#Rob Goldstone

[d-criss-news]

robgoldstone: For all you fans of Dear Evan Hansen, here is tonight’s impromptu performance by its creators benjpasek and @justinpaulmusic together with actor and singer @ darrencriss at their party in LA attended by me with @eminofficial and his producer @ davidfoster

*Photo via his ig story

[medium-observation]

DECEMBER RELEASE

Boop! The Musical - Chicago Tryout

December 3, 2023 - Medium Observation

Video | Matinée

Cast:

Jasmine Rogers (Betty Boop), Faith Prince (Valentina), Ainsley Anthony Melham (Dwayne), Erich Bergen (Raymond), Stephen DeRosa (Grampy), Angelica Hale (Trisha), Phillip Huber (Pudgy), Anastacia McCleskey (Carol), Lawrence Alexander (Ensemble), Colin Bradbury (Ensemble), Tristen Buettel (Ensemble), Joshua Michael Burrage (Ensemble), Gabi Campo (Ensemble), Daniel Castiglione (Ensemble), Rebecca Corrigan (Ensemble), Josh Drake (Ensemble), RJ Higton (Ensemble), Nina Lafarga (Ensemble), Morgan McGhee (Ensemble), Aubie Merrylees (Ensemble), Ryah Nixon (Ensemble), Christian Probst (Ensemble), Ricky Schroeder (Ensemble), Gabriella Sorrentino (Ensemble), Brooke Taylor (Ensemble)

Notes: Nice video from the second week of previews and Version 3.0. Some scenes are majorly wideshot due to the nature of the show, along with usher activity. Some washout can be seen at times but it's not too bad.

NFT DATE: June 6th, 2024

Screenshots: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjB5Cro

Video is $20

Six - Second US National Tour (Boleyn)

November 19, 2023 - Medium Observation

Video | Matinée

Cast:

Cassie Silva (s/b Catherine of Aragon), Zan Berube (Anne Boleyn), Aryn Bohannon (s/b Jane Seymour), Terica Marie (Anna of Cleves), Taylor Pearlstein (s/b Katherine Howard), Courtney Mack (t/r Catherine Parr)

Notes:

Excellent video of a fantastic group of alternates and Courtney's unexpected final performance as Parr!

NFT DATE: December 1st, 2024

Screenshots: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjB3Ye3

Video is $20

Mrs. Doubtfire - First US National Tour

November 16, 2023 - Medium Observation

Video

Cast:

Rob McClure (Daniel Hillard), Maggie Lakis (Miranda Hillard), Giselle Gutierrez (Lydia Hillard), Cody Braverman (Christoher Hillard), Emerson Mae Chan (Natalie Hillard), Aaron Kaburick (Frank Hillard), Nik Alexander (Andre Mayem), Romelda Teron Benjamin (Wanda Sellner), Leo Roberts (Stuart Dunmire), David Hibbard (Mr. Jolly/Ensemble), Jodi Kimura (Janet Lundy/Ensemble), Alex Branton (Ensemble), Jonathan Hoover (Ensemble), Sheila Jones (Ensemble), Julia Kavanagh (Ensemble), Marquez Linder (Ensemble), Alex Ringler (Ensemble), Lannie Rubio (Ensemble), Ian Liberto (s/w Ensemble), Lauryn Withnell (Ensemble), Julia Yameen (Ensemble)

Notes:

Near perfect capture of the tour! Some washout is seen in wideshots due to primary robs doubtfire outfit being so Bright.

NFT DATE: June 6th, 2024

Screenshots: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjB3Z7Y

Video is $20

Frozen - First US National Tour

November 29, 2023 - Medium Observation

Video

Cast:

Caroline Bowman (Elsa), Lauren Nicole Chapman (Anna), Erin Choi (Young Elsa), Annie Piper Braverman (Young Anna), Jeremy Davis (Olaf), Dominic Dorset (Kristoff), Collin Baja (Sven), Preston Perez (Hans), Jack Brewer (Oaken), Evan Duff (Weselton), Tyler Jimenez (Pabbie), Renée Reid (Bulda), Kyle Lamar Mitchell (King Agnarr), Katie Mariko Murray (Queen Iduna), Natalie Wisdom (s/w Head Handmaiden), Jack Brewer (Bishop), Kate Bailey (Ensemble), Kristen Smith Davis (Ensemble), Jason Goldston (Ensemble), Natalie Goodin (Ensemble), Zach Hess (Ensemble), Adrianna Rose Lyons (Ensemble), Alexander Mendoza (Ensemble), Nick Silverio (Ensemble), Daniel Switzer (Ensemble), Peli Naomi Woods (Ensemble), Michael Allan Haggerty (s/w Ensemble), Jessie Peltier (s/w Ensemble)

Notes:

Absolutely gorgeous video of this tour! Lots of wideshots and close ups.

