US Politics. Trump Crossing the Dnieper. Alea Iacta Est.

[DanteGabriel]

1 hour ago, Trebla said:

You go, girl!

 

It took me a minute to realize she was talking about her actual alma mater and not making a cougar joke.

ETA: On further consideration, perhaps it's both. I hope she shows off that sense of humor on the campaign trail more.

[Gertrude]

22 hours ago, DMC said:

The point is "what is left out" tends to be damaging.  It usually isn't just ass-kissing or awkward pauses - Trump was happy to include the former.  When Nixon did this what was left out was very, very relevant.  I wouldn't expect anything different from Trump.

To be clear, I think whatever was left out is probably very damaging as well. I just don't know if there's 20 minutes of damage or 5 minutes of damage, that's all I was trying to say.

[Bonnot OG]

5 hours ago, Trebla said:

Apparently the Wohl and Co. presser revealed Warren had an affair with a 24 year old marine whose "proof" is a scar on his back where Cougar Elizabeth raked him with her claws. So about that...

But seriously, how the fuck is this little asshole not in jail?

He’s white and his daddy is rich. Also what a loser with his xxx tattoo. Idk how no one has sued him yet. 

[Jace, Extat]

17 minutes ago, Triskele said:

So all cougaring aside, I have to think that the betting markets will show Warren even more likely to win the Dem nomination now.  Bernie's health issue has to be one people's minds, and Ukraine-gate is going to damage Biden in a particularly painful way, I have to think, because it brings him down to Trump's level and makes his electibility (sp) argument weaker.  

This Ukraine thing may really be the gift Democrats needed. Not for impeachment, but for sweeping Ole' Joe away. I don't even mind when I see headlines on 538 about how Trump isn't at the center of the Ukraine story on Fox News.

[Fragile Bird]

2 hours ago, Mudguard said:

The $4.2 M size fund didn't make any sense to me.  No one raises that little money for a fund.  You can't make any investments with so little money.  So after a little digging, it appears the 10% stake and $420,000 capital contribution likely refers to Biden's stake in Bohai Harvest RST, a joint consortium formed from Chinese and US firms to raise and manage a $1.5 billion fund.  The $4.2 M doesn't refer to the size of the fund that they helped raise in China.  This information appeared to have been put out by Hunter Biden's attorney and, while presumably true, is misleading.  

From an article posted on the Fortune website in 2014, this consortium raised $1.0 to $1.5 billion for a fund it managed, which is typically how a private equity fund would operate.  The Bohai Harvest RST consortium firm would typically be compensated based on the size of the fund under management and the performance of the fund.  It's possible they would have also contributed some capital to the fund itself.

Rosemont Seneca Partners is the firm Hunter Biden founded.  This isn't illegal, but since Joe Biden (while he was VP) appeared to have introduced him to one of the financiers, it potentially raises conflict of interest issues and it's not a good look.  

I think it's fair for the press or a private investigator hired by Trump's campaign to look into these dealings since both the China and Ukraine dealings raise potential conflicts of interest, but it's not OK for Trump to pressure foreign governments to help him dig up dirt. 

I think you are hopelessly missing the point. Trump has been saying that the Bidens ‘shook down the Chinese for $1.5 B’ and were crooks who, it would be revealed, ‘shook down a lot of other countries’.

I don’t think you can interpret that as anything else but that Biden and his son left China with $1.5 B in their pockets. That is what is so fucking grotesque.

[James Arryn]

Today I learned of a man who has a permanent podium built into his front porch so he can have press conferences. 

 

It was was a good day. 

[Martell Spy]

IRS Official Alleges Treasury Department Appointee Tried to Interfere With Trump or Pence’s Tax Returns

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/10/irs-whistleblower-trump-pence-tax-audit-interference.html

Quote

 

The Washington Post reported Thursday that an IRS whistleblower alleges that at least one Treasury Department political appointee tried to interfere with an annual audit of Trump’s or Vice President Mike Pence’s tax returns. If the allegation turns out to be true, it would indicate an abuse of power by a political appointee that would violate the independence of the IRS audit system.

