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

[AmazonGrace]

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[fraurosena]

This morning the presidunce tweeted this, and I wondered what he was on about, so I did some digging.

This is what I found:

Donald Trump Jr. Just Provided Proof That He Is Colluding With Fox News And Putin To Kill The Russia Investigaton

Quote

An effort by to smear the top Democrat on the Senate Russia investigation, Sen. Mark Warner is underway, and it involves, Fox News, Russia, and Donald Trump Jr.

Come with me for a moment down the Fox News Steele Dossier conspiracy rabbit hole:

[Faux video]

The Fox News report breathlessly tries to paint a picture of Warner secretly trying to get in touch with Steele through a Russian oligarch, but admits later that:

A Warner aide acknowledged that Warner and Burr revealed the texts to their colleagues on the panel because “they realized out of context it doesn’t look great.” But aides to Warner and Burr both stressed that the chairman was kept apprised of Warner’s efforts.

An aide to Burr knew there was a “back channel” Warner was using to try and get to Steele and was not concerned that Warner was freelancing on the matter.

Of course, Putin’s favorite or maybe second favorite Trump family patsy, Donald Trump Jr. tweeted:

Yes, Sen. Warner did, because he was trying to get an agreement for Steele to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee and GASP, the Republican chairman of the committee knew about it.

The collusion between conservative media, Russia, and the Trump family hasn’t stopped

Trump and the Russians with cover from conservative media like Fox News coordinated to illegally win a presidential election. The collusion has now moved on to trying to discredit the investigation of what happened during the election.

As Jonathan Chait pointed out, Trump Jr.’s tweet is part of the ongoing collusion with Russia:

[tweet]

Fox News, Russia, and the Trump family are doing all that they can to smear a respected Senator because he is getting too close to the truth about potential Trump crimes with Russia. The collusion didn’t stop after the election. It continues today, as Putin is trying to make the evidence of Russian election interference disappear with the help of the Trump family and Fox News.

To be fair, I don't think it's proof Junior is part of ongoing collusion with Russia. It is proof of collaboration with his dad and with Faux to obstruct justice, and therefore fodder for Mueller. However, Russia's connection in this case has not been proven in any way.

Honestly, I think Putin is just sitting back and watching the shit-show of them desperately trying to deflect, laughing his ass off and whispering to his hackers to infiltrate the midterms to keep him in office so the show can go on.

[GreyhoundFan]

Every time I think Junior couldn't get stupider, he takes another bold leap: "Donald Trump Jr. Slammed for His Idea of the Perfect Valentine's Gift". I can't quote here, because there are too many graphics. In short, he suggests overpriced crap with his family's name as VD gifts. The twitter replies are priceless. My favorite is the one that reads, "this is what happens when parents fail to love their kids."

[candygirl200413]

It times like this I really truly wonder what their wives thought getting married to them ( I know Eric's wife is breathing it all in trump related, but what about jr?)

[fraurosena]

1 hour ago, candygirl200413 said:

It times like this I really truly wonder what their wives thought getting married to them ( I know Eric's wife is breathing it all in trump related, but what about jr?)

Money, money, money...

 

[GrumpyGran]

11 hours ago, candygirl200413 said:

It times like this I really truly wonder what their wives thought getting married to them ( I know Eric's wife is breathing it all in trump related, but what about jr?)

Dumpy "found" this woman for junior Dumpy. That's what I read, Daddy got a girl for him. Since we don't hear from her in a family where everyone else can't keep their mouths shut, I'm going to assume she's dumb as a post and is simply a necessary accessory for junior. It's an interesting thing, isn't it? There is the obvious appeal of the money and name but it's unusual that these three would be models for happy families, isn't it?

[onekidanddone]

16 minutes ago, GrumpyGran said:

Dumpy "found" this woman for junior Dumpy. That's what I read, Daddy got a girl for him. Since we don't hear from her in a family where everyone else can't keep their mouths shut, I'm going to assume she's dumb as a post and is simply a necessary accessory for junior. It's an interesting thing, isn't it? There is the obvious appeal of the money and name but it's unusual that these three would be models for happy families, isn't it?

I've wondered if Daddy found Lap Dog Jared for Princess Snowflake. I figure if he did it would only be because it would be good for his 'brand'. Having to share her with another man must be really hard for him. And now to find out Lap Dog, might be even more dumb than Eric.