NFT DATE: June 6th, 2024

Screenshots: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjB5mqB

Video is $20

Videos can be purchased through me at mediumobservationtrading@gmail.com

[youryurigoddess]

While this certainly sounds like something this silly, silly angel would do, both authors of the Good Omens novel existed and wrote their books in his universe as well. They even crossed paths with Aziraphale or Crowley themselves on at least three separate occasions:

Terry’s visit to the bookshop, where he forgot his hat and scarf

Neil’s copy of The Colour of Magic lost on the 93 bus, the same Aziraphale and Crowley used as one of their four consecutive meeting places, seen later in Aziraphale’s bookshop

Neil and Crowley being the only two audience members at the cinema

What’s more, two of those encounters took place in the week before Armageddon. In the newspaper, Neil pinpoints the moment he lost his book to "last Tuesday between 8:45AM & 10:15AM" and he went to the cinema on Saturday morning.

No idea about his actual experience with leading a book club, as per the newspaper announcement, but the fact that he suddenly had other plans on Thursday evening seems rather interesting. That’s when both Aziraphale and Crowley were away in Tadfield and their respective residences were left completely unattended. Now, I’m not suggesting that these circumstances might be connected, but I’m also not suggesting that they are not.

The only other thing from the show that might or might not differ from the public knowledge about those two writers is the fact that Terry Pratchett and Rob Wilkins were members of the Witchfinder Army at some point in the past before Shadwell was left all alone.

So it seems like Terry was definitely in possession of some arcane knowledge and if he didn’t straight-out Agnes Nutter the Good Omens plot with Neil, he must have had some access to a solid information source. Like… Agnes herself? There might be a reason why his portrait at The Dirty Donkey pub depicts him in a 17th century Witchfinder costume.

See, according to Terry’s other works, books are a kind of magic and the reason for existence of this mystical dimension connecting all libraries — in this world and beyond — called L-space. L-space allows travels not only through space, but also time, and is usually accessible only to the most senior Librarians. And we’ve seen a big orangutan plushie, reminiscent of the Librarian of Unseen University from Discworld, in Will Goldstone’s Magic Shop.

A. Z. Fell and Co. is certainly not a regular bookshop, but usually if one visits an used books and antiquities store, takes off their hat and a scarf, and then forgets them in a hurry, it's because they’ve received some very urgent news or were interrupted doing something interesting, possibly illegal, and rather not connected to typical book shopping experience in there.

Or maybe the collaboration of those two authors retroactively brought to life not only one delightfully unstable angel and demon couple, but the whole order of the world as we know it with God, Heaven, and Hell *insert Neil’s voice here* through the Power of Imagination.

So I've seen a few posts having fun with the implications that Doctor Who being canonically part of the Good Omens universe might have for Crowley/David Tennant. And yes, it's fun to think about.

But... my lovely little angels, my adorable demon cubs... have you thought of the implications that Good Omens being canonically part of the Good Omens universe might have on Good Omens?

[dragoni]

Rinat Akhmetshin, a Soviet military officer turned Washington lobbyist, deposited large, round-number amounts of cash in the months preceding and following the 2016 Trump Tower meeting.

— Citizens for Ethics‏ @CREWcrew - Feb 6, 2019

One of the payments to Rinat Akhmetshin came from a ”veteran Republican operator with ties to the Trump campaign” 💣 Who is it?  #MuellerKnowsEverything

The New York Times described Akhmetshin as a "master of dark arts.". He’s able to find kompromat (compromising information) by “obtaining email records, information from spyware and other data that appeared to be drawn from Russian hackers.” 

Was Akhmetshin the one behind Guccifer 2.0 — the hacker who stole emails from the DNC and Hillary? Is that why he was at the Trump Tower Meeting? Does he have dirt on Trump?

From BuzzFeed

Documents reviewed by BuzzFeed News show that Rinat Akhmetshin, a Soviet military officer turned Washington lobbyist, deposited large, round-number amounts of cash in the months preceding and following the meeting, where a Russian lawyer offered senior Trump campaign officials dirt on Hillary Clinton.

The lobbyist also received a large payment that bank investigators deemed suspicious from Denis Katsyv, whose company Prevezon Holdings was accused by the US Justice Department of laundering the proceeds of a $230 million Russian tax fraud.

As part of that inquiry, banks were asked to pull financial information on the [Trump Tower] meeting attendees, and investigators at Wells Fargo handed over documents on Akhmetshin to the US Treasury in 2017. 

Those records were passed to Mueller's team, but Peter Carr, a spokesperson for the special counsel, declined to say whether the transactions are under investigation. Congressional investigators also requested the financial information from the Treasury Department.

