I recently got a Kobo book reader, and found this available on it. I'm betting the phrase superannuated Substack tousandaire does not appear in Mr. Edroso's magnum opus
I cynically maintain there could be video of Trump shooting someone while holding a burlap sack covered in dollar signs, labeled “Russian Asset Money,” after which he turned to the camera and said “I just shot him, and Putin paid me to do it. He’s been paying me for years” and not much would happen. I’d still love to be proven wrong, but I doubt it.
Imagine the 'cha-ching' sound going off in his head when he considers the asking price for the plans to attack Iran. Those plans having been drawn up by Milley, thereby roping him in and tearing him down at the same ti...what's that? You don't say...
This just in – Irrespective of what Queens Man says, Milley was NOT the author of the Iran attack plans. Some other flunky did it. We apologize for the discomfort caused to those among you who have misplaced respect for Gen. Milley...
When I first heard this story, I thought--as did some smart expert on MSNBC--that Trump could have lied about the document. The idea that Milley himself "typed up" a 4-page doc about invading Iran is ludicrous. Remember that, at the time, Trump was peeved at Milley for slapping down Trump's idea of invading Iran.
Trump waving the paper around and saying, "I'd love to show this to you, but I can't," is echt-Trump. The funny thing will be if what he revealed in that petty charade is enough to amp up charges against him.
"I have here in my hand a list of 205 very good people on both sides right here in the swamp..." is sort of the eternal Queens Man view I have stuck in my cranium.
"pictures of himself and question marks at odd angles"
That is perfect.
I have no problem with Trump fiddle fuckin' around , dodging prosecution.
Sucking up all the media. He's made the whole rightwing in this country into the tawdry joke we always knew they were.
Sure they are crazy and well armed but mostly they're hopping around in circles shooting each other in the dick while senile Ol' Joe Biden engineers the most successful Liberal agenda in my lifetime.
Trump's annoying , but we know we can beat him. He'll die soon. Let him run his circus while we get work done.
We're all gradually decomposing . This is my afterlife – that is, after my life, my component parts (or, more accurately THEIR component parts) will live on in the decomposers that consume me...then in THEIR decomposers, then in THEIR decomposers, then in THEIR decomposers, etc. I've even got a really long term living will, to cover all the descendents (or ascendents, depending on how one views it).
I'm assured that this is ironclad coverage by my legal team at Sweet, Bye & Bye, LLC.
And how Merrick Garland seems to be the Federalist Society's favorite Democratic AG. There's no Federalist Society fan page for Loretta Lynch or Eric Holder. Just Garland.
Let's face it: Obama picked him for the Supreme Court because he was practically a Republican and could hopefully get past the confirmation process. There was no way Obama could predict McConnell's treachery.
So no, I don't have a lot of hope Merrick Garland will hold anyone of importance to account, although he certainly appears to be hell on the small fry.
Someone was comparing the deal Biden just got out of Kevin McCarthy with the deal Obama got the last time the Republicans tried this shit with Paul Ryan as speaker. The comparison wasn't to Obama's benefit.
These days I feel kinda weird and/or skittish commenting on American stuff to Americans. But, I've got Friday-Sunday off so I'm drinking like it's Friday, on a Thursday. Just got this to say: WTF America? Jesus Fucking Christ. I grow weary thinking about you.
That's all I have to say on the topic of "America."
Weird thing is, even with all the weaponized dopiness, I feel a battered-but-resilient humor/optimism (of a sort) about the nation and most of its inhabs, encitizened or otherwise. We KNEW the poorly-adapted-to-civilization would try it again, and again. The Big Liars keep at it (it's all they've got, after all) but it seems like the BS detector gene is ascendent.
My aggrievements are aimed mostly at the corporate overlords who have installed their minions and their ideas in niches of power throughout. Even the so-called liberals on Il Corte di Tuti Corti rule on a straight corporatist agenda.
And now we read that Il Corte has smacked down the union again today...
Robert Reich just wrote an article for The Guardian that lays this out nicely. "Republicans love to make up fake crises. Here are five of the biggest."
From the Daily News: “Exiting his deposition today, former president Donald Trump stopped his limousine on 5th Avenue. Witnesses say he rolled down his window and shot 48 year old window dresser Calvin Danford. Bystanders performed CPR on the victim but he was pronounced dead at the scene. One witness claims she asked a police officer to pursue Trump’s limo but he reportedly replied, ‘Forget it, Janet, it’s Chinatown.’ The witness, who denied her name is Janet, noted the shooting took place, ‘no where near Chinatown. I mean, what the hell?’ At press time Mayor Adams’ office had no comment.”
Nice try, but I can't buy "At press time Mayor Adams’ office had no comment.” Surely Adams would hold a press conference to decry the fact the New York is overrun with window dressers.
BTW, folks, nothing to do with King Toad or his lackeys, but thought you'd like to know I am officially moved to my new digs. Finally, after eight years, I feel like I'm actually "home".
