Weekend Open Thread
[guest post by Dana]
Let’s go!
First news item
Ah, so you’re telling me it wasn’t Israel that was responsible for the deaths of 84 people and an additional 284 injured in Iran:
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility Thursday for two suicide bombings targeting a commemoration for an Iranian general slain in a 2020 U.S. drone strike…Experts who follow the group confirmed that the statement, circulated online among jihadists, came from the extremists, who likely hope to take advantage of the chaos gripping the region amid Israel’s war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Second news item
Still running for second, Nikki Haley explained why she believes Trump should be pardoned:
Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley argued that pardoning and “moving on” from former President Donald Trump “is in the best interest of our country.”
“I don’t think our country will move forward with an 80-year-old president sitting in jail that allows our country to continue to be divided. We have to move on past that.” she said when asked by voter Kathryn Duffy to explain her rationale.
Haley explained that pardons are generally not for innocent people — so people are assuming Trump is guilty — but noted that “it’s not about guilt or innocence” for her.“It’s about what’s in the best interest for the country,” she said.
Haley has said that she would vote for Trump, if he is the nominee.
Meanwhile, Chris Christie, who trails behind Trump, Haley, and DeSantis, continues to face pressure to end his campaign. It doesn’t appear he has any interest in doing that:
I have an admission to make: Eight years ago, I endorsed Donald Trump because he was winning.
I was wrong. And unlike everyone else in this race, I can admit when I make a mistake.
In the end, the most important characteristic of any candidate for president of the United… pic.twitter.com/RPvwMuQz5l
— Chris Christie (@GovChristie) January 4, 2024
Also, Christie most assuredly would not vote for Trump, if the former president is the nominee.
You can read Christie discussing his Trump ‘mistake’ with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer here.
Third news item
Former Harvard president Claudine Gay writes in a farewell statement:
It is a singular honor to be a member of this university, which has been my home and my inspiration for most of my professional career. My deep sense of connection to Harvard and its people has made it all the more painful to witness the tensions and divisions that have riven our community in recent months, weakening the bonds of trust and reciprocity that should be our sources of strength and support in times of crisis. Amidst all of this, it has been distressing to have doubt cast on my commitments to confronting hate and to upholding scholarly rigor—two bedrock values that are fundamental to who I am—and frightening to be subjected to personal attacks and threats fueled by racial animus.
Earlier this week, Gay wrote an op-Ed published in the New York Times. In part:
Yes, I made mistakes. In my initial response to the atrocities of Oct. 7, I should have stated more forcefully what all people of good conscience know: Hamas is a terrorist organization that seeks to eradicate the Jewish state. And at a congressional hearing last month, I fell into a well-laid trap. I neglected to clearly articulate that calls for the genocide of Jewish people are abhorrent and unacceptable and that I would use every tool at my disposal to protect students from that kind of hate.
First of all, Ms. Gay is most assuredly smart and savvy enough to not fall into a “well-laid trap” by, um, Elise Stefanik. Please. I’m also pretty sure that Harvard’s Jewish students, who have been the target of hateful anti-Semitic attacks, are wondering exactly when was Ms. Gay going to actually use those tools at her disposal to protect them. Because clearly, it didn’t happen when she was the president of the institution.
Fourth news item
The largest exchange of prisoners of war since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war took place on Wednesday, prompting hopes that POW swaps will continue after they stalled last summer.
Confirming the exchange, Russia said it received 248 prisoners of war from Ukraine, while Ukraine said it got 230 of its military personnel and captured civilians back. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the prisoner exchange came about with mediation from the United Arab Emirates.
. . .
Commenting on the latest exchange, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said “our people are home.”
“More than 200 of our soldiers and civilians were returned from Russian captivity. Soldiers, sergeants, officers. Soldiers of the Armed Forces, National Guard, Navy, border guards. Part of the defenders defended Mariupol and Azovstal,” he said on Telegram Wednesday.
Timothy Snyder has an excellent essay at his Substack, entitled The Meighbor’s House is On Fire. In part:
Everything that the Ukrainians are doing for us can be undone this year. Russia can win, and be encouraged to start other wars, where our participation is likely to be much more direct. China can be encouraged, and we can find ourselves in a cataclysm over Taiwan. International order can break down, and we can confront confusing, difficult, and painful conflicts all over the world. Russia can halt food deliveries to Asia and Africa, leading to starvation and further war. Everyone can be demoralized by the realization that those who risked their lives for democracy were sold out, just because Americans lacked the wherewithal to what is obviously the right thing.
It doesn’t have to be that way. It’s easy to help a good neighbor. This is a conflagration that we can stop with a flick of the wrist. A bit of legislation to support Ukraine, and we all have a safer year, and safer lives.
Read the whole thing.
Fifth news item
Another official swatted after push to remove Trump from the ballot:
California Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis was the victim of a “swatting” call last weekend at her San Francisco home. . .following a series of elected officials being targeted with phony calls to police after they pushed to remove former President Donald Trump from the 2024 ballot.
The incident at Kounalakis’ Pacific Heights condominium came days after California’s No. 2 official wrote to California Secretary of State Shirley Weber urging her to exclude Trump from California’s 2024 primary. Weber did not acquiesce to Kounalakis’ request, siding with Gov. Gavin Newsom who telegraphed to fellow Democrats not to get ahead of the U.S. Supreme Court and dismissed the moves as “ political distraction.”
San Francisco Police responded to Kounalakis’ home about 11:20 a.m. on Dec. 30 after receiving reports of a possible shooting. The officers arrived on the scene and determined there was no merit to the call, public information officer Eve Laokwansathitaya said Thursday.
Sixth news item
Former President Donald Trump received at least $7.8 million in payments from foreign governments during two of his four years in the White House, according to a report released Thursday by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee.
Twenty foreign governments made the payments to Trump’s businesses during the two-year period that the committee was able to review. . . Rep. Jamie Raskin said in the report that the information demonstrates that Trump violated the Constitution’s foreign emoluments clause, which he said prohibits the president from accepting money payments or gifts “‘of any kind whatever’ from foreign governments and monarchs unless he obtains ‘the Consent of the Congress’ to do so.”
This: . . .national security is at stake if a president puts his or her wallet before the public interest.
This made me chuckle:
With the recent revelations that Trump’s businesses took in $7.8 million from foreign governments while he was president, let’s check back in with the guy who was running those businesses. https://t.co/azksUMZloa
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) January 4, 2024
Seventh news item
Remember the noted Paul Harvey video “God Made a Farmer”? Well, Trump has made a similar video, except that instead of God being the main subject, it is Trump himself who is the messiah figure. The text:
And on June 14th, 1946, God looked down on his plan Paradise, and said, I need a caretaker. So God gave us Trump.
God said, I need somebody willing to get up before dawn. Fix this country. Work all day. Fight the Marxists. Eat supper. Then go to the Oval Office and stay past midnight. And a meeting of the heads of state. So God made Trump.
I need somebody with arms strong enough to wrestle the deep state, and yet gentle enough to deliver his own grandchild. Somebody to ruffle the feathers. Tame the cantankerous World Economic Forum. Come home hungry. Have to wait until the First Lady is done with lunch with friends. Then tell the ladies to be sure and come back real soon and mean it. So God gave us Trump.
I need somebody who can shape an ax but wield a sword. Who had the courage to step foot in North Korea? Who can make money from the tar of the sand turned liquid to gold? Who understands the difference between tariffs and inflation? We’ll finish this 40 hour week by Tuesday noon, but then put in another 72 hours. So God made Trump.
God had to have somebody willing to go into the den of vipers. Call out the fake news for their tongues as sharp as serpents. The poison of vipers is on their lips. And yet. Stop. So God made Trump.
God said, I need somebody who will be strong and courageous, who will not be afraid or terrified of the wolves when they attack a man who cares for the flock. A shepherd to mankind who will never leave nor forsake them. I need the most diligent worker to follow the path and remain strong in faith and know the belief of God and country. Somebody who is willing to drill, bring back manufacturing and American jobs. Farm the lands. Secure our borders. Build our military. Fight the system all day and finish a hard weeks. Work by attending church on Sunday. And then his oldest son turns and says, God, let’s make America great again, dad. Let’s build back a country to be the envy of the world again. So God made Trump.
I thought this had to be a joke. I was wrong.
Also, Trump isn’t the first candidate to present himself as a messiah-type figure. Here is a Ron DeSantis ad from 2022:
I love you, Ron.
On behalf of millions of people, never stop fighting for freedom. pic.twitter.com/5wcopo041U
— Casey DeSantis (@CaseyDeSantis) November 4, 2022
Have a great weekend.
—Dana
Hello.
Dana (932d71) — 1/5/2024 @ 8:19 amI appreciate the post, Dana, but I am so saddened by how the future is unfolding. W.B. Yeats was spot on:
Simon Jester (5a7f77) — 1/5/2024 @ 8:46 amhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/the-welfare-industrial-complex-is-booming-3a7ad15c
Here are all the new jobs under Bidenomics.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 1/5/2024 @ 8:48 amRIP actor-singer David Soul (80).
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 1/5/2024 @ 8:50 amRe Seventh News Item:
nk (bb1548) — 1/5/2024 @ 9:09 amEven though Israel didn’t do the bombing, I don’t see it as terrorism. Terrorism is attacks on members of the public without regard to their connection to the “enemy.”
The attack was pretty well targeted on regime members, particularly on members of the Revolutionary Guard. It’s akin to the French Resistance blowing up a Nazi gathering. Could it have been better targeted? Probably, as some in the crowd were probably +1s, but I don’t think I’ll lose any sleep over wishing them their just rewards.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/5/2024 @ 9:10 amI am not going to second-guess Nikki’s calculations, but it’s clear that she wants to stay in politics and isn’t going to burn bridges. This is Christie’s last hurrah and really his best future plan is AG in a non-Trump GOP administration. Or a CNN contributor.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/5/2024 @ 9:13 amhttps://national.fop.net/reportshotkilled112024#page=1
For 2023:
NJRob (eb56c3) — 1/5/2024 @ 9:13 am-378 police officers shot in the line of duty.
– 46 officers killed by gunfire
– 115 amubsh-style attacks on law enforcement officers, resulting in 138 officers shot and 20 murdered.
Ouch!
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 1/5/2024 @ 9:16 amIran has its own ISIS problem. Too bad.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 1/5/2024 @ 9:18 amwhen was Ms. Gay going to actually use those tools at her disposal to protect them
I expect her to do a tour of speaking gigs, attacking antisemitism, balanced of course with a caution about anti-Islamicism. She will make a lot of money on this tour.
I note that the new (and strongly DEI-focused) president of my alma mater is avoiding the entire Israel issue, talking instead about how the college’s services are there for students who are worried or depressed about events overseas.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/5/2024 @ 9:18 am“A bit of legislation to support Ukraine, and we all have a safer year, and safer lives.”
It’s a shame we have a president who would halt Ukraine aid in order to keep his open borders policies.
lloyd (2a2843) — 1/5/2024 @ 9:21 amTo defend Nikki and a pardon, I can’t see her wanting to share the spotlight with Donald Trump’s circus. I’d expect a commutation rather than a pardon, and there would be a STFU understanding if he wanted a full pardon later.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/5/2024 @ 9:22 amYeats’ poem is amazingly apt, of course. But it’s the Second Coming of the Caesars we should be expecting.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/5/2024 @ 9:29 am“national security is at stake if a president puts his or her wallet before the public interest.”
Quick, call the nothingburger police.
James Comer : “It’s beyond parody that Democrats continue their obsession with former President Trump. Former President Trump has legitimate businesses but the Bidens do not. The Bidens and their associates made over $24 million by cashing in on the Biden name in China, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Romania. No goods or services were provided other than access to Joe Biden and the Biden network.”
lloyd (2a2843) — 1/5/2024 @ 9:32 amYou knew this was going to happen:
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 1/5/2024 @ 9:32 amWho does Trump think he is?
Eric Adams?
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/04/nyregion/adams-religion-prayer.html
Sammy Finkelman (c2c77e) — 1/5/2024 @ 9:33 amAnother official swatted after push to remove Trump from the ballot
Is this a conspiracy? Swatting requires specific knowledge and equipment (or particularly poor 911 services). Maybe it’s widespread, but this just seems too well connected. Proud Boys?
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/5/2024 @ 9:33 amSimilarly, in most of the other instances that BI identified in which Oxman lifted passages from other works, she cited the author but did not put quotation marks around the plagiarized material.
That isn’t plagiarism, exactly. It may be violating a style guide.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/5/2024 @ 9:36 amJulius, Augustus, Tiberius, and Caligula did not have bone spurs. There were no 4-Fs until Claudius.
nk (bb1548) — 1/5/2024 @ 9:37 amBill Ackman ought to give his next Harvard donation to the NRA.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/5/2024 @ 9:39 amJulius, Augustus, Tiberius, and Caligula did not have bone spurs
He thinks he’s Augustus. He’s more like Nero.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/5/2024 @ 9:41 amFormer President Donald Trump received at least $7.8 million in payments from foreign governments during two of his four years in the White House, according to a report released Thursday by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee.
This is such utter bullsh1t. If we are going to say that businessmen must shut or sell their businesses — not everything can be run by a committee of blind trust lawyers — to become president, we will be limiting the pool of talent terribly.
Trump doesn’t look at $7.8 million over 2 years like you or I do. It’s pocket change and an insult — even to Trump — to suggest that he’d alter policy to get a few million.
Especially when Hillary Clinton’s foundation took far more from foreign powers while Secretary of State, and to her tens of millions is real money.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/5/2024 @ 9:47 amCaligula may have needed a specially-built boot (caliga) as a child, hence his nickname Caligula “little boot” according to some sources, but it was given to him by his father’s (Germanicus) legionaries alongside whom he marched on military campaigns. It may as likely have been just a child-sized caliga.
nk (bb1548) — 1/5/2024 @ 9:48 amnk, John Hurt will always be the most unhinged Caligula.
https://youtu.be/l8cLXQxP_6w?si=cn3OuUhPofJriMHJ
Simon Jester (5a7f77) — 1/5/2024 @ 9:59 am@23
I looked for a bit, but do we have further details on this 7.8 million?
Are these services priced normally?
It could be a controversy if these foreign entities overpayed by a large sum…
But the fact that Democrats are going Hammer and Tongs on this, but resolutely ignoring the Biden’s influence peddling is jarring.
whembly (5f7596) — 1/5/2024 @ 10:00 am…and HERE. WE. GO:
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/washington-secrets/surging-sympathy-for-jan-6-rioters-43-agree-they-had-a-point
That’s… really surprising.
I wonder if it’s really driving by how bad the Biden Administration has been though…
whembly (5f7596) — 1/5/2024 @ 10:04 amSammy Finkelman (c2c77e) — 1/5/2024 @ 9:33 am
So whoever of his lickspittles wrote that blasphemy for Trump plagiarized it from Eric Adams? The way Melania plagiarized Michelle Obama at the 2020 convention? What’s the word I’m looking for? Appropriation!
nk (bb1548) — 1/5/2024 @ 10:06 amnk, John Hurt will always be the most unhinged Caligula.
Livia deserved to stew in Hell.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/5/2024 @ 10:15 amThat is unlikely to happen unless the Democrats deliver strong and compelling arguments about any part of Republican border and immigration policy that they don’t want to do. Otherwise. the MAGA (and other)
Republicans will demagogue about the border in order to have an excuse not to vote for aid to Ukraine — and not even to prevent a partial government shutdown.
And if something bad happens to Ukraine? More votes for Trump!!
They’ll pin all the blame on Biden and the Democrats in the Senate for not going along with everything that is in HR 2.
Incidentally, they’ll get nothing at all on asylum and immigration legislation also. More votes for Trump! Since they claim it is all the result of Biden not acting like Trump and legislation isn’t really needed.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 1/5/2024 @ 10:17 amAn increasingly divided America is starting to show support for the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol rioters
The California legislature was shut down the other day by anti-Israel protestors who illegally trespassed snd stopped legislative business. No one was arrested as it was not politically correct to do so.
