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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Squishable Morning Thread: Just GO, Blago!

Squishable Morning Thread: Just GO, Blago!

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Corrupt former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who received a prison sentence commutation from kindred spirit Donald Trump, sued his state for barring him from running for public office again. U.S. District Judge Steven Seeger dismissed the case with Suessian flair: (The Hill)

“The complaint is riddled with problems,” Seeger wrote. “If the problems are fish in a barrel, the complaint contains an entire school of tuna. It is a target-rich environment. The complaint is an Issue-Spotting Wonderland.”

“The bottom line is that the judiciary has no power to unimpeach, unconvict, and unremove a public official,” he continued. “The legislature taketh away, and the judiciary cannot giveth back…”

“The case began with great fanfare. Surrounded by microphones and cameras, with a gaggle of press in tow, Blagojevich announced to the world that he might want a sequel in public life,” Seeger wrote. “The book is closed. The last page already turned, and the final chapter of his public life is over. The case never should have been filed.”

The judge then added a quote from Dr. Seuss’s 1972 children’s tale, “Marvin K. Mooney Will You Please Go Now.”

“The time has come. The time has come. The time is now. Just Go. Go. GO!,” the quote reads. “I don’t care how. You can go by foot. You can go by cow. Marvin K. Mooney, will you please go now!”

“The case started with a megaphone, but it ends with a whimper,” Seeger continued.

“Sometimes cases in the federal courthouse attract publicity. But the courthouse is no place for a publicity stunt. He wants back. But he’s already gone. Case dismissed.”

Well done, Judge Seeger.

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

89Comments

  5. 5.

    Betty Cracker

    Speaking of corrupt skidmarks who should just GO NOW:

    Indicted Sen. Bob Menendez will not run for reelection as a Democrat this year but is keeping the door open to an independent run, he said Thursday.

    New Jersey’s senior senator, who is under indictment for a second time in a decade, said he is hopeful that “my exoneration will take place this summer,” allowing him to run in November’s general election.

    “Unfortunately, the present accusations I am facing — of which I am innocent and will prove so — will not allow me to have that type of dialogue and debate with political opponents that have already made it the cornerstone of their campaign,” Menendez said in a video. “New Jerseyans deserve better than that.”

    Gold Bar probably won’t be able to play spoiler even if he’s not in jail since only about 5% of Jersey voters are gullible enough to believe him. I hope New Jersey voters bounce his son out of the House too.

  8. 8.

    Geminid

    Sunday’s Face the Nation (CBS) could be good. Guests are Senator Raphael Warnock and Rep. Michael McCaul. McCaul (TX), the Foreign Relations Chairman, is the House’s leading Republican Ukraine hawk, so I expect he will be asked about the stalled Ukraine aid package.

  10. 10.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    “New Jerseyans deserve better than that.”

    Is a very true statement by Gold Bar Bob, just not in the way that totally un-selfaware he thinks.

    He is to corrupt as Tuberville is to stoopid.

  14. 14.

    Geminid

    @Baud: I suspect Warnock will get a question or two about Gaza. He made some important points about the conflict in a Senate speech last week.

    McCaul may have something to say about the two discharge petitions gaining signatures in the House. Yesterday, retiring Rep. Ken Buck was the first Republican to sign. Buck signed both petitions, and evidently his signatures are in effect until his successor is sworn in. That will take a couple months at least.

    Last week Rules Committee Chairman Tom Cole said Republicans could either bring their own package on to the floor or live with what a discharge petition brings, so Cole seems to think a successful petition is likely.

  15. 15.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Princess: ​
     

    The Orange Fart Cloud could never do that cuz Blago’s somebody even more corrupt and could never be trusted to not figuratively shiv him.

  17. 17.

    montanareddog

    @Princess:

    Why bother with criminal small fry like Blago? Ed Kemper is still alive, 2 years younger than TIFG, and a citizen of another state. That would be sure to win California for the 91 felony counts guy.

  18. 18.

    mrmoshpotato

    Not reading the post.

    Not reading the comments.

    Pavlovian response triggered!

    FUCK BLAGO!

    I am still embarrassed that I voted for this criminal pile of radioactive shit.

  19. 19.