On a related note, every article I read about Ken Paxton says he was indicted for securities fraud in 2015 and then says no more about that. Is this some wondrous new feature of our legal system (available only to the rich and powerful, of course) where you can get indicted and still not have gone to trial EIGHT YEARS LATER (yes, I understand the poor have a similar option where they spend the eight years in Rikers awaiting trial).
It’s horrific that a white, privileged, well-connected woman can do *one little fraud* costing untold amounts of money and jeopardizing the health of millions, and not even a puff piece in the New York Times can keep her out of prison. What is this world coming to?! [wails, rends garments]
Should add here that the first time I saw that child on stage somewhere years (decades?) ago, I knew immediately she was a grifter. I made certain to tell all my friends in the Valley to keep their wallets deep in the pocket whenever she approached.
I can remember the 'high' from Nixon's resigning—about a torturous year after people started seriously suggesting it ought to happen—lasting about a year, and I think it taught Our Sort a false lesson: it made the stupider 80% of us, including thirteen-year-old me, believe The Dragon Had Been Slain.
Now I know that the best you can ever do is _A_ Dragon Has Been Slain, and much more often the best you can do is A Dragon Has Met a Spljnter and Is Hopping Comically on One Foot Even Though They're Not Bipedal to Begin-with and That Makes No Sense But Don't It Look Pleasing?.
I've been reading The Final Days and there are many things in it that are amusing seen through my jaded 2023 eyes. Like how so many Republican Senators and Congressmen were truly shocked that Nixon had dared to lie to THEM. "How many times doe he think he can lie to us?" is a quote from Barry Goldwater. Also their shock at the tawdriness and sleaziness of the Nixon they saw in the transcripts of the tapes. That, as much as any actual criminality seems to be what made so many Republicans abandon him. THE PRESIDENT SHOULD BE BETTER THAN THIS, they thought. Also, it was assumed by everyone that an impeachment trial in the Senate would go on for months and paralyze the entire nation. We, who have been through three impeachments, know life goes on and nothing is paralyzed except perhaps the Senate itself, a body that is already close to paralysis on its best days.
I wrote a parody of The Final Days for Lampoon (which wasn't easy; Woodward and Bernstein didn't really have a writing style), and was pleased with the theory I came up with as to who Deep Throat actually was. Are you sitting down? It was Pat Nixon, who had had more than enough of life in D.C. and just wanted to get back to California.
One of my favorite quotes from the book is from one of the White House stewards who explained that when the Nixons were having dinner, food needed to be on the table immediately and then taken away instantly when they were done. He explained "Forty five minutes is a long time when you're not talking."
Our 'representative' was on record opposing the Queens Man's prospective impeachment, saying it would lockdown Congress so it could not get anything done. I wrote her a letter suggesting otherwise, and listing the dozens of things Congress accomplished in 1974 during the hearings and other investigations of The Trickster. She changed her position within a month. I take no credit (tho if the Senate had convicted I might have made a few small mentions of it...just sayin'...
I get it. It's all so blatant when you read about all the crimes in the media, and the hundreds of thousands of federal criminal justice system experts on the Internet are all SCEAMING at the feckless coward Merrick Garland to Do Something because it's all So. Obvious. The D.A. on Law & Order: Special Trason Unit would be giving her summation to the jury by now. Still, it's odd that the savvy people who would normally tap their nose and say The Fix Is In are all shocked, shocked, that a wealthy white man can somehow avoid accountability in this case. Truly, it is a Mystery on a par with the Holy Trinity or Transubstantiation.
My theory, which is mine (I think) is that America has reverted to the political mean that existed up to the Great Depression, with 2 big exceptions. One is that formerly marginalized people, your women, your people of colour, your weirdos, enjoy the taste of Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness and are loth to give it up. The other is that thanks to the Internet, the entire world is crammed into a not-giant-enough Skinner Box and we are driving each other insane. Politics was meant to channel and manage our natural hatred of each other into a competition where everyone gets a participation trophy and a chance to blow the train whistle, but it's not up to the challenge of doing that while the voters are bombarded with propaganda 24/7/365 crafted to push every button available, then invent a few more to push. Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the United States, is simply doing what Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the United States does best: make himself the center of attention, because there's no such thing as bad publicity. Yes, he's an existential threat to democracy and the Union, but so is every other Republican politician and most of the billionaires. Throw Fat Boy in Gitmo, we still have a problem.
"...and a chance to blow the train whistle" = chef's kiss. The hilarious Marina Hyde, a columnist for the Guardian, recently wrote about "fulfilling the prophecy that, in the future, every Tory will get to be Prime Minister for fifteen minutes." Follow her, she's terrific even if (i.e., when) you have no idea who she's talking about.
I've been enjoying YouTube clips of James O'Brien dismantling right-wing callers. Half the time I can't understand what they're talking about but it's a fun time nonetheless.
