Dr. X's Free Associations

Report: FBI & NJ Authorities Investigating Whether Management At Trump's NJ Club Provided Fake Documents To Illegal Workers

Business Insider:

The FBI and New Jersey prosecutors are reportedly investigating whether management at President Donald Trump's New Jersey golf club provided unauthorized immigrants with fake documents, according to the New York Daily News.

Two women recently came forward publicly to declare they had worked illegally at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, when both were undocumented.

The women's attorney, Anibal Romero, told the Daily News on Friday that he met with investigators from the state attorney general's office and handed over fraudulent green cards and Social Security numbers that management officials at the club gave to his clients, Victorina Morales and Sandra Diaz.

Rudy's Idiotic Tweets

I challenge Mueller to put up or shut up. You have no evidence of the President being involved in a conspiracy with anyone including Russia to hack. And you also have no evidence of collusion. It’s been 2 years so submit a report to DOJ and we will answer it.

— Rudy Giuliani (@RudyGiuliani) December 30, 2018

Shut up? Mueller hasn't been speaking publicly, nor has his team. The only word from Mueller has taken the form of indictments, trials and sentencing recommendations--the ultimate forms of putting up.

And Rudy's stupid declaration that Mueller has no evidence is pure bluffery. He may know some of the evidence Mueller has, but he doesn't know anywhere near close to all the evidence Mueller has because Mueller has been silent about that. None of us know what evidence he has. All we know for sure is that Trump is implicated in campaign finance fraud (as Individual 1) in the Cohen sentencing memo. We also know that the number of individuals indicted in Mueller's investigation is over 30 and convictions and guilty pleas stand at 5. In other words, it's a very productive investigation.

Also, Trump faces ongoing SDNY and the NYAG investigations that are looking at crimes well beyond the campaign. You can bet both entities are working in tandem with the special prosecutor. We don't know the extent of evidence of crimes they have, but we do know the NY AG found evidence of illegal self-dealing in Trump's foundation. So far the penalties are civil, but that could change. We also know about many subpoenas of Trump associates and partners and we know Trump org's CFO got an immunity deal, which is the kind of deal prosecutors don't give out unless the immunized subject has through his lawyer shown that he can and will offer evidence or testimony implicating a bigger fish in criminal activity.

Liar

The Mueller Angry Democrats recently deleted approximately 19,000 Text messages between FBI Agent Lisa Page and her lover, Agent Peter S. These Texts were asked for and INVALUABLE to the truth of the Witch Hunt Hoax. This is a total Obstruction of Justice. All Texts Demanded!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 29, 2018

Politifact:

There are some major factual problems with Trump’s claim, we found. First, a new report from the Justice Department’s internal watchdog suggests the roughly 19,000 messages slipped through the cracks due to technical glitches with the FBI’s data-collection tool on Samsung devices, not because Strzok and Page went around the system. Second, perhaps most importantly, while the messages were initially not captured, they have since been recovered. Trump’s claim gives the false impression the texts are still unaccounted. In fact, at least a portion of the recovered texts were given to Congress and described in press reports. Some messages between Strzok and Page were published by the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General in a June 2018 report.

Lying and defaming have always been Trump's go-to when he faces criticism. He's relied upon smears ranging from name-calling (pig, fat, ugly, disgusting, liar) to outright false accusations against his critics and accusers, sometimes with attempts to damage them professionally. Anyone who has paid attention to Trump since he became a New York gossip fixture in the 80s--much of the gossip promulgated by Trump himself--knew this about his tactics 30 years ago. It's an approach he learned under the tutelage of his first fixer, sleazy disbarred lawyer, Roy Cohn.

Just a reminder

Product Review

I had my first visit to the dentist after getting 6 full months of daily use of this product.

The hygienist lightly brushed the sonic cleaning tool over a few areas of my teeth, then she said there isn't enough here for this tool so I'll use the hand tool. With no scraping, she just ran the hand pick between teeth and along the gum line commenting that my gums are very healthy and my teeth are "exceptionally clean" and "almost spotless." Then she polished my teeth. My entire time in the chair, including her set up and pre-cleaning conversation, was no more than 10 minutes.

I've definitely been a bit more attentive to brushing time over the past year--no quickie brushing--but I've really concentrated on religious use of the water flosser. I've used no string floss. I add salt to the water and a little of this product and use the highest pressure setting on the device. At the highest setting, the small water tank requires refill before I'm done.

I tried to leave an Amazon review for the device, but Amazon isn't allowing any more reviews. They don't say why that's the case but it's either because they think there are too many positive reviews from shills or fake critical reviews from competitors. Whatever the case, I find the product remarkably effective.

