[!@#$%!]

looks like mitch mcconnel was having a stroke?

[The Soup Nazi]

Originally Posted by !@#$%!

looks like mitch mcconnel was having a stroke?

OR... One of them D.C. babes happened to be behind the cameras and the guy froze for 28 seconds, the fuck else could he do.

 

What, never happened to ya?

[The Soup Nazi]

Too many investigations for you to follow? Can't be on top of every prequel and sequel of this shit? No worries! Welcome to The New York Times' TRUMP INVESTIGATIONS TRACKER!

 

This is the most useful thing ever.

[The Soup Nazi]

Also from the NYT, the following is by turns fucked up, hilarious, and scary:

What Happens if a Presidential Candidate Is Convicted?

The Constitution and American law have clear answers for only some of the questions that would arise. Others would bring the country into truly uncharted territory.

Not since Eugene V. Debs campaigned from a prison cell more than a century ago has the United States experienced what might now happen: a prominent candidate with a felony conviction running for president. And never before has that candidate been someone with a real chance of winning.

Former President Donald J. Trump faces no campaign restrictions. Though he has been charged with dozens of felonies across two cases, one federal and one in New York, verdicts are a long way off. And there are many uncertainties, including whether the proceedings will hinder Mr. Trump’s campaign in practical ways or begin to hurt him in the polls in a way they have not so far.

But if he is convicted on any of the felony counts, things get more complicated — and the Constitution and American law have clear answers for only some of the questions that would arise.

Others would bring the country into truly uncharted territory, with huge decisions resting in the hands of federal judges.

Here is what we know, and what we don’t know.

Can Trump run if he is convicted?

This is the simplest question of the bunch. The answer is yes.

The Constitution sets very few eligibility requirements for presidents. They must be at least 35 years old, be “natural born” citizens and have lived in the United States for at least 14 years.

There are no limitations based on character or criminal record. (While some states prohibit felons from running for state and local office, these laws do not apply to federal offices.)

Would his campaign be restricted?

To offer an obvious understatement, it would be logistically difficult to run for president from prison. No major-party candidate has ever done it. Mr. Debs ran for the Socialist Party in 1920 and received about 3 percent of the vote.

But Mr. Trump’s campaign staff could handle fund-raising and other campaign activities in his absence, and it is very unlikely that Mr. Trump could be disqualified from appearing on ballots.

The Republican and Democratic Parties have guaranteed spots on general-election ballots in every state, and the parties tell election officials whose name to put in their spot. States could, in theory, try to keep Mr. Trump off the ballot by passing legislation requiring a clean criminal record, but this would be on legally shaky ground.

“We let states set the time, place and manner” of elections, said Jessica Levinson, a professor at Loyola Law School who specializes in election law, “but I think the best reading of our Constitution is you don’t let the state add new substantive requirements.”

While that view is not universal among legal experts, it won in court in 2019, when California tried to require candidates to release their tax returns in order to appear on primary ballots. A federal district judge blocked the rule, saying it was most likely unconstitutional. The California Supreme Court also unanimously blocked it as a violation of the state constitution, and the case never reached the U.S. Supreme Court.

Could he vote?

Probably not.

Mr. Trump is registered to vote in Florida, and he would be disenfranchised there if convicted of a felony.

Most felons in Florida regain voting rights after completing their full sentence, including parole or probation, and paying all fines and fees. But it is highly unlikely that Mr. Trump, if convicted, would have time to complete his sentence before Election Day.

Since Mr. Trump also has a residence in New York, he could switch his voter registration there to take advantage of its more permissive approach: Felons in New York can vote while on parole or probation. But, as in Florida and almost every other state, they are still disenfranchised while in prison.

So if Mr. Trump is imprisoned, he will be in the extraordinary position of being deemed fit to be voted for, but unfit to vote.

What happens if he is elected from prison?

No one knows.

“We’re so far removed from anything that’s ever happened,” said Erwin Chemerinsky, a constitutional law expert at the University of California, Berkeley. “It’s just guessing.”

Legally, Mr. Trump would remain eligible to be president even if he were imprisoned. The Constitution says nothing to the contrary. “I don’t think that the framers ever thought we were going to be in this situation,” Professor Levinson said.

In practice, the election of an incarcerated president would create a legal crisis that would almost certainly need to be resolved by the courts.

In theory, Mr. Trump could be stripped of his authority under the 25th Amendment, which provides a process to transfer authority to the vice president if the president is “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.” But that would require the vice president and a majority of the cabinet to declare Mr. Trump unable to fulfill his duties, a remote prospect given that these would be loyalists appointed by Mr. Trump himself.

