Sunday, May 07, 2017

When laws no longer matter.

 
Image result for jared kushner imagesHere in America journalists and serious writers seem to spending less time trying to tell us the truth about the newly elected president.
 
Fortunately there are still writers in the world who are not afraid to write the truth, and to bring light to serous issues impacting our executive branch.   
 
"The Trump and Kushner family's "brazen" exploitation of the US Presidency is "unlike anything we have ever seen before," Barack Obama's ethics lawyer has said.
 
Norm Eisen tweeted the remark as he shared a link to a story about Jared Kushner's sister highlighting her family ties as she wooed Chinese investors.
 
Mr Eisen is suing the President for allegedly violating the "domestic emoluments clause," which prohibits the President from receiving additional compensation besides his salary.
 
Mr Kushner said he stepped down as chief executive of Kushner Companies in January and sold stakes in several properties to allay concerns about conflicts of interest while he serves as senior adviser to his father-in-law, Donald Trump.

But his sister highlighted her ties to Mr Kushner as she made a pitch to raise funds from Chinese investors through the US government's controversial EB-5 visa programme, which gives permanent US residency to those who finance projects that create a certain amount of jobs.

The Kushner family's promotional efforts in China come amid widespread criticism of the EB-5 visa programme, which has grown popular among wealthy foreigners seeking to move to the US but faces allegations of fraud and misuse.

Critics say many of the investments purportedly aimed at assisting poor areas of the US have instead wound up going to projects in more affluent neighbourhoods, while many programmes have been badly hit by fraud scandals.

Now led by Mr Kushner's relatives, Kushner Companies had earlier been negotiating with China's Anbang Insurance Group to provide what could be hundreds of millions of dollars in equity for redevelopment of a Manhattan office building.

Critics saw it as a potential attempt by China to curry favour with the White House.
The Chinese company's advertisements for the One Journal Square development in Jersey City described the project as "Kushner 1," with punchy subtitles declaring that it has "government support" and is "founded by celebrity developers," without elaborating.
Bi Ting, a 34-year-old woman who attended the Shanghai event, told the Associated Press having the name of the US President's son-in-law associated with it was "a bonus for the project."

Ms Bi said Mr Kushner's sister Nicole Meyer spoke for more than be10 minutes, describing the history of the Kushner family and the highlights of the project." [Source]

This story is stunning. And I am pretty sure that there would be wall to wall news coverage if it was anyone other than Donald trump. But because it's trump, though, there is just the typical news coverage that we have come to expect with team trump.

 Nothing to see here, folks. Move along.

It's just par for the course on a very rough course.

*Pic from salon.com

 

57 comments:

Brigade Fifteen said...

Chinese investors understand governmental corruption. Their officials are comprehensively corrupt. Now, under Trump, so are ours.

On the bright side, if the Democrats win control of Congress, they'll have ample justification to impeach and remove the president.

Anonymous said...

The normalization of grift. I guess we should have expected this when we elected a con man.

PX

dinthebeast said...

I knew it would be like this if he won, and now it is. What's bothering me is how it's just expected now. Nobody bats an eye over shit that would have taken other administrations down. I'd almost admire them for it if it wasn't doing so much damage to the office and the country.
Now we just do to them with the AHCA what they did to us with the ACA in 2010, win both legislative chambers back, impeach them both simultaneously, and get two years of president Pelosi...

-Doug in Oakland

Brigade Fifteen said...

Here, for your listening pleasure, is the Trump Song of the Day

Lyrics (so everybody can sing along):

Humpty Trumpty asked for a wall
Two thousand miles long and twenty feet tall
Told all the Mexicans they'd have to pay
And the Mexicans told him no fucking way

Trumpty's face went from orange to red
Put a twenty percent import tax on instead
So ordinary Americans will pay the cost
Of letting Trumpty feel like the boss

Trumpty's cancelling Obamacare
With nought to replace it when it is not there
Poorly Americans wondering why
Humpty Trumpty wants them to die

Trumpty chased the Muslims away
On Holocaust Remembrance Day
No refuge from famine oppression or war
Which is what America's meant to be for

Humpty Trumpty has four more years
To cash in on the job and to laugh at your tears
Make America terrified sickly and broke
Humpty Trumpty isn't a joke

anotherbozo said...

