I commented on this earlier, but apparently it didn't post.
The dismissal of charges should not be cause to hate on Jack Smith. It's a tactic to leave open the possibility of renewing the prosecution of the Mango Mussolini after he is out of office. Had Smith not elected to drop charges without prejudice (meaning they can be re-opened at a later date) the case would have been tossed out by the next AG with prejudice, meaning they could never be re-activated. That's indeed their plan, but by preemptively quitting and filing for dismissal because of the DOJ Nixon era rule (not law!) that a serving president cannot be prosecuted while in office, the case can be re-opened. Too late to block his presidency, but better late than never. The same with the documents case, which he has similarly dismissed - again, without prejudice. Odds are Agent Orange will die before conviction (perhaps in office?), but at least the possibility of his being brought before the law still exists. If you need to blame someone, I would suggest: Merritt Garland who dawdled and delayed because of the possibility of the appearance of impropriety; the SCOTUS that ruled almost two months after Smith asked for clarification on immunity; and Mitch McConnell, who knows perfectly well that Drumpf is guilty of insurrection, said so and then refused to convict on the second (and the first) impeachments, using some half-assed excuse. That's why, more than anything, the world will suffer the torment of a second term.
For a truly bleak outlook, consider that Vance and his cronies may engineer a coup on Jan 21, 2027 so that he can serve out Trump's term of office and then two more. I wouldn't put it past him, law school graduate that he his. Yale has much to answer for. Richard of Gloucester had it right in Henry VI Part III: "First kill all the lawyers."
Have a nice time in London. Catch a show, visit Kew Gardens, and the Courteau, the Tate Modern and the National. London is full of great food (not English). Try Brick Lane. Dublin has wonderful fish and you can visit the places where Joyce, O'Brien and others all tippled. Edinburgh may have decent food, too, but I never found it. Haggis isn't bad, actually, but not there. Glasgow, when you take the boat-train to Belfast.
Thanks so much for the explanation of the reasoning behind Jack Smith's actions. I found it hard to believe it didn't have a strategy behind it (or, at least I was hoping for one!). Sure wish he were the AG these past four years - he likely would have gotten things done. Garland did pretty much what he did about the Oklahoma City bombing - the minimum - heaven forbid if he rock the boat.
I updated the comment to include a link to an actual lawyer's explanation of the reasoning. Because of space, time and lack of expertise my comment (above) may be a bit garbled.
Great toon and great blog. Maybe the Irish will ask about Trump but the Brexit crowd probably won't want to talk about electoral catastrophes. I loved Dublin--the sightseeing boat tour on the Liffey was really worthwhile.
Congratulations Clay! You made the WaPo. Granted it doesn't mean as much as it used to. Ann is always on the correct side of the facts. Ramirez occasionally dips a toe there, but the rest is always flat out lies. I used to subscribe to all of the political comics on GoComics. And then Trump happened. Lying about what Obama did or didn't do wasn't a deal-breaker for me keeping an open mind about them. However, the right twisting everything that Trump does as good and all democrats (and rinos of course) as bad was a bridge too far. As you have stated editorial cartoonist are supposed to follow journalistic standards. I don't read bloggers because everyone thinks because they have an outlet they can say whatever they want. Most never have TWO verified, unrelated sources. If you go to Amazon corporate for information as well as Jeff Bezos those are the same source. I use that as an extreme, but in the early days before Amazon hit big, I can guarantee these schmucks would have done it. Most times they don't even bother with an actual source. They just parrot whatever is trending. Wiki cannot be a source since it is open-sourced. Any time you want to verify got to the botton and check the sources listed there. With these right-leaning cartoonists whatever Fox news says goes most of the time. The fact that Fox stopped using reliable sources years ago and was allowed to keep their licensing was partly Reagan's fault. But with them being on cable it probably was allowed by the letter of the law, but certainly not the spirit. Tuck's trial proved that. They admitted to making things up. It's too bad the lawsuit couldn't bring down the whole bloody place like Infodickweasel.
Enjoy, I hope you get to see the northern lights (one of my dreams when visiting family in MT), and the lava flow in Iceland. Drink one for me while you’re in the pub!
Have fun in London. DO NOT drink the "cock ale". Seriously.
I play online games (ESO, for those in the know) and was explaining to a couple of new players that all the foods in the game were based on something in the real world. So they said "but the horrible stuff the forest elves brew up", and I gave them the recipe for "cock ale". They could not believe that people actually drink that stuff.
Hey, Clay, from one Geek (Engineering, Science, and History) to another Geek (Guitars and Graphic Editorials), no matter how overbooked your time in London already is, you absolutely MUST spend about half a day downriver at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, home of the Prime Meridian, GMT (Greenwich Mean Time), Zero Degrees Longitude, etc., where you can stand with one foot in the Eastern Hemisphere and the other foot in the Western Hemisphere. The experience may be amplified by guzzling a room temperature local brew from a nearby pub while standing there. 😉🍺
How'd I get 17 comments for a cartoon I drew on a plane? Sheesh. Thank you all.
I commented on this earlier, but apparently it didn't post.
