Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

At some point, the ability to learn is a factor of character, not IQ.

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

“Cheese and Kraken paired together for the appetizer trial.”

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

The willow is too close to the house.

… gradually, and then suddenly.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

I wonder if trump will be tried as an adult.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

If you’re looking for someone who’s young and athletic, go watch a fucking movie.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

This blog will pay for itself.

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

If West Virginia and San Francisco had a love child.

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Proud to Be A Democrat, LOL

Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Proud to Be A Democrat, LOL

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Jen Psaki had the day off, so President Biden stood in as official Doocey-Smacker.

C.R.E.A.M…


Can’t hardly *wait* for the explosion of right-wing headbones…

Reader Interactions

233Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    We are on track to reduce the federal deficit by more than $1.3 trillion this year, cutting in half the deficit from the last year of the previous administration and delivering the largest one-year reduction in the deficit in U.S. history.

    Deficit hawks: I CAN’T HEAR YOU!

  2. 2.

    OzarkHillbilly

    ‘Our top search term is nuclear’: US bunker sales soar as anxiety over Russia rises

    Gary Lynch is the CEO of Rising S Company in Texas. When I first visited his warehouse in 2018, I watched his crew assemble, deliver, and bury a handful of bunkers in people’s backyards every month. The bunkers are thick plate steel boxes that are welded together like a giant Lego set – the size of the bunker limited only by a client’s resources.

    Sales, he says, have spiked 1,000% since that time as anxieties around the pandemic, civil unrest, climate change and war have driven more buyers to his company.

    “In the past month, I would have normally fielded less than 100 inquiries – I’ve fielded over 3,000,” Lynch tells me over the phone. He sold five bunkers on a single day in February, at prices ranging from $70,000 to $240,000.
    …………………………….
    Lynch says some customers are panic-purchasing. “There are definitely a few ‘I told you we needed one of these’ conversations going on in households around the world right now,” he says. “But we have also previously shipped shelters into Ukraine and I’m certain they are currently being used.”

    Hoo boy, a lot of wishful thinking out there, not the least of which is by the author of that leap into never never land.

  4. 4.

    Baud

    The budget proposes that households worth more than $100 million pay at least 20% in taxes on both income and “unrealized gains”— the increase in an unsold investment’s value. For many wealthy individuals, the administration says, that “true income” never gets taxed since it can be held onto for decades and sometimes generations.

    Biden’s proposal would allow wealthy households to spread some payments on unrealized gains over nine years, and then for five years on new income going forward. Stretching payments over multiple years is meant to smooth yearly variations in investment income, while still ensuring that the wealthiest end up paying a minimum tax rate of 20%. In effect, the Billionaire Minimum Income Tax payments are a prepayment of tax obligations these households will owe when they later realize their gains.
    This is an extremely nuanced policy. The tax is targeting the ultra wealthy. It’s taxing gains achieved from their wealth, but it’s real and unrealized income rather than simply the underlying assets.
    That’s why David Gamage, a tax law professor at Indiana University says “it’s not a wealth tax, it’s an income tax reform.” He says, “This is a minimum income tax that includes the true economic value” of income that can be held for a very long time, he said.
    WHO WOULD SEE THE IMPACT?
    Roughly 700 billionaires would be affected by the tax proposal, the White House says, estimating that these individuals increased their wealth in 2021 by $1 trillion, paying roughly 8% of their income and unrealized gains in taxes.

    1. Once again, Dems target the little guy.

    2. I think a Chef’s kiss would be Biden sending letters to those 700 billionaires giving them Manchin and Sinema’s cell phone number.

  8. 8.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud: We all know reducing deficits thru tax increases is immoral and ungodly. The only acceptable path for reducing deficits is thru spending cuts in childcare, school lunches, medicaid, medicare, social security, mass transit, garbage collection, sewers, roads and bridges.

  10. 10.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud: I think a Chef’s kiss would be Biden sending letters to those 700 billionaires giving them Manchin and Sinema’s cell phone number.

    Pretty sure they already have those numbers on speed dial.

  12. 12.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    How can people be gullible enough to believe this stuff in the first place? Do they send money to Nigerian princes?

    Nebraska state Sen. Bruce Bostelman (R) “apologized on Monday after he publicly cited a persistent but debunked rumor alleging that schools are placing litter boxes in school bathrooms to accommodate children who self-identify as cats,” the AP reports.

    Said Bostleman: “They meow and they bark and they interact with their teachers in this fashion. And now schools are wanting to put litter boxes in the schools for these children to use. How is this sanitary?”

    “The false claim that children who identify as cats are using litter boxes in school bathrooms has spread across the internet since at least December.”

  14. 14.

    Raoul Paste

    There has to be aggressive pushback against the clipped news version of Biden’s budget  that only says “ large tax increase“ and leaves out the phrase “on the wealthy”

    I am seeing this distortion already, and if it takes hold it will be all over the midterms

  15. 15.

    sdhays

    That Hillary Clinton is going to be the voice of the giant in an Into the Woods production is all kinds of awesome. The only time I’ve even been in the same room as Bill and Hillary was several years ago when my wife and I saw A Little Night Music on Broadway. When we came in, we noticed some extra security, but didn’t think much of it. Our seats were in the balcony, and we later noticed people acting strangely, taking pictures of something below – it turned out the Clintons were there. So, I’ve seen the tops of Bill and Hillary’s heads in person.

    Which is all just to say that it’s no surprise Hillary likes Sondheim.

  17. 17.

    Baud

    @Raoul Paste: Then maybe we should stop pushing Democrats to propose more progressive tax policies if we’re not going to back it up with our support.

  20. 20.

    sdhays

    @germy: That’s obscene. The absurd subsidizing of professional sports in this country, which is awash in cash, is insane.

  21. 21.

    sdhays

    @Baud: So, clearly Sen. Bruce Bostelman is on the dimmer end of the intelligence scale, and very, very gullible. I’m guessing someone in his life has introduced their dog to Bostelman, telling him it’s an exotic type of cat, and Bostelman, being the mark that he is, totally believed them.

    Woof, woof – there’s a good kitty.

  23. 23.

    sab

    Proud to be a Democrat. In Ohio here my husband wouldn’t let me watch the Ohio Republican Senate Debate last night because there was some March sports event on TV. Did anyone here watch the crab bucket clown car?

  24. 24.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @sdhays:

    I love this story! And I love Hillary, but I’m not giving away any secrets when I note that she has one of the most god-awful singing voices ever inflicted upon a human person. It’s a shame, too, because if she could sing at all I think she’d be an awesome Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd. She’d probably envision every member of the GOP and the RWNJ media as pie filling, and she’d be amazing. (She’d play the part with relish, as it were.)

  25. 25.

    germy

    @sdhays:

    https://dailygazette.com/2022/03/28/editorial-taxpayers-paying-a-heavy-price-to-keep-the-bills/

    The owner of the Buffalo Bills, Terry Pegula, is the 188th richest American, with a net worth of $5.7 billion, according to the Forbes 400. His wealth would make him around the 23rd richest person in New York.

    Among owners of all of America’s sports teams, he’s tied for 20th wealthiest. Among the 32 NFL team owners, he’s tied for eighth.

    So it hardly seems right that New York taxpayers, among the most overtaxed citizens in the country, provide the oil tycoon with an $850 million gift to build a new stadium for his football team so that he can get even richer at the people’s expense.

    Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Buffalo native, made a big score for the home team by announcing a deal that would have New Yorkers pay 60% of the cost of a new $1.4 billion stadium, allowing the Bills to remain in New York for the next 30 years. About $600 million would come from state taxpayers, while $250 million would come from the taxpayers of Erie County, where the stadium would be located. The Bills owner would only contribute $350 million.

  26. 26.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    WaPo ran the Bostelman story this morning. Best reader comment:

    “What’s worse and even more dangerous is that some of the students identify as Republican.”

  27. 27.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: 

    How can people be gullible enough to believe this stuff in the first place? Do they send money to Nigerian princes?

    “Sen. Bostelman explained in a follow-up statement that although he has spent $20 million in taxpayer funds to the Nigerian prince, he is assured that there will be a payout of hundreds of millions. He just has to pay another $30 million to cover some bank fees and transportation costs.”

  28. 28.

    Betty Cracker

    Sounds like there were fireworks at the January 6 committee yesterday when members referred former Trump aide Peter Navarro and former caddie/social media director Dan Scavino for contempt. I’ll put up a post about later if I have time.

    Several committee members expressed frustration with the DOJ, and one specifically called on AG Garland to “do your job.” So, the frustration with the glacial pace of the investigation isn’t just confined to a few of us malcontents here.

  29. 29.

    AliceBlue

    @sdhays: We had a similar experience many years ago when my husband and I went to see La Boheme at Lincoln Center.  We were in the balcony and we noticed that everyone was looking through their opera glasses at someone on  the floor.  (Pre-cell phone days).  It was Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward.

  30. 30.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @OzarkHillbilly: People who buy those things are damn fools; you can’t wait out what will happen if 4,000 plus nuclear warheads go off in one day.

  31. 31.

    Geminid

    @sdhays: I don’t have the base of knowledge to say this more positively, but the deficit reduction might be validation of the Democrats’ “trickle up” economics, putting more money in average people’s hands. Republicans claimed that their tax cuts for high earners and corporations, their “trickle down” economics, would generate so much growth the cuts would be “self financing,” which  is now a proven lie. I don’t think Democrats made this explicit claim for the American Recovery Act or the Infrastructure package, but such a claim might be justified.

  32. 32.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Woof woof: Robot dog called in to help manage Pompeii

    A four-legged robot called Spot has been deployed to wander around the ruins of ancient Pompeii, identifying structural and safety issues while delving underground to inspect tunnels dug by relic thieves.

    The dog-like robot is the latest in a series of technologies used as part of a broader project to better manage the archaeological park since 2013, when Unesco threatened to add Pompeii to a list of world heritage sites in peril unless Italian authorities improved its preservation.

    Spot, made by the US-based Boston Dynamics, is capable of inspecting even the smallest of spaces while “gathering and recording data useful for the study and planning of interventions”, park authorities said.

    I’ve heard his bark is worse than his byte.*

    * while i’d like to take sole credit for this pun, i am just not technologically wired to have thought it up all by myself. proper credit goes to commentor Kathy over at OTB.

  33. 33.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    How can people be gullible enough to believe this stuff in the first place? Do they send money to Nigerian princes?

    First, conservative voters are the major target for scams, yes.  The advertising on their political television is sketchy as Hell.

    Second, he’s an asshole.  Probably a stupid asshole.  He was elected by stupid assholes to be a stupid asshole.  Repeating whatever they hear that is insulting to their enemies is standard practice.  If they cared about the truth, it would be harder to do that.  It’s an entirely different mindset and value system, and them living in a fantasy world is one of the results.  Remember when Rush said that liberals are okay with people having all kinds of sex as long as it’s consensual?  They’re not working from the same basic principles that we are.

  34. 34.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    Have we had any editorials yet about how Hillary doesn’t deserve to be a Giant? Has Ted Cruz weighed in yet?

    I had the privilege to be in a small room with Hillary for some political event or other, a speech to a women’s group during campaign season. I no longer recall whose campaign, possibly her own.

    She was warm, intelligent, charming, a total joy.

  35. 35.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Baud:

    What self-respecting cat barks?

    This is a progressive school. All the cats are enrolled in DSL (Doggish as a Second Language) courses.

  38. 38.

    Betty Cracker

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Cheney, Schiff, et al., also conveyed the general message that the DOJ needs to get its ass in gear, but IIRC, the rep who called out Garland by name was Luria of VA (I think).

  40. 40.

    gene108

    @sdhays:

    I think he knew what he did was wrong. He knows he’s promoting bullshit. He’s a fucking adult, he doesn’t deserve any benefit of the doubt on this.

    His only problem is the right-wing media throws out so many conspiracy theories, it’s hard for Republican politicians to be confident on which one will stick.

  42. 42.

    Jager

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    When I was a kid in Jr High they were selling prefab bomb shelters. The company did a promotion with a local radio station, they set it up in a shopping center parking lot, they’d cut a large window in the side so you could see the guy on the air. The shelter was just a big steel box. We discovered that if you threw rocks at it it made a hell of a noise on the radio. The disc jockey had to have them put a curtain over the window on the 2nd day, so people couldn’t see him taking a dump.

  45. 45.

    jonas

    @OzarkHillbilly: ​
      And its corollary: exploding deficits with tax cuts for the wealthy that don’t pay for themselves is no big deal, whereas deficits from social spending are always a horrible disaster.

    Which brings me back to the fundamental theorem of Republicanism: “No expansion of government is too small, no budget too reckless, or infringement of liberty too intolerable if its principle effect is to put down poor people and/or POC.”

  46. 46.

    Ken

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: Have we had any editorials yet about how Hillary doesn’t deserve to be a Giant? Has Ted Cruz weighed in yet?

    They should offer him the part of the Narrator. He only has to interact with the Giant one time.

  48. 48.

    lowtechcyclist

    @SiubhanDuinne: I love Hillary, but I’m not giving away any secrets when I note that she has one of the most god-awful singing voices ever inflicted upon a human person.

    When I sing (well, when I do what I identify as singing), even my wife and son tell me to STFU.

  49. 49.

    Betty Cracker

    @Frankensteinbeck: I don’t know if the rep believed the cat litter story, but it sounds like exactly the sort of thing my wingnut relatives would fall for, so I can easily believe his constituents believe it.

    I have an uncle who lives in Florida who insists that you can’t get served in a restaurant or store in Miami unless you speak Spanish. I told him that’s bullshit after I’d just come back from a two-week trip to Miami, and he insisted I must have just coincidentally run into the handful of English speaking service people in every store or restaurant I visited.

  50. 50.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Betty Cracker:

    It was explained in a thread last night that a reason Garland seems to be dragging his feet is that investigations at the DOJ are ongoing into those referred and that accounts for the lack of communications with 1/6 committee members; DOJ can’t share details of ongoing investigations and grand jury proceedings

  52. 52.

    OzarkHillbilly

    I was never ideologically opposed to smartphones. Or, at least, I wasn’t at first. It all began one spring afternoon in 2006, when a group of friends and I were mugged. The assailant demanded our phones and wallets but when I handed him my Nokia 1110, whose keypad was strapped to it with an elastic band, the mugger’s response was categorical: “Nah, mate.”

    It was humiliating. While my friends could bask in universal sympathy – they had, after all, lost their beloved and expensive BlackBerrys – I had to tell the rest of our school and the police that my phone was so crap it had been rejected. Even as a trophy.

