A Perfectly Reasonable Amount of Schadenfreude about Things Happening to Trump & His Enablers (Part 1)

[Ann_Hedonia]

I worked on Deripaska’s West Village NYC townhouse when it was being renovated.

During the entire time I was working (indirectly) for him, he wasn’t allowed to enter the US. I’m not sure if he still owns it. I’m not sure if he ever saw it. I never met him.

Last contact I had with his team, they ordered -and paid for- a bunch of custom devices. They never returned my calls or contacted me to have them installed. This was in, I believe 2013. When I retired last year I threw them away. They insisted on prepaying for the install labor, too. Free money for me! I suspect his intermediaries were working on commission, they liked overpaying for stuff.

I wonder if they’ll raid the NYC house

[JohnT]

Ann: No. There are no plans to raid the NYC house in the future.

Because it was also raided.

Kenneth P. Vogel

[Ann_Hedonia]

I wonder if they found all the good hiding places, I could’ve shown them a few.

[Sunny_Daze]

I hear tell, but it’s early to know if it’s true, that Steve Bannon is connected to this somehow.

[CaptMurdock]

@Mundane_Super_Hero

Show this AD & get $10 off of your first Lube Job.

Is that at the body shop or at Jared’s?

[Mundane_Super_Hero]

@CaptMurdock

Is that at the body shop or at Jared’s?

And here I would have bet money you’d have asked that about the FRAM filter instead.

[Senegoid]

@Ann_Hedonia

Last contact I had with his team, they ordered -and paid for- a bunch of custom devices.

@Ann_Hedonia

I wonder if they found all the good hiding places, I could’ve shown them a few.

The Committee will be wanting a few words with you.

[Sherrerd]

@Senegoid

@Ann_Hedonia

Last contact I had with his team, they ordered -and paid for- a bunch of custom devices.

@Ann_Hedonia

I wonder if they found all the good hiding places, I could’ve shown them a few.

The Committee will be wanting a few words with you. -

If they do call you, Ann, let us know what day you’ll be there. Even if the hearing is not televised, we can at least watch you walking into the SCIF!

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@Aspenglow

Well, if we wanted some indication that things are going on behind the scenes with respect to a federal investigation, I’d look at this as a pretty good sign that… yes, there are.

I hope you’re right. But I am irresistibly reminded of the Mueller investigation, in which Russian nationals paid some legal price for their activities in the USA—but basically all the American participants skated.

Hope we don’t see a repetition of that from Garland’s DOJ.

[Aspenglow]

I understand your trepidation. All I can say is, it’s impossible to express how dissimilar Merrick Garland is from Jeff Sessions/Matthew Whittier/Bill Barr. Garland is cautious, but he’s not a shrinking violet. He’s slow because he’s thorough. But he’s a true, fervent believer in the rule of law.

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@Euphonious_Polemic

Moscow Mitch McConnell certainly has strong ties to Rusal, the Russian aluminum producer that is strongly tied to Oleg Deripaska.

McConnell was openly working for the Russians.

I know. I was blowing circuits through all that. Most of America seemed to shrug.

Doesn’t look like the DOJ is shrugging at the moment, though. I’m itching to know which prosecution(s) these raids are related to.

[EddyTeddyFreddy]

Never mind, someone else already said it.

[Senegoid]

@Aspenglow

All I can say is, it’s impossible to express how dissimilar Merrick Garland is from Jeff Sessions/Matthew Whittier/Bill Barr.

That was Matthew Whitaker. All I can say is, the guy was utterly indistinguishable from Lex Luthor.

[Atamasama]

He looks more like Kingpin from Marvel to me but either way a corrupt supervillain businessman.

[Turek]

@Aspenglow

All I can say is, it’s impossible to express how dissimilar Merrick Garland is from Jeff Sessions/Matthew Whittier/Bill Barr. Garland is cautious, but he’s not a shrinking violet. He’s slow because he’s thorough. But he’s a true, fervent believer in the rule of law.

Not criticizing or disagreeing with you, but I heard those same words about Robert Mueller and look what got us.

[Aspenglow]

@Senegoid

That was Matthew Whitaker.

I even looked him up and I still got it wrong. I love getting older.

@Turek

Not criticizing or disagreeing with you, but I heard those same words about Robert Mueller and look what got us. -

It’s ok even if you were criticizing or disagreeing with me. I do understand the skepticism.

All I can say is, in my whole life of watching public service, I have never seen the government as fully corrupted from top to bottom as was done during Trump’s time in office. Truly staggering and frightening. Every position he could corrupt, he did. It brought us to the point that the DOJ was no longer able to function and everyone in positions of power had only one goal: To protect the racket and themselves.

Now we have half a corrupt government. If the good ones can’t do better, it’s already over.

[DesertDog]

If the DOJ had strong foundations could T**** have corrupted it in only four years?

[lum_s_husband]

However, Lex Luthor and Kingpin are portrayed as smart and/or competent, so a massive disconnect.

[Elendil_s_Heir]

They had better tailors, too.

[Roderick_Femm]

I think if the DOJ had not had strong foundations, the orange asshole could have, and would have, done much worse. He had the power to hire and fire the top people, and that has some effect of course, but he did not shake the foundations nearly as much as he wanted to. I still have hope that he will feel some consequences from that failure.

[Senegoid]

@Roderick_Femm

. . . but he did not shake the foundations [of the DOJ] nearly as much as he wanted to.

The Deep State lives!

[OttoDaFe]

Didn’t he have a plan to gut civil service protections cocked and ready to unleash immediately after his second inauguration?