Grassley has destroyed federal law enforcement by approving the most incompetent, corrupt leaders in DOJ/FBI. Meanwhile his hero taco has cost his Iowa farmers 32 billion with his tariffs on China.
He's well into his 93rd year so his retirement perks will be very short lived. But he's doing better than poor Mitzi McConnell who has to be guided as he shuffles around the Capitol.
The problem, and reason that they haven't, is they are now operating inside a fascist game where the strongman controls their states' federal funding and is more than willing to withhold it for months or years even if a court eventually orders he can't do that after long litigation processes.
So a state like New York could try to indict Santos for fraud on its own, but that means poking the bear in the white house. Bringing one corrupt man to justice isn't often going to be worth the damage the dictator brings down on the state who tries to go around his pardons. New York governor Hochul herself declined to simply demand Eric Adams resign (she said the voters have the right to vote him in or out this year), let alone direct the attorney general to investigate the corruption case against him.
This is the grip 45 has on the nation. Every locality has to pick and choose its battles and spend its resources wisely. Sadly, throwing one asshole back in jail isn't gonna be worth the political capital spent and the distraction, or tying up already limited AG and legal system resources.
I've long concluded that Trumpers were willingly stupid, but the concept of them believing in Trump as a master negotiator seems laughable when many people here and elsewhere have concluded that the only thing they need to do to get favors from him is to kiss his ass.
Former Senator Menendez is despicable. He’s also exhibit number one that the Biden justice department was not politically weaponized against republicans.
We're long past the point of any evidence mattering. The GOP has called all media liberal and biased for decades even as they have gone more and more out of their way to pander to ridiculous extremist right wing bullshit to appear "less biased". The GOP calls the most vanilla centrist dudes like Biden "radical leftists".
Anything short of full throated endorsement of whatever they want that particular day means you are biased against them. Biden DOJ could have convicted every sitting Democrat in Congress for something or other, and a single case against the Golden God would have still been called a weaponized witch hunt.
Which is exactly why the mainstream media and Democrats need to stop giving a shit about fairness and looking unbiased. Appeasment didn't work vs Hitler, and it doesn't work now. The mouse will always want another cookie. Stop feeding the animals.
I don't ever want to hear any GOP member of Congress ever again clutch their pearls or tsk-tsk over alleged Democratic corruption.
They are willing to stand by and let Trump/Vought/Miller run roughshod over our constitution, to demonize anyone who voices even mild dissent about Dear Leader.
Presumably the entire GOP is perfectly fine with a one party autocratic state, as long as they are in charge.
Somehow I have a hard time believing that flattery alone gets a pardon. Follow the money. It may not flow to the Felon directly, but to pet projects of people near and dear to him, or support for his favorite Charity ... wait, that would be him. Better perhaps to help find Barron a job, or Ivanka a special vacation or, or, or. With the Felon, the sluices for the quid pro are endless.
A variant on this for the media: be very careful what you say about Trump. Take this afternoon’s NYT. Already being sued for $16 billion by Trump, they delicately walked around his demand today for $273 million for previous Justice Department’s investigations of him. Their description of the demand was accurate (“unprecedented “) but they hedged pathetically on its true nature (“unethical”). Meantime they offered readers a deep dive into a real matter of concern, poor Democratic performance in rural America. Such an article, while not without some interest, seems more like an item to be presented in court as evidence of their evenhandedness. Sad how low the Grey Lady has sunk. But illustrative of survival in Trump’s America.
Yeah, I'm starting to not like Ezra Klein much anymore. I was rolling my eyes at the headline for his interview today about the Dems and rural America. He's not quite in Ross Douthat territory yet, though.
The corruption in this administration just keeps growing on and on. It’s so pervasive it becomes ho hum. Kind of like mass shootings it has become, oh, another one of those? Yawn”. Can’t believe I am saying that.
Monster of Florence starts tomorrow and I am ready to watch. That sort of crime is really hard to make excuses for. Has WRONG written all over it. The grifter class has many and are willing to try them all. Nobody got hit, it’s just money to name a couple.
That's the entire goal. Normalize the bullshit every day until it no longer seems worth arguing over. Do it in the open. If some locality fights back with state level charges, punish them with a social media led torch and pitchfork brigade and withhold federal funding until they drop it.
