What does a BIDEN Presidency look like?

[Admiral Yi]

Tell me more about your bets Fredo.  I can't get enough of this stuff.

[alfred russel]

Tell me more about your bets Fredo.  I can't get enough of this stuff.

I don't want to make Zoupa unhappy.

I just had $1.7k pay out today with the two confirmations, but still have bets of $25,840.82 outstanding. I'm really sweating it out right now! The dust should mostly settle by Monday night.

[Grey Fox]

Such a degenerate.

[DGuller]

Tell me more about your bets Fredo.  I can't get enough of this stuff.

I don't want to make Zoupa unhappy.

I just had $1.7k pay out today with the two confirmations, but still have bets of $25,840.82 outstanding. I'm really sweating it out right now! The dust should mostly settle by Monday night.

Hopefully your efforts to hurry the confirmations along in this thread will work out for you.

[Valmy]

Once you convince Berkut of something the rest of the world is easy.

[Zoupa]

Tell me more about your bets Fredo.  I can't get enough of this stuff.

[Admiral Yi]

Don't speak on my behalf. 

[The Minsky Moment]

There is going to be a criminal trial, right? Do you think they will have witnesses there? Do you think it will be wrapped up in one week?

Is the additional congressional inquiry going to have witnesses?

Give me a break...you know the trial was cut way short because there are too many political pressures on the Senate (covid relief, confirmations) to make tolerable a long trial right now.

Very unlikely there will be a criminal trial of Trump on this issue.  If there was then obviously it would like quite different due to the rules of evidence.

I assume the congressional inquiry will have a much broader scope but we will see.

This impeachment was quite different from the Ukraine one.  On the Ukraine affair, the relevant conduct occurred in secret, outside the public eye.  The real problem was that even though some witnesses came forward - enough to prove the case - the President was allowed to withhold the documents that would have shown what really happened and to order the key witnesses like Meadows and the OMB guys not to cooperate.

On this impeachment, the relevant conduct occurred out in the open - Trump made public statements in speeches and in the debates, in tweets, in court papers, and in the rally itself.  The trial itself was mostly superfluous - packaging and reminding us what we already knew happened.  The question is whether sufficient numbers of GOP senators would have the courage to do the obvious.  There wasn't and no procedural rejiggering would change that.  The other question that Oex raises is to the potential political impact of a more elaborate trial, even if it would not affect outcome.  That is a different question.

[Berkut]

I don't think AR is going on about this because of his bets, he is going on about this because this is the standard way you attack Dems. They are fools, and weak, and if only they would do what McConnell wants them to do, then everything would be better.

This is bullshit. The GOP wanted the trial to go away, because they knew they would acquit no matter what, and the least cost they could pay to get away with that, the better.

So McConnell did his thing, and AR bought it. Oh yeah, if only Schumer was clever enough to do exactly what McConnell demanded, why, that would be ever so much better for everyone! The cabinet would have been confirmed for sure!

Horseshit. This is just him going after Dems.

I could not give two shits about Schumer or the Dems for that matter. Despising McConnell and the modern GOP is not about being a partisan Dem, it is about being a partisan American who cares about America.

And I am perfectly happy to admit that I will default to the position that if McConnell wants it, history shows that anyone not a GOPtard Trump tool should probably want exactly the opposite.

[Barrister]

And I am perfectly happy to admit that I will default to the position that if McConnell wants it, history shows that anyone not a GOPtard Trump tool should probably want exactly the opposite.

Umm, yeah, I think that's been pretty obvious for awhile there Berkut.

[Razgovory]

Tell me more about your bets Fredo.  I can't get enough of this stuff.

I don't want to make Zoupa unhappy.

I just had $1.7k pay out today with the two confirmations, but still have bets of $25,840.82 outstanding. I'm really sweating it out right now! The dust should mostly settle by Monday night.

You might want to see a doctor about that.  That's not normal human behavior.

[Eddie Teach]

Neither is renting a property a couple miles from a vacant one that you own. Dorsey has too much money, he needs to find ways to lose it.

[alfred russel]

Very unlikely there will be a criminal trial of Trump on this issue.  If there was then obviously it would like quite different due to the rules of evidence.

Why not? Ford pardoned Nixon to avoid a criminal trial.

I assume the congressional inquiry will have a much broader scope but we will see.

This impeachment was quite different from the Ukraine one.  On the Ukraine affair, the relevant conduct occurred in secret, outside the public eye.  The real problem was that even though some witnesses came forward - enough to prove the case - the President was allowed to withhold the documents that would have shown what really happened and to order the key witnesses like Meadows and the OMB guys not to cooperate.

On this impeachment, the relevant conduct occurred out in the open - Trump made public statements in speeches and in the debates, in tweets, in court papers, and in the rally itself.  The trial itself was mostly superfluous - packaging and reminding us what we already knew happened.  The question is whether sufficient numbers of GOP senators would have the courage to do the obvious.  There wasn't and no procedural rejiggering would change that.  The other question that Oex raises is to the potential political impact of a more elaborate trial, even if it would not affect outcome.  That is a different question.

Uh...the republican senators clearly and openly stated the answer to that before the trial began--only a handful would even concede the trial was constitutional. Your assertion is the trial had to be "right now!" to solve the question of how GOP senators would vote? That was never an unanswered question either.

Witnesses could add quite a bit of context. Speech writers could provide evidence on where the language in the speeches came from, what direction Trump gave them, what edits he made, etc. Advisors could give evidence on the information that was being provided to Trump. Obviously there seems to have been unconstructive communication between republican members of congress and trump during Jan. 6.

[alfred russel]

I don't think AR is going on about this because of his bets, he is going on about this because this is the standard way you attack Dems. They are fools, and weak, and if only they would do what McConnell wants them to do, then everything would be better.

The standard way to attack democrats is to complain about Schumer's management of the Senate? I deserve a brown star for this? 

This is all deeply disturbing and hurtful for me, from someone who has known me 20 years. By this time you should know I'm much less interested in partisanship, or even money, and much more by being able to say, "I told you so!"

[alfred russel]

I don't think AR is going on about this because of his bets, he is going on about this because this is the standard way you attack Dems. They are fools, and weak, and if only they would do what McConnell wants them to do, then everything would be better.

There is the corrosiveness of not being able to criticize your team's leader without getting awarded brown stars for supporting the other side. I also disagree with the characterization that the slow progress is primarily due to republicans (on the confirmations so far at least). But whether McConnell is being an asshole here seems really irrelevant.

Me: Don't drive the lane or your shot will get blocked.
Others: Nah, it won't get blocked.
*The team drives the lane and the shot gets blocked.*
Me: They were idiots for driving the lane, I said if they did that the shot would get blocked.
Berkut: The other team had Mutumbo in the lane and he blocks everything that comes his way! You can't criticize someone for that! You should be in the Hawks fan club Hall of Fame!