howardfineman
@howardfineman

Just had a long talk with #RogerStone. He says he doesn’t want a pardon (which implies guilt) but a commutation, and says he thinks #Trump will give it to him. “He knows I was under enormous pressure to turn on him. It would have eased my situation considerably. But I didn’t.”

3:06 PM · Jul 10, 2020·Twitter for iPhone

*
Roger Stone's nickname for Trump is "Mr. Ingratitude"... a name by which Roy Cohn and he referred to Donald. Trump met Stone in the late 1970s at the time Stone was actually living at Roy Cohn's town house on East 68th Street in Manhattan.

Roger Stone is saved

July 10, 2020 at 9:39 p.m. CDT

When I called Roger Stone early Friday evening, he was in the midst of doing an online interview with an evangelical Christian leader. He let me listen in. It was, shall we say, a revelation. Until recently about as un-devout as a lapsed everything could be, he earnestly recounted for an equally earnest interviewer how he’d been saved by Jesus Christ at a Franklin Graham rally.

“I stood up,” Stone said. “I accepted Christ as my savior. I felt like a cement block had been lifted from my chest.” His newfound faith had given him a ticket to eternal salvation and, perhaps, a stay-out-of-jail card.

When Stone finished, he got on the line with me.

“I know there is a lot of skepticism,” he said in the audial version of a straight face. “Who knows? A year from now you may be calling me Reverend Stone! What else am I going to do with all these white suits I own?”

Like God, President Trump was merciful, Stone said. Trump was a man of “enormous fairness and compassion” and would lift the burden Stone was facing.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/07/10/roger-stone-is-saved/

The only reason "Mr. Ingratitude" would ever "lift the burden Stone was facing" is he had no choice. The case against Stone is the case against Trump.

And here we are now.

What do you want to bet that after trying to screw DACA in the SCOTUS and failing that Donald Trump writes an Executive Order to allow them a path to citizenship?

Naw, it'll never happen. While narcissism is fundamental to Trump's core racism is a close second.

Let the games begin!

^Why would you brag about a doctor being surprised you passed this?
^ It's like bragging about being able to go potty all by yourself.

I was thinking it was more like bragging that the doctor’s couldn’t believe your parents weren’t siblings or that you don’t eat your own shit!

Trump is toast — or he WILL BE toast, eventually. We just have to pray he is taken out before he can do too much more damage to our country.

Do you mean to be voting in a True Blue, er, Blue district? I wish!

I mean to be able to vote without jumping through hoops! Y'all get to mail in your dang ballots. We are forced to vote in person and all kinds of lines that last for 4-5 hours... on top of COVID-19 in November. :(

I laughed.

OMG. He's lost his mind. He's actually bragging how the doctors were surprised that he passed a cognitive test -- likely a "MoCA" a Montreal Cognitive Assessment!

https://www.parkinsons.va.gov/resources/MOCA-Test-English.pdf

^Why would you brag about a doctor being surprised you passed this?^ It's like bragging about being able to go potty all by yourself.

What do you want to bet that after trying to screw DACA in the SCOTUS and failing that Donald Trump writes an Executive Order to allow them a path to citizenship?

If Trump actually is doing that, he's at the point of pandering. No one tell Stephen Miller.

Yep!

Sad to say, I think you're right about that report, Russ, but it looks like President Criminal-in-Chief is about to pardon or commute the sentence of Roger Stone (and maybe others) in yet another act of outright criminal obstruction of justice. I think Trump believes Stone will talk and can't allow him one minute in jail.

This shit where Trump uses the DOJ to pardon his guilty co-conspirators while prosecuting those he perceives to be his enemies ain't going to pass the smell test.

The Trumpertantrum thread on Twitter yesterday after Trump lost bigly in the SCOTUS seems to foreshadow that Barr may have already informed Trump that the report is a dud for him politically. Or maybe I'm reading too much in between the lines, but Trump surprisingly lets loose with a lot of truthiness and telegraphs quite a lot when he's in "raging lunatic" mode.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1281250565163532288

A candidate announcing a plan to legalize pot will be a much bigger draw than Trump screaming, “I told you I was not Putin’s poodle!”

