DOJ issues statement basically saying no one in America can have standing to sue Trump over the emoluments clause

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/0...ts-feds-239380

That's right, the DOJ thinks laws shouldn't apply to the president, including the constitution

Lol, she said the first F bomb so quietly and nervously.

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/06/0...tel-chain.html

While a firm that conducts lobbying on behalf of the Saudi government is dropping $250k in Trump hotels in elite coastal cities, the Trump organization prepares to move the business/grift into the heartland by opening up a new line of 3 star hotels in "Real America." The properties will be called American Idea, feature classic nostalgia devices like vintage Coke machines. First ones will open up in Mississippi. In a move that has absolutely no symbolic significance, the Trump Organization is not building the properties and will have a limited management role. Instead, they are partnering up with a campaign donor who already owns some Holiday Inn type hotels and is going to renovate and reflag them.

(O/u on time before the donor and the Trump Organization start threatening lawsuits over something?)

And now, a trip down memory lane, thanks to google :

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...101502277.html


Just a WAPO Opinion piece from 2009 which argues.

- That Barack Obama needs to get permission from Congress lest the Nobel Peace Prize constitute an illegal emolument and

- That Barack better return the bling the Saudis gave him (y'know, the same bling Trump got a few weeks ago), or that too would be an emolument.

They actually have a pretty strong case with the second point, imo. If, after all of his shenanigans, I'd kinda love if the thing that actually takes down Trump is getting a Mr T starter set from the House of Saud. Seems appropriately petty.

I suspect Mueller will turn the screws on Kushner sooner rather than later over failure to disclose on his security clearance. I will bet one person $20 that Kushner will no longer have a security clearance in a month, paypal.

Someone should take that bet.

Just a metaphor for his strength over his foes.

Booked. I have $20 that Kushner still has a security clearance at 12:01 AM July 10, EST. Quote to confirm.

I honestly have no clue whether that is likely or not but I'm inclined to bet both that the wheels of justice move slowly and that stripping Kushner of a security clearance will prove harder than it looks. Mostly I just want action, people should offer more bets in here, I'm likely to be a huge fish at them.

They're probably right. Any enforcement mechanism would have to be invented by the courts.
The National Archives normally takes possession of gifts to Presidents, which is probably what happened to the bling.

https://twitter.com/DLin71/status/873270633903345664

Trump’s lawyer in Russia probe has clients with Kremlin ties

Marc E. Kasowitz’s clients include Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch who is close to President Vladimir Putin and has done business with Trump’s former campaign manager. Kasowitz also represents Sberbank, Russia’s largest state-owned bank, U.S. court records show.
...
The Associated Press reported in March that Manafort “secretly worked for” Deripaska as far back as 2006 to influence politics and business dealings inside the United States to benefit Putin’s government. Manafort signed a $10 million annual contract beginning in 2006 and maintained a business relationship until at least 2009, the AP reported.
...
On Tuesday, Deripaska’s company, Veleron, lost an appeal in federal court in Manhattan in its lawsuit against Morgan Stanley in a complex financial case involving a dispute over a loan on which Veleron defaulted during the height of the Great Recession. Kasowitz was scheduled to deliver oral arguments in the appeal last month. It’s not clear whether Kasowitz will continue to represent Veleron.

Records in the case reinforce Deripaska’s close ties to Putin. When Deripaska’s company ran into financial trouble in 2008 and needed to put up more collateral to cover some its liabilities, Deripaska put in a call to Putin, who authorized the state-run Vnesheconombank, or VEB, to offer his firm a bailout, Deripaska acknowledged in court records.

In 2008, Forbes magazine listed Deripaska as the ninth-richest man in the world. In 2006, the United States revoked his visa to enter the country, citing possible ties to organized crime.

I don't know why people are getting all excited about Trump perjuring himself. Sessions perjured the hell out of himself and look where he is now. All Paul Ryan has to do is decide not to bring charges, he'll say it wasn't intentional or any old excuse will do really.

