Trump

[Phoebe]

Ya, I used to think it was the murky remnants of hotel-deal graft and bribery or somesuch, maybe some payoffs to the mob here and some greasing of foreign politicians there - one can only imagine the norms of seedy-zone construction industry activities. Or I thought, maybe it's the type of huckster bullshit that caused the top-quality Trump University reach a $25 million settlement, about which few are reporting or concerned much, because Trump is still a great businessman who's going to drain the swamp! I didn't really believe fully that it was some kind of earth-shattering, nation-shaking treasonous criminal conspiracy until Trump and half the nation's Republicans went completely batshit making up any and every possible defense no matter how divorced from reality, including Giuliani now utterly destroying whatever last shards of his reputation remained by telling easily proven lies to anyone who will listen. Whatever, as long as it muddies the waters and confuses people into thinking its another partisan clusterfuck that isn't worth attending to, right?

All I can say is that if that same entrenched third of the voting public can't get past this and get a handle on reality, we have even more serious problems than I had imagined.

[Mike]

I think Trump and his family laundered millions upon millions of dollars for Russian oligarchs for a very long time.

[Phoebe]

Maybe so, but if a big chunk of voters in the twilight zone don't believe it, no matter what, and prefer to take Trump's word over anyone else's, including people and institutions they used to respect... well, it doesn't really matter.

Meanwhile, today our elected officials made sure that banks can creep back closer to their pre-financial crisis exploits, when the unsuspecting loan signer (note: the person I know who made THE stupidest balloon loan arrangements ever is, of course, a fervent Trump supporter) could be sold downriver at no risk to the loan originator.

I already checked the list to make sure none of my banks are in the "nah, we don't really need to impose oversight rules on you" category, and would recommend the same. Wells-Fargo still owes the taxpayers so much money, whee! Deutschebank is of course spared from that meddling oversight. They're totally trustworthy and do not need.

[Phoebe]

This is from the BBC, on the alleged Ukraine payoff for a White house meeting:
"He in turn used personal contacts in a Jewish charity in New York state, Chabad of Port Washington. This eventually led to Michael Cohen, the president's lawyer and trusted fixer. Mr Cohen was paid $400,000."

This Chabad is the one already connected with Trump, Kushner. This is last year from Politico (but others reported on it much longer ago...):
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story ... tin-215007

In the mob there is some means of kicking the money upstairs again... One assumes that part is for Mueller to sort out.

[mimekiller]

absolutely amazing

https://theintercept.com/2018/05/23/pla ... nion-nlrb/

[Phoebe]

Not surprised that the Planned Parenthood organization is throwing a wrench in Union organizing efforts. On the other hand, not sure I trust an article that questions why they would have endorsed one of their own people in a political race, and in fact doesn't even seem to realize she's part of Planned Parenthood. It would have been a lot weirder if they didn't endorse her.

[akiva]

Trump cancelled the meeting with Kim. How's he going to win his Nobel Peace Prize now?

[Phoebe]

I am a big Walter Shaub fan (and his recent posting of adorable poetry to his wife to celebrate their anniversary is not hurting the fandom), but attending to his comments tends to raise my blood pressure a little. He seems to be under the impression that the Integrity of democracy is already lost, given the apparent pay-to-play schemes going on in every level of this administration both domestically and internationally. And the reason that we can't do anything about it is on his view not just that some portion of the population has gone full batshit crazy and thinks Trump deserves a Nobel, but that elected representatives are only beholden to the people who purchase their offices and not directly to the voters who have less financial influence on their campaigns, and the difference in elections often does come down to money rather than votes, given that we are a low turnout kind of democracy anyway.

So the lesson is that if you allow people to buy off your politicians and you have a minority of the eligible population voting anyway, your democracy is ripe for being picked apart. And then you get a leader who is really willing to engage in pay-for-play right out in the open, does all sorts of morally reprehensible and unethical things, and his party will be 100% complicit in allowing it to happen. Do voters even care that their direct financial interests are being sacrificed to higher bidders? Schaub has a shocking list of both highlights and details of the ethics violations of this government. So no wonder he despairs. I still have hope that voters will turn it around, but that's where the failure to investigate efforts to actually distort and hack election results is a wee bit disturbing!

Also Schaub freaks me out because he seems to think there is a substantial group out there in the far right that is hoping not just to deport people, but far worse. And it's not like he's some random dude who has no way of knowing, and I don't know that he's wrong.

[Phoebe]

For like a month I didn't really follow the news and lately I have been attending to it. I was happier when I wasn't attending to it. The basics of the current situation have not changed: actual violent racism for some people, and racist theatre performed for others so that they will glibly tolerate being robbed via tax cuts and banks and such. Abortion still legal, though, which supposedly was the reason justifying all this as not in bad faith.

[poorpete]

N. Korea. Trump, like Kim, loves their pageantry, the military parades, the coins with their faces on them. I think serious negotiators on each side saw a way to prod their wacko leaders to the table (pageantry), appease them, make them shake hands, and then come up with a deal and they both would accept it blindly. Not surprised if it was sabotaged by Pence and Bolton.

With this, Iran, China, Israel, and with trade deals, I fear the world sees the US negotiating in bad faith.

That's bad.

[akiva]

At least there's a nice commemorative coin marking the occasion!

[Phoebe]

Lord I thought you were joking.

[akiva]

[poorpete]

So they might salvage the talks. Good.

I'm all for not giving Trump a second (or third or fortieth) chance at success, but when it comes to nuclear talks with NK... hey Kim, baby, I'm telling you he's changed!

[Phoebe]

You sometimes wonder if they are uniquely suited to one another's level - like this romance could either destroy the world or save it, depending on the narcissist whimsy of the day.

[poorpete]

Yup, it's like setting up a play date for your kids just so all the parents can pop a cold one and create peace treaties.

[Phoebe]

Or I think about his fascination with Dennis Rodman. Apparently the guy played basketball in school in Switzerland, was a Michael Jordan fan. If Trump could somehow take Jordan over there maybe peace can be achieved.

[poorpete]

Trump props from Pete
- NK peace talks (tentative)
- pardoning Jack Johnson
- not attending Barbra Bush funeral
- allowing ISIS war to stay the course
- golfing (with obvious qualifiers)

Now Trump knocks from Pete would be 1000 items long, include incompetence, malice, racism, sexism, corruption, humanitarian and moral disasters, but props where due.

[FlameBlade]

Rod Blagjovech
Martha Stewart
Dinesh Souza.

Seriously?

[Phoebe]

I'm okay with pardoning Martha; as I understand it, her crime was not really insider trading so much as it was trying to alter evidence after the fact that she was worried might implicate her, and then lying about things. That's what got her. A dishonest move, yes, but in the realm of dishonesties, pretty trivial compared to the punishment and the scope of dishonesties going on in the present life that travel unpunished.