McClatchy: More Evidence Cohen Went To Prague

Cell signal puts Cohen outside Prague around time of purported Russian meeting https://t.co/0MrKzNlpyd

— McClatchyDC (@McClatchyDC) December 27, 2018

Here's what the so-called Steele dossier alleged:

Speaking in confidence to a longstanding compatriot friend in mid-October 2016, a Kremlin insider highlighted the importance of Republican presidential candidate Donald TRUMP’s lawyer, Michael COHEN, in the ongoing secret liaison relationship between the New York tycoon’s campaign and the Russian leadership. COHEN’s role had grown following the departure of Paul MANNAFORT [sic] as TRUMP’s campaign manager in August 2016. Prior to that MANNAFORT had led for the Trump side.

According to the Kremlin insider, COHEN now was heavily engaged in a cover up and damage limitation operation in the attempt to prevent the full details of TRUMP’s relationship with Russia being exposed. In pursuit of this aim, COHEN had met secretly with several Russian Presidential Administration (PA) Legal Department officials in an EU country in August 2016. The immediate issues had been to contain further scandals involving MANNAFORT’s commercial and political role in Russia/Ukraine and to limit the damage arising from exposure of former TRUMP foreign policy advisor, Carter PAGE’s secret meetings with Russian leadership figures in Moscow the previous month. The overall objective had been “to sweep it all under the carpet and make sure no connections could be fully established or proven.”

COHEN had been accompanied to Prague by 3 colleagues and the timing of the visit was either in the last week of August or the first week of September. One of their main Russian interlocutors was Oleg SOLODUKHIN operating under Rossotrudnichestvo cover. According to [redacted], the agenda comprised questions on how deniable cash payments were to be made to hackers who had worked in Europe under Kremlin direction against the CLINTON campaign and various contingencies for covering up these operations and Moscow’s secret liaison with the TRUMP team more generally.

Trump Full of Sh*t Again

Trump In Iraq:

Speaking to troops at Al Asad Air Base during his surprise visit to Iraq, Trump told troops: "You protect us. We are always going to protect you. And you just saw that, 'cause you just got one of the biggest pay raises you've ever received. ... You haven't gotten one in more than 10 years. More than 10 years. And we got you a big one. I got you a big one. I got you a big one."

 

In fact, military pay has increased every year for more than three decades. It was raised 2.4% in 2018 and then 2.6% in the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act. The 2.6% pay raise is the largest in the past 9 years [...]

 

They had plenty of people that came up, they said, 'You know, we could make it smaller. We could make it 3%, we could make it 2%, we could make it 4%,'" Trump told the troops about the latest pay raise. "I said, 'No. Make it 10%. Make it more than 10%.'" 'Cause it's been a long time, it's been more than 10 years. Been more than 10 years, that's a long time," Trump said, repeating the false claim.

Was he lying? Did he believe what he was saying? Does he just not know the truth? Probably all of those things. Doesn't know, doesn't care about the truth, just says what he feels is useful in the moment.

The video shows just how easily and freely Trump creates fiction featuring himself as the hero.

Reality TV

The New Yorker:

Richard Levak, a clinical psychologist who consulted for Burnett on “Survivor” and “The Apprentice” and worked on other reality-TV shows, told me that producers have often liked people he was uncomfortable with for psychological reasons. Emotional volatility makes for compelling television. But recruiting individuals for their instability and then subjecting them to the stress of a televised competition can be perilous. When Burnett was once asked about Sinisa Savija’s suicide, he contended that Savija had “previous psychological problems.” No “Survivor” or “Apprentice” contestants are known to have killed themselves, but in the past two decades several dozen reality-TV participants have. Levak eventually stopped consulting on such programs, in part because he feared that a contestant might harm himself. “I would think, Geez, if this should unravel, they’re going to look at the personality profile and there may have been a red flag,” he recalled.

The New Yorker piece is otherwise describes how TV producer Mark Burnett turned a financially declining "D-list" con man into the TV character who scammed his way to the American presidency.

But back to that psychologist's concern about reality television. I don't watch reality TV. I've seen maybe 10 to 15 hours worth since reality shows became ubiquitous network television fare. I dislike these programs. I've said many times that  some but not all of the programs appeal to the worst instincts in audiences, exploit the psychological instability of participants and, in come cases, put the health and safety of participants in serious jeopardy. I'm not talking here about programs like America's got Talent or the Voice. I don't enjoy those programs, but I think they're fine. The programs that trouble me are programs that deliberately subject  people to physical extremes (The Biggest Loser, Survivor) and programs that contrive conflict and cast participants with the intention of creating volatile interpersonal dynamics.

