Today in Trump

[TitoFan]

Watched the first of a series called "Giuliani: What Happened to America's Mayor?"

The rest are recorded, and I'll be watching them in the next few days.


I had no idea Rudy Giuliani was a pretty decent human being and great U.S. Attorney back in the day (the '80s).

He took on the NYC mob... he took on corrupt Wall Street insider traders... he seemed to be truly a New Yorker for the people.

So yeah... what the HELL happened to that guy, to where he became Trump's personal bitch... groveling in front of the camera with the hair dye running down the side of his face??

Haven't gotten to that part yet... but I know the guy became even MORE popular after 9/11... when he showed a lot of leadership in an incredible crisis.

It's gonna be interesting watching how this plunge from grace unfolded.

[TitoFan]

Just saw the 2nd of four installments.

It basically chronicles how Giuliani went from being an immensely popular U.S. Attorney... taking on the mob and Wall Street corrupt sleazebags... to finally winning the election for NYC mayor and letting his ego shit all over at least half of his constituents. It portrays him as an egotistical person who likes to surround himself with "yes-men." Hmm... sounds eerily familiar with a bit of foreshadowing involved. Anyway... he throws himself into solving NYC's crime problem... only to become obsessed with the numbers and neglect the human factor involved. It doesn't help when you dismiss counsel from others who might just know a little more than you. But again... that's the M.O. for a couple of high-profile New Yorkers I can immediately think of.

The next episode will cover 9/11. Can't wait to see it.

[Kirkland Laing]

Just saw the 2nd of four installments.

It basically chronicles how Giuliani went from being an immensely popular U.S. Attorney... taking on the mob and Wall Street corrupt sleazebags... to finally winning the election for NYC mayor and letting his ego shit all over at least half of his constituents. It portrays him as an egotistical person who likes to surround himself with "yes-men." Hmm... sounds eerily familiar with a bit of foreshadowing involved. Anyway... he throws himself into solving NYC's crime problem... only to become obsessed with the numbers and neglect the human factor involved. It doesn't help when you dismiss counsel from others who might just know a little more than you. But again... that's the M.O. for a couple of high-profile New Yorkers I can immediately think of.

The next episode will cover 9/11. Can't wait to see it.

Rudy became popular in New York because crime fell dramatically during his time as mayor. But it had already dropped thirty percent by the time he took office and had already done so all over America, in cities with Democratic administrations and Republican administrations. Nobody knew why at the time, lefties said it was due to lefty government policies and righties said it was due to tough on crime policies but that didn't explain uniform drops in crime in areas that had different policing/law enforcement policies. Turns out it was due to taking lead out of gasoline. Lead in gasoline being pumped into the air lead to significant jumps in criminality in heavily populated areas once cars became so prevalent. The world has stopped putting lead into gasoline at different times in different regions around the world and they've had falls in crime all follow the same time patterns as in America. The Middle East was the last region to ban lead in petrol and their crime drop is due to start right around now.

Rudy was an outright racist scumbag as mayor by the way:

It was one of the biggest riots in New York City history.


