Be prepared: Trump has no public events on Monday.
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) December 10, 2018
On Friday evening, federal prosecutors for the first time said the president had directed illegal hush money payments to women who claimed to be his mistresses. By Sunday, the chiefs of staff of both POTUS and his VP had tendered their resignations. It felt like a quiet weekend.
— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) December 10, 2018
Prosecutors have examined the statute of limitations on the campaign finance violations and believe charges could be brought against Trump if he is not re-elected. @npfandos @maggieNYT @nytmike https://t.co/pVo7aNodpP
— Peter Baker (@peterbakernyt) December 9, 2018
JUST NOW: Comey says if Trump were not president he would be "in serious jeopardy of being charged." pic.twitter.com/H8v7uYx2bl
— Kasie DC (@KasieDC) December 10, 2018
Anyone who lives through this knows – it will astonish you how quickly an unjust system can collapse. https://t.co/CwzjbMV9Du
— WilliamThornton (@billineastala) December 9, 2018
Bob Mueller revealed quite a bit of new evidence in his latest court filings. Here’s how it connects to everything else we've learned about the Trump Campaign’s Russia connections. pic.twitter.com/1knTRhCb6W
— Ana Cabrera (@AnaCabrera) December 9, 2018
oatler.
Chuck Todd is more silent than Fox News on this subject.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ? ??
Barney
What’s great about that NYT front page is that not only does it have the Soviet collapse, it also features Robert Maxwell (under “As the Empire was Crumbling”), the British equivalent of Trump (except Maxwell was an MP before he really got going with his scams, not after). He even had 2 dumb sons he wanted to take over the family grifting business, and a daughter who later became involved in the Jeffery Epstein affair: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Maxwell
Plus the formation of this version of the EU, relegated to 3rd story. Big news day!
OzarkHillbilly
An ongoing criminal enterprise.
JDM
@oatler.:
Hillary’s emails have nothing to do with this, so what does Todd have to say?
Platonailedit
Ok, now I am convinced EU is definitely fucking with the brexitears.
montanareddog
And that is scandalous in itself. That someone can commit crimes to get into a position where they cannot be prosecuted for those crimes and gets to keep the job? To take an extreme example: if Mueller finds out that Individual-1 successfully conspired with hackers to change the voting totals in PA, MI and WI, nothing could be done about it for 4 years (or at all if the statute ran out on that particular crime)? The American system of government is no longer fit for purpose.
And why does the DOJ have this rule that a sitting President cannot be indicted? There is no immunity for elected officials in the Constitution.
hells littlest angel
@Platonailedit: Cancelling Brexit is the only non-stupid option the British have, and the only way they can demonstrate that they’re smarter than Americans. And yet no one knows what they’ll do. It really is like we’re living in some TV show that should have been cancelled five seasons ago.
raven
@montanareddog: We had a county Sheriff name Terry Roach who was in the joint and still kept his job.
trnc
Which senator will introduce a plan to “delay” the 2020 election, and how will McConnell get it pushed through?
montanareddog
@raven: Stupid, but at least he got prosecuted and jailed. And were his crimes election fraud? My point is that a traitor and a cheater committed crimes to get into an office which gives him immunity from prosecution for those crimes. It is Kafkaesque.
raven
@montanareddog: No, civil rights violation for letting a contractor in a cell to beat the shit out of an ex-employee who stole some stuff. My point is I thought it was pretty funny.
batguano
@montanareddog: what about a sealed indictment? Is that an option and doesn’t it stop the SOL clock?
OzarkHillbilly
San Francisco’s foodie scene suffers as its workers flee high cost of living
………………………………………
…………………………………….
germy
Kirk Douglas turned 102 yesterday.
germy
@raven:
He was very blunt about it.
Tony Jay
@germy:
Back in his ‘Spartacus’ days that figure would have been less surprising, but I guess once you’ve got ‘it’ you’ve got ‘it’.
Immanentize
@raven: I thought it was funny too. “Forget the Grey-Bar Inn, try the Roach Hotel” — the re-election ads write themselves…
Immanentize
@batguano: I’ve long felt a sealed indictment is OK. What cannot be done is that a sitting President cannot be prosecuted, but IMO s/he can be charged. And yes, it does stop the SoL clock
raven
@Immanentize: This was in the 80’s when they were still having county prisoners work on private farms.
Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly:
Tama Janowitz wrote a good book of short stories called, “Slaves of New York.” Which circled around all the miserable relationships people were in because the rent was too damn high.
JR
@OzarkHillbilly: they need to build more density. Two level bungalows aren’t going to cut it anymore.
Immanentize
@raven: The 80’s were the absolute worst for stuff like that — tent cities, chain gangs, war on drugs, “super-predator” kids.
