Acting on a tip from valued commenter and awesome law-giver Cleek in the thread downstairs, I call your attention to CBS News and Washington Post stories about the Mueller team’s interest in Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his deputy Rick Gates’ work with a Russian intelligence agency asset. Via The Post:
The FBI has found that a business associate of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort had ongoing ties to Russian intelligence, including during the 2016 campaign when Manafort and his deputy, Rick Gates, were in touch with the associate, according to new court filings.
The documents, filed late Tuesday by prosecutors for special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, also allege that Gates had said he knew the associate was a former officer with the Russian military intelligence service.
The allegations underscore Mueller’s interest in Manafort and Gates, who continued to interact with business associates in Ukraine even as they helped lead Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.
Looks considerably rat-fucky, sounds pretty tick-tocky and smells fairly smoking-gunny to me, friends. What do you think?
Jerzy Russian
Seems pretty significant to me.
LAO
Well, it no doubts explains this politico article.
MJS
I’m sure Jethreen will clear this up at the next daily press briefing.
Lapassionara
Is there such a thing as a “former” officer with Russian Military Intelligence? Is that the same as the GRU?
kindness
Mueller dropped this one as insurance. Insurance so Donald doesn’t fire Mueller without collateral damage. Previously the collateral damage would have been limited to MSM & left wing sites that the Donald doesn’t look at so he doesn’t care. Now, even Fox News would have a hard time poo-pooing Russian involvement (even though as we speak the morons on the couch over there are doing just that).
Honestly I think a better insurance policy for Mueller would be for him to put out a press release saying everything so far points to it all being Barack Obama’s fault. Not meaning it mind you. Just saying it to distract Trump with a shiny object.
oatler.
How can we have a smoking gun when the Republican legislature is OWNED?
JPL
@LAO: It’s apparent that Trump is having difficulties signing on attorneys to represent him.
What do you think about this attorney?
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-lawyer/exclusive-spurned-by-top-lawyers-trumps-defense-elevates-washington-outsider-idUSKBN1H409J
He should have signed on you.
Jonny Scrum-half
Based on complete ignorance and with no particularly deep knowledge of any facts, it looks to me like Manafort is the critical component of any case against Trump, and Mueller is doing everything he can to make him turn.
PaulWartenberg
Not enough schadenfreude
Mike Furlan
Most white folks think that if it was needed to defeat Hillary, it was their patriotic duty.
And, as our betters tell us, only the opinion of white folks counts.
Ms. D. Ranged in AZ
@Jonny Scrum-half: Unfortunately, Putin has made it pretty clear what happens to anyone who tries to cooperate with law enforcement in the West. I don’t know if Manafort will ever turn.
LAO
@JPL: Trump’s inability to hire top notch legal talent is stunning (let’s face it criminal defense attorneys are the ultimate legal whores), Trump is so toxic between his inability to follow advice, his refusal to pay and the fear that association with Trump will hurt future business, no one seems willing to hire on. This is a constant topic of conversation in my legal suite.
MJS
@LAO: Is Politico considering themselves part of the campaign to smear Mueller? Because I pay somewhat close attention to this stuff, and saw absolutely nothing about Mueller re: WMD, Whitey Bulger, anthrax, etc. at any point when this campaign apparently kicked off. It looks like Politico is attempting to amplify this nonsense.
LAO
@MJS: I would certainly consider them to be part of the campaign to smear Mueller.
Roger Moore
It’s completely irrelevant. Manafort was just a gopher who went for coffee. Trump barely knew the guy, and couldn’t pick him out of a lineup if you asked. If he was consorting with unsavory types, it was completely without sanction by the campaign.
Gin & Tonic
@Lapassionara: No; yes.
ruemara
@oatler.: Because we can have a smoking gun and still be ruled by traitors that the collective ennui, apathy and glorification of cynical non-involvement in deciding the government’s future has allowed. Having a corrupt bunch of motherfuckers doesn’t make collecting the evidence of their corruption have no value.
@MJS: It’s not called GOPolitico for nothing.
Corner Stone
I think we’re going to need a bigger boat.
Steve in the ATL
I wish my law career were half as good as Cleek’s!
