Back To the Saudis

NYTimes: Trump Spoke Recently With Saudi Leader

NYT: It is not clear what the former president discussed with Prince Mohammed bin Salman, but news of their call came amid Biden administration negotiations with the Saudis over a Middle East peace plan.

This comes amid reporting on the Saudi government intending to work against Biden’s re-election. It also comes as a major Saudi real estate developer has inked a deal with the Trump Organization for a villa and golf project worth $4 billion.

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Author: craigcrawford

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53 thoughts on “Back To the Saudis”

  3. “rich people are getting richer”

    There are some new names on Forbes’s list of the world’s billionaires, the former president spewed racist lies about migrants at a rally in Michigan, and a wide variety of brands are cashing in on the excitement around next week’s total solar eclipse.

  4. kimmel’s take on who’s in the money

    Forbes released a list of all the billionaires in the world, the White House has ordered NASA to create a standard time for the moon, there were Presidential primaries in four states yesterday, tons of people that used to work for Donald Trump think he is unfit for office, Trump is suing the co-founders of his media and technology group, he was in Green Bay last night pushing red hat hysteria about Transgender Day of Visibility landing on Easter, there is a new Mrs. MyPillow Mike Lindell, Sean Hannity treated us to a surprise visit from Mike Tyson, and we head to Hollywood Blvd for a new round of “Which One Doesn’t Belong?”

  5. back to my question about the monitor, there are more than one according to last month’s reports about 

    Judge in Trump’s civil fraud trial imposes monitor to oversee Trump Organization’s finances – ABC News (go.com)

    Effective Thursday, former President Donald Trump’s namesake family real estate company has a babysitter.
    New York Judge Arthur Engoron, who oversaw Trump’s civil fraud trial, imposed a monitor over the Trump Organization as part of a judgment that also required Trump to pay a nearly-half billion dollar penalty.
    Barbara Jones, a retired federal judge, has been overseeing the Trump Organization’s finances since November 2022 as part of a preliminary injunction. She is now installed for the next three years.
    As part of the arrangement, the Trump Organization must open its books to Jones, who has also been given the ability to suggest court-ordered changes in how the Trump Organization operates.
    She must be notified about any large cash transfers, the creation or dissolution of assets, the restructuring of debt and “any efforts to secure surety bonds,” according to Engoron’s order issued Thursday.
    […]
    The imposition of a monitor could limit Trump’s ability to maneuver his money and his physical assets, as he attempts to secure the bond and pay his debts.
    “Defendants shall not evade the terms of this Monitorship Order by transferring assets, reincorporating existing business entities in other forms or jurisdictions, modifying entity ownership, or any other form of restructuring or change in corporate form,” Engoron said in his order.

  7. Quite the read here, if you can handle some scary stuff…

    How Steve Bannon Leads The MAGA Movement’s Ground War to End Democracy

    “Lenin wanted to destroy the state, and that’s my goal too. I want to bring everything crashing down and destroy all of today’s establishment.” — Steve Bannon

    From a new book, ‘The MAGA Movement’s Ground War to End Democracy’: “When Bannon watched Trump glide down a golden escalator to announce his campaign for president, in 2015, his first thought was, “That’s Hitler!” By that he meant someone who intuitively understood the aesthetics of power, as in Nazi propaganda films. He saw in Trump someone who could viscerally connect with the general angst that Bannon was roiling and make himself a vessel for Americans’ grievances and desires.”

    free link —
    https://wapo.st/4am6Tnp

  8. I watched the Israeli guy on MoJo this morning and the parallels between him as a Netanyahoo apologist and Dumbass defenders like Lindsey and Mikey are inescapable.  Deny the errors, put off any investigation into them to some time in the future that will never occur, yada, yada.

  9. Saudi government intending to work against Biden

     
    So, nine years now of Trump’s presidential-level treason and corruption has weakened the U.S. to the point where our elections are sitting ducks for any foreign entity that wants to take a shot. 

