Friday, April 19, 2019

"Someday, and that day may never come. . ." How To Avoid Admissible Evidence

When teaching ethics, I found this clip from The Godfather to be invaluable.





What evidence is there here of a bribe?  I'm forgiving you a debt in honor of my daughter's wedding.  Someday.  Someday in the distant future, or maybe not so distant, or maybe never at all, I may ask you to return the favor.

Imagine the Mueller investigation trying to present this transaction to the grand jury.  Well, unless there was a recording of this, there's nothing to present.  Only the evidence.  Well, this guy had a debt that was never recorded.  And . . . maybe he does this other thing for the Godfather.  Is that quid pro quo?  Or is it just a favor?  Is it a bribe?  Is it illegal?  Is it collusion?  Would a grand jury say it was beyond a reasonable doubt?

Here's a Tweet that picks up on this ambiguity.










2 comments:

  1. It's beginning to feel like how many dancing angels + pin stuff.
    FAR too subtle with legalese only judges can parse with Trump's supporters not caring about Mueller’s report in the first place as it was always a Witch Hunt -- two words. All they needed to swallow two years ago. And now they have No Collusion. Case closed.

    The rest of us knew a decade ago that Trump is an ignorant, puerile, petty, weak, Id-controlled, personality-defective mob-boss & yet we still continue to underestimate the raw anger/racism/cruelty he’s feeding off of, legitimizes and incites.

    The political & legal nerds will wind themselves up endlessly in the Report’s weeds. The left needs simple two-word slogans to combat toddler talk, for that's where we are now re "discourse".

    We know & Mueller shows that Trump’s motives were always to make money, flaunt power &
    1) screw anyone who was EVER disloyal and/or disrespected him, including the GOP who laughed at his first two Pres. attempts, and any and everything Obama did and stood for,
    2) increase his brand & political appeal,
    3) bribe, bully, blackmail, obstruct to maintain it,
    4) enjoy acting like a whimful King
    5) become a beloved Dictator with loyal subjects, and
    6) be above the law.

    but without a branch of government to do something about any of this & people’s confidence in these Constitutional branches pretty much destroyed, so what? Cults are irrational. Full stop.

    A regressive third of America is our real problem: the more they are mocked, the more intransigent they become, while a self-righteous, progressive 1/3 fight among themselves: just what Trump wants. (The final 1/3 are just taking selfies, their apathy and cynicism as cultish and dangerous to democracy as any of the rest of them.)

    Impeachment by all means, but the Senate vote will only enable Trump to come out of this even stronger. A minority of Americans are more than ready (and will fight) for an Authoritaian government, if for no other reason than to FUCK the LIBTARDS. Dems would be better off to protect States' rights (next on Trump's to-do list), journalists & voting rights or the next election will again be rigged.

    How to sway Trumpys even 10 degrees? Every Dem candidate must go on Fox News: into the belly of the beast, get inside the bubble. In some states, all it will take is 20,000 votes to change the outcome.

    (We can also hope that the current pressure will make Trump snap and he'll do something so low and stupid, his cult will wake up...yeah, but he's always done that...daily....)

    O well. This too shall pass...
    In the meantime, it’s history in the making at our fingertips. We are bearing witness. Quite a show.
    And Trump has his use — to show American how fragile are human & civil rights, voting rights, real democracy -- that constant vigilance is always the price of freedom.


    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've since seen Rachel Maddow's take on just one of Mueller's obstruction of justice points. (She did admit that the report looked better the second day. And so will I. It's hard to see the forest for the trees in this log of a report, but smarter, legal brains will cut their way through for us.)

      We live in interesting times. We must bear witness no matter how tiresome the main protagonist.

      Delete

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