Just last month, Natalya Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer with whom Akhmetshin attended the meeting, was accused by US authorities of secretly coordinating with the Russian government while defending Katsyv in a money laundering case in New York.

Katsyv, the son of a powerful Russian figure, backed a lobbying campaign by Akhmetshin and Veselnitskaya against the Magnitsky Act, a US law imposing sanctions on a group of Russians officials connected to the suspected $230 million fraud.

$192,000  #SecretPayments  #BuyAmerican

In the months before and after the meeting with the Trump campaign, documents show that Akhmetshin made unexplained cash deposits totaling $40,000, and received a wire transfer of $100,000 directly from Katsyv along with $52,000 from a foundation funded by Katsyv and other wealthy Russians to try to undermine that law. Bankers examining the lobbyist’s accounts flagged these transactions for a variety of reasons, including the inability to explain them, their overseas origin, and a suspicion that they showed Akhmetshin had violated federal lobbying law.

$500,000 #SecretPayments #BuyAmerican

A half-million dollars of payments to that nonprofit, the Human Rights Accountability Global Initiative Foundation, have also come under scrutiny. Wired by Katsyv and other backers, the payments came two months before the Trump Tower meeting. Investigators at Bank of America, where the foundation held an account, cited the transactions as potential evidence of corruption and bribery in the bid to overturn the sanctions law, and provided them to Treasury, documents show. Mueller is investigating the foundation, Bloomberg reported.

Trump Dumpster 🔥

Beyond his work with Katsyv and Veselnitskaya, investigators discovered that Akhmetshin had received large, mostly unexplained wire transfers from companies in Latvia and Panama, and payments from longtime American political insiders, one of whom is a veteran Republican operator with ties to the Trump campaign.

June 9, 2016 Trump Tower Russia Meeting Refresher

Michael Cohen and Sam Nunberg said Trump knew about the meeting. Cohen went farther and said Trump “Individual-1″ APPROVED the meeting

[allmusic]

AllMusic Staff Pick: Emin Wonder March 28, 2011 

Having conquered the Russian music scene with his first four albums, billion dollar businessman-turned-pop star-turned-Presidential meeting coordinator Emin Agalarov set his sights on the rest of the world with his first internationally released effort, Wonder. Described as his homeland's answer to Enrique Iglesias, the son-in-law of Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev appears to have used this comparison as the album's template. In the end, apart from the odd flourish of well-crafted pop, it's a case of being a jack of all trades but a master of none.   - Jon O'Brien

[nbcnightlynews]

NEW: Rob Goldstone, publicist who helped setup 2016 Trump Tower meeting with Russians, is ready to meet with the special counsel, according to several people familiar with the matter.

http://nbcnews.to/2AXj1e3

[odinsblog]

Donald Trump Jr. revealed an email that shows Trump’s campaign team knowingly met with Russians, specifically because they said they had political dirt to offer on Clinton. This is an impeachable offense and a textbook example of collusion with Russia—if not outright treason.

At the very least, by meeting with Russian foreign nationals to seek favors, Trump has violated federal campaign finance laws. Half of the Trump administration has questionable financial ties to Russia, and the other half is under federal investigation for their ties to Russia.

And please remember: Fox News, the NRA and the Republican Party have all been willing accomplices to treason from day one.

Let’s hurry up with that impeachment. We now have everything we need.

[gettothestabbing]

My conjecture is that there are three explanations for what happened here, none of which excludes the others: (a) The Russians do not understand American political campaigns well enough to appreciate that alleged misconduct by a donor does not hurt a candidate if the candidate is not complicit in the misconduct; (b) the Putin regime attempted (unsuccessfully) to lure the Trump campaign into its anti–Magnitsky Act effort by convincing Don Trump Jr. and other campaign officials that there was a useful anti-Clinton angle to be exploited; and (c) the Putin regime calculated that, simply by taking a meeting with a Kremlin emissary on the promise of damaging information about Clinton, the Trump campaign would foolishly expose itself to blackmail by Putin.

[sarcasticcynic]

Dots, Connecting

Image credit: Win McNamee, via Business Insider

Friday, June 3, 2016: Trump family friend Rob Goldstone emails Donald Trump Jr. that a high-ranking Russian official has “offered to provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father. This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.” Trump Jr. responds, “if it’s what you say I love it.”

Tuesday afternoon, June 7, 2016: Trump Jr. sets up a meeting at Trump Tower on Thursday, June 9, between himself, Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, Trump advisor (and son-in-law) Jared Kushner, and “The Russian government attorney.”