  10. And speaking of Israeli denial. Wapo.

    IN ISRAEL’S WAR AGAINST HAMAS RULE, GAZANS GO HUNGRY, AID GROUPS RETREAT
    JERUSALEM — There is no drought in northern Gaza. No natural disaster or crop failure. Yet in less than six months of war it has been pushed to the cusp of famine, a process that usually unfolds over years.
    “Never before have we seen such rapid deterioration into widespread starvation,” Sally Abi Khalil, Oxfam’s regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, said last month.
    The enclave’s headlong descent into hunger has happened in tandem with Israel’s destruction of Hamas’s de facto state. Israel’s inability to institute an alternative system of civilian rule — as well as its attacks on local grass-roots initiatives — has resulted in the breakdown of Gaza’s typically tightknit society, making it virtually impossible for aid groups to safely carry out their work.
    International aid efforts were dealt a further blow this week when an Israeli airstrike killed seven workers from World Central Kitchen. Israel said the attack was “a mistake” and vowed a swift investigation. WCK and at least two other humanitarian groups have now suspended their operations in Gaza.
    The Washington Post spoke to Palestinian businessmen, residents, clan leaders and aid officials about the deepening security crisis — which has left Israel with few options to restore order, aid groups unable to protect their workers, and desperate families to fend for themselves.
    More than 1 million people face catastrophic levels of hunger and starvation between now and July, according to the world’s leading body on food emergencies. Doctors and health officials say children have already begun to die of malnutrition.
    Israel has denied restricting the flow of aid and has downplayed the hunger crisis. Elad Goren, head of the civil department for COGAT, the Israeli agency that oversees the Palestinian territories, told reporters on March 14: “There is no starvation; there are challenges to accessibility.” He blamed food shortages on Hamas diverting aid and on sluggish humanitarian agencies.
    After the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel on Oct. 7, Israel imposed a complete siege on Gaza. Under American pressure, it allowed aid groups to resume their work, but onerous inspection procedures and the chaos of the battlefield made it difficult and dangerous work. On the best days, about 200 trucks have entered Gaza, a territory that received about 500 each day before the war. During some days in February, the number of trucks dropped to single digits.
    […]

    Nettyhoo’s plan to reduce Gaza to rubble and to keep it going to keep his own ass out of his legal problems is all too transparent. The answer to every call for a change in direction – from military tactics, addressing military mistakes and even holding early elections is “Not until the war is over (and it ain’t over until I tell you it’s over).”

    In fairness, there are certainly two sides to this problem, and Hamas certainly bears an immense amount of the blame for the war, after all, they did start it by attacking, raping and taking hostage Israelis and refusing to release them.  However, the “turn it to dust” approach and failure to protect civilians is IMHO largely the fault (plan) of Netanyahu and his compliant ruling coalition. 

    I’m hoping that the conversation between Biden and ‘yahu today ends with a “no more arms until you stop killing the civilian population in Gaza while you destroy any semblance of habitability in the Gaza strip.”

  11. NY man arrested for threatening Letitia James and Judge Engoron

    Sent text messages threatening “lethal force” if they seized Trump’s assets. 
     
    Charged with two counts of Making a Terroristic Threat and two counts of Aggravated Harassment in the Second Degree. If convicted, Vogel could face a maximum of seven years in prison.
     

     

  12. Rotten maga sunny beach.
    Lock him up toot sweet and fourth whiff. 
    Tooty Max.

    You know, if I were a magat who had spent a lot of time hollering “Lock her up!” back a ways, but then I happen to, by paying even the tiniest bit of attention, see that the greatest number of those actually being locked up were a bunch of magat fools; well, that would be quite enough to convince me to shut my stupid mouth and concentrate on backyard grilling hot dogs and swilling beer. But, of course I’m just a regular fool and not a magat fool.

  13. Gee, I wonder where the dipshit got the idea he could make such a threat against the judge and prosecutor in the state’s lawsuit against Dumbass without suffering any consequences?

  14. That guy threatening judges is exactly the kind of doofus fool who was convinced by the southern slaveholders to put on a stupid gray uniform and go out and get his ass shot to pieces at Shiloh, Antietam, Fredericksburg, and all the other battlefields MOSTLY IN THE SOUTH.  
    Shouldn’t humans be just a TINY bit smarter after all these centuries?

