The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
    Orion's picture

    The Trump Family Prospects

    By Orion on Sat, 12/05/2020 - 3:11pm |

    Back in 2019, magician/comedian/entertainer Penn Jillette went on Joe Rogan's podcast (before Spotify) and talked candidly about working with Donald Trump on The Apprentice. Jillette was candid about Trump as a person who generally lacked any sort of filter and had a loss of sensitivity for other people. It wasn't the first time he has talked in such a way - he said in previous interviews that Trump had said racial things that made him uncomfortable. He even theorized that Trump had Asperger's syndrome.

    One thing that stood out in the interview is that Trump's son Eric noted that Penn was one of the only people he'd met that seemed to like his father. If that's true, that means a lot of people did and have done business with Trump knowing full well what a scammer he is.

    Eric Trump also said in an interview about his father's alleged racism that "my father sees one color: green." Ivanka Trump has famously used her father's reputation to maneuver about through business ventures about as cleverly as her father did off of his own father's ventures. Donald Trump Jr. appears to be vying for leadership within the National Rifle Association, a powerful organization that needs new leadership if any organization ever did.

    It is worth noting that an exodus is occurring from Trump's doomed presidency. Trump himself could be so toxic that anything connected with him could be so as well. It is worth reminding naysayers, however, how conservatism seems to rebound like a Terminator. Ronald Reagan, himself once close to Richard Nixon, was able to rebound his hands clean from any of the shenanigans that occurred nationally while he was governor of California.

    After losing re-election and refusing to dismantle Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq, George H.W. Bush's son came back and did exactly just that.

    Update: A lot of rumors are swirling about an Ivanka Trump run for Florida Senate, reportedly for Marco Rubio's seat?

     

    Comments

    I think they will fade away.

    What made them appealing during their rise was the idea that self-interested enterprise could fix the ills of the country without the need to understand things and develop plans. That practice has not gone well.


    by moat on Sat, 12/05/2020 - 7:51pm

    Even Adam Smith knew that was a failed combination - oddly he was more worried about collusion/fixing between the corporate elite and government than "government intervention", despite his reputation.

    https://aeon.co/essays/we-should-look-closely-at-what-adam-smith-actuall...


    by PeraclesPlease on Sat, 12/05/2020 - 9:28pm

    One thing that actually adds to that theory is what the surviving Republican stars are like. Josh Hawley, Mitt Romney, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio are all so disparate and unique that they don't relate even to who they were a decade or so ago. Some of Hawley's ideas are really radical and progressive, like allowing young women whose lives have been ruined by internet pornography to sue websites like Xvideos or Pornhub (at least I think that is a progressive idea).


    by Orion on Tue, 12/08/2020 - 9:20pm

    How do you see those figures against someone like Rand Paul? He keeps crashing the party.


    by moat on Thu, 12/10/2020 - 6:32pm

    I could see Ivanka Trump running and brushing all of them aside. Trump did really well with white women.


    by Orion on Mon, 12/14/2020 - 5:39pm

    No way. I'll take that bet. Because: Ivanka. A stepford robot barbie, not like her father, more like Vanna White without personality. Imagine her on stage at a Trump rally is all you have to do. Only real fans I see are young chinese girls and I haven't checked lately, she may be losing those.


    by artappraiser on Mon, 12/14/2020 - 6:02pm

    She needs Guilfoyle's crazed cocaine cockiness - meet Beach Barbie-a-Bingo


    by PeraclesPlease on Mon, 12/14/2020 - 7:06pm

    exactly you got it, it would have to be someone more like her to attract those women who liked Trump


    by artappraiser on Mon, 12/14/2020 - 7:54pm

    a possible clue?


    by artappraiser on Sat, 12/05/2020 - 9:50pm

    good catch, suggests victimhood was part of the sell in 2016

    but can it last once out of office?


    by artappraiser on Mon, 12/07/2020 - 3:18am


    by Orion on Wed, 12/09/2020 - 5:03pm


    by PeraclesPlease on Sat, 12/05/2020 - 10:46pm

    somehow related, I honestly don't get what the following accomplishes for either side politically, but there it is, RATINGS!

     


    by artappraiser on Sun, 12/06/2020 - 12:05am

    Beschloss offers fun historical fact, maybe related, maybe not laugh


    by artappraiser on Tue, 12/08/2020 - 8:11pm


    by PeraclesPlease on Wed, 12/09/2020 - 6:47pm

    Reed Galen of Lincoln Project just retweeted this:

    Do you want Donald Trump to run for president in 2024?

    Yes 31%
    No 61%@maristpoll/@NPR/@NewsHour, RV, 12/1-6https://t.co/3AKc5vNdqb

    — Political Polls (@Politics_Polls) December 10, 2020

    whatever he ends up doing, he's gonna be a fucking thorn in the side of any politician that didn't stand up to him about at least one single thing.

    Only 31% want to see his face again. That's too little to get anywhere politically but an awful high percentage to be so supportive, can cause an awful lot of trouble supporting doing whatever fucking insane thing he decides to say that day on TV or twitter or whatever. Republicans with this as a part of their constituency either have to pander or try to start to wean them off him.

