http://finance.yahoo.com/news/trump-hotel-...-082354494.html

 

Trump D.C. Hotel has raised rates to $500 per night...some suites were $18,000+ the weekend of the inauguration.

 

 

 

Although Trump says he is not involved in the day-to-day operations of his businesses, he retains a financial interest in them. A stay at the hotel gives someone trying to win over Trump on a policy issue or political decision a potential chit.

 

That's what concerns ethics lawyers who had wanted Trump to sell off his companies as previous presidents have done.

 

"President Trump is in effect inviting people and companies and countries to channel money to him through the hotel," said Kathleen Clark, a former ethics lawyer for the District of Columbia and a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis.

 

She said the "pay to play" danger is even greater than it would be if people wanted to donate to a campaign to influence a politician's thinking. Spending money at a Trump property "is about personally enriching Donald Trump, who happens to be the president of the United States."

https://twitter.com/AP/status/8383911503818...src=twsrc%5Etfw

 

White House demands Congress investigates whether Obama abused executive powers in 2016 election

 

E: seems like this is the best they can come up with to bury Trump's unhinged early morning tweets from yesterday, now they won't comment on an "ongoing investigation" and it'll get dropped like his paranoid voter fraud delusions.

 

Edited March 5, 20179 yr by StrangeSox

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/201...internet-214856

 

The Great Meme War (insightful article on how Trump dominated social media/4chan)

Wag the Dog

Every single day I think about that movie. I honestly think you can replace Albania with Russia. The whole Russia thing just stunk of diversion when it came out a day after ol HillyClins got hacked & embarrassed. Now look what it has become: McCarthy 2.0 and the peace & love half of the country wants to start WW3, wants blood almost every day.

 

Well that's what makes me think of WTD, what about you? What made you mention it? I really think a person shouldn't be able to comment on politics unless they've seen wag the dog ?

What a lot of us don't see is that his base loves this. They think everything being reported is fake. They don't care about Russia. They think Obama should go to jail. They are still unhinged.

Oh we see it. Just check out the Republican thread. It is important to keep that in mind though.

 

Meanwhile, Trump's further campaign manager and surrogate Corey lewandowski is claiming without evidence that Obama tapped sessions Senate offices.

 

https://twitter.com/BraddJaffy/status/83842...src=twsrc%5Etfw

Hmmm

 

Foreign intelligence services have handed over recordings and transcripts of Trump camp colluding with Russia, and info is new.

— Louise Mensch (@LouiseMensch) March 5, 2017

<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8">

 

Louise Mensch is not a source for anything except crazy.

 

Josh Marshall with a good series recently. I find this the most plausible but also think Trump because of his "dominance" nature will obstruct anything seen as critical.

 

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/the-in...mailer-standard

Trump's sources for his claims that Obama illegally wire tapped Trump tower was right wing media (Levin and Breitbart), not anything from White House sources.

 

https://twitter.com/jaketapper/status/83846...src=twsrc%5Etfw

 

Agreed on Mensch, she's extremely unreliable.

 

Eta: nyt reporting that FBI director Comey has asked the doj to debunk Trump's baseless wiretap claims.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/05/us/polit...his-phones.html

Edited March 5, 20179 yr by StrangeSox

John Schindler has tweeted it also.

 

https://mobile.twitter.com/20committee/stat...514662949928961

 

I can't figure out Comey. Basically submarines Hillary at the last second of the election, now seems to be driving pretty hard against Trump

I can't figure out Comey. Basically submarines Hillary at the last second of the election, now seems to be driving pretty hard against Trump

Maybe he's the toughest non-partisan SOB in Washington.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/ins...m=.21f5188f22ac

 

It's amazing how little actual governing is being done. It's all just a tv show.

I can't figure out Comey. Basically submarines Hillary at the last second of the election, now seems to be driving pretty hard against Trump

 

Ego driven, maybe wants to bag a president. Npr has independently confirmed the story.

 

https://twitter.com/scottdetrow/status/8385...src=twsrc%5Etfw

 

In other news, Muslim ban 2.0 is expected tomorrow. Allegedly won't include Iraq, unsure of other changes.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/ins...m=.21f5188f22ac

 

It's amazing how little actual governing is being done. It's all just a tv show.

Related, dysfunction in Congress because of the number of no-compromise relatively new GOP congressmen who don't have experience in anything but 100% opposition. They don't actually know how to pass a law and govern.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/so...m=.d317d00d4c00

The timing is going to be terrible on this new immigration ban.

 

The only changes are excluding Iraq and also not blocking green card holders.