“Charcoal” Charlie Graddick was AG in Alabama and was an early day Joe Arpaio. It’s where Jeff Sessions learned everything he thinks he knows.
Betty Cracker
Trump on Twitter just now:
That first part is most likely a quote from a “Three Dolts on a Divan” segment on Fox & Friends. I wonder if they actually said “smocking” twice? Regarding the “simple private transaction,” who among us hasn’t paid a porn lady $130K to shut up during a campaign, amirite?
JPL
@Betty Cracker: It’s going to be a long day.
rikyrah
Propane Jane™ (@docrocktex26) Tweeted:
When this investigation is all said and done, there needs to be a furious reckoning with the fact that the ENTIRE GOP is so ideologically/morally bankrupt and greedy that it knowingly visited this disaster upon America and did NOTHING to fix it. Make them pay for this forever.
https://twitter.com/docrocktex26/status/1071878691708375040?s=17
rikyrah
@Betty Cracker:
Reminder
Two women were paid off….
rikyrah
@Betty Cracker:
I know that the other one was paid off by the National Enquirer, but that is but another mess that we haven’t gotten into…dude is cooperating though.
Platonailedit
@Betty Cracker: And the cowardly thug has nothing to do the whole day. It’s gonna be rants and rank stupidity whole day. Aaagh.
rikyrah
@hells littlest angel:
I I know. They can actually correct their mistake….sigh…
Tony Jay
@hells littlest angel:
Yes, Brexit – should – be cancelled, and now we know that it can be the pressure to do so has been ratcheted up another few notches, but there’s no way Parliament unilaterally votes to dump it.
The 2016 Referendum was non-binding, but the actual legislation ordering the Government to begin the process was passed later, so Parliament would have to bring forward another piece of legislation voiding the Withdrawal Act and vote it into law. Without the mandate of a 2nd Referendum majority voting to Remain in the EU I can’t see them doing it. Too many cowards/realists who can see exactly how the pro-Brexit Press and foreign money would turn them into national hate-figures who would be made to shoulder all of the blame for “Betraying Our Brexit!”
So the route I can see goes like this.
1) May’s crap deal loses in a landslide. (She might resign, she might not, she might be pushed)
2) No other Brexit deal can gain anything like a majority in Parliament, making No Deal the default position
3) The idea of a People’s Vote becomes the sensible compromise position between No Deal and cancelling Article 50
4) Parliament votes to compel the Government to extend Article 50 until a new Referendum can be held
5) Hopefully a Remain vote of 60% Plus, but there are a lot of well-funded voices out there who would profit from the chaos of a Leave victory and a No Deal Brexit.
It’s worth noting as well that there will be a LOT of resistance to pushing back the deadline for leaving the EU. The date of 29th of March wasn’t chosen accidentally. A whole raft of tough anti-Tax Avoidance legislation comes online across ALL EU member states on April 1st, and it’s not just Quitters who fear what that would do to all the Dark Money floating around London’s financial and property swamps.
TS (the original)
@Betty Cracker: That smock is going to cause him some grief. Matthew Miller in reply
Oh, I don’t think his lawyers will want him offering this public defense of the Daniels/McDougal payments. He is going to talk himself right out of the defense that he didn’t know it was a crime.
debbie
@Barney:
I worked at the publisher he bought with the money he stole from pension funds. That was a real fun time.
Amir Khalid
@Immanentize:
I don’t quite understand this. I had always understood charging someone to be the first step in the process of prosecution. In any case, I also understood that the letter of the US Constitution doesn’t preclude indicting a president. What is it that precludes prosecuting one?
Betty Cracker
@Tony Jay: Good lord, what a mess. I’ve been following developments but can’t make out what’s likely to happen. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on it. I hope it goes down that way.
Kay
Trump believed the revelations would have a substantial effect on the election. Minimizing the importance of the payments only started after they paid to bury the allegations. I’m just taking Trump’s word for what was important in his campaign.
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker: Hell, I did it twice just in the past week.
Sloane Ranger
@hells littlest angel: I have actually heard a Brexiteer argue that we must continue with Brexit even if it means the country crashes and burns as a result.
To turn back now, in her opinion, would be nothing less than a major national humiliation.
I just stared at her speechless. How can you argue against a mindset like that?
Cheryl Rofer
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Betty Cracker: Paid the women off with money from his company (for which Cohen filed an actual invoice), added a bonus, and broke the payment into 12 parts entered in the books as a retainer to avoid taxes.
Platonailedit
LOL.
satby
Good morning everyone ?!
I think I read the whole efg welcome home thread three times yesterday, because it cheered me up so much.
satby
@Sloane Ranger:
We understand, we have to talk to Drumpf lovers. Excruciating.