Nobody likes to lose, but how certain should a prosecutor need to be of success before issuing an indictment? For Trump, the answer seems to be 100%. For some poor schmuck who doesn't have a team of lawyers they might be willing to try it on merely a 90% chance of success. Also, the dozens of retired federal prosecutors who now make a living appearing on my television are always inventing defenses for Trump, "Well, he might be able to say..." And sure, he might be able to SAY that, but would a jury believe him? (Seems like the one in NYC didn't) Or we get into his "state of mind", where because we can't know EXACTLY how every neuron was firing when he did the thing, we can't possibly know if he's really guilty. One wonders how the U.S. managed to get 2 million of its own people into prison when all these considerations are taken into account (no, one doesn't.)
Fair cop, guv, but: although I am one of the 42 people on the Internet who is not a federal criminal justice system, expert, I have watched a lot of Matlock with the sound off, and the decision boils down to 2 things
1) the massive bias/incentive for prosecutors to charge only a sure thing or when pressured from above to look like they are Doing Something
2) ya feel lucky, punk?
Charge him and he walks, congratulations: now every single person in the country wants to see you dead. See, we can all agree! Just charging and attempting to try a candidate running for President (a real candidate, not Pat Paulson or Nikki Hayley) is going to be a shitstorm for the history books. No pressure. And like it or not, the justice system has a wealth of cheat codes that schlubs like us don't get to see, let alone use. A few missing jots or tittles and the thing gets thrown out, and we're back to going into witness protection. Not to mention the Proud Boys are still standing back and standing by, well, the ones not in prison at the moment. People tend to gloss over the fact that a lot of people have been found guilty. So why not Trump? Have you never watched The Untouchables? Look how many seasons it took to take down Frank Nitti.
Well, sure, we got those 2 million people in prison and every prosecutor in the country got a 98% conviction rate by muscling poor people into plea agreements. Then they encounter someone with the money to hire more than one lawyer and they melt. Whoa, we got to go to TRIAL? With a JURY? We can't know ahead of time what these 12 randomly chosen people might decide? [flop sweat, fainting spell, request another continuance.]
Yeah, but that is how the system is designed. If you have enough money and connections, what you can't get out of you can mitigate. The Law in its majesty allows rich and poor alike to retain white shoe law firms and fund endless discovery and continuance. To quote Dave Barry, I'm surprised I have to explain this. Remember what I said about bias and incentives. That's just one, and it's a big one. And as Matlock one said to Barnaby Jones, a jury is a funny thing. They can surprise you. Sometimes it's a "Hooray!" surprise, sometimes it's a "oh shit" surprise. Again, ya feel lucky punk?
I don't think we're disagreeing, are we? The system favors rich people who have lots of lawyers. One of the ways it favors rich people is that prosecutors, who have grown fat n' happy on racking up convictions of people who can't afford a defense, get scared when they encounter an actual defense. Because, yes, if you go to trial you might not get a conviction. They could prosecute Trump and he could be acquitted on all charges. It could happen. And then he gets to run around and say "Exonerated!" and boy will that suck for all of us. But none of that is an argument for people not doing the jobs we pay them to do (which they may in fact be doing, I don't know, but they sure seem to be taking their time doing it, if they are actually doing it.)
We're not disagreeing at all. Maybe about the speed at which milestones get reached, at most. I believe Trump will get charged by more than 1 prosecutor, and before the election. If I'm wrong, I agree that is a horrific abandonment of responsibility. Far, far better he be charged and walk than never charged at all. Most of the law talkers I read agree that what's happening is how the game is played if you want to win, and for now I'm going with that.
And I do appreciate that a lot of people have been found guilty, perhaps more than a thousand by the time this is over. I hope that's making an impression on these morons, but with morons you never know. He told you *we* were going down to the Capitol, then he didn't, now he's playing golf and you're in prison. Ponder on that, if you can. The General does need foot soldiers, maybe they'll be harder to come by in the future if some percentage of the morons are capable of even a little reflection.
Trumps superpower is his insane ability to get otherwise sane people to put their neck in the noose for him. The 2 bullets we dodged Jan 6 were that when his handlers refused to drive Trump to the Capitol he folded like the fat fuck he is, and after 4 years of obsequious toadying that would have had Wormtongue going "dial it back, pal" Pence refused to put his head in the metaphorical and literal noose. You can bet the seed corn that DeSantis would have been standing on a desk doing his best Jimmy Stewart impression at the Capitol, and whoever Trump picks for VP is going to have a C4 charge implanted at the base of her spine to remind her who gives the orders around here.
They need him more than he needs them. This has been true since 2015.
They were willing to make phone calls (a la Lindsey Graham) or throw out votes (Florida and Texas) but that was within "very legal, very cool" existing means.
He on the other hand was willing to kill a building full of them to retain power.
