Hey @DonaldJTrumpJr, I'm confused. If this wasn't a campaign meeting then why have Paul Manafort attend? https://t.co/6GCUNJXWlj
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) July 8, 2017
And here we were, wondering if the Trump crime cartel’s G20 shenanigans had preempted the weekly #Russiagate revelations. Thank you, NYTimes:
Two weeks after Donald J. Trump clinched the Republican presidential nomination last year, his eldest son arranged a meeting at Trump Tower in Manhattan with a Russian lawyer who has connections to the Kremlin, according to confidential government records described to The New York Times.
The previously undisclosed meeting was also attended by Mr. Trump’s campaign chairman at the time, Paul J. Manafort, as well as the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, according to interviews and the documents, which were outlined by people familiar with them.
While President Trump has been dogged by revelations of undisclosed meetings between his associates and Russians, this episode at Trump Tower on June 9, 2016, is the first confirmed private meeting between a Russian national and members of Mr. Trump’s inner circle during the campaign. It is also the first time that his son Donald J. Trump Jr. is known to have been involved in such a meeting.
Representatives of Donald J. Trump Jr. and Mr. Kushner confirmed the meeting after The Times approached them with information about it. In a statement, Donald Jr described the meeting as primarily about an adoption program. The statement did not address whether the presidential campaign was discussed….
The Russian lawyer invited to the Trump Tower meeting, Natalia Veselnitskaya, is best known for mounting a multipronged attack against the Magnitsky Act, an American law that blacklists suspected Russian human rights abusers. The law so enraged Mr. Putin that he retaliated by halting American adoptions of Russian children.
The adoption impasse is a frequently used talking point for opponents of the Magnitsky Act. Ms. Veselnitskaya’s campaign against the law has also included attempts to discredit its namesake, Sergei L. Magnitsky, a lawyer and auditor who died in under mysterious circumstances in a Russian prison in 2009 after exposing one of the biggest corruption scandals during Mr. Putin’s rule…
The Trump Tower meeting was not disclosed to government officials until recently, when Mr. Kushner, who is also a senior White House aide, filed a revised version of a form required to obtain a security clearance. The Times reported in April that he had failed to disclose any foreign contacts, including meetings with the Russian ambassador to the United States and the head of a Russian state bank. Failure to report such contacts can result in a loss of access to classified information and even, if information is knowingly falsified or concealed, in imprisonment…… Ms. Veselnitskaya [is] a formidable operator with a history of pushing the Kremlin’s agenda. Most notable is her campaign against the Magnitsky Act, which provoked a Cold War-style, tit-for-tat row with the Kremlin when President Barack Obama signed it into law in 2012.
Under the law, some 44 Russian citizens have been put on a list that allows the United States to seize their American assets and deny them visas. The United States asserts that many of them are connected to fraud exposed by Mr. Magnitsky, who after being jailed for more than a year was found dead in his cell. A Russian human rights panel found that he had been assaulted. To critics of Mr. Putin, Mr. Magnitsky, in death, became a symbol of corruption and brutality in the Russian state.
An infuriated Mr. Putin has called the law an “outrageous act,” and, in addition to banning American adoptions, compiled what became known as an “anti-Magnitsky” blacklist of United States citizens.
Among those blacklisted was Preet Bharara, then the United States district attorney in Manhattan, who led high-profile convictions of Russian arms and drug dealers. Mr. Bharara was abruptly fired in March, after previously being asked to stay on by Mr. Trump…
This true-crime livecast has more layers than the finest baklava, and is just as Byzantine.
This is the 1st reason this story is a big deal: Trump campaign officials & family members met with Russian actors during the campaign. /5/ pic.twitter.com/SvZAh8I2TB
— Benjamin Wittes (@benjaminwittes) July 8, 2017
This is the 2d reason this story is a big deal: Jr.'s lawyers don't deny campaign matters were discussed. If they could they would have. /7/ pic.twitter.com/q9pzgE7IAw
— Benjamin Wittes (@benjaminwittes) July 8, 2017
Russia suspended the adoptions as leverage to end US human rights sanctions. If you’re talking about one, you’re talking about the other.
