The Seattle Chapter of Drinking Liberally has been getting together weekly since early 2005. For our first nine months, until the indoor smoking ban, an evening in a Washington pub meant inhaling lots of second-hand smoke and going home with stinky clothes. So join us this evening for an (unintentional) retro edition of DL. I mean, if you are going to inhale smokey air, you might as well do it while sitting in a bar with a drink in your hand talking politics! Amiright?
We meet every Tuesday at the Roanoke Park Place Tavern, 2409 10th Ave E, Seattle. You’ll find us in the room at the rear of the tavern beginning about 8pm.
Can’t make it to Seattle? There are 255 chapters of Living Liberally, including 23 in Washington state, seven in Oregon and three in Idaho. Find a chapter near you. Or consider starting your own chapter.
“Truth is the new hate speech.”
– Tomi Lahren
Anti-Plagiarism doesn’t constitute Free Speech. Just ask Melania.
Recession is just around the corner when our expanding GDP boosts transportation stocks because everyone is shipping shit all over the world.
Dow transportation average hits its first intraday peak in 7 months
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/dow-transportation-average-hits-its-first-intraday-peak-in-7-months-2018-08-21
Isn’t that right. Roger Dumbfuck Rabbit.
Wishing, right now, that I had not sold naked calls on CSX when the CEO died.
Ya know, that’s exactly what I planned when I was 17, checking teenagers’ McLovin IDs at the AM/PM minimart.
Goldy
✔@GoldyHA
To be clear, this is all being done in a blatant effort to permanently establish the US as an apartheid state governed by a white Christian minority. That is both the proximate and ultimate goal of these voter suppression policies.
13h
More pre-recessionary news.
BREAKING Russell 2000 hits all-time high
Although let’s be honest about it – if your timeline is long enough, every bit of news ever reported has been pre-recessionary.
Roger Dumbfuck Rabbit might even live long enough to see the next one.
Republicans really, really, really don’t want people to vote.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/20/opinions/randolph-county-georgia-voting-rights-errol-louis/index.html
@3 “Wishing, right now, that I had not sold naked calls on CSX when the CEO died.”
You didn’t get that idea from me. It never occurred to me they would pull up the spikes, burn the ties, and melt down the rails after the CEO died. Whoops, they didn’t. The trains just kept rolling.
@4 Yeah, it’s a really bad idea to let slaves vote. They might outvote you, and vote you out.
Sure glad I’m a member of the owning class now.
Civil rights lawyers are going to be busy over the next few years. The GOP, a racist party for half a century now, has never been more blatantly racist than it is right now.
A year from now, Mango Mugabe and Doctor Dumbfuck will be blaming the slowing economy on the new Democratic congressional majority. Mark my words.
Stand under that falling rock at your own risk, dumbfuck.
“Speaking at a gun-rights rally this weekend in Spokane, state Rep. Matt Shea called journalists ‘those dirty, godless, hateful people.’ … Shea, who often ignores requests by journalists, including queries by The Seattle Times last month on his practice of blocking constituents or members of the media from his social media accounts, didn’t respond Monday to emails or a phone call seeking comment.”
https://tinyurl.com/y9n867vn
Roger Rabbit Commentary: This is what Republicans are now.
@1 Tomi Lahren is a twit and a freak show. They hired her to help dumb down the Republican masses.
The jury in the first criminal trial of the Republican Presidential Campaign Manager has sent a note out to Judge Ellis indicating that they are having trouble reaching a consensus on the last of the 18 criminal charges and asking for clarification about how that lack of consensus on a single count would impact their verdict on the other charges. The Judge has instructed them to continue their deliberations.
That looks bad for the defendant. Had they reached acquittal on all the other charges, it would be unlikely that they would have the same concern about how a mistrial on a single charge might affect the other verdicts.
Not much worse in some respects for the defendant than a mistrial on a single charge and guilty on the rest. That would enable the OSC to refile on the single charge and further prolong the Republican Presidential Campaign Manager’s legal peril. Given the pending trial in DC, a new trial in EDVA might not be scheduled until this time next year. And he’d have to sit in jail the whole time.
The only circumstance I can think of when a fed prosecutor would be that hard nosed is if they are fighting to investigate a very serious criminal conspiracy where the parties to the conspiracy are being openly defiant of the court, obstructing the investigation, and mocking the prosecutor in public forums.
While skies grow darker for the Republican Presidential Campaign Manager, back in Manhattan Prezinint PornSweat’s personal attoryney Mr. Safety School, Esq. is said to be nearing a plea deal on charges of bank fraud, conspiracy, and money laundering. Sources from the SDNY are telling the media that the deal will require Mr. Safety School, Esq. to fully cooperate with the OSC investigation into the 2016 election fraud conspiracy.
This is how you get more Trump.
SURVEY FINDS BLACK BUSINESS OWNERSHIP IN THE U.S. JUMPED 400% IN ONE YEAR
http://www.blackenterprise.com.....-400-year/
What if that recent Rasmussen poll result wasn’t an outlier? I mean, you could halve Rasmussen’s polled result for black support of Trump and it would still be significantly higher than the black vote in 2016.
Remember Trigglypuff? She was that obese person flapping her fat arms and yelling, “Take your hate speech off this campus!” at the top of her lungs a true some eastern liberal arts college when someone with a different point of view was about to speak.
Well, whenever I hear some one say “hate speech,” I get a mental image of Trigglypuff and all that fat she was moving around vigorously, and I think of how intolerant these colleges and universities have become. The Free Speech movement that started back at Berkeley so many years ago has been obliterated by the Saul Alinsky-types who are masquerading as professors on today’s college campuses. Any opposing views the slightest bit out of line with the current groupthink is shouted down and the proponents of those views are intimidated and even physically assaulted.
15,
Still searching for that rainbow unicorn in the enormous pile of white nationalist shit.
It’s 2018. PornSweat isn’t on any ballot. And you’ve spent more than a decade gerrymandering all “the blacks” into an ever shrinking number of “urban ghetto” districts, closing their poling places, and removing them systematically from the voter rolls.
