All-purpose news and politics thread: Two Steps Beyond!

[ouroboros]

Maher is a jerk. A colossal jerk. An islamphobic, misogynistic bigot.

That doesn't stop me from agreeing with him from time to time but he's very much a jerk who I actively dislike being held up as some sort of exemplar of liberalism.

He isn't.

In the sense of defending freedom of speech, he's very much a "classic liberal," as opposed to the more recent versions.

[TheInvisibleMan]

I'd second this estimation of Maher except on one note. Though I don't doubt that a lot of conservatives assailed Maher for his 9-11 comment, my memory is that the society as a whole got mad at Maher for saying anything remotely complimentary about the terrorists.

Maybe some liberal pundits defended his right to free speech, but I sure don't recall any. I think it was a big grass-roots condemnation that caused sponsors to withdraw within the space of a few weeks.

Jimmy Kimmel only has a job because Disney/ABC fired Maher

[BeastieRunner]

Buddhism and Shintoism don't have judgmental and fanatical followers telling people they are going to HELLLLL

The Myanmar, Suu Kyi, the Burmese, the Raiding Buddahist Monks, and the Buddahist Maruders ... the latter of whom the Taliban stole all there techniques (like beheading) from ... would say otherwise.

https://theconversation.com/militant...ome-from-86632

[GindyPosts]

but isn't Hinduism more goal-based; as opposed to muh god tells me how to live and how to judge others? asking honestly/I don't do religion.

My argument was more of "If you're going to be the guy known for going after religion, go after everything".

Frankly... I can't stand Maher at all.

[mojotastic]

Buddhism and Shintoism don't have judgmental and fanatical followers telling people they are going to HELLLLL

Well....try checking what is happening with the buddhist in Myammar

https://www.theatlantic.com/internat...-monks/538992/

[Darkspellmaster]

Buddhism and Shintoism don't have judgmental and fanatical followers telling people they are going to HELLLLL

Are you being sarcastic or serious? Because, Japan, China, and Tibet would like a word on judgemental and fanatic.

Also I should note that in India the Muslim community are the ones that check on and try to help the lowest sullied cast in India as those in the him do faith tend to ignore them as per their religion.

[Mister Mets]

Legal commentator Popehat notes why the Cohen raid is a big deal.

The Very Big News of the day: FBI Agents raided the law office of Michael Cohen, President Trump's lawyer who was involved in payment of $130,000 to adult performer "Stormy Daniels" for a nondisclosure agreement.

Recently I've been listening to the Podcast "Slow Burn," about Watergate. There's a fascinating theme throughout it: when you're living a historical event, how do you know? How can you tell when a development is a Big Deal?

This is a big deal. It's very early on, but here's some things we can already tell.

1. According to Cohen's own lawyer, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York (widely regarded within itself as being the most important and prestigious U.S. Attorney's Office in the country) secured the search warrants for the FBI. Assuming this report is correct, that means that a very mainstream U.S. Attorney's Office — not just Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office — thought that there was enough for a search warrant here.

2. Moreover, it's not just that the office thought that there was enough for a search warrant. They thought there was enough for a search warrant of an attorney's office for that attorney's client communications. That's a very fraught and extraordinary move that requires multiple levels of authorization within the Department of Justice. The U.S. Attorney's Manual — at Section 9-13.320 — contains the relevant policies and procedures. The highlights:

The feds are only supposed to raid a law firm if less intrusive measures won't work. As the USAM puts it:

In order to avoid impinging on valid attorney-client relationships, prosecutors are expected to take the least intrusive approach consistent with vigorous and effective law enforcement when evidence is sought from an attorney actively engaged in the practice of law. Consideration should be given to obtaining information from other sources or through the use of a subpoena, unless such efforts could compromise the criminal investigation or prosecution, or could result in the obstruction or destruction of evidence, or would otherwise be ineffective.

Such a search requires high-level approval. The USAM requires such a search warrant to be approved by the U.S. Attorney — the head of the office, a Presidential appointee — and requires "consultation" with the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. This is not a couple of rogue AUSAs sneaking in a warrant.