— Tom Malinowski (@Malinowski) July 8, 2017
ETA:
During the meeting, they only discussed adoptions and not the political campaign because they are all well-known adoption activists.
— Michael Ian Black (@michaelianblack) July 8, 2017
And the last thing these "Three Men and a Baby" needed was more good publicity about all the orphans they were trying to get adopted.
— Michael Ian Black (@michaelianblack) July 8, 2017
I want to thank them for their tireless efforts on behalf of Russian orphans, a subject I'm sure we're all sick of hearing them talk about.
— Michael Ian Black (@michaelianblack) July 8, 2017
Talking heads on Fox News, tomorrow morning: “What, you don’t want adorable blond Russian toddlers to get loving adoptive parents in America, you soulless monsters?!?”
MomSense
Did we get him? Is this over?
Major Major Major Major
Seems like the IC was waiting to see how Trump handled Putin this time before their dump.
JPL
These paragraphs are interesting because we all know the donald loved Preet
.
JPL
@MomSense: NO.. The campaign was interested in adoptions. Don’t you remember that was one of Trump’s leading issues at the time. lol
What’s important about the article is that it was the first known meeting. IMO there will be others.
Davebo
#FakeNews
#FakeMeeting
#FakePresident
dexwood
Bet this is a meeting Don Jr. now wishes his Princess sister attended instead of him.
sukabi
@MomSense: won’t be over until the revelations include dirt on Ryan and McConnell….they are holding the line protecting drumpf, keeping the house and Senate tied up.
debbie
Five bucks says after this meeting, the Russians knew they had Trump in their pocket.
dexwood
@debbie:
Bet they knew going into it.
Frankensteinbeck
@sukabi:
If McConnell gets directly implicated, that won’t be the end. That will be when the shit hits the fan and crazy things happen. He is very definitely the most powerful non-idiot in America.
SiubhanDuinne
@dexwood:
It must really frost his ass (and Eric’s, too, except Eric seems too stupid to figure out where his ass even is) that Ivanka and Jared get all the press attention, and pictures on the front page of the WaPo and NYT. They all make nice with each other in public, but I would bet serious cash money that there are sibling issues galore behind closed Trump doors.
SiubhanDuinne
By the way, speaking of the Trump siblings: somebody please remind me, how old does Barron have to be before I can stop feeling sorry for him? Old enough to drive? To vote? To drink? To run for President?
debbie
@SiubhanDuinne:
“What family doesn’t have its ups and downs?”
rikyrah
I love Despicable Me…1,2, and 3…LOL
dexwood
@SiubhanDuinne: @SiubhanDuinne:
You know it. Shakespeare had a thing or two to say about such families.
As for Barron, I can wait. I feel sorry for him. In how many directions is he pulled? A lot to take in for a kid his age.
dmsilev
@SiubhanDuinne:
I’m waiting for the modern-day reenactment of King Lear that this family seems bound to give us. Surprise twist: all three adult children are Goneril.
piratedan
back in the days of the founders, all of these guys would be hanging from gibbets…. just saying.
I have to admit, that all of this circumstantial stuff sure seems damning, when coupled with their actions, these guys are not innocents, they’re hoping to simply bluff their way past, is Mueller where it stops, say he does implicate and lay charges against team Trump, is the GOP so compromised that it all just passes… based on how Mitchy and Paulie have been acting, I’d say yes.
Brachiator
@MomSense:
No. Melania and Donald will soon adopt a blond baby who looks a lot like Putin.
Fox News will commend Trump for being a great humanitarian. Evangelicals will praise Trump as a loving father.
Yutsano
@dexwood: I know it could just be because of his upbringing, but it wouldn’t surprise me if Barron was on the autism spectrum. It’s also noteworthy he’s had zero public appearances since Melania descended from the tower. Not even in official photo ops,
Tilda Swintons Bald Cap
Pffffffft. No one cares but us and there ain’t enough of us in power do a goddamn thing about it.
piratedan
@Brachiator: and we’ll be stuck paying for the care and education of “the bastard”
NotMax
Getting to the point where the list of Russians they didn’t meet with is the shorter one.
