— Financial Times (2017)
What could this mean?
Justice Kennedy’s son was “one of Mr Trump’s most trusted associates over a 12-year spell at Deutsche” Bank (which was fined over $800 million for suspected laundering of Russian money).
For starters, considering that this shady German bank is reportedly part of the Mueller probe Kennedy might have had to recuse himself if a Trump case reached the court. Even without a criminal aspect, recusal could have been necessary if his son was in any way involved in the bank’s massive loans for properties such as Trump’s DC hotel that are targeted in ongoing emoluments cases (illegal profits from foreign sources) now churning their way toward the Supreme Court.
Recusals such as that would mark an embarrassing end to Kennedy’s tenure. Resigning before the issue arose makes sense.
Heck of a way to create a Supreme Court vacancy.
It just gets stranger and stranger doesn’t it?
Kennedy should have recused himself from the Citizens United decision.
Why Justice Kennedy retired could be mundane or could be steeped in fascinating intrigue but the result is still the same. President Trump has another pick. And Ruth Bader Ginsburg is 85, looking like one of those freeze dried Peruvian mummies discovered in the Andes. Tick tick tick, another one may soon bite the dust.
Fun fact: Stephen Breyer is a spry 78.
Give the President credit for stating his (youngish) nominee will be on the court for 40, 45 years. By then odds are I’ll be dead, you’ll be dead & your kids grandparents. The reach of Trump is eternal.
Stunning ties back to Russia and the evergoing Mueller probe. I keep hearing the Mueller investigation will be releasing findings before Labor Day so the hard and fast campaign drives can shift into high gear. It never occurred to me that Anthony Kennedy’s family may be involved in money laundering in great amounts to boot.
I am sure there will be Russian money involved with Mitch, Ryan, Nunes, Rohrabacher, Bernie, Jordan and many other greedy old perverts. Mueller may need to hold off until after the new Congress is sworn in just to make sure his report sees the light of day.
One of the dead in Annapolis is Rob Hiaasen, brother of Carl.
the guardian: Gavin Buckley, the mayor of Annapolis, was distraught in the wake of the mass shooting at his city’s local newspaper, telling the Guardian: “What’s wrong with our society that we’re this tightly wound that you can be this upset at a newspaper that reports stories on cats being stuck up a tree?” [….] To him, the Capital Gazette “reports on our kids’ soccer games and good, local, interesting stuff that we want to hear about” and he could not understand how “that could make someone that hostile”. He said earlier: “This paper is not a liberal newspaper, it’s not a right wing newspaper, it stays in the middle and covers local issues,” he said. Buckley also expressed his concern that it was a targeted attack on the media. “If this is an attack on journalism it is a sad state of affairs,” said the first-term mayor. “Because journalists, you don’t get paid enough to put your life on the line, we’re not in some war zone, we’re not in some third-world country with a dictator. We are in a Mayberry kind of town, we’re in shock we’re going to be grappling with.” Among those connecting the events in Annapolis to Donald Trump’s attacks on the media was David Simon, the creator of The Wire. “Blood today in an American newsroom. Aren’t you proud, you vile, fascist son of a bitch?” Simon wrote on Twitter in response to a February tweet from the president that referred to… Read more »
from MIC:
@mic
This is not a joke: @AlecBaldwin is breaking character and calling on you to help him hold Trump accountable and protect our democracy.
3:40 PM – Dec 7, 2017
This time, Baldwin is asking Americans to text “ACT” to 21333 for updates and actions they can take to stand up to Trump and protect the investigation.
He also calls on the public to visit TrumpCrimesWatch.org, a new campaign dedicated to informing Americans about the Russia investigation which was launched on Thursday by several leading progressive organizations.
couldn’t directly link the new baldwin video (disregard the old one from December quoted above), but the mic link gets you to it.
by now the trolls and malware predators most likely have glommed on to it so beware. as I mentioned before, it’s treacherous anytime I visit an article mentioning manafort, vlad, & twit co.
ny mag: Trump’s Anthony Kennedy Strategy Was Calculated, With None of His Trademark Chaos
[….]
rump officials did not directly pressure Kennedy, and it’s not uncommon for the White House create hospitable conditions for a court opening. In this case, the Trump administration cleverly used the vacancy created by Justice Antonin Scalia’s death to pave the way for a second opening: Trump nominated Neil Gorsuch, Kennedy’s former law clerk, and then flattered the older justice as he was sworn in.
[….]
The White House repeated this tactic after Gorsuch was nominated, informing the media that the runners up were appellate judges Brett Kavanaugh and Raymond Kethledge, both of whom clerked for Kennedy as well. In the meantime, Trump nominated three other former Kennedy clerks to federal appeals courts. And intermediaries told Kennedy that the architect of Trump’s successful push to appoint more conservative judges nationwide, White House Counsel Don McGahn, probably won’t be around after the midterms, which could complicate the next Supreme Court confirmation process.
Trump also used his family to win over Kennedy. For once Don Jr. was a political asset; Kennedy’s son Justin, Deutsche Bank’s global head of real-estate capital markets, knows the younger Trump from his work as a real-estate developer. “Say hello to your boy,” President Trump remarked to Kennedy after delivering his first address to Congress in February 2017. “Special guy.”