This is the kind of thing that makes people think that the Law is fixed.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/5/2024 @ 10:19 am@27, They only have a point because Trump continues to lie about it and right-wing media is too cowardly to emphatically call him out on it. False memes are the hallmark of the Trump GOP. The J6 mob intentionally sought to disrupt an official congressional proceeding. They used force (but not lethal force) to do so. They were incited to action by Trump who wanted to pressure Pence to decertify electoral votes. The delay in counting would allow him to further pressure Pence.
AJ_Liberty (5f05c3) — 1/5/2024 @ 10:24 am28. nk (bb1548) — 1/5/2024 @ 10:06 am
Not the words, but maybe the basic idea of being selected by God, although they both may owe the idea to someone else.
Trump’s words were based on Paul Harvey’s video “God Made a Farmer.”
https://www.farmanddairy.com/top-stories/paul-harveys-words-still-ring-true-god-said-i-need-a-caretaker-so-he-made-a-farmer/47241.html
They made some changes.
Like going from the Eighth day of Creation, to June 14, 1946. If he gets challenged on this, Trump will say it was ajoke.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 1/5/2024 @ 10:30 amKevin M (ed969f) — 1/5/2024 @ 10:19 am
But the fake bomb threats that caused the evacuations or lockdowns Wednesday of the Georgia, Mississippi, Kentucky, Connecticut, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana and Hawaii state Capitol buildings are thought to have been done by someone else. They could be chaos agents. Or KAOS agents.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 1/5/2024 @ 10:39 amKevin, you are not wrong about Livia. I watched the BBC series as a boy, then read Graves’ novels. They really impacted me.
Simon Jester (5a7f77) — 1/5/2024 @ 10:40 amThe president of Columbia University (like the other three, a recently appointed woman) escaped the grilling by Elise Stefanik because she was scheduled to go to the COP28 climate conference in Dubai, where she headed a panel about woman leaders. And because she had suspended two pro-Hamas student groups on the grounds they had violated school rules in holding protests without notice.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/28/nyregion/columbia-university-israel-protests-nemat-shafik.html
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 1/5/2024 @ 10:53 am32. AJ_Liberty (5f05c3) — 1/5/2024 @ 10:24 am
Which Trump was already disrupting quite peacefully. This is one thing the Jan 6 committee almost never talked about, except when it incidentally had to. Trump’s main concern during the riot was that all his plans would come undone. Not that they stall things longer than into the wee hours of Jan 7 – but then he storming of the Capitol couldn’t do that either.
They were disrupting Trump’s Parliamentary maneuvers. The members of Congress could decline to make the other five objections that they planned to do. In the end, they only did Pennsylvania in addition to Arizona and maybe finished earlier than if there had been no riot.
Now there was a worry some had: People could steal the mahogany boxes containing the Electoral Vote certifications that were in the Senate chamber. Something that sounds like something out of “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” This could have delayed things for several days.
Not true at all.
Pence had already decided what he would do and acted upon it.
The crowd, whose numbers Trump greatly exaggerated, as he always did with crowds, was intended to pressure Republicans – and he hoped, some Democrats – that’s how unrealistic it was – politically and Trump probably intended to give a speech there and then walk into the offices of the Republican leadership to lobby in person. He wanted a ten-day delay, based on assurances from Giuliani that state legislatures might change their states’ votes and that they wanted to.
Never mind there was no basis in law for doing so, and not enough votes in the real world.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 1/5/2024 @ 11:15 am“Trump’s main concern during the riot was that all his plans would come undone. Not that they stall things longer than into the wee hours of Jan 7 – but then he storming of the Capitol couldn’t do that either.”
How could you know this? Where has Trump discussed this?
AJ_Liberty (5f05c3) — 1/5/2024 @ 11:21 amThis attacked asymbolic target.’
I think suicide belts are a lost art and claims of responsibility are only intended to support some sort of lie. It used the same language “ISIS-K: did before but who knows what they really are.
Some organization that doesn’t want Iran to lead the global jihad (and taking a very anti-Shiite position) which could mean someone in Pakistan’s government or army. ISIS may not even really exist.
Iran at first said the explosions were caused by remote controlled bombs and they might have been – not only no suicide belts but maybe not even anyone committing suicide.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 1/5/2024 @ 11:22 amKevin, you are not wrong about Livia.
Later, she was Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam, almost as likeable.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/5/2024 @ 11:24 amI read the first Graves book and watched the BBC series, and I think it is more dramatization than it is history, heavily laced with Edwardian boarding school secret yearnings. But very entertaining if you like that genre. John Hurt was very faithful to the Graves portrayal. All Plutarch had to say about Caligula is that he “served with distinction”. What is the antonym of hagiography?
nk (bb1548) — 1/5/2024 @ 11:27 am“Trump’s main concern during the riot was that all his plans would come undone. Not that they stall things longer than into the wee hours of Jan 7 – but then he storming of the Capitol couldn’t do that either.” AJ_Liberty (5f05c3) — 1/5/2024 @ 11:21 am
He hasn’t, of course.
But that’s what he did: (Tommy Tuberville and others discussed this)
This was summarized by one of the members of the Jan 6 committee.
https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1550287469156900865
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 1/5/2024 @ 11:30 amThere are some attempts to use the 14th amendment to disqualify her members of Congress:
One is Scott Perry (presumably because he suggested that Jeffrey Clark be appointed Acting Attorney General)
Ad then there’s an attempt to disqualify all 126 Republican members of the House and Senate (?) who voted to uphold the objections to Electoral votes
https://nypost.com/2024/01/03/opinion/its-not-just-trump-democrats-are-moving-to-bar-republicans-from-ballots-nationwide
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 1/5/2024 @ 11:39 amSome of the attempts to disqualify members came at the state elections level, and I don’t think that should be allowed — the Constitution assigns each House that authority. There have been members who took office too young, but were allowed to do so by their House.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/5/2024 @ 11:44 amEach House is the judge of the qualifications of its members,
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 1/5/2024 @ 11:51 amThe truly hostile to Jews slogan is not “From the River to the Sea” but “Free” “Palestine” when directed at any Jew personally.
It has the same function as “Heil Hitler” which used to be said, hslf under their breath when Hogan’s Heroes was playing in reruns.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 1/5/2024 @ 11:55 amI think what Trump donated was the calculated profits from foreign governments at his hotel, not the gross revenue,
Sammy Finkelman (c2c77e) — 1/5/2024 @ 1:00 pmSammy,
Should Israel have the same open borders policy you demand America have?
NJRob (664fdd) — 1/5/2024 @ 1:23 pmBill clinton likes them young. Epstein tells victim. Just one of many reasons the clintons are loathsome.
asset (4a4895) — 1/5/2024 @ 1:28 pmIsraeli supreme court blocks the bottle deposit crooks new law to give netanyahu a get out of jail free card. He’s in the jail house soon!
asset (4a4895) — 1/5/2024 @ 1:31 pmFeds investigating high end call girl brothels in boston and DC used to black mail politicians and government officials with ties to foreign government possibly netanyahu’s government.
asset (4a4895) — 1/5/2024 @ 1:39 pmCongresscriter troy nehls (r-tex) Says he and other rethugliKKKans are not interested in baling out Biden on the border issue and so he can fund ukraine and help him get re-elected!
asset (4a4895) — 1/5/2024 @ 1:48 pmSCOTUS has set February 8 for review of Colorado’s decision to remove Trump from their ballots.
Sam G (8d2ed1) — 1/5/2024 @ 2:09 pm@47: More of these tort-against-the-State civil trials taking the place of (harder) criminal fraud prosecutions for the same acts. No jury, less proof required and different rules.
This could be abused.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/5/2024 @ 4:19 pm@49: Ditto.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/5/2024 @ 4:20 pmBill clinton likes them young.
No so. All he seems to care about is huge knockers.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/5/2024 @ 4:21 pmSCOTUS has set February 8 for review of Colorado’s decision to remove Trump from their ballots.
While I would very much like Trump to be struck off, it’s not going to happen. The Conservative thing for the Court to do is say it’s political, not legal, and wash their hands of it.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/5/2024 @ 4:37 pmThis certainly one instance when the Court needs to allow live coverage. Though I can’t imagine it happening.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 1/5/2024 @ 5:04 pmLike the emoluments clauses, Section 3 is a dead letter as far as the courts are concerned. Only grounds for impeachment.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 1/5/2024 @ 5:05 pmAlso, Trump isn’t the first candidate to present himself as a messiah-type figure. Here is a Ron DeSantis ad from 2022:
I lived through the Barack Obama era, so I can’t get too riled up about a candidate with a messianic complex. Been there, done that.
JVW (1ad43e) — 1/5/2024 @ 5:07 pmRip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 1/5/2024 @ 9:32 am
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 1/5/2024 @ 5:12 pmWhat presidential candidate, or any politician, doesn’t think that they have all the answers?
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 1/5/2024 @ 5:14 pmHere’s a crazy out-of-left field idea: Gavin Newsom will indeed replace Joe Biden as the Democrat’s nominee at some point this spring, and the unassailable proof of this is that Eleni Kounalakis has started getting her name out in the news, after spending the first five years of her lieutenant governorship as quiet as a church mouse. She’s getting ready to move up to governor, and is trying to get her name in front of the public so that she’s aleady a recognizable figure when Gavin resigns to devote himself to the Presidential election. At the start of last year, I’ll bet fewer than 1 in 10 Californians could tell you who the state’s lieutenant governor was
And Greasy Gavin is going to resign once he’s announced as the Presidential candidate. He sees that California is going to face yet another multi-billion dollar deficit this year, and if he stays in office he would have to deal with it by paring back health insurance for illegal immigrants and tweaking other cherished progressive “accomplishments.” He doesn’t want all of that as a millstone around his neck as he tries to convince America that the California way is our best possible future. (If I am going to make outlandish predictions, I might has well push them to the limit.)
JVW (1ad43e) — 1/5/2024 @ 5:15 pm@JVW My personal conspiracy theory on Biden running twice was that he had originally planned to not run for a 2nd term and let Kamala run as heir apparent instead, which is why he gave her a lot of responsibility the 1st year in hopes that she’d gain experience and prove herself so that she’d shine. Instead she disappeared into the woodwork and hasn’t really done anything, so now he’s stuck. IDK about Newsom running this time, but I don’t think I’d be surprised either way.
Nic (896fdf) — 1/5/2024 @ 5:37 pmGreat quote from Coolidge, the 2nd or 3rd best Republican president last century.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 1/5/2024 @ 5:42 pmNic, I think you’re generally correct, but I would also add that the Democrats’ relatively strong performance in the 2022 midterms seems to have convinced Joe Biden that he is a beloved figure whose — ahem, ahem — wisdom is vital to our nation’s success. And it also convinced skittish Democrats that Biden could hold on through 2025 and maybe beyond, so instead of putting in place the plan to ease him into retirement they allowed him to believe that he was the essential man. I hope they end up hugely regretting that bit of folly.
JVW (1ad43e) — 1/5/2024 @ 5:46 pmI do see Newsom as the candidate, and it’s a good point about how CA leftists used all that one-time Covid money to create all kinds on ongoing programs that they now have to curtail. And they are going to have a HUGE problem cutting school or road funding to pay for health care for illegals.
They might even have to cancel the train.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/5/2024 @ 5:57 pmI see Newsom as a vice presidential candidate who will replace the feckless and unqualified Harris, but her resignation from the ticket will have to come from her, that she wasn’t pushed out, although she would be pushed out.
Regarding “officer of the United States”, OTOH, Ilya Somin concludes that Trump was such an officer, and the compelling part to me is “such an exclusion violates the longstanding rule that courts should avoid interpretations of law that lead to absurd results.”
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 1/5/2024 @ 6:45 pmI’m usually not undecided on political and legal issues, but I am here.
@JVW I don’t know that that’s the case. I heard a thing a few weeks ago about Biden saying that if it hadn’t looked like Trump would be his opponent, he might not have run again (another thing to blame Trump for? :P). Maybe that’s false modesty or he’s lying to himself, but that doesn’t sound like he thinks he’s vital.
@Kevin@69 Any funding the schools got from Covid funding came through as one time funding rather than as a general fund increase through the budget.
Nic (896fdf) — 1/5/2024 @ 6:59 pmPaul Montagu (d52d7d) — 1/5/2024 @ 6:45 pm
Too many of these arguments are trimmed (as in sails on a ship) to reach a predetermined conclusion. I’ll talk about “self-executing”.
The problem with “self-executing” is “insurrection or rebellion”. Following the Civil War, it was judicially noticeable, a fact as indisputable as that the sun rises in the East and sets in the West, that Jefferson Davis had been Franklin Pierce’s Secretary of War and was later President of the Confederacy.
A certified record of a conviction, for insurrection would serve in the same way for Trump, but we have no such record. We have evidence but we never had an indictment, a trial, and a verdict that has become final.
So whether you find Colorado’s or Maine’s procedures adequate (I do not, I want a federal criminal trial with all the trimmings), it is still not “self-executing” by the fact that the procedure should be required in the first place.
nk (bb1548) — 1/5/2024 @ 7:19 pmOr we could ask the Weights and Measures Division of the National Institute of Standards and Technology to certify that Trump weighs as much as an insurrectionist.
nk (bb1548) — 1/5/2024 @ 7:41 pmI see that, nk. We’re probably getting to the same place, where you say “self-executing” and I say I want to see some definable measure of what “engaged in insurrection” is. The prelude to it seems to be jurisdiction, which is where I’m in this strange, unsettled world of Undecided. Either or both ways, I can easily see our Supreme Court striking down CO and ME, and supportably so.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 1/5/2024 @ 10:21 pmBut I’m more interested in seeing the USSC tossing Trump’s “absolute immunity” claims, preferably with mocking laughter.
Whembly, Dana Regarding foreign governments paying the Trump Organization (not Trump) for $7.8M of gross sales of Hotel services. Gross sales. *yawn*
“Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released a 156-page report Thursday morning accusing Trump of exploiting the presidency to financially benefit himself and members of his family. Trump’s businesses, according to the report, received at least $7.8 million from corrupt and authoritarian governments including China, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
The report is the culmination of a nearly seven-year investigation. It says records and documents obtained by House Oversight Democrats reveal “a stunning web of millions of dollars in payments made by foreign governments and their agents directly to Trump-owned businesses, while President Trump was in the White House.”
Among the report’s findings and records available to the committee, China made the most payments to Trump’s businesses during his tenure, spending more than $5.5 million at Trump Tower in New York and two of Trump’s hotels in Washington and Las Vegas.
$7.8M in hotel purchases. Gross sales. Hyatt Hotels had a Q ending Sept 2023 net profit of 7.83% (up 133.73 Y/Y) That would give the Trump Organization (not Trump himself) a net profit of somewhere around $611,000 over the course of his Presidency for profit on Chinese, Qatari services rendered at Trump hotels or $152,500 per year. How much did foreign governments funnel to JB Pritzker Governor of Illinois over the time frame via purchases at Hyatt Hotels? Who cares? Nobody should.
So we just spent taxpayer millions hunting down what? $611,000 of by all accounts legitimate business profits so we can counter attacks on Hunter Biden with shouts of hey look at Trump and the reverse, hey look at Biden
$611,000 over 4 years is about $153,000 a year. LA County has 32,925 employees that are paid more than $100,000 per year
This smells much better to me than donations to a foundation
Donations to a Foundation are not “gross sales” and are 100% able to be used as the foundation sees fit. The whole donation can be expensed by “the foundation” as donation development, travel, meals, lodging. It might be hard to buy real estate or other investments with the donation money, but you could cover many to all living expenses with donations and free up earned income for other investment purposes. All you’d need to do is hire people (at the foundation) to make sure your expenses always met IRS thresholds which is basically paying employees of the foundation to log, “verify” all activity (checking boxes) on expenses and paper trails that show that most day to day activities were related to Foundation business and development. In other words you hire fiction writers and it works because it’s impposible to disprove. Foundations also often pay family members hefty outsized salaries and additional expenses.