JPL
https://twitter.com/benjaminwittes from lawfareblog thinks the document came from the defense team of a client. He doesn’t say which client, but we know that don jr. did not deny that campaign issues were discussed.
Spanky
@piratedan:
Just a reminder: This play is still in the first act.
dexwood
@Yutsano:
There was that one picture of him in The Expert t-shirt on that first day coming off the heliocopter, then nothing. I’m ok with that. His life is being decided for him now.
david spikes
@SiubhanDuinne: Every picture, every comment, every everything, just makes uday and qusay look worse.
Just asking-why does everything Trump males wear-which I assume aare good quality-look like shit the minute they put them on?
germy
@Yutsano: Rosie O’Donnell was forced to apologize after saying that.
Ken
@SiubhanDuinne:
In the alternate universe where Clinton won the election, Trump’s children have already had him declared incompetent and are fighting over how to divide the spoils.
SiubhanDuinne
@debbie:
Big props for quoting from one of my favourite movies of ALL TIME.
Aaron Baker
What did the poor Byzantines (or for that matter, baklava) ever do to merit comparison with the world’s most incompetent crime family?
debbie
@SiubhanDuinne:
Mine too. Sadly, fewer and fewer people get the reference.
germy
If Trump had lost the election, as he expected he would, TrumpTV would be launching about now, and Shannity would be its first star. O’Really would also have his own show.
Waratah
@Major Major Major Major: I hope this is just the beginning.
Frankensteinbeck
@SiubhanDuinne:
An interesting idea, and in a family that poison, I doubt Ivanka and Kushner trust each other. We’ll have to see how that aspect plays out.
@Yutsano:
She’s no great shakes as a person, but I’m getting the impression Melanie at least is trying to be a good mother.
SiubhanDuinne
@david spikes:
Am no expert in men’s haberdashery, but if your father routinely wore his tie 4-6″ too long, and compensated for the imbalance by scotch-taping the ends together*, you might also look like shit no matter how expensive** your garments.
*Even on Inauguration Day, FFS.
**I recognise that “expensive” and “high quality” are not necessarily congruent.
schrodingers_cat
@JPL: Preet ==love, how can you not love, love.
mai naem mobile
Amazing how many meetings the Dolt 45 campaign team have with Russians. Not the Chinese, the Saaudis,not the Turks,not the Indians,not the Canadians,not the Brit ….just the Russians. So normal.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
Blocked by the Donald.
Mike in DC
At this point in time, the only things that will move the needle further, in public opinion and political terms:
1) indictments
2) public knowledge of plea agreements
3) transcripts and/or emails discussing collusion etc.
There are multiple shady meetings with russians already, multiple shady real estate deals, russian mob ties, failure to do anything, acknowledge or condemn etc.
At this point direct evidence is the only thing that will or might break through the wall of resistance.
Tilda Swintons Bald Cap
@Mike in DC: Yep.
Anne Laurie
@debbie:
The comparison between Katherine Hepburn and Melania Trump, though… not even gonna *think* about the other half of that duo…
SiubhanDuinne
There was a lot of noise the other day that sometime during this European trip Trump was going to sneak into the UK for a quick visit, on such short notice that the protesters couldn’t possibly rally in time to mount an objection. Did that ever happen? Is he even still in Europe?
I did note that Justin Trudeau went to Scotland and visited the Queen at her official Scottish residence (Holyroodhouse), yesterday (I think it was), and both seemed very happy at the opportunity.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@Frankensteinbeck: What kind of crazy stuff are we talking about here?
Gin & Tonic
Poor little Donnie Jr knows Manafort is singing, but he doesn’t know pr cisely what. A conundrum.
joel hanes
@debbie:
Five bucks says after this meeting, the Russians knew they had Trump in their pocket.
