Yes it is April 20. I have nothing in particular to say about it…
…other than the house finally passing the marijuana banking bill yesterday. Something that probably should’ve been done a couple years ago. Meanwhile, Mexico is still trying to set up their graft structure.
AMLO proposes a…tree for migrant program? It sounds stupid enough for President Harris to sign.
I know little about Ecuador, all jokes about bananas aside. Apparently its not as corrupt as we might believe.
Brazilian native groups don’t like being poor.
Somebody not named Castro is in charge of Cuba.
Not Mexico related but….you remember that lady they dragged out to bitch out Tipper Gore? Conformity is totally metal.
Here’s a tune. Have a great 420, man.
Edit. Keep your powder dry, Minnie Soda Glibs
Happy 420 dude!
6 and counting
Dude! [coughs]
Tonight we mostly-peacefully protest at the dispensaries.
” Something that probably should’ve been done a couple years ago. ”
It never should have been necessary in the first place!
“What are you people – on dope??”
Well, since you asked.
Thank you for that.
+1 Learning about Cuba, having some food.
The good stuff: pseudoephedrine
“AMLO proposes a…tree for migrant program? It sounds stupid enough for President Harris to sign.”
Article paywalled. Are they rape trees?
No, its not paywalled. The CS Monitor link about Ecuador is paywalled but since I never read it I got it for free,
That’s how you shitlord.
It is here.
cryptic
I refuse you enacting my labor. You’ll just have to deal with trees for migrants summary.
It’s birthday eve.
You know who else? Wait, that would have been yesterday.
Yes, QEII cottoned onto my barfday.
Ooh! We’ll drink a toast to you tomorrow! (Non-alcoholic, of course. But not ruling out caffeine.)
Party! I’ll have some green jell-o with shredded carrots in honor of your day! (Did people really eat that? We always joked about it, but I have never been somewhere that it was actually prepared.)
One of my sisters still makes it for holiday meals. ?
Does it get eaten or is it the dish everyone politely refuses?
I choke down a small helping because I love her. ?
Ahh the old “You will eat it and you will like it” routine.
You’re a good sister. ?
I’m from the sixties. The things they did with Jello and Bundt cake molds would terrify today’s kids.
Being raised in Utah, I always heard of these things, but never saw them, perhaps because my dad is a transplant from Texas and wouldn’t stand for that.
Green jello with carrots is good, but my favorite is green jello with mandarin oranges like my grandma used to make.
I don’t eat carrots so that’s a hard pass.
Why don’t you like carrots?
Orange vegetable bad.
I just don’t.
My Grandma and my Mom used to make that for picnics all the time. I loved the stuff. Their version also had cabbage sometimes, I think.
My family makes the kind with mandarin oranges. Actually two – one is lime Jello plus oranges, and one is mandarin oranges, cottage cheese, cool whip (no substitutes) and a box of orange Jello powder. I eat both.
Hey, it’s the wife’s b-day eve also!
“YES! We are going to take it. We are going to take it as long as our masters feel like dishing it owowowowoowt!”
I guess now we know what he wants to do with his life.
And when they overstay their visa after the first six months are up and keep working, and send for their families to join them?
Oh… feature, not bug.
Well Dee Snider sure turned out to be a disappointment in his old age.
To be fair to him, only the first part is disgusting boot-licking. The part where he says “don’t rat on your friends” is actually good.
Meh, seems to me that was an attempt to mitigate his first attack. He probably took some flak for it.
What are the odds Biden signs the Marijuana banking bill? He seems to be an unrepentant drug warrior.
Well, he opposed the Fair Banking Rule.
Give him a pudding cup, or let him cup a little puddin’, and he’ll do anything.
Mommy, can I have some puddin’?
How can you have any pudding if you don’t eat your meat?
He’ll sign anything put in front of him. He’s a less-decent Col. Blake.
Or Ron Burgundy.
Gov Lepetomane comes to mind.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRB1mpEFeCQ
Work, work, work…
I wonder if I can use “I need to get home and fortify the place” as an excuse to leave work early?
Needs more rooftop Koreans.
Hurry to get the best places in the looting lines!
And they wonder why there’s a plywood shortage.
$60/sheet for 1/2″
Fucking ridiculous.
Loot Home Depot!
After Home Depot came out with their woke shit recently, I think small business owners should start looting them for plywood.
Lowes is the superior store (locally anyway).
I wish it were that way here. Lowe’s is the amateur store. Actually, they all suck. Just in different ways and degree.
The guy in charge of the club’s USPSA events is a home builder. His rants have been pretty epic.
I hope all the brick shipments were made promptly today.
Don’t forget to put on a mask!
The Bee summarizes the prosecution’s closing argument.
And the imminent denouement.
But I really hate Target. It never has what I want and it smells funny.
I agree wholeheartedly that speech isn’t violence. I wouldn’t give two shits about someone calling my mom a cocksucker (well is she?). I’m talking specifically about continuing harassment that is essentially unavoidable and affects your health or well-being. Bullies don’t give a shit about principles and some people only respond to force. In these cases I have no problem “breaking” the NAP.
[Edit Fairy flits by, checks referenced comment, fixes blockquote formatting, whines about having to work on holiday.]
Thanks Tonio. Though I didn’t attempt a block quote. I’m a Gen X boomer. Never learned to code.
That’s not coding, that’s a lame-ass scripting markup thingy. FORTRAN, now there’s a man’s programming language.
Yeah well, COBOL is strong enough for a man, but MADE by a woman.
Sheesh all you yoots with structured languages.
Talk to the chips directly and stop wasting system resources.
Goto end_of_pedantic_debate;
/FOR WTF
I can’t believe we still use this as a base.
