US Politics May 2019: " If I was burned at the stake, I would ask for a mirror"

I agree with this policy of not impugning people you’re not going to indict in general. But this case is ridiculous. The only reason he can’t be indicted is because of his office—there is a public interest dimension to this.

Why is mueller acting like an algorithm?

Um, not really. DOJ policy prevented Mueller in his capacity as a prosecutor from indicting Trump, but how he worded his conclusions was in his control.

DOJ policy (according to Mueller's interpretation, at least) prevented not only from indicting him, but also from coming to the conclusion that he committed crimes.

we considered whether to evaluate the conduct we investigated under the Justice Manual standards governing prosecution and declination decisions, but we determined not to apply an approach that could potentially result in a judgment that the President committed crimes. The threshold step under the Justice Manual standards is to assess whether a person's conduct "constitutes a federal offense." U.S. Dep't of Justice, Justice Manual § 9-27.220 (2018) (Justice Manual). Fairness concerns counseled against potentially reaching that judgment when no charges can be brought. The ordinary means for an individual to respond to an accusation is through a speedy and public trial, with all the procedural protections that surround a criminal case. An individual who believes he was wrongly accused can use that process to seek to clear his name. In contrast, a prosecutor's judgment that crimes were committed, but that no charges will be brought, affords no such adversarial opportunity for public name-clearing before an impartial adjudicator.

so no, he could not have worded a statement like you suggested, that he "clearly and repeatedly attempted to obstruct justice", because that would be a crime, and they had already determined to use an approach that could potentially come to that conclusion. instead, he used the ambiguous language which was enough to confuse most of the american public because it takes longer than 5 seconds to read: "if we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, however, we are unable to reach that judgment."

in other words, mueller is a big fucking asshole, but not for the reasons that you suggest

xposts

This is like Kafka

we determined not to apply an approach

that 'we determined' strongly implies that an alternate approach was possible

possible but maybe illegal

but he should have been brave and gone for it. or else allowed someone else to be special prosecutor.

Not illegal -- contrary to DOJ guidelines.

this is why we used to have independent prosecutors

makes u think

What if Pelosi is trying to goad Trump into doing lots of dumb, unpopular shit by claiming he's trying to goad her into impeachment?

— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) May 23, 2019

don't goad a goader

what if trump is trying to goad pelosi into thinking she can try to goad trump into doing lots of dumb unpopular shit by claiming he's trying to goad her into impeachment?

https://i.imgur.com/Rddoux5.jpg

Oh man can you even imagine if Donald Trump wound up haplessly doing dumb unpopular shit, what a crazy mixed-up world that would be

I can already see a stadium full of people chanting "DUMB UNPOPULAR SHIT! DUMB UNPOPULAR SHIT!"

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/05/pelosi-move-impeach-trump-premature-divisive-190523154608666.html

"I do think impeachment is a very divisive place to go"

oh piss off

you know what else is divisive? losing the Electoral College again

yeah but you can just have the loser make a speech about the genius of the founding fathers

Here is a 7+ minute video, from ABC, of Trump calling on multiple senior aides to defend him and vouch for his 'calm' demeanor in the infrastructure meeting with Democrats after Nancy Pelosi said that he'd had a temper tantrum. pic.twitter.com/iiLcrjnTe4

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) May 23, 2019

so pathetic

the bootlicking is nauseating

never trust a room full of white people.

unless you walk in a room and it's Fleetwood Mac standing there

they don't even trust each other

where is my Negroni btw ?

it's almost 5 ffs

shaker's out

the bootlicking is nauseating

come carne asada, let's get's serious. they use horsehair shine brushes

An early look at next week's cover, "The Shining," by Barry Blitt. https://t.co/KVWteOZfAX pic.twitter.com/FsevJqnTq9

— The New Yorker (@NewYorker) May 23, 2019

I’m surprised they can live with themselves. Always surprised.

hilarious how clueless DT is re: how his behavior esp the whining and doth protesting too much comes off. like dude, thanks for letting us know that Pelosi really got under your skin. thanks for letting us know you're scared shitless about the "whole Russia thing".

If you’re blessed at birth by a demon to never suffer lasting consequences for any of your actions I’d imagine it’s hard to learn anything

The panicked perpetuation of white supremacy by any means (up to and including the eager debasement of an identity which one's actions are hypothetically intended to preserve but which will in sad reality remain forever compromised by unresolved daddy issues) is a helluva drug.

"It's a good time to be a farmer, we're going to make sure of that," President Trump says, announcing $16 billion in aid to farmers as the trade war with China continues https://t.co/oCbHCg9U2B pic.twitter.com/siPweyokoP

— CNN Business (@CNNBusiness) May 23, 2019

"I was extremely calm yesterday" for June pol thread title

He is extremely calm. Just presidenting as he always does.

A few quick thoughts about the Assange indictment—this is a worst-case, nightmare, mayday scenario for First Amendment enthusiasts 1/

— Hannah Bloch-Wehba (@HBWHBWHBW) May 23, 2019

Gonna blast DJ Khaled by the pool

D'USSE'

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/may/24/facebook-leaves-fake-nancy-pelosi-video-on-site

this is the same fucked up shit they pulled with HRC and it's fucking disgusting and the organge shit hole is playing it up too.

Zuckerberg is fucking noxious garbage.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/another-attack-trump-tweets-video-pelosi-tripping-over-words-n1009551

this shit right here is fucking pissing me the hell off .

ehh I haven’t seen the vid in question but there are like a million Vic Berger videos on Facebook w a digitally altered Trump

xp!

I'm fine with getting ride of those Trump altered videos too! It's just Facebook's constant stream of mealy-mouthed apologies while still refusing to change a fucking thing that raise my dander.

Don't think those videos will convince anyone who isn't watching Tucker Carlson; it won't damage Pelosi like that mainstream media WaPo story might Warren.

i wonder what will happen in this do or die moment for twitter

Twitter & @jack face a choice. The President just posted a doctored video to attack a political opponent. His account under their own standards should be suspended or banned. It's a do or die moment for the platform pic.twitter.com/4dPUnyVE0u

— Adam Blickstein (@AdamBlickstein) May 24, 2019

i predict jack will say something vapid

jack will hand wring and tell us how he meditated on it for hours but in the end... blah blah fucking blah, cash a check, let it ride

Actually he's probably planning to point to the Krassensteins permabanning as how Twitter is "working" for the foreseeable future.

i predict a reference to twitter's user policies, ethics team review, etc etc, followed by nothing

come on jack

our good friend jack