Forum menu
https://twitter.com/davidenrich/status/1341446576334647297
https://twitter.com/davidenrich/status/1341457337152901122
A Twitter rant, all in caps - never a good sign, that.
https://www.rawstory.com/elections/delusional-trump-rant/
He doesn’t get any better...
https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-politics-legislation-coronavirus-pandemic-bills-7d5b7e70e5193e88c6f24e425abbe0af
Love the title of this article...
“DONALD TRUMP HITS FECES-FLINGING STAGE OF ELECTION “FRAUD” FIGHT”
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/12/donald-trump-election-tantrum
Well, after a lot of searching, they found an example of voter fraud in Pennsylvania; guess who it was for...
Well the list (so far) of friends, friends of friends and other criminals that he has pardoned is a sickening sight to behold.
Am I missing something because when I read up the story on him trying to block the Covid Aid bill, it does seem to throw money around but not necessarily at struggling US families and businesses?
Like the people who voted it through, I've not read all 5,000+ pages, and the very fact that I thought Trump sounded like he had a point has worried me, frankly!
Democrats have been trying to get more for months, the gop has blocked them, even just last week the gop blocked the bill as 1200 was deemed too much, 600 is the reduced figure just too get anything through to those who need it most.
Trump is just playing politics, but it's just words, too little too late, and not reflective of his actions.
Trump is just playing politics, but it’s just words, too little too late, and not reflective of his actions.
That was my gut reaction, but some of what he said made worrying sense.
Yup, his party has blocked and resisted better stimulus deals all the way and filled the pitiful one that did get passed with pork barrel bullshit, as per usual. Now he's acting like he's the good guy but at any time in the last 9 months or so he could have been intervening to get a good bill passed more easily. Always quite telling, when someone waits til it's all over then starts to loudly make demands. It's not like Mcconnell is exactly Trump's messenger boy but if he'd made these demands for higher stimulus months ago, it would have made a difference.
Hopefully it'll cause them yet more harm going into the Georgia runoffs though.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/22/business/trump-deutsche-bank-rosemary-vrablic.html
Trump’s Longtime Banker at Deutsche Bank Resigns
Rosemary Vrablic, who oversaw hundreds of millions of dollars in loans to President Trump’s company, will leave the bank next week.
Michael Nagle
David Enrich
By David Enrich
Published Dec. 22, 2020
Updated Dec. 23, 2020, 3:55 p.m. ET
President Trump’s longtime banker at Deutsche Bank, who arranged for the German lender to make hundreds of millions of dollars of loans to his company, is stepping down from the bank.
Rosemary Vrablic, a managing director and senior banker in Deutsche Bank’s wealth management division, recently handed in her resignation, which the bank accepted, according to a bank spokesman, Daniel Hunter.
“I’ve chosen to resign my position with the bank effective Dec. 31 and am looking forward to my retirement,” Ms. Vrablic, 60, said in a statement on Tuesday.
The reasons for Ms. Vrablic’s abrupt resignation were not clear. Deutsche Bank in August opened an internal review into a 2013 real estate transaction between Ms. Vrablic and a company owned in part by Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of Mr. Trump and a client of Ms. Vrablic’s. Dominic Scalzi, a longtime colleague of Ms. Vrablic’s who played a role in that transaction, will also leave the bank.
Ms. Vrablic and Mr. Scalzi joined Deutsche Bank in 2006 from Bank of America. Ms. Vrablic quickly made a name for herself as one of her division’s leading rainmakers. In 2011, she landed a prominent new client: Mr. Trump, who for decades had been mostly off limits to the mainstream banking world because of his tendency to default on loans. With her bosses’ approval, Ms. Vrablic agreed to a series of loans, totaling well over $300 million, for his newly acquired Doral golf resort in Florida, for his troubled Chicago skyscraper and for the transformation of the Old Post Office building in Washington into a luxury hotel.
When Mr. Trump became president, his relationship with Deutsche Bank came under a microscope by regulators, prosecutors and congressional Democrats. Ms. Vrablic’s starring role in the suddenly controversial relationship — she was a V.I.P. guest at Mr. Trump’s inauguration — pushed the publicity-shy banker into the spotlight.
The relationship between Mr. Trump and the German bank is the subject of congressional, civil and criminal investigations. The Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., has been investigating whether Mr. Trump committed financial crimes as he sought to get loans from Deutsche Bank.
