It's only tangentially related, but the weirdest part of the whole backstory of the Russian "collusion" episode that Kick guaranteed us would bring about Trump's downfall is that the "dirt" the Russian lady lawyer promised Trump Jr NEVER MATERIALIZED!

Your flailing, ignorance, and lack of reading comprehension skills are again duly noted. As is your modus operandi on this board, you're overly concerned about one tiny aspect of the myriad of laws that have been violated by Trump, the Trump campaign, the Trump children, and the seedy moblike persons with which he perpetually surrounds himself.

What seems completely lost on you as demonstrated repeatedly by your uninformed repetitive spew is the fact that whether or not "dirt" promised by any foreign national ever "materialized," violations of campaign finance law have been violated despite your repeated protestations to the contrary, and it's illegal if someone in the Trump campaign joined a conspiracy, aided and abetted a crime, or actively concealed a crime. Can you grasp that fact? It's not that complicated a legal concept.

How many times must I reiterate to the morons like yourself who can't seem to grasp the concept of conspiracy who keep prattling on and on about "collusion"? How many times must it be explained to the idiots living in the right-wing bubble whining about "collusion" that what we're witnessing in front of our eyes is likely conspiracy? How many times must I use the words RICO and conspiracy to pierce that incomprehension that you're living with?

Here, let me help you yet again: A conspiracy is simply a legal term for an agreement to commit a crime. One aids and abets in the commission of a crime if they know about criminal activity and actively try to make it succeed.

If you can finally grasp the conspiracy concept and stop spewing the ridiculous right-wing talking point about "collusion," maybe then... and only then... will I explain to you the term "misprision of felony."

Your initials also suit you well, old man. :)

Comment 3 has nothing to do with One Demand.

No one cares.

Helpful hint for DH: Your initials suit you. :)

Oh, stop! You're making way too much sense! ;)

you want a barrier mr. trump? try respecting the barrier between branches of government.

Very well said, sir. :)

the thing began when donald announced in a july speech that he wanted russia to look for hillary's e-mails. the meeting with don jr. and Natalia Veselnitskaya came out much, much later.

JL

The thing that got the whole collusion nonsense started was simply a verbal exchange between the Russian lady lawyer who told Jr. that she had some "dirt" (gossip, scandal nobody knows what 'dirt' actually was, 'cause it never happened) on Clinton. Having a conversation, even with a Commie, is ALWAYS gonna be protected by the first amend.

Doesn't even matter where the 'dirt' came from.

first amendment? how is hacking and publicly as well as privately soliciting others to hack a first amendment issue? cyber-crime is crime too.

[54] Stucki: Kevin isn't offering a "plan" in a serious way, he's offering some suggestions to make the larger point which is that no one is going to get anywhere by demanding wide-scale voluntary sacrifice. Humans don't operate that way and ppl who benefit directly from problems don't provide solutions that will de-benefit them. Instead you have to create incentives for everyone and effort should be expended to figure out how those might work. A big part of that is aiming money at it, but in ways that pay back. If you start programs to retrofit buildings and create jobs and nourish new related industries you get your $ back in the end while benefitting workers and the environment. Etc.

The french put on yellow jackets and started burning cars partly because taxes were being raised for green causes.

I think Kevin Drum is on the right track. But I do think that converting gradually (over a decade or so) from income taxes to carbon taxes would be very effective, and would require most of us to do nothing but help ourselves lower our taxes by switching off heating/AC in empty buildings, driving more fuel efficient cars, etc.

Nutshell:

I can’t think of an example in all of human history where a large polity—let alone the entire world—willingly made significant sacrifices in service of a fuzzy, uncertain hazard that’s decades away. We are overclocked hairless apes who are simply not designed to think that way. Why would anyone deny this?

This, then, circles back to what I was saying a couple of days ago: A climate plan that requires significant sacrifice might work on planet Vulcan, but not on planet Earth. Assuming otherwise is nonserious. We need a plan that will work with only homo sapiens to carry it out, and that means a plan that takes into account human selfishness and shortsightedness. It means a plan that will appeal to China and India and Brazil and the rest of the world. It means a plan that will somehow reduce atmospheric carbon a lot even while most of us sit around fat, dumb, and happy.

