Chris Collins, former Congressman from NY-27, first Member of Congress to endorse Trump, and former resident of Buffalo, NY, will soon be a residing in a prison in Pensacola, FL for 26 months. Collins was sentenced this afternoon for insider trading.
I followed Collins’ sentencing via a reporter in the courtroom on Twitter. The excuse making by his lawyer was pathetic. For example, he complained that the government revealed the address of Collins’ wife, but a few minutes later, a weeping Collins revealed all the names of his grandchildren. The judge later ruled that their names be struck from the record.
In the pre-sentencing letters, one attorney from Buffalo pointed out that when Collins was Erie County Executive, he decreed that worker’s compensation recipients would have to pick up their checks in person at the county courthouse, instead of having them mailed or deposited electronically. At the courthouse, these recipients would be interrogated to see why they couldn’t do light work. The lawyer represented a man from Batavia – 30 miles from Buffalo – who had seven surgeries and obviously couldn’t come to Buffalo to get his check. The state worker’s comp board reversed Collins’ policy in a 12-0 vote, but the whole incident gives you an inkling of the quality of mercy that Collins was willing to provide to others: none and fuck them.
So, in a little bit of justice, Collins had to stand in front of a judge today, sobbing, begging for sympathy, and regretting that he ruined his son’s life by giving him insider information the son used. (His son is going to be sentenced for that next week). Unfortunately for him, and fortunately for the rest of us, in this case, the judge wasn’t sympathetic.
Jeffro
Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy. May they – all the trumpistas – all rot in jail before long.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
the expression on my face is what novelists call a cold smile
I’m sure the Germans have a word for it. Schadenfreudegrinnen?
bbleh
@Jeffro: I am increasingly convinced they don’t know any better.
“It’s better for me! Of course I’m going to do it! What would you do?”
They are sociopaths by proclivity, and our society rewards sociopathy in its leadership.
Cheryl Rofer
Duncan Hunter was the second congressman to endorse Trump. Another criminal.
We need to ask why people like this get elected and how we can avoid that in the future.
Jeffro
@bbleh: They are corrupt, and they tell themselves it’s okay to do corrupt things because “everyone does it”. No wonder trumpov is their avatar.
It’s literally the biggest lie their whole movement tells – no point in having any standards, because everyone else is stealing/cheating on their taxes/laundering money/making fun of disabled people/mocking POWs/paying off porn star mistresses/extorting foreign countries to gin up dirt on their political enemies.
And so on. May they all rot, rot, rot in prison before they rot in hell.
Amir Khalid
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
A cold smile = Ein kaltes Lächeln
Cheryl Rofer
Remember I said, earlier today, that the Republicans will be one of the groups spreading disinformation?
Rusty
Given the chance his district would likely reelect him. On the same day that this administration announced that our kids will get shittier food, at least one piece of trash is getting is due.
Jeffro
@Cheryl Rofer: Hunter’s and Collins’ crimes were ‘white-collar’ crimes. An administration that made fighting those one of its top three priorities could go a long way in this country.
This is one of the major hidden costs of tax cut after tax cut for the wealthy: no funding for fighting white-collar crime (including rampant tax fraud by the 1%), but plenty of dough in the 1%’s pockets to keep buying legislators. And they buy them CHEAP.
Keith P
How long before tweets that what happened to Collins isn’t “fair”? And yet when has any media figure ever asked DJT how he defines “fair” or what specifically about XYZ is “unfair”. I’m just curious if Trump would just go ahead and say “doing bad things to supporters of me” or if he can craft some semblance of an actual explanation.
Chris T.
Which tells you that this is what he thought he would do, i.e., take the money even if he was actually already working another job, etc.
Ruckus
@Keith P:
trump probably can’t help himself – OK that’s an unused phrase – but he shouldn’t say anything and
probablymaybe won’t, it would bring up a lot of here’s what you have done dumbass.Roger Moore
@Cheryl Rofer:
Unfortunately, we can’t count on them all being quite so incompetent.
TS (the original)
Getting caught seems to cause many MAGAs to regret their actions.
stinger
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Cuba Gooding, Jr., said it best.
Martin
@Cheryl Rofer: Man, I think m^4 and I could really fuck some shit up if we were half as willing to hack Facebook as the usual 24/7 drunk Trumper.
