Grey. 1912.
Jolly
Posts
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@Jolly said in 13 million acres recused and other stories you won't hear...:
Politico reports that a regular cabal of liberal activists and commentators huddle every Friday to dictate the nation’s headlines.
Actually, they do it by Zoom.
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One big election question is whether voters will again fall for Joe Biden’s 2020 pitch: Elect me because Republicans are a “threat to democracy.” If they don’t, Democrats can blame the growing insanity of the Donald Trump prosecutions, which every day look less like fair or sober justice.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s court case—which hinges on the claim that Mr. Trump falsely labeled seven-year-old business records about a nondisclosure-agreement payment to an adult film star—was always tenuous. To elevate this somewhat nonsensical issue to a felony, Mr. Bragg had to claim further the entries were mislabeled with intent to commit or conceal a secondary crime. After months of indecision, Mr. Bragg finally settled on a gotcha, suggesting the NDA payment made by lawyer Michael Cohen was an illegal campaign contribution—even though the money came from the candidate—that Mr. Trump criminally concealed from voters, amounting to election “interference” or “fraud.”
Consider the sheer nuttiness of this argument, especially when spooled to its natural conclusions. Campaigns exist to present a candidate favorably to the public—to highlight good things, hide unpleasant things. If it is felony “election interference” for a candidate to try to keep private the details of a seamy relationship, what other candidate concealments—of a lawful and entirely personal nature—must be reported? Must the out-of-pocket settlement for that fender-bender be disclosed, since it conceals a candidate’s bad driving skills? How about plastic surgery, since it masks the true ravages of age or health? Let’s raise donation caps now, since this will cost a lot.
Better yet, let’s march the entire political class to their jail cells now and save donors and the courts the costs. Many should already be there under the Bragg “concealment” theory. The Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton campaign in 2016 paid an opposition-research firm to produce a bogus dossier that accused Mr. Trump of collusion with Russia. They fed it to the FBI and leaked it to the public prior to the 2016 election. The DNC and Mrs. Clinton’s campaign reported the expenditures to the Federal Election Commission but concealed their true nature by describing the payments as “legal” services, as Mr. Trump did with his NDA. The FEC fined them for the deception, but under Mr. Bragg’s theory it should count as criminal election interference.
The Bragg argument also fails on the facts of the Trump case. The claim is that by concealing his hush-money payment, Mr. Trump improperly influenced and interfered with the 2016 vote. Yet had the payment been made and disclosed via the campaign, the final pre-election FEC reports that year were made public on Oct. 27, 2016, and covered transactions only through Oct. 19. Mr. Cohen wired the money to Stormy Daniels’s team on Oct. 27, and the agreement wasn’t signed until the next day. Even had Mr. Trump reported all this to the FEC, the public wouldn’t have known until long after the election.
Critics will insist that Trump campaign would have been legally obligated to report Mr. Cohen’s “last minute” contribution within 48 hours. But of course that couldn’t have happened, since the $130,000 Cohen sent to the Daniels camp would have vastly exceeded individual contribution limits. If the Trump team had truly viewed this as a campaign-finance issue, Mr. Trump surely would have counted the money as his own contribution to the campaign, since there are no limits on self-financing. Top to bottom, left to right, the Bragg argument is absurd, a desperate effort to turn a baseless case into an ominous and buzzy “election interference” charge.
Such legal contortions leave nobody feeling safe. If they can be applied to a prominent politician—with stacks of money to pay lawyers, and tens of millions of supporters—they can more easily be applied to the average Joe. Who’s the threat to democracy? And given the silliness of the case—brought entirely with the aim of influencing the voting public—who is actually “interfering” with the election?
The Bragg headlines must be added to other newsy onslaughts, few of which smell much like “representative government.” This week alone, the Biden administration unilaterally invalidated 30 million contracts (non-compete agreements, which the Federal Trade Commission now deems illegal), removed 13 million Alaskan acres from use, imposed sweeping regulations on power plants, and commandeered the internet with a new “net neutrality” rule. Congress was consulted on none of this. The Supreme Court just heard arguments over whether—among other power grabs—this administration is allowed to prosecute Mr. Biden’s opponent for things he did while president. Politico reports that a regular cabal of liberal activists and commentators huddle every Friday to dictate the nation’s headlines.
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Hertz unloading 30,000 of them...
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@taiwan_girl said in Under the Tonto Rim:
Thanks for the recommendation. I dont think that I have ever read an US Western book before.
If you only going to read one Zane Grey, read the one that made him famous - Riders of the Purple Sage.
If you only read one Western, try Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry. If you want something shorter, try True Grit by Charles Portis.
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@taiwan_girl said in I can see both sides...:
IF the skirt was so short, wouldnt pulling it down leave the top exposed?
Don't think so. The young woman was exposing her pubic hair and buttocks. Pulling the skirt down past her butt would probably rest the skirt on the top of her hips.
Or so I would think.
You've worn a skirt. What say you?
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@blondie said in Snake Bite:
I kept care of a kid with a necrotic foot in the ICU in Alabama. There were 2 patients I recall the year I was there. Both sets of parents brought the snakes in for identification (1 was shot up pretty badly; the other was hacked to death).
@Jolly Was religious snake handling ever banned down South? I kind of remember this making the news in Okpella.Pretty much, I think. Doesn't mean some folks don't still do it.
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I live in the country. City people abandon dogs constantly.
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More Muslim refugees from the Middle East.
Look, if we needed more Muslims, why'd we leave people to be executed and tortured in Afghanistan?
Secondly, large numbers of Muslims, as compared to other religions, are a destabilizing force in a modern, Western nation. Why import trouble?
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Anti-venom is expensive.
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I think we're in big trouble.
I firmly believe in a free speech area on campus. Protest, scream, argue and persuade to your heart's content. At LSU, it used to be called Free Speech Alley, where as long as it didn't get physical or break any laws such as public nudity or shooting up drugs, you could say or do about what you wanted to. But your time at the university would be very short if you wanted to carry that stuff out of the alley to where it impinged upon other students and their education.
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Bust of the night?
Bo Nix.
Denver was desperate...
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Trump had an interesting statement...To paraphrase: When elected president, I will make sure civil rights of all students are observed at universities. Failure to do so will result in fines, including going after endowments.
I can see the fines, but how can you legally attack an endowment?
Under the Tonto Rim
Your Beatin' Heart
13 million acres recused and other stories you won't hear...
13 million acres recused and other stories you won't hear...
A Level Playing Field
Pssst! Hey buddy, wanna buy an EV?
Please throw him in that briar patch...
Nekkid Pitchers
Under the Tonto Rim
I can see both sides...
Snake Bite
Some people just need killin'
I can see both sides...
That's exactly what we need...
"Americans just work harder"
On a shoestring...
Snake Bite
What’s happening at Columbia?
Hey Jolly and Mik - Mock Draft Simulator
What’s happening at Columbia?