US Politics February 2019: This is one of the great losers of all time.

It’s such a fucking joke

I kinda like how people are saying nothing has happened when people are, you know, in jail and/or pled guilty and all.

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, February 26, 2019 10:10 AM

who is actually serving sentenced time in jail at this moment?

ahhhh, yes, john kelly, i forgot about him. he was the serious grownup who was going to get trump to shape up and fly straight, right?

xp C'mon Sleeve, Manafort ain't in jail already for shits and giggles.

Speaking of people who in fact will be heading there anyway:

https://variety.com/2019/politics/news/michael-cohen-return-capitol-hill-testimony-1203152436/

Donald Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen wrapped up three days of testimony on Capitol Hill on Thursday with a commitment to return.

After spending much of the day testifying in closed session before the House Intelligence Committee, Cohen told reporters that he will be back on March 6 because “there is more to discuss.”

“It was very productive,” he said. “As I said, I am committed to telling the truth.”

House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff said that the following week, on March 14, real estate developer Felix Sater will appear before the committee in an open session to talk about negotiations to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. Cohen has said that he discussed the proposed development with Trump and his family members well into the 2016 presidential campaign.

Schiff declined to talk about the substance of Thursday’s hearing, but said that Cohen “was fully cooperative and answered all of our questions.”

Ned I said "sentenced" not "pending sentencing" - afaik nobody has been sentenced yet, and that's when we'll see pardons.

I have my doubts.

I have my doubts.

As do I. Trump won't pardon anyone if he doesn't think it will benefit him personally and directly. As Cohen pointed out, he is neither generous nor loyal, he will only act that way when he thinks it is in his interest to appear so. Generosity and loyalty are for losers.

And are things he is to receive from others... or else!

Trump has fewer friends than he does scruples...I really doubt he *won't* pardon Manafort and Stone, and obviously he'll pardon his kids

He'll pardon his kids and the Republicans will say it was out of the tender loving feelings of a father, and who among us can blame him?

i don't have kids, so i can

pardons to date

Joe Arpaio Criminal contempt of court
Kristian Saucier Unauthorized possession and retention of national defense information
Scooter Libby Perjury and obstruction of justice
Jack Johnson being black
Dinesh D'Souza Campaign finance violations/asshattery

Dwight Lincoln Hammond, Jr. arson
Steven Dwight Hammond arson

Drumstick turkey
Wishbone turkey
Peas turkey
Carrots turkey

Useful overview of the prep done by AOC and others yesterday.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/28/politics/cohen-democrats-hearing-questions/index.html

Bernie posted this to Facebook:

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/to-revive-rural-america-we-must-fix-our-broken-food-system/

How broken is our economy when conservative publications are arguing for better anti-trust enforcement?

re pardons: there will be so many Lib Tears and that's the thing that keeps those rallies full

https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/trump-pardon-won-t-keep-paul-manafort-out-jail-new-ncna976211

Ironically, a Trump pardon of Manafort would extinguish Manafort’s Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Accordingly, once pardoned, Mueller could force Manafort to take the witness stand in future trials against other probe targets and compel him to testify.

OK this might be a fair trade

I agree that the state angle has the most potential to create actual jail time

From Neanderthal's linked story:

As a former career prosecutor, I would argue that this is a pardon bridge too far, as a president should not be able to exercise his pardon power to curry favor with witnesses who, if not pardoned, could be his downfall. However, that issue, if it comes to fruition, can only be resolved by the U.S. Supreme Court.

If the SCOTUS reads the US constitution correctly, they would kick this straight to Congress, who can impeach and convict a sitting president for "high crimes and misdemeanors", whereas the constitution places no other limit on the pardon power of a president. Abuse of power is the central "high crime and misdemeanor" they had in mind.

Like it or not, this is the only reading that makes sense. It emerged from the conviction of the original authors that Congress would be comprised of 'only the best people', true gentlemen of honor, and "factions" (political parties) would not control Congress, instead pure principle would be the sole motivation. As they saw it, Congress would naturally be sensitive to any serious abuse of power, which would instantly brand the president as a danger to the nation, compelling them as gentlemen of principle to impeach and convict him. They were wrong about factions and 'only the best people', but their error is still enshrined in the document they wrote and we must follow those rules until another set overrides the current ones.

Now we know why Jared Kushner still has a security clearance: Trump allegedly ordered it despite the red flags raised by the CIA and FBI and White House lawyers. Career security clearance professionals believed Jared Kushner was enough of a national security risk that he should not get a top secret clearance.

