This historian coined ‘sadopopulism’ to describe the insidious way the rich asshole creates suffering to empower himself
some rich asshole's grandparents fled poverty in Germany to go to America (AFP Photo/Timothy A. Clary)
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some rich asshole has led America — and the world — through the looking glass. What lies on the other side is a condition of confusion and befuddlement, a perpetual moment of asking “Did that just really happen?” while knowing that the answer is always “Yes.” Because without a doubt President the rich asshole did in fact just say or do that extraordinary thing.
This article was originally published at Salon
This existential confusion is by design: It is one of the primary weapons of the authoritarian. One of the ways to ground oneself, to create a defense shield against this malignant reality is to document how political, social and cultural norms are being continually broken. By carefully measuring the cartography of this new American political landscape, we will be better equipped to navigate it, and perhaps to survive it.
As tracked by the Washington Post, president some rich asshole has now publicly lied more than 3,000 times. This is more than any president in recent American history, and likely ever.
President the rich asshole has continued his campaign against the rule of law with threats to take control of the Department of Justice. Republicans in Congress continues to provide cover for his likely collusion with Russia and obstruction of justice. the rich asshole has fully taken control of the Republican Party and its voters: a recent poll reveals that the vast majority of Republicans believe that some rich asshole is honest and tells the truth. Republicans also believe that it is not the rich asshole’s contempt for democracy that threatens America but rather the “news media.”
the rich asshole and his administration are continuing their campaign of “soft” ethnic cleansing by callously and cruelly breaking apart the families of undocumented residents and expelling nonwhite refugees from numerous countries. Predictably, since the launch of the rich asshole’s presidential campaign there has been a notable increase in white supremacist and other far-right violence across the United States.
How do we locate this assault on America’s democratic norms and pluralistic society within a larger historical context? What role does violence play in some rich asshole’s and the broader American right’s political strategy? How does political sadism explain the rise of Trumpism and the unflinching devotion that his supporters have for him? In what ways is American democracy surviving the rich asshole — or will it?What does the future hold for our imperiled republic?
In an effort to answer these questions I recently spoke with Timothy Snyder,. an award-winning professor of history at Yale University and author of “The Road to Unfreedom,” a new book that continues to develop the themes and arguments made in his recent bestseller “On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century.” This is the fourth in a series of conversations I have had with Snyder about American authoritarianism and the rise of some rich asshole.
This conversation has been edited for clarity and length.
Beginning with “On Tyranny” and now with your new book “The Road to Unfreedom,” you have documented the condition of American (and global) democracy in the age of the rich asshole. He has been president for well over a year now. How are we doing?
The basic question is the rule of law. This means the Mueller investigation is critical. It is being done as well as it can be under the circumstances. But the fact that we are relying on Mueller and the FBI shows just how bad things have become.
But the real question, I think, is not defense but renewal and democratization. The things that make me feel better on the renewal side are the renaissance in investigative journalism, groups such as Indivisible and the young people and other nontraditional candidates running for office.
Yet I think things are definitely going in the wrong direction. For example, too many people believe things that just aren’t true. Too many people are incapable of talking with other people in the real world. We have a president who is really comfortable with dictators and dictatorships.
You sound much more hopeful than I would have expected. To my eyes matters are very dire. The Republican Party is doing everything possible to undermine Mueller’s investigation and by implication the rule of law. the rich asshole is continuing his assault on the free press. the rich asshole has publicly admitted that he is obstructing justice and will may take control of the Department of Justice. At a rally a week or so ago, he targeted “Hispanics” for scorn and condemnation from his audience.
Yes, things are looking bad, and they’ve looked bad before. I mean they looked bad in 1929 too. At the same time it is both horrifying and normal. We have a weird situation where a man who shouldn’t have been elected did in fact get elected. But the dark forces he is unleashing in people were already there. The question now is, can we fight back? What weapons within the tradition of the republic can we use?
If the House of Representatives can’t see treason when it’s right in front of its face, we should say so. If the Republican Party, way back in 2016, was unable to notice a clear threat to the sovereignty of the country, this means the Republican Party is implicated in that threat. If the rich asshole is going to play on the politics of “us and them” inside the country, we have to be able to recognize that is a downward spiral in which everyone is going to end up worse off. At the end of that spiral, democratic politics are not going to be possible.
the rich asshole is a symptom. He is not the disease. As has been documented by the Southern Poverty Law Center and other watchdogs, the rich asshole has inspired an outbreak of hate crimes and other violence against nonwhites, Muslims, and other groups seen by his voters as being the Other. What role does violence play in the rich asshole and the Republican Party’s movement toward authoritarianism?
Violence is hugely important, because it is fear that creates the turning points which accelerate the larger negative trends. Fear can be associated with real existential threats or, alternatively, fear can be focused on fictional threats such as those posed by immigrants. The violence is generated by the supporters. An extreme right-wing movement mixes both. You have both an imaginary foe and real violence. We’re in a situation like that right now.
There are other dimensions too. Wealth and income equality, for example, makes it hard for people to feel like they’re living in the same society. At some level, that probably also contributes indirectly to violence.