    Geminid

    @Baud: Menendez’s wife Nadine is also indicted, and that gives prosecutors leverage. Maybe they’ll let the Senator save face by pleading “gilty” instead of guilty.

  24. 24.

    jonas

    @Geminid:Guests are Senator Raphael Warnock and Rep. Michael McCaul. McCaul (TX), the Foreign Relations Chairman, is the House’s leading Republican Ukraine hawk,

    Well I’ll be. I guess Joe Manchin, Lindsay Graham, and some random former Trump cabinet member weren’t available.

  26. 26.

    Suzanne

    If the problems are fish in a barrel, the complaint contains an entire school of tuna.

    Just needed to see that again.

  28. 28.

    Geminid

    Maryland’s Democratic Senate primary is heating up. Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks is finally getting on the airwaves and countering Rep. David Trone’s long, self-financed advertising campaign. Alsobrooks picked a good time, because yesterday Trone made an awful “Freudian slip.” Trone was questioning OMB Director Shalonda Young, a Black woman, and at one point he meant to say “bugaboo” but that’s not how it came out.

    I believe the primary is in May.

  32. 32.

    Geminid

    @Baud: I think Rep. Trone started the word “ji-” instead of “bu-.” Or at least that’s the scuttlebutt on Twitter. I have not looked into reporting on new sites about this.

  33. 33.

    Spanky

    Hogan is apparently leading the polls, but of course the Dems are still split, and as indicated above, horrible David Trone has been sucking up the airwaves. Can’t wait for Alsobrooks’ campaign to get rolling

    ETA, between Hogan’s popularity and Trone’s suckitude, there may be a real fight to keep this Senate seat.

  34. 34.

    MattF

    @Geminid: Another ‘control-of-the-Senate at stake’ race. Ex-Governor Larry Hogan will be the R candidate, and he’s quite popular. There was a poll showing Hogan ahead of both D candidates, but the WaPo article never mentioned that Trone and Alsobrooks combined equaled Hogan’s number, and both were barely under 50%. So, it’s a real race.

  38. 38.

    Baud

    @MattF:

    but the WaPo article never mentioned that Trone and Alsobrooks combined equaled Hogan’s number, and both were barely under 50%.

     

    This math doesn’t make sense to me.

  39. 39.

    Spanky

    The Dems need to (and probably will) point out that Hogan was prevented from enacting standard horrible Republican policies by a very Dem legislature. His own words can sink his campaign.

  41. 41.

    billcoop4

    Is Rep. Menendez (fils) also corrupt, or do we just want to clear the family? I don’t know of anything that he’s done himself…but I’ve been out of NJ politics for some time.

     

    BC — from the North Country

  42. 42.

    MattF

    @Baud: I.e., Trone + Alsobrooks = Hogan. With a small amount of ‘other’, I suppose.

    ETA: So, the D votes to beat Hogan exist, they just need to be roused off the sofa. Note that Maryland is a vote-by-mail state.

  43. 43.

    Gin & Tonic

    According to the FT’s Christopher Miller, the US, which has stopped supplying Ukraine with arms, is now advising Ukraine to stop attacking Russian oil refineries.

    There’s no direct translation of STFU into Ukrainian, but there are several analogues which I’m sure are being echoed in Kyiv.

  45. 45.

    Geminid

    @MattF: It sounds like Hogan is already bobbing and weaving on abortion rights questions. He’ll eventually have to give straight answers on this and other questions like, “Do you support your party’s Presidential candidate?” Like Youngkin, Hogan wants to be all things to all people but Democrats will not let the Republican get away with it this time.

  48. 48.

    Baud

    @TBone:

    Is that the same perennially anti-Dem Matt Stoller? I vaguely remember that there may be two people with the same name.

  49. 49.

    Geminid

    @Baud: Also, I think a lot of people think “U.S. Congressman “outranks “County Executive.” But Angela Alsobrooks has run a County of almost 1 million people for as long as Trone has represented ~750,000. Before that, Alsobrooks was county prosecutor for two terms while Trone ran his liquor distribution company. So I’d say Alsobrooks brings a lot more experience to the table than does Trone.

  50. 50.

    Betty Cracker

    @billcoop4: I assume, perhaps unfairly, that the son owes the seat to the father’s corrupt machinations. Crooked Dems make me especially angry because they lend false equivalence to the both sides lie, so I want them destroyed politically, personally pauperized and all corrupt gains dissolved.

