I Prefer To Think Of It As 3,285 Days UPDATED! And Now We Gotta UPDATE THE UPDATE and It’s Only 3:30 PM
Roger Stone is going to prison unless Donald Trump dusts off his magic wand and practices forgiveness.
He was sentenced to 87 months to 108 months in prison. Federal Courts use months instead of years for two reasons: (1) to confuse the hell outta reporters who can’t do math in their heads, and (2) they actually tried to use days so their legal fees won’t seem inflated.
That’s 7 to 9 years, 364 to 468 weeks, or 2,555 to 3,285 days plus a couple of leap year days thrown in.
That’s not long enough. Roger Stone is 67 years old. He’s apt to live another 20 years. We do not need a man with a Richard Nixon tattoo living among us again because he didn’t contribute anything the first time. Am I right?
UPDATE: This just in from CNN
The Justice Department will backtrack on its request that longtime Donald Trump confidante Roger Stone get up to nine years in prison, a senior department official said Tuesday, contradicting its own federal prosecutors in a highly unusual and politically charged move.
WHY?
… that sentencing recommendation, transmitted to a judge and signed off on by the office’s top prosecutor, had not been communicated to leadership at the Justice Department.
Yep, just gotta rub our noses in it. This is Trump Justice.
UPDATE TO THE UPDATE. This just in from CNN
A Justice Department prosecutor who asked a judge to sentence Roger Stone to between seven to nine years in prison has withdrawn from the former Trump aide’s case after reports that officials would seek to reduce the sentencing recommendation.
The withdrawal by prosecutor Aaron Zelinsky on Tuesday came after the initial sentencing guidance was sharply criticized by President Trump, raising questions about potential political interference in the sentencing of Stone. Stone was found guilty of lying to Congress and witness tampering .
Oh good lord, Trump just broke the justice system. Hell, and he did it before nap time.
“Am I right?” Do you even have to ask, Ms. Juanita Jean Herownself? While sharing your sentiment, would go one or two steps further. Roger Stone deserves to be buried under the prison, while Mike Flynn deserves to be buried a few levels below that.
But it ain’t gonna happen. The impeached crook* with the pardon pen will do the wrong thing as always and have the full support of crooked Republicons for doing it. They’re ‘sympathetic’ as in simpatico with guilt ergo thinking about pardons for themselves.
1Talk about your unrepentant criminal!
2His campaign will probably advise him to not do anything until after November 3rd. Even then, Trump has a way of forgetting about people. He’ll just mush on with, I hope, a retirement in FL, and let all his cronies rot.
3I don’t know how federal prisons work but in Texas they tend to parole inmates whose medical expenses exceed the prison budget. I hope Mr. Stone lives a long and healthy life for 7 to 9 years.
4That is such an interesting take on the way the time is stated, JJ! It must much a blast living with a writ twit!
5I’ll bet ol’ Roger is wishing he kept his loud mouth shut now. At the very least, I hope the State of New York (or some other state) has some fresh charges waiting in the wings if he gets out on a pardon. What a stupid, evil man.
6You’re absolutely right—right as in correct rather than the odious alternative.
7Such sentence leniency is one part of a larger trend: white-collar crime is increasing and the accountability of elites is lessening.
See this article: “We’re in a Golden Age of White Collar Crime.”
https://www.huffpost.com/highline/article/white-collar-crime/
8Just saw this news a minute after posting here:
“Justice Dept. to reduce sentencing recommendation for Trump associate Roger Stone, official says, after president calls it ‘unfair’ ”
Pass the banana please.
945 is having his flying monkeys at DOJ take care of this:
https://boingboing.net/2020/02/11/trump-doj-steps-in-to-shorten.html
10Too bad the presiding judge actually has the power to sentence. The interference by BLOATUS should go over well…
11OT and off his rocker. I’m headed for South Carolina, Pilgrims!
Caucus Carcass: “Number one, I was a Democratic Caucus.” (Huh?)
“Have you ever been to a caucus?”
Now do Roy Rogers / Bruce Willis: YippeeKiyayyy Toilet Flusher.
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Go home, Joe Biden: you may not be drunk, but you are certainly acting like it.
