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statusquoergo · 3 years

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do you ever wonder about what mike's arrest would have been like, angst and story wise, if mike and harvey had been together at that point in time? because i do. like all the time haha. i saw a post on here talking about that once and i haven't stopped thinking about it since!!

Gallo wouldn't have made it to the end of the season alive, that's for sure. Nobody puts the love of Harvey Specter's life in danger, pal, you can bet on that much.

No, okay, with the usual caveat of "let's pretend Suits has a little self-awareness and can carry out the emotional repercussions of a heavy plotline for more than five minutes," it sure would've been... Well, I think it would be very similar in some ways, and very different in others. As it is, Harvey dedicates himself body and soul to getting Mike out of prison, and them being together obviously wouldn't change that. Maybe he would've done even more, somehow, although I'm struggling to think of, like, how that could possibly have happened.

Let's back up a little bit, to the events of the trial.

Now, being that the show spent remarkably little time during the second half of Season 5 focusing on Mike and Rachel as a couple, I don't think much would necessarily change prior to the aborted wedding in the finale. Mike and Harvey are at odds over Mike's defensive strategy, but that's mainly because they want to protect each other, so being a couple would only intensify that response.

The first place there's really room to showcase a different narrative is when Rachel gets mad at Mike for defending that man in court rather than spending time with her. Being that Harvey is, by and large, more empathetic towards Mike's need to prove himself and his desire to help people in need, I think he might be frustrated that Mike wasn't taking perhaps one of his last moments of freedom to spend time with Harvey, but he would also understand where Mike is coming from. That is, Mike has had this amazing experience over the past five years and worked so hard all this time to use his fairly accidental power to help people who would not normally be helped by someone in his position, and now the life he's built for himself is about to be ripped away, but he's stumbled on this one last chance to help someone else who's in the midst of being fucked over by the system, and he's going to take it, because he has to. Because he's Mike, and that's what Mike does.

So where does that leave us? With a great opportunity for Harvey and Mike to have an actual heart-to-heart that comes less from a place of anger, as their glass-throwing fisticuffs in the next episode, and more from a place of hurt—not Harvey's hurt feelings that Mike isn't spending time with him, or Mike hurting over his potentially impending imprisonment, but them both hurting for each other for what's going to happen if Mike goes to prison. From an angst perspective, this is a wonderful opportunity for a really soul-baring scene from the two of them, especially if Mike is starting to feel the hopelessness that prompts him to accept Gibbs's deal, and Harvey might or might not see the writing on the wall but refuses to accept it without fighting to the last breath.

Anyway, they missed out a little bit there.

As I said before, Harvey canonically devotes himself wholeheartedly to getting Mike out of prison, so I don't know that a lot would necessarily change in the overall scheme of things once he's there, but there are specific events that could be very interesting to handle differently. First of all, Harvey and the warden drugging Mike to give him a few hours with Rachel. The plan is stupid, the plan has always been stupid, and now that plan isn't going to happen, so that's good, but also Harvey still needs Mike to accept Cahill's deal, so how's he going to do that?

More emotive speeches!

No seriously think about it, if Harvey and Mike are a couple and the only thing keeping Mike from getting out of his sentence early is his refusal to turn on his cellmate who he's known for all of five minutes (hyperbole, but not much), what kind of impassioned conversation do you think Harvey and Mike might have arguing over that? There can still be backdoor shenanigans with the warden, even, if Harvey wants to secure them a conversation someplace where they won't be recorded so they can really release their inhibitions. I'm actually not talking about a sexual encounter, but Harvey in particular is, as we know, very guarded with his emotions, and Mike might've learned by that point not to be so cavalier about saying or doing whatever he pleases wherever and whenever it occurs to him, so getting them into a completely private space could be very...freeing, to use a slightly misguided word in these circumstances. More angst, is what I'm saying, this is a great opportunity for another really deep, vulnerable, angst-ful scene.

And that's all very well and good from a plot-alteration standpoint, but how about emotionally? Though I don't know that Harvey's actions would change much if he and Mike were in a relationship as opposed to merely...dangerously codependent, I could see his mental state fraying more than it does in canon. Not to bring this all back around to his mother, but let's bring this back around to his mother: It's heinously unfair to say Harvey would feel abandoned by Mike going to prison, so I'd like to think that if Harvey does feel that way at any point, he recognizes it and shuts it down pretty quickly. He's not the most emotionally astute guy around, sure, but he's not a total idiot.

But what I do think there's room for is the collision of Harvey's mantra that "Everybody leaves," and his somewhat more hidden resignation that "I drive everyone away." Mike is in prison, because Harvey couldn't save him. Because Harvey wasn't fast enough at the courthouse. Because Harvey wasn't a good enough lawyer. Because Harvey couldn't convince Mike to let him take the fall for them both. Mike is in prison for Harvey. If they're a couple, I'd love to see this played out more thoroughly with some more attention given to some of the actual reasons Harvey is moving heaven and earth to get Mike out, aside from just "He's Mike and we're attached at the hip," or even in this alternate universe, "He's my boyfriend and I love him." No, let's get down in there and talk about what the parameters of this situation are doing to Harvey, who never talks about his feelings or examines his own emotional state. He's gotta start coming apart at the seams, to say the least, and what do you think Mike's response would be to that during their way-too-frequent-to-be-legal visitations? Nothing good, I'm sure of that, especially on top of the hardship of living in prison. Harvey is hurting, Mike is hurting, their hurting is hurting each other, everyone is miserable and there's not a whole lot to be done about it. So what do we do? Fight harder, of course! Ugh, I hope Harvey doesn't do anything too unhinged...

Well, anyway, I certainly think there's room to explore that idea and I'm sure I haven't exhausted the possibilities here, but it was fun to think about! Thanks for bringing this up!

