AIUI, it's for real. And yes, Boogie, you're seeing a different man than they do--and/or they think a Nobel for T could only improve the Republican party's position.
(eyeroll)
Ian, I think the Nobel for Obama was ridiculous. It was also a sign of how deeply relieved much of the world was to be rid of Dubya. IIRC, Obama said he hadn't earned it yet. (Considering that was at the very beginning of his first term!) I wish he'd either turned it down, or wittily asked the committee to hold onto it for him until he'd earned it.
The fact that Obama got one means that it makes perfect sense that Trump should get his foot soldiers to try and get him one as well. Almost everything Trump does is intended to dismantle what Obama did or otherwise show that Trump is sooo much better than Obama. That's one reason why I believe the golden showers story - as an act of vindictiveness against Obama, it makes sense (in Trump's eyes at least).
I have been listening to a podcast series on Watergate by Slade, called Slow Burn. The parallels are striking, not only in the actions of the White House, but in the way people reacted to them. I recommend a listen.
Oh, I dunno. Credit where credit is due: North and South Korea have agreed that the Korean War is (finally) over, obviously because they need to unite against a common enemy. In the unlikely event that Trump does get the Nobel Peace Prize, think of it as a backhanded compliment...
Given that no Nobels were handed out for similar meeting with (so far) similar results in 2007, giving the prize now seems a little premature. Kim Dae-Jung won in 2000 for the first inter-Korea summit, but he had the advantage of it being the first inter-Korea summit.
Ian, I think the Nobel for Obama was ridiculous. It was also a sign of how deeply relieved much of the world was to be rid of Dubya. IIRC, Obama said he hadn't earned it yet. (Considering that was at the very beginning of his first term!) I wish he'd either turned it down, or wittily asked the committee to hold onto it for him until he'd earned it.
Part of it was that Obama won the Nobel Not Being George W. Bush Prize, but another part was probably the Nobel committee's unspoken fears, given what happened to the only other African-American recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. Nobels can't be awarded posthumously.
It is up to the Swedish Nobel Committee to determine who will get the Peace Prize. Considering how Trump pulled out of the Paris Agreement and is threatening to pull out of the Iranian deal, I do not think the committee will have a favorable view (not to mention the bombing strikes on Syria).
Even though Kim and Moon have declared the Korean War over, it can still unravel depending on how Kim and Trump's meeting go.
It kills me that when Obama first proposed meeting with Kim, the conservative media led by Fox News roundly condemned the idea, Now they picture Trump walking on water for the same idea.
It kills me that when Obama first proposed meeting with Kim, the conservative media led by Fox News roundly condemned the idea, Now they picture Trump walking on water for the same idea.
And the thing is, even during the primaries/campaign, Trump's porposals for a meeting were more dovish than anything that was being proposed by the other candidates, from either party, since Trump stated that he'd be willing to meet with Kim without North Korea first giving up nukes. That having been the North Korean demand all along.
Well, this explains why Giuliani was blabbing to Hannity yesterday.
Federal investigators have wiretapped the phone lines of Michael Cohen, the longtime personal lawyer for President Donald Trump who is under investigation for a payment he made to an adult film star who alleged she had an affair with Trump, according to two people with knowledge of the legal proceedings involving Cohen.
It is not clear how long the wiretap has been authorized, but NBC News has learned it was in place in the weeks leading up to the raids on Cohen's offices, hotel room, and home in early April, according to one person with direct knowledge.
At least one phone call between a phone line associated with Cohen and the White House was intercepted, the person said.
The wiretap probably wasn't anything to do with Trump. More likely it was because of Cohen's other alleged shady dealings, (short version: alleged insurance fraud with Russian mobsters) but anything you come across while executing a valid warrant is fair game, even if it's not related to your initial case.
The whole thing brings to mind my favorite line from the 1981 Neo-Noire Body Heat.
Any time you try a decent crime, you got fifty ways you're gonna f*** up. If you think of twenty-five of them, then you're a genius... and you ain't no genius.
I'm going to guess that there was a frantic call to Cohen around the time of the Access Hollywood video, letting him know that he should get NDAs and well-disguised payments out to every woman Trump had ever slept with, stat. I'm just kind of curious about why more women aren't coming forward at this point. (I mean, I guess I can understand why you would stay silent, but still, does anyone really believe that Clifford was the only one who got a call?)
