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.