Scaramucci, Scaramucci, can you do the Drumfdango?

[fraurosena]

18 minutes ago, GrumpyGran said:

Ok, well not too humiliating. If Mooch has any sense at all, he'll read the handwriting on the wall, and I think there actually is handwriting on the wall in the White House now

I can imagine! The Tangerine Toddler doesn't have any bills to sign, so what else can he do with those pens?

[fraurosena]

Now, back to being serious. Here's an article about Scaramucci's sale of SkyBridge Capital being under review:

Sale of Scaramucci's firm to Chinese group is under regulatory review

Spoiler

The sale of the firm founded by incoming White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci to a Chinese conglomerate is undergoing a regulatory review.

SkyBridge Capital agreed in January to sell itself for an undisclosed price to HNA Group, a deal-hungry Chinese company. The deal was struck as Scaramucci, who founded the hedge fund network in 2005, was preparing to join the Trump administration in a different role.

The SkyBridge sale was expected to close at the end of June, but it is still pending "regulatory approvals," a SkyBridge Capital spokesperson said. "The close is proceeding as planned," the spokesperson said, adding that SkyBridge is "confident" it will close this summer.

A person familiar with the matter told CNNMoney on Monday that the final hurdle the deal needs to clear is a review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.

Known as CFIUS, this inter-agency committee is charged with evaluating sales of U.S. businesses to foreign entities to determine the impact on America's national security.

CFIUS often reviews deals that give a foreign investor control of a U.S. business. It has reviewed everything from the acquisition of Sprint Nextel by Japan's SoftBank to Chinese acquisitions of Smithfield Foods and the Chicago Stock Exchange.

The Treasury Department, which chairs CFIUS, declined to comment on whether the committee is reviewing the SkyBridge sale, citing laws that prevent disclosing such information.

A Treasury spokesman said the department takes its role in this process "very seriously" to ensure "national security concerns" posed by foreign investment are identified and addressed.

The news that CFIUS is reviewing the SkyBridge deal was previously reported by the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Reuters and other news outlets.

A spokeswoman said in a statement that the White House "is treating Mr. Scaramucci the same as every incoming official and is carefully considering all aspects of his holdings and businesses as part of the incoming ethics and legal review process."

HNA did not respond to a request for comment.

Lawyers who have worked on these national security exams, but who are not involved in the Skybridge sale, said deals involving buyers from certain countries can lead to prolonged reviews.

"Countries not considered allies of the United States generate more scrutiny and those CFIUS reviews tends to take longer," said Jeremy Zucker, co-chair of Dechert's International Trade and Government Regulation practice.

Zucker said that there appears to be a "growing number of Chinese transactions that encounter resistance with CFIUS." However, he added that can at least partially be explained by the surge of Chinese investment into the United States.

China's foreign direct investment in the United States spiked to $46.2 billion in 2016, tripling from the year before, according to research firm Rhodium Group.

HNA Group has been deeply involved in the Chinese M&A bonanza.

Its parent company has announced nearly $17 billion of foreign investments since the beginning of 2016, according to Dealogic, a research firm that tracks corporate mergers. Almost half of those foreign deals, or $8.1 billion, have been in the United States.

Up until now, HNA's biggest splash in America was a $6.5 billion purchase last October of a stake in Hilton Worldwide (HLT) from private-equity giant Blackstone Group (BX).

HNA showed its interest in Western financial firms earlier this year when it surpassed the Qatari royal family to become the largest shareholder in Deutsche Bank (DB).

The European Central Bank, which regulates banks, is considering whether the Deutsche Bank stakes held by HNA Group and Qatar will have a significant influence on the bank and its management, a person familiar with the matter told CNNMoney. If the answer is yes, the ECB would launch an investigation to understand more about each investor, the person said.

The ECB declined to comment on the matter.

National security reviews by CFIUS of Chinese deals pay particular attention to how close the buyer is to the Chinese government, experts in the review process say. That can be a complex task.

"The extent of government ownership of key sectors of the Chinese economy guarantees that many deals will receive extra scrutiny," said John Reynolds, a partner at Davis Polk & Wardwell, a law firm that handles CFIUS cases.

HNA Group has faced questions about its ownership structure and relationship with the government. In response, this week HNA revealed that more than 50% of the company is controlled by two charities: Hainan Cihang Charity Foundation Inc. and Hainan Province Cihang Foundation.

Besides the treasury secretary, CFIUS includes the heads of various national security and economic agencies, including the Departments of Justice, Homeland Security, Defense, State, Commerce and Energy.

During a 30-day review process, CFIUS members look at the transaction for potential national security risks. The review focuses on not only the foreign buyer, but how sensitive the asset being purchased is. Sometimes the buyers agree to certain conditions to ease national security concerns.

After that initial review is completed, CFIUS can then sign off on the deal or launch an investigation that must be completed within 45 days. In very rare cases, the decision on whether to approve a transaction is left up to the president.

