Mueller Issues Another Indictment in Russia Probe, Trump Supports Bump Stock Ban, and the Taliban Taxes Journalists: P.M. Links

• 

  Douliery Olivier/Sipa USA/Newscom

  Mueller charges lawyer, Gates associate with lying in Russia probe.

• President Trump proposes Bump Stock ban.

• The Taliban taxes Afghanistan's independent media.

• Donald Trump Jr.'s business trip to India raises ethics concerns.

• Portland wonders if affordable housing regulations reduces the supply of housing.

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

President Trump proposes Bump Stock ban.

A bone has been rethrown.

[Citizen X - #6]

A yuge bone. The best bone, believe me.

[Red Tony]

Second best. And if you're a good little Drumpfkin, you get to play with the best bone!

(Seriously where the hell is OBL? I miss her.)

[Rufus The Monocled]

Hello.

"President Trump proposes Bump Stock ban."

Let's call this 'Do anything, do something, say you, say me'.

[Chipper Morning Baculum]

What about a baby bump stock?

[BestUsedCarSales]

Oh...

[Chipper Morning Baculum]

Hey, these look like Britches links. Oh....

[Fist of Etiquette]

Mueller charges lawyer, Gates associate with lying in Russia probe.

Do we finally have our Scooter Libby?

[Chipper Morning Baculum]

Well, we have our G. Gordon Liddy, at least.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Donald Trump Jr.'s business trip to India raises ethics concerns.

Too dumb to set up a charitable foundation and he wants to be our president... 's son.

[John]

And something doesn't raise ethical concerns. It is either ethical or it isn't. Whenever someone says "this raises ethical concerns" they are just saying that whatever it is is perfectly fine but they don't like it and want to slander it as unethical but can't.

[jcw]

There's a number of situations that may be legally "ethical" but raises ethical concerns. For example, I have seen a bunch of stuff done by attorneys that don't violate MRPC but are still fucked up, ethically. Or maybe I'm not understanding what you are trying to say?

[John]

Then they are unethical. If you think something is wrong, say so. Whatever your ethical standard, something either meets it or it doesn't. And if it doesn't, you should say so and be willing to stand by it. What you shouldn't do is use a weasel phrase like "raises concerns", which is nothing but a way of slandering someone without actually owning up to the slander.

[BestUsedCarSales]

What do you say when there is a disagreement on whether it is ethical or not?

[John]

You decide which side you agree with and call it that.

[Red Tony]

So what if the guy who wrote the article had called Trump Jr.'s business dealings unethical?

[John]

He might have been wrong, but at least he would have been being honest.

[BestUsedCarSales]

So in a reporting situation you should decide the truth first and then state that?

[The Last American Hero]

See also Loophole, Tax.

[Ecoli]

Why is travel to India unethical? Is travel to Mexico, Canada, or Bangladesh acceptable to our ethics monitors?

I admit I did not read the article.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Portland wonders if affordable housing regulations reduces the supply of housing.

Introspection and leftist central planning seldom go well together.

[John]

Portland wonders if the laws of supply and demand really do apply even when you try really hard and mean really well.

[damikesc]

I hope they're wearing shades. That blinding flash of the obvious can be painful.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The Taliban taxes Afghanistan's independent media.

I'm beginning to suspect the Taliban might be illiberal.

[John]

No way. They are Muslim. Everyone knows no one who is a Muslim could be illiberal. Its like people who speak German. Those guys are never bad.

[Rufus The Monocled]

Die, Bart, Die.

[damikesc]

Hmm, I am smelling an Islamophobe over here!

[Stormy Dragon]

Elizabeth Swaney: Olympic Athelete

[Rufus The Monocled]

I saw her last night. Hilarious. She looks like me on the slopes.

[Chipper Morning Baculum]

Would that be at Le Massif?

[Rufus The Monocled]

No. Da fuck do I need to go there for?

I don't even like skiing that much.

[Chipper Morning Baculum]

But you can ski right into the river.

[Rufus The Monocled]

Sounds like a blast. Then the whales can eat me.

[Red Tony]

And with that euphemism, John became very aroused.

[Unlabelable MJGreen]

The slow motion replays make it.