Its a high-pressure, high-risk thing to take on the President of the United States. I'm surprised Stephanie Clifford didn't just take the money and run. On another front, I just want to let you all know that I didn't sleep with the President on multiple occasions, and I'll say that for $50 grand.
Well, this explains why Giuliani was blabbing to Hannity yesterday.
Federal investigators have wiretapped the phone lines of Michael Cohen, the longtime personal lawyer for President Donald Trump who is under investigation for a payment he made to an adult film star who alleged she had an affair with Trump, according to two people with knowledge of the legal proceedings involving Cohen.
It is not clear how long the wiretap has been authorized, but NBC News has learned it was in place in the weeks leading up to the raids on Cohen's offices, hotel room, and home in early April, according to one person with direct knowledge.
At least one phone call between a phone line associated with Cohen and the White House was intercepted, the person said.
The wiretap probably wasn't anything to do with Trump. More likely it was because of Cohen's other alleged shady dealings, (short version: alleged insurance fraud with Russian mobsters) but anything you come across while executing a valid warrant is fair game, even if it's not related to your initial case.
NBC has apparently walked back the story somewhat, reporting now that Cohen's calls were being monitored, but not tapped. Trump was happy to portray the walk-back as more proof that the FAKE NEWS MEDIA is making stories up whole-cloth.
Any reputable news media will, if they are in error, will revise or retract their previous report. So NBC made a mistake. Does not mean they are FAKE NEWS. They owned up to it and revised it. Would that FOX News have the same reputation.
Does everyone pay people to not talk about sex which never happened on behalf of another person without telling him? And he's still the darling of the born again fake Christian white right. Am I missing something?
Yes, if the NK/SK rapprochement leads to more regional stability, I think Trump would have as much of a claim on the Nobel Peace Prize as Obama, by dint of throwing away conventional wisdom and agreeing to meet Kim for bilateral talks, something the latter has long been angling for. That's still a big "if" at this point, though.
Does everyone pay people to not talk about sex which never happened on behalf of another person without telling him? And he's still the darling of the born again fake Christian white right. Am I missing something?
A business opportunity?
Rudi Guliani - did he have a reputation for being careless when he was a prosecutor in New York? I mean, despite evidence to the contrary during the 2016 campaign, he seemed like a pretty good operator to me. I was surprised to see him back Trump, but he had never really been on my radar before.
Rudi Guliani ........ he seemed like a pretty good operator to me.
No, I'm surprised to see him come out of hiding after he was rebuked by a judge for his behaviour in defending a prominent Turkish crook.
Giuliani will almost certainly be indicted for serious crimes himself, so it would have been more sensible for him to have stayed in hiding. He may have been promised a pardon by Trump.
Landmark time: Just since he took the oath of office, President Trump has told over 3,000 lies! This is an average of almost 6.5 per day. And probably does not include his recent claim about the London knife-attacks "war zone" and hospitals with blood stained floors.
I have long given up counting Trump's lies. It is called mythomania and was first described as a psychological disorder in 1891. The liar "decorates their own person" by telling stories that present them as the hero or the victim. For example, the person might be presented as being fantastically brave, as knowing or being related to many famous people, or as having great power, position, or wealth.
There are many consequences of being a pathological liar. Due to lack of trust, most pathological liars' relationships and friendships fail. If this continues to progress, lying could become so severe as to cause legal problems, including, but not limited to, fraud.
While it is not recognized in the American Diagnostic And Statistical Manual (DSM-5), it is found in the International Classification and Diagnosis Codes (ICD-10).
My apologies if this has been already answered. I have not been following this thread. But could a US shipmate explain something for me?
Is it normal in the US for one's lawyer to pay out a large sum with his or her own money to get their client out of a mess, spontaneously and out of the goodness of their own generous heart, without already having been put in those funds by the client, or confident that the client can be billed for the money and relied upon to pay?
It ain't here. But perhaps people do things differently away from the cynical Old World.
Is there a child trapped in that body? What would possess anyone to do this? Saying guns would stop massacres I get, as it is a well worn (if ludicrous imho) argument, but mimicking gunmen? He certainly does continue to dig to lower depths.
Is there a child trapped in that body? What would possess anyone to do this? Saying guns would stop massacres I get, as it is a well worn (if ludicrous imho) argument, but mimicking gunmen? He certainly does continue to dig to lower depths.