The only such plan I can think of is one that increases global R&D spending on climate mitigation by, oh, 10x or so. Maybe 20x if it’s feasible. This money would be spent on developing new sources of clean energy and energy storage; reducing the price of current sources of clean energy; figuring out ways to remove carbon from the atmosphere; and pretty much anything else that seems remotely useful. The fruits of this research would be turned over to the private sector for free, and they would then compete to sell it all over the globe. This would harness human selfishness instead of fighting it. It’s not guaranteed to work, but unlike the GND and similar manifestos, at least it’s not guaranteed to fail.

The piece is about whether CONGRESSIONAL candidates from either party in purple areas need to be "moderate" to attract voters from the other party. Per the data the answer is "no" coz it doesn't work anymore.

Emory University political scientist Alan Abramowitz shared with me an analysis he did of the effects on House elections of the district’s presidential vote, whether there’s an incumbent running, and whether that incumbent is more or less ideologically extreme.

Here’s what his results show. Up through the 1990s, while there was still a fairly strong relationship between presidential and House votes, the other two factors mattered a lot too. Incumbents did far better than non-incumbents, even controlling for their district’s partisanship. And being more moderate was a big help.

But by the time you hit the 2008 election, ideology has stopped making a difference. A moderate or a far-left liberal will do equally well if their district looks roughly the same. And by 2016, the effect of incumbency is reduced from a huge benefit to a tiny one.

“Incumbents still get reelected at a very high rate, but the reason is that the large majority of them are in districts that favor their party,” Abramowitz told me.

He goes on to say that people seem to be voting based on "party" now - and with the goal of getting control of the House - not voting for individuals. Speculates that's in part because of loss of local media but rise in social media means ppl are less in touch with local politics but more in touch with national politics and thus grasp the significance of control of chambers.

Doesn't address POTUS candidates.

No, "Getting campaign help from foreign interests" is NOT criminal. Getting "MONEY", or comparable "things of value" is criminal.

Yes, there is room for judicial review of whether advice, information, suggestions, etc. were included in the "things of value" in the intent of those who worded the law, but when that concept runs up agains First Amend. arguments, it's gonna LOSE!

I think the trade will snap back fairly quickly - the U.S. has the transportation infrastructure in place and will have a glut to swamp the markets with to re-establish their position.

I hope you all have your Orville's at the ready, the two dictators (a direct quote from FOX NEWS) are at it again. Cohen, meanwhile back at the farm, gets to completely upstage Trump with his spectacle in front of a congressional committee...you can't make this shit up. No doubt Cohen will get blasted by the Trumpian water-carriers on the committee, and no doubt the dems will push him on the 'pre-presidential' Trump business dealings to which we've hitherto had clarity.

Any way you slice it, the next few days are going to be splendid theatre...with trump playing the fool in all productions.

Enjoy.

LL&P

I would add that WWI initiated the decline of European economic power and left many of them in massive debt to the US. Much of Allied debt was transferred to Germany by means of war reparations. European debt financed the US economic boom of the 1920's and the industrial infrastructure remained largely intact, if not very busy, through the Great Depression. The Second World War left the US as the only major player left standing.

If trump is willing to declare a national emergency for a stupid wall, what is to stop him from declaring one in 2020 should he lose the election?

What is going to be the Dems response to trumps large scale propaganda/re-election campaign? How will they address the fact that he has two of the largest media conglomerates in his pocket? Will Dems start oversight on WH spending at rallies and how the presidential seal is used at campaign events (much like the GOP did to Obama)?

While not trying to out-trump, trump will be key to winning (IMHO) and a positive motivational message is a must. The Dems need to figure out how they will address the issues posed by running against a narcissistic, media centered person in the short term if they plan on coming out of the primary season with a chance of winning.

until the christmas season in the US became a secular institution, jewish kids got their presents on purim, which generally falls in march (or occasionally the end of february). also, while christmas and easter are the most important christian holy days, chanukah ranks about seventh in terms of its religious importance to jews.

