Okay folks, I’m not a lawyer, but isn’t this a no-no?
EXCLUSIVE: President @realDonaldTrump on if he knew about the Cohen payments. See more from his interview with @ainsleyearhardt tomorrow 6-9amET. pic.twitter.com/HPJPslOG6X
— FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) August 22, 2018
In his eagerness to assure the simple-minded Fox rage-bots that he didn’t use the sock-and-bra money they contributed to his campaign to pay off Stormy, Trump admitted that HE paid her off. Isn’t that, like, a felony? And again, Trump goes after Jeff Sessions for refusing to shield him from another crime, indicating consciousness of guilt. Hoo-boy.
Also, Sarah Huckabee Sanders opened today’s shit-show of a press briefing with a statement that was a blatant attempt to exploit the murder of a young woman in Iowa for political gain, once again demonizing an entire group of people whose demographic commits far fewer crimes than native-born Americans. Huckabee Sanders ended her opening statement by saying, “Sadly, the individual believed to be responsible for the murder is an illegal immigrant.”
“Sadly” my ass — I bet a SETI-equivalent program on the far side of Alpha Centauri picked up the whoops of glee from the White House communications shop when they read the alleged perpetrator’s alleged immigration status. But inconveniently, the man charged with the crime was also the long-time employee of a family of local Republican bigwigs. And may also be in the country legally, according to his lawyer.
Regardless of the alleged murderer’s immigration status, it’s both hideous and unsurprising that the Trump people would try to use the tragedy of that young woman’s death to shield their horrible boss from a catastrophic news cycle. Sweet, weeping Christ on a Triscuit, I hate these fucking people. The Angry Circus Peanut administration can’t collapse in a scandalous heap quick enough to suit me.
One thing I’m wondering: Do y’all think the media yowling is equal to the Sturm und Drang around the Lewinsky scandal during the Clinton years? It goddamned well better be, but I don’t remember. I had an infant to look after when that absurd circus was in town. I’m a lot older and more pissed off now.
TenguPhule
Is that it, did we get him?
/Cue SNL skit
cain
What I would do is push hard for employers to go to jail if they knowingly hire an illegal immigrant. Make it a safety issue. We all know that Republicans like to hire illegal immigrants (even pay to get them here) and love the idea that there is no risk on their part, only on the part of the illegal immigrant. Force the conversation to be that. This is something that Democratic party can repeatedly show up at every 24 hour news show and keep pushing.
TenguPhule
Nope. This is more like “Nothing to see here, this is perfectly normal” of the Bush Cheney Crime Axis.
The media can’t believe this is all real and happening and can damn well affect them. Its still a fucking game to them.
kindness
Hell no the MSM isn’t pulling the same thing they did during Clinton’s presidency. The owners of the MSM are Republican and they do pressure their ‘talent’ and producers to toe the NPR tiptoe.
Mnemosyne
A little convergence for fans of Prince Harry, Meghan Markle, and The Show That Must Not Be Named:
https://mobile.twitter.com/Sentebale/status/1031588930066567168
TenguPhule
Via Wapo
noncarborundum
I remember the Lewinsky thing being louder, with many more congresscritters weighing in vigorously, repeatedly, and at length, egged on by enthusiastic media vultures. This time around there seems to be much more actual news but less noise surrounding it. Probably because we’ve all been numbed by the constant stream of awfulness.
TenguPhule
@Mnemosyne:
Macbeth?
A Ghost To Most
I see a new generation of reporters, hungry and eager to make their bones, rather than a comfortable press in bed with the fascists. Tools like Chinchilla and Dancing Dave are getting pushed aside. Good.
MattF
Clinton-derangement had (and has) a quality of tin-has fantasy about it. You see some of that with Trump, except that it turns out to be true.
OldBaldy
Nope, not at all, nowhere near. Remember, though, that cable news hadn’t taken off back then, and in general people had fewer viewing options.
Having said that, my feel is that about 70% of the American populace would just love if Trump could be removed immediately and we somehow got a do-over of the 2016 election. 27% are die-hard wacko Trumpers (there’s that number again). 3% don’t give a shit.
Conversely, with Clinton, about 70% of the people knew he dipped his wick every chance he got, but felt that he was overall a solid president, so they did not give shit and were happy to keep him. About 27% desperately wanted to see his nuts cut off and stuffed down his throat on live TV. And the remaining 3% really, really thought he was the best president EVA!!
But I may be misremembering.
Mike in NC
Of course we refused to watch the rally in WV last night. Did Fat Bastard pound the podium and rant about the murder of a white girl in Iowa for a couple of hours? Seems to be his version of comfort food.