#marvey #season 6 #anonymous

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losbella · 4 years

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lastsonlost · 7 years

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CORRECTION: This story was updated to reflect the correct spelling of Martin Shkreli's name.

Martin Shkreli said the $5,000 bounty he posted for Hillary Clinton's hair was meant to be a joke.

He apologized for the stunt to a federal judge.

Prosecutors claimed he is a danger to the public because of the Clinton post and online comments he made targeting two other women.

Pharmo Bro Martin Shkreli behind bars after bizarre Facebook post 7 Hours Ago | 01:37

An angry federal judge revoked the $5 million bond of convicted fraudster Martin Shkreli on Wednesday and ordered him jailed after ruling the notorious "pharma bro" was a danger to the public because of his offer on Facebook of cash for samples of Hillary Clinton's hair.

Judge Kiyo Matsumoto's ruling came at a hearing in Brooklyn federal court where Shkreli's high-powered lawyer Benjamin Brafman pleaded with her for nearly an hour not to toss him in jail despite what the attorney said was a "stupid" Facebook post.

And it came a day after Shkreli, 34, apologized for posting a $5,000 bounty last week to any of his 70,000 Facebook followers who grabbed some of Clinton's hair, saying he used "poor judgment" with "my awkward attempt at humor."

"It's not going to happen again," Brafman vowed about his client, who has a long history of baiting adversaries online. "I'm asking you ... to give him a chance to be more appropriate."

Federal prosecutor Jacquelyn Kasulis, who appeared to be seething about the disgraced pharmaceutical executive's posts about Clinton and other women, said Wednesday, "I think this escalating pattern of violence against women is incredibly disturbing."

"He is reckless. He knows exactly what he is doing. He needs to go in," Kasulis said to a packed courtroom that included Shkreli's father.

"It is clearly beyond any reasonable doubt that Mr. Shkreli is a danger to the community. He's not special, by any stretch of the imagination," Kasulis said.

Matsumoto said she didn't find anything funny about either Shkreli's posts about Clinton, or his online boasts during his trial in July that he would get to "f---" a female journalist with whom he has feuded since January, as well as a female political pundit, once his trial ended.

"He is soliciting an assault on another person for $5,000," Matsumoto said. The judge noted that no one knew whether any of Shkreli's followers would take him up on that bizarre offer, either in a legitimate desire for the cash or in a bid to gain Shkreli's approval.

She noted that even when Shkreli tried to portray the offer as satire in a subsequent Facebook post, he wrote that he would pay the bounty only if the hair included a follicle.

"The fact that he continues to remain unaware ... of the inappropriateness of his actions or words demonstrates to me he may be an ongoing danger or risk to the community," Matsumoto said.

The judge also noted that once defendants are convicted in federal court, as Shkreli was in August, there is a legal presumption that their bail will be revoked.

"I''m going to remand Mr. Shkreli," Mastumoto said.

A somber-looking Shkreli, wearing a purple dress shirt and a shaggy mop of hair, was taken into custody by two deputy U.S. Marshals just after 6 p.m. ET as his grim-faced legal team stood by.

"We are obviously disappointed," Brafman said outside the court to reporters. "We believe the court arrived at the wrong decision but she's the judge and right now we will have to live with this decision."

"It's unfortunate. It was unfortunately avoidable, but the judge has ruled and she's the judge," the lawyer said.

Shkreli will be held in a federal jail, the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York, until his sentencing on securities fraud charges on January 16, which Matsumoto scheduled Wednesday.

Shkreli's Facebook post last week about Clinton sparked an inquiry from the U.S. Secret Service, who also in response beefed up their protective measures for the former secretary of state and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee amid her ongoing book tour.

Prosecutors then asked Matsumoto to jail Shkreli, saying in a court filing that "his recent public conduct demonstrates that he cannot meet his post-trial burden to show, by clear and convincing evidence, that he does not pose a danger to the community."

Prosecutors pointed out that Shkreli's latest stunt came just weeks after being convicted of three securities fraud-related counts in Brooklyn federal court.

Brafman, at Wednesday's hearing, used a slew of arguments to dissuade Matsumoto from revoking Shkreli's bond, as she appeared inclined to do almost from the moment that she took the bench.

"I'm not making excuses for Mr. Shkreli," Brafman said. "We had a long, painful discussion about this episode."

"I'm angry at him too," the lawyer said.

Brafman said Shkreli never intended for his post to be taken seriously, noting that Shkreli had also written about using the hair to "clone" Clinton, and that he was dismayed to find out that people might believe otherwise.

"Stupid doesn't make you violent," Brafman said.

Brafman suggested however that Shkreli — a purported supporter of President Donald Trump with a long-standing animus to Clinton — was merely engaging in the sort of scathing political hyperbole that has become increasingly common in America. Brafman said that kind of speech, no matter how offensive, is constitutionally protected.

The lawyer also argued that Shkreli had been lashing out on social media in response to being demonized by the public in the past two years after raising the price of an anti-parasite drug by 5,000 percent in 2015.

Brafman offered to have Shkreli make a full-throated disavowal of this Clinton bounty online on Wednesday, to be willingly banned from all social media by the judge, and to generally behave appropriately from now on until he is sentenced.

He kept arguing his points for nearly 20 minutes after Matsumoto first said she would revoke Shkreli's bond, in an increasingly desperate effort to get the judge to change her mind.

In a letter to Matsumoto on Tuesday, Shkreli had written, "I wanted to personally apologize to this Court and my lawyers for the aggravation that my recent postings have caused."

"I understand now that some may have read my comments about Mrs. Clinton as threatening, when that was never my intention when making those comments," Shkreli wrote.

"I used poor judgment but never intended to cause alarm or promote any act of violence whatsoever," he wrote, adding that he had quickly amended his post to make clear he had just been joking.