JL

Whats your take on how the ag sector will fare should a deal with China get done?

China has signed some pretty long term agreements with Brazil and Mexico for the primary grain imports and is looking to sign some deals with Chile and Central American countries for the other fruits and veggies. US meat imports to China have likewise been spread around.

Personally I see a large drag on the economy coming once the trump ag subsidies run their course.... which should be about now.

https://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/14/us/the-2000-campaign-the-debate-gore-aide-receives-then-lets-go-of-hot-potato.html

One thing's for sure, the GOP are all in.
The right-wing of America have to hope (and no doubt, pray their tiny minds out) Trump wins the next election. Either way, this way or that (so oder so) it's a clinical, political foil for dems to run on...'let's see the Mueller report in its entirety, or when we retake the White House, we'll make it public.'

Political faits' accompli are mainstream fodder these days, why not push it down Trump's throat? why not use the hammer of tax returns, Trump Tower Moscow, 666 Shithole st and Saudi nuclear-sale cash-grabs--(note how the conspiratorialists of the right have gone quiet on this outrage, while they embraced the Clinton uranium bullshit like it was akin to Benedict Arnold's betrayal!)-- a main stream media issue? Even the dimwitted FOX crowd can't hide from an inundation of these subjects. Much as Hannity would have them believe otherwise, there's a Trumpian swamp, all of his own brewing, therein.

The Mueller conclusions aren't as vital to the well-being of the USA as they're made out to be, insomuch as national security spins on a dime, but the report seems very important to Trump and his political survival. Unless Trump s'tfu, acquiesces and lets it roll over him prior to the election, it surely will when he packs his bags in January 2021.

Two words that will unhinge Trump in any national presidential debate....'sealed indictments'

LL&P

thomas is probably pondering retirement, now that kavanaugh has replenished the court's creepy sex criminal contingent.

@don,

it's christmas that has twelve days - muellerfied or not, chanukah still only has eight.

@crs,

of course getting campaign help from foreign interests is criminal; that's in the election law code. a more apt question would be whether it's prosecutable, or whether it's the kind of thing where authorities are hamstrung in court and tend to look the other way, except at the end of the month or when someone seriously pisses them off.

JL

Y'know, I'm all in with S.E. Cupp that Dems have to stop the carnage during primaries. These sorts of petty personal attacks are ramping up, and it's just unseemly.

Re "The most powerful industrial nations . . were swept away . . in the 1940's . . "

More like 'Bombed away', weren't they? That wouldn't be an easy scenario to duplicate these days.

So, is that going to suffice to keep all the Democratic's hopes up forever that if we just wait LONG ENOUGH, verbal "collusion" will eventually turn out to be illegal and Trump will be gone prior to end of his first term???

Sorry, that's too inane to keep me from "reveling".

The man is too ignorant to comprehend the fact that in trade wars there ARE NO WINNERS! Trade only takes place when both parties benefit, but that basic fact is far beyond his comprehension.

The whole of Honduras could arrive at our borders and we could absorb them, and in 10 years we would see our GDP shoot up.

The most powerful industrial nations in both Europe and Asia were swept aside by the U.S. simultaneously in the 1940s. The next most powerful nation on Earth after WW2 tried to take on the U.S. and lasted 40 miserable years before the USSR fragmented.

Japan came back in the 1980s as the USSR was fading and bought Pebble Beach and we were told we had lost WW2. Japan then got swept aside and China started growing and are the new bogeyman.

There is a common theme here. As long as America accepts new ideas and new people, and let's markets work in positive ways (we had to break up the Trusts in the early 1900's - markets are not panaceas), our model will succeed and we will keep growing - faster than anybody can keep up (China may take over as the largest economy, but only because they have 4x the people we do, and I'm not convinced they will manage to keep their growth rate over time).

[tldr: China needs a trade deal as desperately as Trump and both are going to play it as a win to their home audiences]

In a prior job I used to travel to China to present at financial services conferences, and got to see their capital markets structure in some detail - even, or maybe especially, back then the foundations were weak, and to my eyes at any rate, subject to government interference (and not the good sort from e.g. the SEC over here).