Edit: On Sunday, during an event in New Hampshire, the Democratic presidential candidate’s gift of the gaffe struck again. Madison Moore, a 21-year-old student, politely asked Biden to explain why he came fourth in Iowa – a fair question, given he sells himself as the most “electable” candidate. Biden responded by asking Moore if she had been to a caucus before. She said yes; he called her a “lying, dog-faced pony soldier”.
Biden has used that odd phrase before; he appears to think it comes from a John Wayne film, although no one seems able to confirm this. But the phrase would not have been any more appropriate had a cowboy once said it. Moore laughed off the insult, but later told reporters it was “humiliating” to be called a liar on national TV.
She added that she had not previously taken part in a caucus, but had nodded her head out of nervousness. “[Biden] has been performing extremely poorly in this race and the fact that he couldn’t just straight answer my question without bullying or intimidating just exacerbates that fact,” she said.
Biden and verbal blunders go together like Donald Trump and fake tan; there is nothing new about him coming out with an inappropriate turn of phrase. For the most part, his semantic stumbles have not been a liability. In the same way that Trump’s ineloquence makes him appear more authentic to some, Biden’s way with words can lend him a folksy charm.
This latest exchange felt different, though. It was not just a gaffe; it was a giveaway, a glimpse into how rattled Biden is. The fact that he resorted to an insult rather than introspection when challenged on his poor result in Iowa does not bode well.
His campaign is not over yet, but it is increasingly unlikely that he will be the Democratic nominee.
When Biden announced his candidacy last year, he became the frontrunner immediately. He had name recognition and equity with three key segments of voter: older black Americans, moderate suburban white people and working-class people in the rust belt. He did not inspire the passion that Bernie Sanders did, but Sanders’ supporters skew young, and young people do not vote. Conventional wisdom said Biden was the most electable Democrat.
However, Trump has taught us that we can no longer rely on conventional wisdom. Biden may have looked more electable on paper, but he was clearly the Hillary Clinton of 2020 – and there was nothing to suggest it would turn out better this time. From the beginning, he did not seem to understand the desperate desire for change.
He threw his energy into arguing he was the guy who could beat Trump, rather than taking the time to understand why Trump won. As John Wayne once said: “Tomorrow hopes we have learned something from yesterday.” The fact that Biden was feted as the Democrats’ best hope for so long shows that we have learned very little from 2016.
We should not write Biden off yet, but Iowa – and his reaction to those results – should lay to rest the idea that he is the most electable candidate. Indeed, he has dropped drastically in the polls. On Monday, Quinnipiac University released a national survey, conducted after Iowa, that showed Sanders in front, with 25% support. Biden is polling second, at 17%, with Michael Bloomberg at 15%.
Watch video:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/feb/11/joe-biden-called-voter-lying-dog-faced-pony-soldier
12I never felt comfortable with him always invoking Obama like that was some sort of magic blessing on him or something. I still like him, and I still don’t want him for our candidate.
13Bloomberg all the way…..his mind is working.
14of course he will pardon all the bad guys…..may they all live full time in Florida with him, with full spy guards.
15Well, there IS one thing that might keep Roger from being pardoned. Just who is that tattoo of that he’s got on his back anyway? Knowing Trump, he could very well decide that the fact that it’s Nixon and not him means that Roger is a disloyal scumbag.
Just wait.
16Roger Stone in prison for felonies? That’s too harsh.
Locking innocent children in cages? Just fine.
17Depressing, yes, Slipstream. Kind of makes you sick too, doesn’t it?
18That 7-9 year recommended sentence is less than half of the maximum one that scumbag Stone is eligible for and should get.
RAT45 has already signaled that he’ll give his crime family partner a full pardon anyway.
“…Trump just broke the justice system.” No, it’s beyond that. RAT45 is gleefully urinating and defecating on the US justice system, and the Constitution too.
Have y’all concluded yet that we are rapidly descending into a fascistic autocracy headed by Comrade Donnei and an utterly corrupt Republic Party, who is/are owned and operated by Vladimir Putin?
19What are you prepared to do about it…?
As long as the majority of people are dumb, we will have the Trumps of this world destroying our precious republic!
There were not enough registered Repugnuts to elect fearless leader without help from registered Democrats and independents!
Polls showed that only 40% of the population were Republican, still the election was given away!
Yes they are evil, but
20Every Democrat and independent who voted for “fearless leader” in the ignorant assumption that voting against the Democratic nominee was somehow justified, are guilty of causing the crisis that now exists!