If you want to find a scandal comb a foundation
There is a guy in LA Radio that tells a story about a time when he was asked to run for office and he flippantly said no, he didn’t want to take the pay cut and the money people jumped into action and started telling him how they’d set up foundations and start funneling money into the foundation which would have people dedicated to making sure they could use the money for all their expenses and how it works and he said “whoa, I was just using that joke line as a throwaway to tell you I’m not interested, not looking for a “how to” lesson”
steveg (9659e3) — 1/5/2024 @ 11:45 pmSpeaking of ripping people off wayne lapierre who hid out on luxury yacht after assault rifle killed 20 children at newtown has resigned from the nra gravey train. He goes on trial this next week for sticking his hands to deep into the nra piggy bank.
asset (b26b7f) — 1/6/2024 @ 12:17 amThose who have challenged Trump’s access to the primary election ballot have made a (massive) strategic error and have made him even stronger in the Republican Party.
They should have waited to see if he was nominated and then challenged his ballot placement. If he was disqualified at that time then the party would have been forced to replace him with someone who could have been elected.
Rip Murdock (fd2d05) — 1/6/2024 @ 7:03 amOr pronounce her name. 😉
Rip Murdock (fd2d05) — 1/6/2024 @ 7:15 amIt’s pronounced the way it’s spelled. It’s her married name, and the -akis ending denotes that her husband’s family is from Crete. Her maiden name is Tsakopoulos. The Greek [ts] sound can be hard for English speakers. Like a dry [ch] with the lips drawn back and the tongue kept from touching the palate.
nk (bb1548) — 1/6/2024 @ 7:39 amFewer than one in ten people in Switzerland could tell you who their President is. It is a member of the Cabinet chosen every so often on a rotational basis by the other members to gavel them into order while still retaining charge of his own department. A lot of our courts have the same system for Chief Judge/Justice.
nk (bb1548) — 1/6/2024 @ 7:47 amIf you couldn’t tell I was playing off JVW’s comment and joking (the emoji should have been a clue), you need to develop a sense of humor. Geez….
Rip Murdock (fd2d05) — 1/6/2024 @ 7:47 amIf you couldn’t tell I was playing off JVW’s comment and joking (the emoji should have been a clue),
I could, I can, and I did.
you need to develop a sense of humor. Geez….
Back at you. A sense of humor includes taking a joke as well as making it, and it’s not always cornpone.
nk (bb1548) — 1/6/2024 @ 8:13 amPaul Montagu (d52d7d) — 1/5/2024 @ 5:42 pm
Thanks for that link, Paul. Today that statement would get him cancelled for sexism and perhaps many other isms as well.
felipe (546e7a) — 1/6/2024 @ 9:05 ambut her resignation from the ticket will have to come from her, that she wasn’t pushed out, although she would be pushed out.
I hope that Justice Thomas stays healthy.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/6/2024 @ 9:32 am@Kevin@69 Any funding the schools got from Covid funding came through as one time funding rather than as a general fund increase through the budget.
So there will be no screaming when it’s taken away?
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/6/2024 @ 9:33 amBut I’m more interested in seeing the USSC tossing Trump’s “absolute immunity” claims, preferably with mocking laughter.
It won’t get that far. The appeals court is going to say that interlocutory appeals are not valid here, as the issue is not a slam dunk.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/6/2024 @ 9:37 amI’ll bet fewer than 1 in 10 Californians could tell you who the state’s lieutenant governor was.
Here’s the real question: How many Californians know who ran against Newsom in 2022 or 2018?
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/6/2024 @ 9:40 amDeSantis won’t (or can’t) name which states he can win
Rip Murdock (fd2d05) — 1/6/2024 @ 9:45 amDeSantis polling in:
Iowa: -32 behind Trump
New Hampshire: -31
South Carolina: -40
Florida: -49
Rip Murdock (fd2d05) — 1/6/2024 @ 9:56 am
Rip Murdock (fd2d05) — 1/6/2024 @ 10:05 amIn New Hampshire, DeSantis is trailing Chris Christie by 4.5 points (fourth place); in South Carolina trailing Haley by 11 (third place); and in Iowa less than 2 points ahead of Haley (second place).
Nobody remembers the losers.
Rip Murdock (fd2d05) — 1/6/2024 @ 10:07 amPerhaps, but no one could have named them beforehand without looking at the ballot.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/6/2024 @ 10:27 amBoth Christie and DeSantis should drop out and endorse Haley as the only alternative. It may be a Hail Mary, but compared to their own chances it’s a sure thing.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/6/2024 @ 10:28 amDeSantis is the better candidate and the only one that could win over Trump supporters. Why would he drop out just because you’ve been pushing Haley for months.
He’s still ahead of her. She should drop out and endorse him.
NJRob (fed960) — 1/6/2024 @ 10:50 amJust a reminder that, although the incumbent is clearly mentally diminished and won’t get my vote, his challenger is mentally unhinged and often incoherent, and also won’t get my vote.
–Donald J. Trump, yesterday
Please GOP, dispense with this cult.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 1/6/2024 @ 11:03 amIn re his insurrection case before he Supremes, Trump says:
Wink, wink, nudge, nudge.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/6/2024 @ 11:07 amDonald Jr., today in public and three years ago today in private.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 1/6/2024 @ 11:10 am@96 Trump has a constitutional right to an impartial jury.
Wink, wink, nudge, nudge.
lloyd (d51955) — 1/6/2024 @ 11:18 amAs I pointed out above, DeSantis is ahead of Haley in Iowa (presumably his best state in early primaries) by less than 2 points, and behind her in New Hampshire and South Carolina. Nationally, the two are tied. DeSantis doesn’t lead Haley by any significant margin under any circumstance.
Rip Murdock (fd2d05) — 1/6/2024 @ 11:45 amIn any case if any two of the three remaining “non-Trump” candidates pulled out and endorsed the remaining one, that candidate, whether it was Christie, DeSantis, or Haley, would still be significantly behind Trump.
Rip Murdock (fd2d05) — 1/6/2024 @ 11:51 amComedy Gold!
Both DeSantis and Haley are delusional about their immediate political prospects.
Rip Murdock (fd2d05) — 1/6/2024 @ 12:18 pm@Kevin@85 It’s already gone. It had to be spent through during last school year.
Nic (896fdf) — 1/6/2024 @ 12:48 pmMore from Ron DeSantis:
Says the candidate whose poll numbers have declined from 23.5% in May 2023 to 18.4% today about another candidate whose numbers have increased from 7.5% to 15.7% over the same period to be in a virtual tie.
Rip Murdock (fd2d05) — 1/6/2024 @ 12:52 pm@Kevin@85 It’s already gone. It had to be spent through during last school year.
I will bet good money that the are expecting it again anyway, and will pretend not to understand when you say “It’s all gone”, just like my dog would.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/6/2024 @ 1:04 pmIn any case if any two of the three remaining “non-Trump” candidates pulled out and endorsed the remaining one, that candidate, whether it was Christie, DeSantis, or Haley, would still be significantly behind Trump.
Perhaps, but the story would be that there were two credible candidates, and Trump is not inevitable any more than Thanos was.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/6/2024 @ 1:05 pmThat ts sound strikes me as sort of similar to the x in basque which in the US is usually replaced with a a ch. but it can be harsher. X can also be very soft like shhhavi (soft “s”, soft lightly drawn out “h” soft “a” as a diminutive for Xavi)
In school there was a guy named Tsoutsouvas which was easy because we all forgot the spelling and just said choochoovas (what does Tsoutsouvas mean? I am assuming Tsou is maybe said twice for emphasis or maybe to denote son of or daughter of but am too lazy to google it)
Another hard one for American english reading speakers is names like Xochtil (sochi works) which is soft “s” soft “ch” sochtil with the lightest tap of the tongue on the “t” to the point you can barely hear it and again on the “l” at the end. If she is really good looking, it help guys a lot to have learned the nuances
Given the large American group of Irish, it’s odd we don’t know how to pronounce Maeve, Naimh, Aoife but whatever, just blame the british
Americans are pretty good at learning how to pronounce the labels of Scotch Whisky
steveg (2f3c3a) — 1/6/2024 @ 1:06 pmAs if there weren’t negotiations in the run-up to the Civil War…
It almost sounds like Trump is jealous that Lincoln got so much favorable attention preserving the Union and ending slavery, that Lincoln will forever be known as a greater president. Ms. Cheney has it right…
C’mon GOP, only 9 days to the Iowa caucuses.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 1/6/2024 @ 1:31 pmMore from Nikki Haley:
Rip Murdock (fd2d05) — 1/6/2024 @ 1:58 pmEverything for Trump is a business deal to be negotiated. I wonder if he could have negotiated a better deal with Hitler than Neville Chamberlain?
Rip Murdock (fd2d05) — 1/6/2024 @ 2:01 pmHaley is comparing the pain of not participating in a beauty pageant with the nearly 100 years of legal segregation through enforcement of Jim Crow laws?
Okay……..
Rip Murdock (fd2d05) — 1/6/2024 @ 2:09 pmHaley needs to use her last 9 days before voting to go more on the offensive. If she believes Trump acted wrongly during the events leading up to and including J6, then she should attempt to educate the base as to why. If the classified documents is an easier argument, then make that one. But if she could couple that argument to the potential crisis of a major political party nominee facing criminal prosecution during the campaign and then tie it to his increasingly bizarre social media posts, it would at least set the predicate.
She will not say what I would say because she believes that will close off her competitiveness. OK, but riding the fence right to the end leaves that last final nudge that might allow her to draw neck and neck. Trump campaigning is the best free advertisement that Haley and DeSantis could get. Still using “political prosecution” makes Trump into enough of a martyr to give people permission to stick with him.
AJ_Liberty (5f05c3) — 1/6/2024 @ 2:13 pmEmerson College South Carolina Republican Primary Poll 1/5/24
Rip Murdock (fd2d05) — 1/6/2024 @ 2:18 pmDeSantis is right about one thing-Haley has no core beliefs. She will say (or not say ) anything the pins her down to a specific position, lest it closes off an option.
It’s too late for her to make the argument you suggest, as she is who she is. Her “riding the fence” will hurt her in end.
Rip Murdock (fd2d05) — 1/6/2024 @ 2:26 pmHaley can’t cover up her failure to make this argument for the past 6 months in 9 days. She’s already been too accommodating to Trump up to now. Nobody would believe she was sincere , it would appear to be a desperate campaign message.
Rip Murdock (fd2d05) — 1/6/2024 @ 2:33 pmI’m just quoting the mentally unhinged GOP frontrunner accurately…
–Donald J. Trump, yesterday and today
I’ll also note that Trump refused to sign a loyalty oath for the Illinois ballot that pledges not to ‘advocate the overthrow of the government’.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 1/6/2024 @ 2:42 pmi don’t know why mr. poor beleaguered former president donald trump does not just primary special counsel jack smith instead of wasting his time squabbling with his former friends nikki haley, ron desantis, and chris christie
he is getting bad advice from rinos i think
nk (bb1548) — 1/6/2024 @ 2:55 pmBut this primary is NOT fundamentally a race about ideas. This is a referendum on Trump. He is essentially the GOP incumbent. If he is fit and can win, then the rest isn’t especially relevant. Republicans ought to know about January 6th and poisoning the blood….and his legal problems…including his fraud and sexual assault civil cases. It’s either too much baggage and it’s time for a change…or it’s not. 40% thus far seem ready for a change. Again, I would make the case more explicit if I was DeSantis or Haley. I would pose this as a duty for Republican voters to not put the country through the odiousness of having a convicted felon running to supervise the justice department. At minimum, the remaining 7 adults in the party should be saying some version of that message every time they see a microphone….yes, even Karaoke night.
It’s irrelevant much of the complaints about Haley. It’s sociopath or one of the normals. If you are going beyond this, then the sociopath must not be as big of an issue….
AJ_Liberty (5f05c3) — 1/6/2024 @ 2:59 pm@Kevin@104 Nope. Almost all of school funding comes from the regular funding process which is calculated by average day attendance (ada) and comes from the property tax portion of the regular state budget. Title one schools get some funding from the feds that’s about the equivalent of 1-2 teachers per 1000 students. Periodically schools get a splash of funding from whatever the fad is that year. So about 20 years ago there was a splash of funding for 2-3 years for extra school counselors, maybe 10 years ago we got funds for one section of CTE (that’s a single vocational class period) at each 2ndary school. STEM funds come and go and sometimes we get the funds for 1 or 2 extra sections of math or science. A couple of years ago we got a splash of tech funding which basically went into chromebooks. In my district basically all the COVID funds went to the COVID testing center and the administrator hired to run it (closed down at the end of 21/22, admin went back to a school site), school re-engagement specialists (person who chases major attendance issues families), and about one extra campus monitor at each campus (this actually made a discipline improvement but that funding went away in Dec 2021 and God forbid they hire extra campus monitors instead of YET ANOTHER POSITION AT THE DISTRICT OFFICE OMG.). The fad funding is nice, but it’s always temporary and no one counts on it in any way because it’s too mercurial.
We also all knew the Covid funds were disappearing way ahead of time and we start budgeting and planning for the next year before the end of the 1st semester the year before, so if you were going to hear screaming, you would’ve heard it fall 2022. We’ve already started planning for next year, so we are already planning +2 years beyond where we knew the funding was stopping.
Nic (896fdf) — 1/6/2024 @ 3:33 pmsociopathic traits being so rare amongst US politicians? Maybe I’m wrong, but the norm seems to be sociopathic narcissists of some stripe. Of course there are people like Trump who are high achievers, stand outs, if you will, and unapologetic about it as all great sociopaths are.
steveg (2f3c3a) — 1/6/2024 @ 3:40 pmThey know, they just don’t care. The Trump faithful view all of that as the “deep state” attacking their leader. And Haley is a creature of “deep state” (due to her connections to the military-industrial complex), so anything she says would automatically be dismissed.
Rip Murdock (fd2d05) — 1/6/2024 @ 3:45 pmThe whole “Trump refused to sign a loyalty oath” is silly as most news articles on the subject describe the oath as being declared unconstitutional in 1972 (though I cannot find the exact citation).
Rip Murdock (fd2d05) — 1/6/2024 @ 4:53 pmRip Murdock (fd2d05) — 1/6/2024 @ 4:53 pm
Source
See Socialist Workers Party of Illinois v. Ogilvie (357 F. Supp. 109 (N.D. Ill. 1972))
Trump successfully trolls his opponents and the media again.
Rip Murdock (fd2d05) — 1/6/2024 @ 5:05 pmFrom the per curiam opinion:
Case citations omitted.
Rip Murdock (fd2d05) — 1/6/2024 @ 5:15 pmhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-summons-the-furies-in-iowa-caucus-primary-desantis-2024-bias-indictment-6cb3750a
Conclusion:
Sammy Finkelman (c2c77e) — 1/6/2024 @ 5:55 pmSecretary of Defense Lloyd Austin went into Walter Reed for an elective procedure (I think) January 1. He was in intensive care for three days. Nobody informed the president until Thursday and nobody informed the public until Friday.
Did they just not want Iran to know? Or was this done so that lower ranking people got a chance to make policy?
Sammy Finkelman (c2c77e) — 1/6/2024 @ 6:00 pmA thought occurred: That could be why the United States got a little tougher on Iran this week. Lloyd Austin would never act without consulting the president.
This is only a possibility.
Sammy Finkelman (c2c77e) — 1/6/2024 @ 6:13 pmI am hard-pressed to name even one person in the Biden administration whose absence is felt when they are not around. Except, maybe, like the joke that when they leave a room it feels like someone very interesting just walked in.
nk (bb1548) — 1/6/2024 @ 6:21 pm“Imagine — if you can — not having a conscience, none at all, no feelings of guilt or remorse no matter what you do, no limiting sense of concern for the well-being of strangers, friends, or even family members. Imagine no struggles with shame, not a single one in your whole life, no matter what kind of selfish, lazy, harmful, or immoral action you had taken … You can do anything at all, and still your strange advantage over the majority of people, who are kept in line by their consciences, will most likely remain undiscovered. How will you live your life? What will you do with your huge and secret advantage?”