The IRS whistleblower complaint first emerged months ago in a lawsuit by Rep. Richard Neal over Trump’s tax returns. But some of the specifics of the complaint have emerged, and the Post reports that congressional Democrats are taking the matter seriously.

The administration brushed off the complaint as not serious because it was based on conversations with other government officials, making it second-hand information (the whistleblower countered this in his interview with the Post by arguing that that’s what investigations are for). Congressional Democrats are considering making the complaint public, according to the Post. Neal, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee and the person who received the whistleblower’s complaint, said in a court filing that he believes it raises “serious and urgent concerns.”

 

 

[Jace, Extat]

23 minutes ago, Triskele said:

How/when/where does it all end?  

In a phone booth?  

I thought you were going to go with:

 

[Mudguard]

2 hours ago, Fragile Bird said:

I think you are hopelessly missing the point. Trump has been saying that the Bidens ‘shook down the Chinese for $1.5 B’ and were crooks who, it would be revealed, ‘shook down a lot of other countries’.

I don’t think you can interpret that as anything else but that Biden and his son left China with $1.5 B in their pockets. That is what is so fucking grotesque.

None of the reporting I have seen has suggested that Trump implied that Biden and his son personally received $1.5 billion.  That makes zero sense at all.  Nobody would just hand out $1.5 billion to someone just because he was a son of the VP.  It's pretty clear that Trump is alleging that Biden got $1.5 billion for his fund.  That allegation is very possible.  As far as I can tell, Hunter Biden has little credentials, beside being Joe Biden's son, that would support him serving as a board member and later as a stakeholder in a $1.5 billion private equity fund.  From NBC News:

Quote

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Thursday urged another foreign government to probe former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter, saying the Chinese government should look into Hunter Biden's involvement with an investment fund that raised money in the country.

...

Trump, seeking to expand his corruption accusations against the Bidens beyond Ukraine, has in recent days repeatedly accused Hunter Biden of using a 2013 trip on Air Force Two with his father, then the vice president, to procure $1.5 billion from China for a private equity fund he had started.

 

 

[DMC]

23 minutes ago, Mudguard said:

None of the reporting I have seen has suggested that Trump implied that Biden and his son personally received $1.5 billion.

From your link:

Quote

"He got kicked out of the Navy, all of the sudden he’s getting billions of dollars. You know what they call that? They call that a payoff."

So, I guess you're right, the reporting didn't suggest it baselessly, just Trump.  And now you're pretending it's legitimate based on an article that's main point is that it's not legitimate.  The sub headline of your link:

Quote

Despite Trump's accusations of corruption, there has been no evidence of wrongdoing on the part of the former vice president or his son.

 

30 minutes ago, Mudguard said:

As far as I can tell, Hunter Biden has little credentials, beside being Joe Biden's son, that would support him serving as a board member and later as a stakeholder in a $1.5 billion private equity fund

As far as I can tell, you're full of shit and know nothing about Hunter Biden - who has a twenty year career in law, got his JD from Yale, and served in the US Navy Reserve.  But please, let me randomly speculate and cast aspersions on your family members based on nothing.

[Fragile Bird]

36 minutes ago, Mudguard said:

None of the reporting I have seen has suggested that Trump implied that Biden and his son personally received $1.5 billion.  That makes zero sense at all.  Nobody would just hand out $1.5 billion to someone just because he was a son of the VP.  It's pretty clear that Trump is alleging that Biden got $1.5 billion for his fund.  That allegation is very possible.  As far as I can tell, Hunter Biden has little credentials, beside being Joe Biden's son, that would support him serving as a board member and later as a stakeholder in a $1.5 billion private equity fund.  From NBC News:

 

Look up his answers to the press this morning on the way to the plane to go to Florida. I watched that this morning.

[Mudguard]

1 hour ago, DMC said:

From your link:

So, I guess you're right, the reporting didn't suggest it baselessly, just Trump.  And now you're pretending it's legitimate based on an article that's main point is that it's not legitimate.  The sub headline of your link:

 

As far as I can tell, you're full of shit and know nothing about Hunter Biden - who has a twenty year career in law, got his JD from Yale, and served in the US Navy Reserve.  But please, let me randomly speculate and cast aspersions on your family members based on nothing.