Sloane Ranger
News announcement- Teresa May delays Brexit vote. The cock up continues.
Betty Cracker
@Platonailedit: Could work to our advantage if he keeps foreclosing possible defenses and copping to obstruction of justice via Twitter.
Amir Khalid
@Cheryl Rofer:
Good God.
MazeDancer
Alas, Dems were 0 for 3 on runoffs.
Gwen Collins-Greenup lost SoS in Louisiana over the weekend,
We sent 3300 PostCards for the combined runoffs. Doug raised good money. But Dems didn’t vote enough.
OzarkHillbilly
@Tony Jay:
I looked it up and as I suspected Parliament can not unilaterally extend the Article 50 deadline:
The EU appears to have lost all patience with the Brexiters, saying “Take it or leave it” on the deal they’ve negotiated with May. Of course that could be just a part of their negotiating strategy, and not the hard line stance it appears to be, so who knows.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Cheryl Rofer: 14 minutes later, he completes the “thought” in that tweet
Cripes. He sounds even more demented than usual.
Platonailedit
@MazeDancer:
Bummer. The eternal curse strikes again.
Amir Khalid
@Sloane Ranger:
How did someone as frighteningly stupid as Theresa May wind up at 10 Downing Street?
satby
@Betty Cracker: when it gets to court they’re going to argue diminished capacity. Everyone can see he’s got issues, and the multiple examples he’s provided captured in film will be the defense.
The bigger crime is that the GOP knows this and covers for him to achieve their anti-democracy goals.
Platonailedit
@Betty Cracker: Yup, as I said rank stupidity will be displayed, dammit.
Tony Jay
@Betty Cracker:
It is a total mess. A flaming turd baguette of the highest quality.
This is what happens when 25+ years of relentless, cynical, agenda-driven bullshit aimed at toxifying a concept mates up with the fetid, bubbling stew of racism and faux-patriotic nationalism at the heart of right-wing culture.
Hillary or the EU, it worked against both.
Frankensteinbeck
@Kay:
Trump believed the revelations would include that he has a weirdly shaped penis and is pathetic in bed. To a misogynist narcissist having that get public is torture. Also, he was paying for sex. Might as well make the legal excuse an NDA. Stormy sure as Hell didn’t sleep with him because he seduced her with his manly sex appeal.
Baud
Please spare a kind thought for my little girl. She doesn’t have much time left.
OzarkHillbilly
@MazeDancer: We need richer voters for whom losing 2 days worth of wages in a month is no big deal.
Elizabelle
@Baud: I am so sorry, Baud. In my thoughts. Is this a pet? A dog?
All the best.
Frankensteinbeck
@satby:
I think Trump is too arrogant and stupid to allow a diminished capacity defense.
Totally agree about the GOP’s culpability.
satby
@Baud: I’m so sorry Baud. I was thinking about you, and your fur baby the other day. Hugs.
hells littlest angel
@Dorothy A. Winsor: It’s like Lenny Bruce in his final days, standing on stage reading his trial transcripts while the audience sat in embarrassed silence. Except, you, know, tragedy>farce.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: May her passing be eased with love.
Quinerly
@Baud: oh, Baud… So sorry. Poco, John Lennon, and I are sending hugs.
TS (the original)
@Amir Khalid:
US and the UK kicking same goals at the same time – both probably pushed by Russia
satby
@Frankensteinbeck: he is too arrogant and stupid, but he’s also practically disintegrating right in front of us. By the time any of this can get to court he’ll be worse.
TS (the original)
@Baud: Best thoughts to you both
Quinerly
@Cheryl Rofer: ??
Tony Jay
@OzarkHillbilly:
That’s true, but the EU’s negotiators have been very clear since day one that their preferred outcome would be for the UK to abandon Brexit and stay in the EU, and that they would be happy to accommodate a change in scheduling if (and this is the important bit) them doing so would enable the British Government to make the right decision. With today’s ruling by the European Court that the UK can, if it wishes, unilaterally cancel Article 50 right up to the 29th of March, 2019, I would be very, very surprised if the Council refused to grant an extension to Article 50 if it was required to give time for a referendum on reversing Brexit itself.
Plus, extending Article 50 brings Britain’s infamously dodgy financial sector under EU anti-Tax Avoidance laws. They (as in Paris and Berlin) would like that a lot.
danielx
@raven:
James Michael Curley was re-elected as mayor of Boston while under indictment, and served past of his last term in office while in jail. Granted, Boston irish pols have always had a flair for flamboyant corruption.
montanareddog
@TS (the original): “US and the UK kicking same goals at the same time – both probably pushed by Russia”
And that malevolent old bastard, Murdoch, who’s media empire is also fucking with Australia.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Baud: Sorry, Baud. That’s hard.