  51. 51.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Baud:

    As grotesque a place as we are in with police murdering blacks, we have moved a step forward.  It used to be, not long ago, that convictions like this did not happen, ever, no matter the evidence.  So far to go, but every time is important progress.

    @Baud:

    A jigaboo, also called a Step’N’Fetchit – and I apologize for ever using those words even to inform – is a stereotype of a black person.  It has a history in books and media.  Have you seen the Star Wars prequels?  Jar Jar Binks is one.  The splay footed walk, cheerful stupidity, “Me’sa” speech patterns, helpful clumsiness – that.

    You can also just use it as a generic ethnic slur, if you’re a racist asshole.

  54. 54.

    TBone

    @Baud: If he’s anti-dem, that’s news to me. He’s an antitrust news-focused writer.  His newsletter is titled “Big.” This article highlights the newly strengthened focus by our Dems on taking a bite out of corporate malfeasance.

  56. 56.

    Baud

    @Betty Cracker:

    Crooked Dems make me especially angry because they lend false equivalence to the both sides lie, so I want them destroyed politically, personally pauperized and all corrupt gains dissolved

    I agree. Although I’ve become disillusioned about expecting that people won’t invent whatever they need to to stay faithful to the both sides dogma.

  57. 57.

    Betty Cracker

    @Geminid: I read somewhere that Trone supports eliminating the filibuster. Do you know if Alsobrooks does too? This is a litmus test for me, not that my opinion matters in Maryland.

  58. 58.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @TBone:

    Apple is financializing; it now spends twice as much on stock buybacks as it does on R&D.

    That right there is telling.  I have an iPhone, originally had one forced on me for work so I’d be electronically tethered 24/7.  When I retired, I finally had to get a phone of my own and per the article, stuck with Apple. Not because I have any love of Apple, it was simply easier.

    Very interesting, and typically infuriating, piece.  We don’t tax those bastards enough.

  59. 59.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Geminid: ​
     

    I believe the primary is in May.

    The MD primary is May 14.

    Self-financed campaign, huh? Trone must have gobs of money, I’ve lost count of all the mailings I’ve got from his campaign.

  60. 60.

    NotMax

    @Baud

    Missed the discussion on this earlier on in a thread where Dolt 45’s use of “peekaboo” as a dogwhistle slur was brought up?

  61. 61.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Spanky: ​
     

    horrible David Trone has been sucking up the airwaves.

    What don’t you like about Trone? Other than being aware that he’s a Congressman from some other MD district, I don’t know jack shit about him.

  67. 67.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Baud: He is the former Iraq war cheerleader who worked for Alan Grayson if that’s what you mean.  I don’t know much about his current work, but his political judgment is a bit iffy.

  68. 68.

    WaterGirl

    @mrmoshpotato:

    I am still embarrassed that I voted for this criminal pile of radioactive shit.

    If I could go back in time, I would vote for him again because he is still better than the Republican governors we have had.

  70. 70.

    SFAW

    @prostratedragon: ​
     
    Thank you for that.
    Disclaimer: I am not a musician, nor do I understand music theory as well as many — my father, for example. That said: I have always thought of (rightly or wrongly) Beethoven and Mozart as geniuses and innovative. But after listening to Glenn Gould’s version of Bach’s Goldberg Variations numerous times over the years, I am ceaselessly amazed at/by Bach.

  72. 72.

    Geminid

    @Betty Cracker: If Trone is saying it I expect Alsobrooks will also. That’s not such a controversial issue among Democrats in a blue state like Maryland. I doubt if Senators Tester or Rozen will advocate for filibuster elimination.in their reelection campaigns. Same with Supreme Court expansion, which is a reason Schumer hasn’t put either initiative up for Senate vote.

    Same also with DC Statehood., which was passed in each in the previous Congresses and disappeared without a trace. Schumer did not want Senators Kelly, Cortez-Masto, Warnock and Hassan to have to vote on DC statehood, and its House sponsors understood that and didn’t raise a fuss like they could have.

    As a practical matter, there are not nearly the votes for a complete elimination of the filibuster, So I just care if a Senator is open to carve-outs.