FORTRAN IV or GTFO
It’s all Greek to me.
I dead posted on the Heinlein subthread, so moving it here:
There is a spec script on the intertubes for Mistress. It was written by one of the main writers of Buffy. I hated the first third of it, thought it destroyed the story. The last 2/3rds however, were dead on. The first 3rd makes it more of a general rebellion than a libertarian rebellion.
All in all, better than you could hope for.
Yeah, I’m too late for that discussion too. Big fan of the book, but never seen a good adaptation per se. I do like the CGI animated series for what it was doing at the time, but being kid-friendly hurt it a lot. Nice changes in scenery though.
I’d heard about the anime adaptation a few years back but I don’t think it’s ever been released stateside. Thankfully we have fan subbers. (I recommend downloading though). Still need to watch 3 eps myself.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIZty-Eol4s&list=PLPYqMN5r-t3iChJW_vEG5dabNhJZ68Hmq
Starship Troopers that is. Wish Critical Drinker had at least referenced the book. Sargon did a better video a couple years ago IMO that compared multiple sources.
We can hope for a rewrite of that part. Fan pressure can mean a lot. And I know that paying for a script is a long way from greenlighting, etc.
Wyoming in blackface might be problematic, but at least the main character is a minority.
Guessing that the fast verdict is a compromise of guilty on manslaughter and not guilty on murder.
Riots are happening regardless of the verdict anyway.
I’m not going to bet against you.
But it might be that the jurors have all received death threats already too.
“Derek Chauvin verdict to be announced at 5pm – hours after Biden said evidence against him is ‘overwhelming’ and that he is ‘praying’ jurors convict the Minneapolis cop”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9491069/Biden-called-George-Floyds-brother-Philonise-Derek-Chauvin-jury-sent-Minneapolis.html
Or maybe he should just stay out of it?
“White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden wasn’t weighing in on the verdict but expressing concern about the Floyd family”
Yeah, OK.
There was something today about Biden’s statments not being the official positions of the adminstration.
I mean, it’s the Biden-Harris Admin, so anything to be an official position has to be signed off by Harris.
It not like he is in charge or anything.
Pull the other one.
And risk the mob turning on him?-
The police acted stupidly.
He should shut the fuck up.
You forgot to add ‘and go eat his pudding’.
Such a quick return almost assuredly means they have voted to convict him, and probably on all three counts.
They’re all lesser included, aren’t they? If anything, a short turnaround means they haven’t even been talking about which one fits because they’re acquitting.
*shrug* we shall see
Top charge; then go into hiding before the city burns in celebration.
*shrug*. Yeah i don’t know, i just see the Jury as leaning towards conviction to go in. To get to aquital, you’d have to at least have some more time to beat down the holdouts.
But i could be wrong. It could also be that the convict holdouts are so week willed that they caved after only 9 hours.
That’s why I’m guessing they’re going to convict on manslaughter as a compromise
“Furious protest erupts at Westchester County school as it blames teenage girl, 14, for being ‘negligent’ after she was ‘raped by fellow student in stairwell'”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9491411/Westchester-County-school-blames-teenage-girl-raped-fellow-student.html
It doesn’t say how she was negligent.
She was naked, handcuffed, bent over on the stairs with “free use” written on her ass.
Fuck. Between school administrators, insurance carriers and lawyers, how am I supposed to know who is the biggest lying ho-bag?
It’s boilerplate language for an affirmative defense. It’s also incredibly tone deaf.
She shouldn’t have dressed like that?
Sounds like someone needs a whoopin’ and I dont mean that lightly.
It’s the school’s insurance carrier that decided to go for contributory negligence.
Name them. Name the attorneys.
It’s more fun to attack the school, but they may or may not actually have much say.
I can’t even imagine what the theory would be there. “She contributed to her own rape by walking down the hallway in the school, a known hangout for rapists”? Contributory negligence makes sense in a car accident, but rape tends to be pretty binary. Either the sex was consensual or it wasn’t.
Yup.
Ridiculous.
Is it too much to hope that Díaz-Canel turns into another Gorbachev? A true believer that destroys the system trying to reform it.
I thought about that, and probably.
“Singer Ted Nugent has revealed he has tested positive for COVID-19, just months after he called the virus a ‘leftist scam’ and ‘not a real pandemic’.
The 72-year-old musician announced his diagnosis in a Facebook Live video Monday telling fans ‘I got the Chinese sh*t’ and ‘thought I was dying’.
Nugent has repeatedly dismissed the virus that has so far killed more than 567,000 Americans, branding it a ‘leftist scam’ and ‘not a real pandemic’ while pushing anti-vaccine conspiracy theories online.”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9491841/Ted-Nugent-tests-positive-COVID-19-previously-calling-virus-leftist-scam.html
He got the bat scratch fever?
It caught him in a Stranglehold.
He’s not wrong but that doesnt mean the cooties are nothing. Everyone in my family has gotten it except me and I cant swear to that. I had an odd illness a year ago or I may have been a non symptomatic case. I cant say. The tests are worthless.
576K my ass.
I’m not going to try to research it online because I don’t believe anything I read on this matter anymore but I seem to recall that the regular flu kills hundreds of thousands a year too.
They have been caught fudging the numbers so often that not believing anything you read online or anywhere else is the wise approach. They are liars and liars lie.
Hundreds of thousands would be a record breaking year like 1968 or 1929.
Nearly half the country go the flu in 1957, but it wasn’t that deadly.
Ass backwards
Growing wealth inequality has been exacerbated by the pandemic, as the global middle class shrinks and millions fall into poverty. One question has lingered: What can be done to address both the economic scars of the pandemic, and the inequality that’s grown alongside them?