There was something revealing said by Shania Twain and subsequently analysed to the effect that the nature of the delivery of words and speech persuade some people even when the content is untrue. The person may even recognize the statement is a lie but continue to support the statement and the person because of how they speak. Letting him off because stress, because folksy, because positive emotion created.
The news mentioned they didn't allow guns into the Nuremberg stadium or wherever it was when president turnip circled with NRA jerks. Why would that be? Do you need 2 small dead hands for their 2nd amendment?
My apologies if this has been already answered. I have not been following this thread. But could a US shipmate explain something for me?
Is it normal in the US for one's lawyer to pay out a large sum with his or her own money to get their client out of a mess, spontaneously and out of the goodness of their own generous heart, without already having been put in those funds by the client, or confident that the client can be billed for the money and relied upon to pay?
It ain't here. But perhaps people do things differently away from the cynical Old World.
Is it normal in the US for one's lawyer to pay out a large sum with his or her own money to get their client out of a mess, spontaneously and out of the goodness of their own generous heart, without already having been put in those funds by the client, or confident that the client can be billed for the money and relied upon to pay?
Depends on what you mean by "normal". It's unusual for lawyers to do this, but it's normal for money launderers and mobsters to have that kind of arrangement.
I finally saw the Fox interview of James Comey today. The Fox journalist was well prepared and tried to damage Comey's credibility in various ways. Comey answered most questions with a straight yes or no, indicated why he couldn't answer others and pointed out where he disagreed with statements put. He rebutted each allegation of hypocrisy, explained apparent inconsistencies and came out of the interview with his credibility intact.
Watching it rehabilitated Comey a little bit in my mind. I can't wait to hear Hillary's take on Thursday.
Me and Mandy are going to see Hillary speak on Thursday evening. She's giving one speech in Melbourne and one in Sydney. I'm no longer being a silly fanboy about it, but its still pretty exciting.
On another front, Iran is lining up like Iraq prior to the second Gulf war. I'm a bit worried, but keeping a lid on it. Diplomacy is an open field, not a train track, I keep telling myself...
On another front, Iran is lining up like Iraq prior to the second Gulf war. I'm a bit worried, but keeping a lid on it. Diplomacy is an open field, not a train track, I keep telling myself...
There are some notable differences. First, everyone else in the world seems to agree that Iran is abiding by JCPOA, so the U.S. will not have many allies for military action. Perhaps Saudi Arabia, a few other Gulf states, and maybe Israel. Second, war with Iran would likely be a lot more difficult than the invasion of Iraq.
In other news, Paul Campos speculates that Elliot Broidy, the Republican fundraiser who allegedly paid a Playboy model $1.6 million to hush up an affair than allegedly ended with an abortion, was actually covering for Donald Trump. The case is circumstantial, but better fits the known facts than the idea that Broidy was the one having sex with a Playboy model.
Broidy’s behavior following the raid is simply inexplicable. The current assumption is that Broidy knew that his payments to Bechard (through the LLC) would eventually become public, given that they were now in the possession of the Feds. But in fact, it was far from certain that they would. Cohen’s lawyers and Trump’s lawyers were fighting to keep Cohen’s attorney-client communications confidential, and it is quite possible that Broidy’s payments would never come to light. And even if they did, he could surely deny to the press that they were his. Broidy claims to have paid $1.6 million to keep his affair with Bechard quiet. Why throw away that entire investment at the first sign that this secret might eventually be exposed? By reacting in the manner he did, Broidy ensured that what was still at the time only a worst-case scenario became an immediate certainty, as opposed to remaining a down-the-line possibility.
If this theory is correct, the press bears some of the blame for allowing a self-serving and corrupt lie to enter the public record as news. At the bottom of this whole tangled situation, there are two undeniable facts: Trump has a habit of having sex with women exactly like Bechard, and then paying them off to stay silent, and Broidy is a man who pays large sums of money, legally and illegally, to influence powerful politicians. That convergence should have set off alarm bells in the minds of journalists when someone decided, immediately after Cohen’s office was raided, to reveal the existence of an NDA between Broidy and Bechard.
I recommend the reading the whole thing. It's a convincing argument, if not a slam dunk case. Broidy's immediate confession to the first reporter who asked him about this alleged affair is suspicious, if only because he'd supposedly spend $1.6 million to conceal this information.
President Donald Trump announced Tuesday he is quitting the Iran nuclear deal, pitting him against the United States' closest allies and leaving the future of Tehran's nuclear ambitions in question.