Tuesday evening, June 7, 2016: Donald Trump announces that, on Monday, June 13, he will be talking about some major disclosures regarding Hillary Clinton’s illegal activity:

“I am going to give a major speech on probably Monday of next week, and we’re going to be discussing all of the things that have taken place with the Clintons. I think you’re going to find it very informative, and very, very interesting. I wonder if the press will want to attend?”

Thursday, June 9, 2016: Trump Jr., Manafort, and Kushner meet with the Russian government attorney, who “had no information to provide” on Clinton.

Monday, June 13, 2016: Trump gives a speech that focuses on terrorism and national security, making no reference to any alleged illegal or otherwise improper activity on Clinton’s part.

“This was going to be a speech on Hillary Clinton ... There will be plenty of opportunity to discuss these important issues at a later time, and I will deliver that speech soon.”

(He never does.)

Monday, July 10, 2017: Trump claims he first learned about the June 2016 meeting “in the last couple of days.”

[dylan-stableford-blog]

Trump Jr.’s meeting with Russian lawyer: A timeline

Donald Trump Jr. arrives at Trump Tower in New York City in January. (John Moore/Getty Images)

Donald Trump Jr. released an email chain on Tuesday which shows that he agreed to meet with a Russian lawyer last June in order to receive damaging information about his father’s opponent, Hillary Clinton. In the exchange published on Twitter by Trump Jr., his friend, music publicist Rob Goldstone, informed him that the “very high level and sensitive information” was part of the Russian government’s support for Trump, who was then the presumptive Republican nominee. Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son in law and now a senior White House adviser, also attended the June 9, 2016, sit down at Trump Tower.

Critics say the emails are the clearest evidence of the Trump campaign’s alleged contact with Russia to publicly emerge since the federal probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election was launched late last year.

Here is a timeline of key events related the Trump campaign and Russia.

June 3, 2016

Goldstone emails Trump Jr. about setting up a meeting with “Russian government lawyer” who is said to have damaging information about Clinton.

Trump Jr. responds 17 minutes later. “Thanks Rob, I appreciate that … If it’s what you say I love it, especially later in the summer,” he writes.

June 7, 2016

Goldstone emails Trump Jr. to settle on a time of the meeting, scheduled for the next day. Trump Jr. replies, saying Manafort and Kushner will also attend, and then forwards the email exchange to them.

During a primary night victory speech, Donald Trump promises to soon deliver a “major speech” that he hints will include revelations about the Clinton family.

“We’re going to be discussing all of the things that have taken place with the Clintons,” Trump tells his supporters. “I think you’re going to find it very informative and very, very interesting.”

June 9, 2016

2:22 p.m., Trump tweets: “Obama just endorsed Crooked Hillary. He wants four more years of Obama—but nobody else does!”

Obama just endorsed Crooked Hillary. He wants four more years of Obama—but nobody else does!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 9, 2016

2:27 p.m., Clinton responds: “Delete your account.”

Delete your account. https://t.co/Oa92sncRQY

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) June 9, 2016

Trump, who was attending a Republican fundraiser at the Four Seasons Hotel in NEw York City, returns to Trump Tower in the early afternoon.

4 p.m., Trump Jr., Kushner and Manafort meet with the Russian lawyer at Trump Tower.

4:40 p.m. Trump tweets: “How long did it take your staff of 823 people to think that up–and where are your 33,000 emails that you deleted?”

How long did it take your staff of 823 people to think that up–and where are your 33,000 emails that you deleted? https://t.co/gECLNtQizQ

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 9, 2016

June 19, 2016

Trump Jr. delivers a speech at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

“Let me tell you something about risk,” Trump Jr. tells GOP delegates. “If Hillary Clinton were elected, she’d be the first president who couldn’t pass a basic background check. It’s incredible. Hillary Clinton is a risk Americans can’t afford to take.”

Donald Trump Jr. speaks at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, July 19, 2016. (Mike Segar/Reuters)

July 24, 2016

On the eve of the Democratic National Convention, Clinton campaign chairman Robby Mook tells CNN’s Jake Tapper that cybersecurity analysts have concluded Russia was behind the hack of the Democratic National Committee’s servers. Trump Jr. responds in a separate interview with Tapper later in the show.

“It just goes to show you their exact moral compass,” Trump Jr. says. “They’ll say anything to be able to win this. I mean, this is time and time again, lie after lie. He won’t say, ‘Well, I say this.’ We hear ‘experts,’ you know, his house cat once said this is what’s happening with the Russians. It’s disgusting. It’s so phony.”

July 27, 2016

“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” Trump says at a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. “I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.”

Sept. 26, 2016

Campaign adviser Carter Page steps down while disputing allegations that he engaged in private communications with Russian government officials. Three days prior, Yahoo News’ Michael Isikoff reported that intelligence officials were probing whether Page — who has significant business investments in Russia — had met with Russian officials in Moscow in July.

