Cliff Varnell Posted March 8, 2020 Share Posted March 8, 2020 (edited) 57 minutes ago, James DiEugenio said: Ron: I really think this is the wrong approach to Trump. Matt T. wrote several essays in 2016 for Rolling Stone. He gradually came to the conclusion that what Trump was doing was running around the Establishment: both the GOP establishment and the MSM. (This is why his attack on Jeb Bush for Iraq and the Middle East was so resoundingly effective.) He understood that most of America had lost faith in both, and that as a person who had not run for office, he could don the role of the outsider. Trump is a salesman and a promoter. And Matt concluded that he had learned and honed his craft by doing Reality TV successfully. Towards the end of that race, where almost no one gave Trump a chance of winning, Matt realized that Trump had been correct in his perception of this path to an Electoral College victory. This is a crock. The morning of October 28 2016 Trump was dead in the water. He was down by 10 points in the polls and the top two stories on cable news were pussy-grabbing and no tax returns. By the early afternoon it was ALL about Comey’s re-opened investigation into Hillary’s e-mails for the next 11 days. Greatest voter suppression campaign in history. Too bad Taibbi and DiEugenio missed it. Edited March 8, 2020 by Cliff Varnell Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Douglas Caddy Posted March 8, 2020 Share Posted March 8, 2020 Will Ruha wrote on Facebook today: A Wall Street Journal analysis by Jean Eaglesham and Lisa Schwartz reveal that Trump’s massive debts and his businesses are scattered across Wall Street, Chinese, and Cypriot banks, and Russian oligarchs in a tangle of financial malfeasance, posing major problems for him once government investigators subpoena the records. No small amount of money in Trump properties, including Trump Tower, derived from Russian oligarchs after Trump’s 1987 KGB-arranged and monitored trip to Moscow. Reuters documented at least $98.4 million of Russian investments in Trump’s properties. In 2008, Trump jr. boasted that, “Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot our assets.” In 2013, Eric Trump told a journalist, “We don’t rely on American banks. We have all the funding we need out of Russia.” A year later he boasted, to writer James Dodson, that the Trump Organization has access to $100 million in Russian funds.Among Trump’s Russian financiers have been billionaires Aras Agalarov, Alex Shnaider, and Dmitry Rybolovlev. Shnaider and his father-in-law worked closely with Leonid Veselovsky “the mastermind of KGB money laundering, and Rybololev was a major shareholder in the money-laundering Bank of Cyprus, whose chief shareholder is Trump’s Secretary of Commerce, Wilbur Ross, who has used offshore investments to own a stake in Navigator, a shipping company having major contracts with the Russian gas company Sibur, whose co-owners are tied to Vlad Putin and are under U.S. sanctions. Ross joins Michael Flynn, Rex Tillerson, Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, Carter Page, Felix Sater, Michael Cohen, Michael Caputo, Anthony Scaramucci, Scott Balber, and other Trump principals who also have major financial ties to Russian oligarchs and Putin officials.Trump was financially deep in loans from Wall Street banks and Russian oligarchs, when numerous Trump ventures in the late 1980s through ‘90s went bankrupt, most notably, his NY Plaza Hotel (purchased on a $425 million loan) his Trump Airlines (bought for $365 million), plus five casinos – Trump Atlanta, Taj Mahal, Plaza, Indiana Riverboat Casino, and Trump Mississippi, with losses exceeding $5 billion. As documented by investigative journalists like Luke Harding of The Guardian, all told, Trump failed at more than 50 business ventures, losing billions of dollars. In 1992, Fortune magazine noted his debt to lenders at $3.5 billion. Business Week’s detailed analysis cited $1.1 billion in debt. Looking at Trump’s IRS 1040 tax transcripts for 1985-1994, the NY Times reported published Trump losses of $1.17 billion. Its copy of Trump’s 1995 IRS filing showed declared losses of $915.7 million, making Trump, year-by-year, America’s single largest financial loser.Ergo, his erstwhile American lenders, recognizing his insolvency, refused to throw good money after bad. Wells Fargo held loan losses from Trump of $282 million, and another $950 million of debt paid to a Trump company co-owned property. MetLife Inc. was owed hugely. Ladder Capital: $364 million. Investors Saving Bank: $23 million. Trump also owed a half-billion-dollars to the Bank of China. Deeply in debt to these U.S., Chinese, and Russian lenders, Trump turned to Germany's biggest lender, Deutsche Bank. How much he borrowed is unclear, albeit $295 million is most cited. In 2008, Trump defaulted on his payment on a $640 million DB loan for his Chicago hotel. DB sued. Then, the bank threw good money after bad, doubling down on its $300 million loan, such that he paid them back by borrowing from a different division of the same bank. Why, the turnaround? During this period, Deutsche’s Moscow branch was carrying out a $10 billion money-laundering scheme to get Trump’s Russian oligarchs’ cash out of Russia into the West via offshore shell companies, involving money-laundering through Ross’s Bank of Cyprus. DB later paid a $630 million fine for this. Transacting it via DB’s Moscow office was Andrei Kostyn, son of Andrey Kostyn, head of the Russian State bank, VEB, tied to Russian intelligence and chaired by Putin. Working with Kostyn was American trader Tim Wiswell, head of DB’s Russian equities desk in Moscow. In 2011, Andrei Kostyn died in a suspicious snowmobile crash, and Wiswell, fired by DB, fled, on the lam. Deutsche’s New York office, a major beneficiary of the scheme, was making large loans