MattF
@MattF: ‘tin-hat’ fantasy.
Alain the site fixer
Just a note to my fellow Front Pagers – you’re welcome – this is the first step!
The Moar You Know
Not at all. But that’s not what happened.
He paid her off to influence the outcome of an election. THAT is a crime. I am not a lawyer nor in any way versed in election law, so I don’t know if that’s a felony or misdemeanor or what.
Mnemosyne
If it turns out that the (alleged) murderer was working illegally for prominent Iowa Republicans for 7 years, I am going to laugh my ass off. Apparently the employers claiming that he’s here legally can’t produce the proof they said they have.
I realize that his immigration status doesn’t actually matter, but I really want to hear Republicans explain why it’s okay that their fellow Republicans were hiring long-term illegal workers. ?
JPL
So he didn’t know about the payoff until after, but did pay for it out of his own fans. Trump org. reimbursed Michael Cohen using fake invoices, so not sure what that was about.
Calouste
Didn’t we start out a few months ago with:
– there was no payment
and then moved via
– the payment was not on behalve of the shitgibbon
and
– the shitgibbon didn’t know about the payment
to arrive at today’s
– the shitgibbon reimbursed the payment?
JPL
funds not fans. Truthfully, I’d rather he pay off with his fans, because I find them to be vile individuals.
catclub
Trump admitted that HE paid her off.
I don’t think so. But Trump should have to list it as a personal campaign contribution/expenditure. That is much less of a crime for him than it is for Cohen, making a know excess contribution AND not reporting it.
Trump can simply update his reporting. The fact that he probably has not done that until prompted, makes it less believable.
OTOH If he paid her off, why will there be financial transactions in the name of the shell corp that Cohen built, but no transactions from Trump into that shell corp before the payoffs started.
JPL
@Calouste: I guess he also said he didn’t know about the payment today also.
catclub
@Calouste: exactly – and I bet the shitgibbon has not updated his reporting that the campaign contribution/expenditure was made by him. Why not, if he knew all along it had been made and he knew the reporting requirements.
{because he just made up this lie today.}
JPL
@catclub: He uses the best business practices, in fact he understands more about the best practices than most fortune 500 CEO’s.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@TenguPhule:
“The Donald”? WTF?! Come on, that has to be the Borowitz Report or something.
Jeffro
@cain:
Yup. “If the Repubs REALLY believed in law-and-order, then they would go after employers of illegal immigrants…but they won’t, because in truth many American businesses big and small – agriculture, restaurants, lawn/landscaping, construction – employ illegal immigrants to keep control/keep costs down. SO…let’s quit trying to have it both ways, and it starts with an end to the GOP’s lies to its voters & demonization of illegal immigrants”.
Path to legality, path to citizenship! Why not? They all work a shitload harder than Duncan Hunter and Chris Collins.
Mnemosyne
@Mike in NC:
As usual, the Hoarse Whisperer called it since she has experience with narcissists — last night was a regrouping night:
https://mobile.twitter.com/HoarseWisperer/status/1032064187403517952
TenguPhule
@The Moar You Know:
And he almost certainly lied about using his own money, the shell corp that repaid the $150,000 is probably one of the money laundering ones and/or also a depository for campaign contributions siphoned off for personal use by Trump.
catclub
@The Moar You Know:
I disagree. Are you suggesting that spending money to influence an election is a crime? Because that was what he did. and so does every campaign that spends money.
NOT reporting it as a campaign expenditure is the crime.
TenguPhule
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: I edit to deny him the office title.
TenguPhule
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: original link
Jeffro
Equal? Maybe. At least the Trumpov-howling has some actual substance behind it.
(also, Clinton didn’t have to pay anyone to get busy w/ him…I’m just sayin’…;)
tobie
@Calouste: Even Glenn Thrush, not known for his cutting remarks when it comes to the GOP, tweeted : “The goalposts have been moved to a Pep Boys parking lot 35 miles outside the stadium.” (This was in response to Dershowitz saying violations of election law are no biggie.)
catclub
@Jeffro:
when Texas was considering doing this – they had to explicitly state that hiring ‘the lawn guy’ would still be ok. I think it still did not really happen there.
MagdaInBlack
NY Post
Betty Cracker
@Mnemosyne: The Hoarse Whisperer is a dude. I was surprised to learn that too, but it’s true. He had a thread about it some months ago and was amused (and said he was flattered) that everyone assumed he was a she.
joel hanes
@A Ghost To Most:
One of the best changes of recent years
is that we are no longer given much opportunity to read
the bleatings of Howie “The Putz” Kurtz
Or Mickey Kaus
Or Chris Hitchens
Or the damfools at Powerline, who were ubiquitously quoted during the early W years.
