Ah ha, the table in the Tweet makes your point clear. Looks like the Trump Hotels were laundering campaign funds used to pay the hush money.

It sure doesn't seem like a coincidence.

Ever since this story broke, I can't stop humming Stormy Weather.

Yes! And this little ditty too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18Sua_QTDs0

Right- Austria! I should never trust my memory of dialog I haven't heard in decades!

I've used Martin's line: "Damn your drunk tests are hard!" too many times to count.

three years of nursery school and you think you know it all.

The missing 23 cents is from the last big mac run.... these lawyer types never like to carry coins.

If this tweet holds up, Cohen's meltdown on National TV makes more sense...he is in a heap of legal trouble and will have a lot of legal bills. It would have been cheaper if Cohen had just paid the 130K out of his own pocket. Another mystery: 23 cents seems to be missing. :)

Ever since this story broke, I can't stop humming Stormy Weather.

I've seen pics of electronic bracelets. They look bulky - tamper resistant shackle, electronics and batteries. I don't think you could wear a pair on the same ankle. I wonder if Manafort has had to learn to walk a bit bow legged so he doesn't click and clack as he shuffles about the house. This might be termed "detainee tap dancing" - although I can't imagine too many other detainees have ever sported two e-bracelets simultaneously.

Susan Simpson
?@TheViewFromLL2

Something I'd love to see a reporter ask Trump Org about:

1) Cohen formed EC LLC on Oct 17 2016
2) The contract provided for EC LLC to pay Stormy $130K by Oct 27 2016
3) Between Oct 17 & Oct 25, the Trump campaign made payments to Trump Org properties that add up to $129,999.72.

4:08 PM - 7 Mar 2018

Susan Simpson
?@TheViewFromLL2

Update: On Oct. 26th – 1 day after the Trump campaign completed a series of disbursements to Trump Org hotels that totaled $130K – the bank emailed Cohen at his http:// trumporg.com account to confirm the $130K for Stormy's settlement had been deposited.

Helluva coincidence.

9:58 AM - 9 Mar 2018

https://twitter.com/TheViewFromLL2/status/971538152367251457

________________

My, oh my. If this has legs... that's Trump campaign money being laundered. Operative words being "if this has legs." :)

Paul Manafort gets matching ankle bracelets. :)

Rude pundit makes a very good point.
Rude verisimilitude. :)

The only thing the GOP appears to be consistent in is hypocrisy - everything else - every single stated principle or belief - seems to be expendable when expedient on a minute by minute basis.

That's pretty much how I feel. As I said already in [10], I'm over the hypocrisy that hamstrung Obama for eight years. The GOP can't even be consistently pious anymore. I understand that they're looking forward to a new round of budget cuts this year (while they still have the votes), which will put them in a position of taking two positions at once: that deficits don't matter (on taxes, military) and that deficit spending is bad (on Democratic-sponsored programs). It's when they start crying crocodile tears about the 'future of the children' that I start throwing things at the TV.

But here's the deal, you convenient moralists of the right: Most of us on the left don't give a shit about politicians who consensually fuck other adults. Let 'em fuck. Let 'em fuck in marriage, out of marriage, while married to other people. Let 'em fuck people of the opposite sex, people of the same sex, L's, G's, B's, T's, Q's, whoever. Fuck away. Fuck porn stars. Fuck waiters. Fuck bus drivers. Fuck doctors. Fuck and fuck and fuck.

What we have a problem with is that the right decided to be hypocritical assholes about the fucking. We might not care about Trump's porn star fucking. We sure as hell care if he is open to blackmail. We sure as hell care if he misused campaign funds to keep the porn star quiet. You're the ones who are supposed to care about who's fucking who. That's one of the big things the "culture war" you started was about.

For some of us, it goes back to the moment when Bill Clinton had to sit there on 60 Minutes in January 1992, Hillary by his side, and apologize for his affair with Gennifer Flowers...

Now, we have to sit here and watch Republicans contort themselves to defend Donald Trump, a man who fucked around on his first wife with the woman who became his second and bragged about it; a man who fucked around on his second wife with multiple women, as he himself told a newspaper; a man who fucked around with other women during his third marriage, including fucking Stormy Daniels shortly after his third wife gave birth to his fifth child. And the very groups, indeed, the very individuals that condemned Bill Clinton (and Barack Obama, as loyal a family man as may have ever held the presidency) gladly say that they give Trump a "pass" or a "mulligan" on his affairs because he's a "changed" person now.

Bill Clinton fucking apologized. Bill Clinton fucking went to church all the time. Donald Trump has never apologized, never admitted wrongdoing, and never goes to church. If you condemned Bill Clinton but have no problem with Trump, fuck you in every hole you have and in a few that you don't.

He goes on to talk about RW hysteria over LBGTQ folks, and how the Bible has almost nothing about homosexuality in it, BUT HAS A LOT ABOUT ADULTERY. Including a commandment.

You get it, conservatives? Over here on the promiscuous left, most of us think fucking should be a blessing. We think condemning people for fucking is bullshit. We're consistent in that belief.