    Pogeaux…… by TEXT MESSAGE! LOL

    Ducking Fumbass.

  15. BTW, Jennifer Rubin shares my opinion about Nettyhu.

    ISRAEL IS AT A CRISIS POINT: THE WORLD HAS HAD ENOUGH

    Israel’s strikes killing seven World Central Kitchen personnel, who were working for José Andrés’s nonprofit to feed the hungry in Gaza, were, by Israel’s account, a mistake. Saying that, however, does not absolve the country of responsibility for the latest tragedy in a war that has killed nearly 200 aid workers. Plainly, Israel has failed to construct or observe adequate rules of deconfliction to protect humanitarian aid workers.

    Moreover, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s statement that, in essence, mistakes happen in war is utterly insufficient — and revealing of his utter tone-deafness. Innocents do get killed — which is precisely why you want to avoid wars, carve out safe passage for innocents including humanitarian relief workers and make every effort to bring conflicts to a negotiated end.

    “Several humanitarian groups said Tuesday that they would suspend their operations in Gaza after seven World Central Kitchen workers were killed in an Israeli strike, threatening already precarious deliveries to the aid-starved enclave,” The Post reported. “The strike sent shock waves through the international aid community. WCK and at least two other groups said they would pause their operations in Gaza.”
    …
    A war launched for self-defense can lose legitimacy if the means of fighting violate international norms. Andrés’s plea for Israel to “stop restricting humanitarian aid, stop killing civilians and aid workers, and stop using food as a weapon” will resonate with many Americans. Accordingly, Israel cannot continue to fight for diminishing returns if it is not willing or able to protect innocents.

    Israel seems to be wearing out the patience of even the Biden administration, arguably the most pro-Zionist in history. (Matters have gotten so bad that, before the latest strike, even Netanyahu’s BFF, former president Donald Trump, was telling Israel to wrap up the war.) The Times of Israel quotes an anonymous U.S. official furious that adequate measures to coordinate with aid workers are “only being put in place now.” Indeed, even in Israel there is recognition that not enough has been done. An Israeli official told the Times of Israel, “Soldiers are operating under immense pressure in very difficult conditions in which Hamas embeds itself within the civilian population, but the rules of engagement are designed to help deal with such conditions, and they’re too often being ignored.”

    White House spokesman John Kirby was remarkably blunt. “We were outraged to learn of an IDF strike that killed a number of civilian humanitarian workers yesterday from the World Central Kitchen, which has been relentlessly working to get food to those who are hungry in Gaza,” he said on Tuesday. Expressing “hope” that the investigation’s results would be made public, Kirby declared, “This incident is emblematic of the larger problem and evidence of why distribution of aid in Gaza has been so challenging. But beyond the strike, what is clear is that the IDF must do much more to improve deconfliction processes so that civilians and humanitarian aid workers are protected.”

    The combination of domestic and international pressure, not to mention scorching criticism from hostage families and even the Israel Defense Forces, has not yet forced Netanyahu from power.

    However, in a dramatic move, opposition war cabinet member Benny Gantz called for elections in September. That might accelerate pressure on Netanyahu to depart. (Netanyahu’s statements concerning the necessity of a Rafah operation — with no concrete plans provided to the United States on its execution, according to the administration — increasingly sound like a political strategy to raise the Biden administration’s ire, force Netanyahu’s right-wing partners to circle the wagons and extend the war indefinitely.)
    …
    In any event, the pressure from within Israel and the international community certainly has intensified on the besieged, overwhelmingly unpopular prime minister, who is also on trial on corruption charges. The vise must get tighter and opposition more dramatic — for instance, a national strike, a major IDF resignation, a threat to cut off U.S. military aid — if Netanyahu is to depart sooner rather than later. Put differently, only when consensus builds that he represents an existential threat to Israel will there be enough pressure to force him out during wartime.

    When Netanyahu finally does depart, Israel will be left more isolated, unstable and bereft of goodwill than at any point in its history. It might take decades to recover from Netanyahu’s legacy.

