Trump 31: Parody of a Presidency

[laPapessaGiovanna]

11 hours ago, fraurosena said:

Sweet Rufus. Alfred Nobel will be turning in his grave if he is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and they can stop issuing it ever after, because it will have lost any and all standing.

 

I fear his love for Norwegians won't be reciprocated...oh I'd love to see thee Committee's faces and hear their comments when they'll consider his application 

[fraurosena]

You can't convince me this was tweeted by the presidunce himself. There are no grammatical errors, or random capitalizations and quotation marks, for starters. Nope. If I were to make a guess, this is Giuliani's handiwork. 

(there is a spelling error though... "roll" should be "role")

[AmazonGrace]

Michael Cohen, a great guy!  He got paid for covering up an Affair, which I didn't have! It's all Lies and Slander!  And that Stormy person promised not to say anything! By the way I'm famous, and very very rich, so women lie about me all the time! It's not a campaign finance violation, because those rules are for Losers! Witch Hunt!

[AmazonGrace]

 

[CTRLZero]

So, Trump is claiming Cohen was reimbursed for the Stormy Daniels payoff from his "monthly retainer."  This means there would likely be no separate financial transaction trail proving the reimbursement.  Am I reading this correctly?

I really don't like Giuliani.  I'll detest him less if he brings down the orange lard brain, though.

[Ali]

Is it normal for a wealthy client to have a monthly retainer?

[JMarie]

8 hours ago, AmazonGrace said:

Is Trump broke or did he do it in installments to avoid having to report it? 

Mueller: I...worked...for this story for a year....and he just blurted it out...

Rudy: I told you I'd end this investigation on two weeks didn't I

I love this season of stupid Watergate

$35,000 per month, over a year-long period, is $420,000 per year.  Guiliani's math doesn't work.  Did Trumpy Bear come up with this payment plan?

[GreyhoundFan]

A good op-ed: "Trump is a grifter, same as ever"

Spoiler

Critics of President Trump, including me, have regularly compared him to authoritarian rulers such as Viktor Orban and Vladimir Putin. But a more apt comparison may be with Jordan Belfort or Frank Abagnale. Who? you ask.

Belfort is the high-living Wall Street stockbroker who was convicted of fraud and subsequently had his life story dramatized by Martin Scorsese in “The Wolf of Wall Street.” Abagnale is the con artist who pretended to be a doctor and airline pilot, among other disguises. His life story was told by Steven Spielberg in “Catch Me If You Can.” That title appears ever-more-appropriate for the Donald Trump life story as more of the president’s scams come to light.

Just this week, Trump’s personal doctor, Harold Bornstein, said he did not write the glowing letter attesting to Trump’s “astonishingly excellent” health that was released under his signature on Dec. 4, 2015. “He dictated the whole letter,” Bornstein said. That will come as no shock to anyone familiar with Trump’s self-aggrandizement and ignorance of history, given that the letter claimed: “If elected, Mr. Trump, I can state unequivocally, will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.”

It is precisely the fact that this fraud — if that’s what it was — is so typical of Trump that this disclosure has received so little attention. Imagine, by contrast, the hyperventilation that would have occurred if Hillary Clinton had been caught deceiving the public about her health — an issue that Trump and his acolytes harped on relentlessly during the campaign.

Another Trump fraud was uncovered recently when former Forbes journalist Jonathan Greenberg recounted in The Post how Trump lied his way onto the magazine’s list of the wealthiest Americans. Trump called Greenberg to brag about his riches while pretending to be his own PR man — John Barron — a trick he had pulled before. Greenberg knew Trump was exaggerating but not by how much. He wrote: “In our first-ever list, in 1982, we included him at $100 million, but Trump was actually worth roughly $5 million — a paltry sum by the standards of his super-monied peers.”

It was not just a matter of vanity for Trump: Appearing wealthy made banks more likely to lend to him and business partners more likely to make deals with him. Trump continues the con to this day, claiming a net worth of more than $10 billion but refusing to release his tax returns.

Trump’s whole business career was littered with broken promises — in other words, swindles. Trump paid $25 million to settle civil suits by students at Trump University who claimed that he had not delivered on his promises to teach them the secrets of his money-making success. Actually, he did: The lesson came in the way they were fleeced.

Yet another apparent Trump scam has come to light concerning his supposed sexual prowess. Jill Brooke, the reporter behind the New York Post’s famous “Best Sex I’ve Ever Had” front page in 1990, says the headline came about when Trump called her and demanded a story to counteract the positive coverage that the Daily News was giving to his estranged wife, Ivana, in their divorce battle. “Marla [Maples] says with me it’s the best sex she’s ever had,” Trump told her on the telephone, referring to his mistress who would soon become wife No. 2. For confirmation, Trump shouted, “Didn’t you say it’s the best sex you ever had with me?”

According to the Daily Beast: “A faint ‘yes, Donald,’ was heard in the background and the headline wrote itself to become part of history. Brooke said it was only later she discovered Trump was prone to impersonating associates on the phone, and so she is now unsure if Trump’s second wife ever said any such thing.”

