Netflix Documentary: Get Me Roger Stone

Just watched an absolutely horrifying show about the inventor of dirty tricks like running false ads and planting made-up news stories about your opponents, the political advisor who says the truth doesn't matter whenever votes are in play, the person who believes in winning at ANY cost, the person who does the bidding of the billionaires by pitching politicians as grass-roots candidates working for the forgotten Americans when -- really -- they're doing the exact opposite.

Roger Stone is evil incarnate.  He worked for and idolizes Richard Nixon (he even has Nixon's face tattooed on his back!), he worked with Ronald Reagan, with  both George Bushes (Sr. & Jr.), and worked to publicly destroy the Clintons and Obama with made-up lies.  And he's made hundreds of millions of dollars doing it.

Roger Stone has been Trump's primary political advisor for 30 years.  Many say he created the Trump presidency.

This show has done something to me, broke something inside me, I think.  

I no longer want anything to do with politics.  What little idealism and optimism I was desperately clinging to has been torn from me.  I no longer have any hope of things getting better.  This is the shitpool that politics has become, and Roger Stone is a big reason.  Things won't be getting better.  The USA is doomed.

The man is his own worst enemy.  He's an appalling moron who thinks he's smarter than everyone else.

Just like somebody else I can think of.

I hope Judge Amy Berman Jackson throws him in jail and throws away the key.

Yesterday I was reading the news (I don't know why I punish myself) and ran across an article on Fox News's website about something-or-other that Trump had done that was terminally stupid.  Even Fox was saying this.

In the reader comments underneath some Foxfan had said something to the effect, "yeah sure, he's as stupid as a box of hammers but he's really shaking up Washington, isn't he?  Exactly why we elected him!"

At the time I thought "Foxfan " and moved on to another article.

But those comments have been ricocheting around in my brain ever since.

Yes, 2016's voters wanted to go outside the establishment.  The old corrupt way of mixing personal gain with political influence had to go, whether it was Bernie Sanders or Donald Trump it was definitely NOT Hillary Clinton.

But Trump has hardly been a force for cleaning up Washington.  His daily scandals have given us all scandal fatigue, and his venality surpasses understanding.  This president -- and the people who support him -- are not American patriots.  They're working hard to destroy American democracy, as fast and as completely as they can.

Almost exactly what Vladimir Putin wants.  Coincidence?

Or is this a mirror world that Roger Stone has created, where collusion with the Russians to sway the election is "free speech," payments to hookers is good policy, Nixon was a hero, Stone is a victim of a smear campaign, and the media are the enemy of the people?  Stone is widely credited with convincing Trump to run for President in 2016, after decades of encouraging him every election cycle.  The Trump presidency is, many say, the lifetime ultimate achievement of Roger Stone.  It is his singular vision for destroying America.

Like I say, Stone is a cancer on public discourse, and the sooner he can be removed from daily reality (like, today!) the better.  It should've happened 40 years ago (we would've been much better off!)

He even dresses like a cartoon villain.

The appropriate comment from Facebook was: "You voted for Trump because he's not a politician? I hope your next colonoscopy is performed by a plumber".

Once again, the radical-right uses the softness and resonableness of the left- and center-minded to run roughshod over us.  Judge Jackson has been played for a fool.

“The Myth of Russian Collusion: The Inside Story of How Trump Really Won” may get Stone locked up afterall, if Jackson grows a pair.

Jailbait. Look for his internment to begin March 11.

Roger Stone just got found guilty in his trial, 7 counts of the 7.

Orange jumpsuit now being readied.

NoCoPilot wrote:

Roger Stone just got found guilty in his trial, 4 counts of the 7.

Orange jumpsuit now being readied.

Damn! Beat me to it! lol I am shocked but I will be even more shocked if he serves jail time. He needs to, but then so did OJ.

Yesterday Fox News interviewed Roger Stone's daughter. She moaned and groaned about what a great man he is, and he's done nothing wrong but get on the wrong side of the current political ascendency. She cried that his family is going to suffer for not having his wise counsel and support.

Fuck her.

Fuck her white privilege. Doesn't she realize most families think their incarcerated sons are innocent? They're basically good boys who are being targeted by an unfair system? How many THOUSANDS of men and women are behind bars for marijuana possession, when its now legal (or not prosecuted) in most states?

I hope Stone's huge Richard Nixon tattoo in the middle of his back is very popular in the showers.

I hope he doesn't "pull an Epstein" and slip and fall in the shower, cracking his head open. That would be a damn shame.

Fucking cockroach.

Reported on Rachel tonight:

Now that Roger Stone's been convicted on all seven felony federal counts, it would be normal procedure to lift the gag order the judge had imposed to protect the impartiality of his jurors.

She did not.

Instead, she specifically EXTENDED the gag order, pending sentencing, "for the safety of some of the people involved in this trial." What does that mean? Death threats against the judge? Death threats against witnesses? Death threats against the jurors themselves? Not explained.

The judge also agreed to release Stone on his own recognizance pending sentencing, even though the prosecutor begged the judge to take Stone directly to jail, do not pass "go." No idea why she did that -- seems like a very stupid move with this cockroach. Since he's facing the rest of his life behind bars I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if he disappears forever.

I was telling my sister about the Roger Stone documentary, and looked it up online, and it is still available for free viewing on Netflix.

So I watched it again.

It's still absolutely horrifying.

