Now: USDOJ won't pursue charges against Andrew McCabe. Letter from prosecutors: https://t.co/Rt7c1SZVnj Statement from McCabe's lawyers @mrbromwich and David Schertler: pic.twitter.com/L1QclMUdTq
— Mike Scarcella (@MikeScarcella) February 14, 2020
Here’s the letter from the DOJ to Deputy Director McCabe’s attorneys:
As we know from both his statements and tweets this week, as well as AG Barr’s kayfabe interview last night and the subsequent reporting about how the President views the DOJ, we can expect that he’s not going to take this well. I have updated the Presidential Daily Temperament Advisory System accordingly. Please take all appropriate precautions!
Update at 1:20 PM EDT
It has just been reported that AG Barr has appointed an outside counsel to review LTG Flynn’s case.
https://twitter.com/Susan_Hennessey/status/1228379644119961600
Attorney General William P. Barr has assigned an outside prosecutor to scrutinize the criminal case against President Trump’s former national security adviser Michael T. Flynn, according to people familiar with the matter.
The review is highly unusual and could trigger more accusations of political interference by top Justice Department officials into the work of career prosecutors.
Mr. Barr has also installed a handful of outside prosecutors to broadly review the handling of other politically sensitive national-security cases in the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, the people said. The team includes at least one prosecutor from the office of the United States attorney in St. Louis, Jeff Jensen, who is handling the Flynn matter, as well as prosecutors from the office of the deputy attorney general, Jeffrey A. Rosen.
Over the past two weeks, the outside prosecutors have begun grilling line prosecutors in the Washington office about various cases — some public, some not — including investigative steps, prosecutorial actions and why they took them, according to the people. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive internal deliberations.
The Justice Department declined to comment.
Open thread!
Lapassionara
Maybe Hope will take his phone away, at least until this high dollar fundraiser is over this evening.
I’m genuinely glad for McCabe, and for the US.
OT, but I’m not sure why he needs to raise money, as it looks like the taxpayers will be funding most of his campaign expenses.
trollhattan
Had to dive into the googles for a refresher of who he is and what his slight against Trump was–so legion are his enemies–and see that he had “lacked candor.” Zut alors, man the battlements!
Yutsano
I thought you guys coördinated your postings better than this. :P
Adam L Silverman
@Yutsano: I was already done with the post and doing the update for the Flynn thing when mistermix did his.
Geoduck
Suppose Barr was smart enough to warn the Shiatgibbon in advance that this was coming?
satby
I hope now that McCabe sues the fuck out of them for wrongful dismissal and retaliation. Because it would go a long way to replacing that lost pension.
FlyingToaster
I just checked (via UnFollowTrump; I’ll never follow the orange shitgibbon myself), and his last tweet was an hour ago saying that Bernie is getting robbed by the DNC.
I should note that (IMNSHO), Bernie has a ceiling of about 35% of D “first choice” votes; the rest of us want someone else but will still vote for his shrillness in the general. The problem seems to be that he’s nobody’s second choice, unlike Liz/Amy/Pete/Mike.
What, Steyer’s still in the race‽
JPL
@Adam L Silverman: The more the merrier!
The Dangerman
Surprised this didn’t drop until tonight (late Friday on a Valentines Day sounds perfect for “bad news”). Who blows a gasket first? Trump or Hannity?
ETA: Put me down for Hannity; he has to yammer on TV for an hour. Maybe we can watch the blowout live.
Adam L Silverman
@satby: Lawsuit was filed a long time ago.
trollhattan
@FlyingToaster:
Of course Trump wants to run against Wilmer. They can “other” him like nobody else.
download my app in the app store mistermix
Sorry, I just saw this and deleted my duplicative post. And, no, we don’t coordinate anything around here, which is fine.
robmassing
FTFNYT and their f-ing view from nowhere. We are in an ongoing national emergency and they will never stop doing this.
JPL
@Geoduck: You would think, since that is normal protocol for high profile cases. If the case had gone to trial, the jurors would laugh at the evidence.
So you did something you were allowed to do, and you gave misleading facts which you corrected.
It was a tad better than a case on Hillary. Did you know that your computer had classified information on it? It wasn’t classified at the time. oh nevermind.
The Dangerman
@trollhattan:
The Trumpers are jonesing for either Wilmer or Buttigieg. Both are Dukakis level beatdowns.
Betty Cracker
The “independent” review of cases where Trump doesn’t like the outcome is an interesting innovation that nonetheless fails to hide the fact that Trump is delaying or subverting justice on behalf of his cronies, with Barr’s full cooperation.
Baud
I’m surprised the absence of evidence won the day at the DOJ.
Baud
@The Dangerman:
Has Trump ever mentioned Klo?
RobertDSC-iPhone 8
When I saw the title of this thread, I thought the Criminal In Chief had launched nukes or some other irrevocable act of war.
scav
Department of JustAs TrumpTweets.
Still working on it, maybe. Dept of JustAss is too indefinite.
JPL
@Baud: They are still looking at Brennan and Comey so they might be able to offer up a sacrifice to their lord and master.
The Dangerman
@Baud:
I don’t think so but I’m not following all that closely (I’m on the mild Rip Van Winkle regimen). I think pitchers and catchers report today, so more distractions. Thank goodness.
ETA: On my way to Spring Training and may have to swing by Vegas and see if I can get a prop bet on whether or not Astros lead Majors in HBP. I wonder how long until Altuve gets placed on his ass by a “purpose pitch”.
Don Drysdale would not have put up with this stuff.
Shalimar
Flynn’s case is before the judge for sentencing. I don’t understand what they could do to help him now. It’s basically over from DoJ’s perspective.
burnspbesq
@Adam L Silverman:
DOJ just defenestrated its own Exemption Seven argument.
My money is on Judge Walton ordering disclosure.
Elie
I do not want Bloomberg to be the Democratic nominee, but as a black woman, after seeing Trump get off from the impeachment effort so seriously made, and the aftermath — his revenge moves and continuation in dismantling our civic society, I am feeling a bit terrified and not a little desperate. Our house is on fire and I am not sure, knowing white people like I do, that any of the current group – from Elizabeth to Bernie to Biden to Buttigieg, can get the job done. There is only one fucking job and it aint changing wall street or Medicare for All. Its removing this demon and his assistants and enablers from power. I don’t think any of them truly get this and I am scared. I am willing, like the article says, to try to get free and see if one of these folks can step up and bring the power, but right now I aint seeing it and this is existential for me. There can be no “Oh well, we tried”. Too much of our blood and lives already spent working to get our fragile freedom. I don’t give a fuck about that “but we tried”, shit. We got to get this DONE. Sorry about my crazy, but I am feeling pretty crazy…..
Baud
@The Dangerman: Yes, I’m looking forward to the distraction.
JPL
@burnspbesq: ha Wait until Walton finds out that the special prosecutors are looking at all of Mueller’s indictments.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@The Dangerman: The first segment of the local sports here mocked the Astros contrition about their cheating against the Dodgers. Astros apologies with soft piano music in the background.
Barbara
@Elie: I think a lot of people share your feelings.
zhena gogolia
@Elie:
Me too (white woman).
JPL
@burnspbesq: What the hell are you doing here? Did you get any sleep?
Adam L Silverman
@download my app in the app store mistermix: It is not fine! Stay where you are, the drone operators wrists get tired when they have to chase the targets!!!//
It happens. This won’t be the first time, nor will it be the last. And there’s no guarantee I won’t be the bigfooter next time instead of the bigfootee.
Elie
…And let me add, that bullshit in Iowa underscores for me how much white Democrats don’t get it — don’t have the situational awareness to save us. Who fucks up a critical vote like that with that scale of incompetence just don’t get our situation. This whole chosing health care plans and paying for someone’s college is important, sure, but NOT NOW!!!!! We aint gonna have any college, or health care or anything else if Trump is re-elected! Don’t you see that!?