@MJS: Politico shows occasional flashes of reason, but has always been a right wing outlet
germy
Corner Stone
I think we’re going to need to go all out for this coming election cycle.
Gin & Tonic
@germy: Too bad, so sad.
James E. Powell
@Mike Furlan:
I agree. We can’t expect any of them to change their minds. Everything must directed toward getting our people out in record numbers.
Roger Moore
@germy:
They may have cut his landline, but unless they’re willing to take away his wirelessly connectable devices, he’ll still be able to get on the internet.
James E. Powell
@Roger Moore:
And I have it on good authority that Ivanka was against hiring him in the first place.
ruemara
@germy: Heh. Goody.
Brachiator
I just watch the show and see what develops.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@LAO: IANAL, but this sounds like somebody knew somebody who knew a guy who was semi-retired (it’s not in this blurb but I think I saw he’s 69 YO) and kinda had some relevant experience and was willing to take the job
Prof Matlock? racketeering and medieval history? so maybe he’s the guy to defend our Borgia president
Amir Khalid
@kindness:
That would entail dragging a completely innocent party into the matter. Which sounds like a fairly serious breach of professional ethics. I doubt very much that Mueller rolls that way.
germy
@Roger Moore:
ruemara
@germy: Kim can go fuck off, too.
LAO
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: It just weird. The whole thing is weird. Defending a complex criminal investigation is an art, I wouldn’t trust any of Trump’s lawyer to successfully defend a speeding ticket.
Fester Addams
@Lapassionara:
Yes, one who is deceased.
germy
Amir Khalid
@Roger Moore:
The Ambassador could also impose a new house rule: no recharging, no plugging in. That would do it.
LAO
@germy: If that isn’t the funniest fucking thing I read all day. Are you kidding me. Fuck Assange.
MJS
@germy: Of course, if it’s an internet connection Assange wants, he can simply leave the embassy and find a nearby coffee shop.
Litlebritdifrnt
Roh Ho
Brian Krassenstein
?
@krassenstein
16m16 minutes ago
Trump has tried to get the emoluments violations lawsuit against him by the Maryland and D.C. Attorney Generals thrown out.
Moments ago a federal court ruled against him. The lawsuit will move forward and boy is Trump in trouble!
Foreign & domestic emoluments violations alleged
62 replies 559 retweets 1,293 likes
West of the Rockies (been a while)
An aside: I hate how SHS is non-answering a question and points to someone else right before she’s done lying in order to avoid follow-up questions.
As for this Mueller development… it feels a bit like impeachment pRon to me. Maybe it’ll be big, but more likely we’ll move on within a few hours to focus on Stormy or something else.
I’m waiting for something really big, say, a Kushner indictment or a release of no-two-ways-about-it incriminating emails or photographs.
Amir Khalid
@germy:
Ah. So the Embassy has cut off his Internet access. Good. That’ll keep him from stirring anything up.
jl
@Amir Khalid: We can look forward to pix of Farage dashing in and out, with his Union Jack sneakers, bearing gifts and messages.
germy
@MJS: Free him!
The Exterminating Angel (1962)
Aleta
@LAO: And the letters the Dems sent yesterday to the DOJ people in line if Rosenthal is fired, asking for public statements.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@germy:
Oh, dear… I imagine that smug, hygiene-challenged prick is having an epic hissy fit.
Gin & Tonic
@LAO: But Trump is innocent, so defending him will be a piece of cake.
Roger Moore
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
It sounds as if Trump is also starting to expect RICO prosecution, so somebody on his team is not completely asleep at the switch.
Tokyokie
@Mike Furlan:
Excuse me, butonly the opinion of white men folk count.
kindness
@Amir Khalid: While I think my snark about Obama would work with Trump that last line was indeed snark. A nice shiny object in Trumps eyes for certain though.
Mueller dropped that shoe to insure his continued employment in this enterprise and to pressure Manifort to turn. Once Manifort turns Trump is toast.
different-church-lady
@germy: Some friends that guy has.
Litlebritdifrnt
@germy:
Good because if there is one thing more reliable than Russian Bots heaping praise on Trump in his twitter feed it is Assange.