[Juice]

Why bother? Lots of trouble for nothing. Unless it's for the lulz. If so, then brava.

[Stormy Dragon]

"People may say I can't sing, but no one can ever say I didn't sing." -- Florence Foster Jenkins

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Is there a backstory here?

[Stormy Dragon]

Yes:

How An Average American Skier Managed To Scheme Her Way Into The Olympics

[TrickyVic (old school)]

Interesting read.

[Citizen X - #6]

Portland wonders if affordable housing regulations reduces the supply of housing.

Affordable housing regulations just aren't weird enough anymore.

[Rich]

President Trump proposes Bump Stock ban.

Well, we must do *something*!

[Chipper Morning Baculum]

That doesn't sound very Taoist.

[Rich]

What is the sound of no stocks bumping?

[Red Tony]

These euphemisms are making me thirsty!

[Chipper Morning Baculum]

The sound of two lips Trumping.

[Rich]

Ah, Grasschipper ....

[BestUsedCarSales]

Portland wonders if affordable housing regulations reduces the supply of housing.

I was listening to some radio hosts arguing this here in Seattle. And one of them argued both that the homeless issue was out of control and something needs to be done, and also that we can't build in such a way to ruin the "feeling of Seattle."

When I hear that said, I hear someone who is in no way actually serious about helping the homeless.

[Rich]

the "feeling of Seattle."

That's right up there with lansing Michigan and wheeling West Virginia.

[Red Tony]

Michigan is a boil upon our landscape, and like all boils, it needs Lansing.

[Ecoli]

+1

"Grab 'em by the pus!"

[Red Tony]

Wait, I thought that part of the feeling of Seattle was homeless people.

[Ecoli]

I think they/we should build affordable housing in Malibu, Beverly Hills, and Santa Monica. Why should po people have to live in the sweaty, dusty, desiccated hinterlands?

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

They're not serious about helping the homeless. Seattle has built a homelessness industrial complex and it's full of patronage jobs that are above six figures. They literally don't want to fix it.

[Rich]

Donald Trump Jr.'s business trip to India raises ethics concerns.

It also raises aesthetics concerns, but what the heck.

[Chipper Morning Baculum]

For whom? The Indians or Junior?

[Rich]

For Whomever It May Concern.

[Anomalous]

Yes.

[John]

http://hotair.com/archives/201.....-officers/

Remember how all right-thinking people assured us that letting women into combat arms would not result in the standards being lowered? Sure enough like always, they were lying.

[Leader Desslok]

Ahh, you act like you've never been lied to before.

[John]

Or that I didn't know they were lying at the time.

[Juice]

Meh, it'll all be robots and cyborgs in 20 years anyway.

[John]

doubtful. Very doubtful. But the people who are doing this won't get killed as a result and they get to feel good about themselves and that is what it is all about isn't it?

[Ecoli]

Having standards that high raises ethical concerns.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

"There are no biological differences between men and women."

[John]

http://www.cato.org/policy-rep.....less-bench

Great read but read it at your own risk. It will make you want to throw up.

[Chipper Morning Baculum]

Wow.....Thanks, John. That is indeed nauseating. Mainly because it shows you how few judges have a problem with this crap. God bless that guy.

[John]

I know. They are appointed for life. And their word is law in their court room. I would just refuse to follow the guidelines. Fuck the government. They can appeal and the Circuit Court can overrule me. So what? Let them take the moral responsibility for this shit.

[Griffin3]

Exactly. How is mandatory sentencing mandatory, exactly. Make an exception, risk the appeal. When the case gets remanded, with instructions to re-sentence, make the term shorter (See old man in Pawn Stars, how its done). It's not like they are standing over you with a whip, to lash you until your sentence is >= mandatory minimum ... right?

[Unlabelable MJGreen]

Y'all sound like a bunch of leftists undermining the rule of law.

[John]

No. We sound like people who have consciences who understand the proper way to make a moral objection to a law.

[ThomasD]

Right, because the modern left is all about freeing the individual from the yoke of the state...

[Unlabelable MJGreen]

They are about activist judges ignoring the plain reading of the law to advance their conception of the Moral Good.

