The Snark

With his own business's convictions providing probable cause, it's safe to say a whole lot of us want to see the carpet they are going to try to sweep this under. Not allegations but convictions and only a lengthy trial will be able to exonerate him from responsibility. All their arguments for dismissal will require proofs that will stand up in a court as being self evident. Leprechauns, character witness attestation from Santa Claus and sworn testimony from the tooth fairy don't count. At this juncture, with the charges being so carefully thought out. it appears the only self evident proof that could be submitted is several experts written diagnosis of mental incompetence. Self evident: No room for debate or reason for cross examination.

People need to keep in mind, all the noise, lying, avoiding, and endless congressional hearings that has gone on until now was moot. Everything so far has been on the legislative level, even the Mueller report. Congressional hearings are pissing up a rope. They have no judicial prosecutorial powers and can only refer matters to the judiciary. Even contempt of congress gets scoffed or laughed at. It's a whole different ballgame now. And there's a whole lot of judicial junk yard dogs that are salivating right now that would have frightened Pavlov. Most likely the domino effect will kick in as the courts uncover new facts.

"We Finally Know the Case Against Trump, and It Is Strong". This is not the relevant issue here. A can't see the forest for the trees thing. The major issue has now moved from a person's culpability to court subpoena powers and the threats of perjury. No more fancy footwork, ignoring subpoenas and hedging and dodging. All than has gone before is now different. It was all civil matters. Now it's all criminal. Avoiding a summons, ignoring a subpoena, attorneys obstructing proceedings and so forth is no longer acceptable. Regardless of reason or purpose, disobeying a court order now falls under obstruction of justice. An entirely separate criminal offense. Dozens of such obstructions have already taken place but now, as the saying goes, the buck stops at the courtroom door. This is a major concern with many of Trump's former and present attorneys as well as cronies. They too can be found guilty of obstruction as well as criminal contempt. Criminal acts in and of themselves that will stand even if Trump proves his innocence. Trump's allies have been moved from an eight lane highway to a very narrow tightrope.

By the way. The bribery of a person is not the issue here. That act may very well fall under the statute of limitations. The bulk of the criminal charges fall under the umbrella of illegal misappropriation of funds. (For which his company has already been found guilty.)

As a former LEO I'm having a private chuckle here. Just ask any veteran cop. It's not A weak case. It is also up to the prosecuting attorneyS and the judge to determine whether the charges are misdemeanors or felonies, based solely upon the weight of their assessmentS and the court admissible evidence that has been very thoroughly examined and vetted. As for 34 charges, come on! Each charge has to be separately successfully challenged and defeated. Again, ask any veteran cop what that spells out in any courtroom. And do keep in mind, very similar charges have already been successfully prosecuted against various Trump business practices. Part of the defense must involve entirely divorcing the person from the businesses and business practices of his company's. (As an aside, the onus placed upon the defendants attorneys in one aspect is quite significant: his veracity must never be employed in his defense.)

And the vote is in, proof of the pudding. The boss tried out her bike with the new tires yesterday. -> "I don't like them! It's hard to steer!" Duuuuhhhhh yups. Her first time ever riding on road grippers. Going to have to learn to shift her weight from side to side. How inconvenient!

Stay safe. Keep the safety zone!

@kwasaki Since you know your Hondas. Here in Thailand a friend had a 1974 CB 750 according to the registration book. Stock with dual overhead cams and dual front disk brakes. ????

Ariel square 4. Renowned for cooking the rear two cylinders. I'm a Limey bike adherent. I don't care about the lightning acceleration and prefer the low C of G. My tricked out Norton, 850 4 valve with the featherbed engine mounts was about as good as it gets for me. I once raced a Honda 750 up a winding mountain road. Strode away from me on the straights, I was right back on his butt on the corners. My Vince was a 1952 Shadow. A love hate affair. 550 lbs with gobs of torque and almost 5 inches lower C of G than a Honda 4. But an unholy beast to start and the engine compression braking made revving the engine when downshifting mandatory if you didn't want the back end sliding out from under you now and then. Other. Trumpet 650 Tiger. Gutless but sounded nice. 441 BSA. Vibrator with a motorcycle attached. Matchless 650 chopped. Waste of time and energy but looked interesting at night 50 feet away. Ultimate cornering. Top pro racer on his BMW 250. Riding up a very steep mountain road coming at me. The bike tilted to around 45 degree angle, him standing up, one foot on a peg the other on the seat. Steering with one hand and smoking a cigarette. Never imagined a person could make a bike get up and dance like he did. He taught me about tires. On that bike he had tread-less gum tires. Good for 1000 miles or so. Tires make or break the ride as he put it.

Ariel It's not got any real class if it doesn't have a reputation for hurling you over the handlebars when you kick start it. And the nifty using the engine as part of the frame. No down tubes or under engine frame. Not to mention the plumbers nightmare exhaust system.

I experienced the opposite. One of the few times I took my beloved over 100 mph (Vincent rules folks) and the forks felt almost uncontrollable. Felt like on the edge. That was the Avon the factory originally equipped them with and recommended. I swapped in a used Dunlop and it was night and day. Up around 115 and smooth sailing. But admittedly Vincent was a whole different ballgame. That bizarre fork assembly that could confuse a geometry professor. Failure To Maintain...

They do, or some do. Common Michelin all purpose tread really resists road variations and minor steering. They want to track dead straight and they do. So very little hint as to the break over point. BUT, they make a lot of different tread patterns and types of rubber which I have seen vary from country to country. Probably the most radical difference I've encountered was running a big rig. Michelins on the steering axle lasted 80,000 miles! Wot the heck? Similar Michelins on the rear tandem wore out faster than Goodyear. Same tread and profile but apparently different rubber. As for people who say cheap tires are as good as name brand road grippers, it's the good enough, close enough crowd vs those who know their vehicles and demand maximum control. The same crowd that I've observed numerous times when working as a cop regarding maintaining lane placement - somewhere between the lines most of the time. If I felt like writing a ticket - burning some time before a 10-7, just follow them. An FTM is inevitable. (Do cops profile drivers? Absolutely. On patrol we spend nearly the entire shift observing and profiling drivers. How they handle vehicles is as sure fire as fingerprints.)

I've chatted with several pro racers that can tell the make and tread pattern of a tire by taking a half lap on a track. Also can tell tire pressure within a couple of pounds by how they handle doing Ss for 50 feet. As for make of tire, AA fuel altered drag racer managed to beat the 5 second barrier by simply changing the brand of tire.

After over 20 years of squirrely jockeying small bikes around I bought my partner a pair of real motorcycle tires, name brand, European highway style. I had almost forgotten what real tires on a motorcycle do. Tracking dead straight, responsive, and all those little wiggles as you fight constantly to keep the bike going in the direction you want it to are gone. I had actually come to the conclusion I had lost my fine motor skills in handling a bike. Nope. Just the crappy cheap tires. Do yourself a favor. 1500 baht for a matched pair is well worth the extra money