monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

@blatham,

that probably explains A2k's newest new world order poster

quite a character. Rolling Eyes

@oralloy,

And? That simply makes them politicians, it doesn't Grant them the authority to do anything. Not only that, but you're blaming Trump's issues on those who are complaining about said issues; why not blame Trump for having the problems in the first place?

The answer is pretty clear: you really could care less if he colluded with the Russians, or broke any laws at all, as long as it hurts the Dem party. Right? The rule of law isn't as important as getting your preferred political outcome, in your mind. Isn't that accurate to say?

Cycloptichorn

2 Replies

@ehBeth,

Yep, that one's a dilly.

0 Replies

@Cycloptichorn,

I know several people who simply enjoy seeing liberals have 'bad things' happen to them.

0 Replies

@oralloy,

Quote:

There is also no justification for the massive criminal investigation being conducted against Donald Trump.

Let's wait for the end of the investigation before we conclude on that. I think there's plenty of tell-tale signs that Trump is a Russian puppet. It certainly warrants an investigation, which by the way was decided by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, a Trump nominee and a Republican. So you want to outlaw the Republican party now?

2 Replies

@Olivier5,

He thinks they were and are helpless pawns of the dastardly Dem party, apparently.

Really whatever has to be thought to pretend that Trump and the GOP are blameless, he'll think.

Guarantee that no matter what Mueller says or what evidence is uncovered, he'll claim the whole thing is a made-up lie... by the Demorcrats.

Cycloptichorn

2 Replies

@Cycloptichorn,

Just as there will be those on the left who will cry foul if Trump isn't charged with any crime.

0 Replies

@Cycloptichorn,

Cycloptichorn wrote:

And? That simply makes them politicians, it doesn't Grant them the authority to do anything. Not only that, but you're blaming Trump's issues on those who are complaining about said issues; why not blame Trump for having the problems in the first place?

Trump didn't have problems. The Democrats created this witch hunt over lies and innuendo (which was also created by the Democrats).

Trump is not to blame for the Democrats' lies and innuendo.

Cycloptichorn wrote:

The answer is pretty clear: you really could care less if he colluded with the Russians,

There is no reason to think that Trump colluded with the Russians.

But since there would be nothing wrong with him colluding with the Russians to begin with, why would I care if he did it?

Kind of like me caring if Trump went mountain climbing today. Not very likely that he did it, but no reason to object if he did do it.

Cycloptichorn wrote:

or broke any laws at all,

At the moment it seems likely to me that Trump didn't break any laws. Certainly there is nothing to justify this witch hunt of an investigation.

Cycloptichorn wrote:

as long as it hurts the Dem party. Right?

No. Harm to the Democrats has nothing to do with this. The only harm here is the harm that the Democrats are trying to inflict on other people. It is wrong to try to prosecute innocent people. It is wrong to conduct intrusive criminal investigations of people without justification.

Cycloptichorn wrote:

The rule of law isn't as important as getting your preferred political outcome, in your mind. Isn't that accurate to say?

No. It would be more accurate to say that the Democrats' witch hunting is utterly contrary to the rule of law.

1 Reply

This smacks of solid reporting.

https://img.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeed-static/static/2017-09/1/9/asset/buzzfeed-prod-fastlane-01/sub-buzz-3368-1504271892-1.jpg?downsize=715:*&output-format=auto&output-quality=auto

Kind of helps explain the snow.

1 Reply

And...winner of today's No ****, Sherlock! award
The Beat With Ari‏Verified account @TheBeatWithAri 17h17 hours ago
.@espiers [former NY Observer editor]tells @arimelber that Jared Kushner told her that Trump thinks “Republicans are dumb.”

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@oralloy,

Quote oralloy:

Quote:

Are you suggesting that the IRS will riffle through Trump's tax returns without legal authorization?

If they do, he should come down on them hard.

I am stating that now that the IRS is joining the Mueller investigation of Trump the IRS has access to Trump's tax returns, which Trump has been guarding jealously, unlike every other presidential candidate since 1976. And getting whatever legal authorization might be necessary to look at the tax returns will be much easier with the IRS already being part of the investigation than whatever legal authorization the three Congressional committees will require.

