132 Comments
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Jennifer Butz's avatar

Does “rapacious greed and covetous gluttony” get us closer to the truth? (Enjoy London!)

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It's Come To This's avatar

"Grotesque, obese, demented pig-fucker slopping at his trough" has my vote, though perhaps the Republican Party might complain of press bias against them... :-)

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Daniel Solomon's avatar

He and his families have allegedly made billiions since the election.

Beyond alleged violations of the emoulments clause is the potential theft of the entire national treasury.

I hope that the Dems are tracking Trump’s financial activities on a daily basis.

I wonder whether a public financial reporting service, a hedge fund, a mutual fund or an ETF tracks Trumps daily actions and invests accordingly.

If so, let the rest of us know……

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Joseph M Becker's avatar

No question but that he alerted his buds, including Injustices Thomas and Alito], of the tariff day so they could short stocks.

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Daniel Solomon's avatar

Thomas and Alito have a duty to report all trades on a monthly basis.

The Trump kids and the others involved don't. Although TMTG has been a loser, according to many sources like CBS News, the Trump family's net worth has increased by $2.9 billion in the last six months, largely due to cryptocurrency investments and ventures like the $TRUMP and $MELANIA meme coins, and a stake in the World Liberty Financial crypto exchange. A Trump business entity owns a 60 percent of World Liberty and is entitled to 75 percent of all revenue from coin sales. Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. are actively involved in the management of the company, and rely on three partners, Zachary Folkman, Chase Herro, and Zach Witkoff to maintain daily operations. Witkoff’s father, Steve, is Trump’s Special Envoy to the Middle East and who has been tasked with negotiating an end to the war in Ukraine, and who reportedly has a relationship with Putin. According to Liza Fokht and Sergei Goryashko, Steve Witkoff returned from Moscow with freed American teacher Marc Fogel, who had been serving a sentence in Russia on drug smuggling charges. The visit kicked off a wider diplomatic process: days later, Trump and Putin held a phone call and began talks on resetting relations and ending the war. Since then, Witkoff has hosted Russian officials in Washington, traveled to Riyadh for negotiations with Russian diplomats, and met Putin a further three times. “At the most recent of these meetings, Witkoff told the Russian president it was “so good” to see him, having previously described Putin as "great leader," a "super smart" man and a politician who seeks "lasting peace” despite the ongoing war.”

What is their trading history?

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Steve 218's avatar

Wonder what the Trump cryptocurrency will be worth when he's defenestrated, hopefully by impeachment. Third time's the charm, and he has ranked up more offences that should make him eligible.

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Grizzly96's avatar

Isn’t it curious that the person appointed to theoretically advance U.S. national interests thinks our murderous international antagonist is a “great leader”. What could possibly go wrong?

Actually, everything will probably go wrong.

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Mwfeiger's avatar

POTUS = Pig Of Treason Unpatriotic Sociopath. I had to resurrect this definition after the 2024 election. I was hoping to keep it shelved permanently.

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patricia's avatar

I was hoping to take down my bannana flag...

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Bobbette Strauss's avatar

Too much of an insult to pigs, imho…

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Stephen Brady's avatar

Perhaps 'ravening'?

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Susan Wladaver-Morgan's avatar

Gluttonous grasping. Shameless simony. Bottomless bribery.

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Bob Egbert's avatar

Yes!

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Science Curmudgeon's avatar

Whatever happened to the fine idea that all elected public officials put their assets into a blind trust that is independently managed? That is not a perfect solution, but it would make the grift more difficult to set up.

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Ellie Alive In 25's avatar

The King of American does not have to do anything like that. He is special. The Supremes said so.

It should be that way...Carter did it the right way.

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Susan Wladaver-Morgan's avatar

That’s just for suckers and losers.

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Grizzly96's avatar

Given the low quality of his base, I think the followers of Putin’s Apprentice vicariously enjoy the grift and corruption. It is just another way for them to put their fingers into the eyes of the educated liberal elite. One needs to remember their hate and resentment has been carefully cultivated by hate talk radio (exemplified by Rush Limbaugh) and Faux News talking heads for 60+ years. There are generations of them.

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Carol Lama's avatar

Jen, another term we can do without is "transactional" to describe the PINO's corrupt dealings. I am so sick of hearing this term because it "sane-ifies" the criminality of what the Felon-in-Chief is being allowed to do by the spineless GOP. The F-I-C's behavior should be called "bullying for bribes" period.

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Steve 218's avatar

That's an excellent point and a another good word to abandon.

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Paul T Shattuck, MSW, PhD's avatar

Excellent post, thank you. The Authoritarian Harm Complex describes the ways authoritarian aggression lands in every day life. One of those is called Narrative and Epistemic Harm: “You don’t know what to say or what’s true. The language you used to trust has been politicized or turned against you. You spend energy adapting your words just to be understood, or to avoid being targeted. Reality feels slippery.”

