US Politics March 2019: “I can’t say I’m happy. I can’t say I’m thrilled”

good morning!

when did the u go missing

The midterms i think. Fixed everything iirc

wheres those tax retuurns

Whither the qualmsey in the eye of our American tempest, whither

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Martha McSally, the first female Air Force fighter pilot to fly in combat, said Wednesday that she was sexually assaulted by a superior officer, and later, when she tried to talk about it to military officials, she “felt like the system was raping me all over again.”

McSally in Oct 2018: “But let’s make sure that people are not susceptible to false allegations, that just because someone says something doesn’t make it true.”

It’s grim. She wasn’t seated yet for the kavanaugh vote, but I’m assuming she would have voted for him. Every single senator must personally know many people who have sexually assaulted, if they weren’t assaulted themselves. I’m a complete nobody and I know of many, inside and outside the family. I cannot understand how nearly every single one is so completely hypocritical on an issue that is so intensely personal and direct and emotional.

I've heard that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

NEW: House Democrats are wary of targeting Trump’s adult children, fearing that it could backfire.

Oversight Chairman Elijah Cummings is among those who is wary of zeroing in too hard on them.

Story w/ @BresPoliticohttps://t.co/r6kXWq6hN3

— Andrew Desiderio (@desiderioDC) March 6, 2019

xp She SAID she would have voted for him, unless you take that as, "I have to say this for my base but luckily I don't have a vote so it's immaterial," which is possible.

Everything, literally everything, they do makes sense when you remember that 90% of what animates Dem leadership is fear of white suburban petite bourgeoisie backlash. They think they lost the Kavanaugh hearings because America loves its boys so much. https://t.co/BPpdJDIQun

— 'Weird Alex' Pareene (@pareene) March 7, 2019

lol

Louie Gohmert says he’s voting against the anti-hate resolution.

— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) March 7, 2019

you laugh now but the pro-hate wing of the GOP will clean up in the 2022 midterms

BREAKING: Paul Manafort has been sentenced to less than four years in federal prison. The guideline range was 19 to 24 years. https://t.co/MFlViwSU84

— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) March 8, 2019

a preview of future sentencing downgrades

Well, the nation needs to heal . . .

NEW: Judge Ellis says that the sentencing guidelines are "excessive" and he says that Paul Manafort was involved in "lots of good things" he says Manafort is "a generous person." He says Manafort, "has lived an otherwise blameless life.”@GaryGrumbach reporting. https://t.co/XrNx4nNIMU

— Tom Winter (@Tom_Winter) March 7, 2019

hope he gets extraordinarily renditioned

Some fucking bullshit right there ! justice for rich white dudes fuck this place

wonder how much roger stones' buttcheeks will get

Send Roger Stone to prison for felony fashion crime pic.twitter.com/aa27zhXbEC

— Max Burns (@themaxburns) March 7, 2019

Holy shit Manafort has lived the worst possible life and he gets less than a black dude selling weed

I can't believe I'm still naive enough to have thought he'd get a proper sentence. What a joke.

What a joke. Manafort was and has always been a fucking soulless demon, finding the evilest people to support and bringing misery to millions.

Apparently he has sentencing for other stuff next week along with any outstanding SDNY stuff that’s floating out there

there's still a second sentencing hearing for manafort this week, but yeah, the first one was bullshit. (it's also possible that his second sentence will be allowed to serve concurrently with the first, rather than consecutively).

also, gotta love this tidbit:

Manafort’s allocution was notably light on expressions of remorse. He alluded only to the “conduct” that had gotten him into his situation and the “questionable circumstances” he will avoid in the future.

“I was surprised that I did not hear you express regret for engaging in wrongful conduct,” Ellis told Manafort at one point.

xp

Holy shit Manafort has lived the worst possible life and he gets less than a black dude selling weed
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/13/us/texas-woman-voter-fraud.html

Fucking infuriating

He's going to jail, faces sentencing in front of a DC judge next week -- that's enough for me.

please note how much time the Watergate conspirators served.

notable that the judge (TS Ellis), ronald reagan appointee, was also the one who recently made waves for being a complete dick to the team prosecuting manafort.

Manafort, "has lived an otherwise blameless life.”

What a crock of shit. Does this judge really have the brass to say he unaware of any crimes Manafort committed, apart from the eight counts for which he was indicted and found guilty by a jury, so therefore he's practically innocent? Gee, if you eliminate all his premeditated crimes from consideration, he's a heck of a nice guy!

