Trump's Card

[Tubby Isaacs]

Amor, I actually considered qualifying my post in that regard, but I'm trying to be positive here.

Berba, yes it was.

Tubbs, I don't get the question. We were talking about Non Disclosure Agreements for public employees. They could have been drafted as being subject to the law of any number of states. Though if I had to guess, I would guess New York, because the NDAs were reportedly clones of one the Trump Organization had been using for years.

You've understood what I was talking about perfectly. Much appreciated, as ever.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Is this detail new?

John Harwood
Verified account
@JohnJHarwood
5h5 hours ago
More
FORBES:
5/18/17 - Commerce Sec Ross has “social lunch” w/Greenbrier Cos CEO
5/30 - CEO writes Commerce that investigation into steel imports might affect supply of imported axles/wheels
5/31 - Ross sells part of his previously-undisclosed Greenbrier stake

[ursus arctos]

I think so.

which would make it about the tenth distinct episode of Ross’ abuse of his position for personal gain.

[ursus arctos]

Jeff Colyer, the current governor of Kansas and Kobach's primary opponent has conceded.

Hard core wignuts in Kansas are really hard core.

[San Bernardhinault]

In fairness, Colyer backed all of Kobach's nonsense when Kobach was Sec of State, so it's not as if they aren't both hardcore wingnuts.

[ursus arctos]

That’s true, but doubling down on Kobach after everything that has come out this year takes a special kind of voter.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

The ones that have died definitely will.

It isn’t a question that is poll d regularly and I wouldn’t really trust the responses, especially this far out from Election Day.

ARE YOU LISTENING TUBBY!!!!

[anton pulisov]

I agree with the first part of your post, Satchmo. But I wouldn't hold out any hope for anyone who stayed home in 2016, either. If they didn't think it was worth standing up to Trump in 2016, that Hillary's emails were equivalent to Trump's racism and sexism, then it's very optimistic to hope they now will.

You have to give these people something to vote for. "Vote for me 'cause the other guy is an arsehole" doesn't really cut it.

[Tubby Isaacs]

ARE YOU LISTENING TUBBY!!!!

I say "it's all on the day" literally every post.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

So..... Donald Trump Jr's New Belle was fired from Fox news for sexual harrassment, and being too much of a psycho. She should fit right in. Gavin Newsom seems to have had a lucky escape. I wonder did she show anyone a picture of Don's dangly jr bits.

[WOM]

She has a lovely, Joker-like grin. Or whatever that menacing thing is she's doing.

[ursus arctos]

She's a character out of an HBO series on political intrigue, though not as subtly drawn

[WOM]

Imagine being in any sort of relationship with someone like that.

"So, what do you want to do today?"

"Let's take a small child and drain them of their blood."

"Yyyyyyeah...could do. I was thinking we just watch the football."

[Ginger Yellow]

A query on the White House NDA thing. I'm not sure I follow the general argument that they're probably unenforceable, but I'll take that as a given for now. My question is based on this from TPM:

Then there are the NDAs that most White House staffers have signed. On its face, this is an oxymoron. You can’t make government employees sign NDAs. They would be unenforceable. Early in the administration Trump started pushing for them. White House Counsel Don McGahn initially refused to create them for the reasons I note. But he eventually relented to calm Trump down, even though he made clear they were unenforceable and thus essentially meaningless. There were apparently early drafts that included massive cash penalties payable to the US government if staffers divulged things they had learned in the Trump White House. Those provisions, though, were apparently stripped out. The final NDAs had all the vast and encompassing demands for silence you would expect from a Trump NDA. There just weren’t any penalties.

How are these enforceable simply as a matter of contract law? Especially if there's documentary evidence that the drafter for the presenting party thought they were unenforceable? In a normal NDA, there's something that could be described as consideration - either a literal financial settlement, or removal of threat of litigation, or a mutual non-disparagement clause or something like that. But there doesn't seem to be any consideration at all here, it's just a unilateral promise not to disclose. In English law at least, there has to be consideration for a contract to be binding. I also don't see how you can have intent to create legally binding relations when you don't think the document is legally binding.

[ursus arctos]

Those are all elements of US contract law as well.

If it is true that McGahn induced waverers to sign the NDAs by insisting that they weren't enforceable, it is hard for me to see how a court could conclude that they were.