— Martha Stout, The Sociopath Next Door
AJ_Liberty (7c6028) — 1/6/2024 @ 7:16 pmShe will not say what I would say because she believes that will close off her competitiveness.
Haley can attack Trump for what he proposes today without having to bring up J6. Frankly, J6 is not even close to my main problem with Donald Trump. The idea that he seems willing to HAVE a new civil war is 100 times more of a problem.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/6/2024 @ 7:18 pm[From the guy who, in two years of his presidency, collected $7.8 million in global non-American income in 4 of his 500 companies.]
Paul, this is the kind of hyperpartisan crapdoodle that makes me ignore the rest of your post.
Give it a rest.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/6/2024 @ 7:19 pm“They said, ‘sir, if George Washington and Abraham Lincoln came back from the dead and decided to run as president and vice president, you’d beat them by 35 points.’”
This may sadly be the truth. It reflects not well on Trump, put poorly on the electorate.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/6/2024 @ 7:21 pm@Kevin@104 Nope.
You must not live tin the same world as I do. A bureaucracy takes every dollar it is given last year as a basis for the increase this year. Always. If it doesn’t get it, it will make a scene, much like a toddler in the candy aisle.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/6/2024 @ 7:23 pm“Trump refused to sign a loyalty oath” is silly
These statements are aimed at voters, who react to stuff like that. It’s WHY people still sign them; no one wants to be asked why they didn’t. Only an idiot leaves them unsigned unless disloyalty is his metier.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/6/2024 @ 7:27 pmMichigan republican leader and election denier kicked out of office for threatening 2024 election. MTG fined 12,000 for illegal money laundering.
asset (8dfa82) — 1/6/2024 @ 8:12 pmIf JB Pritzker runs for President of USA and wins, should he get grilled over Chinese money spent at Hyatts or pallets rented by Chinese companies in the USA. Not unless the Chinese suddenly spend $billions more than last year.
steveg (2f3c3a) — 1/6/2024 @ 10:20 pmPeople are smarter than that. If you want to buy favor you don’t deal in low profit margin businesses. As I said before, foundations are best. Doubt it? Then ask yourself why foreign donations to Clinton foundations dried up so fast after Hillary lost in 2016.
The next would be consultant fees, legal fees. Probably best used for indirect influence buying by paying family and friends. The worst would be buying the person lottery tickets, but 2nd worst would be buying goods and services from an entity with a 7.8% profit margin. It cost China $5.5M over 2 years to at best get the person they wanted to influence $429,000. That is a very inefficient and stupid way to bribe someone… so inefficient and stupid, that the person you are trying to influence may not even be aware of your purchases, much less your intent in purchasing. If I do $880M of sales a year I may be aware that Chinese government entities represented $2,750,000 (0.3125%) of that gross sales amount, or I may not be. I guess my VP of international sales would be brave enough to tell me we did 0.3125% of our sales with Chinese government entities, but if we have a substantial international footprint our conversation is going to be around “why so miniscule? The Chinese government alone pumps $28.66billions into the US every year, the Chinese are the second largest economy in the world and they contributed 0.3125 to our top line? Our top line! how is our share so small and what are you doing to drive it higher- wait, why are you still working here?- oh yeah you are named after me and have the girlfriend with all the makeup and giant bazoongas”
@135 I understand most here are conservative republicans and don’t seem to understand internal democratic politics. In 2016 bernie sanders got 40% of the primary votes against clinton’s $$$, DNC bias and media inevitability. In 2020 bloomberg and other richies spent millions of dollars flooding the airwaves and got zilch votes. DNC had to shut down and play games with primaries to drag A senile old fool even then over the finish line. Pritzker has no voters outside Illinois and not that many inside. Newsom and AOC have been told to wait their turn in 2028 by the party as they try to drag a beached whale over the finish line one more time. Most democrats don’t want biden ,but the DNC and donor class doesn’t care what the base wants. Sound familiar?
asset (8dfa82) — 1/6/2024 @ 11:12 pmhttps://nypost.com/2024/01/06/business/initial-us-employment-reports-overstated-by-439000-jobs-in-2023/
NJRob (eb56c3) — 1/7/2024 @ 5:50 amNo.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 1/7/2024 @ 5:55 amOne, what I said was factual.
Two, Trump accused Haley of being a “globalist” while globally collecting revenues for his personal enrichment.
Three, deal with it.
Nobody puts Paul’s Trump searches in the corner.
BuDuh (2778ed) — 1/7/2024 @ 7:13 amI don’t know what Trump means by globalist – maybe someone who believes that non-Americans deserve human rights, or to be protected from war. In his version maybe people who think the United States should be governed by foreign law, which Haley does not believe, and if you mean abide by treaties, Trump does that too, to a limited degree, Or maybe Trump means people who believe in grand, worldwide plans to reduce carbon emissions, or ozone.
Most likely, it’s whatever you imagine – it’s a meaningless set of words,But globalist does not mean someone who believes in making money from exports or business deals involving money that originates outside the United States
Sammy Finkelman (c2c77e) — 1/7/2024 @ 7:18 amKevin M (ed969f) — 1/6/2024 @ 7:27 pm
Or he voters who won’t like that, or he is afraaid of being prosecuted for perjury.
Sammy Finkelman (c2c77e) — 1/7/2024 @ 7:22 amNobody here keeps repeating the same lies like you, BuDuh.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 1/7/2024 @ 7:26 ammr. former president donald who is a very stable genius and not a tertiary syphilitic loon;
and who is always moral, honest and forthright and law-abiding and not a lying, cheating, conniving deadbeat;
and whose businesses always flourish and he has never filed for bankruptcy or declared a $1 billion net operating loss;
would never accept $7.8 from the Arabs and Chinese to keep his failing hotels afloat and maybe leave him with a $700,000 profit to take home;
unless it was enclosed with a beautiful letter and accompanied by a slice of chocolate cake with ice cream.
nk (bb1548) — 1/7/2024 @ 7:50 am$7.8 *million*
nk (bb1548) — 1/7/2024 @ 7:51 amFauci to Face the Music
Maybe an investigation into the origins of a pandemic that killed millions and devastated economies can take Trump off the front pages, but unlikely. Because it doesn’t fit the narrative. Revelations three months ago of how Fauci lied about taxpayer funded high risk experiments in Wuhan got little play, but didn’t go unnoticed in some quarters and even in the left wing press, if sparsely.
Yes, Rand Paul deserves 1) praise for keeping the heat on Fauci while the journo-swamp industrial complex believed and dispensed every lie Fauci dished without question, and 2) a very belated apology which he won’t get.
lloyd (168bac) — 1/7/2024 @ 7:54 amPerjury for what? The “loyalty oath” was declared unconstitutional over 50 years ago. It is a dead letter.
Rip Murdock (354535) — 1/7/2024 @ 8:14 amLloyd,
if justice is served, Fauci’s name will forever be spoken in the same terms as Mengele.
NJRob (dab649) — 1/7/2024 @ 8:21 amAlso yesterday: “John McCain for some reason couldn’t get his arm up that day.”
One, Trump had no replacement for Obamacare, a broken promise. Two, McCain was injured as a POW and unable to lift his arms above his shoulders. Also…
Trump and his worshippers and supplicants are the Baddies.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 1/7/2024 @ 8:25 amPaul didn’t land on “Google ‘All Things Trump’ “, “Google ‘All Things Trump’ “ landed on Paul.
You ever search for gardening shows or something similarly less frustrating for you?
I enjoy this guy’s show: Self Sufficient Me
Anyways, Cheers!
I’ll quit busting your chops now.
BuDuh (2778ed) — 1/7/2024 @ 8:31 amRip Murdock (354535) — 1/7/2024 @ 8:14 am
it’s unconstitutional to force someone to sign it, or make signin it a condition for something else, but it is still a sworn statement.
Trump could legitimately be afraid that, if he signed it, someone would later try to indict him for, contrary to his oath, not being “loyal” to the United States. Why open up that can of worms?
Sammy Finkelman (c2c77e) — 1/7/2024 @ 8:37 amTrump has already been accused of having, in the past, specifically on January 6, 2021, advocated the overthrow of the U.S> government (or insurrection)
Sammy Finkelman (c2c77e) — 1/7/2024 @ 8:40 amFootnotes omitted.
This pretty much confirms what I have been saying, voters second choices will fragment without impacting the overall Trump lead in the polls.
Rip Murdock (26cf8e) — 1/7/2024 @ 9:08 amIf you read the court’s opinion you find the oath was completely invalidated. It is a legal nullity, a non-functioning document.
Rip Murdock (26cf8e) — 1/7/2024 @ 9:13 am$7.8 *million*
Gross, less cost of goods, salaries, debt, etc. I guess we should also lambaste Trump for creating the dozens of jobs that revenue supported.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/7/2024 @ 9:15 amMaybe an investigation into the origins of a pandemic that killed millions and devastated economies can take Trump off the front pages, but unlikely. Because it doesn’t fit the narrative
Um, sorry, but Mr Trump will not get off the front pages willingly.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/7/2024 @ 9:16 amAs I said before, Trump was trolling the media and his critics given the accusations of “insurrection”. Perjury wouldn’t be attached to an oath that the state no longer recognizes.
Rip Murdock (26cf8e) — 1/7/2024 @ 9:16 amIf Vivek Ramaswamy weren’t in the race, most of his voters would be supporting Trump.
Most of his supporters (they aren’t his voters until they vote) will probably vote for Trump regardless.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/7/2024 @ 9:19 amIf you read the court’s opinion you find the oath was completely invalidated. It is a legal nullity, a non-functioning document.
In a lawyer’s world, sure, and no perjury can attach. But it is NOT a nullity in the political world, where declining to sign a loyalty oath will cost you.
If there was a pro-choice oath to sign and a Democrat did not sign it, they would probably lose their primary even though it has no legal meaning whatsoever.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/7/2024 @ 9:22 am@147 Fauci, yes, and also Peter Daszak. Fauci lied, and even if you want to apply the most forgiving spin, he was intentionally deceptive. Daszak intentionally hid how taxpayer funds were spent in Wuhan. He belongs in prison, but is living large thanks to continued grants from Democrats. Republicans, to their credit, tried to cut off his funding.
lloyd (168bac) — 1/7/2024 @ 9:25 amRip Murdock (26cf8e) — 1/7/2024 @ 9:16 am
The state no longer requires it, but it does recognize it.It’s quite official. Normally, nobody cares about it, and it would be tough to define a violation. But people have brought strained cases against Trump.
Sammy Finkelman (c2c77e) — 1/7/2024 @ 9:46 amIf you paid attention to Fauci, you could figure it out. It wasn’t lies, it was BS. And he’s not like Mengele. The surgeons who do transgender operations are like Mengele. But it’s quite bad enough to slow down medical progress, as he did going back to AIDS in the 1980s, although he later half reversed himself,
Sammy Finkelman (c2c77e) — 1/7/2024 @ 9:49 amIf Fauci was so bad, why didn’t Trump order him to be re-assigned? Why didn’t Trump create a task force with his preferred lead to take over press briefings and announce federal policies? I think we know the answer.
AJ_Liberty (5f05c3) — 1/7/2024 @ 10:06 am@162 You mean, during the time when if you simply posited the lab leak origins theory you’d get banned from social media? You mean, when the Washington Post fact checked the theory as a debunked conspiracy theory? You mean, when all that was happening you probably were one of the throng that sat on their hands and steered every discussion point through Trump, just like now?
lloyd (168bac) — 1/7/2024 @ 10:19 amhttps://hotair.com/headlines/2024/01/07/this-astonishing-little-cartoon-is-apparently-school-material-in-wi-for-4th-5th-graders-n603265
Brainwashing little kids in school. How this is any different from religious faith being taught in school is beyond me.
NJRob (dab649) — 1/7/2024 @ 10:25 amKevin,
did Haley sign on to the oath? I see that DeSantis and Biden signed it, but I’m striking out trying to find if Haley signed it.
NJRob (dab649) — 1/7/2024 @ 10:29 amLOL! We’ll see how much it costs Trump.
Rip Murdock (26cf8e) — 1/7/2024 @ 10:38 amI’ll bet they still don’t.
Rip Murdock (26cf8e) — 1/7/2024 @ 10:40 amWell done! Now go to the next step: Are those outlays always there or do they come and go with your guests?
If you answer that correctly, you may proceed to the next level: What happens to your business if you don’t pay those outlays?
nk (290c25) — 1/7/2024 @ 10:50 amAfter searching the Illinois State Board of Elections website I’m not able to find any of the candidate petitions (which would include the loyalty oath) available online, so I guess we need to rely on media reports.
Rip Murdock (26cf8e) — 1/7/2024 @ 11:21 amHow to tell everyone you don’t understand how Xitter threads work without telling everyone you don’t understand how Xitter threads work. Well done, BuDuh, your ongoing lying never disappoints.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 1/7/2024 @ 11:44 amPlease release my post 171, not certain what the issue is.
Rip Murdock (26cf8e) — 1/7/2024 @ 11:55 amI am expecting Jack Smith to file a charge under 18 USC 2383 before the Supreme Court hears the CO case.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/7/2024 @ 12:06 pmdid Haley sign on to the oath? I see that DeSantis and Biden signed it, but I’m striking out trying to find if Haley signed it.
I actually don’t care. I was simply remarking that some do.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/7/2024 @ 12:07 pmLOL! We’ll see how much it costs Trump.
Well, the only oath that matters there is F&umul;hrerprinzip.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/7/2024 @ 12:09 pmWell, the only oath that matters there is Führerprinzip.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/7/2024 @ 12:09 pmI miss the preview.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/7/2024 @ 12:09 pmNormally, nobody cares about (the loyalty oath)…….
Rip Murdock (26cf8e) — 1/7/2024 @ 10:40 am
But Trump could have a reasonable fear that, at some point in the future, someone would allege, or cause him to be investigated, for violating that oath.
Or else why (if reports re correct) didn’t he sign it, as Republican candidates usually do?
Sammy Finkelman (c2c77e) — 1/7/2024 @ 12:10 pmnk (290c25)
I’m a looongtime businessman, so I’ll answer those two Qs:
The outlays known as “overhead” are always there as part of the cost of doing business, and come from the pocket (in the case of a sole proprietorship) of the owner – guests or no guests.
With guests come additional costs such as consumables that may or may not be perishable and carry risk of personal injury (say bad clams, or spilled scalding liquids), as well as additional labor for housekeeping, waitstaff which may be called in as demand increases.
Unpaid bills are something that most adults understand very well including, but not limited to, collection attempts. Laws have been made to allow for personal relief and business relief.
The great thing about commercial enterprise, as opposed to government activity, is that all participation (patronage or employment) is, generally speaking, voluntary. Participation (say – taxation salt,federal) in our Republic is mandatory. I’d say there are many more horror stories to be found of those who failed to render unto Caesar what was due.
felipe (546e7a) — 1/7/2024 @ 12:16 pmI mean you can’t say, even if you think it is true, that the reason Trump (reportedly) didn’t sign it, is that he anticipates supporting the overthrow of the federal government. Unless maybe you think that people who anticipate supporting the overthrow of he federal government would never risk being caught lying about that. What Trump obviously fears is a false accusation.
Sammy Finkelman (c2c77e) — 1/7/2024 @ 12:17 pmoops
felipe (546e7a) — 1/7/2024 @ 12:28 pm@178:
The other great thing is that, if the business doesn’t work, or there are no customers, it stops. With government, they just hire more people and spend more money to make it work.
Such as the Moonbeam Express.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/7/2024 @ 12:28 pmI didn’t expect this quote from that guy.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 1/7/2024 @ 12:30 pmhttps://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/three-iran-backed-militia-fighters-killed-baghdad-drone-strike-sources-2024-01-04
When the United States did that drone attack in Iraq, not only was the Secretary of Defense in the hospital, but the Deputy Secretary of Defense was on vacation in Puerto Rico. It is not clear if President Biden was informed that his secretary of Defense was incapacitated before or after the order was given, but he was informed on Thursday.I’d say after because 0900 GMT is 0400 EST.