A lawyer for Mr. Scalzi confirmed that he was resigning from the bank.
Mr. Trump’s key contacts at his biggest financial backer are leaving at a perilous time for the departing president. He owes Deutsche Bank about $330 million, and the loans come due in 2023 and 2024. Mr. Trump provided a personal guarantee to get the loans, meaning that if he fails to pay them back, the bank can pursue his personal assets.
Deutsche Bank’s internal review has focused, at least in part, on a Park Avenue apartment that Ms. Vrablic, Mr. Scalzi and another Deutsche Bank colleague purchased for about $1.5 million from a company called Bergel 715 Associates in June 2013. Mr. Kushner held an ownership stake in that company at the time.
Banks usually bar employees from doing personal business with clients because of the potential for conflicts of interest.
After being contacted by The New York Times in August, Deutsche Bank officials started reviewing the transaction “and the fact pattern from 2013,” Mr. Hunter, the bank spokesman, said at the time.
The status and scope of that review, which may include other transactions, is not clear, but Deutsche Bank officials previously said they hoped it would be completed by the end of the year.
At the time of the real estate transaction, Ms. Vrablic was rapidly expanding Deutsche Bank’s relationship with the Trumps and the Kushners. It was Mr. Kushner who, in 2011, invited Ms. Vrablic to Trump Tower in Manhattan to meet his father-in-law, who was radioactive to most large banks.
Ms. Vrablic and her boss championed the Trump relationship. But it was polarizing inside the bank. Some senior executives argued it was too risky to lend to Mr. Trump, given his history of not repaying loans, including in 2008 when he defaulted on a large loan from Deutsche Bank on his Chicago skyscraper. Those concerns, however, were overruled, and the relationship with Mr. Trump progressed.
As they sought more loans, Mr. Trump and his representatives provided Deutsche Bank with financial statements that appeared to substantially overstate the value of some of his company’s real estate and other assets, according to current and former bank executives, as well as congressional testimony last year from Mr. Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen.
That is one focus of the criminal investigation by Mr. Vance, the Manhattan district attorney. Since the November election, his prosecutors have interviewed Deutsche Bank officials about the bank’s lending policies and procedures, and bank executives expect that prosecutors will summon employees to testify before a grand jury.
Since their initial meeting, Ms. Vrablic became friendly with Mr. Trump and Mr. Kushner. In an interview with The Times in early 2016, Mr. Trump repeatedly and incorrectly referred to Ms. Vrablic as “the head of Deutsche Bank.”
“She is the boss,” Mr. Trump said.
Trump going off the rails and bringing down Georgia with him is a lot of 2020 energy to bring in to 2021.
I think we'd all take that at this point.
Congress, Senate, and Presidency is a lot of power concentrated in half of America's hands. They'd better use it wisely.
Never underestimate the ability of voters to behave in unimaginable ways. GA aint over yet.
Treasonous and corrupt pardons flying everywhere at the moment - Manafort, Kushner's dad - it's hard to keep track.
Kushners dad sounds a charmer - the witness tampering case!
When he leaves the Whitehouse, I really hope that Deutsche bank comes after him and it all goes like his super casino project.
Oh, and Roger Stone too, I missed that one out.
I guess he's warming himself up for Ghislaine 'I wish her the best' Maxwell.
Yeah hiring a prostitute to sleep with your brother in law and ten blackmail him, is pretty low 😳
I guess he’s warming himself up for Ghislaine ‘I wish her the best’ Maxwell.
She hasn't been prosecuted yet. Can he pardon someone "in advance"?
yes, see Nixon
When he leaves the Whitehouse, I really hope that Deutsche bank comes after him and it all goes like his super casino project.
So do I, but I have a feeling that they will be very businesslike and weight up whether they can recover more money by having him declared bankrupt or letting him continue pretending to be a businessman. There's talk of resurrecting The Apprentice, which did make a huge amount of money. Destroying his reputation would kill that. I hope I'm wrong, but I have a feeling that the banks will decide that they are better off sticking with him.
Can he pardon someone “in advance”?
The President can only pardon federal crimes, not state crimes. I don't know what charges Maxwell might eventually face, but if there are state level crimes included, he can't pardon those.
Haven't times changed? I remember the controversy when George W reversed a pardon, as the press reported his family were Republican donors. Now I'm fully expecting Trump to either pardon himself or Maxwell. Currently SDNY which is Federal. Would be great if the FBI could just hand over the files to the States to continue with.
