Oh shit, what are we gonna do now?

[Mongrel]

That ain't even a kiss.

[Mongrel]

[Thad]

Supreme Court says Manhattan DA can get Trump's tax records, but rejects bid by House Democrats

More precisely, they didn't decide the case with the House seeking Trump's tax records; they sent it back to the lower court.

Both rulings 7-2 with Thomas and Alito dissenting.

Any way you slice it, this is a bad result, because it delays access to Trump's tax records until after the election and vindicates his strategy of just straight-up refusing to cooperate with investigations. To a certain extent, it doesn't matter what legal precedent this case ultimately produces; the practical precedent it produces is "the president can just tell Congress nah, he's not gonna comply with a subpoena, and they can't do shit." A lot of really awful shit has come out of this administration, but I think that, in particular, is a legacy that can do real harm for a very long time, perhaps even longer than all the judges he's appointed.

(Speaking of which: if there's a silver lining to this, it's that Trump is apoplectic that Gorsuch and Kavanaugh ruled against him. At least there's some schadenfreude to be had there.)

[Thad]

Adding: while I think this is bad news overall because it's a roadmap for future corrupt presidents to stonewall investigations, it's still pretty bad news for Trump personally. We won't be seeing his tax returns before the election, but a grand jury will and I think there's going to be a hell of a lot the New York County Attorney's Office will find to charge various people and entities named "Trump" with.

I won't hold my breath for any Trumps to see jail time, but I wouldn't be surprised to see fines in the tens of millions. And I think that one of the things we're likely to see before this is all over is that tens of millions is actually a lot of money for the Trumps, and all that "billionaire" talk is not just exaggeration but actual fraud.

[pacobird]

I tried reading white fragility and I am now interested in hearing the experiences of others who grew up in hardline Catholic communities because it was actually triggering and not in the way the author intended

[Thad]

Guardian headline: "Trump may be no good at leading America – but he's really, really good at lying"

No he isn't. He's fucking terrible at lying. Just because he does it a lot doesn't mean he's good at it.

Ed Wood has 46 directing credits at IMDb, but ain't nobody gonna describe him as "really, really good at directing."

[Mongrel]

[Friday]

while they're at it they should take out the seatbelts and the airbags from the red truck

[Niku]

can someone with photoshop please change this into a kelly cartoon thankx

[Mongrel]

Just so long as "Trump Administration" is replaced with "Mission Accomplished"

[Büge]

why does this remind me of that story where a military contractor showed Ronald Reagan a G.I. Joe figure and a Ken doll and said the G.I. Joe is what the US would be with a space-based nuclear weapons platform and the Ken doll is what they'd be without one

[Thad]

Trump Organization under investigation for 'insurance and bank fraud,' filing suggests

Even if there's no indictment before November, I expect that we're going to continue seeing a pretty steady stream of headlines like that over the next several months. And years.

[Grath]

Trump Organization under investigation for 'insurance and bank fraud,' filing suggests

Even if there's no indictment before November, I expect that we're going to continue seeing a pretty steady stream of headlines like that over the next several months. And years.

Decades, unless they arrest the lot of 'em. They've probably got Barron committing fraud already.

[Mongrel]

They've probably got Barron committing fraud already.

Probably?

I'm going to pretend that's why he's currently trending on Twitter (I did not look; I really don't want to know why).

[Grath]

They've probably got Barron committing fraud already.

Probably?

I'm going to pretend that's why he's currently trending on Twitter (I did not look; I really don't want to know why).

His fancy private school isn't reopening until October at the earliest so people were telling Trump that if it's so safe he should send Barron in to a forced-to-reopen public school.

[Thad]

Judge rules E. Jean Carroll can continue to seek Trump's DNA in defamation suit

There are a lot of long-simmering Trump investigations and lawsuits that can pop up in the news at any time.

[Thad]

Steve Bannon, three others charged with fraud in border wall fundraising campaign

(CNN)New York federal prosecutors on Thursday charged President Donald Trump's former adviser Steve Bannon and three others with defrauding donors of hundreds of thousands of dollars as part of a fundraising campaign purportedly aimed at supporting Trump's border wall.
Bannon, 66, was arrested on a boat Thursday off the Eastern coast of Connecticut by federal agents along with officials from the United States Postal Inspection Service, according to the agency and a law enforcement official. He will make his initial court appearance in New York later Thursday, according to the US attorney's office. Bill Burck, an attorney for Bannon, declined to comment.

Each of the three people who led Trump’s 2016 campaign has now faced criminal charges

(The other two are Lewandowski and Manafort. And then of course there's Flynn, Cohen, Stone, Gates, Papadopoulos...has anybody put together an anti-Trump ad yet that shows all these guys and juxtaposes them with the "best people" and "drain the swamp" quotes and Trump talking about being tough on crime? That might be too busy; maybe make a few different ads on the theme.)

[hngkong]

...has anybody put together an anti-Trump ad yet that shows all these guys

I'm not sure what an ad that shows people that Trump has never met and has nothing to do with, would do to change his follower's minds in any way.

[Brantly B.]

You don't make drug awareness ads for people who are already on drugs.

[Thad]

...has anybody put together an anti-Trump ad yet that shows all these guys

I'm not sure what an ad that shows people that Trump has never met and has nothing to do with,

That'd be a good series of ads, too; just 30-second collections of photos of Trump with criminals overlaid with Trump claiming never to have met them.

would do to change his follower's minds in any way.

Changing his followers' minds isn't really the point, at least insofar as when I hear "his followers" I think of that unshakeable 30% that's never going to leave him no matter what. It's more about shaving off swing voters who backed him in 2016 but aren't especially loyal to him.

Now, I do think the Democrats focus entirely too much on swing voters when what they really should be doing is turning out the base. But ads pointing out Trump's brazen criminality could presumably appeal to both those groups.

(Also, any ad by the Lincoln Project exists pretty much for the primary purpose of trolling Trump, and the secondary purpose of George Conway and everybody else involved positioning themselves as Reasonable Moderates who never liked Trump anyway and trying to gain political leverage with both parties in the event of a Biden victory.

Meanwhile, Kellyanne is an opportunist who's prepared to land on her feet no matter how the election goes down -- if Trump wins, she's still one of the president's most ardent defenders and most trusted advisors; if he loses, I think it's reasonable to expect a tell-all book six months later where she swears she was on George's side all along and did her best to use her influence with Trump to try to push him in a more moderate direction, while also constantly leaking behind-the-scenes details to the press.)