The defining characteristic of what is laughingly referred to as "contemporary conservatism" is a shameless hypocrisy that shows there are no core beliefs to it beyond rank racism, sleazy sexism, and corrupt capitalism.

http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2018/03/note-to-republicans-its-not-sex-its.html

The tariffs are getting walked back as reality sinks in...maybe the direct talks will be scaled back to an exchange of fruit baskets.

Mmmmmmm... nanners. :p

"I’m going to surround myself only with the best and most serious people," Trump told Robert Costa in a phone interview at the time. "We want top of the line professionals."

... regardless of whose Country they represent ;)

My worry is that 2-way negotiations between the US and N. Korea are, at best, pointless cosmetics and at worst calamitous.

Kim Jung Un and his family are living well as a klepto-dynasty securely propped up by neighbors China and Russia. China Russia both find this useful for their own geopolitical purposes. "Nice little economy you have there S. Korea." say Russia and China. "Pity if something should happen to it." Korean War II is that something. The situation basically a stalemate, and is likely to be so unless one of parties chooses to do something really stupid. Don and are the biggest stupids in the game.

The best outcome I can envision from a 2 way talk is that neither Trump or "King" Jung Un do anything really stupid. Given this payoff matrix, don't play the game!

Michael Cohen, Trump's lawyer who took it upon himself to pay the porn star $130,000 for no particular reason whatsoever since Trump maintains that the affair never took place {sarcasm now off} used his Trump Organization email while arranging to transfer money into an account at a Manhattan bank.

https://tinyurl.com/ycd2s6fb

Oopsie.

By itself, this issue is rather just another brick in a big wall of bullshit people already knew about Trump... BUT... and where Trump is concerned it's a really big but... taken together with all of the other evidence of using LLCs in order to move funds, coverup misdeeds, hide assets, and launder money from foreign bank accounts, it is a rather damning brick that proves a pattern which serves as a road map for Mueller. :)

No?? Of course not.. :^/

Wow! You got me on that one! Oh, wait....No, no you didn’t! I wasn’t making a claim, I was clearly stating a hypothesis. We know this because I started the statement with,

“I’m guessing...”

Boo hoo! Swing and a miss, once again!

My worry is that both think they have on and are expecting the other to apologize and back down. The resulting temper tantrums on both sides when they encounter reality may well be problematic.

Personally (and this is NOT investment advice, just a joke) I'd short South Korean stocks just before the meeting.

I'll give him as much credit Michale as you condemn him for the drop in wage growth from 2.9% to 2.6%.

Something else ya'all won't give President Trump credit for...

"The second argument is even stronger, legally: Trump/Dennison didn't actually sign the agreement, therefore the contract was never actually completed legally and does not actually exist."

Logically speaking, you would think so. Only a small minority of the parade of legal experts interviewed by the Mass Media think lack of a Trump signature invalidates the nondisclosure agreement. The majority viewpoint of (what I've sampled) is that a signature of a Trump lawyer with a power of attorney on the agreement is sufficient. Contract law is apparently much more loosey-goosey than criminal law.

One lawyer consensus did emerge: Never, ever willingly accept an offer that includes binding arbitration of disputes.

Ya'all are just trying to tear President Trump down because even the liberal MSM is singing the grand praises of President Trump... :D

So, the same Democrats who howled and bitched and moaned at the Ken Starr process will be cheering on the exact same process, right??

Like I said.. Breath taking hypocrisy that knows no bottom depth of depravity...

:^/

Any FACTS to support your claims??

No?? Of course not.. :^/

And in the realm of Republican/Rightwing "christian" hypocrisy, this little episode would be breath-taking if we had any breath left.

Yea, cuz everyone knows that Democrat/Left Wingers would NEVER abuse NDAs, right? :^/

Once again, the hypocrisy is BREATH TAKING in it's depth and depravity.. :^/

This must be great for the meme generators.

Where are the so-called 'family values' Republicans?

When did the deficit hawks leave the GOP fold?

Have Free Market Republicans also left the building?

And when did the 'national security' republicans run for cover, where they're apparently refusing to take phone calls?

My brother has a great theory: they must be very quietly migrating over to the Democratic fold, in the voting booths anyway. It would explain a lot.

I wonder if Trump signed the pre-nup?

She’d had left him long ago if he failed to sign it! I’m guessing that he pretty much owns her. I’d bet money that she is prevented from filing for divorce from him. She’d probably lose any claim to all of his assets and be hit with millions in fines for violating their contract.

I'll bet you Melania checked today.

I saw a piece somewhere awhile back calling for an end to non-disclosure agreements and I agree with the idea. It is the means by which the rich and powerful - people/corporations - get away with so many things for so long. Yes, the "victim" gets money, but the perp gets cover and deniability, which enables him/them to go out and behave badly again.

And in the realm of Republican/Rightwing "christian" hypocrisy, this little episode would be breath-taking if we had any breath left.

One almost has to feel sorry for Melania, but then on the other hand, she surely must have known what she was getting in for marrying a person with his history.

The other remarkable thing the "Stormy saga" has done, is push stories that if this was a dem administration would be being blared from the top of the right wing media mountains right out of the news cycle after one blip.

Just in the past week we have an EPA appointee being allowed to "moonlight" for secret clients, Good ole' Kelly Anne being found in violation of the Hatch act, Zinke spending 139k on an office door, just to name a few.