Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[cubby]

Trump should be very worried about the now criminal probe into his finances.

1) Weisselberg would easily flip on him. Having worked with multiple Trumps for multiple decades, of all the people not related by DNA swab to Trump himself, he's the one with the most access and most damning information. He's also fully aware at this point what loyalty to Trump is worth -- nothing.

Weisselberg has not been charged yet but is under known criminal investigation for tax fraud. Take a few paper clips from the office and the IRS doesn't care. Hand over private school tuition -- which is more than my entire salary plus benefits -- an apartment and several cars, and the IRS will care.

2) Jennifer Weisselberg, his former daughter-in-law, has already cooperated. I think we mentioned this before. But she has already handed over documents to the NY AG in charge. She's also publicly admitted she knows about the tuition thing. And, because some of you have pointed this out and will appreciate the validation, Jennifer Weisselberg knows the ice rink was an all-cash business and strongly believes a lot of that cash was unreported. Pretty sure the IRS cares about that, too.

Even if Weisselberg says nothing (which I rather doubt) if it can be shown that Trump handed Weisselberg money/goods/services in an intentional way to defraud the US govt, that's conspiracy. My boss could probably get away with "I didn't know Breccia was taking paper clips" but when he signs on for my health care, he does so knowing that it's a taxable benefit. Trump will have a hard time making "I didn't know giving hundreds of thousands of goods and/or services" play to a judge, but if there's a document chain and a willing witness, there's no chance.

Jennifer Weisselberg is the one who said "Allen knows every bad thing Trump ever did." I suppose it's possible she's saying this, on CNN and other non-FOX-News sources, just to troll Trump in public. But I don't think so. There's one episode of Psych where, mild spoiler warning I guess, the main character tells a guy about to commit a crime



Jennifer Weisselberg is telling Allen Weisselberg this. She's saying "Fuck the money, and fuck the Trumps. Get out while you can."

3) The NY AG has Trump's taxes. They've also expanded their roster for the investigation and upcoming trial. You don't bring alts to a progression raid.

4) Cohen is no longer the only lawyer telling Trump's family to get their own lawyers. He is, however, probably the only one not just laughing hysterically but also holding up a Wile E. Coyote "I Warned You" sign while doing it. This article was written about the corporate version of Miranda rights and corporate lawyer-corporate employee confidentiality. Spolier alert: the CEO always wins. And guess who aren't the CEO?



I'm going to repeat that part, because I know @cubby will get a kick out of it.



Yep. It's possible to handwave Cohen as a "disgruntled ex-employee" when, question: are you technically an ex-employee if you weren't paid? But when unaffiliated law enforcement (and other experts I haven't cited yet) are saying "Donald Trump is getting ready to sell out his own family, and they need to protect themselves from this" you know it's bad.

5) Speaking of, when Fortune asked a former AG they were told that announcements, such as when New York said "this investigation is now criminal", are pretty rare. It could be that NYState knew the info was leaked and just wanted to get out in front of the will they/won't they/just fuck already chaos in the headlines.

Or.

It could be NYState is giving Trump's employees which, question: are you technically an employee if you don't get paid and also go to jail? Giving them every chance to come clean and volunteer info and documents, before the perp walks start live on CNN. Weisselberg might have done a lot of the heavy lifting, but I somehow doubt he was the only one who did anything shady with Trump Org money ever ever. All it takes is one "Janet I need you to run downtown for a mocha macchiato and a BMW, here's a handful of cash that smells like hot chocolate" and Janet gets some surprisingly available government housing with a view of the river.

5) We are learning more and more about Giuliani.

"Wait, that's an unrelated topic."

Fuckin' sue me. Anyhow, not only did they get a surprising number of electronic devices for an old guy -- eighteen -- they also took his ex-wife's computer.

"Which one?"

Oh, sorry, the most recent one. Remember the thing that cost Clinton the election? Yeah, they just did that to Giuliani. And they're arguing, successfully so far in court, that they had every right to do so.



"...who?"

Yeah, I didn't recognize the name either. Apparently she and diGenova, who from context I assume work for Shinra, are allies of Guilian and the FBI likely assumed he communicated his criminal intent. If you want to read up more on them, you can do so here.



Yeah, that's clearly ridiculous. It's actually hyperbolic, considering the scope of this criminal investigation involves Giuliani's (questionable) role in the WH. The Barr is already set pretty high.

