JUST IN: Rep. Chris Collins (R-NY), Trump’s earliest congressional backer, arrested by the FBI on securities fraud-related charges, via @jonathan4ny
— Peter Alexander (@PeterAlexander) August 8, 2018
Congressman Chris Collins (R – NY) was arrested this morning by the FBI shortly after he was indicted for securities related fraud related to insider trading allegations. From NBC:
Chris Collins, a Republican congressman from upstate New York, surrendered to the FBI on Wednesday morning on securities fraud-related charges, prosecutors said.
Collins, 68, faces insider trading charges along with his son, Cameron Collins, and Stephen Zarsky, the father of Cameron Collins’ fiancée, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York.
The case is related to Innate Immunotherapeutics, an Australian biotech company, on which the elder Collins served on the board.
The Daily Beast did the in depth reporting on the allegations, now charges, in April 2017 (emphasis mine).
When an Australian pharmaceutical company sought to raise money with the goal of entering the U.S. drug market, Rep. Chris Collins pitched in.
The Republican congressman purchased $2.2 million worth of stock in Innate Immunotherapeutics as part of its initial public offering in late 2013, according to a previously unreported document Collins filed with Australia’s securities authority. The IPO prospectus said Innate would seek FDA approval of its drug to treat multiple sclerosis. More than a year later, Collins wrote into a bill language to expedite the FDA’s approval process for such drugs. Four months before the bill was signed into law, Collins again purchased stock in Innate, this time as much as $1 million, according to congressional financial disclosure records.
Ethics experts say all of this amounts to a conflict of interest that warrants investigation by the Office of Congressional Ethics and the House Ethics Committee.
Collins said he did not participate in any IPO on a financial disclosure form filed in 2014 (PDF), but that’s not a crime, thanks to a gaping loophole in the STOCK Act discovered by The Daily Beast.
The law, passed to stop insider trading among members of Congress, only requires them to disclose involvement in U.S. IPOs, but not foreign ones, a House Ethics Committee official told The Daily Beast.
“This is simply outrageous,” Larry Noble, a former Federal Elections Commission lawyer, told The Daily Beast of the loophole. “One could argue that not only should foreign IPOs not be exempt, but that they present an even greater possibility of a conflict of interest because they’re involved with foreign persons.”
Collins owns approximately $22 million worth of Innate stock, or 16.5 percent of the company, and sits on its board of directors, according to the company. Since the IPO, Collins’s children, his chief of staff, and a score of campaign donors have bought into Innate, whose stock price has tripled since its initial offering in 2013.
“Do you know how many millionaires I’ve made in Buffalo the past few months?” Collins was overheard on Capitol Hill telling someone on the phone in January, though it is not known what exactly he was talking about.
Five other Republican congressman have also invested in Innate, including the new secretary of Health and Human Services, Tom Price.
All told, Collins and people with close personal and political ties to him own approximately 30 percent of Innate.
Innate’s prospectus also shows why Collins’s work on the 21st Century Cures Act presents such a potentially serious conflict of interest, ethics experts said. Collins’s provision in the bill makes it easier for companies to be granted investigative drug approval, something Innate’s prospectus repeatedly defines as its main strategy for reaching the U.S. market.
Money raised by the initial public offering that exceeded the amount needed for the second phase of clinical trials for MIS416 would go toward “initiating the Investigational New Drug process with the FDA,” according to Innate’s prospectus.
In a statement touting the Cures Act provision, Collins said that “the method used to evaluate investigational drugs have remained the same for decades,” and called for the approval process for those drugs to be streamlined. That is now law thanks to the passage of the Cures Act.
Noble, the former government lawyer and an ethics expert, said that because Collins’s provision will have a broad impact on companies across the pharmaceutical industry, it might not be seen as a direct conflict of interest. But it is the provision’s specific effect on Innate—and Collins’s lead role in pushing the provision—that should prompt an investigation, Noble said.
“It’s one thing for a member of Congress to simply vote on something like this, and it’s entirely another for that person to have been the one leading the charge on it,” Noble said. “This is a very serious conflict of interest matter. There’s a lot financially at stake for him, and there’s a serious question of whether or not he put a provision in a statute that will benefit that financial upside.”
Noble added that, at the very least, Collins should have informed ethics officials of his relationship with Innate before crafting legislation that would help the company. It is not known whether Collins consulted the House Ethics Committee, or disclosed the extent of his involvement with Innate prior to pushing for the provision included in the Cures Act.
Collins’s potential conflict of interest got deeper last year. In August 2016, he bought as much as $1 million in company stock, according to financial disclosure records (PDF). Two months later, Collins’s language was present in the Cures Act. Two weeks later President Obama signed the bill into law.
Not only is it in Collins’s interest to see Innate succeed, but getting MIS416 to the lucrative U.S. market would enrich a sprawling network of family, friends, and political donors of Collins.
Collins’s circle began investing heavily in 2013, when Innate offered its IPO.
Much, much more at the link!
While Congressman Collins was the first member of the House of Representatives to endorse the President’s campaign and was a member of the transition. There is no indication in the reporting that Congressman Collins’ very overt and very suspect financial dealings and their interaction with his legislative work is in any way connected to the Special Counsel’s investigation. Seeming congressional financial and investment shenanigans, however, has been a long standing problem that is occasionally reported on, but needs some serious sunlight and attention directed at it. Far too many members of Congress in both chambers enter Congress well off and, after a career making between $140 to $175K a year (rank and file versus leadership), leave Congress very, very wealthy. The reasonable suspicion is that much of this wealth is the result of trading on what they learn in the course of their congressional duties. This is clearly unacceptable and must be stopped. Unfortunately the people who would have to take action to stop it are also the people who are engaged in it.
Stay financially solvent!
Open thread.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
“The best people”
JPL
Here is additional information on Price’s involvement.
https://www.businessinsider.com/tom-price-trump-hhs-pick-innate-immunotherapeutics-investment-2017-1
JPL
@JPL: From the article, this could mean that he is next..
Price also maintained at his hearing that his broker at Morgan Stanley executed his investments without his knowledge and he did not know what stocks he owned, however the active investment in Innate seems to contradict that statement.
dmsilev
He runs on a treadmill instead of an outdoor route?
Baud
“both sides”
LAO
Holy Crap!
Adam L Silverman
@JPL: I expect Collins will be given a choice: flip on his colleagues in the House, and, perhaps, in the Senate, or see himself and his son put away for a very, very, very long time. Watch to see if there are a bunch of unexpected retirements from the GOP House Caucus.
