Wily WhiteHouse Wednesday

[BicycleBride]

May 9, 2018 12:41:54 GMT -5 bowies said:

I realize $1.2M is probably pocket change for Novartis but do they actually think we will buy that explanation?

I don’t think they expect it to convince anyone who wouldn’t be convinced by whatever they said. They could have said “We heard he was having leg cramps so we sent him the money so he could buy more bananas” and a similar portion of the population would have said “seems legit!”

[Pom]

This talks a bit about where Avenatti may have gotten the Cohen bank docs and other questions about the information released yesterday:

www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/seven-questions-answered-about-those-payments-to-michael-cohen

[MrsAxilla]

May 9, 2018 12:43:46 GMT -5 miniroller said:

May 9, 2018 12:41:54 GMT -5 bowies said:

I realize $1.2M is probably pocket change for Novartis but do they actually think we will buy that explanation?

Unfortunately, I think we all know a certain faction of the country who will, indeed, gobble it right up😏

Can we PLEASE as a board knock it off with this sentiment? Every single post has comments like this. It's so obvious it's not worth mentioning, and the constant focus is self-defeating. I don't give a shit what they think, and I'd rather spend my energy on crushing the midterms and making them utterly irrelevant.

[bex]

May 9, 2018 13:14:11 GMT -5 MrsAxilla said:

May 9, 2018 12:43:46 GMT -5 miniroller said:

Unfortunately, I think we all know a certain faction of the country who will, indeed, gobble it right up😏

Can we PLEASE as a board knock it off with this sentiment? Every single post has comments like this. It's so obvious it's not worth mentioning, and the constant focus is self-defeating. I don't give a shit what they think, and I'd rather spend my energy on crushing the midterms and making them utterly irrelevant.

And, it does matter.

We don't know what element or scandal is going to turn a Trump voter towards the Democrats. But everyone has a tipping point and we don't know what it is for many people.

I know I've shared this before, but H's uncle has probably voted R for the past 20 years (probably voted D before that, he's in NJ but kind of his own southern switch), and he is now staunchly anti-Trump (I think he voted for Trump.).  He is very pro-union, and H has a cousin (so this uncle's nephew) who is transgender. The combination of those things has turned him against Trump.  So, we just don't know what is going to turn people away.

But also, the law is not a popularity contest. I know that the judicial system is not free from politics, but we need to at least know if Trump broke the law, and how. 

[aurora]

May 9, 2018 13:14:00 GMT -5 Pom said:

This talks a bit about where Avenatti may have gotten the Cohen bank docs and other questions about the information released yesterday:

www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/seven-questions-answered-about-those-payments-to-michael-cohen

I like how they introduce Avenatti as "the media-savy lawyer." Indeed, he is.

I have to admit when Stormy's story first broke I wasn't expecting it to be so tied to Russia.

[ESF]

May 9, 2018 13:14:00 GMT -5 Pom said:

This talks a bit about where Avenatti may have gotten the Cohen bank docs and other questions about the information released yesterday:

www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/seven-questions-answered-about-those-payments-to-michael-cohen

Avenatti has been making predictions for months and they all keep coming true.

I suspect he hired a couple top notch private investigators to dig up intel on Cohen. They can’t illegally hack into things but they can be a little more creative than law enforcement might be in how they dig up dirt.

I think he’s getting stuff, building up interest in it by making predictions, then releasing it.

He has been saying for a couple weeks that the Treasury Dept needs to release the suspicious activity reports that were filed by the banks in connection with Cohen’s 130k payment to Keith Davidson for Stormy. So I’m counting the days now until we see them. A storm’s a-coming!!!!

[MixedBerryJam]

May 9, 2018 12:11:33 GMT -5 sofamonkey said:

May 9, 2018 11:43:12 GMT -5 pitta12 said:

The Novartis PR and legal teams apparently suck big time.  Their first statement just said that any payments to Cohen were made before their new CEO took over. Now they are saying this: 

Novartis paid Trump's lawyer Michael Cohen more than $1 million for work he was unable to do, company says

How is him not being able to do the work NOT cause? There is a significant amount of bullshit happening here.

Thank you for saying this. I thought I was in crazy town! Isn't "unable or unwilling to provide contracted services" aka cause?

[anonymous]

I think Novartis is tied to cms

[BicycleBride]

May 9, 2018 14:05:49 GMT -5 anonymous said:

I think Novartis is tied to cms

CMS as in Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services? Can you explain further please?

[turnipthebeet]

May 9, 2018 14:00:14 GMT -5 ESF said:

May 9, 2018 13:14:00 GMT -5 Pom said:

This talks a bit about where Avenatti may have gotten the Cohen bank docs and other questions about the information released yesterday:

www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/seven-questions-answered-about-those-payments-to-michael-cohen

Avenatti has been making predictions for months and they all keep coming true.

I suspect he hired a couple top notch private investigators to dig up intel on Cohen. They can’t illegally hack into things but they can be a little more creative than law enforcement might be in how they dig up dirt.

I think he’s getting stuff, building up interest in it by making predictions, then releasing it.