Trump has been suspiciously silent on Giuliani. In the last 24-48 hours he's said plenty about the AZ recount and the Trump Org criminal investigation. I can't find much about Giuilani in the last week. Is someone being thrown in the deep end without his floaties?

Oh and just so we're clear: except for the Yahoo! link about Giuliani's allies all stories I linked are from the last 24 hours. There is a lot going on -- far more than Fatass Mc140Chars can keep up with. Normally I'd say he hires people to handle this but um...they're all being investigated too, and might turn on him. Trump has spent years, decades even, building a empire in which only what he says matters, loyalty is a one-way street, and nobody gets paid if they get caught. Now he's surrounded by people deciding if they can afford to wait until Trump sells them out.

A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.

This is just a fantastic summary of shockingly recent events. Given the breadth of this investigation, and how it continues to find new people to either indict or flip or both, I wouldn't be surprised if either the NYAG or the Manhattan District Attorney's office goes for a Racketeering charge. It would make the most sense, cast the largest net, and be the easiest way to nab convictions from otherwise politically difficult targets (i.e. the Trumps).

For those that aren't familiar with the Racketeering statutes, or RICO as they are commonly referred to, essentially allow a conviction of someone who is associated with a criminal enterprise but who would otherwise be difficult to convict because they were one of the key organizers. These laws were originally put into effect as a way to get at Mafia families, which is deliciously ironic, given how the Trump family operates. From Nolo:

Passed in 1970, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) is a federal law designed to combat organized crime in the United States. It allows prosecution and civil penalties for racketeering activity performed as part of an ongoing criminal enterprise. Such activity may include illegal gambling, bribery, kidnapping, murder, money laundering, counterfeiting, embezzlement, drug trafficking, slavery, and a host of other unsavory business practices.

To convict a defendant under RICO, the government must prove that the defendant engaged in two or more instances of racketeering activity and that the defendant directly invested in, maintained an interest in, or participated in a criminal enterprise affecting interstate or foreign commerce. The law has been used to prosecute members of the mafia, the Hells Angels motorcycle gang, and Operation Rescue, an anti-abortion group, among many others.

From Wiki:

The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act is a United States federal law that provides for extended criminal penalties and a civil cause of action for acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization. The RICO Act focuses specifically on racketeering and allows the leaders of a syndicate to be tried for the crimes they ordered others to do or assisted them in doing, closing a perceived loophole. For example, before RICO, a person who instructed someone else to murder could be exempt from prosecution because they did not personally commit the crime.

Good general definition - and the links are great primary sources.

RICO is perfect for the Trump organization because a prosecutor would only need to get a "RICO" conviction from one person, including a plea deal, and they can they "go whole hog" on other people involved.

[Bodakane]

This is just a fantastic summary of shockingly recent events. Given the breadth of this investigation, and how it continues to find new people to either indict or flip or both, I wouldn't be surprised if either the NYAG or the Manhattan District Attorney's office goes for a Racketeering charge. It would make the most sense, cast the largest net, and be the easiest way to nab convictions from otherwise politically difficult targets (i.e. the Trumps).

For those that aren't familiar with the Racketeering statutes, or RICO as they are commonly referred to, essentially allow a conviction of someone who is associated with a criminal enterprise but who would otherwise be difficult to convict because they were one of the key organizers. These laws were originally put into effect as a way to get at Mafia families, which is deliciously ironic, given how the Trump family operates. From Nolo:


From Wiki:

Good general definition - and the links are great primary sources.

RICO is perfect for the Trump organization because a prosecutor would only need to get a "RICO" conviction from one person, including a plea deal, and they can they "go whole hog" on other people involved.

Stop it, I can only get so erect.....

Seriously, if this ends in that evil orange piece of shit getting perp walked in handcuffs on CNN, I'm going out for a big celebratory dinner.

[Breccia]

he gets less traffic than things like a recipe website

Trump always knew Twitter was free publicity. He knew it was a loud, ALL CAPS voice where everyone would see it. Now he's asking everyone to go to an entirely separate site, where they can't even speak in a loud, ALL CAPS voice of their own.

Those rumors that Trump was going to start his own media company or social platform, from his perspective, should have been correct. Trump should have bought Parler or OANN so there was actual traction and response when he swung his dick around. Instead, he's waving it in empty space and drunk-dialing FOX News when he wakes up at 4AM all alone. And nobody wants to see that.