Doug R
@Mnemosyne: When are they going to make the frigging movie so the rest of us plebes can see it?
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@catclub:
Wouldn’t spending the campaign’s money specifically as hush money be illegal?
The Moar You Know
Speaking of confessions, Ol’ Duncan Hunter better hope his wife doesn’t read the entire indictment. I did. This caught my eye:
OH RLY?
Barbara
Paying her off was not a felony per se, but from what I understand, having someone else pay her off is still an unreported campaign contribution even if they are subsequently reimbursed. I am not an campaign financing lawyer, but allowing your friends to do this for you is apparently considered to be a contribution unless he was basically acting as your agent and using your funds directly. That was not the case here.
The other thing I would add is that I assume this is just the first, lowest hanging fruit that Michael Cohen has delivered to Trump’s doorstep. I say that because this case was farmed out by Mueller’s team to the SDNY US Attorney. There is no doubt much more coming down the pike.
Doug R
@TenguPhule: Steeltown? Burlington, ON?
The Moar You Know
@catclub: Pretty sure you got that right. As I said: not a lawyer. Spent enough time in a courtroom (expert witness) to never want to go near one again.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
One thing that stood out to me during Lewinsky was the “So the frak what? Clinton’s doing a good job and it wasn’t like Clinton raped her” the majority of the public and the continuous screaming from media pundits over how dare the public not be outrage and how many of great and good, like Newt who were were outraged on Lewnski’s behalf turned out to be up to far more loathsome behavior.
Jeffro
@The Moar You Know: I’m sure it was…wait…it’s really called the LIAISON CAPITOL HILL HOTEL???
Once again, this script would never have come close to being greenlit in Hollywood. No frickin’ way.
Paul W.
I don’t speak fluent Trump so I really didn’t understand anything he said, other than claiming to have paid for it himself AFTER the fact. So, it would still be a violation because it is a loan from Cohen.
Ryan
“One thing I’m wondering: Do y’all think the media yowling is equal to the Sturm und Drang around the Lewinsky scandal during the Clinton years? ”
Your true barometer should be how it stacks against Her Emails.
Roger Moore
Which the bigots will just use as justification for restricting legal immigration. They talk a good game about wanting people to come here the right way, but they really want to restrict immigration to The Right Kind of People, IYKWIMAITYD.
Barbara
@The Moar You Know: Noticed the exact same thing. Great minds think alike. Individual 14 was but one of many people mentioned throughout the indictment, but among other things, Hunter and Individual 14 played golf together as well. It’s possible that Individual 14 had their own room, because the Hunters were rather generous to both friends and family members with campaign funds donated by other people. They financed a lot of trips for nieces and nephews as well. So I don’t know that it involved the kind of hanky panky you and I both wondered about.
Barbara
@Ryan: Maybe they can ask Kavanaugh what questions he has for Trump about the sex acts he engaged in with MacDougal and Daniels. But until it reaches that level, nah, it’s not nearly the same.
TenguPhule
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Today its the opposite. The majority are sickened and outraged and the media is all “I don’t care, do u?”
encephalopath
In the talk about whether it’s possible in indict the President for crime and such while the President is still in office, I’ve been wondering how a RICO case against the Trump organization would fit into that discussions.
Even if you can’t convict the President, isn’t it the case that in a RICO enforcement, it’s the money that’s on trial? And if the money was gained as the result of racketeering then all of that person assets are forfeit regardless of whether you convict the head of the organization of anything else.
Am I reading that correctly?
Barbara
@Roger Moore: You can NEVER win with a bigot.
Doug R
@joel hanes: Or David Broder or Andrew Breitbart or Phyllis Schlafly.
Mnemosyne
@Betty Cracker:
Huh. Well, that’s what I get for assuming that someone who writes well about emotions must be a woman because a dude couldn’t do it. ?
Lapassionara
@Alain the site fixer: not a FP’er, but thanks, Alain
Raoul
I’m not the best at gauging what matters in elections (I mean, I supported Paul Simon in ’88, so I’m not quite on top of things). But I think the theme this week – Manafort, Cohen, Hunter – is that the whole damn GOP has become a criminal enterprise.
We’re drowning in scandal, but surely the case can be made to voters that this crew, including Wilbur Ross andLarry Kudlow, couldn’t be trusted to run a Starbucks cash register, much less be at the top levels of government. There’s just so much malfeasance to choose from.
Make the case, Democrats! Elisabeth Warren is showing one potential way.