    The opinion of an observant Jewish writer from New York probably means a little more than that of a lapsed whited Christian.

  16. Sturg, it’s good to know that abject stupidity is more widely distributed than just throughout the South. Well, kinda, anyway.

  17. “The South” has now infected the whole freaking country.  Witness all those fools countrywide running around waving a bastardized version of Gen Lee’s battle flag.   

    HOW THE SOUTH WON THE CIVIL WAR, Oligarchy, Democracy, and the Continuing Fight for the Soul of America
    Book by Professor Heather Cox Richardson

  19. Kari Lake and Roseann Barr? That makes sense. I’m convinced that there’s really no upper limit to crazy.  At least she’s not touring, and the last tour I saw mentioned was 4 years ago, with Andrew Dice Clay.  Whole lotta crazy on that tour.

  20. When you can drive thru the Catskills and spot confederate flags all over the place, you KNOW the south is like an infection.   

    And, carry The South to its natural conclusion and Whaddya get?
    Nazi flags.

  21. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/nebraska-legislators-buck-trump-blocking-electoral-college-vote-change-rcna146321

    “On Tuesday, Trump and Nebraska GOP Gov. Jim Pillen called on state legislators to take steps that would implement a winner-take-all system. Less than 24 hours later, the legislation, which had once seemed to be all-but-forgotten, came roaring back to life.”

    “Republican state Sen. Julie Slama had offered the electoral bill’s legislative text as an amendment to existing legislation, the quickest pathway to get a vote on the proposal.”

    “Lawmakers have repeatedly tried to change the state’s Electoral College allocation, failing narrowly in 2016. Lippincott introduced the latest legislative proposal last year; it received little attention until this week when GOP personality Charlie Kirk raised the issue on his podcast.”
     

    “Nebraska currently doles out three of its five electoral votes to the presidential candidate who wins each of its three congressional districts. In practice, that puts the competitive 2nd District in the Omaha area in play, even though Republicans typically win the statewide vote easily.”

    “Nebraska legislators on Wednesday night blocked a late effort to change how the state allocates its Electoral College votes, despite public pressure from former President Donald Trump to shift to a winner-take-all system that would likely benefit him in the fall.”
    “The measure fell short, 8-36, in a procedural vote.”

    “Shortly before Wednesday night’s vote, Slama said on the floor that she could “read the writing on the wall.” She went on to blast her fellow Republicans for not supporting the measure, arguing that their vote against the “germaneness” of the amendment was a repudiation of the winner-take-all system itself. She also blamed them for not prioritizing the legislation when it was introduced more than a year ago and paying lip service to the proposal.”
     

    Omaha.  It’s the Detroit of Nebraska.  Republicans are doing their best (worst?) to disenfranchise non-white voters.
     
    What do folks think would happen if, heaven forbid, Orange Adolf were to get into the WH, again?   Republicans are openly discussing taking away the voting rights of women.  
     
     

  22. Let us hope life does not imitate art. I’m not sure if this doesn’t just embolden the MAGAts. I was offered a free pass to see it in the theater, but the trailer was more than enough for me.

    *Civil War* (A24’s version)

  23. Did Saudis invest/funnel money to DWAC for the ~truth~ social merger? 

    Did it just come from the usual suspects/US billionaires?

  25. If talking was fighting they’d be kicking ass right now instead of getting locked up.  

  26. Biden urges Netanyahu for an immediate ceasefire after World Central Kitchen deaths | AP News

    WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday that future U.S. support for the Gaza war depends on new steps to protect civilians and aid workers.

    Biden and Netanyahu spoke by phone days after Israeli airstrikes killed seven food aid workers in Gaza and added a new layer of complication in the leaders’ increasingly strained relationship.

    “He made clear the need for Israel to announce and implement a series of specific, concrete, and measurable steps to address civilian harm, humanitarian suffering, and the safety of aid workers,” the White House said in a statement following the leaders call. “He made clear that U.S. policy with respect to Gaza will be determined by our assessment of Israel’s immediate action on these steps.”

    Biden, a Democrat, also told Netanyahu that an “immediate ceasefire is essential” and urged Israel to reach deal “without delay,” according to the White House.