If this was indeed another racket, it wasn’t just about feeding Trump’s insatiable ego. His image as a lady-killer added to his aura of all-around success, which he used to peddle all sorts of tchotchkes to gullible consumers. As The Post notes, “There was Trump deodorant. Trump ties. Trump steaks. Trump underwear. Trump furniture. At one time, there was even a Trump-branded urine test.”

Having gotten in the habit of lying regularly about matters big and small, Trump has set new records for mendacity while in office. The Post reports that he has made more than 3,000 false or misleading claims since the inauguration, and that his rate of deception has increased from 4.9 to 9 falsehoods a day.

Does any of this matter? From a political perspective, probably not. Voters knew what sort of huckster Trump was when they elected him. But it should give us pause to consider what it says about America, circa 2018, that so many of us are so ready to accept a Jordan Belfort or Frank Abagnale — a con man, in other words — as our leader.

 

[Howl]

Is it possible that Giuliani's ego is even more bigly than Trump's, and is large enough to override any form of common sense, let alone legal acumen?  

Giuliani: Hey, that Mueller guy?  We go way back. I got this.  And, I'll spin the Cohen payment to Stormy so fast everybody will get dizzy and fall down. It's already in the rear view mirror.

Mueller: SMH

And Rudy, honey?  Never forget: ETTD™

 

[CTRLZero]

I'm sorry, I missed this quote above:  That is how the $130K was repaid, Giuliani says, adding, "I'm almost certain that there wasn't an itemized bill."

Giuliani is saying there are no separate ledger entries for the Stormy Daniels payoff.  Retainers are very common to do monthly legal work (contract reviews, etc.).  Then a billing statement/recap is issued at the end of the month, depending on the number of hours an attorney does for a client.  Trump is not a normal client (in so many ways!), so who knows, lol.

[AmazonGrace]

 

 

 

[AmazonGrace]

National Prayer Day beats Infrastructure Week hands down. 

 

[IrishCarrie]

Rudy going on TV to say that Trump did in fact pay off the porn star was on the Irish news today.

Thing is, it wasn't in the headlines or in the main part of the bulletin. It was in the silly bit at the end, after the sports coverage but before the weather report that closes the show. It's the section here they usually do something light and fluffy for entertainment purposes; you know, someone has a dog that can bark the alphabet or some children have raised X amount of money for their ill classmate. The sort of feel-good, not-really-hard-news-but-it's-nice/funny piece.

I was kind of horrified that the American president's corruption and lies were featured in that manner and tone. It was like, it's such a joke we can't even pretend this is hard news any more. Which I get, but still...

[onekidanddone]

I'm not sure how hiring another unhinged racist wing nut is supposed to help Trump's case. So Rudy-pa-tudy has admitted why Trump fired Comey, and that Trump paid Cohen to hush Daniels.  There must be more things Rudolph as said, but  I can't keep up.

 

[AnywhereButHere]

1 hour ago, JMarie said:

$35,000 per month, over a year-long period, is $420,000 per year.  Guiliani's math doesn't work.  Did Trumpy Bear come up with this payment plan?

I heard on MSNBC this morning that Guiliani was quoted as saying the $35,000 per month was payment for "these types of things" keeping them quiet to save his marriage. Kind of opens the door for Muller and any other interested legal parties to investigate. How many "things" were there exactly? Hmmmm?

Oh, and Caligula honey, you're not saving anything. I'm sure you must know, in that little, artery clogged, heart of yours, that your wife is only staying with you because you pay her more than $35,000 a month. Or is it because your pre-nup states that with any concrete proof of your philandering, she could take you for much, much more than that.

[GreyhoundFan]

Nope: "Does Trump even understand the electoral college?"

Spoiler

Among the recent garbled effusions from today’s temporary president — cheer up; they are all temporary — was one that concerned something about which he might not have thought as deeply as the subject merits. During an episode of government of, by and for “Fox & Friends,” he said: He won the 2016 election “easily” but wishes the electoral vote system were replaced by direct election of presidents by popular vote. He favors this “because” — if you were expecting him to offer reasons drawn from political philosophy or constitutional theory, grow up — “to me, it’s much easier to win the popular vote.”

He added, accidentally stubbing his toe on a truth, that running for president without the electoral college would involve “a totally different campaign.” Which, he does not realize, is one reason for retaining the electoral college.

The president’s interest in all this comes from his festering grievance about losing the popular vote by five times more votes than George W. Bush lost it to Al Gore in 2000. Trump’s thinking is as murky as his syntax, but evidently he supposes that under a pure popular-vote system he would have campaigned in, say, indigo California, thereby reducing his opponent’s huge margin of victory there (30 points). Perhaps. But his California campaigning might have increased her turnout, which was probably reduced by the lack of campaigning there. Who knows?

This we do know: Presidential majorities are built by the electoral college as it has evolved, adapting to the two-party system. The electoral college gives the parties a distribution incentive for achieving geographical and ideological breadth while assembling a coalition of states . The electoral-vote system, combined with the winner-take-all allocation of the votes in 48 of the 50 states (all but Maine and Nebraska), serves, as scholar Herbert Storing said, “to drive all interests into one of two great parties.” This discourages a destabilizing proliferation of small ideological parties and encourages the two parties “to cast their nets very widely.”