I also think the Senator from Hawaii is onto something here
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Mnemosyne:
I thought this REAL American Farmer (as in “don’t socialize my farm subsidy”) was arguing that sure this murder was here illegally, but the farmer had personally screened him, because we all know how good with the paper work undocumented aliens are with their job paper work. As General Turgidson said in Dr Strangelove you can fault a system for a single failure.
Mnemosyne
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Nah, the farm had initially claimed that he was here legally and that they had checked e-Verify to be sure, but they turned out not to be registered with e-Verify. Whoops!
Emerald
My real first name isn’t Emerald; it’s Monica. For long months during the Lewinsky media tornado I could not tell people my name. Most of them acted as if I were the culprit. Usually I would just dryly say, “Actually I’ve never met the president.” That information did not change their attitudes.
Does that answer the question?
Hitlesswonder
@kindness: This morning on npr, their onair talent suggested that Billl Clintons behavior set the stage for this and also that Dems are in a bind/hypocrites because they think Clinton shouldn’t have been impeached.
No mention of:
1 Republicans being hypocrites because they impeached Clinton and aren’t doing anything now.
2. That the Dems don’t have any power to impeach…only the Republicans can take action right now.
3. No Dems I know of have called for impeachment.
4. Clintons perjury was a different crime than directing your lawyer to violate campaign finance law. So maybe it’s not the same.
Fair and balanced.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@TenguPhule: Yes, now that you mention it, that’s right. And the press keep on screaming about that how dare the rest of us care. Look at all those stories about how REAL Americans don’t care no matter what kind of inbreed, green teeth, opioid addict freak of a redneck they have to dig up to use as their example. It is a complete inversion of the Lewnski scandal.
Tim C.
@Hitlesswonder: Yesterday was worse. I was livid as they mentioned that the Russians had been trying to infiltrate some conservative think tanks. What NPR failed to mention was that the major theme of the targeted conservative organizations was that they are anti-Trump and anti-Russia. Something seems to be rotten.
EZSmirkzz
Do you mean the media outlets that took telephone calls from person1 running for a federal office, providing millions of dollars of campaign contributions for free, in one sided, three to five minute blocks of verbal excrement? Those very same media outlets that do business in NYC and employ journalists/reporters that were well aware of person1 running for a federal office’s business practices, while reporting/journalgasming leaks from the NYC FBI field office through one Rudolf Giuliani, America’s mayor?
Or are you referring to those other journalist/reporters in the nation’s capital who displayed such umbrage at the hicks from Arkansas who had occupied the White House and infested their town?
BWAHAHAHA ha hoo hee hoo haw.
And to think, some people have the temerity to say we live in the stupidest country on Earth. Based on the aforementioned journalist/reporters I would deduce, since they are the same people that brought us aluminum tubes and yellow cake from Affricaa and approximately a million dead Iraqis because by golly when have Republicans ever lied to us?!
On the other hand I know more about stained blue dresses and knee pads than anyone who was there for the opening of the sexual revolution has a right, or need, to know about such matters befitting a free, fourth column, press.
Yessiree Bob! Is this a great country or what?
Long story short, no.
cain
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Actually, Clinton’s approval ratings hit the roof when the scandal came out. Which totally pissed off the Republicans. They didn’t count on the misogyny of the American people who thought a man of power getting a blow job is exactly what one gets when they are at that level from some young intern. Sheer projection. There was definitely a collective “fuck yeah” from the male crowd.
debbie
@Mike in NC:
And yet he forgot to mention the Anglo who murdered his pregnant wife and two toddler daughters, stuffed the daughters’ bodies in a crude oil tank, buried his wife in a shallow grave, and then blamed it on the dead wife.
Must have been a teleprompter malfunction.
Ladyraxterinok
@noncarborundum: One gigantic difference. Kelly Anne was on every cable show constantly telling us how immoral Bill was and how he’d betrayed the American people and made the US a laughing stock around the world.
Now older, but definitely not wiser, she’s defending Trump.
And Evangelicals were enraged over Bill’s immorality. And now with Trump–he’s annointed by God. And, as the Pentecostals say, ‘Touch not God’s annointed!’
There were ‘jokes’ about how Bill’s presidential library would be R-rated, no admission to those under 16. And loud laments over how every news cycle means ‘my kindergartner asks me what a blow-job is.’
cain
@encephalopath:
All the DoJ has to do is go after his family. Trump will fold like a bad poker hand. The emotional trauma of putting all his family into it and ultimately shutting down his businesses will fuck him up in a huge way. Killing the foundation, steep steep fines on Trump Hotels. Run him out of businesses. It will destroy him. No need to go to jail. This is probably a worse faith. Worse, not enough money to pay back whatever the fuck he owes the Russians.
