ChiGoose

When your entire party is based on lies and conspiracies, you run into trouble when trying to do things in the real world. Also, I never understood the idea of voting for people who think the idea of government itself is bad. If they think it's bad, why would they make it work? They're incentivized to break it and make it worse...

Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, wife charged with bribery "U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey and his wife Nadine have been indicted in New York on federal bribery charges related to an allegedly corrupt relationship they had with three businessmen from their home state. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan has scheduled a press conference for 11 a.m. ET Friday to discuss the indictment. Sen. Menendez, a Democrat, is the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee." *** This guy has been dirty for a long time. Would be nice if they finally get him Unfortunately, bribery convictions are much harder to get thanks to McDonnell v. United States

Clarence Thomas Secretly Participated in Koch Network Donor Events “On Jan. 25, 2018, dozens of private jets descended on Palm Springs International Airport. Some of the richest people in the country were arriving for the annual winter donor summit of the Koch network, the political organization founded by libertarian billionaires Charles and David Koch. A long weekend of strategizing, relaxation in the California sun and high-dollar fundraising lay ahead. Just after 6 p.m., a Gulfstream G200 jet touched down on the tarmac. One of the Koch network’s most powerful allies was on board: Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. During the summit, the justice went to a private dinner for the network’s donors. Thomas has attended Koch donor events at least twice over the years, according to interviews with three former network employees and one major donor. The justice was brought in to speak, staffers said, in the hopes that such access would encourage donors to continue giving. That puts Thomas in the extraordinary position of having served as a fundraising draw for a network that has brought cases before the Supreme Court, including one of the most closely watched of the upcoming term. Thomas never reported the 2018 flight to Palm Springs on his annual financial disclosure form, an apparent violation of federal law requiring justices to report most gifts. A Koch network spokesperson said the network did not pay for the private jet. Since Thomas didn’t disclose it, it’s not clear who did pay.”

He should have been removed from office. Part of me likes to think that we are a bit more enlightened today and that he would have been removed had his impeachment occurred today. But the cynic in me recognizes that it would still be exceedingly unlikely.

I am really liking this recent turn for @The Frankish Reich

“Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.” Whilhoit’s Law The problem, in their eyes, isn’t that the law is being enforced. It’s that it’s being enforced against the wrong people.

There’s a lot of people here who seem to think that the Vice President of the United States doesn’t have movers. Like, in the waning days of each administration, the VP is frantically packing up boxes of stuff from their office.

At this point, the GOP is so far gone that facts are blue. Feelings are red. Sorry if that offends your feelings.

From an article about Mark Milley "...At his welcome ceremony at Joint Base Myer–Henderson Hall, across the Potomac River from the capital, Milley gained an early, and disturbing, insight into Trump’s attitude toward soldiers. Milley had chosen a severely wounded Army captain, Luis Avila, to sing “God Bless America.” Avila, who had completed five combat tours, had lost a leg in an IED attack in Afghanistan, and had suffered two heart attacks, two strokes, and brain damage as a result of his injuries. To Milley, and to four-star generals across the Army, Avila and his wife, Claudia, represented the heroism, sacrifice, and dignity of wounded soldiers. It had rained that day, and the ground was soft; at one point Avila’s wheelchair threatened to topple over. Milley’s wife, Holly­anne, ran to help Avila, as did Vice President Mike Pence. After Avila’s performance, Trump walked over to congratulate him, but then said to Milley, within earshot of several witnesses, “Why do you bring people like that here? No one wants to see that, the wounded.” Never let Avila appear in public again, Trump told Milley. (Recently, Milley invited Avila to sing at his retirement ceremony.)" Not surprising from the guy who called soldiers who died in service losers and suckers.

I think we will start to see the rise of Africa as the next battlefield of Western vs. China influence. Many countries on the continent are poised for strong growth while birthrates have declined in more developed countries. Additionally, the increased importance of green technology will make resources like cobalt that are found in Africa more valuable and in demand. We have seen China's anticipation of this with their Belt and Road initiative investing heavily in the continent in the hopes that they can pull it into China's sphere of influence. So far, this has thankfully had mixed results but the mere fact that China is trying this underscores the future importance of the continent.

