of lose-lose or win-win.
schrodingers_cat
@Gin & Tonic: Possibility is slim but not zero. Stranger things have happened.
amk
@Corner Stone: Read it. Beats cynical bitching in blogs.
hovercraft
@rikyrah:
I think they will all skate on the Russia stuff, but they will go down on financial stuff, anyone in commercial real estate in NJ/NJ has to have dealings with the mob, it can’t be helped, both families were hard hit by the great recession and both were pretty shady so they had to look overseas for money, that is where the dirt will be. Bob Mueller can subpoena Twitler’s real financial records not the nonsense he’s given us so far, and between the FBI and FINSEC, they will get to the bottom of this. Of course Twitler and his fans will rail that it’s not fair, this is supposed to be about collusion and the rest is all a witch hunt, but hey sauce for the goose……..
hovercraft
@Gin & Tonic:
KILLJOY!!!!!!!!!
Now what am I to imagine for shits and giggles?
Corner Stone
@amk: I did read it, that’s why I asked. Bunch of puffery and hooey built around a couple simple numbers anyone who wants to can understand.
schrodingers_cat
@hovercraft: I am not so sure they will skate on dealings with Russia. We have carefully exploding bombshells almost every evening. I am waiting for it to all play out before making gloomy predictions about unknowable outcomes.
schrodingers_cat
Am I the only one who hates these so called “tweetstorms”, they are difficult to read. Write a damn blog post already.
Corner Stone
What a fucking embarrassment.
schrodingers_cat
@Corner Stone: What are you talking about?
MCA1
@kindness: “one big onion dome,” I think you meant! ?
Corner Stone
@schrodingers_cat: I like a good five or six part line of thought, but these 20 or 30 something thread hits are tedious and usually need a damn editor.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
@NorthLeft12:
Shall we ask Estonia and Poland whether or not they think something is being defended?
Hal
Summary of Trump’s america: a Facebook friend who was a coworker of mine liked a post by someone praising Trump for shoving a natoeader, his words, out of the way. Why? Because now there’s someone in the White House with balls. Comments are all about how proud of Trump they are, America restored!
This is another example of the futility of trying to appeal to Trump supporters. Nothing he does is a negative, just further proof of his greatness. BTW, coworker was opining when Trump was first elected on how mean everyone was being and people should just give him a chance. Now she’s celebrating him pushing someone. Glad she got fired.
Corner Stone
@schrodingers_cat: At any given moment in time you can be about 99% sure a comment like that is about something Trump has done or failed to do.
In this case, His Ignorance’s rant about how the Germans are “bad, very bad” because they sell cars in the US and “we will stop this”.
The whole NATO thing really grinds my gears.
Jeffro
@hovercraft:
@schrodingers_cat:
I’m down to thinking of it in terms of probabilities at this point. It seems highly probably that the various investigations are going to turn up evidence of money laundering, wire fraud, abetting illegal hacking, and of course obstruction of justice. Not sure if several of these folks (and their underlings) also aren’t guilty of espionage. To my mind, they have also committed treason by throwing in with the Russians – an actively hostile foreign power.
Who ends up going down for what, I have no idea. In a just world, enough is found about Trumpov’s history of money laundering for the Russians that he and his associates are charged under RICO and the entire “empire” (gag) is taken from him and Lucretia.
schrodingers_cat
@Corner Stone: That pushing someone to get ahead of them in line, is a behavior you would not tolerate if a toddler did it. He just hasn’t been brought up well. Just like the two scoops of ice-cream bit. He doesn’t have good sanskars* as my grandma would say.
sanskar == civilized norms of behavior
hovercraft
How incompetent do you have to be for your minions to be forced to go out and say, no I didn’t say your wife is a bitch, I just said that she is bitchy”, see not that offensive.
schrodingers_cat
@hovercraft: Very bad on trade? What does that even mean?
