They both can't be Fredo, can they? Junior and Eric

[fraurosena]

58 minutes ago, GrumpyGran said:

That truly is strange. You see, that's why I'm glad I speak English. It's such a simple language. 

So I'll go with a devka. And yes, I'm too lazy to use the proper 'e' here.

You are not going to believe this, but...

Devka is also a tourist beach in Daman, India. 

Proof:

Spoiler

 

 

[GrumpyGran]

3 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

You are not going to believe this, but...

Devka is also a tourist beach in Daman, India. 

Proof:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

Wow, Czech is a really odd language. Apparently every word is simply a town in another country.  = puxatawny. = amsterdam.  = mumbai.

[GreyhoundFan]

"Blues brothers Don Jr. and Eric Trump gamble on Mississippi tourism"

Spoiler

CLEVELAND, MISS. — Jake Brown crooned the Mississippi blues to a nearly all-black audience on the outskirts of town, his guitar filling the darkened club with pangs of heartbreak and regret.

Between numbers, the local singer paused and in a gravelly drawl, beseeched the crowd to be thankful. For God. For the Mississippi blues. And for Donald Trump’s hotel, being built on the other side of Cleveland.

“Have you all been out west of Cleveland?” he queried his audience. “To those that don’t know, get ready. Get ready, ’cause the blues is on the way.”

President Trump’s hotel company, the New York-based managers of luxury properties and golf courses around the globe, seems an unlikely presence in this struggling stretch of the Delta, where new businesses are hard to recruit and black residents are eight times more likely than whites to face unemployment.

But in June, the Trump Organization, now run by the president’s sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, bestowed a singular distinction upon Cleveland, population 12,000, and two nearby towns. It announced it would debut two new hotel brands here, beginning with a four-star, 100-room Scion hotel originally designed to replicate an antebellum plantation.

In a partnership with local owners, the company said it would reopen two Comfort Inns and a Rodeway Inn after bringing them up to Trump standards and use the properties to launch its newest brand, known as “American Idea.”

It is nearly unheard of for a national hotel company to debut hotel lines in one of America’s poorest corners, surrounded by cotton and soybean fields and lacking a commercial airport or even an easily accessed interstate.

But the plan offers the first glimpse into how Trump’s sons will steer the company while he is in the White House. The Trump Organization is planning dozens of locations “designed to work in every city U.S.A.,” said company spokeswoman Christine Da Silva. It’s the company’s first appeal to middle America, the core of Trump’s political base.

Expansion of the Trump brand ratchets up the ethical implications for the president, who maintains his financial stake in the company he founded. The expansion could involve partnerships, new investors and local government approvals posing potential conflicts of interest. The Scion project, for example, is already slated to receive city and county tax breaks over seven years.

The deals could test the country’s acceptance of a complex business divestiture that Trump announced earlier this year, in which he defers profits but maintains his financial stake in the Trump Organization. Ethics experts quickly criticized the divestiture, and a federal lawsuit alleges that it violates an obscure constitutional provision known as the emoluments clause.

The president’s explosive Twitter forays into racial issues — like the violent white supremacist demonstrations in Charlottesville, and the NFL kneeling controversy — also have begun to shade how Mississippi residents view the expansion. The Scion hotel is designed to take advantage of the Delta as a growing destination for blues enthusiasts, a plan that some black residents view as Trump’s effort to monetize the threadbare music invented by slaves in the Mississippi cotton fields.

“It shows he really doesn’t have a conscience. It’s about money,” Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), who is black and represents the area, said in a phone interview.

The president has said he does not defend white supremacy and his comments about the NFL were not about race.

Ellis Turnage, a black attorney and Democrat who has represented black residents of Cleveland in voting rights lawsuits, said he thinks acceptance of the Trump hotels will hinge on whether economic arguments prevail over political ones.

“People are looking for something that’s going to raise Mississippi up off the bottom,” he said.

Turnage said he does not have a single friend who admits to voting for Trump. But when it comes to the new hotels, he said, “I don’t see that as an issue. I mean, Cleveland needs hotels.”

Economic revival has long been challenging in Bolivar County, home to Cleveland, where 53.3 percent of children live in poverty, according to 2015 census data. Fifty nine percent of households make less than $35,000 a year, and the region has barely recovered from the recession and the closures of factories that once produced ceramic tiles and auto parts.