For some, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren, wealth taxes are one answer, and the idea is more popular than it used to be. Even formerly moderate groups like the International Monetary Fund have called for one-off wealth taxes to help support an economic recovery.
It’s a measure that could also be popular with voters. A new poll from Hill-HarrisX of 2,813 registered voters asked respondents, “Which comes closest to your view about the wealth tax proposed by Democrats for individuals with a net worth over $50 million?”
Of those respondents, 56% found wealth inequality to be a “significant problem facing the country,” with billionaires paying a wealth tax part of the solution. Conversely, 44% of respondents considered it unfair to impose an additional tax on people who already pay income taxes because because that would become “a penalty for being rich.”
We’re going about this all wrong. Let’s just kill all the poor people.
Whatever we do, let’s not look at what might cause people to fall out of the middle class and into poverty.
It’s almost like they want more poor people. Nah, that would be crazy.
I know a retired guy who used to do polls for Gallup, for Clinton (in Ark. gov races), for corporations such as pharma, etc. He says there is not a poll taken that could not get a completely different result if the question was just worded differently or a consequence revealed along with the question.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, in an early-April interview with Politico, said he would try to advance legislation legalizing marijuana use for adults.
If Schumer is behind marijuana legalization, I’m certain it will be a shit-show.
Mexico is inching closer to becoming the world’s largest legal cannabis market as lawmakers prepare to debate a proposal to legalize recreational marijuana.
Cheech and Chong approve.
The transition means that the island will be governed by someone other than Fidel or Raúl Castro for the first time since the Cuban revolution in 1959.
Mr Díaz-Canel is seen as loyal to the Castros and their economic model.
Meet the new boss…. same as the old boss.
Nice song.
Some of you will be delighted by this.
https://twitchy.com/sarahd-313035/2021/04/20/babylon-bee-ceo-seth-dillon-puts-media-fact-checkers-in-the-hot-seat-after-planned-parenthood-ceo-calls-for-reckoning-with-margaret-sanger/
*Sigh*
The top of the totem pole is the lowest ranking entity. The bottom of the totem pole is the highest ranking.
Another case of cultural misunderstanding.
Another peat peave – begging the question does not mean a question begging to be asked, it is a logical phallacy wherein the conclusion is assumed to be true in the argument without evidence.
Fuck Margaret Sanger, fuck planned parenthood, fuck eugenicists and fuck malthusians. They should all go lay their heads on railroad tracks and wait a while.
‘Peeve’
Fucking spell check.
The expression “beg the question” is practically never used correctly in modern American English.
Don’t get me started on learning curves.
So not just stupid acronyms for legislative bills, but now passing bills on significant dates (including troop withdrawals). *head hits desk*
Bread and Circuses. Except gluten is evil and circuses are racist.
“Circuses” originally meant chariot races.
Where are the chariot races?
And not those pansy ‘harness’ races. I want four wild equines doped to hell and back and strapped to a rickety wooden cart!
Don’t forget bill numbers: HR-51 DC Statehood
Apparently the legislature is made up of student government. They think this makes them cool and clever.
thicc?
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-9488957/Demi-Rose-flaunts-hourglass-curves-plunging-bodysuit-high-waisted-leggings.html
Nope. Woah mama!
What the hell Sharpie? You use a photo of a body painted beauty for the article but no body? Gah!
Y’all can take it on good authority that Latin tree planters are some of the finest, hardest working people you will ever meet.
Gah!
Muwahahahahahaha
Family-friendly website, yo.
Absolutely true. I’ve worked with Mexican, Guatemalan, and Honduran crews. All have been very good. Though we did have one crew that tried stashing trees and even shot a grouse in June (not hunting season and no license). Of course, federal contracts, so they essentially had no repercussions.
Gov. DeSantis Says CCP Should Be Held Accountable for Abetting Pandemic
Nice to know that politicians of all parties can be theatrically retarded.
Fauci has been stomping his feet about it for 40 years.
Wasn’t the lockdown idea conceived of by the Bush administration?
Yes
This is true. But the 2020 implementation was much more brutal. In the 2006 article that criticized non-pharmaceutical interventions (at the bottom of the link) didn’t even mention that “non-essential” businesses can be closed. Home quarantine was considered only for sick people or those who had substantial contact with infected people. The idea for staying at home for everyone was not even imagined. Similarly, the argument against school closures was that the kids would still congregate at the malls. How naïve! Yes, the framework for lockdowns and social distancing was laid during the Bush administration. But it was presented in much milder terms. In 2020 everything was dialed up to 11.
Woot.
3 miles today. Another *ahem* milestone on the way back to 4 miles. A reliable 4 miles opens up additional routes and destinations.
Running? Walking? Unicycle?
I’m not carrying a unicycle for miles.
You don’t ruck with a unicycle?
It’s easier than having to carry home a bear.
Leave me out of this.
congrats. What form of locomotion are you using?
Walking.
Good, save your knees. It’s an underrated form of exercise.
Locomotion.
Not Kylie?
Chisato and her legs
Grand Funk Railroad did it better.
??
Last day of paternity leave (part 1 of 2… Silly ridiculous company) is today. May not have accomplished everything I wanted to during the time off, but I go back to work a better man with a happier family. Hopefully the momentum carries over. I’m quite thankful for the time with family.
I’m probably gonna be scarce around here for the indefinite future as I enjoy life and the outdoors and try not to lose this tan. But I’ll make an effort to poke in a couple times per week.
Family is what is important. Not all these Tulpas 😉 Stay Safe!
“But I’ll make an effort to poke in a couple times per week.”
…commence bad joke protocol…
…override joke protocol, commence sympathy protocol…
Best wishes for yourself and your family!
