#BREAKING: Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort has been sentenced to 47 months in prison for tax and bank fraud.

seems reasonable. Judge took the mitigation into account, first time offender with an otherwise blameless life, purely financial crimes with diffusion of harms. But still serious enough to merit a lengthy prison term
I don't think a lot of bloodythirsty Americans really ever comprehend how long *years* in prison are, so all the jackals who will be screaming it should have been 20+ years today, their political hate boner aside, just don't have the sense of how long 4 years will be, or even just the 2/3 of that or whatever is necessary before parole. Because where were you all 4 years ago? Let alone 20 years ago? A 20 year sentence has people behind bars since before 9/11 and the afghanistan wars. A single year in prison is a long time, four of them is a very long time, 20 years is a huge chunk of the prime years of a lifetime.

This post was edited by Goomshill on Mar 7 2019 06:16pm

will he serve his sentence in Leavenworth, Alderson, or Solikamsk?

And besides, he still has the case in Washington that'll come with further sentencing as well.

and lets not forget hat he's already 69. for him, 4 years could be one half or one third of the time he has left on this world. and probably the ones with better health and energy level.

Also, I never really looked at the poll results for this thread, but the number of votes cast really stands out to me.

1167 Total Votes

I feel like I can name ~30 - 40 people who post regularly in PaRD, tops. So many people come to lurk PaRD.

a lot of conservatives are around jsp and have lurked pard over the years from other places including the df (also consider the mass amount of multis that float around)

site is heavily conservative leaning as it's not a very diverse site and many of those people have popped in thrown down a few talking points had a couple rage posts and go back to lurking and telling people in other sections how bad pard is and how much smarter they are than regs

Me to all the lurkers:



This post was edited by Handcuffs on Mar 7 2019 07:16pm

700 Neko accounts and a lot of people on a political spectrum from Helical to Goom

Already the knives are out for judge ellis

We're returning the dangerous phenomenon I noted in the aftermath of the Brock Turner trial. When the social media lynch mob sets upon the judge, it threatens the civil liberties of all americans. Back in the Turner trial, the facts laid out how his conduct was not particularly egregious or malicious and did no lasting damage, something that in any other non-hyper-feminist time might be brushed aside as just two drunk people fumbling around with each other. The 'victim' spoke in his defense, the judge followed the sentencing guidelines and recommendation of the court baliff based upon the standard calculation of factors like remorse, intent, actual damages, etc and came to a sentence that the entire ABA defended as the proper verdict. And yet, unsatisified and seeking their pound of flesh, the outrage machine turned on the judge and crucified him, forcing a recall election to boot him out. It set the chilling precedent that judges could have their careers ruined for conducting fair trials and making the only ethical and legally prudent judgment. The people want blood and wouldn't be satisfied with 39 lashes, crucify him the mob shouted.

Here we are just minutes since the Manafort sentence was issued and its already started. The rumbling is going on in real time. How long before I read a headline saying Judge Ellis and his family have been placed under police protection due to credible death threats? How long before attempts to remove him from office, before hate posts flood /r/politics and its other poisoned offshoots? For following his conscience and issuing a reasonable ruling that factored in the totality of the circumstances instead of being draconian monster out for vengeance or an unfeeling robot that follows the maximum. Judge Ellis presided over the trial of Manaforts real crimes, the meat and potatoes white collar conduct that is unambiguously criminal. Judge Berman is presiding over the farcical spectacle of a FARA violation trial, the mccarthyist relic that is akin to laws banning red cars on main street. Already existentially offensive to civil liberties, what will become of that trial if the threats come down on Judge Ellis within the next week? If Berman didn't already have the diametrically opposed bias to Ellis to begin with, it gives even more reason to be skeptical. If the glint of the knives are in her eye, could we expect a fair ruling? Its a credit to our judiciary that Ellis could stick his neck out even knowing what he's face, but if it compromises Berman the only thing she could do ethically is to recuse herself and declare a mistrial. It wouldn't be pretty.

But that all hinges on potential escalation. Maybe the din will calm itself and the mob will be sated enough on its pound of flesh.