Froth Slosh B'Gosh

Indictable

DOJ policy that a sitting president cannot be indicted is the only reason why Trump isn't in the dock right now.

BUCK: Let me just stop. You made the decision on the Russian interference [conspiracy]. You couldn’t have indicted the president on that. And you made the decision on that. But when it came to obstruction, you threw a bunch of stuff up against the wall to see what would stick, and that is fundamentally unfair.
MUELLER: I would not agree to that characterization at all. What we did is provide to the attorney general in the form of a confidential memorandum our understanding of the case, those cases that were brought, those cases that were declined, that one case where the president cannot be charged with a crime.
BUCK: Okay, but the … could you charge the president with a crime after he left office?
MUELLER: Yes.
BUCK: You believe that he committed … you could charge the president of the United States with obstruction of justice after he left office?
MUELLER: Yes.

There it is.  Mueller confirms that Trump can be indicted the instant he leaves office.  In the meantime, its time for Congress to do its duty and remove him from office via impeachment.

Rosfeld Not Guilty

I've avoided commenting on this case, because I wanted to get all the facts before coming to a conclusion. While I found the initial reporting on this tragedy troubling, I was also interested on why the prosecution didn't call a use of force expert to testify, and why they didn't call the driver of the car to testify. I found Rosfeld's testimony compelling, especially his describing that he thought he saw an object in Rose's hand. The law states that you must view the facts of the case based on what a reasonable police officer would conclude, and forced to make a split-second decision based on the facts at hand. Did Rose deserve to die? No. But is Rosfeld guilty of premeditated murder? Also, no, and so says not me, but a jury of his peers.

Plutocrat Gets Jail

Finally, one of these bastards has to pay for his crime.

One day after the sixth anniversary of the Upper Big Branch Mine explosion, which killed 29 men, U.S. District Judge Irene Berger gave the ex-Massey Energy CEO the maximum prison time and fined him the maximum $250,000. A federal jury convicted Mr. Blankenship on Dec. 3 of a misdemeanor conspiracy to violate mine safety standards at Upper Big Branch.

Does he get it?  Of course not.

“It is important to everyone that you know that I’m not guilty of a crime,” Mr. Blankenship said.

Um, yes you are.  That's what being convicted means.  It would be nice if his actions bankrupted him, because I frankly feel the most appropriate penalty for a rich criminal is to impoversh him.  Unfortunatly, he'll still live quite comfortably on the millions he bankrolled by cutting corners on safety.

 

Paris

Nothing more needs to be said, other than these pictures should be spread far and wide, just to spite the muderers.

Botched Execution

I've never been a fan of the death penalty, mostly for its irredeemablity if you make a mistake, but I think most would agree that if you're going to put people to death it should be done humanly.

What was supposed to be the first of two executions here on Tuesday night was halted when the prisoner, Clayton D. Lockett, began to writhe and gasp after he had already been declared unconscious and called out “oh, man,” according to witnesses.

The administering doctor intervened and discovered that “the line had blown,” said the director of corrections, Robert Patton, meaning that drugs were no longer flowing into Mr. Lockett’s vein.

At 7:06 p.m., Mr. Patton said, Mr. Lockett died in the execution chamber, of a heart attack....

A medical technican inserted the IV needle and then the the first drug, a sedative intended to knock the man out and forestall pain, was administered at 6:23 p.m. Ten minutes later, the doctor announced that Mr. Lockett was unconscious, and the team started to administer the next two drugs, a paralytic and one intended to make the heart stop.

At that point, witnesses said, things began to go awry. Mr. Lockett’s body twitched, his foot shook and he mumbled, witnesses said.

At 6:37 p.m., he tried to rise and exhaled loudly. At that point, prison officials pulled a curtain in front of the witnesses and the doctor discovered a “vein failure,” Mr. Patton said.

Without effective sedation, the second two drugs are known to cause agonizing suffocation and pain.

I suspect that even with effective sedation, the second two drugs cause agonizing suffocation and pain.  Observers just don't notice it because the victim is sedated.

Part of me thinks we should bring back public executions, erect a gibbet in the town square and let people watch.  If they see how horrible it can be, then perhaps there would be a push to end the barbarity.  But on the other hand, I can also see it appealing to the bloodthirsty, with tasteless shows like "Sunday Night At The Executions" being broadcast.

Why Cliven Bundy Is A Criminal

Best analysis I've seen so far for what should be blindingly evident.

Under the Taylor Grazing Act, a permit system was set up that granted grazing privileges, not rights. The grazing permit is a revocable license under the law, not creating any right, title, interest, or estate in or to the land. In the early 1990s the BLM revised Mr. Bundy’s, and other ranchers’, permits to protect the desert tortoise. Mr. Bundy did not like the revision and so he made, in my opinion, a catastrophic, knee-jerk mistake when he stopped paying his grazing fees in defiance. It was catastrophic because what he did the moment he stopped paying was remove all legal standing he had. He relinquished any claim he had to graze on public land. When he did that, the BLM rightfully canceled his permit and would not grant him anymore permits.

HA! HA!

One of the reasons I think Republicans are convinced that Democrats are engaged in any manner of election fraud is due to themselves being neck deep in election fraud.  Case in point:

Dinesh D’Souza, a best-selling conservative author and filmmaker, was indicted on Thursday on charges that he used straw donors to illegally donate to a 2012 Senate campaign....

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan said that Mr. D’Souza encouraged others to give $20,000 to a Senate candidate and reimbursed them for the donations. Election law prohibits such arrangements and caps donations at $5,000 per donor to any one candidate.

 

ANOTHER School Shooting

Here we go again.  This time in Denver.

I own guns.  I have no problem with responsible people owning guns.  Mine are unloaded in a locked closet and the ammunition is kept separately. But I have no clue, given recent court decisions on how to keep guns out of the hands of people who shouldn't have guns.

BTW, I really don't like the phrase "responsible gun owner," because its like "no true Scotsman."  A gun owner is deemed responsible until the moment he does something irresponsible.

Just Another Day In America

As of Sunday, we still don't know what caused Paul Anthony Ciancia to target TSA employees at LAX, but again we have the intersection of someone who may be suffering from mental illness and high powered weaponry.  I've seen reports that he had 100 rounds of .223 ammunition on him, and he could have killed far more people than he did. 

We're so desensetized to random violence that the only time it bubbles up to the national conciousness is when something like this happens.  There are, on average, about 27 gun deaths per day in this country, and that doesn't include suicides.

Frankly, given our laws, lobbying and political climate, I don't know what can be done.  There should be a way to keep these firearms out of the hands of the mentally ill while not infringing on well established citizen rights, but how long will this madness go on?

How Come They Never See This?

Another "psychic" goes to prison.

A South Florida woman who claimed to have psychic powers has been convicted by a jury of multiple fraud charges in what prosecutors called a long-running $40 million scam.

What's amazing is how much money was fleeced from the gullible:

One victim was romance novelist Jude Deveraux who testified she gave Marks about $18 million over several years.