The magic of Reagan fried the Republican brain, they've been trying to replicate his formula since the Gipper left the field. And Trump was the one who did it. Rather than convert Democrats he conjured up demons who registered to vote, but a win is a win. And now they have a base made of delusional fanatics who worship Trump, not the Party brand. He owns the base, and the Party, because they have no one else who can do what he does, and they can't imagine any other way to win an election. And when Trump finally exits, they have no idea what happens next. Every hack and hustler will be convinced they are the Golden God, and it will be the mother of all food fights, and the dirtiest fighter will win.
As they say, you NEVER go asset to mouth.
Neither a sipper nor a supper be.
Stealing „ superannuated Substack thousandaire“
Careful. You're still inside the thousandaire's joint.
Others may scoff, but our subscriptions can buy a LOT of cat food.
"Others may scoff" is the operative phrase applied about me by people who know me.
Damn! I knew I should’ve gotten up earlier!
Careful, or you'll be accessorized after the fact.
I recently got a Kobo book reader, and found this available on it. I'm betting the phrase superannuated Substack tousandaire does not appear in Mr. Edroso's magnum opus
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/morgue-for-whores
some observers felt things would go pretty much as they have been going all along
my life, explained...
“Superannuated Substack thousandaire” is genius.
I cynically maintain there could be video of Trump shooting someone while holding a burlap sack covered in dollar signs, labeled “Russian Asset Money,” after which he turned to the camera and said “I just shot him, and Putin paid me to do it. He’s been paying me for years” and not much would happen. I’d still love to be proven wrong, but I doubt it.
Queens Man wants him some 'asset'
Adding here it never occurred to me to think of the term 'asset' that way until I read it in the same sentence with the word 'Trump' [spit].
https://www.baltimoresun.com/resizer/_yy0iDkuSZ5EEdIOTsaBVZq14fE=/1024x0/filters:format(jpg):quality(70)/www.trbimg.com/img-5b4fafe8/turbine/ny-bramhall-cartoons-for-july-2018-20180629-015
Yep. A rich and powerful criminal is a consequence-free criminal. It was ever thus.
Imagine the 'cha-ching' sound going off in his head when he considers the asking price for the plans to attack Iran. Those plans having been drawn up by Milley, thereby roping him in and tearing him down at the same ti...what's that? You don't say...
This just in – Irrespective of what Queens Man says, Milley was NOT the author of the Iran attack plans. Some other flunky did it. We apologize for the discomfort caused to those among you who have misplaced respect for Gen. Milley...
When I first heard this story, I thought--as did some smart expert on MSNBC--that Trump could have lied about the document. The idea that Milley himself "typed up" a 4-page doc about invading Iran is ludicrous. Remember that, at the time, Trump was peeved at Milley for slapping down Trump's idea of invading Iran.
Trump waving the paper around and saying, "I'd love to show this to you, but I can't," is echt-Trump. The funny thing will be if what he revealed in that petty charade is enough to amp up charges against him.
"I have here in my hand a list of 205 very good people on both sides right here in the swamp..." is sort of the eternal Queens Man view I have stuck in my cranium.
I know, right? I don't expect justice.
As long as we're chasing bad guys, there are still all those people that managed to kill a million or so innocent bystanders
during that oil heist some years back, living in mansions, buying up huge chunks of western states. . .
"BuT cOmMuNiSm KiLlEd MiLlIoNs!"
Funny how they never draw up lists of people killed by capitalism.
NOBODY can count THAT high.
Those were accidents of fate. People born at the wrong time, or with the wrong parents, or with the wrong skin color. Mere bagatelles
I bet mistakes were made...
Wow. That cartoonist ain't fuckin' around.
A real "execution of Nguyen Van Lem" energy in that cartoon.
"Of course he paid me to shoot a guy. So? We pay guys to shoot guys all the time, too. You think our country is some great exception? Guess again."
<Crowd of American-Exceptionalist MAGAts cheers wildly>
I wonder who that anonymous Substacker source was...
Anyway, I loved the Richie Fingers and it’s allusion to the most famous killing by Hillary. ❤️❤️❤️
Yeah. Richie Fingers is cherce.
And in his halls of ornate lumber
Merrick Garland soundly slumbers.
The crimes of Trump may multiply,
Garland cares not, they pass him by.
And we are left to gape in awe
As Trump again escapes the law.
Trump's dream of a ducked prosecution
Depends at last on an absolution
But if he don't win
He'll count on his skin
Color, that defies retribution
This inertia, slumbering Garland, give,
And I with thee will choose to live.
Take care or the urge for to slumber
Could make you lie down with the plumber
Pipe dreams you have though all the day
Your toilet continues to run away.
My pipe dreams all tend toward Kaywoodies
While with the tobacconist I play footies
But she always comes thru with the goodies
So I got nuthin to complain about
What the hell, 3 rhymes outta 4...
I don’t know why I went with Milton when a simple limerick format would do!
Thing is, you go with Milton you also get Cromwell...my doggerel flies so far under the radar I gotta long term contract with Boring Co.