Snarki, child of Loki
Wouldn’t be surprising if Trump issued a blanket pardon.
“Insider trading isn’t a CRIME, it’s a WAY OF LIFE!”
Ruckus
@Adam L Silverman:
Awww, it’s all fun, games and easy money, till you get caught.
Elizabelle
@Adam L Silverman: Tick tock, inside traders.
It is not working out to have Congress and the Senate regulate itself, and to have all those arcane rules that enable minority rule.
I hope the Democrats take a broom to so many things. Better to attempt too much than not enough. Our institutions are rotted out to the core.
MattF
His lawyer says Collins has Multiple Personality Syndrome. One of Collins’ selves is a Republican Congressman, the other self is a citizen of Australia. Neither of them has knowledge of the other’s existence. And both of them are completely innocent.
A Ghost To Most
Jump Fuckers! Corruption everywhere you look.
Adam L Silverman
@dmsilev: No, that’s Paul Ryan…
Thanks for the catch. I’ll fix it.
Cluttered Mind
I feel like this is the FBI sending a message. The dumbest thing 45 ever did was go to war with the FBI. This was the first takedown, but it won’t be the last.
A Ghost To Most
@Snarki, child of Loki: Shitler will issue an EO simply called “IOKIYAR”.
dmsilev
@Adam L Silverman:
That would be utterly hilarious and gratifying.
Thoroughly Pizzled
LOCK HIM UP!
Adam L Silverman
@Ruckus: @Elizabelle: The interesting question I’ve yet to hear anyone ask in this morning’s reporting is whether anyone named Trump purchased this stock around the time that Collins was pushing the legislation that helped the company. We know members of the House have, as this was one of the issues around Tom Price that contributed to his resigning as Secretary of HHS. But given Collins being the earliest GOP congressional (both House and Senate – he go in before Sessions) endorsement of the President and his campaign, this is an important question that will need to be asked. And then followed up with whether they got the tip from Collins.
schrodingers_cat
OT: WP question
Which is the best WP plugin for LaTeX?
MathJax or WP Quick LaTeX
Thanks.
NobodySpecial
You should have told me that about….(checks calendar) 40 years ago.
Mary G
Twitler has already broken out the special pardon Sharpie.
eric
“What if i could tell you about a meeting of congress republicans where they agreed to accept an explicit offer from Russians to target the democrats? would that get me AND MY FAMILY any sort of deal?”
I would be very very very very nervous if i committed any crime (not just Russia related) that Collins knows about.
Adam L Silverman
@dmsilev: It would. All of it is going to come down to what the Feds actually have in terms of a case and how much leverage they can bring on Collins.
LAO
So I just read the indictment, and I have to ask? Is that even a crime?
(NB: I ask that after reading every indictment).
dmsilev
@schrodingers_cat: I’ve used MathJax a bit and it was OK; haven’t tried the other one. MathJax seems to be the tool of choice for places like the preprint archives, for whatever that’s worth.
HRA
Happy Day!! We got rid of him as county executive and then he pops up as a congressman. What?! Photos show up of him following Trump so close that you have to wonder what would happen if Trump stopped quickly.
Yes, I am celebrating today. Lock him up!!!!
Gelfling 545
@Adam L Silverman: Much as I’d like to see his thieving colleagues subjected to the same process, there is much to be said for locking him up for a spell. He was pretty much the most totally inept County Executive we ever had here. Only lasted one term which hardly ever happens here. Then for some reason NY 27 thought he should be in Congress. He started his term by showing up at the wrong orientation meeting on his first day, apparently bebinning as he meant to go on, i.e. clueless.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Snarki, child of Loki: I think Trump is saving that one for the first Republican Congresscritter arrested for kidnapping and sex slavery. Then we will have to read endless articles on how it’s economic anxiety that forces working class whites to kidnap teens, murder and ritually cannibalize them because of Both Sides.
eric
@LAO: we know it is at least a ham sandwich. Is it a crime? that is up to his peers.
Adam L Silverman
@eric: Yep.
oatler.
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: “It was Jimmy Carter and Evil Hippies that drove us to this, leaving us no choice! Trump is your fault!”
LAO
JPL
@Adam L Silverman: Let us pray!
Adam L Silverman
@LAO: Defense attorneys…//
laura
Shit’s getting real. I wonder how many Washington insiders pants were in need of a sudden change.
Is it just me, or is anyone else reminded of the Keating 5 or Abscam?
randy khan
Let me start by saying this:
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
Now that I have that out of my system, this looks like a seat that’s been rated safe R, but the indictment could make things more interesting. And of course it would be even better if the scandal broadened to other Reps and – it would be the cherry on top – Price.
Adam L Silverman
@Gelfling 545: I have a close friend from grad school that does those orientations. I can say no more.
JPL
@LAO: Think of it as benefits that come with the job.
Adam L Silverman
@LAO: The legal commentators Stephanie Ruhle had on had gone through both and basically all concluded that he’s in a lot of trouble.
Adam L Silverman
@LAO: Question: does this mean they can seize the White House as part of the asset forfeiture process that Sessions brought back when he became AG?
hueyplong
Thoughts and prayers to the extended Collins family in this difficult time.
And to the other grasping, fascist bootlicks out there, tick tock.
msb
More immediately, can Collins be replaced on the ballot? Who’s running against him?
LAO
@Adam L Silverman: If only. And he is in a ton of trouble. The SEC Complaint doesn’t leave him with a lot of wiggle room.
Frankensteinbeck
@Mary G:
Unlikely. Possible, but unlikely. Trump is an asshole who instinctively throws those loyal to him to the wolves when they get in trouble. His pardons so far have all been goofy crowd stunts or declarations that racists should never have to face consequences for their racism. I could see him being offended at insider trading being a crime and wanting to pardon someone for that reason, but this guy actually has connections to Trump. The closer you are, the more thinks ‘It’s you or me, sucker.’ Protecting others to protect himself is not a way he thinks.
schrodingers_cat
@dmsilev: Thanks!
Platonailedit
Adam L Silverman
@LAO: SIGINT is a hell of a drug!
The Dangerman
@Adam L Silverman:
Chris Collins, in the Oval Office, with a Blackberry.
/clue
Can I just say waking up to a perp walk feels great; we need more of this.
Yarrow
@Adam L Silverman:
Heh. Tick tock, motherfuckers!
