The Tick wiki!

I know, right?! :)

Crime, nastiness and evil rear their fowl odorous heads in every corner of the globe, and that's saying something because globes don't even have corners! ~ The Tick

i'll take the 28th amendment.

http://tick.wikia.com/wiki/28th_Amendment

JL

We'll just have to chalk this up to yet another episode of "I know things you don't," Stucki. But, hey... in the pathetic words of you: "Don't now slash your wrists."

Re 11CFR 110.20. I'm doubtful that "disbursement" covers verbiage, but don't despair, keep your hopes up for another year at least.

My wrists and my hopes will be just fine, and might I add that it's a real hoot to watch the woefully uninformed commenter who insists ad nauseam that "there just ain't no law against colluding with ANYBODY, not even filthy Communists and/or Russians, to get dirt on your political opponents" flailing in his pathetic attempts to interpret law which he repeatedly claims does not exist.

Keep drinking the Kool-Aid, Stucki, and while you're swallowing the Orange Goop, ask yourself how pathetic it is that those in the Trump campaign's defense for conspiring with foreign adversaries to undermine the United States is their right to "free speech." There is a very long list of traitors and/or those who've committed espionage against America who tried that identical argument in the Supreme Court and failed miserably and repeatedly. If that was not an incontrovertible fact, there would have been absolutely no reason whatsoever for Flynn and Gates to flip like pancakes and sing like canaries. :)

In fact, were you to heed your own advice and do a little "book cracking", you'd discover that the word "disburse" translates from the original Latin into English as 'To remit from the purse".

Of course, you're still able to contend that the Russians keep their verbiage in written form within their purses, and you might even get Sottomayor to agree with you, but not many of the other Supremes will.

Re 11CFR 110.20. I'm doubtful that "disbursement" covers verbiage, but don't despair, keep your hopes up for another year at least.

You're absolutely correct, there are indeed "limits on freedom of speech". I just Googled it and No.1 on the restricted list is "Any speech that may cause a Dem/Lib to lose an election".

You seem to have swallowed quite a large pitcher of the GOP Kool-Aid wherein you spew back ridiculous talking points and propaganda created for the bleating sheeple. This particular talking point falls apart when the seemingly willfully ignorant allow themselves to let it sink in that the Trump campaign was being investigated for potential criminal activity long BEFORE the outcome of the election was known.

The obvious problem is that when the Trump campaign went to Moscow to get the promised dirt on Hillary, the Russians did all the talking.

So you're saying you're unaware, and now you're proving it. The scenario you've outlined here would be a clear violation of 11 CFR 110.20, prohibition on contributions, donations, expenditures, independent expenditures, and disbursements by foreign nationals (52 U.S.C. 30121, 36 U.S.C. 510).

The Trump campaign was only listening. So now you're gonna have to deal with that constitutional ammendment (I forget now which number it is) that guarantees "Freedom of Listening" for which as of this moment, there are NO exceptions, right?

You tell me. Being that I don't reside on Bullshit Mountain in the land of Alternative Facts deep inside the bubble floating along in blissful ignorance in the far reaches of the Alternate Universe, I have no idea what is contained in your Constitution or the enumeration thereon, but I am aware that it changes frequently depending on the subject matter, which obviously explains why it's difficult to pin down the number of the amendments. :)

You're absolutely correct, there are indeed "limits on freedom of speech". I just Googled it and No.1 on the restricted list is "Any speech that may cause a Dem/Lib to lose an election".

The obvious problem is that when the Trump campaign went to Moscow to get the promised dirt on Hillary, the Russians did all the talking. The Trump campaign was only listening. So now you're gonna have to deal with that constitutional ammendment (I forget now which number it is) that guarantees "Freedom of Listening" for which as of this moment, there are NO exceptions, right?

As far as I'm aware, nobody is even claiming that any "contributions, donations, or other things of value" ever changed hands.

So you're saying you're unaware.

Maybe you can try and get the Supreme Court to criminalize verbiage, but I'm betting agin' it.

Limits on freedom of speech already exist and have been repeatedly upheld by the Supreme Court. Crack some books, Stucki, seriously. :)

As far as I'm aware, nobody is even claiming that any "contributions, donations, or other things of value" ever changed hands. You wanna try and include advice, "dirt", secrets, etc. under that definition, have at it.

Maybe you can try and get the Supreme Court to criminalize verbiage, but I'm betting agin' it.

Of course, I'm forced to point out, with a generous measure of "Told Ya So" pure Schadenfreude, that I told y'all (many times!), that regardless of how counterintuitive it seems to Dems/Libs, there just ain't no law against colluding with ANYBODY, not even filthy Communists and/or Russians, to get dirt on your political opponents!