JPL
@Baud: Oh no! I’m so sorry and hugs to all.
JPL
@danielx: He was a colorful character to say the least.
danielx
@OzarkHillbilly:
I am awed.
Kay
@Frankensteinbeck:
I don’t think we need to give him a motive. Donald Trump believed that the revelations would hurt his campaign, just like he believed that Russian assistance would help his campaign.
All of the minimizing of this ignores that- the Trump campaign thought doing these things were important to win.The Wikileaks stuff? Trump believed that was hugely important to discredit his opponent. Obviously. He used it daily for weeks.
I don’t know why political pundits would minimize this- they know better than the Trump campaign what helps or hinders the Trump campaign? The payoffs helped Trump and so did the Russian interference. That’s the Trump campaign’s analysis, not mine.
TS (the original)
@montanareddog: And that was meant to be “own goals” – Australia at the minute is plain weird. Has had more leaders/governments than Italy over the past 10 years – each one worse than the previous. Unless the polls are way out – Murdoch isn’t going to win the next election – mind you – both major parties are full of ridiculous legislation at the minute.
Immanentize
@Amir Khalid:
The law about indictments has changed a good bit since the original DOJ advice was issued. Yes, an indictment is the first step of a formal prosecution, but as the contract people say, it is required but not sufficient. Sealed indictments, John or Jane Doe indictments, indictments of DNA identifiers all have changed the indictment = prosecution equation. And the Supreme Court has agreed that formal prosecution does not start immediately when an indictment is filed, but indictment plus (like plus arrest or notification you have been indicted).
SFAW
@OzarkHillbilly:
I heard she/they paid YOU, big fella.
ETA: For “services rendered,” of course, not to shut up about it
ETA2: Don’t worry, we won’t tell Mrs. Ozark about it.
WaterGirl
@Baud: oh, Baud, I am so sorry.
rikyrah
@batguano:
The sealed indictment works for me.?
rikyrah
@Baud:
Oh Baud.???
SFAW
@Baud:
So sorry to hear this.
Kay
@Frankensteinbeck:
I think it’s really simple. Trump paid off the women and met with Russians because he thought doing those things would help him to win. Of course, we;ll never know because we don’t have the counterfactual, but we do know what Trump believed. That these actions influenced the outcome of an election.
It’s mystifying to me. This is the first time I’ve seen an analysis of a campaign where political media rush to argue that what the campaign and candidate DID had no influence on the outcome. It’s not reciprocal, either! The claim is Hillary Clinton’s decisions were determinative as to her campaign but Donald Trump’s decisions did not impact his.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: I must have missed when you posted about this before. {{{ }}}.
Gin & Tonic
Nice restful weekend? Why, yes, thank you. After I spent a couple of days hanging with my delightful grandchildren, Mrs G&T and I attended two concerts of (very different styles) Christmas music the last two nights, I baked some cookies, we wrapped some presents, and while the news penetrated from time to time, it didn’t overwhelm. I am very fortunate.
Tony Jay
@Baud:
That’s hard. Really sorry.
O. Felix Culpa
@Baud: Sharing your grief. Sending hugs and comfort.
rikyrah
@satby:
I don’t think so about diminished capacity.
The GOP as co-conspirators…. absolutely.
schrodingers_cat
@Kay: Political media even the oh-so serious totebaggery kind prefer Rs and will contort themselves in a pretzel for their party/paymasters.
OzarkHillbilly
@Tony Jay: Yeah, if a 2nd vote ever were on the table, I am sure the EU would grant an extension, but from the actions of the Brexiters I wonder if that is possible. I think May’s deal is dead because the Brexiters and the Bremainers both loath it with equal vehemence but I don’t see that either side has the necessary political clout to accomplish their stated goals (more negotiations for Brexiters, a 2nd vote for remainers). Which leaves the impending leap off the no-deal Brexit cliff as the only other option.
And from what I’ve read a very large percentage of Brexiters think the total annihilation of the existing British economic structure would be just fine.
My knowledge is obviously limited by what I read and most of that comes from the Guardian. All I can say for sure is that you are equally cursed with living in interesting times.
zhena gogolia
@Baud:
I’m so sorry. I’m thinking of you.
schrodingers_cat
When will the first puff piece about noble Marine general Kelly appear? I give it less than a week and it will be in the Vichy Times.
A Ghost To Most
@Amir Khalid:
They’re more like guidelines than actual rules. I believe Mueller needs to indict, so the courts can rule on it.
MazeDancer
@OzarkHillbilly:
It is true voting needs to be a paid holiday.