You are taking Trump's comments out of the context of the article, which clearly states that the money was for a private equity fund that Hunter Biden was running.  All the reporting from the major news services have stated this.  If you read the quotes in isolation, then yes, I can see how you can argue your point.  But that's obviously not what is meant, as is clear if you read the entire article.

Yeah, I already read Hunter's bio and a few articles on him.  A 20 year career in law, a JD from Yale, and serving in the US Navy Reserve doesn't qualify you for running a $1.5 billion private equity fund.  A stint on Wall Street in banking, in a private equity firm, a hedge fund, a venture capital firm, etc. would be relevant experience.  If he had any of that, I wouldn't have a problem with him landing a job at running a $1.5 billion dollar fund.  Trump's children are all fair game for criticism, so I don't see why Hunter Biden isn't fair game too.  Like it or not, if Biden is the nominee, both Joe and Hunter are going to have to answer questions about this.  Trump is going to hit him over and over on this, and I don't think he can just continue to refuse to answer the questions and let Trump set the narrative.

Here's a piece in the Atlantic from Sarah Hayes, an author that doesn't appear to be a conservative mouthpiece authoring a hit job, that's titled "Hunter Biden’s Perfectly Legal, Socially Acceptable Corruption."  As I stated in my original reply to Fragile Bird, what the Biden's did was legal, but it presents potential conflicts of interest and looks bad.

Quote

Let’s start with Hunter Biden. In April 2014, he became a director of Burisma, the largest natural-gas producer in Ukraine. He had no prior experience in the gas industry, nor with Ukrainian regulatory affairs, his ostensible purview at Burisma. He did have one priceless qualification: his unique position as the son of the vice president of the United States, newborn Ukraine’s most crucial ally. Weeks before Biden came on, Ukraine’s government had collapsed amid a popular revolution, giving its gas a newly strategic importance as an alternative to Russia’s, housed in a potentially democratic country. Hunter’s father was comfortably into his second term as vice president—and was a prospective future president himself.

....

Some of these gigs require more ethical compromises than others. When allegations of ethical lapses or wrongdoing surface against people on one side of the aisle, they can always claim that someone on the other side has done far worse. But taken together, all of these examples have contributed to a toxic norm. Joe Biden is the man who, as a senator, walked out of a dinner with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Biden was one of the most vocal champions of anticorruption efforts in the Obama administration. So when this same Biden takes his son with him to China aboard Air Force Two, and within days Hunter joins the board of an investment advisory firm with stakes in China, it does not matter what father and son discussed. Joe Biden has enabled this brand of practice, made it bipartisan orthodoxy. And the ethical standard in these cases—people’s basic understanding of right and wrong—becomes whatever federal law allows. Which is a lot.

 

[DMC]

4 minutes ago, Mudguard said:

You are taking Trump's comments out of the context of the article, which clearly states that the money was for a private equity fund that Hunter Biden was running.  All the reporting from the major news services have stated this.  If you read the quotes in isolation, then yes, I can see how you can argue your point.  But that's obviously not what is meant, as is clear if you read the entire article.

Seriously?  I'm taking the article out of context?  The article that's lede is focused on Trump's impropriety - the headline is "Trump publicly urges China to investigate Bidens amid impeachment inquiry" - and includes such clarifications as this:

Quote

In pushing back on Trump, Biden's campaign previously pointed to a fact-check from The Washington Post that found Trump's claims false while tracing the origins of the $1.5 billion figure he has used to a 2018 book by conservative author Peter Schweizer.

In addition, Hunter Biden’s spokesman, George Mesires, told NBC News previously that Hunter Biden wasn’t initially an “owner” of the company and has never gotten paid for serving on the board. He said Hunter Biden didn’t acquire an equity interest in the fund until 2017, after his father had left office.

And when he did, he put in only about $420,000 — a 10 percent interest. That puts the total capitalization of the fund at the time at about $4.2 million — a far cry from the $1.5 billion that Trump has alleged.

But yeah, I'm the one who needs to read the entire article.