Treasonous and corrupt pardons flying everywhere at the moment
He's leaving it a bit late maybe - all it takes is a bit of heal dragging along the chain of command for the pardons to be worthless. A pardon can't be reversed once enacted, but theres more to the process of a pardon than the President saying he wants it to happen.
Johnson pardoned two prisoners in his last days in office. The prison governor allowed the letters from the president to sit on his desk for a while - the next President - Ulysses S Grant - rescinded the pardons and was able to do so because they hadn't been enacted.
When issuing a pardon 'The president' can change his or her mind at any time between issuing the pardon and it being finally enacted. 'The president ' can be two different people.
I’m fully expecting Trump to
eitherpardon himselforand Maxwell.
FTFY, but you really need to add "plus every other corrupt scumbag whose name crosses his mind".
Johnson pardoned two prisoners in his last days in office. The prison governor allowed the letters from the president to sit on his desk for a while – the next President – Ulysses S Grant – rescinded the pardons and was able to do so because they hadn’t been enacted.
When issuing a pardon ‘The president’ can change his or her mind at any time between issuing the pardon and it being finally enacted. ‘The president ‘ can be two different people.
Unlikely today though? The George W one was the next day after the bad press. I'd imagine any recipient's legal team would be pushing for the paperwork ASAP before Trump leaves office.
thols2
Free MemberThe President can only pardon federal crimes, not state crimes. I don’t know what charges Maxwell might eventually face, but if there are state level crimes included, he can’t pardon those.
Yup. Course, with a normal pardon that doesn't usually matter much because it's all a few years down the line, after states have let things drop because it went federal, but if there's a pre-emptive or really fast pardon then I think states are much more likely to go on the offensive
yes, see Nixon
The answer seems to be maybe. Nixon got away with it since everyone wanted for it to vanish and so it wasnt challenged.
Maybe Trump didn't want to pardon people over the last two weeks or so for fear that it would look like him addmitting to the world that he had lost the election and was doing it before he was kicked out?
Now that it's clear he did lose and he is going to be icked out, he has nothing to lose.
I thought that if a person was pardoned, then this meant that they were guilty. After if you are not guilty then a pardon is pointless. Also as you have been pardoned you are expected to work with law enforcement agencies, to not do so makes you contempt and subject to prison time. Being pardoned is a poisoned chalice.
and he is going to be icked out
Iked out? Does that mean the lizards are coming to get him? I live in hope!
Licked out? Like an all you can eat buffet in a downstairs restaurant in Hebden Bridge? Maybe only for Melania
He's lost his opposition of the Defence Bill, the Congress voted against his veto by an overwhelming amount:
Trumps loses bill.
Linky goes wrong mate.
Don't worry he will sentace a few more mentaly ill people to death before they drag him off the white house lawn
Interesting times ahead. Can this authoritarian movement fully displace democracy, either now or in four years? The rot is years old, it only surfaced under Trump.
https://twitter.com/SteveSchmidtSES/status/1345551423455559680
I have to agree with you, the rot is decades old. It started under Reagan, where broadcasting regulations were 'relaxed' to allow for opinion based, non fact based news to proliferate (fox news etc), along with the courting of evangelicals (the far white).
These two measures sowed the seeds of what we are seeing now. Trump isn't an outlier, his emergence, or the emergence of someone like him was inevitable in the light of those fateful decisions the Republican Party made back in the 80's. Cultural Marxism (as Steve Bannon calls it) is nothing new.
10 years this year. America was warned.
I can't believe this thread isn't higher up.
Only because of the US election thread. And perhaps this should have been retitled "former US president Donald J Trump" some time ago.
I'd prefer "disgraced former US president Donald! Trump!"
Will the next thread be about his court cases?
This warmed the cockles of my heart
I’d prefer “disgraced former US president Donald! Trump!”
He's still the disgraced U.S. President. Next week he'll be the disgraced former U.S. President.
Class from Greta there.
This thread needs a little more love today and then symbolically closing forever (we may need a new one for whatever happens next).
So much of concern across the globe right now but the sight of that helicopter lifting off from the White House lawn earlier is one of the brighter moments of the last 18 months for me.
From the very first post on the thread:-
I’ve got a sneaking feeling that he’d be an excellent choice, if only for the comedy value.
Turns out it wasn't all that funny after all.