They say money can't buy happiness (tell that to someone working 60hrs/week on minimum wage) but it comes a lot closer if you spend it. Trump, ever the miser, wants something for nothing -- just like he has his whole life. Nobody taught him how this works.

I can't bypass the paywall but I did read some tweet replies. There are the usual memes, some great pet pics, and the winning line is "Russian bots can't subscribe to blogs".

[Gorsameth]

Exactly, Trump cant afford to just buy a news network to use it as his own personal pulpit.

Remember, the money he is scamming out of people right now needs to go to paying off his debts that are coming due.

[D Luniz]

Exactly, Trump cant afford to just buy a news network to use it as his own personal pulpit.

Remember, the money he is scamming out of people right now needs to go to paying off his debts that are coming due.

and he's supposedly trying to get his plane fixed now too.

[Santti]

and he's supposedly trying to get his plane fixed now too.

Yeah, that's just not going to happen. He simply can't afford it. If he could, he would have done that already.

[D Luniz]

Yeah, that's just not going to happen. He simply can't afford it. If he could, he would have done that already.

funny thing, if he had just had it parked in the southwest, like in AZ, it would be in FAR better condition
and Im sure he could have gotten some trumper to foot the parking fees.

Instead he parked it in New York, outside, for 5 years.

[Santti]

funny thing, if he had just had it parked in the southwest, like in AZ, it would be in FAR better condition
and Im sure he could have gotten some trumper to foot the parking fees.

Instead he parked it in New York, outside, for 5 years.

Forgot about that one. I can't but scratch my head on what the hell were they thinking with that move. Leaving it exposed to the elements like that, instead of leaving it in a dry climate, making corrosion much less of a problem.

[Belize]

Forgot about that one. I can't but scratch my head on what the hell were they thinking with that move. Leaving it exposed to the elements like that, instead of leaving it in a dry climate, making corrosion much less of a problem.

... Trump? Thinking?

[Santti]

... Trump? Thinking?

Fair enough!

[Benggaul]

Friday's report:

29,014 new cases, about 9k fewer than last Friday.

Top 10:

Fuck Florida.
Pennsylvania: 1,708 new cases; 24 deaths
Washington: 1,590 new cases; 15 deaths
Texas: 1,575 new cases; 44 deaths
Illinois: 1,573 new cases; 22 deaths
New York: 1,463 new cases; 35 deaths
Michigan: 1,259 new cases; 38 deaths
California: 1,223 new cases; 46 deaths
North Carolina: 1,020 new cases; 8 deaths
Ohio: 1,004 new cases; 27 deaths

The week ends pretty much the same as it begins, with national totals coming down drastically and Florida still fucking it up. Florida's been top of the list now for nearly 3 solid weeks (I think Texas and/or Michigan took the top spot once or twice on the Saturday-Monday stretch where reports are incomplete), unsurprising given that their positivity rate is still above 5% while their vaccination rate remains below 50%. South Dakota once again has the worst positivity rate in the nation.

657 deaths is roughly 100 fewer than last Friday and brings the total to 603,408. Florida again tops the list with 89, almost double the deaths of second place California and Georgia (tied). DeathSantis continues living up to his nickname.

Related news:

California on track to reopen by mid-June as Covid eases--They're at 1% positivity with nearly 55% vaccinated and their cases continue falling steadily, so this is one situation in which I reluctantly agree with the reopening. They've bounced back tremendously since the Winter wave and have been consistently lowest among positivity rates. The higher vaccination rate is also impressive given the huge population of the state. Kudos.

Stay safe, folks.

[D Luniz]

Trump doesnt plan ahead, he just acts in the moment, and that's why that plane was left like that
to move it, someone would have had to go to him, explain that first, it would be in a place that would mean he would have to wait half a day for it to be fueled and flown back, THEN add in the time to un-mothball it, plus the cost, to which Trump would whine about how it wants it close so he can use it NOW.

Anyone that would speak to him like that would likely never be working for him, or near him for long.

So you just have the yes-men that anytime Trump asked about his plane, likely just said "it's in New York, waiting Sir" and didn't mention "and in no condition to fly because the weather has ruined an engine, possibly the fuselage, it got clipped by another plane so the wing needs to be checked out, and I wouldn't be shocked if several species of animals are now living in it."

[Fugus]

Forgot about that one. I can't but scratch my head on what the hell were they thinking with that move. Leaving it exposed to the elements like that, instead of leaving it in a dry climate, making corrosion much less of a problem.