MomSense
Steve in the ATL where the fuck are you???? I’ve gone from concerned to outright worried. Check in and let us know what’s up.
Redshift
Don’t know if it’s already been posted here, but Devin Nunes’ is threatening to sue Ted Lieu for defamation, and his response to Nunes’ lawyer is epic:
https://twitter.com/tedlieu/status/1218301644007333888?s=09
Cheryl Rofer
@Martin: They have people as good as M^4 too.
Baud
@MomSense:
I think Suburu knows him IRL, so I assume we will learn something when we are meant to learn something.
Baud
@Cheryl Rofer: Unpossible. No one is as good as M^4.
West of the Rockies
@MomSense:
Is Steve in Atlanta ill? This is the first I’ve heard anything about his absence. He’s a beloved Juicer.
MomSense
@Baud:
That doesn’t help the worry. I just hope his wife is ok.
Aleta
Jesus. Collins emphasized his service in Congress as though he deserved some leniency for that. Wasn’t a Congressional event where he heard the information that he passed to his son? Sure, corrupt officials should get forgiveness credits because they were working for us while they were cheating us. From your link to the twitter of Matthew Russell Lee, the reporter for Inner City Press @innercitypress who was live tweeting:
It used to be the Scouts themselves said they’d throw you out if you broke the oath and went against Scout’s Honor in a serious way, no?
MomSense
@West of the Rockies:
I hope not! My hope is that he and his wife packed up the Mercedes and are having one helluva cross country adventure.
debbie
@Cheryl Rofer:
We need to get people back to voting to better the country rather than to screw with people they hate.
Mike G
worker’s compensation recipients would have to pick up their checks in person at the county courthouse, instead of having them mailed or deposited electronically. At the courthouse, these recipients would be interrogated to see why they couldn’t do light work.
The leopard who ate faces is begging not to have his face eaten. No mercy.
WaterGirl
@MomSense: He did not write back to my email last week.
Kent
It just fucking astonishes me how non self-aware many of these MAGA types are. I have KoolAid drinking white rural MAGA type relatives who live in deeply rural parts of the country.
They cheered the undermining of Obamacare and especially the non-expansion of Medicaid to the undeserving. Then wonder when the last rural hospital within 50 miles closes because they can’t afford all the indigent care that would otherwise have been covered by Medicaid already paid for by their own fucking tax dollars.
They cheer the tightening of rules for the food stamp programs. Then can’t figure it out when the last grocery in their town closes and all they have left within a 25 minute drive is a Dollar General.
They cheer Trump’s wall and immigration policy then can’t figure out why there are no home health care workers to take care of Aunt May.
They vote in nothing but teabagger GOP types to the local county commission and vote down every bond measure and can’t figure out why the county is tearing up their paved country roads and replacing them with gravel.
The cheered Trump’s tariffs and can’t figure out why all the local farms are going bankrupt.
And they can’t figure out why no one under 40 wants to stick around their little piece of rural paradise.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Redshift:
Ted Lieu is my hero.
Tazj
He was horrible as Erie County Executive before he was a bad representative.He wanted to institute that Sigma Six training for county workers here because he thought they didn’t know how to do their jobs. Typical Republican who was convinced that government should be run like a business and government workers needed increased case loads and less money.
He also didn’t care that inmates suffered in Erie County jails and there was an increased suicide rate. The US DIstrict Attorney had to step in to improve conditions. .
Barbara
@Aleta: Yowza. He should have followed prepared notes.
Gelfling 545
The Buffalo News was running some horseradish about how a simple phone call brought down his career. No! Being a sleaze & an incompetent one at that brought down his career. Finally.
Searcher
@Jeffro: Oh man, for a minute before I clicked up for context I thought you were both-sidesing-that by referencing Hunter Biden instead of Duncan Hunter.
For I minute I was worried I was going to have to jump to Biden’s defense.
Kent
@Gelfling 545: A simple phone call is how they always get caught. Ukraine anyone?
WaterGirl
But I did hear back from Skepticat, who said this:
MomSense
@WaterGirl:
ugh
Aleta
@WaterGirl: Thanks.
joel hanes
@Redshift:
response to Nunes’ lawyer is epic
The slightly starchier British equivalent is
“I refer you to the reply made in the case Arkell vs Pressdram”
WaterGirl
@MomSense: Sent on Tuesday 1/7. :-(
Aleta
@Gelfling 545: The Buffalo News sounded like it was on the verge of weeping over the letters in support of Collins.
