This is a Time Magazine cover worthy of hanging up at a Trump golf club. I love this cover and I love that “I love it” is highlighted and overlaid on Donald Trump Jr.’s face, giving him a little Hitler mustache of treason. Obviously, the Don Jr. part of the scandal is still at a boiling point. There’s a ton of information and analysis in and around the controversy/treason. Here are some pieces I’ve been thinking about.
One, Chris Hayes examined whether Don Jr.’s sketchy Russian meeting also included phone calls. It’s pretty clear that there was at least one phone call, right?
Politico’s profile of Don Jr. They did a profile of him which I guess is supposed to be slightly sympathetic, in that it’s difficult to imagine going through life with the name Donald Trump Jr. and NOT ending up a total jackass. You can read the piece here.
The latest “conspiracy.” There’s some question about how shady Kremlin lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya even came to America to meet with Don Jr. at Trump Tower – go here to read more. The conservatives are trying to cry “OBAMA DID IT!” It’s seriously ridiculous.
Don’t forget about Precious Jared! Jared Kushner was at the same meeting with Don Jr. and Paul Manafort. Precious Jared also has about a million other entanglements with and around Russia, Russian banks, and shady Russian operatives. Precious Jared also still has a security clearance and the president’s ear. Now Emperor Bigly’s lawyers want to “wall off Jared Kushner from discussing the Russia investigation with his father-in-law, according to sources with direct knowledge of the discussions…The team contends that it isn’t out to get Kushner, but just wants to protect the president because his son-in-law is so wrapped up in the investigation. He had three meetings with Russians that special counsel Bob Mueller is sure to investigate.”
Photos courtesy of Getty, cover courtesy of Time.
Time has been killing it with the covers. The one with the half WH half Kremlin icon (don’t remember what it’s called) covered in red. Genius.
Anyways we are up the creek without a paddle because the GOP and racist Americans sold us down the river. At least the Dems introduced articles of impeachment yesterday. So tick tock.
Time is leading the way with in your face yet subtle reporting. The cover “The divided states of america” was truly award winning imo.
The burning question has to be this: how much did Sr spend on the education of Jr? Because I have seen that boy’s interviews and he is oblivious. He’s jumped his own bloody shark. And dragged a nation in to hold the bar while he did it.
In terms of education-it goes to show that no amount of money and private schooling in the world will help when you’re clearly that much of a moron.
The whole family is a terrifying mix of incompetent and arrogant. And unfortunately they have plenty of reason to think they are nearly untouchable because their base will probably support them through anything.
Quite.
i used to tutor rich kids and while all of them were very cute, well-meaning children, they knew how to delegate. delegating the work you are supposed to do comes very natural to a kid that has all these people on hand. the ballet instructor, the tennis trainer, the language tutor, the maid etc etc. in the end, someone else does the homework. i don’t believe for one second that this dum-dum wrote his own papers in university. no way!
Someone brought this up a few days ago on DM, but referring to Senior. Another responded by saying that Sr’s academic record was released and his results show he was placed in the top 0.5% (or something), the equivalent of having an IQ of 144 or higher. Another poster replied saying Sr probably paid someone to do the work, just as someone was paid off to get him into the course. So, I’m thinking, “like father, like son”. Nothing, absolutely nothing, would surprise me about this fake, corrupt, mercenary family of power whores.
These people aren’t good advertisements for Ivy League schools, are they?
Already has that grumpy downturned mouth like his father. bleh..such a repulsive family with no morals or any sense of self awareness.
you can so easily imagine him in that same pose and facial expression but with an orange jumpsuit and cuffs though…
That’s the look of pure defiance.
Yup, no humility whatsoever. Disgusting, repulsive.
He is a true prick just like his father.
His mug is a mix of extreme resting bitch face and “Do you know who I am”?
Yes, there was a phone call. Also, after the meeting abruptly what happened. Did he follow up to find out why was I promised dirt on Hillary and this person wanted to talk about adoption. There is a whole lot missing. I’m sure it will all come out in the wash bringing down the entire crime family one way or another.
And if Jared’s team started with leaking this email, there will be more and more damning ones to come.
Jared’s priorities are no longer Trump’s priorities. They all better watch their backs.