Edited February 10, 2018 by onekidanddone

[GrumpyGran]

1 hour ago, onekidanddone said:

I've wondered if Daddy found Lap Dog Jared for Princess Snowflake. I figure if he did it would only be because it would be good for his 'brand'. Having to share her with another man must be really hard for him. And now to find out Lap Dog, might be even more dumb than Eric.

This caused a bit of investigation for me. No, Daddy didn't select Jared for her which isn't surprising. But apparently the real draw for her is that he didn't kowtow to her. Not Jewish? Sorry, no go. This was the edict from his mother and he did not disagree with her. I think he might be the one thing in Ivanka's life that she had to work for so she has a fascination with him.

[fraurosena]

6 minutes ago, GrumpyGran said:

This caused a bit of investigation for me. No, Daddy didn't select Jared for her which isn't surprising. But apparently the real draw for her is that he didn't kowtow to her. Not Jewish? Sorry, no go. This was the edict from his mother and he did not disagree with her. I think he might be the one thing in Ivanka's life that she had to work for so she has a fascination with him.

But don't forget, there was money in it too. Both Daddy and the Kushners are in the real estate swindle business and gained financially because they worked together on quite a few projects.

It would not surprise me in the slightest if the marriage was part and parcel of a deal between both daddies.

[GrumpyGran]

11 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

But don't forget, there was money in it too. Both Daddy and the Kushners are in the real estate swindle business and gained financially because they worked together on quite a few projects.

It would not surprise me in the slightest if the marriage was part and parcel of a deal between both daddies.

They did meet at a lunch set up by a friend who thought they would do well in business together but it was not set up by Dumpy. I don't think Dumpy would have been happy with her marrying anybody back then but it was going to eventually happen and J-boy was in the right business so Dump didn't interfere. Everything these people do is done within the corral of business but she was definitely the chooser here.

Apparently when they were in NY they liked to take a stroll in the evening and look at their properties. They called that a date.

[GreyhoundFan]

Hot on the heels of Junior's suggestion for Dumpy brand products as Valentine's gifts, Tweedle-dumber has decided to promote a new version of the twice-failed Dumpy magazine. The twitterverse was unimpressed. I can't share the article, too many graphics, but I think my favorite comment was the one that compared it to toilet paper.

[AmazonGrace]

How does a promotional magazine manage to fail? People fail to pick it up for free and toss it unread into the garbage?

[onekidanddone]

5 minutes ago, AmazonGrace said:

How does a promotional magazine manage to fail? People fail to pick it up for free and toss it unread into the garbage?

Maybe couldn't sell the ad space.

[JMarie]

On 2/9/2018 at 5:49 PM, GreyhoundFan said:

Every time I think Junior couldn't get stupider, he takes another bold leap: "Donald Trump Jr. Slammed for His Idea of the Perfect Valentine's Gift". I can't quote here, because there are too many graphics. In short, he suggests overpriced crap with his family's name as VD gifts. The twitter replies are priceless. My favorite is the one that reads, "this is what happens when parents fail to love their kids."

Does this mean his wife will be getting the bear-on-the-plane thingum for V day?

[JMarie]

Holy moly!  That bear/plane thing isn't even available on the website!  Please don't tell me it is sold out!  Though the bear can still be yours for a mere $30.

Edited February 13, 2018 by JMarie
grammer

[GreyhoundFan]

3 minutes ago, JMarie said:

Holy moly!  That bear/plane thing isn't even available on the website!  Please don't tell me it is sold out!  Though the bear can still be yours for a mere $30.

Maybe the TT is using all the planes to do a mock up (emphasis on MOCK) of his proposed military parade.

[fraurosena]

Eric Trump Said Family’s SoHo Hotel Relied On “Good Demand From Russians”

Quote

The Democratic Coalition’s Senior Advisor Scott Dworkin just unearthed a never before seen interview with Eric Trump explaining the crucial importance of Russian money in the family’s failed Trump SoHo Condominium Hotel project.

Dworkin’s finding comes on the eve of a potentially explosive release of the secret criminal docket information about the Trump family’s business partner in Trump SoHo, convicted felon Felix Sater.

An exclusive interview on the website Homes Overseas asked Eric Trump about the business plan behind his family’s luxury brand in early 2009, during the height of the American real estate crash and Great Recession.

