Interesting stuff, and if he can come around hopefully other leaders of these movements can.

Well Mueller keeps the ways Manafort lied under seal. Michael Cohen is not so lucky and its the moment we've been waiting for I think:


https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...=.155baeb0bd9a

So thoughts here-enough to impeach the president yet?

There's nothing that will get the GOP to remove Trump.

Well, nothing except increasing the top marginal income tax rate.

No I don't think so either. But enough to get the Dems to start pushing for it when they take over the House?

His sith mask is finally wearing away.

I feel like his presidency has aged all of us more than him.

+1

Shame on us if we allow it to do that.

On impeachment, Pelosi is on record as saying it has to be bipartisan. I think the smartest move for Democrats is definitely to wait for Mueller's report, then push for it. It's been justified from an apolitical sense for a long time, but politically there really wouldn't be much point in pushing for it now. Too many ways to attack the effort, and it's ultimately doomed to failure. Polling around the midterms showed impeachment actually has slightly less support than it did, say, a year ago. The only way it happens is if the electorate moves harder against Trump.

yeah Ted Lieu was on one of the networks today that's what he said, wait for Mueller's report before impeachment. Doesn't stop them from interviewing/subpoening some people at the start though.

It's either old Nick Nolte or old Gary Busey. I can't decide which.

Whenever the name Nick Nolte comes up I am contractually obligated to mention that Nick Nolte is 77 and has an 11 year old daughter, because it blows my mind.

Again, I just love the contrast in headlines.

CNN
Friday was a very, very bad day for Donald Trump
On Friday, President Donald Trump (and the rest of us) got the most fulsome look into the inner workings of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation yet.

CNN
Burnett: Mueller drops a major bomb on Trump
video_youtube

Fox News
Federal prosecutors recommend 'substantial term of imprisonment' for Michael Cohen
Federal prosecutors on Friday recommended a “substantial term of imprisonment” for President Trump's former personal attorney Michael Cohen, saying his ...

Fox News
'No collusion' by Trump with Russia shown in new Cohen and Manafort court filings
New court filings Friday dealing with former Trump attorney Michael Cohen and campaign chairman Paul Manafort fail to prove Trump-Russia collusion to elect ...

Bloomberg
Mueller Weaves Trump, Manafort and Cohen Ever Closer
Three sentencing memos paint unflattering portraits of the president's former campaign chairman and personal lawyer.

Hah, good one!

The House can do the impeachment but the Senate will have to process/confirm it and that won't come to anything so Trump is ultimately "protected" until 2020 comes around. However, I would welcome any wrong doings by Trump family members and other close associates.

Totally OT, but I have a good friend who married a guy 30 years older than her. She was 35 and he was 65. Her father remarried and has a younger kid, 6, from the second marriage. They were considering contacting Guiness to see if a 59 year gap is a record for brother in laws.

Like Baron Trump?

The common thread to all of these is that they are not really fact-based, they are analysis masquerading as fact-reporting. They are stating conclusions in the headlines. Ironically, the only one of these that stands on its own is the Fox News Cohen headline, because that is true. But of course, Fox News is reporting those facts in an effort to bury the lede. But at least it's factual.

This is the problem with the media. Effing report facts, and move the opinion/analysis to a separate site. All of these "news" organizations are more worried about positioning the story and influencing thought than giving people facts and allowing them to draw their own conclusions.

I suppose so. The rest of the Trump men get nothing close to sympathy from me, but that poor kid seems like he's still too young to have skin thick enough to get through all this chaos without getting major damage from the crossfire.

I just meant that 60 year old Donald Trump decided to have a kid, which is about as nuts as 66 year old Nick Nolte.

Totally. To look at Nolte and Trump, I'm amazed that they can 'produce' anything from their nether regions, other than dust and misery.

I don't even know why I know this one, but actor Bernie Koppell (AKA Doc from Love Boat) is 85 and has two boys, one when he was 64 and one when he was 69!

I have an uncle that had a kid at age 17/18 or so, and then had kids all throughout his 4-5 marriages and currently has a 8-10 year old. Other than his pension being cut up in slivers like a CiCis buffet pizza, I just don't see what he gets out of having kids at age 55+.

Sex with younger women? Comes at quite a price though.

At some point whores are cheaper than child support.