The other thing is internet exposure. The internet helps accelerate this politics of “us and them.” People see much more of the thing they hate on the internet than they do in real life, so you skip the stage where people talk to one another. You go straight from living in a kind of political fiction to carrying out real violence against real people.
Violence against undocumented immigrants, their families and communities by ICE enforcers is also part of this story. We also must talk about how undocumented people in America are being betrayed by their neighbors who are acting as informers.
The way that this kind of regime change works discursively — as we are seeing with the rich asshole — is that it transforms neighbors into members of a different “race” in a dark sense of the word, or members of some kind of “global conspiracy,” or sometimes both. The theory is, “There’s us and there’s them.” We, the us, are innocent. They, the them, are a threat. The way you turn that into practice is you just start creating these little incentives and opportunities for neighbors to turn on neighbors, maybe to benefit from the fact that neighbors are denounced.
We saw this threat when the VOICE program was introduced by Homeland Security. [Which attached a special significance to alleged crimes committed by immigrants or connected to immigration.] We saw this in the 1930s. If you want to draw people in, you encourage neighbors to denounce each other. Because once people do that, then they’re morally implicated. Then the new regime starts to seem normal to them. They participated in the dynamics of “us and them.” Thus it is no longer theory. It is practice.
Pain plays a very specific role here too. Everybody knows that pain is bad. But what if you are making it happen? What if you don’t resist it? If you are the agent of this pain, then it has to be that what you did was the right thing. They had to deserve it, right? The way that people reacted to the hurricanes in Puerto Rico, versus Texas or Florida, is a great example. In Puerto Rico, they somehow deserve it, and therefore they shouldn’t get help. Whereas in Texas and Florida, maybe they somehow didn’t deserve it.
By not properly helping Puerto Rico — the bad weather was somehow the fault of the people living there — we tie ourselves into the story of “us and them.” That’s how it works. We know this from the scholarship on the rise of Nazism and other right-wing movements during 1933 and 1934.
The assault on American higher education by the right — as seen in the Koch brothers’ efforts to buy individual university professors and entire departments — also explains how Trumpism became possible.
The academy is under siege because it is a space where people, especially the young, can say what they think. It is also a place where people can actually have a period of time in their lives to explore new ideas and be contemplative.
It gives people the concepts, tools and habits to question things. That is why the humanities are under such fire right now. That’s why they’re being defunded. It’s because the humanities are essential for democracy. Engineering is essential for other things, but the humanities are essential for democracy.
In “The Road to Unfreedom” you introduce the concept of “sadopopulism.” I have used a similar concept which I describe as “political sadism” to describe the fact the rich asshole is not really a populist, but rather part of a larger right-wing effort whose goal is to actually hurt their voters and then redirect the rage at nonwhites, Democrats, liberals, progressives or some other designated enemy. How much of this policy do you think is intentional and strategic? Or is it just something that grew organically out of authoritarian tendencies?
“Sadopopulism” is the notion that you’re doing half of populism. You promise people things, but then when you get power you have no intention of even trying to implement any policy on behalf of the people. Instead, you deliberately make the suffering worse for your critical constituency. The people who got the rich asshole into office, for example, are traditional Republican voters plus people in counties who are doing badly in terms of health care and other measures, and who need help.
Under the rich asshole, of course, things will just get worse in terms of both the opioid addictions and in terms of wealth inequality. But that’s OK, because the logic of sadopopulism is that pain is a resource. Sadopopulist leaders like the rich asshole use that pain to create a story about who’s actually at fault. The way politics works in that model is that government doesn’t solve your problems, it blames your problems on other people — and it creates the cycle that goes around over and over and over again. I started talking about sadopopulism because I got tired of people talking about populism.
It just seems like “populism” doesn’t capture a specific American racial and oligarchic situation where people like the rich asshole come to power, promising that the government is going to do something and then, in power, deliberately do nothing positive.
Not so long ago the currency of government was achievement. Government had to do something. Now, the currency of government is discourse. Government has to make you feel worse about people around you. That’s an achievement.
Now, could the rich asshole and his allies theorize about this? I don’t know. But they do know what they’re doing. They take their cues back from their constituents. It is a mistake to underestimate the rich asshole. Just because he doesn’t speak in a sophisticated language does not mean he lacks instincts. the rich asshole possesses a skill set.
Have you ever tried to be a carnival huckster? It’s not actually an easy thing to do. You have to fool people. You persuade people to do things that don’t really make sense for them. You do it over and over again, with a sense of conviction.
There is another dimension to this as well. If the death anxieties of the dominant group are activated, then that group is much more tolerant of prejudice, violence and bigotry. It’s about maintaining social dominance and power. Delegitimizing government is a major part of how conservatives use sadopopulism as a weapon.
the rich asshole’s base are people who actually think that the system is supposed to work for them. When it doesn’t, they feel they’re vulnerable in a special way. Middle-aged white males don’t know how much the system does for them. So when the system starts to fail, they react in ways that other groups may not.
