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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
Renato Mariotti thread on David Pecker’s cooperation in the Cohen Case. (On a side note, his name is comically perfect for someone who runs a sleazy tabloid)
1/ David Pecker, chairman of the company that publishes the National Enquirer, has reportedly backed up Michael Cohen's claim that Trump knew about the payments at the core of the campaign finance crimes Cohen pleaded guilty to. [1]
2/ The fact that Pecker received immunity means that his testimony was of significant value to federal prosecutors. They would not have given him immunity unless it was worth doing. They would have known in advance the information he was going to provide via his attorney.
3/ Presumably Pecker's testimony was useful in the prosecution of Michael Cohen. What we don't know is whether Pecker's testimony also helped prosecutors make a case against anyone else, such as Trump Organization Chief Financial officer Allen Weisselberg.
4/ Any witness who corroborates Cohen is important, given that Cohen has directly implicated Trump in a crime. For that reason alone, Pecker matters as a witness who corroborates Cohen's account that Trump knew about the payments in advance. (Trump disputed this on Fox today.)
5/ It's worth noting that the tape of Trump and Cohen released weeks ago also corroborates Cohen's account of Trump's knowledge, but presumably Pecker's testimony is more comprehensive.
6/ So what we don't know is the other testimony Pecker was able to provide. Did he tell prosecutors about other crimes committed by Weisselberg or other Trump associates? What is his other knowledge of Trump's business dealings? There isn't enough public information to know. /end
Edited by megaeliz on Aug 23rd 2018 at 10:12:38 AM
Interesting perspective on Linsey Graham, that’s at least worth considering.
While he appears to be a Trump sycophant, he has frequently checked Trump's worst impulses quite cleverly by playing Trump like a fiddle in the media.
He seems to get how Trump's narcissism works.
Graham never comes right out and tells Trump what to do.
Instead, he says "Well, I don't think he'll do ______ because he's too smart for that." or "I expect he might think about doing _____ but that would end up being a mistake."
Both are smart ways to steer a narc without appearing to have your hands on the wheel.
The latter of the two "I expect he will...but he shouldn't." also draws media attention to a topic which then prompts backlash from other corners without Graham being a harsh scold himself.
There are a few elected officials who seem to get Trump's profoundly dysfunctional way of thinking.
Graham is one of them.
Ironically, people only see the words and then jump on Graham's back thinking he's a total Trump ally... and that helps Graham pull it off.
Graham sucks for all kinds of reasons but he seems to pick his spots when it comes to Trump and then uses a relatively keen narcissist management strategy to kick him back in bounds when he's contemplating a major violation of norms.
Interesting. To me at least.
I still remember the primaries, he was very anti-Trump then and I’m not convinced that all of that has gone away. He’s certainly someone who knows how to wrap southern politeness up with insults and criticism, something that would fly right over Trump’s head.
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ CyranI don't really see how this contradicts that hypothesis, keep in mind that it's more than plausible that he's a loyal Republican who's also smart/sane enough to want Trump's stupidity to be contained.
Still I would say it's very plausible, and if it's true then good on him.
"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji YangGraham is another person who technically has principles, even if they're generally awful and obnoxious, and more to the point is a savvy political operator who knows how to play to his audience.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"Graham's feigned servility does its own damage to American constitutionalism. There's a whiff of monarchism in the air when a senator has to couch criticism of the president in effusive praise. On his own, he's an odious creature, and that's when he's being forthright. We shouldn't be characterizing his attempts to mollify Trump's narcissism as a protective measure; it creates dangerous norms regarding Congress's relationship with the president.
Edited by CrimsonZephyr on Aug 24th 2018 at 9:24:53 AM
"For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die."This explains a lot about Trump’s most recent behavior as well. (Only off about one day, too)
The punchline on what’s likely to come next.
Spin, racism, and a shiny object.
See quoted tweet.
Trump is still deflated. He’s like one of those ghost thingies that’s powered by a fan.
Flops about until fully inflated and then briefly stands fully upright... but then even a slight breeze folds it over and it falls back down.
Trump is trapped in life-long doom loop of only feeling fully confident when he thinks his shtick is working.
When he’s on the receiving end of bruising public shame, he loses his bravado.
He doesn’t have swagger and can’t fake it.
His only paths forward, by default, are to:
1) Continue to roll out evolving versions of lines meant to distance himself from Cohen and Manafort.
He HAS to feel as if he’s insulated himself from their public fall from grace.
Their failures aren’t his.
Those lines all sound weak but bank on something like:
“Manafort got tripped up by unfair regulations that would trap anybody.”
- and -
“Cohen is just looking to save himself. A shame he’d stoop so low to try to blame me for his troubles.”
Next:
2) Put everyone on tilt by stirring up the culture war.
Trump, like all narcs, loves to make people lose their emotional regulation.
People being worked up helps him.
It makes the fights about feelings instead of facts.
Racist dog-whistling is his go-to tool there.
And then comes the third leg:
3) Latch onto a shiny object. A new subject to harp on. Something to vent full-throated emotion about that ISN’T one of the subjects that just deflated him.
So, say, (for example) the Kavanaugh nomination.
Something he can posture about w confidence.
We’re still in the nursing-the-narcissistic-injury phase.
There won’t be wholesale rage tmrw.
The only people in harm’s way are potential scapegoats. I wouldn’t want to be a staffer.
He won’t be blasting away with real heat on Twitter though.
Instead, if I were to guess, I’d say he’ll whirl around like a lawn sprinkler of loco.
He’ll spray out a slew of tweets that are random, unconnected one-offs about myriad subjects.
e.g. a string of tweets about: crime-immigration-the economy-trade-China-Witch Hunt-fake News.