9 minutes ago, Mudguard said:

Like it or not, if Biden is the nominee, both Joe and Hunter are going to have to answer questions about this.  Trump is going to hit him over and over on this, and I don't think he can just continue to refuse to answer the questions and let Trump set the narrative.

Sure, they will.  And I really do not want Biden as the nominee.  But the only reason he'll have to field such questions is because people like you are willing to swallow Trump's bullshit artistry.

[Mudguard]

5 minutes ago, DMC said:

Seriously?  I'm taking the article out of context?  The article that's lede is focused on Trump's impropriety - the headline is "Trump publicly urges China to investigate Bidens amid impeachment inquiry" - and includes such clarifications as this:

But yeah, I'm the one who needs to read the entire article.

Sure, they will.  And I really do not want Biden as the nominee.  But the only reason he'll have to field such questions is because people like you are willing to swallow Trump's bullshit artistry.

I've already explained in my original reply to Fragile Bird that the $4.2 million figure is the capital that was used to form and manage the joint venture, and that the $1.5 billion refers to the amount raised for the fund that was managed by the joint venture.  If you still can't understand this, then it's clear you have no idea how private equity works.  No one raises a $4.2 million private equity fund because you wouldn't be able to make any investments with it.  It's completely nonsensical.

[DMC]

1 minute ago, Mudguard said:

I've already explained in my original reply to Fragile Bird that the $4.2 million figure is the capital that was used to form and manage the joint venture, and that the $1.5 billion refers to the amount raised for the fund that was managed by the joint venture.  If you still can't understand this, then it's clear you have no idea how private equity works.  No one raises a $4.2 million private equity fund because you wouldn't be able to make any investments with it.  It's completely nonsensical.

I will admit I just skimmed the past few pages tonight and didn't really see your original reply to FB.  That still doesn't mean you parsed an NBC article and presented it as if it was supporting your point when it entirely wasn't.  Try to argue on those merits.

[DMC]

39 minutes ago, Mudguard said:

Yeah, I already read Hunter's bio and a few articles on him.  A 20 year career in law, a JD from Yale, and serving in the US Navy Reserve doesn't qualify you for running a $1.5 billion private equity fund.

I also have to highlight this.  That doesn't qualify him?  Like, what do you want?  30 years instead of twenty?  And more importantly, we're gonna talk about qualifications with Donald Trump as the President of the United States?

[Fragile Bird]

24 minutes ago, Mudguard said:

I've already explained in my original reply to Fragile Bird that the $4.2 million figure is the capital that was used to form and manage the joint venture, and that the $1.5 billion refers to the amount raised for the fund that was managed by the joint venture.  If you still can't understand this, then it's clear you have no idea how private equity works.  No one raises a $4.2 million private equity fund because you wouldn't be able to make any investments with it.  It's completely nonsensical.

And you still can’t comprehend that Trump is demanding an investigation because the Bidens, Joe and Hunter he claims, pocketed that $1.5 B. Not that it’s an investment fund, that they ‘shook down China’. Do you understand what a shake down means? It means you extorted money from someone for your use.

And if you read your own damn research it explains the process of creating the investment fund took months. Biden did not go to China one week and become a director a few days later out of the blue, or as you are saying, because he went to China on that trip. That is an utterly stupid statement.

As for his talents, you and the author of the your quote are fucking clueless about what Hunter Biden’s skills are. I worked at a financial investment firm and the biggest manager in the office, with hundreds of millions under management, was a martial arts fighter before becoming an investment adviser. The guy’s smart as all hell, thinks strategically and has great personal charm. But you’d sneer at him and say what experience did he have to become worthy of handing over your $20 million to manage. You have zero evidence to say Hunter Biden doesn’t have skills to work in the business. You don’t even know what his role is.

[Mudguard]

11 minutes ago, DMC said:

I also have to highlight this.  That doesn't qualify him?  Like, what do you want?  30 years instead of twenty?  And more importantly, we're gonna talk about qualifications with Donald Trump as the President of the United States?

