G&T

This is absolutely right.

Her friend doesn’t remember and also says she believes Ford. Judge doesn’t remember and nobody wants him to testify. So no. And I think you are grasping at straws in drawing conclusions about memory and trauma without some support. And the “failure to report” argument is so weak. She did tell her therapist that the perpetrator was a federal judge. Anyway, you don’t believe her. Fine. It’s fine to believe Kavanaugh is a liar (because he is) but that he isn’t lying about this incident. Of course that should still eliminate him from the nomination.

Her testimony is evidence. Stop saying there isn’t evidence. You have two people giving testimony; one lying, one not. In weighing veracity you look at demeanor and truthfulness throughout. Leaving aside the matter at hand, he lied under oath about drinking habits, at the very least, based on third party witnesses and evaded questions which was shown in a Vox analysis. She didn’t do either. This isn’t a hard call. Also, the committee refused to take other testimony so pointing to a lack of evidence is a dubious argument.

Yeah, what seemed unhinged conspiracy nonsense was designed to deflect the republican argument to blaming the process rather than Ford. And they all joined in. To me it showed that he is crazy and a liar, but it doesn't matter.

This is hindsight B.S. And what authority? These kids are underage drinking and aren't going to the police. Parents? Do you think their parents care about what happens at Beach Week or any of these parties where the parents probably bought alcohol? Trying to understand the cultural issues that led her not to report is a far more productive use of time than blaming her and "anyone else" for failing to report.

I think it is also fair to say that she may not have fully understood what was happening in those bedrooms until it happened to her. In any event, the question isn't "why didn't she report?" it's "did those things happen?" She says it did, and has corroborating witnesses. She also has no motive to lie that we know of.

I wonder if he gets confirmed and a blue wave comes, does he get impeached? Democrats could hold hearings into the possibility that he lied during confirmation and try to remove him. I think this is especially possible if he gets confirmed during the lame duck session. It's not likely because it's a crazy political move that doesn't happen, but it's a huge ideological seat and there may be reason for the Dems to get it back.

Makes sense. Seems like a White House plant that he resigned. Obviously this means we're going to get a Mueller bombshell this week.

Strange to me. I don't see why he doesn't just wait to be fired since he seemed to still have congressional support.

Well they don’t seem to be doing that and the question was why. And how do you know that another nominee doesn’t end up in the same position? Anyway, I’m not sure they can before the midterms. The lame duck is also a gamble. In a world where they lose the senate, they will have lost the house as well. They will piss off a huge portion of the country and the calls for impeachment and investigations into the GOP will grow. The personal toll will be high.

This is not a criminal trial, it’s a political vetting process. The rules are whatever the senate agrees to.

It’s simpler than that. The midterms are coming and there’s no guarantee republicans keep the senate. They can’t get a new nominee confirmed that fast so they are stuck. The question for republicans is whether ramming him through is worth potentially losing even more voters or stirring up very strong democratic enthusiasm right before the midterm. Or ram him through and the election be damned because party over country. The easy answer is that they should wait since they probably keep the senate, but clearly they don’t know what to do. This Whelan thing probably forces them to pull Kavanaugh and wait since it’s going to cause questioning of whether senators or the WH knew what Whelan was doing.

This exactly. The day Eloy comes up they will have an extension ready for him. Anyway, no player comes to the majors as a finished product, and the Sox are rebuilding. His defense in 2018 is irrelevant and may never be relevant. He needs to see major league pitching.

I strongly suspect Mueller has everything he needs from other sources. If he didn't, Cohen would have a deal already. In fact, Cohen isn't even being prosecuted by Mueller, but by federal prosecutors in NY. Cohen is launching a PR campaign to gain a sympathetic judge or jury when his day in court arrives. I don't think it's possible that Mueller doesn't have the phone records during the Trump Tower meeting. And Rick Gates and/or Pappadopolous were probably in or knew about any meeting with Russians.