But the Louisiana runoff was on a Saturday.
Each race had its own unique challenges. And Espy drove some serious turnout. And made giant progress n MS.
But without national news coverage, people don’t notice the stakes. Which is going to become an increasing problem. People don’t watch TV. Newpapers are dying. Without national attention, people are less engaged.
Also, local groups were probably exhausted.
rikyrah
@Kay:
Kay,
It goes back to:
1. The coverage of Whiteness. A lot of this, in drips, was around during 2016. But, because of Whiteness, he repeatedly got the benefit of the doubt.
2. Professional malpractice on an overwhelming level. Those who were providing the truth drips were coming considered the ‘fringe’ of the profession. Not the folks ‘at the cool table’.
3. Dolt45 is the vessel of White Supremacy. That he is a traitor…
OzarkHillbilly
@danielx: @SFAW:
OK OK, it’s true, they did pay me. To. go. away. And it wasn’t $130K, it was $1.30.
rikyrah
@Kay:
SNL went there on Saturday …
What if Dolt45 were Black?
https://youtu.be/HOABHShgGjg
As you would guess….all this bullshyt now?
Wouldn’t even be happening. Would be no debate at all.
Kay
@schrodingers_cat:
I think it adds to the narrative they’ve built about his inevitability and power. That campaign cared a lot about these things. That’s why they broke laws to pursue them. They’re not, in fact, a unique one-off. They worry about their base like every other political operation and they knew the revelations were damaging just like they knew the Russian assistance was important.
They were freaking out about whatever those women planned on saying. It went to the very top of the campaign, just like the meetings were Russians were conducted at the top levels. To say now “oh, it wouldn’t have mattered” is to deny what the campaign itself believed. That’s an extraordinary level of denial, verging on delusional.
I get it, I really do. It’s important to deny that these factors helped Trump because it discredits his presidency and a lot of people are invested in the inherent grandeur of the presidency, or whatever, but we can’t afford these romantic notions anymore. We need to tell the truth.
Another Scott
@Tony Jay: Thanks for the “Explainer”. It’s very helpful.
Good morning, everyone.
Cheers,
Scott.
Kay
@Baud:
I’m so sorry, Baud.
Ken
@Betty Cracker: On the plus side, he seems to have realized he’s Individual 1. Also, in a refreshing change of pace this tweet doesn’t create more work for Mueller, since he’s confessing to a crime Mueller knew about.
OzarkHillbilly
@MazeDancer:
Most people working minimum/low wage jobs need to work wkends either via the job requirements or the need for a 2nd job to provide an income adequate to the bare necessities of life. And even if one isn’t required to work, it is hard to find the energy for voting having already put in 60+ hours at the salt mines and many more hours navigating the inadequate public transport systems.
eta: I just want to point out that being poor is hard work. Having been there I am sympathetic.
Tony Jay
@OzarkHillbilly:
No-Deal would be a complete disaster for Britain, and outside of the extreme-Brexit circle-jerk that’s well understood. The MPs in Parliament know perfectly well that regardless of how full-throated and bombastic the “WTO Rulez R Kool” propaganda coming out of the pro-Brexit Press might be now, the second the effects of No-Deal start rippling through British society and trashing the economy there will be a sudden and complete volte-face and THEY will be left shouldering every morsel of blame for their ‘failure’ to make Brexit ‘work’. I’m not just talking career suicide, I’m talking very angry people in the middle of a societal collapse looking for someone to blame for their own mistakes.
So, no, I can’t see any prospect of a No-Deal happening by default. After May’s deal fails to get through (and she’s apparently pulled the vote because the Parliamentary arithmetic is so against her) and the EU says once again, no more negotiation on anything that really matters, the only options will be a 2nd referendum or a No-Deal. It’s one or the other, and there definitely – is – a majority within Parliament for avoiding a No-Deal Brexit.
If throwing the decision back to The People is what it takes, that’s what they’ll have to do. The Quitters will whine and howl and write speeches bemoaning the anti-democratic betrayal of all their hopes and dreams, but they won’t be able to out-vote it. So fuckem.
Steeplejack
@Betty Cracker:
It must be a coping mechanism, but when I read Trump’s tweets I always hear them in Colbert’s Trump voice.