More likely, Mr. Trump could sue to be released on the basis that his imprisonment was preventing him from fulfilling his constitutional obligations as president. Such a case would probably focus on the separation of powers, with Mr. Trump’s lawyers arguing that keeping a duly elected president in prison would be an infringement by the judicial branch on the operations of the executive branch.

He could also try to pardon himself — or to commute his sentence, leaving his conviction in place but ending his imprisonment. Either action would be an extraordinary assertion of presidential power, and the Supreme Court would be the final arbiter of whether a “self pardon” was constitutional.

Or President Biden, on his way out the door, could pardon Mr. Trump on the basis that “the people have spoken and I need to pardon him so he can govern,” Professor Chemerinsky said.

What if he’s elected with a case still in progress?

Again, no one knows. But a likely outcome would be that a Trump-appointed attorney general would withdraw the charges and end the case.

The Justice Department does not indict sitting presidents, a policy outlined in a 1973 memo, during the Nixon era. It has never had reason to develop a policy on what to do with an incoming president who has already been indicted. But the rationale for not indicting sitting presidents — that it would interfere with their ability to perform their duties — applies just as well in this hypothetical scenario.

“The reasons why we wouldn’t want to indict a sitting president are the reasons we wouldn’t want to prosecute a sitting president,” said Professor Chemerinsky, who has disagreed with the department’s reasoning. “My guess is, if the Trump prosecution were still ongoing in some way and Trump were elected, the Justice Department — which would be the Trump Justice Department — would say, ‘We’re following the 1973 memo.’”

Like so much else here, this would be legally untested, and it is impossible to say what the Supreme Court would do if the question reached it.

In its Clinton v. Jones ruling in 1997, the court allowed a lawsuit against President Bill Clinton to proceed. But that case was civil, not criminal, and it was filed by a private citizen, not by the government itself.

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by The Soup Nazi

OR... One of them D.C. babes happened to be behind the cameras and the guy froze for 28 seconds, the fuck else could he do.

 

What, never happened to ya?

lmao yes. i've become tongue-tied in the face of extraordinary hotness in the past. could happen again i'm sure.

that one there is the junky widow from deadwood though. she almost had a thing with justified.

but re: mitch: i'm thinking mini-strokes, possibly.

[The Soup Nazi]

Originally Posted by !@#$%!

lmao yes. i've become tongue-tied in the face of extraordinary hotness in the past. could happen again i'm sure.

that one there is the junky widow from deadwood though. she almost had a thing with justified.

but re: mitch: i'm thinking mini-strokes, possibly.

Never watched Deadwood. That's Jackie Sharp from House Of Cards.

McConnell definitely had something at least similar to a stroke. They've been wheeling him around for a while now, apparently... Yo Mitch, you already put three total fuckers in SCOTUS, you saved Trump (even though that idiot can't seem to understand it), go away already.

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by The Soup Nazi

Never watched Deadwood. That's Jackie Sharp from House Of Cards.

McConnell definitely had something at least similar to a stroke. They've been wheeling him around for a while now, apparently... Yo Mitch, you already put three total fuckers in SCOTUS, you saved Trump (even though that idiot can't seem to understand it), go away already.

card sharp. that was the name! yeah i do remember her, just in multiple incarnations. it's teevee!

i'm of 2 minds about mcconnel. he's now an enemy of trump. and the lesser of two evils.

that's right, we live in a world where mcconnell is the lesser evil. like how trump makes dubya look like a holy man.

we're in the shit already, very deep in the shit lolol.

and if mcconnell goes... we could go deeper, no joke.

let's see what happens

[The Soup Nazi]

THIRD STRIKE, MOTHERFUCKER!

[!@#$%!]

lock him up! lock him up! lock him up!

xD

[The Soup Nazi]

Originally Posted by !@#$%!

lock him up! lock him up! lock him up!

xD

I read the 45 pages last night and even though I'm no lawyer at all I understood every word. Unfortunately, you just can't make it simple enough for the average mook, who inevitably falls for "but Hunter Biden" and "but free speech" bullcrap.

[!@#$%!]

from the financial times:

US government debt on Wednesday shrugged off Fitch Ratings’ unexpected decision to downgrade Washington’s top-tier sovereign debt rating, while stocks were hit with fresh declines.

Treasuries rallied in early trade, before giving up their gains after the US government announced plans to boost its issuance of long-term debt this quarter. Ten-year Treasury yields were 0.04 percentage points higher at 4.08 per cent early in the US morning, having earlier fallen slightly. Yields rise as prices fall.

In stock markets, Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 declines 0.8 per cent at the New York opening bell, extending losses from the previous session, while the tech-focused Nasdaq Composite gave up 1.2 per cent.

