US Politics: Manchin Shin Drinks the Blood and Cracks the Bone

[Larry of the Lawn]

6 minutes ago, maarsen said:

Which may encourage her to spill the beans on the aforementioned others in a bid to reduce her sentence. Up till now I got the impression she was of the belief that her social position would protect her and she would get off. She came across as having a huge sense of entitlement. 

Unless someone hangs herself for her 

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

14 minutes ago, maarsen said:

Which may encourage her to spill the beans on the aforementioned others in a bid to reduce her sentence. Up till now I got the impression she was of the belief that her social position would protect her and she would get off. She came across as having a huge sense of entitlement. 

When has she spoken to the press to give such an impression?

[SeanF]

1 hour ago, maarsen said:

Which may encourage her to spill the beans on the aforementioned others in a bid to reduce her sentence. Up till now I got the impression she was of the belief that her social position would protect her and she would get off. She came across as having a huge sense of entitlement. 

Spilling the beans might result in her falling out of a window or breaking her neck like Epstein.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

1 hour ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

When has she spoken to the press to give such an impression?

How she's downplayed everything, been dismissive, feeling like there's no need to take the stand, etc. Nothing about her public persona has given off anything other than "I'm rich and you can't touch me."

[Larry of the Lawn]

6 minutes ago, Jaxom 1974 said:

If the threat of authoruatism wasn't so prevalent the current administration might be less inclined to worry about the polling...which is and of itself also a condemnation of where this country is at...

This is from the covid thread but didn't want to bog it down with US centric stuff.  

At some point the buck stops with leadership and you can't just use the excuse of "well there's a threat of authoritarianism" as an excuse to not govern.  

They don't give a fuck whether the GOP would be authoritarian or completely libertarian.  That's not what's making them give weight to polling over policy.

It's a convenient excuse, that they use as a crutch for everything.  "Well, it's better than fascism!  Quit complaining.". In the meantime, they're doing half the shit they were flipping out about last year. 

[Zorral]

Jail has taught her some things, no doubt, in these months of incarceration.

Coz, it's the first time they've ever thought what prison is like because it can't happen to them.  See: 3 Jan 6th arrestees's experience:

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/12/january-6-insurrection-us-capitol-riots.html

[maarsen]

3 hours ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

When has she spoken to the press to give such an impression?

Her family members were regularly quoted as saying how she did not deserve to be in prison and how humiliating it was.

[mcbigski]

4 hours ago, DireWolfSpirit said:

Time to look at the other clients participation in these rape-y getaways.

Yes I'm talking about you former Prez(2) and royals.

That is surely not going to happen.  Maxwell goes away, justice is served, and on to the next distraction. Accountability is for the little people.

[maarsen]

11 minutes ago, mcbigski said:

That is surely not going to happen.  Maxwell goes away, justice is served, and on to the next distraction. Accountability is for the little people.

The little people who want accountability won't be satisfied with just Maxwell. 

I still think Maxwell feels entitled and has no more loyalty to her customers than Trump would. She will sell out to her advantage. 

[mcbigski]

What say do the little people have?  The prosecutor was careful to not implicate anyone beyond Maxwell.  

Kind of like how there's no charges against Cuomo this week, or going back a ways, sure the law was broken but "no reasonable prosecutor" is going to press charges.  Like father like daughter.  They know their part, and the peasants just need to learn to shut the fuck up.

[Fury Resurrected]

5 hours ago, mcbigski said:

What say do the little people have?  The prosecutor was careful to not implicate anyone beyond Maxwell.  

Kind of like how there's no charges against Cuomo this week, or going back a ways, sure the law was broken but "no reasonable prosecutor" is going to press charges.  Like father like daughter.  They know their part, and the peasants just need to learn to shut the fuck up.

Sorry Maarsen, even me and mcBigski agree on this. Nobody else is going down for this in criminal court. There may be successful civil lawsuits but nobody else is getting in trouble here, to our deep chagrin.

[Varysblackfyre321]

6 hours ago, maarsen said:

still think Maxwell feels entitled and has no more loyalty to her customers than Trump would

Trump still likes her so maybe she’s hoping for a pardon lol if he gets re-elected.

 

[Larry of the Lawn]

Someone finally prosecuted for a child sex trafficking ring involving the most powerful men on the planet and the only one going to jail is a woman.  

[mormont]

10 hours ago, maarsen said:

She came across as having a huge sense of entitlement. 

Robert Maxwell's daughter has a huge sense of entitlement? Colour me shocked.

[Heartofice]

32 minutes ago, Lermo T.I. Krrrammpus said:

Someone finally prosecuted for a child sex trafficking ring involving the most powerful men on the planet and the only one going to jail is a woman.  