I need to learn his game.

If you are in a position to and able to, more power to you.

Buzzfeed is saying Falwell Jr. and his wife had a threesome with a pool boy, Michael Cohen found out, and that's why Falwell endorsed Trump.

Makes the hiring of Hugh Freeze make sooo much more sense now.

Apparently someone other than Jesus was able to handle HIS junk...

Unless he actually meant, "Jesús".

I'm just waiting now to see what Michael Cohen has on Franklin Graham.

Jerome Corsi files a lawsuit against Mueller and is seeking $350 million dollars:


Conspiracy theorist sues Mueller alleging illegal leaks and surveillance - POLITICO


Just one question-doesn't he actually have to be indicted by Mueller first before he can sue him? I mean the only person who has said Corsi was going to be indicted was Jerome Corsi.



And after this is thrown out, I hope Mueller goes ahead and indicts him just for fun. :)

Butterfly sanctuary in Texas expects to be destroyed after lawsuits go all the way to the Supreme Court and was denied even though 28 federal laws were allowed to have been bypassed:


Butterfly sanctuary in Texas expected to be plowed over for Trump's border wall - CBS News

I'm not sure what to think. Comey knew what Trump was like before election night and yet he sprung the Hillary surprise the week before. No one can say it cost her the election but think there is little doubt it impacted her some.

Why didn't he use "every breath we have to make sure the lies stop" then? Is this only after Trump fired him, derided him, made fun of him etc. Would he still say this if he was still FBI director (with a strained relationship with Trump)?

https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/09/polit...020/index.html

Comey doesn't mean shit. Whatever he has, I hope that there's at least some corroboration with someone else. His options may not have been good (before the election), but his choices swung the election. No question. I don't think there are but a couple of D's who really give a shit what he has to say. Same with Cohen. I just hope that we really do find the depths of the corruption that trump has lived his life in.

Russian spy Maria Butina has changed her plea and most likely has a plea deal. What might she have to say about the NRA, Republicans, and Trump I wonder? Not sure when the plea change takes place.

I'm going to say it cost her the election.

Nobody who was going to vote for Hillary Clinton in the first place was influenced by "oh no we found more emails and we just don't know what's on them."

Anybody for whom "emails sent on a private server" was a dealbreaker had looooong since made that choice.

What Comey did was take the attention of the news cycle off of Trump for a few days.

And the thing about Trump is, there was nobody who was on the fence enough that a year and a half of 'you have got to be fucking shitting me' hadn't moved the needle, but another 7-10 days would have been the bridge too far.

It was a little bit horseshit of him to publicly notify Congress that way after being reluctant to call attention to Russian meddling because he DIDN'T want to put his thumb on the scale, but I feel like Comey's actions amounted to piling onto what was already setting up to happen than an actual, tangible impact.

I mean she lost by a total of 100,000 voters in 3 states. Her poll numbers definitely went a bit south after Comey's announcement. So it definitely could have.

I'm fascinated with the National Enquirer stuff. Not so much with Trump, but with the whole business model. It seems like they just blackmail people into doing stories for their other publications or they'll release dirt. Like that guys safe has to be filled with some amazing stuff the world will never see.

And here are some of the details of the agreement, which will be finalized Wed afternoon in court. She's agreeing to plead guilty to conspiracy, and may be cooperating with authorities:


Maria Butina, accused Russian agent, reaches plea deal with prosecutors that includes cooperation - ABC News

The data tells us otherwise.

Clinton fell about 3 points in national polls from October 28 to November 5. As isiddiqui notes the election swung on a very small number of votes. Even if the comey effect was very small it’s hard to think it didn’t have a pretty significant effect on the specific outcomes in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

If I remember correctly 538 had a nice piece on this.

The Comey Letter Probably Cost Clinton The Election | FiveThirtyEight

Yes, anyone that doesn't acknowledge Comey likely cost Clinton the election has their head in the sand.

Grandpa is telling us about that time he built an awesome wall all the way across Mexico.

I have nothing to go on but gut on this, but I get the feeling that Comey issued the letter in an effort to avoid Trump/Republicans slamming HIllary's election as illegitimate if she won and that info came out shortly thereafter. I think, like most everyone, that he assumed Clinton would win and wanted to clear the air before the election. And then, of course, the unthinkable happened.