Shkreli's lawyer Brafman, in his own letter to Matsumoto on Tuesday, had written, "While we do not condone Mr. Shkreli's comment, his constitutionally protected political hyperbole does not rise to the level of making a 'danger to the community' when he is not and has never been considered to be a danger."

Brafman said that Shkreli should not be jailed because he "never intended any harm or violence."

The lawyer disputed prosecutors' contention that comments Shkreli made online about Clinton and a journalist, Lauren Duca, constituted an escalating pattern of threats.

Brafman suggested that Shkreli was engaging in "political hyperbole" or "satire" in his comments about both women.

Brafman cited the fact that comedian Kathy Griffin was not prosecuted after she posted online a photograph of herself holding what appeared to be the bloody, severed head of Trump.

"Another example of political hyperbole is when President Donald Trump, as a candidate, caused a controversy last year by implying that 'Second Amendment people' could prevent former Secretary Clinton from abolishing their right to bear arms."

Michael Bachner, a leading New York criminal defense lawyer, earlier Wednesday told CNBC he did not believe Shkreli should have his bail revoked.

"If he had made the comments about another author who wasn't Clinton, I don't think there would be a bail revocation hearing going on here," said Bachner.

Another top New York lawyer, Gerald Lefcourt, earlier said that while Shkreli probably should be allowed to remain free on bail, "I think the judge is probably at wit's end with respect to... his conduct."

Matsumoto, during Shkreli's trial this summer, imposed a virtual gag order on him that barred him from talking about the case in public around the courthouse after he gave an impromptu press conference to reporters and called prosecutors in the case the "junior varsity."

Asked if he had ever seen a defendant in a criminal case who had been convicted make such a public spectacle of himself as Shkreli has done since early August, Lefcourt said, "No."

"He is just incapable of controlling himself," Lefcourt said.

THIS NIGGA GOT TOO COMFORTABLE THINKING HIS ASS WAS UNTOUCHABLE.

#retrophin inc #Martin Shkreli

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dybdahltravels · 5 years

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Bonjour from Casablanca, Morocco

March 18, 2019

Bonjour!! We arrived late last night in Casablanca Morocco or Maroc - as it is called by the people who live here. Anyway, it was quite an adventure on a very small and very old airplane - but we got here safe and sound. My gluten-free dinner was a banana and a kiwi - with no way to cut or peal the kiwi and no napkin - BUT both the banana and the kiwi were indeed gluten-free - so I’m not really complaining (much.) My biggest worry was about food - Mark’s was that the airplane was about 50 years old (Mark’s attempt at hyperbole) - but it was all good.

We had barely gotten off the plane when I received a phone call from our guide in Morocco, Zouhair Aarab He welcomed us to Morocco, got the name of our hotel, contacted the hotel to see if a shuttle was available then called me back. - sorry, no shuttle. Then he guided us through the airport to an ATM and to a cab - all on the phone. He told us how much the cab should cost and wished us well. He called again about a hour later just to make sure we were comfortable in our hotel and although he is really not our tour guide for another 2 days - encouraged me to call for ANYTHING - directions, restaurant suggestions, activities, history - anything that would be helpful. I like this guy already!!

The Moroccan Dirham is the currency of Morocco and $1.00 = 9.58 Dirham so in my mind 1 dirham is 10 cents. Move the decimal point - easy-peasy. But still when our guide said that the taxi ride would not exceed 650 dirhams - my brain freaked. The airport was an hour from our hotel - so $65 didn’t seem unreasonable but 650 dirhams - NO FREAKING WAY!! But I was tired and I expect things will get easier…. I hope. When we were getting the money from the ATM we had to pick the amount and when Mark picked 2,000 dirhams I thought he was nuts - but now - less tired - I think we will need more than $200 for the next month. Sigh…. The sign for a Dirham is DH, FYI and our cab ride cost 600 DH.

Although our taxi driver did not initially know where our hotel was - I stumbled on a gem of a hotel. But our taxi driver freaked me out - more than once. The first time was when I handed him the address of the hotel and he explained in French, that he didn’t have his glasses so he couldn’t read. (I’m thinking - AND MAYBE YOU SHOULDN’T BE DRIVING EITHER!!!! ) But that wasn’t all - we are careening down the expressway, when suddenly he exits into nothingness. I think - THIS IS IT!! “Two tourists hijacked by a taxi driver and slaughtered for credit cards “- but being tired causes one’s mind to go a little crazy and he pointed to the expressway as we went over it - and all the traffic was completely stopped. He explained - in French - that we were going a different way to avoid the traffic problem (I think that is what he said - my French is a little shaky. But I know he didn’t say - Prepare to die dirty Americans and give me your credit cards - because I had been working on that sentence in French since we exited the expressway.) Phew! So it turned out that this guy was a great guy - friendly and willing to help me communicate in my crappy French. And the next thing I knew we pulled up in front of the hotel.

We are staying at a place called La Doge and when we walked in - we thought - oops - this is WAY over our pay grade - BUT I had already paid for it and it was reasonable and quite a bit cheaper than the place we are staying with our tour group beginning on Tuesday night.

We were welcomed and escorted to our room that had a welcome plate of fruit, chocolates on the pillows and beautiful fresh flowers. The name of our room is the Coco Chanel room - no number here. It is simply elegant. The walls are covered in padded fabric - every inch of the 12 feet tall walls. The entire building is Art Deco and we have furniture in our room - and in the entry room that leads into our “salle de bains” or our “chambre” (bathroom & bedroom) one would not see that in those hotel re-sale places. These are beautiful and unique pieces - highlighted by several pictures of Coco Chanel

Our bathroom is black marble with a very cool clawfoot bathtub (that is soooooo dangerously slippery - we can’t believe it) but beautiful. And of course we have a heated towel rack.