David Fud
First: haven’t read the article, so this comment may be explained therein. So, my understanding (quite possibly completely wrong) is that what we would consider insider trading based off of information gleaned from Congressional activities (testimony, reports, meetings in a Congressperson’s normal routine of governing) is not legally insider trading. If this is the case, the insider trading pertains solely to his activities with the company. 1) is this the correct interpretation of the legality of Congresspeople’s legal liability with regard to insider trading? 2) if so, doesn’t this mean that while his shenanigans may be bad, they weren’t particularly related to him being in Congress so much as him being a shady businessperson?
hueyplong
@Yarrow: I hesitate to mess with genius, but maybe we should consider a slight amendment in phraseology in light of the onset of indictments:
Tick tock MFs for increasing investigative pressure.
Thoughts and prayers MFs for indictments or, if we are being conservative, convictions.
Kay
I could do this all day- I’ll give you every possible way to think about this- there are a lot! :)
bemused
Is this what trumpers had in mind when they’ve been yelling “drain the swamp”? I doubt it. They meant those other swamp critters, Democrats, not the people they voted for or trump’s choice of the “best” people.
Gelfling 545
@msb: Nate McMurray who has not been getting the financial support he should. Collins has big money donors. I wonder of anyif them will back away now. McMurray is kind of a newcomer ( was a town supervisor) as the county dem committee had trouble finding someone to take on Collins I suspect mostly for money reasons. Mc Murray seems to be a pretty standard dem. Supports universal health care, background checks for firearms, DACA, pro choice, pro union, etc.
fromhis isdues page. https://votemcmurray.com/issues/
JPL
During the next several months there are going to be a lot of trials to follow.
Brachiator
New Trump administration rule. It’s not illegal unless Hillary Clinton does it.
Collins bought stock in the company and then helped write the bill. And he didn’t think this shit could be easily tracked? What, did he think this would be okay fine under a “pro-business” administration?
Adam L Silverman
@Gelfling 545:
Clearly he’s a corporate sellout who’s not progressive enough.//
A Ghost To Most
@hueyplong: Do you have a newsletter I could subscribe to?
Gelfling 545
@Mary G: Depends on if there was ant Trump moneyin the deal. I have heard, though, that his little scheme lost money.
rikyrah
BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA
gene18
@Baud:
Would not surprise me, if more than a few Democrats have done some insider trading. Maybe not as many as Republicans, but there’s a reason most folk distrust politicians. Democrats aren’t immune from trying to get rich off their office. It happens from time to time, especially at the local level.
Leto
Adam: as this is an OT, have you seen this article? Russia is quietly seizing territory in Georgia as it warns of a ‘horrible conflict’ if the Eurasian country joins NATO
Any general thoughts?
kindness
Something seems to happen when the pigs start feasting at the trough. They seem to lose all sense of right & wrong. How does that work?
Brachiator
@kindness:
To the contrary, for these porkers, the slop tastes so right, it would be wrong not to gobble down as much as possible.
Cluttered Mind
@Frankensteinbeck: Not to mention that you can’t really pardon people to protect anyone other than the person getting pardoned. Once he’s got his pardon the 5th amendment doesn’t apply anymore and he can be compelled to testify against anyone else he was involved with in the crime. I have no doubt the FBI would love to see Collins pardoned because then they can force him to give up everyone else he worked with and he has no legal protections against it.
Adam L Silverman
@Brachiator: The Clinton Foundation is, once again, trending on conservative twitter.
Msb
@ Gelfling 545
Thanks! Maybe one should throw some money McMurray’s way.
Waynski
OT – Can we tell the Green Party to get with the program or get the goddam hell out of the way! They’re shaving points in close races and it benefits REPUBLICANS!
bemused
@kindness:
They had no sense of wrong to begin with. Feasting at the trough has always been their dream and they’d do anything to stick their snouts in the slop first.
NYCMT
That indictment is eye-popping.
catpal
Good news – cause Collins is a horrible not even a person
Adam L Silverman
@Leto: As the article indicates, this has been going on for a while now. I’m aware of it.
Full disclosure: I served with the Georgians in Iraq. The brigade combat team that I was the cultural advisor for had a Georgian light infantry battalion assigned to it.
The Dangerman
@Yarrow:
I’d buy a TTMF hat (blue, of course) in a heartbeat.
Brachiator
@Adam L Silverman:
Why am I not surprised?
schrodingers_cat
@Platonailedit: Immigrants and people who don’t vote R, don’t really count as people for our media. Now that he is personally targeting them, they are concerned.
Kay
@Waynski:
I understand the frustration but it’s a waste of time. Democrats can and should easily compensate for that 1% by reaching “nonvoters” or working really hard on turnout.
But I would suggest Democrats stop promoting their conspiracy theories about elections and funding their litigation, because they’re just using those activities to build their list of Left-leaning voters.
dmsilev
@Waynski: We can tell them, but they’re not going to listen.
MisterForkbeard
@Brachiator: One of the many, many repeated accusations about Hillary Clinton was that back in the 70s or 80s she engaged in insider trading. So I guess there’s that. I mean, she was never indicted or convicted, so clearly we’re not allowed to ever convict a republican for it.
@Adam L Silverman: I find that completely unsurprising. Someday, it will occur to someone in the conservative that if we haven’t found proof of insider trading or shenanigans in the very public Clinton Foundation after years of exhaustive searching, maybe it’s… not there.
Adam L Silverman
@Waynski:
That’s the point. Follow the money.
Cluttered Mind
@MisterForkbeard: That’s what I always used to say about the Clintons whenever anyone said in my hearing that they were corrupt. I’d say that millions of dollars and millions of man hours were spent investigating every millimeter of their lives, and the only thing they found that could be substantiated was a consensual extramarital affair. That to me says they’re clean. If the Republicans had anything worse than Monica Lewinsky to throw at the Clintons that they knew wouldn’t evaporate in sunlight, they would have done it.
Gravenstone
@David Fud: TPM reported that Collins warned his son, who in turn warned others after learning that the drug candidate had failed in clinical trials. The resulting stock divestments by multiple parties saved them nearly $800k in losses. A definite case of insider trading basically as a textbook example.
Gin & Tonic
@Adam L Silverman: I’d think by now it would be common knowledge that one of the keys to successful criminal conspiracy is “don’t use e-mail to discuss it.”
Adam L Silverman
@Brachiator: Did you know she’s had thousands murdered, but no one will investigate?//
Cluttered Mind
@Waynski: No kidding. It’s almost like the GOP is supporting the green party in some way.
https://www.google.com/search?q=green+party+bankrolled+by+gop&oq=green+party+bankrolled+by+gop&aqs=chrome..69i57.2952j1j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
A simple google search is enough to tell me all I really need to know on the topic. Yes, they’re as bad as we all know they are, and their voters are being conned.