Ultimately, we hsould take away his security clearance as well. He’ll be president in name only.
LongHairedWeirdo
Meme: compare victims of violent crimes and point out that the Trumpsters only care about the ones committed by undocumented people. “Crime does not pay… Trump when it’s committed by a citizen!”
psycholinguist
@Hitlesswonder: i heard that as well. They’ve been consistently echoing Republican talking-points. At first I thought it was just their long-standing bothsidersism, but this was more aggressive. Pissed me off.
Steeplejack
@noncarborundum:
Maybe because with the ubiquity of the Internet and much more sophisticated social media there is a much quicker, tighter feedback loop to call out the politicians, pundits and media vultures on errata, misrepresentations and general bullshit.
I mean, 20 years ago, weren’t we still collecting AOL installation CDs like coasters?
YetAnotherJay formerly (Jay S)
@Barbara: Looking at their room rates today ($100+ for the smallest), it may be possible for two singles to cost 162 in 2011. OTOH the way they advertise the rooms, it looks like something else.
debbie
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
I can’t speak to that quote, but “The Donald” is how his first wife referred to him.
Eljai
I think the pundits tsk tsking about Clinton were worse. I will say this: I remember the 90s a helluva lot better than Steve Kornacki, who was barely out of high school at the time. Here he is making a bold contribution to the both sides olympics:
His take is wrong on so many levels I don’t even know where to begin, but here’s a start: Clinton never asked his lawyer, David Kendall, to pay Lewinsky hush money. Oh, and Kendall wasn’t a felon.
Ladyraxterinok
@Jeffro: Wasn’t there an attempt during Reagan’s administration to go after people/firms employing illegal immigrants?
IIRC, it was stopped almost immediately because so many depended on their work. GOP big donors put their big feet down hard.
rikyrah
Thread
@srl: Scoop: The majority black Georgia county that’s proposing closing nearly all of its polling places can’t produce a single document… https://twitter.com/srl/status/1032277979118936066?s=17
Shell
Someone should ask Sanders. ‘So,it’s better to be murdered by a legal citizen?’
TenguPhule
@cain:
Trump would cut Jr’s heart out with a spoon himself if it meant he could escape his fate.
Calouste
@Eljai: Another thing that’s wrong as that there isn’t such a thing as “a moment” in a year to compare. You could compare “moments” in a campaign, but that is not what we’re talking about, it comes down to just unrelated things accidentally happening on almost the same day of the year, and that is just grasping at straws trying to make a relation where there is none.
rikyrah
Abortion for me and not the??
@laurenarankin: Scott Lloyd, the man responsible for overseeing 12,000 migrant kids, who has personally bullied undocumented rape victim… https://twitter.com/laurenarankin/status/1032253271614861312?s=17
John Carter
Wonder if his tax forms could be grabbed legally to show whether he really paid her? Imagine all that data coming out!
Jay
@Roger Moore:
More and more, there’s fewer and fewer of “the right kind of people” interested in moving to the US, more and more don’t even want to visit.
And the ones that do, have no interest in doing the work “the wrong kind of people” do.
Trumplandia is slowly waking up to this.
Roger Moore
@cain:
No, he won’t. He’ll throw them under the bus to save his own orange painted hide.
GxB
@Barbara: Does Maria Butina play golf? Goddamn, that would be a knee-slapper.
SiubhanDuinne
@Mnemosyne:
Lovely! I hope there are lots of pictures! (Good cause, too.)
Mary G
Federal court rules in favor of plaintiffs who oppose citizenship question in the census:
It would save courts a lot of time if they just assume the administration is acting in bad faith all the time.
Betty Cracker
@TenguPhule: Yep. Trump doesn’t give a flying fuck about anyone on the planet except Trump.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Doug R: The movie has been filmed via two run-throughs with the original cast before they scattered to the winds. Figure 2-3 years?
Ruckus
@Barbara:
You can carry their casket.
Mary G
@rikyrah: Abortion for me, not for thee. What a scumbag.
patrick II
My worry is what will Trump use to distract when his back is finally against the wall? He’s already had his big meeting with Kim, taken children from mothers, and started his trade wars. When it comes to the end, what will be a big enough event to take minds off of his failures, treason and illegal activity? He cares about no one but himself so there is no internal regulator. What level of “tough guy” belligerence will do? Is war with Iran too much to attempt to save his presidency?
JMG
@catclub: It is absolutely a felony He keeps confessing on TV. By Halloween, he’ll give an interview to Fox saying, “you know, OJ WASN’T the real killer. Let me tell you a story.”