Small wonder that the "President Show," following "The Daily Show" on Comedy Central, touts "the last president of the United States." He may be, and the first dictator as well. Either the Republican go-alongs in Congress are finished, or our democracy is. It's Congress who should be safeguarding us from this collusion, emoluments, exploitation of the Presidency, but of course there's not a peep, and certainly not from the majority party.

It's either Twilight of the GOPs, or the whole shooting match. Ben Franklin saw this coming, as did several of his cohorts. Democracy was good to me, because I was white in the 50s, and the highest tax rate was 90%. I got a great el-hi education, then free college, then a loan for grad school, thanks to our response to Sputnik. Them's the good ol' days, and your children will probably never have it so good, no matter who you are.

A cryin' shame.

A. Hildeshimer said...

Criticizing the Kushners is driven by anti-Semitism.

anotherbozo said...

@Hildeshimer: Only if the critics don't go after the Trumps equally, if not more so.

Brigade Fifteen said...

"Small wonder that the 'President Show,' following 'The Daily Show' on Comedy Central, touts 'the last president of the United States.' He may be, and the first dictator as well. Either the Republican go-alongs in Congress are finished, or our democracy is. It's Congress who should be safeguarding us from this collusion, emoluments, exploitation of the Presidency, but of course there's not a peep, and certainly not from the majority party."

Twenty states are passing Republican "anti-protesting" laws to defend Der Pumpkinfuhrer from ... er, democracy. I seriously don't know, at this point, how any political commentator can fail to see that the GOP has now completed its long, ugly transition to a loony far-right party.

So yeah, things are not looking great for those who are not fans of living under a repressive dictatorship. Another song on that subject from the same guy I linked in my earlier post.

dinthebeast said...

Yates and Clapper are testifying. Should be interesting.

-Doug in Oakland

mike from iowa said...

Kushner and Drumpf are using the WH to rake in millions if not hundreds of millions of dollars for their personal piggy banks and to hell with the rules of law, decency, ethics, morals, etc.

Drumpf is being played by every country that comes down the pike. What a fucking disaster of a disastrous fucking joke this country has become in less than 6 months.

field negro said...

So trump goes on a twitter storm in an attempt to intimidate someone who is about to testify? Wow.😐

field negro said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
mike from iowa said...

Spice Barbie and Drumpf's administration are still blaming Obama for hiring Flynn and giving him top secret clearance. Obama fired Flynn in 2014 giving Drumpf plenty of time to vet Flynn which they apparently didn't bother to do.

Eric Drumpf told a reporter they get hundreds of millions of bucks from Russia to build golf courses and now the cat is out of the bag he and his Dad pretend like it is not true. No crime too big that can't be ignored if a wingnut commits it.

dinthebeast said...

"So trump goes on a twitter storm in an attempt to intimidate someone who is about to testify? Wow.😐"

And Grassley immediately does his bidding to no avail.

Trump said he was gonna build a wall, he left out the part about the Kushners selling high-priced tickets to get in...

-Doug in Oakland

Anonymous said...

"Barack Obama's ethics lawyer"

HaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That is rich!

dinthebeast said...

"Spice Barbie and Drumpf's administration are still blaming Obama for hiring Flynn and giving him top secret clearance. Obama fired Flynn in 2014 giving Drumpf plenty of time to vet Flynn which they apparently didn't bother to do."

Obama himself told president four-year-old not to hire Flynn as NSA or any other high-level position. Now they're saying they thought it was a joke.

-Doug in Oakland

mike from iowa said...

WTH-Drumpf has a business to run and golf to play. You can't expect him to devote much time to be potus since he didn't want the job to begin with.

mike from iowa said...

If laws really mattered, then this former Ga crooked as a dog's hind leg congressweasel wouldn't be Sec of Health and say stoopid things like this- http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20170315/NEWS/170319937

He claims the loss of hundreds of billions in Medicaid spending won't affect coverage.

mike from iowa said...

