You Will Anyway: Grifters

Thursday, March 7, 2019

Grifters

The Trump family received over $140,000 in gifts from foreign leaders during President Trump’s first year in office.

Those gifts included a $1,880 portrait of the president made out of gemstones from the prime minister of Vietnam, according to The Associated Press.

The Hill

Oh, please. Let's see that.

It is traditional for foreign leaders to present U.S. presidents with lavish gifts during diplomatic meetings. In 2014, former President Barack Obama was given over $1.5 million in presents from foreign dignitaries.

The gifts have all been turned over to the National Archives, as is legally required, unless a president wants to purchase the gifts for their market value.

You KNOW Trump will be buying that gemstone portrait. Too bad his "charity" has been shut down or he'd use money from that.

The Polish president [...] gave Trump a photo album with pictures of Trump and Trump Tower titled “President Donald J. Trump in New York.”

For any other president, that would be a bizarre gift, but for Trump, that was spot on.

The most expensive gift on the 64-page list, worth $16,250, was a porcelain dinnerware set imprinted with images of Trump’s private beach resort, Mar-a-Lago. The dinnerware set and a $14,400 calligraphy display, the second-most expensive item, were both gifts from Chinese President Xi Jinping, the news service noted.

Oh, wow. What a great get for the National Archives: Mar-A-Lago dinnerware.

First Lady Melania Trump and the president’s daughter and adviser, Ivanka Trump, both received a number of designer handbags and embroidered garments from foreign leaders, according to the AP.

What? Nothing for Eric and Junior?

Now let's talk about how much money foreign governments and other actors (including T-Mobile) have spent at Trump properties to curry favors.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

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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.