They’ve known that The Donald was theirs ever since they arranged to get him the money to recover from bankruptcy, many years ago.
Some of the souces of that money were and are very skeevy.
Some of the means by which it ended up in The Donald’s pockets were likewise skeevy.
All the Russians need to do is threaten to disclose certain transactions, and The Donald is toast.
The Russians are incredibly “fortunate” that The Donald became President, and stand to profit greatly thereby.
(Sometimes good fortune appears to come to he who quietly rigs the game)
SiubhanDuinne
@dexwood:
Yeah, I was being needlessly and offensively snarky. It must be very hard on him — on any kid, even one with the most grounded of parents. Melania does seem to be a devoted mother from what little I’ve seen, and for Barron’s sake I hope that’s true.
Frankensteinbeck
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?:
I’m not sure, but McConnell can get both houses of congress and the president to change the law. No one else can control everyone needed. They’re not smart enough.
@Mike in DC:
I have learned from watching fake scandals created against Democrats that constant repetition has more power than accuracy. Story after story constantly reminding people that Trump works for the Russians will convince everyone who isn’t a fanatic, and make them uncomfortable.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
Blocked by the Donald
CZanne
@Yutsano: Just saying, the differential diagnosis between autism spectrum disorders and chronic/complex childhood trauma is a pretty fine line. Behaviorally, they track almost one to one. Children who grow up under emotional abuse are especially similar to ASDs, since their coping skills — disassociation, non-confrontation, inability to maintain eye contact or tolerate touching — are survival skills with an emotionally abusive parent.
Anne Laurie
@Frankensteinbeck:
They’re foxhole comrades — two survivors of deeply toxic daddies from the same mold. Whether or not they like each other, who else can understand what they’ve been through (are still going through)?
Yeah, it feels to me like Melania’s only stuck with the old monster this long because she wants to be sure Barron stays in the will… or at least gets as much as he can of the expensive it’s-all-about-the-networking “education” (private schools & Ivies) as the Original Offspring. I think she looks at Tiffany and worries about what Javanka and the Idiots would do to an adolescent Barron, if she weren’t there to guard him.
Dissident Fish
@dmsilev: Eric = Gooneril
schrodingers_cat
@JPL: Is he going to adopt Putin?
Aleta
Story about Don, Manafort, Kushner and Natalia is coming out just before the Sunday a.m. shows, so they put Ivanka in a pink dress in the middle of the photos, and Don shoots an poison arrow pointing to it again, just for good measure.
JMG
@Anne Laurie: Difference is Jared looks like he’s going to federal prison, or the dock at least, and Ivanka could skate if she cuts him loose. Which she will. Dad, too if it comes to that.
Smiling Mortician
@debbie: I got it. But I would have said it’s a line from one of my favorite plays (that, yes, made an excellent movie also too).
Aleta
At this point I can’t imagine a reason why he wouldn’t brazenly pardon Jared and Don, but I hope there is one.
JWR
This, “..Among those blacklisted was Preet Bharara,..” is the part of the Times story that really sticks out to me.
dmsilev
@Dissident Fish: I think we can safely assume that there is no Cordelia.
Leaving his fortune to the kid who is most over the top in flattering him would be a very Trump thing to do.
schrodingers_cat
Can someone please explain why Ivanka is considered beautiful. She is not bad to look at, but hardly a beauty.
cynthia ackerman
@Frankensteinbeck:
Except IOKIYAR.
Repetition only works on fake Dem scandals.
R’s always get the benefit of the doubt.
Yutsano
@dmsilev: The real question is how much fortune will be left after the debts come due. I know real estate developers have some of the sweetest tax loopholes out there but he can only shell his debt to income ratio so far. And notice his accountants have never turned on him.
@Anne Laurie: It could also be cultural. Eastern Europeans don’t divorce at the same rate as in the West, I also think he has a devastating chip card relating to her immigration that he’s using to control her. There probably never was love there to begin with,
reality-based (the original, not the troll)
@debbie: I see what you did there -quoting the inimitable Katherine Hepburn as Eleanor of Aquitainei in “The Lion In Winter” – still one of my all-time favorite films.