He realized there are no consequences for pardoning almost anyone so he's just doing it now. It won't be surprising if he even pardons Maxwell. At worst, his enemies will move on from it within a week or two because of all the new shit he did since then. He knows his own base doesn't care enough to abandon him. At most, they will say they don't approve of that one thing but they will still never vote Democrat over him or MAGA.
Who the fork are "the appropriators" Mealy-mouth Mike is praising? Are they working for free, out of the goodness of their hearts (not if they are RINOs)?
“Kids do stupid things, especially young Speakers… I really don't want to us to grow up in a country where a kid telling a stupid joke, telling a very offensive, stupid joke is cause to ruin their lives," Vance said.
Santos, if that's his real name, apparently hasn't learned anything from Donald Trump. You don't say you made poor choices; you say that your choices were perfect but that have been wronged ...by the Left, of course.
Grassley has destroyed federal law enforcement by approving the most incompetent, corrupt leaders in DOJ/FBI. Meanwhile his hero taco has cost his Iowa farmers 32 billion with his tariffs on China.
But Grassley is still in the Senate with a sinecure and perks for life.
David. We could hope that his brain is mush and he can’t enjoy them.
His what is mush? Didn't he have to undergo a frontal lobotomy to get the job?
how could you tell?
Okay. The brain stem is mush. You’re correct David. He gave his brain away a loooooong time ago.
He's well into his 93rd year so his retirement perks will be very short lived. But he's doing better than poor Mitzi McConnell who has to be guided as he shuffles around the Capitol.
Thanks for the info. Another fine example of Me before party, with country bringing up the rear, far, far behind the other two.
Apparently Grassley is hanging on til his grandson can run for his seat.
On the plus side, I'm sure they're owning the libs, so there's that.
We can only hope the statute of limitations hasn't run out on some of these people and the states can go after them
The problem, and reason that they haven't, is they are now operating inside a fascist game where the strongman controls their states' federal funding and is more than willing to withhold it for months or years even if a court eventually orders he can't do that after long litigation processes.
So a state like New York could try to indict Santos for fraud on its own, but that means poking the bear in the white house. Bringing one corrupt man to justice isn't often going to be worth the damage the dictator brings down on the state who tries to go around his pardons. New York governor Hochul herself declined to simply demand Eric Adams resign (she said the voters have the right to vote him in or out this year), let alone direct the attorney general to investigate the corruption case against him.
This is the grip 45 has on the nation. Every locality has to pick and choose its battles and spend its resources wisely. Sadly, throwing one asshole back in jail isn't gonna be worth the political capital spent and the distraction, or tying up already limited AG and legal system resources.
I hate it as much as you do.
IF their crime violated state law and is not barred by the Statute of Limitations in that State.
I've long concluded that Trumpers were willingly stupid, but the concept of them believing in Trump as a master negotiator seems laughable when many people here and elsewhere have concluded that the only thing they need to do to get favors from him is to kiss his ass.
As right as you are, getting me to kiss that ass would take a master negotiator way out of the Felon's league.
Former Senator Menendez is despicable. He’s also exhibit number one that the Biden justice department was not politically weaponized against republicans.
We're long past the point of any evidence mattering. The GOP has called all media liberal and biased for decades even as they have gone more and more out of their way to pander to ridiculous extremist right wing bullshit to appear "less biased". The GOP calls the most vanilla centrist dudes like Biden "radical leftists".
Anything short of full throated endorsement of whatever they want that particular day means you are biased against them. Biden DOJ could have convicted every sitting Democrat in Congress for something or other, and a single case against the Golden God would have still been called a weaponized witch hunt.
Which is exactly why the mainstream media and Democrats need to stop giving a shit about fairness and looking unbiased. Appeasment didn't work vs Hitler, and it doesn't work now. The mouse will always want another cookie. Stop feeding the animals.
Biden DoJ also prosecuted Hunter Biden, Henry Cuellar (and his wife), Menendez’s wife, Eric Adams, and more.
To my knowledge they only had four major Republican prosecutions: Trump, Trump, Santos, and Fortenberry.
It's hard to read this and not speculate about when Ghislaine Maxwell will be let loose to receive her Medal of Honor.