    But there was another way of looking at it. My Nokia had been through a lot. Dropped so much its case had smashed (for a while, when I lost the keypad, I even texted using the end of a blunt pencil), it had now survived a robbery. A more glamorous device would have crumbled under the pressure, but my phone was made of sterner, simpler stuff. In some ways, its crapness was its biggest asset.

    When I thought about it like that, I wasn’t ashamed of my phone; I was proud. And when I lost it in my second year of university, I decided I wouldn’t upgrade. It was 2011, my friends were buying iPhones, but I stayed low-tech. For the next 10 years, I didn’t look back. Now it seems more and more people are recognising the virtues of keeping it simple: just last week the BBC was heralding “the return of ‘dumbphones’”.

    A man after my own heart, altho I have always been ideologically opposed to phones that are smarter than I.

  54. 54.

    Geminid

    @Betty Cracker: Elaine Luria (VA 2nd) is one of the only January 6 Commitee members facing a tough reelection. Virginia Republicans really want that seat she won in 2018 back. If they can’t knock her out this year, Luria will probly retire in 2040 as Chairman of the Armed Services commitee and have a big ship named after her.

    I bet Luria really likes the new defense budget. Her coastal district is ground zero for the military-industrial complex.

  56. 56.

    Betty Cracker

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Maybe that’s the case, but the fact that the January 6th committee members (many of whom are experienced attorneys/prosecutors themselves and all of whom are privy to more info than us) are openly expressing frustration makes me wonder. 

  57. 57.

    gene108

    @Betty Cracker:

    Several committee members expressed frustration with the DOJ, and one specifically called on AG Garland to “do your job.” So, the frustration with the glacial pace of the investigation isn’t just confined to a few of us malcontents here.

    I’ve given up on the DOJ doing a damn thing to Trump and any other Republican involved with January 6. As Rep. Schiff said on this blog’s book club, grand juries usually have some leaks and reporters hang around those court houses to find them. The fact nothing’s happened, plus Rep. Schiff’s comments, plus the fact experienced legal lawyers have said there’s stuff out there, like obstructing the Mueller investigation, that could be prosecuted already leads me to this conclusion.

    There are legal issues concerning the powers a President has, and how they may protect some of his activities like any sort of public utterance, but it’s not like Trump kept his criming a fucking secret. If the DOJ wanted to tackle the challenge of prosecuting Trump, they would have done it already.

  58. 58.

    Baud

    @Betty Cracker:

    There’s zero chance DOJ would share info with Congress.  As gene108 says, the reason people think nothing is happening is that there are no grand jury leaks from witnesses, which is an entirely reasonable take.

  59. 59.

    sdhays

    @gene108: The litter box story is so obviously not true that he’s clearly not very bright. A slightly smarter person would realize that personally throwing the shit up on the wall would make him seem stupid. That doesn’t absolve him, especially since you know he’s not going to change any of him behavior or any of his “news” sources after this embarrassment.

    I stand by my theory that someone in the senator’s life has convinced him that their dog is actually a cat.

  61. 61.

    YY_Sima Qian

    More funding for “defense” & “law enforcement”, how does that help the middle class? But taxing the rich is good!

  63. 63.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Baud: A clip, years ago (maybe 2008?). Along with hundreds of other people, she was singing the National Anthem at some political or patriotic gathering. One of the networks stuck a mic close to her face, and it was just grotesquely painful to hear.

  67. 67.

    hells littlest angel

    Doocy has climbed in status from stupid to silly. Maybe some day he’ll graduate from son of a bitch to jerkoff.

  68. 68.

    Starfish

    @schrodingers_cat: I do both, but not well. I just use the cheap crochet hooks. I did have a friend who turned a wooden handle for the cheap crochet hook, and that was nice. It was somewhat like this

    There is this lady in India on Ravelry whose work I love. She is good at everything.

  69. 69.

    mrmoshpotato

    Doocy: When you said that chemical weapon use by Russia would trigger a response in kind

    Biden: It will trigger a significant response

    Doocy: What does that mean?

    Biden: I’m not going to tell you. Why would I tell you, you absolute assclown?!

  70. 70.

    Baud

    @YY_Sima Qian:

    The budget request aims to advance racial equity in areas spanning education, health care and public assistance. 
    The Biden administration said the request calls for historic investments for K-12 schools, doubling the funding for Title I grants for schools as part of a larger effort by the president to address “long-standing funding disparities between under-resourced schools — which disproportionately serve students of color — and their wealthier counterparts.”

    Biden also seeks to double the maximum award amount for Pell Grant recipients by 2029. The move comes after the maximum amount saw an increase in the $1.5 trillion omnibus spending package that passed Congress earlier this month.

    According to the Education Data Initiative, Black students were most likely to receive the grant, which is awarded based on financial need, between 2015 and 2016, and Asian and Pacific Islander students were most likely to receive the highest award amount during the same period.
    The budget request calls for $470 million to be put toward reducing maternal mortality rates, implementing bias training for health care providers and addressing high rates of perinatal disparities, among other proposals, while noting the “unacceptably high mortality rate for Black and American Indian and Alaska Native women.”
    It also touts measures aimed at advancing child and family well-being in the welfare system, including efforts seeking to reduce the overrepresentation of families of color in the child welfare system.

    White House Fact sheets here:

    Briefing Room | The White House

     

    ETA: One-stop fact sheet

    FACT SHEET: The President’s Budget for Fiscal Year 2023 | The White House

  71. 71.

    burnspbesq

    @sab:

    If you were watching the women’s Elite Eight, you saw a lot of defense that would be a felony if it happened anywhere other than on a basketball court.

  73. 73.

    Betty Cracker

    @Baud: Right, but through interviews, reviewing documents, etc., I assume the committee members have a better handle on the scope of the criminal activities and the amount of evidence than we do. Or maybe they’re just the new “do-something Twitter” and should shut up already.

  75. 75.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Starfish: The two mass market hooks are Boye and Susan Bates. I have a  Boye was wondering whether I should get a Bates.

    I learnt how to knit and crochet in school but I approached it with a bad attitude, because I had to do it and was not given a choice. I still prefer drawing and painting but have been experimenting with crochet stitches off late.

    I am following along a Daily Practice Creative Bug crochet class, which I access through my Library card.

  81. 81.

    Baud

    @Betty Cracker: I’m sure the Commitee knows more than I do. I doubt they more than DOJ does.  DOJ, after all, has cut plea deals with seditionists requiring their cooperation, and the Committee doesn’t have access to that information.

    I don’t know what DOJ will do, but I think the tough part for them is that they are aware of the firestorm that will arise once leaks start happening, and leaks will start happening once they bring in hostile witnesses to the grand jury.  So if they are planning on doing anything at all, they really can’t engage in the same grand jury process as they would in a normal criminal case, but have to have a solid foundation before they even start the grand jury process.

    But I make no promises that, in the end, the whole thing won’t be a complete bust.

  89. 89.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Baud:

    But I make no promises that, in the end, the whole thing won’t be a complete bust.

    IANAL but my understanding is that a prosecution that ends in anything less than a conviction, and a conviction held up on appeal, is worse than a bust

    people talk about indictments, if not “investigations”, as infallible lightning bolts of righteousness if only Garland had the balls! They are only the start of a long and complicated process

    I’ve long assumed that what the DoJ is actually investigating is not the facts, which are pretty clear, but the laws, which are less clear, have few precedents, and in many cases involve proving intent and consciousness of guilt (I think that’s a real thing, but again IANAL)

  90. 90.