"Forty-seven months is nothing to sneeze at," said the judge. "That's a very heavy sentence. You have to remember we're talking about a white guy here. He's not some fucking-" [bailiff dives across, knocking microphone away]

— Splitcoil (@Splitcoil) March 8, 2019

ALL the best blameless people

My God, Martha Stewart got a year for trading on a golf course stock tip ...

— Richard M. Nixon (@dick_nixon) March 8, 2019

Without knowing anything else about Judge Ellis, I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t be a shame if he found out tomorrow that he has long-undiagnosed testicular cancer.

Also, so far Reality Winner is doing more time for trying to warn us about Russian meddling than anybody is for participating in it.

— Schooley (@Rschooley) March 8, 2019

No one with the last name of Trump is going to spend even five minutes in jail.

While light sentences aren't going to be surprising in the slightest, I had thought that there would be one fall guy that would receive a heavy sentence for the sake of appearances. But then I'd also thought Manafort might be that guy!

Xpost you mean he's not even gonna visit those guys who sacrificed their...

Aha!

lol ken starr

Just incredible hearing @JoeLockhart describe the differences between Robert Mueller, who has run the most tight-lipped operation in recent memory, and Ken Starr, who used to address the media from the end of his driveway.

As Lockhart spoke, Starr sat right across from him... pic.twitter.com/BpwuLfMLmR

— Josh Campbell (@joshscampbell) March 8, 2019

Lockhart might as well have blown Ken Starr, if just to repeat the Clinton years.

NEW SCOOP: Trump cheered Kraft’s team to Super Bowl victory with founder of spa where he was bustedhttps://t.co/CqsNwdNRqB

— julie k. brown (@jkbjournalist) March 8, 2019

While light sentences aren't going to be surprising in the slightest, I had thought that there would be one fall guy that would receive a heavy sentence for the sake of appearances. But then I'd also thought Manafort might be that guy

It's insane. I wasn't really expecting serious consequences for most of these guys but Manafort is a lifelong criminal and a traitor to this country, who committed crimes while IN JAIL. He forced his wife to have sex with his buddies and his daughters changed their last name because they wanted nothing to do with him. He is the exact opposite of someone who is "otherwise an upstanding person". At this point it's like, why are we even doing any of this if the person who gets the harshest sentence is gonna be Reality Winner?

Oh man

when I used to work at investment banks people came to me a lot for exceptions to, like regulatory requirements. It was either always they wanted the "good guy exception" or the "he brings a lot of money to the firm" exception.

Reality Winner better get a ticker tape parade when she gets out.

wow who would have thought that trump would consort with sexual abusers

oh right everyone

(not dismissing the scoop, just saying he’s a fucking scumbag)

I found the discussion of Manafort's sentence on Twitter last night kind of annoying, not that I disagree with the position at all but there were A LOT of people jumping all over each other to point out that ACTUALLY Manafort's sentence is Fine, the bigger problem is that the entire justice system is insanely unnecessarily punitive. which is totally true, but c'mon guys, can't we all just shit on Manafort for an evening? (have to say I'm very glad to see that's what's happening on this board).

it's true, light sentences for people like Manafort will inevitably lead to reduced sentences for non-white people caught with $5 worth of marijuana

The Miami Herald reports:

Seated at a round table littered with party favors and the paper-cutout footballs that have become tradition at his annual Super Bowl Watch Party, President Donald Trump cheered the New England Patriots and his longtime friend, team owner Robert Kraft, to victory over the Los Angeles Rams on Feb. 3.

Sometime during the party at Trump’s West Palm Beach country club, the president turned in his chair to look over his right shoulder, smiling for a photo with two women at a table behind him.

The woman who snapped the blurry Super Bowl selfie with the president was Li Yang, 45, a self-made entrepreneur from China who started a chain of Asian day spas in South Florida. Over the years, these establishments — many of which operate under the name Tokyo Day Spas — have gained a reputation for offering sexual services.

Most Christian president ever.

Oh THIS is good:

https://www.axios.com/jared-kushner-ivanka-trump-security-clearance-leak-0a312b92-4a2d-4a70-a7fa-7fb7980d5305.html

The White House this week rejected the committee's request for documents on the process for granting security clearances to staffers.

But the House Oversight Committee in early February had already obtained the leaked documents that detail the entire process, from the spring of 2017 to the spring of 2018, on how both Kushner and Trump were ultimately granted their security clearances.

Kinda brilliant to get Cipollone stonewalling on record only for it to be the case they already had the documents.