WaterGirl
@joel hanes: I had a friend whose dad was dean of a college at the University.
He had a stamp made up, that he kept on his desk:
I always admired him.
Martin
@Cheryl Rofer: Oh, no doubt. But we’re not even trying to fuck shit up.
Kent
@Cheryl Rofer: So he has 30 different FB pages that are busy forwarding articles to each other and liking each other’s stuff? Does that actually accomplish anything or is it just a giant electronic one-man circle jerk?
chris
@MomSense:I just hope his wife is ok.
That’s what I’ve been wondering.
Immanentize
@WaterGirl: what if we all wrote “literally” like ten times each when we really meant “figuratively.” That might be the type of incantation that would stir him to action?
I miss him
Immanentize
@WaterGirl: OMG. I have to make one for my friend.
Aleta
@MomSense: Same.
MomSense
@chris:
Same.
Redshift
@Kent: From what I understand, it can increase their “popularity” and make them more visible to other people.
Amir Khalid
@Immanentize:
And one for yourself, too.
chris
Just heard from my BIL who just got off the phone with his father in St. Pierre et Miquelon. Sounds like they’ll be a few days digging out.
https://twitter.com/hashtag/nlblizzard2020?src=tren
Amir Khalid
@Kent:
If it’s just one man, saith the pedant, it’s not a circle jerk. It’s just him wanking.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@chris: Egad. Where do you start digging?
Gin & Tonic
@Immanentize: “My friend.” Sure.
Baud
@Amir Khalid: That’s deep.
MomSense
Well space force decided to go with camo uniforms – and they aren’t black with sparkles.
zhena gogolia
@Baud:
Has she said anything?
MomSense
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
We had a storm like that a few years ago. Kids jumped off the roof with shovels and tunneled to the back door.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@MomSense: Guess they’re not going with stealth.
Baud
@MomSense:
Like this?
Baud
@zhena gogolia: Not that I’ve seen.
MomSense
@Baud:
I literally need one of those!!
chris
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: If you left the shovel outside… you don’t.
Amir Khalid
@MomSense:
Trump must have sat down and figured it out: camo uniforms look more tactical, and are ideal for the jungles of outer space.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
the scariest thing about Gohmert, to me, isn’t that he’s in Congress, there are probably a good dozen or so who could lose a Trivial Pursuit match to Louie. This man was a judge in Texas for more than ten years. He was appointed to the state Court of Appeals. How many people’s lies passed through the hands of this gibbering Gabby Hayes impersonator?
MomSense
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
https://twitter.com/armscontrolwonk/status/1218362591220645888?s=21arms control wonk called it
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I think you just cast aspersions on his asparagus, you need to apologize to Louie.
Immanentize
@MomSense: Your tax dollars not at work
chris
@MomSense: That’ll blend right in on Venus.
Mary G
@chris: That storm is terrible! Props to the woman in labor who drove herself to the hospital on a Ski Doo.
MomSense
@Immanentize:
They really needed someone like Mel Brooks on this project.
MomSense
@chris:
Then they better have a women’s version.
chris
@Mary G: And props to the people who are there in the hospital for her.
It is terrible and they are terrifying to watch. At the same time we’re kinda used to it and mostly grateful that it doesn’t happen very often. We haven’t had one here in Nova Scotia for a few years and… damn, I’ve likely jinxed it.
Immanentize
@MomSense:
All of this stuff is, in fact, causing me high anxiety. To think there are so many cool examples of possible uniforms in film and fiction. And isn’t the right analogy to the Navy, not terra-bound, burried in mud grunts?
Meanwhile, let us know when you get the sparkly see through.
chris
@MomSense:
What for? This is Trump’s Space Force! Real men only, no icky girls allowed!
MomSense
@chris:
Men are from Mars. Women are from Venus.
MomSense
@Immanentize:
Sparkles will have to wait until summer. It’s too damned cold now. There are all sorts of horribly inappropriate old Maine expressions for how cold it is. Sometimes I wish I could still say them.
chris
@MomSense: Uh huh. I was just trying to avoid any Uranus jokes.
Kent
@Redshift: I guess I don’t understand how FB really works. I only ever see posts from people I have actually friended as well as the occasional ad for shit that I might vaguely be interested in (targeting me no doubt due to my browsing history). I never ever see any random stuff from other posters I’m not already friends with.