Dumbfuck, you could have 100% AA support for PornSweat and it wouldn’t make a difference for the 70 vulnerable/open suburban CDs where you need to spend 10 million dollars each just to draw a tie, and the half dozen “vulnerable” Trump states with incumbent Dem Senators where you are running magnificent candidates like this “very fine person”.
#youbuiltthat
“One crazy prediction: if Trump does hang on [through the midterms], I predict he’ll start talking about dumping Mike Pence …. Team Pence really needs to read a few Stalin biographies.” — Top GOP consultant
https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/21/politics/donald-trump-republican-party/index.html
16,
Read. Just fucking read.
You’ll never learn a goddamn thing about history staring at moving colors on screens you monumentally ignorant heap.
What you are complaining about, specifically with respect to restrictions on expression in educational settings, is referred to among constitutional scholars as “The Heckler’s Veto”. Our courts and legislatures deliberately carved out these special exceptions to freedom of expression in educational settings with the specific intent of silencing political dissent originating from the left. Citing a broad public (governmental) interest in maintaining and protecting a “safe” educational environment, first lawmakers and later courts, enacted statutes and rulings that gave educational administrators sweeping authority to limit political expression whenever they declared that expression to be “threatening” to that “safe” educational environment.
The movement began really before WWII. But relying on those early court rulings things really took off during the campus free speech, anti-war, and civil rights protests of the 1960s. These broad authorities to prevent public gatherings, and public speaking ultimately would culminate in the shooting of protesters on college campuses by National Guard troops.
Conservatives fought hard in the legislatures and the courts to establish and protect these sweeping exceptions to the first amendment. Too fucking bad if that door swings both ways. Let’s be honest though. You assholes don’t really give a rat’s ass about freedom of expression. You just want to be able to send Ben Shapiro and Milo Childmolester on campus speaking tours to sell shitty books and make good sound bites. You aren’t mad about the loss of venue. You’re mad about the loss of revenues. And you certainly aren’t interested in preventing campus security soldiers from gassing peaceful protesters, or shutting down any of “the hippies'” little demonstrations. So take your whining and shove it. You assholes should have thought of this when you were busy gunning down anti-war protesters fifty years ago.
Again, I must ask just when the fuck did Roypublicans become such a bunch of whiney pussies?
Looks like Prizinint PornSweat’s personal attorney, Mr. Safety School, Esq., has reached an agreement with the USAO-SDNY to accept a guilty plea to charges of bank fraud, tax fraud, and conspiracy related to campaign finance in the 2016 campaign in exchange for his cooperating witness testimony in other cases before that office and other offices of the DOJ.
Over to you Roger Stone!
“An agreement between eight restaurant chains to not poach each others employees will end after pressure was applied by the Washington State Attorney General. The agreement was enforced through clauses in franchise contracts across the U.S.
“The development impacts hundreds of thousands of employees across the Applebee’s (NYSE:DIN), Church’s Chicken, Five Guys, IHOP, (DIN) Jamba Juice (NASDAQ:JMBA), Little Caesars, Panera and Sonic (NASDAQ:SONC) chains.
“McDonald’s (MCD -0.2%), Arby’s and Carl’s Jr. ended a similar agreement earlier this year over complaints that the tactic held down wages unfairly.”
https://seekingalpha.com/news/3384614-major-restaurant-chains-end-poaching-agreement#email_link
Roger Rabbit Commentary: A monopoly labor market. How cute. Anti-competitive as hell, illegal as hell, and aimed at keeping wages as low as hell.
(Full disclosure: Roger Rabbit owns some McDonalds stock and modestly benefits from this naked exploitation of defenseless low-wage workers. Well, not exactly defenseless. They have Bob Ferguson working for them. They’d be defenseless if Reagan Dunn had been elected Washington AG, but thank God that didn’t happen.)
@ 21
An agreement between eight restaurant chains to not poach each others employees will end…
If only Roger Dumbfuck Rabbit’s poaching of the entire text of his links would end.
Those who can’t, poach.
@ 13
That looks bad for the defendant. Had they reached acquittal on all the other charges, it would be unlikely that they would have the same concern about how a mistrial on a single charge might affect the other verdicts.
Nice work, that.
Now, since the attorneys elected not to put up a defense, how does that affect Manafort’s chances on appeal, claiming incompetence of counsel?
And I’m dying to see Roger Dumbfuck Rabbit weigh in on incompetent lawyering. No one would know better than he – he spent a career doing it.
@22 Would you rather I just make shit up, like Alex Jones does?
@23 Personally, I think his chances on appeal suck, because he was convicted of 8 crimes, not just 1 crime. And he gets to face a retrial on the other 10 counts against him. But the 7 guilty verdicts on tax and bank fraud, and 1 on hiding a foreign bank account, should be enough for the Republican judge to put him away for life no matter what happens in the two criminal trials still ahead of him.
As for incompetent lawyering, yeah, he’s a Republican and has Republican lawyers, so his representation might not be any better than Dino Rossi’s back in 2004, although probably very superior to what Mango Mugabe is getting from Rudy Foot In Mouth.
@ 24
@22 Would you rather I just make shit up
Need I post, again, your Fleeing Felon handbill.us moronicity, Roger Dumbfuck Rabbit?
TOP DEFINITION
moronicity
(n.) The degree to which one is a moron.
Can you believe the moronicity of that guy?
#stupidness#idiocy#dumbness#stupidity#idiocity
You have spent a lifetime making shit up.
So, in case you haven’t heard yet, Manafort was found guilty on 8 counts, the judge declared a mistrial on the other 10 counts, and he wasn’t acquitted of any counts. All in all, a lousy day for the defendant.
I really don’t care if Manafort goes to jail or Trump pardons him. Just another article of impeachment for backup. Even some GOP senators might have a tough time with such thwarting of justice. I believe some of them were prosecutors in their earlier lives. And, besides, it gives them an excuse to get rid of him and cover with the folks back home.
