The self- proclaimed "King of Debt" has some 'splainin' to do (to Special Counsel Mueller):
In the nine years before he ran for president, Donald Trump’s company spent more than $400 million in cash on new properties — including 14 transactions paid for in full, without borrowing from banks — during a buying binge that defied real estate industry practices and Trump’s own history as the self-described “King of Debt.”
Trump’s vast outlay of cash, tracked through public records and totaled publicly here for the first time, provides a new window into the president’s private company, which discloses few details about its finances.
It shows that Trump had access to far more cash than previously known, despite his string of commercial bankruptcies and the Great Recession’s hammering of the real estate industry.
Why did the “King of Debt,” as he has called himself in interviews, turn away from that strategy, defying the real estate wisdom that it’s unwise to risk so much of one’s own money in a few projects?
And how did Trump — who had money tied up in golf courses and buildings — raise enough liquid assets to go on this cash buying spree?How do you say "useful idiot" in Russian? This is why he didn't want Mueller looking into his business dealings (too late!).
Ta-Nehisi Coates puts the Trump/ Kanye bromance in a larger frame. This is a small snippet in a tour- de- force piece of journalism:
... Like Trump, West is a persistent bearer of slights large and small—but mostly small. (Jay-Z, Beyoncé, Barack Obama, and Nike all came in for a harangue.) Like Trump, West is a narcissist, “the greatest artist of all time,” he claimed, helming what would soon be “the biggest apparel company in human history.” And, like Trump, West is shockingly ignorant. Chicago was “the murder capital of the world,” West asserted, when in fact Chicago is not even the murder capital of America. West’s ignorance is not merely deep, but also dangerous. For if Chicago truly is “the murder capital of the world,” then perhaps it is in need of the federal occupation threatened by Trump. [snip]
West might plead ignorance—“I don’t have all the answers that a celebrity is supposed to have,” he told Charlamagne. But no citizen claiming such a large portion of the public square as West can be granted reprieve. The planks of Trumpism are clear—the better banning of Muslims, the improved scapegoating of Latinos, the endorsement of racist conspiracy, the denialism of science, the cheering of economic charlatans, the urging on of barbarian cops and barbarian bosses, the cheering of torture, and the condemnation of whole countries. The pain of these policies is not equally distributed. Indeed the rule of Donald Trump is predicated on the infliction of maximum misery on West’s most ardent parishioners, the portions of America, the muck, that made the god Kanye possible.This is one of the best reads we've had in a long time from one of the finest writers and thinkers anywhere today.
Toxic Republican Don "Big Shit" Blankenship is the latest worthy to feel the wheels on Rump's bus go 'round and 'round, all over him:
President Donald Trump on Monday urged voters in West Virginia to reject former coal executive and GOP Senate candidate Don Blankenship, throwing his support behind the two other major contenders in Tuesday’s primary.
All three leading candidates in the GOP primary have tried to attach themselves to Trump by emphasizing their commitment to his agenda. Last month, Trump invited two of them, Rep. Evan Jenkins (R-W.Va.) and Attorney General Patrick Morrisey (R), to appear with him at a White House event on taxes. Blankenship was not asked to attend.
Claiming that Blankenship “can’t win the General Election,” Trump on Monday alluded to the U.S. Senate special election in Alabama last year, where he made a similar endorsement. He initially endorsed the establishment candidate, then-Sen. Luther Strange (R), over challenger Roy Moore, who had a history of controversy.With satire not being too far from the truth these days, The Onion has a great send- up of Big Shit (h/t Silver Spring Bureau Chief Brian):
RAWL, WV—Extolling the variety of ways his past actions continue to benefit the hard-working people of West Virginia, a new campaign ad from Senate hopeful Don Blankenship aired Friday touting the multitude of new jobs created in the wake of the Upper Big Branch Mine disaster. “I’m Don Blankenship, and I’m proud to say that my vision and leadership created countless new job opportunities in the fields of search and rescue, emergency surgery, funeral services, and many more,” said Blankenship, referring to the 2010 mine explosion that killed 29 workers, for which he served a year in prison for conspiring to violate federal mine safety standards. “From trauma specialists and morticians all the way down to the manufacturers of vigil candles, gravestones, and sympathy cards, I’m committed to putting West Virginians to work. I’ve even created 29 new coal mining jobs. Can Mitch McConnell say the same?” Blankenship concluded the ad with a stern condemnation of the “big-government” safety regulations hell-bent on stifling the state’s economic growth.In case you missed the report in The Guardian over the weekend on Rump's accomplices hiring an Israeli dirty tricks outfit to find dirt on key Obama officials involved in the Iran nuclear deal, here's the gist of the story:
Aides to Donald Trump, the US president, hired an Israeli private intelligence agency to orchestrate a “dirty ops” campaign against key individuals from the Obama administration who helped negotiate the Iran nuclear deal, the Observer can reveal.
People in the Trump camp contacted private investigators in May last year to “get dirt” on Ben Rhodes, who had been one of Barack Obama’s top national security advisers, and Colin Kahl, deputy assistant to Obama, as part of an elaborate attempt to discredit the deal.
The extraordinary revelations come days before Trump’s 12 May deadline to either scrap or continue to abide by the international deal limiting Iran’s nuclear programme.
Jack Straw, who as [British] foreign secretary was involved in earlier efforts to restrict Iranian weapons, said: “These are extraordinary and appalling allegations but which also illustrate a high level of desperation by Trump and [the Israeli prime minister] Benjamin Netanyahu, not so much to discredit the deal but to undermine those around it.”Someone is desperate to have the U.S. fight a proxy war with Iran. Hmmm, wonder who =cough= Netanyahu =cough= Saudis =cough=.
Our blogging friend Infidel 753 caps off the reading with his link round- up of "various interesting stuff" he's come across this past week. Always worth the time to check out.