In 2014, the most recent year for which stats are available, CFIUS reviewed 147 transactions and launched subsequent investigations into 52 of them. Just one of those applications was rejected, while 12 were withdrawn during the process.

National security concerns caused China National Offshore Oil Company, or CNOOC, to drop its 2005 bid to acquire oil explorer Unocal, which was later purchased by Chevron (CVX).

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in June that the Trump administration is working with Congress on potential "fixes" to the CFIUS process, according to Bloomberg News.

"We want to keep CFIUS as a national security review and we want to deal with economic issues separately. We don't want to confuse those issues," Mnuchin said at the time.

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said in June that "CFIUS is weak" when it comes to dealing with joint ventures and smaller foreign buyers, according to Politico. "There's a lot of talk within the administration about trying to build it up," Ross said.

Scaramucci said he has worked with the Office of Government Ethics to remove potential conflicts of interest related to his business.

"My start date is going to be in a couple of weeks so that it's 100% totally cleansed and clean. And I don't see an issue with it," Scaramucci told reporters on Friday.

Well, well, looky here. The potential buyer, HNA is the largest stakeholder in Deutsche Bank. In other words, in a seemingly roundabout way, HNA has ties to Russian oligarchs and Putin, and the presidunce (who is deeply in debt with Deutsche Bank). Color me surprised. NOT. Here we have the reason for Scaramucci's assension in the presidunce's inner circle in the WH.

It is also remarkable that the CFIS review is taking an extraordinarily long time, even by it's own standards of a long review. 30 days normal review plus 45 extended review is roughly two and a half months. This review started in January, and is still ongoing. Wanna bet the presidunce will approve of the transaction within the next week?

Edited July 30, 2017 by fraurosena
adding stuff

[Gobsmacked]

19 hours ago, Cartmann99 said:

Here's a quote from the article @AmazonGrace posted where Kellyanne Conway is talking about Scaramucci's reaction to not being selected to join Trump's White House earlier:

   Are Kellyanne and Sarah both doodling Mr. and Mrs. Anthony Scaramucci at their desks with pink glitter pens that have a heart on top?

What the hell?!?

......Heart on top and fluffy troll me thinks. Kellyanne is totally crackers anyway. Sarah has obviously been fed the same magic tea. What the hell is going on in the White House? Ms Rowling couldn't have written this script and she is brilliant. 

[AmazonGrace]

7 hours ago, AmazonGrace said:

Stay classy, Mooch: 

 

Sorry to quote myself but this escalated into a great big Twitter feud. Jake Tapper asked him questions about why he was libeling Reince and little Arthur here got mad and threatened to sue Tapper and insisted that he's not Scaramucci's spokesman despite having twitterquoted a Fox piece saying that he was.  

Eventually someone probably told Schwartz that Priebus could sue him and he apologized and deleted a lot of tweets and later said that Reince accepted the apology.

 

Edited July 30, 2017 by AmazonGrace

[AmazonGrace]

 

[onekidanddone]

3 hours ago, fraurosena said:

I can imagine! The Tangerine Toddler doesn't have any bills to sign, so what else can he do with those pens?

Looks like the drawings my kid did for me when she was three.

17 hours ago, 47of74 said:

That said, if Agent Orange wants to tell Vander Plaats that I'd tell him to get in line.  There are many, many Iowans in line ahead of him to tell Vander Plaats to fuck off.  If he and Steve King moved out of Iowa the state would be a thousand times better.

This Vander Plaats ass hat may be a POS, but I think a feud between the evangelicals and TT should be encouraged. 

Edited July 30, 2017 by onekidanddone

[Cartmann99]

3 hours ago, onekidanddone said:

This Vander Plaats ass hat may be a POS, but I think a feud between the evangelicals and TT should be encouraged.

*Tells Amazon to send more popcorn in the next subscribe and save order, checks how much salt is in the pantry, and puts 20 lbs of butter on the grocery list.*

[onekidanddone]

41 minutes ago, Cartmann99 said:

*Tells Amazon to send more popcorn in the next subscribe and save order, checks how much salt is in the pantry, and puts 20 lbs of butter on the grocery list.*

A post in the Dillard thread had me wanting a ribs. Now I want popcorn. Sweet Rufus FJ! I'm trying to drop some pounds here and now all I want to do is send my husband (because I'm already in PJs) out to the grocery store for popcorn and at the local BBQ place for ribs. 

[Childless]

On 7/28/2017 at 4:38 PM, nokidsmom said:

It boggles my mind as well.  The evangelical folks I know take offense to things that don't even approach the level of offensiveness that is emanating from this administration.   That they could vote for him and still continue to support him in spite of it all is just beyond baffling to me.    

Which is why I don't attend church.  Full of hypocrites who don't live what they preach.  I don't want my children thinking bullying is acceptable to the point that it will get you elected president.

