President Biden makes his second stop on the Investing in America tour while President Fraud lands at LaGuardia so he can be arrested and arraigned tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/dJu0qlzgTq
— Brad Bo đșđž (@BradBeauregardJ) April 3, 2023
"I have faith in the New York Police Department,â Biden tells us in Minnesota when asked if heâs worried about unrest in NYC while Trump there for court. Asked if he has faith in the legal system, he said: âYes.â pic.twitter.com/Cb32rwz2XR
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) April 3, 2023
if we take Trump's team at their word that they're not going to plea bargain and we're going to verdict, NYC criminal courts acquitted 41 (not a typo) of ~63k arrests in 2021.
— post malone ergo propter malone (@PropterMalone) April 3, 2023
Very precedented. Long predicted, even https://t.co/C6SO54KgmQ
— Lord Businessman (@BusinessmanLego) April 3, 2023
FAFO, Legal Edition
Trump never figures out the difference between political and legal spheres, but I suspect over the next year heâs going to; but not in a good way. https://t.co/fPFNc3LrXB
— Panda Bernstein (@J4Years) April 3, 2023
Americans are so divided today.
Half of us now call Trump's plane "Perp Force One"
& the other 1/2 call it "Con Air."It's ok to have different views, people.
— John Fugelsang (@JohnFugelsang) April 3, 2023
This but unironically. Conservative culture promotes lawlessness. They try to kill congress, shoot up night clubs and kidnap immigrants for likes and retweets. And you guys are falling apart because every time the system works it becomes harder for you to maintain power. https://t.co/vygzeTjO1W
— Slope Slipperer (@agraybee) April 2, 2023
patrick II
So, he has a chance then?
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
How is it that they don’t get that if a Democrat commits a crime, we don’t want them in office? The disconnect is so revealing.
Kent
Although I donât think this is a political partisan prosecution at all. Â I do like the split screens we will have over the next weeks and months of Biden visiting factories and touting blue collar jobs, while Trump screams about how fraudulently writing off your porn star hush money payments as tax deductions is not a crime.
Baud
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony:
I take that personally.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@Baud:
I mean, there is a reason I stopped donating to your Pants-Free for America PAC.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I wonder if Our Willard is proud of his niece.
Speaking of which: Has the would-be president who ran a platform of Obama being weak and feckless said anything about the outlaw he (to his credit, unironically) voted twice to impeach and remove and permanently bar from public office being indicted? The only decent statements from Republican I’ve seen were from Murkowski and someone named Asa Hutchinson.
(just double-checked to see if Asa was the Hutchinson who was one of the managers during Clinton’s impeachment, he was. His brother Tim was in the Senate at the time)
BenCisco đșđžđïžđ„ïžâŠïž
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: They think we are a mirror image of who THEY are. Every accusation is a confession, every deflection an accusation.
Circle of life, but for stupid people.
Baud
@BenCisco đșđžđïžđ„ïžâŠïž: Technically, they think we’re worse than they are.
HumboldtBlue
Grumpy Trumpy Felon from Jamaica in Queens! – A Randy Rainbow Song Parody
hells littlest angel
I’ve suddenly realized that rather than being the laugh riot I had been expecting it to be, The Persecution And Crucifixion Of Saint Donald Trump is quickly going to degenerate into just another annoying and tedious season of a sitcom that should have been cancelled years ago.
Ken
Do the words “white Ford Bronco” ring any bells?
Oh, wait, they were referring to a President being arrested, not to the media circus around a car driving down an expressway.
Well, yes, the President being arrested is unprecedented, but — and I feel we can’t point this out often enough — it’s never been necessary before.
SpaceUnit
I’ve been applying the Hillary Correlation to this ugly little affair.  What would the Republican reaction sound like if Hillary had funneled money from the Clinton Foundation to hush up a sleazy romp with a male porn actor and illegally deducted it as a legal expense?