During the first presidential debate, Trump is asked if he believes Russia was behind the hacking of the Democratic National Committee’s servers.

“It could be Russia, but it could also be China,” Trump says. “It could also be lots of other people. It also could be somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds.”

Oct. 7, 2016

The Obama administration releases a joint statement from the Department of Homeland Security and Office of the Director of National Intelligence officially concluding the Russian government was behind the hacking of the Democratic National Committee.

The Washington Post releases the infamous Access Hollywood tape that caught Donald Trump bragging about assaulting women.

WikiLeaks dumps its trove of Hillary Clinton campaign emails.

Trump embraces Trump Jr. during his election night rally in New York, Nov. 9, 2016. (Mike Segar/Reuters)

Nov. 8, 2016

Donald Trump is elected as 45th president of the United States.

April 18, 2017

Trump Jr. is asked by Fox News’ Sean Hannity whether the ongoing investigation into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia bother him. Trump Jr. says there is “nothing, no proof, no evidence,” of a conspiracy.

“It does anger me because I know the truth,” Trump Jr. adds. “I know what’s there. I was a part of it for so long. [That] is very frustrating. And it’s hard to believe for me, as an American, that so many people basically rally against what makes sense for America, what the American people voted into office.”

May 6, 2017

Trump Jr. shares a “New York Post” article entitled, “Bad news for the Trump-Russia tinfoil-hat brigade,” which reported on an exchange between former FBI director James Comey and Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., who asked if Russia favored Trump because he was “ensnared in their web of patronage.” Comey replied no.

June 8, 2017

Former FBI Director James Comey testifies to the Senate intelligence committee about the FBI investigation. Trump Jr. tells Fox News’ Sean Hannity that Comey’s assertion that his father was not under investigation when he was in charge of the bureau should exonerate the president.

“This has been a 10-month witch hunt,” Trump Jr. says. “This is the only thing that they had on Trump. This is what they did to distract him from being able to get the stuff done that he was elected to ultimately do. And I think now that this has all passed, he can go back to doing what he promised he was going to do. There’s no clouds. There’s nothing getting in his way.”

June 10, 2017

Trump Jr. appears to contradict his father’s account of a conversation between the president and Comey about the investigation of former national security adviser Michael Flynn while seeming to confirm Comey’s version.

The week before, Comey testified to the Senate intelligence committee that Trump had told him, “I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go.”

Trump denied ever saying that to Comey.

“I didn’t say that,” Trump said during a press conference at the White House Rose Garden. “I didn’t say that. I mean, I will tell you, I didn’t say that.”

But Trump Jr., while calling Comey’s testimony “basically ridiculous,” went on to tell Fox News’ Jeanine Pirro: “You and I both know my father a long time. When he tells you to do something, guess what, there’s no ambiguity in it. There’s no, ‘Hey, I’m hoping.’ You and I are friends, ‘Hey, hope this happens but you get to do your job.’ That’s what he told Comey.”

July 8, 2017

The New York Times reports that Trump Jr. met with a Kremlin-linked lawyer during the campaign. In response, Trump Jr. gives them the following statement:

  “It was a short introductory meeting. I asked Jared and Paul to stop by. We primarily discussed a program about the adoption of Russian children that was active and popular with American families years ago and was since ended by the Russian government, but it was not a campaign issue at the time and there was no follow up. I was asked to attend the meeting by an acquaintance, but was not told the name of the person I would be meeting with beforehand.”

  July 9, 2017

After the Times reported that Trump Jr. was promised information related to Clinton to secure the meeting, he released a longer statement:

  “I was asked to have a meeting by an acquaintance I knew from the 2013 Miss Universe pageant with an individual who I was told might have information helpful to the campaign. I was not told her name prior to the meeting. I asked Jared and Paul to attend, but told them nothing of the substance. We had a meeting in June 2016. After pleasantries were exchanged, the woman stated that she had information that individuals connected to Russia were funding the Democratic National Committee and supporting Ms. Clinton. Her statements were vague, ambiguous and made no sense. No details or supporting information was provided or even offered. It quickly became clear that she had no meaningful information. She then changed subjects and began discussing the adoption of Russian children and mentioned the Magnitsky Act. It became clear to me that this was the true agenda all along and that the claims of potentially helpful information were a pretext for the meeting. I interrupted and advised her that my father was not an elected official, but rather a private citizen, and that her comments and concerns were better addressed if and when he held public office. The meeting lasted approximately 20 to 30 minutes. As it ended, my acquaintance apologized for taking up our time. That was the end of it and there was no further contact or follow-up of any kind. My father knew nothing of the meeting or these events.”

  July 10, 2017

Trump Jr. mocks the controversy over a meeting that he says “went nowhere but had to listen.”