Probably even a lot of Trump voters would have difficulty with this multimillionaire getting away with not paying taxes when they have to. But for Trump himself, it would set a useful precedent of pardons for tax dodgers in case it turns out he has a similar problem himself.
We lawyers get ribbed about incompetent lawyering by quack doctors all the time. It’s not our fault they’re guilty. We only take their money for representing ’em.
Let us not forget that the brother of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign chairman and Bill Clinton’s chief of staff has been offered immunity from prosecution by Mueller for testifying against Manafort in the next trial to come.
See what I did there?
@30 His dog was in on it, too. He was the lookout. He’s being held without bail in a kennel.
“Now, since the attorneys elected not to put up a defense, how does that affect Manafort’s chances on appeal, claiming incompetence of counsel?”
It’s like having to choose between delicious pie or mouth watering cake. Whether you fucktards piss millions of dollars away on SCOTUS nominees, vulnerable Congressional districts, or pointless criminal appeals, it all looks good to me. Mostly I can’t get over how this is all happening at a time when the “dirty hippies” have never been weaker or more powerless. You idiots really ought to give yourselves a pat on the back for that. And get your checkbooks out. One way or another, whichever way you turn, this shit is going to cost you bigly.
Kinda makes you wonder if that wasn’t the idea all along, eh? And once the second trial is completed, the retrial on 10 counts from this trial, the appeals are fully exhausted from all the trials, and every last fucking penny has been raised off all of it, PornSweat will issue a pardon anyway. Dumbfuck, I think your post just made Jay Sekulow pregnant.
I guess God made sheep to be shorn and Klownsurvaturds to be grifted.
The Republican Presidential Campaign Manager must be absolutely confident that Prizinint PornSweat is going to pardon him. Because, honestly I can’t think of a situation where the pressure to plead out and cooperate would be greater than this. He’s facing sentencing on 8 major felony counts in a federal sentencing system that is absolutely draconian*, a second criminal trial in DC plus a retrial on the 10 counts that hung the jury in EDVA. And unless the Republican Presidential Campaign Manager can roll up a bunch of criminal indictments for him, I can’t see why Robert Mueller or anyone else on his team would be invested in this guy’s future comfort.
*Like any federal judge, Ellis has very little room to dance on this. Essentially if the guideline range is less than the statutory minimum the statute prevails. A Tandy computer could do the job of sentencing. This is a big reason why federal criminal charges are so often dealt down. The time to make your case for leniency is before trial.
Manafort and Cohen on the same afternoon.
Has the shit storm of tweets started yet?
Sounds like Mr. Safety School, Esq. is giving them PornSweat.
One of the counts he is pleading to includes the admission that he used a company under his control to make a $130k payment to the sticky porn lady on behalf of a federal campaign candidate in order to benefit that candidate, and that he was later reimbursed by that candidate for the payment.
Two term President Blowjob was compelled to testify with far less. PornSweat can dance and drag out the process, but he will have to sit for questioning one way or another, unless he finally sacks up and fires the DOJ. This also move impeachment a little closer to the goal line.
After all, if you can impeach two term President Blowjob for being a greeezy slut and lying about it, you can impeach Prizinint PornSweat too. And let’s face it, the sticky porn lady payoff is probably the least of PornSweat’s “indiscretions”.
@32 Lots of well-paying employment for our brother and sister lawyers, and sorely needed advertising dollars for the hated media, all coming out of the pockets of one-percenters. What’s not to like?
Let’s go to the scorecard:
National security advisor (lock her up)
Plead guilty
Personal attorney
Plead Guilty
Deputy campaign chair
Plead Guilty
Campaign chair
Convicted
@34 Any minute now.
Also, Flynn’s sentencing got continued for another month.
But that’s nothing. Nope. Nothing to see there either. Nah.
Cult 45 had better think about doubling the number of paid media surrogates. There aren’t enough of them to cover all of this with bullshit in a single news cycle.
Something else Klownsurvaturds will need to spend more money on.
In other news, in the Iowa missing jogger case, a suspect caught on surveillance video led police to a body in a cornfield.
NBC News identified the suspect as a Mexican illegal immigrant who had seen Tibbets jogging before. Trump will have a field day with this.
@ 35
Two term President Blowjob was compelled to testify with far less.
I completely agree. His testimony did not involve a criminal proceeding.
Your move, presidential candidate Avenatti.
@ 39
Also, Flynn’s sentencing got continued for another month.
But that’s nothing. Nope. Nothing to see there either. Nah.
Not until we see what was done with the investigators’ 302s, no.
The hits keep coming.
How will Duncan Hunter being under indictment play out in CA-50, a rare traditional safe California Republican seat.
@43
He will be fine (unfortunately). Republicans like (and vote for) their criminals. Sure, Democrats have some, but Republicans have far more (+2 in the last 12 hours).
Plus they really, really like pedophiles so there is going to be a whole new batch of former Catholic priests that will be entering the ranks of viable Republican candidates.
19 – The hippies of 1968 are the exact opposite of the Trigglypuffs of today. Yet, it’s the Trigglypuffs who claim to be “liberal” who do their damnsest to stifle any speech with which they disagree.
You are not as smart and brilliant was you think you are.
Terrific read about the freak who funds a troll favorite, the Washington Greedhead Freak Shreikin’
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/08/27/paul-singer-doomsday-investor
He’s about as loathsome as Carl Icahn but way smarter..
He supports gay marriage (son is gay) and is a never drumpfer (can you say bad for bidness?). He plays to win and the freak almost always does. No tactic is too low.
Very scary!
Moral of the story: Mamas don’t let your sons grow up to take a company public – the lions, hyenas and wild dogs are out there to eat you alive. No one is safe. Yeah that includes Apple, Microsoft, Boeing, etc.
Paul Allen has too much money..
https://www.wired.com/story/stratolaunch-airplane-burt-rutan-paul-allen/
I’ll believe it when it puts shit into space.