Heh. You're right. I see a RICO case in Trump's future involving money laundering -- foreign and domestic -- and tax fraud. Unless he makes one heck of a deal, he is so screwed, and I don't think New York wants to deal with him.

We are living history, and Benedict Donald is one for the books. :)

MtnCaddy

If I can get to vote like you and CW do, I'll take it! :)

Do you mean to be voting in a True Blue, er, Blue district? I wish! I live at 7000 feet in CA-8. Solid interior Country-Cali Red district forever CA-8, that is. But at least I'll have served America by voting against Drumpf twice.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/10/politics/trump-hannity-coronavirus/index.html

I laughed.

LL&P

He'll, I outta make you an Honorary Californian ;)

If I can get to vote like you and CW do, I'll take it! :)

And to that I would add, "Will Trump's people not taking covid as seriously as everyone else result in relatively
more death and destruction in his ranks, and will that depress GOP turnout?"

Each of these hot spots [individual congressional districts especially the suburban-rural districts] will provide an answer—in some cases, multiple answers—to the essential questions of 2020: Will Black voters participate at higher levels than they did in 2016? Will the flight of college-educated women from the GOP accelerate? Will the Democratic Party bring any of its lost working-class whites back into the fold? Will young progressives stay at home to protest Joe Biden’s lukewarm liberalism? Will conservative seniors sour on Trump because of his response to Covid-19? And for that matter, what effect will the pandemic have on voter turnout across demographic lines?

Food for thought, eh? Certainly a worthy "short list" of some big 2020 questions.

I would add, "will Trump's people not taking covid as seriously as everyone else result in more death and destruction in his ranks, and will that depress GOP turnout?"

It is obvious that Barr is going to push that report to give Trump the maximum benefit from it — we’ll likely get another fictitious “not a summary” from Barr describing what he had hoped Durham’s investigation would say prior to the report actually being released.

A candidate announcing a plan to legalize pot will be a much bigger draw than Trump screaming, “I told you I was not Putin’s poodle!”

HELL, I outta...

Must.
Remember.
To.
Proofread.

I hope so. I need my medicine.

Kick

But am definitely a "thing" ;)

Wow! Smoooking hot!

And I "get" that you add a modest (only) amount of brownie to yer weed

Just do it, Fetterman [the Lt. Governor of Pennsylvania] said: Do it, if only to secure Pennsylvania’s electoral votes and get that much closer to the White House. “If Joe Biden’s account tweeted out ‘Legal. Weed.,’ it would get a million likes in the first two hours. I guarantee it. And no one’s going to accuse Uncle Joe of being a pothead,” Fetterman told me. “If you think weed is the devil’s tobacco, you ain’t voting for Biden anyway.”

I think that Biden will come around on legalization before the election.

If I were he I'd wait until just the right moment to announce his revelation on Reefer to maximally stoke up the Left in general and the Youth in particular.

Oh, wait...

He's a silly old woman, that's not quite the same.

LL&P

And Bleyd is a Texan, too. At least Texas has the two of you going for it ha!

Well, we are flipping TX-23 in the next general election if everything goes according to plan... so we're good for something. :)

I can't believe it will be Warren. The guv in MA is a Republican. Wouldn't he get to appoint a new senator?

Yes... unless the Massachusetts legislature changes the rules. They have done it twice in the recent past, so I wouldn't put it past them. If Biden wants to choose Warren, it's a minor lift and can definitely be done.

Trump proves you need no brain to win the presidency, and you do need one to be president.

LL&P

Yer stuck Texas, Kick, you poor thing?

Ain't "stuck"
Ain't "poor"
But am definitely a "thing" ;)

I didn't even know they smoked weed in Texas.

They don't. We don't. Why, we would never!

We bakes brownies into it. :)

It's like there's no brain, and Trump seems to believe everyone else is missing their's also.

maybe it was a test of cognitive dissonance.

Heh.

