US Politics: The Roll Call Heard Across America

[Jace, Extat]

 

1 hour ago, Fragile Bird said:

Hahahahaha hahahahaha!

Steve Bannon and others have been arrested and charged with fraud for skimming off millions from a charitable group raising funds to build the wall.

Just saw it on CNBC, will post a story when I can find one with more details.

 

55 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

 

There is a god after all.

 

13 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

 

But someone on tv had to ask this question: will Trump pardon Bannon and friends now?

This seems so obvious that I'm surprised you people even bothered celebrating. Yay! The moldy remains of our justice system is still acting like its 1999! Yaaaaaay! Justice and blow jobs for all are right around the corner, just as soon as that Muller report gets... oh

3 minutes ago, Mexal said:

I didn't think you could pardon someone who was just indicted?

President can pardon preemptively. That's what Ford did.

[Mexal]

3 minutes ago, DMC said:

You can.  While Nixon was technically an indicted unnamed co-conspirator, Ford pardoned him before there were any actual criminal proceedings initiated.  The only thing the president can't do is pardon somebody for future crimes.  AND, he can't pardon state crimes.  Which it appears this is, right?  (Still waking up.)

No, this is federal. Indictment was brought by SDNY.

[DMC]

3 minutes ago, Mexal said:

No, this is federal. Indictment was brought by SDNY.

Rats.

[Fragile Bird]

15 minutes ago, Maithanet said:

Do you mean, will he pardon Bannon now, or will he do it later?  My guess is after the election, since it's not like Bannon will be convicted in the next 10 weeks anyway.  But Trump doesn't always do the smart thing, so he could pardon him tonight, while Biden is speaking.  Who knows?

I was being a bit coy there, but really, think about it, would he pardon now to signal to his base this was fake bullshit from a DA office full of Democrats that Barr had tried to clean up?

Or would that piss off more of his base, namely the ones who donated or even thought about donating?

This is the same bunch who built a section and then was ordered to tear it down because they did it without permits and permissions, right? Or am I inventing that?

[DMC]

19 minutes ago, Jace, Basilissa said:

This seems so obvious that I'm surprised you people even bothered celebrating.

I'm not sure it's as obvious as you think.  Bannon and Trump obviously had a falling out years ago when he left the WH, and have occasionally sniped at each other ever since.  Bannon hasn't been good boy like Stone.  Plus there is the point that Bird just brought up - the people Bannon ripped off are Trump donors.

[DMC]

Heh...

It would be truly delicious of all of those men were indicted as well.

[DanteGabriel]

13 minutes ago, DMC said:

Heh...

It would be truly delicious of all of those men were indicted as well.

LOCK THEM UP

LOCK THEM UP

LOCK THEM UP

That bloviating, Nazi-jock-sniffing deadbeat Schilling still owes me (and a few hundred other people) three weeks of back pay.

[Jace, Extat]

29 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

I was being a bit coy there, but really, think about it, would he pardon now to signal to his base this was fake bullshit from a DA office full of Democrats that Barr had tried to clean up?

Or would that piss off more of his base, namely the ones who donated or even thought about donating?

This is the same bunch who built a section and then was ordered to tear it down because they did it without permits and permissions, right? Or am I inventing that?

To the last point, they built it poorly and it fell into the Rio Grande. They were then granted a government contract worth billions. For the preceding points see below.

15 minutes ago, DMC said:

I'm not sure it's as obvious as you think.  Bannon and Trump obviously had a falling out years ago when he left the WH, and have occasionally sniped at each other ever since.  Bannon hasn't been good boy like Stone.  Plus there is the point that Bird just brought up - the people Bannon ripped off are Trump donors.

It's all lies, the woman is an Obama appointee who was put in the position by Hillary Clinton and her shadow government operating from the surface of the sun. Also Michelle Obama is black or something. 

C'mon guys. 

(Also, regarding a Bannon fallout, he'll get saved along with the rest. As long as he doesn't spill his guts like that pathetic bag bunny who called himself Ray Donnovan. The whole point of these amateurish mob tactics is to keep everyone on the same illicit page.)

[Centrist Simon Steele]

6 hours ago, GrimTuesday said:

No, not as far as I've noticed, and it is starting to worry me. We are already seeing ads being run attacking the public option. I'm honestly worried we're in for a Charlie Brown football situation, which is better than being in a rise of fascism situation should Trump win, but still a situation that we were assured totally wasn't going to happen and that healthcare was totally high up on the agenda.

I will say I don't understand why they aren't centering it. Biden already has such a powerful story that glides so easily into supporting even just a public option if not full universal healthcare. If Beau Biden had been forced to resign as Delaware's AG, the Bidens were prepared to sell their house to pay for his treatment, and to think that someone can go through that and still not just want to see the whole system burn is beyond me. They keep bringing up Beau, and it baffles me that if you are going to use your dead son to get elected, it seems the perfect way to sell sweeping healthcare reform to the American people.

I hate to be cynical, but Biden's message until up to a few months ago was always that he wasn't interested in the public option and definitely not single payer. He's always talked about tweaking Obamacare. I mean, given the scope of the pandemic, you'd think he might wait until he was elected as President to drop progressive goals.

[Fez]

10 minutes ago, DanteGabriel said:

That bloviating, Nazi-jock-sniffing deadbeat Schilling still owes me (and a few hundred other people) three weeks of back pay.

You worked for 38 Studios?

[DanteGabriel]

Just now, Fez said:

You worked for 38 Studios?