41,
Dream on Dumbfuck.
Perhaps if you asswipes weren’t so self-destructive a lightweight hustler like Avenatti is all you’d have to worry about.
But owing to the fact that you just couldn’t get it up unless the party nomination was a no-holds-barred King Birfer Battle Royale, your Prizinint PornSweat will be compelled to respond and will be attempting to invoke the fifth to a federal grand jury proceeding. Good luck with that. That would put Jay Sekulow, a part time talk radio host, with a background in tax law and lucrative freedom of religion hustle, but absolutely no crim-j experience, in front of a judge trying to paint that picture. And all Mueller has to do is offer a grant of limited immunity to pop that bubble.
Hey, at least if/when PornSweat ever sacks up he can simply fire the DOJ and put this nasty criminal business behind him.
But since you brought it up, Dumbfuck, you probably forgot, yet again, that in a civil proceeding a refusal to respond in depositions by pleading the fifth can be presented as evidence at trial and a civil jury is permitted to consider that refusal to testify. More fun! The way this is shaping up, you guys are going to be living this dream well beyond 2020.
And don’t forget, you are doing this entirely to yourselves.
#youbuiltthat
@ 17 & 34:
Now, Duncan Hunter the darling of Southern California Conservatism, indicted for campaign finance fraud and misuse of campaign funds.
A 48-page indictment charged the Hunters with lavish spending from 2009 to 2016, including on family vacations to Italy and Hawaii, school tuition, theater tickets and even dental bills.
Tsk tsk tsk tsk. Shit, oh, dear.
Another fine mess you’ve gotten your own dumb self into.
These guys are all the same.
45,
Dumbshit. Pay attention.
The “Trigglypuffs” of the world are no more empowered to cancel one of Ben Shapiro’s little Klan rallies than The Young Republicans were to put down the 64 Berkeley student strike.
Think hard now. Who is it that cancels Charles Murray’s advanced eugenics lectures, Ann Coulter’s Nazi Storybook Time, or Milo’s droll recitations “Of all the Twinks He’s Loved Before”?
Give up?
The campus admin, dummy. And that’s why even right now you douches continue to enjoy unfettered freedom to march around with Tiki Torches, burn crosses, and throw Nazi salutes to your heart’s content anywhere else you like, provided you can get anyone to even show up anymore.
Sorry sport. The right built that thing you are bitching about fifty years ago. They did it to keep their pointless war going, to help Nixon get reelected, and to build Saint Ronald’s future political war chest. You wanted it. You got it.
Now any chance you pussies will quit whining about any time soon?
It’s all good news for Dumbfuck today. The GOP Mueller distraction “whatabouts” are soaring. Soaring like the Challenger shuttle. Soaring like Gary Francis Powers. Like JFK Jr?
Defamation case against Christopher Steele dismissed
49,
Too bad it’s not a very competitive district. But here’s to CLF having to pour a few million more into yet another district they shouldn’t have to. At +11 it could be in reach. Some strategic spending in that media market could go a long way with 49 open and 48 a toss up.
Every penny will be coming out of a district where it is badly needed.
@48 Isn’t there a TV show or three about America’s dumbest criminals? Maybe they can get on that.
Duncan Donuts Details …
“Rep. Duncan Hunter and his wife, Margaret, were indicted Tuesday on charges related to the misuse of $250,000 worth of campaign funds for personal expenses and the filing of false campaign finance records. … The 47-page indictment portrays the Hunters as living well beyond their means. The court documents state that the Hunters ‘knowingly conspired with each other’ to convert campaign funds to personal use.”
https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/21/politics/duncan-hunter-campaign-charges/index.html
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Now why did the Hunters have to stoop to stealing in order to live in the style to which they wanted to become accustomed? Don’t Republicans have plenty of rich friends? Maybe stealing is just a hobby in their set, kinda like polo or cricket.
Say, wasn’t Rudy Fat Mouth asking — nay, demanding — that Mueller wrap things up by September? Wish partially granted.
I wonder how Fox News is playing today’s headline stories? I think I’ll click on their website and take a peek.
“Mollie Tibbetts murder suspect is illegal immigrant from Mexico, lived in Iowa for years, officials reveal”
(Boldface, banner, 8-column, with lots of subheads) Oh yeah, that was predictable, Let’s see how they played the day’s other news …
“Opening New Door? Manafort guilty verdict puts pressure on him to comply with Mueller” — ya think???
“Trouble For Trump? President could be ‘unindicted co-conspirator’ in Cohen crimes — Turley” — I’m surprised they remember Nixon; I thought Fox didn’t employ anyone over 30 …
“Stunning Indictment” … “Congressman, wife accused of corruption involving campaign cash” — no mention of party
“Royal Rules” … Meghan Markle and Prince Harry will not have custody of their children: report” — oh yeah, that’s important …
… Other Fox front page headers:
“‘Cursed’ ancient Egyptian sarcophagus reveals its grisly secrets”
“Schumer: Kavanaugh is lying about time in WH, would overturn abortion rights”
“Actor slams Trump in vulgar, profanity-filled interview”
“Trump avoids mention of Manafort, Cohen at West Virginia rally”
“Virginia boy, 3, found dead inside dryer in his home”
“Bernie Sanders supporting protesting right-wing rally with American flag beaten up by Antifa, video shows”
There’s more, but my keyboard is melting. It’s made of chocolate.
The Hump is a fleeing felon.
“Lanny Davis: Cohen ‘more than happy’ to tell Mueller ‘all that he knows'”
Caption from The Hill.
But as Rachel Maddow said last night, Cohen hasn’t provided the password to his Blackberry, so hard to believe that Cohen is fully cooperating. He is hiding some information to save his ass.
It’s in the Bible bitch! No funny doos. Could have been worse! Anyone have a tissue?
https://www.chron.com/news/us/article/Video-of-tearful-girl-sparks-anger-over-school-s-13172182.php
Manafort he’s guilty
Cohen went and copped a plea
Duncan Hunter stole some funds
Time to deport old Nazis
Coal is indestructible,
Witch Hunt if you’re gullible
Stormy Daniels, she was fun
No Collusion, No Collusion, No Collusion, No Collusion
We didn’t start the fire
It was always burning since the World’s been Turning
We didn’t start the fire….