The Repubs in Congress would sound like a couple hundred howler monkeys getting simultaneously shot in the ass with a pellet gun. TFG would be leading the Lock Her Up chant at one of his rallies / moronfests. On Fox they’d be calling it a national disgrace and the biggest scandal in all of American political history, and David Fucking Brooks would take to the pages of the New York Times to explain that because of Hillary’s stature she must be held to the highest ethical and legal stands and that any hesitation to indict would represent the gravest of moral hazards.
Fuck em all.
mdblanche
@patrick II: Just like Lloyd Christmas.
BenCisco đșđžđïžđ„ïžâŠïž
@Baud: This is 100 percent correct.
I have been told that is the best kind of correct.
Roger Moore
That’s an impressively small number, but it’s the wrong denominator. You can bet a fair percentage of the people arrested were let go without ever being charged. The correct number to look at is the number of acquittals as a fraction of the number of prosecutions.
OzarkHillbilly
So… What did I miss today?
NotMax
Mirror universe Camelot.
Baud
The number of people out in the world commenting on the strength of the legal case without having seen the indictment much less the evidence is pretty astounding.
HumboldtBlue
@Ken:
I seriously doubt that. Reagan’s admin ran a coke operation for fuck’s sake, we’ve just never had the political will to call out the perfidy of that asshole and his cohort of assholes. Hell, George Bush (dipshit version) led us to an illegal invasion and started an unnecessary war that lasted 20 years, and that smug little fuck still enjoys front row seats to Rangers games.
No criminal proceedings happened, but they are as hell were needed to happen if we had any sort of justice and accountability for rich white folks.
NotMax
@Ken
What he did and/or attempted to do is unprecedented.
Q.E.D.
prostratedragon
@hells littlest angel:Â Is and has always been one of the dullest people on earth.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Baud: would trump and his lawyers have seen the indictment, or do they have to wait, too?
OzarkHillbilly
Somebody has his blinders on. It doesn’t happen as often, but it does happen and the most notable thing is how quickly we turn on them because nothing pisses us off quite like having our trust betrayed. I doubt very much anybody outside of STL and environs knows the name Steve Stenger, but I was screaming about that corrupt piece of shit for years before the FBI finally arrested him.
How obviously corrupt was he? A month after his arrest he pleaded guilty. I doubt very much a county DEM shed a tear at his long overdue demise.
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I don’t know but I suspect they have seen it.
HumboldtBlue
@hells littlest angel:
You ain’t never lied.
NotMax
How rude. Right in the neighborhood and couldn’t take the time to visit Weisselberg.
//
Ken
@Baud: The internet allows anyone to become an instant subject matter expert. We learned this during the pandemic, if not earlier.
Ken
@HumboldtBlue: I should have been clearer that it’s arresting a president that’s not happened before. As you say, there have been plenty who should have been indicted.
HumboldtBlue
Trump supporter on Fox makes a
Freudianerr… Fraudian slip live on air.Matt McIrvin
@OzarkHillbilly: Remember Rod Blagojevich? Democrat, crook, literally tried to sell Barack Obama’s old Senate seat.
Yeah, it wasn’t a Democrat who commuted his sentence, it was Trump.
narya
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Apparently Hutchison’s going to run for President (saw that in Pierce’s column, but I think he’s even announced).
OzarkHillbilly
@HumboldtBlue: Out of the mouths of babes, too F’n funny.
eclare
@patrick II:Â Â That is staggering.
prostratedragon
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
@Baud:
Per Terri Kanefield not necessarily, though it would be unusual if they didn’t.
bjacques
@Ken: I was kinda hoping Trumpâs plane would never take off, but instead he would just taxi all the way up I-95, pursued by F-16s also on the ground.
The Crucifixion of Donald Trump Considered as a Downhill Hoverboard RaceâŠ
NotMax
OT.
Discovered my phone modem is deader than Franco. No lights on it even after attempted reboot and moving the plug to a different outlet.