He positively salivates in his adoration of his God Trump, it is sickening
JPL
@LAO: hmmm
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/28/us/politics/trump-pardon-michael-flynn-paul-manafort-john-dowd.html
sukabi
@Roger Moore: beat me to it. Low level, unpaid coffee boys.
Roger Moore
@Fester Addams:
That would be a “late” officer, not a “former” officer. I assume one can become a former member by becoming a double agent and defecting to another country. Of course Putin is working hard at making those “former” officers into “late” officers.
Amir Khalid
@MJS:
The Met Police still have that outstanding arrest warrant on him for violating the terms of his bail.
germy
@West of the Rockies (been a while):
Roger Moore
@germy:
I would recommend just giving him the boot.
Aleta
@Aleta: Rosenstein. sorry, sigh, baseball.
LAO
@JPL: Raise your hand if you’re surprised. No hands. I’m not surprised.
MJS
@Amir Khalid: I know.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@Roger Moore:
How does putting that putz up in the embassy benefit Ecuador anyway? Does Assange pay for his food and toiletries and such?
hueyplong
Gotta think Putin would consider a cut-loose Assange to be a loose end that needs tidying up in a poisoned-in-public-in-the-UK sense.
Amir Khalid
@kindness:
Of course I knew you were snarking. But Mueller doesn’t need to go that far to have Trump distracted; all he has to do is get someone in Trump’s vicinity to point upward and say, “Squirrel!”
Spanky
@LAO: Actual CNN headline:
Deeeee-licious
scav
@sukabi: I swear that entire campaign was simply floating in coffee with all those utter and complete strangers wandering in and dropping off double-shot talls. No wonder they still have the jitters.
Yutsano
@West of the Rockies (been a while): It’s some weird leftist solidarity thing. That and it’s about the only way Ecuador could thumb its nose at Tio Sam without too much counteraction.
Gelfling 545
@germy: Tsk. What a pity.
LAO
@Spanky: I can’t emphasis enough the level of crazy this is! The president of the united states (lowercase because trump) can’t find a single white shoe lawyer to represent him. It’s like Michelle Bachman level of crazy.
JPL
@LAO: Does that open the door for Mueller to question him about Trump’s involvement?
GregB
I imagine after having repeated chemical weapons attacks on their soil, England might want to bring the hammer down on that propagandist for the world wide fascist movement.
danielx
@Lapassionara:
I think it’s one of those “once in, never out” deals.
Roger Moore
@West of the Rockies (been a while):
It’s a calculated insult to the Yanquis, which is its own reward (and politically popular) in large parts of Latin America.
trollhattan
@germy:
“Needed, one small mockworthy rabble for YouTube video project.”
Somebody in London is going to have a video opportunity, assuming anybody bothers to show up.
LAO
@JPL: I would think no.
ETA: I see that there are people who believe that the pardon talks could lead to an obstruction investigation, but I still don’t think you can pierce the attorney client privilege based upon the “pardon” conversations.
Aleta
@germy: What a dull painful nightmare it must be to have Ass. confined inside one’s formerly pleasant space.
Mike in DC
The key questions:
1. Did the Russians interfere to help Trump?(yes)
2. Did Trump talk about favorable policy changes towards Russia?(yes)
3. Was the Trump campaign in communication with Russian nationals with ties to Putin, the hackers, and Russian Intelligence Services?(yes, 70 times, including 22 meetings involving at least 10 members of Team Trump)
4. Conspiracy–was a quid pro quo, either explicit or implicit, communicated and agreed directly or indirectly between the campaign and the Russians? (To be determined, but highly plausible at this point)
5. Coordination–was there any de facto coordination between the Russian active measures campaign and the Trump political operation? (To be determined, but also highly plausible)
6. Complicity–if 4 and 5 are true, was Trump aware and participating in the conspiracy? (TBD, plausible)
7. Completion–were there any other acts in furtherance of the conspiracy?(if there is a conspiracy, the answer is yes, because there was an immediate effort to lift sanction unilaterally when Trump took office)
So, we have about half the answers, and we’re waiting on conspiracy, coordination and complicity. If there is/was and the evidence is solid and overwhelming, 45 should be removed from office and face charges.
eric
@Roger Moore: Oddly, I would be bet Assange has no expectation of privacy from the Ecuadoran government. It would not shock me that they are letting him stay so they can actually monitor his involvement with Ecuadoran affairs.