But the area has a selling point that the state of Mississippi has seized upon as a marketing slogan, now emblazoned on license plates and highway signs: “Birthplace of America’s Music.”

Assorted museums and clubs along Highway 61, “the Blues Highway,” tout the names of state natives and blues originators B.B. King, John Lee Hooker and others. Last year, the local economy got a $20 million jolt with the opening of a Grammy museum in Cleveland, the first outside of Los Angeles and just down the street from the Trumps’ Scion.

In its first 17 months, the Grammy museum attracted 55,000 visitors, beating expectations, and welcomed 8,000 students for educational programming. The museum attracts big names for its events, like a recent show on the front lawn featuring Grammy Award winners Bobby Rush, Charlie Musselwhite and Frayser Boy.

Cleveland also boasts a hospital and a 3,300-student university, Delta State, home of the Delta Music Institute, which teaches the creative and business areas of music.

“I think the blues is beginning to play a lot bigger role in the economic development of this area,” Tricia Walker, who heads the institute, said. “Just like Nashville realized decades ago that country music was a great economic driver for their city, same thing with Mississippi and Bolivar County.”

A 2014 economic analysis stressed the need for more hotels to accommodate Delta State’s homecoming weekend, blues festivals and Grammy events. Trump’s company was not the only one interested in tapping into the market — another firm plans to break ground later this year on a high-end hotel along the downtown strip.

Judson Thigpen, executive director of the Cleveland-Bolivar County Chamber of Commerce, said the city has only about 280 rooms, less than what was needed for a recent baseball tournament that forced visitors to search for rooms a half mile away. “That’s money that we’re not getting in the town because we don’t have the capacity,” he said.

Local entrepreneurs Dinesh and Suresh Chawla now run a successful chain of midrange hotels, which they took over from their father, an Indian immigrant. Thirty years ago, V.K. Chawla called New York magnate Donald Trump out of the blue in search of investors. He received no money but lots of advice.

“Mr. Trump proceeded to explain to my father how to get the small-fry project off the ground,” Suresh Chawla said in June. “It’s an incredible testimony to how he can listen to something and in just a few seconds dissect it and come to what needs to be done.”

When his father was running for president, Donald Trump Jr. met the Chawla sons at a Republican fundraiser in Jackson, introduced by Gov. Phil Bryant.

Afterward, Suresh Chawla donated $50,000 to Republican candidates, including $27,700 to the Trump campaign. Eric Danziger, chief executive of Trump Hotels and an industry veteran, began considering the Cleveland project among a couple dozen nationwide for the company’s first ­Scion.

In June, the Chawlas joined Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump at Trump Tower to announce the Mississippi venture. The deal was pitched as a breakthrough for a state often ranked dead last as a place to work or go to school.

“This is a big thing for Mississippi. We’re usually 50th in every list there is,” Suresh Chawla said at the announcement.

Since then, the press has not been kind, particularly a Bloomberg story associating the Mississippi projects with a failed development, Trump Farallon Estates at Cap Cana, in the Dominican Republic.

“We are very hesitant to work with reporters at this point — everything we say, explain, do — is taken out of context,” Dinesh Chawla wrote in an email. “It’s frustrating that we seem to be used as pawns in a game.” He and his brother declined further ­comment.

Construction on the Scion hotel paused late this summer as the Chawlas reconsidered the original plantation design, a decision they haven’t addressed publicly. They came up with a new plan that will incorporate more restaurants, a clubhouse and convention space, according to the Trump Organization. In mid-September windows and siding on the main building had been added, and furniture was being delivered, but construction hadn’t restarted.

According to the Trump Organization, the American Idea brands will launch at the three older Chawla-owned mid-scale hotels in the area. Bolivar County Supervisor Donny Whitten said the hotels “a lot of times are running at 90 to 100 percent occupancy” because of crowded university and music events.

Two are Comfort Inns, in Cleveland and Clarksdale, on the side of the highway and surrounded by strip malls and gas stations. The third is a Rodeway Inn in Greenville, across the street from the Trop Casino and separated by a levee where local residents take power walks. The area nearby is pockmarked with empty and boarded-up buildings.

“I don’t support [Trump]. I wouldn’t go to his hotel unless I had to. But I don’t blame other people if they do,” said Shanna Ray, 31, a medical lab technician on a stop during her walk.