Obviously I'm the first person on a campaign to ever take a meeting to hear info about an opponent… went nowhere but had to listen. https://t.co/ccUjL1KDEa

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) July 10, 2017

No inconsistency in statements, meeting ended up being primarily about adoptions. In response to further Q’s I simply provided more details.

No inconsistency in statements, meeting ended up being primarily about adoptions. In response to further Q's I simply provided more details. https://t.co/FdT1D4hfhz

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) July 10, 2017

Happy to work with the committee to pass on what I know. https://t.co/tL47NOoteM

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) July 10, 2017

July 11, 2017

Trump Jr. dismisses interest in the “nonsense” meeting.

Media & Dems are extremely invested in the Russia story. If this nonsense meeting is all they have after a yr, I understand the desperation!

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) July 11, 2017

At an off-camera press briefing at the White House, deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders relayed Trump’s statement on the e-mail: “My son is a high-quality person and I applaud his transparency.”

Donald Trump Jr. pumps his fist after speaking at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, July 19, 2016. (Mike Segar/Reuters)

— With Yahoo News’ Gabby Kaufman and Christopher Wilson contributing reporting

[jonjost]

With each passing day the Trump White House Reality Show Saga staggers forth, drowning the public arena in plots and events which would leave a Brazilian soap opera in the dust of absurdist improbability. Each day the various spokespersons emerge to spew ridiculous lies, one after the other, with seeming shamelessness. Nearly each day Herr Trump emits a sequences of Twitter enuncios, often mangled in misspellings, grammatical knots, and, yes, the invariable Everest of lies which seem to be his singular reason for being. This grand drama has carried on ever since his highness descended the golden escalator of Trump Tower, greeted by a large gaggle of paid actors, and announced he was in the ring, running for President. It was in more ways than one a real class act.

He’d laid the groundwork for this grand Guignol theater with decades in the trenches of the New York real estate biz, and then the tinsel glamor of casinos, draped with gambling’s usual cast of thugs and local Mafia which, in fact, was not a great change from NYC’s corrupt building industry. And then, having failed in both these endeavors, with a trail of bankruptcies to show for it, he moved on TV’s reality-show sewer, and ever greater fakery.

As with his businesses, so it was with wives. Failing with one, he dumped her and moved to the next, a littering the way with a string of children, the last of whom is named after the fake PR agent which Trump himself used to play to pass along juicy items to New York’s yellow press. Barron was his name, and he’d call to let the world know of Trump’s latest conquests in the field of fucking. His son now bears this albatrossian monicker. Lucky him.

  And now looking more haggard with his vast comb-over and sagging flesh, eyes peering out from their odd white sockets from the fake tan skin job he applies to himself, The Donald is able to command the world’s attention, his stubby fingers but a code away from incinerating the whole globe, should the corrupted American system comply with a demented order from The President.   Thus far the theoretical “checks and balances” of the Founding Fathers scheme seem to be faltering seriously.

All of the above is appalling, and sadly true. The Rosebud of Trump’s psyche is clearly hidden in the massive chip on the Queens kid’s shoulder. Bruised with a silver spoon up his ass at birth, and apparently a harsh unloving father and mother, The Donald took his million buck wad from his father, moved into the Manhattan real-estate racket, and pulled himself up by his own bootstraps, a real Horatio Alger American success story. Well, not quite. Hobbled with a bone spur in one of his feet, he forgets which, Donald blazed a pecker-track trail through the decadent Manhattan party scene of the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s, emerging, so he says, unscathed with STD, his own private Vietnam, risking AIDS with each psycho-sexual battle. Along the way he blew his million buck starter kit, had some bankruptcies here and there, and built a reputation as a scam artist, from high to low.  He moved on to Atlantic City casinos, and gambling there, lost again.  His dad bailed him out with a legally dubious multi-million dollar purchase of casino chips.  The Trump Taj Mahal recently shuttered its doors after being sold to another sucker. Along the line The Donald learned that old PT Barnum maxim, there’s one born every second.

  Failed but famous, he saw his name was the best product on offer, mystical and golden. Trump Steaks! Trump National Golf Courses! Trump Vodka! Trump University! He built a tower on 5th Avenue, asserting it was 68 floors when it was in fact 58. He installed a private Versailles on its top floors, a garish palace of fake Louis XIV and hauled his third wife up there to spawn his 5th child, dear Barron. And yet, despite all this, the Manhattan elite never accepted him and his brash, crude and rude ways, and the best tables at the classy restaurants were not reserved for him. In fact the boys on Wall Street finally declined to bank with him, and he turned his sights to other funding sources, and, along with other New York real-estate moguls, Trumpworld became a money laundering machine for Russian and East European dirty money, carefully funneled through an arcane web of  off-shore shell companies and banks.