I was selling risk analysis and management software, and at one meeting met with the CIO of their version of the SEC in Beijing. Before the CEO arrived there were about 8 VPs who all had high quality U.S. educations and we had a very interesting chat about the structure of the capital markets, where the strengths and weaknesses were, etc. The CIO finally arrived and all the VPs shot out of their seats to attention, so our side of the table did as well. My translator, sitting next to me, got ready for work, and the CIO started talking in rapid Chinese, then switch to very broken English (which was still far better than my Mandarin, to be fair) and started a very strange lecture on how America was doomed because we didn't manufacture anything. This went on for a while, then he decided his work was done and left.

It was later explained that the CIO was a political plant put in to ensure that there was compliance to the internal power structure, and that this was common in China. I had a similar meeting in Shanghai, when the CIO of one of the exchanges insisted we go to a North Korean restaurant for a very expansive lunch where they only took cash (on my dime of course - we had to all empty our wallets to come up with enough paper - the North Korean establishments don't like American Credit Cards). And again I got a lecture on the Chinese way.

As I got to know more of the Chinese, both in my company and in the markets and regulatory bodies, it became more and more clear that China had a serious problem with financial structural integrity.

I keep an eye on China to this day, and an article in the NY Times summed up my increasing concerns that President Xi's focus on individual control may be hastening a presipice:

NY Times, China’s Entrepreneurs Are Wary of Its Future, February 23, 2019

Chen Tianyong, a Chinese real estate developer in Shanghai, boarded a flight to Malta last month with no plans to return anytime soon.

“My friends,” he urged, “if you can leave, please make arrangements as early as possible.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/23/business/china-entrepreneurs-confidence.html

Trump obviously miscalculated by adopting a pose that forced President Xi into a position where he could not back down - this was a dumb, but given Trump, an expected mistake by the U.S. Trump's base are bearing a lot of the pain, a deliberate action of the part of the Chinese (targeting soy beans). China is also hurting, but this may be more due to internal policies than the trade war, however the trade war and Trump in particular are a good smoke screen for President Xi, however his policies and attempts at deep and intrusive control over his people are the real long term problems for China, and the underlying foundations, particularly their capital markets, are far too weak to bear any stress.

As Warren Buffet says, when the tide goes out you see who is swimming naked. If China's growth slows, we will see a lot of naked Chinese institutions and they will not be pretty.

Two things:

1. Isn't it odd the right winger is insisting we all pay attention to Huffpo - let's face it, it is a clickbait aggregator targeted to make the left feel good - sort of an honest version of Hannity for the left

2. How many times do you have to learn that nobody but Mueller knows nothing - yet again you promised that the report was coming out next week, and yet again Mueller pulled the football away from you.

in order to keep your hopes alive until next week, when I expect you all to follow in the steps of that famous old-time WWII Japanese pilot, I forget his name, something like Harry Carey.

- CRS 2/20/19

No seppuku for you!

Turns out "perpetuity" isn't nearly as far down the road as you've been pretending.

But hey, if it will hold the wrist-slashing to a bare minimum, I promise not to be "smug", not to say 'Na-na-na-na-na', nor 'Told-ya-so', not to revel in your misery, etc. etc. etc.

Oh, what the hell, maybe I well revel just a little.

I'm pleased that RBG got to write the opinion....while recovering from surgery no less. Her power to weight ratio and overall durability must be the highest in the human species.

.....knowing your sh*t, knowing you're sh*t AND making an
*ss of yourself in the process.

Please pass the word along to Kick. She still thinks I've been lying to her these 2 1/2 yrs. Maybe it'll carry more weight coming from a fellow Democratic.

I'll kinda hate to lose her, but she asks for it.

I agree.

But we could both be surprised - we are not dealing with a very intelligent family here, and Mueller and the SDNY may be able to bring Manafort and Stone to the realization that they are going to spend the rest of their lives in jail if they don't sing.