to Trump. When Trump was elected, he was at least $330 million in debt to the bank. Additionally, DB gave a pre-election October 2016 $370 million loan to Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, having also made huge loans to Trump’s daughter Ivanka, and Kushner’s mother, Seryl Stadtmauer. Thus, Trump is suing DB to seek nondisclosure – as it can prove his insolvency, tax and loan fraud, inflated insurance claims, and other misdeeds. Worse was disclosure by a WSJ investigation that Trump’s businesses owed more than 150 different institutions loans in which Trump’s $1.5 billion in losses is his 30% share with investors holding 70%. A Washington Post investigation reported by Jonathan O’ Connell, David A. Fahrenhold, and Jack Gillum, shows that 2007-2016, Trump, the self-described “King of Debt,” secured $400 million to invest in new properties including 14 transactions paid for in full, allegedly without borrowing from banks, and then, when they began losing money, chiefly his golf courses, plowed hundreds millions more into trying to save them. During this period, in support of his Russian backers, Trump held the Miss Universe pageant in Moscow in 2013, sponsored by Agalarov, whose publicist Rob Goldstone, subsequently sent the now-infamous 2016 email to Don jr., of an offer to provide the Trump campaign with official documents and information incriminating to Hillary – which is what prompted meetings with Agalarov’s attorney, Natalia Veselnitskaya, and between Russian diplomat Sergey Kislyak, Michael Flynn, and Trump son-law and senior advisor Jared Kushner who also held meetings with Sergey Gorkov, head of the Russian state-owned bank Vnesheconombank, chaired by Putin. Hence, the “Russian collusion” investigation. Lending credence was Russia’s Alfa Bank servers looking up the address of a Trump server 2,000 times, matched in number by Spectrum Health, chaired by the husband of Trump aide and current Sec. of Education Betsy DeVos, evidencing a covert communications channel between Russian oligarchs and the Trump campaign. A dozen lawyers from the U.S. firm representing Alfa Bank now work for Trump.Trump is in financial trouble. It’s why in 2016, he was the first presidential nominee in 40 years to refuse to disclose his tax returns. Mother Jones magazine’s investigation exposed the fact that Trump, as of May, 2017 was on the hook for 16 loans worth at least $713 million, not including an estimated $2 billion in debt amassed by real estate partnerships that include Trump. One of those loans is a $950 million deal that was cobbled together by Goldman Sachs and the state-owned Bank of China. In 1990, L.A. Times reporter D.K Johnson broke the story that the self-professed multi-billionaire was broke, which Trump took exception to until he was forced to place into the public record that he was, in fact, $295 million in debt. That indebtedness has worsened. Investigative reporters including Josh Marshall assert that Trump remains deeply in debt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Ecker Posted March 8, 2020 Share Posted March 8, 2020 All things considered, weighing on Trump and his diseased mind, I think there's a chance, however slight, that he could go completely berserk before the election and have to be institutionalized. (Unless, of course, his White House lackeys hide him away and hire Alec Baldwin or someone to impersonate him.) If that happens, I guess the Dems will just have to worry about beating Mike Pence, whose main qualification will be he's not crazy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James DiEugenio Posted March 8, 2020 Author Share Posted March 8, 2020 Ron: Trump thought that since his strategy worked in the election. He could use it once in office. So he decided to take on the MSM with his whole fake news strategy. (He didn't have to do this with the GOP since they had little choice but to go along with him, although a few decided to retire than genuflect.) But he has now run into a real problem with the coronavirus. This is a story he could not manage and belittle as Fake News. And since the MSM--out of sheer resentment-- has been waiting for a chance to clobber him, they are going after him on it full bore. And I don't blame them. It seems to me that Trump really did mismanage this whole episode and tried to pass it off on this Azar guy, and like Nixon with Kennedy on Vietnam, even onto Obama. So far it has not been successful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Ecker Posted March 8, 2020 Share Posted March 8, 2020 Jim, I agree that Trump has a "fake news strategy" and all that. He knows how to manipulate his followers, that's why they eat up his every word, lie and fantasy at his Trumpberg rallies. But I take it from what you've been saying that you don't think Trump is mentally ill despite all the behavioral evidence. So on that we'll have to agree to disagree. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Ecker Posted March 8, 2020 Share Posted March 8, 2020 1 hour ago, Robert Wheeler said: You know a lot Ron. Am I being manipulated? I don't know you from Adam, except that you're a Trump supporter, and based on that I can honestly say that I don't understand you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Ecker Posted March 8, 2020 Share Posted March 8, 2020 3 minutes ago, Robert Wheeler said: You don't understand me, a Trump supporter, but Trump supporters are manipulated. Can you square that? I'm not interested in playing word games with you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandy Larsen Posted March 8, 2020 Share Posted March 8, 2020 On 3/6/2020 at 2:31 PM, Sandy Larsen said: Nate Silver? The guy who said in 2016 that Donald Trump had a 5% chance of winning the presidency? 