I don’t think white progressive Democrats get the situation and hence I am alarmed and ready to put the knife to my own child’s throat, so to speak as described in the Roots piece. WAKE UP!! PAY ATTENTION! This aint Bernie cult time or anything else time but to get rid of the Trumpites!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Elie: I’m with you on that feeling. Trump will be here in LA on Tuesday for meetings about the 2028 Olympics, my bet is that he talks alot about the homeless here. His “solutions” involve camps. Oh, he’s also here for a fundraiser with his downtown LA developer buddies.
The Dangerman
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
The Commissioner really screwed this one up with the mild penalties. It won’t be long until someone goes head hunting with the Astro players that are so contrite (with Drysdale, it would have been the 1st pitch). Now, I think headhunting is damned dangerous, but it’s coming. Players will police themselves. Been that way since forever.
mrmoshpotato
@The Dangerman: Yup. Even an unqualified, manchild sack of shit like Dump would be able to wipe the floors in at least 40 states going up against Shouty The Wagging Finger or Meh Pete.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Me thinks this is the beginning of the inevitable Barr death watch. Trump owes Barr so naturally Trump needs to get rid of Barr.
Gin & Tonic
@The Dangerman: Nor Bob Gibson.
cain
@Betty Cracker:
Barr and McConnell have become Trump’s biggest enablers. I fail to see what they gain after the administration is over and there is a course correction unless the goal is to undermine the entire govt and create a new one.
Mike R
@Elie: I will second that, Trump goes then we worry about the other stuff. We require a functioning country now.
robmassing
@Elie: I too am scared af but I don’t see how Bloomberg is the “safe” alternative. His natural constituency – “fiscal conservative, social liberal” – is about 3% of the voting population.
Amir Khalid
@Yutsano:
You’re doing New Yorker diaereses these days?
Martin
@burnspbesq: Aren’t you in the active process of getting married? Log out and come back in a week.
Martin
@Amir Khalid: Yutsy has always classed this joint up.
MisterForkbeard
@Elie: I saw someone a few days ago talking about how they had a medical condition and would only vote in the primary (or general) for someone who supported Bernie’s M4A.
The fact that Bernie cannot get M4A passed (and his own campaign people say so) is not something that matters to this guy. It’s like you said – they’re so narrowly focused on their ideal that they’re not looking at what’s actually happening.
download my app in the app store mistermix
@Elie: I’m reading other interviews of black voters saying similar things. You’re not alone.
Warblewarble
Clean up on aisle 6. There never as in never a case against McCabe . Vanity and vengeance tRUMP stupidity and slavish DOJ ran with this. Meanwhile the shit goes on. Mainstream media eat this shit won’t ask obvious questions. Russia are you listening. since at least 1985 with doubt question.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@robmassing: You’re looking at this wrong, it’s not about positions or plans, it’s about punching Trump in the face.
Brachiator
I expect Trump to call for the impeachment of President Obama and Hillary Clinton.
Served
I don’t buy “the house is on fire” as a defense for rolling over for Bloomberg so easily.
There will always be a Trump knocking on the door from now on, unless we take major steps to fix things. When the Dem wins in 2020, we’ll be talking about the arsonist in the front yard holding a molotov cocktail in 2024, and every election afterward. They have a template for getting away with everything now, and they’ll follow it, probably honing it into a more effective version.
We must win, but we don’t have to cede policy changes to do so at this point. Seizing the opportunity to enact change when we have power is what matters, not just seizing the role. Who is in charge matters still.
Adam L Silverman
@The Dangerman:
This is where the relegation concept from British football and rugby is a good idea.
MisterForkbeard
@Martin: Seriously. According to my notes, he was supposed to get married in… about 2 hours?
God knows reading Balloon Juice is not how I calmed down before my wedding. I think I had a glass of 25 year old scotch.
FelonyGovt
@Elie: This old white lady is right there with you.
Adam L Silverman
@Shalimar: Piss the judge off even more. And provide a reasonable cover for the President pardoning Flynn.
Adam L Silverman
@burnspbesq: My understanding is he doesn’t tolerate these types of shenanigans.
debbie
@satby:
Exactly what I was wondering. Is McCabe the one who lost his pension when he was fired one week before retiring? Will he get it back now?
CaseyL
@Elie: I won’t say I feel the same unbelieving rage as you, but I do feel something very close to it.
Moderators aren’t asking those questions? Screw ’em. The candidatesf Should be ignoring the damnfool questions and talking about this!
tam1MI
@Elie: I’m a woman who’s so white you could use me to read by on a moonless night, and I agree with you 100%.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Served: You have to win to do that. I’m not in the “any Democrat will beat Trump” camp.
Adam L Silverman
@Elie:
balloon-juice.com/2019/11/20/some-thoughts-on-the-campaign-before-tonights-debate/
Bex
@FlyingToaster: I thought somebody on the (barf) Bloomberg thread had picked Bloomberg first and Bernie second. Or was it the other way around? So what, who cares?
Served
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I’m not going to fold before the cards are even dealt.
The reluctant Blue No Matter Who attitude toward Bloomberg morphed into “We have to win, policy is a distraction” within 48 hours. This is the affirmative case for Bloomberg people are making. It is barely a resignation anymore, and the Dem primary has barely even started. Sad to see it.
debbie
Never mind.
Adam L Silverman
@cain: They don’t believe the administration will end next year. Their decades long project is permanent minoritarian (white, Christian – evangelical and traditionalist Catholic, predominantly male) rule (not governing) with an elected president who is both the state and functionally the king. That’s their play.
trnc
More money is more money. There is never enough for grifters like DT, and if you think unspent campaign cash will be properly and legally disbursed ….
Mayur
Adam:
You might as well just leave that thing on Red for the rest of the year.
geg6
@Elie:
This white woman is right there with you.
James E Powell
The only surprise is that it’s not Ken Starr.
John Revolta
Kellyanne C. was on the box a week or two ago talking about how Dems oughta nominate Bernie. They’re being so blatant it almost makes me think they really DON”T want to run against him and they’re trying to get us to throw them in the briar patch. Well, almost.
Adam L Silverman
@tam1MI:
You can’t advertise that service here, Balloon Juice doesn’t have a cabaret license!//
The Dangerman
@Adam L Silverman:
I’m not too familiar with the concept, but if my Googling is correct, the Astros should get relegated to some place with long bus rides and bologna sandwiches.
In search of another prop bet – Altuve, et al, batting average drops dramatically this year. Not from not knowing what is coming, but he better not be digging in.
debbie
@John Revolta:
No, they just want to make sure Dems lose.
trollhattan
@Elie:
Losing to Trump would qualify as a crime against humanity. Somehow after this primary mess we must coalesce on behalf of who the fig actually gets the nomination, which I’m utterly unqualified to guess, since it’s become so very weird.
NB, in 538’s new CA poll aggregation it’s (so help me) Wilmer-Mike in 1st and 2nd, then Biden, Warren, Buttiegeig. The latest darling of centrists, Klobuchar, has 4.4%, half of Mayor Pete.
Bloomberg is tangible proof: Money Talks.
Gin & Tonic
@Amir Khalid: Steeplejack did one the other day. Maybe it’s becoming a trend?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Served: Let me be clear, I probably won’t be voting for Bloomberg on Super Tuesday, but the man understands the problem. Read Adam’s post that he linked to above.
debbie
@The Dangerman:
I don’t really follow baseball, but those apologies yesterday were pathetic. I hope they get booed vociferously every time they play away.
trollhattan
@Adam L Silverman:
But we do have an A.B.C. license–limited to beer and wine but are in the full-license lottery so stay tuned.
FelonyGovt
@trollhattan: This is of great interest to me because I now have my CA ballot and I want to vote for whoever has the best chance of knocking off Sanders. I don’t think I could bring myself to vote for Bloomberg though.
John Revolta
@John Revolta: Or NOT throw them in the briar patch. They got me mixing up my metaphors and everydamnthing.
Adam L Silverman
@The Dangerman: Basically relegation usually happens to the team with the worst record for the season. They’re sent down to the next tier of league play below them and the champion from that tier is promoted to replace them. What often happens is the relegated team dominates that lower tier and winds up back where they started the following year, but not always.
