Trump's Card

[Satchmo Distel]

Speaking of NDAs, I think I signed 2 or 3 in my first 15 years. Now it feels like I'm signing one a week.

I worked for one client briefly where I signed one before each briefing. I guess social media causes lips to loosen too much.

But how many of these NDAs would be enforceable? I think their main purpose is to intimidate.

[ursus arctos]

The ones that WOM is signing might well be enforceable. He certainly doesn't have a constitutional argument that they aren't (while the White House employees do).

Having the "service provider" sign one before each briefing is overkill, but I wouldn't think that it renders them unenforceable.

[ursus arctos]

Good piece on the state of play in the Manafort trial (by a real lawyer, too)

From the outset of the trial, it has been difficult to discern the defense’s theory of the case. Two members of the defense team declined to comment about strategy.

However, a member of the Special Counsel’s team has a concise assessment of the defense’s approach, at least when it comes to cross-examination. Last week, Uzo Asonye, one of Mueller’s prosecutors, told me what he thought the defense was driving at in their cross of a witness from Citizens Bank.

“We like clarity,” Asonye observed. “They like confusion.”

[Snake Plissken]

He's going to be pardoned.

[WOM]

What an astoundingly corrupt regime. If you simply don't care about shame, virtually anything is possible.

[ursus arctos]

Though not being indictable while in office, having impeachment-proof majorities and controlling all Congressional committees certainly helps.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Brennan's security clearance has been revoked.

[ursus arctos]

Without the Director of National Intelligence being consulted, it seems.

[Femme Folle]

We have a company one we had to sign that binds us to any client ones that are executed by our company execs. That way each person who works on a project doesn't have to sign one individually.

[Nefertiti2]

We have a company one we had to sign that binds us to any client ones that are executed by our company execs. That way each person who works on a project doesn't have to sign one individually.

Non Compete clauses increasingly being used too to restrict employee rights in the US

https://twitter.com/srussellkraft/status/1029049516719333376

[ursus arctos]

This might be overly lawyerly, but to me there is quite a difference between Non-Disclosure Agreements and Non-Competition Agreements

The contracts that WOM and FF are referencing wouldn’t include a non-compete.

[Nefertiti2]

Aren't they both ways in which employers are policing their employees and using legal powers to erode the rights of employees as citizens?

[ursus arctos]

In a very broad sense yes, but then so are “right to work” (anti-union) laws and all kinds of other things that employers’ associations lobby for (and this Administration supports).

It is also worth noting that there are perfectly legitimate reasons for NDAs. If one’s doctor hired a contractor to digitise one’s medical records, for instance, I would think that most people would want that contractor to agree to treat such information in the strictest confidence.

What makes this Administration’s NDAs so problematic is their incredible breadth, purported limitation of constitutional rights, and the possible lack of consideration and use of fraud in inducing the employees to sign.

None of which means that the overuse of overbroad non-competes isn’t a problem. It very much is, particularly in states that aren’t aggressive in policing them (California and New York are particularly pro-employee in this regard). It just is a problem of a different formal legal character than then those raised by the Administration’s NDAs.

[WOM]

Aren't they both ways in which employers are policing their employees and using legal powers to erode the rights of employees as citizens?

Nah. Mine are 'this is a product that's not in market yet, so keep your trap shut'.

Recently I started working on a semi-FI product and had to get a police background check. I've written for almost every bank in Canada (plus two in the US) in 21 years and never once had to do that before.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

hah, I missed it.

From that link

But for now, things feel almost like they used to be. This is what George misses at times, his simpler life.

Summering at his massive beach house with his four children.

[ursus arctos]

That's an argument that has been going on among Democratic insiders for a while now.

[San Bernardhinault]

It might make his 2020 prospects less bad, but it would absolutely fuck his ability to actually do anything. Also, lots of Republicans Senators are up for election in 2020 (unlike 2018). Depending on how bad the Mueller report is for Trump - and how unpopular Trump gets, it might not be in their worst interests to actually follow through on impeachment.

The Republicans would seriously be playing with fire if they actually wanted this scenario.

I think the Democrats need to be seriously judicious about impeachment, though. While there is a legitimate case for it now, I don't think the public would be on board. I think there needs to be something desperately egregious, rather than petty crookery at this point.

[The-Reverend]

This is all just sad now.

[ursus arctos]

I’m not sure that impeachment proceedings would be a better route to preventing him from doing harm than a comprehensive oversight agenda that went after the corruption and incompetence throughout the rest of the administration. The thing about impeachment is that it can easily be spun as a personal vendetta against their hero and has zero chance of ultimate success. It’s hard for me to see the likes of Wilbur Ross or Betsy DeVos triggering that same mother defending her cubs response.

Of course, the only way for that to happen is for the Democrats to take control of at least one house in November.

If anything, the midterms are an even more important election than 2016.

[San Bernardhinault]

I think that's good strategy, Ursus, and not one I've heard described before.

Particularly as Ross, De Vos, Zinke, Carson and the rest have clear black marks against them. Provided that the Dems leave the ones who haven't actually disgraced themselves alone (Mattis and, bizarrely, Perry, come to mind), it doesn't necessarily look vindictive.

Also, of course, if impeaching a President because you don't like him becomes the norm, who knows where that ends.

And also, of course, a successful impeachment results in Prez Pence, which does not necessarily stop the administration misdeeds. Crippling any department with a corrupt cabinet chief actually does.

[Satchmo Distel]

Trump has paid his tribute to Aretha: "You make me feel like a fascist bastard."

[JVL]

Nah. Mine are 'this is a product that's not in market yet, so keep your trap shut'.

Recently I started working on a semi-FI product and had to get a police background check. I've written for almost every bank in Canada (plus two in the US) in 21 years and never once had to do that before.

I had to sign an NDA on several occasions at SAP, and have out pen to paper on a few since starting out as a freelancer. Recently had a job working for an agency, translating some contract documents for a company that has very specific confidentiality requirements. The agency signed the NDA and my acceptance of the project also involved me signing to agree to abide by the terms of said NDA: including litigation for damages if I reveal anything about the company's location, nature of their business, wording of the contract texts etc.

[Tubby Isaacs]

538's full on House prediction page has been launched, to doubtless universal acclaim on here.

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com...orecast/house/

[Satchmo Distel]

Chance of prediction being shit: 99.9%

[San Bernardhinault]

As long as you take it as what it is - a probabilistic rendering for 435 different races, many of which are unpolled - it's a useful illustrative tool.

If you want to read it as a basis for pre-election confidence and smugness, you're probably an idiot.

If you ran an election under these conditions 4 times, the Republicans would end up in a majority once, the Democrats 3 times. Given how astonishingly shit the government is, and that we're meant to see a backlash against the incumbent party, it actually fucking terrifying that the Democrats aren't winning 19 out of 20 of these ones. If the Democrats can't win here, now (and there's a solid chance they won't according to this), then frankly the country is completely and utterly fucked beyond belief.