Betty Cracker
Ambulatory cream cheese sculpture Hugh Hewitt just reported that Mike Pompeo is attempting to ride to the rescue of the Leave movement by saying the U.S. will move quickly to get a trade agreement in place if the no-deal Brexit scenario comes to pass. Weird that the Trump admin’s strategy always aligns so perfectly with Putin’s global white nationalist agenda, huh? Not that a free trade agreement would do much to alleviate the chaos a no-deal Brexit scenario would entail…
Kay
@schrodingers_cat:
It’s funny because I think the sentencing memos bring this down to a size we can get our arms around. Not a grand, brilliant conspiracy. Just a bunch of two bit hacks “fixing” things, putting our fires, covering their own asses and the ass of their boss- like they’ve been doing their whole miserable lives. The payments to the girlfriends and the hope to make a bundle off the Trump development in Russia are petty and small, like the Trump Administration. They don’t have any grand beliefs or central thesis, other than greed and self-dealing. Does that reduce the presidency to a transaction by some really sleazy people? Yeah, it does. We’ll just have to live with that. Because that’s what happened.
Kay
@schrodingers_cat:
And that reduction, to me, is the great value of legal proceedings. The plain language. Who paid whom and for what. No more narratives or conjecture on Trump’s inner workings. That’s irrelevant. Now we are finally, finally getting what happened and it’s small and greedy and dishonest, just like the people who did it.
Tony Jay
@Another Scott:
Since 2016 I’m out of the firm prognostication game, but I really can’t see how we – don’t – end up with a 2nd Referendum at the end of this.
As for what happens in the Referendum, imagine a Gif of a monkey shrugging. Remain – should – win by a landslide, but 17.5 million people have a track record of being incredibly stupid on this topic.
Tony Jay
@Betty Cracker:
Jeebus Gibbering Christ. Yeah, that’s really going to settle hearts and minds, isn’t it? The prospect of a US/UK ‘free’ trade deal in the wake of a No-Deal Brexit when the US side of the deal has all of the leverage and is guided by the Trumpian ethos of “Grab ’em by the whatever” and “I want MY MONEY!!!”.
What could possibly go wrong?
OzarkHillbilly
@Tony Jay:
And thanx for this little tidbit of info, it had escaped my attention.
Tony Jay
@OzarkHillbilly:
Yeah, it’s not mentioned much but wait for the squealing to start should the topic of asking for an Article 50 delay start firming up in Westminster.
They didn’t pick March 29th as the Leave date by accident.
Another Scott
@Tony Jay: I only know what I read about it from here in NoVA, but I can’t understand why the Brexit voters aren’t absolutely [klaxon]furious[/klaxon] with the Boris and the rest of people and institutions that lied to them about the £350M a week in free money that Brexit would yield.
I believe as you do that Remain should win in a landslide. But, like over here, one can’t count on a large fraction of the voters being rational these days.
Grrr…
Good luck!
Cheers,
Scott.
rikyrah
Uh huh
Uh huh ??
Star-Telegram (@startelegram) Tweeted:
Hundreds of sex abuse allegations found in fundamental Baptist churches across U.S.
https://t.co/oKxp9bu7WQ https://twitter.com/startelegram/status/1071729709958991873?s=17
MagdaInBlack
@OzarkHillbilly:
I’ve often thought about that little “bug that is a feature” that suppresses votes:
When you’re working that many hours, with changing schedules, it can become, not just very difficult, but an economic calculation as to whether you can afford to take time off to vote
Another Scott
@Baud: I’m very sorry, Baud. I hope her passing is quiet.
Remember the good times.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Amir Khalid
@Baud:
Damn. I’m sorry.
rikyrah
@Kay:
These sentencing documents, well everything from these proceedings have been very readable.
The average person can read them with no problem.
Sloane Ranger
@Quinerly: @Amir Khalid: When Cameron did a runner after the referendum she was the least worst of the available options. These included BoJo.
rikyrah
@Betty Cracker:
Interesting indeed, BC????
hueyplong
Another way to render more fair the supposed rule against indictments of sitting presidents would be for the SoL to be tolled during the time between the inauguration and whatever day the gibbon leaves office. Of course, that would mean that it simply doesn’t start at all until departure day for crimes committed while he’s in office.
rikyrah
@Quinerly:
Morning to Poco and the tribe ??
OzarkHillbilly
@Another Scott: I would guess they aren’t any more economically anxious than our trumpistas are. Somebody should go visit a diner and interview these salt of the earth working stiffs.
poleaxedbyboatwork
@Tony Jay:
Ya, for realz.
Wish you well and hope the fever breaks for y’all over there same as I do here in what’s left of ‘Murica, but never (mis)underestimate the power of irrational angry spite in clouding people’s judgment.
It’s like Dostoyevski’s Underground Man is loosed upon the world and insolently proclaiming his ardor for the ridiculous notion that 2 + 2 = 5.
Betty
@Tony Jay: i do hope the people see that they have been played by Putin and company. Hoping for a good outcome for the British people.
Platonailedit
May’s days may be numbered.