Relegation can also be used as a punishment. For instance, in the English premier league for rugby, the current defending champions Saracens has accepted relegation as a punishment. The team’s owner and now former CEO was accused of running an illegal investment scheme to get around the salary cap. Saracens initially planned to appeal to the punishment committee and sue, then they accepted the punishment, which was a multi-million pound fine and a 35 point deduction (points awarded for wins and bonus points for scoring a certain number of tries per game), meaning that no matter their win-loss record, they couldn’t defend their championship. About a month ago, and likely as a result that Saracens are so good that they were going to not just close the gap created by the points deduction, but were likely not to finish last in the premiership, meaning that they wouldn’t be relegated and one of the teams that was at the bottom of the standings, but had not been judged to have broken any rules would be relegated, Saracens accepted relegation as a punishment regardless of how they finished points wise. Someone had decided this wasn’t fair, so now Saracens will be automatically relegated no matter how many points they accrue for the rest of the season based on how many games they win (right now they’re tied in wins with Exeter who is leading the premiership). They’ll go down to the next level of professional play, dominate that league, win the championship, and be back in the premiership the following year.
Yutsano
@Amir Khalid: @Martin: I believe I’ve said it here several times before: the English alphabet is BOOOOOORING. We need more diacritical marks. And bring back thorn Þ dammit!
Gin & Tonic
@trollhattan: Apropos of very little, but I was just in SLC and boy, are the licensing rules weird there (I’ve been there a bunch of times, back to “private club” days, but this time I actually read the rules in advance.)
Just One More Canuck
@burnspbesq:
Don’t you have something happening today?
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I would hope not.
jl
I’ve heard in the news that after a grand jury said ‘No way’ it was very hard for even the Barr corrupted DOJ to find a way forward on Trump orders to make McCabe a political prisoner.
So, indicting McCabe was even more outrageous than indicting a ham sandwich? Wow, that says something.
Gin & Tonic
@Adam L Silverman: And in the other sport, Man City was just banned from Champions League play for two years. Not relegation, punishment.
Shalimar
@The Dangerman: Relegation is a concept that can’t be implemented in baseball because whichever AAA team would be promoted as a replacement doesn’t have any players of their own under contract. You don’t need to be familiar with it.
jl
@Baud: Baudists are very loyal.
Bluegirlfromwyo
@Elie: 100 percent this. I don’t think you’re alarmist at all.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
@trollhattan:
Ugh. I just opened my absentee ballot to fill it in (I’m in San Francisco) and then wondered if I should wait until closer to Super Tuesday. If one of my preferred candidates is gone by then, I’d rather still be able to vote for another. I know, I know, it’s only one vote, it’s not a special, precious flower, and I’m probably overthinking this.
And of course, I’ll vote for the Democratic nominee in the general. I won’t even hold my nose.
@Elie:
Ugh again. I’m sorry. I’m feeling extremely crazy myself, and I’m a privileged white lady with less to lose than most. This is a terrifying situation and it just seems to keep getting worse.
Adam L Silverman
@trollhattan: I’m not a huge Bloomberg fan. I think he’s got serious flaws and serious baggage, but the other thing driving this is not just money being put to advertising, is that he’s competent. He ran a competent, effective, and efficient administration in New York. And in doing so showed he can run a government that has more citizens than at least 1/3 of the states. That’s a lot of experience for senators and congresspeople to compete against given they’ve largely never run anything and when they have, say as DAs or AGs, it isn’t anywhere near the same scale.
The advantages you get with Bloomberg is his strategy is 1) to make this a referendum on the President and hit him over and over and over with the intention to continue to do so, 2) to apologize however much he needs to do and in whatever ways he needs to for anything he’s said or done from when he was mayor or after he was mayor that is out of touch with today’s Democratic Party, 3) leverage his enormous wealth to be everywhere all the time, 4) wrap it all into his fight against the President with an emphasis that Bloomberg is an effective and competent executive.
I would argue that the first part of the strategy should be the strategy for all the candidates. This election isn’t going to be about different potential changes to health insurance policy or any other policy, it is all about the President, what the President has been doing and is doing, what his personnel, surrogates, and supporters are doing, and voting him out of office to stop him and them from doing it.
Haydnseek
@The Dangerman: No shit. I’ve had the pleasure of seeing Drysdale put Mays and McCovey on their asses in the same inning. They weren’t mad, just business as usual. Hell, I remember seeing Dodgers games at the Coliseum with my dad and granddad while Dodger Stadium was being built.
debbie
Rather than freaking out prematurely, perhaps this therapy would be in order.
jl
@Elie: I do not like Bloomberg or Buttigieg as candidates in the general one little bit. I fear they will not make the changes needed to improve life across the board to make big improvements in the quality of life for all communities across the US, of every description (except the filthy rich) to prevent another Trumpster type disaster in the future.
But ‘Trump out!’ has priority. So I very reluctantly and sadly agree with you. Whoever the eventual candidate is, they have to be elected, no excuses.
schrodingers_cat
@Elie: Thank You as an immigrant I agree. And sadly no, many just don’t get the precarious situation we are in.
Adam L Silverman
@Gin & Tonic: Saracens was relegated as punishment, in the English rugby premier league. See my comment 80 for details.
debbie
@Adam L Silverman:
Seconded! Who is it who says, “Priorities, people!”
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Elie:
Fair enough re M4A (I would be fine with a public option, tbh), but the corruption on Wall Street (and corporate America in general) and the shitshow in the WH are all one in the same which I think is Warren’s point, just as the GOP and Trump are actually one in the same. “Trumpism” is the quiet parts said out loud taken to 11.
We’re partly here because of that corruption that has created vast disparities in wealth and made social mobility much harder for pretty much everybody. Non-whites and women get it particularly bad, of course. It’s racism, misogyny, and corruption that have led up to this point in American history, along with foreign interference
I actually saw a black female customer at work that had the Bloomberg buttons on. He recently opened a campaign office near where I live. So that’s an (anecdotal) data point
I do think that Trump has to be gone ASAP. He scares me, especially with this DOJ crap. If he can directly interfere with justice at the federal level, then nobody is safe imo. If he wanted, the way things seem to be heading, he could have the organizers of the Women’s March for example arrested on trumped up charges
HRA
@Elie: Thank you, Elie!
Adam L Silverman
@Shalimar: I understand why it wouldn’t work for baseball because of how baseball is structured, but as a concept for punishment it would make sense even if it can’t be worked because of how MLB and the minor leagues work.
Brachiator
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
California politicians are letting Trump score easy political points. I am pretty much disgusted with the way that Los Angeles and (local example) Pasadena politicians are dealing with the homeless problem. Which is to say, that they are doing nothing. And of course, neighborhood groups are flexing their “not in my backyard” muscles big time on this. They are dragging their feet on affordable housing proposals and wasting money on odd and stupid temporary shelter proposals.
And of course, they are flipping off the governor for not deferring to local authorities.
Trump is little more than a political side show. And given the way he dealt with Puerto Rico, I expect for him to forget about California homeless in a few days.
FelonyGovt
Got into it a bit with my Bernie-loving friend on Facebook who demanded to know if I’d vote for him if he were the nominee. I said I would, I would vote for any sentient being to get rid of Trump. Hey, doesn’t even need to be sentient.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Baud!2020!
gvg
@Elie:
Agreed. And some of the democratic candidates ….well I have concerns. Warren makes me worry about her political instincts. If we have to have a white candidate, I would have preferred Adam Schiff who gets it much better. But it does have to be a democrat, and as many seats in both houses as we can get. Right now the media is making a huge deal out of the 2 earliest contests with small numbers of delegates. I’ll wait and see what some more actual voters think.
Trump is dangerous to women too, in fact he and his GOP are dangerous to so many groups that we should be able to defeat them if we stick together. I have a sort of list of the not forgotten by me….hang in there.