A not so talked about in the press yet reason Cohen has fucked 45 hard….
Cohen has implicated 45 in a wide range of crimes that any judge will accept as probable cause for multiple warrants. Some of those are financial crimes. The first thing any investigator looking at financial crimes will subpoena is…Tax Returns and Bank records.
45 was right to talk about Capone because in the end he may never be conclusively tried for colluding the Russians.
Why bother. He’s mid 70s and serving 20 years for:
Campaign finance violations
Filing false tax returns
Misappropriation of charitable funds
Failure to report income on a likely massive scale
Desperate to talk about anything other than how fucked the GOP is in November and the convictions and guilty pleas one of our homegrown RW Radio Blowhards was trying out a monumentally stupid line of reasoning today. (Any day now our loons will try it because….marching orders.)
The President should revoke Brennan’s security clearance if for no other reason than financial. “To get that high level security clearance they talk to grade school friends, and every boss and employer and all your college buddies and it can cost a quarter million to do the investigation. Every time they renew a clearance it can cost a quarter million.”
I’ll give you a second to think about why that’s utterly preposterous but probably accepted by the knuckle dragging listeners to this guy’s show.
wait
Jeopardy theme
wait
Once you have a clearance they don’t do a full investigation ever again. For example, you are potential new hire at a large firm, say Microsoft. They do a pretty extensive background check, make sure your degrees and transcript are what you say, check your credit rating, check your social media for embarrassing or disqualifying behavior. If it’s all good you get hired. But if you then apply for a new position within the company (in this case the U.S. Government) they don’t do that again. It’s been done. They have a record on you.
You have a security clearance. The government will look at the time period between when it was conferred and the present to look for anything disqualifying but they aren’t going back and doing the full blown investigation a second, third, fourth, fifth time when you clearances are renewed.
God Damn you people are stupid!
@58 The cops don’t shoot white people.
@63 Republicans will believe anything you tell them. Literally anything.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHpxyIaqs08
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-VslYnrVWM
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/made-by-history/wp/2018/08/15/qanon-is-just-the-latest-in-a-long-line-of-right-wing-conspiracy-theories/?utm_term=.b15dd3bbb7b7
Except, of course, the science of climate change.
@3 Friends do not let friends drunk trade. You were sober and rational, well there is evidence the markets are not rational, and you have added to the evidence.
@6 What it is not the Russians? It is good old fashion party politics, and none of you Georgians vote Green now, you all hear, just vote the big D you all.
@9 They learned from the best. Them good ol Democratic boys and girls.
@13 The Republic is safe lots of everyday normal corruption is being found and acted on. Maybe we need Mr Mueller to be set loose on the other candidate in the last Presidential race just to be air or on sitting Congress people and who ran against them last election. He may well discover we have some honest people in Congress, but he will not admit it until he fids something showing they are not so honest
@18 What you are saying has other interpretations. One is Democrats would like Trump to resolve one issue for the blue team. Who has far kept himself above and beyond the WH turmoil’s. Get rid of Trump and Pence carries on, Pence might join Roman Senators and get rid of Trump, and insure Brutus and others support the new Emperor.
@70 It would also return to what was a norm in Presidential politics of a President having a different VP the second term or run for a second term with a different VP as the last ran for his parties nomination. We probably have to go back to Kennedy when it’s possible that Johnson would not have been on the ticket in 64 had Kennedy been alive,
@69
Oh bless your heart. Still trying to deflect. The most investigated candidate in the nation’s history?
See the scorecard from above.
That’s quite a feat.
Drain the swamp. Make America Great Again.
“Maybe we need Mr Mueller to be set loose on the other candidate in the last Presidential race just to be (f)air”
You don’t need a special counsel for the DOJ to investigate an old retired lady in Chapaqua, you dunce. Any USAO can do it any old time. It’s a better deal too with almost unlimited resources and scope. Nothing like Mueller’s statutory handcuffs. Your beloved PornSweat could pick up the phone and it’s done. No need for “independence”. Only the appearance. Clinton could challenge the investigation in court. But that wouldn’t stop it from proceeding. Everyone already knows this.
I guess there must be some reason why your Attorney General declines to do it. Gosh. I wonder what that reason might be?
#youbuiltthat
What’s the running score on Trump endorsed candidates?
Foster Friess is out.
“an old retired lady in Chapaqua”
Dumbfucks were chanting “Lock Her Up!” at the rally tonight.
Meanwhile, this is how the journos at CNN are parsing the day’s events (and I bet what happened today is small change compared to what is still to come):
“It was like binge-watching history as two of the President’s men went down. A twisting saga of intertwined legal plots and human drama dripping with hubris, vengeance, betrayal and defiance suddenly combined Tuesday in a frenetic, barely believable burst that left Donald Trump’s presidency stained by a tide of crime and corruption.
“Michael Cohen, the Trump clan’s attack dog, and Paul Manafort, the ultimate Washington swamp creature with the ostrich skin jacket, paid dearly for their association with their former boss in near-simultaneous convictions that will mean years in jail. …
“Like all good season finales, this surreal cliffhanger tied up some plots but unleashed deeper, more consequential intrigues to tee up more compelling sequels to come. And that may evolve into existential questions for the Trump presidency itself.
“For at the end of an afternoon that rocked Washington to its core, the President himself stood accused … of conspiring in and directing a crime. … Effectively, Cohen was accusing the President of the United States of being a fellow crook. …
“Those around the President are already referring to Cohen as ‘the rat’ but they acknowledge things could hardly have gone more badly. … On Capitol Hill, Democrats were crowing. ‘Not a witch hunt,’ tweeted Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia. … Sen. Richard Blumenthal added that the White House was looking ‘increasingly like a criminal enterprise.’ …
“As the dust settles from Tuesday’s frenzy, new plot twists are already developing … the question of possible impeachment will now hang tantalizingly over the election.