So in a place like this - can one possibly find anything to complain about? Why, yes I can! I happen to LOVE a top sheet and I have discovered that the top sheet is not well-loved or a "gotta-have” in many countries. Although after only one experience I cannot definitely conclude that the entire country does NOT love the top sheet - I can conclude that Le Doge is not a fan. Happily for us - I pack a sheet. So, all is well - but what is it with the no top sheet?

After a good nights rest and a very French "petite dejuener” (breakfast) in the breakfast room (pinkie up!!) we decided to take a walk to explore this new city.

Today is cloudy and that is the first day since we left Michigan than we had a cloudy day. Construction is everywhere - at least where we walked - and where they are not redoing the sidewalks or the roads - they should be. The city is noisy and dirty. This is NOT Tokyo - where you could NEVER find one teeny piece of trash. Horns are constantly honking and crossing the road is like taking your life in your hands. If you want to cross - just step out and cross. OMG!!!

One of the things we really loved about Santa Cruz de Tenerife was that many of the streets were pedestrian only. It is a great walking town. Walking here in Casablanca - at least in the area by our hotel - is a lot like Russian roulette - from my perspective. Pedestrians share the sidewalk with work trucks parked 2 deep, piles of gravel spilling into the streets and the sidewalks are packed with people who simply step around all this into the streets to join the sidewalks whenever they re-appear.

I am aware that Mark & I didn’t have a good idea of the area nor an agenda that had to be completed so we were just moseying and observing while everyone else was doing what they came to do. We did discover a HUGE skateboard park - but not much was happening there since it was a school day and mid morning. I’m guessing that sucker will be hopping later today.

The other observation I made was that Mark and I were ABSOLUTELY the only people with short sleeves. THE ONLY ones - despite the lovely warm weather. We saw lots and lots of people, but no short sleeves or shorts. We saw people in jeans and sweatshirts, in sweatpants and sweaters, some women wearing headscarves and others not. Some of the women wearing the headscarves or hijab - were in jeans and some had on an abaya which is a long loosely fitted garment that covers everything. We saw women wearing black niqab - the veil that covers everything except the eyes and the first woman I saw was also wearing a baby in a front pack as well. :) We saw women who have beautifully colored abayas and color coordinated hijabs and we saw women who apparently didn’t know matching things might be a good idea.

We saw gym shoes and stillettos, dress shoes and the traditional Arabic shoes - I’m not sure what they are called - but I bet I will know soon. But we did NOT see short sleeves. We also did not see anyone wearing a burqa - the wrap that covers everything and has netting over the eyes allowing the woman to see out - but preventing others from seeing in. I don’t know if we will see anyone wearing that - but we might - I have certainly seen women wearing it in Detroit. Anyway - we returned to our lovely room and it was Mark’s turn to wash our laundry in the lovely clawfoot tub. We have lines strung all over and we are just hanging out until we are ready to head out for a late lunch/early dinner giving me a chance to write. We will head out in an hour or so - but I will be wearing long sleeves and long pants. I’m a quick learner.

I read a little bit about the Moroccan Monarchy and discovered the King Mohammed VI was born in 1963 and has several college degrees including a PhD in Legal Studies. Additionally speaks Arabic, Berber, English, French, and Spanish. His family, the Alaouites, has been in power since 1664 despite the colonization by Spain and France. In 1956 Morocco became an independent country. HM (His Majesty) Mohammed VI has championed many reforms including ones that give women more rights - which makes sense to me - but has been greatly opposed by conservative Muslim groups. Life is not necessarily easy even if you are King, I guess.

We haven’t seen the Casablanca’s Medina (the ancient city) or the Suk (the market) but we will be doing that with our guide - if I don’t get run over trying to get there. Then - of course - there is Rick’s Cafe :) "Here’s looking at you, kid"

Stay tuned.

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thisdaynews · 4 years

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Roger Stone’s defense: MAGA, God and Donald Trump

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/roger-stones-defense-maga-god-and-donald-trump/

Roger Stone’s defense: MAGA, God and Donald Trump

Roger Stone returns to the Prettyman Courthouse for his trial. | Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images

For once, Roger Stone is letting others do the talking.

The political provocateur has spent decades verbally sparring with almost anyone who is willing to engage. But as his trial over lying to Congress and tampering with a witness nears its end, Stone has left his defense in the hands of external factors: lawyers, God, the race card, a coterie of MAGA-world figures and, if all else fails, President Donald Trump.

Given the chance to tell his side of the story, Stone chose not to take the witness stand. Given the opportunity to call witnesses, his attorneys opted instead to simply play portions of the congressional testimony in question.

As a legal strategy, it caught many by surprise, even if Stone’s defenders have done their part in court since the trial started to poke as many holes as they can in the government’s case.

As a political play, though, it might be perfectly tailored for a very different audience — MAGA-ites and the president himself. After all, a conviction on any of the seven counts opens Stone up to prison time and raises the question of whether Trump would face pressure to issue an election-year pardon to his longtime friend, who has a passionate following in Trump land.

“If you hesitate about your conclusions in this matter then you have a reasonable doubt,” Bruce Rogow, the lead Stone defense attorney, told the jury during his closing arguments Wednesday. “My job is to create for you the reasons why you should have a reasonable doubt.”

On Thursday, Stone’s six-day trial will shift to jury deliberations and a verdict soon thereafter, the final coda to months of legal wrangling that kicked off in January with a dramatic early-morning raid to arrest Stone at his South Florida home.

As the case moved toward a trial, Stone and his family have been appealing to a higher power.

They were at Sunday morning Mass about 10 days before his trial: “please pray for us,” his wife, Nydia Stone,wroteon Instagram alongside a prayer emoji, the hashtags #trump and #maga and a tag for the president’s Twitter handle.

And before opening arguments last Tuesday, Stone’s wife and daughter sat with a leather-bound Bible in their laps open to the Book of Psalms.

They were joined in the front row by Randy Short, a Washington, D.C., activist wearing a white religious smock who has described himself as Stone’s spiritual adviser.

