Day 918 Friday July 12, 2019
479 Days until the 2020 election and 561 days until the Inauguration
High Crimes and Misdemeanors
Good Morning (Campers? Vietnam?) I guess it depends on which movie you liked better*.
*”A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” or “Good Morning Vietnam”
A very interesting exchange went on last night. It was short and it was different.
It happened near the end of Chris Hayes’ show. Chris mentioned the term “high crimes and misdemeanors” and said to the guest commentator, who happened to have written a book on impeachment cleverly called “Impeachment” that the terms high crimes and misdemeanors was rather nebulous and, you know, what is a high crime and what is a misdemeanor? The guest was a quiet spoken egg head type. I had never seen him on any of the talk shows before. He quietly and quickly pulled Chris up short with the comment of (I paraphrase here) “oh no, it was a term that was well understood at the time of it’s being written.”
The author went on to clarify. (And it was interesting to watch Chris stop, blink, and make that kind of “Oh?” face we would make when being corrected and informed (as opposed to the other “O” face, which is totally different**.))
** And the difference between “Oh” and “O” get it? I’m so clever.
High crimes and misdemeanors it turns out is not two different terms. It is one autonomous phrase. The author likened it to the term “motor vehicle.” It is one thing, ie one term. Then he gave an example, which kind of muddied the waters, but none the less was instructive. Shoplifting he said was a crime but did not rise to the level of high crimes and misdemeanors. However, if you were president and took off to the beach on vacation for seven months that would be a misdemeanor that rose to the level of “high crimes and misdemeanors.” ***
*** I find the last example particularly amusing because one of the greatest British prime ministers, William Gladstone, used to do just that – go to the beach for months at a time “to think” while he was PM! (Ha ha ha, I’m a riot.)
Speaking of high crimes and misdemeanors do you think we will ever learn what was behind Alec Acosta’s letting Jeff Epstein off so lightly? I mean there is no real credible explanation for his actions that we have heard so far. Either Acosta was bribed or blackmailed. That is the only thing I can think that would allow a Federal prosecutor to do what he did.
While on one of my recent twenty hour plane rides, I watched the movie Peppermint starring Jennifer Gardiner. It’s an excellent action adventure movie btw and Gardiner is well cast for the part. In that movie there’s a corrupt judge who lets the men who killed her husband and daughter off the hook because he was on the take. Spoiler alert! Jennifer came back, after five years of training as an MMA fighter and learned how to use all sorts of deadly weapons. She tied up the judge with detonator cord which she connected to a cell phone. She left the judge in his home. Got on a bus and called the cell phone. BOOM! How’s that for Second Amendment justice? Oh I guess the 2nd amendment doesn’t cover detonator cord. Too bad.
In Epstein’s upcoming case it seems more and more women, but at the time young girls are coming forward to say, “Yeah, he raped me.” Why now?” Oh, hum. well the guy is behind bars. The Federal prosecutor has said publicly that if this man molested you “We want to hear from you” and these women now feel safe to speak up.
His defense attorneys are trying to argue that he should be let go to stay at his “77 million dollar mansion.” To which I say, “Bull Shit.” As has been pointed out people like Epstein have plenty of “77 million dollar mansions” and jet planes. BTW the attorneys offered to put up both his jet plane and his “77 million dollar mansion” as collateral. Big deal, let him stay incarcerated. (Look to see his attorneys argue next, “Well, if he’s got to stay incarcerated can you at least send him to the southern border to be caged with the young women down there?”
Now, here’s where it gets really interesting. Epstein supposedly made his money as a hedge fund manager. He is said to be a billionaire. However, if you are a big time trader you leave a footprint. For example, one can see what George Soros traded and when he traded what he did. It leaves a financial mark. What about Epstein? Certainly, there is such a financial footprint for him? There isn’t. How can that be? It can’t. In other words, what he has been telling everyone all along about who he is and what he is, is a lie. He’s not the big hedge fund guy he claims to be.
Okay. So where did he get his money? Good question. Does he really have money? Also, a good question. The answers to both questions may be: “He stole it” and “No” in that order.