I would suppose Biden was briefed on it and asked to talk to his Secretary of Defense, only to be told that he’s n the hospital.
WHen the cats away, the mice will play, so they say
Sammy Finkelman (c2c77e) — 1/7/2024 @ 12:30 pmMartin Luther King said that in 1967 (presumably after the Six Da war, but before he died)
Sammy Finkelman (c2c77e) — 1/7/2024 @ 12:32 pmSammy Finkelman (c2c77e) — 1/7/2024 @ 12:17 pm
I find your steady progress, as a comment contributor, encouraging – much more robust in the use of idioms, colloquialisms, and warmth, than in the early days. Kudos.
felipe (546e7a) — 1/7/2024 @ 12:33 pmMy 12:30 pm: This is actually good.
It means the United States is a little bit unpredictable, so Iraan can’t draw any permanent conclusions s to what is safe for it to do.
Sammy Finkelman (c2c77e) — 1/7/2024 @ 12:47 pm1. It’s not just the fact that candidates aren’t required to sign the oath, the whole oath requirement was overturned. As the court said:
My emphasis.
2. Trump cannot be accused of violating something that has been declared unconstitutional.
3. Candidates sign it as a form of political grandstanding.
Rip Murdock (26cf8e) — 1/7/2024 @ 1:05 pmLink to the court’s opinion.
Again, by refusing to sign the “oath” Trump was trolling the media and his critics.
Rip Murdock (26cf8e) — 1/7/2024 @ 1:08 pmI’ll take that bet. It would send Trump’s support in Republican Party into the stratosphere (70+) and all his primary opponents would defend him even more than they are doing so now. I wouldn’t be surprised if they all withdrew (except for Christie) in support. Trump would be nominated by acclamation.
Smith may indict the unindicted co-conspirators in the election interference case, but I doubt he will pursue an insurrection case against Trump. Remember any indictments need to be approved by the DOJ.
If he did so the trial would have no impact on the election, except to guarantee his nomination and election.
We’ll find out in just about a month.
Rip Murdock (26cf8e) — 1/7/2024 @ 1:24 pmIf you guys want to go there, let’s go there.
United States of America ) ) ss State of Illinois ) I, …. do swear that I am a citizen of the United States and the State of Illinois, that I am not affiliated directly or indirectly with any communist organization or any communist front organization, or any foreign political agency, party, organization or government which advocates the overthrow of constitutional government by force or other means not permitted under the Constitution of the United States or the constitution of this State; that I do not directly or indirectly teach or advocate the overthrow of the government of the United States or of this State or any unlawful change in the form of the governments thereof by force or any unlawful means. I have bolded the parts which Trump cannot swear to truthfully.
And how are you, today, Mr, Putin, Mr. Xi, and Mr. Kim?
nk (290c25) — 1/7/2024 @ 2:17 pmHe doesn’t have to “swear truthfully” to anything, since the oath is unconstitutional and invalid.
Rip Murdock (26cf8e) — 1/7/2024 @ 2:29 pmIn Trump’s case….given his legal predicaments….I can see both why voters might like the informal reassurance that he will not attempt to overthrow the government while his lawyers might like him to steer clear of anything related to insurrection. Thanks GOP voters for backing his candidacy.
AJ_Liberty (5f05c3) — 1/7/2024 @ 2:31 pmSwearing to something that is legally meaningless doesn’t offer me any reassurance.
Rip Murdock (26cf8e) — 1/7/2024 @ 2:42 pmHe doesn’t have to “swear truthfully” to anything, since the oath is unconstitutional and invalid.
Yeah, maybe, from that perspective, but what if his foreign masters choose to view it as a renouncement? What will become of him then? Where shall he go? What shall he do?
nk (290c25) — 1/7/2024 @ 2:47 pmCBS/Yougov Poll 1/6/24
Rip Murdock (26cf8e) — 1/7/2024 @ 3:07 pmIf he did so the trial would have no impact on the election, except to guarantee his nomination and election.
Conviction under 2383 disqualifies absolutely. It is the implementation of 14.3
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/7/2024 @ 3:19 pmBiden admin removing William Penn statue in ‘rehabilitation’ of park commemorating founding of Pennsylvania
A dry run before changing the state’s name.
Though, it might be just retaliation for Trump removing the MLK bust.
lloyd (0e6177) — 1/7/2024 @ 4:58 pmnk- those outlays are not always there in the sense that there is some control, they can cut expenses, labor for example, but in reality since a large hotel is a dynamic ongoing entity, it would be impossible to shut it down, stop all ongoing expenses, cash outflow and take a huge influx of revenue in during that period. They can’t send everyone home-unpaid from that ongoing operation, turn off the lights for the day, take in $5.5M from the Chinese and reopen tomorrow like nothing happened. The other alternative would be for the Chinese to arrange a “straw booking” where although the hotel is at its booking normal capacity, the Chinese simply wire in cash for services that are not rendered. All operational costs remain the same but sales would spike that period. This can be done, but would be very risky. Clearly they know the Chinese spent $xyz at Trump hotels and facilities and the forensic accountants would be looking for out of the ordinary spikes in “sales”. For example, the Trumps would have needed to actively collude, coordinate by looking at their schedule and then rent unused ballrooms, suite, meeting rooms, wine cellar space to the Chinese in those timeframes and the Trump operations would have to be able to explain away why increases in sales in those areas did not have any corresponding increase in expenses (those spaces would need normal prepping and normal services and normal breakdown expenses) or bells go off. That could be done of course but is a very inefficient use of bribery money by the Chinese, and also a very inefficient way of laundering bribes, seems easy to catch because that behavior is so out of the ordinary.
Again the money was easily tracked from the Chinese and Qatari’s (direct was the word used by the Democrats) so there was no layering involved, no multitude of shell companies set up to mask the sources of the money. The money went straight into places like Trump World Center where it appears to have been booked as a purchase of venue services. I think the question is where did the money go from there? Which is a good question because Trump does have over 500 LLC’s, most are probably related to specific real estate and entities surrounding that real estate in order to try limit exposure to at worst the assets of a single LLC. It is common practice in laundering to send business income through a series of shells and have it come out on the other side as legitimate usable cash but all that is usually to mask the source of the cash, not the cash and again the source wasn’t masked and neither was Trump World Tower. If the upstream flow wasn’t layered before hitting the Trump World Tower how did Trump siphon the money? The way to do it would be to have the Chinese pump money int a bunch of paper shells that continuously inflate the cost of whatever the Chinese were purchasing at Trump Tower. That would also be an effective if heavy handed scheme that also would fall afoul of emoluments because of the manipulated price inflation. As I said before, you wouldn’t have had the Chinese purchasing direct from Trump World Center, you’d have had the Chinese $5.5M purchase marked up through through a series of Trump paper shells that brokered the Chinese money multiples times with the final Trump shell entity finally contracting for services with Trump World Tower for a single fruit plate. That is not what the Democrats are saying happened.
So I think some people are saying they believe that Donald Trump maintains a group of shell companies that buy and sell fictitious goods and services that show high fictitious expenses on the down stream flow from Trump World Tower (and other properties). The Chinese would buy services from Trump World Tower. Trump World Tower would take its normal cut to maintain its legitimacy but the actual “services and goods” would have been subcontracted to a cascade of Trump shells in a scheme where Chinese put $5.5M into Trump World Tower, Trump World Tower takes its normal cut (30% ? ) so as not to raise red flags, provides no services, and the rest of the money ($3.5M) gets “expensed” fictitiously and somehow finds its way into Trumps bank accounts a taxed (20%-30$ ?) and spendable $2,625,000. Old school spendable cash. This is highly unlikely because the Trump organization would have had be set up over years previous to operate like a money laundering operation but not be a money laundering operation. It would have had to be set up like a hospitality business where people spent large amounts of cash and got no services
steveg (186827) — 1/7/2024 @ 5:19 pmLOL! I sincerely doubt a trial under a new indictment would be held before November 5, 2024. It’s been seven months since the original classified documents indictment and they’re still arguing about evidence with no scheduled date to begin jury selection. And it’s been six months since the election interference indictment, and it looks unlikely that trial will start in March.
At this rate neither of the current trials will start until sometime this summer. Seriously, you don’t think Trump would try to delay a new trial until after the general election?
Rip Murdock (26cf8e) — 1/7/2024 @ 5:31 pmIowa Countdown:
Iowa 538 polling average:
Trump 50%
Rip Murdock (26cf8e) — 1/7/2024 @ 6:12 pmDeSantis 18
Haley 16
Ramaswamy 6
I’ve done my share of analyses of hotels and offices and commercial properties over the decades, and a typical operating margin for a full-service hotel is around 50%, and higher for office and apartment properties. So if Trump collected $7.8 mil in revenues, then his operating profit (which doesn’t count fixed or sunk costs) is roughly $3.9 mil.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 1/7/2024 @ 6:15 pmBut none of this is relevant to my point, which is that, on one side of his mouth he’s accusing Nikki of being a globalist, and on the other side he’s raking in all this foreign income, and that doesn’t even get into his foreign business entities across the globe, such as the millions he got from naming rights at Trump Towers Istanbul, home to Dictator Erdogan.
Lauren Bobbert slugs her ex at Alices restaurant in co. Maybe she is a better rethugliKKKan then I thought.
asset (988688) — 1/7/2024 @ 8:13 pmNetanyahu’s gang says after we clear gaza of hamas we will resettle the palestinian women and children in the east. As himmler said what is the point of getting rid of the adults if you don’t get rid of the children? This is the Israel I am supporting over hamas?
asset (988688) — 1/7/2024 @ 8:17 pmSeriously, you don’t think Trump would try to delay a new trial until after the general election?
I think that Trump would used the armed forces to delay a trial if he could. That’s hardly the point, just more of your hand-wringing helplessness.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/7/2024 @ 9:41 pmLauren Bobbert slugs her ex at Alices restaurant in co.
It’s the Miner’s Claim, not Alice’s which was in California and has been long closed.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/7/2024 @ 9:47 pm@207 Arlo guthrie sang that it was in stockbridge mass. You can get any thing you want at alice’s restaurant including bobbert.
asset (988688) — 1/7/2024 @ 10:59 pmAs I said, I don’t think Trump will be indicted “under 18 USC 2383 before the Supreme Court hears the CO case,” which means within the next four weeks.
That’s your imagination running wild again.
Rip Murdock (26cf8e) — 1/7/2024 @ 11:00 pmIt was nauseating watching Elise Stefanik echo Trump’s description of J6 convicted felons as hostages this weekend. People who repeatedly assault police, interrupt a congressional proceeding while threatening the safety of the representatives and their staff, and vandalize the Capitol are now hostages of political persecution. Where is the outrage from law-and-order conservatives and religious conservatives? Where is the responsibility to correct the ignorant thinking of so many? It’s not less of a lie because you attach it to “playing politics”. Where are the voices from the Right decrying this nonsense? Where is Fox News? This has to stop.
AJ_Liberty (5f05c3) — 1/8/2024 @ 5:33 amSoviet show trials while their shock troops terrorize cities and go free.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 1/8/2024 @ 5:58 amWordle in three and under one minute with B!TCH as my starting word. Thanks, AJ_Liberty!
nk (290c25) — 1/8/2024 @ 6:03 amTechnically, every Capitol invader could have been charged with the felony murder of Ashli Babbitt. When two or more persons engage in a criminal enterprise, every participant is responsible for the unlawful acts of any other participant.
nk (290c25) — 1/8/2024 @ 6:12 am@213 Who was charged with Babbitt’s felony murder? Offer a name and enlighten us.
lloyd (b7a72a) — 1/8/2024 @ 6:34 am“Could have been”. English has something called the subjunctive mood.
nk (290c25) — 1/8/2024 @ 6:45 amJ6 followed eight months of wrecked downtowns and sieges of federal buildings. The J6 hostages were mostly guilty of naïveté in thinking they would receive the same shrug of the shoulders. What we learned from all this is that you can wreck homes, downtowns and livelihoods but don’t even think of touching the parlors of those who cheered it all on.
lloyd (7aa207) — 1/8/2024 @ 6:54 amLost me at “J6 hostages”, lloyd.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 1/8/2024 @ 7:05 amAre the dozen-plus who were convicted and jailed for seditious conspiracy “hostages”? Are the hundreds who were convicted and jailed for assaulting law enforcement “hostages”?
We know what the intent was of the House Republicans when they began to release Capitol interior security camera footage and they blurred the faces of the rioters:
Of course, it turned out that the Justice Department had the raw footage all along.
Rip Murdock (26cf8e) — 1/8/2024 @ 7:17 amSource for post 218 quote.
Rip Murdock (26cf8e) — 1/8/2024 @ 7:19 amStefanik does seem to have the “House stage” in recent days.
nk (290c25) — 1/8/2024 @ 7:21 amNow CNN is teasing everyone.
Maybe this is a subtle hint to the Bidens that they need to work on their replacement?
https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/05/politics/road-to-270-electoral-votes-2024/index.html
Question for the fam here…
Why wouldn’t Kamala Harris do better that Biden in this environment? If it’s Trump v. Harris, I think Harris would have the upper hand because she won’t be bogged down by the enfeeblement of Biden’s age. The Democrat voters can overlook Harris’ awful word-salad every day imo.
whembly (5f7596) — 1/8/2024 @ 7:25 am@217 and Navalny was convicted of embezzlement.
lloyd (7aa207) — 1/8/2024 @ 7:32 amStart here.
(
BuDuh (ef7c77) — 1/8/2024 @ 7:34 amNoted, the bogus equivalency between the Russian “justice” system and American due process and rule of law.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 1/8/2024 @ 7:48 amLeftists running our government continue to do their version of the Taliban and destroy American history while replacing it with their own warped view of society.
See: William Penn.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 1/8/2024 @ 7:55 amSpeaking personally, even Trump cannot get me to vote for Kamala Harris twice. Either for President or for VP.
nk (290c25) — 1/8/2024 @ 8:02 amNow here’s a poll question for Trumpkultura:
What gets you more votes?
nk (290c25) — 1/8/2024 @ 8:11 am1. Getting a couple of Ivy League university presidents fired and calling insurrectionists “hostages”;
2. Engaging in mutual groping at a theater and punching out your ex in public;
3. All samee-samee as long as it owns the libs.
Arlo guthrie sang that it was in stockbridge mass.
Yeah, and “Ring-Around-a-Rosy Rag” was on the flip side of the single. But that doesn’t make your statement correct.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/8/2024 @ 8:16 am@223
I mean, for anyone who’s not in the NeverTrump bucket and is nominally a GOP voter, yeah that’s a major turnoff.
But I’m really talking about the Biden voters and nominal Democrat voters.
The PA Democrat voters elected a Senator who obviously suffered from a stroke and still put that aside and pulled the Democrat lever.
Interesting. What’s your calculous here, if you don’t mind discussing?
You were a Biden voter for the 1st time, when Trump’s on the ballot.
What’s changed?
I wonder if the “I voted for Biden the 1st time, but I won’t vote for him the 2nd time, even if it’s Trump. I still won’t vote for Trump either and go 3rd party or stay home” voters is what’s going to make or break Biden.
I guess that all depends where you vote and if you’re in a swing state.
whembly (5f7596) — 1/8/2024 @ 8:16 amTechnically, every Capitol invader could have been charged with the felony murder of Ashli Babbitt.
And much greater deadly force could have been used to protect the VP and Congress. Only optics saved them.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/8/2024 @ 8:19 am@227
3.
But, had you put number four as:
I’m hitting 4 so hard, people think I’m “getting some” in my voting booth. 😉
whembly (5f7596) — 1/8/2024 @ 8:19 amJ6 hostages
It is words like this that bring me back to “Hang Trump on the Mall.”
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/8/2024 @ 8:21 am@217 and Navalny was convicted of embezzlement.
Look, I don’t much care for Biden, but are you seriously comparing Biden and Putin? Or American courts and Russian ones? Because that’s wildly unhinged crap.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/8/2024 @ 8:24 amSpeaking personally, even Trump cannot get me to vote for Kamala Harris twice
Having lived in CA, I have the honor of refusing to vote for Kamala more times than I have refused to vote for Trump (more opportunity).