Your regular presence will be missed – good luck with reentry and best to the fam.
I go back to work a better man with a happier family.
This is good.
I’m probably gonna be scarce around here for the indefinite future as I enjoy life and the outdoors and try not to lose this tan. But I’ll make an effort to poke in a couple times per week.
Do what you need to.
Prediction – If Chauvin’s convicted it’s because “they” got to the jurors and threatened them and their families. If he’s acquitted it’ll be because “they” want riots so they can double down on dividing the country/racism and gun control. The tin foil hat crowd is covered either way.
I don’t see how either of those helps the tin foil hat crowd that thinks hwhite supremacy is the cause of everything but you do you.
Say what you will about the Tin Foil Hat folks, but they have been eerily on point the last year. 😉 Great Article earlier BTW.
I guess I could have dispensed with he snark and just said that I predict no one will opine that the jurors weighed the evidence and came to an honestly deliberated verdict.
Thanks about the article.
Nobody but leon that is.
I like the snark. If that means anything.
They may have honestly deliberated and decided that their lives were more important than coming to the truly correct verdict in this case. ?
The fact is that we’ll likely never know. TMITE, politicians, and idiots on both sides have poisoned the well so badly that the water is green and smells of toxic waste.
If Chauvin’s convicted it’s because “they” got to the jurors and threatened them and their families.
We do have a handy, dandy guide to the jurors.
Seems very responsible to report on things like that. I haven’t been paying attention, but since the trial seems to be covered live on video, are the juror’s faces visible? Or are they wearing masks? It’d be hard to believe that if they were visible, that someone out there hasn’t been doing face recognition on them…
No the jurors were always off screen, as far as i have seen
Wow, people have way too much time on their hands.
Would you be annoyed or relieved at this? I mean on one hand, you don’t have to play a role in the outcome. On the other hand you just had 3 weeks wasted.
Never would have let that one on who said she “wanted” to be on the jury.
I don’t get it. I learned how to deal with bullies in middle school. What is wrong with these people?
Once a girl that was a co-worker of my mother….a young attractive woman…called me to tell me the guy she was dating was bullying her and threatening her. Stalker, control freak kinda dude. I told her to come to my house. I had a guest bedroom with it’s own bathroom etc.
An hour after she showed up with a suitcase the boyfriend called me and demanded to know if she was there and then threatened me.
*deep southern drawl* “You know where I am. Come get you some, Cupcake”
He hung up the phone. He never showed up. Imagine that.
What’s the holdup? Is it taking time to get the kangaroos out?
I won’t make a comment on what i think the Verdict should be, because i didn’t take the time to appraise myself of all the evidence (and why would i, i’m not on the Jury). But i’ll say that from what i’ve seen, both sides put up some good arguments. My gut says that the Prosecution had a very good case to start out with, so hats off to the defense for doing their level best.
In court isn’t the problem. It is all the stuff outside: politicians telling us what the correct verdict should be, vandalizing the former home of a defense witness, juror intimidation, …
Yeah, if its a conviction, there’s a good chance it gets overturned on appeal given all that shit.
I would say “what a mess”, but I’m convinced that they intended it to be like this. It’s not available to rally the race warriors if it quietly goes to verdict.
The prosecution lied their asses off on a number of occasions.
So, just like most other trials.
Question for all y’all.
Ever go in for a prescription refill, see the pills didn’t look like the ones you had before, look up the pills in a reference, find that they’re the same dose of the same medicine from a different manufacturer, but still distrust the new pills?
Happens all the time with generics.
Never worried about it.
Yes. Generic drugs have slightly different formulas depending on manufacturer. I was subbed another manufacturer for one drug and noticed the difference and raised holy hell with my rx plan.
Turns out I was right to do that. That subbed rx got pulled off the market.
I saw Twisted Sister open for Dio in 1984. After the concert I thought Snyder was a “piece of shit” and “embarrassment to the metal community”. He got into a fight with somebody in the front row (couldn’t tell if it was real or staged) and had another guy kicked out for taking a picture of him.
Guilty. WOW, really thoughtr it would be the third degree and or manslaughter.
How much do you value your life?
Yep. Will be in appeals for a years
And not a damn thing will be done about criminal justice reform. I thought at worst he’ll get manslaughter but he got the book thrown at him.
yep. I’ve been so pissed at BLM ever since this bull shit started. They had an actual case with emotional video and cold have pushed for actual reform, but then everything was just “RACIST POLICE !!!!!”
Why would BLM care about police reform? They are a Marxist front.
Activism is a way of life for many of these people, so it’s not surprising that they’ll do whatever they can to never solve the problems that they are protesting against.
With everything getting on video, many people (eg, me) got their eyes opened to police misconduct – the “other site” under Balko was really educational.
I am an adherent to the “bad apple” theory – that is, a bad apple ruins the whole barrel (which an internet search confirms to be literally true with real apples).
So, yes, reforms which fire and – when called for – imprison the bad apples would go far to addressing the problem.
Of course, it would help to highlight the worst abuses, not the marginal cases – assuming this current movement is about justice.
Not to mention that it would help to show some cases with white victims, indicating that it’s not just a white versus black issue. Assuming the current movement is about building a broad coalition.
Though if the “justice” movement were about avoiding real solutions in favor of keeping people mad and voting for radical Democrats – well by coincidence that’s what they seem to be doing.
I wouldn’t make such an assumption. Not based on their behaviour.
If the problem was actually solved then the organizations reason for existing disappears along with those sweat donations. Ergo donations is why the organization exists.
Ding ding ding….we got a winner.
*sweet, even.