T”rump, as he flew home to a White House being pelted by a later summer storm, had much to brood upon …. He must worry that his two former associates, seeking to reduce their sentences, will cooperate with Mueller in other areas that could threaten the President himself.
“There are no final answers after Tuesday’s double courtroom drama. But the trajectory seems clear: The Trump show is heading down a foreboding road.”
Read the whole thing here:
https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/22/politics/paul-manafort-michael-cohen-donald-trump-tick-tock/index.html
Meanwhile, this is how the journos at CNN are parsing the day’s events (and I bet what happened today is small change compared to what is still to come):
“It was like binge-watching history as two of the President’s men went down. … Michael Cohen, the Trump clan’s attack dog, and Paul Manafort, the ultimate Washington swamp creature with the ostrich skin jacket, paid dearly for their association with their former boss in near-simultaneous convictions that will mean years in jail. …
“Effectively, Cohen was accusing the President of the United States of being a fellow crook. … Those around the President … acknowledge things could hardly have gone more badly. …
“As the dust settles from Tuesday’s frenzy … the question of possible impeachment will now hang tantalizingly over the election. Trump … must worry that his two former associates, seeking to reduce their sentences, will cooperate with Mueller in other areas that could threaten the President himself.”
Read the whole thing here:
https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/22/politics/paul-manafort-michael-cohen-donald-trump-tick-tock/index.html
@19 Since the public school was not a big thing back at the inception of these United States your arguments have holes. It is actually progressives who really supported public education. They were the first administrators and certainly recognized at the elementary level and later that could not be absolute free speech zones, and they never were that in the private zone, and even tutors for royalty had to be able to demand the student shut up and listen, and do the test, ect. How they could they because English and civil law has this concept of the infant, therefore those who are infants are not citizens are reliant upon others or the state, and there fore are not freemen or women and have at best limited rights and their needs come first.
Colleges as most were private institutio0ns generally were and have been free speech havens. With the protection of unpopular speech at the core. Not all school administrators are free speech advocates or are constitutional scholars, and the nuances in free speech the supreme court and then state legislatures put in place, disregarding the guarantee in the states constitution makes for a environment where you can lie about origins and try to place blame. In general it is the far left and far right most in need of first amendment speech protection, as both say things unpopular with the mainstream. Justice Black certainly understood that and he was not particularly a liberal judge though many of his rulings disappoint conservatives. but he was an absolutist that would tear your thesis. He believed the right to free speech was absolute in the public and free space, though clearly could expect to suffer the consequences of shouting fire in a crowded theatre. He would argue a person has the right to cry such a thing and should the crowd become a mob, and rush to get out and people are killed or hurt then the speaker can be held liable for the injuries, if in fact the utterance was a lie.
It is not conservatives or liberals or even political parties who are free speeches biggest foe. It’s big business and corporatism run amuck that is.
We will continue to have these free speech issues on campuses as long as there are universities. There are conflicting issues so civilized people use the courts to resolve such disputes as do unreasonable people. Who you may disagree with and wish to shut up.
Lost among the other jailings today.
The Maryland Klansman who was caught on video firing a gun during the Charlottesville race riot was sentenced to four years in prison today.
@23 Have not seen the charges the hurry decided guilty, certainly some were low hanging fruit rather like the federal statute you cannot remove the tag from this pillow. People do and it is not going to take a jury long to go guilty unless they have gumption and decide the law and prosecutor are unreasonable. So now does Manofort show true character and continue fighting or accept the judges sentence, do the time, and tell the Special Counsel I was found guilty of ordinary corruption, I ain’t a rat.
Apparently the counsel told defendant the prosecution did not get close on the major charges, jury is agitated, maybe they will let the minor stuff go as they are upset.
@25 Best bet may well be the special prosecutor overstepped his authority, and is going after mundane corruption, rather than outside foreign influence. Special counsel has the resources of the intelligence community and has yet to show collusion. The Mueller team can now pose in spandex and capes as the super heroes they are.
Even when true, the claim of incompetent attorney is hard to win on appeal.
@28 I do not see where a pardon would result in any additional charge if the President gives him a pardon. Maybe he has one and that was what the conference was about Monday between Judge and counsel, or maybe it was about a juror. To get his testimony Congress would have to agree to some king of immunity, or deal.
@32 You all are a little ahead on any retrial or appeal, neither of which can happen until after sentencing.
@57 I do not think chocolate is good for rabbits young or old.
@59 There are going to be issues of attorney/client privilege depending on where Mueller wants to go. He may get evidence he cannot use, and it would be the poison fruit from the forbidden tree.
@61 First prize!!!
@72 Looks to me like who ever won the 2016 election was to be the most investigated candidate in history, with a lot additional civilian casualties. Would the Republicans be any further down the impeachment highway? I do not know. Still times are likely quieter than if Hilliary had been elected.
@73 She is not some little old lady. She has secret service protection, is a former Secretary of State. No assistant attorney general is going to go anywhere near her without support from the AG. Some state ags, and foreign ambassadors are interested in nailing her to the barn door though.
@78
Wow. There’s wrong and then there’s stupid.
Harvard was established by vote of the Massachusetts Bay colony in 1636.
Evangelist George Whitfield established a “charity university” and his work was greatly expanded upon by Benjamin Franklin. That University is now called the University of Pennsylvania and on it’s campus Franklin founded the first free hospital in the new world.
Thomas Jefferson’s writings, maybe take a look. There’s a whole lot about education of the masses being the bulwark against monarchy and the duty to educate all regardless of social status.
also Jefferson
John Adams
George Washington
You were saying public education was a new idea in America. Wow. You should take a few weeks off. Maybe read a book. Libraries. They’re free. Socialist I know but one could get a good private education from them.
I see Repukes are shouting out against murderous raping illegals, at the same time cultivating murderous raping illegals for their benefit.