Such a search requires an elaborate review process. The basic rule is that the government may not deliberately seize, or review, attorney-client communications. The USAM — and relevant caselaw — therefore require the feds to set up a review process. That process might involve a judge reviewing the materials to separate out what is privileged (or what might fall within an exception to the privilege), or else set up a "dirty team" that does the review but is insulated from the "clean team" running the investigation. Another option is a "special master," an experienced and qualified third-party attorney to do the review. Sometimes the reviewing team will only be identifying and protecting privileged material. Sometimes the reviewing team will be preparing to seek, or to implement, a court ruling that the documents are not privileged. (Robert Mueller is aggressive on this sort of thing; he already sought and obtained a court ruling that some of Paul Manafort's communications with his lawyers were not privileged because they were undertaken for the purpose of fraud — the so-called "crime-fraud exception" to the attorney-client privilege.

3. A Magistrate Judge signed off on this. Federal magistrate judges (appointed by local district judges, not by the President) review search warrant applications. A Magistrate Judge therefore reviewed this application and found probable cause — that is, probable cause to believe that the subject premises (Cohen's office) contains specified evidence of a specified federal crime. Now, Magistrate Judges sometimes are a little too rubber-stampy for my taste. But here, where the Magistrate Judge knew that this would become one of the most scrutinized search warrant applications ever, and because the nature of the warrant of an attorney's office is unusual, you can expect that the Magistrate Judge felt pretty confident that there was enough there.

4. The search warrant application (the lengthy narrative from the FBI agent setting for the evidence) is almost certainly still under seal, and even Michael Cohen doesn't get to see it [yet]. But the FBI would have left the warrant itself — and that shows (1) the federal criminal statutes they were investigating, and (2) the list of items they wanted to seize. Much can be learned for those. Assuming Michael Cohen doesn't release it, watch for it to be leaked.

Again: this is a Big Deal.

I'll follow up with more as it becomes available.

[ouroboros]

Not to be a stickler, but I hated that in Religulous, he only went after "New World" religions and ignored exploring the religions of the East (Buddhism, Hinduism, & Shintoism). Felt like he was just being cute going after the obvious targets.

FWIW, on the old PI show, he had a one-on-one with a modern witch, and he used his atheist arguments on her. As I recall, she kicked his ass logically.

I almost want to say the guest was Anne Rice, but that may be wrong as I don't think she's a practicing pagan.

Anyway, I think Maher dislikes all religions equally, even if he doesn't view all as equal threats to rationality.

[BeastieRunner]

Legal commentator Popehat notes why the Cohen raid is a big deal.

Is this your way of saying Trump is screwed? I can never guess with the lack of commentary.

[Mister Mets]

Is this your way of saying Trump is screwed? I can never guess with the lack of commentary.

I don't think the article goes that far. It points out why it's a big deal that Cohen's office was raided. I don't have much to add, hence the limited commentary. The reasoning seems to check out, and the writer's not coming at this from the perspective of a gleeful liberal (His actual name is Ken White, and he also writes for Reason magazine.)

[numberthirty]

I don't think the article goes that far. It points out why it's a big deal that Cohen's office was raided. I don't have much to add, hence the limited commentary. The reasoning seems to check out, and the writer's not coming at this from the perspective of a gleeful liberal (His actual name is Ken White, and he also writes for Reason magazine.)

That, or it's a potentially massive misstep by the FBI.

That they would make such a misstep feels unlikely.

[BeastieRunner]

I don't think the article goes that far. It points out why it's a big deal that Cohen's office was raided. I don't have much to add, hence the limited commentary. The reasoning seems to check out, and the writer's not coming at this from the perspective of a gleeful liberal (His actual name is Ken White, and he also writes for Reason magazine.)

That, or it's a potentially massive misstep by the FBI.

That they would make such a misstep feels unlikely.

I was hoping Trump would take his ball and go home in 2020 but that is becoming unlikely.

A mistep by the FBI, the POTUS getting impeached, all of it is bad for the USA.

[Darkspellmaster]

In upbeat news today, Sen. Duckworth gave birth to her daughter.

https://chicago.suntimes.com/chicago...wlsbey-office/

[InformationGeek]

In upbeat news today, Sen. Duckworth gave birth to her daughter.

https://chicago.suntimes.com/chicago...wlsbey-office/

Hey, positivity! That's nice for a change!

[InformationGeek]

Oh soooooo much going on... let's run it down.

As pointed out by someone:

To be clear: The FBI raid of Michael Cohen was OKd with a warrant by the Southern District US Attorney, Geoffrey S. Berman. Berman was appointed by Trump after he fired Preet Bharara. Berman was a one time Rudy Giuliani law partner—so hardly a lib Dem.

Michael Cohen is... WAS the National Deputy Finance Chair of the GOP. He's been removed from the website in the past few hours. Can't imagine why.


And transcripts of Trump reacting to all of this: