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By David Futrelle
It kind of feels like we’re entering the end game, huh? Mueller’s filings on Cohen and Manafort have dropped. And the Michael Cohen sentencing memo released by the Southern District of New York earlier today makes clear that Trump directed Cohen to commit a felony.
SDNY and Mueller prosecutors said in filings today that 1) Trump, unambiguously, directed and coordinated with Cohen to make illegal hush-money payments during the 2016 campaign and 2) that Cohen consulted Trump in Sept. 2015 about contacting the Russian government. https://t.co/lwbQcBzmq7
— Rebecca Ballhaus (@rebeccaballhaus) December 7, 2018
So here's all three docs:
Cohen SDNYhttps://t.co/kwlAXe6P5f
Cohen Muellerhttps://t.co/O5p2Q511dj
Manafort Muellerhttps://t.co/PZ4gc91ML8
— emptywheel (seiceáil) (@emptywheel) December 7, 2018
Oh, and the stock market is tanking, with the Dow plunging 1,150 points this week because the boy president thinks trade wars are cool.
Rough week — and rougher night — for Individual 1 in the White House.
And in other news today: Nazi piece of shit James Fields was found guilty on all counts for murdering Heather Heyer and injuring numerous others by driving his car into a crowd of protesters in Charlottesville.
Lots to discuss!
Glad that Nazi shit was convicted
I’ve already tweeted about this, but I was watching MSNBC when this story was breaking and although I don’t usually like to watch Chuck Todd, the news happened to coincide with his MTP Daily time slot. For those who don’t live in the US and/or have cable, Todd is the host of Meet the Press. He is one of the biggest perpetrators of that both sides centrism that has so enabled the rise of the far right. He suggested that if the congressional Democrats don’t put impeachment on the table and don’t hold Trump accountable, they would be failing to their duty. Besides the annoyance of Democrats be expected to do their duty to uphold the constitution, but not the Republicans, this is kind of a big deal to me. One of the biggest mouthpieces for elitist centrism and civility who spent the entire midterm season scolding Democratic candidates for being too vocally anti-Trump and progressive is at least for the moment changing his tune. Even though I typically avoid Meet the Press and other Sunday shows as they are a bastion of old white male conservatism, I might have to check it out to see if he’s going to keep to this stance. Because fingers crossed, it could signal that the political is finally going to start abandoning the pretense the GOP isn’t utterly corrupt and broken and that Trump will someday pivot and start acting remotely presidential.
We’ll see.
My ex-friend and gay alt-right fanboy will be so upset that the neonazi got jailed for “self-defence”.
Because nothing says an instincual act of self defence like gunning the gas for 6 empty city blocks into a crowd of people.
I can only imagine what an apocalyptic dumpster fire that circle of friends has turned into. Mind you, it was just two guys out of dozens, and everyone knew the one guy was a shit disturber. A charismatic, snake oil, silver tongued shit disturber.
Would not be surprised in the slightest if he showed up in an article here.
How bad a bad is it for Trump? Well, put it this way. Tucker Carlson has been moved to call him lazy and stupid: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/dec/07/tucker-carlson-fox-news-trump-interview-turns
Yay things are going crappy for Trump.
OT: Currently at hospital with my grandmother. She doing fine, just snoozing at 4pm like old people do.
Has anyone explained to him yet that he’s Individual-1?
Oh, to be one of Kellyanne’s microwaves on the wall in the White House tonight…!
I heard a little about it this evening, walking into the room where my mom was watching TV. Being in a hyper mood, I didn’t wait to hear much before saying, “Yes, yes! Impeach Trump!” So she was all, “Er, that’s not what’s happening…yet…”
In the picture at the top, his head looks like it’s covered in cat hair. I think that’d be a fitting punishment, too. He’d find it annoying and unsanitary. Impeach Trump and sprinkle him with cat hair! The rallying cry of the left. 😛
Sorry for the giddiness. The group class I had just did their exam (it’s a language proficiency test that counts towards a professional requirement) and I’m exhausted. I still have some other high school & university students I’m tutoring, but after this week my schedule will be lighter.
O/T but I really need to talk about this.
So, I work at a grocery store. One of my newer coworkers applied for the job after she broke of up her ex, which left her and her 11-year-old son staying with a friend. At the beginning of the month, her friend moved, leaving my coworker and her son homeless. A local man, whom is a semi-regular customer, offered to let them stay at his apartment while she looked for a more permanent housing solution. That was on the 3rd.
On the 4th, he attempted to sexually assault her.