JPL
I have a gut feeling that the Germans really don’t like Trump.
spiegel.de/international/world/donald-trump-is-a-menace-to-the-world-opinion-a-1148471.html
MattF
@hovercraft: I’m not surprised that some actual conservatives are horrified by Trump et. al. Michael Gerson, for example.
ETA: Forgot to include the linkie:
washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-conservative-mind-has-become-diseased/2017/05/25/523f0964-4159-11e7-…
Chris
@schrodingers_cat:
Yeah, this is the basic problem of modern American ideology, and especially our version of a capitalist mentality. A lot of people aren’t drawn to capitalism so much as they’re drawn to its ultra-flanderized principle of “greed is good.” The embrace it because they see it as a justification for and vindication of their own selfishness. And when I say selfishness I’m not talking about “doing what’s best for me,” I’m talking about “doing what I want, no matter what, no matter the consequences for other people, and no matter the consequences for me, even.” It’s not about economics or business, it’s about defending their “right” to play unquestioned lord of the manor.
(There’s many examples of this, but one of the simplest is probably the way conservatives react to every boycott of one of their speakers by screaming that it’s an attack on them. What it actually is is capitalism 101 – people choosing to take their money elsewhere because they don’t like the product that is you. But that’s not how these people think: what these people think is “I want your money! I’m entitled to your money! And you’re a communist monster for not giving it to me!”)
Ultimately, the mentality of most of our 1%ers and their fan club isn’t even capitalist – it’s closer to that of medieval feudal aristocrats, or contemporary warlords in Afghanistan or the Congo. And you see that reflected in foreign policy as well with things like wanting to turn NATO, which has been a fantastic deal for the U.S. for seventy years, into a protection racket that would fall apart in a matter of a few years. Sadly, that’s been a thing for a long time – TR realized over a hundred years ago that most robber-barons were just a collection of uncontrolled impulses with absolutely no “enlightened self-interest” of their own.
Elizabelle
@schrodingers_cat:
I agree. Tedious.
Immanentize
@NorthLeft12: One of the questions I have is — what is “defense” spending? Can’t foreign aid or refugee relocation be considered “defense?” At least R&D on climate change and other natural phenomena are clearly security related. Is this 2% NATO goal specific only to the active military, hardware, etc.? Is this just another way of increasing defense contractor profits? I really don’t know how the 2% works or is defined and if anyone knows, could you please pass it on? Thanks
MattF
@schrodingers_cat: One of many reasons I gave up on Twitter.
GregB
The only bright point is that Trump will, one by one, force every one of his supplicants to publicly eat shit, day in and out, until they decide to push themselves away from him.
Immanentize
@Chris: This might be a little misleading. The US involvement in Europe — troops, bases, harware — was critical to stop USSR incursions into Central Europe and other area like Turkey. I think the US has a huge investment in that historic aspect of the alliance, although Trump and Tillerson seem to have no clue about it. Also, too, Serbia was a NATO project which wasn’t an Article V invocation but was still a NATO joint action.
Chris
@schrodingers_cat:
Well, I hate Twitter, so I can’t disagree.
germy
Immanentize
@Chris: Oh, I see that what I wrote a few comments ago was discussed above — sorry. It is really hard to read all the way through a thread before responding….
germy
Ex-employee on Jared:
Elizabelle
@MattF: And more whingeing, also from the WaPost. Karen “Villager” Tumulty item:
The GOP inherits what Trump has wrought
Excuse me, Trump is the Republicans’ Frankenstein monster. They built him. They trained their base with decades of ugliness and lies by Fox News and rightwing media. Trump reflected their base’s views back at them, validated them, and won the Republican nomination.
The GOP did not inherit from Trump. It is totally the other direction.
Fucking Villagers. Main thing is, the dog whistle is a klaxon, and people are realizing what the GOP has become.
Corner Stone
@JPL:
It is obvious you are very finely tuned in to subtle nuances of our universe, able to see what others can’t and divine the truth no matter how deeply it may be hidden.
Now tell me, who is going to win the NBA Championship?
Corner Stone
ZEGS is such a skeezy little weasel. Putting out a pro-Gianforte statement on the MT special election. Puke.