Must be because my house is so damned hot right for some reason. *turns up ac*
right now**
I’m not even drinking or anything…
what charge?
all three
ALL
Nope. The jury not being sequestered while the news is showing witnesses they saw testify a day earlier getting their houses sprayed with pigs’ blood – that may as well have been the prosecution’s closing argument.
The latest from the Star-Tribune says the jury was sequestered:
Jurors convicted former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin on Tuesday of all the counts filed against him — second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter — in the death of George Floyd, who died after being pinned under his knee for more than nine minutes last May.
Jurors, who were sequestered, reached their decision after hearing closing arguments from the prosecution and defense Monday. They started deliberations afterward. Jurors heard from 44 witnesses over 14 days of testimony. The trial began seven weeks ago on March 8 with jury selection, and it was livestreamed across the world by several media outlets on multiple platforms.
As far as I know, they weren’t sequestered when Maxine was making a fool of herself. Maybe only sequestered during deliberations?
They were only sequestered for the deliberations.
Ah. Thanks.
I believe they were only sequestered recently – for deliberations and maybe closing arguments? Not for the whole trial.
My understanding was they were only “sequestered” in the sense that the judge advised/ordered them “not to watch the news.” The defense of course objected that given the modern media situation, that was useless and would not have the intended effect of preventing undue outside influence on the jurors.
Here’s what I’m referring to:
They were only sequestered upon deliberation, (ie. 1 day) – NOT for the whole trial as would have been common sense. So they saw the Brooklyn Center shooting, Mad Maxine, and everything else.
Florida Man hilariously decries the locust effect.
For those of you who are fortunate enough to not be aware of Florida politicians, Grady Judd is one of the most, er… colorful ones out there. And that’s saying something.
Mexico is promising American citizenship to Central Americans for planting trees.
Am I taking crazy pills or does this make no sense whatsoever?
It makes no sense for us. Everyone else would be winning at our expense.
Shootings sometimes happen in New Hampshire
A man suffered life-threatening injuries Monday night in a shooting outside the South Willow Street sports gambling parlor and casino associated with DraftKings, Manchester police said.
According to a police statement, a confrontation took place between two males outside 1279 South Willow St., police said. Multiple shots were fired, and one of the two people was hit and taken to Elliot Hospital with life-threatening injuries, the statement reads. Police found a firearm and several spent shell casing in the area.
Now I hear the news people focused on the joy and other feelings of the protesters.
NH Secretary of State doesn’t like HR 1
New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner on Tuesday condemned a congressional proposal to adopt national ballot access requirements as an “unjustified federal intrusion”
“I am deeply troubled and concerned about the direction some in Congress would take the states in terms of the conduct of elections,” Gardner said in testimony before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee.
“Unjustified federal intrusion into the election process of the individual states will damage voter confidence, diminish the importance of Election Day itself and ultimately result in lower voter turnout.”
Gardner said a no-excuse absentee balloting provision in the federal bills (H.R.1 and S.R.1) would violate New Hampshire’s constitution. Meanwhile, online voter registration and dilution of state voter ID laws would not boost voting here, he said.
“Just because you make voting easier does not raise the turnout automatically,” Gardner said.
There’s also the small matter of HR1 being federally unconstitutional.
Is it? What’s the reasoning?. I need it for my Arsenal.
I thought it specified that the states control elections.
Nope – it federalizes the state’s business. States have their own constitutional guidelines. HR 1 tries to make blanket regs for the entire country (among other things). Massive unconstitutional overreach (as usual).
A few summaries
https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/03/h-r-1-is-a-partisan-assault-on-american-democracy/
See also https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/03/pelosis-h-r-1-is-an-authoritarian-outrage/ etc.
Article I, Section IV, Clause I
The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but Congress may at any time make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Place of chusing Senators.
My read is that the state legislature makes the rules, but Congress can override them as long as Congress doesn’t change the Senate polling places.
So Congress can’t allow your kitchen table or the U.S. Mail box on the corner to be the “chusing” place if the State law requires you to show up at an official ballot station to cast your vote?
That’s my reading.
I read Lt. Cmdr Fish’s comment above. I see something about moving redistricting out of the state legislatures. I see nothing in the Constitution that requires redistricting to be handled by the state legislatures. From the little poking around I did, it looks like having districts and state legislatures draw the districts is done by statute.
I forgot about the “Congress gets to change the rules” part.
And what a strange exception.
It dates back to when the states appointed Senators, which makes some sense, I guess.
Justices 10-45 disagree.
They have time to pack the court before it makes it there.
Since when has that impeded anyone?
I’m thinking that this case might go to appeals but for right now, Minneapolis won’t be burned down…again.
It isn’t dark yet.
Ahahahahaha. They are already calling to burn the fucker down.
not to be a dick, but I’d think we might need a citation for that.
It will be burned but… in CELEBRATION… not anger.
Hooray!
^
Chauvin’s been convicted on all charges.
I don’t think he did it.
The glove didn’t fit.
And we can all be certain that those deliberations were done in the most honest and ethical manner.
I am not a criminal lawyer (in the sense that I represent criminals, OK, in the sense that I represent people who have been accused of crimes, alright one more try, in the sense that I represent people in criminal judicial proceedings), but I’m not understanding the guilty verdict on
second-degree unintentional murdert
hird-degree murder and
second-degree manslaughter
Shouldn’t they have to pick one?
That’s what I thought to. I thought those were conflicting theories.
Your white supremacy is showing, thinking a white man should have due process.
I think he’s just surprised — as I was — that a person can be guilty of both intentional and unintentional murder at the same time.
The prosecutions closing arguments were a jumbled mess of lies and shit that made no sense. Explaining how they proved two contradictory things was top among the litany of bullshit.