Yep. It was the best job I ever had, until it all fell apart and we learned Curt and his uncle the CEO had been lying to us about a bunch of shit (like they'd stopped paying our health care premiums months ago and our coverage was going to expire two weeks after our paycheck bounced). I emailed them at the start of the mess because I was literally a week from closing on a house and I wanted to know how likely we were to resolve it. Tough Guy Curt, who liked to call us his family, couldn't be assed to respond. Of all our senior leadership, only the studio general manager (a Canadian) had the guts to be honest with me.

But until then, it was a dream project with some of the best talent in the industry.

[Fez]

2 minutes ago, DanteGabriel said:

Yep. It was the best job I ever had, until it all fell apart and we learned Curt and his uncle the CEO had been lying to us about a bunch of shit (like they'd stopped paying our health care premiums months ago and our coverage was going to expire two weeks after our paycheck bounced). I emailed them at the start of the mess because I was literally a week from closing on a house and I wanted to know how likely we were to resolve it. Tough Guy Curt, who liked to call us his family, couldn't be assed to respond. Of all our senior leadership, only the studio general manager (a Canadian) had the guts to be honest with me.

But until then, it was a dream project with some of the best talent in the industry.

That's rough. I've heard Rich Gallup talk about 38 Studios before, and it sounds like most people really liked the job until it fell apart. The really crazy thing to me is that I played Kingdoms of Amalur; it's a totally solid game! And my understanding is that it sold pretty well too. No reason it couldn't have been the start of a successful mid-level studio; except for the fact that the place was crazy mis-managed and Curt wasted a shit load of money.

[DMC]

22 minutes ago, Jace, Basilissa said:

It's all lies, the woman is an Obama appointee who was put in the position by Hillary Clinton and her shadow government operating from the surface of the sun.

Obviously this will be his tack, but that doesn't mean pardoning Bannon is a given in the slightest.  The chattering class keeps saying, oh Trump's gonna just pardon them...but we're still waiting for the other shoe to drop on this conventional wisdom.  Out of all the Trump associates that have been indicted, convicted, or imprisoned, the only one he's actually commuted is Stone.  Sure, they found another way to get Flynn off the hook, but that just further supports the point that Trump isn't nearly as loose with pardons as many seem to assume.  If he loses, will he pardon almost of all of them during the lame duck period?  Almost certainly.  But is that really different than Bush's Iran-Contra pardons?

As for the Bannon fallout - his testimony got Stone convicted.  He's a rat!  What do two-bit mobsters do to rats?

[DanteGabriel]

5 minutes ago, Fez said:

That's rough. I've heard Rich Gallup talk about 38 Studios before, and it sounds like most people really liked the job until it fell apart. The really crazy thing to me is that I played Kingdoms of Amalur; it's a totally solid game! And my understanding is that it sold pretty well too. No reason it couldn't have been the start of a successful mid-level studio; except for the fact that the place was crazy mis-managed and Curt wasted a shit load of money.

Oh, you know Rich, small world. I last saw him about two years ago when I hosted a gathering for a friend/former colleague visiting from LA. A lot of us still keep in touch. It really was a great studio, but we spent like we were Blizzard when we were still a startup.

I don't know if our MMO project would have made money (at the end it felt like we were building the most expensive and powerful battleship ever, in 1943) but it would have been pretty enough to make people cry.

ETA: You best believe 38 alumni are chewing over this Bannon news with much relish, since Bob Salvatore's posted this same tweet on his personal FB page. Curt owes him A LOT of money.

[Martell Spy]

We'd be better off with Bannon in prison, but it would also be fitting for him to walk free. This is what the break down of rule of law looks like. A man robs people and walks free. These same victims voted for this.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

1 hour ago, Jace, Basilissa said:

 

 

 

This seems so obvious that I'm surprised you people even bothered celebrating. Yay! The moldy remains of our justice system is still acting like its 1999! Yaaaaaay! Justice and blow jobs for all are right around the corner, just as soon as that Muller report gets... oh

President can pardon preemptively. That's what Ford did.

Is Bannon charged with Federal Crimes, or State crimes?  Trump lacks the power to pardon State crimes.

ETA:

I see that the crime is Federal, not State.  Wouldn't the allegations fall under State crimes in the event Trump does pardon?

 

[TrackerNeil]

Before 2016, no one ever expected we would be asking so many questions about the presidential pardon.

• Can the president pardon a crime for which their is no indictment?
• Can he pardon future crimes?
• Can he pardon himself?

Next we'll be asking if the president can pardon crimes for people not yet born.

[Fragile Bird]

Bannon was arrested on a 150 foot yacht. I wonder who owns the yacht?

I just saw Trump doing his usual ‘I don’t know these people’ thing on tv. He said he thought the private fund to help build the wall wasn’t right and he didn’t support it.

But then CNBC quoted an interview with Kris Kobach, saying he met with Trump and Trump gave the project his blessing. And Don Jr. was involved in fund raising events.

[DanteGabriel]

2 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

Bannon was arrested on a 150 foot yacht. I wonder who owns the yacht?

I just saw Trump doing his usual ‘I don’t know these people’ thing on tv. He said he thought the private fund to help build the wall wasn’t right and he didn’t support it.

But then CNBC quoted an interview with Kris Kobach, saying he met with Trump and Trump gave the project his blessing. And Don Jr. was involved in fund raising events.

Don't forget Don Jr's testimonial! "Private enterprise at its finest."

 

[DMC]

The USC Dornsife tracking poll just released its first batch of data.  They got Biden up 11 points.  Strongly recommend checking out the link, they have very interesting panel data.