On the other hand, some US courts have held that employment itself is enough for the employer to have satisfied the requirement of consideration, even if that employment is "at will" (and therefore subject to immediate termination without cause).

The consideration argument would be much stronger for the post-termination NDAs, though many/most of those appear to incorporate retainer-type payments (e.g., the USD 15,000 that former bodyguard Schiller is on). In fact, the reporting on those agreements makes them sound an awful lot like the "settlement agreement" template that Cohen used for Stormy Daniels et al.

[Flynnie]

So..... Donald Trump Jr's New Belle was fired from Fox news for sexual harrassment, and being too much of a psycho. She should fit right in. Gavin Newsom seems to have had a lucky escape. I wonder did she show anyone a picture of Don's dangly jr bits.

Guilfoyle being a fucking nutter was common knowledge in SF when Newsom was Mayor.

[Flynnie]

Cubman, you're a lawyer right?

If so, can I just preemptively thank you for not being one of those Very Online Lawyers that can't say their name without suffixing "This Is Not Legal Advice"?

[ursus arctos]

You're welcome. I think that Bloomberg has Matt Levine on a minimum word count.

I was wondering if you had crossed paths with Guilfoyle, what with her dad being an Irish Catholic and all (though she is quite a bit older and went to Mercy). I have a vague recollection of her being compared to Lady Macbeth in print while she was "First Lady" of the City.

[San Bernardhinault]

Guilfoyle being a fucking nutter was common knowledge in SF when Newsom was Mayor.

Newsom being married to Guilfoyle makes his affair with his underling at bit more understandable.

[Ginger Yellow]

On the other hand, some US courts have held that employment itself is enough for the employer to have satisfied the requirement of consideration, even if that employment is "at will" (and therefore subject to immediate termination without cause).

I can see that argument where the NDA is part of an employment contract, but my reading (which may be wrong) is that these were supplemental contracts.

[ursus arctos]

I would expect that most/all White House employees don't have formal employment contracts.

[Flynnie]

I had no personal run-ins with Guilfoyle that I know of - though I can't rule out Tony Guilfoyle taking his daughter for dinner at the Irish Cultural Center on the same night as my dad taking me there! - although I know people who met her early in Newsom's career and came away distinctly concerned. Newsom had a substance abuse issue while he was Mayor - he admitted to using cocaine, and briefly entered alcohol rehab - and I've heard people nod and say stuff like Guilfoyle got him into it. That could be unfair, as Newsom's always had kind of an ex-fratboy/jock vibe to him (he attended Santa Clara on a partial baseball scholarship).

Newsom's a weird guy. Weird in the sense that I'm not sure he enjoys politics - he appeared to have completely checked out early in his second term after some initiatives he pushed failed, his marriage to Guilfoyle collapsed, and the fall-out from the gay marriages in 2004 - but he seems to have fallen into being the next Governor of California and a likely 2024 (oh God) or 2028 (please) contender. He got into politics so young that even in 2028, he'll only be 61 and probably looking 51. He's a handsome guy (my aunts swooned over Supervisor Newsom BITD) and has aged well.

But that lack of vigor for politics - which is possibly explained by his severe dyslexia, apparently he has to do a lot of things verbally as writing and reading is difficult for him - seems to manifest itself in a lack of ideology. Which means he's actually way more flexible than a lot of California politicians, and means you can effectively pressure him. After running as a moderate and nearly losing the mayoral election, he seems to have tacked himself on the left of the Democratic Party. He's come out for Medicare For All, sponsored some criminal justice reform initiatives that no one else would, come out as staunchly against the death penalty, and for free community college.


*and Newsom should and would have lost, had Gonzalez basically not gone into hiding a few weeks before the election in the archetypal example of "This Is Why The Greens Have No Power". Built zero political organization to GOTV, and then went AWOL when it looked like he might actually win. He ended up losing by about 14,000 votes.

[Ginger Yellow]

I would expect that most/all White House employees don't have formal employment contracts.

For real? That seems crazy.

[ursus arctos]

I know for a fact that we didn't have them at State back in the day, and I haven't heard anyone who has worked in an Administration refer to one.

My firm doesn't have formal employment contracts with our US associates; they are generally less widely used in the US than they are in Europe.

[WOM]

Speaking of NDAs, I think I signed 2 or 3 in my first 15 years. Now it feels like I'm signing one a week.

I worked for one client briefly where I signed one before each briefing. I guess social media causes lips to loosen too much.