Skepticism remains that the hotels will succeed financially, particularly if blacks avoid them. Bolivar County is 64 percent black, and the railroad tracks that cut through the center of Cleveland, despite being out of use and mostly buried, still separate the more prosperous white areas from black neighborhoods.

Thomas Morris Sr., a local pastor active in the black community, said he would advise people to stay elsewhere. “Your choice will depend on how principled you are,” he said.

“I think if the Trumps’ bottom-line profits for a hotel in the Mississippi Delta are predicated on black people coming and spending money, I think they are in serious trouble,” said Rep. Thompson.

Some of the plans may yet get tripped up in the heated litigation and ethical controversies surrounding the Trump Organization. For instance, the Chawlas have repeatedly expressed interest in having music students from Delta State produce or perform shows at the hotel.

But attorneys general from Maryland and the District of Columbia have challenged Trump in one pending emoluments lawsuit, and some legal scholars say benefiting from a publicly funded university qualifies as a violation.

Don Allan Mitchell, chair of languages and literature at Delta State, calls the hotels “one of those opportunities that I’m not sure we could pass up but at the same time it does bring with it the political baggage.”

He said he hoped the politics wouldn’t destroy something Cleveland needs.

“We’re enough of a community where we can have this civil conversation,” he said. “We can agree to disagree without screaming at one another. Or getting on Twitter.”

Brown, the local bluesman, spends his days fixing car upholstery in a workshop that is a hodgepodge of instruments and dismantled car seats.

He says he does not support Trump personally. His allegiance is to the music he and his band, Jake and the Pearl Street Jumpers, have played since the 1970s.

“I feel good about [the hotel],” he said. “It will bring a lot of attention to the blues.”

I realize that Mississippi needs tourism and money, but it's not like the Drumpf family will do what is right for the community; they will do what is right for the Drumpf family.

[onekidanddone]

The word "Plantation design" disturbed me, but I suppose it is to be expected.   Tone deaf and racist is the Trump family style

[GrumpyGran]

2 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

But the plan offers the first glimpse into how Trump’s sons will steer the company while he is in the White House.

These two numbnuts are steering the company all right. They're steering it right into a muddy ditch along side a cotton field.

[Flossie]

On 10/23/2017 at 11:53 AM, GrumpyGran said:

These two numbnuts are steering the company all right. They're steering it right into a muddy ditch along side a cotton field.

Exactly where it should be.

[GreyhoundFan]

"Trumps set to launch two real estate projects in India, despite conflict-of-interest concerns"

Spoiler

President Trump’s eldest son, Donald Jr., is expected to launch two residential projects in India for the Trump Organization in the coming weeks, continuing the family’s promotion of the Trump empire despite concerns over the president’s potential conflicts of interest with foreign governments.

The Trump Organization vowed early on there would be “no new foreign deals” during Trump’s tenure as president; these two latest projects in India were inked before his election.

But the high-profile launches demonstrate that the pledge comes with an asterisk — agreements made years ago can move forward or be revitalized, such as the Trumps’ 2007 deal to build a luxury beachfront resort in the Dominican Republic that may be revived, according to an Associated Press report.

The president did not divest his assets after he was elected and instead placed his business empire into a trust controlled by sons Don Jr. and Eric, who has traveled to Uruguay and accompanied Don Jr. to introduce a Trump-branded luxury golf course in Dubai and a hotel in Vancouver.

The Trump Organization has licensed its name to five projects in India despite a sluggish market for high-end luxury residences. The new Trump-branded tower in the eastern city of Kolkata will have apartments priced at $765,000 and under; a project in the capital suburb of Gurgaon will feature units starting at $1.8 million and golf course access. The other projects include two residential towers in the quiet city of Pune, a 75-story tower still under construction in Mumbai that will have a shimmering gold facade, and a proposed office in Gurgaon.

“We are long term, extremely bullish on India,” the Trump Organization said in an emailed statement. “The success of our existing projects and the strong inquiries that the teams are seeing from upcoming projects even before launch has been incredible. We are optimistic about the future and very proud of our existing presence in the market.”

The Mumbai tower is being built by the family company of Mangal Prabhat Lodha, a powerful state legislator and state vice president of the governing Bharatiya Janata Party. The Lodha Group was investigated for $30 million in untaxed revenue and fined $1 million; the company eventually settled the tax bill for an undisclosed amount. Earlier this year, a Lodha spokeswoman, speaking on the condition of anonymity, declined to comment on the case, saying it was “old” and was not related to the Trump project.

