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Reports of protests are overblown. A few incidents around the country, but nothing major.

5 (45.5%)

A few major incidents in capitals, but nothing much in DC.

5 (45.5%)

A major incident in DC, but nothing much around the country.

0 (0%)

More than 10 capitals have major upheavals, but nothing much in DC.

0 (0%)

A major incident in DC plus more than 10 capitals with significant upheavals.

1 (9.1%)

More than half the capitals around the country have problems with protesters, but DC is quiet.

0 (0%)

DC has major problems, while more than half the capitals around the country also have considerable trouble with protesters.

0 (0%)

Huge disruption to the day.

0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 9

Voting closed: January 19, 2021, 10:49:21 PM

[NeedsAdjustments]

Curious how all the Iran-Contra Reagan/Bush pardons went down.  Can't imagine it now.  It would absolutely kill Trump to pardon Manafort.  I guess Americans never thought the malfeasance on the part of the Reagan Administration  was really that serious.  Public views on Russia-gate are not the same.

We should be outraged enough that Trump doing his best to signal to Manafort that the pardon is coming.  Tampering with a witness in plain sight.

[NeedsAdjustments]

"where's a MAGA hat on Fox"

MAGA hats are everywhere on Fox.

I think MAGA hats are required and part of the Fox News dress code.

Fair and Balanced.

State-run television.  Really no more fair term for what Fox is.

[barton]

Speaking of messing with the heads of jurors....Trump's tweets regarding the murder of the girl in Iowa....

“Mollie Tibbetts, an incredible young woman, is now permanently separated from her family,” Mr. Trump said Wednesday evening in a Twitter message, a clear reference to his much criticized policy that tried to deter illegal border crossings by separating migrant families.

“A person came in from Mexico illegally and killed her. We need the wall, we need our immigration laws changed, we need our border laws changed, we need Republicans to do it because the Democrats aren’t going to do it,” he said.

Mr. Rivera’s lawyer, Allan M. Richards, disputed the government’s claims that his client was in the country illegally and said Mr. Trump’s comments highlighting his immigration status could prejudice future jurors. Mr. Richards said his client, who was ordered held on $5 million cash bond during a brief court appearance on Wednesday, came to the United States at age 17, had the equivalent of a middle school education and had worked for years tending to dairy cows.

“For sad and sorry Trump to say that they’re illegal without even giving them a hearing is totally wrong,” Mr. Richards said in an interview after the court hearing.

-NYT, 8/23

There is a Cult of Unreason growing in this country. 

[bankshot1]

"where's a MAGA hat on Fox"

MAGA hats are everywhere on Fox.

I think MAGA hats are required and part of the Fox News dress code.

Fair and Balanced.

State-run television.  Really no more fair term for what Fox is.

Yup.

Fair and Balanced: When we're Reich we're Reich.

[bodiddley]

I've sat on jury three times, and I'm always surprised at the degree to which jury instructions are ignored.  I saw one jury hung because two holdouts basically didn't like the state law on which the defendant was being tried.  No amount of "we're not here to legislate, or to pass judgment on statutes," dissuaded them. 

Jury nullification is an interesting area.

What state law was at issue?

If I was on a jury, I wouldn't convict anyone of a marijuana offense.

I recently was called to jury duty and had to prove I live abroad.
They were leery of documents mostly in Chinese showing I live and work here.
Only the 2nd time I was called, and the first time I was heading to Kenya and so was also out of the country.  So never served.

[and that was supposed to be: "wears a MAGA hat on Fox when interviewed"]

[Hamilton Samuels]

A juror in Paul Manafort’s financial fraud trial says a lone holdout prevented the jury from convicting the onetime Trump campaign chairman on all 18 counts.

Jurors repeatedly tried to persuade the holdout to “look at the paper trail” but she insisted there was reasonable doubt, juror Paula Duncan told Fox News.

“We didn’t want it to be hung, so we tried for an extended period of time to convince her,” Duncan said, adding that the four days of deliberations were so heated that there were “tears” among the 12 jurors. “But in the end, she held out and that’s why we have 10 counts that did not get a verdict.”

So just one juror spared Manafort 10 more guilty counts.
The juror talking about the proceeding is a Trump fan, where's a MAGA hat on Fox, etc, and she had Manafort guilty on all 18 counts and tried to persuade the lone holdout.

She also said the jury “agreed to throw out the testimony” of Manafort protege Rick Gates, who pleaded guilty in Mueller’s investigation and agreed to cooperate with investigators, and focus instead on the documents.

I don't know how accurate her assessment is, but it's always interesting how jurors go about their deliberations.
Gates was the key witness and gave the most damning testimony and had all the inside knowledge.   And they just put all that aside?  hmm.

I remember years back there was a case where a father was on trial for killing his child.  And the jurors were given a walk-through tour of the house/scene of the crime.  And the jurors ended up convicting the father largely based on some holes punched in the walls and a door, as it convinced them he was easily enraged and violence-prone.  Something which wasn't even intentional evidence was decisive (according to the jurors post-trial).

Well, look how OJ's lawyers staged his house in order to make him look like he was black. That shit works.

[NeedsAdjustments]

Anyone notice how our President gave credence to absurd White Nationalist mythology on twitter today?  He has since deleted it.

[whiskeypriest]

"Trump loses Pecker"

- HuffPo teaser headline

National Enquirer Publisher David Pecker has jumped off the Trump Train.and.taken an immunity deal from the US Attorneys office for the SDNY. That would be the Cohen prosecutors, not Mueller.

[barton]

Haha!

Bodidd -- it was a DWI law that allowed prosecutions even if only getting in the car and turning on the motor.   Problem with this,  in a Dakota winter,  is all the inebriated who are running the engine to keep warm while they call a taxi or wait for a SO to come pick them up.   Cranking the engine doesn't always indicate mens rea. 

[NeedsAdjustments]

So Trump has let it be known, through his "lawyer," that he will pardon Manafort once the Mueller investigation is over.

Yeah, that's not witness tampering or anything.

[josh]

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/civil-rights-devos_us_5b7b2dd3e4b018b93e96a9cf

In other realms of administration incompetence, the Devos of Education's been underreporting incidents of racial discrimination in the schools.

[Driver125]

So Trump has let it be known, through his "lawyer," that he will pardon Manafort once the Mueller investigation is over.

It would be just like the Trumpster to renege on that (just as he is being hauled out of the White House himself).

[oilcan]

I wonder if Trump feels let down by Pecker.  I imagine Pecker will shrink from testifying in court.  You have to wonder what does Pecker really stand for?   

[barton]

If the US Attorney squeezes Pecker,  I would expect him to withdraw...from previous obligations of friendship to Trump and his organization.  It was Pecker (this sentence actually contains no double entendre) who published the stories about Clinton having 6 months to live and Ted Cruz's father being involved in the JFK assassination.  I'm not sure there are many publishers slimier than Pecker (wasn't even trying for that one).

[bankshot1]

You guys seem to have a strong grasp on Pecker.