In no great rush to replace it. Will be at the cable company offices to pay the monthly bill anyway on either Saturday or next Monday.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@narya: Yup, and called for trump to get out of the race
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I guess it’s good that some Republican broke the ice. Maybe more will find the courage to stand up to Trump.
Frankensteinbeck
@Baud:
Iâve never seen any evidence of you committing crimes, and I helped you commit them!
OzarkHillbilly
@Matt McIrvin:Â â I also remember William (?) Jefferson, D congress critter from Louisiana who was busted with a freezer full of cash. I’m sure there are more I can’t recall from relatively recent history. Somethings never change: Power corrupts. The limiting factor has always been the moral standards of the people involved. I could also bring up some obvious election fraud committed by a long time DEM power family on the near south side of STL but I don’t feel like googling it.
Besides, time for me to take care of the evening chores.
Betty
@HumboldtBlue: Excellent.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I can’t believe I’m only seeing today that trump admitted his motivation for stealing all those documents on live television
Funniest thing is Hannity sensing danger and trying to stop trump from confessing. The biggest surprise of the Dominion revelations, to me, is that Hannity is in on the con at Fox. I always figured him for a true and sincere meathead in the mold of his viewers.
Kathleen
@Baud: We’re in a “post fact world”. It’s all about “the vibe”, Baud. You need to add a “Baud Vibe” Influencer to your campaign communications platform.
sab
@OzarkHillbilly: Yeah. Cleveland, Ohio has a former county councilman who will probably die in prison after his corruption conviction.
HumboldtBlue
List of American federal politicians convicted of crimesÂ
And that”s just Federal.
zhena gogolia
@HumboldtBlue: I just watched that ten times đ
Baud
@Kathleen:
The Baud Vibrator for short.
OzarkHillbilly
@sab: Long overdue, I’d wager.
Ken
I love your sense of humor.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
Agree. Categorical statements are not helpful.
ETA: not that I don’t appreciate the enthusiasm.
hells littlest angel
@bjacques: Wish I could upvote this Jarry/Ballard reference.
Steve in the ATL
@HumboldtBlue: and George HW Bush had to pardon Cap Weinburger on Christmas Eve before he testified that Bush perjured himself
Kathleen
@Baud: Ha! Or “The Viborator”, It has an apocalyptic “vibe”.
twbrandt
@OzarkHillbilly: and there was Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who was arrested, tried, convicted, and imprisoned for fraud and racketeering. Trump inexplicably commuted Kwameâs sentence on his way out the door in 2021.
Baud
@Ken:
You should hear my joke about Republicans and science.
Roger Moore
@bjacques:
I was kind of hoping Trump’s plane would accidentally wind up in Russia instead of New York and we’d be rid of him for good. I guess I didn’t count on his feeling of impunity; he really doesn’t believe he could actually wind up in prison over this stuff.
eclare
@Baud:  That was a topic on Morning Joe this morning. No one knows either how strong or how weak the case is.
cain
@NotMax: phone modem? US. Robotics? What dialup line are you calling up, curious?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@twbrandt: So old I remember Dan Rostenkowski, one of the most powerful Democrats in DC for almost twenty years before he went to jail. Prosecuted and pardoned by the Clinton administration
eclare
@Matt McIrvin:  IIRC Jared thought TFG would get points for that from Democrats. Nope. We don’t work that way, you do.
trollhattan
Still winter.
Feel free to water the pansies.
Ruckus
@Ken:
itâs never been necessary before.
Are you sure? I mean yes, it’s never been obviously this necessary before this but NEVER necessary? I’d like to believe that but we have had republican presidents before in my lifetime who seemed to maybe have been less than reasonably honest and possibly guilty.
eclare
@Baud:  ROFL! But is it too early for Balloon Juice After Dark?
Baud
@eclare:
It’s dark somewhere.
David đ âThe Establishmentâđ Koch
promoting job employment is divisive
karen marie
Is Eli Lake unaware of the 1990s and the Clinton administration?
Christ, what an asshole.