JPL
@LAO: shucks! I was hoping for obstruction of justice.
Gelfling 545
@germy: I think this type of “gathering” could cause the embassy to consider whether he had overstayed his welcome.
TenguPhule
@kindness:
The new line of defense is “His poll numbers are rising, stop trying to divide the country and doing the Russian’s work for them!”
Yes, its industrial grade bullshit, but they’re getting increasingly desperate to rationalize fascism.
LAO
@JPL: You and raw story.
TenguPhule
@West of the Rockies (been a while):
If there is any justice left in the world, SHS’s punishment will be endless weekends of being locked in the stocks and pelted with feces, mud and rotten food.
JPL
@LAO: haha It does go to show that Trump should have hired you, and paid a lot up front.
Maybe a journalist will ask Sarah if Trump plans on pardoning Manafort. Since Trump is on lockdown, there is no way to ask him.
Roger Moore
@Mike in DC:
I’m going to put this as a confirmed yes. Remember Don Jr.’s description of the Trump Tower meeting. The Russians brought up the Magnitsky Act sanctions and their counter-sanctions against adoptions, and Don Jr. said something along the lines of we’re only private citizens so we can’t help you unless we get elected. That was at least an implied quid pro quo, and it’s straight from somebody Don Sr. will have a hard time dismissing as part of the campaign- especially because he helped to craft some of Don Jr.’s public responses to the affair.
TenguPhule
@Roger Moore:
To be fair, he couldn’t pick his own sons out of a lineup either.
Amir Khalid
@eric:
With no Internet and no access to visitors, it’s hard to see how Assange is going to continue meddling in Ecuadorian affairs if indeed that’s what he’s been doing. That would complicate any attempt to monitor said meddling.
Gelfling 545
@Spanky: He always wants to clain to be an historic first at something. Now he can be the first president to need a lawyer appointed by the court.
EBT
@Roger Moore: Why would an embassy not be armed to the gills with wireless jammers?
Jay S
@Gelfling 545: Perhaps the “gathering” could be persuaded to bust him out?
TenguPhule
@Amir Khalid:
Unless they strip search him every hour on the hour, guarantee he’s going to be finding ways to violate that agreement.
Its what he does.
eric
@Amir Khalid: I suspect that they have been monitoring his communications and getting intel from him as compensation. I think that the deal was that he just cant get in their shit. And being the proverbial scorpion, he cannot help himself
TenguPhule
@EBT:
On Ecuador’s budget? They’ll be lucky if their wifi is secured at all.
Mike in DC
@Roger Moore:
Plausible. I suspect that the answer to coordination involves Cambridge Analytica. Confirmation of Trump’s complicity would have to come from Gates, Manafort, Flynn and/or Kushner. Sessions, maybe as well.
sukabi
@MJS: think he’s become a bit much of a liability for Ecuador, seems like they’re ‘encouraging’ him to leave. ☺
patroclus
The Ecuadorian Presidential election is next week and the principal opponent has pledged to evict Assange in one month if he wins. Undoubtedly, there is an element of local politics in the current President cutting internet access now. They supposedly signed an agreement with Assange to stop messing with the politics of other countries that Assange rather obviously thinks nothing of. We’ll see if this stands, but I think the outcome of the election will be dispositive.
LAO
@Gelfling 545: In order for the Court to appoint a federal defender or CJA lawyer, a defendant is required to demonstrate that he/she is indigent by submitting a sworn financial affidavit. No free lawyer for Trump.
ETA: I do realize you’re kidding but I can’t help myself some days.
catclub
@Jonny Scrum-half:
and so far none of it has worked. (apparently)
Manafort may have a very good idea of which bad outcome for him is worst, and the threats from Mueller may not be the worst ones he fears.
Steve in the DFW
@danielx:
Exactly. Just like I’m still a Cubs fan even though I haven’t lived in Chicago since the seventies.
Yarrow
Love reading this. Tick tock, motherfuckers!
And Assange losing his internet access. Hilarious. Can’t wait for them to dump him on the street.
catclub
@Mike in DC: why not Bannon? Bannon apparently was a big wheel at CA – or the holding company above it.