The moves came after Fitch cut the US credit rating from triple A to double A plus after markets closed on Tuesday, citing a mounting government debt burden and the debt ceiling stand-off two months ago that brought the world’s largest economy close to a default.

Investors said the muted reaction of Treasuries reflected the fact that funds were unlikely to be forced to sell US debt as a result of the downgrade. Meanwhile, Fitch’s announcement helped fuel a global equity sell-off.

etc etc...

if no ft lik see here: https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/f...ch-2023-08-01/

--

additionally, reuters reports a fitch official confirmed that january 6 riots and a "deterioration in governance" are partly behind the downgrade:

https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/f...on-2023-08-02/

[The Soup Nazi]

^ So: 1.- The markets went, "Eh, it ain't that bad"; and 2.- Republicans should SHUT THE FUCK UP because the "debt ceiling stand-off" (aka extortion/blackmail/shakedown) and Jan. 6 were Republican-fueled and Republican-executed shit.

#2 is never gonna happen, of course.

[!@#$%!]

yah... but i think it's a fair downgrade perhaps. and don't miss the part where equities (stocks) actually had a sellof.

anyway i found the actual source! check it for truthiness:

--

RATING ACTION COMMENTARY

Fitch Downgrades the United States' Long-Term Ratings to 'AA+' from 'AAA'; Outlook Stable
Tue 01 Aug, 2023 - 5:13 PM ET

Fitch Ratings - London - 01 Aug 2023: Fitch Ratings has downgraded the United States of America's Long-Term Foreign-Currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) to 'AA+' from 'AAA'. The Rating Watch Negative was removed and a Stable Outlook assigned. The Country Ceiling has been affirmed at 'AAA'.

A full list of rating actions is at the end of this rating action commentary.

cont:

https://www.fitchratings.com/researc...ble-01-08-2023

i agree with a lot of what it says there. it is not the end of the word but there are serious concerns.

[The Soup Nazi]

^ Sure they're not talking about batteries?

 

[The Soup Nazi]

The Prophet:

 

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by The Soup Nazi

^ Sure they're not talking about batteries?

 

no. here's a user-friendly explanation of what this means:

https://www.npr.org/2023/08/02/11782...s-debt-economy

it has real consequences that are well worth understanding. it's a pity that many of these things are not taught as a part of basic education. everybody lives in the economy, but most people don't understand it (i often wonder if this is on purpose).

then voters get distracted by "issues" and scandals and the personality circus, but these are the numbers that most affect the course of their lives. and yet...

[The Soup Nazi]

 

[The Soup Nazi]

Originally Posted by !@#$%!

it's a pity that many of these things are not taught as a part of basic education.

On the other hand, massive amounts of people with a basic education (a high school degree, let's say) don't know jack about the things they were indeed taught, and end up saying that the first person to walk on the face of the SUN was LANCE ARMSTRONG. (Seriously, that's what a couple of "American" chicks on a beach said; at the moment I can't remember where I saw it but I could find the YouTube link for ya...)

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by The Soup Nazi

On the other hand, massive amounts of people with a basic education (a high school degree, let's say) don't know jack about the things they were indeed taught, and end up saying that the first person to walk on the face of the SUN was LANCE ARMSTRONG. (Seriously, that's what a couple of "American" chicks on a beach said; at the moment I can't remember where I saw it but I could find the YouTube link for ya...)

sure, some people attended high school stoned. but still... basic economics is basic economics.

the fucking republican clown refuse to understand that the status of the us dollar as reserve currency is paramount. but they like to play russian roulette.

and they only care about the debt whenever they are out of power. trump blew an enormous gaping hole in the budget and they cheered him on.

democrats on the other hand... are good for the economy, but let's face it, their propaganda department pushes the notion that there are no limits on spending and borrowing.

[The Soup Nazi]

Originally Posted by !@#$%!

sure, some people attended high school stoned. but still... basic economics is basic economics.

the fucking republican clown refuse to understand that the status of the us dollar as reserve currency is paramount. but they like to play russian roulette.

and they only care about the debt whenever they are out of power. trump blew an enormous gaping hole in the budget and they cheered him on.

democrats on the other hand... are good for the economy, but let's face it, their propaganda department pushes the notion that there are no limits on spending and borrowing.

Yes, I do, after all, agree it should be taught as a key course (over several years) and not as an afterthought of math or civics.

Paul Krugman said that if and when the debt becomes a clear and present danger he's going to turn into a "debt hawk". Hasn't happened yet, so I'm cool. Sure, the guy leans left, but he's not Bernie Sanders.