Gin & Tonic
Boy, remember when people were talking about Michael Avenatti as a Democratic Presidential hopeful?
a thousand flouncing lurkers was fidelio
@Elie: I hate the idea of Bloomberg in that position of power and there are so many things that desperately need doing, but as an old white woman I must agree: we must do whatever it takes to get Trump & his enablers out and gone and jailed (if that last is possible).
jl
@Adam L Silverman: @Elie:
Though I do disagree that Bloomberg has any special advantage in bashing Trump over Warren or Klobuchar. So, I am still supporting Warren, though unless a dramatic change, will have to look for someone else to support soon.
Biden’s PR team does a comparable job in putting out effective anti-Trump ads, but when I see him in the debates, I have grave doubts that he will be half as good as whoever is making ads for him. Buttigieg has decided to take a very CW centrist view (which is also mistaken on the facts) on several policies that will make him vulnerable when Trump tries to repeat his lies to support vaguely popular vaguely populist policies.
But, whoever the nominee in the general is, they have to have full support.
Kent
I wonder how hard it would be for the next Dem administration to bring him back for a couple of days to “consult” on whatever topic they want and let him restore his pension that way. for McCabe and all the other loyal civil servants who get screwed by Trump’s raging.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Gin & Tonic:
And I used one this morning. It’s a solid practice.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Brachiator: I think you’re missing something here about Trump’s motivation to “deal”(this means camps in the desert) with the homeless. His biggest backers in California are developers(his last fundraiser was at Geoff Palmer’s place in The Hills). Geoff Palmer develops properties in downtown LA, so he’s got a big stake in getting rid of homeless folk since they have a negative effect on the prices he can charge for his rentals. Since he’s doing fundraisers for Trump, he get’s Trumps ear on this.
ETA: The difference between Trump and Bloomberg is that Trump has fundraisers, Bloomberg writes a check.
Martin
@Brachiator: Yep. San Francisco is proof that if you give liberals enough home equity, they too will find ways to fuck over poor people. The arguments are different (Your affordable housing will cast a shadow on my kids playground. Have you never heard of rickets!) but the goal is the same – preservation of capital.
Newsom has to find a way to get control of this. He’s trying, but getting a lot of pushback. Not coincidentally, if he can solve the local zoning problem, high speed rail gets back on the menu, because that was the largest problem with that project.
Also a reminder for all, any housing creates affordable housing. If you build luxury housing – particularly medium to high density, then rich people move out of their older homes, for the luxury stuff, other people move up into their homes, and you end up with vacancy at the affordable end. Any new housing helps. That said, affordable medium and high density near mass transit helps the most.
Kent
The only advantage Bloomberg has, is that he has the very best media folks and advertising talent that unlimited money can buy. And, of course, he owns his own media empire that is as large as Fox News. Although I have seen no indication that he plans to weaponize Bloomberg News in the same way.
J R in WV
@burnspbesq:
Could you translate this into English from Legalese for those of us without a JD?
Specifically “Exemption Seven argument” … ordering disclosure seems pretty close to plain ol’ English — unless that’s one of those phrases that appear to mean something ordinary, but over the years have gradually moved away from English into a strange Legalese space.
Thanks!
The Moar You Know
@Adam L Silverman: I don’t either. And it won’t be because of shenanigans. It will be own goals. I think the Dem party is going to fuck this election up badly, and so does every Dem voter I know.
pamelabrown53
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice:
My mother and step-father just received their absentee ballots in Florida the other day. She called and wanted to discuss with me but I was driving in a storm. I did tell her I was waiting to vote (in TX.) until super Tuesday to see if anyone drops out.
However, since they’re pretty much housebound, she just wanted to get ‘er done. This morning she informed me they voted for Biden.
Done Deal.
debbie
@Gin & Tonic:
Just saw that. What did he have against Nike?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Martin:
That works in the long term, but actually has a perverse effect in the short and intermediate term.
divF
@Adam L Silverman:
How about suspending every Astros’ player from 2017 for a couple of months this season, with the rotation to be determined by club management.
That said, I view this as all the fault of the gross competitive imbalance in MLB. You have a few teams with deep pockets due to having national followings and lucrative captive TV contracts (used to be only the Yankees, but now includes the Dodgers, and until this year the Red Sox). These teams can afford to outspend, build teams that can both dominate the regular season and the post-season, and ignore the impact of long-term contracts that will lose them money towards the end. The Astros looked at that landscape, and concluded that they needed to cheat in order to win a World Series ring.
Adam L Silverman
@jl: I’m not suggesting that you should support him. I was just laying out what I think his strategy is. And part of it is emphasizing that he is effective, competent, efficient, and, I would guess, sane, rational, and reasonable.
Martin
@Kent: Not sure he needs to. It carries his name, after all.
Personally, I think this is a bigger democracy problem than his wealth, but if the GOP insists on no campaign finance regulation, then there’s nothing that can be done about it.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@The Moar You Know:
I don’t share that view, but I also know quite a few folk that do.
trollhattan
@Gin & Tonic:
Funnily, while they don’t want your heathen habit they do want your heathen bucks.
I’ve not been back since the private club days and am quite unprepared for the current weirdness, whatever it may be. Luckily the kid is NOT looking at schools there so I’m not headed anytime soon.
Ksmiami
@Elie: You have just summarized why I’m all in on Bloomberg- our actual presidential line up is too weak to understand the existential threat Trump’s second term represents.
jl
@Kent: @Martin:
The Bloomberg empire’s core business depends on a reputation for providing reliable information on economic developments and financial markets. So, wrt to his news service, Bloomberg is operating on a constraint that Fox News does not have to worry about, despite the incongruous appearance of word ‘news’ in it’s name.
Gin & Tonic
@debbie: No idea.
glory b
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Like Bitecofer says, think Crips and Bloods.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@jl: So not “Fair and Balanced”, more “Just The Facts Mam”.
trollhattan
@Adam L Silverman:
Mostly agree but must add that the larger the distance from NYC the less anybody knows about Mayor Bloomberg vs. the bidnezman. The ad buy carpet-bombing campaign here cannot be adequately described–in media-savvy California I have never seen its equal.
jl
@Gin & Tonic: “Boy, remember when people were talking about Michael Avenatti as a Democratic Presidential hopeful?”
IIRC, the only person actually talking about Michael Avenatti as a presidential candidate was Michael Avenatti. Others were talking about Avenatti talking about being a presidential candidate because he was so prominent in the news for reasons other than being under serious criminal charges.
Gin & Tonic
@trollhattan: Well, the skiing is outstanding, so I’ll probably keep going back.
One of the odd things was that in an establishment that serves food and beer you can have a beer if you have an “intention to dine.” So you sit, order a beer, peruse a menu, drink the beer, then decide nothing on the menu appeals to you. Everybody is happy. Hey, I was intending to dine, but I changed my mind.
Baud
I can’t believe Burnsy isn’t live blogging his wedding.
debbie
@Ksmiami:
This is the most bogus post I’ve read here in quite a long time.
jl
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
So not “Fair and Balanced”, more “Just The Facts Mam”.
People pay good money for those Bloomberg terminals and data feeds. Probably a bad idea to interrupt the data stream and graphics with Bloomberg commercials.
Edit: so Bloomberg news has to act accordingly.
J R in WV
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
We see what you did there! Amazing that the old phrase now comes with a whole new more important meaning!
debbie
@Baud:
I see him at the end of the aisle, furiously poking away at his phone, while everyone is waiting, glaring…
Martin
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Short term is what rent control is for.
Ksmiami
@Adam L Silverman: then we win or we start arming to take them down.
Adam L Silverman
@The Moar You Know: Beatings will continue until morale improves.
Ksmiami
@debbie: prove me wrong then
Baud
@debbie:
I feel like saying something legally wrong to force him to respond.
Adam L Silverman
@debbie: He needed money, Nike had money, he thought he had a foolproof way to separate Nike from some of that money. He did not, in fact, have a foolproof way to separate Nike from that money.
Martin
@jl: I’m saying Bloomberg media doesn’t need to lie about Trump. They just need to not lie for Trump.