So long Donald you utter piece of shit.
Next week he’ll be the disgraced former U.S. President.
From the very first post on the thread:-
God, how blissfully naive we all were in 2015. Also from the first page of this thread:
So it’s not entirely in-conceivable that Trump could be in power in the US whilst Boris is in power in the UK. God help us.
If you value your sanity, don't go back and read it!
How it’s going
That is SO good.
Wow.
@mos
Full Member
So it’s not entirely in-conceivable that Trump could be in power in the US whilst Boris is in power in the UK. God help us.Posted 5 years ago
This thread needs a little more love today and then symbolically closing forever (we may need a new one for whatever happens next)
No way - this is 'thick and thin/thicker' thread for that scumbag. It's the 2020 election thread that (hopefully) ends today.
This thread needs a little more love today and then symbolically closing forever
Oh no, there's still the impeachment, hopefully a few court cases and maybe a divorce to come. All good potential entertainment!
I'm hoping the Lincoln Project have a lot of fun stuff to work on over the next few months.
Donald Trump
Gone - soon to be forgotten, like a bad dream.
I think we saw what his really die hard support is on the latest protests, where only a handful of kooks turned up with their guns, and to them he'll likely always be a leader, but to the vast majority of republican voters, he'll be classed as a liability, who brought shame on their party, and remember, those 70m voters were voting for the party, not for the individual.
He'll exist on the web, but have a similar reputation to David Ike.
His die hard support are the rebranded Tea Party. The Republicans embraced them (hence Palin as VP had McCain won) otherwise they would have been sunk.
Donny just turned them into Trumpers/MAGAs. They’ll be a vocal boil on the rump of the Reps as were UKIP/ERG nutters to the Tories.
I think we saw what his really die hard support is on the latest protests, where only a handful of kooks turned up with their guns, and to them he’ll likely always be a leader, but to the vast majority of republican voters, he’ll be classed as a liability
They’ll be a vocal boil on the rump of the Reps as were UKIP/ERG nutters to the Torie
I think its a great mistake to dismiss the MAGA mob as fringe. 47% of the vote that's 70 million US citizens voted for Trump despite the racism, cronyism, vandalism, hatred and COVID incompetence of the last 4 years. Like many I thought Trump was elected on an "anyone but Hilary" ticket and that the system of checks and balances would control him and that Americans are a reasonable people and would see sense and vote him out after his first term- big mistake! Frankly if it wasn't for COVID he'd have been re-elected. The Republican party revealed themselves to be completely evil and Trump taught them they don't need to hide their evil because half of the US voters lap it up.
I’m beginning to think that the Mexicans aren’t going to pay for his wall.
I think its a great mistake to dismiss the MAGA mob as fringe. 47% of the vote that’s 70 million US citizens voted for Trump despite the racism, cronyism, vandalism,
a significant amount of them are core republicans who would never vote anything else. I suspect the extra votes he brought were few.
I suspect the extra votes he brought were few.
I hope no-one in America underestimates the problem as much as you just have.
Millions of previously-disenfranchised people voted for him. The economically suppressed previous non-voter was suddenly given a voice. He allowed them to speak out about their fears (immigrants taking jobs, erosion of their religious way of life) without being immediately dismissed as racist trashbags. Of course, the reason these people are economically downtrodden goes back to years of successive (mostly Republican) gub’mints screwing them over whilst also stoking fears (communism, immigrants, libruls etc). He legitimised these mostly manufactured fears which, it transpires, was quite popular. Those people haven’t gone anywhere and the likes of Cruz are continuing to court them.
I’m beginning to think that the Mexicans aren’t going to pay for his wall.
deserves more credit
I suspect the extra votes he brought were few.
He motivated huge turnout among rural voters who despise urban "elites" (which includes Republican party establishment figures like Romney and Jeb Bush), but somehow got conned into thinking a billionaire real estate tycoon was a working class hero. Those rural voters live in states that have disproportionate influence in the electoral college, so that tipped the balance for him in 2016. Problem is, he also motivated a lot of suburban women who liked Romney to vote for Biden, and he motivated huge turnout among Democrats. There were 25 million more votes cast this election compared to 2016, with 2/3 going to Biden. Biden barely had to campaign, Trump did all the work for him.