Basant Bansal, co-founder of M3M India, one of the developers of the Gurgaon high-rise, caught the attention of tax investigators twice, records show, once in 2008 and again in 2011, when authorities seized cash worth $48 million in a raid on the company’s offices. A tax investigator said Bansal ultimately paid the taxes he owed. M3M and one of its employees have been charged with bribing forest officials to clear-cut land in a case that is still pending; a spokesman for the company has denied wrongdoing. Brothers Basant and Roop Bansal established M3M, which stands for “Magnificence in the Trinity of Men, Materials and Money,” and declined further comment.

“A company owned by the president of the United States shouldn’t be risking potential corruption investigations and working with foreign government officials who may be corrupt,” said Richard Painter, a frequent critic of the president who served as the ethics lawyer for the White House during the George W. Bush administration. “They shouldn’t be trying to do all these deals all over the world. It just isn’t working.”

Critics on Capitol Hill and elsewhere have also questioned the fact that taxpayer-funded Secret Service agents accompany the Trump sons on these private business excursions, racking up thousands in hotel bills and straining the agency’s budget. Don Jr. recently eschewed security on a private moose-hunting trip to the Yukon, the New York Times reported, after asking to be removed from Secret Service protection. It’s unclear whether he has rejected a Secret Service detail altogether and whether he will have one on his trip to India in the coming weeks. But people close to him say they have suggested that he keep the detail for his own safety and for that of his family.

Trump’s licensing arrangements in India have brought in between $1.6 million and $11 million in royalties since 2014 — including royalties stated in a range from $100,001 to $1 million last year from the Kolkata project, Trump’s financial filings show.

...

The Trump scion will arrive to a luxury real estate market in India that’s decidedly moribund, analysts say. Already sluggish sales have been slowed by a double whammy of recent changes in the tax system and a move to combat tax cheats by demonetizing high-value currency. Pinched developers have taken to luring high-dollar investors with one year’s free rent and gifts of luxury cars and jewelry.

“The luxury market has been in distress for about three years now,” said Pankaj Kapoor, the managing director of Liases Foras, a Mumbai real estate rating and research firm. “Prices for the last four years haven’t gone up, inventory has grown and sales have been really bad. There’s a big gap between prevailing prices and what buyers can afford.”

Kolkata has about 428 unsold units in the $460,000 to $1.5 million price range, a three-year backlog in inventory, where Mumbai has 17,478 unsold units, a backlog of six years, Kapoor’s analysis shows.

The Trump-branded properties have faced slow sales of their own in the down market, complicated by the fact that the apartments are often listed at higher prices than nearby real estate because of the name — about 30 percent higher in the case of Trump Tower Mumbai, which is about 60 percent sold, the company has said. Real estate experts in India have offered differing views on whether Trump will still appeal to affluent Indians after his immigration stance and other controversies. Branded properties — such as those endorsed by a sports team or Bollywood stars — don’t always perform well, Kapoor noted.

Kolkata, also known as Calcutta, is a place apart from glittering Mumbai or the power enclaves of New Delhi. It’s a city of 5 million, chaotic, vibrant, lined with colonial-era mansions and abandoned factories turned mossy black from humidity. There is money here, to be sure, largely from old mercantile families, but it’s a very niche market, experts say.

“Kolkata frankly speaking is one of the poorest performing markets in India,” Kapoor said. “I don’t know why he’s considering Kolkata — he’s not being advised well.”

The Trump Organization has long isolated themselves from the vagaries of foreign real estate markets by opting for lucrative name-licensing deals over their own investment, and have in the past made money even when ventures falter or fail, analysts say.

The Indian developer who helped orchestrate the two latest projects, Kalpesh Mehta of Tribeca Developers, touts himself on his company’s website as Trump’s “exclusive India representative” and had promoted his connection to the Trump family, using the president’s photo and a “welcome message” from the elder Trump to promote the brand on the website until May. Mehta did not return calls or emails for comment.

In Kolkata, developer Unimark Group is recasting existing plans for a residential tower in the eastern part of the city, which has in recent years undergone a modest boom in technology companies. Harsh Patodia, the chairman of Unimark, said the launch of the new tower would happen before December.