See the NYT front page that has Trump ‘balancing the scales’ from impeachment, as if he were the one wronged here.
pamelabrown53
@trollhattan:
Besides his Daddy Warbucks on advertising, is he also investing in hiring local consultants/staff and deploying his mayoral network?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Martin: Yeah, I agree. We didn’t have rent control and my rent went up 28% in 2 years. Just keeping up with the average which went up due to the large number of high end rentals that were built.
jl
@Adam L Silverman: “They don’t believe the administration will end next year.”
That is true. In addition to fear of the wrath of the Trumpster base, which dominates the GOP now. Look at the bizarre loyalty of those who did their best at the kayfabe and were thrown under the bus as thanks for their heroic efforts (Sessions).
Another incentive is continued easy access to the overflowing trough of money. They are at the front of the line with both feet in the trough.
feebog
@Martin:
No, you may end up with a vacant unit, but it does not follow that it will be affordable for those at the very bottom. Los Angeles currently has thousands of vacant high end units. We should be building low and medium-low housing and not one stick of luxury housing. That means subsidizing developers in some cases, but that is what it is going to take to get affordable housing in the LA and SF markets.
opiejeanne
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Is Broad one of Trump’s developer buddies?
debbie
@Ksmiami:
You prove to me that someone up on that debate stage does NOT realize the existential threat of a second Trump term. FFS, that is a given. But a candidate has to be for more than that.
I would ask you: What is it you have seen that shows any one of them aren’t worried/concerned/terrified of Trump winning?
debbie
@Adam L Silverman:
Yeah, but what a jawline!
Adam L Silverman
@glory b: Bitecofer is smart, but, and it is a HUGE but, her model has only ever worked once. And that was not in a presidential election, but a midterm. We have no idea, and neither does she, if her model will accurately predict an election that is run through the electoral college, not congressional districts. She may be right. She may also be catastrophically wrong.
Adam L Silverman
@trollhattan: Shock and awe, baby!!!!
Elizabelle
@feebog: Also, crack down on Air Bnb that is not owner-occupied.
Air Bnb takes rental units right off the market. It is no friend to cities.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@opiejeanne: No, he generally supports Democrats. Palmer’s developments are almost exclusively in downtown so the homeless issue is at the top of his priorities.
MisterForkbeard
@Ksmiami: Several of the candidates (even Biden) talk often about how a second Trump term is a huge threat to the United States and represents an threat or even end to real democracy here.
Warren is big on this. Harris was big on it too. Bloomberg has been big on it. So has Bernie (I think).
Amir Khalid
Refresh my memory, please: What will McCabe now not be charged with?
By the way, there’s a big sportsball news story breaking right now. The Union of European Football Associations (the continent-level governing body) has found English Premier League defending champions Manchester City FC in breach of financial fair play regulations and banned City from European competition for the 2020/21 and 2021/22 seasons. It seems the Arab oil prince who owns City apparently laundered, through his country Abu Dhabi’s national airline, Etihad, massive illicit injections of his own cash into the club. And the club helped to hide these cash injections from its financial reporting to UEFA.
The ban is a very heavy punishment in both sporting and financial terms. The UEFA Champions League is Europe’s — and the world’s — most prestigious and profitable club competition. City just saw a buttload of TV rights and sponsorship money go poof.
City have stated they will appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. They say UEFA’s case was based on hacked emails and published by Der Spiegel.
jl
@feebog: The problem of housing, or any property that is viewed as a good long term investment , including large commercial and storefront property, sitting vacant, will be with us as long as we remain in a very low real interest rate environment.
The opportunity cost of just sitting on it, effectively a real option on eventual large return, is almost costless to those with a lot of liquidity, and there are enough of those people to make a dent. There is also the growing dominance of hedge funds and large investment funds owning residential properties. They can wait a long time for something, they don’t care exactly what, to happen
?BillinGlendaleCA
@MisterForkbeard: With the exception of Bloomberg, the message is getting muddled. Harris tried to break out of the muddle in her last debate performance, but it was too little too late.
Robert sneddon
@Adam L Silverman: Saracens will be back year after next in the Premiership but they’re going to lose a big part of their championship-winning roster because they can’t afford to pay them what they’re worth due to the team salary cap system they were flagrantly flouting. A number of the big names, international players, are already on the move and Saracens may be able to afford one top-flight player (Jonny May from the Tigers) under the salary cap to replace the gaping holes left behind.
The Pale Scot
I’m @ a walk in clinic waiting room in Fl. 2 hr wait. Sitting next to 2 seniors who won’t shut up. They have discussed in detail the medical history of everyone they know. “They gotta run out of subjects eventually”. Uh no. Now the women is explaining how the Hasidim control everything in NY. State? City? Don’t know.
So please contribute to my defense fund if I don’t get called soon.
Hoodie
@debbie: They all realize it, but they don’t have the resources to make beating Trump the focus of their campaigns. They have to worry about sticking out from the crowd so that they can get money to flow their way to win the nomination. They’re doing this via policy debates, but a lot of that involves arguing about minutely small differences. Bloomberg’s pitch is that I have the resources to beat Trump’s machine, and that’s what differentiates me from the crowd, so I can focus on Trump and not get bogged down in policy details. It’s not that much different than running on, say, charisma.
debbie
@MisterForkbeard:
Wasn’t it was Bernie who said during the NH debate that every one of the candidates knew what a danger a second Trump term would be?
debbie
@Amir Khalid:
I believe he was accused of leaking the Steele dossier to the media.
Mai naem mobile
I liked McCabe. He just came across as an old fashioned G Man straight shooter type. Far from perfect but basically a decent guy trying his best.
MattF
Alexandra Petrie on the relationship between Barr and Trump:
Martin
@pamelabrown53: Oh, god yes. He’s got over 1000 paid staff right now. He’s hiring Dem staffers in at least 35 states, and paying a LOT. Double the going rate. He’s getting a lot of good people out there. And from what I’ve heard, he’s hiring them through the general – no packing up after South Carolina and hustling off to Nevada.
He made a pitch early this week to all of the tech companies – don’t give me money, but find your best technical staff that want to work on a campaign through November, give them a sabbatical, and I’ll pay them what they’re making and give them back to you when we’re done. Word is he’s open to hiring hundreds to do analytics, social media, etc. I suspect this is a campaign that the Russians won’t be able to hack.
Amir Khalid
@debbie:
I didn’t know that dossier was classified. To my knowledge it’s not an official document at all.
Ksmiami
@MisterForkbeard: it’s barely registered in passing then it’s back to squabbling over taxes and healthcare policies
Mai naem mobile
@The Pale Scot: you should have told them that they were all wrong and that Bloomberg controlled NYC.
jl
@debbie: I think all of the candidates have said the same thing, that the party must be unified.
The message is muddled mostly by asinine horse race coverage in the corporate media, and the candidates’ various surrogates, and a small but noxious faction of their (ahem… Sanders’) supporters. Or supposed supporters, I’ve been wondering how many of them are trolls. But not much anyone can really do about that, the eventual candidate has be a good enough electoral politician to learn how to deal with it.
opiejeanne
@John Revolta: They aren’t that clever. They were the kids who never understood the briar patch business.
HumboldtBlue
@Amir Khalid:
Came here to send you that link.
Pep is going to go chase the shroud of Turin, he’s done at City.
Adam L Silverman
@Amir Khalid: McCabe was found by the IG to have “lacked candor”, which is an FBI/DOJ term of art for an official not being fully forthcoming up to lying in his answers to a preliminary IG inquiry regarding an authorized leak of information to the news media regarding an aspect of the investigation into HRC’s emails. McCabe and his attorneys argued and continue to argue that this was not an act of commission, that because he was authorized as the Deputy Director of the FBI to either provide an official leak himself or authorize a subordinate to do so, and because there were so many unofficial and unauthorized ones, that he simply got confused in his initial answer and quickly clarified it in writing, which the record supports. The President, his surrogates, and his supporters have tried to make this into a capital offense and it was used to justify terminating him several days ahead of his retirement. The Grand Jury didn’t buy this argument, which is why there is no indictment.