  27. repeat for emphasis:

    Biden, a Democrat, also told Netanyahu that an “immediate ceasefire is essential” and urged Israel to reach deal “without delay,” according to the White House.

     

    give ’em hell, joe

  28. Biden presses Netanyahu toward cease-fire deal, warns of change in US policy | The Hill

    […]

    The White House said Biden “underscored that an immediate ceasefire is essential to stabilize and improve the humanitarian situation and protect innocent civilians, and he urged the Prime Minister to empower his negotiators to conclude a deal without delay to bring the hostages home.”

    […]

    Kirby said Thursday that Biden was “shaken” by the attack on the World Central Kitchen convoy, though he noted there had been other incidents involving humanitarian workers. He said there had been growing frustration over relations with Netanyahu.

    But Kirby on Thursday told reporters there must be “tangible steps” from Israel to increase the flow of aid into Gaza and to mitigate risks for civilians, or the U.S. would change its approach.

    “I’m not going to preview any potential policy decisions coming forward,” Kirby said. “What we want to see are some real changes on the Israeli side, and you know, if we don’t see changes from their side there will have to be changes from our side.”

    […]

    Kirby said there’s been growing frustration on the part of Biden given that his previous messaging to Netanyahu has not gotten through. 

    “Yes, there’s been growing frustration,” he said in response to a reporter’s question. 

    Vice President Harris, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan were also on Thursday’s call, Kirby said, though the conversation was between Biden and Netanyahu. The call lasted about 30 minutes.

    [continues]

  29. bibi, listen up if you know what’s good for ya

    Kirby on Thursday told reporters there must be “tangible steps” from Israel to increase the flow of aid into Gaza and to mitigate risks for civilians, or the U.S. would change its approach.

    “I’m not going to preview any potential policy decisions coming forward,” Kirby said. “What we want to see are some real changes on the Israeli side, and you know, if we don’t see changes from their side there will have to be changes from our side.”

     

  30. Afternoon quiz.  Who said the following about who?

    He is a lowlife who is nasty, rude, and condescending, and obviously trying to ‘play the ref.

     

  31. https://wck.org/news/idf-investigation

    “WCK calls for independent investigation into IDF strikes”
     
     
    “This was a military attack that involved multiple strikes and targeted three WCK vehicles. All three vehicles were carrying civilians; they were marked as WCK vehicles; and their movements were in full compliance with Israeli authorities, who were aware of their itinerary, route, and humanitarian mission.”

    “We have asked the governments of Australia, Canada, the United States of America, Poland, and the United Kingdom to join us in demanding an independent, third-party investigation into these attacks, including whether they were carried out intentionally or otherwise violated international law.”

     
    ”Yesterday, to ensure the integrity of the investigation, we asked the Israeli government to immediately preserve all documents, communications, video and/or audio recordings, and any other materials potentially relevant to the April 1 strikes.”

  32. https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/04/politics/trump-judge-aileen-cannon-classified-documents-jack-smith/index.html

    “Judge Cannon rejects a bid by Trump to dismiss criminal charges in classified documents case”

     
    “…argued that he had the authority to take classified or sensitive documents with him after he left the White House.”

    “The short order from US District Judge Aileen Cannon on Thursday leaves open the possibility that Trump could still use the argument to defend himself at trial.”

    “Cannon, in the new order, pushed back on special counsel Jack Smith’s request that she make a final ruling on whether the theory can be used at trial, so that prosecutors could appeal to the 11th Circuit. She said that “demand” was “unprecedented and unjust.”

    “There are still more than a dozen outstanding motions for Cannon to decide, including several other motions to dismiss the case.”
     
    …and she is gonna take her sweet time.  Delay, delay, delay.

  33. According to the ABA a 2020 federal appeals court Freedom of Information Act case, New York Times v. CIA, underscored that in all cases, a formal procedure is required so governmental agencies know with certainty what has been declassified and decisions memorialized. “Declassification cannot occur unless designated officials follow specified procedures,” the court said. Ironically enough it had to do with Dumbass and one of his ill-advised tweets about a program of “massive, dangerous, and wasteful payments to Syrian rebels fighting Assad”. The man could fuck up a one car motorcade.