    Betty Cracker

    Our river is very foggy today, and the airboat* tour operator is telling the dozen or so tourists he’s hauling that they might not see any alligators because they’re not coming out to sun themselves. The tourists (and gators) are disappointed!

    * Sweet Jesus, do I hate motherfucking airboats.

  93. 93.

    Baud

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Yes, there are likely to be a whole lot of legal hurdles that “politics” people don’t have to deal with.  And in the back of everyone’s mind has to be the wingnuttery of the courts right now.

  94. 94.

    Betty Cracker

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    IANAL but my understanding is that a prosecution that ends in anything less than a conviction, and a conviction held up on appeal, is worse than a bust

    I’m not a lawyer either, but that sounds like a too-high standard. Maybe an actual lawyer can explain to us why that makes sense.

  97. 97.

    Kay

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    But they’re not complaining that Garland doesn’t have “balls”. That’s a strawman. They’re complaining about specific acts he hasn’t completed:

    Sahil Kapur
    @sahilkapur
    Rep. Adam Schiff says the Justice Department has a “duty” to act on the criminal contempt referral of Scavino/Navarro once it’s approved “and others” that Congress has sent it.
    NOTE: House voted to hold Mark Meadows in contempt months ago; Justice Department hasn’t acted on it.

    There’s urgency here. If they lose the House the January 6th investigation is over.

  98. 98.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Betty Cracker:

    * Sweet Jesus, do I hate motherfucking airboats.

    I’ve never even seen one, but I’ve always been torn– when planning a theoretical vacation– between thinking they look really cool and like a good way to see the swamps, and really noisy and uncomfortable and I imagine generate quite a bit of easy exhaust

  99. 99.

    Kristine

    @Ken: @OzarkHillbilly: Back when the local nuke plant was still operating, my dad got into a conversation with some guy and places of residence came up. Some guy lived maybe 15-20 miles away and said he’d never live in Zion because of the plant. My dad replied “If anything happens, we’re gone in a flash. You get to watch your skin fall off for three days.” Some guy didn’t like that at all.

  104. 104.

    Ken

    @Baud: White House records turned over to House show 7-hour gap in Trump phone log on Jan. 6

    According to my calculations, that is 22.7 times worse than an 18.5 minute gap.

  105. 105.

    snoey

    @Betty Cracker: Until a real lawyer shows up – in general politician prosecutors love to brag on their conviction rates and in particular being the one who shot at the Trumps and missed is career suicide.

  106. 106.

    Baud

    @Kay: It took about two months for DOJ to act on Steve Bannon’s criminal contempt referral.  It’s been three months since the Mark Meadows referral was sent.  I’m not sure why there’s an extra month delay (maybe grand juries are off for the holidays), but it’s not extremely past the time it took for the Bannon indictment.

  107. 107.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    I don’t know Baud, they seem to be moving aggressively to prosecute Hunter Biden and I’m sure there are some “legal hurdles” there. Biden is the sitting fucking President yet there’s none of this elaborate deference in that case. They somehow managed to put together at least a tax case there.

    Is this how they “restore credibility”? The Comey Rules? The Comey Rules were made up. They’re bad and dumb.

  108. 108.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Betty Cracker: In this situation, I would think that the DOJ knows that they have one shot at these prosecutions.  If they file and lose, there are going to be a ton of people who are convinced that they weren’t trying.  If they wait until they have airtight cases, there are going to be a ton of people who are convinced that they aren’t trying.  In such a situation, wouldn’t you just try to make sure you are doing it right?

  109. 109.

    ian

    @YY_Sima Qian:

    More funding for “defense” & “law enforcement”, how does that help the middle class?

    There are certainly better ways to help the middle class, but large number of professionals and contractors work in these industries.  For all of the flaws associated with the American MIC, it employs a lot of people.

  110. 110.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Kay:

    But they’re not complaining that Garland doesn’t have “balls”. That’s a strawman.

    Right. Nobody, not even in these threads, has ever suggested that Merrick Garland is just weak. Total strawman.

  111. 111.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Geminid: @sab:

    I was in NOLA last week visiting with the sweetest happiest little blue eyed redhead in the world. Oh yeah, my son and his wife too.

    As for armadillos, yeah, we have them. They started showing up maybe 30 years ago. They can play hell with a garden (knock on wood).

  112. 112.

    Geminid

    @Kay: I think the Jauary 6 Commitee plans to wrap up it’s investigation by the end of this Congress anyway.

  114. 114.

    NotMax

    Helluva way to drum up business.

    Hong Kong’s deadliest coronavirus outbreak has cost about 6,000 lives this year – and the city is now running out of coffins.

    Authorities have scrambled to order more, with the government saying 1,200 coffins had reached the city last week with more to come.

    Space constraints make cremation a common burial practice in the densely populated island territory off the Chinese mainland, and the coffins typically are wood or wood substitutes.

    To answer the shortage of them due to the COVID-19 toll, some companies are offering alternatives such as an environmentally friendly cardboard coffin. Source

  115. 115.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Kay: If they lose the House, the DOJ investigation is not over.  The DOJ should not let political factors affect its actions.  We all rightly criticized Trump’s DOJ for being political; is it right to turn around and ask the Biden’s DOJ act the same way?

  116. 116.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    If Hunter Biden ends up being the only powerful or influential person held accountable in all this then they’re a joke.

  117. 117.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    I don’t know Baud, they seem to be moving aggressively to prosecute Hunter Biden

    Hasn’t that been going on for a couple of years now

    ETA:

    The investigation was reportedly opened in late 2018, before Bill Barr became attorney general. It has focused on Hunter’s business dealings in China and began as a money laundering probe, but is now focusing on potential violations of tax law. The investigation was kept “covert” to avoid influencing the election, and Hunter was indeed only told of it Tuesday. And Joe Biden “is not implicated,” per CNN.

  119. 119.

    Betty Cracker

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: They’re all of the above! You can definitely see stuff you can’t get to via a regular boat. My dad has an airboat, and it’s fun (noisy as hell though — you have to wear earphones and can’t talk with the motor running). But since I live on the swamp tour route, I hate them with the white hot heat of 10K suns. 

  121. 121.

    Kristine

    @Baud:

    I don’t know what DOJ will do, but I think the tough part for them is that they are aware of the firestorm that will arise once leaks start happening, and leaks will start happening once they bring in hostile witnesses to the grand jury. So if they are planning on doing anything at all, they really can’t engage in the same grand jury process as they would in a normal criminal case, but have to have a solid foundation before they even start the grand jury process.

    I’ve been following Teri Kanefield on Twitter. She pushes/gets pushed by the Where’s Merrick crowd. In self-defense, she compiled a Merrick Garland FAQ on her website, which includes this response to ‘why not just indict already?’

    A defendant has a right to see all the evidence the prosecutor has because prosecutors can’t withhold exculpatory evidence. So if a person is indicted before the investigation is complete, the defense lawyer waltzes in, files a motion, and the defendant gets to see all the evidence already collected. WHAM other people up the chain still being investigated also find out. Among other things, this enables them to coordinate their stories. So that might not be the best idea.

  123. 123.

    Kay

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    We all rightly criticized Trump’s DOJ for being political; is it right to turn around and ask the Biden’s DOJ act the same way?