Elizabelle
@germy: No wonder Trump likes Jared so much.
He’s of the same vein.
p.a.
I don’t think they will ‘go down’ on anything. The financial stuff in jury trials? Paper (digital) trails? Very tough to prove, although RICO could be the way they do go down. Impeachment? No, not with this congress; but isn’t that actually better? We want to tie trump and the Rs together as tightly as possible so his stench is their stench. The only solution is electoral, despite gerrymandering, suppression, caging… we need 50%+1 voter in enough districts. Dem and prog organizations need to continue 1)registration, 2)turnout (I know…I know…) and now 3)GET VOTERS VALID IDs.
artem1s
@efgoldman:
that puts a whole new spin on the Flynn testimony doesn’t it. I get that he wanted complete immunity because he is ginormous dick. But the Fibbies refusal to budge an inch on it has got be curious about where they are going with their investigations. Obviously they’ve got Flynn and they aren’t at all worried about his pal Donnie pardoning him. I’m hoping at least part of this whole charade is to demonstrate exactly how ‘safe’ all of Twittler’s great pals will be once they are on the hot seat. I think Trump won’t pardon a single one. Not because he fears their testimony, but because he is driven primarily by ego and revenge. He is a classic family annihilator. He will burn everything down around him so he can revel in destroying his enemies, even though he eventually destroys himself.
Jeffro
@Elizabelle:
That would make for one heck of an SNL skit, and afterwards, that’s how they could always ‘play’ him: as this moronic, zombie-like spouter of GOP-1%er bullshit.
Orange Frankenstein: love it!
Immanentize
@Corner Stone: Gianforte is a billionaire, of course Ryan is going to suck his love pump
It Can Only be Jared!
The Mercers, billions and billions in Russian money needing laundering and or a safe haven, Russian oliogarchs, hedge funds and their notoriously opaque deals, highly leveraged real estate developers and investors, organized crime, Cambridge Analytica, Russian bots, Jared Kushner, Donald Trump, Google vetting by some fat guy from Iowa, Paul Manafort…
It’s hard to know how many fires are hidden in all that smoke!
rikyrah
@Chris:
We haven’t had a World War in 70 years. While imperfect, that’s a good accomplishment.
Immanentize
@p.a.: I don’t think testimony is better than prosecution. The failure to prosecute people in after Watergate or the Iran/Contra scandal beyond the ones Ronnie threw under the bus was a bad thing for America.
My suspicion is that there will be a lot of indictments of lower level folks to pressure plea agreements to move up the chain. Then when indictments, or imminent indictments start including Trump family members, a big political deal which will include Trump leaving office — probably by not running again in 4 years. But things seem to be moving much quicker than normal.
a thousand flouncing lurkers (was fidelio)
@Immanentize: I had thought the 1990s Balkan intervention was NATO work, but wasn’t clear on the details. Thanks!
Immanentize
@Jeffro: I love it too — send it to the SNL writers!
MattF
OT. If you’re a fan of zero-star movie reviews, A. O. Scott has one for you this morning.
rikyrah
@JPL:
That is international ETHER
Jeffro
@Immanentize: I’ll tweet it at them…
Btw when I went to look them up, other folks like Seth Meyers were recommended…Seth’s profile pic is Blue Beetle (Ted Kord)?? That’s odd.
MattF
@Jeffro: “It’s alive“.
It Can Only be Jared!
@artem1s: AFAIK Orange Foolius can’t issue pardons for state charges. The feds just need to be sure there are a few of them in the mix for Flynn and Orange Foolius to be thinking about.
Jeffro
Btw folks, you will just cry & die laughing at Alexandra Petri’s latest: BOOM PUNCH POW! AMERICA IS GREAT AGAIN!
Sadly, we can expect many on the Right to take this as a serious plea for more violence, instead of the satire that it is…(sigh)…
Funny tweet exchange w/ Petri:
Reader: Great stuff, though I expected the last paragraph to be grunts and howls bashed out on the keyboard with fists.