Bannon was in the admin until he was let go from it in 2017. Manafort was (at least officially) off the team after August 2016.
Gelfling 545
@LAO: Well, he never did release his financial records.
Jay S
@LAO: It wouldn’t be the first time Trump used bankruptcy claims to save is ass(ets).
germy
LAO
@Gelfling 545: @Jay S: Just because, here’s a link to a CJA-23 aka the financial affidavit.
Fair Economist
@patroclus: The Ecuadorian Presidential Election was last year and the candidate pledging to evict Assange lost. The next election is in 2021. That said, it’s filtering into the minds of leftists across the world, probably including the leftists ruling Ecuador, that Russia is their enemy now, not their ally.
trollhattan
@germy:
Class 1 Trolling–he haz it.
germy
This is excellent
Jay S
@LAO: That debt section is gonna require a lot of paper!
JMG
If this is old news, I apologize, but the Times is reporting that former Trump lawyer Dowd floated the possibility of pardons to Manafort and Flynn’s lawyers last year. Mueller’s looking into it.
trollhattan
@Fair Economist:
Are we talking competent leftists or Jill Stein leftists?
LAO
@Jay S: It sure will. And I think Jared should fill it out for his FIL, because he’s really good a filing out financial disclosure forms. An absolute genius.
Mike in DC
@catclub:
True. Anyone deeply involved in the campaign, with direct access to Trump, could possibly confirm his involvement/assent. Even knowledge after the fact would be damning.
Miss Bianca
@Gelfling 545: something about the prospect of Trump needing a public defender, because no reputable white-shoe firm will touch him – and the comcomitant mental image of a bunch of DC public defenders praying, “not me, not me, dear God please, *not me*” – is surprisingly schadenfreudelicious to petite moi.
rikyrah
@Lapassionara:
Nope.
No such thing.?
TenguPhule
@Miss Bianca:
What evil have public defenders ever done to you?
d58826
Doesn’t Adam keep pounding home the message – once a Russian lintel operative always a Russian lintel operative.
MattF
I’ve always suspected that Mueller has various contingency plans. Trump, after all, has lots of vulnerabilities. And Manafort! The man is a walking vulnerability. Anyone who has done money laundering in NYC is going to have quite a bit of splainin’ to do. In court.
d58826
@TenguPhule:
I doubt that a barefooted lawyer would want to touch this case
piratedan
@TenguPhule: well you would think that if Vlad has been bankrolling the GOP via 3rd parties, working up and maintaining troll farms and spending cash on developing lethal nerve agents that he MIGHT have a law firm or two he could alert Donald to…. but perhaps he couldn’t risk the possible legal entanglements of yet another link….
The Moar You Know
@catclub: imagining Sergei Skripal gasping out the last minutes of his conscious life on a park bench while his daughter dies right next to him kind of puts life in a Fed pen in a whole new light.
Gravenstone
In more Trump as crook news, a Federal judge has given the go ahead for the emoluments clause suit by DC and MD to proceed. He did, however, constrain it to only the DC Trump Tower, rather than the White House Swamp edition or his NYC property.
patroclus
.@Fair Economist: Thanks. I should have read the date on the article in the Guardian I just read. Uh, 2017. Duh.
EBT
@TenguPhule: I mean, if one feels like violating laws, or lives in a place where they are legal, Alibaba probably still has decent enough ones.
I mean a lot of super markets manage it by accident, and I *am* an electronics technologist after all.
d58826
Hmmmm looks like Der Fuhrer is going to need a bigger row boat for all his lawyers
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/judge-says-emoluments-case-against-trump-can-proceed/ar-BBKPrr6?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=iehp
bemused
@germy:
So much talent among these kids! And then there are the deadbeat losers who attack them.
germy
@bemused:
Chyron HR
@Roger Moore:
Yes, but Assage’s co-conspirators have effectively become the US Government. Harboring him to stick it to the US is as dumb as the Chomskyite argument that Russia conspiring to install a Republican president is America’s just deserts for Eisenhower overthrowing Mosaddegh and Reagan funding the Contras.
Gravenstone
@ruemara: Kim can go join Julian in Ecuadorian purgatory. Or, he can drop dead at our collective earliest convenience of an overdue heart attack. I’m not wedded to either outcome.