Quote oralloy:

Quote:

Hardly. You are assuming crimes that probably never occurred.

Hee hee. Trump has been dealing big time with Russian oligarchs for over 20 years, and Russian oligarchs are swimming in illegal money that needs to be laundered. Observe this inexplicable connection to a Russian oligarch. And this deal is just the tip of the iceberg-it's not even a major part of the investigation. That's how many meaty scandals are going on with Trump.

Why did a Russian pay $95M to buy Trump’s Palm Beach mansion?
Originally published March 9, 2017 at 6:12 pm

http://static.seattletimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/d2a0d36a-0529-11e7-a621-509d6ee6d54e-640x411.jpg

A large water fountain is seen in the driveway of Donald Trump’s house in Palm Beach, Florida, that sold to Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev in 2008. (STEVE MITCHELL/AP)

By Alexandra Clough
and John Pacenti

PALM BEACH, Fla. — Why did a Russian oligarch pay now-President Donald Trump $95 million for his Palm Beach mansion?

Almost a decade later, the answer is less clear than it was at the time of the sale, the highest price paid for a Palm Beach home.

In 2008, Dmitry Rybolovlev bought the Palm Beach mansion owned by Trump for $13 million more than the most expensive Palm Beach mansion sale up to that moment. It’s been almost a decade since the sale, but the transaction is newsworthy again as new questions surround contacts between members of Trump’s administration and Russian government officials.

Last week, a Rybolovlev spokesman said his client, who made his fortune in fertilizer potash, purchased the former mansion at 515 N. County Road for his family’s trust.

“The property was acquired for investment purposes by the Rybolovlev family trust, as was clearly stated at the time of the purchase in 2008,” according to Brian Cattell, a New York-based spokesman for Rybolovlev.

But this is not what Rybolovlev’s representatives said in 2008, when Rybolovlev purchased the 62,000-square-foot mansion formerly known as Maison de L’Amitie, or House of Friendship.

In 2008, Rybolovlev characterized the purchase as a company investment: “This acquisition is simply an investment in real estate by one of the companies in which I have an interest,” Rybolovlev said at the time through a spokesman for Uralkali, the fertilizer company he previously owned.

Rybolovlev added that he didn’t plan to live in the United States.

Nonetheless, he went ahead and paid an exceptionally high, $50 million premium to Trump, then a real estate tycoon and reality TV host, for a property he never sought to live in, not even on a part-time basis.

It was a Rybolovlev entity, County Road Property LLC, that bought the property. Its ownership subsequently was transferred to a trust.

But not before Rybolovlev had disavowed any interest in the property during his messy divorce from now-ex-wife, Elena.

In her 2009 lawsuit, Elena said Dmitry “has a history of secreting and transferring assets in order to avoid his obligations” — including the payments to her as part of their divorce. As a result, she filed a legal action in Palm Beach County Circuit Court to claim her share of the Palm Beach mansion.

At the time, Rybolovlev was on the Forbes list of the world’s billionaires at No. 59, with an estimated net worth of $12.8 billion.

In 2011, court documents in his divorce stated that “Mr. Rybolovlev has not purchased or managed any real estate in Florida for investment purposes, either directly or indirectly,” according to a motion filed in the divorce case.

That was news to Trump.

“Somebody paid me $100 million,” Trump told a Palm Beach Post reporter in February 2011.

Trump made a hefty profit on the flip: He had scooped up the estate for $41.35 million in 2004 out of health-care magnate Abe Gosman’s bankruptcy filing. In essence, Trump sold for more than double what he had paid four years before.

Before the Trump sale, which at the time was the highest price paid for any single-family home in the country, the most expensive home sold on Palm Beach had been an estate at 1236 S. Ocean Blvd. That property traded hands for $81.5 million earlier in 2008.

Throughout the divorce litigation, Rybovlovlev gave his wife’s attorneys differing reasons for the mansion purchase, said David Newman, a partner with Sills, Cummis & Gross in New York.