I read something about MN law that stated that 3rd degree murder does not require intent in MN. It’s equivalent to what in most other states is called “manslaughter.”
Shouldn’t they have to pick one?
This is my memory of every big case. They pick one of the charges and go with it.
I don’t understand this. Perhaps it is a peculiarity of MN law.
Yeah, it’s possible that scrubbing away lesser includeds is a separate process.
Okay, so it’s not just me that don’t get it. I though it was just some quirks of the US Laws vs Canada.
When I was a juror for a murder trial, it was pretty well defined to us that it was one or the other, 1st or 2nd degree murder, or involuntary manslaughter. Pick one, not all of them.
How can you have murdered someone you just killed accidently by manslaughter or vice-versa? Both these sounds pretty much exclusionary to me.
That to me is the literal expression behind throwing the book. ”Sure, let’s convict him for everything. Everything? Yes, everything in there.”
See below, in response to Broswater, under comment #44.
Sorry, in response to SW.
“Former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin has been convicted of murder and manslaughter in the death of George Floyd, the explosive case that triggered worldwide protests, violence and a furious reexamination of racism and policing in the U.S. ”
IANAL, but how is it both if there is only one victim?
Yes. When I read the charges, I assumed they had to pick one. I literally lol’ed when I read they picked all of them.
Nobody wanted to risk voted no on any.
I don’t understand this crap. Why are there three charges? One person died in a single event.
What is the purpose of this? To sentence for the most serious charge only? Or can you be sentenced for all three?
Usually the prosecution does this so that if they don’t meet the standard of the most stringent charge the jury can still be convicted of the less stringent. That they found him guilty of all 3 charges tells you this is a political trial, not a criminal one. And the charge is actually ‘Being a white cop in proximity to a dead black man’.
That they found him guilty of all 3 charges tells you this is a political trial, not a criminal one.
Yup. There is no way to come to this verdict otherwise. I did not see/listen to every minute of the trial but I heard enough of the prosecution emoting and the defense lawyer casting doubt. And, you know, there is a ton of video of the event that can be viewed by any honest person, even and especially the police body-cams. And forget the walking, labored-breathing pharmacy that was Fentanyl Floyd at the time.
It’s just the various jury members’ way of saying please don’t burn my house down.
My understanding is that they have (succesfully) argued that the crimes are different enough that Chauvain committe all three of them in the one incident.
See my reply below–it’s supposedly a quirk of MN law. It was really “felony murder” in the sense that he was committing a felonious assault when Floyd died.
Ahh. Ok. That makes a lot more sense to me.
I think I get it : Chauvin his such a hateful white supremacist that he killed Floyd 3 different ways, at the same time.
That’s like… shooting someone in the head while he’s hanging from a lamppost from inside a woodchipper. Makes sense.
Chauvin, being an asshole cop, is definitely guilty of something, but murder? That seems crazy.
Murder is that cop shooting an unarmed Walter Scott in the back as he’s running away. Murder is those two assholes that beat Kelly Thomas to death over the course of like 20 minutes.
Or to put in another way – in a world where Philip Brailsford coldly shoots to death a sobbing man on his knees and gets convicted of….nothing, I’m having a hard time seeing this verdict.
Razorfist sums up what cumbucket Dee Snider is.
Good rant…
Yes indeed. But calling him a cumbucket is an insult to cumbuckets everywhere. At least cumbuckets bring some semblance of fleeting joy to those in attendance. Or at least so I’ve heard. Better that he should be just called a shitstain.
Pedant point: Coprophiliacs find shitstains stimulating. Or so I’ve heard…
*sigh*
I guess I’ll skip desert tonight.
Well that seems to be a gross miscarriage of justice. Besides, how can you even be guilty of 3 instances of killing when there was only one “victim”*?
*That was only a victim to his poor decisions…
You can be guilty of all three because the jury said “Fuck it, let’s convict and get our asses out of the meat grinder. He’ll get his appeal.”
Manslaughter: Killing by accident; Murder: Killing on purpose
How was he convicted of both? Lawyers, restart your engines.
MN law peculiarity.
It’s really just felony murder.
Ah, OK, that makes sense then. Hell, I can even agree with the verdict or at least not think it’s nuts.
Also, I’ve heard plenty of legal analysts talking about this and they should have been shouting this distinction from the rooftops. You just cleared up what should have been made clear from the get go and was certainly known by all of them if they were worth their salt with five short paragraphs.
So what was the underlying felony?
Being white.
My question as well. The arrest itself was lawful. Did they argue the restraints were unlawful and thus felony assault? If I was a cop, I’d be very worried about that. Both restraints were “out of the book”, although arguably both were applied too long while they waited for the ambulance. After 5 minutes, were they just supposed to let him go?
If he hadn’t died, there’s no way Chauvin would have been charged with a felony, so tagging him with felony murder seems odd to me.
How can you convict him of felony murder, if he isn’t convicted of the underlying felony? As far as I can tell, he wasn’t.
Now I’ve made me go to the statute
It is a prerequisite that you commit or attempt to commit a felony offense. It seems like they are missing an essential element of this crime. From a due process perspective, I don’t see how you can convict someone of a crime without proving every element. I don’t see how you can prove every element of felony murder without proving the underlying felony. It just seems really strange to me that the prosecution could prove a felony in court, without ever charging the defendant with it, and without the jury giving a verdict on it.
There is a huge discussion of this at this link.
It comes down to (in my opinion) that the jury didn’t understand/the defense wasn’t successful in casting doubt (significant enough to overcome the jury’s fear of what would happen if they returned a not guilty verdict) on the charge that Chauvin was unlawful in his restraint.