The building’s foundation is under construction on a small parcel of land that sits between a towering, half-completed luxury high-rise called Forum Atmosphere on one side, and the government’s Science City planetarium park on the other, which is filled with uniformed school kids most days. The project will overlook a slightly fetid lake that’s ringed by concrete apartment blocks, slum tents and open-air tea stalls.

One recent evening, worshipers at a small mosque threw bread to fish flashing out of the lake and said they had no idea the United States president’s company was putting in a tower across the water.

The project manager was more forthcoming.

“We’re very proud,” said Sandip Ganguly. “It’s every Indian’s dream to visit America, so it’s a dream project to build a Trump Tower here.”

I wouldn't shed a tear if the TT and his family lost everything they invested in the properties in question.

[fraurosena]

 Junior had to go and show us he really is senior's mini-me wannabe. He literally took candy from a baby. 

Donald Trump Jr. sends Halloween tweet about 'socialism'

Quote

Donald Trump Jr. on Tuesday evening marked Halloween by tweeting that he would redistribute his child's candy to "teach her about socialism."

"I'm going to take half of Chloe's candy tonight & give it to some kid who sat at home. It's never to (sic) early to teach her about socialism," the President's eldest son tweeted, along with a photo of his daughter dressed as a police officer and carrying a bucket of candy.

Trump Jr.'s dig at socialism got a reaction from some on the left.

The socialist magazine Jacobin tweeted a screenshot of Trump Jr.'s tweet and wrote, "Just wait until she finds out about capital income!"

And Twitter user @Bearpigman said socialism was more similar to children getting free candy from trick-or-treating than it was to her father taking her candy.

 

Trump Jr., like his father, tweets relatively often, drawing a mixture of praise from President Donald Trump's supporters and scorn from his detractors on social media.

Trump Jr. garnered controversy last year when he tweeted a meme comparing refugees to Skittles. The Trump campaign defended his tweet, while the candy maker distanced itself from Trump Jr.'s comparison.

Although I have to admit I don't believe for a second he really took her candy. He's just being a smart-ass on twitter. 

[GrumpyGran]

"He's just being a smart-ass on twitter".

Fixed it for you,@fraurosena. Smart does not live there.

[GreyhoundFan]

Excellent comeback to Fredo's dumb tweet about Halloween:

[Audrey2]

1 hour ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Excellent comeback to Fredo's dumb tweet about Halloween:

Sheesh! It almost makes me want to live in a house Junior and his daughter visited. I'd turn out all of the lights and put a sign out- "Get a job and buy your own damn candy. "

Don't knock on your neighbor's doors and beg for a conservative handout. Make sure you are buying candy made from ingredients that receive absolutely no government subsidies, and make sure the factory also uses no government subsidies  or tax breaks, and no illegal labor as well, including maids, nannies, or yard men. Also, people/ companies that have declared bankruptcy are not entitled to my free candy, either.

(Notice- that rant is only for Trumpthumpers. My free candy is for everyone else.)

Edited November 1, 2017 by Audrey2

[GrumpyGran]

22 minutes ago, Audrey2 said:

Sheesh! It almost makes me want to live in a house Junior and his daughter visited. I'd turn out all of the lights and put a sign out- "Get a job and buy your own damn candy. "

Don't knock on your neighbor's doors and beg for a conservative handout. Make sure you are buying candy made from ingredients that receive absolutely no government subsidies, and make sure the factory also uses no government subsidies  or tax breaks, and no illegal labor as well, including maids, nannies, or yard men. Also, people/ companies that have declared bankruptcy are not entitled to my free candy, either.

(Notice- that rant is only for Trumpthumpers. My free candy is for everyone else.)

@Audrey2, I believe you're allowed to refuse to give them candy if they don't follow the tenets of your religion.

I can't believe that this shit is trying to teach his daughter that she "worked" for her candy. Of course it makes since that he would think walking around holding your hand out and expecting to be given something for free is work. If you don't go out and beg for a hand-out, you're lazy.

[onekidanddone]

13 hours ago, fraurosena said:

 Junior had to go and show us he really is senior's mini-me wannabe. He literally took candy from a baby. 