One thing is for sure; it wasn't a vocabulary test since Trump just accused Joe Biden of "plagiarism."

Trump is so dumb, if all his brain cells were dynamite, he couldn't blow his nose.

Spew alert! :)

Another Drumpf Klan rally has failed. Winning!

What a pity. People are saying there was going to be a cross burning and a crowd of a million.

"Operation Democrat Hoax" strikes again. Somebody cue Gonzalo and Hanna and have them ready to spin when necessary. ;)

Does she have the same naturalized citizen status that McCain had?

Her father's family is American and were here at inception.

It just occurred to me why they're likely trashing her on Fox News... it's a preemptive strike like they performed on Gretchen Whitmer. They don't want to have to face her. She will chew them up and spit them out and laugh at their rotting carcasses. :)

Let's not forget the veepstakes. There's been buzz about Tammy Duckworth. Any opinions?

She'll do.

** Vote Blue **
No Matter Who

I'm not trying to be mean, either. I'll like whomever Joe Biden picks, but I will say this. Tammy Duckworth's family have served this country since inception, tracing her roots on her father's side of the family all the way back to the Revolutionary War, and she's smart as a whip. :)

Hey didn't realize you were a fellow Texan!

Yes, sir, ain't we lucky to have drawn the best bull and be riding the gravy train with biscuit wheels? ;)

Man, we were so proud a couple months ago with how relatively few cases we had.

I know, right!? Then gullible Greg Abbott got reeled in by the Tea Party stunt wherein the far righties and QAnon nuts outright recruited someone to illegally open in protest of the very necessary caronavirus quarantining and "forced" his hand to open because he's a sucker for publicity and got an invite to the White House he just couldn't refuse.

https://www.star-telegram.com/news/politics-government/article242594286.html

Such a sucker.

They say pride comes before the fall though, so I guess it was inevitable that our idiot political leaders would screw it up.

I hope the QAnon and Tea nuts are happy with all the death for which they're responsible. A lot of those who are dying are Texas veterans, but many of them aren't being counted as COVID deaths so they can keep those numbers lower. It's frustrating the lack of sheer inaction... but the outright working purposefully in ways that are killing Texans... well, it's cringeworthy. I hope they're happy. Dan Patrick has made it clear that people should be sacrificing their lives for the Dow Jones Industrial Average; he's perfectly fine with it.

Hope you are well and stay well here in TX hell. I can tell you for a fact it's going to get much worse before it gets better, and it should get really interesting when flu season collides with COVID.

Wow. Sorry to dump all that on you, Bleyd, but it's in the comment box now, and I can either erase it or post it. *thinks*

I'm posting it. :)

Yer stuck Texas, Kick, you poor thing? I didn't even know they smoked weed in Texas.

Come on now. He was able to identify a picture of a lion as a lion.

maybe it was a test of cognitive dissonance.

JL

well, she checks all the boxes and is an astute politician, so i'd have to say she definitely strikes me as a possibility.

JL

Someone is a few grand richer at the Whore House.

LL&P

Just remember, we are all welcome here, regardless of how mean-spirited our comments can tend towards. Ignoring them and not responding in kind does help to stop them - at least, we can do our own part in that effort.

You have to admit though that you are a little obsessed with One Demand. Kind of like I'm a little obsessed with seeing Biden get elected in November. I, of all people here, should be upset with you the way you're always disparaging him, one way or another. But, it doesn't upset me because I just ignore it. Just like I do with Michale. If I wanted to string a few mean-spirited comments together, I assure you that I am quite capable. But, that's not how I roll. Ahem. :)

We are doubly welcome at the CW Sunday Music Festival and Dance Party. Because, well because we love to dance and listen to music in groups and we just can't do that anywhere in the flesh right now. :(

Hey didn't realize you were a fellow Texan! Man, we were so proud a couple months ago with how relatively few cases we had. They say pride comes before the fall though, so I guess it was inevitable that our idiot political leaders would screw it up.

Wooo! My county is only risk level Orange!

