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[Max™]

http://www.zdnet.com/article/the-laws-of-australia-will-trump-the-laws-of-mathematics-turnbull/

"The laws of Australia prevail in Australia, I can assure you of that," he said on Friday. "The laws of mathematics are very commendable, but the only law that applies in Australia is the law of Australia."

[Draignean]

http://www.zdnet.com/article/the-laws-of-australia-will-trump-the-laws-of-mathematics-turnbull/

"The laws of Australia prevail in Australia, I can assure you of that," he said on Friday. "The laws of mathematics are very commendable, but the only law that applies in Australia is the law of Australia."

That may be the most Australian thing I've ever seen.

[Neonivek]

Look the law of physics is very commendable... But the only law that applies in the USA is US law.

What I just LOOVE is how all of this is basically that Australia has created a law that companies are required by law to install backdoors.

[smjjames]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/politics/australia-mexico-transcripts/?utm_term=.13824b4bd055

Transcripts of some of Trumps calls were released.

Man, that is some cringe-y reading, especially with Turnbull. 45 gets so wound up worrying about the optics that he doesn't even listen to what Turnbull is saying.

Christ, this makes me feel worse about world leaders in general. Trump's side of this was trash, but look at the way Turnbull talks while Trump is freaking out. "Thank you, thank you, yes commitment, yes, agree" fuck you, fucking conduct actual diplomacy or don't but don't pretend in a private phone call like you're doing something.

I bet Kennedy and Khrushchev didn't spend ten minutes spewing shit at each other. What, are brass tacks now extinct or something?

This was WAY back in January, one can only hope that his, diplomacy, if you can call it that, has improved some.

Good. I want you to be so popular that your people will call for a constitutional amendment in Mexico so that you can run again for another six years.

Eh? Not nice to troll your neighbor that way.

Malcom [sic]

That shows up a bunch of times, I guess Trump threw a bit of his accent into it.

In Russia investigation news, Mueller has impanelled a Grand Jury, and the investigation as a whole is expanding and is reportedly including looking into financial ties that Trump has.

[misko27]

I'm not saying that's the right decision, and I'm not saying it would have ended peacefully either. But an argument can be made that strategically the Cuban missiles didn't mean much at all. It was simply posturing to put them there and posturing from Kennedy to get them removed.

Why do we have to make that argument? Trump wouldn't! Trump would have allowed the missiles because he wouldn't want to spook his Russian friends by calling them on anything. You could make the argument that a reasonable President might have taken that tact, but Trump isn't reasonable so it's a hypothetical at best. Why make the argument that, for example, critics of the ACA might have a point, while Trump is out there saying "Well what if I took away everyone's health insurance, and then said that it was the Democrats fault? Freaking brilliant strategies right here people."

He's got an amazing knack for taking an argument and looking at it from the worst way possible. It's quite impressive, as most politicians feel the need to have some sort of legitimate point that they are making but putting poorly. Trump has freed himself from this restrictive urge, and his arguments show the result of that.

[nenjin]

I imagine investigating Trump's finances directly will push the Donald to new heights of hysteria. He hasn't fought harder for anything than keeping his finances a secret. And I would wager that if any of Mueller's findings are made public there will be some form of backlash from his base, who imagine the government ripping open their own finances and investigating them, despite the fact that Trump's finances are nothing like their's.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

As a few people have pointed out, the extremes that Trump has gone to already means there are really only two possibilities about these finances:

A. Trump is just irrationally protective of his financial status, possibly fueled by a belief in the myth of the Trump image that would be harmed if people could put a number on him.

B. There is something indicated by Trump's finances so utterly horrifying that the entire nation will turn against him and throw him out of the White House.

Honestly, I'm not even sure which is more likely. Reality isn't supposed to be very exciting, so it'd surely be A...but then, Trump has done things like admit to sexually harassing teenage beauty pageant models, let alone his actual business practices.

[Neonivek]

I really REALLY REALLY want to see a Warrant to look at Trump's Finances

[nenjin]

A. Trump is just irrationally protective of his financial status, possibly fueled by a belief in the myth of the Trump image that would be harmed if people could put a number on him.

B. There is something indicated by Trump's finances so utterly horrifying that the entire nation will turn against him and throw him out of the White House.

I mean, I hope for B but the realist in me says it's A. Trump is 100% about his image and his wealth is the foundation upon which that image is built. If that foundation is shown to be made of spackle and filled with roaches, forget losing the presidency. Trump loses the one thing that has kept him going since the 80s: the appearance of success. That's the kind of thing I think would drive a man of Trump's caliber insane with fear.