Anyway, if FB is this easily manipulated, then the Dems sure as hell should be mobilizing thousands of 16 year old hackers to tilt things in the other direction. Maybe Bloomberg or Steyer can drop a billion for that effort. Because if this clueless dipshit can manipulate FB then the really smart hacker types I see at my HS should be able to run circles around him. And, for that matter, take on the Russian trolls. I refuse to believe that Russian hackers and trolls are better than what the US can produce.
chris
@MomSense: -14 here, cold enough to freeze the nuts off a steel bridge!
MomSense
@chris:
YES!! I was literally hoping someone would.
Immanentize
@MomSense: well there are brass monkeys and witches and some others I’m sure I could recall, but I’m too cold to do so
Immanentize
@chris: Isn’t there where the Klingons hang out?
Aleta
Feels like a cold day in hell finally arrived, news wise.
MomSense
@Immanentize:
Don’t forget the nuns!
frosty
@Immanentize: Thomas Pynchon had a little ditty of them in Gravity’s Rainbow (from memory here):
I’ll skip the witch one …
Colder than a bucket of penguin shit, colder than the hair on a polar bear’s ass, colder than the frost on a champagne glass!
Cheryl Rofer
@Kent: I have found an article that explains this. But first I have to put in some time to understand it.
I will be writing many more posts on disinformation.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@MomSense:
My interest, it is piqued….
chris
@Immanentize: Was trying to avoid Klingons too!
Immanentize
@frosty: In my family the polite version was colder than a mother-in-law’s kiss.
Yes to penguins, yes to nuns and —
I heart Pynchon. A lot. So does the Immp now too. I need to read Gravity’s Rainbow and V again.
smedley the uncertain
@chris: 14F here this am, WNY. Cold enough to freeze the balls off of a brass monkey. Cheers…
Immanentize
@chris: Everyone tries to avoid Klingons.
JCNZ
@Kent: That’s the Democratic campaign right there.
chris
@smedley the uncertain: For some reason around here it’s colder’n a welldigger’s ass.
Bill Arnold
@MomSense:
The patch is some goofy artwork (no disrespect to the artist intended):
https://www.aviatorgear.com/p-26272-us-space-command-ocp-patch.aspx
It is one of my favorite points of view for the Earth, as an East Coast American, but the colors are wrong and it’s rudely clipped. :-) And what’s with the 5 pointed stars? Space stars don’t have points except when they have 5 simultaneous large solar flares evenly spaced around their edge, highly improbable. And the space eagle’s wings are the wrong colors, just saying.
Kent
@JCNZ: One would hope. Except we’ll probably be doing lots of M4A virtue signalling instead.
WaterGirl
@Immanentize:
I would be willing to try that! I miss him, too.
Rand Careaga
@Immanentize: I read/reread all of Pynchon in 2018. Gravity’s Rainbow gobsmacked me even more than it had forty years earlier. Mason & Dixon and Against the Day were pretty damn fine as well, and Bleeding Edge has replaced Lot 49 as the Pynchon “gateway drug” I press upon friends.
WaterGirl
@Amir Khalid: @Immanentize: As long as you’re having some made, I’ll take one, too.
Dmbeaster
@Jeffro:
“And they buy them CHEAP.”
A lot of work has been done recently examining the cost benefit of lobbying. The findings have been that the bang for the buck for lobbying is enormous. The lobbying and donation expenses are minor in relation to the amount at stake, and the recipients are eager.
Ksmiami
@Kent: hate to be rude but fuck your relatives…
Denali
I think of my right wing neighbor who told me Collins was a “good guy” and wonder what he is thinking now. I can’t talk about it with any of these people. I went to an Eagle Court of Honor last Saturday in Collins’ District; my friend’s grandson. He wants to be a lawyer. I hope he makes it. Rural western New York can be as backward as any place in the south.
J R in WV
@Redshift:
After referring to Parnas’s evidence as provided to the House and shown on Rachael Maddow’s show, Congressman Lieu closes out with:
“I would welcome taking discovery of Devin Nunes. Or you can take your letter and shove it!”
Master piece!
RobNYNY
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I don’t know if the word actually exists, but you are almost right. It would be Schadenfreudegrinsen.