A federal grand jury in Nevada indicted Cliven Bundy and four others on 16 charges related to an armed standoff near his ranch in 2014 over unpaid grazing fees.If convicted, the jamokes could spend a very long time in prison and be subject to millions of dollars in fines. Excuse us while we enjoy the schadenfreude.
The 69-year-old Nevada rancher was arrested Feb. 10 in Portland, Oregon, where his sons, Ammon and RyanBundy, are jailed and accused of organizing the occupation of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. In the takeover, which lasted nearly six weeks, they had demanded that public lands be turned over to locals and that two area ranchers serving sentences for arson be freed.
Ammon Bundy, of Idaho, Ryan Bundy, of Nevada, Ryan Payne, of Montana, and Peter Santilli of Ohio, were also indicted by the Nevada grand jury Wednesday.
The charges against them and Cliven Bundy include: conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States, conspiracy to impede or injure a federal officer, weapon use and possession, assault on a federal officer, threatening a federal law enforcement officer, obstruction, extortion to interfere with commerce, and interstate travel in aid of extortion.
Americans think the GOP would do a better job than Democrats handling the terrorist threat (46 percent to 34 percent) and the economy (42 percent to 37 percent). [December 2015 Pew Research Center poll]Gulp. Wow.
Democrats need to insist that while much work remains to be done, the United States is in far better shape economically than most other countries in the world. The nation is better off for the reforms in health care, financial regulation and environmental protection enacted during Obama’s term and should be proud of its energetic, entrepreneurial and diverse citizenry.
If Clinton, Sanders and their party don’t provide a forceful response to the wildly inaccurate and ridiculously bleak characterization of Obama’s presidency that the Republicans are offering, nobody will. And if this parody is allowed to stand as reality, the Democrats will lose. (our emphasis)Not only will lose, but will deserve to lose. It's political malpractice to have accomplished what the Obama administration has accomplished and still have nearly half of the general public believe the do- nothing party is the better option on terrorism and the economy. Democrats have to get into the same 24/ 7 campaign mode the Republicans operate in (they don't know how to govern, only campaign). Otherwise, a failure to communicate for Democrats can have disastrous effects in 2016.
This is not about the person this is about the Court. The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next SCOTUS Justice— Reince Priebus (@Reince) February 17, 2016
And the rakes they abounded.Republicans want the majority who voted for Obama to count as much as the majority who voted for Gore when it comes to the Supreme Court.— Bob Schooley (@Rschooley) February 17, 2016
Observers have long noted the kid gloves Rubio gets on both the campaign trail and often onstage in the Republican debates. Which was why Chris Christie’s effective attack on him in the last New Hampshire debate was surprising only to people who had not noticed it before. [snip]
What accounts for this phenomenon? There are a couple of possibilities. Rubio running in the general election against either Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton would give the media the sort of easy youth-vs.-experience narrative that has fueled more than one presidential campaign in the past. Rubio is young and telegenic, and you can see the press corps get excited about that the way they got excited about Barack Obama in 2008 or (ironically) Bill Clinton in 1992. Rubio is fresh-faced! He’s relatable! He likes football and rap music! He got busted for underage drinking once!"And he'll take us back to 19th Century America!" (h/t old classmate Peter Fenn)
“If Marco Rubio likes Vancouver’s waterfront that much, I’d encourage him to come check out our universal healthcare, public transit and Pride parade."
America. pic.twitter.com/TeduJkwQF3— Jeb Bush (@JebBush) February 16, 2016
.@JebBush America. pic.twitter.com/TZxKRNSbVc— Buzz_Patriot (@Buzz_Patriot) February 17, 2016
.@JebBush America. pic.twitter.com/7LlXYsdvZd— Mashable (@mashable) February 16, 2016
"Jacobs had his suspicions as to why his house had been burgled. For five years he'd been locked in a protracted legal battle with one of the wealthiest men on Earth. Jacobs had filed a wrongful-termination case, accusing his former boss of ordering him to perform 'illegal activities.' Could the burglary have been the desperate act of some yes-man or fixer, or even the gangsters he'd encountered while working in China? 'I don't know who is behind it,' Jacobs testified in a subsequent legal proceeding, admitting he had no facts to suggest it was his old employer. 'I know who might have a benefit or interest in understanding what information I may have had.'"There's a connection between the lawsuit that Steve Jacobs has brought against Smelly Shelly and the 2016 elections, where the casino mogul has already been courted by each of the Rethug candidates for President. As the saying goes, "follow the money":
"Adelson's casinos in Macau, a special administrative region of China, provide the majority of the revenue for his company, Las Vegas Sands. But beneath Macau's glitz lurk organized crime, corruption, and a shadow banking system that has allegedly laundered billions of dollars for China's ruling elite. In 2013, the chair of Nevada's powerful Gaming Control Board told a federal commission that it was 'common knowledge' that the lucrative VIP rooms in Macau casinos have 'long been dominated by Asian organized crime.' That same year, a federal commission cited a study finding that more than $200 billion in 'ill-gotten funds are channeled through Macau each year.'What follows is Isaacs' detailed account of the convoluted and often corrupt dealings involving the casino business in Macao. It's those dealings which led to investigations into potential violations by Smelly Shelly of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which bars U.S. businesses from bribing foreign officials, something we've posted on.
Which raises the question: Is dirty money spent by corrupt Chinese officials at Macau casinos flowing into our elections, at least indirectly?" (emphasis added)
“What better way to honor America’s greatest champion of original intent than by wiping your obstructionist ass on the very document he holds so dear....Let’s just have a Supreme Court vacancy for a year because some chinless dildo wants a justice who’ll use his gavel to plug up your abortion hole.”
"I think he's an unstable person. He's nuts."He also called the Texas extremist "a liar" repeatedly, but that's a given. As bonuses, he repeated the fact that the Iraq disaster and 9-11 happened on Bush dynasty scion John Ellis "J.E.B.!" Bush's clueless brother's watch -- you know, the guy that "kept us safe" -- and warned the Rethuglican National Committee about stacking the audiences in future debates in favor of his opponents as they did in South Carolina. Rump then insinuated that further RNC bias against him might force him to make a third party run. Chaos! Bwahahaha!
.@SenateMajLdr is right that Americans should have a voice in selecting the next SCOTUS justice. In fact, they did: when @POTUS won in 2012.— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) February 14, 2016
Art II Sec 2 of the Constitution says the President nominates Supreme Court justices with the advice & consent of the Senate.— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) February 14, 2016
I can’t find a clause in the Constitution that says “…except when there’s a year left in the term of a Democratic President.”— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) February 14, 2016