That he was president and would remain president till the day he died and would never need it again. He would get a second term with ease and then either get things changed where he got a 3rd term or his daughter became the first female president for 2 terms and so on.

[gondrin]

Well, not sure if this irony or just the fact that even Trump knew that Qanon was too far out there.

https://www.businessinsider.com/trum...on-away-2021-5

Trump's DC hotel raised prices to keep QAnon conspiracy theorists from booking rooms, according to a leaked police memo

A leaked internal police memo said former President Donald Trump's Washington DC hotel raised prices on March 4 to keep QAnon conspiracy theorists away.

"MPD's Intelligence Division confirmed with Trump Hotel management that they raised their rates as a security tactic to prevent protestors from booking rooms at their hotel should anyone travel to D.C.," said a Metropolitan Police Department's intelligence briefing, which was obtained by The Daily Dot and The Guardian.

Dated February 8, the memo included a reference to an Insider story published the day prior. Forbes reported room rates at the hotel had been increased for March 3-4. QAnon theorists had predicted Trump would retake the White House with an inauguration on March 4.

The memo said officers were told by management at Trump's hotel that they didn't have "any credible information regarding an event actually taking place on that date."

Officers also had checked hotel reservations in the DC area, noting that they weren't "showing any noticeable increase in hotel reservations for this timeframe," according to the memo.

About 250 GB of data from the MPD was leaked this month after a ransomware attack. The data included documents detailing "Operation Stormbreaker," a plan by right-wing militia group Boogaloo Boois to incite violence in Washington.

[Breccia]

The problem with buying OAN or Parler is he’d need to have the money for that kind of shit. Best he can afford is a blog.

Exactly, Trump cant afford to just buy a news network to use it as his own personal pulpit.

Not by himself/buy himself, no. Despite claiming he's worth TEN BILLION DOLLARS (no really, exact words from his own disclosure forms which were the first clue that we shouldn't trust his disclosure forms) Trump doesn't have a ton of money to spare right now, does he? Forbes had him losing money year after year, to this April 6th article saying he's down hundreds of places (he's well out of the top thousand) and "only" worth $2.4 billion, when he was worth closer to $4 billion by Forbes' reckoning when he annouced his bid. NYState and Deutsche Bank are likely to take most of that.

The former president, who prides himself on his business acumen, refused to divest his assets upon taking office. Had he sold out in 2017 and reinvested in the market, he’d be an estimated $1.6 billion richer.

That's not "in" the article. That's the headline. Trump is a failure of a businessman.

But and a team of his remaining allies at the time were looking at such a buyout just this last year. I don't know what OAN is worth, because like many companies it doesn't have a dollar value until someone makes an offer to buy and it's accepted. Much about them, as a dollar-menu network, isn't very clear. They don't have Neilsen Ratings --

"Surely you can't be serious."

Yeah we did that one already. I don't believe they're a publicly traded company. During the peak of the 2020 madhouse they were making $13 million/year in ad revenue, they seem to have about 150 staff members total, and a YouTube channel with one-sixth the followers as Death Battle. Oh, and one-third that of MSNBC.

Cobbling together what I could and making a shot-in-the-dark estimate, OAN is worth in the $2 to $3 billion range. Trump could lose every debt he has left and still probably not afford it solo.

But

1) He doesn't have to buy it solo. Others could join him, and again recently were planning on doing exactly that. That....seems to have stopped. Even alt-reicht Nazi sympathizers, who want their viewpoint smeared over every white TV screen in America, are reluctant to do business with someone facing multiple fraud investigations and who started a murderous insurrection. Technically he could still form an alliance and do it, but at this point, it's pretty much down to him, David Duke, and Putin through a proxy Trump will pretend he doesn't know is Putin.

2) He could have bought a partial partnership, or

3) he could have gotten a one-hour late-night show and been paid. I'm a little surprised this hasn't happened yet. OAN could put up the standard disclaimer "views presented in The Fatass Open Mic Show are solely the opinion of..." and legally protected themselves. "Whaaaaaaaaa?" they could later say in court, shrugging their shoulders in an exaggerated fashion, "We had no idea he would refer to the good people of Central and South Americas as the f-word-ing n-word thirty times in five minutes. We had no idea someone like Donald Trump could be such a racist. Goodness, it was all a complete accident, your honor, we move for an immediate dismissal of the lawsuit."