Kay
@Waynski:
I also don’t know where that ends. In 2016 there was a Green, a Libertarian and an Independent on the OH ballot.
Targeting them just seems insanely inefficient. Third parties are just a certain percent or whatever that exists and will always exist.
Mary G
Don’t have the linky box, but WaPo Fix says this wasn’t even a profitable scam for Collins – the drug failed to test and he couldn’t sell his stock because he was on the board and ended up losing $16.7 on the deal. Typical Trumpanzee.
Adam L Silverman
@MisterForkbeard:
That’s just crazy talk.//
low-tech cyclist
I’m surprised that people aren’t making a bigger deal over the Missouri referendum. Right-to-work didn’t just get defeated, it got annihilated, crucified, and it got its heart cut out and stomped on, losing 67.5% – 32.5%.
To me, that’s the biggest and most positive news from last night.
LAO
@Gin & Tonic: Ah, but they can’t help but take notes.
Kay
@low-tech cyclist:
Me too, but I’m wary of what “it means”. Ohio has a similar margin in a similar referendum on an anti-union law and it didn’t mean anything as far as converting GOP voters. They all voted for Republicans again the moment their labor union membership was safe.
Gravenstone
@Mary G: TPM reported that he warned family, who did divest and saved bigly. They didn’t mention that Collins could not likewise bail due to his board membership. Although his attorney did loudly proclaim that Collins hadn’t traded a single share! So making legalese lemonade as it were.
Kenneth Kohl
@HRA: Collins is a corrupt scumbag, clear and simple. I hope to see this a family affair with his son and future in-law involved. We live “next door” (NY-25 – Brian Higgins), but I’ve called Collins’ office a couple times to voice my opinion about something or other. His aide told me that since I’m not a Collins constituent, he (aide) really can’t help me. I told him it didn’t matter; any legislation tha Collins is involved in affects everyone, not just residents of R-27. (Crickets..). I then asked, since I’m not a constituent, if I sent a donation to Collins, he would accept it? (Click…)
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Waynski: That’s the plan and the Greens are quite proud of it.
It’s the same mentality in 30s Germany that the Communist would rather let the Nazis win than ally with the Socialists because the Nazis would be so bad that everyone would flock to the Communists afterwards.
Adam L Silverman
@Gin & Tonic: One would think.
Elizabelle
From the SEC complaint: Collins was lying about his actions to his local paper, The Buffalo News, in real time.
MisterForkbeard
@Adam L Silverman: The “someone will realize it” part or the “it didn’t actually happen part”? >_>
It’s weird when you realize an party is clearly insane, but the Republicans actually believe that the Deep State exists and has gotten to literally every governmental employee who so much as insufficiently cheerleads Trump. Then you have this weird obsession with Hillary – and the fact that every one of their accusations is either false or has an unexciting, completely predictable explanation is just further proof that she (and the FBI too, I suppose. And the media) is corrupt instead of the opposite.
Gremcat
Can someone explain how is this different from what Wilbur Ross is said to have done regarding that shipping company with ties to Putin? Or is there a chance that he will also be indicted?
Adam L Silverman
@low-tech cyclist: I brought it up in the comments of my election results post last night.
gvg
I don’t really remember the Keating 5 nor much about the S&L, but I do recall the 2006 blue wave came after a bunch of gross GOP scandals both personal and financial. I was mad about Iraq and even Afghanistan but that according to the polls wasn’t really what propelled the voters in general, it was corruption. I think Katrina was part of it but several slimy different scandals hurt them. I think a while back we posted analysis of European elections turning out war mongers etc and it was pointed out that their opponents had success by hammering on the corruption not the high minded principles.
Given what they are, the GOP under Ryan and McConnel, much less Trump, was due for a lot of this. This is why I thought we stood a slight chance of getting the Senate with a big enough margin to impeach. Some republicans could vote for it too if the worst Senators were gone or even behind bars.
Gin & Tonic
@Adam L Silverman: Basic opsec, you know. Just like I leave my E-ZPass at home when I drive into the city to murder somebody. All those hours of watching L&O weren’t completely wasted.
Adam L Silverman
@Kay:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2018/06/28/heres-how-political-science-explains-the-gops-obsession-with-civility/?utm_term=.3726b8cf106d
Elizabelle
Politico article, June 27, 2017: Rep. Collins loses $17 million in biotech stock
Jebus, that’s a fortune for a congresscritter. What else did he do?
Adam L Silverman
@Gin & Tonic: The covert lifestyle chooses you, you don’t choose the covert lifestyle.
LAO
@Gravenstone: According to the SEC Complaint — what actually happened was (1) Collins owned his shares on the Australian market (2) His efforts to transfer those shares to the American market failed and (3) trading was suspended on the Australian market, which prevented him from selling. In other words, he tried (and left an electronic record of that attempt) to sell his shares but was unable to do so.
So, you know, not the greatest defense.
Jack the Second
@Snarki, child of Loki: Sacrament in the Church of the Prosperity Gospel.
Felony Govt
Seems like the Republicans have fostered a culture of impunity on these financial crimes. They didn’t think they’d ever get caught.
sherparick
@Cluttered Mind: This also goes for New York Times. The Clinton’s apparently did things that “looked bad,” such as the money made on commodities trades in the late seventies, and because as members of the Arkansas elite, they were friends with other members of the Arkansas elite. But the cattle trades, intensely investigated, never showed more than that a friend (Blair) helped another friend (Hillary) invest Hillary’s own money and that she benefited from a common practice of firms in the late seventies not making margin calls when the trades went bad, but carrying them for another trade. Hillary just got lucky in that she pulled out after the trades went well and people just not accepting that was all the story was, gambler’s luck.
I hate “moral” victories. I learned a couple things reading the O’Conner post mortems. 1) Democrats should pound the corruption of Trump and the Republican Congress 2) Pound health care and the Republican threat to take away health care from ordinary people to firehose the rich with more tax cuts 3) pound the tariffs as prices rise as benefiting Trump, Ryan, and Republican cronies; 4) pound the environmental pollution as benefiting Trump and Republican cronies; and finally 5 voter registration and legal protection have be invested in to find and get every Democrat or voter voting Democrat in this election to the polls.
Jack the Second
@Gin & Tonic: Is that still an option? I think all of the bridges and tunnels have eliminated cash collection, and if you don’t have an EZ-Pass they take a picture of your license plate and smiling face to send you the toll in the mail.