To be fair they could have sent a man to jail but he ..er. “killed himself”

[SeanF]

4 hours ago, mormont said:

Robert Maxwell's daughter has a huge sense of entitlement? Colour me shocked.

What’s bizarre (from her POV) is why she didn’t hole up in France.  She has French nationality, and it’s very hard to be extradited from France to the US.  She must have thought she was untouchable.

[Rippounet]

2 hours ago, SeanF said:

What’s bizarre (from her POV) is why she didn’t hole up in France.  She has French nationality, and it’s very hard to be extradited from France to the US.  She must have thought she was untouchable.

A French citizen can be held accountable for breaking French law in another country (even if what they did was legal in that other country). This principle is a couple of decades old (I think), and was implemented precisely to arrest and prosecute pedocriminals.
In other words, Maxwell did not need to be extradited to end up in prison for the rest of her days, she only had the choice of prison. Perhaps prisons are more comfortable in the US? French prisons are shit.
Also, FYI, Epstein and Maxwell's main accomplice in France (Brunel) was arrested and jailed. The charge of rape of minors alone means 15 years. Multiple counts + human trafficking + harassment should mean he will also end his life in prison.

As for the "clients" ... Well, I shomehow assume Epstein and Maxwell always knew that spilling the beans on them would not be an option ; I'm sure truly powerful people have threats terrible enough to silence anybody.

[maarsen]

30 minutes ago, Rippounet said:

A French citizen can be held accountable for breaking French law in another country (even if what they did was legal in that other country). This principle is a couple of decades old (I think), and was implemented precisely to arrest and prosecute pedocriminals.
In other words, Maxwell did not need to be extradited to end up in prison for the rest of her days, she only had the choice of prison. Perhaps prisons are more comfortable in the US? French prisons are shit.
Also, FYI, Epstein and Maxwell's main accomplice in France (Brunel) was arrested and jailed. The charge of rape of minors alone means 15 years. Multiple counts + human trafficking + harassment should mean he will also end his life in prison.

As for the "clients" ... Well, I shomehow assume Epstein and Maxwell always knew that spilling the beans on them would not be an option ; I'm sure truly powerful people have threats terrible enough to silence anybody.

I am sure somewhere are the videos of those same powerful men boinking underage girls. Does Maxwell have access to those? 

[DireWolfSpirit]

More on Jan. 6th observations from this National Security analyst.

Calling Trump a terror movement leader is 'too kind' says analyst

https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2021/12/30/january-6-donald-trump-terror-movement-kayyem-newday-vpx.cnn

She says Trump does meet the definition of being a terrorist and leader of a terrorist movement.

However. describing Trump as a terrorist is an understatement when you weigh the totality of his crimes. Crimes which also should include the election tampering, bribe attempts, tax and financial fraud, the list is long and thorough.

So yes Trump is a terrorist, and grossly, disgustingly, so much more.

[DMC]

Lotsa redistricting news coming out recently.  Michigan's independent commission just approved their new maps, and it generally improves Dems' prospects:

Quote

And NYT’s Nick Corasaniti notes that the approved redrawn map of the state allows for more competition, in a state where Republicans have had safe majorities for years. The map “creates districts so competitive that Democrats have a fighting chance of recapturing the State Senate for the first time since 1984. … and the congressional map includes three tossup seats where the 2020 presidential margin was less than five points, and two more seats that could be competitive in a wave year, with presidential margins of less than 10 points.”

This aligns with 538's analysis, which has the GOP losing 2 seats and 1 additional seat becoming highly competitive (Michigan lost a seat).  

Indeed, with 25 states now having approved maps, 538 estimates the Dems have picked up 6 seats, the GOP has lost 1 seat, and 4 highly competitive seats have been lost compared to the old maps.  Now, that's not counting Florida and Georgia yet, but even there, the most recent Florida House proposal has the GOP gaining 1 seat (the seat the state gained) and the most recent GOP proposal in Georgia has the GOP gaining a seat with one highly competitive seat lost.  Other than that, it's basically impossible for the GOP to gain any more seats in the remaining outstanding states.  (It also should be noted that court challenges could erase some of the GOP advantages, particularly in North Carolina and Ohio.)

Now, two caveats - first, as stressed before, the tradeoff here is the GOP is solidifying their existing seats, giving them a much higher floor in the case of a really bad cycle.  Second, the fact the new maps are going to, by and large, maintain the status quo is a net win for the GOP since the status quo already advantages them.  But it should be emphasized that this status quo yielded the Dems 51% of the seats when garnering 50.8% of the votes compared to the GOP winning 49% of the seats when garnering 47.7% of the votes in the 2020 elections.  In a different context that difference could be chalked up to statistical noise.

All of this is to say, again, that gerrymandering as an institutional problem pales in comparison to others such as Senate malapportionment, the electoral college, and, well, the federal judiciary in general.