Note that I’m not taking a position that Chauvin was justified or not, or that his actions were or were not causative in Floyd’s death, only that if that analysis at the above link is correct, then the jury likely failed to understand the law.
The world has enough bad opinions on what happened that day, I’m not going to add mine–my opinion is only on the law as presented above. and I ANAL.
Yeah, this is a headscratcher. It’s all rather weird and rushed. I would’ve expected the jury to have to determine which level of unlawful killing applied, certified that they felt each and every element was satisfied, etc.
Thats why I thought it was an acquittal based on how fast they came back. The appeals court is gonna have a fun time with this case.
Why stick around to actually reason when your primary concern is avoiding the mob?
Both restraints were “out of the book”, although arguably both were applied too long while they waited for the ambulance. After 5 minutes, were they just supposed to let him go?
After Floyd stopped breathing, and especially after he stopped registering a pulse, what possible reason was there to keep knelling on him? Is it a common thing for suspects to be able to stop and restart their heart at will in order to fool the police that they’re incapacitated?
Third-degree assault.
I always thought that you couldn’t use assault/battery in a felony murder. That’s what manslaughter is for.
I think the tragedy of the Floyd’s case and the events surrounding it this past year has effectively killed any appetite for actual criminal justice reform and started the balkanization of this country. There’s a lot of people who thought that Chauvin was a giant asshole and at best thought he probably should have been convicted of manslaughter but at the same time wanted a fair trial that didn’t involve any politics or the threat of rioting if they didn’t get their way.
That didn’t happen at all. It was all political since the very beginning with Biden, Waters, and other politicians sticking their noses in the trial trying to sway the outcome.
“at best thought he probably should have been convicted of manslaughter ”
No, I think that’s what most folks thought he minimally should be convicted of. Given the wording (as reported) of the Minnesota law, the third degree murder conviction wasn’t improbable. Second degree may have been a stretch…at least under the laws (as reported) in other states.
Nope. 2nd in Minnesota is just plain felony murder. Commit a felony and the guy dies, guilty. 3rd is depraved indifference, much harder to prove than 2nd. Manslaughter is plain negligence. Convicting on all three equals: PLEASE DON’T BURN OUR HOUSES DOWN!!
I thought murder 1, but I guess the connection to the cops wife wasnt “provable”.
Heh
Apparently you can get around double jeopardy with triple jeopardy.
Heartfelt thanks for a fallen hero
Damn. I had no idea that Floyd set out that day on a noble quest for justice. I should pay more attention.
In other news, happy birthday to mein little brother. You know who else… Never mind.
Every time that cunt opens her mouth everyone in the country loses brain cells.
Jeezus Cripsmas, shouldn’t this pandering bullshit just infuriate black folks. She is a vile piece of maggot infested goat feces.
I honestly didn’t see THAT take coming. Christ
It is breathtaking.
He did have a heroic amount of fentanyl and meth in his system.
Every hero’s journey begins by Xeroxing a few 20 dollar bills.
St. George is my favorite prog prop.
mexico-moves-closer-becoming-world-s-largest-legal-cannabis-market
In effect what we area saying here is that Biden will go from open borders to sending troops to the border. Got it.
“I know little about Ecuador, all jokes about bananas aside. Apparently its not as corrupt as we might believe.”
Less corruption? I wonder if we can get some of that here in Murika. And maybe fair elections?
“Brazilian native groups don’t like being poor.”
It’s almost like the natives there are wanting capitalism. I wonder if Biden will declare war on Brazil now? Or at least them natives.
Super Keague is dead. Long live the super league.
Everyone was in it and then suddenly they weren’t.
So they need players? How much do they pay?
LOL – culture shock. They wanted to install an American-style cartel and the fans weren’t having it.
An “American-style cartel”?
I was personally liking the idea. I can follow a single league where the only actual good teams play. Very simple.
Well, for starters, yes. From the perspective of a continent where pro-rel has been a thing for more than a century. Any team has the chance to build itself into a powerhouse.
2ndly, the top teams in each league ARE the best – because of pro-rel. There is no guarantee that Arsenal for example is going to be “good” enough to justify being in the “Super League” forever. Hell, they could slack off and still collect a paycheck because there is no threat of being busted down a tier.
3rdly, I enjoy a 9th tier Sunday league match just as much as the “good” teams. Sometimes more.
Any team has the chance to build itself into a powerhouse.
See Leipzig.
Although I like how the DFB’s ownership rules prevented the team from calling itself Red Bull, so they had to come up with the word Rasenballsport to get RB.
That was funny. I’m not as reflexively anti-kkkorporate as the average German but even I thought naming a team after a shitty “energy drink” was ridiculous. Or, is ridiculous since they have a whole stable of teams.
Works for you, but consider the working-class Spurs fan who would have to watch his team play home games in Beijing.
Also, Arsenal has a hard enough time finishing top-4 in the Prem, in the SL, they’d be the 11th-best team every year. Would fans like that?
Good night all and sweet dreams. I am done.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DAX9cdczR0
I wonder how hard it was for Grandpa Gropey to resist sniffing Kopmala’s hair while giving these absurd and racially divisive remarks.
Worrying about how this trial and result will do damage to due process is like worrying about how the latest face lift will make Pelosi look weird.
This. This case is interesting to me only in that we appear to have narrowly escaped having our inner cities burn down again. Otherwise, it’s a guy 1000 miles away who supposedly killed another guy 1000 miles away. That shits none my bidness.
Just wait until he gets sentenced to 12 years, that’s when the burning and looting will happen.
Can he appeal before sentencing? The appeal will be interesting.