In fact, Short participated in a small rally outside the courthouse on the first day of the trial, leading a chant that Stone was innocent and interspersing a pro-Trump song with the chorus: “I’m on the Trump train. We did it in ’16. Gonna do it again.”

In an interview, Short said Stone wasn’t concerned about the government’s parade of witnesses, which included Steve Bannon, the former Trump campaign CEO whom the government called to contradict Stone’s deposition to Congress that there had been no contact with Trump’s campaign about WikiLeaks.

“I don’t think Bannon is someone that would worry them,” Short said. “Their biggest fear from my sense is that there’s so many [jurors] who have intelligence community or government ties or ties to the former administration or lawyers. Where are the blue collar people on that? Really? I’m a Washingtonian. This city is still half black. If you look at the jury there are four blacks. There are two others and 10 white folks. It’s interesting not one black man is on there.”

“If you looked at the jury pool it looked like Green Bay, not like Washington, D.C. I mean, really,” Short added.

That was a theme that Stone’s daughter, Adria, also picked up on Twitter in the hours before the trial’s opening arguments.

“Look at our jury pool for Roger with eyes wide open! Spouses that work at DOJ, 10 yr position w congress, journalist, attorneys, admitting they have negative feelings about RJS & DT-all allowed!#realDonaldTrump#AGBarr” shewrotethat Wednesday morning.

Other close friends of Stone have said they’re not confident in a victory on the merits alone.

“In a courtroom where 90-plus percent are found guilty, it’s a problem,” said Michael Caputo, a former Trump 2016 campaign aide and longtime Stone friend who’s attended most of the Stone trial.

“I’m praying every day, and everybody I know is praying every day,” Caputo added. “When court starts and is in session, we have people in there praying. There’s going to need to be celestial intervention for him. It can happen.”

Since the trial opening, Stone’s lawyers have tried to mount a more traditional defense, searching for just one juror who would hold out and block a guilty verdict. They tried to get potential D.C. jurors booted from the pool based on their professed opposition to Trump.

They challenged the government’s witnesses, getting an FBI agent who obtained Stone’s communications to admit she didn’t know the content of Stone’s phone conversations even though they leaned on his phone records. They also got her to concede that she didn’t know whether Stone followed through on any alleged threats he made in emails.

Later, Stone’s team pressed Bannon to acknowledge that Stone never actually told him directly that he had WikiLeaks connections. Bannon said Stone simply gave him that impression.

With former Trump campaign deputy Rick Gates, Stone’s lawyers largely tried to shred his credibility, reminding the jury that he had already pleaded guilty of lying to special counsel Robert Mueller’s team. Gates’ testimony, they stressed, was part of a deal he struck to obtain a more lenient sentence.

But when it came time to mount a formal defense, Stone’s lawyers kept things simple.

They had the jury listen to about 50 minutes of audio from the September 2017 House deposition central to the charges against their client. That brought more of Stone’s voice into the trial, but jurors never heard directly from the normally voluble counterpuncher.

And so it was left to Stone’s lawyers to speak on his behalf. Their argument? Stone’s election-year behavior was de rigueur in politics. Candidates use opposition research all the time, they said.

“This is what happens in campaigns,” Rogow said.

Why would Stone have lied to lawmakers, Rogow asked the jury, given that he offered to speak publicly to the House panel and he even appeared without a subpoena?

“There’s no motive for Mr. Stone to do this,” he said.

It was the most Stone’s defense team had directly addressed the government’s arguments in months. Before last week, Stone and his attorneys had mostly pushed a narrative that Stone was the victim of a political hit job, carried out with the help of the media and the deep state.

They filed pleadings slamming the media and accusing prosecutors of trying to crimp Stone’s speech at the same time he was the subject of tens of thousands of hostile articles and a mocking Steve Martin impression on “Saturday Night Live.”

Ultimately, JacksonbannedStone in July from using Facebook, Twitter or any social media to trumpet this narrative.

Her decision came after an initial warning over a Stone Instagram post that appeared to show a gun’s crosshairs above a picture of Jackson’s head. Stone took the witness stand toapologizefor the incident, saying he didn’t fully control his Instagram account.

With Stone silenced, some of his supporters picked up the torch and pushed the limits even further.

InfoWars founder Alex Jones last week erroneously reported the name of a juror in the Stone trial based on the description that one woman gave identifying herself in open court as a former Obama-era communications aide for the Office of Management and Budget. Jones called her a “minion.”

“We’ve got to have Obama’s former communications director hang Roger. Hell, if they give him the death penalty, maybe she can hang him and kick the lever and he’ll break his neck and she can piss all over his dead body,” Jones said.

When Jackson found out about the incendiary remarks emanating from the far-right mediasphere, she chastised the rhetoric as “uninformed” and “unfortunately false.”

“It puts the safety of all the people on both sides, including possibly the jury, at risk,” she said.

In court, however, the outside hyperbole has had to grapple with Stone’s previous words, including a mountain of emails and text messages that seem to drip with contempt for the House’s fact-finding effort and Mueller’s investigation.

“Tell him to go f— himself,” Stone wrote about Mueller in one text message to liberal radio host and erstwhile friend Randy Credico.

It doesn’t matter what Stone is — or isn’t — saying now, prosecutors told the jurors. They have all the Stone commentary needed to render a verdict.

“The evidence here is written down for you,” prosecutor Michael Marando said in his closing argument Wednesday. “This is literally the defendant’s words.”

#Donald #Foreign #Politics #Trump

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og-my-borough-is-thorough-see · 5 years

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Untitled, Unmastered

More than a common denominator

They can’t factor me out the equation.

Born cold, in the city of thieves with no honor,

Given a rebirth, a new land becomes my encapsulation,

Institutionalized still won’t give me no more.

Been living trife, that illegal since a infant.