He has been saying for a couple weeks that the Treasury Dept needs to release the suspicious activity reports that were filed by the banks in connection with Cohen’s 130k payment to Keith Davidson for Stormy. So I’m counting the days now until we see them. A storm’s a-coming!!!!

Isn't he also predicting that Trump will resign? I mean, I'm not going to get my hopes up, but if he's in the crystal ball business, I wouldn't be upset about that.

[ESF]

I feel like there's more to the payments from AT&T, Novartis, etc. These companies have tons of money, tons of connections, the best lawyers in America, and they have lobbyists crawled up in no fewer than half of the GOP congressional members' assholes. Trump is a raging and uncontrollable buffoon without any actual policy positions beyond being a racist and rubber stamping Mitch McConnell's garbage.

So imagine you are AT&T and you are busy shoving hundreds into Mick Mulvaney's pants, and Michael Worst Law School in America Cohen calls you up and says, "hey how about slipping me a few hundred grand secretly for a little one on one with the big guy at Mar-a-Lagofuckyoursel?" That money could buy a hell of a lot better access to more reliable policy influencers and in a more legal way.

So what exactly was in it for them? Why did they take this deal?

The only possible alternate explanation I can come up with is that Michael Cohen wasn't selling access to Trump. He was selling access to something more nefarious, like access to Russia.

[anonymous]

May 9, 2018 14:15:52 GMT -5 BicycleBride said:

May 9, 2018 14:05:49 GMT -5 anonymous said:

I think Novartis is tied to cms

CMS as in Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services? Can you explain further please?

That cms but I don’t plan to explain further-sorry!

[isabel]

May 9, 2018 14:50:25 GMT -5 ESF said:

The only possible alternate explanation I can come up with is that Michael Cohen wasn't selling access to Trump. He was selling access to something more nefarious, like access to Russia.

I'm buying this theory.

[pitta12]

Now CNBC has a source from inside AT&T saying they didn't just pay Cohen $200k, it was actually more like $600k. Supposedly to learn about how 45 thinks. Seems a lot to pay for that insight.   

AT&T paid Trump lawyer Michael Cohen up to $600,000 for 'understanding inner workings' of the president: Source

The source said that the payment to Cohen was for "actual work done," adding: "And it wasn't to pay for access to the president."

"It was to pay for an understanding of the inner workings of Trump, his thought process, how he likes to operate, how he likes to make decisions, how he processes information," the source said.


"And how he thinks about the big issues," the source added.

[cous0226]

May 9, 2018 14:50:25 GMT -5 ESF said:

I feel like there's more to the payments from AT&T, Novartis, etc. These companies have tons of money, tons of connections, the best lawyers in America, and they have lobbyists crawled up in no fewer than half of the GOP congressional members' assholes. Trump is a raging and uncontrollable buffoon without any actual policy positions beyond being a racist and rubber stamping Mitch McConnell's garbage.

So imagine you are AT&T and you are busy shoving hundreds into Mick Mulvaney's pants, and Michael Worst Law School in America Cohen calls you up and says, "hey how about slipping me a few hundred grand secretly for a little one on one with the big guy at Mar-a-Lagofuckyoursel?" That money could buy a hell of a lot better access to more reliable policy influencers and in a more legal way.

So what exactly was in it for them? Why did they take this deal?

The only possible alternate explanation I can come up with is that Michael Cohen wasn't selling access to Trump. He was selling access to something more nefarious, like access to Russia.

There must be emails and calls then from the raid on all of this unless Novaratis and AT&T are also professional criminals and avoid email like 45 but I doubt that. 

[ESF]

May 9, 2018 14:53:21 GMT -5 anonymous said:

May 9, 2018 14:15:52 GMT -5 BicycleBride said:

CMS as in Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services? Can you explain further please?

That cms but I don’t plan to explain further-sorry!

If you are talking about something secret that you can't talk about, what's the point of dropping in a vague incomprehensible line?


FWIW, you can google Novartis and CMS and find articles about drug pricing deals. Like any big company, Novartis has business with the federal government.

[ESF]

May 9, 2018 14:57:47 GMT -5 pitta12 said:

Now CNBC has a source from inside AT&T saying they didn't just pay Cohen $200k, it was actually more like $600k. Supposedly to learn about how 45 thinks. Seems a lot to pay for that insight.   

AT&T paid Trump lawyer Michael Cohen up to $600,000 for 'understanding inner workings' of the president: Source

The source said that the payment to Cohen was for "actual work done," adding: "And it wasn't to pay for access to the president."

"It was to pay for an understanding of the inner workings of Trump, his thought process, how he likes to operate, how he likes to make decisions, how he processes information," the source said.


"And how he thinks about the big issues," the source added.

This is just so fucking weird.

Who the fuck pays Says Who, Esq. $600,000 for an analysis of Trump's bird brain? You can get the same information watching Tony Schwartz on CNN with your basic cable package.

[pitta12]

There's also a piece in Stat News (which sounds obscure but it's a healthcare news site and I have some exposure to it through work, it's not anything weird). This story has an inside source from Novartis with a story that sounds a bit mafia-like.