SiubhanDuinne
@JPL:
I sure hope they’ve subpoenaed that accountant, whatzizname (Allan Something?), the guy who’s been with the Trump Organisation since the Year Dot. Hired, IIRC, by Daddy Fred, so he’s been there for decades and knows ALL the secrets. If there’s anybody who can bring Trump down, it’s him. And we have no reason to believe that Trump would be any more loyal to him than to anyone else in his orbit. I really hope he spills.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Ladyraxterinok:
Yes, I worked at Atari at the time when the INS was doing raids and the whole manufacturing line would vanish, shut down production. California’s Pete Wilson negotiated some deal were the companies self checked or something.
OldDave
@Hitlesswonder: I heard the same NPR piece and had the same WTF? reaction to it.
Eljai
@rikyrah: Men like Lloyd don’t give a rat’s ass about women or babies. It’s all about control and preserving the patriarchy. What a hypocritical scumbag.
Steeplejack
@Mnemosyne:
I thought her take was very good. Daniel Dale also noted last night that Trump dialed it back—his “hingedness” level was relatively high.
rikyrah
Someone in the morning thread said that they thought today would be a let down. Does this interview help????
JPL
@SiubhanDuinne: The SDNY did, but I think it was about the Trump/Cohen tape one election
JPL
@JPL: He had to testify about what he knew about the payoffs.
Steeplejack
@Betty Cracker:
That’s what I thought, but I assumed Mnemosyne had some inside knowledge. D’oh!
SiubhanDuinne
@Betty Cracker:
I am also surprised. Not that there’s anything wrong with that….
Jay
@patrick II:
As Adam has pointed out many times, the US Military doesn’t have any “bandwidth” remaining.
All the US Military can do is “kick the ants nest” in Iran or Korea, with air and missile strikes, and isn’t capable of even managing to contain the fallout.
The “process” basically goes as follows:
– the President asks the Joint Chiefs for options in line with his/her National Security policies and aims,
– the Pentagon creates a package of “options”
– the Joint Chiefs review and recommend to the President
– the President chooses
Given orders for a strike/war on Iran or Korea, by the Insane Clown POSus, my guess is the Joint Chiefs and Pentagon will Presidential Parade the hell out of it.
NotMax
Back from chauffeuring landlady to eye doctor. Roads are chock-a-block with cars, parking lots are a madhouse.
Was able to make a stop for an obvious in retrospect thing to do in advance of the big blow – get some cash from an ATM now just in case power is out for an extended period.
Afternoon agenda is baking a chocolate cake to have as storm snackage.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
Robbie Rotten has died
Mnemosyne
@Jay:
I’m going to ask a paranoid question, which is not my usual bailiwick — could Trump get the CIA to do something with their fleet of drones if the military refuses to play along? Obviously, it would have to be something relatively small, like an assassination.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne: Why would the CIA play along?
Mnemosyne
@Steeplejack:
I thought I knew, but I was wrong. Whoops!
Brachiator
Been in meetings all day. Probably for the best. During a break, a co-worker was telling me how conservative media was circling the wagons and standing firm. Let ’em. Hope this can help the Dems get out the vote.
Mary G
@NotMax: Stay safe!
JMG
The thing to understand is that :her emails” was a direct result of the Lewinsky deal. When Hillary didn’t leave corndog Bill despite intense personal humiliation the bulk of Americans said, “This can’t be that important.” For the shallow, self-obsessed Washington press corps, their inability to take Bill down, their lack of Pulitzers, Peabodys and anchor slots, was an even more intense humiliation. And it was all Hillary;s fault. That’s why they hared her in 2016 and hate her still (although today’s haters were merely the mentorees of the ’98 crowd.
pk
I didn’t agree with the Clinton impeachment because I thought it was nonsensical to impeach him over lying about an affair. I think Trump shouldn’t be impeached over a paying off mistresses either. It’s maybe illegal, but it seems like Edwards did the same thing and got off. He has to be impeached over something substantial. Make a case on Russian conspiracy, money laundering, tax evasion or sexual assault of any of the numerous women who’ve come forward. Paying money to silence mistresses in a shady way is not what you should remove a president for. And I say that as someone who hates Trump to the point where I sometimes can’t see straight.
JMG
@JMG: Apple substituted corndog for corndog in above post. I admit it’s funnier their way.
JMG
Third time’s the charm or I quit. Horndog.
JMG
A further point.If a company like Apple or Google is this Nazi-oriented about spelling, what do you think they’d like to do about political content?
Mnemosyne
@Omnes Omnibus:
Other than because Haspel is a corrupt ass who has no problem with war crimes? I mean, I hope that any agents assigned to do such a thing would deliberately grind it to a halt, but I have no illusions that Haspel would refuse to do it.