At that vulnerable moment, there are two things you can say: The good guys will say, “Look, this shows that we all need a little help sometimes. Let’s build up something like a social democracy.” The bad guys are going to say, “Look, this shows how the Mexicans are taking your jobs, and the Muslims are killing you, and the black people hate you, etc.”
One of the truths that is rarely stated in American public discourse is that the welfare state exists to sustain a more or less politically reasonable middle class. You break the welfare state in this country in order to make the white people crazy. You don’t do it to punish the black people. That’s what you say you’re doing — and maybe you take a pleasure in doing that. But ultimately what you’re doing when you break the welfare state in this country is that you’re hurting white people. the rich asshole and his allies can then direct that vulnerability for political ends.
The title of your new book is “The Road to Unfreedom.” How does that title speak to the crisis in American democracy?
“The Road to Unfreedom” is the road between what in the book I call “the politics of inevitability” and “the politics of eternity.” The politics of inevitability is a sense that everything’s going to be all right. If you’re on the right, it’s the sense that the market is a slave to democracy. We know the rules. There are no alternatives. If you’re on the left it is a belief in the inevitability of social progress. Those stories suggest a pattern which may not exist.
Those stories break because of wealth and equality and because people can’t see a future for themselves. Kids can’t see a future. Neither can their parents. They break because of system shocks such as what happened in 2008 or 2016. Then people are opened up to another kind of politics, which is what’s on the rise now. It’s no longer about the future at all. It’s about a nostalgic past, or a news cycle which breaks your will and your ability to concentrate. It is about a constant struggle between us and them, as opposed to doing something plausible for all of us together.
“The Road to Unfreedom” is meant to be a new term that catches our attention. What’s happening now is not exactly the same as what happened in the 1930s. But it’s definitely a drift away from democracy, the rule of law and, for that matter, from social justice.
Democracy is an aspiration. We need more democracy. We need democratization at every level of society. If you can’t think about having more democracy, you’re not thinking about having a future.
It’s now a fact that Russians have compromising material on the rich asshole: columnist
US President some rich asshole (right) and Russia's President Vladimir Putin talk during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders' summit in the central Vietnamese city of Danang on November 11, 2017 (AFP Photo/JORGE SILVA)
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As recently as last week, the president and his Republican allies were hiding behind the claim that “no evidence of collusion” had been found in the Russia investigation.
That argument was undermined on Tuesday, as first attorney Michael Avenatti and later the New York Times and Washington Post reported that the rich asshole’s attorney Michael Cohen had accepted Russian-linked money as a “consultant” for a secretive shell company he then used to pay hush money to the president’s mistress, and possibly others.
Late last night, New York magazine’s Jonathan Chait gave some context to this massive development.
“The possible reasons for this arrangement run from brazenly corrupt to far worse,” he writes.
Even if we buy the official story, that this was a “consulting fee” paid to Cohen,” it’s “hardly a benign explanation,” he writes.
“For all the speculation about the existence of the pee tape, the latest revelations prove what is tantamount to the same thing,” he writes. “Russia could leverage the president and his fixer… by threatening to expose secrets they were desperate to keep hidden.”
Chait sees at least three possible ways the Russian payments to Cohen to benefit the rich asshole could have compromised the rich asshole: It could have been a bribe, it could have been bait to later extort the president, or it could have been a way to silence the rich asshole’s mistresses and protect other more explosive kompromat.
Chait then tackles Nunes, and his slavish dedication to protecting the president even if it compromises intelligence assets.
“They are acting as though the rich asshole is compromised by Russia, or at the very least, that he cannot be trusted to defend his own country’s security against it,” Chait writes. “The sordid Russia scandal has already brought some version of a very dark nightmare scenario to life.
White House refuses to say if the rich asshole knew about payments to Michael Cohen from firm linked to Russian oligarch
Eamon Javers (CNBC/screen grab)
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The White House on Wednesday reportedly declined to say if President some rich asshole was aware of payments to his attorney, Michael Cohen, by a number of companies, including a firm linked to Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg.
CNBC correspondent Eamon Javers said that he was rebuffed by the White House communications team after he asked an official to respond to a report from attorney Michael Avenatti claiming that Cohen received hundreds of thousands of dollars from Columbus Nova, which is run by the cousin of Vekselberg.
Avenatti, who represents adult film star Stormy Daniels, also alleges that millions were paid into Cohen’s account by companies like AT&T and Novartis after the rich asshole won the 2016 election.
"I asked a White House official this morning whether the president knew about those payments between a number of entities and Michael Cohen, the president’s personal attorney, that took place both before and after the election,” Javers reported on Wednesday. “The White House [is] not responding to that question, referring questions on this issue to the president’s personal legal team, which also hasn’t responded to questions.”
Watch the video below from CNBC.
the rich asshole fans freak out on right-winger Matt Drudge for warning against president’s ‘fake news crusade’
Matt Drudge (Photo: CSPAN screen capture)
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Right-winger Matt Drudge, who has long been a booster of President some rich asshole, seems to be concerned about the long-term consequences of the president’s “crusade” against the “fake news” media.
After the president tweeted on Wednesday that all “negative” news about him and his administration constituted “fake” news, Drudge wrote on Twitter that he feared the rich asshole’s statements might one day be used as excuses to dramatically crack down on the free press.