At various times in court records, Rybolovlev said the house was for investment purposes, then said it would be for his children, or maybe an inheritance, or it might be used in connection with his daughter because she was an equestrian, according to Newman.

There’s also the issue of Rybolovlev’s marital status, “and whether he was trying to protect his assets in connection with a divorce-mode situation,” said Newman, who represented Elena.

Newman said he found the whole deal curious: “It was out of the ordinary because of the uniqueness of the property, the speed of the transaction,” and the fact that Newman’s team never was able to uncover any evidence that Rybolovlev had performed any professional reviews of the property.

“If someone is paying $90-something million, more than anyone else has ever paid for a private residence, one would think they might look around and do a little due diligence, or even have an inspection,” Newman said.

But Newman said his team never found any evidence Rybolovlev hired experts to weigh in on the property’s condition as a residence — or its value as a teardown — before he bought the place.

The Rybolovlevs’ divorce was finalized in 2014, with a record $4.8 billion awarded to Elena. That amount subsequently was slashed to $604 million by a judge in 2015, then later settled privately.

In addition to the mansion intrigue, Rybolovlev and Trump recently have drawn attention in another peculiar way.

Federal Aviation Administration records reviewed by The Palm Beach Post and other news outlets have tracked Rybolovlev’s private plane to cities where Trump has traveled, both during his campaign and into his presidency.

In October, for example, Trump appeared at a campaign rally in Las Vegas. Rybolovlev’s plane arrived in that city an hour after the campaign event started.

A month later, FAA records show Rybolovlev’s plane, an Airbus 319, also landed in Charlotte, North Carolina, 90 minutes before Trump’s plane arrived. Trump was scheduled to host a campaign event there that day — Nov. 3 — five days before the presidential election.

The latest juxtaposition of Trump’s and Rybolovlev’s aircrafts occurred last month, the weekend of Feb. 10-12, when the oligarch’s plane landed at Miami International Airport while Trump was at Mar-a-Lago entertaining Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Cattell said none of the conjectures about his client are true, including stories of the men perhaps having rendezvous before or after the election. Trump has said he has never met Rybolovlev, who was represented by a real estate broker in the mansion sale.

“We are aware of a number of rumors and far-fetched theories circulating, but none of them has any basis in fact,” Cattell said. “Mr. Rybolovlev has never met Donald Trump.”

As for Rybolovlev’s Palm Beach mansion, it’s been demolished and divided into three lots. The northernmost lot sold for $34.34 million, according to the Palm Beach Daily News.

The vacant property’s hefty price is proof the acquisition cost, although steep, was worth it, according to Cattell.

“Given the ongoing sale process … there is every chance the investment in the property will yield a good return,” Cattell said.

And even though Rybolovlev paid an astronomical $95 million for the house, Cattell said his client still got a good deal.

“The original asking price for the home was significantly higher than the price that was eventually paid, and that final price followed the back and forth of negotiation,” Cattell said.

In fact, the asking price was $100 million, cut from a previous sales price of $125 million after the property languished on the market for a couple of years with no takers.

When the deal finally closed, the sale was recorded at $95 million, down $5 million from the ask.
Alexandra Clough
John Pacenti
Source

1 Reply

@blatham,

Fake news is fake news and should never be encouraged, but I don't think the original 2015 event was all that benign.

1 Reply

@Cycloptichorn,

Cycloptichorn wrote:

Guarantee that no matter what Mueller says or what evidence is uncovered, he'll claim the whole thing is a made-up lie... by the Demorcrats.

No. I always adhere to facts. That's why my posts have repeatedly and endlessly already addressed the possibility of a crime being discovered.

0 Replies

@Olivier5,

Olivier5 wrote:

Let's wait for the end of the investigation before we conclude on that.

We already know that there is no justification for this investigation. The conclusion of the investigation will not change that fact.

Olivier5 wrote:

I think there's plenty of tell-tale signs that Trump is a Russian puppet.

Just because he favors Russia doesn't make him a puppet.

Olivier5 wrote:

It certainly warrants an investigation,

Criminal investigations are only warranted if there is something to suggest the possibility of criminal acts.

Criminal investigations are not warranted just because someone disagrees with the Democratic Party.