  This fantastical story is no fable, but rather the unhappy truth, a real American novel writ large if crude.

  Though the still more fantastical story – no fable – is that this one could never have been lived if it were not for the world in which it has been played out:  America, circa now. In an America where corruption on a vast scale is the norm, though not so long ago we primly lectured the world on probity. Where the once staunchly proper Republican Party lies supine, awaiting Donald’s allegedly very little dick, for a daily reaming. Where a party of pious moralizers about women’s bodies turn utterly silent when the most obvious of liars occupies the White House in their name, and tramples daily on the “values” which they once harped upon so loudly. The hypocrisy is so vast as to diminish the word “hypocrisy” to nothing. It is something else. It is something which has incrementally entered the American body politic in ways that, as ever in hindsight, seem so obvious now, though were invisible as they entered the bloodstream. A stealthy terminal cancer which does not reveal itself until it takes your life.

Today the liberal world of Democrats is still in shock, unable to believe their most worthy candidate actually lost to the uncouth bullying braggart which Donald John Trump is. At the outset of the campaign they were salivating at the obviousness of their win, it was a no-brainer no-match. They’d take the Senate, clean up in once Red States, and waltz happily from the wonders of a black President to smashing the glass ceiling of sexism, and have a woman in the Oval Office. And, in a manner they did: 3 million more votes  went to Madam Clinton than Mr Trump received, just that, in the arcane electoral scam world of America, they were in the wrong places. Firm in her belief that certain fly-over zones, traditionally Democratic, were hers for granted, she declined to campaign in Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, and missed out on noting the collapse of these realms which Don the Con so expertly gamed into his head count.

WASHINGTON, DC – JUNE 04: U.S. Senate Minority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) listens as he speaks to members of the media June 4, 2013 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. The Senate Republicans had their weekly policy luncheon to discuss the Republican agenda. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

And then of course there is the litany of GOP tricks of gerrymandering, of voting roll purges, and, so it seems, a bit of Russian cyber warfare to tilt the appropriate tables just enough to pull out a Trump Electoral College win.  Such is the Dem lament.  If, indeed, Putin had much to do with it (I’d guess he did, but the roots go far back into post-USSR oligarchic mafia money flooding into NYC and along the way bailing The Donald out of his business miseries), then in terms of grand real-politik, he’s already had an immense win:  the USA is in severe internal turmoil, and seems headed towards a dissolution similar to that which the good old USSR went through.

The bottom line, which it seems Democrats are unable to comprehend, nor did their GOP counterparts, is that the USA is, socially, utterly corrupted, top to bottom, and only in such a situation could a Donald Trump emerge triumphant.  With the GOP he acted like a juvenile delinquent, he huffed and puffed and called his opposition truly stupid bad names – and they all shriveled up and collapsed as they were nothing to begin with.  And once he won, having insulted them all, they showed their true characters and value and went to suck his butt.

“We came, we saw, he died.” (Laughter.)

And while the Democrats imagine themselves somehow different, in truth it is their own corruption – for decades – which brought this debacle upon them, and upon the nation. For decades they have spoken nice liberal niceties, while wallowing in the trough of corporate malfeasance, and enhancing their personal wealth along the way.  Clinton (both) did half-million buck speeches to Wall Street honchos and said no quid pro quo was involved, while they backed the corporately-written trade agreements that have decimated American labor.  Obama, well-mannered Harvard-trained Step’n Fetchit did the Man’s bidding and let Wall Street off the hook for illegalities up the kazoo in the 2008 collapse.  Ditto did he say he was “looking forward” and not back in letting Bush and gang off the hook for lying the USA into a disastrous war, the consequences of which are still being played out. One of the club.  The list of Democratic dishonesty is equal to that of the Republicans, because, bottom line, they all belong to the same institutions and the same insider game.  That is the corruption which blossomed over the decades as the few became obscenely wealthy, and the many fell ever further behind, and the social infrastructure was effectually let to rot while the liberal-left of America mouthed platitudes about race, sexual identification, “safe” spaces, and all the rest of the fake stuff of “political correctness” which invaded our public commons, while the invisible hand of the market consigned a vast portion of the country to Walmart and worse.  While 22 veterans a day, left homeless, commit suicide each day – now far out-numbering those killed in combat.  While meth and then opioids cut a lethal swath across the nation’s failing economic casualties.    It is not as if these things were not visible, it is just that for the liberal world, the large mental “fly-over” country was dismissed as a yahoo red-neck Nascar wreck, unworthy of attention or care, and was left to Fox and friends to warp with 24/7 right-wing propaganda.  All in plain sight, but until it came to whack them over the head in the 2016 election, seemingly unworthy of giving the time of day.   And now the institutional Democrats are convulsed in an internecine war with themselves, fingers pointing blame at anyone but the person in the mirror:  It was Sanders’ fault.  It was the blind DNC.  It was Clinton’s ham-handedness and arrogance.  It was the Russians.  It was…..