Heroine Sally Yates stuffed both Texas sinators in Oscar the Grouches garbage can. She led them around by the nose and then shoved their noses in the pile of dung coming out of their mouths.

mike from iowa said...

http://crooksandliars.com/2017/05/paul-ryan-lies-and-obfuscates-about-gop

Lying Ryan declares 800 billion loss of Medicaid funds is hardly draconian. Maybe not to Dracons, but I bet all decent people will feel the effects as the rich get richer still thanks to heartless, gutless wingnut crazies.

Your man Flynn said...

Obama himself told president four-year-old not to hire Flynn as NSA or any other high-level position. Now they're saying they thought it was a joke.

-Doug in Oakland

-----

Lie. Obama himself gave Flynn the highest national security clearance possible in April of 2016.

Try again, Dougie.

Fake News Update said...

"Hate Crime" Reported on By Washington Post 15 Times Turns Out to Be, Get This, a Hoax; Washington Post Refuses to Run a New Story On the Hate Hoax:

Shortly after the election last year the media became obsessed with a rise in reported hate crimes. One incident which was widely reported at the time involved a church in Bean Blossom, Indiana which had been spray-painted with a swastika and the phrase "Heil Trump." A slur for gay people was also painted on the church. This week police revealed the crime was actually a "false flag" carried out by the church's own organist, who is himself gay.

In its initial report on the incident, the Washington Post quoted Rev. Kelsey Hutto on her decision to leave the graffiti in place for a few weeks. "It's no secret that the atmosphere of hatred has kind of permeated the nation right now," Hutto told the Post. According to the Daily Caller, the Post mentioned the incident in 15 separate stories.


Although this revelation is now four days old, it remains unreported by the Washington Post as a freestanding, new news story.

http://hotair.com/archives/2017/05/05/another-post-election-hate-crime-turns-fake/

Ricky said...

Libs are so sad now that Clapper re-confirmed that "There is no evidence of Russian Collusion." Dems on Suicide Watch! Funny!

mike from iowa said...

Yer man flynn said- apparently you are full of prunes. http://occupydemocrats.com/2017/05/08/nbc-just-destroyed-trumps-obama-flynn-lies-new-revelation/

Obama suspended Flynn's security clearance and it was never restored. When he was hired by Drumpfuck he had no clearance and never got any at the time he was fired by Drumpfuck.

dinthebeast said...

"Try again, Dougie."
OK, here goes: In their first meeting at the white house, president Obama told president elect four-year-old not to hire Flynn as NSA or any other high level position because he was not stable or reliable enough to be trusted in such a position, you know, the reason he had fired him.

-Doug in Oakland

Anonymous said...

"Obama suspended Flynn's security clearance and it was never restored."

What a load of bullshit!

LMAO! You are fucking nuts!

Anonymous said...

Anonymous A. Hildeshimer said...
Criticizing the Kushners is driven by anti-Semitism.

The Jew cries out in pain as he strikes you.

A Black Panther Forever said...

Until the majority whites start hurting from the king, things will be as donald wants them to be. some of the white big boys my be offended that he is using Jews to accumulate cash. The middle America whites may turn on him unless he throws them a bone. So far there have been no grand program to address their concerns. I am sure some of the mates on this blog can itemize what donald has done for them. Blame lies at the feet of decent whites-- even though the women has been pro-active. Again not enough males so far. We Blacks have never had any power in America that could influence.... StillaPanther2

dinthebeast said...

The Rude Pundit's take on the Yates/Clapper testimony:

http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2017/05/sally-yates-hearing-sen-john-kennedy-is.html

-Doug in Oakland

Brigade Fifteen said...

"Libs are so sad now that Clapper re-confirmed that 'There is no evidence of Russian Collusion.' Dems on Suicide Watch! Funny!"

Laugh now. The French have rejected fascism in their land. It won't be long before this country comes to its senses and turns against our despicable commander-in-THIEF.

Aux armes, citoyens,
Formez vos bataillons,
Marchons, marchons!
Qu'un sang impur
Abreuve nos sillons!

Brigade Fifteen said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Brigade Fifteen said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Brigade Fifteen said...

What an illogical, nonsequitur excuse the White House gave about their hiring of Michael Flynn.

The OPM hadn't refused to renew the dude's security clearance in 2016, because Flynn hadn't been yet been proven to be an actual traitor to the country, and according to Spicer, this was sufficient for Flynn to be hired. Huh? He's saying ONLY Flynn's security clearance mattered?

