Tuco

Well, he did want to bring back enhanced interrogation. He should be first in line.

So how long before the GOP goes the Reagan route with Trump? “Oh, he was the best president ever, but he is obviously suffering from some age related deterioration. Let’s keep his movement alive, but bury him as fucking deep as we possibly can.”

I was looking forward to a Trump dictated response about the FBI taking pictures of messy files.

When considering what Trump would or wouldn't do, keep the following in mind: 1. The intelligence agencies were the enemy. They were out to get him from the start. 2. Trump is insane and stupid. It would take about ten minutes for Putin or MBS to convince him that intel contacts in the Russian or Saudi government were a threat to Trump and that he needed to provide their names to avoid being unfairly persecuted by the Deep State.

I'm not sure where Trump would draw the line for "obvious crime." I think at a minimum Trump took top secret documents from the White House, resisted returning them, lied about returning them, and hid their existence from the FBI. I don't feel like there is much question about those actions. If those crimes weren't obvious from the outset, they would have been after the FBI and his lawyers explained it to him. And yet he persisted.

It would be wonderful.

Based on Star Trek, that should catapult us back several decades. Sounds about right for the GOP.

Which is why it would make sense for her to go the informant route if she discovered Trump was still holding onto documents after she signed something that implied otherwise. This is all predicated on her being a reasonable person, which is not a safe assumption in the Trump world. It is also assuming that she later discovered, for a fact, that Trump was holding onto classified documents. That I could definitely see, because Trump is physically incapable of shutting the fuck up.

Do you think she would be disbarred over it? Do you think she would be jailed over it?

1. It seems like she has a pretty massive disclaimer there: "Based upon the information that has been provided to me, I am authorized to certify, on behalf of the Office of Donald J. Trump.." She's not saying she conducted a search. She is not even saying you reviewed the document search methodology and found it reasonable. Technically, with the tortured sentence structure, she isn't even saying that she received information regarding the search, only that she received information that she is authorized to make an affirmation that a search was done per the bullet points. I can see where it would be considered non-responsive by the government and possibly piss of a judge. But, I don't think it is something that would end her up in jail or even end her career. She signed a meaningless statement. 2. Your second point, about correcting the record, is interesting to me. If she later found out that not all the records were returned, I imagine she would have an obligation to inform the government. Making her an informant. Sure, she could inform the government through formal filings, still advocating for her client and obscuring the details. But, it's not just the affidavit, it's an on-going crime. And it's unlikely Trump would agree with the more official ways of correcting the record. Continuing to do Trump's bidding could cost her career and possibly her freedom.

Nah. Divorcees get half. Widows get most. ...plus she'll get to play the Dollar Store version of JackieO for the next few decades. She can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

It’s tough when the only thing you believe in is getting elected.

No, but anti-Trump Republicans positioning for a battle is good. There needs to be a civil war in the GOP, and the Rove/Cheney branch needs to win. It would help the Democrats win seats in the short run and help our country be less stupid in the long run.

Well, he is a fucking moron who does shit for no logical reason. He didn't take a sharpie to a weather map because he was trying to blackmail anyone. He didn't suggest ingesting bleach as part of some diabolic plan. He is absolutely fucking stupid. So, the possibility that this was some sort of idiotic power play with no identifiable endgame is absolutely possible. It's also possible he is a fucking idiot who had some half-baked scheme of how he was going to continue to convert his position for money. Shun away.

Oh, without a doubt, they are putting up shit candidates like Oz and Walker. But that's a symptom of the same disease. Those candidates are being nominated by the Republican party. Over 50% of Republican voters in Georgia looked at Walker and not only said, "that guy should be a Senator" but also said, "that guy will win the general." They are that out of touch.

I tend to lean this direction as well. The safe is what gives me pause. If he had something in the safe, that's not just a question of throwing all the shit in a box and stupidly claiming rights over it. That would require some level of filtering, recognition of value, and dedicating resources to protect it. I want to know what was in the safe.

It would be awesome to watch some long established incumbents like Rubio and Johnson fall. Mitch can talk about "candidate quality" all he wants, but when people who used to win elections can no longer win elections, that's not candidate quality. That's a party who is out of step with the American public. There are no Biden coattails here. There is no economic boom helping the majority party. For Republican incumbents to lose in this environment would be a huge warning sign for the GOP. Having it happen in swings states like Florida and Wisconsin would put it in flashing neon.

That article does two things: 1. Names the scapegoat; 2. Portrays the issue as an honest (if completely stupid) disagreement over what rights a former President has to retain documents. It is an article that paints the best possible picture of Trump from the known data points. It's possible it is true. But, it's coming from the Trump camp and presents the best case interpretation. So, big grain of salt.

They are self selecting. You can bet that Dotard is only going to work with major vendors who “put skin in the game” and overextend credit. Developers try to do that kind of shit all the time. Probably the only thing that Trump is effective at is getting a line of rubes who will line up for the opportunity.

I don't know how the average Ukrainian can walk down the street. If I had balls that big, it would really interfere with my gait.

She would actually be one of the more respectable "finance chairmen" the GOP has had for a while, and would still be even if she was convicted for prostitution. Title was previously held by Michael Cohen (felon), Elliot Broidy (previous felony reduced to misdemeanor, second felony pardoned by Trump), Steve Wynn (sexual misconduct tab in the tens of millions of dollars, forced to register for FARA for representing Chinese government). The GOP is a criminal organization.

Guys like McConnell and Cruz think Warniok won the Senate seat because he is black, rather than in spite of being black. It's a similar reason to why Palin was a vice-president candidate. They truly believe white men are persecuted and the obstacles are lower for minorities.

I keep waiting for the Saudi scandal to drop. Jared was the de facto ambassador to the kingdom for like a year. You know shady shit went down.

God bless John Fetterman, and thank God the stroke wasn’t even slightly worse.

Sure. But let’s keep I’m mind that the US was an extremely late entry in WW1. Whatever you can say about the American experience in WW1, you can say tenfold about any any other participant in WW2. Also, my point is less about why the generation was the way the way they were, and more about how they have been misconstrued since. FWIW, I was talking to an engineer today who recently left the workforce, and riffing on how I think we are running into a parallel with the “lost generation”, except coming out of COVID instead of WW1. We are in weird era that has yet to be defined.