Stone is absolutely amoral, or maybe immoral in that only two things matter in his world and those are money and winning.  Any tactic, any lie, any dirty trick is fair game to him as long as it destroys his enemies -- who are anyone standing between him and winning and getting rich.  He freely admits in the documentary to making up outrageous bullshit about the political opponents of candidates he is consulting for, because he knows that the vast majority of people are stupid enough to believe Hillary Clinton ran a child sex ring out of a pizza parlor in DC, or that Bill Clinton raped hundreds of women, or that Barack Obama wasn't born in the US.  He freely admits these stories -- and more -- were made up for their shock value.  Stone revels in being despised.  He has absolutely no moral compass, no qualms about destroying people's reputations, no hesitation to spread lies if they advance his two aims of getting rich and winning.

The cast of characters of the impeachment hearings are all here: Stone ran a lobbying firm called Manafort, Stone & Black.  Their clients were largely military dictators and strongmen with such horrible reputations that no other PR firm would take them on.  His firm took millions of dollars from genocidal monsters.  One of his other clients was Donald Trump.  In fact, he saw in Trump a way to advance his "scorched earth" plans for world domination, and actively recruited and primed the not-very-bright developer.

Rudy Giuliani is featured.  Corey Lewindowsky is featured.  Steve Bannan is featured.  Alex Jones is featured.

As I'm watching I'm thinking, all these people are convicted felons going to jail now.  But the trail of destruction they left behind will take generations to heal.  It's just appalling that they were able to get things so far off the rails with a few innuendoes and false stories.

Well, "going to jail" and staying there are two different things while Donald John Trump is still in office.

Stone got 40 months today, but it's a lead pipe cinch Trump will commute his sentence and pardon him before he serves one day.

Did I see that right, Stone got pardoned?

No, not pardoned.  Stone was UNANIMOUSLY convicted by a jury on ALL SEVEN FELONIES of which has accused.  He was due to start serving his FORTY MONTH sentence in a FEDERAL PRISON starting in 4 days.

Instead, on the last Friday before his jail time was to start, DJT commuted his sentence, just as I said he would last February.

He is still a CONVICTED FEDERAL FELON but he serves zero time in jail.

And -- crucially -- there appears to be no recourse.  None.

Even after DJT is unceremoniously thrown out of office January 20, 2021 -- a fact he now seems to accept -- Stone will remain a convicted felon free to return to civilian life.

In the meantime.... DJT and William Barr are STILL planning to launch criminal investigations of the Democrats and the FBI and everyone who worked on developing the Russia collusion investigation.  This will occur during election time, this year.

Again, there is no recourse.  Barr has removed all the EDNY and SDNY and DC prosecutors who were leading the investigations, and replaced them with his own hand-picked candidates loyal to him.  The entire machinery of the DOJ will be brought to bear over the next four months to attempt to smear the president's opposition.

No recourse.  None.

Worse yet.

Lawrence O'Donnell just painted a scenario. On January 19, 2021, as Trump is leaving the White House, he will proactively pardon himself. He will pardon Jared Kushner. He will pardon Bill Barr. He will pardon his entire cabinet and everybody who worked for him.

And again, There is no recourse.

Unless Congress writes new laws. Which cannot be applied retroactively.

Incidentally, turning the Department of Justice upside-down -- making all of DJT's legal troubles go away by firing the prosecutors, while simultaneously cooking up phony cases against Obama, Biden, and yes, Hillary Clinton, saying "Donald Trump isn't crooked, it's the DEMOCRATS who are crooked!" -- this operation has Oliver Stone's signature all over it. Only he is immoral enough, only he is audacious enough, only he is evil enough to abuse the rule of law like this.

The one thing Stone hadn't counted on was a coronavirus pandemic during the election cycle. 

But his solution -- opening up the economy during the election cycle, claiming credit for job growth and a newly booming economy --this is CLASSIC Roger Stone, claiming up is down and wrong is right. He literally does not care how many people die from reopening too soon.  He does not care the devastation caused by ignoring and/or denying science. His SPECIALTY is seeing reality backwards from everyone else.

He only cares about power and money, power and money.

Roger Stone is a Hitler figure.  God help us if he ever gets it in his head to "cleanse" the country.

I read last night that Stone specifically requested not to get a pardon.  He felt that a pardon would acknowledge he was guilty.

Instead, he intends to seek a new trial.  He wants to be proved "not guilty" in a court of law.

Apparently, being UNANIMOUSLY CONVICTED ON ALL SEVEN COUNTS BY A JURY OF HIS PEERS is a little too ambiguous for Roger.

Does "double jeopardy" apply when the litigant has been found guilty?  As I read this, it appears to me that criminals are not eligible for new trials simply because they didn't like the outcome of their first trial.

But then again, this is the Bill Barr era of justice. Nothing is as it was.

Hillary Clinton was on Joy Reid's debut show Monday, and was asked about the Stone commutation.  Her take -- which is a hell of a lot better informed than mine -- turns the narrative upside down from what I'd thought.

I thought Trump pardoned Stone to reward him for refusing a federal subpoena to testify. Stone holds a lot of Trump's secrets, and by violating the law he protected Trump.

Hillary's assumption is that Stone is essentially blackmailing Trump -- "If you don't commute my sentence, I'll tell the world what I know."  Same result, but crucially Stone is in charge, not Trump.

An interesting twist.  Coming from Hillary, it's probably more accurate.