Let's review: Trump hired this garbage, throwaway employee the previous president had fired -- and did so despite that previous president's explicit warning that he shouldn't be rehired because he was a crazy wackadoodle. Now Spicer's claiming they couldn't possibly have known this might be a bad idea?

Whatever. When you look at the disgraceful assortment of bumbling numbskulls and/or evil bastards that have been appointed to the current White House staff and Cabinet, Flynn was hardly the only mistake.

mike from iowa said...

http://juanitajean.com/no-seriously-get-a-rope/

The impartiality of wingnut judges amazes me to no end.

Decent White said...

A Black Panther Forever said...
"The middle America whites may turn on him unless he throws them a bone. So far there have been no grand program to address their concerns."

To date, Donald has done very little for the people who elected him. But it is still better than what they would have gotten under Hillary, who would have continued the 50 year establishment War on Whites, males, and Christians that Obama carried forward.

Anonymous said...

If you believe a man has a penis and a woman has a vagina you are "far right."

Culture of Lies said...

Any mainstream feminists enraged that an inexperienced man (Macron) was promoted over an experienced women (Le Pen)?

That's all you need to know about "feminism".

mike from iowa said...

Great gawd in heaven James Comey gave a senate committee false testimony last week about Huma Abedin's emails. He said she was sending hundreds of thousands to her hubby to9 copy and were marked top secret when it fact none were secret and there were very few emails she backed up on her Blackberry.

As for Clapper's testimony about no collusion between Drumpf and Russia he had/has no knowledge of FBI investigations into collusion so he cannot say for certain there was no collusion. Little gross wingnuts are creaming their jeans prematurely.

Ricky said...

So Comey lied about Huma Abedin sending that many emails to her pedophile husband because backing up Hillary's emails shows intent.

Crooked!

Ricky said...

Libs are eating their own- they don't realize Comey lied about forwarding emails to cover up Huma Abedin having a full backup of them, thus proving INTENT!

Crooked!

Ricky said...

It will forever be in the history books that Obama used Government Surveillance against Political Opponents & Citizens. Nunes Confirmed it.

Crooked!

Brigade Fifteen said...

"Great gawd in heaven James Comey gave a senate committee false testimony last week about Huma Abedin's emails. He said she was sending hundreds of thousands to her hubby to9 copy and were marked top secret when it fact none were secret and there were very few emails she backed up on her Blackberry."

Comey was guessing at the explanation for how those emails might have wound up on Weiner's laptop. It turns out the reason was banal: Unbeknownst to Ms. Abedin, she had an automatic back-up function on her Blackberry, with Weiner's laptop set as the destination where they'd be saved. So Hillary Clinton was forwarding everything she was sent to Huma's Blackberry, and Huma's Blackberry was "forwarding" everything to the laptop.

Comey shouldn't have guessed at this.

Anyway, like all the rest, this is completely irrelevant junk, except to Republican opportunist like shitweasel Ted Cruz, who are searching desperately for something to distract away from the epic awfulness of the clown in the White House that has hijacked their party.

It is also, sadly, more evidence that Hillary and her team could have used a proper IT manager, as they are definitely not at all what you'd call computer literate.

Brigade Fifteen said...

"Libs are eating their own- they don't realize Comey lied about forwarding emails to cover up Huma Abedin having a full backup of them, thus proving INTENT!"

Moron, criminal "intent" under the Espionage Act means intent to give classified information to an enemy of the nation, not intent to stick it on a laptop somewhere that nobody ever uses -- besides Anthony Weiner when he spanks his monkey to dirty Twitter chat with random women on the Internet.

And there wasn't even NON-criminal intent, as Huma had no idea that somebody had set her Blackberry to back up to that computer. As has been clear from the beginning of this farcical saga, Hillary Clinton and her team are not sinister agents of foreign powers; they're clueless technophobes who don't understand how computers work.

It is quite possible this will all go down as the lamest, fakest political scandal in all of history.

mike from iowa said...

Ricky said...

It will forever be in the history books that Obama used Government Surveillance against Political Opponents & Citizens. Nunes Confirmed it.