Is a blog cheap? Yes. Hell, I've been tempted. "Chef Breccia's Warrior Tank Mechanics and Cooking Hour" is a pretty niche market, but I could do it. Even if literally every single poster here came to visit once/day I'd still barely make a ripple, but they'd at least have some tasty oven-baked wings while discussing the merits of the Beating Abomination Core when running with underperforming healers (spoiler alert: they're fantastic, and it's fantastic). Trump has both the money and, hee hee, the time to do something better. Is buying the watered-down cock-Goebbeling version of FOX News possible? I mean, technically. Is what he's doing effective? Definitely not. This article from May 11 said the at-the-time most recent blog got 212,00 views or so. That's a bad turnout for the Nostalgia Critic. Hell, Dead Meat put out a video yesterday that has triple that amount. Both of these guys can easily hit millions. Neither has been President.

Trump is a failure of a politician, a businessman, a husband, a father, and a carbon-based life form. He is not a failure in self-advertising.

So what's the problem? If he's got the time, the money, and the skills, why is he posting on a glorified tumblr fanfic site?

EDIT: Here's where my post ended for like three re-writes. I honestly didn't come up with the answer that fit the evidence for a while.

And then it hit me: he just doesn't have the energy.

Trump tweeted, but rarely did his tweets go to their second or third post. He made videos in the Rose Garden, and I'll call them "Cage videos" because they were gone in sixty seconds. He leans on the podium, sweating like the whore he banged in church, reading from a teleprompter or notes scrawled in Sharpie in 800-point font.

Trump is used to shouting "just get it done!" to people loyal to the promise of a paycheck, then golfing. Trump is not used to writing, gasp!, two or three paragraphs of cohernent English. And we can't blame his massive fat obese fat tubby-tubby-two-by-four fat bulk, since his hands are not that big and he leans on the desk.

Scroll back over this post. Is it a masterpiece of literature? Fuck, no. But I did a few drafts and some significant changes before hiting "Send". Because (a) I'm a teacher and speaking in public is kinda my jam and (b) if I'm going to say something in public, "LOL NO U" doesn't strike me as worth reading. If I was told "hey, we need you to have a half-hour show on the MMO-C Twitch once a week I would say "um...I mean I can try"

Trump wants to be king. And he's writing a glorified Dear Diary in his PJs.

What a miserable fat fucking failure.

[postman1782]

Trump always knew Twitter was free publicity. He knew it was a loud, ALL CAPS voice where everyone would see it. Now he's asking everyone to go to an entirely separate site, where they can't even speak in a loud, ALL CAPS voice of their own.

Those rumors that Trump was going to start his own media company or social platform, from his perspective, should have been correct. Trump should have bought Parler or OANN so there was actual traction and response when he swung his dick around. Instead, he's waving it in empty space and drunk-dialing FOX News when he wakes up at 4AM all alone. And nobody wants to see that.

They say money can't buy happiness (tell that to someone working 60hrs/week on minimum wage) but it comes a lot closer if you spend it. Trump, ever the miser, wants something for nothing -- just like he has his whole life. Nobody taught him how this works.

I can't bypass the paywall but I did read some tweet replies. There are the usual memes, some great pet pics, and the winning line is "Russian bots can't subscribe to blogs".

He also knew that more than 60% of his followers were literally bots that either he or Russia or other people paid for to make him one of the biggest followed accounts out there.

[D Luniz]

Well, not sure if this irony or just the fact that even Trump knew that Qanon was too far out there.

https://www.businessinsider.com/trum...on-away-2021-5

They looked "low class" to him
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...-b1785099.html

[Benggaul]

They looked "low class" to him
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...-b1785099.html

To be fair, he is an expert on being low class.

[Kaleredar]

He also knew that more than 60% of his followers were literally bots that either he or Russia or other people paid for to make him one of the biggest followed accounts out there.

I don’t actually know that he knew that, or at least, actually believed it.

It’s very difficult to tell where Trump’s “guiling conman, intentionally lying and ignoring the truth” ends and his “self-aggrandizing blowhard that believes in his own delusions of grandeur” begins.

- - - Updated - - -

That he was president and would remain president till the day he died and would never need it again. He would get a second term with ease and then either get things changed where he got a 3rd term or his daughter became the first female president for 2 terms and so on.

I truly do hope that an event as momentous as the first female US president is not sullied by merit of them being a trumpspawn, either directly by blood or metaphorically by political supplication.

[Ripster42]

If they are official government documents I’d imagine that forging them is a big no-no.

You'd be correct.