Koko78

Throwing in things like money laundering makes it sound more impressive when putting pressure on a defendant to plead, especially if they're looking for massive fines/restitution/forfeitures/etc.

THAT. IS. THE. *****. POINT. OF. HAVING. A. CIVIL. TRIAL. Seriously, this is not a complicated thing to understand.

Couldn't tell you, they hid the evidence. That's the point of the civil trial.

Are you sure they're not just fans of DDP?

Because he falsely reported an incident, then doubled down on the lies, wasting hundreds and hundreds of man-hours of the Chicago PD investigating a hoax he perpetrated. The theory of liability is that the Chicago taxpayers deserve reimbursement for him wasting the time of the Chicago PD. Seeking reimbursement is not really that uncommon a thing to do for local governments after someone reports a hoax.

Did they use starch when the laundered the money? Color safe bleach? Tumble Dry Low?!?

Oh this is all ego, no question. Chicago PD is butthurt over what happened, and Smollette's smug bullschiff pronouncement of innocence. This is happening after they took a black eye over covering up a kid being killed. Regardless, this is less about the money (which can be tripled up to $390,000) than it is vindication for the Chicago PD officers who are upset that they spent a lot of time and effort to uncover the hoax, only to have it quickly buried in a really thinly-veiled corrupt bargain. The entire point of the demand was to either have him pay the money, admitting guilt, or go to a civil trial on the ordinance, where the evidence the DA had buried can be publicly used.

Charges being dropped (especially in a pretty corrupt manner) does not shield one from civil liability. OJ was not found guilty of murder after a tril, for example, and still owes a metric crapton of money to the Goldmans after losing the civil suit. Being acquitted after trial is a bit more significant than having the charges mysteriously dropped. You're trying to make a false equivalence of a traffic ticket being dismissed because the cop didn't show up and 16 felonies being dropped in an unannounced "emergency" hearing, with the record being immediately sealed, after he performed a whopping two days of community service and agreed to forfeit a $10,000 bond (both of which are, arguably, tacit admissions of guilt.) Innocent people do not perform community service and forfeit 10 grand to have the charges dropped.

He was not acquitted. They most certainly can. They can also make the investigation materials public through the civil suit, circumventing the highly dubious sealing that the criminal court imposed, on top of asking for treble damages. That said, however, I fully expect the new mayor to direct her Law Dept. to quietly bury/dismiss the civil suit.

It was interesting, but I don't think it was a completely unbiased look. Vince is an asshat, of that there is no question, and there is a very dubious legal standing to consider the performers 'independent contractors' (of course, no one has the balls to challenge Vince in court.) However, the performers are going into the relationship with eyes wide open. No one is forcing them to sign WWF/E contracts. The Big Show had, I think, a very good response: https://www.tmz.com/2019/04/04/big-show-john-oliver-wwe-wrestlemania/ Admittedly, he was toeing the company line, but he's not that wrong. Guys like CM Punk do have legitimate gripes about how they were treated and forced to perform (though even Punk admits he was being stupid.) It is also worth noting that the WWE has substantially changed its style to be a lot more safe for the performers. Oliver got into it a little bit, in talking about no more head shots, but Vince also change the in-ring style too. There are a lot of moves that are banned outright (piledrivers, for example), and several others that are only allowed by very experienced performers who can be trusted to pull off safely. They got rid of most of the really crazy dangerous stuff that is still pulled off in the Indies and in Japan. If the WWE were smart, they'd create some 503(c) non-profit "Legacy Program" to assist some of the old vets with their physical issues - to go along with the drug rehab WWE already provides former employees. They would get a nice PR bump, and create a tax dodge in the process.

Oh no, the Democrats finally have Trump THIS time! ?

It's disingenuous partisan noise designed to distract idiots and set up the "coverup" narrative that they've already been crafting. Personally, I think Barr should release a statement saying something to the effect of, "While i respect Chairman Nadler's position, any subpoenas that he issues for the full report will be ignored. Neither the Justice Department, nor the Attorney General's Office are going to follow any directives by Chairman Nadler, or his committee, that require us to commit crimes."

In part, probably. Scaring the crap out of the DNC by promoting someone who could split the Democrat vote is a pretty effective way to demonstrate their displeasure at being snubbed for the primary debates.

Progressives are certainly not racist... when the uppity minorities stay on the plantation and do as the big blue massa tells them.

Well, this explains why he was willing to part with $35 billion:

Can 95-year old IMF Super Agent Ethan Hunt get out of his wheelchair long enough to stop the evil Manchurian Candidate Dictator President Ronald J. Stump from destroying the World?!?

Long live the King!

Thanks buddy! I know you got my back!

Worth the watch:

You know, since putting that idiot on ignore, I keep forgetting he exists.

Yeah, we're really set up for all kinds of bad news with that whole 'no evidence' thing that Mueller's report is going to say. Glad we have you here to give us a "reality check"... Don't know what we'd do without your stunning intellect and persuasive arguments.

Damn that Trump! Global warming cooling climate change was not a thing before January 20, 2017!