The adoption angle is total BS, imo. trump alibi=LIES, LIES, LIES.,
The adoption angle was actually an attempt to get the US to repeal the Magnitsky Act, which sanctioned Russian human rights violators.This is a big deal to Putin but the Trumps are too stupid to realize the implications.
I agree with you jerusha about the adoption being total BS. In no way in those email they mentioned adoption. The adoption angle was to coverup what the meeting was about. They cooked up the adoption story on their way back from Germany and 45 signed off on it. When the NYT threatened to release the email Jr decided to put out the email with the real story. However, there are some info missing because of phone calls in between. We will eventually find out everything even if the 45 crime family deny, deny, deny. That’s their MO deny everything hoping no one will follow up on the lies.
Lightpurple, Yes, the are so utterly ignorant. Most high school kids I know seem more intelligent and thoughtful than this gang of goons.
B n A fn, The thought of them — including Bigly — huddling up to come up with the adoption story just makes my blood boil. The flat out deception and dishonesty — wrapped up in faux outrage and sanctimony — is mind boggling.
The adoption freeze was Putin’s attempt to get the Magnitzky Act sanctions lifted. Since Trump was open about wanting to lift sanctions on Russia, there would be no reason to not be upfront about wanting to discuss it with his campaign, to be sure they knew to include that sanction when lifting the others. The fact that this was not mentioned in the e-mail suggests to me that the purpose of the meeting was not that at all. Instead, the illegal support of an American Presidential campaign by the Russian government was highlighted in a way that suggests the recipient knew all about that support.
Don Jr is most likely lying about getting nothing from the meeting. Wikileaks releases started a few weeks later, and Trump acted as though he knew about them coming in advance. The idea that Trump Sr was innocently kept out of the loop on this stuff is really hard to believe. It’s also amazing that people were viewing the anti-Hillary Wikileaks releases with alarm when they were so banal and uninteresting (and dubious in some cases, I still think Russian experts have figured out ways to bypass authentication tools) compared with the Republican emails being revealed now by Don Jr himself….
This is getting curiouser and curiouser.
@ jwoolman – I don’t believe for one second that baby fists didn’t know everything that went on in that meeting…if not, as it happened, then immediately after Donny, jr. bounded up the steps and announced daddy I got the goods on Hillary. (So, I’m better than Ivanka now, right?)
baby fists: “No, you still don’t have big tits.”
I have to joke. I’m exhausted from caring.
Don Jr only tweeted copies of emails he knew the New York Times already had evidence for and were going to discuss in the article. So he has the appearance of transparency while actually he’s covering up most of his interactions. Plus there is no reason to believe that his description of the conversation is what actually occurred.
The casual way the guy from the UK said this was part of the Russian government’s support of Trump Sr’s campaign (with no “huh?!?” response from Junior) tells us that Junior was well aware that the Russians were helping his father’s campaign. And the fact that Jared and Manafort not only agreed to go to the meeting but even found time in their schedules to adjust to the revised meeting time – that tells me this was quite important to them.
There is a lot more to these interactions, both before and after. I’m really surprised that Jared’s security clearance hasn’t been at least suspended if he didn’t include this meeting on the “oops, I forgot” revised list of Russian contacts for his clearance application form.
I hope Mueller has done the legal work to subooena or whatever the e-mail records for all three of these guys. This certainly would seem to give him the opening to do that. He would have to move fast to have a chance for anything to be left.
The truth seems to be that Trump and his kids trust the Russian government and their Russian friends more than the FBI or the American democratic process. It’s okay to lie, launder money, cheat, steal and intimidate if you win in the end. It’s all about looking after your selfish self and getting rid of the supposed lazy riff raff in America to Trump and his gun toting Republican supporters. The religious right are the worst of the worst in that group defending the indefensible and working hard to normalize the seemingly criminal doings of Trump and his family. I would think that selling your soul to the devil won’t get you into heaven no matter how hard you pray.
