Dr. X's Free Associations

Don't Call It Community College Because He Doesn't Know What That Means

Donald Trump:

When I was growing up we had what was called VOCATIONAL SCHOOLS. They weren't called community colleges. Because I don't know what that means, a community college...I don't know what it means...I tell people, call it 'vocational' from now on.

Another Lawyer Who Turned Down Trump

The public tally of top attorneys who've turned down requests to represent Trump is up to 4 or 5 with this weekend's revelation that Dan Webb (the Chicago-based former US Attorney) rebuffed Trump. We don't know how many attorneys in addition to those publicly named have turned down Trump. I know there's at least one more. I don't feel free to name the attorney but the choice of this particular attorney may point toward some of Trump's legal concerns. The choice suggests that Trump's current attorneys are worried about exposure involving bank fraud or bankruptcy fraud. More specifically, there may be a concern about material misrepresentations in loan and or bankruptcy documents, whether it's a case of exaggerating assets to borrow or hiding/undervaluing assets to gain more favorable terms of repayment for loans in default.

What loans? Maybe Deutche Bank.

In December, Deutche Bank announced that it would provide special counsel Mueller all Trump documents they have after Mueller subpoenaed all records pertaining to Trump. Trump denied that there was a subpoena when news of the subpoena was announced by the media, but Deutche Bank's announcement that it would comply was public.

Trump borrowed hundreds of millions of dollars from Deutche Bank to finance his Chicago tower and he personally guaranteed those loans, meaning he voluntarily dropped the corporate shield and would be personally responsible if his company defaulted. When Trump's company defaulted on the loans, Deutche Bank demanded immediate repayment of $40 million (of $300 million still owed) from Trump personally. Trump then claimed that the default was the the result of a force majeure (act of nature/God) -- the real estate market collapse--so he wasn't responsible. It was a novel and 'creative' argument that if accepted could have saved a lot of people from bankruptcy after the financial crisis, but it's a ridiculous argument that no court would accept. It's just Trump being Trump. In true Trumpian fashion he also claimed that the lender actually owed him money. In other words, he pulled the same sort of nonsense he pulls on small vendors he's been known to stiff by the thousands, except this time the company he owed money has resources and good lawyers to fight back. Terms were renegotiated with Deutche Bank and Deutche Bank did not get nearly what it was owed. Trump most likely had to present documentation of his personal assets and prove that they weren't sufficient to pay off the loans. 

The attorney Trump sought to hire has a specialty in the area of criminally hiding assets from creditors.

Overheard

Woman on phone.

"They're 2 and 5. (Name1 ) is 2 and (Name2) is 5. They're good kids but they're a total pain in the ass."

Unasked Scholarships

A friend's kid is a senior at a preppy-ish boarding school. He never played organized football until last year when he tried out for the school team over the objections of his parents who are deeply concerned about concussions. He was a starter almost immediately, on both offense and defense. He played through his junior and senior years.

He applied to several small liberal arts colleges. He's also been very expensively tutored and coached to a good ACT score (98th percentile), but his grades were pretty lame, except during his two football seasons when he did pretty well--not great but very respectable grades. The academic requirements to maintain his status as a player and his coach being on his ass kept him on top of academics. Nonetheless, his overall GPA was poor because of the years and then the semesters he didn't play football.

He didn't bother to apply for scholarships, but two schools unexpectedly offered 4-year free rides... if he'd play football. Evidently, when he applied to these schools, football was listed as one of his activities and the info was forwarded to coaches who then looked up and watched his highlight videos. Until he started getting calls from college coaches, he never had a thought about playing college football.

His parents don't need the money. They don't need it at all, which isn't to say that they wouldn't prefer to have the money than not have the money. But the debate they're having in their household is this: should he play football and risk concussions so that he'll have a coach all over his ass about the academics? He really needs someone on his ass about academics. He's smart, but he's got an intense case of ADHD. With a lot of supervision he can do pretty well, but without supervision his history says he'll flunk out. But he also doesn't need any more neuro problems than he already has. He's a lineman and in college the opposing players only get bigger and hit harder, and he'll get bigger and hit harder.

I was asked to weigh in, and I punted: "You'll have to let him decide."

The Day After

Over 24 hours later, the Chicago River is still bright green.

Reader Photos

Photos by abear.

Active Shooter Hoax

For a good part of the afternoon, Northwestern University was on a soft lock-down with students, staff and visitors told to stay sheltered. The report was that a shooter was barricaded in a graduate residence hall and that at least one woman was dead. Just so happened that I was a couple of blocks from the standoff that wasn't.

Tillerson Fired Part II

State Dept: Tillerson has no idea why Trump fired him, found out from tweet https://t.co/b06Yx9yDtj pic.twitter.com/4p3s7uJm4S

— The Hill (@thehill) March 13, 2018

Maybe twitter can tell him why.

BREAKING: Tillerson says ex-spy's poisoning in UK 'clearly came from Russia,' vows it 'will trigger a response.

— The Associated Press (@AP) March 12, 2018

McEntee Fired Then Hired

WSJ:

WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump’s personal assistant, John McEntee, was escorted out of the White House on Monday, two senior administration officials said. The cause of the firing was an unspecified security issue, said a third White House official with knowledge of the situation.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders declined to comment saying, “We don’t comment on personnel issues.” Mr. McEntee didn’t return a call seeking comment.

Tuesday morning, the Trump presidential campaign issued a statement saying that Mr. McEntee will join the 2020 effort as a senior adviser for campaign operations.

And then there's this:

 

NEWS: Johnny McEntee was fired because he is currently under investigation by the Department of Homeland Security for serious financial crimes, a source familiar with his firing tells CNN.

This source says the charges are not Trump related.

— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) March 13, 2018

Tillerson Fired

BREAKING: Tillerson says ex-spy's poisoning in UK 'clearly came from Russia,' vows it 'will trigger a response.

— The Associated Press (@AP) March 12, 2018

And so it did.