    Meanwhile, until that's done, looks like he's got enough for the "ratings" he always cared the most about. (Including a substanial "feeding the troll" contingent with unremitting Trump Derangement Syndrome.)


    by artappraiser on Thu, 12/10/2020 - 1:40am

    His flatline approval rate for 2 years has been around 42%. Even as a zombie corpse it will remain over 30%. Bizarre - who would think the guy that likable/admirable?


    by PeraclesPlease on Thu, 12/10/2020 - 1:49am

    but it's interesting that it's only the 1/3 crazy that would like to see him again, that the rest of them dropped away when asked that question, like "okay, enough of that, let someone else try now"


    by artappraiser on Thu, 12/10/2020 - 10:58am

    For me it's more, maybe dropping the 10% to 31% will finally be low enough below water to be unviable. I mean, 41% approval and he gets nearly half the vote, or at least close enough in key states? How *does* a turd float, by the way?


    by PeraclesPlease on Thu, 12/10/2020 - 11:04am

    Some people like Pie with their coffee, and then there's those who prefer to drink it with the house burning down around them?

    Which is the same thing as the wrestling thing upthread? Any kind of exciting "action"


    by artappraiser on Thu, 12/10/2020 - 4:41pm

    I'm bored.


    by PeraclesPlease on Thu, 12/10/2020 - 4:55pm

    When that figure is compared to the less than 25% of who believe the election was legitimate, it suggests that Trump is servicing a point of view that there is a Liberal Establishment that has the means to defeat "real" Americans rather than measuring a fealty to the Loser himself.


    by moat on Thu, 12/10/2020 - 11:59am

    Jared corruption (Daily Beast/Financial Times)

    ==

    Democrats Looking Into Potential Billion-Dollar Qatari Campaign to Influence Jared Kushner: FT

    $HADY

    Ana Lucia Murillo

    Breaking News/Cheat Sheet Intern

    Updated Dec. 09, 2020 10:12PM ET Published Dec. 09, 2020 10:06PM ET 

    Reuters/Carlos Barria

    Democratic lawmakers in the House Foreign Affairs and Senate Finance committees are looking into Jared Kushner’s real estate and foreign policy dealings. In 2018, Kushner’s family accepted a bail-out from a company known as Brookfield Asset Management whose second-biggest stakeholder is the government of Qatar. The family had been looking for assistance making a $1.2 billion mortgage payment. Simultaneously, the U.S.’s policy towards Qatar shifted in a friendlier direction, brokering the end of a Saudi blockade that had been in place since 2017.

    The Kushner family had been searching for help with its struggling skyscraper at 666 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. Brookfield Asset Management bought the ground lease under the building and paid nearly 100 years of rent upfront. “While Brookfield has claimed that Qatari representatives had no involvement in the 666 Fifth Avenue transaction,” a statement from Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) reads, “We remain troubled that Qatari funds ended up in a billion-dollar rescue for a company directly tied to Jared Kushner.”

    https://www.thedailybeast.com/democrats-looking-into-potential-billion-d...


    by PeraclesPlease on Thu, 12/10/2020 - 4:34am

    Josh Marshall sharing a tidbit from Michael Cohen:


    by artappraiser on Thu, 12/10/2020 - 6:57pm

    uhoh ye olde Timey award going to Joe & Kamala is really gonna piss him off; he loves getting those covers it doesn't matter if for good or bad:


    by artappraiser on Thu, 12/10/2020 - 11:04pm

    Thanks for the picture.  It gave me an off-topic laugh. I am struck by the comic irony that the politicians we consider to be the best are all wearing masks


    by A Guy Called LULU on Thu, 12/10/2020 - 11:14pm

    you're welcome and you are right it's funny, espec. with the shootout at the OK corrall walk they're doing.

    This one is my new favorite tho, it's also from Dr. Eric, of course I like it because: bias confirmation:


    by artappraiser on Thu, 12/10/2020 - 11:22pm

    I kinda agree but selfies don't mean anything. It doesn't mean you adore them or that you're treating them like rock stars. People take selfies with their breakfast for god's sake. It doesn't mean a fucking thing.


    by ocean-kat on Thu, 12/10/2020 - 11:39pm

    I think the long running fad of selfies forms a big overlap ven diagram with the addiction to fandom by so many. It means something.


    by A Guy Called LULU on Thu, 12/10/2020 - 11:51pm


    by artappraiser on Sat, 12/12/2020 - 2:53am

    as far as Jvanka, there's scuttlebutt in this art news piece; scroll down to middle for the heading

    JAVANKA BANISHED TO BILLIONAIRE-FILLED ISLAND

    [....] While I’m sure they’d love to tiptoe back into New York as if the last four years never happened, fat chance—so instead, the dynamic duo will be be heading to the Sunshine State.

    This week it was reported that the couple bought a $30 million plot of land on Indian Creek Drive, one of the most exclusive addresses in Miami Beach, if not the country. The homes dot the coast in a circle around the Indian Creek Country Club, which is known to be so notoriously hesitant to admit Jewish or Black members that Governor Jeb Bush boycotted playing there. If even the Bush kids are taking the moral high ground against your golf course, maybe rethink things, guys! [....]


    by artappraiser on Sat, 12/12/2020 - 3:01am

    Sounds perfect - the 1 Jewish family, their own kind of sunny prison.


    by PeraclesPlease on Sat, 12/12/2020 - 3:42am


    by artappraiser on Tue, 12/15/2020 - 7:34pm

    Didn't they get a huge tax break/subsidyas a non-livable space?


    by PeraclesPlease on Wed, 12/16/2020 - 5:45am