Last week, our fool president went on another Twitter rant, in this case blaming Representative Elijah Cummings, who has been a thorn in his side by simply being an upright, moral human being, of being responsible for the “disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess” that is Baltimore. This is ironic coming from a New Yorker, home of Pizza Rat, but whole new levels of amusement are added when you learn that Jared Kushner, his son-in-law, is a major Baltimore area slumlord.
In 2017, Baltimore County officials revealed that apartments owned by the Kushner firm were responsible for more than 200 code violations, all accrued in the span of the calendar year. Repairs were made only after the county threatened fines, local officials said, and even after warnings, violations on nine properties were not addressed, resulting in monetary sanctions.
In an investigation by the New York Times and Pro Publica published earlier that year, tenants of Kushner properties reported mouse infestations, mold problems and maggots. A private investigator who looked into Kushner’s property management company, Westminster Management, described the managers as “slumlords.”
“Basically, [Kushner] has been creating a race to the bottom in terms of poorly maintained properties,” she said. “He’s been very, very deeply implicated.”
In the past two years, the Kushner firm and its affiliated entities have been sued multiple times by Baltimore-area residents who allege that the company has charged them excessive fees and used the threat of eviction to pressure them into paying.
I’ve been to Baltimore several times. It’s a fine city, with character and a beautiful downtown (I also like visiting New York), and it’s amazing how petty that demagogue Trump can get when he’s lashing out. He fully deserved what the editor of the Baltimore Sun wrote about him.
Finally, while we would not sink to name-calling in the Trumpian manner — or ruefully point out that he failed to spell the congressman’s name correctly (it’s Cummings, not Cumming) — we would tell the most dishonest man to ever occupy the Oval Office, the mocker of war heroes, the gleeful grabber of women’s private parts, the serial bankrupter of businesses, the useful idiot of Vladimir Putin and the guy who insisted there are “good people” among murderous neo-Nazis that he’s still not fooling most Americans into believing he’s even slightly competent in his current post. Or that he possesses a scintilla of integrity. Better to have some vermin living in your neighborhood than to be one.
Impeach that monster. I can’t believe the Democrats have been dragging their heels about confronting a man so manifestly unfit for office.
Presumably it’s “political strategy” that’s stopping them impeaching the orange idiot. But by not even attempting it they’re basically signalling that they’re happy with him as president.
“But by not attempting it they’re signalling they’re happy with him as President.”
Yeah, it’s THIS kind of intellectual dishonesty that helps assholes like Trump stay in power. Happy? Who controls the Senate again?
If you think enduring something means enjoyment of it, I can only shudder to imagine what you say about women.
Currently, the only excuse they have left for not impeaching Trump is that he still controls the senate, and any impeachment would be stopped dead in the water by that – congress can impeach freely and as often as they want, but it’s all pointless if the Republican senate says “So what, we don’t care, and we’re not going to punish him because he’s keeping us in power.”
It’s not a good excuse, but it’s the only one that remains. The Mueller report alone contains more than enough evidence that any elected official who actually cares about law, order, justice, and/or the constitution would be forced to vote in favour of impeachment and removal from office. Unfortunately, those four things are not even remotely a concern for most of them.
Even better than impeachment is confiscate the properties for failing to maintain them and ignoring orders to repair them. Then fix them up and send the Trumps the bill. After all they expect Mexico to pay for the wall. Then use them for low income housing for the tenants that the vermin-in-chief’s vermin-in-law has been ripping off.
Good grief, PZ, you were alive for the Clinton impeachment; where’s your memory? A Trump impeachment process would be just as much of a political circus, in the end yielding absolutely nothing except to be a complete distraction from any possible useful government business for weeks. You know there has been nothing revealed that amounts to a “high crime” that would tilt popular opinion strongly enough to influence enough swing votes in the Senate (certainly nothing as juicy as a blow job in the Oval Office). It would be a dreary six-weeks blather-fest ending in acquittal, with the only result that Trump can launch into his campaign with a blare of triumphalism.
Also worth noting that the poverty rate is lower in Elijah Cummings’ district than it is in Mick Mulvaney’s.
Just can’t imagine why only one of those districts is disgusting.
The most rodent- and rat-infested place right now is the White House.
“Better to have some vermin living in your neighborhood than to be one.”
The Baltimore Sun have committed that common logical fallacy, ad verminem. Shame! Shame on them!
@5: Except right now the acts of “useful” government are things like building concentration camps. Interfering with them would be worthwhile in itself.
Besides, it seems like a political circus that Trump doesn’t run can’t possibly be better for him than the current political circus that he does. Nixon’s popularity only fell after they started impeachment hearings; are you sure keeping Trump’s multitude of impeachable crimes in the news wouldn’t do the same? Are you so confident that a Trump who’s been acquitted by his cronies will look better than a Trump who nobody ever tried charging that you don’t even want to try preserving rule of law? There seem like a lot of questionable assumptions in that.
OK just what useful business would be that be. as i watch nothing very progressive is anywhere near likely to be passed today. If that would tie up the whole congress and senate while they stop to go through the impeachment process that sounds to me like a feature not a bug.
if there is one thing liars do not like is exposure of their lies, if there is one thing bullies do not like is resistance. they should all be exposed in all their vileness and hypocrisy
uncle frogy
Eric Ressner wrote:
It’s also horrible libel against frequent Presidential candidate Vermin Supreme.
@Just an Organic Regular Expression
Why would this turn out more like Clinton than Nixon?
Cinton’s approval rating was at 60% when they began impeachment. Trump’s is at 40 and has basically been unchanged since election day.
And that’s without a daily, public airing of all his bullshit.
Also, current polling indicates public support for impeachment 47-45. This just isn’t like Clinton, primarily because the alleged crimes with Trump are actual crimes (in retrospect, there was plenty of impeachable behavior from Clinton, but that’s not what they were going after him for…).
If Trump were impeached in the House and by some miracle convicted in the Senate, Pence would just pardon him. And then he would still run for re-election, you know he would! Republicans have elected people who were in jail or dead. They’d still vote for Trump.
That’s what grinds my gears the most – even if they successfully impeach him, he will never have to answer for his crimes (except maybe those committed in NY) because he will be pardoned. If he’s voted out of office and is indicted then, the Supremes will somehow find a way to let him off. Or he’ll manage to drag things out so long that he’ll die before seeing the inside of a cell.
He’s why I sometimes wish there were a Hell, because in this world, powerful, evil men never have to worry about facing any sort of reckoning. Saddam Husein is the only tyrant in my memory that faced any retribution, but that was only because he made the mistake of possibly trying to assassinate W’s daddy.
@Ridana
I agree that conviction in the Senate is unlikely, but I would have no fear, were I a Democratic member of Congress, about forcing the Republicans to defend Trump. Hang that shit around their necks.
Assuming the inquiry is done in such a way that every day there’s some new witness talking about his corruption and perversion and criminality and general shittiness, I think there is value even if he’s exonerated by the Senate.
Make them own it.