Mike in DC
@catclub: Mueller could threaten to publicly thank him for his cooperation and let him go free. He wouldn’t last more than a few weeks.
James E. Powell
@germy:
There is no limit to RWer ass-holiosity. I’ve been darkly amused at the number of press/media types expressing shock at the way RWers have gone after the Parkland students. Living in “both sides” world requires one’s mind to be erased like in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
TenguPhule
@Gravenstone:
por que no los dos?
Lapassionara
@MattF: And no pardon from
Trump for state crimes.
Mnemosyne
@germy:
Please let there be a picture of the three pathetic white dudebros who show up for the “protest.”
Mike in NC
@d58826:
Reminder that the final season of “The Americans” starts tonight on FX.
Gin & Tonic
@Steve in the DFW: Unfortunately that rule keeps me a Knicks fan.
Gin & Tonic
In cheerier news, I am at the airport embarking on a visit to my grandchildren.
Just One More Canuck
@Ms. D. Ranged in AZ: Manafort apparently has nothing to worry about . Per TPM, Manafort is suing to have the indictment overturned, on the basis that Rosenstein didn’t have the authority to give Mueller as broad a mandate as he did. In the next breath, the say that even if he did have the authority, Mueller couldn’t investigate Manafort because the DOJ knew what manafort was doing before Mueller started investigating.
I’ll leave it to the resident legal beagles to figure out how that makes sense.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/manafort-motion-dismiss-virginia
Tokyokie
@LAO: Who knows? If der Trumpenführer finds that a RICO action has tied up all his unencumbered assets, maybe he really won’t have the dough to pay one. Of course, that would require him to file an honest declaration of his net worth………
Gravenstone
@JPL: Wouldn’t pre-emptively pardoning them basically have been an own goal? I’ve seen it described here often enough in the sense that not having to worry about 5th amendment protections for their own actions, they’d then have to spill everything relevant against Trump under oath before a grand jury or at a trial, yes?
Gravenstone
@trollhattan: Shall we set the over/under at three? Or be generous and suggest five?
LAO
@Gravenstone: I think that the key take away with respect to Trump’s legal team and their absolute ineptness, is their total inability to game out strategy and understand the implications of the moves that they make. So, this would not surprise me.
bemused
@germy:
She has 3 children herself. I can’t fathom how people like her have no qualms about trashing other kids like Hogg. She comes across as very cold and mean. If she has any compassion or heart, I hope she at least shows it for her kids.
Omnes Omnibus
@Gravenstone: They could still be in legal jeopardy at the state level, so there would be some things on which they could claim 5th Amendment protections.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@JPL: TPM was observation was Trump is so offensive to women that and firm that represented Trump would likely lose all the women in their firm.
germy
@bemused: Probably even more horrible behind closed doors.
Mnemosyne
@d58826:
So it sounds like the AG of Florida would need to bring the emoluments claim about Mar-A-Loco? Can any of our lawyers tell me if I’m interpreting that correctly?
If so, I think we can be pretty sure that it ain’t gonna happen unless a miracle occurs.
bemused
@germy:
Mommy dearest.
Omnes Omnibus
@bemused: NO WIRE HANGERS!
germy
O. Felix Culpa
I shall lead with tick tock or drip drip: hot off the press, federal judge allows D.C., & Maryland to proceed with lawsuit alleging Trump violated emoluments clauses.
Immanentize
@germy: That is just the worst, stupidest attack ever — Hitting a kid on which colleges he did not get into? I bet a few notable fancy schools will suddenly find room for him.
trollhattan
@germy: @Immanentize:
Specific to UCLA, the fall 2017 incoming freshman GPA range: 4.13 – 4.31
Laura Fucking Ingram would not have been accepted.
germy
@Immanentize:
And then people like Laura will say “it’s just because he’s famous!”
Mary G
@MJS: I have the feeling that if Julian went out to have a coffee and use the cafe’s wireless, the embassy would change the locks, turn out the lights, and pretend nobody’s home when he came back. They say fish and guests go bad after three days, and he’s been there for months.
trollhattan
@Mary G:
Handwritten signs on cardboard: “Labour Party Headquarters”
germy
@Mary G: Five years, I think.