    Another strawman. No one is asking them to “be political”. In fact, showing Mark Meadows deference out of fear of being perceived as political IS political. It’s the flip side of exactly the same problem. That’s the knot dumbass Comey stumbled into. He was so, so worried that he wouldn’t be perceived as the Most Honest Man he let POLITICS drive his decisions.
    I don’t want to hear that they’re “in a bind” because they apparently can’t drum anything up other than a tax case with Hunter Biden. That’s political.

  124. 124.

    tam1MI

    @Baud: I think a Chef’s kiss would be Biden sending letters to those 700 billionaires giving them Manchin and Sinema’s cell phone number.

    I look forward to seeing Sinema show up on the Senate floor wearing a dress made out of dead cats with a dildo on her head to vote down the legislation. [/sarcasm]

  126. 126.

    Ohio Mom

    @ian: I am not surprised defense spending will go up, we are sending a fair amount of our stores of equipment to Ukraine.

    Everything will have to be restocked, and whatever we are learning about the equipment’s strengths and weaknesses under real wartime conditions will need to be addressed in re-engineering it. And then making new, improved equipment.

    Of course I am completely in favor of arming Ukraine, and I usually roll my eyes at how much we spend on the military, so this is a moment of cognitive dissonance for me.

  127. 127.

    Betty Cracker

    @snoey: True, but I hope it’s not just political considerations that drive that standard. Too many corrupt people get off the hook, and maybe the knowledge that they won’t face consequences as long as they avoid handing the prosecutors an airtight case emboldens criminals.

  129. 129.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Kay: You suggested the political timetable.  I am just saying that the DOJ does not have one in the same way the the House does.

  130. 130.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    Oh, well, you’ll be hearing about it every day if Republicans win either chamber. Every. Day. For some reason “kitchen table” issues won’t matter anymore, and it’ll be all investigations all the time.

    The NYTimes will have the entire emails team on it. The January 6th committee need to complete the work and the DOJ need to treat it as urgent and necessary. It is. They’re going to do this again.

  131. 131.

    cain

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    First, conservative voters are the major target for scams, yes.  The advertising on their political television is sketchy as Hell.

    They are the mice of the animal world – at the bottom of the food chain and prey to everyone. I wonder if it is because that they have a mentality that wants to acquire things? Greed and  blind devotion to an ideal are key factors in this.

  132. 132.

    Baud

    @Kay: Sure, I agree with that.  By the same token, even if DOJ brought an airtight case against Trump and Stone and all of the rest of their clan tomorrow, the Republicans and the NYT would still be talking about how the Dems overreached and are politicizing politics.  There’s no way around them.

  134. 134.

    Geminid

    @Ohio Mom: I think we are stuck with this fat defense budget for the rest of the decade, and will at best hold increases to that of inflation. The next decade may be a different story, but even then military spending may only decline as a relative share of GDP.

  136. 136.

    cain

    @jonas: Which brings me back to the fundamental theorem of Republicanism: “No expansion of government is too small, no budget too reckless, or infringement of liberty too intolerable if its principle effect is to put down poor people and/or POC.”

    And get the middle class to pay for it all.

  138. 138.

    sab

    @Kay: Investigations all the time. Even though Republicans are the major lawbreakers. They will investigate nothingburgers forever and ignore guys trotting off with chunks of the statehouse.

  140. 140.

    Formerly disgruntled in Oregon

    @Kay: I assume “political” is stand-in for “corrupt/biased”.

    We don’t want the DOJ to be corrupted by the presidential administration.

    Therefore a good DOJ will avoid appearing biased in the admin’s favor.

  141. 141.

    Bupalos

    @sdhays: The whole thing is too weird for me. If I remember, the role of the giant is to wreck havoc on the little people for having killed her husband… who himself was trying to kill a little person… in a case of home invasion.

    I mean, I love that whole “well…it’s complicated…” inversion of a fairy tale. But I really don’t get her playing that role.

  146. 146.

    HRA

    @germy: It will be built across the road from the existing stadium with 10,000 less seats. It may be on the parking lot. There is nothing wrong with the existing stadium which has been upgraded not too long ago.  Its 15 minutes from my house and one of my daughters lives next door to it.

  147. 147.

    raven

    @SiubhanDuinne: Did you see this from the middle of the night?

     

    TheMightyTrowel
    MARCH 29, 2022 AT 3:40 AM

    Since this is an open thread… just sticking my nose in quickly because I posted the other day after a long absence and then immediately got dragged back into work stuff so didn’t notice that the lovely @SiubhanDuinne said hi and asked for an update… Feel free to pass on to her that I’ve put this here should any of you in this thread see her later.

    @SiubhanDuinne Yes, I’m still in Australia – still in the same role, still writing and teaching and generally being an archaeologist and mostly it’s fine but sometimes it sucks (the Aus govt decided to use the pandemic to stick one to the universities and it pretty much worked – we lost 40,000 colleagues across the sector which is a lot in a small country). I’m not here very often because the layout and embedded tweets are unreadable on my phone and when I have a laptop open these days I’m ‘at work’. I try to keep off my laptop on weekends/evenings, but I do keep up a bit with the posts (especially Adam’s daily updates which are invaluable). Anyhow, lovely to be remembered even if I only comment about once in a blue moon at this point – I still really appreciate this particular community and it’s enormous curiosity and knowledge.

  150. 150.

    sab

    I thought catnip was supposed to knock cats out, like marijuana. Catnip has my cats in delusional overload. Hyper and hallucinating. Certainly not their best selves.

  151. 151.

    Lyrebird

    @raven: Hi raven, hope I catch you – a bit ago, I tried to say something diplomatic about welcoming different opinions, but all I succeeded in doing was to encourage someone to insult you some more.  Really sorry about that.  Apologizing late bc I am often late to threads, and at the time I could see that saying more would probably make the situation worse.  Sorry about that.

  152. 152.

    evodevo

    @OzarkHillbilly:  Yeah, I can sympathize…I just got a smartphone, forced to by TracFone.  My beloved little Nokia with the button keypad is sitting forelornly on the kitchen table…

  153. 153.

    Kay

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Well, I guess, except it makes Donald Trump the only person who could be investigated or prosecuted, which IS a very high bar, I admit, but is also not true.

    As we speak they are prosecuting Hunter Biden but not Joe Biden, so we know this can be done.

  156. 156.

    Kay

    @cain:

    Absolutely. But the focus will be Hunter Biden. They may try to imprison Fauci. Nothing inspires the rage of the Right more than that amiable and hard working doctor. The Lab Leak Theory! Fauci is in that up to his neck.

  157. 157.

    Kay

    @cain:

    If it happens I just hope Democrats don’t testify. Fuck them. Let them sue. There’s absolutely no upside to transparency, as Hillary Clinton discovered.

  158. 158.

    tam1MI

    @Kay: As we speak they are prosecuting Hunter Biden but not Joe Biden, so we know this can be done.

    Point of order: They are INVESTIGATING Hunter Biden. At this point in time he has not been charged with anything.

  160. 160.

    Another Scott

    @Ohio Mom: I heard Moscow Mitch immediately complaining on a clip on C-Span yesterday that the budget was horrible for the “American People” because it’s Liberal McLiberalface and the Pentagon budget is too small because Biden HatestheTroops™.

    Just the outline at WH.gov is 158 pages, so I’m sure he studied it very carefully, known speed-reader that he is.