Crooked!
I call bullshit. Where is your proof? Numbnuts Nunes has zero credibility.

We have always been at war with Eastasia said...

"Unbeknownst to Ms. Abedin, she had an automatic back-up function on her Blackberry, with Weiner's laptop set as the destination where they'd be saved. So Hillary Clinton was forwarding everything she was sent to Huma's Blackberry, and Huma's Blackberry was "forwarding" everything to the laptop."

HAHAHA!HAHAHA!HAHAHA!HAHAHA!HAHAHA!HAHAHA!HAHAHA!

We're not criminals, just completely incompetent!

Is that the best you can do?

We have always been at war with Eastasia said...

"Huma had no idea that somebody had set her Blackberry to back up to that computer."

Really? All those years, all those emails, and her husband never told her that, oh by the way, I have thousands of emails from your boss, the Secretary of State, marked "classified" in my email inbox?

Is there nothing you won't believe when it comes to defending your team?

mike from iowa said...

Thousands of classified emails? Prove it. Let's see one single classified email-one of thousands. Where are they?

Brigade Fifteen said...

"Really? All those years, all those emails, and her husband never told her that, oh by the way, I have thousands of emails from your boss, the Secretary of State, marked 'classified' in my email inbox?"

Except they didn't go to his email inbox.

Would you know what was in a folder you never had a reason to look at, which you didn't create, located on a computer you use mainly for masturbation purposes? Because that appears to be the situation with Weiner's laptop.

Razor said...

Same people who called for Obama to fire Comey during the election are about to be very upset that Trump just did it.

Cue Brigade Fifteen in 3, 2, 1...

Services rendered said...

Obama had the popular support to smash the Bankster Cartel. Instead, he gave it even more power. That's why he's being amply rewarded now.

Pay day.

The Trumpening said...

Job creation in manufacturing accelerated to start the spring, as both job vacancies and hires hit the highest marks of the recovery.

Manufacturing job openings rose to 394,000 in March, the Department of Labor reported Tuesday, matching the highest level since April of 2006.

And actual hiring in the manufacturing sector jumped to 322,000, a level not seen since the early months of the recession, when manufacturing hiring fell of a cliff. Monthly hires were up nearly a quarter since last March.


http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/manufacturing-openings-hires-rise-to-highest-levels-of-the-recovery/article/2622515

dinthebeast said...

So Comey is toast. I told you he'd never make it to summer no matter who won the election. No way to cover an ass that big.
Also, he apparently responded to a test email sent to him by Gizmodo to see how hard it really was to phish government officials.
Not too hard, it would seem.
I hope he has a really bad day. And another.

-Doug in Oakland

Anonymous said...

Obama just took a private jet and a 14-car caravan to Italy to give a $2,500,000 lecture to us about living with less to save the planet.

Goy Rogers said...

Interesting how everyone is so obsessed with Nazism in a world that's controlled by Marxists... eh, probably just a coincidence

Brigade Fifteen said...

"Same people who called for Obama to fire Comey during the election are about to be very upset that Trump just did it.

Cue Brigade Fifteen in 3, 2, 1..."


Why would I be upset at that putz getting fired? I will probably object to whomever replaces him, however, because 90% of Trump hires are horrible people.

James Bold said...

"this is completely irrelevant junk, except to Republican opportunist like shitweasel Ted Cruz, who are searching desperately for something to distract away from the epic awfulness of the clown in the White House that has hijacked their party."

Like most libtard dogma, this is a complete inversion of the truth.  The Republican base has taken its party back from the cuckweasel hijackers.  Or rather, started to; the election of Trump and the ousting of Eric Cantor was barely a beginning, with Paul Ryan, Juan McPain and Lindsey Grahamnesty (among many others) still in office.  But a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.

"Why would I be upset at that putz getting fired?"

Supposedly, Jimmy Kimmel's audience cheered the news... until they were told that they were supposed to boo it instead.  It seems that Comey is no longer being blamed for getting Trump elected, because Trump fired him.  And all of the Dimocrap reactions to Comey are on record and will be used to oust them in the midterms.  The blood is going to run knee-deep in Washington.

James Bold said...

Sorry, not Kimmel.  Colbert.  I don't watch television so I only get these things at second- and third-hand.