WTF Community

Day 517

General Discussion
#1

Updated 6/20/2018 10:54 AM PDT

1/ Trump will sign an executive order to end the separation of families at the border and keep parents and children together in federal custody while they wait prosecution for illegal border crossings. The plan potentially violates a 1997 consent decree that prohibits the federal government from keeping children in immigration detention for more than 20 days. (New York Times / Politico / Washington Post)

This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/2018/06/20/day-517/
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#2

The real question is, why was Michael Cohen an RNC deputy finance chairperson in the first place? And the second question is, why did he continue to hold the position for so long after his financial misdeeds came to light?

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#4

Not a good sign…criminalizing immigration.

Defense Secretary James Mattis has approved a Justice Department request to send 21 active-duty military lawyers to the southern border, the Pentagon confirmed to MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Wednesday night.

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#5

I don’t have anything further to contribute in the way of hyperlinks. I’m just here to share a thought.

Today I wondered if Trump bathes? I know, strange thought indeed, but his hair is always, as Warren Zevon would say, PERFECT!

Except for today. I was at work, stealing bandwidth from my employer, when I watched a CNN Live Broadcast and his hair was just a bit off. He had one stray one that came out like he was a unicorn. And then the camera angle from straight on made him look like someone had put the fins from a '65 Cadillac alongside his big empty head.

This latest thing just conjures up all sorts of SNL cold opens. “Oh Daddy, please stop being like a Nazi prick!” or “Donald! You must Be Best!”. It’s so surreal, yet it’s real.

I hope this IS his Katrina or Waterloo or whatever. He needs to be removed from office sooner rather than later, and why people are in denial about that, is beyond me.

#6

Donny Deutsch talks to Ari Melber about his conversation today with Michael Cohen. Deutsch reveals Michael Cohen used to believe he would never “turn” on Trump, but will ultimately do “what is best for him and his family”. Deutsch also reveals that Cohen’s secret tapes will make Trump “look bad” and that “missing links” with regards to Russia may come out of the Cohen investigation, noting, if he were Trump he would be “very worried right now”.

In watching this interview, I get the impression that Cohen is using Deutsch to telegraph messages to the media. By enlisting Deutsch as a kind of unofficial surrogate, Cohen can avoid incriminating himself while still delivering a clear message to the public and to Trump – and the message is “I’ve got the goods on the President.” I think, even though Trump has continued to distance himself from Cohen, Cohen is still fishing for a pardon.

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#7

New information that adds to the web of connections between Russia and the Trump campaign.

A longtime US lobbyist for the Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska visited Julian Assange nine times at the Ecuadorian embassy in London last year, according to visitor logs seen by the Guardian.

Adam Waldman, who has worked as a Washington lobbyist for the metals tycoon since 2009, had more meetings with Assange in 2017 than almost anyone else, the records show. . . .

The logs, obtained by the Guardian and Focus Ecuador, reveal details of Assange’s life inside the Ecuadorian embassy, where he has been staying since June 2012. Waldman allegedly visited Assange twice on 12 and 13 January 2017, days before Trump’s inauguration as president, and again immediately after the ceremony, on 27 January. . . .

Deripaska is a key person in the investigation by the special counsel Robert Mueller into alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow.

According to the Associated Press, Trump’s future campaign manager Paul Manafort began work for Deripaska in 2005 and pitched a plan that would “greatly benefit [Vladimir] Putin’s government.” In 2006 Manafort signed a $10m annual contract with Deripaska, a close ally of Russia’s president.

In summer 2016, when he was Trump’s campaign chief, Manafort offered Deripaska a confidential briefing, emails turned over to Congress and Mueller show.

The article includes this as well:

Waldman also served as a counsel for Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov.

It was Lavrov, along with Sergey Kysliak, who yucked it up with Trump in the oval office back in May of last year. That’s when Trump spilled classified information and told his visitors “I just fired the head of the F.B.I. He was crazy, a real nut job. I faced great pressure because of Russia. That’s taken off.”

When Manafort was indicted, Lavrov made a big stir about how that exonerated Russia because the indictment only detailed connections between Manafort and the Ukraine and none with Russia. However, this Guardian article shows that Lavrov himself has connections to the investigation since the lobbyist (Waldman) who worked for him also worked for the Russian oligarch Deripaska who, in turn, was a partner of Manafort, Trump’s campaign manager – and that same lobbyist met frequently with Julian Assange. The Kremlin allegedly passed Hillary Clinton’s hacked emails to Assange in order to help the Trump campaign. Maybe all these connections are just coincidence or maybe they represent collusion – here’s hoping Mueller will find out.

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#8

With Cohen’s departure from the ranks, Lawrence Tribe, law professor sees the final unraveling of this administration.

Damage done…but legal consequences are on the horizon, unless they get OJ’s jury. :hamburger:

@tribelaw
We are now witnessing the first crack in the armor that has bound the Trump cult together ever since Jan 20, 2017. Finally some are breaking ranks. The center is starting to unravel. At long last. The avalanche follows. Watch this space.

#9

I hope that you are right. I hope for this every day. The Emperor wears no clothes, I thought that with GW Bush, but W looks like the Pope compared to Trump. He’s a horrible mess and the irony is that we are so accustomed, or committed, to our “secure” and “safe” society, that no one will call his bluff. And his sense of entitlement will continue for the foreseeable future, probably until he’s arrested, although becoming president may mean that he is granted immunity.

#10

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#3

American Airlines, now ensnared in the billowing controversy over the U.S. policy of separating families at the border, said in a statement Wednesday that it has “requested the federal government to immediately refrain from using American for the purpose of transporting children who have been separated from their families due to the current immigration policy.”

“We have no desire to be associated with separating families, or worse, to profit from it,” the airline said. “We have every expectation the government will comply with our request and we thank them for doing so.”

United Airlines, Frontier Airlines and Southwest followed with similar statements soon after.

We must never ever forget the true face of Trump and the GOP. In the past week they have clearly demonstrated how far outside the norms of decent human behavior they truly are.

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