Immanentize
@trollhattan: And that is on a scale of 1-4!
Gin & Tonic
@Mary G: Years.
germy
Maybe something about Hillary?
Shalimar
@germy: How is it predictable that someone with a 4.1 GPA wouldn’t get into UCLA? Shouldn’t this be where Ingraham starts bitching about quotas and diversity being totally unfair to deserving white males?
Fair Economist
@trollhattan: Real leftists, so not Jill Stein.
Yellowdog
@jl: He’s not allowed visitors either.
Immanentize
My son is just starting to look at colleges. He is interested in computer science programs…. We went to look at Rice (very nice)! Universities now report their SATs on a 25% and 75% basis — At Rice, that spread is 1490/1580 out of 1600. That is some serious damn test scores. Not only are their bottom 25 percentile students way above the national average, over 25% of the incoming class had a perfect SAT. It’s competitive out there, people.
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
@germy: What an ass. Laura Ingraham thinks a college senior shouldn’t be tweeting about his college admission process? A theoretically adult woman goes after him for that.
Immanentize
@Shalimar: So first, UCLA is a California State system school. By ruling of the board of regents, they are only allowed to take so many out of state plus foreign students (I think it is 18% in California?) So the competition is tough.
germy
@Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady):
They’re at the “throw whatever you can at the wall and see what sticks” phase, a sign of desperation.
Yutsano
@Immanentize: Same with the University of Washington. 70% of the student population has to have an address from inside the state. Getting in as an out of stater is amazingly hard. But since WSU has no such restrictions, we get a lot more out of state folks.
JR
@Immanentize: Kids these days are much harder working than their predecessors.
Walker
@Immanentize:
I am member of a CS department at a university you may have heard of. My university also has the policy that admissions are done with a faculty reader. That is, all applications are read by both an admissions officer and a faculty member. This is university service, not unlike serving on a committee.
Typically, the people who volunteer for this service are faculty members with children who will be applying for college soon. The reason being that that want to see what universities are looking for. Many faculty come away from the experience totally shocked. Before reading, they had no idea how competitive it has become at the top universities.
OGLiberal
@Shalimar: When did GPA go above 4.0?
Sloegin
Is there a juicer over / under on a Mueller weekend firing yet? Trump will never get a good Nixon impeachment speed-run score without it.
Miss Bianca
@TenguPhule: you’re right – that’s pretty awful for the poor publc defenders. Fortunately, per LAO, they’re not likely to have to face the prospect. : )
Walker
@OGLiberal:
These are often bonuses for AP courses. This is to keep an A in a normal course from counting as much as an A in a advanced course. When we look at applications, we are typically looking for students that have taken the most challenging courses offered by their school.
Steeplejack (phone)
@West of the Rockies (been a while):
I wish the reporters would gang up on her and the next reporter would ask the (obvious) follow-up question to the previous reporter’s. It’s not like Jethrene is going to give a real answer to the new reporter’s awesome question either. So they might as well keep hammering her on just one.
Immanentize
@Walker: Keep reading! Maybe my son’s app. will cross your desk.
The University that I teach at is not super-competitive, but still, the grades, the activities, the sports, the test scores. Ooolala! As @JR: said, kids in HS today are knocking themselves out where I remember pretty much kicking back…. But that is what helps produce amazing kids like the Parkland activists.
Zinsky
As long as nutless Paul Ryan leads the nutless majority in the House, they will let these traitors off scot free! We should begin converting Trump Tower into a high-rise prison immediately !
Immanentize
@OGLiberal: There is a formula that many schools use that weights for AP classes and other types of advanced or accelerated placements. So, an A in a regular course is a 4.0, but an A in an AP course might be a 4.5, etc.
Tokyokie
@OGLiberal: I think AP courses give 5.0 for an A. Which isn’t good, because the Associated Press isn’t the news behemoth it once was.
Mary G
I volunteered at the thrift shop my mom started and about a third of our profits go to the Boys and Girls Club and more than half go to scholarships. The highest average last year was 4.85. The high school has AP classes where àn A is 4.5 and IB classes where an A is 5.0. These kids work 16 hours a day,cause grades alone aren’t enough, they have to play music, sports, do charity work and on and on. It’s brutal.