Donald Trump Jr. sends Halloween tweet about 'socialism'

So it is okay for his daughter to get a free hand out, but not okay for her to share. Every single person in the family are all trash..  Run minor children RUN. I'm sure you can find a family who will bring you up with love and kindess.

Edited November 1, 2017 by onekidanddone

[candygirl200413]

Like they're all legitimate scum. The entire family is a bottomless pit!

[AmazonGrace]

Well I think he should go rob some poor kids' candy and give it all to Chloe so he can teach her about tax cuts for the rich. 

[Audrey2]

4 hours ago, onekidanddone said:

So it is okay for his daughter to get a free hand out, but not okay for her to share. Every single person in the family are all trash..  Run minor children RUN. I'm sure you can find a family who will bring you up with love and kindess.

Sadly, you've now exposed Conservative philosophy. As long as they get business tax breaks, farm subsidies, and they can find other ways to game the system, it's acceptable. However, they don't want to pay for anything for anyone in return, preferably not even roads (sell them to corporations and make them toll roads.

[JMarie]

As if there isn't enough nepotism going on

https://www.aol.com/article/news/2017/11/03/lara-trump-taking-on-more-white-house-duties-in-unprecedented-move/23266305/

Quote

President Trump's daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, is reportedly taking on more White House duties -- and some officials aren't happy.

According to Newsweek, the new mom to 7-week-old Luke Trump has been hosting high-level meetings within the White House to push a variety of domestic policy initiatives.

The wife of Eric Trump has also been tweeting about her work helping Veterans and animals.

Some say this move is problematic because Lara Trump is also a senior adviser to the president’s re-election campaign.

"This is not normal," Virginia Canter, ethics counsel for the executive branch at CREW who worked under former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush, told Newsweek. "To the extent that somebody is actively engaged in political campaigning, it would be inappropriate for them to be sitting in and heading White House meetings. It raises a lot of concerns."

But some insist the Trump family member is just doing great work.

"She’s been an invaluable advocate in raising issues at the highest levels of the White House and with the executive agencies," Wayne Pacelle, president of the Humane Society of the United States told the Washington Examiner last month.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

I couldn't stop laughing at junior and Eric at the end of SNL's Weekend Update. I thought the funniest moment was junior having to show Eric how to use the candy dip stick.

 

 

[OtterRuletheWorld]

Sadly, you've now exposed Conservative philosophy. As long as they get business tax breaks, farm subsidies, and they can find other ways to game the system, it's acceptable. However, they don't want to pay for anything for anyone in return, preferably not even roads (sell them to corporations and make them toll roads.

I don't think the left is super concerned about infrastructure if we are honest. I would rather have toll roads than roads that are falling apart (for example). I would prefer to not have toll roads, but will take tolls over nothing being done.

There are very blue states with horrible infrastructure problems and those problems are not exactly a priority.

[AmazonGrace]

https://www.theatlantic.com/amp/article/545738/

The Secret Correspondence Between Donald Trump Jr. and Wikileaks

The transparency organization asked the president’s son for his cooperation—in sharing its work, in contesting the results of the election, and in arranging for Julian Assange to be Australia’s ambassador to the United States.

[fraurosena]

Seth Abramson has a little thread on junior’s backing activities:

 

[GrumpyGran]

9 hours ago, fraurosena said:

Seth Abramson has a little thread on junior’s backing activities:

 

I want to see a lot of people arrested but this arrogant fool is in my top three. BTW, my top three all have the same last name!

[GreyhoundFan]

"Donald Trump Jr.’s incredible history of dumb decisions"

Spoiler

With all the documentation of Russian collusion piling up, President Trump’s best excuse may be that his people were too incompetent to organize a conspiracy. Luckily for him, an innocent-by-reason-of-stupidity defense has the virtue of being plausible.

For example, there is clear and compelling evidence that Donald Trump Jr. is dumb as a post.

This week brings word that the Trump campaign was in direct contact with WikiLeaks, described by Trump’s own CIA director as “a non-state hostile intelligence service often abetted by state actors like Russia.” And who was the point of contact? D’oh! Donald Junior — asking privately for information from WikiLeaks, which at one point suggested an action that the candidate took, in part, just minutes later.

This follows the discovery in July that Junior met with Russians during the campaign. He first claimed the meeting concerned adoption, then admitted it was to get dirt on Hillary Clinton, then said nothing was untoward because the information provided by the Russians “wasn’t helpful.” This, as Jimmy Kimmel pointed out, was like saying “I tried to rob the bank but I forgot they weren’t open on Sundays.”