Yes. They have lived in a world of organized crime their entire lives. It is inherently authoritarian. Now that they have the presidency, they think they can show their hand and complete the coup. I wager they do not intend to step down and give our country back–sounds outrageous, but who would have believed a year ago that the U.S. would be so terribly compromised and weakened today. As for the right-wing Christians, the evangelicals are also authoritarian, and American mission groups have been partnering with the Russian orthodox church for decades–for example, Jeff Sessions started his trips to Russia with his church in the early 1990s. There is no mystery in why someone like the evangelical Franklin Graham allied with Tr*mp. They all want a world ruled by autocrats and priests.
The religious fanatics in this country are willing to sacrifice all of their so called values to save fetuses and keep from having to bake cakes for gays.
No one should ever listen to anything they say about morality again.
The religious right outed themselves as the morally bankrupt fools that they are when they voted for trump.
amen
Exactly. The thin veil was lifted.
Well nowadays “Evangelical Christian” is less a faith-based signifier and more of a political signifier. In fact, Evangelical Christianity has very little to do with religion or faith these days.
But at it’s inception, EC ideology was born out of a one-on-one relationship with God. Based on that, it’s easy to see why many of these people don’t give a flying f*ck about their fellow man. As long as they have God and certainty that they are getting through the Golden Gates, then they’re content and everyone else can go eff themselves.
Then the sooner they get to those “golden gates”, the better.
I think the gates are meant to be pearly. I shall report back when I find out. 👼🏻👼🏻👼🏻👼🏻👼🏻
Just read this story on DM this morning. Russian Oligarch who met with Donald Trump Jr and also paid the shalowry research company behind dierty dossier -then settled $230 million money laundering case for just $6 million. Follow the money. Show your tax returns 45.
Saw that last night. The DM is covered with trump scandal stories right now. Haven’t bothered to read the comments of the buttlickers, though.
Jerusha, I’ve noticed in the last few days, far fewer trumpaloonies commenting on the DM stories. Even the red down-arrows for people criticising the trumps have vastly reduced.
There’s a video of Drumpf with Gladstone and all of the others involved in this mess.
BTW, Trumpsters are all “Crooked Hilary took money from Saudis!” and ” Obama met with Russians too!”
The Trumpers just make me sad at this point.
Why on earth would they mention Saudi money when Saudi JUST gave Ivanka a $100 million dollar “donation”
If this administration wasn’t such a sh*tshow that would have been huge news for months
Are we surprised? The guy kills lions and elephants for sport so his judgment is a little, uh, dubious. There’s a special place in hell currently being prepared for the Trump-Kushners and their enablers.
I love the last photo which looks like Donny J is in handcuffs and being let to jail. I hope he takes his whole family with him. So much for draining the swamp, eh? Him and his idiot family are worse than any swamp creatures.
That Jared is like Gob from Arrested Development is now an internet meme is kind of hilarious…
DJTJr is the Gob.
Trumpy Sr is George.
Ivanka’s Lindsay. I don’t go for the “Jared is gay” rumours – (c’mon Lefties, we hate it when the right does that homophobic nonsense), but I’d call him the Tobias.
Eric’s Buster.
Tiffany is… no one.
And poor Barron, though you might think he’s the George Michael of the family, may just end up being the Michael of them all. Possibly the only one who’s not a criminal.
Oh right, that makes better sense
Tiffany is Egg, I mean Plant, I mean Ann
I like the highlighted ‘high-level’ too; a ‘high-quality ‘ dig?
I am curious as to what Mueller digs up and reports. There are probably more skeletons ready to tumble out of the gold covered Trump closet. The White House must be like a war zone right now. Donald Sr can not be happy.
Next up: Melania decides to move back to NYC with Barron.
Adam Schiff said the other day that the House Intelligence Committee has seen a lot more on Junior.
I think Julian Assange’s name will pop up frequently in the final report too. He is mixed up in this mess as well.
What a scared, angry looking person. I don’t think Junior has ever known or will know, a moment of true happiness in his life.
That’s what happens when you spend your life sucking up to your soulless and corrupt father to get any type of attention – you turn into him.
Ugh. I just got a chill, feeling a fleeting — very fleeting — twinge of compassion for the guy.