Mnemosyne
@pk:
Actually, you have it exactly backwards — Edwards was successfully prosecuted. Because it’s illegal. And saying that we should only prosecute rich people for “big” crimes is what landed us in this mess in the first place.
Patricia Kayden
@Calouste: We’ve progressed to “the payment wasn’t paid out of campaign funds so there was no crime, libtards”.
Patricia Kayden
@pk: Edwards did the same thing and got off.
TenguPhule
@Mnemosyne:
It depends if they’ve learned anything from obeying orders to torture prisoners and then being thrown under the bus for it.
Bill Arnold
@SiubhanDuinne:
As a male[0], I’m fascinated by this particular gender mis-id. (Three commenters here.) Anyone care to analyze their mistake (or reasons for their correct gender id)?
A quick search didn’t find much scholarly research on gender misintification of text authors. Perhaps bad kewords.
The authors of this promise additional future work on what they call “Gender Blur”:
Distinguishing AI from Male/Female Dialogue (Huma Shah, Kevin Warwick, 2016)
[0] but playing with meditations that involve ungendered or non-male (female?) mind states, for reasons.
Miss Bianca
@SiubhanDuinne: God, that’s weird. I, too, just presumed that HW was female. Not really sure why.
Steeplejack
@Mnemosyne:@Patricia Kayden:
Wikipedia:
Jay
@Mnemosyne:
The CIA doing it, to anybody important enough to be a front page story, would have the same fall out effect.
And if Omarosa and other’s stories are true, all The Insane Clown POSus is “in charge of” is the tv channels in his room and sometimes his twitter account.
When the full tale of the Trumpmaladministration comes out in full, it’s goona be a doozy.
hitchhiker
@pk:
hitchhiker
ugh, that last comment looks like one big quote. the 2nd box is not a quote, it’s my own thoughts.
edit button, where are you???
SiubhanDuinne
@JPL:
Yeah, I want lead stories every day, breaking news nonstop for a week. I want to fur up Balloon Juice, read the latest, and experience my jaw slamming against my chest in shock and amazement.
pk
@Mnemosyne:
I’m not saying that. I think Trump should not be impeached over it. John Edwards was not convicted on most of the charges. If you impeach a president it should be iron clad and substantial, not something which is legally dubious. Republicans investigated Clinton for years and then unsuccesfully tried to impeach him over something ridiculous. They had nothing substantial on him. If we investigate Russia for years and then get Trump over mistress payoffs and nothing criminal comes out about Russia, money laundering, or corruption, then it will be rightfully considered a witch hunt.
SiubhanDuinne
@Miss Bianca:
Well, evidently we’re far from alone. But I wonder what it is/was in the tweets that suggested “female” to so many of us. Nothing overt as far as I can tell. Maybe worth exploring to see what kinds of unconscious gender biases I’m hauling around.
SiubhanDuinne
@SiubhanDuinne:
That sounds warm and friendly and cosy, but what I typed and what I meant was “I want to fire up Balloon Juice….”
An edit button, an edit button, my entire oeuvre of BJ comments for an edit button!
Van Buren
@TenguPhule: Soon it will be”He hasn’t been convicted of anything, everyone is presumed innocent”.
Aleta
@debbie:
“Man with Meticulously Trimmed Beard Charged With Murder” describes both cases, but way too many internet headlines started witn “Immigrant Charged” for the farm employee.
SiubhanDuinne
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
RIP, thoughts and prayers, and not meaning to be at all flip, but I haven’t the remotest idea who that is. In a few minutes, I may arse myself to open your link and learn more. But I’m busy right now coping with a demanding glass of red wine.
SiubhanDuinne
@Bill Arnold:
I mentioned in a subsequent comment that I’m going to have a look and see if I can discover anything about my own gender biases.
In the book (and movie) that introduced the term “Horse Whisperer,” the eponymous character was male. That, to me, makes it even more interesting that so many of us should have assumed female gender for the tweeter/blogger.
(FWIW, I always knew/assumed that Digby was female, although apparently a great many early followers assumed she was a dude.)
Honus
@cain: the person that killed Tibbets was working for a prominent republican.
SiubhanDuinne
@JMG:
Horndog/corndog conflation is hilarious!
moops
One day Trump will finally listen to his lawyer and offer up “no comment” to questions in these directions.
smintheus
I forget who it was here a week or two ago who kept insisting that Pelosi didn’t mean it when she said impeachment wasn’t a priority, and she really would get around to impeaching Trump once evidence emerged that he’d committed crimes. Well, here you go from the AP:
We’ll see. Unless something else comes forward. That’s even more evasive than her earlier statements. Soon it’ll be “We need to wait for a smoking gun.”; then “No that’s not the smoking gun I meant.”
