I have a very special Holiday treat that I would like to share with everyone this week at the CW Sunday Night Music Festival and Dance Party

You won't want to miss this so don't forget to drop by!

It might not be so simple for Trump to pardon his children and Giuliani

Sorry, I don't know whether that's behind a paywall, so here's a section from the middle:

Most observers assume that the president is free to issue blanket pardons, believing the president’s power in this area is effectively unlimited beyond the few constraints explicitly mentioned in the Constitution (no pardons in cases of impeachment, or for state crimes). My scholarship suggests that interpretation is incorrect.

That meaning included what might be called a “specificity requirement” — a pardon would be deemed valid only if it identified the specific offenses to which it applied. As William Blackstone, the leading authority on English law at the time, declared: “A pardon of all felonies will not pardon a conviction.” Instead, the offense “must be particularly mentioned.” Blanket pardons, in other words, were invalid.

'Tis always good to maintain hope whenever that remains a reasonable course.

As we're at the beginnings of a tsunami of corrupt pardons this, from Glenn Kirschner, suggests that maybe our fave traitor Mike Flynn isn't out of the woods yet.

I'll probably have to get a new computer. :(

Good news! Well, not right away, but eventually. CW.com's world headquarters (heh) will be undergoing a big computer upgrade late this month. It will likely take until some time early next year (early spring, say) for me to get everything up and running and ready for the next step -- but the next step (hopefully) will be to UPDATE THE FORMAT here totally. Drag it into the future. Upgraded WP, new template that allows for smart phone use, the whole shebang. I have wanted to do this for years, and it will soon be possible. I will keep everyone updated on the progress, as soon as possible.

"It's a Festivus miracle!"

:-)

-CW

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/12/02/most-petulant-46-minutes-american-history/

pertinent quote:

It was a cri de coeur that, given the season, begs comparisons to the Festivus airing of grievances from George Costanza’s father on “Seinfeld” — another older Queens man unable to gracefully accept the nature of the world around him.

Introducing that comparison, though, risks diminishing the danger of Trump’s commentary.

Mea culpa.

-CW

Sure, he's venting. But more more importantly it keeps the money coming -- what, a $170M and counting? And it preserves and maximizes his present and future influence. He'll claim "he was robbed" for the next four years (or whenever SDNY takes him away, whichever comes first!)

So I, too, fast forwarded it to the end and I remember thinking that of the half hour I'd skipped I didn't miss a damn thing. I noticed the absence of the the customary plethora of ad libs and didn't make the connection between the lack of said ad libs and the oddity of two camara angles. I guessed that maybe they were trying to dial up their production values a notch. You know, practicing up for TRUMP TV -- it's not like alternative employment opportunities will exist for a lot of Trump's enablers. Some of them will never eat lunch in this town again. Heh.

Snowflake-in-Chief. I like that! And if you agree that "immitation is the best form of flattery" I'd like to use it, Boss.

I'll agree. As actors go Trump doesn't have much of an emotional palette but IMO this was his best reading off a teleprompter speech yet. Even better than what I recall of his Inauguration and SOTU efforts. None of that "hostage video" sentiment (as those Glad-they-didn't-join-Operation-Iraqi-Freedom-Surrender-Monkey-Frenchies would say.)

I see William Barr going the distance. Don't y'all think our intrepid AG knows where a lot of the bodies are buried? And Rudy as AG would be pointless -- there's just not enough time for him to be more useful to Trump than exactly what he's doing right now. Without Rudy to attract TV attention to "the Cause" these other clowns, er, attorneys would fall off the radar screen.

It will go down in history as the most shameful speech our man-baby of a president ever gave. And with him, that's saying an awful lot.

It was the biggest presidential tantrum in all history -- topping all the other ones Trump has previously thrown.

I dunno. Amidst the oceans and more oceans of Trumpian awfulness there's just got to be something worst. But I
fear I'm too exhausted to care to look for worse.

I tried. I really did. I just couldn't...

-CW

I used to be more curious than I am now, about questions like who advised him that the first video take was somehow unacceptable in places? Who does he listen to, when he's masochistically enjoying performing the ultimate childish tantrum and meltdown for his swan song?

This too will pass. Having smeared his warm crap all over the office's historic walls for four years, he is leaving the presidency next month. Thank God we can be sure of at least that much.