Felony Govt
@Kay: Thank you for your perspective. I admit I’m a little bummed about OH-12, and I’m sure it’s because I didn’t really appreciate what’s heavy lift it would’ve been to win.
Elizabelle
WaPost has link to live press conference by Jeff Berman, SDNY.
Gin & Tonic
@Jack the Second: Not all bridges are toll bridges.
Anonymous At Work
@Front Page People: WTF is “There is no word for “spaghetti” in Gaelic.” about??
MisterForkbeard
@sherparick: That’s a good run through. I spent 5 minutes on it and decided that the spin on it was wrong but couldn’t tell how. The “textbook insider trading” accusation was pretty obviously false, but from wikipedia it looked like Clinton *could* have done the trading but there was literally no proof of it. There were a lot of “the chances of this happening legitimately are 1 in 1 million!” kind of inferences.
tobie
@sherparick:
These are great points! I’m going to bring them up at the next Democratic club meeting where I live. Thanks.
HeleninEire
@LAO: LOL. That’s cuz you’re a defense attorney.
MisterForkbeard
@Felony Govt: Yeah. I wouldn’t even call OH-12 a “moral victory” – it was a loss, but one that has demonstrated that Democrats are in a *fantastic* position to win in November and I think O’Connor gets another shot at it then. And even then: he did incredibly well in that district.
If we do approximately as well as we did in 2006, it’s going to be a good election. That said, gerrymandering has reduced the effectiveness of a blue wave by quite a bit so even if the raw numbers are similar the effect will be smaller.
Cluttered Mind
@sherparick: Don’t get me started on the Hillary’s Emails Times. 2016 was the last straw, I don’t read them anymore.
Elizabelle
Ah, they’re actually in trouble for lying to the FBI. Criminal coverup.
Collins, Cameron, Mr. Zarsky.
Maybe why girlfriend and Mrs. Zarsky have not been charged? (Yet??)
Cluttered Mind
@MisterForkbeard: Yeah he gets another shot in November and my guess is he’ll win there. Turnout is going to be higher on a big election day, and the wave is coming.
Mike J
@Elizabelle:
What the lay person would call collusion.
Miss Bianca
@LAO: I see what you did there! ; )
Peale
@Kay: Yep. Taking that next step by stopping voting for GOP representatives who want to destroy unions – well that’s a bridge too far.
Adam L Silverman
@Felony Govt: Keep in mind that even as we wait for them to count the outstanding 8,300 or so ballots – absentee and provisional – and then a possible recount as a result, the OH 12 race has started for the midterms. We’re going to redo this in about 90 days. And Balderson has the heavier lift because of the amount of money he had to raise and dump into the special election race. Yes, he’s spending other people’s money, but that money is now spent and that makes it harder for him to get more money to defend his seat 90 days after he won it.
Adam L Silverman
@Anonymous At Work: Marco Polo went to China, not Scotland. Any other questions?
Gin & Tonic
@MisterForkbeard:
I’m not the election junkie that some others here are, but I think this is mistaken. A lot of gerrymandering is about creating, say, a D+20 district and offsetting it with a bunch of R+6 to R+8 or so districts. Predictable, but narrower margins in more districts gives you more Congressmen when things are normal. But in a wave year, say D+10 to D+12, those defenses get overrun and you can pick up a lot of seats.
hueyplong
@Jack the Second: Yes, but your rate is lower with EZ Pass.
LAO
HeleninEire
@Felony Govt: No. They never thought they’d be prosecuted. Rich white men in America can do anything they want to.
“There’s a club. And you’re not in it”
George Carlin.
The Lodger
@Adam L Silverman: OK, I read “Innate CEO” as “Inmate CEO.” I can’t be the only one here.
GregB
Thank God the Republicans are fighting the scourge of globalist corruption.
burnspbesq
@LAO:
Yup. And it should be. Insider trading damages every other participant in the capital markets, including your 401(k) and my rollover IRA. The Cato-esque arguments to the contrary are specious.
Adam L Silverman
@tobie: Pelosi led the Dem strategy in 06 by nationalizing that the Dems were running against a culture of corruption. I seen this referenced several times this morning already.
eric
@Gin & Tonic: that is why you use your mother in laws EZ pass……..
Shana
@David Fud: In case it hasn’t already been answered, I think it’s considered insider trading because he was writing legislation that would benefit the company. But IANAL.
Gin & Tonic
@hueyplong: The discounted rate, unfortunately, varies by state, and there are E-ZPasses issued by different states. So the Mass Pike, for instance, has three different toll rates: one for no E-ZPass, one for a Mass E-ZPass and one for all other E-ZPasses. Same with NY – you’ll get a discounted rate on the GW Bridge with a NY E-ZPass but not a Mass one (I don’t think.) Same in RI – the Newport Bridge is $4 with a NY E-ZPass and $2 with an RI E-ZPass. A real pain in the butt if you travel around NY/NJ/New England a fair amount.
Elizabelle
Fiancee and fiancee’s mom acknowledged their actions; are returning the ill-gotten gains and I forget what else …
Wonder how much longer that engagement will last?
eric
@Adam L Silverman: from sources that now need to fund other GOPers in more at-risk seats.
MisterForkbeard
@Gin & Tonic: This is the core weakness of gerrymandering, but it ALL depends on cresting that margin. So if you’re looking at a bunch of R+6 to R+12 districts and get get D+5, we get hosed. At D+8 we’re getting less representation than we should be but we’ll break a lot of the republican districts. If we get D+14, we take the whole pie and potentially get MORE than we’re should, representationally speaking.
eric
@Elizabelle: likely no dowry either way.
Kay
@Peale:
I got excited about it myself because I was very involved with We Are Ohio (last night was We Are Missouri).
We had lots of Republicans supporters. It was like a lovefest. Solidarity! They ALL fucking went far Right the very next election, once their wages and health care and retirement were safe. Now they’re all Trumpsters.
NotMax
OT.
Peet’s Major Dickason instead of Dunkin’ Donuts coffee in the early daylight for the first time in two weeks.
Pace Sweeney Todd: “At last my morning is complete again!.”
:)
raven
@Kay: Now you know how it feels to be a Nam vet. Fucking morons.
Kay
@Felony Govt:
Think of it like this. If a state-wide Democrat comes within 2 in that district that Democrat wins the state by double digits.
Richard Cordray will be thrilled with +/- 2 there. That means he wins by 10.