From “The Harms Are Cumulative. Your Overwhelm Is the Goal. Let’s Get Unstuck

Trump and Musk weaponize chaos to exhaust our capacity for resistance. Recognizing the patterns of harm gives us the framework to protect our humanity and reclaim our strategic power.”

https://paultshattuck.substack.com/p/the-harms-are-cumulative-your-overwhelm

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CE's avatar

Fraud, racket,felony , larceny, embezzlement are good

Heist is good too, all driven by the piggish greed mentioned in the post. That we are mostly sitting by and allowing our elected officials to ignore this speaks poorly for the voters of the United States. Let’s make June 14th a day to remember, with protests that dwarf Trump’s Toy Parade and make those we elected to power positions start worrying about their political futures…..,

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patricia's avatar

this should happen, but lately I fear that many of our fellow citizens have become bad people.

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Stephen Brady's avatar

It is utterly mind-blowing to me that each day he finds some new low to drop to. He spent the weekend denigrating our men and women in the Armed Services and then went to Arlington and made it all about himself. And still found time to golf...

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GlynisMM's avatar

Love the travel monologue along with the political. They are interwoven as we learn more about other cultures. But also a nice diversion of joy that we all need more!

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BROSS's avatar

Yes! And for anyone stateside who would like to see some of Serra's walk-through sculptures, visit Dia Beacon in Beacon, NY!

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Joseph M Becker's avatar

Fortunately, that is not the only Dia.

Our daughter and son-in-law have been to Marfa in TX several times. It basically a place that ‘you can’t get to from here - any ‘here’'.

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Alan Greenstein's avatar

Trump does not even try to hide what he is doing. To him it is a badge of honor to ignore laws and the Constitution. And Republicans dare not question what he is doing.

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Carol Lama's avatar

He calls it "being transparent". All the bribery cannot be corrupt when it's done in full view of the public?

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patricia's avatar

why not when given immunity from the dumb ass sup crt

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Jane in NC's avatar

In their eagerness to hand wave Trump's crypto money grab as 'nothing to see here', Trump and White House may have set themselves up for public corruption charges by claiming this is being done on Trump's 'personal time' and has nothing to do with being president. That claim sets this crypto influence peddling scheme outside of the Supreme Court's [odious] immunity decision because both Trump and White House have made clear this is not an 'official act'.

What's abundantly clear to anyone with eyes to see is that Trump in his second term is ONLY interested in stuffing his pockets with as much cash and other 'gifts' as he can in the next four years.

On the subject of the Qatar's 'gift' of HamasOne to the Department of Defense, though, it's time the Democrats started demanding that Trump prove it by formally, legally relinquishing any personal claim to that plane in perpetuity. Call his freaking bluff. Ask DOD why they need a luxury passenger jet with limited capacity. No foreign government has ever 'donated' anything to our Defense Department before, let alone a $400M aircraft that a president gets to take with him when he leaves office.

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patricia's avatar

biggest piece of bull shit ever seen...in the history of the world

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Margaret Carreiro's avatar

Pirating, rape, plunder and profiteering are better. But "rapacious greed and covetous gluttony", which Jennifer Butz offered is best!

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Susan Wladaver-Morgan's avatar

Presidential plundering

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Diane's avatar

Name of your fave Indian restaurant please? Love the travel journal. Personally I like the word grift-I’ve never had occasion to use it until now (at 69) and it has a John Wayne feel (just got back from my own trip to our glorious Southwest-here’s to you Grand Canyon, Monument Valley, Canyon de Chelly, Mesa Verde, Aztec Ruins, Taos, Santa Fe….)

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Susan Wladaver-Morgan's avatar

He’s also involved with graft as well as grift on a gigantic scale.

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Diane's avatar

100! Have you seen Elle Cordova on alliteration? https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1DpnvDJqGk/

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Diane's avatar

And today’s New Yorker is in on the alliteration “Donald Trump’s Politics of Plunder”

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Tom Podnar's avatar

Could have that John Wayne flavored word calling it True Grift.

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Diane's avatar

😂

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Tom Podnar's avatar

Your experiences sound so good. I can imagine the singing! I personally like the word “bribe”. Simple, direct, and to the point.

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Roger Fradenburgh's avatar

I can see a poster of Trump giving his trademark, smirking thumbs up and captioned, "SLEAZY IS EASY!"

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Jane and Bill Cooper's avatar

Thank you so much for taking the time on your very needed time out to stay abreast of our dire situation and then to give us so much food for the soul. Your very descriptions are so "take me out of our small world". Especially as I will never go across the ocean, but your stories are so needed by this chair side traveler. Thank you again.

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Science Curmudgeon's avatar

How about creating a new title: fraudmeister in chief?

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Susan Fernbach's avatar

I like it. Then we could call his rants FICtion. 😉

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patricia's avatar

I like jailed ex president better...

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Carole Langston's avatar

Republicans must be getting their share of the graft too. Robert's is compliant. No rulings are enforced. That disgusting Memorial Day post! If the Trump-ski Parade-ski can be stopped, I'm hoping he goes apoplectic. 🤞

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Carole Langston's avatar

It was stopped in 2018, someone reminded me.

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