Matt McIrvin
@eclare: Trump thought his conviction was “unfair”. That kind of behavior is just being smart in Trumpworld.
Ruckus
@trollhattan:
1969 was a standout year. I have a picture of a buddies car in Mammoth one morning that the snow was about 2 ft on the top of his car and about that blocking the entire side, with the drivers door opened after we dug it out. We had a friend whose dad lived there so we got to go fairly regular.
Betty Cracker
I’ve never been a Lanny Davis fan, but I’m glad he’s all over TV pointing out that Michael Cohen did time for the same fucking crime that Trump did. It makes the basic fairness of these charges simple to understand.
Ruckus
@patrick II:
I say and bet a fairly minimal one. Say .000612 to 1, not exactly a walk in the park.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Betty Cracker: were all of Cohen’s charges trump related? the tax evasion, for instance? if so, maybe trump will be charged with that too.
Also, as I recall and understand (NAL), prosecutors wouldn’t give the judge a favorable sentencing recommendation for Cohen because they thought he was holding out on his own taxi medallion scam, which had nothing to do with trump.
Jeffro
@narya: I know this may sound odd, but Iâm glad Hutchinson is running for the GOP nom.
1) that party DESPERATELY needs the contrast between âtrumpâ and âremotely normalâ
2) Hutchinson running will give f&$%ing No Labels pause in trying to run their ownÂ
1%-loving figureheadcandidate.3) If all else fails, I am not terrified of the prospect of a President Hutchinson the way I would be from all the other mini-trumps.
3)
Citizen Alan
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony:
Seriously! Anthony weiner was bounced out of office within, IIRC, 72 hours of him being credibly accused of sending an unwanted dick pic! Franken famously got bounced for putting his hand either on a woman’s hip or the small of her back while they were having their pictures taken together
Jeffro
@twbrandt: just like with the Blago pardon, trumpov thought he might be able to confuse/divide the Dems as well as set a precedent for pardoning corrupt politicians. Â Hmm I wonder why the latter was important to him?
Heâs dumb, but heâs canny in his own corrupt way.
Ohio Mom
@twbrandt: I have trouble believing Trump thought of pardoning Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick himself. Whose idea was that?
Kwame Kilpatrick is someone I forgot all about until your comment. Then it all came back. Such a wierd sensation, when you remember something you didnât even know you forgot. Everything really is in your memory, somewhere, even if you canât retrieve it.
twbrandt
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Iâm old enough to remember Rostenkowski too :)
UncleEbeneezer
Two interesting points I just heard on the latest Jack Podcast episode:
1.) Allison Gill pointed out that one of the investigatory seeds that sprouted into this Stormy Daniels hush payment indictment comes to us (at least in part) thanks to the work of the Mueller Investigation.
2.) Andy McCabe noted that while Fani Willis and Jack Smith would never coordinate their actions with Manhattan DA (which would border on corrupt), seeing Bragg pull the trigger can make their jobs easier as they get the benefit of seeing things like how the public and Trump reacts to indictment, which will likely give them even greater confidence in moving ahead with the Fulton County and Federal charges.
Baud
@UncleEbeneezer:
I didn’t know if was problematic for prosecutors to coordinate.
Lacuna Synecdoche
Patrick II:
About 1 in 1,540, maybe 1 in 1,535 – depending on whether that ~63K is rounded up or down.
UncleEbeneezer
Republicans once again are addressing the really important stuff:
twbrandt
@Ohio Mom: Those of us who have lived all of our lives in SE Michigan canât forgot about Kwame, try as we might :)
Now that heâs out of jail, heâs a pastor (well, âpastorâ), which Iâm sure will be a lucrative grift for him.
UncleEbeneezer
@Baud: I think it’s mostly the optics that would help fuel conspiracy theories.
Betty Cracker
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: No idea. Cohen was sleazy as fuck, so it’s entirely believable that he was doing side crimes too, but he was definitely convicted and punished for crimes on behalf of Individual-1.