"It is clear to me that we cannot prevent an Iranian nuclear bomb under the decaying and rotten structure of the current agreement," Trump said from the White House Diplomatic Room. "The Iran deal is defective at its core. If we do nothing we know exactly what will happen."
In announcing his decision, Trump said he would initiate new sanctions on the regime, crippling the touchstone agreement negotiated by his predecessor. Trump said any country that helps Iran obtain nuclear weapons would also be "strongly sanctioned."
During a speech May 7, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani suggested that if the United States were to exit the comprehensive nuclear deal between Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany, European countries could keep the deal alive.
"The people must be certain that we have taken into consideration various possible scenarios in dealing with the United States,” Rouhani said on the possibility of the United States exiting the nuclear deal on May 12. He added, “In this direction, what we want from the nuclear deal is either guaranteed from countries other than America, or if we see what we want out of the nuclear deal is not secured, we will follow our own path and plans.”
Rouhani said what Iran had sought in the nuclear deal was the “removal of oppressions such as sanctions.”
Regardless of what happens with the United States, Rouhani said that this will not be a “long-term” issue. He noted, “If America takes actions against its own commitments, world opinion and countries around the world — with the exception of a few — will know America to be at fault.” He added that this likely action by the United States will not be like previous eras in which the Security Council would support the United States as it had done previously through sanctions and other measures.
I haven't seen reactions by any of the other JCPOA signatories to Trump's announced intention to abandon the agreement, but I can't see them being particularly enthusiastic about resuming sanctions to get an agreement that they already had with the JCPOA. So we now have the spectacle of Iran behaving as a global "good citizen" by adhering to its promises and the United States in the role of untrustworthy rogue nation. Heckuva job, Trumpie!
On another front, Iran is lining up like Iraq prior to the second Gulf war. I'm a bit worried, but keeping a lid on it. Diplomacy is an open field, not a train track, I keep telling myself...
There are some notable differences. First, everyone else in the world seems to agree that Iran is abiding by JCPOA, so the U.S. will not have many allies for military action. Perhaps Saudi Arabia, a few other Gulf states, and maybe Israel. Second, war with Iran would likely be a lot more difficult than the invasion of Iraq.
In other news, Paul Campos speculates that Elliot Broidy, the Republican fundraiser who allegedly paid a Playboy model $1.6 million to hush up an affair than allegedly ended with an abortion, was actually covering for Donald Trump. The case is circumstantial, but better fits the known facts than the idea that Broidy was the one having sex with a Playboy model.
Broidy’s behavior following the raid is simply inexplicable. The current assumption is that Broidy knew that his payments to Bechard (through the LLC) would eventually become public, given that they were now in the possession of the Feds. But in fact, it was far from certain that they would. Cohen’s lawyers and Trump’s lawyers were fighting to keep Cohen’s attorney-client communications confidential, and it is quite possible that Broidy’s payments would never come to light. And even if they did, he could surely deny to the press that they were his. Broidy claims to have paid $1.6 million to keep his affair with Bechard quiet. Why throw away that entire investment at the first sign that this secret might eventually be exposed? By reacting in the manner he did, Broidy ensured that what was still at the time only a worst-case scenario became an immediate certainty, as opposed to remaining a down-the-line possibility.
If this theory is correct, the press bears some of the blame for allowing a self-serving and corrupt lie to enter the public record as news. At the bottom of this whole tangled situation, there are two undeniable facts: Trump has a habit of having sex with women exactly like Bechard, and then paying them off to stay silent, and Broidy is a man who pays large sums of money, legally and illegally, to influence powerful politicians. That convergence should have set off alarm bells in the minds of journalists when someone decided, immediately after Cohen’s office was raided, to reveal the existence of an NDA between Broidy and Bechard.
I recommend the reading the whole thing. It's a convincing argument, if not a slam dunk case. Broidy's immediate confession to the first reporter who asked him about this alleged affair is suspicious, if only because he'd supposedly spend $1.6 million to conceal this information.
Michael Avenatti was suggesting something similar about a week ago. He said that Cohen admitted to having three clients, but never said explicitly that Broidy was one of them. According to Avenatti, the actual list was Donald Trump individually, the Trump Organization, and Sean Hannity. Not exactly a smoking gun, but more food for thought.