I am more than convinced now than ever that Damien is truly trying to set up his BIL. This all started when he amended that form to include this meeting. Go watch my husband Lawrence O’s piece on this last night. This sort of back stabbing is not new for the Kushner’s as Damien’s father did something similar to his own sister before he was sent to prison. Damien has a history of being petty and vindictive and learned this behavior from his father. See the nonsense with Qatar after Qatar would not give Damien a huge loan. I cannot tell now if Fredo is intentionally going after Damien or if this is an unforced error that ended up blowing up on Damien because Fredo is so dumb to get this email.
I think this Russia issue started even before the Dump’s got involved. Back in 2015, the intel community reported that Russian money was poring into the US. Not sure where the money went exactly, but what if the plan was to put out feelers out to everyone who was reported to run for the GOP nomination and see who took the bait. How many stories have we heard now about someone being connected to Russia. That thug that just got elected in Montana (?), the nominee for FBI Director, Ryan and McConnell also have Russian money in their coffers AND McConnell is the one who told Obama that he would make a stink about partisanship if Obama said anything about the hack. He also secretly went behind Obama’s back and went to several red Govs telling them to tighten up on internet security but don’t trust anything the Feds have to say. There is a lot of circumstantial evidence that is starting to mount up. I am now taking my tinfoil hat off.
who is Damien?
Just my personal request, if people are going to use monikers can they use a cast list or something (like a play?) Who is Fredo? from yesterday, is it Donald Jr? Jared is Damien?
you don’t have to, just a request as it would make reading and understanding excellent posts so much easier. Not to target you, it’s just meant for anyone.
Sorry if I offend.
No offense taken. I forget sometimes that people can read what I am writing and do not come here every day, so it seems like a a fair enough request. My nickname for Jared is Damien.I have seen others write Jare Jare Kushner but I stick with Damien because of his dark dead eyes.
My nicknames for Trump Sr. are Foolius, Dump, Orange Foolius, and other names that I am blanking on because I like Foolius so much.I reserve the right to change this when I can think of a better one.
The Trumps as a collective group are The Dumps.
Fredo is Trump Jr. I also have called him ugly son number 1.
I think Nagini is Ivanka. I don’t use that one because I am not sure where that reference is coming from but I have seen other people on this site use it.
Kellyanne is Liaranne.
Steve Bannon is a racist drunk. This is more fact than a nickname.
Sean Spicer is Spicey.
I don’t think their is a nickname for Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Sister of a dog killer is too long to type every time we refer to her in a post. I now have to find a suitable nickname for her.
I sometimes call McConnell an evil Turtle and Ryan is Eddie Munster or Ghoul or Speaker Ghoul.
@AT Sarah Huckster works for me.
Aiobhan, Ivanka’s nickname Princess Nagini comes from Nagini, Voldemort’s pet snake in the Harry Potter series. It’s a personal favourite of mine-I think the LightPurple was the one that came up with it?
Yes LightPurple. And that whole long nickname makes me laugh SO MUCH everytime I read it.
We are going to need numbered t-shirts and a program before this is over…they ARE. ALL. INVOLVED.
Ha! Love this! Like reading the synopsis of a really trashy Greek tragedy. I would love, love, love it if the leak in the WH turned out to be Kushner. Too perfect.
DJT Jr. was already the not very bright son who could never please his father. ( Fredo is perfect!) Eric has always been the idiot, but his brother may be passing him by. Princess Nagini continues to post darling pictures of the children. I look for her and Precious Jared to return to NYC soon. Bigly thinks of himself as a genius, but is actually a fool. But one attribute they all share is an instinct for self preservation. It would be lovely to watch this evil, corrupt group turn into a circular firing squad.
It will be Kushner.
Don’t take your tin hat off. Make me one please!
Tangerine has been dealing with the Russians for a long time. DJ Fredo has some weird connections with some of the people in their camp and he spent a lot of time in Russia cozying up to questionable characters Complicity Barbie was over there a lot and in Montenegro which is a perfect location for a James Bond movie with shady villains and illegal international business dealings. Then there is some murkiness with corrupt Russians involved in paving the way for a deal in Montenegro. That is a lot of Russia for one organization.
It is getting clearer but slowly as connections between the players are coming to light. The Russian mob is strong in New York and they are directly connected back to Russia where the mob, oligarchs and Putin overlap. He was knee deep in Russian dealings for well over a decade and I still don’t understand why it is dripping out like OH NO this might be a problem. Shock. Dismay!