    I’ve briefly skimmed the PRA and I do not see in it where it gives the president the authority to declassify classified information. That may be in some other Act or regulation, but I see only a requirement that the president maintain information subject to the PRA and to segregate it from personal records. I’ll take a closer look, though.

  34. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/03/trump-media-es-family-trust-2022-loans
    “Donald Trump’s social media company Trump Media managed to go public last week only after it had been kept afloat in 2022 by emergency loans provided in part by a Russian-American businessman under scrutiny in a federal insider-trading and money-laundering investigation.”
     
    “Trump Media almost did not make it to the merger after regulators opened a securities investigation into the merger in 2021 and caused the company to burn through cash at an extraordinary rate as it waited to get the green light for its stock market debut.”
     
    “The situation led Trump Media to take emergency loans, including from an entity called ES Family Trust, which opened an account with Paxum Bank, a small bank registered on the Caribbeanisland of Dominica that is best known for providing financial services to the porn industry.”
     
    “Through leaked documents, the Guardian has learned that ES Family Trust operated like a shell company for a Russian-American businessman named Anton Postolnikov, who co-owns Paxum Bank and has been a subject of a years-long joint federal criminal investigation by the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) into the Trump Media merger.”
     

    “The new details about the trust are drawn from documents including: Paxum Bank records showing Postolnikov having access to the trust’s account, the papers that created the trust showing as its settlor a lawyer in St Petersburg, Russia, and three years of the trust’s financial transactions.
    The concern surrounding the loans to Trump Media is that ES Family Trust may have been used to complete a transaction that Paxum itself could not.”

    “Paxum Bank does not offer loans in the US as it lacks a US banking license and is not regulated by the FDIC. Postolnikov appears to have used the trust to loan money to help save Trump Media – and the Truth Social platform – because his bank itself could not furnish the loan.”

    It’s a long story; an interesting read if you have the time.

  36. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/04/trump-media-stock-russia-links
     
    “Democratic groups escalated calls on Thursday for Congress to investigate Donald Trump’s social media company Trump Media after reports that it relied partly on emergency loans in 2022 traced back to a Russian-American under federal criminal investigation to make it to its stock market debut.”
     
    “In a three-page letter on Thursday, the Democratic-aligned group Congressional Integrity Project pressed the Republican House oversight chair, James Comer, to launch a parallel congressional investigation into the Trump Media merger and hold hearings into the nature of the loans.”
     
    “We are calling on you to investigate possible influence peddling and corruption involving a former president and current presidential candidate,” wrote the Congressional Integrity Project’s executive director, Kyle Herrig.
     
     
     
    “The American people deserve to know the circumstances around ES Family Trust’s loan to Trump,” Herrig wrote. “It is also imperative to determine whether there was any quid pro quo discussed.”

    “In addition, Postolnikov’s connection to the loans raised new questions about the involvement of Michael Shvartsman, who pleaded guilty with his brother to securities fraud weeks before he was due to go to trial on charges of insider trading and money laundering over the Trump Media merger.”

    “The Guardian reported that the creation papers for ES Family Trust named Shvartsman as a successor trustee. ES Family Trust stands to gain from the Trump Media merger because the $8m was loaned in the form of convertible notes, meaning it converted to a stake in the post-merger company.”

  37. And for something different – do a YouTube search for inflatable tent.  Glamping is so different from sixty plus years ago.  No sleeping in a pup tent, without a floor.  Now fire stoves to heat a tent that is like an apartment.
     
     

  39. Author of the Day:
    VAN LOON’S GEOGRAPHY, by Hendrik Willem van Loon
    And others.  

  51. i was wondering if humanity will ever have another hippie movement while there’s still some nature to get back to 🤔 
     
    Updated style standards now permit ending sentences with prepositions, not crazy about it either, adapt or perish 🤷‍♂️ 

  52. You just can’t beat Ray. 

    Been a double doozie day for dumbass. This morning Cannon was a respected jurist. Let’s see how that ages.

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