“I’d totally murder people, but that evil federal government would lock me up for murder? Can you believe the audacity?!!! I really want to murder these people, but they won’t let me. Total government overreach! Whatever happened to states’ rights?”
“I’d totally murder people, but that evil federal government would lock me up for murder? Can you believe the audacity?!!! I really want to murder these people, but they won’t let me. Total government overreach! Whatever happened to states’ rights?”
Big strong men come up to him, with tears in their eyes, saying “how do you do it, sir? How do you lose so many lawsuits?!!!”
Jail time in such a contempt is usually issued as “suspended” meaning that it’s ordered, but if the person doesn’t fuck up for a period, and obeys the final order, then they don’t actually have to go to jail.
So all Trump would need to do would be good and not act up?
He’s going to prison!
My guess (also not a lawyer) is to render the verdict as appeal proof as possible. If he wasn’t allowed to speak, he would have claimed that his rights were violated and if he had been allowed to give the closing remarks himself, he would have been found totally Innocent.
Engoron let him talk relatively briefly, cut him off when it was clear he wasn’t staying on topic, and closed off this appeal argument.
In many of the cases that Republicans refuse abortions for, there is no baby at the end. If a woman is at risk of dying and the fetus has such severe abnormalities that it will breathe twice and die, then what’s the argument against an abortion? It could save the woman’s life and wouldn’t “kill a baby” (even if I accepted that abortion killed a baby - which I don’t).
But the Republican line seems to be that a woman needs to be actively dying before they’ll even start to consider allowing her to have a life saving medical procedure.
Also, it is easy to say “I’m not voting for Biden, I want someone else” right now. There aren’t any consequences.
But come November and suddenly the consequences become more immediate. Many more people say they will vote third party than actually do it once in the voting booth.
I knew I recognized that expression.
“Are you pooping?”
“Nnnnnnoooo?”
“You’re pooping aren’t you?”
“Not anymore!”
I long for the day when someone mentions Trump and I respond: “Oh yeah. That guy. Last I heard he was sent to prison. That was years ago. Anyway, changes subject away from Trump…”
The only way I’d vote for Trump would be if I was on a jury and the judge asked “Who deserves prison time?” Then, I’d vote for Trump so quickly that big, strong men would have tears in their eyes!
How long until a “protect the kids from groomers” member of Moms For Liberty is busted for grooming kids?
It’s because half of the Republicans don’t want democracy anymore. Democracy means that the other side might have power if the right’s views aren’t popular enough. That’s unacceptable to Republicans. They want a system where they are always in charge and nothing so minor as “our policies are highly unpopular” can stop them. They want a dictatorship with them in charge.
At best, maybe they’re willing to have a “democracy” where you have the choice of which Republican you want leading you. (It would sort of be as if the Republican primaries were really determining who would be President - not who would be the Republicans’ candidate for President.)
And before that, one of the Democrats (I forget which one) pointed out that the chair of the committee said that Hunter could choose to testify in public or private as long as he testified. Hunter chose in public. The chair disputed this and the Democratic Representative said “I really don’t want to play the video, but I have your exact words here.”
The guy was trying to change the offer after the fact from “public or private, your choice” to “you can testify publicly, but only after you testify in private.”
What are Republicans scared of that they don’t want Hunter to testify in public? Of course, we all know the answer. They’re afraid that their imagined giant conspiracy theory will be revealed to be based on nothing. (Well, revealed even more than it currently is.) They’re also afraid that they can’t misquote Hunter if his actual quotes are on public video. It’s a lot easier to say “Hunter replied ‘my dad used his influence to get me a job’” when there’s no video showing that his answer was actually “at no point did my dad use his influence to get me a job.”
Or they’ll split among horrible people with MAGA Group A fighting against MAGA groups B, C, and D. Their political relevance would wane, but they might get even more violent.
Even the border situation falls into this pattern. Republicans love to complain about how horrible the border is, but when Democrats propose more money for the border or fixing our immigration system, the Republicans balk. They’d rather give border agents no equipment and then blame Democrats for undocumented immigrants flooding over the border.
They asked for 3 extensions and were granted them. They asked for a 4th and it was denied. Now Trump’s claiming that it’s so totally unfair.
He’s like a spoiled toddler. If anything isn’t 100% of what he wants in that moment, he’ll cry about how unfair everyone is acting towards him. If only we could put him down for timeout and a nap like we might with a toddler. Perhaps he needs a diaper change? (Not it!)
My company switched up retirement plans and they held a seminar to explain them. The person running the seminar said that we should be putting 15% of our salaries into retirement.
Nice idea, but if I put 15% of my salary into retirement, then I wouldn’t be able to pay my bills. I’m not living extravagantly or anything (buying something for $20 for my enjoyment seems like a splurge to me). Still, whenever I seem to be getting on a better financial footing, life throws me a curve ball. Need new hearing aids ($3,600). New a new dryer ($750). Might need a new car soon.
So either I need to be paid a lot more, I will be working until I’m 90, or I put away the money and go deep into debt but can retire. (Just kidding. I’m nearing 50. I likely won’t have enough to retire. Maybe when I’m 80.)
Right. This isn’t a sprint, it’s a marathon. One of the most frustrating things I’ve seen progressives do is not get everything they want and then rage quit politics without realizing that this is even worse than only getting some of what you want.
In one respect, I wish progressives could be more like Republicans. After Roe v Wade, Republicans didn’t rage quit politics. They pushed for abortion bans, lost, tried again, lost, and repeated until they got some small concession. Then they used that to slowly, over 50 years, build until they overturned Roe.
Now, obviously, I disagree with their goals. However, I can admire the long term effort put into this. If progressives could do this (with much better goals, of course), we might be able to do some amazing things. Yes, it would be slow at first and that can be frustrating, but imagine if we could have a country 30-50 years from now as far to the left as the Republicans are to the right (but much more sane).
Also, if Biden’s age is a factor, then Trump’s age has to be a factor too. Trump is 4 years younger than Biden. That’s nothing at their age. It would be like me saying that I’m 48 and a friend of mine is 50. All other things being equal, there would be little to no difference between us at our ages.
Of course, all other things aren’t equal. Trump has demonstrated some worrying signs of cognitive decline. For example, claiming that he’s running against Obama or claiming that he beat Obama in 2016. Yet the media seems to keep dismissing that as “Trump says weird stuff all the time.” But if Biden has the tiniest slip-up, they’ll scream “DEMENTIA” for weeks.
To me, there’s another factor too. Let’s say that either Trump or Biden, after winning in 2024, would have a major medical event and would be propped up Weekend At Bernie’s style. For whatever reason, they’ll still appear to be President, but the administration would actually run the show. Which administration would you want running things? Biden’s or Trump’s likely administration?
It’s not even close in my book.
Right. For example, the Epstein fight logs show Bill Clinton and Donald Trump on the plane. If there’s evidence that either one did illegal stuff, I say imprison both of them. (I’d call the flight logs suspicious activity enough to open an investigation, but by itself not enough proof to result in a criminal conviction.)
Did I like Bill Clinton as a politician? In general, yes. There was plenty of stuff that I didn’t like about him, but I voted for him for his second term. (I was too young for his first term, but would have voted for him if I was older.) Still, my general feeling that he was a decent President doesn’t mean I think he should get away with criminal activities.
Yet, there are so many Republicans that literally don’t care what Trump has done. A video could come out definitively proving that Trump had sex with underage girls and even if his supporters accepted it as true, they’d still support him. The modern Republican party is a cult and it’s scary.
I want to say “Well, the military won’t comply with those commands” and maybe they wouldn’t, but if we even get into that position we’re in deep trouble.