I think we are both assuming that the Russians were smart enough not to involve Don Jr. or the clown-in-chief himself, but maybe they are just as cartoonish as the Trumps.

And we are also assuming that Trump and Don Jr. weren't so stupid as to do something obviously illegal and then leave behind an incriminatory paper or email trail - so if anything we are assuming the Trumps are not as stupid as they seem on the surface.

I agree. But in turning over the rocks a lot of other things have been exposed. This is the start of the real investigations into Trump's business deals.

This is when the entertainment starts because, unlike the Mueller investigation, most of this will be out in the open.

Yes indeed, "The hackers broke the law stealing the emails in the first place", and far as I'm aware, that is a universally accepted fact. And the devious bastards have all been indicted, and are about to find themselves in deep shi - I mean trouble. I've heard that Sarah Palin can hear them from her house, shaking and trembling with fear - or could it possibly be laughter?

Definitely, "an investigation is warranted", and it's in fact a done deal. Read all about it, every shocking detail, in the lead Huffpost article this very minute. Time and patience are no longer even necessary.

You perpetually appear lose sight of the fact that NOBODY would cheer louder than this "smug egomaniac" if the Russian collusion WERE to rid us of the burden of the asshole-in-chief, but sad to say, it ain't gonna happen

The stolen information was released on Wikileaks and open to everybody. However the hackers broke the law stealing the emails in the first place.

What we asked Mueller to find out was the role of the Trump campaign in directing the thefts. Since the principal protagonist asked the Russians to hack Clinton’s emails it is a fair question. It is also suspicious that a meeting with Russians connected with the agencies involved in hacking at Trump Tower was covered pub Trump with a story about orphans.

Given the prior activities of Trump’s onetime campaign manager with these same Russian groups, an investigation is warranted.

Mueller has good investigative resources at his disposal. Let’s hope he finds out the truth.

Your dismissal of all this reeks of desperation that you will be shown to have been duped by paper thin lies and deflections, however your ego isn’t Mueller’s or my concern.

As always, time and Mueller will tell. Patience is the only thing the rest of us need unless we are nervous.

I’m not nervous. If there was no involvement by the Trump campaign so be it. If there was, I hope the guilty parties are not let off by people who put party affiliation ahead of the United States of America. Frankly I’m not optimistic that many people’s ego is less important to them than our country and I expect there will be a significant percentage of the population in that sad group. Will you be one of them?

No, not really that either. That implies that it would be illegal for the politician in question to use the dirt that had been discovered illegally but NOT by him, and I would claim that such would NOT be illegal,(although you're right, I also believe he would use it anyway).

It's only tangentially related, but the weirdest part of the whole backstory of the Russian "collusion" episode that Kick guaranteed us would bring about Trump's downfall is that the "dirt" the Russian lady lawyer promised Trump Jr NEVER MATERIALIZED!

What I did say was that NO POLITICIAN is going to forego using ANY dirt that is uncovered by ANYbody by ANY means, legal or illegal, to smear his opponent.

Contradicting me on that only serves to verify that he is among those that need to "rejoin the real world"!

Let me put it simply for you. If I broke into your house and stole copies all the letters you wrote and received, then gave them to a competitor that used the contents of them to make people buy their goods instead of yours, you'd be dialing the cops pretty fast.

Same situation.

"No hacked or stolen" dirt??? Give me a gawdam break! Does ANYbody believe that ANY politician, of ANY political stripe, is going to forego capitalizing on his/her opponent's scandals, illegalities, immoralities, etc., regardless of the source!

Time to rejoin the real world here, folks!

https://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/granny-smith-apple-pie

i am not against all walls. what i am opposed to is a dumb wall. a rash wall. a wall based not on reason but on passion, not on principle but on politics, a cynical attempt by culture warriors like steve bannon and bill o'reilly to shove a racist agenda down our throats. you want a barrier mr. trump? try respecting the barrier between branches of government.

JL

You'd think that a bland, meaningless party statement would write itself: disappointment, not up to the standard expected, one rotten apple, call for probity from all parties in all campaigns, etc, etc.

They could even work in a Dems just as bad line if they tried.