No point blaming the pols alone. The collective ‘wisdom’ of people is piss poor.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: So sorry to hear that. ☹️
Sloane Ranger
@Another Scott: That money would so be there if we had left the EU immediately after the referendum but, instead of obeying the democratic decision of the British people, traitorous Bremainers have been trying to ignore or work round it. So the lack of a Brexit bonus is totally down to those people.
jonas
@Amir Khalid: @Betty Cracker: This is a very well thought-out scheme. I’m sure the average British voter, having left behind a difficult relationship with the EU, would look forward to nothing more than shackling their economy to the American behemoth, particularly under Trump.
PaulWartenberg
I am currently on the phone to a temp agency to get a custodian to work this week at the library while our employed custodian is on holiday leave.
I may be competing with the White House while they are calling the same temp agency to hire a Chief of Staff.
SFAW
@OzarkHillbilly:
Oh, don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone that it was just the way I described it, so you can drop the pretense. You should be proud that you’re a Stud. (Sorry, a little carpentry humor. Very little.)
Immanentize
@Baud: a better friend I doubt she could have ever wanted. I am sorry, friend.
clay
@Betty Cracker:
Yes… that’s what the Trump administration is known for… their ability to rapidly enact goals.
(Still waiting for Mexico to pony up for that invisible wall…)
Platonailedit
My bet is on a public revote.
SiubhanDuinne
@Baud:
Oh, Baud, how sad. I am so sorry, and I hope her passing is gentle. Hugs to you.
Tenar Arha
@Baud: My best wishes for the time you have left &
ლ(╹_╹ლ)
SFAW
@Betty Cracker:
Pompeo’s telling the Brexiteers that Shitgibbon will Personally Guarantee that he will pay for any shortfall out of his vast personal fortune.
… which he sometimes refers to as the “United States Treasury.” Because, after all, isn’t the Treasury supposed to be the president*’s personal piggy bank, the way the Attorney General is his personal enforcer and Geheime Staatspolizei and Schutzstaffel
trnc
“On Friday evening, federal prosecutors for the first time said the president had directed illegal hush money payments to women who claimed to be his mistresses.”
Glibertarian Rand Paul says it’s ok, though, cuz campaign finance laws are too onerous. No word on whether that means republicans should be able to ignore existing law if they have their fingers crossed while they break it, or if he’s planning to introduce a law to make hush money legal.
OzarkHillbilly
Heh:
When the boys were small I would make up stories around the campfire. The only one I can now remember was the story of how the Whip-or-wills, the Chuck-Wills-Widows, and the Poor-Wills came into being. Good times.
NotMax
Like sands through the hourglass, these are the days of Infrastructure Week.
laura
@Baud: oh Baud, I’m so sorry and wish you both peace and ease.
Immanentize
@Tony Jay: Does the House of Lord’s have any role to play in this end game?
japa21
@Betty Cracker: What amazes me about that tweet, aside from the horrible grammar and poor spelling and everything else that is horrible about all his tweets, is that he makes it sound as if the Dems wanted Comey to appear in order to have Comey show collusion. And now his base will think the same thing.
OzarkHillbilly
@SFAW: Jobsite bumper sticker: “It takes a real stud to be a carpenter”.
Kathleen
@Baud: I am so sorry Baud. Holding you and your beloved pet in the light.
A Ghost To Most
@OzarkHillbilly: Religious people always impute their faith into whatever they are seeing.
“I felt like Spine Institute was an answer to prayer” is one galling example on TV. What an insult to science.
Ladyraxterinok
@MazeDancer: SooooGOP learns–force election into run-off and no matter the dem turn-out in the election they’ll just shrug and stay at home if there’s a run-off.
Needed–massive education on what it means to ‘participate in a democracy,’
Gin & Tonic
@Another Scott: Catching up on some reading from yesterday, thanks for filling in on the Dies Irae question after my post-and-run.
Ladyraxterinok
@OzarkHillbilly: Sorry all for earlier comment. Didn’t consider this!
trnc
How many more scones and Jags are we supposed to buy?
PaulWartenberg
Did the EU court just say the British gov’t can just CANCEL the whole Brexit thing?
PaulWartenberg
@Betty Cracker:
part of this sounds like trump looking at a “golden” opportunity for himself to grift with the UK, avoid the damage his tariffs are inflicting on American farmers/manufacturers, and come out of it looking like a hero.
thing is, nobody in their right mind should trust trump on ANY business deal.
Everything trump Touches Dies. It’s not a hypothesis, it’s a proof.
Heidi Mom
@Baud: I’m so sorry to hear that. Wishing you peace and comfort.
trnc
Never mind my scones comment. I see we buy a lot of pharmaceuticals from them. In completely unrelated news, the DT administration appears to be making no effort to fight opioid addiction.
