Itâs pretty bad when the payer of the bribe openly complains about insufficient ROI.
Iâm sort of curious what drug approval they needed âhelpâ with. Probably some $1,000 per month injection to marginally improve some secondary measure to go up against $5 generics that have actually been proven to reduce mortality.
The amount of the payments also belie any claim that Trump himself was not involved. Zero plausible deniability. There is no way Taxi Medallion Buying Brooklyn Ambulance Chaser Michael Cohen was getting this amount of money from a Pharma Giant without a wink from El Donald.
So, was Cohen engaged in honest graft, or dishonest graft (i.e., grift). Did der Furor know about the payoff, or not. Did he get a piece of the payoff? Did he do anything for the payoff? All America wants to know!
Please! That is âEl Donaldoâ!
There is also no way that Novartis, or any large corporation, was paying this sort of money to Cohen without the belief that their money was not ultimately ending up in Trumpâs pocket.
Cohen is not a registered lobbyist, has zero experience in lobbying, or any governmental policy. The only thing he did have is access to Donald. If Cohen was charging 4x the going rate, it becomes very clear that this is an out and out pay to play scenario, and Trump is getting a cut. Thatâs the only reason a big MNC would make these payments.
@old_curmudgeon just wait until they start getting to the disbursements from this slush fund. 
Thatâs the keyâNovartis thought Trump was on board (presumably by reaping some benefit), but was he? Or was the company played? Hard to believe that a schlepper like Cohen could befuddle an international pharmaceutical giant, but stranger things have happened. So, what did tRump know, and what did he get out of it? Oh, and when did he forget it.
We have our answer for why Mueller handed things over to the us attorney of the southern district of New York, donât we? These shenanigans clearly justify a raid on Cohenâs office, while theyâre also clearly distinct from the Russia collusion issues Mueller is dealing with.
LOL. I respectfully disagree. I grew up with LOTS of Spanglish. Spanglish was a big source of levity at my all male catholic high school in Puerto Rico and I am certain that we made many contributions to the Spanglish lexicon of the late sixties and early seventies. In NYC of the 80s Trump was referred to as The Donald (I think first wife Ivana coined that phrase) and in proper Real Academia de la Lengua Spanglish it would be El Donald. In my homophobic humor indulging all male high school it would have been regularly bent to La Donald. During the Ed Koch administration, many of our Latino Gay friends gleefully referred to Ed Koch as La Kocha because he was a well known closet case for his entire adult life. Anyway, a little primer there for you on PR Island and NYC Spanglish, my friend and colleague.
The parallel is with âEl Chapoâ.
You disagree that he is a crime boss?
The analysis of Cohenâs finances is going to be quite illuminating. At the time that money like this was rolling into a holding company he setup, he was bitching about not being reimbursed $130K. He was having his wife take out second mortgages on their property. Yet he was also making multi million dollar âloansâ to organized crime families.
The other big tell, to me at least, is Trump saying he has no idea where Cohen got the money for the Daniels payout when he was on AF1. Which of course, Guiliani has now blown up. That first straight up lie is a dead ringer for Trump; he knew exactly where the money was pouring in from, and he was scared shitless that the press was asking that particular question. Because he has his dirty money grubbing fingerprints all over it.
I keep being reminded of a story from around a year ago (or maybe a little more recent) - that a number of high priced units in Trump Tower had been bought, since the election, by shell-companies because the buyers didnât want to be known.
Given what appears to be fairly open money laundering via buying and selling Trump properties in the years from the time Cohen joins the Trump Org through the election, I am far more curious about a) where the money went that Cohen received from Essential Consulting (as we all are), and b) how many Trump units/properties have been bought since the inauguration - by shell corporations and for what prices.
I will be shocked if none of this money cycled right back into Trumpâs pockets.
Do not disagree. Chapo is the nickname. It is not a masculine suffix to a variable gender word.
The use of "El" as part of someoneâs nickname is usually part of the endearment or deprecatory nature of nicknames in Spanish.
The use of âLaâ as part of someoneâes nickname, at least in my experience or my observations, has to do with an implication that a female is a Diva. Or if used for a male, that one is joking or casting an aspersion on his masculinity. The typical one growing up was for people on the street in PR and I believe a couple at least on TV and Radio, was to refer to TV Astrologist Walter Mercado as âLa Walter.â In his case it had both Diva and homophobic meaning. You would have to have seen the outfits he designed and wore on his daily Astrology programs, and his grandiose, flamboyant gestures.
If any Trumpistas come at you with the argument, âOh thatâs how Washington works, it always has, nothing to see here, move alongâ (as they are over at RedState) please gently remind them that Dear Leader promised to drain that particular swamp, in every single one of his campaign rallies. For over a year.
But he isnât draining anything. Instead, heâs dragged more swamp in with him. His own, personal lawyer-swamp. His swamp-family. And Rudy.
See if that shuts them up.
I for one will enjoy the numerous shifting explanations that we will have from the Trump-Giuliani and Cohen CampsâŚAnd from FOX NEWS!!!..between now and when the truth is actually dug out by the NYT, WaPo and the US Dept of Justice (unless Nunes-Gowdy-Goodlatte, and Trump advised by Allen Dershowitz can somehow corrupt the DOJ and squelch it all).
Thatâll be part of the narrative when Mueller releases what he has. Trumpâs sycophants will claim all billionaires do it. Check Buffet, check Soros, check Bezos. Itâs a witch hunt.
Nothing will âshut them upâ.
Indeed! Itâs like they each take turns shaking a snow-globe - creating a brief blizzard - and with each tumultuous shake expect that this one shake will clear up all of the snow - and make the globe suddenly a peaceful and serene paradise - because they just donât understand that it is, by definition, a snow-globe. After each episode is exposed as distoritions - another glimpse can be spied at the horrendous mutations occurring at the top of our Govt.
And the Rudy shows - he just loves his turns in front of the television creating a visual murky mess in his wake. Trumpâs mini-me. Too bad his âseriesâ is likely to be canceled any day now.
Donald and company seem to be used to not bing in the spotlight under a magnifying glass and able to get away with all kinds of shit. And when he got in office they just kept working like they always did before.
Thanks - this really is quite interesting and informative.
But I am making a joke in English based on what JoaquĂn GuzmĂĄn is called in Mexico.