Golden slumbers fill your eyes
Crimes await you when you rise
Sleep pretty Merrick, do not cry
And I will sing a lullaby
"pictures of himself and question marks at odd angles"
That is perfect.
I have no problem with Trump fiddle fuckin' around , dodging prosecution.
Sucking up all the media. He's made the whole rightwing in this country into the tawdry joke we always knew they were.
Sure they are crazy and well armed but mostly they're hopping around in circles shooting each other in the dick while senile Ol' Joe Biden engineers the most successful Liberal agenda in my lifetime.
Trump's annoying , but we know we can beat him. He'll die soon. Let him run his circus while we get work done.
To be sure.
We're all gradually decomposing . This is my afterlife – that is, after my life, my component parts (or, more accurately THEIR component parts) will live on in the decomposers that consume me...then in THEIR decomposers, then in THEIR decomposers, then in THEIR decomposers, etc. I've even got a really long term living will, to cover all the descendents (or ascendents, depending on how one views it).
I'm assured that this is ironclad coverage by my legal team at Sweet, Bye & Bye, LLC.
Decomposing, just like Beethoven!
They’re decomposing composers
There’s less of them every year
Oh, you can still chat with Beethoven
But there’s much less of him left to hear
Let us now have a laugh over Bach
Just one more dead dude to mock
For his fugues and partitas
I'll need more margaritas
Than I currently have in my stock
Oh, The Fugues. They did "Ramses II Is Dead, My Love".
Shouldn't that read "Ramses also"...?
Damn. Now I'm wondering: are you leaning toward the Fugs and Tuli Kupferberg, or the Fugees and Wyclef Jean?
And why not both?
Now I'm thinking of the Beethoven sketch from Monty Python. "So, Beethoven was actually quite glad when he went deaf."
I stole Decomposing Composers from them (I think Michael Palin sang it), so that tracks!
Huh. I heard it in Tom Lehrer-mode.
Goddamn depressing, ain't it?
I try really hard not to fall victim to conspiracy theories, but I keep thinking about this:
https://fedsoc.org/contributors/merrick-garland
And how Merrick Garland seems to be the Federalist Society's favorite Democratic AG. There's no Federalist Society fan page for Loretta Lynch or Eric Holder. Just Garland.
Let's face it: Obama picked him for the Supreme Court because he was practically a Republican and could hopefully get past the confirmation process. There was no way Obama could predict McConnell's treachery.
So no, I don't have a lot of hope Merrick Garland will hold anyone of importance to account, although he certainly appears to be hell on the small fry.
Picking old, milktoast institutionalist Garland for Supreme Court was the ultimate “too clever by half” move.
[Obama] They’ll never be able to object to Garland. Checkmate!
[Repubs] LOL
Must be that 11th-dimensional chess Obama was so good at.
You know, the kind where three weeks later, you're still not sure who won.
Someone was comparing the deal Biden just got out of Kevin McCarthy with the deal Obama got the last time the Republicans tried this shit with Paul Ryan as speaker. The comparison wasn't to Obama's benefit.
Poor Obama, thinking he was dealing with sane, reasonable individuals.
[Liberals] OK, maybe they can block Garland from the Supreme Court, but they'll LOOK BAD while doing it!
[Repubs] Oh no, we've laid ourselves open to charges of hypocrisy. LOL
[Repubs] Oh noes! This will surely be our doom! [hand to forehead; collapses on fainting couch] ROFL
Oh no! The judges will deduct 10 reasonableness points!
These days I feel kinda weird and/or skittish commenting on American stuff to Americans. But, I've got Friday-Sunday off so I'm drinking like it's Friday, on a Thursday. Just got this to say: WTF America? Jesus Fucking Christ. I grow weary thinking about you.
That's all I have to say on the topic of "America."
Yeah.
Weird thing is, even with all the weaponized dopiness, I feel a battered-but-resilient humor/optimism (of a sort) about the nation and most of its inhabs, encitizened or otherwise. We KNEW the poorly-adapted-to-civilization would try it again, and again. The Big Liars keep at it (it's all they've got, after all) but it seems like the BS detector gene is ascendent.
My aggrievements are aimed mostly at the corporate overlords who have installed their minions and their ideas in niches of power throughout. Even the so-called liberals on Il Corte di Tuti Corti rule on a straight corporatist agenda.
And now we read that Il Corte has smacked down the union again today...
Already read the book (classical Greece, sophists, Thucydides, etc.)
Germany Will Try It Again
Martin Bormann and the Fourth Reich
WAY too many more to list. The impulse is deeply embedded.
Robert Reich just wrote an article for The Guardian that lays this out nicely. "Republicans love to make up fake crises. Here are five of the biggest."
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jun/01/republicans-fake-crises-five-biggest
Already bookmarked under Big Lies>All they've got
You should check in on Britain if you want to see a real shitshow.