The new hotness in Trump excuses from his defenders is that he's too stupid and careless to know what the truth is so he can't possibly be lying and liberals just have to accept that. He doesn't know what obstruction of justice is so he can't be guilty of that or any other crime. He doesn't realize what cause and effect are so he can't be held responsible for the things he causes. It doesn't look bad for him to fire Comey because it's so obvious it would look bad that no one in their right mind would do it if they were concerned with how they looked, so Trump obviously didn't consider the political implications and therefore he must have had some unspoken but pretty good reason, just gotta deal with the airtight logic here liberals. Etc. etc.

Like all things Republican, you have to give them credit for accepting, nay embracing 2nd best outcomes. Obviously the ideal President for them is a compliant and reflexive right-winger but if they can't have that, they'll accept Trump as a reflexive moron who stumbles into the right-wing solutions Bannon and Paul Ryan feed him. Similarly, the ideal President is a reflexive right winger who is sane and competent but well, OK, if they have to choose then they can sacrifice sanity and competence as long as they get what they want in the end. They accept these 2nd best outcomes and will absolutely debase themselves and shamelessly pretend they're common sense solutions.

Trump's brazen idiocy is kind of like that, where they are just making the best of a sub optimal situation. Rather than acknowledge the reality, that he's a fascist authoritarian idiot who fired Comey to obstruct justice or tweeted criticism of London's mayor after a terrorist attack because of his hurt feelings, they'll just embrace a second best outcome and try to convince everyone of the same: sure OK Trump is an unhinged moron but he's more like a congenial random idiot than an intentional one, he just does and says stupid stuff and it's kind of random we guess but you can't really hold him or any Republican responsible for this, it's just an artifact of his New York values and bombastic personality and well it's really liberals fault for paying any attention, this is all just a fun game and Trump sure is a bull in a china shop, stop being so precious, he's just a well-meaning clown, get over yourselves. The fast Republican adaption of this talking point from the election season "hey he's a billionaire and ran a business, he's gotta be smart!" and "4d strategic chess master, just part of his brilliant ploy!" is something to behold but you know you have to give them credit for moving on I guess, and making the best of it as they try transition Trump from dynamic, brilliant business magnate to lovable idiot and make you believe that's what he's always been and why you should love him.

The last R bumbling idiot out of a pres got re-elected. It's not a new thing they came up with.

Yeah you gotta give GOP voters credit for strictly adhering to conservative principles. They will not budge from principle no matter what. Just because conservative principles change from "Russia bad" to "Putin good", or from "free trade good" to "free trade bad", it's no reason to stop passionately defending them. The important thing is to be committed to the principles, whatever it is they turn out to be on any given day.

Good point. How much of 2004 was spent reminding everyone Bush worked on gut instinct and wasn't into nerd stuff like noted egghead John Kerry who wasn't a fun cosplay cowboy? Basically all of it.

So it's good to remind ourselves that when it's convenient for Republicans, bumbling idiocy is like an affectation, it's a charming thing for Republicans, not a problem at all, and that's a long-standing pivot for them. "Yeah sure I guess our President is a moron, but why are you such an obnoxious nerd?'

fyp. Conservative principles are pretty much what Trumps are. Whatever sounds good today. in trump's case it just adds on "undo everything obama did"

Only thing I remember on kerry outside of no charisma was the stupid swift boat thing. R's are so so good at taking absolutely stupid or totally nonsensical things and turning them into scandals.

R's were furious about Obama's choice of mustard, wearing a tan suit, not being born in a country he was obviously born in, etc.

I think they have two core, deep driving principles: fealty to white tribalism and don't touch their money. Although even then, the two are very deeply symbiotically tied together, since the greatest and deepest fear of the average Republican is that their money may ever land in the hands of a black person.

Everything else is negotiable and malleable and circumstantial, just gamesmanship.

LOL this is why I love this place. When push comes to shove, all of us would bet on what's for breakfast the next morning.

In case anyone actually thought DOJ wasn't loyal to trump over everything else.

GWB is ****ing einstein compared to trump

I'd add "support anything that upsets liberals" although I'm not sure that counts as a principle.

fyp