“I fear the future result of the rich asshole’s crusade on ‘fake news’ will be licensing of all reporters,” he wrote. “[Dems already floated this in the senate pre-the rich asshole.] The mop up on this issue is going to be excruciating…”
Despite the fact that Drudge has typically been sympathetic in his own writing on the rich asshole, the rich asshole supporters angrily lashed out at him and told him that if the rich asshole or some future president shut down the free press, the free press itself would be to blame.
Check out some of the responses below.
Not Trumps fault. If propagandists had better ethics and values perhaps your "profession" wouldn't be in this mess. Don't blame the patient for malpractice, blame the DOCTOR.
You reap what you sow.
Trump needs to bring Assange to the US and give him immunity
That's on the Media not Trump. You guys need to start policing each other instead of being complicit by silence
Press did it to itself. YOU knowingly link to fake news daily. You should fear.
Your "Never-Trump" is showing, Matt.
You suck Drudge. What happened to you?
Well most of the media is bought and aid for corrupt, something needs to be done, the amount of people that believe the bullshit they spew is holding back American progress.
That would be a fantastic idea.
MSNBC’s Ari Melber amazed by the sheer amount of incriminating new evidence against Michael Cohen
Ari Melber (MSNBC)
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MSNBC’s Ari Melber said the attorney for Stormy Daniels had delivered evidence so damning against President some rich asshole’s personal attorney that moviegoers would reject it as implausible in a film.
Attorney Michael Avenatti produced evidence Tuesday evening that a company set up by the rich asshole’s lawyer Michael Cohen received payments from a firm tied to a Russian oligarch, along with what appears to be corporate payments to the LLC used to pay the porn actress as part of a nondisclosure settlement.
“What I see is something that is so fully bonkers I don’t think as a nation that we fully digested it, and we are used to careening from one story to another,” Melber told “Morning Joe.”
“If this were the last scene in the movie,” he continued, “and you had money from a Putin-linked fund with a billionaire that was literally so objectionable that he was sanctioned by some rich asshole’s own Treasury Department, which is resistant to sanction Russians for election meddling, and was funneling money into the account to pay off Stormy Daniels, which Michael Cohen lied about and some rich asshole lied about and Michael Cohen’s lawyer lied about on NBC, and all of this came together like this and the leak came from documents provided by Michael Avenatti, Stormy Daniels’ lawyer, I think you’d just say, ‘Well, that’s a little much for one final movie scene.'”
NBC News, along with several other media organizations, have independently verified the evidence shown by Avenatti — and Melber said the findings are almost too explosive to be made up.
“It’s a bit much, isn’t it?” Melber said. “But it’s not — it’s 2018, it’s May. We’re only a year out from (Robert) Mueller’s appointment in the first place. So what I read from it is an incredible amount of incriminating information that raises questions about the criminal liability about Michael Cohen, obviously, but also the people who were knowingly involved with Michael Cohen — accessories, co-conspirators, etc.”
“That is a bombshell wrapped in a set of public lies that I think is still just reverberating,” he added.
Maryland ‘deplorables’ set up billboard warning of armed warfare if Democrats ‘try to impeach’ the rich asshole
Pro-the rich asshole billboard in Southern Maryland's Culvert County. Image via Brad Bell/Twitter.
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Residents in a southern Maryland county expressed mixed reviews after a group of “Deplorables” erected a billboard warning “liberals” to take up arms should President some rich asshole be impeached.
“Hey liberals,” reads the billboard in Maryland’s Culvert County, as first reported by DC’s WJLA. “Better get your guns if you try to impeach President the rich asshole. From all of your deplorables in Calvert County.”
Public reaction to the billboard ranges from admiration to discomfort — so much so that the Calvert County Sheriff’s Office has been “flooded with phone calls” about the sign, both for and against it.
“I hate that billboard,” a woman who said her son is afraid of the sign told WJLA. “I think it’s very threatening. I don’t like it at all.”
“I’m a Republican but I think it’s a little offensive,” resident Kelly Mazzella said. “I think you can persuade people on the topics and not insult them.”
Conservative Marylander Michelle Rinker, however, defended the sign to the station.
“I love the billboard,” she told WJLA, adding that “if you attempt to take down a good president, there’s gonna be a problem.”
After mounting complaints to the sheriff, the sign’s owner reportedly agreed to change it once he returned to town.
Fox News smears Senate Democrats by linking them to 9/11 mastermind for opposing the rich asshole CIA chief nominee
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed after capture (Wikimedia)
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Fox News on Wednesday linked Senate Democrats who oppose President some rich asshole’s nominee for CIA director to alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
An article published on the Fox News website claims that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is “like the Senate intelligence panel’s Democrats” because both oppose the confirmation of Gina Haspel to head the CIA.
“The alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, like the Senate intelligence panel’s Democrats, has come out against President some rich asshole’s nomination of Gina Haspel to lead the CIA,” Fox News writer Lukas Mikelionis opines.