[Juice]

Well, after I realized it was going to be a long life story, I started scrolling down and then I realized before I got there it would be about mandatory minimums. Yep.

[Eidde]

What if more judges started resigning? What if instead of saying "I have no choice," they said "I quit - no honest person should have this job"? What if this caused awkward questions for the guy who they try to appoint to the vacancy?

What if I stopped with the Judge Nap style rhetorical questions?

[Red Tony]

Donald Trump Jr.'s business trip to India raises ethics concerns.

Wasn't there something about that Canadian dickhead (not Scott) going to India and being a dickhead? Where were the ethical concerns then?

[Rufus The Monocled]

Canadian Dickhead was found guilty of breaking four ethical laws by the A-G.

[Eidde]

I saw the Canadian Dickheads when they opened for Rush. Or maybe they *were* Rush.

[Eidde]

I saw the Canadian Dickheads when they opened for Rush. Or maybe they *were* Rush.

[Red Tony]

Off-topic: is it just me, or have Hank Phillips, #HihnsanoSoFragile, and The Distended Rectum of Unpaid Bets been showing up more frequently recently?

[John]

There is some kind of leftist troll infestation. Reverend Arther and a couple of others are clearly sock puppets for the same troll, which very well could be Hihn

[Red Tony]

I don't think Hihn runs socks. His style is too...Hihny for him to go to all that trouble.

Also I think Rev. is just some jackhole who came over with Volokh.

Still what the hell was with a thread being dominated by them yesterday?

[John]

Some of the Volokh people are interesting. But a lot of them are tiresome half wits who try to make up for it by being smug. Overall, I am not impressed at all.

[Rufus The Monocled]

It's a....

/dons cracked sunglasses

Conspiracy.

[John]

A conspiracy to infect reason with tiresome smugness. And an effective one at that.

[Libertymike]

Rev. Kirkland was at Volokh years ago.

Now that Volokh is part of Reason, I can post there again. I was banned in 2012 without notice and without any reason.

[John]

It is because they are law professors. They have giant egos and hate it when someone makes a point they don't like but can't really refute. You would have probably been better off being a troll. That probably wouldn't have gotten you banned.

[BestUsedCarSales]

Hihn definitely has other accounts. He rolls them out basically at random though. If you're in a thread where it's half Hihn posts then 10% more of those socks.

[ThomasD]

Rev. AK, loki, and Sarcastro may be shared socks, but they are a longstanding WaPo VC presence.

[Unlabelable MJGreen]

You're one to talk!

[Red Tony]

What'd I do?

[Unlabelable MJGreen]

Where've you been, huh? Enjoying your sweet time away from this hellhole?

Or maybe I'm just CRAAAAZY

[Red Tony]

I've been here on and off the past few weeks.

Like yesterday.

And the day before yesterday until I saw the threads going to hell at which point I chose not to comment.

[Juice]

Portland wonders if affordable housing regulations reduces the supply of housing.

Surely that's a factor in Portland, but I think the housing market re-bubbled a bit since 2011 and it's about to re-pop a bit sometime this year or next. Or at least start to deflate a bit as interest rates rise. I've been looking to buy lately and something tells me that if I'm ready to buy, it's the worst time in the market to buy (I swear it's some cosmic thing with my luck, just something I've gotten used to). So I'm going to ease up on looking and maybe start to think about next year instead of this year.

In DC there has been a building boom (bubble) in the past 3-4 years that has led to some really shitty neighborhoods being turned into some really nice neighborhoods and housing prices going through the roof. It's unsustainable and I think it's about to fizzle, especially as interest rates rise. Also, maybe it's just the way realtors are, but they're either just always kind of pushy or they seem desperate. I'm guessing they're just always on the pushy side. Anyway, I think the days of rat nest "fixer upper" houses going for half a million are coming to an end soon (then they'll "only" be $350k).

[John]

I have been thinking the DC market had to fizzle for 10 years. It never has. I am not sure it will as long as the federal government can borrow and print money. Maybe the condo market will crash and the housing way out will crash. But I seriously doubt any of the single family housing in or near the beltway not in PG county ever will.