By contrast him going to prison would just be a bonus were that to happen, in my mind. Plenty of "elite" criminals have gone on to be successful. But an aging tycoon whose brand has always provoked skepticism among people with two brain cells to rub together being shown to be, at best, a multi-millionaire? Let's just say his kids would have a shit load of work and bad press to overcome once Donald moves on to that great big fruitbowl in the sky/hell. I don't think he's one for truly thinking about his legacy but he's reaching the point where it's going to be about what he's going to pass on to his "empire." He was hoping to start a new political dynasty and have it run the country. Now I'm thinking he's just hoping to get out of this with what he went in with.

At least he will always be our first official meme president, whatever else happens.

I really REALLY REALLY want to see a Warrant to look at Trump's Finances

In what context? The powers of the Special Prosecutor already allow him to investigate anything which might be linked to the commission of a crime. Unless you're just saying you want to see how many pages said search warrant would be.

[sluissa]

I mean, there is the possibility out there that he's simply very wealthy. There's nothing particularly shocking (beyond what we already know) and that's the end of the story. But once you put a number on his wealth, you can start directly comparing and ranking him to other wealthy people.

"Okay, so he's got a couple billion dollars, clear. That's impressive... but... not as impressive as some other people... though. I mean, there's Michael Bloomberg who has an estimated 40-something billion dollars."

Trump is plainly rich compared to the common man. But Trump is fairly average among billionaires, maybe even sitting in the below average bracket. That's something his ego doesn't want to deal with, the public making that comparison.

[Trekkin]

A. Trump is just irrationally protective of his financial status, possibly fueled by a belief in the myth of the Trump image that would be harmed if people could put a number on him.

B. There is something indicated by Trump's finances so utterly horrifying that the entire nation will turn against him and throw him out of the White House.

Well, we know that he's connected to American organized crime at least through his Atlantic City ventures and there's still considerable ambiguity about his connections to Russian criminal interests -- and, of course, we know his own estimate of his wealth to be vastly inflated and dependent on his feelings -- but I suspect that the most damning thing of all, in Trump's eyes, is what isn't there. For someone who so insistently refers to their ability to build things and "make deals" and so on, the majority of the deals he (well, Ivanka) has made in recent years have been to put his name in giant gold letters on someone else's building. Not only that, but many of the ventures who see Trump's name as a worthy investment are geared towards markets somewhat at odds with the image Trump tries to cultivate.

The Trump mystique is all the Trump brand really has to go on. I suspect that a major part of what has Trump so spooked is the prospect that the public might get wise to the reality of the Trump brand and stop associating it with luxury, at which point he's lost his best income stream.

[EnigmaticHat]

Its also possible he's massively in debt.  Does that end up on your tax returns?

[Frumple]

I've kinda' forgot right at this moment, but I want to say it very much can? If not necessarily has to in all situations.

There's tax relief available for certain kinds of debt, and certain ways of moving debt that count as income for purposes of taxation, just off the top of my head.

Think there's a few kinds that don't have to be reported (either at all, or in a yearly sense) by the person owing the debt (whoever they're paying is a different story, mind, and a thorough investigation would be subpoenaing those records as well), too, though, and gods only know how it varies on a state level, which is very much somethin' you'd be looking at when auditing along with whatever's part of the federal's purview.

E: Or to put it another way, even if it didn't the signs of it would. So it would only remain hidden if your books are cooked ridiculously well or the investigators involved are not terribly good at their job.

E2: Though... point the second (or third, or something), it's also very much possible he could be in massive debt, but not in a way that's abnormal. There's a lot of high roller stuff that can regularly be in debt for amounts approaching their net worth; in a financial sense it's even approaching optimal for certain industries. So massive debt could be just kinda' what should be there. It would proooobably still look absolutely terrible to huge chunks of the public, though, because gods know fiscal sensibility isn't terribly high up on our electorate's competencies or sense of priorities.

[misko27]

At least he will always be our first official meme president, whatever else happens.

Our first meme President? Gee, thanks Obama.

[Frumple]

Barack me Obamadeus.

... in a bit of good (?) news, it looks like the senate took measures to stop trump from making any recess appointments while they're on summer break.

The vaguely interesting bit is that it was done by scheduling nine pro-forma sessions spaced out a few days each, little generally-sub-2-minute sessions...

... the scheduling of which requires unanimous consent from the senate.

For extra fun points, in this case doing so was presided over by one of the alaskan senators... both of which are republican. Might mean things are going to get spicier between POTUS and congress, ehehe _{or, well, that the senate critters are getting fed up enough with his shit so far as taking a dump on their numbers that they're gearing up to start putting more than verbal condemnation behind their reaction to it}