The Repuke family should be sued and jailed for murder. Take the family farm and sell it off to help build the wall! Gman 2020!
“Last night at dinner, I had a glass of Glenlivet 12 on the rocks.”
Single malt with ice.
What? Were they out of straws?
88,
How is it possible for Shortbus to not even be able to read what he himself writes?
Are all Roypublicans this stupid now?
Trump is President. He won. He appointed his Attorney General. He can fire him and name a new one at any time. He can order his Attorney General to do whatever the fuck he likes. To keep it safe from legal challenge he would merely have to preface the order with pretext about law and order. That’s it.
And pay attention you dumbshit Roypublicans. A special counsel can only be named by the Attorney General or the President. The legal authority to initiate the process rests exclusively inside the Executive branch, and thus in modern terms, exclusively within the White House. That is how you stupid fucks got Mueller. He wasn’t conjured up by your imaginary Derp State. He was appointed by the acting Attorney General with the White House’s permission and approval. It just can’t happen any other way.
Once appointed, a special counsel is weak as a kitten in comparison to any confirmed US Attorney. None of the staffing or resources. None of the institutional backing. No agency buy in or cooperation at all. Career employees of DOJ or FBI want nothing to do with them. It is a career killer. These outside guys come in with little or no connection or clout to start with. And that disappears the minute they get going. And their authority to investigate is strictly limited by statute and oversight. The “independence” is a sham. The Attorney General oversees it all and gets to approve or disapprove of everything.
If you stupid motherfucking trolls are going to be dependent on this level of willfull ignorance in order to endure what you’ve done to yourselves by electing these criminal perverts I dont hold out much hope for you. You really are a lost cause. And that’s probably the best reason to reject all notions of trying to “understand” or “reconnect” with Trump voters. Anyone this liable to willing self-deceit just can’t be trusted at all.
Okay. For the last fucking time. The privilege does not extend to criminal conspiracies or fraud. Okay?
This is why Tom Hagen leaves the room before Michael Corleone discusses killing Hyman Roth. Got it? It’s called the crime-fraud exception. You can look it up. But you wont. Because that would interfere with your idiotic self-imposed delusions about what a horrible thing you’ve done electing and defending criminal perverts.
#youbuiltthat
GOP/Fox News, a wholey owned subsidiary of the National Rifle Association, 401(c)3
Columbine – Now is not the time
Sandy Hook – Now is not the time
Pulse – Now is not the time
VA Tech – Now is not the time
Las Vegas – Now is not the time
Stoneman Douglas – Now is not the time
Sante Fe TX – Now is not the time
Mollie Tibbetts – Build the Wall NOW! Illegals! This death was preventable. Writing a bill! Introducing legislation!
Yesterday, Trump’s personal lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, stated in court, under oath, that Trump directed him to commit federal crimes. Today,
Speaker Paul Ryan is waiting for more information.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell declined to comment.
Sen. Orrin Hatch said, “the President should not be held responsible for the actions of people he’s trusted.”
Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley brushed off Cohen’s sworn statements as “speculation.”
https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/22/politics/gop-lawmakers-cohen-manafort/index.html
Roger Rabbit Commentary: These people aren’t afraid of Trump. They’re afraid of his supporters.
GOP = Party of Moral Cowards
@93 I won’t even bother replying to Shortbus’ incoherent ravings this morning. As Trump tweeted of Cohen, if you need a lawyer, don’t hire him.
How the White House is defending Trump this morning:
“The President can’t be indicted.”
No. Matter. What. Crimes. He. Committed.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/22/politics/donald-trump-impeachment-indictment/index.html
Because they got nuthin’ else.
@95
Hellluva Guy, Orrin Hatch
“I can’t hold he president responsible for the actions he directed and paid his attorney to take on his behalf.” Fixed.
The Democrats have Saturday Night Massacre contingency plans in place.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/case-mueller-firing-break-glass-democrats-prep-emergency-plan-n902526
@98 Orrin Hatch is a venal man. He’s an ardent defender of Trump’s criminality. Thank God he’s retiring. Good riddance.
Oh.
The Killer of Mollie Tibbetts was employed for at least two years by Yarrabee Farms, a dairy producer.
Yarrabee Farms Is owned by the family of GOP activist and former Iowa Farm Bureau Head Craig Lang.
One has to wonder why a family business is hiring undocumented workers and not verifying immigration status. Wait, no one has to wonder about that. GOP loves undocumented workers as long as they can turn a profit from cheap labor.
A new poll, conducted before yesterday’s developments, shows Trump getting 28% to 30% of the vote in 2020, and losing by double digits to either Joe Biden or Bernie Sanders.
https://www.aol.com/article/news/2018/08/22/poll-biden-sanders-lead-trump-by-double-digits-in-potential-2020-matchups/23507110/
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Nothing’s really changed in America. About a third of the electorate has always been terminally stupid, and whatever breakfast cereal they’re eating, they haven’t gotten any smarter in the Era of Trump. The bell-shaped IQ curve tells us there will always be a hard core of Republican voters who are immovable by facts, logic, reason, or patriotism. The key question for 2020 is whether Trump can hang onto the voters who think Tony Soprano is a cool guy but wouldn’t want him for a son-in-law. After all, the top half of the bell curve will never be more than a majority, and in politics, it’s numbers and not intelligence that count.
Yet more proof that Trump rallygoers are terminally stupid.
https://www.aol.com/article/news/2018/08/22/trump-rally-chants-lock-her-up-after-cohen-plea-manafort-verdict/23507075/
95,
a guy who is in the habit of eating documents probably didn’t put his instructions to commit serious felonies in writing.
But that still leaves the audio tapes and all the corroborating evidence. You just have to accept that, in the end, as long as these people are in charge the rule of law is suspended. Anyone who is indicted and does not cooperate will be pardoned. And that leaves the un-indicted co-conspirator free to walk away.
The end game here is not so much to put PornSweat and all his Russian co-conspirators on trial. It is to put the people who voted for them on trial.