Another Scott
@Gin & Tonic: Glad to help!
Cheers,
Scott.
The Very Reverend Crimson Fire of Compassion
@Baud: On it.
NotMax
@tmc
“U.S. announces plan to convert Yucca Mountain into national strategic Marmite reserve.”
trnc
@japa21: Gaslighting is his greatest skill other than bankrupting businesses and leaving his investors holding the bag.
trnc
@NotMax: Uh, oh. Is that anything like vegamite?
Shalimar
@Immanentize: Charlie Graddick’s sister is my godmother. He is far worse than you even know.
trnc
@Baud: I’m very sorry to hear this. I hope you are able to find some peace and consolation.
Amir Khalid
@trnc:
Different but similar food product.
Ladyraxterinok
@rikyrah: This may be the Independent Fundamental Baptists denomination. They run BobJones U in SC. There’s been a lot of discussion about their various sex scandals at the blog thewartbergwatch.com.
Bruce Gerencser grew up in this denomination and was a preacher in it for several decades. He and his wife left christianity a few yrs ago. He’s written about the belief system of the denomination and its effects at his blog.
Tony Jay
@Another Scott:
What Sloane Ranger said @127.
They want their unicorns, and if they don’t get them it’s all the fault of Remoaners and traitors and Eurocrats conspiring together to thwart their dreams of a Great White Britain. Any evidence to the contrary is just more proof that the conspiracy runs deep and Brexit has to mean Brexit!
There’s no talking to them. They just have to be outvoted.
Tony Jay
@Immanentize:
Not really. I don’t think the Lords is allowed to vote against anything that was included in a Governing Party’s manifesto, and ‘honouring the referendum vote’ was in the Tory one.
The Lords can, and has, debated Brexit and would almost certainly vote it down if they could, but as an unelected chamber they constitutionally can’t.
Aleta
@Baud: Sending love to her.
Tony Jay
@PaulWartenberg:
It did, quite forcefully as well.
Another brick in the Quitter Wall of Denial goes spinning into the void.
Original Lee
@Barney: As a former employee of the late Robert Maxwell, I can say that he was no Trump. Maxwell was a master at convincing banks to give him money, but he actually seemed to care that the businesses he owned appeared to be successful. His grandiose plans were always underfunded (hence the pension fund embezzlement and bank fraud), but IMO he was more like a certain Australian newspaper mogul than the Nectarine Narcissist.
Gin & Tonic
@Amir Khalid: While calling either of them a “food product” is very generous with the language, they are, however, versatile products.
Gin & Tonic
@Another Scott: So the guy in the photo I posted Saturday wasn’t just some member, it was Fabrice Sorlin himself.
Immanentize
@trnc: I already thought he was very bad. Someday I hope you and I can share a table and a drink or two….
Yarrow
@Baud: So sorry, Baud. Sending peaceful thoughts for this transition.
Immanentize
@Immanentize: @Shalimar: Ooops, my above comment was for you, not trnc — re: Graddick:
“I already thought he (Graddick) was very bad. Someday I hope you and I can share a table and a drink or two….”
Sloane Ranger
@Tony Jay: I don’t know if it’s a law but it’s certainly custom and practice. The Lord’s can, and have, insert amendments into Bills which the Brexiteers complain contain “poison pills” but these can be voted down in the Commons, which, as the elected Chamber, has the final say.
Of course, in the current shitstorm climate who knows what will happen next!
Democracy, the worse form of government ever – apart from all the rest!
Miss Bianca
@Baud: so sorry to hear it, Baud.
Tony Jay
@Sloane Ranger:
We could try pumping LSD directly into the brains of schoolkids, giving them crayons and a big, white wall. Dip cats into paint and throw them at the wall while wearing blindfolds and oven gloves. Whatever the paint doesn’t cover becomes Government policy.
It couldn’t be – that – much worse than this shitshow.
MisterForkbeard
@Baud: Oh. That’s so, so awful. I’m sorry.
Shalimar
@Immanentize: I hope too. Sounds like a good day.
Mandarama
@Baud: Thinking of you, Baud.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Oh no! You and your girl are in our thoughts here.
Hob
@Baud: Very sorry to hear it. Lost two cats last year, it never gets easier.
The Very Reverend Crimson Fire of Compassion
@Baud: holding you and your baby in my heart. Been there.
VincentN
@Amir Khalid: Supposedly, you can’t indict or prosecute a sitting president because impeachment is supposed to be the remedy for getting rid of one. Hell, it took until Clinton v. Jones for the Supreme Court to say the President of the United States has no immunity from civil law litigation. But a court has never ruled on the indictment issue so the question is still open despite what DOJ memos say.