And I would cheerfully trade a brood of murderous Plantagenets for the Drumpf brood – at least they weren’t stupid! (Well, John wasn’t any too bright…)
germy
Gin & Tonic
@Yutsano: The four countries with the highest divorce rate in the world are Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova. I know Melania is Slovenian, but your generalization is unfounded.
USA comes in eighth on the list.
reality-based (the original, not the troll)
@SiubhanDuinne: you too! I swear to God – the BJ commentariat can probably recite the whole screenplay!
My favorite line – “Henry’s bed is HENRY’S province – he can people it with sheep, for all I care – which, on occasion, he has done……”
efgoldman
@piratedan:
Everybody except “the President” and “Vice President” can be prosecuted no matter what congress does or doesn’t do. That’s at the (New York) state level and the federal level both.
There’s an open constitutional question on whether the pres or VP can be indicted by state courts. I think all the lawyers who hang around here think “no”, but before Jones vs Clinton most people thought a sitting president didn’t have to face civil suits, too.
Kay
Just nuts. They say the Democrats set Trump Jr. up.
I think that’s what they’re saying.
satby
@SiubhanDuinne: @debbie: I got it, as obviously others did. Great movie, but the Plantagenents were far smarter that Drumpf’s diseased brood.
Omnes Omnibus
@satby: Even Richard.
efgoldman
@Aleta:
Pardoned individuals can be compelled to testify, since there’s no need for fifth amendment protections any longer. Apricot Asswipe may be unable to game it out, but his lawyers can.
Gin & Tonic
@Kay: Manafort may be many things, but a fucking idiot is not one of them.
efgoldman
@cynthia ackerman:
How do we know? The Dems have never tried it with the level of repetition and unity standard in Fox/RWNJ circles.
Kay
@Gin & Tonic:
I was gonna ask you that. Wouldn’t he know a lawyer who had been lobbying against sanctions for two years?
It seems like this guy knew:
Also- the defense is the whole Trump operation got tricked by Russians?
Kay
@Gin & Tonic:
So an “acquaintance” of Don Jr tells Don Jr he wants him to meet someone but doesn’t tell him who he’s meeting. He says “okay” (inexplicably) and Don Jr then asks Manafort and Kushner to sit in? Come on.
Anne Laurie
@reality-based (the original, not the troll): “I’d hang you from my nipples, but it would shock the children.”
Kay
@Gin & Tonic:
Is that a normal day for Don Jr? “You will be meeting this person but I cannot tell you their name”
WTF is that? And not only does he GO but he asks his brother in law and Manafort to come along?
Gin & Tonic
@Kay: These excuses are risible.
Yarrow
@Aleta:
Several weeks ago there was discussion about whether a President can pardon people for crimes in which the President is also implicated. Some legal experts said yes, the president can pardon no matter what. Other legal experts said the President could not pardon if the President is under investigation for a crime related to the one he’d be pardoning because that would possibly impact the investigation and case. I got the impression the law is a vague and it has never really been an issue, so we don’t know for sure how that would play out.
Also, there seems to be more of an agreement that the President can pardon someone for federal crimes but not state crimes, so Schneiderman’s investigation could still go forward and Trump couldn’t do anything about that.
feebog
@Gin & Tonic:
Add the fact he is a self serving weasel and you can hang the “cooperating witness” sandwich sign on him real soon.
Ohio Mom
@CZanne: You are leaving out the social communication piece, do emotionally-abused kids really have the sorts of serious issues with laguage (e.g., being too literal, not being able to enter or leave a conversation, perserverating on favorite topics, etc.) that even higher-functioning youngsters on the spectrum do?
When Rosie O’Donnell first raised the question, “Is Barron autistic?”, my little coterie of autism moms thought long and hard. We all came to the same conclusion, we didn’t have enough information — not enough film clips — to rule it out or in. Generally, we all pride ourselves on our autism-radar.