Adam L Silverman
@Robert sneddon: I reckoned that almost all the starters and the top tier substitutes will be moving on to new teams in either the premiership, the Pro 14, or the Top 14.
Gin & Tonic
@Martin: I know a guy, really smart, who really wanted to work for Bloomberg’s IT. Went through 4-5 *hard* interviews, and was basically made to understand he wasn’t quite smart enough. Never got the job.
That’s a strong group.
Adam L Silverman
@The Pale Scot: Email me your coordinates, I’ll have an exfiltration team come and extract you!
Frankensteinbeck
@The Moar You Know:
PTSD. Seriously. Trump’s election was a traumatic event that has led to years of fear for many millions of people, and I know that includes many here. It seemed impossible the first time. Combined, it makes it seem like there is no legitimate hope of defeating him, even though the evidence of the last three years looks great for our side. This is exactly how learned helplessness works, and this is exactly what being in the power of an abuser does to people.
jl
@opiejeanne: They are certainly not clever enough for anyone take any reliable signals from them, at least in my opinion, or pay them much attention.
Trump himself and his bagman Giuliani still seem to think Biden is the most likely and dangerous candidate in the general, even after he plummets in the polls. They may be playing up Sanders because they think he’ll be a divisive figure if he does well enough in the primary. So, they might just want to cause division in the primary, and don’t think he’d be easier in the general than others.
As one who thinks Trump lucked out in 2016, barely eeked out a win that just looked big due to the quirks of the electoral college, I don’t think they know what they are doing. The do have a fixed belief that pumping out mountains of lies and disinformation through social and corporate media worked last time, so it will work again.
trollhattan
@Amir Khalid:
Is it organization-wide, i.e., do the sanctions extend to the MC women?
NWSL would LOVE to make room for their stars.
HumboldtBlue
@trollhattan:
It’ll impact any City team in relation to UEFA competition, so yes.
Martin
@Gin & Tonic: There’s a sizable part of the valley (add Amazon in there as well) that have never been breached despite being extremely attractive targets.
There are people in the community that can beat the Russians, and can beat the Facebook/Russian/Trump nexus. I think Bloomberg is smart enough to be very selective in his hiring – the real question is whether the right people are willing to work for him. That I can’t tell. But he’s made the right ask, so we’ll see.
JPL
@Baud: I’m disappointed.
jl
@Baud: ” I can’t believe Burnsy isn’t live blogging his wedding. “
Baud 2020! doesn’t live blog his scratcher wins either.
JPL
trump is not tweeting about McCabe because he’s going to justify Stone’s pardon by pointing out that McCabe was allowed to lie.
Baud
@jl: Yes, I do.
cain
I agree – they definitely will not accept any result from the election and will refuse to vacate and will essentially take it to the supreme court. They will litigate the whole thing. Trump will not leave and his pet lackeys will back him up on it.
White & Gold Purgatorian
@Elie:
Speaking as a white woman, I feel exactly the same. And then start fixing our electoral system so everyone can vote and all our votes are counted, and all count the same. Also, repair the judicial system. There are several top priority jobs — climate change? — which fall into the existential crisis category. Medicare 4 all is not one of them.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@jl:
This is a typical campaign smear from you jl, Baud!2020! doesn’t live blog scratcher loses, but does live blog scratcher wins. There just haven’t been any scratcher wins.
Martin
@Frankensteinbeck: For me it’s not learned helplessness (at least I don’t think it is!) It’s that Trump is now armed with the federal government. That’s how authoritarianism works – you get into office (even elected like that nice man in Germany!) and then you turn the levers of the state against anyone who would oppose you. Because you now wield such power, you can no longer be legitimately opposed.
Now, there’s a lot of government working against that – cities and states in most cases (though not all) and career professionals, and the media and so on. But even if you can only get 2% of the government to do your bidding, you now have a massive advantage that the opposition who doesn’t control a government can’t match. Plus you can provide cover for those outside of government who would help you cheat.
Trump is becoming even more open about Rudes out there shaking down other governments to help him get re-elected. We have yet to see any useful pushback to any of the electoral interference. If anything, the Senate just endorsed it.
If it were a repeat of 2016, yeah, no problem. We can do this. But this is going to be way harder than 2016. You now have a guy who is openly sending government officials with their federal security into key voting districts to gridlock voting. He just did it in New Hampshire. New Hampshire doesn’t even matter, and he’s already breaking new norms. He’s not going to hold back when it’s Wisconsin in the general. He’s going to do everything – ICE raids in minority neighborhoods the day of the election, etc. And so long as it’s helping keep the GOP Senate, he’ll get away with all of it.
pamelabrown53
@Martin:
Thanks for the info. Martin; serious food for thought.
I vote on Super Tuesday and I will be paying close attention to whether or not Bloomberg keeps building his support.
I initially scoffed at Bloomberg’s plausibility, but like commenter, Elie, get that Bloomberg is ploughing through a fragmented primary field.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@cain: They may litigate and lose, but once a new President takes office, Trump will be trespassing.
Frankensteinbeck
@Martin:
No he’s not. Republicans do this cross-vote ratfucking every election. It’s standard in their playbook.
jonas
@robmassing: “The President’s beating of the Congressman to death with a baseball bat in the East Room is yet again raising questions about his violent temper…”
Sister Golden Bear
@Elie: As white lesbian trans woman I share your feeling of terror and desperation, as well as your doubts about how white folks will vote.
Given the way my rights are already being taken away in a regular basis, another Trump term means I’d probably need to leave the country to be safe. (And yes, I’m extremely privileged for leaving to even be a possibility.)
Robert Sneddon
@Adam L Silverman: I’m thinking back to what happened to Glasgow Rangers after their “creative” accounting procedures came to light about ten years ago. They were relegated all the way to the bottom league in the Scottish Football Association and even with the financial penalties limiting their team build they worked their way back to the Scottish Premiership in short order, winning each successive league (and promotion) by ridiculous margins and now they’re running second to Celtic in the Premiership and twenty points ahead of the third team, Aberdeen.
The question you need to ask about the Sarries is, were they winning because they were a really good team or were they winning because of their salary cap shenanigans? If it was the latter then they might not get back into the Premier league on the first go while they rebuild their squad.
Kent
I gleefully did the same thing all the years I lived in Texas. Voting in all the GOP primaries when there weren’t any competitive races on the Dem side.
sdhays
@cain: At least for 2020, if they lose the election and try to still hang on, I think they’ll be disappointed at how few actually support them on that.
After another 4 years…I don’t know.
germy
@jl:
Sanders was on the PBS Newshour last night and he disavowed the noxious faction. He expressed doubt some of them were even supporters.
Jamie
@Frankensteinbeck: Yep. One of the smartest guys I know, when asked why he feels that Trump is a lock for re-election despite several Democrats having sustained 8-10 point leads in the polls for months, just threw up his hands and said, “Polls have gone all wacky over the last few years. You can’t trust them.” And this is a hard numbers guy who typically has a very good understanding of statistics and whatnot. He wasn’t making an argument for looking at state polls instead of national, or discussing uncertainty, or pointing to the fact that we’re still nine months from the election–he’d literally just thrown out the whole concept of polling as useless.
There are very good reasons to be concerned about this election–somebody else made the point that Trump will bend the federal government to his re-election effort, and that’s the big thing that scares me–but that PTSD thing is real and makes it seem more hopeless than it should.
Frankensteinbeck
@Kent:
Right. We talk about this in every presidential election and a lot of midterm elections. The only norm Trump has broken is he’s too fucking stupid to shut up about it.
geg6
@Frankensteinbeck:
Exactly! I was thinking this very thing about myself the other day. I have decided to quit watching so much MSNBC and only turn on the tv for local news and mindless entertainment. The only political news I get is from here, TPM and a few other sites. But no more cable talkers. They make me depressed and feel helpless and that’s just what the GOP and Putin want. I’m not going to give it to them.
sdhays
@jonas: “Attorney General William Barr excoriated the President saying, quote, ‘You know, he really shouldn’t have done that. It really bumbed me out.'”