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/8/2024 @ 8:26 am@232
Meet the “Reap” what was “sowed” my friend.
Calling J6 as an “insurrection”, “another 9/11” and the likes… is the definition an over-reaction and hyperbole.
Don’t like when hyperbole is used against your position, don’t start none.
whembly (5f7596) — 1/8/2024 @ 8:28 amWhy wouldn’t Kamala Harris do better that Biden in this environment?
For those of us who thought that the two parties could not fail worse that Trump-Biden, I congratulate you for finding a worse choice.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/8/2024 @ 8:29 amStrictly an anti-Trump vote in 2020. I took a calculated risk with Kamala that the worst thing I would be doing was giving Willie Brown bragging rights that he had slept with a Vice President. But I’m not taking that pitcher to the well again.
If it’s the same lineup as 2020, I will let my fellow Americans vote for me on the President/Vice President line, and leave that box blank.
nk (290c25) — 1/8/2024 @ 8:29 amTrump vs Harris vs RFK Jr for the trifecta.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/8/2024 @ 8:29 amTo think it was less than a decade ago when we thought that Jeb vs Hillary was the nadir of choices.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/8/2024 @ 8:32 amBring out the popcorn:
Related:
Given his security requirements, I really doubt that Trump will attend the appeals court hearing. But who knows?
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 1/8/2024 @ 9:00 amTrump’s not wrong here…
Gah… quit making me agree with him Rip!
whembly (5f7596) — 1/8/2024 @ 9:22 amI’m shocked!
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 1/8/2024 @ 9:39 am“outer perimeter”. Trump certainly is that.
nk (0a5c9b) — 1/8/2024 @ 9:44 amHe tried that with the E. Jean Carrol lawsuit as I recall. He was only protecting the good reputation of the Presidency, he claimed.
nk (d600f6) — 1/8/2024 @ 10:07 am“outer perimeter”. Trump certainly is that.
Looking in.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/8/2024 @ 11:28 am@216 Wrong! Just in georgia 61 protesters indicted on rico charges for rioting. Rioting is not insurrection. Next time don’t try to overthrow the government in DC where you get all black jury who hates racists. Try starting the insurrection in skunk creek mississippi you will get a more favorable jury!
asset (a69f97) — 1/8/2024 @ 12:52 pm@238 You forgot gavin newsom with AOC as running mate to appease the left base.
asset (a69f97) — 1/8/2024 @ 12:54 pm@225 You better hope the left isn’t running the country. We are a lot different then the corporate establishment stooges that the deep state has the dnc foists on us. Biden, clintons. pelosi are good thieving capitalists not commies. Their interest is $$$ for themselves.
asset (a69f97) — 1/8/2024 @ 1:06 pmAsset,
your assertation is not evidence. You fail to show why Lloyd is wrong. Do better.
NJRob (9682d6) — 1/8/2024 @ 1:17 pmThis is the only explanation that appears to make sense.
https://youtu.be/UUWJWRn5m6E?si=svfpRdhWOcQm6AT6
Simon Jester (5a7f77) — 1/8/2024 @ 1:18 pmMost of what Trump is charged in DC with was not faciliated by his being president,
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 1/8/2024 @ 1:31 pm@252
In DC, all of his charges was when he was president. Including the GA rico case.
It’s all the other cases were before he was President. (ie, the NY one and the document case in FL).
whembly (5f7596) — 1/8/2024 @ 1:53 pm@249:
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/8/2024 @ 1:56 pm@250 61 protesters in ga. charged with rico is evidence. Here is more ap story jan. 6 protesters given no harsher treatment then floyd protesters in 6 protests where violence occurred ap found. look it up its on the internet. Protesters have been shot and killed in floyd protests. It is democrat establishment that whats its pound of flesh like the russian collusion hoax. I personally think their was a lot of over charging and petty minor prosecution ;but when did your side ever complain about over charging BLM and anti war protesters? Now our side wants to run over pro-cease fire protesting in the street and right talk radio is now calling them terrorists!
asset (9ec97e) — 1/8/2024 @ 3:55 pmAsset,
your side cannot do basic math. They think their racist beliefs will create utopia instead of ending the nation. Your ilk are parasites on society.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 1/8/2024 @ 4:33 pmhttps://twitter.com/TSN_Sports/status/1743382680853430740
A rare moment of beauty and lucidity in our increasingly ugly world.
God bless those kids.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 1/8/2024 @ 5:06 pm@256 read the parable of the elephant and the ants. Guess who wins? The left as both anarchists which you call parasites and disciplinarians who restore order rather ruthlessly after the anarchist utopia like chad fails. Conservatives seem to have a better time when the parasites are running around then when disciplinarians take over to enforce the 5 year plan. I would make a great commissar for justice even though I am a non-exploitive capitalist who owns his own business not a communist or even a means of production advocating socialist.
asset (9ec97e) — 1/8/2024 @ 6:52 pmCrap Poll:
This poll (along with the previous ARG poll) is crap because it doesn’t have any cross tabs. Additionally, no poll conducted in the same timeframe have shown similar results.
Rip Murdock (215bb7) — 1/8/2024 @ 7:43 pmCongrats to Jim Harbaugh and Michigan for winning the NCAA Championship.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 1/8/2024 @ 8:05 pmComedy Gold!:
Rip Murdock (215bb7) — 1/8/2024 @ 8:06 pmHuh?
Rip Murdock (215bb7) — 1/8/2024 @ 8:20 pmMagnets are not affected by water and will continue to work even when submerged.
Fun fact: The best way to detect submerged submarines, even if they are “running silent” is though the magnetic anomaly of a big hunk of metal in the ocean.
Trump probably thinks those “magnets” on the Gerald Ford are the big horseshoe kind. Hint: They are not.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/8/2024 @ 11:16 pmStupid is as stupid does.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/8/2024 @ 11:17 pmThose damn over-reacting, hyperbolic Democrats:
– Mitch McConnell
lurker (cd7cd4) — 1/9/2024 @ 1:28 amWhat do you mean “we,” kemosabe? I thought Jeb was fine, certainly preferable to Hillary. And I found Jeb and Hillary both preferable to others in the race, first and foremost Trump, but also Bernie, Ted Cruz, Elizabeth Warren, Rand Paul, and maybe others that don’t leap to mind.
lurker (cd7cd4) — 1/9/2024 @ 1:30 amGo Blue! (And condolences to Paul Montagu.)
lurker (cd7cd4) — 1/9/2024 @ 1:46 am@262, it’s hard tracking down the root causes of the reliability challenges with EMALS in the open internet.
The question is whether the problems are between the ship’s main generators and the catapult energy storage system, between the storage system and linear motor, along the 300 feet of the linear motors, or are there intermittent problems throughout the subsystems. Obviously the USS Ford platform performs reliably enough to be currently deployed off Israel.
It is funny that Trump feels the need to comment on it though. The system obviously was designed to perform in a salt-air environment, with rain and harsh seas. I would imagine that there are well accepted processes for looking at the accelerated aging or degradation of the components in the various subsystems.
If EMALS is submerged in seawater, then the carrier has bigger problems afoot. When I read about “power system faults”, it’s a bit cryptic. Has a component in the power electronics faulted or is it an aberrant operational condition in the overall system that may suggest a software problem? Trump is unhelpful in understanding this (yes, I enjoyed typing that).
I understand the Luddite philosophy toward technology innovation. And the DDG1000 did expose both the difficulty in forecasting what technological strides are most needed while not trying to do too much at one time. I suspect that the engineers and operators will figure out how to make the Ford reliable enough. Maybe Trump had taken classified documents to continue his analysis of such problems while providing helpful solutions. Wouldn’t that be something!
AJ_Liberty (dc4305) — 1/9/2024 @ 4:50 amI am not the least bit surprised.
Don’t stop there. Keep reading. The kickback part is where you might think the wrong persons are on trial for a racketeering conspiracy.
nk (b096d3) — 1/9/2024 @ 4:55 amThis:
Then this:
The present and the future collide.
BuDuh (4214e4) — 1/9/2024 @ 5:22 amDARPA meets derp.
nk (b096d3) — 1/9/2024 @ 5:54 amI wish the UW team that played in the Sugar Bowl showed up last night. Penix had a poor game, the defense gave up big chunks or yardage, and you can’t do that against a team like Michigan. Grudging congrats to Michigan.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 1/9/2024 @ 6:11 amJust a reminder that WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovitch is Putin’s political hostage, behind bars for the “crime” of reporting on his suckass economy.
The young women shown here are four of the 136 held hostage by Hamas terrorists for over three months, around thirteen of whom are Americans.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 1/9/2024 @ 6:30 am@265 lurker (cd7cd4) — 1/9/2024 @ 1:28 am
whembly (5f7596) — 1/9/2024 @ 6:46 amBless your heart… no where in my comment solely targeted the Democrats. 😉
@269
I’m just now seeing this story…
WTAF?
Hollywood couldn’t script this insanity!
How does this RICO case even survive?
whembly (5f7596) — 1/9/2024 @ 6:48 amI’m just now seeing this story…
Yeah. I saw it last evening in the AJC only, and today there are a couple of other outlets who seem to have picked it up too, but my impression of the coverage overall is that it’s with a pillow.
nk (6a4cc1) — 1/9/2024 @ 6:55 amhttps://hotair.com/karen-townsend/2024/01/09/romney-to-biden-january-6-is-a-political-dead-horse-n603650
whembly (5f7596) — 1/9/2024 @ 7:03 am@276
That’s standard operating procedure by the propaganda arm of the Democratic Party… I mean… legacy media.
The source of this is from an ongoing divorce case that was hurriedly sealed…
This seems legit. And if so, how does the Dark Lord… s’cuse me… Trump get so damn lucky?
whembly (5f7596) — 1/9/2024 @ 7:07 am@276 nk (6a4cc1) — 1/9/2024 @ 6:55 am
whembly (5f7596) — 1/9/2024 @ 7:27 amHonestly, here’s the most damning part of this whole GA RICO fiasco, this exhibit filing made by the defense:
https://dailycaller.com/2024/01/09/top-prosecutor-trump-election-case-met-white-house-counsel-indictment/
This seems legit. And if so, how does the Dark Lord… s’cuse me… Trump get so damn lucky?
Roman, the defendant who is bringing the challenge, worked as director of Election Day operations for the Trump campaign in 2020, according to the article. So I presume he is a savvy politician who “knows his enemy” and knew where to go looking for ends of threads to unravel. Not like some other “birdrains” who have already rushed to make plea deals.
nk (6a4cc1) — 1/9/2024 @ 7:43 amWell at least I know you’re not pretending to be a Republican. Helps to know your viewpoint when sharing.
NJRob (89a575) — 1/9/2024 @ 8:27 amAt the very best for Willis, I see a breach of professional conduct.
Paul Montagu (6a638f) — 1/9/2024 @ 8:31 amIt’s not clear to me how Roman’s rights to due process and a fair trial were violated. Roman would’ve been prosecuted whether the prosecutor was getting a little pizda on the side from the boss or not. If anything, Roman is getting a less competent, less experienced prosecutor against him. He should be thanking Wade for being that guy.
Nope. A grand jury indictment is ex parte. What the grand jury hears depends entirely on the integrity of the prosecutor. Some people even call it a rubber stamp for the prosecutor.
And that’s for starters. I don’t know about Georgia, but in Illinois the meretricious relationship would get both Wade and Willis disbarred and you can’t be a prosecutor if you’re not a licensed lawyer.
nk (6a4cc1) — 1/9/2024 @ 8:49 amI think you are missing the point. It’s not like Trump was speaking coherently to a group of naval architects who might know about ship systems, he was speaking to a group of voters who probably had no idea what he was talking about (it’s clear he didn’t). There was no logical train of thought.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 1/9/2024 @ 8:51 am#282
Which is the issue, Paul. Fani Willlis’ romances don’t have anything to do with any of the RICO gang getting a fair trial. This is just an excuse to get some scandalous poo out in the media world that won’t be subject to a gag order. I have a hunch there may be less to it than you guys. Don’t be surprised by this filing being denied.
Appalled (03faad) — 1/9/2024 @ 8:51 amUS president could have a rival assassinated and not be criminally prosecuted, Trump’s lawyer argues
Wow. Just WOW.
And, President Biden, I have a humble suggestion…
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/9/2024 @ 9:10 amPark Service retracts decision to take down William Penn statue at Philadelphia historical site
Do tell. The public comment period must not have gone as they hoped.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/9/2024 @ 9:11 amMore:
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 1/9/2024 @ 9:17 amThe public comment period only opened yesterday. More like political ridicule.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 1/9/2024 @ 9:24 amAlternative headline:
Here is a clip of the exchange that has testies retracting:
https://twitter.com/PoliticusSarah/status/1744732773091561710#m
Of course the person who posted this clip is of the Wow. Just WOW. variety, so she is overwhelmed by an end zone dance routine.
I am skeptical of this being a true gotcha moment. I will wait to listen to the full hearing.
BuDuh (ef7c77) — 1/9/2024 @ 9:25 am@268: “If it was easy, everyone would be doing it.”
— anonymous R&D engineer.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/9/2024 @ 9:29 amFani Willlis’ romances don’t have anything to do with any of the RICO gang getting a fair trial.
Wow! Just wow! Let’s just ignore that she romantically romanced her romance with a romantic appointment as a romantic special prosecutor and and a romantic $654,000 of romantic taxpayer money some of which was romantically spent on her.
Thankfully, that’s not the law. Prosecutorial misconduct is generally error per se and the defendant is not required to show prejudice.
Which is also kind of romantic. In the “idealized” meaning of the term.
nk (6a4cc1) — 1/9/2024 @ 9:39 amThe public comment period only opened yesterday. More like political ridicule.
The first day of the public comment period should have been indicative.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/9/2024 @ 9:40 amnk,
There is also the claim that Roman’s divorce filings were unlawfully sealed, bringing up the spectre of a cover-up attempt.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/9/2024 @ 9:42 amI’m sure Trump smiled while listening to the exchange. Trump’s lawyer could have easily said it was a ridiculous hypothetical rather than taking his argument to its logical conclusion.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 1/9/2024 @ 9:42 amAssuming this isn’t just bollocks.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/9/2024 @ 9:43 amI’m sure “evidence” found in a divorce proceeding is always reliable.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 1/9/2024 @ 9:43 amI’m sure “evidence” found in a divorce proceeding is always reliable.
It’s not the evidence, it’s the concealing.
nk (6a4cc1) — 1/9/2024 @ 9:47 amThe whole appeal should be thrown out as untimely. As I understand it (IANAL), pre-trial relief requires iron-clad cause based in prior law and they are arguing the law in this one.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/9/2024 @ 9:51 amIt’s not the evidence, it’s the concealing.
Indeed. Compare and contrast with the NY “felonies” regarding the payments to Stormy.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/9/2024 @ 9:52 am@300: This regards the DC trial, not the GA one.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/9/2024 @ 9:53 amNY Times: Filing in Georgia Trump Case Claims ‘Improper’ Relationship Between Prosecutors
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/9/2024 @ 10:22 amCongress has abdicated its responsibility in so many areas up to now, why should that change?
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 1/9/2024 @ 10:33 am253.
He didn’t do anything using his oficial powers, except trying to appoint Jeffrey Clark Acting Attorney General, and there he doesn’t have the defense of honestly believing he didn’t lose the election (which he could have, for the sake of argument based on perceived inconsistencies in the results, like carrying Florida by a solid margin, and yet losing Georgia [actually best explained by the fact that he made Florida an exception to his instructions to his supporters not to vote by mail]) because he didn’t want to give him the job heading the Justice Department rder for it to investigate possible vote fraud, but in order for it to issue a false statement that they had already found it!
Sammy Finkelman (c2c77e) — 1/9/2024 @ 10:38 amSince NH allows non-Republicans to participate in the Republican primary, the results are not indicative of Republican support for Haley.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 1/9/2024 @ 10:43 amVariants of “both sides can be blamed” substitutes for actual insight.