 

 

As someone mentioned, Wag the Dog comes to mind...although the problem is that the new immigration ban and then the ACA Repeal (probably Wednesday) vote are going to stir up even more controversy, instead of diminishing the scrutiny.

 

Nobody in the Senate or from the Democratic Party has even seen the repeal bill...and it hasn't been scored by the CBO, and it probably won't be at the time of the vote. So how do you have 7-8 years now to offer a better version of health care and then turn around and jam it through a straight party line vote, knowing that the CBO's headline will be the loss in budgetary revenues due to the tax credit and especially the millions who won't be able to receive Medicaid with new state caps in place. Unless the bill asserts that competing across state lines and Trump personally controlling drug costs will do the trick, lol?

Maybe he's the toughest non-partisan SOB in Washington.

 

Chaffetz string arming the Hillary news seems more and more likely.

Chaffetz string arming the Hillary news seems more and more likely.

 

He's busier with bringing down Obama, lol...

 

 

Jason Chaffetz‏Verified account @jasoninthehouse 10h10 hours ago DHS hearing: Obama Admin gave 9,500 visas to potential terrorists, 12/2015 https://youtu.be/WWq6MhBNFMw @realDonaldTrump is fixing this

 

 

Russian mystery threatens to consume Washington

http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/05/politics/don...gton/index.html

 

http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/06/politics/tru...x.html?adkey=bn

65% want a special prosecutor appointed, while only 32% believe Congress can handle it correctly

 

Amazingly, through all this, Trump's popularity rating ticked up 1 point, from 44% to 45%. I'm going to assume those numbers were all compiled before the Obama is a bad or sick guy story controversy broke on Twitter.

 

 

 

Russian mystery threatens to consume Washington

http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/05/politics/don...gton/index.html

 

http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/06/politics/tru...x.html?adkey=bn

65% want a special prosecutor appointed, while only 32% believe Congress can handle it correctly

 

Amazingly, through all this, Trump's popularity rating ticked up 1 point, from 44% to 45%. I'm going to assume those numbers were all compiled before the Obama is a bad or sick guy story controversy broke on Twitter.

Don't bother with assumptions. The fact that you're reading CNN means you don't understand the people who support this clown.

 

Can we just have the big reveal already so impeachment can begin? If where there's smoke there's fire is a thing, then what is it when the White House is literally ablaze while Trump is in Florida screwing around?

Russian mystery threatens to consume Washington

http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/05/politics/don...gton/index.html

 

http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/06/politics/tru...x.html?adkey=bn

65% want a special prosecutor appointed, while only 32% believe Congress can handle it correctly

 

Amazingly, through all this, Trump's popularity rating ticked up 1 point, from 44% to 45%. I'm going to assume those numbers were all compiled before the Obama is a bad or sick guy story controversy broke on Twitter.

 

The Obama stuff can only help his popularity. It's the rigid two-party system at it's best. So many Trump "supporters" realize the guy is crazy, but his last name is not Obama or Clinton, so he's better than the alternative.

Play devil's advocate for a second. What if Assange was telling the truth? That Russia or any state was not the source of the leaks. I know minds are already made up, but just as a fun exercise. What would that mean?

Play devil's advocate for a second. What if Assange was telling the truth? That Russia or any state was not the source of the leaks. I know minds are already made up, but just as a fun exercise. What would that mean?

 

Not too much I don't think as the wikileaks stuff is really more of a minor subplot in the whole thing.

I would be glad that Russia was not behind wikileaks. Means we are still mostly just capable of suicide as a country.

 

But, it's not just wikileaks. It is more likely that a FISA warrant would be granted around the several advisors that came onto Trump's campaign, like Manafort, Page, Flynn, that had recent and significant ties to politicians and oligarchs in Russia's sphere of influence.

 

That Josh Marshall article "Innocent Explanation #2" gets into this, but the investigation in the money and connections between those advisors would very likely lead to an investigation in the investments and connections for Trump himself.

 

Would that show illegal stuff? No idea.

 

But remember when people just shouted "quid pro quo" around hillary. If people gave to her charity "probably for quid pro quo!". Bill on the plane "Quid pro quo!". Everything was a quid pro quo, if not at that point, it had the potential to forever.

 

Trump, somehow, has worse vulnerabilities to stuff like that. He also has a wide net that he likely may not even know all of the connections which could be embarrassing. I mean, at the very least, it's hard to imagine a global real estate developer whose organization did not run into organized crime at some point.

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/trum...te-house-235703

 

Knives out for Priebus.