You Will Anyway: Now THIS will really surprise you

Friday, May 18, 2018

Now THIS will really surprise you

The Manhattan District Attorney's office dropped a criminal case against President Donald Trump's two eldest children, Donald Jr. and Ivanka, after Trump's longtime personal lawyer made a hefty donation to the district attorney's campaign, according to a joint investigation by ProPublica, WNYC, and The New Yorker.

Investigators were reportedly on the verge of indicting Ivanka and Don Jr. on federal fraud charges in 2012 after learning that they had intentionally misled investors and buyers about the value of the Trump SoHo hotel.

Prosecutors obtained several emails that indicated the Trump children knew they were misrepresenting the value to buyers, the report said. In one of them, the Trump children discussed "how to coordinate false information" they had presented to investors, according to four people who saw the email.

In another, the report said, Donald Trump Jr. reassured a broker who expressed concerns about the false information that no one would find out about it, "because only people on the email chain or in the Trump Organization knew about the deception," according to a source who saw the email.

Business Insider

An investigation was opened by the DA in 2010, and in 2012, presumably when it looked like it would lead to action against "the kids", Marc Kasowitz (remember him?) donated $25,000 to DA Cyrus Vance Jr's reelection campaign. Now, isn't that alone a problem? Or is it okay to contribute that much personally to a campaign?

Vance returned Kasowitz's campaign contribution shortly before the meeting, but three months later, Vance told his staff to drop the case, according to the investigation. Less than six months later, Kasowitz again donated to Vance's campaign, this time totaling more than $50,000.

I guess he figured if he was going to get caught, he ought to get double what he was offered.

The Trump family's business dealings — including the Trump SoHo project — are reportedly being examined by special counsel Robert Mueller as he investigates potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia during the election.

What's the statute of limitations on that kind of fraud?

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"What we have is a foreign policy which is essentially a marketing strategy for selling weapons." -- Jill Stein

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"America: just a nation of two hundred million used car salesmen with all the money we need to buy guns and no qualms about killing anybody else in the world who tries to make us uncomfortable." ~ Hunter S. Thompson

"Let me issue and control a nation's money and I care not who writes the laws." ~ Mayer Rothschild

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"What matters in journalism isn't politics, which are as universal and inescapable as breathing. What matters -- along with a fundamentally adversarial attitude toward government, without which "journalism" is simply public relations -- is integrity, transparency, evidence, coherence, and principle. These are the principles on which we should evaluate the quality of journalism, and their absence is why some journalists are so desperate to get you to focus on something else." ~ Barry Eisler

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Life, as Explained in "Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead"

GUILDENSTERN: What a fine persecution---to be kept intrigued without ever quite being enlightened.

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ROSENCRANTZ : The only thing that makes it bearable is the irrational belief that somebody interesting will come on in a minute.

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GUILDENSTERN: But for God's sake what are we supposed to do?!

PLAYER: Relax. Respond. That's what people do. You can't go through life questioning your situation at every turn.

GUILDENSTERN: But we don't know what's going on, or what to do with ourselves. We don't know how to act.

PLAYER: Act natural. You know why you're here at least.

GUILDENSTERN: We only know what we're told, and that's little enough. And for all we know it isn't even true.

PLAYER: For all anyone knows, nothing is. Everything has to be taken on trust; truth is only that which is taken to be true. It's the currency of living. There may be nothing behind it, but it doesn't make any difference so long as it is honoured. One acts on assumptions.

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GUILDENSTERN : We act on scraps of information... sifting half-remembered directions that we can hardly separate from instinct.

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PLAYER: Life is a gamble, at terrible odds-if it was a bet you wouldn't take it.