According to Mikelionis, “Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the Democrats” are alike because they both “question whether Haspel, a longtime CIA agent, is fit to run the agency given her involvement in the torture of prisoners following the attacks in 2001.”
“Multiple Democrats have criticized Haspel’s nomination, with U.S. Sen. Jon Tester of Montana saying he opposes her because he objects to waterboarding, a controversial enhanced interrogation technique deemed torture by many opponents,” the report adds. “It remained unclear if Mohammed, who was detained at sites in Afghanistan and Poland before arriving at Guantanamo bay, was at any point under supervision of Haspel.”
Mohammed, who is being held at Guantanamo Bay, has asked a military judge to allow him to share six paragraphs of information regarding Haspel with senators ahead of her confirmation hearing on Wednesday.
WATCH: CNN’s Toobin says Michael Cohen’s ‘sleazy business’ opens up potential gold mine for investigators
A CNN panel discusses Michael Cohen's 'sleazy business' (Screen cap).
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A CNN panel on Wednesday said that revelations about the rich asshole attorney Michael Cohen using his porn star payoff LLC to also collect donations from corporations looking for access to President some rich asshole opened up new avenues for investigators to explore.
CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin began by saying that although it’s not illegal for Cohen to sell his access to the president, it is unethical and will likely open him up to further questioning about his activities.
“This is a sleazy business,” Toobin said. “Someone, you know, close to the president getting $200,000 from AT&T, which is trying to acquire our parent company in a controversial transaction. That’s a sleazy business, but it is not illegal as far as I’m aware under any circumstances for people close to the president selling their access.”
That didn’t mean Cohen was out of hot water, Toobin then explained, because he used the same LLC for corporate access cash to also pay off women who allegedly had affairs with the rich asshole.
“That’s hardly the end of the story given [the rich asshole and Cohen’s] record of credibility and the fact that this account was used so extensively, it turns out, by Cohen, raises more questions about where the money came from,” Toobin said.
Host Chris Cuomo pointed out that Cohen’s company, Essential Consulting LLC, didn’t even meet the classic definition of a shell company since Cohen seemed to use it as an all-purpose vehicle for funneling money and not as a company set up for one specific illicit purpose.
“It’s being called a shell company — it ain’t a shell company,” he said. “It clearly wasn’t established just for Stormy Daniels because he’s had millions of dollars go through it from all kinds of corporate clients.”
Watch the video below.
Michael Avenatti explains why ‘suspicious’ payments suggest GOP donor helped cover up abortion by the rich asshole mistress
Michael Avenatti (MSNBC)
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Attorney Michael Avenatti suspects a Republican donor paid to cover up the abortion of a Playboy model after an affair with President some rich asshole.
The attorney for porn actress Stormy Daniels appeared Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” to discuss payments he revealed by Russian oligarchs, corporations and GOP donor Elliott Broidy into an LLC set up by the rich asshole’s lawyer.y
“I don’t know yet whether this particular account connects to other women, but what I will say is that this is an enormous amount of money flowing into this account,” said Avenatti, who is suing to undo a hush agreement between Daniels and the president. ” “Beginning in October, November, December time period of 2016, you’ve got millions of dollars that are being deposited into this account. Michael Cohen appears to be selling access to the president of the United States.”
He said it’s not clear what services Cohen, who has a background in real estate and personal injury law, provided to corporations that paid into the Essential Consultants LLC he set up to facilitate the Daniels payment.
“We now have multiple different things supposedly that Michael Cohen was doing for all these companies,” Avenatti said. “Now we hear from Novartis that he was hired on health care matters — evidently he’s a doctor. One company mentioned they hired him for real estate matters — he’s a real estate agent. Another company stated that they hired him for accounting advice — evidently he’s an accountant. So he’s a lawyer, doctor, accountant and real estate. I’m just a lawyer — I’m not that bright, I guess.”
“He’s the da Vinci of our time,” he added.
He’s particularly curious about payments by Broidy, who resigned as deputy finance chairman of the Republican National Committee over reports that he paid $1.6 million to a Playmate to cover up her abortion, into the LLC set up by Cohen.
The attorney has previously suggested that courtroom statements suggest the rich asshole, and not Broidy, was the client for whom Cohen directed the $1.6 million hush payment to the former Playboy model.
“It’s very unusual to have a defendant pay his or her attorney a flat rate for negotiating a settlement,” he continued. “Normally you’ll pay an attorney on an hourly basis — a defendant, a potential defendant. It’s not like a plaintiff who is doing it on a contingency basis.”
He said the evidence just doesn’t add up.
“Here it appears that Michael Cohen was paid at least $187,500 or more for his work on behalf of, supposedly, Mr. Broidy negotiating this settlement,” he added. “That’s a lot of money. He spent maybe 10, 20, 50 hours of work — I doubt it was 50 hours negotiating this potential settlement. I don’t understand why he was paid this round figure by Mr. Broidy or why these why these payments were made. It doesn’t make a lot of sense, and it’s very suspicious to me.”
the rich asshole comes out and calls all ‘negative’ reports ‘fake’ — and wants to punish media companies for doing it
President some rich asshole complains about the treatment of his pick to be Veterans Affairs secretary (Screen cap).
