Trump's Card

[Satchmo Distel]

The explanations that I'm familiar with are:

1) The Russians are blackmailing him (they have incriminating tapes, documents etc)

2) He is financially indebted and/or inescapably tied financially to Russian interests

But both these explanations were around in 2016 so I think the only thing that has changed is that their plausibility has increased as the evidence has become harder and not purely circumstantial.

The other complicating factor is that I don't think the Russians expected him to win (as opposed to making Hilary look like a weak and compromised POTUS) and he's a bit too wild or senile for them to control as much as they'd like; but OTOH they can't pull the trigger or they would get Pence.

[Incandenza]

There's so much going on in this Michael Cohen story:

In early 2015, a man who runs a small technology company showed up at Trump Tower to collect $50,000 for having helped Michael Cohen, then Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, try to rig online polls in his boss’s favor before the presidential campaign.

In his Trump Organization office, Mr. Cohen surprised the man, John Gauger, by giving him a blue Walmart bag containing between $12,000 and $13,000 in cash and, randomly, a boxing glove that Mr. Cohen said had been worn by a Brazilian mixed-martial arts fighter, Mr. Gauger said.

Mr. Cohen disputed that he handed over a bag of cash. “All monies paid to Mr. Gauger were by check,” he said, offering no further comment on his ties to the consultant.

Mr. Gauger owns RedFinch Solutions LLC and is chief information officer at Liberty University in Virginia, where Jerry Falwell Jr., an evangelical leader and fervent Trump supporter, is president.

Mr. Gauger said he never got the rest of what he claimed he was owed. But Mr. Cohen in early 2017 still asked for—and received—a $50,000 reimbursement from Mr. Trump and his company for the work by RedFinch, according to a government document and a person familiar with the matter. The reimbursement—made on the sole basis of a handwritten note from Mr. Cohen and paid largely out of Mr. Trump’s personal account—demonstrates the level of trust the lawyer once had within the Trump Organization, whose officials arranged the repayment.

...
Mr. Gauger, who recounted those dealings to The Wall Street Journal, said that though Mr. Cohen promised him lucrative work for the presidential campaign, his activities related to Mr. Trump consisted of trying unsuccessfully to manipulate two online polls in Mr. Trump’s favor.

During the presidential race, Mr. Cohen also asked Mr. Gauger to create a Twitter account called @WomenForCohen. The account, created in May 2016 and run by a female friend of Mr. Gauger, described Mr. Cohen as a “sex symbol,” praised his looks and character, and promoted his appearances and statements boosting Mr. Trump’s candidacy.

The best part is the Twitter account is still up:

https://twitter.com/WomenForCohen/status/738756316613738496

[Ginger Yellow]

That glove is probably worth more now than it would have been if it really were the MMA fighter's.

[ursus arctos]

[URL]https://twitter.com/nbcnews/status/1085927522087374851?s=21[/URL]

[Nefertiti2]

This is an interesting take, which is not entirely without evidence

[URL]https://twitter.com/charlesppierce/status/1084478144252465152?s=21[/URL]

[URL]https://twitter.com/jonswaine/status/1085995815733288961?s=21[/URL]

[ursus arctos]

[San Bernardhinault]

Well, now....

President Donald Trump directed his longtime attorney Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about negotiations to build a Trump Tower in Moscow, according to two federal law enforcement officials involved in an investigation of the matter.

Trump also supported a plan, set up by Cohen, to visit Russia during the presidential campaign, in order to personally meet President Vladimir Putin and jump-start the tower negotiations. “Make it happen,” the sources said Trump told Cohen.

[Gerontophile]

I am getting comments which are blank, and in the last few pages, that is not cool.

(ursus at 09:56/17:56 yesterday and a couple from previous. Disnae matter. I'm assuming they are either Twitter or pictures?)

[ad hoc]

They're tweets

[Gerontophile]

Ah, ok. Same as the old board, then.

Oh, and who the fuck made YOU moderator? (Which, is an excellent all-round decision.) How much do you actually know about the church of Scotland?

[ad hoc]

On the old board I was a moderator but it was knowledge that only a few were aware of (OK, let's face it I reckon most people probably knew). On the new board it now says publically that I am a moderator but I'm actually not Go figure.

[Gerontophile]

So you ARE Church of Scotland then? And, don't get me wrong, I think you should be a mod. One of the (surprisingly many) sensible heads around these parts.

Back to the thread: I haven't contributed much recently because it's pointless. The stories and rumours are coming thick and fast, as ever.

Like your snowperson pic, ad, it hopefully will have a finish date this year.

*ooo I've got a thread!

[Tubby Isaacs]

I never knew that, ad hoc. Thanks for doing it.

[Gerontophile]

45 cancelling Nancy's overseas trip is a fucking masterstroke. I wonder who thought of it for him?

[Incandenza]

Yeah, I never knew. The only regular poster that also served as a mod (did we call them admins?) was imp

[WOM]

Makes you wonder what ad hoc did to Snake to lose the honour. Probably a wild backstory there around png tags and What Is Personal Text? and all sorts of other things it's best we don't know about.

[Gerontophile]

Otf explained, in about 5 comments.

[Gerontophile]

Yeah, I suppose, but until I saw him being interviewed on the seth meyers (I think) show, I didn't know he was gay. I mean it's not a big part of his show is it? Maybe other people are different, but I generally don't find myself thinking about the sex lives of newsreaders.

You should probably google him and andy cohen. In certain places, they charge people to watch them being 'homosexual'.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Haha. I've found a bunch of videos of the pair of them, I'll watch them later. I think the reason why I was surprised when ursus brought up his homosexuality as a potential career problem, is the story of him coming out publicly at the age of 45, because no-one had ever really asked, and he didn't want people to think that he was in some way ashamed or trying to hide it. It seems that he was the Michael Collins of gays.

[Satchmo Distel]

DeSantis has banned Florida state employees, of which I am one, from using Airbnb for official business because of its refusal to list Israeli settler properties on the West Bank. No mention of the illegality of the settlements.

[Nefertiti2]

On the old board I was a moderator but it was knowledge that only a few were aware of (OK, let's face it I reckon most people probably knew). On the new board it now says publically that I am a moderator but I'm actually not Go figure.

so was it you who banned me in 2012?

[ursus arctos]

https://twitter.com/NBCNews/status/1086424868474609664

[Sits]

"Not accurate" as opposed to "not true".

[ad hoc]

so was it you who banned me in 2012?

I never banned anyone. Indeed I didn't have banning powers. I could just delete or edit posts (abilities which were solely used on spam)

[San Bernardhinault]

Ursus's tweet is interesting. I guess that Mueller was forced to put it out after House Democrats started talking about running proceedings based on reports of what Mueller had rather than on the actual content of the Mueller investigation. If it was just fevered reporting then Mueller could have let it go. Either way, it's put a rapid end to the 24 hour media feeding frenzy.