The dismissal of charges should not be cause to hate on Jack Smith. It's a tactic to leave open the possibility of renewing the prosecution of the Mango Mussolini after he is out of office. Had Smith not elected to drop charges without prejudice (meaning they can be re-opened at a later date) the case would have been tossed out by the next AG with prejudice, meaning they could never be re-activated. That's indeed their plan, but by preemptively quitting and filing for dismissal because of the DOJ Nixon era rule (not law!) that a serving president cannot be prosecuted while in office, the case can be re-opened. Too late to block his presidency, but better late than never. The same with the documents case, which he has similarly dismissed - again, without prejudice. Odds are Agent Orange will die before conviction (perhaps in office?), but at least the possibility of his being brought before the law still exists. If you need to blame someone, I would suggest: Merritt Garland who dawdled and delayed because of the possibility of the appearance of impropriety; the SCOTUS that ruled almost two months after Smith asked for clarification on immunity; and Mitch McConnell, who knows perfectly well that Drumpf is guilty of insurrection, said so and then refused to convict on the second (and the first) impeachments, using some half-assed excuse. That's why, more than anything, the world will suffer the torment of a second term.
For more on this, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doY2CrOam80
For a truly bleak outlook, consider that Vance and his cronies may engineer a coup on Jan 21, 2027 so that he can serve out Trump's term of office and then two more. I wouldn't put it past him, law school graduate that he his. Yale has much to answer for. Richard of Gloucester had it right in Henry VI Part III: "First kill all the lawyers."
Have a nice time in London. Catch a show, visit Kew Gardens, and the Courteau, the Tate Modern and the National. London is full of great food (not English). Try Brick Lane. Dublin has wonderful fish and you can visit the places where Joyce, O'Brien and others all tippled. Edinburgh may have decent food, too, but I never found it. Haggis isn't bad, actually, but not there. Glasgow, when you take the boat-train to Belfast.
Thanks so much for the explanation of the reasoning behind Jack Smith's actions. I found it hard to believe it didn't have a strategy behind it (or, at least I was hoping for one!). Sure wish he were the AG these past four years - he likely would have gotten things done. Garland did pretty much what he did about the Oklahoma City bombing - the minimum - heaven forbid if he rock the boat.
I updated the comment to include a link to an actual lawyer's explanation of the reasoning. Because of space, time and lack of expertise my comment (above) may be a bit garbled.
Thanks for the link. I saw last night that Joyce Vance also addressed this in her blog.
Please keep us informed of your journeys. Pictures are much appreciated!
I'll do that.
Congrats on ticking something off your bucket list. Sounds like a good trip.
Great toon and great blog. Maybe the Irish will ask about Trump but the Brexit crowd probably won't want to talk about electoral catastrophes. I loved Dublin--the sightseeing boat tour on the Liffey was really worthwhile.
Congratulations Clay! You made the WaPo. Granted it doesn't mean as much as it used to. Ann is always on the correct side of the facts. Ramirez occasionally dips a toe there, but the rest is always flat out lies. I used to subscribe to all of the political comics on GoComics. And then Trump happened. Lying about what Obama did or didn't do wasn't a deal-breaker for me keeping an open mind about them. However, the right twisting everything that Trump does as good and all democrats (and rinos of course) as bad was a bridge too far. As you have stated editorial cartoonist are supposed to follow journalistic standards. I don't read bloggers because everyone thinks because they have an outlet they can say whatever they want. Most never have TWO verified, unrelated sources. If you go to Amazon corporate for information as well as Jeff Bezos those are the same source. I use that as an extreme, but in the early days before Amazon hit big, I can guarantee these schmucks would have done it. Most times they don't even bother with an actual source. They just parrot whatever is trending. Wiki cannot be a source since it is open-sourced. Any time you want to verify got to the botton and check the sources listed there. With these right-leaning cartoonists whatever Fox news says goes most of the time. The fact that Fox stopped using reliable sources years ago and was allowed to keep their licensing was partly Reagan's fault. But with them being on cable it probably was allowed by the letter of the law, but certainly not the spirit. Tuck's trial proved that. They admitted to making things up. It's too bad the lawsuit couldn't bring down the whole bloody place like Infodickweasel.
Yes, they wear underpants under the kilt and no, they don't wear underpants. Your choice.
Have a great time; you deserve a respite after how hard you’ve been working this year!
And yet it's not a respite. If anything, I'm even more tired. But thank you so much. I know what you mean. I'm going back to bed.
Clay, I sent you some funds. Drink one for me.
Thank you freaking much. You rock!
Wow, sounds like a great trip, Clay! Good for you for going! I hope you enjoy every minute of it! Great cartoon, too :)
Have a wonderful trip, Clay! I'm envious!
Enjoy, I hope you get to see the northern lights (one of my dreams when visiting family in MT), and the lava flow in Iceland. Drink one for me while you’re in the pub!
Enjoy your adventures.
You are doing alot logistically with all the places you are going 🇬🇧🏴🇮🇪🇮🇸
Always wanted to go to England. Enjoy!
Have fun in London. DO NOT drink the "cock ale". Seriously.
I play online games (ESO, for those in the know) and was explaining to a couple of new players that all the foods in the game were based on something in the real world. So they said "but the horrible stuff the forest elves brew up", and I gave them the recipe for "cock ale". They could not believe that people actually drink that stuff.
You got me. I actually googled it. One guy loved it. Yuk. I'm still learning to like German, the real stuff, beer.
Hey, Clay, from one Geek (Engineering, Science, and History) to another Geek (Guitars and Graphic Editorials), no matter how overbooked your time in London already is, you absolutely MUST spend about half a day downriver at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, home of the Prime Meridian, GMT (Greenwich Mean Time), Zero Degrees Longitude, etc., where you can stand with one foot in the Eastern Hemisphere and the other foot in the Western Hemisphere. The experience may be amplified by guzzling a room temperature local brew from a nearby pub while standing there. 😉🍺
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_meridian_(Greenwich)
😢😱🤬 No Post-Election
😢😱🤬 Signature, YET!