Adam L Silverman
@MisterForkbeard: Taking state legislative seats and governor’s mansions is critical in both 2018 and 2020 ahead of the next round of redistricting.
http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/400630-gop-fears-steep-losses-in-state-legislatures
Much more at the link.
SiubhanDuinne
@Anonymous At Work:
Scots Gaelic or Irish Gaelic?
laura
Well, who coulda knowd -there’s a murderers row of Republican Congressmen who are being investigated over this including Mark Wayne Muller….
Shit’s getting real.
Kay
@raven:
I wrote about it here! I was meeting with people who had fading Bush stickers on their pickups. New Democrats!
No. Not by a long shot. They just want their health care benefits to stay the same.
We did get one good thing out of them- we put a voting rights referendum on at the same time as the pro-labor issue and then we told them they had to vote for both to protect AA voters from suppression because AA voters were necessary to win the state. They voted for both.
The Midnight Lurker
And on this morning, I too have good news from the Lone Star State. Seems ol’ Teddy is just a wee bit nervous about his reelection chances, so he’s trying to get the Cheeto-faced, shit-gibbon to come down here and campaign for him. I know you guys think I’m nothing but a harbinger of doom, but this is glorious news. We’re taking bets on just how quickly the dipshit will say something to piss off what is left of the R’s hispanic base. BETO!!!!
Aimai
@Kay: From your mouth to god’s ear.
raven
I hope these clowns wreck the fucking VA.
raven
@Kay: Probably too stupid to hold tow thoughts at once.
Adam L Silverman
@Gin & Tonic: Correct. And the margins are even smaller in state legislative districts that were heavily gerrymandered after the 2010 midterms. A wave election, like occurred in 2010, will have even larger effects at the state legislative level. That’s why you’re seeing the NC legislature lose its collective mind in an attempt to lock in devolving all power to the legislature ahead of the midterms. This way if they retain just slim majorities, or a majority in one chamber, rather than the gerrymandered super majorities, they’ll still be able to make the NC governor completely powerless.
Neldob
Maybe they can confiscate all his money and use it to help pay for healthcare, education and the switch to renewable energy. These creeps have too much money!!! The rich are to poor and the poor are too rich – vote Republican (bungholes).
L85NJGT
@Kay:
Solidarity for me, but not for thee. More of the white man’s pity party cum political revanchism.
It’s an easy vote when you’ll never work in organizing, or an organized shop.
TomatoQueen
OT This new formatting is really quite something. All text, no pics, wide screen. Oh and there’s my data in the boxes below.
IE 11, VPN, gov’t laptop, Puerto Rico, Flint, kids.
Adam L Silverman
@The Lodger: Works either way.
Fair Economist
@Gin & Tonic:
The current gerrymanders are more about 2 R+10 for 1 D+20, and in practice you have to get up to about D+10 to D+12 to just break even (get things to where they would be with honest districts.) But that is a *huge* lift. That would be a bigger popular margin than any Congressional election since the Great Depression, and larger even than Roosevelt’s win over Hoover.
It’s not needed anyway. The gerrymanders only go so far, and we will take the House with a D+4 win.
TomatoQueen
Oh hell, normal service partially resumes (my info gone), same resources.
schrodingers_cat
Has Doll Hair Doll Hands (DH)^2 tweeted about this?
NotMax
@Gin & Tonic
Yup. Fully anticipating a wave. Its amplitude is what remains in question. Although I copyrighted the term blunami some time back*, not expecting the royalties for its use to come rolling in. Not intimating the House won’t flip – change of leadership there is the outcome most sorely needed and the focused works underway look to make that outcome more and more solid (barring, of course, some abrupt and extraordinary exigency).
* :)
Kay
@L85NJGT:
It was interesting from a labor history point of view in Ohio, because what a weird coalition! The Ohio RTW was public employees. That’s what we were overturning. Okay, “public workers” in the Three C’s are African American, and there’s a historical reason for that- they took advantage of civil service rules, which mandated a more level playing field than the private sector. They couldn’t get hired in the private sector because of racism, but they COULD get hired in the public sector because hiring had to be based on metrics- measurable and unbiased. THOSE they could meet. That’s how they ended up in a union.
So we had AA social workers and rural police officers on the same side :)
I bet there were lots of strange bedfellows in the Missouri vote too.
Adam L Silverman
@Gin & Tonic: All EZ Passes Matter!!!!
laura
@raven: do you mean to tell me that three businessmen with nary a day of military service are somehow not equiped to determine the best type of care for those who have unique, service-related healthcare challenges?
And why shouldn’t service-related healthcare decision making be decided on the 19th hole?
General Smedley Butler must be spinning enough to light up the entire eastern seaboard.
Adam L Silverman
@Elizabelle: Can you say conjugal visits? I knew you could.
sukabi
@low-tech cyclist: funny what happens when the people figure out they’ve been lied to, isn’t it?
Adam L Silverman
@eric: Yep. Like Ted Cruz. Which is why even if Beto loses, the fact that he’s mounted as credible a challenge as he has is important. Texas is usually the piggy bank for other GOP elections. But this year, because Beto is very competitive and Cruz appears to be about one can of chunky soup shy of electoral panic, that money won’t be able to flow to other Republicans around the country as it will have to stay in Texas.
NotMax
@Adam L. Silverman
Maybe we could call them efgoldman visits?
:)
Gin & Tonic
@NotMax: Odd as it may seem to the foreigner, you can find real coffee in NYC. So if you settled on DD, that’s on you.
Adam L Silverman
@The Midnight Lurker: Cruz is starting to panic.
Kay
@L85NJGT:
And AA public employees got that. They got that if Kasich privatized everything and made them all private sector employees that would destroy the black middle class in urban areas, because then they’re back to the subjective measures that are used in the private sector and they’ll encounter negative bias in hiring. Lower wages. Bye bye black middle class.
Dog Mom
FYI – His opponent, Nate McMurray is having a press conference at 2:00 EST this afternoon – https://votemcmurray.com/. Campaign is also looking for volunteers – The district covers a stretch from Buffalo to Rochester southside.
Ella in New Mexico
Its never-ending graft, greed and grifting days in the Republican party.
At this point, can anyone name a single Republican elected to any position in this country who is in it for anything other than to exploit their connections in order to make a killing financially? I can’t. And yet, that simply cannot be said for the Dems, regardless of our rogues.
Adam L Silverman
@NotMax: I’m not touching that one…
raven
@raven: two
Kay
@L85NJGT:
What the AA public employees told us was that “merit pay” didn’t work the same way for them as it did for white people- that they wouldn’t be on a level playing without objective measures- things like step raises and seniority, to correct for racial bias. They see public service rules and regs as a hedge against racism in hiring and promotion, and they are.