Gvg
@OzarkHillbilly: there are exceptional circumstances. Remember âvote for the crook, itâs importantâ and he won. He was arrested a few years later but Davis Duke was NOT elected. Sometimes you have to be clear eyed about your choices. Doesnât mean you like them or are fooled.
rikyrah
I love that last tweet.
LOL
Brachiator
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
RE: I canât believe Iâm only seeing today that trump admitted his motivation for stealing all those documents on live television
Yeah. It is amazing. I always thought that Trump believed that he could just keep presidential papers. But I thought that he would mainly show stuff off at his various properties, to show how important he used to be.
But it makes sense that he is always looking to make a buck out of his time as president.
What a slimeball.
Elizabelle
With the photos of the Biden visits: Â the bright blue and yellow, as in the Ukrainian flag, leaps out of the photos. Â I guess we might just be primed to see it now.
Biden. Â Fighting for democracy and justice in our country.
mrmoshpotato
Lock the fascist, orange shitstain up! – on! the! Sun!
lowtechcyclist
@Ken:
Good thing you phrased it that way. If you’d said “slow white Bronco” I might’ve thought you were talking about John Elway.
lowtechcyclist
@SpaceUnit:
Truth. Every word.
Seconded.
Geminid
Those North Carolina legislators are fighting a battle that was lost years ago. I remember when right wing radio commentators were going on and on about “participation trophies.” It was a big fad.
And then they stopped. I think the word went out that parents thought this was stupid, that their kids liked the trophies and were none the worse for receiving them. I suspect this legislation won’t make it out of committee.
UncleEbeneezer
@Geminid: The parents are usually the ones who want every one to get some sort of prize or symbol of recognition. Â We don’t do trophies for my tennis camps, but if every kid didn’t get a prize at some point during the week of miserable, 90+ degree heat days, I guarantee parents would be pissed.
Baud
@Geminid:
I wish there were a trophy for not participating. It would have done wonders for my self esteem as a child.
Steve in the ATL
@lowtechcyclist: zing!
NotMax
@cain
Landline via VOIP.
Matt McIrvin
@UncleEbeneezer: I had surgery as a child that prevents my eyes from rolling far enough for that.
Matt McIrvin
@Geminid: The awards handed out for junior dance competitions are truly ridiculous, but, you know, who cares?
NotMax
@Brachiator
Presidential Records Act (“the United States shall reserve and retain complete ownership, possession, and control of all Presidential records”) became law in 1978. Nixon resigned in 1974.
Matt McIrvin
@Ohio Mom: I remembered Kilpatrick but I had no idea Trump commuted his sentence too.
UncleEbeneezer
@Matt McIrvin: No trophy for you!
Ajabu
@lowtechcyclist:
That was a running joke back then. John Elway was being subpoenaed for the O.J. trail because he was a slow white broncoâŠ
Ramalama
@Ken:Â â
It’s Arrested Development, all rightâ
Ramalama
@karen marie: Eli is an absolute turnip.
Sister Golden Bear
@trollhattan: The Mammoth Ski Resort, southeast of Yosemite, has had a record setting 72.5Â feet of snow at the summit. The lodge (at 9,000 feet elevation) has had 50+ feet.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Ramalama: “Why should you go to jail for a crime that someone else noticed! Call Bob Loblaw!”
only good thing Chachi ever did.
Brachiator
@NotMax:
Yeah. I know that Trumpâs claims that he could take stuff was bullshit. But that’s who he is. An angry, entitled slimeball.
I also don’t think that he was smart enough to find the Nixon case. Some defective staffer or attorney did a crappy research job and Trump ran with it even though it absolutely did not apply.
Origuy
@trollhattan: There are still parts of California that have water limitations. Monterey Peninsula is not connected to the State Water Project. They are limited to ground water and the Carmel River, mostly.
San Luis Obispo, likewise, only gets water from three reservoirs.
Ramalama
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Completely forgot Chachi was in that, though Bob Loblaw is bookmarked in my mind. What a great name for that character.