Now THERE's a place that knows how to make the trains run on time!
…and then they privatised National Rail. Problem of affordable train service running on time? Solved!
Yeah. Without trains, tits and Tories, English comedians would have literally nothing to joke about.
Taken to quoting ourselves, have we?
Say something once, why say it again?!
Kids these days. I remember when a hard-workin' Substacker who wanted a fake quote at least made the effort of imagining a cabdriver first.
Think good thoughts about a cabby.
From the Daily News: “Exiting his deposition today, former president Donald Trump stopped his limousine on 5th Avenue. Witnesses say he rolled down his window and shot 48 year old window dresser Calvin Danford. Bystanders performed CPR on the victim but he was pronounced dead at the scene. One witness claims she asked a police officer to pursue Trump’s limo but he reportedly replied, ‘Forget it, Janet, it’s Chinatown.’ The witness, who denied her name is Janet, noted the shooting took place, ‘no where near Chinatown. I mean, what the hell?’ At press time Mayor Adams’ office had no comment.”
"The witness, who denied her name is Janet"
2 marks!
Dammit, Janet!
Nice try, but I can't buy "At press time Mayor Adams’ office had no comment.” Surely Adams would hold a press conference to decry the fact the New York is overrun with window dressers.
There are 8 million stories in the Naked Window.
Wouldn't the cop have said "Damnit, Janet, it's Chinatown"?
Maybe, if the cop's name was Brad.
BTW, folks, nothing to do with King Toad or his lackeys, but thought you'd like to know I am officially moved to my new digs. Finally, after eight years, I feel like I'm actually "home".
Congrats.
Decorate as if your health depends on it, is my theory.
Do you have a place to donate for a housewarming gift? I ask in all seriousness.
Cripes, I dunno... I have a PayPal but I'm not sure about posting my email in this forum...
I really appreciate the thought, though.
Don’t post an email. Privacy is paramount. But if there’s another way, please let me (us) know.
Cheer up, everyone! Elizabeth Holmes finally went to her Club Fed prison! The American Justice System works! [sometimes, eventually]
On a related note, every article I read about Ken Paxton says he was indicted for securities fraud in 2015 and then says no more about that. Is this some wondrous new feature of our legal system (available only to the rich and powerful, of course) where you can get indicted and still not have gone to trial EIGHT YEARS LATER (yes, I understand the poor have a similar option where they spend the eight years in Rikers awaiting trial).
This article 8explains up to ~3 years ago
https://www.texastribune.org/2019/06/19/ken-paxton-criminal-case-timeline-texas-attorney-general-fraud/
Well, thanks for that. What a clusterfuck.
I believe the poor need to have a donor sue the state for charging too much for the special prosecutor
So I'm reading in every news outlet everywhere. With extensive commentary on her upcoming living conditions. Must be a "slow news day!"
E X T R A
E X T R A
R E A D
A L L
A B O U T
I T
[Slow newsie day...]
Crap. The stack deleted 99% of the spaces between those ^^^letters.
Woulda been a good gag, but no, y'all 'll hafta do the gagging yourselves.
White Woman Goes to Prison is only rivaled by White Woman Goes Missing in terms of news coverage.
Hell, you can get a whole book and TV series about it (Orange Is The New Black). Only difference is the size of the grift.
It’s horrific that a white, privileged, well-connected woman can do *one little fraud* costing untold amounts of money and jeopardizing the health of millions, and not even a puff piece in the New York Times can keep her out of prison. What is this world coming to?! [wails, rends garments]
Save the Garments!
Somewhat attractive white science girl goes to jail, is guaranteed clickbait
Is there any other news? I didn't notice...
Should add here that the first time I saw that child on stage somewhere years (decades?) ago, I knew immediately she was a grifter. I made certain to tell all my friends in the Valley to keep their wallets deep in the pocket whenever she approached.
Just my opinion, but it wasn't the *wallets* in the pants she was appealing to. At least initially.
No reason to pile on the BS as much as she did unless it was for the $grift$
I can remember the 'high' from Nixon's resigning—about a torturous year after people started seriously suggesting it ought to happen—lasting about a year, and I think it taught Our Sort a false lesson: it made the stupider 80% of us, including thirteen-year-old me, believe The Dragon Had Been Slain.
Now I know that the best you can ever do is _A_ Dragon Has Been Slain, and much more often the best you can do is A Dragon Has Met a Spljnter and Is Hopping Comically on One Foot Even Though They're Not Bipedal to Begin-with and That Makes No Sense But Don't It Look Pleasing?.
I've been reading The Final Days and there are many things in it that are amusing seen through my jaded 2023 eyes. Like how so many Republican Senators and Congressmen were truly shocked that Nixon had dared to lie to THEM. "How many times doe he think he can lie to us?" is a quote from Barry Goldwater. Also their shock at the tawdriness and sleaziness of the Nixon they saw in the transcripts of the tapes. That, as much as any actual criminality seems to be what made so many Republicans abandon him. THE PRESIDENT SHOULD BE BETTER THAN THIS, they thought. Also, it was assumed by everyone that an impeachment trial in the Senate would go on for months and paralyze the entire nation. We, who have been through three impeachments, know life goes on and nothing is paralyzed except perhaps the Senate itself, a body that is already close to paralysis on its best days.