It’s one of the reasons some AA get nervous when people talk about getting rid of standardized measures, like standardized tests. They NEED an objective measure – they can’t trust they;ll be evaluated fairly.
This take was new to me. It’s SO complicated, these various interests and alliances.
NotMax
@Gin & Tonic
Not that I went and sought it out – that’s what Mom keeps in the larder. And it would be rude to bring my own coffee and insist on using it. Did the best with the DD that could be done using her wood burning coffeemaker.
For just herself, she has a separate tiny unit that makes one mug at a time. Too much damned repetitive effort for a javaholic like me. The ancient 12 cupper is usually plastic bagged and sits in a closet, dragged out when company is present.
raven
@Gin & Tonic: I see both DD and Starbucks at Logan open at 5am!!!!
Litlebritdifrnt
@gene18: There was a famous case in Jacksonville, NC about ten years ago where the local hospital was looking for a building to put their administrative offices. It happened that one of the Hospital Board of Trustees was in business with a local real estate developer who knew that there was the old Bank of America building available for pennies. The hospital eventually bought it. The local newspaper reporters uncovered that in between the building being sold originally to the real estate developer for $125k to it being sold to the hospital for $500K SIX DAYS later it changed hands 4 times. Every single link in the chain made a boat load of money for owning a property (on paper) for a matter of days. The story stayed on the front page for about a week but then went down the memory hole of every Republican involved in it.
Villago Delenda Est
The solution to this is obvious.
If you’re elected to congress, either house, you must sell off all your individual stock holdings, and can only own mutual funds not under your control. Period.
Gelfling 545
@Msb: That would be a fine plan. Frankly “not Collins” strikes me as an excellent qualification. I’m not in his districe, though I’m in the next one over. I chip in a bit when I can.
The Midnight Lurker
@Adam L Silverman: And stupid, desperate people make stupid, desperate mistakes.Heeheeheeheeheeheeheehee!
Kay
Chris Hayes Retweeted
Sam Stein
Verified account
Is Rand Paul the most over-rated member of congress now that Paul Ryan is heading off to cash in? I think so!
I don’t think I share political media’s values because they admire these fucking mediocre frauds and they don’t seem to see it.
They have poor judgment.
Kay
“Rand Paul” even sounds like “Paul Ryan”. Ryan Paul. Let’s just use one name that means “wildly overrated”
Doug R
@Jack the Second:
Has no one thought of stealing an EZ Pass? And/or a license plate?
sukabi
@raven: too many people will be hurt if they do…I hope their involvement wrecks them.
NotMax
@NotMax
Her machine is so old that the bulb inside the on-off switch which lights up to show the heating plate is on is burned out!
TenguPhule
Talk me down, ADS, talk me down!
The fuckers are really determined to destroy the last remaining agreements we have with other countries on this planet.
Rods from definitely not a god.
Doug R
@MisterForkbeard:
Sounds like a good window to get Republicans to cooperate on non partisan electoral boundaries.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@hueyplong:
Along with Alex Jones and the NRA. We need to start of list of Conservatives who are only worth thoughts and prayers.
JMG
@sherparick: O’Connot got 90 percent of the vote total recorded by the Democratic candidate in that district in the 2016 general election in an August special election, Whatever else he did or didn’t do, he got his voters out.
Jack the Second
@Ella in New Mexico: Democrats are corrupt independently, when they are, with their own little peccadilloes and schemes, but Republicans are corrupt systematically, colluding with and covering for each other, acting as one to break the laws in spirit and letter.
TenguPhule
The ongoing saga of “We are so fucked”, the Trade Wars.
Less interesting times please.
Doug R
@TomatoQueen: IE 11? Did you know about this from 2014? Microsoft Internet Explorer Use-After-Free Vulnerability Guidance from DHS.
The Midnight Lurker
@The Midnight Lurker: That reminds me… I’ve been looking for you, Silverman. Off thread topic, what ever happened with the FBI agents in the NY office who were at the center of this mess? You know, David Nunes’ “good FBI agents”, the ones who were obsessed with defeating Clinton and who had dogeared copies of Clinton Cash at their desks? The ones who were leaking info to Rudy? The ones who both Comey and the AG’s report said were the reason for the turmoil at Justice? You know, the G-Men who took a look at a private server in Trump Tower that was dedicated to a Russian bank and said, “Nothing to see here, folks!” What ever happened to those guys? Let me guess – they still have badges and guns and jobs, right?
The Midnight Lurker
@Adam L Silverman: See 194, please. I send shit to myself because I can.
HeleninEire
@Gin & Tonic: @raven: I miss very few things from America living here. I can either find the same, or a reasonable substitute. Or in the case of Saucony sneakers; the only brand that fits me well, I can load up when I go back. One of the big exceptions is DD coffee. I mainlined that in NY. Can’t get it here. :(
Mike in DC
If we really want to remove Trump via impeachment, it’s really helpful to outperform expectations for the midterms. If the GOP is shocked and demoralized, and exit polls show that Trump’s dragging the whole party down, they will be a lot more inclined to pull the trigger. If there’s a sea change in the way Fox covers 45, that will be a big tell.
Gelfling 545
@Kenneth Kohl: I’m in NY 25 too. What’s this I hear about Higgins embracing -literally- Paladino?
Anonymous At Work
@Adam L Silverman: Trying to figure out if I missed a meme somewhere or the line is Dadaism taken to a level beyond my ken.
Amir Khalid
@TenguPhule:
I don’t see a US Space Force happening. People are going to draw up make-believe plans and talk about them at length where Trump can hear them, but it won’t go beyond that. It is no more a real thing than The Wall.
raven
@Anonymous At Work: De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da
TenguPhule
@HeleninEire:
Sounds like some big cups to fill.
TenguPhule
@Amir Khalid:
That was the general belief about our joint exercises with South Korea too.
This doesn’t feel like smoke and mirrors anymore.
The Midnight Lurker
@Amir Khalid: Damn! I already ordered my space helmet, space diaper, ray gun, and sash and everything!
Amir Khalid
@HeleninEire:
Saucony has distribution in Malaysia. I’m surprised that it doesn’t in Ireland.
TenguPhule
@laura:
I am reminded that John Fucking McCain managed to come out of that smelling like a rose.
NotMax
@HelenInEire
One of the first things to pop up in immigrant communities is a shop selling groceries “from home.” Except American expatriates, for some reason.