Michael Avenatti was suggesting something similar about a week ago. He said that Cohen admitted to having three clients, but never said explicitly that Broidy was one of them. According to Avenatti, the actual list was Donald Trump individually, the Trump Organization, and Sean Hannity. Not exactly a smoking gun, but more food for thought.
Syrian state media reported on Tuesday night that Israel conducted an airstrike south of Damascus, in an area previously identified as the site of a suspected Iranian military base.
Syria’s official SANA news outlet said that the country’s air defenses intercepted two Israeli missiles over the el-Kiswah area, south of Damascus. The report did not specify how many missiles were fired.
As a rule, the Israeli military does not comment on airstrikes in Syria.
Israel and Iran have been at daggers drawn for a while now. Israel is said to have bombed an Iranian airbase in Syria just after the recent Assad chemical attack that prompted Western retaliation. I'm not sure, but I don't think that's the first time. The airstrikes over the past few months were prompted by the downing of an Iranian drone over Israeli airspace, facts supplied by the Netenyahu regime, so you know... be careful.
I wasn't aware of the speculation over the payment to Bechard. Do you reckon that a proven payment by Trump to obtain silence and an abortion would even dent the faith of single-issue pro-life voters? I strongly doubt it myself - a hypocrite advocating pro-life beats an honest person advocating women's rights.
Is this repudiation of the Iran deal a deflection, something to put into public consciousness in place of sex?
Are we at the stage of bogus "weapons of mass destruction"? It'd be nice to have a villain though, someone like Sadam. Pres Turnip would have liked Ahmadinejad quite a bit I think. Probably would have bombed the country already. Given the population is twice that of Iraq where possibly up to 1.2 million were killed, his upcoming little war may kill 2.4 million. Though who is counting?
The country is due for some social change, population of Iran is some 80 millions with half under the age of 35. Be nice if they could naturally evolve without killing a bunch of them.
so what to think of Michael Avenatti’s latest bit of news?
According to Avenatti, and now being confirmed by multiple media outlets, the same shell company that made the Daniels payment received $500,000.00 from a Russian Oligarc, as well as payments from AT&T and a prominent pharmaceutical company.
There’s also reports of Cohen receiving money from a mysterious company in Hungary. No one quite knows what this company does- internet research has led to conflicting stories, including travel agency, wedding venue, and newspaper stand. Remember, the Steel memo suggested that Cohen traveled to Hungary to broker deals between the Trump campaign and Russia.
I don't think Trump is in real trouble until Pence starts volunteering that he supports Trump 100% and would only accept the Presidency if he is forced to.
I don't think he's in trouble, and I repeat my long-held contention that he's going to be around until 2024 (I would happily be proved wrong).
As posted more than once, impeachment is a pipe dream, and not even necessarily the optimum outcome for the Democrats in terms of optics. In the meantime, Trump and his team are dominating and manipulating the popular domestic narrative and appear to have the right connections and the money to keep on doing so.
so what to think of Michael Avenatti’s latest bit of news?
According to Avenatti, and now being confirmed by multiple media outlets, the same shell company that made the Daniels payment received $500,000.00 from a Russian Oligarc, as well as payments from AT&T and a prominent pharmaceutical company.
There’s also reports of Cohen receiving money from a mysterious company in Hungary. No one quite knows what this company does- internet research has led to conflicting stories, including travel agency, wedding venue, and newspaper stand. Remember, the Steel memo suggested that Cohen traveled to Hungary to broker deals between the Trump campaign and Russia.
All very juicy stuff...
At best it looks like Cohen was selling access to Trump. At worst it looks like he was peddling influence with Trump.
My wife and I got a good giggle over the Russian Oligarch paying Cohen story last night while watching clips on Giuliani from three late-night comedians. I pranced around the room inventing scenarios where the Republicans endorsed another candidate for President in 2020 and how that would be better than impeachment. Then my wife stopped, looked at me, and said, "Sit down. You've gone too far. It hasn't been proved that Cohen was a proxy for Trump here, and the source is Avenetti. We both know he's suss."
I've been watching the two American Experience episodes on the Clinton Presidency, my chosen preparation/ prep rally for tonight's Hillary speech. I've got through Whitewater, and la merde a frappé le ventilateur (the shit has hit the fan, according to google French) in re Lewinsky. Dick Morris says he told Clinton to tell the truth, and the sap lied lied lied lied lied. I mean it wasn't the first time but geez Bill. Clinton could always do a great line in apology, and Morris bloody tested it through polls. How he did that, I don't know, but he said he did and he said that Americans would forgive the infidelity, but not the lie.