Jinchi
Is it possible for a primary field not to be fragmented? They’re all running for the same job.In a month or two the nominee will be pretty clear and the entire focus of the party will be on defeating Trump.
Adam L Silverman
@Robert Sneddon: My understanding, observing from the US and not reading all the details in the British press about what happened, is that the bulk of their core starters came through their academy system. What I don’t know is whether those players would have come through that system and stayed with Saracens if the investment scheme was not in place.
germy
@Adam L Silverman: Off Topic, but did you see the new batsuit reveal?
Martin
@Frankensteinbeck: Republicans do, on the down low. The President does not, out in the open. This president is, out in the open. Because it’s out in the open, there’s a whole new world of ratfucking he can do that we’ve never seen before.
I’m telling you, the most commonly uttered phrase by Democrats on Nov 4, 2020 is going to be ‘I never expected he’d do that‘. And we’ll be saying it whether we win or lose. If we lose because nobody expected that the DOJ would open an investigation into Jane Sanders on Oct 15, I’m going to be really fucking pissed, because we should be able to see that shit from here.
Brachiator
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
California should be able to address a big chunk of the homeless problem. Trump’s machinations are a side issue.
Jamie
@Martin: Yep. It’s a foregone conclusion in my mind that the DoJ will be announcing an investigation into whoever wins the Democratic primary. I’m not sure what the best way of getting out ahead of that is, but I would think all the major candidates, and probably other major Democratic figures, should probably be making statements now about the corrupted DoJ and explicitly and publicly making the point that new investigations into Democratic politicians are likely and highly suspicious. At the very least, it gives them something to point back to when the inevitable occurs, and hopefully inoculates at least part of the electorate.
Adam L Silverman
@germy:
I did. It was hard to see because of the red backlighting. I don’t really know what to say until I see a better picture of it. Of all the onscreen designs, the best one, despite the ears being too short, was the one for Affleck.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Brachiator: It’s a tough issue to deal with and to do so humanely. Every time they want to do something they run into NIMBY. Trump doesn’t care about humane treatment of the homeless, he can just set up camps(the feds already own Manzanar). He can make his backers happy by just moving them out of sight.
Omnes Omnibus
@FlyingToaster: Joe?
pamelabrown53
@germy:
Too little, too late. Is there a reason he didn’t disavow them when they were turning Hillary’s convention into a nationally televised shit show?
Frankensteinbeck
@Martin:
He’s doing what out in the open? Hell, he didn’t actually do or organize any of the ratfucking. He crowed about the grassroots doing it, which they do every election. Remember when Kobach’s panel was supposed to be the organization of a national wave of voter suppression? Didn’t happen. Republicans have muddled around with that with some wins and some losses, same as usual. How did that Hunter Biden shit work out for Trump? How’s that prosecuting his enemies going? Remember when people thought he was going to use the military to shoot immigrants at the Southern border? What Trump is going to do is shoot himself in the foot over and over and over because he’s a fucking moron who thinks he’s Lex Luthor. What we have clear evidence he will do is keep everyone who leans liberal even a little a combination of terrified and furious and we’ll vote for a tin of SPAM if that’s what gets through the nomination process. There will be bullshit and interference, particularly rumor-mongering from Russia. It won’t be new. Republicans have been fighting as hard as they could the last three elections. Do you think Doug Jones would have won if there was anything, anything Republicans could have done to stop him? We are all understandably terrified of a second Trump term, including me, but the field won’t be stacked in his favor any better than 2016. Even federal money won’t help him much, since he got the advertising help last time from a breathless media.
germy
@Adam L Silverman: I agree about the Affleck suit. It looked great, but the ears were too short. This latest version, the bat insignia is reportedly crafted out of the gun used to murder Thomas and Martha Wayne.
Kent
@pamelabrown53: One of the analysis shows (Pod Save America? not sure which) just recently talked about how the Clinton Campaign was so slow in getting their general election campaign up and fully staffed because they had to fight with Sanders in every state all the way up to the nomination. And how that handicapped them in the General against Trump who had much longer to get his state operations up and running in the swing states.
I don’t know how much truth there is to that allegation. I’m sure it’s been written up somewhere. But it rings somewhat true.
germy
@pamelabrown53: I remember the booing.
Brachiator
@Martin:
Yep. People fighting this are being incredibly short sighted.
Agree about Newsom. But I saw something recently about another billion being added to the projected cost for high speed rail. I don’t know if there is major mismanagement here. Maybe it show be made a lesser priority.
Here in the Los Angeles area, despite the fact that there has been a significant expansion to the light rail system, there is fierce and foolish opposition to expanding affordable housing nearby. It is freaking stupid.
Boris Rasputin (the evil twin)
@Adam L Silverman: what about the liquor licence? It’s hard to be a sober Jackal in this administration.
pamelabrown53
@Jinchi:
Here’s where I differ with your analysis: the primary field is fragmented except for the Bernie supporters. I think he needs to be stopped. At an existential moment we are “nominating” an ideologue with his (maybe) @ 30percent of the democratic vote which includes the ratfuckers?
Kent
@Jamie: Polls have been reasonably on the mark in the primaries so far. They caught Klobuchar’s rise but perhaps not all the last minute interest. But one wouldn’t expect them too if it was all last minute.
Polls also seemed to catch the 2018 blue wave pretty well.
I think some people tend to throw their hands up about polls when they aren’t telling them what they want to hear or believe. Like all the folks trying to “unskew” the polls during the Romney 2012 campaign.
The Moar You Know
@Frankensteinbeck: You condescending fuck. The people telling you that every single one our current slate of candidates have grave flaws (those flaws are rehashed in agonizing detail every day, every thread, on this site) are not quailing in a corner, waiting for cartoon Trump to come and murder us all in our beds.
No. I simply see our field of candidates, a field of people so lacking in charisma, message and/or qualifications that the only way they can persuade anyone to support them is to promise bullshit that they can never deliver.
Trump is a walkover for the right candidate. And “the right candidate” doesn’t need a whole lot of qualifications save for a shitload of money, a willingness to call out bullshit as such in simple language, and the single goal of removing Trump from office. He is the most beatable president I’ve seen in my lifetime, but this crew isn’t going to beat him. Bloomberg, whom I loathe, at least gets the core: nothing matters save removing Trump from office. And he may well get my vote because he understands that, and further, has the money to do it.
Everyone else may as well be arguing over what color to paint the kitchen while the house is on fire.
Tenar Arha
Like Elie said, the thought of giving that raging ego another term is horrible. Which is why I know I’ll drag myself over broken glass & even out of my comfort zone to vote for whoever wins the nomination.
But I’m simultaneously just as worried about what will happen to the turnout that we need to keep the House & win the Senate with Bloomberg as our candidate. And since our last long thread on this subject, I’ve become more concerned that he won’t make the necessary structural changes to prevent a Trump from happening again—only we’ll be the ones who picked a competent technocratic authoritarian just because he’s not an openly racist, sexist, corrupt, grifting, con-artist. I mean we know Bloomberg hasn’t really change since he was Mayor. And that then scares me because of the kind of judges I think he’d appoint. He is still the same guy that engineered a 3rd term for himself when the law said he couldn’t.