BuDuh (4f3677) — 1/9/2024 @ 10:51 amUSA TODAY/Boston Globe/Suffolk University Poll 1/9/24
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 1/9/2024 @ 10:52 amnk:
The thing that makes me very suspicious is that the charges made by the attorney in the filing are not supported in the filing. Given the quality of legal work we have seen from Trump’s group, there is no presumption due that the charges are true. The nub of things is here:
That would mean the law firm paid for cruises that seem to be the heart of this thing — and there is no way the law firm could have paid for those cruises without the Fulton County gig.
Somehow, this information resides in divorce paperwork that has now been sealed. It is claimed that this sealing is illegal. Again, we are trusting a Trump lawyer’s credibility. What gives us the assurance we can do such a thing?
The attorneys have flung poo. They hope the poo stinks enough that they get to fling
Appalled (03f53c) — 1/9/2024 @ 10:52 amThe last line:
The attorney have flung poo. They hope the poo stinks enough to fling more poo.
Appalled (03f53c) — 1/9/2024 @ 10:53 amGame Over: Nikki Haley receives endorsement that will win her the presidency.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 1/9/2024 @ 11:00 amThis is the lawyer who did the filing:
https://www.criminaldefenseattorneysmarietta.com/attorney-profiles/ashleigh-b-merchant/
Seems reasonably qualified.
Appalled (03f53c) — 1/9/2024 @ 11:07 amAnd a twitter post (read the replies) that gets into the meat of things:
https://bsky.app/profile/nobodyinteresting.bsky.social/post/3kiiy5m7y6h23
No comment as I think there is interesting back and forth — I would hate to see this become “I filed a RICO case and all I got was this darn mug shot”
Appalled (03f53c) — 1/9/2024 @ 11:25 amSince NH allows non-Republicans to participate in the Republican primary, the results are not indicative of Republican support for Haley.
Quite a few center-right voters no longer call themselves Republican. That is not a slam on those voters.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/9/2024 @ 11:34 amGame Over: Nikki Haley receives endorsement that will win her the presidency.
I wish this wasn’t as meaningful as I expect that it is. Now, if Taylor Swift endorsed Nikki….
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/9/2024 @ 11:36 am@298
My first marriage ended in a divorce.
I went through the gauntlet in court with you attorney, and I can assure you… you do NOT want to submit any evidences that are false. One such instance can instantly turn the whole court against you on rather severe consequences.
whembly (5f7596) — 1/9/2024 @ 12:03 pm@293
I’m still aghast at this.
Like, truly flabbergasted…I think the only recourse, at minimum, is to have the judge declare mistrial (??), kick off Willis and Wade permanently. (and hope GA doesn’t disbar them) Then, if the Fulton County Attorney office wants to retry the case, they have to use grand jury again to indict new charges.
If true… what recourse does those who took the plea deal?
If true… how does the judge even go forward from here? Can he even get a ongoing divorce proceeding unsealed? (I’m dubious he could).
The judge is in a rock and hard place… almost like a mexican standoff…
whembly (5f7596) — 1/9/2024 @ 12:08 pm@309
It’s not Trump’s lawyer, it’s a co-defendant’s lawyer.
What’s telling, is that there’s now outright contradiction by Willis/Wade by these accusations.
And, yes, a divorce case being sealed is outrageous on it’s face. This lawyer is doing do actually, honest-to-god vigorous defense for his client. (unlike, Alina Baba Babino™)
whembly (5f7596) — 1/9/2024 @ 12:13 pmUnder Trump’s theory of presidential immunity, a president could order the assassination of a rival (or sell pardons or government secrets) and then resign which would prevent his impeachment, thereby giving him immunity from prosecution.
Rip Murdock (215bb7) — 1/9/2024 @ 12:16 pm@320 Rip Murdock (215bb7) — 1/9/2024 @ 12:16 pm
Technically, resignation wouldn’t prevent an impeachment.
You can still impeach an ex-President. That’s what they did the 2nd time with Trump.
Courts today does this with “Qualified immunity” doctrine, where public officials (ie, police, judges, etc) are assumed protected from lawsuits alleging that the official violated a plaintiff’s rights, only allowing suits where officials violated a “clearly established” statutory or constitutional right.
I guess Trump’s lawyer is advocating for the same sort of immunity, unless the President has been impeached/convicted in Congress. Once that happens, Potus’ impeachment record can be used in courts w/o presidential immunity.
In that hypothetical, if a president ordered an assassination of political rival, Congress should quickly impeachment/convict the POTUS in short order and relevant jurisdiction should charge everyone on that assassination conspiracy.
whembly (5f7596) — 1/9/2024 @ 12:25 pmIt’s all about what is Presidential Immunity?
While not an apples-to-apples comparison, Obama’s drone policy overseas killed an American citizen with zero consequence:
https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/court-dismisses-lawsuit-challenging-us-drone-killings-three-americans
I like the phrasing of “the executive is not an effective check on the executive”.
…and the President is a Constitutional position of power, it is Congress’ and SCOTUS role to keep him in check. Congress’ in the use of its Impeachment powers, and SCOTUS in determine executive actions are either justiciable or not.
whembly (5f7596) — 1/9/2024 @ 12:34 pmWhembly, I agree that Fannie hiring her romantic partner is a conflict of interest and likely a misuse of public funds. I also agree that it’s good for the defense to press this if for no other reason then to distract the prosecutor. But I don’t see why this would mean a mistrial. The party harmed by misuse of funds is the taxpayer, not the defendant.
I don’t see how the prosecutor engaging is favoritism / self dealing constitutes a harm to the defendant.
The state still has to present the evidence in court and convince a jury beyond a reasonable doubt of the defendants guilt.
Maybe there’s something I’ve missed in the story.
FWIW if the accusation that she hired her BF and has benefiting herself from that contract is true I hope she’s fired/recalled. But another prosecutor could pick up where she left off.
Time123 (0ac894) — 1/9/2024 @ 12:54 pmFeds say agent provocateur Ray Epps was punished enough for his actions and given probation. NJ Rob fbi agent provocateur terry norman who fired the first shot at kent state at nat. grd. was never even prosecuted.
asset (1cae31) — 1/9/2024 @ 12:55 pmAny American citizen consorting with known enemies of the United States should pick better friends, and not endanger their own children.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 1/9/2024 @ 12:58 pmI don’t think that will be happening……
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 1/9/2024 @ 1:00 pm@323
Time… as nk mentioned previously, the grand jury indictment is ex parte… meaning, there was no adversarial deliberation in front of the grand jury. The grand jury issue a ‘true bill’, to indict the defendants with the understanding that the PROSECUTION is doing this with the highest of highest integrity.
It’s why any smidgeon of conflicts of interests must be tamped down, to ensure the integrity of the process.
This is a smorgasbord of a retched stench here.
I struggle to see how this judge can move forward.
whembly (5f7596) — 1/9/2024 @ 1:02 pmGiven the polls, the fact that we are even talking about Presidential immunity is pretty pathetic.
AJ_Liberty (5f05c3) — 1/9/2024 @ 1:03 pm@325
That’s not my point.
My point is how is “Presidential Immunity” is defined.
Because what lines are drawn from this Trump case, could theoretically open up past Presidents to future litigation.
And that’s the problem.
We do not want Presidents to worry about future litigation when they’re executing their Presidential powers.
That’s why I in the camp that Congress should be the ultimate arbitrator, via conviction at impeachment, to open up individual liabilities to former presidents.
whembly (5f7596) — 1/9/2024 @ 1:06 pm@328
I think it’s a pretty important subject to be honest.
Clarity is a good thing.
whembly (5f7596) — 1/9/2024 @ 1:08 pmWhembly, I’m with you that it stinks. But I don’t see that the remedy is to dismiss all charges and convene a new grand jury. Maybe I’m wrong and that’s what the precedent says. Any of the lawyers present want to provide free legal education on the typical remedy in this type of situation.
Also, I’m more disturbed by the allegations that she had contact with the White House, but haven’t read the details on that yet.
Of all the criminal charges against Trump I think the work Jack Smith is doing on the classified documents is the most clear cut and straight forward. It goes down hill from there and this is the second worst. The charges in NYC are IMO the least justified and while IANAL they seem unjustified to me
Time123 (b0f83d) — 1/9/2024 @ 1:30 pmPresidential actions in military and foreign affairs are pretty much supreme, and very few actions could be considered criminal. The concern is presidential immunity for actions in domestic affairs.
However, it is very unlikely that the appeals court will rule in favor of Trump. It may be that after the DC Circuit rules against Trump, their decision may be so cut and dried that the Supreme Court may not even take it up.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 1/9/2024 @ 1:32 pm@332
Yes, the coordination with the Whitehouse counsel’s office is something else.
whembly (5f7596) — 1/9/2024 @ 1:33 pm#327
The judge moves forward by asking the moving counsel to put up or shut up and requires Fani W. to answer the charges. Always be skeptical of a situation where we don’t have the ability to see the documentation an interested party is describing.
Don’t be shocked if this is merely meant to be fodder for Trump’s Truth Social ravings. He’s accused Fani W of sleeping around before and he may be seeking more material.
By the way, Obama never would have been President if it weren’t for the release of divorce materials that were supposed to have been sealed. That release was key to demolishing his Senatorial opponent in scandal.
Appalled (03f53c) — 1/9/2024 @ 2:05 pm@334 Appalled (03f53c) — 1/9/2024 @ 2:05 pm
Yes, Fani needs to answer if the allegation is true.
Because if true, she hired her paramour to be the special prosecutor paying him extremely well.
Then her paramour took her to multiple vacations.
It’s a massive ethics violation and a massive black stain on the overall RICO case.
whembly (5f7596) — 1/9/2024 @ 2:17 pmAppalled (03f53c) — 1/9/2024 @ 2:05 pm
Two opponents were destroyed, late in the process. One in the primary, one in the general, and the incumbent Republican, Peter Fitzgerald, did not run for re-election.
https://chicagomaroon.com/13809/viewpoints/op-ed/remember-blair-hull-barack-obama-does
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Fitzgerald_(politician)
I suspect the Clintons were behind that (Obama was not capable of organizing something like that, or even knowing about it) because they wanted to create a sure-to-lose sparring partner for Hillary, who would be strong enough to displace all the other primary opposition, but not strong enough to win himself. And getting Donald Trump to run for president in 2016 could have been another attempt at that.
Not all of Bill Clinton’s machinations succeeds.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 1/9/2024 @ 2:24 pmwhembly (5f7596) — 1/9/2024 @ 2:17 pm
I don’t know. It could be a difficult to close loophole
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 1/9/2024 @ 2:25 pm#335
Fani has to answer even if the charge is false. If it is true — then it’s yet another mess and my guess is that would be the end of getting this RICO trial done in 2024.
Appalled (03f53c) — 1/9/2024 @ 2:32 pmScience fiction stories with a transmission from the future to the past or present theme:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timescape
https://www.amazon.com/Thrice-Upon-Time-James-Hogan/dp/1522600965
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeless_(Star_Trek:_Voyager)
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 1/9/2024 @ 2:35 pmWouldn’t that be embezzlement?
Say, rather, he earned a lot of income because of the DA.But he probably paid taxes on it etc.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 1/9/2024 @ 2:39 pmTime123 (0ac894) — 1/9/2024 @ 12:54 pm
There’s a possibility that he had his own conflict of interest or thst she was rewarding herself indirectlywith the case.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 1/9/2024 @ 2:44 pmIn most states, the State Attorney General would step in, take the case away from Willis, and appoint a new special prosecutor unconnected to her office.
nk (6a4cc1) — 1/9/2024 @ 2:54 pmWhat I’m wondering. If the DC Court of Appeals rules that the President has the immunity that Trump is claiming … will Trump’s Secret Service detail fire on SEAL Team Six?
nk (6a4cc1) — 1/9/2024 @ 2:57 pmhttps://twitter.com/greg_price11/status/1744763567088230572
An agent provocateur. A fed.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 1/9/2024 @ 4:15 pmQuite a few left of center voters no longer call themselves Democrats.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 1/9/2024 @ 5:45 pmRip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 1/9/2024 @ 10:43 am
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 1/9/2024 @ 10:52 am
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 1/9/2024 @ 5:55 pmQuite a few left of center voters no longer call themselves Democrats.
No argument.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/9/2024 @ 6:50 pmScience fiction stories with a transmission from the future to the past or present theme:
There’s a lot of this lately, with people from a dying future coming to tell us to stop Global Warming “before its too late.” It’s a standard propaganda trope.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/9/2024 @ 6:52 pmA president somehow getting the military in on a murder plot of his rival would of course claim the military acted independently, much like a president who gets the DOJ to prosecute his rival to put him in jail and disqualify him from running. I mean, if you’re going to create a crazy hypothetical at least try to make it plausible and real world.
You can have presidential immunity or you can have unelected prosecutors running our country. Choose one.
lloyd (ea9ac2) — 1/9/2024 @ 6:55 pmBill Clinton was forced to surrender his law license to settle a spot of perjury.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/9/2024 @ 7:10 pmBill Clinton was forced to surrender his law license to settle a spot of perjury.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/9/2024 @ 7:10 pm
They were just persecuting him!
norcal (1de4a7) — 1/9/2024 @ 7:23 pm“An agent provocateur. A fed.”
1) This is not the way feds work. They’re behind the scenes convincing a patsy to do what Epps did. In reality, though, he was a patsy for Trump, not the FBI. However he was smart enough to realize how badly things went, and immediately informed on everyone he could.
Davethulhu (0f7efc) — 1/9/2024 @ 8:45 pm2) He’s not the only person on tape calling for people to storm congress. Trump did it too, on the 6th.
And nowhere did I say you did. Here was my point, in case it wasn’t obvious: You don’t believe Jan 6 was an insurrection. Fine. I do. I don’t expect you to take my word for it, and I certainly don’t expect you to take any Democrat’s word for it. I don’t even expect you to take Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger’s word for it, because let’s face it, they’re not really Republicans, right? But Mitch McConnell? Mr. Republican, who also happens to be the most un-hyperbolic person alive? (See, that was hyperbole.) When Mitch McConnell says it was a “violent insurrection for the purpose of trying to prevent the peaceful transfer of power after a legitimately certified election,” that should put an end to any assertion of hyperbole.
But let’s imagine you’re so allergic to overstatement (ahem… you’re not) that on your planet, calling the Jan 6 rioters “insurrectionists” is hyperbolic. All the same, nobody who isn’t addled by partisanship could equate that hypothetical semantic transgression with calling the imprisoned thugs who beat, bear-sprayed and trampled police officers, “hostages.”
lurker (cd7cd4) — 1/9/2024 @ 9:55 pmWhen Mitch McConnell says it was a “violent insurrection for the purpose of trying to prevent the peaceful transfer of power after a legitimately certified election,” that should put an end to any assertion of hyperbole.
And yet he could not vote “guilty.” I think that it will be a regret he takes to his grave.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/9/2024 @ 9:57 pmThe Senate let Trump off, because 1) he was president and 2) because he was done, or so they thought. He wasn’t, of course.
Now the whole world is putting him on trial. And he and his supporters think that it’s because he’s persecuted, when in fact it’s because he didn’t accept mercy when it was offered.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/9/2024 @ 10:00 pmThat might have been a trenchant insight had I ever claimed I’m a Republican. As I’ve said here a number of times, I’m a center-right independent who finds the GOP in its current MAGA incarnation even more repellent than the Dems, and that’s saying something.
Funny though that you’d assume that someone who just said he preferred Jeb to the three leading Democrat candidates — something you conveniently omitted when you quoted my comment — couldn’t possibly be a Republican, presumably because I also said there are some Republicans I oppose even more than some Democrats. FWIW The only party I’d ever consider joining is one that rejects precisely that kind of tribalism. Anyone who can’t welcome the good and reject the bad people and ideas on both sides won’t be serving in the Lurker administration.
lurker (cd7cd4) — 1/9/2024 @ 10:09 pmI give him the benefit of the doubt and agree.
lurker (cd7cd4) — 1/9/2024 @ 10:13 pmHe could have applied for reinstatement in 2006, but what’s the point if you don’t intend to practice law, especially when you earned a reported $104M between 2001 and 2013 just by talking.