Turns out there’s a guy who was found guilty of one of the largest Ponzi schemes of all time, and somehow, this is not clear to me as of this writing, Epstein got that guy’s ill gotten money. If this is the case then the money Epstein has, is that and no more, that is unless olde Jeffey pulled his own Ponzi scheme, which he was attempting to do by advertising that you could invest a billion with him (minimum). Maybe, someone gave him a billion.
Okay. Moving on to should Epstein stay in jail while awaiting trial? His attorneys argue that he should not because what he has been charged with is a minor infraction of the law at best. To which anyone who can read one sentence of the law he is being charge with can say, “Bull Shit.” But then that’s what defense lawyers seem to do, right? (ie lie)
I can hear the argument now. “No your honor my client is innocent of these charges. Yes the law says it is a violation of that law to ‘recruit’ women, young women, for the purpose of unwanted sexual activity. Well, yes your honor it is claimed the Mr. Epstein had an associate outside of a high school with the specific purpose of finding young women whom he could ‘help.’ Well, yes it meant he gave them money, but that was to help them, not for sex. Well, yes he did have them massage him, and yes he asked them to play with his nipples while he masterbated. But, what? Hold them down while he thrust his penis into them repeatedly when they didn’t want that? Is that rape you honor? Really? I didn’t know that. Thanks. Well, he didn’t do that. I mean come on. The girls were 14 or 15 at the time, what did they know about rape? Besides it’s only a 53 page indictment and that’s old news. Well, yes ten more have come forward and said similar things. What do they know? Oh right, and there is the NBC interview with another woman who claims she was held down and raped. But really? Oh. I see. By the way, we can have some girls sent to your house tonight. No? How about in your chambers? No? Okay. Hey come on. He’s a good guy. You don’t think so? Gee whiz.”
In other news Donald Trump flanked by the Secretary of Commerce and the Attorney General claimed victory in their efforts to ignore the Constitution and flout the law and the give the middle finger to the courts by claiming that by giving up on the attempt to put a citizenship question on the Census 2020 form they had won a great victory. One commentator likened this to going to a poker tournament and losing all your money and clothes and claiming you won.
Just to be clear on this point, the Constitution says everyone in the country is to be counted every ten years. Period. Full stop. It doesn’t say only citizens. It doesn’t say “not immigrants.” It doesn’t say, “Not illegals.” It says EVERYONE. Now you can say, “You think” this or “You think” that, but the Constitution is clear. It is not ambiguous. (That is unless you are Donald Trump who doesn’t read, or know anything.) Add to this that the Republican operatives who came up with this super duper idea knew exactly what they were doing – trying to suppress the count of illegals and therefore limit the funds and resources the jurisdictions that have to deal with immigrants and illegals would have for the next ten years, and thus give more money and aid to whiter more Republican areas of the country.
And, oh by the way, please remember we fought a war over a principle connected to all this. that principle is called “No Taxation Without Representation” but I guess it’s okay to force immigrants to pay taxes, just as long as they don’t get anything for it or from it. Kind of a weird twist on the old Revolutionary principle don’t ya think?
Gosh, even the Supreme Court accused the government bringing the case of deception. Thus inflaming the right and calling for Roberts to be impeached. I mean can you imagine the gall of a Supreme Court justice to not believe a government official when they say they want to protect people under the Voting Rights Act when those self same justice have written evidence to the contrary? Just because those government officials said they needed the data even after the Census Bureau, (You know the professionals who know something about counting) say that what they are asking for isn’t the best way to get that information and that there are better more accurate ways to obtain the kind of information they claim they want, and the justices have evidence that those officials claiming to want this information turned down the suggestion fo a better way to get that information?
Yeah, let’s impeach Roberts for weighing the evidence and calling BS on BS.
Meanwhile Kamala Harris is looking more and more Presidential everyday, as is Elizabeth Warren.
Harris/Warren? Warren/Harris? Warren/Rapino?
Hum.
479 Days until the 2020 election and 561 days until the Inauguration
PS Well, I dunno. Bingo, you say? What kind of bingo?
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