The fuckhead (Ellis) also demanded that Mueller’s team not refer to Oligarchs as oligarchs. They’re just “Ukrainians with a lot of money”. I’m sorry, what would you prefer to call them? Thieves? The Slime-de-la-Slime? Murdering rapist pigs? The worst people on earth? Because they are all that and more. Stupid, clueless old fool. He should be fired and disgraced.
I promise that him giving Manafort essentially a slap on the wrist will prompt some fairly significant investigative journalism into Ellis' life. People will desperately be trying to figure out what could have made the judge deviate so far from the guidelines.
Right now very woman he so much as glanced at over the course of his life is thinking about whether or not she was offended by that glance.
That might have played into the 'only' 4 year sentence as well, the fact that he has another sentence coming. That said, the "blameless life" comment from the judge was pretty stupid. That was his life.
Finland was among the first (the first?) to attempt a UBI program. It was for $685/mo or about $4/hr based on a regular work week, but they are decidng to scrap it, and adding in "get your ass a job" incentives. More importantly, their entire ruling party just said "fuck this" and quit. One month before elections. Something about a swelling retirement population, and having to negotiate a state welfare package that made everyone happy while cutting back government spending to sustainable numbers. They apologized for their failure. Add 'em to the list of failing governments. WELCOME TO THE CLUB.
A month before elections... ...this is a simple reelection ploy and not an actual failure of a government. It isn't even as bad as a vote of non confidence.
The House passed HR 1, a sweeping anti-corruption and voting rights bill, on a party line vote. Mitch McConnell has already made a glib remark about he won't bring it up for a vote "because I get to decide what we vote on." This, along with healthcare, is what the Democrats are going to hammer from now until 2020.
For those of you still playing resignation bingo, Bill Shine out as communications director - https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/08/us/politics/bill-shine-resigns.html And Gottlieb out as head of FDA - https://www.fiercebiotech.com/biotech/chutes-ladders-fda-chief-scott-gottlieb-steps-down Apparently the head of FEMA too - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...rock-long-said-to-be-planning-to-leave-agency
I can confirm the FEMA administrator is out. Inside the agency, he was well-liked and respected. The Trump administration picking the next guy up, Jeff Byard, is basically how most McDonald's managers got their job: everyone in front of them quit and leadership doesn't given enough of a shit to actually search. That said, Byard is a good dude with some solid credentials for the job. Secretary "I eat babies" Nielsen is in a large part some of the issue here, as is implementing the DRRA passed in 2017. Long's resignation is rumored to be around a few scandals the Agency has had, including the usage of government vehicles and funds for his trips home to NC, one of the senior staff hiring fuck buddies for executive leadership (which Long handled superbly, instituting a "Not On My Watch" program and being proactive against sexual harassment/assault), and...well, just about every fucking thing that happened in Puerto Rico, exacerbated by the Trump Twitter feed. As far as it goes, we have done a lot worse than Brock Long, and he will be missed. Also, in resignation bingo, https://www.washingtonpost.com/nati...rce-secretary-heather-wilson-expected-resign/ the secretary of the Air Force.
That one seems more like “This new job pays way, WAY more” rather than “I made a big mistake by teaming up with this asshole”.
In case anyone missed the the hilarity of two worlds colliding: Trump took Super Bowl party selfie with founder of spa where Patriots owner Robert Kraft was busted Like, that's the actual headline. I'm honestly not sure if this belongs in the WDT or here. What the fuck?
I'm waiting for the full story on this one. She's got pictures with a bunch of Florida Republicans including Trump, Gatez, Scott, and DeSantis; donated a bunch of money to Trump's campaign; and has apparently been claiming she can sell access to Trump at Mar a Lago. There's definitely more here, but I'll be fucked if I know what it is.
One of the more interesting things that's came out of the media coverage of this administration is the internet age's "lifestyles of the rich and famous" ability to connect famous and powerful people's social network. Like, the complex nature of how these powerful idiots all collide and careen off of one another is collapsing some long-standing myths of objectivity, professionalism and cleanliness. I think the Mueller report has the most to do with it, so I am not surprised that the Obama White House didn't have the sort of leaks that this one does. It's strange to see "the swamp" with names, faces, meetings detailed and scandal after scandal erupt when people assume what was discussed at these meetings. Not a Trumper by any means, but there's some legitimacy behind the claim that this guy is unique in his treatment by the media. The detailed nature of the meetings, conversations, names and faces of his administration is something. I can't imagine another White House where this level of detail behind meetings and attendees is disclosed publicly. Everyone I know who saw Trump's selfie with the lady that founded a massage parlor that later was the center of a prostitution investigation simply said, "Of fucking course he did". The dude ran Miss America pageants, are we really going to assume he didn't know what the dark side of "modelling work" was?
But wait! There’s more! https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/ju...-indicted-manhattan-district-attorney-n982826
No. Trump is the reason all of his shit has come to light. But it is arguable that his foreign dealings for Ukraine might have eventually gotten out at some point. The biggest mistake Trump ever made was becoming president. The other biggest mistake was all of these people jumping in to help him. Nobody gets scrutinized quite like a president. I mean, it’s not like he wore a tan suit or anything.
There goes the other shoe. I was waiting for the pardon-proof state charges. I just have a funny feeling trump is gonna go off and start pardoning people so it's nice to see a fail-safe fall into place. Also, I'd rather see manafort in a state pen than club fed.
Me too. I hope he pardons him. Thereby fuck-starting his impeachment, and sending Manafort to rikers or sing sing or something. Manafort would be smarter not to accept the federal pardon, and start twirking like he’s never done before for the Manhattan DA AND Mueller. Maybe get himself and his family in some sort of protective custody. He could even probably shave a boat load of time off his current sentence.