He doesn’t have his mojo back.
He’s feeling his way back to it but he hasn’t finished the cycle of:
1) insulating himself (in his mind) from yesterday’s bad news
2) converting that shame into rage toward the people responsible
He’ll back away, stir things up, distract
p.s. the morning lawn sprinkler of tweets will likely be a mix of self-promotion and poking at foes he’s allegedly taking on...
The key morning signal will be his intvw on Fox News.
Expect him to check off the first of those two ad nauseum. Distance, distance, distance. Diminish Cohen. Portray Manafort as a victim.
Overall, he’ll be in a frenetic, baiting mode on Twitter w little intensity.
We’ll see.
So, retweeting others’ defenses and praise of him coupled with sniping about bad guys like China, trade partners, Dems, etc.
https://twitter.com/hoarsewisperer/status/1032466047398563841?s=21
I mostly disagree, yes you're right that his apparent compliance does very real harm and thus we should not laud him purely as some kind of hero but all the same if Graham is capable of mollifying Trump's narcissism and minimizing his harm then that's a very real benefit.
So even if it may have negative side-effects it's still protective in that it reduces the harm he causes, admittedly at the expense of norms.
Edited by Fourthspartan56 on Aug 24th 2018 at 9:30:37 AM
"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji YangAnd here’s his tweets from the last two days. (At least the ones written by him.)
Yesterday evening we got the Self-Praise/Hillary -> Dog Whistling -> Witch Hunt.
I have asked Secretary of State @Sec Pompeo to closely study the South Africa land and farm seizures and expropriations and the large scale killing of farmers. “South African Government is now seizing land from white farmers.” @Tucker Carlson @Fox News
NO COLLUSION - RIGGED WITCH HUNT!
And this morning, we got Self-praise -> The economy -> Jeff Sessions -> Reality Winner/Hillary -> Fake News
Target CEO raves about the Economy. “This is the best consumer environment I’ve seen in my career.” A big statement from a top executive. But virtually everybody is saying this, & when our Trade Deals are made, & cost cutting done, you haven’t seen anything yet! @DRUDGE_REPORT
Our Economy is setting records on virtually every front - Probably the best our country has ever done. Tremendous value created since the Election. The World is respecting us again! Companies are moving back to the U.S.A.
“Department of Justice will not be improperly influenced by political considerations.” Jeff, this is GREAT, what everyone wants, so look into all of the corruption on the “other side” including deleted Emails, Comey lies & leaks, Mueller conflicts, Mc Cabe, Strzok, Page, Ohr..........FISA abuse, Christopher Steele & his phony and corrupt Dossier, the Clinton Foundation, illegal surveillance of Trump Campaign, Russian collusion by Dems - and so much more. Open up the papers & documents without redaction? Come on Jeff, you can do it, the country is waiting!
Ex-NSA contractor to spend 63 months in jail over “classified” information. Gee, this is “small potatoes” compared to what Hillary Clinton did! So unfair Jeff, Double Standard.
Social Media Giants are silencing millions of people. Can’t do this even if it means we must continue to hear Fake News like CNN, whose ratings have suffered gravely. People have to figure out what is real, and what is not, without censorship!
Edited by megaeliz on Aug 24th 2018 at 9:49:56 AM
Doing door-to-doors for our gubernatorial candidate, Jared Polis, I've heard a lot of similar rhetoric. Some people were just like "Democrats, f*ck yeah!" but I've also gotten more angry and bitter, "Well, I'm certainly not voting for the Republicans right now, that's for sure!"
Though I should note that there's a sampling bias in my experiences, because I'm only visiting specific targeted houses on a list they give me.
Regarding Graham
I only really know Lindsay Graham from being one of the two toadies beside Mitch McConnell who spearheaded the move to steal a Supreme Court seat from President Obama.
Chuck Grassley being the other.
I really just see him as McConnell Jr. To that end, it is of no surprise to me that he's a clever and savvy political operator who knows how to easily manipulate an idiot like Trump.
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub."It’s kind of surreal (but not at all suprising), whenever I remember how Massachusetts still has a sensible, genuinely Center-Right (well relative to Massachusetts, anyway) Republican Party. Like this editorial I found really shows that."
Speaking as a lifelong Bay Stater, Charlie Baker is mostly a do-nothing whose high popularity is generally the product of him being skilled at claiming false laurels for Democratic legislative successes. The people that put him on Beacon Hill — including that small remnant of the local GOP that actually holds seats — are just as odious and slimy as Republicans everywhere.
Edited by CrimsonZephyr on Aug 24th 2018 at 10:11:01 AM
"For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die."Trump’s CFO getting immunity feels like a “the levees are breaking” kind of moment. Lets see if it lives up to that.
Expect to hear about John McCain’s passing before much longer, just saw a breaking news alert on the Washington Post that he’s discontinuing medical treatment.
For all that I vigorously disagree with him on virtually every subject and think that his maverick reputation was overblown, I’m a little sad to see the old man coming to the end of the road.
| Wandering, but not lost. | If people bring so much courage to this world...◊ |![]()
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Scott Lively is completely out of his mind. And a third of the MA GOP supported him at their convention.
Edited by CrimsonZephyr on Aug 24th 2018 at 11:29:26 AM
"For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die."

In fairness to DeVos, apparently it was less an overt policy decision and more questions they were fielding from Texas Education Agency
, which were in turn questions they'd received from school districts about the possibility of using federal funds to arm teachers.
I really hate that reporting that just happens to be misinformed will inevitably be used as "FAKE NEWS!" propaganda.
"Why would I inflict myself on somebody else?"