He can be impeached. If they can show that he absolutely knew about the documents, that seems like good ground for impeachment.

It might be good enough for people to assume you’re guilty but it’s certainly not enough to get you charged.

The law requires you prove intent and mere possession is insufficient to prove intent. I’m sorry this basic concept is so difficult for you but that’s how it works.

This is a very good description of the people saying that it’s a witch hunt against Trump instead of the obvious consequences of him repeatedly breaking the law.

To my earlier point: Democrats have been winning big in special elections Democrats have been overperforming the partisanship of districts by 11 points in special elections this year. While it's incredibly unlikely that they are the path to a 11 point victory next Fall, special elections are more predictive than polling this far out from an election.

...I was making a joke about why Biden isn't being charged... There's no difference in how the cases are being treated under how that law is enforced. Generally, if you turn over the documents when you are notified that you shouldn't have them, you won't get charged. This is to facilitate the return of documents. Even if Trump took the documents intentionally, if he had turned them over when the NRA asked, he would almost certainly have not been charged. From the perspective of the government, the most important thing is to get the materials back into their possession. Now, let's say hypothetically that you are told to turn the documents over and you refuse for almost a year. And then you lie to your lawyer, telling him he can review all of the documents when you've secretly had a bunch of them removed. And then you lie to the government, telling them you've turned them all over when in fact, you secretly kept a bunch of them. And then when you get notified that the government is going to subpoena your surveillance system, you order people to destroy the tapes. Well, in that case, you are probably going to get charged with crimes...

And if there is provable evidence that he *intentionally* took the documents he... won't get charged because the DoJ won't charge sitting presidents (remember when Mueller said Trump did a bunch of crimes and suggested he be impeached but he couldn't be charged?). However, he will be liable once he leaves office. And no, mere possession is not evidence of intent.

Even if it was not classified, it was illegal for Trump to possess it after he was notified to return it. Nah, it applies to all of them. The ones who cooperated didn’t get charged. The one who obstructed, lied, and tried to destroy evidence got charged.

The GOP is suffering from Terminal Very Online Brain. They do not realize that the vast majority of Americans don't spend their time going down internet rabbit holes and conspiracies. Many of the things they spend their time talking about sound like total gibberish to regular people. It's alienating them from the average voter and is going to continue to cost them in general elections.

Here you go Side note: Trump's retaining possession of the documents after being notified that he needed to return them was contrary to the law even if they weren't classified.

Bragging about your ignorance of the law sure is a mood, but you do you buddy.

I'm not sure he's mentally capable of planning and executing the trip from NC. Might be too tough.

The fun thing about basing your thoughts on feelings instead of facts is that you can just make stuff up to keep moving the goal posts when you're proven wrong time and time and time and time again. Where did Julie Kelly get her law degree from again?

There is a lower threshold for getting an indictment than a conviction, for sure. But for a lot of this stuff, the evidence is overwhelming to the point that there isn't really much of a case that the defense can make. The Mar A Lago documents case is the most slam dunk easy-to-prove case I've ever seen. The only reason someone wouldn't plead out on it would either be because they are in denial or they believe they can get rid of their liability through other means (such as becoming president and shutting down the investigation). The other charges are of varying degrees of difficulty to prove. Jack Smith seems to be narrowly tailoring his investigation against the cleanest and most forward cases he can make while Fani Willis seems to be taking more of a shotgun approach: charging everything she has evidence for. Well, if they listened to actual legal experts, they'd be told things they don't like. So they need to seek out people who have no idea what they are talking about because that's how they get the answers they want. Feelings over facts. Always.

The "decide not to do it" part of your hypothetical is inapplicable here since they very much were trying to do it. If you and I plan to rob a bank and then I drive you to the bank to rob it, we are both guilty of conspiracy to rob the bank (even though normally giving someone a ride to a bank isn't a crime). If you and I plan to rob a bank and then I illegally hack into the bank's security system, you would be liable for the hacking even if you didn't do it, or weren't even with me when I did it. They had a plan, they took many steps to execute the plan, but the plan failed. They can still be found guilty of the conspiracy even if it was unsuccessful.