So if I'm understanding.

The southern border is now secure and will stay that way?

But, I need money to secure it?

But, if I don't get it, the military will build it?

And we've already built a whole bunch of it?

But, we still need to build it?



This is pretty much exactly what Comey said in his own reasoning about the timing of everything.

He's senile.

Yelling random shit for so long has worked, so why not keep going.

But I mean really, "large scale crime and disease". Disease? What a fucking asshole.

That was amazing.

A 72 year old man throwing a 15+ minute temper tantrum inside the Oval Office.

I mean I think we all knew that Trump could have built a three inch Lincoln Log wall and would sell it as the greatest wall since China's.

So he is threatening to shut the government down if he doesn’t get the money for a wall that he promised during his campaign that Mexico would pay for. I simply can not understand how anyone can still support him.

Yeah the prospect of not getting paid around new years is lovely. I'm really getting tired of preparing for the prospect of having to work but have my pay held up every few months.

This time over a wall with zero proven effectiveness that Mexico was promised to pay for.

A day of delays in court-Manafort's lying report pushed back until January because of new info feds gave his lawyers-need time to consult Manafort about it.


Butina's change of plea moved to Thursday morning-no reason given.



Guess that means I go to the dentist tomorrow after all (darn it!) :)

They haven't even spent half of the $1.3 billion he got in the last budget. Must be hard work to launder it while in the most scrutinized job on the planet.

I don't know if the hearing today on Google should be funny because it shows how out of touch and ignorant our Congress is when it comes to technology or sad because these are the guys making the laws that govern our technology.

I don't understand why people would willingly deal with Wells Fargo at this point.

I mean all they did was sign people up for credit cards and loans without their knowledge, fuck people on their mortgages, try to steal people's houses, and fuck over students with excessive fees. Other than that....

It's like the opposite of "What did the Romans ever do for us?"

To be honest the 'excessive fees' they quote are a drop in the ocean compared to how the US banks handle their bank charges, the fee's they're talking about are a $30/year different - go overdrawn once and that is the same amount.

PS - It took me ages when I first moved here to convince my bank to allow me to setup my debit card in the 'standard' manner that is done in the UK - ie. no charges and if it attempts to charge past my balance level it just rejects the translation, this should be standard for all accounts imho especially considering the fact that US accounts do charges on a transaction basis not just as an APR like back home.

Cohen about to be sentenced. He brought his disabled daughter along for sympathy.

2 years

I saw 3 years.

Trump only hires the bestest people!

He only surrounds himself and works with criminals, but no way he has done anything wrong :rolleyes:

$1M in restitution. Assume he can afford that easily.

They've all be using him and taking advantage of him in his old age. It's been a deep state power grab all along. These people were brought in just to try and bring him down, but now the truth is exposed. trump is really the victim here. I mean he's just a sad, dottering, old man. He's so vulnerable. He would never be associated with people who would want to do these bad things. ;)

Sorry about that I was in a rush to post this and misheard the time. It is 3 years

Seeing a lot of retweets from Cohen 3 years ago. telling Hillary room and board will be free when she is sentenced for perjury and defrauding America

Wasn't he paying 70K/month in interest. Not sure if you were joking but this dude is broke as a joke.

3 years seems light considering his position and what he plead to.

Also announced today was that David Pecker, the head of the Enquirer had reached a plea deal with prosecutors giving info on both Cohen and Trump over the payments to McDougal and Daniels. The payments were to cover them up for the purpose of the campaign and that Trump knew about it. He may have more info on what he covered up for Trump as well. He got immunity.


National Enquirer's chief David Pecker granted immunity by federal prosecutors in Michael Cohen case - ABC News

I agree but that's what sentencing guidelines called for. Personally I think the starting point for these types of crimes should be much higher

Good thing he wasn't busted with a roach in his pocket.

Or selling black market individual cigarettes.

I wasn't joking but didn't know about the interest.

Still, couldn't happen to a nicer guy. I'm sure he (helped) screw many people along the way.

Russian spy Maria Butina pleading guilty right now.