The big gap, so far, is how poor Monica felt. Poor woman. She was grabbed out of a food court by the FBI you know, and they pressured her to betray Clinton. She was so hysterical they couldn't get any sense out of her. She was 23.
How did we get from not accepting the lie to Trump, after a decade of a President who surely had every aspect of his life scrutinised and all they could get on him was his skin colour.
Is there a link? Was the rancour and grief from the Clinton years carried over into this Presidency?
Oh, for those who think 2018 is no good, have a look at 1995 and then 2001. I'd forgotten what a shocker of a year 1995 was.
Are all the movies about the American presidents essentially pornos? When you're not having sex with that woman you're redirecting it into violence. With the advent of a torture queen to head up their spy agency it's moving to S&M. Too bad it's not cooking with Gina.
How did we get from not accepting the lie to Trump, after a decade of a President who surely had every aspect of his life scrutinised and all they could get on him was his skin colour.
Is there a link? Was the rancour and grief from the Clinton years carried over into this Presidency?
Good question. On the one hand we have noted evangelical legacy hire Franklin Graham:
I don't have concern, in a sense, because these things happened many years ago – and there's such bigger problems in front of us as a nation that we need to be dealing with than other things in his life a long time ago. I think some of these things – that's for him and his wife to deal with. I think when the country went after President Clinton, the Republicans, that was a great mistake that should never have happened. And I think this thing with Stormy Daniels and so forth is nobody's business. And we've got other business at hand that we need to deal with.
On the other hand there's noted evangelical legacy hire Franklin Graham:
Last week Mr. Clinton told 70 million Americans that his adulterous actions with Ms. Lewinsky were a “private” matter “between me, the two people I love the most–my wife and our daughter–and our God.”
But the God of the Bible says that what one does in private does matter. Mr. Clinton’s months-long extramarital sexual behavior in the Oval Office now concerns him and the rest of the world, not just his immediate family. If he will lie to or mislead his wife and daughter, those with whom he is most intimate, what will prevent him from doing the same to the American public?
I think you're making the mistake that anyone (outside his family) was upset that Bill Clinton lied about having an affair. The whole thing was a blatantly partisan exercise dressed up in an unconvincing cloak of moralism. The reason Franklin Graham (1998) claims there are important political questions about Bill Clinton's affair, but Franklin Graham (2018) says there are none about Donald Trump's affair and bribery scheme has nothing to do with the facts of the matter or Graham's alleged moral principles, it's about Graham's pre-existing political positions.
yeah, hypocrisy is all over politics, you're right. But surely its people who are interested enough to have fixed political positions who don't care about Clinton's lie, not necessarily those who only pay attention to this stuff fleetingly or not at all. I wonder whether in 1998, people uninterested in politics did care about their President lying, but that something changed so that by 2016 people not only said that all politicians lie, but really believed that it didn't matter. I'm thinking aloud here, testing stuff.
Hillary was great last night. She seemed relaxed and to enjoy her interaction with Julia Gillard. She filled a 5,700 seat auditorium to capacity. Many people stood to applaud her entrance, a rarity in Melbourne. I go to arts performances maybe 6 times a year, and have done so since my University days. I can remember only two standing ovations, both partial. Melbourne does not do them, but we love Hillary and she got one at the end. Gillard told a story about she and Hillary going for an unscheduled walk in Melbourne after a meeting, when Gillard was PM and Hillary Secretary of State. Gillard was used to some rough treatment in public, but when she walked with Clinton people stopped and applauded, even though the security issues made things problematic. We love Hillary, and we wish the whole of America could see her as we do.
Comments
AIUI, it's for real. And yes, Boogie, you're seeing a different man than they do--and/or they think a Nobel for T could only improve the Republican party's position.
(eyeroll)
Ian, I think the Nobel for Obama was ridiculous. It was also a sign of how deeply relieved much of the world was to be rid of Dubya. IIRC, Obama said he hadn't earned it yet. (Considering that was at the very beginning of his first term!) I wish he'd either turned it down, or wittily asked the committee to hold onto it for him until he'd earned it.
Given that no Nobels were handed out for similar meeting with (so far) similar results in 2007, giving the prize now seems a little premature. Kim Dae-Jung won in 2000 for the first inter-Korea summit, but he had the advantage of it being the first inter-Korea summit.