Let’s face the fact that Pelosi thinks impeaching Trump gets in the way of her legislative agenda and her agenda comes first, removing the crook comes, erm, we’ll see.
Pelosi’s political calculations may be more productive than those who want Trump removed from power, but it is going to cause a lot of public bad will to continue to pretend in advance of the election that those aren’t her actual calculations.
moops
@pk: Edwards WAS indicted for paying off and hiding his Mistress. It was election tampering then, and it is now.
Jay
@smintheus:
Until the Democratic Party has the House, the Senate, and at least 30 responsible Republican Senator’s on side, Impeachment’s a no go.
Can you even find 30 reponsible ReThugs?
Proof of high crimes, for a Republican, might shift the math.
The ReThugs/High Broderists/MSM are floating the midterm lie, that Democrats are running on a platform of “against Trump”, and are trying out a midterm platform of “Vote For Me, Or They Will Impeach Trump”.
Neither platform’s gaining much traction because the Democrats are running on platforms and policy and Nancy Smash is sticking to her guns, and will stick to her guns until the math changes.
Mnemosyne
@pk:
Okay, then one of us is confused, because I thought you were saying that Trump shouldn’t be prosecuted for it.
Impeachment … we’ll see what else comes up. However, playing fast and loose with campaign funds is an actual crime, as Duncan Hunter Jr just found out the hard way.
Mnemosyne
@Jay:
This. Why give the Republicans a chance to claim that we’re only mad because of Bill Clinton and not because Trump is a crook?
If we get enough seats in both the House and Senate to vote to convict on an impeachment, then we can talk. But Nancy can count seats better than anyone else in Congress, and she knows we don’t have the votes to win an impeachment.
Honus
@Barbara: yeah, because if Bill Clinton had paid off a prostitute, instead of having a consensual affair, people would have made those fine distinctions.
Yutsano
@Emerald: I’ve told this story before, butn I went to college with a woman who was a dead ringer for Monica Lewinsky. Right down to height, body shape, everything.
Her name? Robin Williams.You can’t make this shit up.
Joel
@YetAnotherJay formerly (Jay S): 162 in DC is a cheap hotel. Plus, it’s called Liason.
smintheus
@Jay: Pelosi will not try to change the math. She has been as clear as she can be. And if Mueller reveals even bigger crimes by Trump, then it’s still nothing more than “we’ll see”.
This is the same evasive dance that Democrats performed when they decided it would be too hard, too distracting, or too polarizing to impeach Reagan for his blatant crimes. And at least in 1987 the Dems had enough decency to introduce articles of impeachment and hold hearings. Pelosi is saying even that much is off the table.
Seems to me that as a member of Congress you’ve said quite a mouthful when you say you’re not fussed enough about a president who stands accused of committing multiple felonies to hold impeachment hearings. Unless, some further crimes happen to get exposed…and then who knows, maybe maybe not.
Marshall Eubanks
No, not yet.
James E Powell
@JMG:
A disturbing number of the ’98 crowd were around for 2016. And the NYT’s campaign against both Clintons but especially Hillary never really ended. It’s likely we will never know why the owners/editors of the NYT hated the Clintons so much they were happy with Trump in the White House.
NB – A moment of pedantry. It’s not mentoree or – please God no – mentee. It’s protégé. A mentor has a protégé.
jonas
The thing is, if Trump were generally viewed as a good president, doing the people’s work and managing foreign affairs competently and so on, admitting to some sleazy behavior and maybe even kinda skirting some campaign finance laws to cover it up wouldn’t necessarily be a death blow. But 60% of the country hates his guts; it’s clear to everybody but his most koolaid-drunk cultist supporters that he’s a complete disaster; he’s started a bunch of unnecessary trade wars that are harming a lot of people and businesses; at the very least he encouraged and supported Russia’s interference in our election; everyone in his administration is as corrupt AF and either indicted or about to be indicted. The Cohen business — if this is indeed all their is, which appears doubtful — merely confirms in most people’s eyes that yes, Trump is a complete and total clusterfuck of incompetence, idiocy, and corruption.
Not a good look for Republicans come November.
MCA1
@SiubhanDuinne: Just to add one more data point, I assumed incorrectly for quite some time that digby was a man, and never had one moment’s thought that the hoarse whisperer was anything other than a dude.
My guess is some folks read hoarse whisperer’s fairly amazing psych breakdown of narcissists and just reflexively think it somewhat unlikely that a guy has that nuanced an insight into abusive NPD carriers and living with them.