Wrong again, Stucki! Are you intentionally lying or just refusing to crack a book? :)

11 CFR 110.20 - Prohibition on contributions, donations, expenditures, independent expenditures, and disbursements by foreign nationals (52 U.S.C. 30121, 36 U.S.C. 510)

Pertinent sections:

(b) Contributions and donations by foreign nationals in connection with elections. A foreign national shall not, directly or indirectly, make a contribution or a donation of money or other thing of value, or expressly or impliedly promise to make a contribution or a donation, in connection with any Federal, State, or local election.

(g) Solicitation, acceptance, or receipt of contributions and donations from foreign nationals. No person shall knowingly solicit, accept, or receive from a foreign national any contribution or donation prohibited by paragraphs (b) through (d) of this section.

(j) Donations by foreign nationals to inaugural committees. A foreign national shall not, directly or indirectly, make a donation to an inaugural committee, as defined in 11 CFR 104.21(a)(1). No person shall knowingly accept from a foreign national any donation to an inaugural committee.

[67 FR 69950, Nov. 19, 2002, as amended at 69 FR 59780, Oct. 6, 2004]

https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/11/110.20

I'm wondering what Trump will give to Kim Jong-Un just to meet with him now that Un has Trump on the "I'm going to win the Nobel Peace Prize" hook.

I'm thinking Trump will gift Kim with... Dennis Rodman. :)

I predicted as much, sorry to toot my own horn

Well, you did... toot. :)

Good dealmaker my ass.

Trump is Putin's little "witch." Nothing will happen that Putin doesn't orchestrate with Kim and Xi since he's playing Trump like the little witch that he is.

It seems as if you are saying that it doesn't require anything more than one reality-based blogger actually addressing One Demand to make all your dreams come true and that all you need to get started is one brave reality-based blogger to inform citizens about this opportunity now.

So if that is what you're saying, then you need to get started with your own blog now. Hurry up... TYA... time's a wastin' :)

Trump and the 1500's are condemned to the trash can of history, we just need to show we are the people to deliver the final nail in this sad coffin.

Did somebody say "coffin"? Wholly appropriate since many of them will die in prison.

So to those who think there is no conspiracy... something to ponder: Why would a guy like Paul Manafort work for free when he owed millions of dollars to Oleg Deripaska?

Another guilty plea/flip today... Manafort's ex son-in-law. :)

JL

WRT to Mueller and Trump, once a prosecutor starts investigating a potential crime they are required to prosecute any other crimes they uncover during the investigation.

I've said all along that the "collusion" is probably a dead end, mostly because I don't think any intelligence officer would trust Trump or his offspring with anything they wanted kept secret.

I think the consensus around here is that Trump should be concerned about a past history of money laundering - that it has been suspicious that, for example, he was able to buy Turnberry in Scotland for cash when he has little or no access to Western capital markets. The Trump SoHo project was also seen as very likely to involve some criminal activity.

Mueller has been very productive so far, and is ahead of the curve when it comes to results in comparison with similar prior investigations (see: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-muellers-first-year-compares-to-watergate-iran-contra-and-whitewater/ ).

Also, I'm a bit disappointed that you are lining up with the latest "talking points" from the right from people who are very keen to close this investigation down as soon as possible - I assumed you were skeptical enough to wonder why, if this is a waste of time because there are no crimes, there was such a concerted effort to program the base to accept a forced shutdown.

I'm totally aware that DC is full of crooks, and I have no doubt that a bunch of them are doing their damndest to get rich by any means, fair or foul, but you and Mueller don't score any points nabbing Trumps hangers-on. You have believed since day one that Trump's collusion would lead to his downfall, and as of now, your chances don't look all that good, regardless of which round of the fight we're in.

Again, what does it matter which "transition officials" did or didn't "meet with Russians"??? "Meeting with Russians" is NOT illegal. (Perhaps I should say not FEDERALLY illegal. There may well be a county or a city law against meeting with Russians, but who gives a damn?)

Sorry, can't get Rachel Maddow for the same reason I can't get Fox. All my TV (the little I watch) comes over an old-fashioned roof-top antenna. No cable in my rural area, and I wouldn't have it were it available.

BTW, if it encourages you, I do watch Amy Goodman's daily nonsense on PBS. She keeps me kinda up to date on your side's opinions, plus I check Huffpost daily. That ought to be plenty of "opposition research", right?

You must be watching/listening to very different news than I am, because this has been a very busy week for the Mueller folks, who are way ahead of the press on most of the most salacious leads in the case. Turns out, you couldn't swing a dead cat without hitting a Russian colluder in Trump Tower during the transition.

Following on the seizure of Cohen's records, investigators have been chasing down leads that implicate Cohen in pay-for-play deals ranging from AT&T to the Sovereign Wealth Fund of Qatar. The Qatari official involved in that deal claimed to have outright bribed Michael Flynn, and a photograph of him going into a meeting at Trump Tower was posted online.

Since you're not up on the news, I should also tell you that a deal between the Russians and Qatar has also been uncovered, in which Qatar was able to use the proceeds of an oil deal to 'pay off' Trump's inner circle using the Sovereign Wealth Fund.

At this point, Chris Christie, Mike Pence and Steve Bannon are about the only transition officials not accused of meeting with Russians during the campaign, and both Pence and Bannon have been caught lying about what they knew and when they knew it.

It appears that Right Wing media has been keeping much of this from their readers and listeners. You need to start watching Rachel Maddow - call it 'opposition research' if you have to justify it to yourself. She's got a lot online if you need to catch up.

What are you smoking and/or drinking? It's the second round of the fight - and your guy is, in fact, getting beaten up pretty badly.

Collusion isn't inherently a criminal activity, but can be playpen where all sorts of crimes are committed. In no particular order, tax evasion, bribery, destruction of evidence, espionage, money laundering, campaign laws, and lying to the wrong sorts of officials are all very much on the table. It might be all wrapped in a criminal conspiracy bow, but doesn't have to be.

You don't get to close the case. The fun is likely just beginning. Don't go running to the parking lot to beat the traffic home just yet.

I've been telling my friends lately that, after the midterms, the big Gig against Trump will be that he squandered the Republican majorities that he has enjoyed these last two years. After all, having effective majorities in both houses of congress, on the Supreme Court, and in a majority of statehouses all at the same time is rare enough in the modern age that someone could legitimately say, "And what did you do with that legislative juggernaut?"

Trump tweets today: "...we have had the most successful first 17 month Administration in U.S. history..!" This is patently untrue, as all but his most slavish followers are already aware.

DE-struction is always easier than CON-struction, and no one has proved that better than Trump, but everything that he's 'accomplished' through executive orders can be undone on the first day of the next Democratic president's term. Many of the Cabinet departments will have to be re-staffed and re-oriented, most importantly the State Department, which has been gutted of many of its most experienced people, and that might take awhile to undo.

And it could take decades to restore America's reputation in the world. There's that.

But Legislatively, Trump has actually accomplished much less than, say, Jimmy Carter did during his first term. The Tax Cut Bill, the only major piece of new legislation to come out of Congress in the last two years, could be undone by new Democratic majorities before Trump is even out of office.

Of course, this isn't entirely Trump's fault - both Ryan and McConnell have auras of competency that they don't deserve - but when the dust of the midterms has settled, and the GOP surveys the landscape for 2020's big race, they might realize that they've fallen for yet another of Trump's scams: like Trump University, Trump steaks and Trump casinos, the hype of the Trump administration has exceeded the actual substance.

And many of the GOP faithful, seeing Gay marriage alive and intact, abortion on demand still the law of the land, and most of the gun laws still on the books will look up and wonder what Trump actually did for the most important items on their agenda.

And that (save for the possibility of an interview with Mueller) might be the only real 'moment of truth' that Trump experiences during this whole debacle.

Of course, I'm forced to point out, with a generous measure of "Told Ya So" pure Schadenfreude, that I told y'all (many times!), that regardless of how counterintuitive it seems to Dems/Libs, there just ain't no law against colluding with ANYBODY, not even filthy Communists and/or Russians, to get dirt on your political opponents!

Of course, y'all responded (also many times) that for certain there has just gotta be hundreds of side effects that ABSOLUTELY MUST surely be against some law somewhere (never mind the 1st ammendment), thereby guaranteeing that Trump was a goner.

But hey, please don't all now slash your wrists. After all, you can take comfort that 13 Russians have Mueller's indictments hanging over their heads. (Actually, I think that number is down to 7 now. I heard 6 of them died laughing.)

Stig - I like the parody, but now I've got it stuck in my head!

http://www.chrisweigant.com/2018/05/10/what-kim-jong-un-and-donald-trump-will-be-bargaining-for/#comment-118947

Remember that meeting with the current U.S. President was the bargaining chip all other presidents kept for significant concessions, not table stakes.

Good dealmaker my ass.

Here you go:

https://www.politicalorphans.com/bribery-is-an-american-tradition/

Don't know why
I can't seem to shake this guy.
Stormy's lawer!
Hanging about in my foyer.
He's on the TV all the time.

Are we going to see other people as people or as another tribe? There is no doubt in my mind, no matter how many fairy believers are stuffed on to the Supreme Court, the country will go where it has to. Trump and the 1500's are condemned to the trash can of history, we just need to show we are the people to deliver the final nail in this sad coffin.

Brew youself a pot of strong coffee CW....it's going to be another long night. You are a credit to ink jet stained wretchs.