Today’s president might not have noticed that America has 51 direct popular-vote presidential elections, in the states and the District of Columbia. This buttresses the federal system by having, as political scientist Martin Diamond wrote, presidential elections that are “federally democratic” rather than “nationally democratic” in registering the popular will, which is nonetheless registered. This “sends a federalizing impulse throughout our whole political process,” one that is increasingly useful as national politics continues to reduce states to the passive role of administering the national government’s preferences. The 17th Amendment (direct election of senators, rather than by state legislatures) was bad enough. Who thinks there is too little centralization in American governance under today’s administrative state?

In 1967, an American Bar Association commission, which recommended replacing the electoral college with a direct popular vote, strangely criticized the electoral-vote system for being, among other bad things, “ambiguous.” Actually, in close elections, including 2016’s, the electoral-vote system provides what Diamond called “useful amplification.” In 1960, John F. Kennedy won 49.7 percent of the popular vote but 56.4 percent of the electoral vote (303 to 219). In 2008, Barack Obama won 52.9 percent of the popular vote but 67.8 percent of the electoral vote (365 to 173).

Woodrow Wilson could conduct a strong first term (during which America acquired the income tax and the Federal Reserve System) partly because his 41.8 percent of the popular vote produced 81.9 percent of the electoral vote (in a contest featuring three major candidates). If what Diamond called the electoral college’s “magnifying lens” had been scrapped when the ABA commission called for this, the current president’s 46 percent of the popular vote could not have been translated into 56 percent of the electoral vote (304) and President Hillary Clinton would be glad that the electoral college had ended.

America is a “mitigated” democracy (this adjective is from James Madison, the foremost translator of democracy into institutional architecture), in which, for example, Wyoming’s U.S. senators represent just 1.5 percent of the number of people that California’s senators represent. American democracy, as in the electoral college, accommodates considerations more complex than simple-minded majoritarianism.

The president who said “nobody knew that health care could be so complicated” might be astonished to learn that people were thinking deeply about the electoral college long before the subject crossed his mind. Which it did because he managed to lose the popular vote to one of the two least-popular major-party nominees in American history, the other being today’s temporary president.

I often disagree with George Will, but love his naming of Dumpy as "today's temporary president."

[fraurosena]

43 minutes ago, AnywhereButHere said:

Kind of opens the door for Muller and any other interested legal parties to investigate. How many "things" were there exactly?

Don't worry, Mueller is all over this and then some. He's got everything covered, and it's probably one of the reasons why they raided Cohen.

[JMarie]

42 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

He won the 2016 election “easily” but wishes the electoral vote system were replaced by direct election of presidents by popular vote. He favors this “because” — if you were expecting him to offer reasons drawn from political philosophy or constitutional theory, grow up — “to me, it’s much easier to win the popular vote.”

I thought he knew that HILLARY won the popular vote, not him.

[AmazonGrace]

 

[GreyhoundFan]

1 hour ago, JMarie said:

I thought he knew that HILLARY won the popular vote, not him.

He knows that she wouldn't have won if it weren't for the millions of people who voted "illegally".

[Howl]

5 hours ago, AmazonGrace said:

National Prayer Day beats Infrastructure Week hands down. 

 

I think they are praying that this Infrastructure Week is over soon, because it's shaping up to be spectacular. 

So a few things: Cohen's phone lines were tapped by the Feds for at least a few weeks before he (Cohen) was hit with the search warrants. 

George Conway (Kellyanne's hub) schooled Giuliani on how FEC law works: 

SRSLY, Giuliani is a complete disaster; if Trump is the Titanic, he's the damn iceberg.  

[AmazonGrace]

1. Lordy there are tapes

2. The president is a moron.

Giuliani told him not to call Cohen because his phones are probably tapped but he did anyway.

 

[onekidanddone]

21 minutes ago, AmazonGrace said:

1. Lordy there are tapes

2. The president is a moron.

Giuliani told him not to call Cohen because his phones are probably tapped but he did anyway.

 

How long before the ex Clinton impeachment lawyer quits. He has to know Trump will keep setting dumpster fires via Tweet and never listens to legal advice. No matter how hard new guy tries to control the narrative, Trump will blow it up. I don't care how good he was with Clinton's case, nobody can tame the orange mobster monster.

Remember from the days of Nixon. It isn't the crime, it is the cover up.

[Cartmann99]

I have a few recurring dreams that show up in my nightly rotation from time to time. Sunday night was the one where I discover all of these rooms in my house that I never knew where there. I woke up Monday hoping that it would mean an extra helping of Trump's dirty shenanigans would be revealed this week.

My schedule is pretty light tomorrow if Mueller wants to set off some fireworks for us. 

 

[Howl]

The best part is that many, many fine legal minds are dissecting the entire Giuliani fiasco on cable TV.   As one commenter said with a look of total disbelief on her face, "What are they DOING?" 

As another commenter, who had worked as a legal strategist for two admistrations, said, "If that was a legal strategy, it sucked."