Part of it was that Obama won the Nobel Not Being George W. Bush Prize, but another part was probably the Nobel committee's unspoken fears, given what happened to the only other African-American recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. Nobels can't be awarded posthumously.
Even though Kim and Moon have declared the Korean War over, it can still unravel depending on how Kim and Trump's meeting go.
It kills me that when Obama first proposed meeting with Kim, the conservative media led by Fox News roundly condemned the idea, Now they picture Trump walking on water for the same idea.
Isn't he?
IJ
And the thing is, even during the primaries/campaign, Trump's porposals for a meeting were more dovish than anything that was being proposed by the other candidates, from either party, since Trump stated that he'd be willing to meet with Kim without North Korea first giving up nukes. That having been the North Korean demand all along.
link
The wiretap probably wasn't anything to do with Trump. More likely it was because of Cohen's other alleged shady dealings, (short version: alleged insurance fraud with Russian mobsters) but anything you come across while executing a valid warrant is fair game, even if it's not related to your initial case.
A business opportunity?
Rudi Guliani - did he have a reputation for being careless when he was a prosecutor in New York? I mean, despite evidence to the contrary during the 2016 campaign, he seemed like a pretty good operator to me. I was surprised to see him back Trump, but he had never really been on my radar before.
Giuliani will almost certainly be indicted for serious crimes himself, so it would have been more sensible for him to have stayed in hiding. He may have been promised a pardon by Trump.
That was nearly thirty years ago.
There are many consequences of being a pathological liar. Due to lack of trust, most pathological liars' relationships and friendships fail. If this continues to progress, lying could become so severe as to cause legal problems, including, but not limited to, fraud.
While it is not recognized in the American Diagnostic And Statistical Manual (DSM-5), it is found in the International Classification and Diagnosis Codes (ICD-10).
Is it normal in the US for one's lawyer to pay out a large sum with his or her own money to get their client out of a mess, spontaneously and out of the goodness of their own generous heart, without already having been put in those funds by the client, or confident that the client can be billed for the money and relied upon to pay?
It ain't here. But perhaps people do things differently away from the cynical Old World.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-44017172
Is there a child trapped in that body? What would possess anyone to do this? Saying guns would stop massacres I get, as it is a well worn (if ludicrous imho) argument, but mimicking gunmen? He certainly does continue to dig to lower depths.
There was something revealing said by Shania Twain and subsequently analysed to the effect that the nature of the delivery of words and speech persuade some people even when the content is untrue. The person may even recognize the statement is a lie but continue to support the statement and the person because of how they speak. Letting him off because stress, because folksy, because positive emotion created.
The news mentioned they didn't allow guns into the Nuremberg stadium or wherever it was when president turnip circled with NRA jerks. Why would that be? Do you need 2 small dead hands for their 2nd amendment?
Not that I've noticed.
Depends on what you mean by "normal". It's unusual for lawyers to do this, but it's normal for money launderers and mobsters to have that kind of arrangement.
Watching it rehabilitated Comey a little bit in my mind. I can't wait to hear Hillary's take on Thursday.
What's this about Hillary?
Thx.
On another front, Iran is lining up like Iraq prior to the second Gulf war. I'm a bit worried, but keeping a lid on it. Diplomacy is an open field, not a train track, I keep telling myself...
There are some notable differences. First, everyone else in the world seems to agree that Iran is abiding by JCPOA, so the U.S. will not have many allies for military action. Perhaps Saudi Arabia, a few other Gulf states, and maybe Israel. Second, war with Iran would likely be a lot more difficult than the invasion of Iraq.
In other news, Paul Campos speculates that Elliot Broidy, the Republican fundraiser who allegedly paid a Playboy model $1.6 million to hush up an affair than allegedly ended with an abortion, was actually covering for Donald Trump. The case is circumstantial, but better fits the known facts than the idea that Broidy was the one having sex with a Playboy model.
I recommend the reading the whole thing. It's a convincing argument, if not a slam dunk case. Broidy's immediate confession to the first reporter who asked him about this alleged affair is suspicious, if only because he'd supposedly spend $1.6 million to conceal this information.
Counterpoint:
I haven't seen reactions by any of the other JCPOA signatories to Trump's announced intention to abandon the agreement, but I can't see them being particularly enthusiastic about resuming sanctions to get an agreement that they already had with the JCPOA. So we now have the spectacle of Iran behaving as a global "good citizen" by adhering to its promises and the United States in the role of untrustworthy rogue nation. Heckuva job, Trumpie!