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President some rich asshole proposed limiting access to media organizations that report negative news about him — which he suggested was synonymous with “fake.”
The president tweeted an angry response Wednesday morning to “Fox & Friends” reports on a conservative media watchdog analysis showing that 91 percent of TV news coverage of the rich asshole was negative.
“The Fake News is working overtime,” the president tweeted. “Just reported that, despite the tremendous success we are having with the economy & all things else, 91% of the Network News about me is negative (Fake). Why do we work so hard in working with the media when it is corrupt? Take away credentials?”
White House official admits the rich asshole killed Iran deal so he could watch ‘experts freaking out on CNN’
President some rich asshole called in to the popular breakfast show "Fox and Friends" to mark the occasion of First Lady Melania the rich asshole's birthday. (AFP / Nicholas Kamm)
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President some rich asshole has long wanted to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal brokered by the Obama administration, and that’s what he did after driving naysayers out of the White House.
A source who spent time with the president Tuesday said he was in high spirits after announcing the withdrawal, which had been opposed by former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and former national security adviser H.R. McMaster, reported Axios.
“He’s going big, with what he believes, and confident in it all,” a White House official told the website. “POTUS ran against experts — the ‘eggheads’ — and believes that rebalancing our policies on trade, defense spending, security, etc., simply makes sense.”
the rich asshole was annoyed when Tillerson argued in favor of staying in the deal, an administration source said.
“He felt like Rex was always making excuses to stay in,” that source said.
the rich asshole felt contempt for the officials and experts who negotiated the Iran deal, and the White House official explained the president’s motives for risking a potential Middle East crisis and setting in motion a chain of long-term consequences.
“(the rich asshole) likes it when ‘experts’ are on CNN freaking out,” the White House official explained.
the rich asshole accuser Rachel Crooks secures Democratic nomination for Ohio state House of Representatives
Rachel Crooks, who said some rich asshole forcibly kissed her in 2005 (Screen cap).
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Rachel Crooks, who accused some rich asshole of sexual assault or misconduct during the 2016 presidential election, has won an uncontested Democratic primary in the race for Ohio state’s House of Representatives, the Washington Post reports.
In 2016, Crooks told the New York Times that as a 22-year-old receptionist at a real estate firm located in the rich asshole Tower, the rich asshole kissed her on the lips without her permission. Crooks also spoke about the incident at the Women’s March in 2017, and at a press conference with attorney Gloria Allred, according to the Post.
“We’re still waiting for the final count, but it was uncontested, so we’re happy,” Crooks’ campaign manager Chris Liebold said. “We look forward to the race ahead.”
MEDIA
Anderson Cooper Burns ‘Moronic’ Michael Cohen Over Russia Cash Claims
CNN host says it doesn’t look good for the rich asshole’s personal attorney.
CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Tuesday struggled to understand reports that Michael Cohen, personal attorney to President some rich asshole, took $500,000 from a firm linked to a Russian oligarch.
“Maybe there’s nothing untoward about it, but it does seem moronic for the president’s personal attorney to be accepting half a million dollars from this Russian oligarch,” Cooper said. “Moronic is the only word that comes to mind. Or nefarious.”
“They’re not mutually exclusive,” Preet Bharara, CNN analyst and former U.S. attorney, replied. “There are nefarious morons as well.”
Both Cooper and Bharara allowed that there could be an innocent explanation for the payments. But, on the face of it, given the circumstances and the timing, Bharara said, “it sure looks might fishy.”
See their full discussion over the allegations, raised earlier in the day by porn actress Stormy Daniels’ attorney Michael Avenatti, in the clip above.
North Korea to release three US citizens: report
North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, pictured in April 2017 (AFP Photo/ED JONES)
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After a successful meeting with President the rich asshole, North Korea is expected to release three U.S citizens being held captive, according to top official Cheong wa Dae.
“We expect him to bring the date, time and the captives,” the official said.
The U.S. citizens will hopefully be released Wednesday. This story is still unfolding.
POLITICS
Michael Cohen Accepted $500,000 From Firm Tied To Russian Oligarch: Reports
Robert Mueller has reportedly interviewed the Russian oligarch about the payments to the rich asshole’s lawyer.
A consulting firm owned by Michael Cohen, an attorney for President some rich asshole, reportedly received payments totaling about $500,000 from the U.S. affiliate of a Russian billionaire’s company.
The payments were first reported by porn actress Stormy Daniels’ attorney Michael Avenatti, who said Tuesday his legal firm had uncovered the transactions. The New York Times later reported on the payments based on interviews and an internal review of financial records. The Daily Beast also said it could confirm Avenatti’s claims, citing an anonymous source.
CNN later reported that special counsel Robert Mueller questioned Viktor Vekselberg, the Russian reportedly behind the payments, about the sums his company’s U.S. affiliate paid to Cohen. As the Times reported last week, Mueller spoke to Vekselberg as part of his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election.
In a tweet, Avenatti said that money from Columbus Nova, the Vekselberg-tied firm, “may have reimbursed” a $130,000 payment Cohen made to Daniels as hush money to keep her from discussing her alleged 2006 affair with the rich asshole.