Affiliations causing presumptions creating reputations.

Narratives painted, fact or fiction, either way

It don’t matter in the public eye,

Guilty until proven innocent,

They never see you as innocent, even when the facts staring at them,

Complacent only if they get you, taboo Irregardless.

Don’t matter what you do, just who around you,

Friends or family,

It’s the ties that bind us and hang us from the same tree,

Tightening the deeper and older you grow till you take ya last breath,

Only if you let it.

Born into the business,

What more can I want than a new chance,

The American Dream.

Not for folks like me.

Picket fence meant to be the docket keeping folks out,

Cutting us off but never uniting us,

You either a product or a variable of your environment

Stuck in poverty or a part of the billion-dollar slave system.

Living on borrowed time, got to do more,

More to this life won’t find it stuck in they game

Got to change, won’t have longevity being trife.

Playing both sides of the fence through opaque lenses,

Movements surrounded in mist,

Morality all subjective if you ask me.

A born sinner lookin for bliss.

Cut my losses, time to begin percolating wins

Came up different,

Last of a dying breed.

Greed ain’t posses me.

Ambition the clarity I found,

Hustle and to motivate is all I know.

Came up on a different plane than those I see on a daily basis.

Food stamp only ramp that kept me from starvin,

Still the fact remains,

Only thing for sure lay in honor,

Living by the sword dying by the sword,

Death before dishonor.

Take it in blood, we ain’ t come from much

We ain’t have but the clothes on our back,

Movin around tryin to find a foundation

Stuck in isolation in between the crowds,

Mental won’t give into their subliminal shots,

Never shoot straight at me, they minimal

Shook ones they ain’t no crooks son,

Always from the side out of view, they ain’t built for it.

Cementing my lament

Ask do they feel it,

Simply,

How can one be stable,

When everything around unstable,

When ya hunger pangs and all the pain keep you up nightly.

Hoping for better days been past the river of Styx,

Deep in the levels this ain’t paradise this is hell,

The only thing I know in this divine comedy of life.

Ain’t no peace when you got to lease it,

Never find it, always at war with oneself,

Ain’t able to feel here, nor there,

Only dreams keeping the breath going,

Seeing distant visions of a new life,

Hope the only thing keeping me sane through every dark night.

Rebirth, the ill life shed behind that talk that a cocoon ain’t no other boon.

A distant fruition, if dues don’t pay tuition,

From the school of hard knocks that make up my life.

All alone,

Family ain’t family no more,

Blood ain’t blood no more,

Got no shoulder to lean on but my own.

Build or destroy,

The two paths, still ain’t done,

Vision only thing keeping me out of incarceration.

Predicate felon in the melon,

No advocate a survivor by any means,

Never lean on none,

Been told by false prophets hyperbolic visions

That serve to reinforce the mass incarceration system

The oppresses my kinfolk in this nation,

That’s what they been telling me,

Trace it back to the days before I taught myself written words,

See look at my initials to check the credentials it was predestined before my birth,

Unintentional, look at the tools the fools gave me,

Too blind to see the plot they just dots, no more no less,

Meant to write spoken word that would be the scripture to describe the raptures to come,

Revolutionary warfare it won’t be televised, that’s all distant,

For now,

Only one thing for certain,

Tomorrow isn’t promised.

There is more to this life,

Given the chance my children won’t know of me off spoken word,

Can’t let them have one foot in the grave off what they see.

In these tumultuous times have to be ambitious,

It's simple, break it down to avoid message going into the void.

Every night leads to another day,

Another day another dollar,

Never had privilege had to make my leverage,

Applied pressure with my foot on their neck,

Fuck a slice I want the whole cake.

Taking back everything they stole from me,

Fighting to be more than a statistic,

Fight to live.

Living every day to the fullest,

Don’t matter if it’s my last.

Ain't living in fear,

What I reap, I will sow

Keeping the same mentality,

In the back of the mind it's still the same sentiment,

Seeing things from a different perspective, it’s an afflictive when they don’t get the feeling,

At peace with death, no longer scared to die

It’s a part of life,

Still it's not time, the sentiment off the placements in the mind through time.

See you go numb to the feeling over time,

This ain’t thug life this survivor life,

The shit that calls for therapy we suppress where I’m from,

It ain’t spoken unless it’s a scream,

Relived nightly in our dreams, that’s the only time we see gleams when we ain’t dying nightly,

Tell you the truth it goes back to the days as a youth,

Let me beg the question,

How you suppose to grow as a youth,

How you supposed to be more,

How can you grow,

How can you love,

When all you know is hatred.

Hatred for the knowledge that curses your mental,

Hatred for what you possess,

Mentally and physically.

Hatred for what you’ll can’t comprehend,

Hating no one understands

Hating they can’t see you more than a thug or sap case.

See they say that hood shit be that good shit,

Claim it make them diverse, that they understand the lexicon

They hide behind that privilege when they go home, they escape it,

Go home to the belly of the beast.

Looking for love from all sides.

It ain’t surface layer, its deeper than that

When you get numb you feel nothing,

You lose love, you feel nothing but pain

Pain that poisons the heart

Pain becomes all you know.

Rejection the only subjection I received.

Asked for guidance, same response,

You’ll make it hopefully,

That’s the next level, peers don’t see you as a person,

When they see you all they see is a primitive savage,

Clutch they purse look straight ahead,

See the fear in the eyes and body we all the same to middle class,

Upper class use us as pawns,

Rest never see us more than what media feeds them.

Profane, vulgar, insanity what they paint on me.

No more than an abortion.

That’s what they see.

Always look away never acknowledge,

Won’t look into my eyes won’t see the soul.

It don’t matter,

Had to switch up,

From an orphanage that everyone is trying to escape from.

This mentality adopts us, and we foster it,

Not knowing any better,

Just knowing lesser.