    (groucho-roll-eyes.gif)

    Seriously, they’re not even trying to be a sensible opposition party. It’s all the same old tired sound bites. And everyone who disagrees with them isn’t part of the “American People” in their eyes. (Yeah, our side uses that framing too, but we’re at least inclusive about it.)

    Grr…,
    Scott.

  161. 161.

    Brachiator

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    It was humiliating. While my friends could bask in universal sympathy – they had, after all, lost their beloved and expensive BlackBerrys..

    One thing I love about this story is knowing that beloved Blackberry phones were soon eclipsed by the iPhone and Android phones.

    The way of all tech.

  163. 163.

    zhena gogolia

    @evodevo: It turned out with a detailed, devastating report that should have led to a serious response by Congress. Have you read it?

  164. 164.

    schrodingers_cat

    @zhena gogolia: The fact that Mueller report landed several important people in jail like Manafort( who the Orange One pardoned on his way out) has been memory holed by the Do-Something contingent

    What the Do-Somethingers want is performance art as politics.

  165. 165.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: The federal judge who issued a ruling in the Eastman case yesterday wrote that Trump “more likely than not” committed felony obstruction. But he didn’t say he 100% definitely did, so not prosecutable? I don’t know how this works.

  166. 166.

    sdhays

    @Baud: I get that for the criminal investigations. I am perplexed as to why it takes months to act on a Congressional contempt referral. It seems to me that when you get a criminal referral from your co-equal branch, a lawyer/team of lawyers should be assigned and the target should be in court within days.

    The idea that Congressional subpoenas or contempt findings aren’t enforceable unless the other two branches feel like maybe doing something is just broken and weird.

  167. 167.

    Sure Lurkalot

    CNN:

    It’s extraordinary that, more than 14 months on, new details of efforts by Trump and those around him to subvert President Joe Biden’s victory are still emerging. It’s also ironic that this threat to American democracy is being further exposed while Washington leads an international effort to save freedom in Ukraine, which is under much greater assault from Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom Trump still seems to hero worship.

    Read Emptywheel a lot during the Mueller investigation. She sings the same tune now regarding the DOJ. Meanwhile, the conspirators continue to poison the air with their never ending claims of voter fraud and incitements to violence. I want to be hopeful that things are proceeding in some due course, but it is more than disconcerting to hear Congress critters express their frustration.

  168. 168.

    Baud

    @sdhays: It’s criminal contempt.  The purpose of criminal proceedings isn’t to force compliance with the subpoena.  It’s to punish for failing to comply.  The targets could turn over the documents tomorrow and they could still be held criminally liable.

    If the goal was to force immediate compliance, the proceeding should have been civil, not criminal. But the committee, I assume, thought punishment was more important.

  169. 169.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Kay:

    they seem to be moving aggressively to prosecute Hunter Biden and I’m sure there are some “legal hurdles” there.

    No they’re not.  Trump ordered a political hit investigation 4 years ago, it has officially given up on criminal charges and can’t find any civil charges either.  The New York Times ran an absolutely classic NYT story where they described Hunter paying his taxes and emails telling his partners he refused to break the law as if Hunter had been caught but might skate on technicalities.

    Trump’s political hit investigations went absolutely nowhere.  They are a clear demonstration that these investigations are not fast or easy.

  170. 170.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Baud: my understanding is that the fact that, unlike Bannon, Meadows, Scavino and Navarro have all provided documents, partial cooperation, makes it harder to make that criminal case.

    also: How long would it take to prosecute these cases? One thing these people are good at is dragging out court procedures, they will have very expensive defense lawyers, and quite possibly friendly judges.

  173. 173.

    Brachiator

    @Another Scott:

    I heard Moscow Mitch immediately complaining on a clip on C-Span yesterday that the budget was horrible for the “American People” because its Liberal McLiberalface and the Pentagon budget is too small because Biden HatestheTroops™.

    Yeah, McConnell has not updated his playbook at all. For Republicans, bipartisanship means “The Democrats should do what we want, and everything they want is wrong for America.”

    Just the outline at WH.gov is 158 pages, so I’m sure he studied it very carefully, known speed-reader that he is.

    158 pages is not that long, and I am sure he has staff to read it and break it down for him. But yeah, he may not have read it at all.

  179. 179.

    WaterGirl

    @lowtechcyclist: When my mom was in grade school, the singing teacher told her “Blossom (my mom’s name) please sing with your mouth closed.”

    Terrible thing to say to a child, but i the teacher’s defense, my mom’s singing was truly awful.

  181. 181.

    WaterGirl

    @Betty Cracker: I don’t want to put words in Adam Schiff’s mouth, but listen to or watch the parts of the two zooms where he joined us for the book club.  He talks a bit about Garland and how he feels about where things stand with the DOJ and the committee.

  182. 182.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    meanwhile…

    Armando @ArmandoNDK 2h
    No collusion.

    Liz Harrington @realLizUSA. · 2h

    Exclusive: Trump calls on Putin to release info on Hunter Biden’s dealings with oligarchs

  183. 183.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    I never believed Trump would be prosecuted. I just don’t think we’ll do it. The United States seems to be wholly committed to sweeping more and more under our lumpy rug.

    But I would like to see some accountability for the Trump officials and members of congress who planned or participated in the coup.

    I was looking into this and I thought “would you look at that- a trial !” :)

    Filber, once one of Netanyahu’s closest aides, is believed to be an essential piece of the prosecution’s case against him in Case 4000, in which the former prime minister is charged with bribery, fraud and breach of trust.

  186. 186.

    Brachiator

    @germy:

    Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Buffalo native, made a big score for the home team by announcing a deal that would have New Yorkers pay 60% of the cost of a new $1.4 billion stadium, allowing the Bills to remain in New York for the next 30 years. About $600 million would come from state taxpayers, while $250 million would come from the taxpayers of Erie County, where the stadium would be located. The Bills owner would only contribute $350 million.

    Over 30 years, this is not a terrible deal. There will be jobs from construction and related activities in building the stadium, and some jobs later.

    It is still a tale of outrageous greed and rapaciousness, but it could be worse.

    And some people love their sports teams.

  190. 190.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    Here is how I think about this in a general way. I think we don’t ever really resolve anything and we pay for that. It accrues. It piles up. So there’s no accountability for Bush 2000 and no accountability for the Iraq invasion and no accountability for Trump but these things don’t go away. Each one causes a legitimacy hit, each one contributes to a lack of trust and a sense that powerful people are just held harmless because there’s always a short term rationale that says “we must protect the institutions!”

    Just have the fucking fight. Duke it out. If we don’t there won’t be anything left worth protecting anyway.

    The only way out is through.

  192. 192.

    cain

    @Kay: I agree.

    Of course, our media will not cover this the same way they do Republicans. Dems will have to really stick with it and not crumble.

  193. 193.

    Geminid

    @Kay: Those cases have crawled along. Netanyahu’s trial started 11 months ago and some observers think that with appeals there may not be a final outcome until well into next year.

  194. 194.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I haven’t seen it on the FP, but I assume all you political junkies saw/heard about Q-Bro Madison Cawthorne claiming he’d been invited to orgies by older Republicans? It came up at the caucus meeting this morning

    Olivia Beavers @Olivia_Beavers

    Hear Rep. Steve Womack stood up, said he hardly ever stands to talk, he has to say something about this bc now he is getting Qs about which members partaking in orgies after Cawthorn suggested they are happening in DC along w/ the use of cocaine. Told Cawthorn not there this am.

  195. 195.