Gin & Tonic
@feebog: I’ll bet real cash money he’s been singing for the Feds for some time now.
Shalimar
@Yarrow: As with any other constitutional question, the answer to whether Trump can pardon his co-conspirators is whatever 5 justices on the Supreme Court want it to be, regardless of how stupid and nonsensical their reasoning is (see also Shelby County v. Holder).
Yarrow
@Ohio Mom: Isn’t autism more common in children of older fathers? If so, that might make it more likely that Barron is on the spectrum.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
@Ohio Mom: Autism has become a very fashionable diagnosis to hang on other people that you’ve never met. That’s a large part of why it took about six months after my therapist and I stumbled into the conjecture that I’m on the spectrum before I was able to convince myself.
Ohio Mom
@schrodingers_cat: Because she looks like a Barbie doll? It is interesting to me that she has done/paid for everything she could do to be conventionally stunningly attractive and still has zero charisma.
Omnes Omnibus
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym:
So is ADHD, at least around this blog.
@Ohio Mom: Charisma has little to do with looks.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
@Omnes Omnibus: Yeah, we definitely have at least one amazing diagnostic therapist who comments here.
randy khan
@SiubhanDuinne:
My position is that I will feel sorry for him until he does something to show that he’s participating in the family, ah, business.
Ohio Mom
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym: There seems to me to be some sort of ratio that the more functional you are, the longer until you get diagnosed.
And autism is such a broad category, it is sometimes hard to believe that its many presentations are actually related. But then again, maybe they aren’t — it could be beyond my lifetime when it finally all gets sorted out.
Do you think having a diagnosis is helpful to you?
My kid is about to turn 20 and is still mainly ashamed I think. Though he won’t admit it to me.
Ohio Mom
@Yarrow: There are lots of younger dads of ASD kids out there too so I don’t know how much water the older dad stuff holds.
But I am intrigued that Trump has shown himself to be a very big fan of the (thoroughly discredited) vaccine theory. Makes me go Hmmm…why does he care so much?
After all, he’s not one to care about much that isn’t about him.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
@Ohio Mom: I wasn’t diagnosed until I was 41, so I can believe that. The diagnosis has been helpful for me in two ways. The first is that it explains a lot about my childhood. The second is that it’s a convenient shorthand for describing my issues to other people.
The classic example of the latter is that, when I was in the Masters of Accountancy program, the year before I was diagnosed, I went to the career center a few times. Specifically, I asked for help networking. I told the counselor that I needed advice other than going to one of the meet-and-greet cocktail parties they organized, because if I went, I’d just stand in the corner watching everyone else. She told me that it was just something I would have to get good at. The next summer, after being diagnosed, I went in and asked for advice on networking other than going to one of the meet-and-greet cocktail parties they organized, because I’m autistic, and I’d just stand in the corner watching everyone else. That counselor told me that they couldn’t help me and that I’d need to talk to someone in the disability office, which, of course, isn’t connected to the business school and doesn’t really do networking.
So, I guess it’s debatable just how helpful it’s been.
Omnes Omnibus
@Ohio Mom:
That is sad. I don’t see it is as any different (medically) to my situation. I have color deficiency; it puts me on the color blindness spectrum. Mine is minor. If you see a color as more blue than green, it is quite possible that I will see it the other way and so on. I tend to be less than adventurous in color choices with my clothing.
cynthia ackerman
@efgoldman:
There simply is no progressive analogue to the Right Wing Wurlitzer.
Remember Mark Foley?
Defended because a liberal so caught would have wrapped himself in “diversity” instead of resigning “honorably”.
catclub
I wonder if this meeting got included by Kushner and Trump Jr, on SF86 forms for security clearances.
I also wonder if those guys even had to fill out such forms like mere peons.