Solace in that piece, it won’t bring you much more than material,

Slinging rocks the only destiny in manifestation.

Finding four fours in a pavilion trying to be a civilian.

Just a kid when I began to see the plot unravel,

How would I know everyone would do bids,

See everyone around me turn to feins,

Its in the vain different sides of the game I see the same.

It’s in every neighborhood we in, do the math

Ain’t talking addition,

Schools don’t teach us that,

Judges teach us that when they hand that sentence

Geniuses with no muse,

Hide that pain,

Self-medicate never mediate.

It’s all ends the same.

The routine funeral,

Routine to see another slain brother,

Routine to see another sister taken too soon.

Routine to see folks disappear never to be seen again,

Routine to live in fear.

Coming from a place where no one makes it major

All my homies either dead, in jail, or stuck in the cycle,

Living dead the surface don’t tell,

Look deep into the eyes they don’t lie.

The body won’t live long once the mind gone, it’s all connected

Don't matter when the soul caged up,

The caged bird Angelou told the ode of,

We ain’t given shot to expand our thoughts, die for a little bit of clout,

End up blowing over as quick as you came up,

The target on the back remain the same at birth,

Too blind to see it.

Don’t matter age of location, ain’t a thing change upon income.

Regardless of outcome,

We all was born in the same place, same opportunity

Only one left, ask me why all the views I see filled with blues,

Failure the only time you make it major on the news.

They call us rapists and drug dealers, they hate us but never know us,

It’s generational but I can see far past and see the pawns at use by the dons,

They want to see us bleed, it's all a product of greed.

What can I say,

When they see us for sacrificial lambs to try and get the glory days they ain't never had.

Fuck them, they fools to hustle a buck out of,

Blood in my eye still don’t cloud my sight,

My plight realer than anything they ever been through.

The guillotine what they plant for us.

First generation with no role models

Surrounded by the blind, cursed with sight.

Seeing more to this plain, they ain't with it

Go against the grain that’s ya head on a silver platter

Born with no silver spoon,

Came from the mud in the trenches, one thing for sure,

only promise lie in your brain matter painting the canvass,

be another decapitation.

Final hours marked by folk lure,

The war stories of anyone stuck in the tar.

The only way to grow is finding a new flow

That’s the only way to blow through the legal, it's all another hustle,

Ain’t another variable, my life ain’t expandable like they say.

Another lost soul trapped in a cycle.

They say,

Divine intervention only reason I'm still breathing,

From being another remnant forgotten in time painting the cement with redrum

A relic in a era where everyone want to be basic,

Living in the moment never looking ahead,

Everyone want to earn soon that’s the error,

Look in they mirror they don’t see into the soul.

No sound one just a survivor.

It gets harder to move on when you switch gears,

They fear you when you awaken,

Rather see you dead then see you bloom.

They don’t love you when you rise above them

Cold hard facts.

They ain’t never believe I was more than another one,

They told me I wouldn’t live to see eighteen

Sixteen school told me only e-d-u would be from a g-e-d,

Spoon fed me lies, telling don’t try it,

It ain’t for folks like you, since day one.

Spat in my face telling me it’s a rain drops, get use to the bottom.

Ain’t believe the lies the devils fed.

Rejected what they try and subject me with.

Grew stronger by the day,

They told me I wouldn’t be shit,

Family from distant to the one that gave birth,

It wasn’t just them folks up at the top,

People here and there it don’t matter, only care about me and mine,

I’m selfish fuck who I offend.

They ain’t believe till I made something out of nothing,

Ain’t gonna be in the mud with filthy human swine.

The bottom always crowded, theres space at the top,

Just gotta pave my own lane up there,

They can never feel my pain,

Don’t matter how, gonna get my forty acres,

Ancestors came from shackles, I won’t buckle under their ruse,

The pain is my muse.

Keep it under the surface, they can’t see the truth,

See they still think I’m crazy,

That’s what the world say, that’s hearsay,

Telling me my fate was in a six by nine cage.

They never believed it me but what does that matter?

They inadmissible, my peace ain’t expandable,

Ain't no subject, don’t listen to the fronts.

Look at it one way.

I’m still here.

I still got breath in my lungs.

I still got drive.

Not a Don just another saying my word is born,

Fuck all that talk, talkings cheap,

Move in my actions,

It ain’t all surface level, check how do they right by you,

Tell the whole truth,

They try and take my life, rob me of my shots

Split my melon, when I was four

Got up, got them stitches

Stabbed me when I was thirteen

Tended to my own wounds ain’t no one come help me.

Beaten and battered till green and purple covered me,

Death threats a regular occurrence, they words have no meaning.

A crash ain’t stop me, three weeks off end of first week of uni,

It ain’t take me out

All the pain caused growth,

Destroyed tolerance,

Ain’t sweating defenses no more,

Shoot first, stay offensive to them.

Got back up through every fall and set back.

Misery built me.

Gave me a foundation nothing can break,

The child I was,

Made me into the man I am today.

Here I stand at the crossroads

Not knowing what's to come

They gonna have to kill me to silence me

It’s bigger than me,

These moves bigger than any picture I can paint.

Talking that empire, talking that generational wealth,

Power moves I can’t lose,

I came here with nothing,

Came as an infant on the verge of losing my life,

No nutrition brought me back,

Strength and will, they can’t stop me

Built my strength through tolerance,

Physical, mental, the layers there,

It’s Time

Time to build a new life,

Time to build a real life.

Got to build a foundation for the future,

Ain’t no fates or destinies,

I’m making one.

Will go the distance.

What more can I say,

Got to take a virtue,

Know who I am, Know who I will be.

Maybe I’m crazy, Maybe I’m the one to make the changes,

Maybe the one to spark the mind that makes changes,

Only one thing for sure,

Got

One life,

More than that,

Got one last chance.

One chance at redemption.