I wrote a parody of The Final Days for Lampoon (which wasn't easy; Woodward and Bernstein didn't really have a writing style), and was pleased with the theory I came up with as to who Deep Throat actually was. Are you sitting down? It was Pat Nixon, who had had more than enough of life in D.C. and just wanted to get back to California.
Just mentioning, there's a load of old issues of NatLamp available on Kindle.
One of my favorite quotes from the book is from one of the White House stewards who explained that when the Nixons were having dinner, food needed to be on the table immediately and then taken away instantly when they were done. He explained "Forty five minutes is a long time when you're not talking."
But her Republican cloth coat has little use in Southern California, to say nothing of Checkers' fur
Our 'representative' was on record opposing the Queens Man's prospective impeachment, saying it would lockdown Congress so it could not get anything done. I wrote her a letter suggesting otherwise, and listing the dozens of things Congress accomplished in 1974 during the hearings and other investigations of The Trickster. She changed her position within a month. I take no credit (tho if the Senate had convicted I might have made a few small mentions of it...just sayin'...
They’re all so fking afraid of actually *doing* anything, it’s mind-boggling.
The senate is even closer to rigor mortis than paralysis.
I voted for that one back when god was a pup!
He knew The Venerable Bede when he was just The Tot Bede.
In between, in his salad-days, he was The Venereal Bead.
We were camping in the wilderness in NoCal and did not know he resigned until a week later. Talk about late to the party...
I mean, 'we'ʼd won, hadn't we? so for one thing, 'everyone' was sure that pot would be legal in a couple of years, max.
I get it. It's all so blatant when you read about all the crimes in the media, and the hundreds of thousands of federal criminal justice system experts on the Internet are all SCEAMING at the feckless coward Merrick Garland to Do Something because it's all So. Obvious. The D.A. on Law & Order: Special Trason Unit would be giving her summation to the jury by now. Still, it's odd that the savvy people who would normally tap their nose and say The Fix Is In are all shocked, shocked, that a wealthy white man can somehow avoid accountability in this case. Truly, it is a Mystery on a par with the Holy Trinity or Transubstantiation.
My theory, which is mine (I think) is that America has reverted to the political mean that existed up to the Great Depression, with 2 big exceptions. One is that formerly marginalized people, your women, your people of colour, your weirdos, enjoy the taste of Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness and are loth to give it up. The other is that thanks to the Internet, the entire world is crammed into a not-giant-enough Skinner Box and we are driving each other insane. Politics was meant to channel and manage our natural hatred of each other into a competition where everyone gets a participation trophy and a chance to blow the train whistle, but it's not up to the challenge of doing that while the voters are bombarded with propaganda 24/7/365 crafted to push every button available, then invent a few more to push. Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the United States, is simply doing what Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the United States does best: make himself the center of attention, because there's no such thing as bad publicity. Yes, he's an existential threat to democracy and the Union, but so is every other Republican politician and most of the billionaires. Throw Fat Boy in Gitmo, we still have a problem.
"...and a chance to blow the train whistle" = chef's kiss. The hilarious Marina Hyde, a columnist for the Guardian, recently wrote about "fulfilling the prophecy that, in the future, every Tory will get to be Prime Minister for fifteen minutes." Follow her, she's terrific even if (i.e., when) you have no idea who she's talking about.
I landed on the train whistle bit too, but wonder how come I never got the chance to blow it.
You blew it by not getting your turn to blow it
Yeah, that blows...
Thanks, I will. I'm fascinated by Brexit, the train wreck that refuses to grind to a halt. I follow a few people on it, and will add her to the list.
I've been enjoying YouTube clips of James O'Brien dismantling right-wing callers. Half the time I can't understand what they're talking about but it's a fun time nonetheless.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSWF8oiWIG4
q.v. "Well, we executed those German Nazis, so much for fascism!"
Nobody likes to lose, but how certain should a prosecutor need to be of success before issuing an indictment? For Trump, the answer seems to be 100%. For some poor schmuck who doesn't have a team of lawyers they might be willing to try it on merely a 90% chance of success. Also, the dozens of retired federal prosecutors who now make a living appearing on my television are always inventing defenses for Trump, "Well, he might be able to say..." And sure, he might be able to SAY that, but would a jury believe him? (Seems like the one in NYC didn't) Or we get into his "state of mind", where because we can't know EXACTLY how every neuron was firing when he did the thing, we can't possibly know if he's really guilty. One wonders how the U.S. managed to get 2 million of its own people into prison when all these considerations are taken into account (no, one doesn't.)