Amir Khalid
@The Midnight Lurker:
Don’t forget, this Space Farce is the brainchild of the founder of Trump “University”. Maybe you can sell the gear on eBay.
L85NJGT
@Kay:
Like when the one countywide Democrat is the Sheriff because unionized LEO’s got pissed about something, and could count on reliable Democratic voters to help send a message. I see the value in that leverage from the union’s perspective, I’m just not sure what’s in it for the party.
MisterForkbeard
@Doug R: Yeah. Like Adam was saying, it’s critical that we take back state houses in 2018 for redistricting and FIX this stuff so we don’t have to deal with it in the future.
Mike J
Photo of the crime in progress.
https://twitter.com/saraecook/status/1027245254502739968
Amir Khalid
@NotMax:
American expats expect groceries all over the world to stock proper American food just like in America.
Amir Khalid
@Amir Khalid:
Come to think of it, Space Farce is less real than The Wall.
MCA1
@Yarrow: He’s actually on video, at the White House, only 20 minutes after he received the e-mail from the Innate Immunotherapeutics CEO noted in the indictment, possibly IN THE ACT of committing insider trading: https://twitter.com/TheOtherKeppler/status/1027234007606542336.
That is some serious 21st century tick tock motherfucker’ing right there.
Gin & Tonic
@Amir Khalid: One of the things my wife and I enjoy most about travel outside the US is visiting groceries/supermarkets to see what kinds of stuff they sell that we can’t find in the US. We call it supermarket anthropology, and invariably find and bring home stuff that we wish were available in the US.
No, not Vegemite.
The Midnight Lurker
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DkFdy1LX0AAgdYU.jpg
TenguPhule
@Gin & Tonic:
Marmite?
NotMax
@Gin & Tonic
Yak butter and haggis?
;)
Gelfling 545
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: My thought is that the SOBs are quilty. My prayer is that they’re convicted. Good enough?
Leto
@HeleninEire: When I lived in the UK I basically stopped drinking coffee. I still had access to DD and Starbucks via the military commissary but I basically started exploring the wide world of tea. Like you and DD, I miss having access to quality tea now that I’m back in the states. Twiinnings doesn’t count.
@Amir Khalid: The amount of people who complained they couldn’t get Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, or crap like Fruity Pebbles, at the local Italian grocery store… that their kids would only eat that stuff and they just had to make the 2 1/2 hour drive to the commissary for that crap… igmos.
The Midnight Lurker
@Gin & Tonic: Vegemite is nothing but a cruel hoax perpetrated on the world by the people of Australia. IT’S AXLE GREASE!!!
Tazj
@Kenneth Kohl: His office has never said anything to me when I’ve called to complain. I live in Hamburg, I’m in his district and told them my address. Maybe they hung up on me and I didn’t know, I know they were getting many complaints.
Anyway, as HRA says it’s a happy day.
TenguPhule
@The Midnight Lurker:
No, that’s Australian beer. The Vegemite is what’s left over after they’ve finished greasing the axles.
Gin & Tonic
@NotMax: Might depend on packaging. I’ve found that USDA doesn’t have much of a sense of humor about some things.
jonas
@MisterForkbeard:
IIRC it was about some pork belly or livestock futures that the Clintons invested in at some point in the 80s and the contract turned a handsome profit for them. Because they had doubled their money or something, people said that it had to be some shady, backroom deal. Of course you can win big or lose big betting on futures and derivatives, but as always, as far as the media were concerned, if the Clintons did it, it had to be crooked.
Matt McIrvin
@Kay: Ayn Rand Paul Ryan Seacrest DSV.
NotMax
@jonas
Father of someone I knew in junior high worked in Manhattan as a cattle trader. That was the only commodity with which he dealt.
rikyrah
@Adam L Silverman:
BWA HA HA HA H AH AH AH
laura
@TenguPhule: John McCain, was slightly, barely humbled for a few years-but it did not last.
Calouste
@The Midnight Lurker: Actually, it is canola oolong that is axle grease, literally. Vegimite is just vile without redeeming qualities. Axle grease would be a couple of steps up for Vegimite.
jonas
A guy on CNN was saying that this was some of the stupidest criminality he had ever seen. Collins basically did everything short of putting “INSIDER TRADING SCHEME — KEEP SECRET!!” in his email re: fields. A relative of mine happens to work for a company that recently went public and a few months ago I texted him wanting to know how things were going with the IPO (I had no interest in investing in it, I just knew he was doing a lot of work and wanted to check in) and he wrote back a curt reply telling me to look at the company prospectus. Later on the phone he explained that during the blackout period before the IPO, there can’t be any trace of him, as a company officer, communicating to family members about the IPO or any other details about the firm that could be considered inside information. Collins apparently thought the rules didn’t apply to him.
burnspbesq
@Kay:
Not in any Congress that includes Louie Gohmert.
burnspbesq
I wonder how many votes Beto is going to pick up from today’s appearance in Beeville, pop. 13,000 and roughly halfway between San Antonio and Corpus Christie.His retail strategy makes for good TV, but Texas may be too big for it to work.
Adam L Silverman
@TenguPhule: DOD can’t do anything but make powerpoints about this. This would take an act of Congress because the Constitution only recognizes the Navy and the Army. All the other services are creations of Federal legislation.
This is how seriously the Pentagon is taking this:
Adam L Silverman
@The Midnight Lurker: My understanding is that there are two lines of inquiry/investigation. One is now part of the Special Counsel’s investigation and is part of what they inherited from Comey. The other is an FBI Inspector General investigation.
Yarrow
@The Dangerman: John should sell them in the Balloon-Juice store!
NYCMT
@burnspbesq: Hillary Clinton followed the same strategy in upstate New York in 2000, back when New York had about the same number of Congressional districts. Granted that Lick Razio was not the incumbent (Moynihan was retiring) but upstate was pretty red.
Ruckus
@MisterForkbeard:
It Has To Be There!!!!!
The investigations just did not go deep or long enough. And besides, everything is slanted for Dems.
J R in WV
@Waynski:
Don’t be an ass… the whole point of the Green Party in the US is to throw elections to Republicans. That IS the program. That could actually be part of their program in Europe too, I’m not an educamated voter over there like I am here.
Kenneth Kohl
@Gelfling 545: An interesting moment, to be sure.
https://buffalonews.com/2018/08/03/at-a-bohen-fundraiser-paladino-higgins-and-a-bear-hug/
Doubt there is a rapprochement, though…
Kenneth Kohl
@Tazj: a Happy Day, indeed