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton looks on as she speaks during a town hall meeting in Las Vegas, Nevada August 18, 2015. REUTERS/David Becker – RTX1OPKY

  It was anyone and anything aside from the rotted corrupt society that is America today.  A society in which corruption is such a norm that a great majority is blind to it, taking it as how the world is, and how it should be.  Grade inflation in schools, from kindergarten to PhD’s in Harvard.  Cheating as a necessary way to get ahead.  A medical system which is little more than an extortion racket.  Our vast and corrosive “entertainment” industry that feeds virtual death on a grand scale 24/7 – look at your TV and Hwd block-busters.  Sports which are but a step away from Roman gladiators killing each other for the pleasure of violence besotted spectators. A military-industrial-media system that functions as a quasi-religion and contorts the American economy in a death-lock. Look almost anywhere and the ugly specter of corruption materializes: social, economic, cultural, political.

  This should be no surprise in an imperial system which lies to itself, and has done so from its inception.  The United States of America comprises 5% of the world’s population and consumes 25% of its resources.  While America insists that it is “exceptional” and that this disproportion derives both from having a large landmass and brilliant creative entrepreneurial people the brutal fact is that it has a vast military machine which enforces its economic sway on much, if no longer all, of the world.  It is imperialism, plain and simple.  But Americans, self-deluded, do not acknowledge it, just as they do not acknowledge that the US is almost always at war, supposedly defending “US interests.”  In such a system the moral rot is innate: no one wishes to admit their wealth is ill-gained, no one wishes to really admit the history which is that of America.  Almost no one in such a system will volunteer to relinquish 80% of their wealth to help even out the grotesque distribution of global wealth.  And so lying and self-delusion arise naturally and “normally,” and with it a fertile ground for corruption of all kinds.   And a hence, a field ripe for the emergence of Mr Trump and his cohorts.

  “A candidate for public office…does not face men of sense; he faces a mob of men whose chief distinguishing mark is the fact that they are quite incapable of weighing ideas, or even of comprehending any save the most elemental — men whose whole thinking is done in terms of emotion, and whose dominant emotion is dread of what they cannot understand. So confronted, the candidate must either bark with the pack or count himself lost. All the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre — the man who can most adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is a virtual vacuum. As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”                                                                                                                  H.L. Mencken

      FAKE With each passing day the Trump White House Reality Show Saga staggers forth, drowning the public arena in plots and events which would leave a Brazilian soap opera in the dust of absurdist improbability.

[dragoni]

New: Trump Jr talked to Emin Agalarov who arranged Trump Tower meeting then made 11-minute phone call to a blocked number. Trump Jr said he couldn't remember who he called. However, Dems note Corey Lewandowski testified Candidate Trump's primary residence has a blocked number.

Jim Sciutto‏ @jimsciutto -  May 16, 2018 10:00 AM

Don Jr is Fredo

[oddepia]

Trump Junior’s Russian Conspiracy Meeting Was Total Fucking Clown Car, Apparently Trump Tower, June 9, 2016 A tweet to end your Friday: EIGHT. What did we ask this morning?

[spinozists]

✨ August Reading List ✨

The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve: The Story That Created Us, Stephen Greenblatt

Game of Queens: The Women Who Made Sixteenth-Century Europe, Sarah Gristwood

The Symptom and the Subject: The Emergence of the Physical Body in Ancient Greece, Brooke Holmes

Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zola Neale Hurston

Collected Ficciones, Jorge Luis Borges

The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, Gregory Nagy

Praise of Folly, Erasmus

The Secret History, Donna Tartt

Illuminating the Roman d’Alexandre; Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Bodley 264: The Manuscript as Monument, Mark Cruse

Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America, Melissa V. Harris-Perry

The Rival Queens, Nancy Goldstone

Twilight, Stephanie Meyer

Midnight Sun, Stephanie Meyer

The Luminaries, Eleanor Catton

The Priest of Nature: The Religious Worlds of Isaac Newton, Rob Iliffe

Forbidden Friendships: Homosexuality and Male Culture in Renaissance Florence, Michael Rocke

Laura Cereta: Collected Letters of a Renaissance Feminist, trans. and ed. Diana Robin

Along with several varying articles, usually to supplement the book i was already reading, this month was a good one for me actually reading. Due to farm duties and housework I’m not sure if September will be as well read (as well as me possibly - finally - getting an interview for work). However, I would greatly appreciate recommendations!