Trump’s lawyer pitched himself as a fixer to Novartis and got paid $1.2 million

In March 2017, a group of Novartis employees, mostly from the government affairs and lobbying teams, met with Cohen in New York to discuss specific issues and strategies. But the meeting was a disappointment, the insider explained, and the Novartis squad left with the impression that Cohen and Essential Consultants — the firm controlled by Cohen that Novartis was making payments to — may not be able to deliver.

“At first, it all sounded impressive, but toward the end of the meeting, everyone realized this was a probably a slippery slope to engage him. So they decided not to really engage Cohen for any activities after that,” the employee continued. Rather than attempt to cancel the contract, the company allowed it to lapse early in 2018 and not run the risk of ticking off the president. “It might have caused anger,” this person said.

[ESF]

May 9, 2018 15:27:59 GMT -5 pitta12 said:

There's also a piece in Stat News (which sounds obscure but it's a healthcare news site and I have some exposure to it through work, it's not anything weird). This story has an inside source from Novartis with a story that sounds a bit mafia-like.

Trump’s lawyer pitched himself as a fixer to Novartis and got paid $1.2 million

In March 2017, a group of Novartis employees, mostly from the government affairs and lobbying teams, met with Cohen in New York to discuss specific issues and strategies. But the meeting was a disappointment, the insider explained, and the Novartis squad left with the impression that Cohen and Essential Consultants — the firm controlled by Cohen that Novartis was making payments to — may not be able to deliver.

“At first, it all sounded impressive, but toward the end of the meeting, everyone realized this was a probably a slippery slope to engage him. So they decided not to really engage Cohen for any activities after that,” the employee continued. Rather than attempt to cancel the contract, the company allowed it to lapse early in 2018 and not run the risk of ticking off the president. “It might have caused anger,” this person said.

OK if Cohen was basically conning these companies into paying him money, and they actually bought it, and then let themselves continue to get ripped off so that Trump wouldn't send mean tweets about them, that is hilarious to me.  

[pitta12]

I forgot today is the 1-year anniversary of Comey being fired. What a shit show this has all been.

[cous0226]

the mean tweets is no joke though. Amazon would know. It is really sad and disgusting how everyone is afraid of him. This is how he got away with so much in NY.

[bex]

May 9, 2018 16:01:21 GMT -5 pitta12 said:

I forgot today is the 1-year anniversary of Comey being fired. What a shit show this has all been.

That didnt even click in my head. I saw Comey posted something on IG about missing the FBI today and I thought "what did Trump say about the FBI now."

What a shitshow the past year has been. 

[lilibet]

May 9, 2018 16:01:21 GMT -5 pitta12 said:

I forgot today is the 1-year anniversary of Comey being fired. What a shit show this has all been.

It has somehow been both the shortest and longest year ever.

[aliciabella]

Why is AT&T involved? I am really behind today obviously.

Are they tapping phones now? I wouldn't be shocked as idiot has been screaming forever that Obama tapped his room.

[NewOrleans]

May 9, 2018 14:57:47 GMT -5 pitta12 said:

The source said that the payment to Cohen was for "actual work done," adding: "And it wasn't to pay for access to the president."

"It was to pay for an understanding of the inner workings of Trump, his thought process, how he likes to operate, how he likes to make decisions, how he processes information," the source said.


"And how he thinks about the big issues," the source added.

lol what? He's not Camus or Derrida, for fuck's sake.. just go read his Twitter.

[mrsd2006]

May 9, 2018 16:23:20 GMT -5 aliciabella said:

Why is AT&T involved? I am really behind today obviously.

Are they tapping phones now? I wouldn't be shocked as idiot has been screaming forever that Obama tapped his room.

They paid Cohen hundreds of thousands of $$ to find out how Trump "thinks" 

[Pom]

May 9, 2018 16:28:37 GMT -5 mrsd2006 said:

May 9, 2018 16:23:20 GMT -5 aliciabella said:

Why is AT&T involved? I am really behind today obviously.

Are they tapping phones now? I wouldn't be shocked as idiot has been screaming forever that Obama tapped his room.

They paid Cohen hundreds of thousands of $$ to find out how Trump "thinks" 

Yeah, I feel like they expected more of an actual deliverable here. Come on now. That's still a crap ton of money for Cohen's thoughts on 45. "Insight" sounds like code for something and I bet the special investigators know what that is....and so does Trump. He's gotta be shitting his pants. Further more, there's way more money, sources of the money and fake LLCs. And why link this account to Stormy...how idiotic.  

[heat40]

ATT -> Net Neutrality
That’s what comes to my mind

Or the Time Warner buy

[sparrowsong]

May 9, 2018 16:53:27 GMT -5 heat40 said:

ATT -> Net Neutrality
That’s what comes to my mind

Or the Time Warner buy

Yeah,I saw somewhere they want a favorable response from Washington on the Time Warner merger.

[zelda25]

May 9, 2018 16:53:27 GMT -5 heat40 said:

ATT -> Net Neutrality
That’s what comes to my mind

Or the Time Warner buy

It's the TW acquisition, which I think everyone expected to Trump to be wildly supportive of, but he's actually been weirdly (for him) opposed to it.