  73. 73.

    Soprano2

    @Geminid: I wish more Americans understood what Biden is fighting against as far as Israeli attitudes toward Gaza are concerned. I listened to this story on Morning Edition today; one woman said that the Gazans “brought this on themselves” because “they voted for Hamas to be in power”, and “Hamas is stealing all the food anyway”. The whole thing was like that, the Israeli public has no appetite at all for helping the Gazans because they see them all as Hamas terrorists. Lawmakers there who even try to talk about assistance get savaged and have to backtrack. I guess Biden could deny all aid to Israel, then they would still do this and we would have zero things to leverage them with.

    Experts say Gaza faces imminent famine. Israel says that is a myth

    MARCH 22, 20245:07 AM ET
    HEARD ON MORNING EDITION

    By Steve Inskeep
    Daniel Estrin

    Israel denies it is using starvation in Gaza as a military strategy. Many Israelis do not approve of aid entering Gaza and blame Hamas for hunger.

  74. 74.

    Soprano2

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage: Apple also pays a pathetic dividend compared to the value of their company. We have a decent amount of Apple stock in our ETrade account, and hubby has always complained about their relatively small dividend. They’re at a point now where they can’t say they’re using the money to grow the company.

  75. 75.

    Shalimar

    @Gin & Tonic: I am not a military strategist, but it seems like concentrating fire on the most damaging targets is what you do when you have less ammo.  Why would Ukraine stop doing what has been most effective?  American advice has not been impressive for the last few years.

  78. 78.

    Soprano2

    @SFAW: Bach is the father of Western European music. Much of music theory is based on his work. (Music theory classes were the hardest classes I took in college, especially the second year.) Without him, we probably don’t get Mozart and Beethoven and all the rest. His “B Minor Mass” is the hardest piece of music I’ve ever performed. I told our conductor that if we ever do it again, I’m moving back to the second soprano section because I already know that part!

  79. 79.

    Soprano2

    @Shalimar: I suspect it has more to do with the world price of oil. In my area, the price of gas keeps going up to around the $3.19/gal range, then slowly working its way down to around $2.60/gal, then popping back up to $3.19/gal. I have no idea why, refinery problems perhaps, or maybe it’s the “gas season switching” thing.

  83. 83.

    Geminid

    @Soprano2: Biden has some heavy hammers he can use on Israel on this matter, and he’s finally starting to use them. That may not be in time, though.

    I’m watching some important devrlopments that are happening today. One is the ceasfire resolution the US plans to present to the UN Security Council. The other is a meeting in Doha, Qatar with CIA Director Burns and his Israeli and Egyptian counterparts. They are trying to push through the hostage/ceasefire agreement that has not been finalized for 5 weeks now. Qatar’s Prime Minister will attend in a dual role of mediator and interlocutor with Hamas.

    Next week, Israeli Defense Minister Gallant comes to Washington to present a list of armaments requests to Defense Secretary Austin. That will be an important test of US policy, but a lot will happen between now and then.

  84. 84.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Soprano2:

    I wish more Americans understood what Biden is fighting against as far as Israeli attitudes toward Gaza are concerned.

    That just gets me from “Fuck Bibi” to “Fuck Israel.”

    Yeah, we should deny all aid to Israel. What’s the point of “having leverage” that we’re never gonna use because then we wouldn’t have the leverage?  What would it take for us to use it, if not now?

    At the very least, it would be saying to the world that whatever atrocities Israel is committing, whether in Gaza now or in the West Bank on an ongoing basis, they’re doing it on their own, without our help or support.

    We can help them out when they’re ready to GTFO of Gaza and the West Bank, and live within some close (and mutually agreed on) approximation of the pre-1967 boundaries of Israel.  Until then, fuckem.

  85. 85.

    Marcopolo

    @Omnes Omnibus: it’s true Stoller has done some stupid shit. hell, you forgot to mention his short association w/ Russell Brand.  I am definitely not a huge fan, but the one place he seems to be right is when he talks about monopolies & monopoly power & the linked substack was actually a good explainer for why the feds have filed  anti-trust charges against Apple.  It’s funny, after years of bashing D politics as too status quo (though that simplifies his position), you get the feeling from that article he’s really warmed up to the Biden admin.

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