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marymosley · 5 years

Text

“Everybody Must Get Stone”: Mueller Moves Closer To The Possible Indictment Of Trump Confidant

Below is my column in The Hill newspaper on the next possible wave of indictments and specifically the targeting of Roger Stone. This includes possible charges of false statements and more recent indications that Mueller is mulling witness tampering charges. As Mueller prepares what may be his final set of indictments, there remains the absence of a direct U.S. figure connecting Trump to any collusion with Russia. With Stone and former associate Jerome Corsi expecting indictments, there is a reasonable question of whether Mueller has truly run down a major figure or whether he is merely shooting the wounded at this point in his investigation.

Here is the column:

With special counsel Robert Mueller reportedly working on his final report, his staff continues to call witnesses and gather evidence before a grand jury. Mueller clearly is still trying to build a case, and the most obvious target is Roger Stone, longtime Republican activist and Trump supporter.

Indeed, Mueller seems to have given his staff a Bob Dylanesque order that “everybody must get Stone.” He has called in more than a dozen witnesses connected to Stone over the course of at least 16 months. One Stone associate, Jerome Corsi, said this week that he expects to be indicted. Mueller reportedly is pressing them on Stone’s communications with Julian Assange, the head of Wikileaks, and his possible prior knowledge of the hacked Democratic emails during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Andrew Miller, who Stone described as his “wing man,” is in court this week fighting a subpoena by challenging the legality of Mueller’s appointment. Miller, who now paints homes for a living, is refusing to testify before the grand jury. A house painter is hardly the cover up that Mueller was seeking. He is clearly after Stone. Yet, Stone would not seem a prize worth the powder being expended by Mueller. He is a provocateur and braggart who relishes media attention and once declared, “Politics with me isn’t theater. It’s performance art sometimes for its own sake.”

Stone’s performance on Wikileaks may be one improv that he soon will regret. Yet, for Mueller, it may end up as impressive as shooting an annoying mime in Central Park. Stone often appears rambling on television and regularly attacks his former associates. Nevertheless, his value may be to give Mueller a tangential, if comical, Trump figure connected to the actual hacking. Despite more than 100 criminal charges against 32 individuals, Mueller has largely charged American defendants with collateral or wholly unrelated crimes from his original mandate. The exceptions are Russian hackers who are unlikely ever to see the inside of an American court. While Stone suggests that he had advanced notice of the Wikileaks material and direct contact with Assange, he now insists that he simply relied on published accounts.

The best case for Mueller would be to show that Stone was the intermediary to the Russians or Wikileaks in a hacking conspiracy. Given his erratic behavior and penchant for hyperbole, Stone would not seem to be an ideal conspirator but we do not know the full extent of evidence acquired from all of these witnesses. In the end, Stone could prove to be the only game left in town. For all of these deals, Mueller has no core collusion or obstruction charge to show for his efforts. He handed out plea bargains to an array of defendants, including a couple of the high profile duds. He cut a deal with Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos, only to later demand the harshest possible sentence under the deal because of a lack of meaningful evidence. While Mueller demanded six months, Papadopoulos was sentenced to a mere 14 days.

Mueller may have another dud with Paul Manafort. Mueller reportedly is threatening to scuttle the sentencing deal because Manafort has not supplied particularly useful evidence. For Stone and other possible targets, those duds only make their positions all the more precarious. Few key figures remain and, with all of the plea agreements, it is like playing musical chairs with all of the seats occupied. While Stone has cooperated and turned over evidence, he may be the best available target.

Stone is not the only one without a chair, however. Two other figures are potential targets. The first, obviously, is Trump himself. The Wall Street Journal reported that an indictment on campaign finance violations was drawn up against Trump “fixer” Michael Cohen before Cohen took a plea bargain. It also revealed evidence that Trump was directly involved in the arrangement of the hush money payments despite his later public denials. Yet, even assuming that Mueller has enough evidence to charge President Trump with a campaign finance violation, he is unlikely to do so. While some of us have long maintained that a sitting president can be indicted, the Justice Department has a policy against such indictments.

Moreover, the alleged violation involving payments of hush money to a former porn star and a Playboy bunny would be both hard to prosecute and far removed from Mueller’s original mandate. To spend two years investigating Russian collusion only to prosecute Trump for a marginal campaign finance violation would be a glaring shortfall. The more likely target might actually be Donald Trump Jr. who, in contrast to President Trump, has given extensive statements under oath and to investigators. That presents the maximum exposure for the type of false statement charges that Mueller has used against former national security adviser Michael Flynn and other Trump associates. Indicting Trump Jr. last would also make strategic sense. It is anyone’s guess how President Trump would react to his son’s indictment, but it likely would not be subtle. He could move against Mueller or issue a rash of pardons.

If Mueller ends up with Stone as the only person charged with collusion, he would need to show more than Stone’s described “performance art” on emails and social media. Otherwise, it looks less like Watergate special prosecutor Leon Jaworski going after Attorney General John Mitchell but indicting Martha Mitchell. Of course, Stone could prove to be Mueller’s criminal genius as opposed to Trump’s court jester. That, however, would require a departure from Mueller’s prior filings saying that he had no evidence of anyone knowingly assisting or interacting with Russians behind the hacking efforts. If Stone was not in the conspiracy with the Russians, he would be accused of seeking hacked emails after the fact, which could raise free speech and associational defenses.

None of this has slowed the line of Stone witnesses heading into the grand jury as Mueller makes his final push in the investigation. Stone once said, “If you’re not controversial, you’ll never break through the din of all the commentary.” The next few weeks will determine if he succeeded in breaking through the din, only to land himself in a federal dock.

Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University. You can follow him on Twitter @JonathanTurley.

“Everybody Must Get Stone”: Mueller Moves Closer To The Possible Indictment Of Trump Confidant published first on https://immigrationlawyerto.tumblr.com/

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