He's qualified to practice as an attorney, assuming he still has a bar license.  I don't think he's practiced much law in the last 10 years or so.  Why would practicing law qualify him to run a fund?  For a while now, he's been more of a business man, which is more relevant, but his results haven't been generally good. Certainly not to a level that is typical for a private equity fund partner.  From a really long article on Hunter Biden in the New Yorker:

Quote

In 2006, Hunter and his uncle Jimmy Biden, along with another partner, entered into a twenty-one-million-dollar deal to buy Paradigm, a hedge-fund group that claimed to manage $1.5 billion in assets. Hunter said that the deal sounded “super attractive,” but that it fell apart after he and Jimmy learned that the company was worth less than they thought, and that the lawyer they were working with was a convicted felon awaiting sentencing. Hunter and Jimmy, who together went on to buy a stake in the company, estimated that they lost at least $1.3 million on the initial venture, which Hunter described as “a tragicomedy.” To help repay a law firm that had put up the money to initiate the transaction, Hunter obtained a million-dollar note against his house from Washington First Bank, which was co-founded by Oldaker. On January 5, 2007, two days before Biden announced his decision to run for President, Hunter and Jimmy were sued by their former partner in New York. The suit was settled but resulted in a flurry of headlines.

I'm pretty sure that his Chinese partners didn't hire him on for his track record in running a fund.  

[Mudguard]

11 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

And you still can’t comprehend that Trump is demanding an investigation because the Bidens, Joe and Hunter he claims, pocketed that $1.5 B. Not that it’s an investment fund, that they ‘shook down China’. Do you understand what a shake down means? It means you extorted money from someone for your use.

And if you read your own damn research it explains the process of creating the investment fund took months. Biden did not go to China one week and become a director a few days later out of the blue, or as you are saying, because he went to China on that trip. That is an utterly stupid statement.

As for his talents, you and the author of the your quote are fucking clueless about what Hunter Biden’s skills are. I worked at a financial investment firm and the biggest manager in the office, with hundreds of millions under management, was a martial arts fighter before becoming an investment adviser. The guy’s smart as all hell, thinks strategically and has great personal charm. But you’d sneer at him and say what experience did he have to become worthy of handing over your $20 million to manage. You have zero evidence to say Hunter Biden doesn’t have skills to work in the business. You don’t even know what his role is.

And did that former martial artist work his way up like everybody else?  How many years of experience did he have in the field before he got to the top?  He must have demonstrated outstanding performance year after year to get to his position.  Hunter has demonstrated none of this.  It's possible to move from law to business, or from other jobs to business.  I'm not disqualifying him just because he's a lawyer.  

I've read quite a bit about Hunter Biden, and nothing I've read has suggested that he was qualified to run a fund.  He's certainly had interest before the getting in on the Chinese partnered fund.  Can you point to any article that establishes any reasonable level of qualification for Hunter?  I've posted plenty of articles on him.  Please see the New Yorker article I posted above.  It's the most in depth article I've found on him.  All I can do is form an opinion based on the reporting that is out there, and there's quite a bit.  If you have anything to the contrary, please share.

[Fragile Bird]

1 hour ago, Mudguard said:

Yeah, I already read Hunter's bio and a few articles on him.  A 20 year career in law, a JD from Yale, and serving in the US Navy Reserve doesn't qualify you for running a $1.5 billion private equity fund.  A stint on Wall Street in banking, in a private equity firm, a hedge fund, a venture capital firm, etc. would be relevant experience.  If he had any of that, I wouldn't have a problem with him landing a job at running a $1.5 billion dollar fund.  

 

Well you couldn’t have done one hell of a lot of reading about Biden to not notice he had a career at MBNA where he rose to be a Vice-President and then worked in the Department of Commerce in the area of economic policy under George Bush. Bush appointed him to the Board of Amtrak. Hey, Biden never worked on train, what was he doing on the board of Amtrak! Imagine that! Nor did you notice he and his uncle did try to take over a large hedge fund. Guess they did that because they had no skills to run a hedge fund and just figured they’d blow a few hundred mil, eh?

And you obviously have never read the annual reports of any major US corporations, which I have over three decades or so, because you’d know that corporations regularly invite executives from very different companies to sit on their boards, including lots of lawyers and consultants. And oh, people from banking.