As many as 10,000 demonstrators blocked traffic in downtown Manhattan on Sept. 16, 1992. Reporters and innocent bystanders were violently assaulted by the mob as thousands of dollars in private property was destroyed in multiple acts of vandalism. The protesters stormed up the steps of City Hall, occupying the building. They then streamed onto the Brooklyn Bridge, where they blocked traffic in both directions, jumping on the cars of trapped, terrified motorists. Many of the protestors were carrying guns and openly drinking alcohol.
Yet the uniformed police present did little to stop them. Why? Because the rioters were nearly all white, off‐​duty NYPD officers. They were participating in a Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association demonstration against Mayor David Dinkins’ call for a Civilian Complaint Review Board and his creation earlier that year of the Mollen Commission, formed to investigate widespread allegations of misconduct within the NYPD.
In the center of the mayhem, standing on top of a car while cursing Mayor Dinkins through a bullhorn, was mayoral candidate Rudy Giuliani.
“Beer cans and broken beer bottles littered the streets as Mr. Giuliani led the crowd in chants,” The New York Times reported.
Now, almost 25 years later, Giuliani continues to fan the flames of racial division. The two‐​term mayor, who has been a prominent surrogate for presidential candidate Donald Trump and is his likely choice to head the Department of Homeland Security, recently made headlines for condemning the Black Lives Matter protests as being “anti‐​American” and arguing that the term itself is “inherently racist.”
But Giuliani has yet to condemn the blatant racism that rippled through the crowd during the 1992 demonstration.
Newsday columnist Jimmy Breslin described the racist conduct in chilling detail:
“The cops held up several of the most crude drawings of Dinkins, black, performing perverted sex acts,” he wrote. “And then, here was one of them calling across the top of his beer can held to his mouth, ‘How did you like the niggers beating you up in Crown Heights?’ ”
The off‐​duty cops were referring to a severe beating Breslin suffered while covering the 1991 Crown Heights riots in Brooklyn.
Breslin continued: “Now others began screaming … ‘How do you like what the niggers did to you in Crown Heights?’
“ ‘Now you got a nigger right inside City Hall. How do you like that? A nigger mayor.’
“And they put it right out in the sun yesterday in front of City Hall,” Breslin wrote. “We have a police force that is openly racist …”
Newsday reported on other instances of racial abuse. City Councilwoman Una Clarke, a petite black woman, was blocked from crossing Broadway “by a beer‐​drinking, off‐​duty police officer who said to his sidekick: ‘This nigger says she’s a member of the City Council.’ ”
Mary Pinkett, another black councilwoman, was trapped on the Brooklyn Bridge as her car was rocked back and forth by off‐​duty officers. The two elderly passengers in her car were terrified.
Former NYPD officer and New York state senator Eric Adams, currently serving as Brooklyn’s borough president, told Newsday at the time that the demonstration was “right out of the 1950s: A drunk, racist lynch mob storming City Hall and coming in here to get themselves a nigger.”



https://www.cato.org/commentary/rudy...history-lesson


More here if you're interested:

https://wapo.st/3ivP6EH

[Kirkland Laing]

The Republican party:

https://twitter.com/Esqueer_/status/1613609765065588740

[TitoFan]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...campaign-trail

"Trump says he's 'more angry' than ever as he tries to revive White House bid"



Well, duh! Of course he's angry. Never in history has a POTUS been more soundly rebuffed in a bid for reelection. Never in history has a POTUS been more ridiculed, humiliated, exposed, and just plain dragged through the mud as Trump.

Hell... I'd be angry too.



On a related topic, I keep waiting for the wheels of justice to grind Trump into a pulp and at the very least stop his asinine attempt to run in 2024. What's taking so long?

[TitoFan]

By the way... saw the last two installments on Rudy Giuliani.

Day-am! What a plunge!

I'd be hard pressed to see a more meteoric rise, followed by such a steep dive.

9/11 made temporary heroes out of two men that were unable to keep the momentum going, and plunged back into mediocrity. Giuliani, and George W.

Well... George plunged back to mediocrity and thankfully his time was up in the White House.

Giuliani grabbed on to Trump's coattails and became the biggest buffoon in the history of mankind.

Instead of remembering 9/11 Giuliani... people will now remember "Hair Dye" Giuliani.

Can't feel sorry for someone who suffers self-inflicted wounds.



BTW... still waiting for the wheels of justice to hold both "Hair Dye" and the Orange Orangutan to at least SOME accountability regarding January 6th.

[TIC]

so it's caga now?

[NoSavingByTheBell]

Iconic political operative Roger Stone had civil charges dismissed last week in a Washington D.C. court pertaining to a lawsuit blaming Stone for the federally-incited violence that occurred on Jan. 6.

“Judge Amit P. Mehta rightly DISMISSED all counts against me in a civil suit filed by 8 members of the US Capitol Police based on the events of Jan 6 in which I had no involvement beyond the exercise of my First Amendment rights,” Stone told Big League Politics.