Petri: that paragraph is only visible to the Truly Strong
Jack the Second
@clay:
Erm, do you think Trump is still, ahem, “up” for anything like that? I mean, 70% of men over 70– and Trump is not in particularly good shape, which is another correlate. At this point I assume Trump is getting all clingy with Melania because he’s reaching the age where old assholes begin to realize they might end up dying alone, with no one left who cares enough to mourn them, rather than out of any lingering virility.
germy
@Jeffro: Historians will look back at our time as a Golden Age for humorists.
The rest of us? Not so fondly.
Corner Stone
I still don’t understand what this means? Fire Mueller? Fire DAG Rosenstein? Plant filthy dirt about him in tabloids?
hovercraft
@schrodingers_cat:
They are meanies who are stealing our lunch?
ruemara
Twitter tweetstorms are no harder to read than long form poetry and you may learn something when you’re done.
Elizabelle
@MattF: Awwww. I wanted to see that movie. Won’t read the rest of the review, but … awww.
hovercraft
@Jeffro:
So America wants Megatron? I know we all hate Shia, but I thought we were all rooting for Optimus Prime. I has confused.
I have to say that is the one thing Twitler has done that I like, many columnists have really come into their own, though with all big fat ones down the middle of the plate it’s pretty easy to hit it out.
Chris
@Elizabelle:
Eh. I’ll still go see it. I enjoyed 1, 2, and 3 (which is more than a lot of people did), but 4 felt like it was overstaying its welcome, and I wasn’t going to be surprised if this did the same thing.
Booger
@rikyrah: yeah, but world wars are kind of black swans…we’re not out of the woods yet, and won’t be for another century or two.
hovercraft
@Immanentize:
Last week was the season finale, and who knows how many WTF moments we’ll have had by the Fall? Sadly it will have to fall to Stephen, Samantha, or Jimmy, maybe even Trevor.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
Charlie Pierce agrees that it’s all about the money.
Teddys Person
@Corner Stone: Maybe shove him aside at the Applebee’s salad bar?
Elizabelle
@the Conster, la Citoyenne: Check your link.
Think it’s this: esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a55294/trump-kushner-russia-money/
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@Elizabelle:
Merci beaucoup.
Quinerly
Someone should remind Joe of the Morning, Trump was angling for Soviet/Russian connections over 30 years ago when he was a Republican: hollywoodreporter.com/news/donald-trump-angled-soviet-posting-1980s-says-nobel-prize-winner-1006312
Mike in DC
Flynn–natsec advisor (cabinet level position)
Manafort–campaign manager
Kushner–inner circle, son in law
If this was a cop show or conspiracy thriller, whose picture would be center top of the bulletin board?
MoxieM
@schrodingers_cat: He’s an ill-bred oaf, in addition to being a con man, a jackass, a sexual predator and the whole list. Some people are ashamed of him–he does shame the country. But my experience has been that other folk just pity us. Also, a friend high up at Deutsche Bank said about 1/3 of his colleagues were delighted by Trump’s election (back in December…was it just a few months ago?) ; they thought they’d make some money. I wonder how they feel now?
Stan
@NorthLeft12:
Just because no shots were fired, doesn’t mean we in NATO weren’t defending anything. I agree we spend far too much on the military but, this argument can be taken too far.
Stan
@Tom: Exactly.
Or as the old joke went, “NATO exists to keep the Russians out, the Germans down and the Americans in”
Corner Stone
It’s interesting to see how some of our partner citizens view NATO. I find it insulting, simplistic and naive but, hey, I guess that’s their right.
Jeffro
@Stan: @Corner Stone:
A couple of the soccer dads on my son’s team are military, and they tell me NATO stands for “Nothing After Two O’Clock” =)
sukabi
@Corner Stone: it means that Jared is finding himself cornered and he’s lashing out. He’s finding out, along with Drumpf, that the office of the presidency doesn’t grant dictatorial powers and he’s in deep shit.