Hopefully the reality that Trump took them for suckers is sinking in among the MAGA crowd and the Republican Party will fracture. Here's a link to an article from 2016 that warned of what would happen.
https://theweek.com/articles/609234/even-youre-ready-burn-world-down-dont-support-donald-trump
https://twitter.com/michaelbd/status/1351976953876799491
but somehow got conned into thinking a billionaire real estate tycoon was a working class hero
This is probably a very snobby comment but do you think he was able to pull off this (no mean) feat by naturally having no class, awful taste and very little evidence of education or literacy? I have a sneaky feeling that what they saw in him that looked like looking in the mirror were the stupid, uneducated bits. He does not look like a redneck, he does not have a redneck ancestry, he does not behave in a god fearing way - he just looks and sounds stupid. And I really don't think that it was an act.
do you think he was able to pull off this (no mean) feat by naturally having no class, awful taste and very little evidence of education or literacy?
I think it's a bit more complicated than that. I think people saw in him what they wanted to be. He's crass and offensive, but he can also be quite funny in the way that Rodney Dangerfield was funny. That's fine in an entertainer, but I think his supporters have a cartoonish idea of what governing is about. To be fair to them, people like Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio are transparent frauds - graduates from elite law schools who pretend to be men of the people. Trump is at least more authentic than them.
but he can also be quite funny in the way that Rodney Dangerfield was funny
I had to google Rodney Dangerfield
Wiki summary.....He was known for his self-deprecating one-liner humor, his catchphrase "I don't get no respect!" and his monologues on that theme.
Self-deprecating is not one of Trump's endearing qualities! 🙂
Actually (and I know I am not the target audience) Trump's total lack of humour is one of his most repugnant qualities to me. I can't think of a single western leader less funny - even Merkel can slip a line or two in. I can't imagine anyone less enjoyable to break bread with.
I had to google Rodney Dangerfield
Try watching Caddyshack, you'll see what I mean. Trunp doesn't have a sophisticated wit, but he's very effective at what he does. Problem is, that type of humour is what juvenile males are into, not grown ups.
He motivated huge turnout among rural voters who despise urban “elites” (which includes Republican party establishment figures like Romney and Jeb Bush), but somehow got conned into thinking a billionaire real estate tycoon was a working class hero. Those rural voters live in states that have disproportionate influence in the electoral college, so that tipped the balance for him in 2016.
Good example from the Indie about how he sold out the Rust belt voters..
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-election-rust-belt-trump-steel-manufacturing-pennsylvania-ohio-michigan-b1372995.html
I think it’s a bit more complicated than that. I think people saw in him what they wanted to be. He’s crass and offensive, but he can also be quite funny
I'm reminded of a certain newspaper columnist and some time presenter of HIGNFY who went into UK politics.
I have a sneaky feeling that what they saw in him that looked like looking in the mirror were the stupid, uneducated bits.
And this makes me think of a salient point from the 419 scammers.
They don't make the scams clever, or polished, or particularly believable, because that draws in smarter people who are far more difficult to get a result on.
They make them with bad grammer, mistakes, spelling errors, non-existent company names, the whole nine yards, because the only people taken in by that level of scam are idiots, who are far easier to defraud.
I read a piece by a celebrity handler who worked on the US apprentice. Essentially they realised that Donald needed rightly scripted pieces as he wasn’t actually a great business mind (no great surprise) he thinks that Americans were duped into thinking that as a reality show it was all Donald and that the image of him [as a great business mind] was the real deal...when in actuality he’s a moron.
I think a lot of his followers were just motivated by a feeling of grievance and believed he would "stick it to the establishment".
Without his Twitter account, the ability to communicate with his base was muted. The polished videos posted on the White House’s official Twitter account were greeted with suspicion. But in the build up to Inauguration Day, Trump supporters, QAnon acolytes and extremist militias still, at a minimum, held out hope that the outgoing president would stick it to the establishment on the way out the door.
https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/1352207738332442631
nickc
Full MemberI’m beginning to think that the Mexicans aren’t going to pay for his wall.
Even I am beginning to suspect that there is no new healthcare plan
Everyone wants to be good at something even if that is being a colossal ****.
Donald needed rightly scripted pieces as he wasn’t actually a great business mind..
I suspect much the same thing happens with Alan Sugar - the only person I have ever seen with an Amstrad Emailer. 🤣
Qanon is falling!
But, as Mr Biden took his oath and no arrests were made, some in the QAnon community had an uncomfortable meeting with reality.
https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-55746304