Omnes Omnibus
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym: My guess is that this may not be the best place for the “how can you recognize an extroverted actuary?” joke.*
*For those who need closure: The extrovert looks at the other person’s shoes during a conversation.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
@catclub:
Kushner amended his SF-86 to include it after forgetting it on the first go round. Donald Jr hasn’t applied for a position in the administration, and thus has never had to fill one out.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
@Omnes Omnibus: It’s a fine place for it, but I was taking the actuarial exams at one point, so I’ve heard it before.
Ohio Mom
@Omnes Omnibus: I’m thinking that the high school years are hard for anyone who is too different. You spend hours each day in an environment that is judging and sorting people out, even if it is only the art teacher singling out the painting with the most interesting composition.
Anyway, that’s my hope, that adulthood brings my kid a niche.
Yarrow
@Ohio Mom: Yeah, it doesn’t seem to be exclusively something with kids of older dads. I thought I’d read it was an increased likelihood, but maybe I’m misremembering.
I had noticed that Trump seemed overly interested in vaccines and autism if he didn’t have a personal connection to it. It does make you wonder.
In any case, Barron is a minor child and I feel sorry for him stuck in that horror show of a family. He’s just a kid and he didn’t pick his parents.
Ohio Mom
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym: Thanks. I could imagine a lot of childhood memories suddenly making sense, and yes, I know from my family’s experience that the shorthand comes on useful.
The college story is infuriating but I must admit, the way you tell it, it made me laugh. Maybe it was one of those laugh else you’ll cry.
randy khan
I can’t figure out if they’re too dumb to get what’s happening to them or they know and can’t think of anything to do but try to brazen it out.
reality-based (the original, not the troll)
@Anne Laurie: oh, good one!
here’s an interview with Anthony Hopkins about the making of the Lion in Winter, and Katherine Hepburn teaching him to be a film actor – good stuff!
Hopkins Interview
Ohio Mom
@Yarrow: He didn’t pick his siblings either, poor kid. I don’t think Barron’s getting much camaraderie or support from them.
By the time he’s all grown up and we see how he turned out (which we will learn while thumbing through an old People magazine in a waiting room), we won’t care. Though we can hope to be pleasantly surprised.
No One You Know
@Ohio Mom: That’s how I saw it as well (as an aspie mom).
Schizophrenia seems associated with the older father…but I have no insight around what schizophrenia really is, beyond its literal translation.
Omnes Omnibus
@reality-based (the original, not the troll): Link no work. You fix.
Ohio Mom
@No One You Know: Back before the election, when I wondered what we would fill our time on the blog with after Hillary took her place in the Oval Office, I thought, maybe we should have an autism thread, because there are a good number of us here. That was around the time of the caregiver threads, which I found lovely.
But now — who can keep up with the immediate horrors?
Raoul
I think the adoption being discussed was how to pawn off Don Jr’s 666 building.
reality-based (the original, not the troll)
@Omnes Omnibus: well, Poop.
here’s another try at the link
link fixed?
and here’s the URL
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9oqfQQBfuA
Omnes Omnibus
@reality-based (the original, not the troll): Thank you.
Chet Murthy
@MomSense: ROFL! Thank you for making my day!
Chet Murthy
@Yarrow: @Aleta: (IANAL, but) it seems clear a Preznit can only pardon for federal crimes committed prior to the pardon. That seems to be the only limitation. The GHWB pardon of his Iran-Contra co-conspirators seems to show that a Preznit can pardon to protect his own ass. And if he can do that, he can pardon to protect his spawn.
We’re going to learn whether our fellow American are worthy of the name. Me, I’m starting to believe that the answer is to force “taxpayer equity”. The USG can’t spend more in a state, than that state pays in taxes.
Fuck you, Kentucky.
Chet Murthy
@efgoldman: No. Look at Lawrence Walsh (Iran-Contra prosecutor)’s blistering retort after GHWB pardoned his co-conspirators. Perjury is a high, high bar. [yeah, IANAL.] GHWB completely shut down Iran-Contra prosecutions by pardoning those fuckers.
Johannes
@debbie: Oi, at least the Plantagenets were all accomplished, witty, and charming. (Including poor old John, despite Nigel Terry’s portrayal.)
AnonPhenom
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