Probably, but it’s very rare to get a stay of execution on his sentence. Our crooked assed sheriff got one, but eventually they got around to locking him up.
Chauvin has many issues he can appeal for. Change of venue, not sequestering the jury, among others. Yeah, we’re gonna try you right here, where the whole city burned for 6 months because of the reporting of your crime and it’s certain to burn more if you get acquitted. Oh, and the jury is free to read about the pig’s blood splashed all over your witnesses houses and the crazy rantings and criminal threats of Maxipad Waters. Sounds fair to me.
What’s with word press indicating you are signed in to only reject the best comment you have ever written and telling you you have to be logged in to comment which squirrel files your great comment? I can’t come up with commenting greatness like that off the cuff twice in a row. THERE’S SOME EQUITY ISSUES GOING ON AROUND HERE. (I am trying to work equity into every conversation I have this week even if the word doesn’t belong in the conversation)
You get logged out sometime between refreshing and hitting “post comment”.
I may be able to code up a hacky fix in Eyepiece. It’d essentially be a button to populate the reply box with whatever was in the reply box the last time the page refreshed. I’ll add it to the to do list.
The “Howdy, westernsloper” didn’t depart the upper right corner that I noticed. Not a big deal it just gave me something to bitch about. I am sure your to do list is big enough.
When I write a top notch comment, I always make sure to do ctrl-a, ctrl-c.
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Meh, port 80 sucks, has always sucked, and will suck until the heat death of the universe. I blame html, myself. Primitive gobbledygook that doesn’t even have more than a handful of words it don’t! (GF has been watching British television, how’s my accent? )
And another thing, I think a spider bit me either from living in my lounge fleece, or maybe when I carried in fire wood. I demand equity with nature.
Find a spider, and bite it. DIY equity.
I demand government action on this.
“Waiter, there’s a fly in my soup, and I distinctly ordered spiders!”
I wanted to tell a story last night, but missed everybody except Hyperion. So ima repost and tell me if I include all the other stuff would it be a good submission for a post? Last night copy pasta:
I have a story that I would like to share: the Saturday before last, I went to help a friend. His mother’s estate had sold the house he was brought home from the hospital to, and he only had until Sunday to access the property, and he had begged me all week to come help him get some things from the crawlspace above the ceiling, because he apparently didn’t know anybody else who owned a screw driver. So, being the stand up guy that I am, drove across town to help. As we are stacking things up in the driveway in preparation to loading my GFs vehicle, I noticed a police car parked on the corner, with just the front showing- like the driver was trying to watch us without being seen. I commented on this to my friend- who immediately jumped the back fence and took off, literally leaving me holding a bag. Turns out his window to enter had ended Easter Sunday, plus he had warrants out. Long story short- I was arrested for Class 1 Felony Trespassing. On Saturday night. Felony means no bond before I see a judge on Monday. I get 3 calls and use them to give instructions to GF. Sunday she comes to get the keys to her car, which is still at the property but wont be come Monday morning. Of course, the jail can only release all of my property not just the keys. Because of covid, all new arrests are in solitary. This means everybody in the block gets one hour out by themselves in the common area where the phones are. Your hour may start at 10 am, or your hour may start at 3 am. The prisoners had a pretty good system of using their time to make calls for others, but still. Ok, GF has car and has called work to say I won’t be in. Monday morning at around 1030am I go to court. The DA drops it. Yay! I’m leaving jail, right? Oh no that’s not how it works. You have to be processed. So, I am returned to a cell the size of a closet, where I wait. And wait. And wait some more. I finally leave Jefferson County Jail at 815pm on Monday night, with (remember the car keys?) no phone, no money, no wallet, and no house keys- in the snow and on the opposite side of town. They didn’t even give me bus tokens.
So, did you ever catch up with your long lost friend yet? CWAA!
When I was thinking about this last night, I remembered that I once could have wound up in a very similar situation.
That was about 16-17 years ago. The guy had went through a divorce. His wife had moved out and then he got really sick and was in the hospital. I felt really bad for him and had went to see him. I had driven by his house the day before and remembered they had this super nice above ground pool and me and my ex-GF at that time had been wanting one. Nothing I’d want now, but I was poor back then.
Anyway, so we were talking and I said ‘So, you guys settle already, you going to sell the house or are you going to keep it?’. He says ‘I don’t really know, I need money really bad.’ So I said half joking ‘Well, if you want to sell that pool…’, and he says ‘Man, if you can get it out of there, I’ll sell it to you for$$’. And I said ‘But your wife…’. So he says ‘she didn’t want anything, it’s mine, she’s moved up to MN with her parents’. so I said ‘OK’. But if she gets mad, you sort it out.
So I told my ex-GF and she’s all excited, cause that was about as nice an above ground pool as you could get. So I said ‘Well, let’s go start getting it’. So we loaded up my tools and went out there. So we’re out there with my tools and this truck is driving by realllllyyyy realllyyy slow and I’m thinking ‘WTF?’. And they went on, so I thought, well just some local busy body.
So a little while after I had several parts off this pool, this guy comes walking over from next door and tells me his name and then he says ‘I knew that fucker was lying’. And I just looked at him and then he says ‘The guy that said he bought this place’. I just sort of froze and we were talking and then he went back to his place and I looked at my ex-GF and said ‘Let’s get the fuck out of here’.
To cut to the chase, my ‘friend’ had already sold the place and then tried to sell me the pool of the guy who bought it. I called him and that’s the last time we ever spoke.
Was his name Smith? Because that sounds like the same guy.
Also, there was zero incentive for me, monetary or otherwise. I would have much rather been at home getting a buzz and watching movies. I inconvenienced myself to get arrested.
Holy sheet! And it’s already a dead thread. Hours old.