99,
Protest rallies and backroom whining to Yertle?
That’s not a contingency plan. That’s a fucking television script for VEEP.
There is absolutely nothing anyone can do so long as the child molesters are in charge. That’s just the way it is. Pretending otherwise only encourages a false sense of what is at stake. Criminals and their accessories-after-the-fact are in control of the government including its law enforcement functions. Full stop.
There’s no magical incantation to change that. No escape clause in the constitution. And no Deus ex Machina to come to our rescue. In the end, this happened because of the 2016 election. Elections really do have consequences. This is most definitely one of them. Blame whoever the fuck you like. But if you voted for anyone other than a Democrat in a federal election in the last eight years you are to blame.
Lock Them Up Dep’t
“A Maryland Ku Klux Klan leader who fired a gun at a black counterprotester during last year’s deadly white supremacy rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, has been ordered to spend the next four years behind bars.”
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/kkk-leader-sentenced-to-4-years-in-prison-for-firing-gun-at-charlottesville-rally_us_5b7d9c88e4b0cd327df90cea
Best of all, as a convicted felon, this well-regulated militia can never legally touch a gun ever again.
Lanny Davis has set up a website and a GoFundMe to help Mr. Safety School, Esq. fund his legal defense and to continue to sell his perverted old boss down the river.
Minutes after it was announced the website was hacked by Russian FSB and currently is redirecting to a MAGA page.
Meanwhile the GoFundMe page is still up and running and as of this posting has raised over $50k
https://www.gofundme.com/hqjupj-michael-cohen-truth-fund
Prizinint PornSweat’s chief criminal defense attorney Rudes is going back to first principles today and announcing to the media that the OSC investigation will be wrapped up any day now.
I think it’s pretty fucking funny that we are seeing today, once again, a sweeping preoccupation in the media with “what will Republicans do now?” Like the “pivot” nonsense that came before, like the “Republicans will act as a check” nonsense that soon followed that, like the idiotic mythology that Kelley would “restore order”, this latest corporate media fetish is yet more of the same highly distilled pure bullshit.
What will Republicans do? Absolutely nothing. Not now. Not after the mid-terms. This is who they are. They all enthusiastically signed on for this shit in the weeks following the election shell shock while most of America was too busy recovering to even notice. And besides, deep down this is really who they’ve been all along.
And it’s really quite telling that clinging to some version of this myth is so desperately important to the corporate media. They are absolutely terrified of what it would mean if the Republican Party were to be recognized for having become this degraded. Bad for their business in too many ways to calculate.
There will never be any response from the Republican Party to the ever-mounting shit-pile of crimes and outrages at the top of their movement other than support. They were totally kewl with C-ville. Totally kewl with Toddler Torture. Totally kewl with finger rapes. Totally kewl with rawdogging porn whores. Etc. Etc. Nothing will ever change any of that. They know it. They’ve learned to make peace with it. It is just another part of who they are now. It’s time for the media and everyone else to make peace with it as well.
Trump won. Everything has changed. Elections have consequences. This is really who they are.
@109 Republicans will do what they’ve always done: See no evil, hear no evil, and above all speak no evil of the evildoers in their ranks.
101,
The GOP activist owners of Yarrabee Farms held a presser this afternoon furiously denouncing early media reports that Rivera was in the country illegally. They confirmed that they had reviewed multiple pieces of identification, including a confirmed Social Security number, and that Rivera had worked for them legally for more than four years.
Elsewhere today Rivera’s lawyer also held a press briefing reporting the same and along with it a motion before the court requesting a gag order to prevent additional erroneous reporting from tainting the jury pool and hurting his client’s access to due process. The widely reported immigration detainer against Rivera was filed this morning just before Rivera’s arraignment.
But hey. FOX News had to do something to move the media cycle off the White House Crime Syndicate. So what if millions of legal immigrants have to pay for it.
@111 Did they say it’s Obama’s fault for breaking the immigration system on his watch?
I don’t know what this is about — black rage? mental illness? high on drugs? low IQ? — but it certainly plays into the public image of “scary black man” and fuels racism. I’ll wager there are a lot of white folks who, after reading this story, won’t want to be on a train station platform with any black person.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/father-daughter-saved-mother-pushed-front-oncoming-train/story?id=57326188&cid=clicksource_4380645_1_hero_headlines_headlines_hed
As several radio personalities repeatedly pointed out to Fat Donny when this clusterfuck was preparing to go into full fuck-frenzy mode, becoming President would be a terrible idea for him. Simply because of the overwhelming amount of scrutiny it would bring to what was already his well-established reputation as a criminal, his scum-filled life and circle of criminal associates.
He didn’t listen. He never does. He’s an utterly self-deluded imbecile. So, now he’s got a seriously pissed-off tiger by the tail.
The only thing keeping him, his entire immediate family and probably a substantial percentage of the people he’s ever associated with from prison and/or the hangman’s noose is the legal shield the Presidency provides to the holder of the office. He CAN’T leave office. He’s fucked, they’re fucked, and everyone gets a turn.
I’m legitimately fearful when I think of what Trump, a demented, possibly syphilitic, and definite raving narcissist moron, will do when that house of cards finally comes crashing down. A chronic narcissist who finds himself in a position where he cannot escape the public humiliation of being discovered being wrong, bad and immeasurably stupid is one of the most dangerous and unpredictable things there is.
@114 Doesn’t Trump like to turn to Hitler for guidance in sticky situations? You know, instead of asking “what what Jesus do” he asks “what would Hitler do”? Just wondering.
@ RR @ 115:
He doesn’t have to speculate. He can just call his buddy in Moscow for advice and moral support.
Nope. He ain’t a racist
“I have directed Bureau of Indian affairs to look into how he Sioux stole the Dakota Access Pipeline land from white farmers. It was never their land. They resettled it and it rightly belongs to the whites.” 45. Or words to that effect.
Remember when 45 uses the military as a photo op that he called Paul Manafort “brave” today.