    Kay

    @Geminid:

    But..but they might LOSE! Did no one tell them that?

    And what about his supporters?  They’re offended, I bet. Too risky. Best to just forget about it. VERY controversial.

  196. 196.

    Brachiator

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Exclusive: Trump calls on Putin to release info on Hunter Biden’s dealings with oligarchs

    Trump is a sick, sick man. Has he ever called on Putin to leave Ukraine?

    Just for fun, I would like to see Biden call on Putin to release info on Trump’s dealings with oligarchs.

  198. 198.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @cain: ​I wonder if it is because that they have a mentality that wants to acquire things?

    You wonder??!?!?!? Ever since 1950 or so, psychology-driven advertising has been hammering the target audiences with the message that buying stuff – and more recently, stuff to wave in someone else’s face – is the only acceptable treatment for the terror of living in a world whose size, power, inhumanity and immediacy threatens every waking moment to negate them. (The alternative – to find solace in solidarity with one’s fellow humans – is unacceptable since no one can make money off that “Comm’nist” idea.) Sheesh.

  200. 200.

    AWOL

    @germy: Voting for Matilda’s loathsome brat—or a better new candidate—before I vote for that below replacement-level grifter.

    $850M for the freakin’ Bills while homeless and mentally ill people are defecating on the streets in my hood due to neglect.

  202. 202.

    WaterGirl

    @Lyrebird: I believe they were part of the first prisoner exchange.  I was really relieved to read about that because I really feared for how they were going to be treated, particularly because the “go fuck yourselves” because such an inspirational rallying cry for Ukraine.

  203. 203.

    Kay

    @cain:

    It isn’t working anyway! The country is no closer together. Our institutions are no more resilient. In fact,. with each buried scandal the country gets further apart and our institutions take a hit.

    Just try the direct route. Weaving around the lumpy carpet doesn’t work anyway.

    Now we’re going to have Clarence Thomas sitting there to avoid too. You can’t even pick your head up without “oh, THAT fucking thing, THAT’S bad also”. Never resolved, always just left as “some say” until we careen to the next disaster. We’re going to need a bigger carpet.

  204. 204.

    tokyokie

    @AliceBlue: The spousal unit somehow got a singleton ticket to August Osage County when it was in previews in New York and sat next to (or maybe one row in front of) Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgewick. She actually talked to Bacon after the show, because he’d left his umbrella behind and returned to the auditorium. And although she mentioned that her spousal unit grew up in that part of Oklahoma, which apparently piqued Bacon’s interest, she didn’t think to get him to autograph her program.

  206. 206.

    UncleEbeneezer

    Law Professor Teri Kanefield has a pretty good primer on why things may be moving slowly with regards to a Trump indictment.  She responds to alot of the common assumptions or questions posed online.  A couple highlights:

    The trials of low-level insurrectionists have started. Two trials are upcoming for Virginia police officer Jacob Fracker and his co-conspirator Thomas Robertson. In the latest development, Fracker is pleading guilty to conspiracy to obstruct the counting of the electoral votes. Specifically, he stated that he entered into a conspiracy that had the purpose of interfering with the electoral votes. This means it will be easier for the prosecutors to get a conviction for his co-conspirator, Thomas Robertson.
    Criminal Defense attorney Mark Reichel adds- This investigation needs to be flawless.  Your readers need to keep these things in mind:

    1.  Once an indictment is filed, the government cannot use that indictment to develop more discovery or trial prep.  That’s an illegal use of a grand jury.  So, since the defense can’t use their own grand jury, once an indictment is made, the prosecution can’t keep subpoenaing documents and people to testify. This is why the case needs to be airtight before there is an indictment.
    2.  Admission by a party opponent.  The government is a party.  Government agents speak with just one voice across the country.  If an Assistant US Attorney in one state calls a defendant a “liar” in a federal case there, and a year later that defendant is a witness for the government in a different state, the defense can admit the statement from the first case. In other words, the witness is now discredited because the government has made an “admission.”  I use this all of the time. To take an example, at a bail hearing, the prosecutor may say the worst things about the defendants who seek bail.  Then, when these defendants “flip,” the government has discredited their testimony. This is why the government in a large complex case must take care in how they proceed. I have made motions to dismiss a case based on the government press conference at the indictment, saying the government statements not only biased jury pool, but the statement chilled the right for the defendant to subpoena witnesses on his own behalf in accordance with the 6th Amendment.

      …

      “1. Garland isn’t doing anything. If he were, people would be getting subpoenaed and hauled before the grand jury and we’d know.”

      Response (Reichel)-
      Not all witnesses are hostile. In other words, some witnesses agree to testify or even want to testify. Such witnesses obviously do not “scream bloody murder.”  If they testify, you might not hear about it. (Occasionally the DOJ does subpoena a hostile witness, but if the object is to keep the investigation quiet, the DOJ may not do so.)

      Leaks are common of course because Grand Jurors have families and people do talk. Because there are no leaks in this investigation, it’s possible that the case is being done with

      • (a) no hostile witnesses
      • (b) the use of case agent interviews, and/ or
      • (c) the DOJ can subpoena records (such as electronic mail) with a gag order so that the consumer never finds out. In other words, you know all those subpoenas issued by the Congressional select committee that witnesses are defying? This has nothing to do with DOJ prosecutors, who can waltz in with their own subpoena with a gag order and the person never even knows their email or call records have been subpoenaed. For an example, click here.

        2. “If Garland was investigating Trump, we’d see some evidence of the investigation!”

        Response (Reichel)-

        1) Maybe Garland hasn’t gotten that far up the ladder yet.

        (2) Recall that the DOJ can subpoena records (such as electronic mail) with a gag order so that the consumer never finds out.

        (3) There were recently two high profile resignations in New York: Two prosecutors resigned and made public their reasons: They were frustrated that DA Bragg was refusing to indict Trump along with the Trump Org (the Trump Org, recall, has already been indicted) and Alan Weisselberg (who has already been indicted.)

        If in fact Merrick Garland was lying to the public and there was no intention of investigating those close to Trump, it seems to me there would be rumbles and even resignations.
        3. “Garland should just indict what they have now and bring superseding indictments later.”

        Response)-
        A defendant has a right to see all the evidence the prosecutor has because prosecutors can’t withhold exculpatory evidence. So if a person is indicted before the investigation is complete, the defense lawyer waltzes in, files a motion, and the defendant gets to see all the evidence already collected. WHAM other people up the chain still being investigated also find out. Among other things, this enables them to coordinate their stories. So that might not be the best idea.

        When to bring indictments is part of the overall strategy.“

  208. 208.

    Ruckus

    @sdhays:

    CA said no and new stadiums got built. And I understand that ticket prices don’t go down when new stadiums are built with government money so it seems that the rubes get to pay twice and those poor team owners suffer from all that extra money coming in. Not a bad scam…..

  211. 211.

    Brachiator

    @Baud:

    That’s why David Gamage, a tax law professor at Indiana University says “it’s not a wealth tax, it’s an income tax reform.” He says, “This is a minimum income tax that includes the true economic value” of income that can be held for a very long time, he said.

    It’s a wealth tax. I would rather see a higher tax rate on more upper income taxpayers, but this leaves a lot of negotiating room.

    WHO WOULD SEE THE IMPACT?
    Roughly 700 billionaires would be affected by the tax proposal, the White House says, estimating that these individuals increased their wealth in 2021 by $1 trillion, paying roughly 8% of their income and unrealized gains in taxes.