4 hours ago, James DiEugenio said: In November, Silver gave Trump a 29 per cent chance of winning the Electoral College. I stand corrected. My comment was sloppy in that it didn't give a date for Nate Silver's 5% figure, nor whether the figure was for an electoral or popular win. What Jim writes here is more specific, more relevant, and is correct. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Ecker Posted March 8, 2020 Share Posted March 8, 2020 13 minutes ago, Robert Wheeler said: Then stop making assertions you can't back up. You have been here since 2004 and have no idea who is being manipulated. Yes, sir. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirk Gallaway Posted March 8, 2020 Share Posted March 8, 2020 (edited) 34 minutes ago, Robert Wheeler said: Then stop making assertions you can't back up. You have been here since 2004 and have no idea who is being manipulated. "Stop making assertions you cant back up"???? says Robert Q Wheeler?? You mean like the meeting between your all powerful Godly figure, Donald Trump, the most powerful man to hear you tell it of this century or maybe any, with his in your words "sword of Damocles" And George Bush?. Tell us about the meeting when Trump went to George's Bush and said "I now have the documents and I know you killed JFK"",and your role in Iran Contra and your role in destroying the WTC??? Tell us about the look on GW's face!! This is the moment you've been working so hard for, to have everybody's attention. Don't let us down, Robert!! Edited March 8, 2020 by Kirk Gallaway Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James DiEugenio Posted March 8, 2020 Author Share Posted March 8, 2020 Was that tampered with? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
W. Niederhut Posted March 8, 2020 Share Posted March 8, 2020 3 hours ago, Ron Ecker said: All things considered, weighing on Trump and his diseased mind, I think there's a chance, however slight, that he could go completely berserk before the election and have to be institutionalized. (Unless, of course, his White House lackeys hide him away and hire Alec Baldwin or someone to impersonate him.) If that happens, I guess the Dems will just have to worry about beating Mike Pence, whose main qualification will be he's not crazy. Ron, Speaking as a (retired) psychiatrist, I really don't foresee Trump having a psychotic break. I have studied his history and behavior fairly closely since 2016, (from public documents, videos, etc.) and my diagnostic impression is that he has an extremely narcissistic personality disorder with sociopathic features. I have also believed (since watching his debates with Hillary Clinton in 2016) that he is using stimulants-- either Adderall and/or cocaine-- and I say this as a physician who prescribed a lot of stimulants in my career, for adults with ADHD, and even published a book on the subject in 2005.* (This is not an ad-- just a reference about Trump and stimulants.) If you watch Trump's public speeches at his rallies, (or his 2016 debates) he looks like a 70-something comedian who is high on blow-- extremely confident, aggressive, elated, and quick-witted in his inimitable, baboon-like manner. He also paces around, at times, and makes strange, frequent snorting noises, as if his nasal sinuses are irritated. * https://www.amazon.com/COBAD-SYNDROME-Suffering-Inherited-Childhood-Onset/dp/1420867016/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=COBAD+Syndrome&qid=1583711874&sr=8-1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Schwartz Posted March 9, 2020 Share Posted March 9, 2020 Trump has a history of using the government to line his own pockets. He does not care about the American People. He probably does not pay federal income taxes. That is why he does not want his tax returns released (and he would have to disclose foreign bank accounts and/or loans ) . I was reading how Trump's Secretary of the Treasury (Mnunchin) used the 2008 crisis to acquire wealth.. Mnuchin and his investment partners took over IndyMac after it failed in 2008, with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) covering the bank’s losses on foreclosed single-family, owner-occupied loans. An estimated 35,000 foreclosures took place, with losses estimated at $4.6 billion. The FDIC paid the bank $1.2 billion, leaving the bank to absorb $3.4 billion in losses. Politico reported that Mnuchin still came out ahead after OneWest merged with CIT Bank worth $3.4 billion last year. In that case, Mnuchin took home a $10.9 million payout and left CIT’s board in early December after Trump’s nomination. Allegations that OneWest preyed on the disadvantaged aren’t new. Advocacy groups previously alleged that OneWest failed to serve and discriminated against minority homeowners. Their complaint said that OneWest’s discriminatory practices began in 2011 at a time when Mnuchin’s investment group owned the bank. They alleged that OneWest made few loans to both African-American and Asian-American borrowers, had only a handful of branches in minority neighborhoods, and allowed properties repossessed in nonwhite neighborhoods to fall into disrepair, the Los Angeles Times reported in November. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandy Larsen Posted March 9, 2020 Share Posted March 9, 2020 30 minutes ago, Robert Wheeler said: Now he's just sad to watch. But Trump has the "mental" issues. Big deal... Biden caught stumbling over his words. Compare that to how many times a day Trump tells a lie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Ness Posted March 9, 2020 Share Posted March 9, 2020 17 minutes ago, Sandy Larsen said: Big deal... Biden caught stumbling over his words. Compare that to how many times a day Trump tells a lie. He actually overcame a pretty severe speech empedement which I have a lot of respect for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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