Seriously though, roughly half of the people at my work are out after testing positive last week. I seem to have gotten lucky since I tested negative. I guess that's a benefit of working alone in a lab instead of the main office.

Heh. :)

He can outlaw abortion later.

Too true.

Gorsuch was the swing vote in the case where they affirmed that half of Oklahoma is an American Indian reservation.

Now do Texas. :)

That probably won't happen at his outdoor Klan meeting in NH on Saturday. Fay is considering an appearance.

Is she, then? Fay, is it? Dang. Isn't it a little early in the season for an "F"? Are we sure she isn't just a "Democrat hoax" designed to hurt Donald Trump?

https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/09/weather/tropical-storm-fay-forecast-new-york/index.html

Somebody better alert Alabama. :)

Here is A risk guide per state and county. [globalepidemics.org] based on daily new coronavirus infections.

Well, this is seriously awesome. Wow. Look at all that visual data.

I am unhappy to report my state is front and center because our idiot Governor Greg Abbott and even crazier Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick were the first to step up proudly and follow Donald Trump over the idiot cliff.

Oh Kick! Loved the MJ artwork.

Well, I did that one just for you, MC, since I have most definitely worn that one out around here but am seriously such a fan of both visuals and MJ... so much so that I'm usually totally "all in" whenever the subject is mentioned.

I like chocolate brownies in my MJ... and no nuts. Perfectly good things are all too often ruined with the needless addition of nuts. :)

Holy be Jesus, Russ, is right; this is exactly the kind of spin and Orwellian dystopian excuse we'd hear from some of the usual suspects:

* Senator Martha McSally would explain how she was there and it was a cold day in August at that Arizona rally and the crowd wasn't so much burning a cross as they were "just getting warmed up."

* Senator Scott from South Carolina would hold a press conference wherein he would state emphatically how some people enjoyed talking about "systemic racism" and how Trumpublicans don't define everything from a racist perspective. He would explain how this nation does not burn crosses that we are not a cross burning country. We deal with crosses because there is burning in the country. Both are not simultaneously a real "thing."

* Senator Graham from South Carolina would explain how Barack Obama's rallies would feature crowds chanting "fired up, ready to go" and how "oh, sure" there might have been "fire" at the Trump rally but how it was actually nothing more than a visual representation of what they've always chanted at "Democrat rallies" and where was all the outrage about fire then?

* The Senator from Maine would be questioned as she scurried quickly into her office explaining how she was too busy getting reelected to know anything about it yet but if anything like that had occurred, she'd be both "troubled" and "concerned," and players across America would claim victory on their Susan Collins BINGO cards!

Point to Russ.

Sorry, I was channeling NostraJamus.

LL&P

Trump smother himself...

Not before time...

LL&P

My thoughts exactly.

LOCK HIM UP, THROW AWAY THE KEY...

LL&P

How long before somebody burns a cross in connection with a Trump rally?

That probably won't happen at his outdoor Klan meeting in NH on Saturday. Fay is considering an appearance.

135,094 Americans dead from Coronavirus and counting...

Put me in the "Swing Vote" camp with Kick.

Nope. We haven't hit rock bottom yet.

How long before somebody burns a cross in connection with a Trump rally, and the members of the GOP just look around at each other and just do shrugs? ¯\_(?)_/¯

The data!

So please forgive me, but I just had to take a personal day off to smell the roses.

No apologies.

To get some fresh comment threads going, here's a topic for everyone: "Is John Roberts truly now the crucial 'swing vote' on the Supreme Court, and what does that mean going forward?"

John Roberts is the crucial swing vote on the Supreme Court, and that means Donald Trump is screwed.

Or maybe: "How will the New York state prosecution of Trump end, now that they're going to get to see his taxes? What has he been hiding so strenuously?"

Decades of criminal tax fraud and money laundering both foreign and domestic. Donald Trump has defrauded the United States out of millions of dollars in taxes. Oh, sure, much of it happened decades ago, but if the IRS can prove civil or criminal fraud, there is no statute of limitations for anyone. Hence, his Trumpertantrum on Twitter today. Heh.