I don't ever want to hear any GOP member of Congress ever again clutch their pearls or tsk-tsk over alleged Democratic corruption.
They are willing to stand by and let Trump/Vought/Miller run roughshod over our constitution, to demonize anyone who voices even mild dissent about Dear Leader.
Presumably the entire GOP is perfectly fine with a one party autocratic state, as long as they are in charge.
Bob Menendez voted to remove Trump from office...twice. Good luck, Bob.
And if you're a member of Congress who is committing crimes, you should never vote to convict a president of either party.
To Shumer & Senate Dems: stay on target! Hold steady! Be firm!
Or if not steady/firm, try at least to not be so wishy-washy for once!
Pardoning egregious criminals is part of the authoritarian playbook. It's in the chapter about destroying rule of law.
Somehow I have a hard time believing that flattery alone gets a pardon. Follow the money. It may not flow to the Felon directly, but to pet projects of people near and dear to him, or support for his favorite Charity ... wait, that would be him. Better perhaps to help find Barron a job, or Ivanka a special vacation or, or, or. With the Felon, the sluices for the quid pro are endless.
A variant on this for the media: be very careful what you say about Trump. Take this afternoon’s NYT. Already being sued for $16 billion by Trump, they delicately walked around his demand today for $273 million for previous Justice Department’s investigations of him. Their description of the demand was accurate (“unprecedented “) but they hedged pathetically on its true nature (“unethical”). Meantime they offered readers a deep dive into a real matter of concern, poor Democratic performance in rural America. Such an article, while not without some interest, seems more like an item to be presented in court as evidence of their evenhandedness. Sad how low the Grey Lady has sunk. But illustrative of survival in Trump’s America.
Yeah, I'm starting to not like Ezra Klein much anymore. I was rolling my eyes at the headline for his interview today about the Dems and rural America. He's not quite in Ross Douthat territory yet, though.
Have either of you
received your "Official
2025 Democratic HQ
Priorities Survey" yet
and of course their
request for $? It's a
damn sad survey. No
area for comments. They
are out of touch with us
out here, so don't knock
Mr. Klein for stating the truth. Did you see Dems
rally 7 million US citizens
to peacefully protest on
Saturday? How many
marched with us?
Whatever brain and heart parasite from Hell has invaded DJT is obviously highly communicable to all GOP pansies in his orbit.
The corruption in this administration just keeps growing on and on. It’s so pervasive it becomes ho hum. Kind of like mass shootings it has become, oh, another one of those? Yawn”. Can’t believe I am saying that.
Monster of Florence starts tomorrow and I am ready to watch. That sort of crime is really hard to make excuses for. Has WRONG written all over it. The grifter class has many and are willing to try them all. Nobody got hit, it’s just money to name a couple.
That's the entire goal. Normalize the bullshit every day until it no longer seems worth arguing over. Do it in the open. If some locality fights back with state level charges, punish them with a social media led torch and pitchfork brigade and withhold federal funding until they drop it.
He realized there are no consequences for pardoning almost anyone so he's just doing it now. It won't be surprising if he even pardons Maxwell. At worst, his enemies will move on from it within a week or two because of all the new shit he did since then. He knows his own base doesn't care enough to abandon him. At most, they will say they don't approve of that one thing but they will still never vote Democrat over him or MAGA.
Awaiting a Bob Menendez pardon/commutation. Shall I hold my breath?
Only if he has a million $ to give DonOld. If not, you can exhale.
Were all the gold bars recovered?
Think so. He’s broke so he ain’t going nowhere.
Who the fork are "the appropriators" Mealy-mouth Mike is praising? Are they working for free, out of the goodness of their hearts (not if they are RINOs)?
That's his bar covers band. Mike and The Appropriators.
You said it, mealy-mouthed. He’s not as good a liar as DonOld. But he keeps trying.
Have a heart, he's still young ... at least compared to the old Felon.
“Kids do stupid things, especially young Speakers… I really don't want to us to grow up in a country where a kid telling a stupid joke, telling a very offensive, stupid joke is cause to ruin their lives," Vance said.
/s ?
" I’ve made some poor choices in my life."
Santos, if that's his real name, apparently hasn't learned anything from Donald Trump. You don't say you made poor choices; you say that your choices were perfect but that have been wronged ...by the Left, of course.