At the time, the Trump Organization was a mostly an American venture, but had begun to aggressively and very publicly spread its reach overseas just the year before and with the Trump Panama project.

Here is Eric Trump’s answer about the family’s target buyers for its luxury real estate in an exclusive interview given to the Russian edition of HomesOverseas.ru:

Q: In your projects, do you focus on domestic demand or do you count on foreign investors?

“It depends on the particular project. So, in the New York hotel-condominium Trump SoHo the bulk of buyers are foreigners, among whom there are a lot of Russians. The fact is that New York is one of the centers of international business and tourism, many foreigners often come here and want to have real estate. Quite a different situation in Chicago, where most buyers are from America. Another example — a golf resort in Scotland is interesting both to local golf lovers, and to Americans who want to play in European fields. Also in the case of the Dubai project — our tower on The Palm Jumeirah will surely attract not only investors from the Persian Gulf countries, but also Europeans, Americans, and representatives of developed Asian states. We very much count on the good demand from the Russians.”

Eric Trump’s above statement — like many subsequent news reports — wholly debunks his father the President’s many statements of denial about having significant Russian business ties.

The Trump Organization went on a golf course buying spree after 2010 after most traditional avenues of financing those properties left the market post-crash, which he told a Golf Magazine reporter.

[ Eric Trump Bragged About The Family’s Russian Money Connection To Finance Golf Courses ]

The Homes Overseas interview with Eric Trump can be traced to early 2009 by reading EXIF data in the photos directly from the interview, as you can see in this image displaying the result. 

The following year — soon after Eric Trump spoke about the lower Manhattan tower’s reliance on Russian buyers in the above comments — a series of lawsuits were filed involving the Trump SoHo Condominium Hotel’s developers Bayrock, which ensnared Felix Sater.

By then, Sater had outwardly left the Bayrock development firm to become the Trump Organization’s senior advisor.

But the racketeering lawsuit against Sater and Bayrock is still in the discovery phase in federal court, after he lost a motion to dismiss the case at the end of December 2016.

[ A Russian Mobster Built Trump SoHo Into Putin’s Money Laundering Racket ]

Bayrock whistleblower Jody Kriss is one of the plaintiffs and told all about Trump’s dirty deal to Bloomberg.

Leaked emails showed how the entire Trump family could be liable for Sater’s alleged acts of racketeering related to bank fraud.

[ EXCLUSIVE: Emails Say Whole Trump Family Participated In SoHo Hotel Criminal Enterprise ]

Shortly after President Trump’s inauguration, reports emerged of Sater working to be a secret back-channel diplomat for the Administration — hand carrying a Ukraine “peace plan” aimed at dropping sanctions to the White House — along with Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen.

A few months later, The Stern Facts showed that Felix Sater had advised the Trump Campaign.

[ Russian Mobster Felix Sater Advised The Trump Campaign ]

Late last year, the New York Times obtained an email from Sater, telling Cohen that he could get all of Putin’s team behind the Trump Campaign which “will get Donald Trump elected.”

The Trump SoHo Hotel project — hyped on NBC’s “The Apprentice” for a multi-year period — failed and went into foreclosure.

But the Trump Organization continued to manage it and earn $3 million annually for keeping its flagging brand on the front door until bought out late last year.

“Eric Trump has consistently admitted that his family business relies on Russian capital,” says Dworkin, whose opposition research uncovered a series of Trump’s Russian business ties long before Christopher Steele’s explosive dossier was released last January.

Dworkin concluded, “This confirms Eric has had Russian ties for at least a decade just like Ivanka, Don Jr., and Donald.”

 

The article has lots of links to the other articles it refers to, which I have copied in the above quote as much as possible.

[fraurosena]

Ok guys, as it's Valentine's day and we're definitely NOT getting a plane straddled by a bear, I thought I'd gift you with this fun Star Wars quiz instead.

WHICH STAR WARS CHARACTER SHOULD BE YOUR VALENTINE’S DAY DATE?

Have fun, and please share who your date will be!

Yoda I got... 

 

 

[GrumpyGran]

16 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

Ok guys, as it's Valentine's day and we're definitely NOT getting a plane straddled by a bear, I thought I'd gift you with this fun Star Wars quiz instead.