And now I have a message for our national security, defense and intelligence community: Do not share top secret information with Jared Kushner. Trust the career professionals. Do the right thing. Your loyalty is to America, not to Kushner or Trump.

https://lieu.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/rep-lieu-statement-nytimes-story-jared-kushners-security-clearance

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2019/02/28/us/politics/01dc-clearances-hp/01dc-clearances-hp-threeByTwoLargeAt2X-v2.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=1620

kushner always looks like he's zoned out on a new drug that no one else has tried

this is the MOU thing from the other day:

https://youtu.be/yaWa61AyT3g

it's whatever, everyone knows he's a dumbass. but it's pathetic how trump doesn't even realize that his trade negotiator is basically saying "i have to do what the dumb man says, please ignore him" - he doesn't even notice

in other news, check out trump's recent national emergency press conference:

Before we begin, I would like to say that we have a large team of very talented people in China. We have had a negotiation going on for about two days. It’s going extremely well—who knows what that means because it only matters if we get it done, but we are very much working very closely with China and President Xi who I respect a lot, very good relationship that we have. And we are a lot closer than we ever were in this country with having a real trade deal.

When can we expect to see the Trans-Pacific Partnership—the TPP, if indeed it ever happens—be signed into law? We will see. There is a negotiation—a working agreement between the parties that we expect to get signed. China is in the process of developing many other free, open and transparent trade agreements, they will have to deal with these before we come to signing any deal, like the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, which was finalized last week.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership is actually an economic partnership between all stakeholders, all businesses. The purpose of this trade agreement is to create the best trade relationship for China. They have a great economic relationship. I think the one of the things they have done—I know you guys have been saying for about eight months that they had nothing to do with it, because it is already signed. And they are on the verge of coming up with another trade agreement. At this moment you know the Obama administration has decided if that will ever happen—there is concern that China—if they do become a WTO member they will be given a trade deal that is unfair to our economy, it will not be a fair deal for the American people, it will not be a safe deal. And the President of China, we do think they will be given a deal that makes things worse but we do look forward to coming to the negotiating table. That is what I would like to see..

just kidding. the first paragraph is trump, the other two is the result of a text generation system, not even the best version of it, just the limited version: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/02/twenty-minutes-into-the-future-with-openais-deep-fake-text-ai

That article is fascinating and hilarious. "GOAT DICK-IN-THE-BOY BOY" would be a great thread title for ... something.

Maybe "They want to take away your hamburgers" for March title. Nothing really good is coming to mind.

"You just keep killing it"

Good morning!

We still here?

I am glad Biden canceled himself so I don't have to do it.

his is the MOU thing from the other day:

https://youtu.be/yaWa61AyT3g

it's whatever, everyone knows he's a dumbass. but it's pathetic how trump doesn't even realize that his trade negotiator is basically saying "i have to do what the dumb man says, please ignore him" - he doesn't even notice

― Karl Malone, Friday, March 1, 2019 1:57 AM (seven hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I was thinking about this after I watched it, that dunking on Trump for this particular flavor of idiocy is probably suboptimal because how many Americans know what an MOU is? Ideally, we would have a president who is smarter than the average bear, but I feel like a lot of the time when Trump's idiocy gets "exposed" it more just shows he's roughly as aware of the world around him as most of the people he represents, which again is hardly ideal, but I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people see him get owned for not knowing bureaucratic mechanisms or the history of various foreign actors and feel attacked by proxy because they don't know either.

This is a long way of saying that I think people, and particularly people who are running against him, should focus on mocking Trump for dumb shit he says that proves he's a rich, out-of-touch weirdo rather than a garden variety moron. Like that whole thing where he thought you needed to show ID to buy a loaf of bread, now that was the good stuff.

I was thinking about this after I watched it, that dunking on Trump for this particular flavor of idiocy is probably suboptimal because how many Americans know what an MOU is? it's not so bad that he didn't know it's that the guy explained it to him simply and he still didnt fucking get it . I do tend to agree with the strategy you are proposing here though

another good example is this gem:

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/20/trump-thinks-young-people-pay-12-for-health-insurance.html

new thred my dudes

US Politics March 2019: when established crooks return under a new username

lol

I'm not gonna be the one to start the new thread, I can't handle the pressure of picking the right title.

Done. Thanks for the suggestions!

Mods...?

US Politics March 2019: “I can’t say I’m happy. I can’t say I’m thrilled”