According to a seven-page summary of Avenatti’s firm’s claims, the payments were sent “within approximately 75 days” of the payment to Daniels (aka Stephanie Clifford). Avenatti’s documents did not provide any sources as to how he obtained that information, but he told MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell on Tuesday night that he had obtained the information after working “diligently for many, many months.”
“We have a lot of tools in our toolbox that we use in connection with our cases,” Avenatti said.
.@MichaelAvenatti tells @Lawrence: This thing’s ugly and it’s gonna get worse for the president and for Michael Cohen. #LastWord
The attorney challenged Cohen to release bank statements related to the payments and accused Cohen’s attorneys of trying to “hide information from the American people.”
“This thing is a pig. They can try to put lipstick on a pig ― tonight, next week, next month ― but it’s still going to be a pig,” Avenatti said. “If there’s nothing to hide here and it’s all above board and it’s all legit, then the documents will prove that out. People lie, documents don’t. Period.”
Avenatti also asked where money that went into Cohen’s consulting firm went, saying in his appearance on MSNBC that he was unsure it would have gone solely to Cohen. He did not specify who else might have been paid.
“We believe that that is really the issue at this point, it’s where did the money go,” he said. “The American people are really smart. This thing stinks.”
Columbus Nova on Tuesday confirmed to The Guardian that it hired Cohen “as a business consultant regarding potential sources of capital and potential investments in real estate” but denied that Vekselberg had anything to do with payments made to the lawyer’s company.
Avenatti’s report also said that Cohen’s company Essential Consulting received payments from AT&T, Novartis and Korea Aerospace Industries LTD in 2017 and 2018. In a statement to HuffPost, AT&T confirmed that it made four payments totaling roughly $200,000 to Essential.
“Essential Consulting was one of several firms we engaged in early 2017 to provide insights into understanding the new administration. They did no legal or lobbying work for us, and the contract ended in December 2017,” AT&T said in a statement.
In a statement to The Guardian, a spokesman for Novartis did not deny Avenatti’s report that it paid Cohen’s company roughly $400,000. “Any agreements with Essential Consultants were entered before our current CEO taking office in February of this year and have expired,” the spokesman said.
An attorney for Cohen, Steve Ryan, told Atlantic reporter Natasha Bertrand that he wouldn’t discuss Avenatti’s claim.
Cohen acknowledged in February that he paid Daniels the $130,000 sum in October 2016 but said that the rich asshole had no knowledge of it. Yet Rudy Giuliani, the former New York City mayor who recently joined the White House legal team, countered that claim in a Fox News interview earlier this month when he said the rich asshole repaid Cohen.
Giuliani sparked more confusion over what he knows in subsequent interviews, adding that he is “not an expert on the facts.”
the rich asshole has continued to deny knowledge of the payment and has said the affair never happened.
Vekselberg, an energy and financial tycoon, is reportedly close to Russian President Vladimir Putin. He was among the 38 Russian oligarchs, government officials and businesses targeted with a new round of sanctions by the rich asshole administration in early April.
This article has been updated with statements from Michael Avenatti on Tuesday night.
the rich asshole sided with DOJ to protect identity of source providing info to Mueller from Nunes’ document request
Rep. Devin Nunes (left, R-CA) and President some rich asshole (right). Images via Creative Commons.
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In a rare move last Wednesday, some rich asshole sided with his Department of Justice—headed by Attorney General Jeff Sessions—against Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA), an ardent supporter of the president who’s made every effort to cast doubt on special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.
As the Washington Post reports, senior FBI and national intelligence officials managed to convince the president and White House associated to withhold information requested by Nunes they feared would jeopardize a top-secret intelligence source.
Top White House officials “were persuaded that turning over Justice Department documents could risk lives by potentially exposing the source, a U.S. citizen who has provided intelligence to the CIA and FBI,” the Post reports.
It is unclear whether the rich asshole was aware that the source has provided information to the Mueller investigation.
Nunes last week threatened to hold Sessions in contempt of Congress over the Justice Department’s refusal of his request, which the Post reports “threatened to cross a red line of compromising sources and methods of U.S. intelligence-gathering.”
At a meeting last week, officials told the rich asshole’s chief of staff, John Kelly, that divulging the information to Nunes “could contradict years of policy about protecting intelligence sources.”
Presidents often reverse foreign policy — but this historian sees danger in the rich asshole’s decision-making style
President some rich asshole (AFP / Mandel NGAN)
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The United States will withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal, according to a May 8 announcement by President some rich asshole. The decision reverses a hardwon agreement that President Barack Obama negotiated with European allies, Russia, Iran and other nations in 2015.
This is hardly the rich asshole’s first foreign policy turnaround.
The president plans to meet with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, something no sitting U.S. president has ever done. He also scrapped the Trans-Pacific Partnership, relocated the American embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and decreed tariffs on imported steel and aluminum.
But is the rich asshole really such an outlier? As a scholar of American foreign policy, I know that many American presidents have reoriented international relations.
Some of those policies succeeded. Many faced opposition. Ultimately, though, my research shows that what matters more to U.S. national security is how those presidents responded when their foreign policy shifts failed.