WHICH STAR WARS CHARACTER SHOULD BE YOUR VALENTINE’S DAY DATE?

Have fun, and please share who your date will be!

Yoda I got... 

 

 

It's me and Padme. 

[GreyhoundFan]

20 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

Ok guys, as it's Valentine's day and we're definitely NOT getting a plane straddled by a bear, I thought I'd gift you with this fun Star Wars quiz instead.

WHICH STAR WARS CHARACTER SHOULD BE YOUR VALENTINE’S DAY DATE?

Have fun, and please share who your date will be!

Yoda I got... 

I got Emperor Palpatine.

[LeftCoastLurker]

45 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

Ok guys, as it's Valentine's day and we're definitely NOT getting a plane straddled by a bear, I thought I'd gift you with this fun Star Wars quiz instead.

WHICH STAR WARS CHARACTER SHOULD BE YOUR VALENTINE’S DAY DATE?

Have fun, and please share who your date will be!

Yoda I got... 

 

 

Lando

[GreyhoundFan]

"Trump Jr. to give foreign policy speech while on ‘unofficial’ business trip to India"

Spoiler

NEW DELHI — The president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., is making what’s been dubbed an unofficial visit to India to promote his family’s real estate projects. But he’s also planning to deliver a foreign policy speech on Indo-Pacific relations at an event with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Beginning Tuesday, the junior Trump will have a full schedule of meet-and-greets with investors and business leaders throughout India where the Trump family has real estate projects — Mumbai, the New Delhi suburb of Gurgaon and the eastern city of Kolkata.

Indian newspapers have been running full-page, glossy advertisements hyping his arrival and the latest Trump Tower project under the headline: “Trump is here — Are You Invited?” The ads also invited home buyers to plunk down a booking fee (about $38,000) to “join Mr. Donald Trump Jr. for a conversation and dinner.” Public relations executives working with two local developers arranging the Trump dinner declined to give specifics about the event.

During the visit, the 40-year-old Trump, the executive vice president of the Trump Organization, will take a break from his private promotional tour to give an address on “Reshaping Indo- Pacific Ties: The New Era of Cooperation” at a global business summit on Friday evening, co-sponsored by the Economic Times newspaper. Modi will also speak at the summit on the topic of “Preparing India for the Future.”

News that the Trump Organization would be offering buyers in the Trump Tower the chance to meet the president’s son sparked criticism of potential conflict of interest, and the fact that Trump Jr. will be giving a foreign policy speech while on a private business trip complicates the matter further, ethics expert said.

The senior Trump did not divest himself of his businesses when he was elected president. Rather, he turned the day-to-day operations over to his older sons, Don Jr. and Eric, to run. Eric Trump told The Washington Post last year that “the company and policy and government are completely separated. We have built an unbelievable wall in between the two.”

Watchdog groups disagree.

“Trump’s company is literally selling access to the president’s son overseas,” said Jordan Libowitz, the communications director for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which is frequently critical of the first family. “For many people wanting to impact American policy in the region, the cost of a condo is a small price to pay to lobby one of the people closest to the president, far away from watchful eyes.”

Critics have often complained of the high cost of Secret Service agents accompanying the Trump children on private business trips, straining the agency's budget. The Trump Organization's spokesman did not return calls or emails requesting comment.

Amit Sharma, a spokesman for the Gurgaon developer, said that they had sold apartments worth nearly almost $70 million since the Gurgaon towers project launched in early January. The buildings, where flats run from $780,000 to $1.6 million, have private elevator service, in-residence catering and an indoor swimming pool.

Trump Jr.’s tour of India, Sharma said, is a chance to “celebrate the entire exercise.”

Along with the Trump Tower Delhi NCR (National Capital Region) in Gurgaon, projects include two residential towers in the western city of Pune, towers in Mumbai and Kolkata and a planned office tower in Gurgaon, which is also known as Gurugram. The Trump Organization has more business entities in India than in any other foreign country, financial filings show, with licensing bringing in estimated payments of $1.6 million to $11 million since 2014.

Later this week, Trump Jr. will travel to Mumbai to open the demo unit at the golden-facade Trump Tower that’s being built by the family development firm of Mangal Prabhat Lodha, a state legislator in Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party. That relationship has also sparked concern about potential conflict of interest. As with most of its foreign deals, the Trump family licenses its name to the projects, collecting hefty royalty fees but avoiding risky investments.