[…continues…]
Justice Kennedy’s son was Trump’s “Most Trusted Trader” at Deutsche Bank
Here we go, Putin is getting a naval parade. SFB will want one too. Maybe an aircraft carrier on the Potomac River.
https://twitter.com/pmakela1/status/1012677843124391937
https://twitter.com/pmakela1/status/1012677843124391937
The hell with a swamp… it’a all the effing bayous in Louisiana put together…
This happens after the #TrumpPutinSummit and the deployment of assets will be ongoing immediately after the summit.
I guess they mean SFB
Putin naval parade? They only have one aircraft carrier, which is almost 30 years old. If they didn’t have nukes Putin would get about as much geopolitical attention as Italy, which has a bigger economy (so does California). If Italy tried to annex Liechtenstein, poison their foes and hack Missouri’s ballot boxes I guess they’d get a Trump summit.
Exellent post, Craig. It has been nagging at me ‘why’ Kennedy would retire so quickly before midterms. One more source on the connection, The Independent.
In today’s New York Times, on Trump’s business ties to Kennedy’s son: a connection “Mr. Trump was quick to note in the moments after his first address to Congress in February 2017. As he made his way out of the chamber, Mr. Trump paused to chat with the justice.
“Say hello to your boy,” Mr. Trump said. “Special guy.”
Mr. Trump was apparently referring to Justice Kennedy’s son, Justin. The younger Mr. Kennedy spent more than a decade at Deutsche Bank, eventually rising to become the bank’s global head of real estate capital markets, and he worked closely with Mr. Trump when he was a real estate developer, according to two people with knowledge of his role.
During Mr. Kennedy’s tenure, Deutsche Bank became Mr. Trump’s most important lender, dispensing well over $1 billion in loans to him for the renovation and construction of skyscrapers in New York and Chicago at a time other mainstream banks were wary of doing business with him because of his troubled business history.”
Another detail not in NYT — Justin joined Deutsche in 1998 (was there until 2009), the same year Trump Org first started getting loans from the bank.
Anthony Kennedy is a Republican and a Californian but he is not a liberal Republican and when you examine his overall record he is actually kind of a creepy guy and now all this other stuff is coming out and let’s not forget he gave a personal tour of the court to the Ivanka the queen of the vocal fry and her very young daughter. He likes the Trump family that is enough to disqualify anyone from anything
Also, Trump’s WH counsel and a lawyer on Trump’s private defense team met with Justice Kennedy more than once in recent months. This was shortly after they got access to Michael Cohen’s seized materials. Among his many other duties, Cohen was a go-between for Trump with Deutsche. Not a stretch to imagine that Cohen’s seized records refer to Justin.
The shooting yesterday was a horrible assault on the media and promoted by you know who – the Commander in Chief of Hate.
Also I noticed the police did not kill the murderer I wonder if the outcome would have been different if it was a black teenager with the gun of course there are not too many black people in Annapolis
Mr. Mueller investigation trump inauguration.
Congrussians?
According to a source with knowledge of the congressional investigations, at least one oligarch was ushered into Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol for the traditional Inaugural Day luncheon, hosted by the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies – an event typically out of reach to donors and even most rank-and-file members of Congress.
“It’s incredibly unusual,” said Stephen Kerrigan, who planned the 2009 and 2013 Obama inaugural festivities and said every guest was scrutinized for foreign ties. “Particularly if they were going to be within arm’s reach of the President, they went through an intensive vetting process.”
KGC…milo y-los puts a ‘hit’ on journalists.
The always hypocritical milos and we can’t deport him! Kicked off of twitter, he trolls instagram.
mr. elaine chao should also be under investigation for russian collusion.
From slate
mcconnell, russian asset.
BW
Everytime I read the news I feel like I have to take a shower
Mr Chao ugh What does she see in him…we know she’s rich but what in the world was she thinking
By the way she sucks at her job her idea of promoting transportation is building highways and scuttling public transportation plans along with her pals the Koch brothers
she is the tool she has always wanted to be
Ok the annapolis murderer had a long standing grudge against the newspaper for accurately reporting a story about him and he was clearly emotionally unbalanced and should not have had a gun. Still I think the poisonus atmosphere created by Mr Hate and support of allowing every nutcase tohave a gun led to this
Full text of Trump and Kennedy at 2017 state of union:
VIDEO:
craig, did trail mix email send a message “fight or die” this a.m.? subject title looked strange, scammy-like and
was deleted before being read. all this malware and trolling has got me spooked lately.
korean summit a bust, kim rebuilding nuclear facility.
Although human rights were not mentioned at the summit? kim orders execution of
senior Lieutenant General ‘for giving officer colleagues extra food rations’
bbc:
The UN migration agency’s member states have rejected President Trump’s nominee for director-general, making it only the second time in the agency’s history that it will not be led by an American.
Ken Isaacs, an executive with a Christian charity, was eliminated after three voting rounds, AFP reported.
Mr Trump’s anti-immigration policies, including separating children from parents, have been widely criticised.