Michael Avenatti was suggesting something similar about a week ago. He said that Cohen admitted to having three clients, but never said explicitly that Broidy was one of them. According to Avenatti, the actual list was Donald Trump individually, the Trump Organization, and Sean Hannity. Not exactly a smoking gun, but more food for thought.
Vox reporter Andrew Prokop notes that Broidy is has a record of being willing to pay off the girlfriends/mistresses of the politicians he's bribing. The screen capture there is from Broidy's previous bribery conviction.
That certainly escalated quickly (allegedly).
I wasn't aware of the speculation over the payment to Bechard. Do you reckon that a proven payment by Trump to obtain silence and an abortion would even dent the faith of single-issue pro-life voters? I strongly doubt it myself - a hypocrite advocating pro-life beats an honest person advocating women's rights.
Are we at the stage of bogus "weapons of mass destruction"? It'd be nice to have a villain though, someone like Sadam. Pres Turnip would have liked Ahmadinejad quite a bit I think. Probably would have bombed the country already. Given the population is twice that of Iraq where possibly up to 1.2 million were killed, his upcoming little war may kill 2.4 million. Though who is counting?
The country is due for some social change, population of Iran is some 80 millions with half under the age of 35. Be nice if they could naturally evolve without killing a bunch of them.
I don't think he's distracting us from Stormy Watch with this one, but he may have bought the decision forward a few days for political reasons.
According to Avenatti, and now being confirmed by multiple media outlets, the same shell company that made the Daniels payment received $500,000.00 from a Russian Oligarc, as well as payments from AT&T and a prominent pharmaceutical company.
There’s also reports of Cohen receiving money from a mysterious company in Hungary. No one quite knows what this company does- internet research has led to conflicting stories, including travel agency, wedding venue, and newspaper stand. Remember, the Steel memo suggested that Cohen traveled to Hungary to broker deals between the Trump campaign and Russia.
All very juicy stuff...
Still, the wedding venue / travel agency/ newspaper stand bit is just too perfect.
As posted more than once, impeachment is a pipe dream, and not even necessarily the optimum outcome for the Democrats in terms of optics. In the meantime, Trump and his team are dominating and manipulating the popular domestic narrative and appear to have the right connections and the money to keep on doing so.
At best it looks like Cohen was selling access to Trump. At worst it looks like he was peddling influence with Trump.
The big gap, so far, is how poor Monica felt. Poor woman. She was grabbed out of a food court by the FBI you know, and they pressured her to betray Clinton. She was so hysterical they couldn't get any sense out of her. She was 23.
How did we get from not accepting the lie to Trump, after a decade of a President who surely had every aspect of his life scrutinised and all they could get on him was his skin colour.
Is there a link? Was the rancour and grief from the Clinton years carried over into this Presidency?
Oh, for those who think 2018 is no good, have a look at 1995 and then 2001. I'd forgotten what a shocker of a year 1995 was.
Good question. On the one hand we have noted evangelical legacy hire Franklin Graham:
On the other hand there's noted evangelical legacy hire Franklin Graham:
I think you're making the mistake that anyone (outside his family) was upset that Bill Clinton lied about having an affair. The whole thing was a blatantly partisan exercise dressed up in an unconvincing cloak of moralism. The reason Franklin Graham (1998) claims there are important political questions about Bill Clinton's affair, but Franklin Graham (2018) says there are none about Donald Trump's affair and bribery scheme has nothing to do with the facts of the matter or Graham's alleged moral principles, it's about Graham's pre-existing political positions.
Hillary was great last night. She seemed relaxed and to enjoy her interaction with Julia Gillard. She filled a 5,700 seat auditorium to capacity. Many people stood to applaud her entrance, a rarity in Melbourne. I go to arts performances maybe 6 times a year, and have done so since my University days. I can remember only two standing ovations, both partial. Melbourne does not do them, but we love Hillary and she got one at the end. Gillard told a story about she and Hillary going for an unscheduled walk in Melbourne after a meeting, when Gillard was PM and Hillary Secretary of State. Gillard was used to some rough treatment in public, but when she walked with Clinton people stopped and applauded, even though the security issues made things problematic. We love Hillary, and we wish the whole of America could see her as we do.