“Part of the deal was that Trump would come and do promotions every couple of years,” said an employee of the Lodha Group, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media.

The election changed that, he said, meaning the kids now have to step in.

“Ideally we’d have preferred Ivanka,” he said, referring to the president’s eldest daughter, who is now an adviser to her father. “She has a better public image. But it makes sense for Donald Trump Junior to do it.”

Okay, the fact that junior is giving a policy speech is absolutely ridiculous. But, I snickered at the employee's comment that they would have preferred Ivanka, just like daddy.

[GreyhoundFan]

After posting the previous article, I found this one on Vanity Fair. The title made me laugh like crazy: "Don Jr. Promises Not to Do Anything Corrupt While Shilling Condos In India"

Spoiler

After he was elected president, Donald Trump executed a series of legal maneuvers to ensure that his ethical responsibilities wouldn’t get in the way of his conflicts of interest. Instead of selling the Trump Organization, putting his assets in a blind trust, or handing control of the business to a neutral third party, Trump turned over day-to-day management to his eldest sons, Don Jr. and Eric. Don’t worry, said Eric, shortly before the Inauguration: “There is kind of a clear separation of church and state that we maintain, and I am deadly serious about that exercise.” Two minutes later, he admitted that, actually, he would be reporting the company’s financials to his father quarterly. (“I talk to him a lot. We’re pretty inseparable.”) And so it goes with other elements of the “church and state” separation between Donald Trump and his family business. The Trump brothers also promised that they would initiate no new international projects during their father’s presidency, to limit the possibility of financial conflicts. But, technically, that doesn’t stop them from promoting projects that were already in development on November 8, 2016. Which is why, starting Tuesday, Donny Jr. will head to India for an “unofficial visit” that looks like an ethical nightmare.

Beginning Tuesday, the junior Trump will have a full schedule of meet-and-greets with investors and business leaders throughout India where the Trump family has real estate projects — Mumbai, the New Delhi suburb of Gurgaon and the eastern city of Kolkata.

Indian newspapers have been running full-page, glossy advertisements hyping his arrival and the latest Trump Tower project under the headline: “Trump is here — Are You Invited?” The ads also invited home buyers to plunk down a booking fee (about $38,000) to “join Mr. Donald Trump Jr. for a conversation and dinner.” Public relations executives working with two local developers arranging the Trump dinner declined to give specifics about the event.

The potential ethical entanglements of the president’s son plugging condos across the Indian subcontinent are heightened by the fact that Trump Jr.—who, as far as we know, doesn’t know anything about foreign policy—will also give a speech on “Reshaping Indo- Pacific Ties: The New Era of Cooperation” at a global business summit on Friday night. Incidentally, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also slated to speak at the summit. Perhaps Modi or his friends will be interested in a condo, too, since many of the actual units have yet to be sold. Would the prime minister’s family and friends get a discount on the “booking fee”?

Either way, the appearance of corruption is almost as bad as the real thing. “Trump’s company is literally selling access to the president’s son overseas,” Jordan Libowitz, the communications director for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington told The Washington Post. “For many people wanting to impact American policy in the region, the cost of a condo is a small price to pay to lobby one of the people closest to the president, far away from watchful eyes.”

Don Jr.’s trip has got to be equally unsettling for the Indian government: After all, what’s the proper diplomatic response for the president’s son when he comes into town to pitch an incredible new real-estate opportunity? “The idea that the president’s son would be going and shilling the president’s brand at same time Donald Trump is president and is managing strategic and foreign relations with India—that is just bizarre,” Daniel S. Markey_, who worked at the State Department during George W. Bush administration, told The New York Times. Zephyr Teachout, a Fordham University law professor who ran for New York governor in 2014, was more blunt. “It looks bad, it smells bad, and it leaves an uncertainty in the faith of the American public about the diplomatic choices that the Trump administration makes regarding India.”

The Trump Organization, of course, has insisted that ethics scolds are getting their knickers in a twist over nothing. Noting that his official itinerary does not include any meetings with government officials, Don Jr. told the Times, “We certainly won’t get involved in that,” when asked if his company would attempt to extract incentives or concessions for the projects. “Not at all.”

 

[fraurosena]

Yes, he's sunk even lower.