Fair cop, guv, but: although I am one of the 42 people on the Internet who is not a federal criminal justice system, expert, I have watched a lot of Matlock with the sound off, and the decision boils down to 2 things
1) the massive bias/incentive for prosecutors to charge only a sure thing or when pressured from above to look like they are Doing Something
2) ya feel lucky, punk?
Charge him and he walks, congratulations: now every single person in the country wants to see you dead. See, we can all agree! Just charging and attempting to try a candidate running for President (a real candidate, not Pat Paulson or Nikki Hayley) is going to be a shitstorm for the history books. No pressure. And like it or not, the justice system has a wealth of cheat codes that schlubs like us don't get to see, let alone use. A few missing jots or tittles and the thing gets thrown out, and we're back to going into witness protection. Not to mention the Proud Boys are still standing back and standing by, well, the ones not in prison at the moment. People tend to gloss over the fact that a lot of people have been found guilty. So why not Trump? Have you never watched The Untouchables? Look how many seasons it took to take down Frank Nitti.
Well, sure, we got those 2 million people in prison and every prosecutor in the country got a 98% conviction rate by muscling poor people into plea agreements. Then they encounter someone with the money to hire more than one lawyer and they melt. Whoa, we got to go to TRIAL? With a JURY? We can't know ahead of time what these 12 randomly chosen people might decide? [flop sweat, fainting spell, request another continuance.]
Yeah, but that is how the system is designed. If you have enough money and connections, what you can't get out of you can mitigate. The Law in its majesty allows rich and poor alike to retain white shoe law firms and fund endless discovery and continuance. To quote Dave Barry, I'm surprised I have to explain this. Remember what I said about bias and incentives. That's just one, and it's a big one. And as Matlock one said to Barnaby Jones, a jury is a funny thing. They can surprise you. Sometimes it's a "Hooray!" surprise, sometimes it's a "oh shit" surprise. Again, ya feel lucky punk?
I don't think we're disagreeing, are we? The system favors rich people who have lots of lawyers. One of the ways it favors rich people is that prosecutors, who have grown fat n' happy on racking up convictions of people who can't afford a defense, get scared when they encounter an actual defense. Because, yes, if you go to trial you might not get a conviction. They could prosecute Trump and he could be acquitted on all charges. It could happen. And then he gets to run around and say "Exonerated!" and boy will that suck for all of us. But none of that is an argument for people not doing the jobs we pay them to do (which they may in fact be doing, I don't know, but they sure seem to be taking their time doing it, if they are actually doing it.)
We're not disagreeing at all. Maybe about the speed at which milestones get reached, at most. I believe Trump will get charged by more than 1 prosecutor, and before the election. If I'm wrong, I agree that is a horrific abandonment of responsibility. Far, far better he be charged and walk than never charged at all. Most of the law talkers I read agree that what's happening is how the game is played if you want to win, and for now I'm going with that.
And I do appreciate that a lot of people have been found guilty, perhaps more than a thousand by the time this is over. I hope that's making an impression on these morons, but with morons you never know. He told you *we* were going down to the Capitol, then he didn't, now he's playing golf and you're in prison. Ponder on that, if you can. The General does need foot soldiers, maybe they'll be harder to come by in the future if some percentage of the morons are capable of even a little reflection.
Trumps superpower is his insane ability to get otherwise sane people to put their neck in the noose for him. The 2 bullets we dodged Jan 6 were that when his handlers refused to drive Trump to the Capitol he folded like the fat fuck he is, and after 4 years of obsequious toadying that would have had Wormtongue going "dial it back, pal" Pence refused to put his head in the metaphorical and literal noose. You can bet the seed corn that DeSantis would have been standing on a desk doing his best Jimmy Stewart impression at the Capitol, and whoever Trump picks for VP is going to have a C4 charge implanted at the base of her spine to remind her who gives the orders around here.
They need him more than he needs them. This has been true since 2015.
They were willing to make phone calls (a la Lindsey Graham) or throw out votes (Florida and Texas) but that was within "very legal, very cool" existing means.
He on the other hand was willing to kill a building full of them to retain power.
The magic of Reagan fried the Republican brain, they've been trying to replicate his formula since the Gipper left the field. And Trump was the one who did it. Rather than convert Democrats he conjured up demons who registered to vote, but a win is a win. And now they have a base made of delusional fanatics who worship Trump, not the Party brand. He owns the base, and the Party, because they have no one else who can do what he does, and they can't imagine any other way to win an election. And when Trump finally exits, they have no idea what happens next. Every hack and hustler will be convinced they are the Golden God, and it will be the mother of all food fights, and the dirtiest fighter will win.
600+ convicted plus almost 500 pled guilty last I heard.
Garland doesn't give a feck, is what you're saying...?
He has no fecks left to give.
Feck-Free in 2023!
Merrick "Feckless" Garland.
I'm just here for the comments. I knew they'd be good. Lol