[GrumpyGran]

13 hours ago, Cartmann99 said:

*Tells Amazon to send more popcorn in the next subscribe and save order, checks how much salt is in the pantry, and puts 20 lbs of butter on the grocery list.*

Wine? Margaritas? Vodka with whatever I can find in the frig? And I'm eating Cheetos. A big bag of Cheetos! 

[Cartmann99]

1 hour ago, GrumpyGran said:

Wine? Margaritas? Vodka with whatever I can find in the frig? And I'm eating Cheetos. A big bag of Cheetos! 

I'm imagining all of us sitting in stands, like for a tennis game, surrounded by our favorite snack foods and beverages, as we watch the show between Trump and his aggrieved former fans. 

Us: 

On the court below:  

Edited July 31, 2017 by Cartmann99

[nokidsmom]

2 hours ago, Childless said:

Which is why I don't attend church.  Full of hypocrites who don't live what they preach.  

I grew up heavily involved in church because parents and I have to say that the unexpected downside of my Dad being active on the church council plus I got to (figuratively) see a lot of "respectable" church folks show their asses.  Amazing the stories I heard ranging from the just ridiculous BS my Dad had to deal with to experiencing outright rudeness and hostility when certain council members called my Dad and either I or my sisters answered.   Amazing how people really were on the other six days of the week.

ETA: My mother raised hell over some of this as well.   But I was the only one in the family to eventually stop attending not just that church but any church.

 

Edited July 31, 2017 by nokidsmom
Addition

[AmazonGrace]

Bye Mooch, we hardly knew ye. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/31/us/politics/anthony-scaramucci-white-house.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur

Spoiler

 

Trump Removes Anthony Scaramucci From Communications Director Role

By MAGGIE HABERMAN, MICHAEL D. SHEAR andGLENN THRUSHJULY 31, 2017

WASHINGTON — President Trump has decided to remove Anthony Scaramucci from his position as communications director, three people close to the decision said Monday, relieving him just days after Mr. Scaramucci unloaded a crude verbal tirade against other senior members of the president’s senior staff.

 

Mr. Scaramucci’s abrupt removal came just 10 days after the wealthy New York financier was brought on to the West Wing staff, a move that convulsed an already chaotic White House and led to the departures of Sean Spicer, the former press secretary, and Reince Priebus, the president’s first chief of staff.

The decision to remove Mr. Scaramucci, who had boasted about reporting directly to the president not the chief of staff, John F. Kelly, came at Mr. Kelly’s request, the people said. Mr. Kelly made clear to members of the White House staff at a meeting Monday morning that he is in charge.

It was not clear whether Mr. Scaramucci will remain employed at the White House in another position or will leave altogether.

 

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Hey Mooch --

 

[nokidsmom]

Wow, the Moocher didn't last long.  Not even long enough for an SNL sketch.

 

2 hours ago, Cartmann99 said:

I'm imagining all of us sitting in stands, like for a tennis game, surrounded by our favorite snack foods and beverages, as we watch the show between Trump and his aggrieved former fans.

At first, I steered clear of reading anything Trump but I now look everyday to see what drama has unfolded in the WH, and these days I am not disappointed.  

[Destiny]

Yikes. That’s all I have to say.

[AnywhereButHere]

Well damn, that was quick. I guess he sucked too much air out of the room. There's only room for one crazy ass tweeter in this White House.

[Palimpsest]

7 minutes ago, nokidsmom said:

Wow, the Moocher didn't last long.  Not even long enough for an SNL sketch.

Wouldn't even SNL have had a problem with all the cuss words?

Buh-bye, Mooch.  We hardly knew you.  Hope the door hits you on the way out.

I wonder who is going to be next in the big red chair (Graham Norton reference.)

[AmazonGrace]

So, Scaramucci sold his company, got divorced, missed his child's birth, and became a national laughing stock over 15 minutes of White House fame in a job that he didn't have time to officially start yet. 

[nokidsmom]

1 minute ago, Palimpsest said:

Wouldn't even SNL have had a problem with all the cuss words?

Probably, but he was so over the top I couldn't see them passing up the opportunity.  Probably could work around the cuss word issue on a short appearance in a sketch.

[Cartmann99]

 So, will Scaramucci be appearing on Hannity  tonight?

@JMarie, will you please do a recap if he shows up there? Thanks!

Back at the White House, Sarah and Kellyanne are sobbing and rending their clothes over the loss of Scaramucci.

[onekidanddone]

38 minutes ago, AmazonGrace said:

Bye Mooch, we hardly knew ye. 

Fucking STOP. The White House, I don't mean you @AmazonGrace.  There is a reason why I don't go on roller coaster rides it fucks with my equilibrium. Who's next?  

[AnywhereButHere]

I guess we've found the one thing Caligula is the absolute bestest at. He does love his firings!

[infooverload]

Gee Trump if this is you hiring the best people your failing spectacularly. I'm waiting to see how long Sessions holds on.

[onekidanddone]

Trump's very bad no good horrible administration.