(I just love the way my brain is hardwired to see dangers everywhere. /sarcasm)
Frankensteinbeck
@The Moar You Know:
They all say frequently that getting Trump out is the most important thing. Everybody has demonstrated that they’re great at attacking him. I have heard Biden, Pete, Warren, Klubuchar, and even Sanders praised here for their attacks on Trump. What is your complaint, that they shouldn’t debate policy in a primary? What else are they going to debate? This is not a weak field. There is no one in it who can’t stomp Trump into gravy in a debate or give speeches that point out exactly what an ass he is. If you want someone with no weaknesses, you’re not going to get one, because they don’t exist.
dimmsdale
Well, after reading thru this thread I’m a LITTLE more favorably disposed toward Bloomberg than before–chiefly because his money and competency and the vastness of his effort (which IMO is exactly what the Dem party should have been doing all along but lacks the vision, and is too encumbered by corrupt consultants, to do so). Hey, his administration was supremely competent when he directed his police force to arrest anti-Bush protesters and stick them in a disused shipping pier full of toxic chemicals; his stop and frisk policies were an atrocity as well and I HATE having to depend on the whims of a billionaire president for reasons that ought to be obvious after the last three years. But…less of an evil than what we got now. Agreed. Too soon to say if I’d vote for him or not; I’m even uncomfortable with the idea of him using his money to hobble the talking anus and his administration of goons and bible-thumpers. Interesting times, unfortunately.
jl
@germy: Thanks, good to know. I hope Sanders gets some of jod wilder surrogates in line too.
But toxic nonsense from supposed supporters on the internet, and from all these political surrogates, who often seem to be grinding their own axes rather than trying their best to help their professed candidate, is a problem from most of the campaigns.
Brachiator
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Yes. It’s sad, and tough. Residential and commercial housing costs are both rising. But in the Pasadena area, there is no shortage of new proposals for hotels and luxury housing. And in one proposal, the developers deliberately scaled back addition of affordable units.
Let me be blunt here. The homeless have been setting up their own camps. How does Trump’s half-baked plans make things worse? Aside from typical Trump stupidity.
There was a proposal by I think Union Rescue Mission people to set up some fast barracks style housing. And yet the city said “No, we need to study it more and also look at this proposal for (more expensive) construction down the road.”
Its goddam stupid. A lot of the new homeless are people who have jobs but are pushed out of their homes because of increased housing costs. Delays in order to plan to build new housing … somewhere … only compounds the problem.
Omnes Omnibus
@Adam L Silverman: Union, damn it.
jl
@The Moar You Know: The problem is that all candidates have ‘grave flaws’ if you look hard enough and want to make a case against them by any means necessary. These problems have never been solved, for various reasons.
Maybe political opponents should always be ethical and not use any means necessary? Or we replace these sad sack human candidates with something better? Beats me what should be done about it.
Brachiator
@The Moar You Know:
Probably, but not a lock.
It’s strange. People seem to be swooning over Bloomberg the same way that Trump’s early supporters swooned over him.
So far, Bloomberg is just an empty suit with a whole lot of money and supposedly a hatred of Trump.
There is no guarantee that swing state voters in particular, or any GOP voters in general will move from the rich guy they got now to this new rich guy.
Right now, Bloomberg is little more than a distraction. And as you note, the other current candidates should be able to defeat Trump. So I don’t see much reason, for now, to give Bloomberg the time of day.
Ladyraxterinok
@Martin:
And don’t forget messing with the 2020 census to cut down electoral votes (number of House districts) in blue states to further advance tr age red state power!
Quiltingfool
@Elie: As an old white woman, I’m terrified too. Not for myself, but for you. I’m terrified for parents coming to this country seeking asylum and having their children torn away from them, and they may never see them again. I’m terrified for the children who were taken from their parents. I’m terrified for young women having their reproductive rights demolished. I’m terrified for young black and brown men (and black and brown women) losing their lives. I’m terrified for folks who died needlessly from lack of medical care. I could go on and on, but the shit going on has got to stop. I am a Warren fan (and a Harris fan, too, so sad she’s out) but I just want someone to beat Trump so mercilessly that the shame forces him to crawl in a hole and never come out. If that person is Mr. Billionaire, well, so be it. Not happy about it, but that orange asshole is a threat to all, but a threat to some more than others. We need to stay strong, but it is hard to do.
Omnes Omnibus
Two fucking primaries in and people are throwing in the towel on the process to let a plutocrat buy the nomination? Fuck that shit. Again, I will vote for a Democrat in the WI primary. You all can do what you want.
zhena gogolia
@Omnes Omnibus:
I don’t get to vote in a primary until it’s all over. Forgive me if I don’t have much respect for the process.
Omnes Omnibus
@zhena gogolia: Well, mine is April 7. If Bloomberg wins, he wins. I will support the winner of the primary, but I see no reason to just accept him now before he has been on a single ballot.
sdhays
@pamelabrown53: The good news is that since we don’t have a winner-take-all system like the Republicans, he can’t quickly walk away with the nomination by eking out 2-point victories in a few early states. Once the race has winnowed, he won’t have an insurmountable lead like Dump did in 2016.
sdhays
@Omnes Omnibus: Amen.
Bill Arnold
@Jamie:
Why do people reject the possibility of a blowout loss by D.J.Trump? There are several paths to such a DJT loss.
Martin
@Frankensteinbeck:
Uh huh.
sgrAstar
@The Moar You Know:
« I think the Dem party is going to fuck this election up badly, and so does every Dem voter I know. »
Bullshit. WE are responsible. No blaming Others. If we step up in our righteous anger and overwhelming numbers, we can’t lose. Fps, I hate this fatalism. It’s weak, and it’s WRONG. We can and will kick the bastards to the curb.
?
Yutsano
@sgrAstar: T.H.I.S!!!
Martin
@Bill Arnold: I don’t reject it at all. But you can’t hold both the idea that the electorate will reflect an impartial look on the candidates and also wonder how Mike Bloomberg can parachute into Joe Biden polling territory with nothing but ads.
I think it’s clear that the electorate can be influenced. I think it’s clear that the electorate can be suppressed. You have one candidate that has openly stated that he’ll cheat to win the next election, and a Senate that has said ‘sure, go for it’. It may not work. It may backfire spectacularly. So far, it has worked, though.
Of course he may lose. Right now I’d put his chances of reelection at just over 50% based on the polling. That 6 point lead he has on the Dems – that’s all surplus Dem votes in places like CA and NY. He’s still leading in NC and WI and FL with that number.
J R in WV
@Martin:
If no one expects, nay — knows for certain, that DOJ will indict Jane Sanders in October, not reopen an investigation, indict and arrest her! then all those politicians leading these campaigns are totally incompetent to lead a campaign against a fascist despot-in-waiting.
Would be worse than “but her emails”, would it not???
Quiltingfool
@Elie: As an old white woman, I’m terrified too. Not for myself, but for you. I’m terrified for parents coming to this country seeking asylum and having their children torn away from them, and they may never see them again. I’m terrified for the children who were taken from their parents. I’m terrified for young women having their reproductive rights demolished. I’m terrified for young black and brown men (and black and brown women) losing their lives. I’m terrified for folks who died needlessly from lack of medical care. I could go on and on, but the shit going on has got to stop. I am a Warren fan (and a Harris fan, too, so sad she’s out) but I just want someone to beat Trump so mercilessly that the shame forces him to crawl in a hole and never come out. If that person is Mr. Billionaire, well, so be it. Not happy about it, but that orange asshole is a threat to all, but a threat to some more than others. We need to stay strong, but it is hard to do.
@Frankensteinbeck: Thank you. We’re all at the edge of a cliff, and you always manage to pull us back. I appreciate you.
Steeplejack
@MattF:
Your link goes to a different (news) story.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Brachiator:
Yes, they’re in places where Geoff Palmer’s perspective renters can see them and smell them(because we don’t provide bathrooms for them, cause that would get encourage them//).
Trump will move them where they won’t been seen.
Brachiator
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Then all the more reason for the state and local communities to do something. And hell, put Trump on the spot. Come up with a proposal including federal aid and dare him to sign off on it.
Martin
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I keep suggesting moving them to Trump National LA – there’s TONS of space there. I can’t imagine anyone in the mayor or governor’s offices would object.
texasdoc
@The Dangerman: Altuve is the wrong example to pick regarding the Astros’ sign stealing in 2017. An Astros fan analyzed tapes of all the games in 2017–when there was banging of a trash can (the reported signal) and who was hitting. Apparently there was never any banging when Altuve was up. He and one other player (whose name I forget) weren’t shown to have participated in the scheme.