US Politics December 2018: ~very legal and very cool~

tbf there is no way to know that paying hush money to a porn star for silence during a presidential election campaign is iffy

It was done in my name, by my paid personal representative, after close consultation, at my behest, but I have nothing to do with it.

i kind of believe them when they say it was just a business as usual pay-off, though. i mean they should have known better because of the campaign, but this was probably like the 25th person cohen had paid off, the 10th time national enquirer was involved. just making those numbers up but i long ago learned to just assume the worst happened with this fucking guy

What happened with Florida's Amendment 4 , just saw last night's Samantha Bee after not thinking about it since i heard it passed and it sounds like the Republican party have tried to sweep it under the rug. Put it on deep backburner etc. Is it too early to say or have they actively tried to suppress it.

She had a feature on Republican attempts to derail popular election results.

Our governor-elect!

https://www.tampabay.com/florida-politics/buzz/2018/12/04/confusion-and-uncertainty-cloud-restoration-of-felons-voting-rights/

Here's another story, and I saw it coming. No way would the Florida GOP allow almost a million former felons, most of whom are people of color, back on the voting rolls without a fight:

All this talk about the legislature is baffling to elections supervisors and civil rights groups, who say the amendment was designed to be self-executing. The state Supreme Court unanimously approved the amendment’s language as clear and specific, saying voters could understand that the point was to “automatically” restore the affected population’s voting rights.

“I don’t think you need the legislature,” Manatee County election supervisor Mike Bennett told TPM.

A self-described “strong Republican” who tried to enact felon rights restoration during his 12 years in the state Senate, Bennett called himself an “advocate” for Amendment 4. As Bennett noted, the Senate Ethics & Elections Committee won’t have its first meeting until March, and any proposed measures will then have to pass the House, the Senate, and be approved by DeSantis.

“That process will take more time whereas if the secretary of state’s office handled it and came up with the definitions and clarifications, they could do it much faster,” he said.

Did Maine ever implement Medicare for all or whatever the voters voted for? Isn't their asshole gov. refusing to implement the will of the voters as well? That kind of shit seems ... unconstitutional.

"unconstitutional" means a democRAT did it. what republicans do is constitutional by definition iirc

republicraps imo ty good night

ZOMG, voices on the right are starting to ring the alarm on the deficit! Congress should get right on that ... in January ... when the Democrats take charge ...

https://www.npr.org/2018/12/14/676686304/7-year-old-girl-dies-in-u-s-border-patrol-custody

DHS's statement is effectively "shouldn't have come here..."

tell me again how this is not a concentration camp

"nobody got killed, nobody got robbed" would be an excellent title for the january thread, though I'm sure a billion more options will present themselves before 2019 rolls in

This is just incredibly heartbreaking

Beyond question.

Meanwhile -- the Great Big Mystery Case proceeds

The DC Circuit is about to hear arguments in the sealed grand jury matter. They've sealed not only the courtroom, but the whole floor, so we've been moved away. Haven't recognized anyone going in earlier as being connected to Mueller's office, now we won't be able to see

— Zoe Tillman (@ZoeTillman) December 14, 2018

Are those kinds of precautions unusual? I don't see why they would take such extreme privacy/security measures unless it was either the president or they were discussing classified information. And they wouldn't be discussing the latter in this context, so it must be Trump stuff. Right?

15,000 children in custody. fifteen fucking thousand

so who are the top 5 chief of staff candidates - Jared, Newt, Christie? lol

Only heard Jared's voice once and it was hilarious.

Kyl out as placeholder in AZ-Sen. by end of month.

On the one hand, you need a high enough profile to have caught Trump's eye. On the other, you need some degree of awareness (conscious or not) that you have no real future in the public sector beyond maybe a Fox News talking head gig and/or 'writer' of right-wing historical fiction.

I mean, why not Hannity, man?

Gorka-Miller tag team.

christie's never getting in as long as jared's around

"Yesterday Belongs To Me" xxxpost

Miller is in charge right now, he wouldn’t give up power for a more prominent, shit job from which he would soon be fired.

Also, credit where it's due, he does seem to recognize how much he benefits from hiding his nuclear-grade repellence from the general public.

christie's never getting in as long as jared's around

― mookieproof, Friday, December 14, 2018 4:36 PM (six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

round two of him being brought in for a job and then ultimately humiliated. they literally threw his work on the transition in a fucking trash can. christie deserves all the shit they give him.

iirc from one of those insider books-- Trump is still pissed at Christie for turning down the Attorney General job

Christie is a turd but I don't think he would be craven enough to do what Trump wants his AG to do

yeah Christie is used to trying to keep his nose clean for instance

at least cf. Bridgegate; it's wild he was not indicted over that

Ah yes

CORRECTION: I didn’t say payments were not a big crime. I have said consistently that the Daniels and McDougall payments are not crimes and tweeted a great article yesterday making that point . If it isn’t a witch-hunt why are they pursuing a non-crime.

— Rudy Giuliani (@RudyGiuliani) December 14, 2018

so Cohen was convicted of something that is not a crime, eh? how does that work, Mr. Mayor

man, if Cohen had just held out until Rudy tweeted that article!

Really enjoyed this thread that simultaneously notes how the system can be stacked and how Flynn and his defenders/enablers are opportunistic sacks of shit:

Yesterday I ridiculed a subset of Flynn defenders -- those who misrepresent the law and the way the system works. These are the fair-weather-friends of criminal defense.

But there is a principled argument that what happened to Flynn is wrong. /1 https://t.co/q2pwGzKkk4

— BigCrimeHat (@Popehat) December 14, 2018

As a member of the bar, Rudy is still considered to be "an officer of the court", isn't he? Publically undermining the legitimacy of the court's authority is a serious ethics violation.

you need some degree of awareness (conscious or not) that you have no real future in the public sector

As with W's people, all but the most abject will be reinstated, probably to manage climate-change refugee camps. Wait and see.

If it isn’t a witch-hunt why are they pursuing a non-crime.

rollsafe.gif

As with W's people

lol who are you talking about

Wolfowitz? Cheney? Rumsfeld? Harriet Meyers? Gonzalez? Any members of the Bush family?

my alma mater had ashcroft speak there last month

awww

Christie declines the chief of staff role. His statement: pic.twitter.com/DiZb5r01z0

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) December 14, 2018

idk if making the college lecture circuit counts as "reinstated"

it's certainly not a position of power

xp

lol burn.

also

WH spokesman Gidley "said he expects a decision soon but also suggested Trump could decide to “extend” his current deal with John Kelly," per pool.

— Annie Karni (@anniekarni) December 14, 2018

loooooool at christie turning it down

internationally recognized indicator of "this is pathetic"

so...if christie 'turned it down', this officially means that he was more desirable for the role than newt or jared? OUCH

mooch for CoS!

And again deleting clarifying earlier post, right statement this time - Christie was not offered the job, took himself out of running. pic.twitter.com/hIRUyIcHwh

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) December 14, 2018

Shakey, the positions we were presented with were a Fox News talking head gig and/or 'writer' of right-wing historical fiction

John Yoo isn't either