Tangerine was bailed out by Russians, an abnormally high number of Russian shady businessmen bought apartments in his buildings and bought real estate from him paying much more than it was worth to bail him out of his shoddy business failures.
He won’t show his taxes because it would show that money flowed from Russia to make him appear as this big successful tycoon when he has run business after business into the ground.
Even if Tangerine wanted to he can’t go against Russia or any of its players because he is owned not just from his pee pee hooker party dossier but he owes them a staggering amount money and he is possibly afraid of them. I have no sympathy. No intelligent person would have anything to do with them but Tangerine can’t help himself.
We know they ran a psychological warfare campaign on the internet and hacked but there are
probably others in the Congress who are sweating bullets right now because they are compromised too. Who knows how deep and far back it really goes.
I even wonder if they didn’t start him on the birther thing to get the ball rolling.
Crooked Jared’s family is noticeably absent but they aren’t slouches in the money department so could he be playing a double game here supported by Russia? I wouldn’t be surprised. Then you can also throw in some Israeli gangsters into mix maybe. Odd as they are. No business on the Sabbath, you can whack him on Sunday.
That is a whole other issue but I doubt it will get talked about.
I feel like I am looking at a giant puzzle that is giving me a headache.
I have fleeting moments where I feel sort of sorry for Don Jr and Eric. Believe me they are fleeting. But can you imagine growing up with him as a father? I read yesterday Don Sr smacked Jr in the face for not wearing a suit to a Yankees game. And that Jr didn’t want to join the organization at first and didn’t speak to his father during the first divorce for a whole year. But then I look at the pictures of them big game hunting, committing treason, and Eric saying Democrats aren’t people and I’m all, nope, horrible people, and traitors to boot. But I’m just saying they never had a chance. Marla was smart to keep Tiffany away from this clan. No wonder Melania didn’t want him near Barron. Of course it screws the taxpayers. I’ve never seen any private interactions with him and Barron.
I’ve yet to see pictures of Barron laughing and smiling, unlike other First Children. Maybe staying in NYC would be better, limiting his exposure to Toxic Dad.
Are you referring to this story from a while back before the election? I follow Scott Melker on FB and this story really stuck with me:
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/885481504780013568
How ironic that it appears the Russian lawyer overstated her special sort-of visa. She didn’t have a regular visa, but was allowed into the US to be with her client while he was testifying. The judge in the case successfully petitioned for a week’s extension because the client needed more time to testify. But the meeting at Trump Tower took place quite a while after that. Wonder what else she was doing in the meantime? Going to Disneyland?
@kitten
Yes that’s the one. Can you imagine the psych profiles they could do on this family??? It would be really ironic if they had dirt on his kids and he had to resign so one (or all) of them didn’t go to jail. I think he would have no problem throwing Jr or Eric under the bus but I think he would do it for Precious Ivanka. I keep asking on here if it comes to sides between Jared (who has supposedly changed his SF86 3x and added 100 names) and her dad Ivanka would choose. This whole thing is Shakespearan but omg please hurry Mueller!!!!!
omg please hurry Mueller!!!!!
While I agree with the sentiment…I’d prefer if Mueller got it right instead of fast.
He only has one chance.
So is Jared the one who has been leaking things about Donald Jr? If Jared was willing to throw Donald Jr under the bus, could he have done the same thing to Mike Flynn? The GOP like Lindsay Graham wanted to know who leaked the information about Flynn to WP. I figured that it had to be someone very close to Trump because Trump is in constant contact with WP via Robert Costa.
@why
I think Jared is leaking. From all reports he’s in a world of trouble from lying on security forms 3x, arranging the bot attacks on targeted groups of voters, nefarious meetings during the campaign, etc. And it’s infuriating because if military people lie on their clearance forms they are immediately kicked out. And the Republicans are fighting to keep his security clearance?!?! Someone said him leaking this on Jr is what his father did to his sister or his brother can’t remember which. Nauseating!!!!
Even better, to get high level security clearance, they make you take a lie detector test. There is NO WAY he would pass one.