[Kirkland Laing]

Iconic political operative Roger Stone had civil charges dismissed last week in a Washington D.C. court pertaining to a lawsuit blaming Stone for the federally-incited violence that occurred on Jan. 6.

“Judge Amit P. Mehta rightly DISMISSED all counts against me in a civil suit filed by 8 members of the US Capitol Police based on the events of Jan 6 in which I had no involvement beyond the exercise of my First Amendment rights,” Stone told Big League Politics.

All of these guys from Trump on down working together to achieve the alpha and omega of the MAGA movement:

https://twitter.com/AshleySchapitl/s...10190285266944

And they did it. Down almost fifty percent! Just turn up the culture war bullshit to eleven and you can get on with the real business of the conservative movement, the thing that makes all those billionaires donate millions of dollars to get compliant politicians like Trump elected.

[Kirkland Laing]

https://www.mediaite.com/politics/tr...-school-girls/

I wonder how much traction this is going to get. Lots of pictures of Trump with Epstein, Ron could go on the counterattack easily enough. If he ignored it Trump will keep pushing it and then all of a sudden it's a thing.



Pence thinks this will help him get the nomination:

https://twitter.com/HeartlandSignal/...65108495056897

Unbelievable he's actually going with this. The GOP are already backing away from talking about cutting SS and Medicare in the debt limit discussions because they can see how toxic it is for them but Pence thinks it's a winner.



https://theintercept.com/2023/02/05/...s-oren-miller/

Nobody will read this because it's too long but it should end Ron's chances of the nomination if Don makes it a thing. Long story short, a huge retirement community in Florida want to raise taxes on existing residents to fund further development which makes the owners hundreds of millions. Three residents get elected to a local committee and block the taxes, the community owners go to Ron and the state legislature and overrule the committee that way and harass them costing them fortunes in legal fees and one of them ends up in jail. Horrific.

[NoSavingByTheBell]

I hate him for Operation Warp Speed, but he wins it in '24

[Kirkland Laing]

Not good news for Ron:



https://twitter.com/jbarro/status/1623493676235214848





Easy for Biden to run against too. Although if Ron wins the nomination he'll have Trump out campaigning and working every minute to make sure he gets elected so he has that going for him.

[Kirkland Laing]

In early 2021, as Donald Trump exited the White House, he and his son-in-law Jared Kushner faced unprecedented business challenges. Revenue at Trump’s properties had plummeted during his presidency, and the attack on the U.S. Capitol by his supporters made his brand even more polarizing. Kushner, whose last majorbusiness foray had left his family firm needing a $1.2 billion bailout, faced his own political fallout as a senior Trump aide.




But one ally moved quickly to the rescue.

The day after leaving the White House, Kushner created a company that he transformed months laterinto a private equity firm with $2 billion from a sovereign wealth fund chairedby Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Kushner’s firm structured those fundsin sucha way that it did not have to disclose the source, according to previously unreported details of Securities and Exchange Commission forms reviewed by The Washington Post. His business used a commonly employed strategy that allows many equity firms to avoid transparency about funding sources, experts said.



A year after his presidency, Trump’s golf courses began hosting tournaments for the Saudi fund-backed LIV Golf. Separately, the former president’s family company, the Trump Organization,secured an agreement with a Saudi real estate company that plans to build a Trump hotel as part of a $4 billion golf resort in Oman.

The substantial investments by the Saudis in enterprises that benefited both mencame after they cultivated close ties with Mohammed while Trump was in office — helping the crown prince’s standing by scheduling Trump’s first presidential trip to Saudi Arabia, backing him amid numerous international crises and meeting with him repeatedly in D.C. and the kingdom, including on a finaltrip Kushner took to Saudi Arabia on the eve of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack.

New details about their relationship have emerged in recently published memoirs, as well as accounts in congressional testimony and interviews by The Post with former senior White House officials.Those revelations include Kushner’s writtenaccount of persuading Trumpto prioritize Saudi Arabia over the objections of top advisers and a former secretary of state’s assertion in a book that Trump believed the prince “owed” him.