The White House has also proposed cutting UN funding.
Mr Isaacs meanwhile has a history of anti-Islam comments.
[…continues…]
The junta is disintegrating as a non-military handlers are taking over. kelly departing soon.
pat, that was an email blast for yesterday morning’s post, all good.
To top it off? The trump slump economy is only benefiting the 1%. Inflation rises as spending slows. The price of gas under trump? Rising and rising. As he says at his rallies, I care about my workers, farmers. Yeah buddy! Feeding billionaires and hanging with dictators, trump is a sellout. Maybe he and putie will escape on a ruskie submarine while in helsinki.
Time for a science break –
Massive Vesta asteroid will be visible to the naked eye.
You can see 4 Vesta every night until July 16 or 17, which means you’ve got just weeks left to catch a glimpse of the asteroid this close to Earth until after the year 2040.
Vesta can currently be seen next to Mars and Saturn in the night sky. For anyone looking for the asteroid in the northern hemisphere, it is northwest of the Sagittarius constellation.
I think the title of this piece needs a correction — Should Kennedy have been forced to resign?
I wonder if he will pay the Annapolis shooter’s legal fees like he said he would.
Look out below…….Carl Hiaasen is about to cut loose.
If I were a reporter that’s exactly what I’d ask him, given the chance, “Are you going to pay the Annapolis shooter’s legal fees like you said you would?”
Apply the full bork press. Demand views on abortion, same sex marriage & adoption, ditto transgender. Demand sworn oath to recuse on any suit involving trump campaign, etc. Find and bring up every ruling that was overturned, and establish a ‘pattern of bias’. Check the name against the list in the Panama Papers, etc.
cbs:
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government released Friday the final list of items that Canada will target beginning July 1. Some items will be subject to taxes of 10 or 25 percent.
The list adds up to about $12.6 billion U.S. of goods — the equivalent of the value of Canadian items hit by U.S. tariffs. U.S. goods taxed include ketchup, whiskey, maple syrup, mattresses, toilet paper, lawn mowers and playing cards, in addition to a number of steel and aluminum items.
Canadian Foreign Minister Chyrstia Freeland said Friday they had no other choice and will not escalate the dispute, but also will not back down. She called the tariffs regrettable.
Anyone here a Joan Didion fan? I’ve been one since my favorite lit professor introduced us. Lately I’ve been wondering whether her premonitions of societal collapse are finally coming true. Would love to ask her.
wapo: OTTAWA — A ketchup war is brewing, and Justin Trudeau is about to step into the middle of it. Representing the United States is Heinz, which put 700 Canadian workers out of work in 2014 when it closed a plant in Canada’s tomato capital, a small southern Ontario town called Leamington. Anger and hand-wringing ensued. Representing Canada is French’s, the mustard-maker, which began producing ketchup in Canada after the Heinz closure. In its bid for Canadian dollars, French’s even put a maple leaf on the bottle. Canadians rejoiced and bought French’s ketchup. And on Sunday — which also happens to be Canada Day — Trudeau’s government is hitting back against the Trump administration’s tariffs on Canadian metals by slapping 16.6 billion in Canadian dollars ($12.6 billion) in tariffs on dozens of American-made products, including Heinz. To mark the occasion, the prime minister will spend part of the day not in the capital but in tomato country, meeting “Canadians and their families” and visiting a food processing plant. The backlash to the Heinz closure began in earnest in 2016 on Facebook, when an Ontario construction worker called on Canadians to start buying French’s ketchup, which was then being made with tomato paste produced by an independent company in the old Heinz plant in Leamington. “Bye. Bye. Heinz” soon attracted tens of thousands of shares on Facebook and lots of media attention. (French’s is in some ways no more Canadian than its rival. It’s now owned by McCormick… Read more »
Craig… I met her briefly many years ago when she received a medal at the McDowell Colony. She’s one of those writers I’ve always meant to read and have never gotten around to it (you know… so many books, only so much time). Now that I know that you’re a Didion fan I will make sure to read something of hers before the year is done. Any recommendations? What’s your favorite?
French’s is making mayo to which they are selling in the US taking on Best Foods/Hellman’s
I think whatever you grew up with is what you like unless it was some tasteless store brand
eh. Bet you did not know that Canadians are hockey, of the six only Detroit and Chicago are American? Or, home of equal marriage? Or, weed for all colours? Or, where the Queen is important, but not the ruler? Or where you can go to Calgary and see some of the best rodeo on Earth?
Canada could be the best place to “visit” for an extended time period if you are older.
RR, her essay and article collections (such as White Album) my favorite. Her observational skills inspired me as a reporter. Don’t think I ever finished any of her novels, although I liked them. And her coverage of El Salvador civil war was as brutal as her subject. Societal collapse was her thing. And nobody nailed Cheney better, her Iraq war writings fabulous. Wish she’d write something now. Only in her early 80s I think.
God, I heard some of SFB’s comments to Aspen while I was running around at lunch today. Barf worthy – and that’s being kind. Delusional is also applicable.
Oh, man.
Talk about taking a load off.
I can’t blame an ovarian cyst.