Back in the mid-1990s, my then girlfriend and I were at home on a weekday for some reason and watching the Jenny Jones show. It was one of those episodes where they spring some sort of personal shocker on a guest. I had recently advised a patient against appearing on Jenny Jones as a guest. Long story and details I can't get into, but I was appalled by how much pressure producers put on that patient without regard for the patient's psychological safety and well-being. They had learned about the patient's situation and they wanted to exploit it as entertainment but I saw no way that it could be anything but damaging to this patient.

So, anyway, while we were watching Jenny Jones that day I commented on how reckless these programs were and that someone was going to die because of it. Well it was at most a couple of weeks later that a Jenny Jones guest murdered another guest. Obviously the timing was coincidental but the murder confirmed what I'd been thinking about talk show forerunners of reality TV.

When The Apprentice first aired I was troubled by similar concerns but I was also annoyed that a TV program would present a disturbed playboy con man as a figure worthy of public respect. I also knew that millions of gullible Americans would buy into it. I never thought it would lead to a Trump presidency (and he was a Democrat at the time), but I believed that making a hero out of a moral  dumpster fire like Trump was bad for America's collective psyche.

I suppose Donald Trump's rise to the White House is Exhibit A in the case for just how dangerous reality TV can be.

my dad refuses to get an iphone because a voicemail from his mom that passed away won’t transfer from an android, so me and my sister put it in a bear. merry christmas dad pic.twitter.com/m1yOOawWO9

— melia (@meliatinnin) December 25, 2018

Who would let their 7-year-old speak with Trump on the phone?

Trump on a Christmas Eve call with a 7-year-old girl:

Trump: Are you still a believer in Santa?

Girl: Yes, sir.

Trump: Because at 7, that’s marginal, right?

He cannot relate to the inner lives of children, not does he have any sense of appropriate attitudes and behaviors with children.

Trump discussing his then infant daughter, Tiffany:

I think that she’s got a lot of Marla, she’s really a beautiful baby She's got Marla's legs. We don’t know whether or not she’s got this part yet but time will tell,'

Who looks at an infant--their own daughter--and enthusiastically evaluates her legs and ponders her future breast size?

Here, Donald Trump announces that he's going to date a 10-year-old girl in 10 years:

In audio from the tape, Mr Trump can be heard asking the 10-year-old if she is going up an escalator inside Trump Tower in New York, to which she responds: “Yeah”.

He then turns to the camera and says: “I’m going to be dating her in 10 years. Can you believe it?”

Trump discusses "getting away with" walking in on naked, minor teen girls at Miss Teen USA pageant:

Well, I'll tell you the funniest is that I’ll go backstage before a show, and everyone's getting dressed and ready and everything else, and you know, no men are anywhere. And I'm allowed to go in because I'm the owner of the pageant and therefore I'm inspecting it. You know, I'm inspecting, I want to make sure that everything is good.

You know, the dresses. ‘Is everyone okay?’ You know, they're standing there with no clothes. ‘Is everybody okay?’ And you see these incredible looking women, and so, I sort of get away with things like that. But no, I've been very good."

His claim was corroborated by four 1997 contestants.

Trump speaking at the Boy Scout Jamboree in 2017:

I’ll tell you a story that’s very interesting for me. When I was young there was a man named William Levitt. You have some here. You have some in different states. Anybody ever hear of Levittown? And he was a very successful man, became unbelievable — he was a home builder, became an unbelievable success, and got more and more successful. And he’d build homes, and at night he’d go to these major sites with teams of people, and he’d scour the sites for nails, and sawdust and small pieces of wood, and they cleaned the site, so when the workers came in the next morning, the sites would be spotless and clean, and he did it properly.

And he did this for 20 years, and then he was offered a lot of money for his company, and he sold his company, for a tremendous amount of money, at the time especially. This is a long time ago. Sold his company for a tremendous amount of money. And he went out and bought a big yacht, and he had a very interesting life. I won’t go any more than that, because you’re Boy Scouts so I’m not going to tell you what he did.You're Boy Scouts, but you know life. You know life."

I saw him at a cocktail party. And it was very sad because the hottest people in New York were at this party. It was the party of Steve Ross — Steve Ross, who was one of the great people. ... He had a lot of successful people at the party. And I was doing well, so I got invited to the party. I was very young. And I go in, but I'm in the real estate business, and I see a hundred people, some of whom I recognize, and they're big in the entertainment business. And I see sitting in the corner was a little old man who was all by himself. Nobody was talking to him. I immediately recognized that that man was the once great William Levitt, of Levittown.