    It will be fun watching the Republicans furiously defend a tiny group of plutocrats against tax increases.

  213. 213.

    Ruckus

    @Jager:

    A girl I knew in HS had one in her front yard. Now even then I was pretty sure that if we had nuclear war we wouldn’t be in all that good a shape, living 25 miles from downtown LA. Now? I’d say within likely 200 miles of LA. That’s of course if the rusky missiles actually still work, it seems a bit of their military gear is not exactly built to exacting specifications and upkeep may be a money maker, but not for doing the actual work.

  214. 214.

    Kay

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    Trump’s political hit investigations went absolutely nowhere

    Yes, because if we’ve learned anything over the last 30 years we’ve learned that there must be an airtight case and a conviction before anyone casts aspersions on a Democrat.
    It did exactly what it was supposed to do. It gave them a “Hunter Biden case” to use to smear Biden.

    I’m for fairness and the rule of law. I’m confident Hunter Biden is not the only tax dodging white collar criminal in this country. Let’s apply The Hunter Standard to everyone.

  217. 217.

    sab

    @Ruckus: Our next door neighbors in Florida had one in the 1960s . The local snakes loved it. There always were snakes hanging out in it.

  218. 218.

    Ruckus

    @hells littlest angel:

    I’ve still got him at stupid son of a bitch, he doesn’t seem to have gotten one iota better. And I don’t think he’s capable of improving. Not with all the child nursery teachers and assistants in the world is he going to get better.

  220. 220.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @zhena gogolia: It certainly could be, if any FP’er wants to do a post on it. (whoops I see WG is already on it ;) )

    For me the big takeaway is that timing is everything and that as much as I eagerly await indictments on Bannon, Stone and a whole host of others, if dropping those indictments jeopardizes getting people even higher up (most obviously: Trump) I’d rather DOJ work slowly.  I’d rather be frustrated now than see high level officials skate free because DOJ moves before they have things air-tight.  I know we all love to mock the “keeping their powder kegs dry” tendency of institutionalists/Dems, but this really is a case where lighting the powder keg too soon could mean a whole bunch of other bigger, more important powder kegs, never get ignited.  Or more accurately it’s not “you go at the King you best not miss” but “you go at the Queen, knights, bishops etc., you better pick the right time or the King might escape as a result.”

    I’m also happy to see that DOJ can in fact subpoena all kinds of stuff under a gag order so that nobody is aware of it.  I also remind myself of the fact that Garland investigated and brought a grand jury for the Oklahoma City bombing, without any leaks.  Granted, that was in much earlier internet days, but still it shows he understands the importance of doing so and has an actual big-time, historic investigation that he did on the down-low resulting in several convictions all of which held up on appeal.

  221. 221.

    sab

    @WaterGirl: Next time they fall off the ceiling I will try that. Right now they are all almost in orbit. Except tor Meg, who sits in her cat tree and sneers. ” I don’t do that stuff.”

  222. 222.

    Ruckus

    @Betty Cracker:

    Is it possible that they are getting a lot of pressure from their constituents about noting is happening?

    I’ve served on a jury (felony embezzlement) and been called for another (murder trial – guy copped so no trial) and the time from crime to trial is a lot longer than one might imagine. This is a lot more complex and as others have said there are restrictions that really can effect the prosecution if there are leaks or mistakes. And those folks aren’t going anywhere and the worst that can happen is dump dies before he’s tried, which would be a shame, not to have him suffer from a trial and steel bars but I’d venture that’s unlikely in any case, the actual limits on a president are few. Sure he’s violated every one of them and is the asshole idiot that we all know and hate but even asshole idiots have – OK I can’t type this crap any longer. Sorry.

  224. 224.

    Grum Grumby

    @Brachiator: Credit where credit is due:  the iPhone is one of the biggest tech innovations of the 21st century.  When it was announced—an announcement that was widely speculated about in advance—almost nobody was remotely close to imagining what it ended up being.  It just blew away everyone’s expectations.   Android, at that time, was a Blackberry clone with no interesting/new abilities at all, and it was under development by a relatively obscure startup.   Google snapped it up after the iPhone announcement and completely changed it to be an iPhone clone, which it remains to this day, and not an especially good one.

  225. 225.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Ruckus: FWIW, Tom Nichols, who specializes in RU and nuclear policy, says if there’s one thing their military keeps in shape, it’s their nukes. Unfortunately

  226. 226.

    SWMBO

    @schrodingers_cat: I knit and crochet both.  As I have gotten older and my hands have gotten stiffer, I find that hooks with a rubber/silicon/padded handle make it much easier to use them.  I tend to favor Boye but that’s a personal choice.  My daughter likes bamboo hooks and yarn.  I’m allergic to them and my hands break out.  As long as you are working to gauge, it doesn’t matter what brand hook you use.  Find what is comfortable for you and go with that.  I have different hooks by different manufacturers and there isn’t much difference in the finished product.  I have hand me down hooks and needles that are decades old that don’t have manufacturers brand names that work just as well as the expensive, fancy new ones.

    Susan Bates Learn to Knit and Learn to Crochet books are great for self teaching.  They are simple, easy to read and have great photo instructions. My 8 year old daughter taught herself to knit using that.  There are several youtube videos on how to do certain stitches that you can watch until you master what you need to know.  Find left or right handed instruction so it doesn’t frustrate you.

    Good luck and ask again if I missed something.

  227. 227.

    SWMBO

    @SWMBO: The hardest part of learning to knit and crochet (for me) was learning to read a pattern.  Do X in parenthesis for however many times plus one makes it seem like the rules for writing the pattern  out was made up by someone hung over on bad mead or something.  Some patterns are  a bitch to read.  My great aunts could knit and crochet the most intricate pieces but couldn’t read a pattern.

    I didn’t know this until recently but you cannot get a free pattern for gloves.  There is a glove guild that put a lock on glove patterns that you must buy a pattern.  I looked all over for a glove pattern (for fingerless gloves) and found no one had a pattern for free. None of the yarn manufacturers had one. One of the weirdest details about crochet or knitting.

  229. 229.

    villiageidiocy

    @sab: ​
     I have a sweet-natured kitty who is a mean drunk on catnip. He and his brother from another mother are mismatched in size, but he always plays fair. Unless the nip comes out and then he can get abusive.

  230. 230.

    Brachiator

    @Grum Grumby:

    Credit where credit is due: the iPhone is one of the biggest tech innovations of the 21st century.

    Agree that iPhone was big, but not quite as big as you say. But still pretty big.

    Google snapped it up after the iPhone announcement and completely changed it to be an iPhone clone, which it remains to this day, and not an especially good one.

    Android and iPhone are both good.  Apple includes Google products on iPhones and on the Macs.

  232. 232.

    Gravenstone

    @germy: 50 years from now, whatever passes for the NFL (and potentially the NBA) will have all their teams located in the metro Las Vegas area. Because gambling money will own them all.

  233. 233.

    Dopey-o

    @OzarkHillbilly: Remember when Rush went to El Salvador (iirc) with a suitcase full of viagra and condoms where he engaged in all kinds of sex?

    IIRC, Rush came back from the Dominican Republic with half a bottle of Viagra, a prescription written in a friend’s name. The DR was known to be a place where 14 year old ‘prostitutes’ were easily available.

    (I say ‘prostitutes’ because I doubt those girls had any say in their exploitation.)

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