Trump's pardons have been interesting. He dished them out readily for Dinesh and Arpaio and I think some other D-list scumbags, but Manafort is rotting away in prison. I think he understands that pardoning people of interest in the Manafort investigation will possibly trigger impeachment proceedings. That said, if one of his kids gets convicted I expect some snap-pardons.

They're pretty much already down to the "I HAD TO OTHERWISE HILLARY WOULD BE PRESIDENT RIGHT NOW" stage.

But I guess they'll try the old democrats do it too effort first.

i expect him to pardon the kids way before it even gets to a trial. just a full lifetime pardon for all crimes

Buzzfeed might win a Pulitzer for this and I don't know how I feel about that.

I've about had it with the biggest scumbag on the planet, ***** McConnell, controlling what becomes law for the entire nation. It is high time someone in the senate, anyone, just walked across the room and knocked him the **** out.

Rudy Giuliani Backs Off Remarks on Potential Collusion by Trump Aides

“There was no collusion by President Trump in any way, shape or form,” Mr. Giuliani said in a statement on Thursday, reiterating the president’s longstanding defense against accusations that his campaign secretly coordinated with Moscow to help swing the election. “Likewise, I have no knowledge of any collusion by any of the thousands of people who worked on the campaign.”

He added, referring to discredited conspiracy theories that the president and his allies have long cited, “The only knowledge I have in this regard is the collusion of the Clinton campaign with Russia, which has so far been ignored.”

Mr. Giuliani was seeking to clarify an interview on Wednesday night in which he stopped short of defending Trump campaign aides, drawing speculation that he might have inside knowledge of possible coordination with Russia.

“I never said there was no collusion between the campaign or between people in the campaign,” he told CNN. He added: “I said the president of the United States. There is not a single bit of evidence the president of the United States committed the only crime you could commit here, conspired with the Russians to hack” the Democratic National Committee.

...

Mr. Giuliani has previously denied that there was coordination by Trump campaign aides.

“When I say the Trump campaign, I mean the upper levels of the Trump campaign,” Mr. Giuliani said during a July interview with Fox News. “I have no reason to believe anybody else did. The only ones I checked with obviously are the top four or five people.”

Mr. Giuliani also went a bit further on the collusion defense, telling Fox, “Even if he did it, it’s not a crime.”

...

Mr. Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, was prepared to tell prosecutors that Mr. Trump knew about a June 2016 meeting in Trump Tower that was arranged so campaign officials could get damaging information on Mrs. Clinton from Russians.

The president and his lawyers have denied that Mr. Trump had any knowledge of the meeting until July 2017, when The New York Times was preparing to publish an article about it.

At the time, when the White House was scrambling to prepare a statement about the Trump Tower meeting in response to The Times’s article, Mr. Trump met with President Vladimir V. Putin for more than two hours in Hamburg, Germany, where they were attending an economic summit meeting. Later that day, Mr. Trump sought out the Russian leader during a summit meeting dinner. Only interpreters, the secretary of state at the time, Rex W. Tillerson, and Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, were in the first meeting with Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin. Afterward, Mr. Trump took his interpreter’s notes and told the interpreter not to tell anyone what was discussed. No American officials were present for the second encounter during the dinner.

The following day, while Mr. Trump traveled back to Washington on Air Force One, he called a Times reporter to say that the Russians had been falsely accused by American intelligence agencies of hacking during the campaign. The president also huddled with his aides to draft a statement in response to the article about the Trump Tower meeting and personally dictated a misleading account that the meeting was about Russian adoptions. He did not admit that the meeting was arranged to address Russia’s offer to help his campaign, which emails later obtained by The Times confirmed.

Not clear at all which investigative journalism team is better, NYT or Buzzfeed. (WaPo has both covered).

I'm just sitting here imagining the alternate universe where things still matter. I'm sitting there sipping champagne watching Trump resign.

BuzzFeed just reported that, not surprisingly, the House Intelligence Committee plan to launch an investigation into their allegation that Trump suborned perjury.

Was talking to a buddy of mine today. He thinks Pelosi will never budge and the reason is because she thinks she will be the next POTUS. His reasoning is that if Trump goes down for Russia/Mueller, so does Pence. Pence is the one that recommended Manafort. Either both are screwed or neither are. He thinks the Dems' long game plan is to sink both Trump/Pence and make Pelosi the POTUS. He and his wife are both government employees not being paid w/ the shutdown. So it's not hot talk. It's affecting them personally. They are really worried b/c they suspect the GOP knows that's the Pelosi/Schumer plan. Which is why the shutdown continues...

Lot of people itt are friends with Robert Reich it seems.

(Actually I’m pretty sure my brother is friends with his son, maybe I should get some hot takes and post them myself).

because they are gov't employees its not a super, muy calente, duper take?

On the other hand, I need to figure out how to place a bet that DJT is no longer president on 1/1/2020. **** is starting to pile up. Gotti was the Teflon Don until he died in prison.

Matt Jones 2020

I think he alone can beat Mitch

For the love of god, Mitch alone makes me ashamed of being from Kentucky

I believe one, if not both, of the writers of that piece have won Pulitzers.

She's not the one refusing to even bring a funding bill to a vote, McConnell is. Pelosi isn't the one who has shifted from the previously negotiated agreement for CR. She isn't asking for anything unreasonable. If your friend's theory was true, then the obvious play for the GOP is to just pass Pelosi's continuing resolution and move on to the next shutdown opportunity with some way to get the political high ground. McConnell could also bring his own more reasonable bill to the floor that doesn't include the wall funding.

Anyway, shutdown or no shutdown I think it's kind of wasteful to use Air Force resources to fly congresspersons to Afghanistan to see the troops anyway. She could probably save tens of millions of dollars by using video conference or something.

Didn't know what you were talking about--
https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/n...ply&p=54718070

Hopefully this guy isn't going to implode like Avenatti.

People on my fb network who id have been surprised if they could even name one politician other than trump are SCREECHING about the shutdown. I’d bet his actual approval is in the low 30’s.

narrator:

Pelosi and the democratic machine have no designs on the presidency for her. I suggest you encourage your friends to do anything they can do to pressure an end to the republican shutdown.

The democrats would end the shutdown with no strings tomorrow if the republicans would live up to their word.

Your friends should be seething with anger towards the republicans who are refusing to pay them for their jobs.

Pretty hard for Pelosi to become president without the support of the Republicans who control the Senate.

Pelosi won't become president, they'll be a deal worked out and Pence will be the Prez

Pence could find himself trapped on an elevator alone with a woman who's not his wife and suffer a fatal heart attack before he has a chance to get his VP confirmed

Actually I think having politicians first-hand see the war zones that they are funding and/or directing is one of the most important things we can do to help prevent wars.