Rip Murdock (215bb7) — 1/9/2024 @ 10:35 pmHere was my point, in case it wasn’t obvious: You don’t believe Jan 6 was an insurrection. Fine. I do.
lurker (cd7cd4) — 1/9/2024 @ 9:55 pm
January 6th is a Rorschach test.
Some see it as a nothingburger, or a riot stoked by federal agents.
Others see it as orchestrated by Trump to pressure Congress and Mike Pence into overturning the election.
I think Trump’s words and actions on and around J6 were inexcusable, and supersede left versus right policy debates. If election results are not respected, and mobs sicced on the capitol instead, then we don’t have much of a country.
(Yes, I know. Al Gore, Hillary, and Stacey Abrams all questioned election results. Gore and Hillary didn’t do it for long, and didn’t foment any insurrections over losing. I don’t know how long Abrams did it, but she is small potatoes. Furthermore, none of them did it on the scale and to the degree Trump is doing it, and continues to do it. And none of them commanded cults. Distinctions matter.)
The people I find most puzzling are those who don’t like Trump, but insist on downplaying J6.
norcal (1de4a7) — 1/9/2024 @ 10:36 pmI think it’s a pretty safe bet that the DC Circuit court of appeals and the Supreme Court (if they take Trump’s appeal) will not choose presidential immunity, especially under Trump’s interpretation.
Rip Murdock (215bb7) — 1/9/2024 @ 10:40 pmThey’re being disingenuous.
Rip Murdock (215bb7) — 1/9/2024 @ 10:42 pmThey’re being disingenuous.
I hope not, but you might be correct.
norcal (1de4a7) — 1/9/2024 @ 10:47 pmWell at least I know you’re not pretending to be a Republican. Helps to know your viewpoint when sharing.
NJRob (89a575) — 1/9/2024 @ 8:27 am
And at least we know that you ARE pretending.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/9/2024 @ 11:08 pmTrump is the RINO.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/9/2024 @ 11:09 pmTrump is the RINO.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/9/2024 @ 11:09 pm
Correct. Anybody who suggests “terminating” the Constitution should not call himself a Republican.
norcal (1de4a7) — 1/9/2024 @ 11:13 pm@361 I don’t like trump ;but don’t hate him. I have seen worse in the republican party. My bar for insurrection is pretty high and jan. 6 doesn’t meet it just another riot that got out of hand. I just thought of a great bumber sticker Seal team 6 get ready incase wins his immunity case!
asset (566d74) — 1/10/2024 @ 12:36 amLike Clark Kent told the National Guard, unelected prosecutors always serve at the pleasure of the elected executive, but a President does not always serve at the pleasure of pinheads. Smart people vote too.
nk (6a4cc1) — 1/10/2024 @ 4:15 amKevin M,
what are you babbling about?
NJRob (eb56c3) — 1/10/2024 @ 4:51 amIt is exactly the way the feds work. See “kidnapping plot” in Michigan.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 1/10/2024 @ 4:53 amThe left foments violence every time it doesn’t get their way. Do you forget Schumer’s threats to Kavanaugh? How about the VP bailing out violent “protesters” from the summer of love? How about all the harm caused at the border? And on and on. But that doesn’t matter, does it?
NJRob (eb56c3) — 1/10/2024 @ 5:18 amBullsh-t. Even Ann Coulter says bullsh-t.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 1/10/2024 @ 5:45 amEpps wasn’t charged for what he said the night before on J5, it was for trespass on J6 and for holding a sign for a few moments.
Funny how you right-wingers gave Trump a pass for saying “peacefully” one single time, minutes before a riot (while saying “fight” 20 times in front of thousands and having warm-up acts who say sh-t like “trial by combat”) but condemn a nobody for saying “peacefully” multiple times the day before a riot in front of tens, well after the Brandenburg window.
Ray Epps…. the most defended J6 Insurrectionist of them all.
A lot of love for that criminal.
BuDuh (4214e4) — 1/10/2024 @ 5:52 amVideo of Epps at the link: https://twitter.com/NoVA_Campaigns/status/1744211460413067578#m
BuDuh (4214e4) — 1/10/2024 @ 6:06 amIf you love Mr. Trump with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your beer money, then you know that it’s always somebody else to blame.
Back in caveman days, when they loaded all the sins of the tribe on a goat and drove it out into the desert, was it a young, healthy, valuable goat, or was it a sickly, old, runt, or cull not worth wasting graze on, does anybody know?
nk (bb1548) — 1/10/2024 @ 6:10 am@359
I don’t like Trump.
And I don’t think labeling J6 as downplaying it. I believe it was a riot by a small subset of the protestors.
I’m trying to call balls and strikes here…
What’s so puzzling about that?
whembly (5f7596) — 1/10/2024 @ 7:22 amThat should be “And I don’t think labeling J6 as “insurrection” is downplaying it. I believe it was a riot by a small subset of the protestors.
whembly (5f7596) — 1/10/2024 @ 7:24 amSo a bunch of lefty lunatics tried derailing Governor DeSantis’s townhall yesterday, but failed miserably.
Just a reminder what you get when you support leftist policies.
NJRob (91f8a4) — 1/10/2024 @ 8:23 amWill be interesting to see how many so called moderates keep supporting radical leftists.
Next will be the reason to jump on the Michelle Obama bandwagon.
NJRob (91f8a4) — 1/10/2024 @ 8:25 am“It is exactly the way the feds work. See “kidnapping plot” in Michigan.”
You make my point for me. The FBI was not standing around outside the governor’s office calling for people to go in and kidnap her.
Davethulhu (0f7efc) — 1/10/2024 @ 8:58 am@368,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gretchen_Whitmer_kidnapping_plot
Not everyone charged in the plot to kidnap Governor Whitmere was found guilty. But many of them were.
Time123 (f8004f) — 1/10/2024 @ 9:04 amI agree with whembly, of the many thousand of trump supporters that came to his rally only about 1,000 Republicans chose to violently assault the police and sieze the US capital in order to prevent the peaceful transfer of power. Of those that did only an even smaller subset of republicans were planning to violently overthrow the US government.
Time123 (f8004f) — 1/10/2024 @ 9:07 amProf Baude’s definition of insurrection:
For your consideration
AJ_Liberty (5f05c3) — 1/10/2024 @ 9:08 amRIP Amalija Knavs (78).
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 1/10/2024 @ 9:54 am@382 “concerted forcible resistance to the authority of government to execute the laws in at least some significant respect”
Cool. So, what’s happening on the southern border is an insurrection happening daily and the Democrats are aiding and abetting.
lloyd (4d112e) — 1/10/2024 @ 10:01 am@382: Are all insurrections wrong?
Consider the following scenario: Sometime in the future, COngress passes a law outlawing private possession of firearms. The new 47-member Supreme Court rules that since baseball bats are still legal, the 2nd Amendment isn’t affected.
Large numbers of gun owners refuse to surrender their weapons and threaten to resist the authorities violently. Are they wrong?
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/10/2024 @ 10:02 amFlorida school district removes dictionaries from libraries, citing law championed by DeSantis
This is passive-aggressive performance.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/10/2024 @ 10:04 amBut many of them were.
After the first round of trials failed to convict.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/10/2024 @ 10:05 amO.o
This leads to some credence to the allegations:
whembly (5f7596) — 1/10/2024 @ 10:27 amhttps://www.wsj.com/us-news/law/fani-willis-prosecutor-in-trump-georgia-case-subpoenaed-to-testify-in-colleagues-divorce-c8e3fda5
“This is passive-aggressive performance.”
It was either going to be that, or ban them because “sex” and “gender” only list two possibilities for each.
lloyd (4d112e) — 1/10/2024 @ 10:30 amThis leads to some credence to the allegations:
That an attorney found some poo to fling, and flung it?
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/10/2024 @ 10:35 am@388, it’s more. Complicated then that. Some plead guilty, some were convicted the first time through. Some were acquitted.
Time123 (b0049d) — 1/10/2024 @ 11:06 am#389 —
I’ll grant you the point. I am curious what evidence truly supports the allegations. For example, it may be that spouse has evidence that husband was with a mistress at certain resorts. Does the evidence really make it clear it was Fani? Or is that the assumption of an angry spouse?
Appalled (67c85c) — 1/10/2024 @ 11:38 amUnintended Consequences
Rip Murdock (215bb7) — 1/10/2024 @ 12:11 pm“Are all insurrections wrong?”
Legally or morally? If you’re in jail because you violently protested what you deem an unfair law and its administration, then you make the call as to whether that’s right or wrong.
AJ_Liberty (5f05c3) — 1/10/2024 @ 12:33 pmOuch!
Related:
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 1/10/2024 @ 12:51 pmNot gonna happen:
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 1/10/2024 @ 1:02 pmRip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 1/10/2024 @ 12:51 pm
Dare them to call for his removal as Speaker.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 1/10/2024 @ 1:17 pmAs Joe Biden once said, you need a defense against fighter jets if you are talking about resisting the government.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 1/10/2024 @ 1:19 pmMark Halperin is reporting that at 5:00 today Chris Christie will announce he is dropping out of the race.
https://twitter.com/Michstfr1/status/1745186468866273614/photo/1
AJ_Liberty (5f05c3) — 1/10/2024 @ 1:23 pmDavethulhu (0f7efc) — 1/10/2024 @ 8:58 am
Nothing remotely similar to that has happened for over 50 years. The FBI conducts sting operations,
Epps did call on Jan 5 for people the next day to go into the Capitol. On Jan 6 he was spotted (on video later) talking to someone who some minutes later attacked a policeman. He says, and his story has not wavered, that he grew disturbed at the attitude of some people and was speaking to that man to try to get him not to go in. There is not the slightest evidence that he ever worked for the FBI or was connected to Antifa. He was not prosecuted at first like many others who never went in.
But last September, evidently just to prove he was not a government asset, like he was being accused of by Tucker Carlson and others (Epps has sued Tucker Carlson for libel) the government deiced to charge him with going into a restricted area, and he pled guilty the next day and yesterday he was sentenced to 6 months probation.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/09/us/politics/ray-epps-sentenced-january-6.html
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 1/10/2024 @ 1:30 pmHer lawyers thought she was escaping a trap.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 1/10/2024 @ 1:34 pmNYCV Mayor Eric Adams also resembles Joe Biden, in that he has made up biographical facts about himself (although surely not as many),
https://apnews.com/article/eric-adams-book-gun-e2179cd82fc41add3fb27120c6809b10
He blames a ghostwriter (whom he never mentioned before) and said the book was never published. But it was self published in 2009.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 1/10/2024 @ 1:38 pmIsrael says: If hamas can murder unarmed civilians so can we! Video viewed by AP and other news media shows young man standing in square on west bank town is suddenly shot two other civilians rushing to his aid are then shot by Israelis riding thru the town in jeeps. Israel says they shot at terrorists throwing fire bombs! What you got a video? It isn’t only hamas who are lying murderers. When you look into the abyss the abyss looks into you say the three murdered Israeli hostages. This is only going to get worse and I am supporting Israel’s destruction of hamas. Get this over with!
asset (ba2f70) — 1/10/2024 @ 2:00 pm@393
Yes, the defense’s attorney court statement was that it was indeed Fani. That she’s seen the court documents, which curiously the judge in that divorce case has sealed.
whembly (5f7596) — 1/10/2024 @ 2:10 pmChris Christie has suspended his campaign.
whembly (5f7596) — 1/10/2024 @ 2:22 pmI’ve still got Asa Hutchinson. Good thing he’s been pacing himself.
lurker (cd7cd4) — 1/10/2024 @ 2:43 pm#405
And I retain skepticism about documents that have not been placed in to public view. People lie about things they keep secret. (Yes, that’s the same argument Hunter Biden is making today before Comer’s rediculous Committee.) I don’t give anyone representing a Trump minion the benefit of any doubt, given that Trump and the people in his orbit have no problem slandering people.
Maybe this attorney does not deserve that — I note the local paper treats her filing seriously — treatment not accorded to Lyn Wood and Sydney Powell.
Appalled (03f53c) — 1/10/2024 @ 2:47 pm@408
Here’s why I think its real:
1) Neither Fani nor Wade has publicly denied their relationship.
2) Roman’s lawyer, Ashleigh Merchant…by all accounts is a good, local GA defense attorney. I find it hard to accept the idea that she’d flat out lie to the court like this.
3) The divorce court sealed the case when these allegations first appeared.
4) Fani had been served a subpoena to testify in Wade’s divorce proceeding.
5) There’s documented record of Wade’s earnings, twice that of any other prosecutor would’ve gotten. There’s something hinky here.
6) There’s documented record of Wade (and now Fani) visiting the Whitehouse Counsel’s office prior to the indictment. As clear cut evidence of political coordination.
Stinks to high heavens.
whembly (5f7596) — 1/10/2024 @ 2:59 pmChris Christie Drops Out of GOP Presidential Race
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/10/2024 @ 3:25 pmI’ve still got Asa Hutchinson. Good thing he’s been pacing himself.
Mickey Mouse is still in the race as a write-in.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/10/2024 @ 3:25 pmWith Christie out, Nikki really needs to win in NH, then win in SC. If she can do those things, Trump may lose. It then gets down to how many people are willing to consider someone besides Trump.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/10/2024 @ 3:29 pmHow desperate is Donald Trump? How racist/stupid are his voters?
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/10/2024 @ 3:34 pmTrump Promotes False Birther Conspiracy About Nikki Haley
I would hope that someone finds out that Mama Trump’s naturalization was backdated.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/10/2024 @ 3:35 pmTo my knowledge, like Asa he didn’t raise his hand for Trump, so I won’t rule him out.
Also, now that he’s in the public domain, the affordable campaign ads practically write themselves.
lurker (cd7cd4) — 1/10/2024 @ 3:48 pm“Steamboat Willie” might be misunderstood.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/10/2024 @ 4:51 pmThere are things slimier than Trump, and Gateway Pundit is one of them. It is explicitly known as a Fake News site.
nk (1f5dac) — 1/10/2024 @ 5:26 pmOne already has done so.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 1/10/2024 @ 5:36 pmWith the GOP’s current margin of two votes, all it will take are three Republicans (plus the Democrats) to do so.
Make my day.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 1/10/2024 @ 5:40 pmIf they do that, the non-MAGA bloc will revolt and elect someone with Democrat backing.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/10/2024 @ 6:56 pmSpeaker Hakeem Jeffries? LOL!
Rip Murdock (215bb7) — 1/10/2024 @ 11:37 pmSpeaker Hakeem Jeffries? LOL!
The House Freedom Caucus has been doing the Democrats’ work for over a decade.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/10/2024 @ 11:53 pmThat could happen before the election.
Sammy Finkelman (c2c77e) — 1/11/2024 @ 8:09 am#416 Steamboat Willie needs to be cancelled because of multiple instances of animal cruelty. Mickey is an agent of oppression and violence. It’s not something we should celebrate.
Besides, there is a deep unanswered question in this film. If the lead is Mickey Mouse, who is Steamboat Willie?
Appalled (71a6b0) — 1/11/2024 @ 8:23 amU.S. Missiles Strike Targets in Yemen Linked to the Houthi Militia
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/11/2024 @ 5:05 pmwho is Steamboat Willie
Or maybe “what”
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/11/2024 @ 5:06 pmhttps://twitter.com/AliBradleyTV/status/1745538615634284763?
Congratulations Governor Abbott. Showing leadership and taking a stand for your state’s citizens saying they will no long allow the federal government to violate the Constitution and refuse to stop an invasion of her sovereign land.
Impeach Biden for his traitorous acts.
NJRob (e55959) — 1/12/2024 @ 7:00 amAnything to find a scapegoat to absolve Trump of his responsibility. It’s quite the blame-shift you right-wingers are doing.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 1/12/2024 @ 6:42 pm