Mueller time for Trump and his friends - will they all meet in a courtyard surrounded by a big beautiful wall? - Trump thread 92

[Lweji]

Someone had to and soon.

Old thread

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3510947-It-s-a-National-Non-Emergency-Trump-thread-91

The grotesque obscenity that is trump

Weirder and weirder.

AMI, publisher of National Enquirer has admitted catching and killing stories in order to help Trump.

www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/feb/08/jeff-bezos-blackmail-national-enquirer-trump

Jeff Bezos (owner of Amazon and the Washington Post ) had an extra-marital affair, and his text messages & photos were acquired by National Enquirer.

Bezos claims AMI attempted to use the affair text messages & photos to blackmail him into stating that AMI/ National Enquirer content was not “politically motivated or influenced by political forces”.

From the Guardian article: Other journalists appeared to back Bezos’s allegations about AMI tactics. Ronan Farrow, an investigative reporter at HBO and the New Yorker, tweeted: “I and at least one other prominent journalist involved in breaking stories about the National Enquirer’s arrangement with Trump fielded similar ‘stop digging or we’ll ruin you’ blackmail efforts from AMI.”

Bezos refused to be blackmailed, went public, and hired investigators to find out how AMI had got the texts & photos. So far so ordinary in the scummy world of tabloids owned by political string-pullers.

Today, there was a development.

Saudi Arabia 'hacked Amazon boss's phone', says investigator
www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-47763179

Gavin de Becker was hired by Mr Bezos to find out how his private messages had been leaked to the National Enquirer tabloid.
Mr de Becker linked the hack to the Washington Post's coverage of the murder of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
[...]
Mr de Becker said he had handed his findings over to US federal officials.
[...]
He alleged that the Saudi government had targeted the Washington Post - for which Mr Khashoggi had been writing.
"Some Americans will be surprised to learn that the Saudi government has been very intent on harming Jeff Bezos since last October, when the Post began its relentless coverage of Khashoggi's murder," Mr de Becker said.
[...]
The Saudi embassy in Washington has not responded to a request for comment on Mr de Becker's allegation, Reuters reported. In February, the Saudi minister of state for foreign affairs said Saudi Arabia had "absolutely nothing to do" with the National Enquirer's reporting on Mr Bezos' affair.

As I said, once, keep watching - Change of Personnel in SA I reckon.

If the allegation about the Saudis is true – and of course that's not confirmed – then:

1. the Saudi government, under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, spied on a US newspaper (WaPo) which was covering it unfavourably,
2. found material which could be used to blackmail the paper's owner,
3. handed the material to a US magazine (NatEnq),
4. and the US mag attempted to blackmail the US paper's owner to state that the US mag didn't act politically. The political act of the US mag was concealing information to help Trump get elected – whose son-in-law Kushner is pals with MBS.

This is all, well, it's cosy, isn't it?

One might almost describe it as a cabal of the global elite...

One might indeed.

Except that Mr Pecker's .........position is rather strained is it not?

Fox is back--look at this banner.

But that's Dumb & Dumber, aka, Fox & Friends.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/mar/30/swamp-monster-monopoly-man-congress-protest

The Fox>Trump line continues. Below is a tweet from ‘Judge’ Jeanine Pirro, and another from Trump that was after Pirro’s. I’ll leave it to you to determine if they are at all different in content or intent. Who really is running this administration? (And I don’t mean Judge Jeanine - but someone up higher than her.)

Jeanine Pirro @JudgeJeanine
Don’t be satisfied with the Mueller report. This is bound to happen again b/c these arrogant, condescending, lying, leaking haters of you,me & the America that doesn’t have power, will do it again. And the only way to stop them is with justice. True justice- behind bars justice.

Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump
3h3 hours ago
More
Everybody is asking how the phony and fraudulent investigation of the No Collusion, No Obstruction Trump Campaign began. We need to know for future generations to understand. This Hoax should never be allowed to happen to another President or Administration again!

Rudy gets on message, too:

Rudy Giuliani @RudyGiuliani
The collusion with Russia, we now know, was contrived. Some people created it to prevent,and as an insurance policy to remove,
@realDonaldTrump
if elected. To prevent this from happening to another President, all those responsible must be identified and, if appropriate, punished.

Or... next time, a Presidential candidate calls the FBI if approached by foreign agents or avoids getting into business with such foreign governments or agents, particularly if not exactly allies.

Just a thought.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/apr/01/far-right-bookshelves-jordan-peterson-thilo-sarrazin

www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/01/blackwater-founder-erik-prince-to-build-training-camp-in-chinas-xinjiang?CMP=share_btn_tw

'A Hong Kong-listed security firm founded by Erik Prince has signed a preliminary deal with authorities in China to build a training centre in Xinjiang, where Uighur Muslims have experienced a huge security crackdown.

Frontier Services Group, which specialises in providing security and logistics for businesses operating in risky regions, said it had signed a deal to run a training base in the city of Kashgar, according to a statement posted on its Chinese website.

The firm was founded by Erik Prince, a former US Navy Seal and the brother of the US education secretary, Betsy DeVos.'

FFS.

thehill.com/homenews/administration/436660-trump-says-he-is-saving-barrett-for-ginsburg-seat-axios

Somewhat tangential but this exposé of the NRA's despicable and disgusting tactics is surely a win against Trump

www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/mar/26/one-nations-james-ashby-filmed-lobbying-for-20m-in-nra-donations-to-weaken-australias-gun-laws

I like the swamp monster protest, Trump is a joke and it is fitting that he be protested by cartoon characters
He said drain the swamp and we see that he is the swamp
He said fake news and we made fact-checking a thing
He is his own nemesis

Also from that Guardian article about the NRA and Australian One Nation politicians:

Muller also recorded a meeting between the One Nation staffers and representatives from Koch Industries, which funds various conservative causes in the US.

Australia has now banned foreign political donations, so that's a plus. On the other hand, dark money may just flow via more circuitous routes (say, a friend with an interest in gold mines, or an anonymity loophole).

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/nov/01/investigators-will-scrutinise-arron-banks-russian-links

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-46118463

@Perking do you think that the stance taken by New Zealand and Australia will have any effect on the USA stance, will they be able to shame them into doing the right thing?

the thing about dark money finding a way is worrying, however it's good that people are now talking about dark money and trying to follow it....

The NRA seems shameless, as are true Trumpies. So, those people won't act.

But I do think it's good to have examples of another way to do things, when people who aren't shameless get say.

BTW the NRA guy and One Nation guy in that video were planning for the gun deaths of Australian children.

They were discussing how to do pro-gun PR if Australia had a mass shooting, specifically talking of "the graves of children". AFAIC Australia has never had a mass school shooting. So they're planning for an event which hasn't happened in Australia, but they're anticipating being imported.

Yy, agree that awareness of dark money is important.

Kyle Cheney
‏*@kyledcheney*
BREAKING: House Judiciary Committee planning to authorize subpoenas Wednesday for the full MUELLER report. Will also vote on subpoenas for MCGAHN, BANNON, HICKS and REINCE.

Vote would give Nadler authority to issue subpoenas at any time.

Story TK w/ @dsamuelsohn

www.politico.com/story/2019/04/01/house-judiciary-subpoenas-mueller-report-1246206