They also underscore the crucial nature of Trump’s admission that he “saved” Mohammed in the wake of the CIA’s finding that the crown prince ordered the killing or capture of Post contributing opinion columnist Jamal Khashoggi.


[...]


Kushner, meanwhile, faced potentialdifficulties because of both his association with Trump and his own failings. Kushner’s family company had already required a bailout in 2018 from a Canadian firm because of his decision to buy a$1.8 billion office building in New York.An ongoing congressional investigation
is looking into whether the bailout was partially financed by Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund. Now, despite having no experience running a private equity fund, Kushner was in search of billions of dollars for his new venture.

Saudi Arabia, however, soon invested in both men.

The day after the Trump administration ended, Kushner created a company called A Fin Managementand used that as a springboard tocreate a private equity fund later that yearcalled Affinity Partners. Such fundstypically use investor money to buy into emerging companies.

Kushner has not said when he first sought $2 billion from the Saudi’s Public Investment Fund. The four members of a five-person panel of the fund’s advisers who attended a meeting about the matter were “not in favor” of the investment, citing Kushner’s inexperience in private equity and the fact that the Saudis would bear most of the risk, the New York Times reported, citing confidential minutes of the panel’s meeting in June 2021 that have not been made public.

Shortly after that meeting, however, Mohammed led the full board in approving the investment, according to the Times report.


https://wapo.st/3Xzfufb

The link will get you past the paywall.



Long story short from that second excerpt; Kushner took over the Kushner Company billion dollar family real estate firm from his dad and immediately made a real estate deal that was almost twice the size of the firm's worth and turned out to be the single worst real estate deal in history. For the Kushner family anyway, not the counterparty who are still laughing heartily about it every day. Kushner had basically bankrupted the family firm and left them in debt. If Trump hadn't won and he hadn't suddenly got this huge bailout from Qatar he'd be bankrupt now.

Even the Saudis in charge of their sovereign wealth fund knew this deal stunk but they got overruled by the bonesaw guy. It'll be interesting to see how much coverage this gets in the liberal media versus how much coverage Hunter Biden gets over the next couple of years.

[Kirkland Laing]

Dominion voting machine company are suing Fox News for various stuff, not least putting the lives of their employees at risk with their election denying bullshit. They've been through discovery so have had access to internal Fox communications. This is some of the stuff that has just been made public:


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[Kirkland Laing]

GOP 2024 primary latest. And what a bunch of fucking idiots these people are:

First up, Pence:

https://www.mediaite.com/tv/mike-pen...y-on-fox-news/



As we discussed before SS works like insurance that you might buy for your car for instance. Workers pay in, retirees get paid out, same thing every year. If suddenly you allow people to pay into private (Wall Street) schemes like Pence wants, who funds current retirees? It would have to be the government. So his brilliant idea is trillions of dollars of extra debt to deal with the problem of too much debt. This is just basically the same GOP shilling for Wall Street that Bush tried in 2005. And he thinks this will help him win a primary where the primary voters are middle aged or older. What a tit.


Also, too, from the article:

The last time this happened was after World War II, and the only way we got over it was through sound economic policies and a postwar booming economy. Now we literally have a paralysis in Washington, D.C. that says we’re never even going to talk about reforming 70% of the federal budget.

I agree with him that you can only grow your way out of debt problems and the evidence in every industrialised country over the last hundred years proves it. So why is he advocating cuts exactly? Cuts have a hundred year record of being shown not to work.

Also, sound economic policies like a ninety percent top rate of tax and very high levels of union membership? Is he advocating a return to all the 1950s era policies that were designed to produce equitable income distribution? What about 1950s era levels of regulation for his pals on Wall Street? It's a shame he wasn't asked. And it's 76 percent of the budget.


Next up, Chris Christie:


https://puck.news/the-chris-christie...ce=customer.io



I can't even be bothered to see the free article. What a fucking moron.



Next up, Haley:


https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1626047278359142400




Finally:

https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/s...34904000610306