From Truman to Bush
History has sometimes redeemed foreign policy shifts that seemed radical at first blush.
In 1947, President Harry Truman, a Democrat who stumbled into the presidency when Franklin Roosevelt died in office, asked Congress to authorize major military and economic assistance to Greece, Turkey and other countries where Communism was making inroads.
In the end, the “Truman Doctrine” – which held the U.S. should provide political, military and economic assistance to all nations under threat from authoritarianism – became a cornerstone of U.S. policy.Republicans in Congress, who wanted to enact steep federal budget cuts, opposed Truman’s request. Critics on the left said the U.S. should not assist non-democracies.
Three decades later, President Jimmy Carter paid a steep political price for agreeing to return the Panama Canal – at the time owned and operated by the U.S. – to Panama. Polls showed that a majority of respondents opposed the agreement.
The Senate approved the Panama Treaties by one vote. Several lawmakers who supported Carter subsequently lost their seats. In 1980, California governor Ronald Reagan – who criticized Carter’s return of the canal – handily defeated him for the presidency. Today, it seems logical that the Panama Canal belongs to Panama.
Another major shift in foreign policy occurred in 1989, with the fall of the Berlin Wall. President George H.W. Bush had to decide whether the U.S. should support the reunification of Communist East Germany with democratic West Germany.
European allies, vividly remembering that Germany had caused two global wars earlier that century, objected strenuously to reunification. So did Russian President Mikael Gorbachev. U.S. newspapers editorialized caution.
President Bush prevailed. A single, democratic Germany entered NATO. It is now the leader of democratic Europe.
Carter’s risk-taking
Presidents who upend foreign policy do so for different reasons.
Truman was responding to an international crisis. Carter saw himself as an outsider elected to transform America’s global role. Bush wanted to end the Cold War. Some presidential changes are designed to boost approval with core supporters.
the rich asshole’s own policy shifts are probably driven by a variety of such factors.
Whatever his motivation, in my experience the most critical question now is: What happens if a the rich asshole policy goes badly?
History confirms that the wrong reaction can be dangerous.
Take the Iran hostage crisis of 1979, when some 50 U.S. diplomats were detained at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran hostage.
After diplomatic negotiations failed to obtain their release, President Carter’s advisors presented him with several options, including levying sanctions, blockading Iran or attempting a rescue mission estimated to risk significant casualties.
Carter’s chose the rescue attempt, illustrating a well researched insight into human decision-making: When people experience loss, they will take substantial risks in an attempt to recover.
The Iran hostage rescue mission was aborted almost immediately after several helicopters failed to reach the refueling point. Two other aircraft collided, killing eight men and badly burning four others.
Bush’s escalation
George W. Bush’s behavior during the Iraq War demonstrates another kind of potentially dangerous behavior, called escalation of commitment.
When people find that that their initial idea is not working well, they must either double down or change course. Regardless of how bad the news, many opt to increase their commitment.
By 2006, the U.S. faced losing the war initiated against Saddam Hussein’s regime in 2003. Fifty-seven percent of voters that year disapproved of Bush’s performance. Roughly the same percentage favored withdrawing from Iraq.
Many of Bush’s top military advisors urged him to reduce military involvement in Iraq and turn most combat over to Iraqi forces. Instead, in 2006, he changed his field commander and “surged” U.S. combat troops. The surge achieved some success, but the war continued.
What will the rich asshole do?
I have identified two forces that help presidents avoid these dangerous decision-making behaviors.
The first is strong, independent-minded advisers. During the Cuban missile crisis, when Soviet offensive missiles were discovered in Cuba, President John F. Kennedy faced an agonizing decision. Should he do air strikes, an invasion or a blockade?
More than a dozen Kennedy advisers vigorously debated the strengths and weaknesses of each possible response. Their willingness to criticize, question and speak out may have saved the U.S. from nuclear war.
the rich asshole, on the other hand, famously demands loyalty of his advisers. Those who question his decisions risk losing their position.
Presidents can also avert crises by flexibly responding to changing facts on the ground.
For example, in 1983, President Reagan ordered U.S. Marines to return to an international peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, which had descended into civil war. Reagan thought neutral troops could restore order.
Instead, the Marines became targets. More than 200 died when their barracks were bombed on October 23, 1983. So Reagan recalculated, pulling out U.S. troops.
In the rich asshole’s Iran decision, I perceive an unwillingness to re-evaluate policy choices when outside evidence contradicts his original cost-benefit analysis.
When the rich asshole first threatened to scrap the multinational agreement, he assumed the other signatories would agree to re-impose sanctions on Iran, as the U.S. will.
But European countries strongly oppose that idea. They even said they would refuse to renew their sanctions. Still, the rich asshole’s analysis did not change.
Presidential history strongly warns of danger for this White House. Inevitably, some of this president’s policies will fail. Attempts to save them could take the U.S. down a deadly path.
By Charles Hermann, Senior Professor, and Brent Scowcroft Chair Emeritus, Bush School of Government & Public Service, Texas A&M University
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article
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