Oh and Trump cancelled the White House Press Christmas party

DOJ's Inspector General strikes down another Republican conspiracy theory-they found nothing illegal or covert on Lisa Page's or Peter Strzok's FBI issued phones/

She admitted to engaging in a conspiracy against the American govt with the Russian govt. She acted under Russian govt official Alexander Torshin


She faces up to five years in prison and will likely be deported once she serves it, if not traded in a spy swap at some point

heh Ben

https://www.dhs.gov/news/2018/12/12/walls-work


Apparently hiring native speakers/writers is not a priority

Senate votes unanimously to condemn Saudi Crown Prince and 57-38 to end US military involvement in Yemen

Has Trump declared war on Christmas?

Now Trump is considering Jared Kushner for Chief of Staff. Because really who else is left?

But the House passed a rule so that the Saudi funding can't even get a vote.

Have to say I was a bit disappointed in CNN and MSNBC's coverage of Maria Butina in the 6 and 7 o'clock news hour. A Russian admitting for the first time that they conspired to interfere in our elections and get Trump elected should have been the lead story. Instead we get Melania's poll numbers falling, Pelosi staying as leader of the House Dems. The new story about Trump being there with Cohen/Pecker when they were discussing paying off the two woman was important sure, but how can that top Butina pleading guilty today?

Incoming minority Leader McCarthy calls on incoming Dems to avoid "partisan food fight of investigations" in next Congress. Which is probably the funniest or saddest thing I've read in a while, especially in light of Butina's NRA's admissions today.

Can't have any HARD TAKES on Butina pleading guilty like you can the other stuff. Butina's not gonna drive ad clicks on the internet like Pelosi can.

Seriously, the state of the media in the U.S. is pretty sad right now. It's really hard to find a (non-paywall) news outlet reporting on stories that matter instead of stories that's gonna get multiple clicks on embedded videos.

Honestly though, what exactly are you expecting from "free" media? I think people are starting to feel entitled to quality reporting but don't actually want to pay for it. I admit I'm as much part of the problem as anyone.

Someone pointed out that journalism was never an independent moneymaker. Basically, for decades, half-page department store ads on page A10 subsidized the expensive reporting on school-board corruption on page A1.

Once we got away from physically bundled newspapers, that model broke, and we haven't been able to replace it.

The other part of it, for any democratic process, you need an electorate that is well educated on the issues (and hopefully smart enough to make good decisions).

I was talking to some friends recently and mentioned something similar. Currently, most news sources are focusing on national level news. There is some focus on state level, and very little at the local level, outside of metro areas. I think there is a niche for local papers focusing on county wide news.

Case in point, a local neighborhood was up in arms because a cell tower was going to be built on adjacent farmland. No one was aware of it. Back in the day, newspapers would print the public notices that may show ballots for upcoming elections, permit applications, etc. With our current model, you need to pull that from somewhere rather than having it pushed to you. I only found out about it from Facebook of all places.

That mystery sealed case with Mueller going on at the moment-the judge not only sealed the courtroom, she kicked all the journalists off that floor. No journalist so far has been able to identify who is involved in this

where do you see this running commentary?

In theory, I agree with this idea because at some point you need governance. Government doesn't work too well if the first thing side A does once it gets in power is investigate side B, because there will definitely be payback when side B gets back in power. While Ford was a Republican, his pardon of Nixon was basically this, no? Time to look forward rather than backwards. And Ford paid the price politically (although he probably wouldn't have won re-election anyway), but he thought it was best for the nation.

That being said, the reality of today is far different especially when the target is still in office. I think 2019 - 20 is going to be a new level of ugliness in politics that we haven't seen in a long time.

Zoe Tillman's twitter feeds, probably a few more around if you look. They have let the reporters back on the floor now-no one still has a clue who it was or why they were here. Some speculation that its Pence, because he had no schedule today. But really it could be anyone from Pence, the Trump family, John Kelly, a foreign govt official, etc. Has to be someone important if they are not wanting the press/Trump to find out.

Still no identity of the mystery person, but CNN has reported a couple of Mueller's team that was there at the time, one of who was deals with extraditions... which means its could be Julian Assange, who Ecuador may have finally gotten tired of,



https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/14/polit...-st=1544814825

Governor Walker of WI signs the bill that would limit the powers of his Democratic successor

Trying to remember which Republican it was who bragged that they had years' worth of investigations against Clinton lined up in the event she became President.

But do as I say, not as I do, right?

Also, fuck Scott Walker.