StrangeSox

I don't think you need a FISA warrant to wiretap foreign communications e.g. Kislyak calling home to Russia is going to have the NSA listening in with or without a warrant. They were likely already listening in on Kislyak because he's assumed to be a spy, and they picked up Flynn talking to him. Once your surveillance of foreign nationals picks up a US citizen, the legal hurdles start, but as far as I understand it they can listen in on foreign nationals making overseas calls to other foreign nationals all day long if they want. I also agree more with G&T that obstruction of justice, at least to the level the Trump appears to be engaging in it, should qualify as an impeachable offense. What if he starts publicly directing the DOJ to investigate and file charges against Democratic candidates in the run up to 2018, or his challenger in 2020? The Constitution doesn't define "high crimes and misdemeanors," which leaves it up to the Congress to settle as a political question as far as what qualifies. If they wanted a "convicted of a crime" standard, they could have written that.

Clinton perjured himself during a sham investigation whereas Trump is attempting to direct the DoJ to go after his political opponents and to let his political allies go. Maybe Clinton should have faced censure or something for his perjury, but I think his offense was not on the same level as what Trump has been attempting to do. I don't think Trump will actually face impeachment unless substantial proof comes out prior to the 2018 elections and Democrats take back both chambers of Congress. And even then, he wouldn't be convicted unless Democrats somehow attained a super majority which is basically impossible in 2018 unless every Republican just forgets to vote or something.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 4, 2017 -> 01:34 PM) I think the simple version of it is...if the President is obstructing justice, tell me what he did that he is obstructing. In the Clinton 98 case, he did not commit an underlying crime. He lied to cover up a relationship that, while inappropriate, was still 2 consenting, legal adults. Follow that standard - tell me what the underlying crime is that the President himself did. If he just wanted to protect Flynn because they're both white supremacists and if you want to beat up enough muslims you need good people to do it...that's not an impeachable offense to my eyes. If he wanted to protect Flynn because Flynn was one of his co-conspirators in a crime that he had knowledge of during its commission and then used to great effect in the campaign...that's a fundamentally different setup because he's also a conspirator. If anything directly against Trump comes out, I'm going to assume it's obstruction charges that will be spelled out or it'll be something not directly related to his campaign like all sorts of illegal financial and real estate dealings over the years.

Trump shrinks Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments by 85% and 50% respectively.

As part of getting her to vote "yes" on the tax bill that repealed the individual mandate and blows up individual markets, Susan Collins wanted the Alexander-Murray bill to continue funding the CSR's that Trump stopped paying attached to must-pass bills this year. Shockingly, it won't be. I'm sure the "assurances" she received from McConnell not to gut SS, Medicare and Medicaid in the future are real, though.

Speaking of, breaking news from CNN: WH laywer McGhan told Trump in January that Flynn had lied to the FBI. Trump waited at least two more weeks until WaPo broke the story to fire Flynn, and it means Trump knew Flynn had lied when Trump met with Comey and told Comey to back off. The White House's original story was the Flynn was fired for lying to VP Pence, but it was never really explained why they waited until the story became public to do anything if lying to Pence was some unacceptable action.

Fair enough, and there's serious concern over whether you can even charge a sitting President with a federal crime. Impeachment is ultimately a political tool and not a legal one, though, and it is entirely up to Congress to decide what that standard is.

This pretty much guarantees that the bill will need to go to conference and be re-voted on by both the Senate and House, though, so there's a slightly better (but still slim) chance that the whole thing just dies. Lowering the corporate AMT will mean the deficit numbers will go up even more, so they'll have to find other pay-fors.

We've already got our first example of why it's bad to rewrite the tax code of the largest economy in the world over lunch: Passage of Senate Tax Bill Puts R&D Tax Credit in Doubt Unintended consequence of late decision to keep the corporate alternative minimum tax could be loss of some tax breaks; companies push back In their self-imposed* rush to pass this bill last week, they were hand-writing changes to the bill with no analysis whatsoever up until the last minutes. One of the consequences of this was that in buying off Sen. Johnson by giving a tax break to his family's company, they added the Corporate AMT back into the bill. The problem is, though, that they left it at 20%. Which is the same rate as the new corporate tax rate. So why bother taking tax credits and deductions at all if you're going to be paying 20% no matter what? *just like with health care, the real reason for the rush was to ram it through Congress as quickly as possible before anyone could really understand the bill and build political opposition to it.

Another solid piece by Rick Perlstein: The Elephants in the Resistance: Don’t Trust the Anti-Trump Republicans Sen. Jeff Flake and his ilk aren’t the heroes we’re looking for. Trump is a symptom, not a disease.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 4, 2017 -> 10:50 AM) And even worse, after they are known, protecting the party becomes more important than ousting the offenders. Party over Country, hooray. QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Dec 4, 2017 -> 10:45 AM) Over the weekend, there were allegations of sexual misconduct during the campaign against a freshman (D) from Nevada, Pelosi has called for him to step down. https://nypost.com/2017/12/02/pelosi-calls-...conduct-report/

Over the weekend, there were allegations of sexual misconduct during the campaign against a freshman (D) from Nevada, Pelosi has called for him to step down. https://nypost.com/2017/12/02/pelosi-calls-...conduct-report/

Any particular reason why? Holding the President accountable for distorting the justice system seems particularly worthy.

QUOTE (bmags @ Dec 4, 2017 -> 09:51 AM) I don't think so. You see people from all situations embrace that philosophy. It's not "I can't think for myself" because it's rather that they made the calculation that the best thing for them and the country is that the other side is embarrassed. This has been around for almost a decade now:

No to Jones, yes to Child Molester!

There's also a whole lot of ideology in this country that associates wealth with morality. If you're rich, you must have done something to deserve that money. If you're poor, there's some moral failing that's the explanation. A Just World belief system.

Exclusive: Trump lawyer claims the "President cannot obstruct justice" reminds me very much of:

I've got the Sony ct380. It's okay for the price, some HDMI arc control issues with my TV though (sometimes doesn't play sound passed back from TV, have to turn off and on again)

He called the CIA Nazis shortly before he took office

Woof

Missed the second half. Seems pretty bad that they could only manage one offensive touchdown against the niners. Did Trubisky show anything hopeful in the second half?

There was never any doubt that they'd seat Moore.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Dec 1, 2017 -> 09:55 PM) Not that I agree with what he said, but could you actually take his comments out of context any further? He defends the idea of working with Moore in the future and scoffs at the idea of expelling him from the Senate. If that's his stance, he should have zero issue working with franken.

The idea of supply side tax cuts have definitely been tried before work the same job/wage growth promises as this bill that never materialized, but the wealthy did get more wealthy.