TenguPhule
@Zinsky:
Or we could demolish it with all of them locked inside.
And build affordable housing units instead.
O. Felix Culpa
@Immanentize:
My elder son went to Rice. It’s an excellent school, especially if you’re in engineering, and has a beautiful campus. When my son applied, he had an additional edge beyond grades, scores, etc. owing to the school’s desire to move from being a topnotch regional university to a nationally-regarded one, so they gave the kid from Chicago all sorts of incentives to come. A bright Massachusetts boy might be similarly encouraged by the admissions folks.
germy
Massive crowd:
Mnemosyne
@OGLiberal:
It’s been at least 30 years, because they did it at my high school.
Christ, I’m old.
MoxieM
@Amir Khalid: As if the *resident’s men could pronounce it. Eichhörnchen!!
Steve in the ATL
@germy: first they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win
Steve in the ATL
@Immanentize: my grandfather went to Rice, but right after he graduated the Navy put him on a destroyer and sent him fight the Japanese. Hope that doesn’t happen to your son!
Ruckus
@Mnemosyne:
You are not old. I’m older than dirt and I’m not all that old. And I’m a fair bit older than you. You are seasoned. That’s it, seasoned.
Mnemosyne
@Ruckus:
You couldn’t see my gray roots last weekend because I was wearing a hat. ? My mom’s whole side of the family went completely gray before they were 50, and I’m on that same road.
rikyrah
@Roger Moore:
There’s a lot of racketeering in Georgia???
patrick II
@TenguPhule: my favorite of those suggestions is the high-rise. I would break Trump Towers into Apartments at low rent and the thought of them being able to sit on Golden toilets if you didn’t totally refurbish makes me happy.
Captain C
@germy: Or maybe Hannity himself is getting indicted. We can only hope.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Immanentize:
Technical point: UCLA is a University of California school; we also have the California State University schools which are an outgrowth of the old normal(teacher college) schools.
BillinGlendaleCA, UCLA BS’82
Brachiator
@Captain C:
I would love to see Hannity indicted for something. Almost anything. Especially something juicy and salacious.
TenguPhule
@Brachiator:
Sexual harassment?
There are rumors.
Mike Furlan
@Tokyokie: You are correct. I was wrong. Only white men count.
Mnemosyne
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
G’s MLIS degree will be from San Jose State, which is the oldest school in the CSU system and started as, yes, a teachers’ college.
Mnemosyne
@Tokyokie:
@Mike Furlan:
Now, now, boys. White women’s opinions count as long as they make sure they agree with white men.
Steve in the ATL
@rikyrah:
Lots of smuggling rings here—people, drugs, you name it. Drive down Buford Highway through Chamblee and it’s like a trip through every country in Asia, South America, and Central America.
Never bought any girls there, but have eaten a lot of good food.
TenguPhule
@Steve in the ATL:
Hedgehogs?
Brachiator
@Mnemosyne:
Oddly enough, a southern branch campus split off in 1881 and later became UCLA.
And according to the Wiki, the library and information sciences is one of the most popular programs. Cool California history.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@germy:
I think he’s got some serious dirt on James Earl Carter, something super important and relevant that’ll totally sink Carter’s political career.//
Yutsano
@TenguPhule: Oh wait didn’t you hear? Fox News cleared all their personalities of any and all sexual harassment charges last week. Their own internal investigation found nothing. It was signed off with, “Suck it, libtards!”
*Might be some sarcasm in there.
Steve in the ATL
@TenguPhule: I almost added exotic animals to the list. Haven’t looked for hedgehogs in particulate, but I’ll bet my porcupine guy can get one
Jay
@Steve in the ATL:
What about Kinder Surprise?
Steve in the ATL
@Jay: choking hazard!
Dmbeaster
What a surprise. Someone with significant financial issues, who is working for Trump for free, maintains his Russian contacts on whom he was financially dependent. And then he is later briefing a Russian oligarch with Kremlin ties (is there any other kind?) about Trump’s campaign. And as campaign manager happens to be at the meeting where Russian intelligence operatives are offering up dirt on Clinton stolen by Russian intelligence as part of its global ratfvcking campaign.