She called to police, they helped her get her and her son to safety, the shitbag’s been semi-banned from the store, and she’s got a court date to charge his ass. As for housing, she’s now staying at the local roach motel.
I don’t know what to do – I feel so helpless to do anything. Plus, this guy I had thought was an okay man – he’s old enough to be my father for Christ’s sake! Just feeling really shitty about life. >.<
Anyway, thanks for letting me vent.
@Megi Indeed. I had some very uncharitable thoughts about what should happen to him, but they are not fit to print here.
@Sniper Kitty,
My suggestion for helping your friend would be to help her find out what charities/social services are in your area, and get her in contact with them. Like, figuring out who in your area gives out hotel vouchers to suddenly homeless people; that could be a help in keeping a roof over her head while she figures things out.
And make an appointment with your local Township Trustee (or your local equivalent) and see what kind of help they can offer her while getting back on her feet. Hunt down the local foodstamp office and apply there for help with food. Help her get on the local Housing and Urban Development housing list so she has a shot at getting help to pay for decent housing. Help is there, if you know where to look often enough.
Or if she’s doing all that already, help her with rides to and from appointments if you can do so, or help cover a shift if she needs time off to go to the appointment. Or just be a shoulder to cry on when she needs to vent for a bit.
Hopefully something in this word block is helpful to you / her.
@Redsilkphoenix
You are a pretty amazing person.
@Sniper Kitty, all my love to you and your friend and her child. That’s such a horrible chain of events. You’re a good friend for being there for her.
Everything that the lovely @Redsilkphoenix said is absolutely right. There are services to help people in trouble around you, spend some time to track them down. You know that though, that’s what you’re doing right now after all.
Just be there for her. Check in. It’s easy to feel isolated and desperate in those conditions, so don’t let that happen to her. If she’s at a motel she’ll have a hard time cooking anything. Spaghetti and a side salad is a banquet when you’re homeless and can’t cook. Offer to do her laundry so that she doesn’t have to sit around at a laundromat. Ask if she’d like you to bring over a board game or something distracting. Let her keep control of it, but offer your attention.
Meals on the table, bed at ten, cereal before sending the kid off to school, whatever normal is – help her keep that happening. When you’re fragile, stopping means falling apart. She might want to fall apart, but she’ll want to do it on her terms, with her in control. Give her that.
It sounds like she’s got her head together and is coping, from your description. You’re a good person for being so concerned. I hope she recovers and finds a new place quickly, and that she finds a just outcome that satisfies her and helps her move on.
<3
@Jane Done
I have a friend who went from Bernie Bro to Trumpkin in like 5 seconds, it’s super creepy
I’ve just been reading a Vice article which points out that all that redacted stuff is now in a place where Trump and Whitaker can’t get at it and destroy it.
https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/zmdw9a/mueller-just-pulled-some-of-his-key-findings-out-of-trumps-grasp
The text of the article just fades out in the middle of the third paragraph or so. Do you have a link to a complete copy of the article?
@Alexis Filth: a true brogressive.
@Surplus
You can read the rest by clicking the read more button.
You can? Usually when they do that shit “read more” doesn’t actually mean “read more”, it means “go to some other page where we demand money”.
Edit:
But in this case it means “do nothing”, apparently. I was able to get the rest of the text visible by turning off CSS, at the cost of long unwrapped lines instead of tidy paragraphs, FWIW.
Article works fine for me! Chrome, Windows 10.
so i started a good discussion here on friday, then took a break from internet, went out, slipped and broke my arm. won’t be commenting much until about january.
[looks at next thread]
practicing left handed wanking, brb.
@redsilkphoenix, Scildfreja
Thank you to you both – My coworker’s got a lot of the resources you mentioned tapped already, but all information is appreciated. Luckily, we have a very friendly and invested personnel coordinator at my store, and he’s doing what he can to help her out.
For my part, I overheard her talking to a customer and wondering how she was going to afford a Christmas for her son, lamenting not being able to get him a stocking. SO after y shift, I went into our holiday section and bought a stocking and stuffed it full of candy, stickers, and a giftcard for Target. I know, it doesn’t solve everything, it doesn’t fix the situation, but it’s all I can do right now.
She did appreciate it, even if she complained about having to stuff it in paper bags to hide it from him. 🙂
@ sniper kitty
That’s actually got me blubbing a bit. No child, or family, should ever be in that position; but that’s so wonderful of you. Thank you.
<3 Sniper Kitty
That's what helping recovery feels like, really. Lots of little motes of caring. Individually they don't weigh anything and don't do anything, but they'll help her pull herself back together. It's good for you, too. Keep it up!