A tweet pinned to the top of Junior’s Twitter page says, “Life is hard; it’s even harder when you’re stupid.” And Junior should know. Some of his colleagues on the Trump campaign mocked him as “Fredo,” the weak son in “The Godfather.” Trump surrogate Chris Christie euphemistically described Junior as “by no means a sophisticated political actor.”

On Election Day in Virginia last week, Junior issued two tweets, hours apart, urging people to vote — “tomorrow,” the day after the election. The previous week, Junior tweeted that he would take away half his daughter’s Halloween candy because “it’s never to [sic] early to teach her about socialism.” (He seemed not to grasp that trick-or-treating involves handouts.) This was Junior’s second candy-related mishap; he previously shared a tweet likening Syrian refugees to a bowl of Skittles, asking if “I told you just three would kill you, would you take a handful?”

This week, as CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski noticed, irony eluded Junior when he “liked” a tweet discrediting one of Roy Moore’s accusers — because she “has had three divorces” and “filed for bankruptcy three times.” Junior also posted on Instagram a video of himself lifting weights; the website Lifehacker said he made “five out of the seven common beginner deadlift mistakes” and had “a solid chance of herniating a disc.”

The 39-year-old Trump once tried to make it on his own, but after a couple of his ventures fizzled, he signed on with Dad, whom Junior has been “helping” ever since. Such as in September 2016, when he posted an image featuring Pepe the Frog, a white-supremacist emblem. Junior pleaded ignorance: “I thought it was a frog in a wig.”

A number of Junior’s tweets over the years call people “morons” and “idiots” for their “unintelligible grammar” and poor spelling. Unfortunately, he routinely makes the same errors himself, sometimes in the tweets labeling others morons. When called on this, he explains, “I just let spelling and grammar go” or “spelling has never been a strong point.”

What has been his strong point? Tweeting a series of photos of artery-clogging foods with the label “this is why I’m fat.” Speaking up for the “moral teaching of the Bible” even though he previously boasted that he had some sexual “hookups I don’t remember.” Telling the public that “if ur a boob guy this whole lactation thing is amazing the sports bra the wife is wearing is losing the containment battle!!!”

His Twitter feed skews Low Playground, with vulgar words, jokes about bestiality and sexual assault and a quip about pretending to be gay so he can put his hands up women’s skirts. When he ventures into big-boy topics, he gets in big trouble. On Twitter and in an interview at the time of former FBI director James B. Comey’s testimony, he inadvertently confirmed one of Comey’s main points. In a campaign interview, Junior spoke of reporters “warming up the gas chamber” for Republicans.

In 2011, he tweeted about Rep. Frederica S. Wilson (D-Fla.) wearing a cowboy hat but confused her for another black woman, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), which he spelled “Watters.” He wrote: “Easier 2 take u seriously when u dont [sic] look like a stripper.”

And sometimes the misfires are literal. After safari photos emerged of him in 2012 holding a knife and the tail of a dead elephant, Junior explained, “I HUNT & EAT game.” This year, he observed Earth Day by shooting prairie dogs, which are not widely consumed.

In September, Junior raised a ruckus when he said he didn’t want Secret Service protection. Security experts warned against this, and his protection has since been restored, but maybe Junior was safe all along. Those who want to harm America might conclude that they would do more damage leaving Junior right where he is.

"dumb as a post". Yup, that pretty much describes junior.

[Ozlsn]

On 14/11/2017 at 8:39 AM, AmazonGrace said:

https://www.theatlantic.com/amp/article/545738/

The Secret Correspondence Between Donald Trump Jr. and Wikileaks

The transparency organization asked the president’s son for his cooperation—in sharing its work, in contesting the results of the election, and in arranging for Julian Assange to be Australia’s ambassador to the United States.

Seriously Assange can go fornicate with himself. He's not getting diplomatic immunity out of Canberra. 

Also "most well known Australian"? Crocodile Dundee is better known. Skippy the bush kangaroo is better known. Michael Hutchence is probably better known. "Currently most infamous Australian"... maybe, but you'd have to think Rupert Murdoch would be up there, naturalisation or not.

[fraurosena]

Oh, Junior. You really do like to set yourself up, don't you?