Olivier5 wrote:

which by the way was decided by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, a Trump nominee and a Republican.

He was naive and caved in to Democratic pressure to appoint Mueller. He was wrong to do so.

I'm not going to keep addressing this point over and over again. At some point I'll just start noting that I've already fully addressed it dozens of times already.

Olivier5 wrote:

So you want to outlaw the Republican party now?

No. The Democrats are the ones conducting witch hunts. They are the ones who should be outlawed.

1 Reply

Joe Walsh. The man's a freaking genius

Quote:

Joe Walsh‏Verified account
@WalshFreedom
French rag Charlie Hebdo mocks Harvey victims as Neo Nazis

Charlie Hebdo makes fun of everyone but Muslims. Cowards https://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/08/31/french-magazine-charlie-hebdo-mocks-harvey-victims-as-neo-nazis.html …

2 Replies

@oralloy,

Quote:

No. It would be more accurate to say that the Democrats' witch hunting is utterly contrary to the rule of law.

Except for the fact that nothing - literally nothing - the Democrats are doing here is illegal. Oh, and that they aren't the ones investigating Trump - a Republican appointed by his own DoJ is. In reality, the Dems' actions in this matter - though you may find them distasteful - are 100% consistent with the 'rule of law.'

Quote:

There is no reason to think that Trump colluded with the Russians.

Oh, I don't agree with this at all. There are LOTS of reasons to believe he did. What more, enough evidence has already been revealed to justify the current investigation. What more than that, Trump himself has lied about matters related to the Russia investigation constantly. All while heaping praise on Putin and seeking to both a) create back-channels to talk with him that can't be tapped by our own intelligence services, and b) attempting to remove sanctions placed on Russia.

This doesn't even mention the fact that his long-time friend, who was given a free apartment in Trump tower directly below Trump, and who was his campaign manager, worked for Russian oligarchs for years and was absolutely involved in Russian money laundering and in all likelihood murder in the Ukraine.

But sure, nothing to see here, eh comrade

Cycloptichorn

1 Reply

@Blickers,

Blickers wrote:

I am stating that now that the IRS is joining the Mueller investigation of Trump the IRS has access to Trump's tax returns, which Trump has been guarding jealously, unlike every other presidential candidate since 1976.

IRS agents are only allowed to access tax returns with legal justification and legal authorization.

Blickers wrote:

And getting whatever legal authorization might be necessary to look at the tax returns will be much easier with the IRS already being part of the investigation than whatever legal authorization the three Congressional committees will require.

I don't see that. They have whatever justification they have regardless of the IRS. The IRS will not be able to alter the facts to give them even more justification.

Blickers wrote:

Hee hee. Trump has been dealing big time with Russian oligarchs for over 20 years, and Russian oligarchs are swimming in illegal money that needs to be laundered. Observe this inexplicable connection to a Russian oligarch. And this deal is just the tip of the iceberg-it's not even a major part of the investigation. That's how many meaty scandals are going on with Trump.

There is no evidence of any crime in the article you posted.

1 Reply

@Finn dAbuzz,

When self-proclaimed white supremacists and neo-nazis take to public marches in America or most anywhere else, "benign" is no longer a word that has any usefulness.

1 Reply

@blatham,

I don't know whether or not Charlie Hebdo got scared off of mocking Muslims after the massacre, so Walsh could be right.

The French magazine indulges in bad taste and I criticized everyone (Including the Pope Clown) who made the sickening argument that they somehow asked for the massacre (Did you?), but with this bit of bad taste they have nothing to worry about because Texans aren't about to travel to France and mow down their staff.

If Walsh is right and they have backed off mocking Muslims, then he is also right that they have become cowards.

See, this is what Free Speech is all about. You can loathe what some say and criticize them harshly, but Walsh isn't trying to stop the speech, the way some of your flock wish to do.

1 Reply

@Cycloptichorn,

Cycloptichorn wrote:

This is exactly what I'm talking about, when it comes to nonsensical assertions on your part.

Cycloptichorn

Good luck trying to get orally to ascribe any blame for any part of anything to Herr Drumpf.

0 Replies

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