That’s not what the constitution says. Giving aid and comfort to an enemy is treason. Obviously that’s easier to define when war is declared so those are the cases brought. Anyway, I’ll take money laundering. Seems less controversial.

There are no repercussions. At this point they are framing pardons as a means to fix a biased and improper investigation. It's a signal to Trump's followers that it's the right and just thing to do, as opposed to an act of a wannabe dictator.

Fines like that can usually be calculated on a per day of violation basis. So that $130 would be per day of violating. Of course that would probably only happen if the city gives you some form of notice of the violation and you don’t correct it.

The New York Bar Association is just a club, essentially. Licensure is handled by the court system. He is licensed.

Probably never. Old article, but interesting: Baseball Prospectus

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Apr 17, 2018 -> 02:37 PM) Those are actually legitimate lawyers, so Im not sure why its shocking that people in the same circle have similar lawyers. Actually I find totally predictable that they are using the same lawyers.

Yeah...this is totally looking like nothing: Sean Hannity’s Ties to Two More Trump-Connected Lawyers

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Apr 17, 2018 -> 12:16 PM) If Cohen told his attorney that Hannity was a client and then the attorney told the judge, no one lied to the judge. This happens all the time. And Hannity was right, revealing his name did cause embarrassment. Cohen has no clue what he is doing. From what I can tell he barely has any understanding of being an attorney or how attorney client relationship works. The bottom line is I dont believe anything Cohen says. I think that if there was something really troubling for Hannity, Hannity would have had an attorney there trying to protect his attorney client privilege. Its not like Im some Hannity supporter and I originally did think more was there. Just now Im not so sure. Well the problem I see is that the AC relationship is client based, not attorney based. At some point, according to Cohen's attorneys, Hannity discussed the possibility that his name could be revealed and he said he didn't want that to happen to avoid embarrassment. So either Hannity told Cohen to assert the privilege or he didn't. You are also assuming Cohen's attorneys weren't directly involved in this conversation which is not consistent with the following account of what happened: Link. Similarly phrased here. I agree that Cohen is stupid and this might all be nothing, but it doesn't add up right now.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Apr 17, 2018 -> 10:59 AM) My answer is Cohen is an idiot and he doesnt understand attorney client privilege nor being a real attorney. So he considered Hannity a "client", even though he really wasnt one. If Hannity really was a client, he shot himself in the foot with all of those statements yesterday. Cohen said that Hannity told him not to reveal his name because it would cause embarrassment. So your argument is that Cohen (or his attorney) lied to a judge.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Apr 16, 2018 -> 10:39 PM) Just my opinion, but I think that he was talking to Cohen to earn brownie points with Trump. But then why did Cohen have to disclose Hannity was a client? The only reason this became an issue is because the FBI must have seized documents related to Hannity. I don't think this could be a 5 minute conversation. Cohen must have kept a file on something. And it can't be a 5 minute recording on a phone call, because he probably wouldn't be considered a "client". Many people in the press try to cozy up to a presidential administration to gain access. There could be any number of journalists (not to mention politicians and business people) that called Cohen to earn brownie points, but none were considered "clients". Something doesn't sit right. Big question I have: why wasn't Hannity prepared for this yesterday? He had no clear messaging and fumbled all day trying to explain it away. There are PR firms that deal with crises like this. If it is truly nothing, and he was only doing this to earn brownie points, then he should have been prepared to deal with the appearance of impropriety that was surely to follow his exposure. I think it's possible there is something to this relationship with Cohen that he didn't want to talk to anyone about and hoped that his name would be kept secret.

QUOTE (Jerksticks @ Apr 4, 2018 -> 08:56 AM) Is there any way to make the first month’s games in southern areas and domes? Or does it just become completely unfair after a week or two I don't think it's unfair, I think the southern/dome teams want summer baseball games when the kids are out of school like all teams do. Attendance will be better in summer regardless of climate. Losing 15 or so June/July games to have extra April games is probably bad for business. I'm sure there are a million other scheduling reasons why it would be hard too.