Open Mic for the week of 9/25/2023
There’s a phenomenon where someone writes an essay about this or that but someone else wants to discuss something that has not yet made it to the front page.
This is unfair to everybody involved. It’s unfair to the guy who wrote the original essay because, presumably, he wants to talk about his original essay. It’s unfair to the guy who wants to talk about his link because it looks like he’s trying to change the subject. It’s unfair to the people who go to the comments to read up on the thoughts of the commentariat for the original essay and now we’re talking about some other guy’s links.
So!
The intention is to have a new one of these every week. If you want to talk about a link, post it here! Or, heck, use it as an open thread.
And, if it rolls off, we’ll make a new one. With a preamble just like this one.
This feels like a rather big thing that I want to ruminate on further, but here’s the gist of it:
“A viral TikTok account is doxing ordinary and otherwise anonymous people on the internet using off-the-shelf facial recognition technology, creating content and growing a following by taking advantage of a fundamental new truth: privacy is now essentially dead in public spaces.
The 90,000 follower-strong account typically picks targets who appeared in other viral videos, or people suggested to the account in the comments. Many of the account’s videos show the process: screenshotting the video of the target, cropping images of the face, running those photos through facial recognition software, and then revealing the person’s full name, social media profile, and sometimes employer to millions of people who have liked the videos. There’s an entire branch of content on TikTok in which creators show off their OSINT doxing skills—OSINT being open source intelligence, or information that is openly available online. But the vast majority of them do it with the explicit consent of the target. This account is doing the same, without the consent of the people they choose to dox. As a bizarre aside, the account appears to be run by a Taylor Swift fan, with many of the doxing videos including Swift’s music, and including videos of people at the Eras Tour.”
https://www.404media.co/the-end-of-privacy-is-a-taylor-swift-fan-tiktok-account-armed-with-facial-recognition-tech/Report
YouTube’s internet algorithm has given me at leas two recent video essays on the decline of Third Places/Spaces in the 21st century. Third Places is the term American sociologist Ray Oldenburg used to describe places other than home and work where people can meet and socialize for extended periods of time. Think of the neighborhood bar, the cafe where you could just order a cup of coffee but sit for hours talking, the billiard hall, or even a religious group. Since the algorithm is giving me these videos, I predisposed to finding them sympathetic but I have some qualms with them.
1. My theory and it is mine is that the Golden Age of Going Out (TM) was caused by increased leisure time and spending money but generally physically uncomfortable living conditions with lack of things to do at home. Living spaces are a lot more physically comfortable now and people have many more fun things to do at home like play video games or watch tv, movies, sports, or even concerts on affordable but high quality home entertainment systems.
2. I understand the social and mental health arguments for third places but I am not sure from a physical health standard that staying at home on Saturday playing video games is worse than going to the neighborhood bar as soons as it opens and drinking too much alcohol.
3. Economically, owning third places these days is not worth it. They were rarely if ever a source of wealth but you could have earned a comfortable enough living as the owner and proprietor of the neighborhood bar, billiard hall, dance venue, or whatever in the past. These days there are much easier ways to earn more money and you get to have your weekends free.Report
What are qualifications *FOR*?
Oh.Report
I’m not sure what the argument is here, especially coming from you? There isn’t a perfect system and obviously some or even a tremendous. number people are always going to take fake it till you make it to the logical extreme. Does that mean we should totally ditch the license in favor of caveat emptor and place it entirely on the consumer to do their own research? The consumer shouldn’t even be able to demand to look at license? Yes, the license might be real but even having to create a fake license could dissuade even worse fakers from getting involved.Report
Eh, I’m one who sees fake nurses as a great way to make a compromise with the Iron Triangle.
Done fast and done cheap. Everybody’s happy.Report
We have talked a lot of Kate about the alleged relationship between shoplifting, urban core decay and shifting shopping experiences. Seems Lowe’s has a very different answer then the lock them behind bars crowd:
https://www.businessinsider.com/lowes-ceo-workers-are-greatest-deterrent-for-retail-theft-2023-9?ampReport
Causal inference is hard. Saying you’re reducing theft by investing in people or whatever is good PR, but how much of it is that, as opposed to location (mentioned in the article), or that a hardware store’s inventory is less attractive to thieves due to high weight-to-value ratio? What role does the male, blue-collar skew of the clientele (bigger, stronger, less crime-positive) play? How does Lowe’s shrink compare to, e.g., Home Depot’s?
There’s not a clear causal path from more staff to less theft. Yes, more eyes means theft is more likely to be detected, but nowadays most major retailers have no-confrontation policies, and thieves aggressively exploit this, just grabbing stuff and walking out in plain sight.
Also, hiring more people is costly, and those costs are passed on to consumers. One way or another, consumers pay for theft.Report
B-but but but- we were just asking questions about trans swimmers!
Florida school district orders librarians to purge all books with LGBTQ characters
Vianello also says teachers must ensure that books with LGBTQ characters and themes do not enter the classroom, even if they are self-selected by students for silent reading. According to Vianello, books with “[t]hese characters and themes cannot exist.”
https://popular.info/p/florida-school-district-orders-librarians
“These characters cannot exist” pretty much sums up the Republican stance towards their hated outgroups.Report
Compare and contrast:
Newsom bars school book bans: LGBTQ+ textbook bill signed into law amid growing culture wars
SACRAMENTO — School districts that seek to ban textbooks that portray LGBTQ+ people and other historically marginalized groups could face hefty fines under a new California law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday.
The legislation is the culmination of the Democratic governor’s fight against a majority-conservative school board in the Riverside County city of Temecula. The board opposed materials in the summer because of their portrayal of gay rights icon and slain San Francisco politician Harvey Milk.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-09-25/amid-school-board-turmoil-newsom-signs-law-to-ban-textbook-bans-in-californiaReport
Gov. Pritzker signed a similar book ban ban law earlier this year. Kind of amazing this kind of stuff has to be legislated, but here we are.Report
Don’t worry, some person burned her own Harry Potter books ones in protest, so BSDI.Report
Trump wants to go after Comcast and NBC for Treason: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trump-threatens-to-go-after-comcast-nbc-for-treason-if-he-gets-reelectedReport
Trump states he beat Obama in an election: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-09-17/donald-trump-world-war-ii-joe-biden-age-2024-election/102866974
TFG’s dementia is clearly getting worseReport
B(elderly candidates who were never too coherent when they were younger)DI. The country would be best served by encouraging both of them to enjoy their retirement years. One thing you can’t do is single out either of these guys as a unique problem.Report
Both sides now.Report
The Supremes aren’t letting Alabama’s voting rights shenanigans off the hook.
https://www.scotusblog.com/2023/09/court-denies-alabamas-request-to-use-voting-map-with-only-one-majority-black-district/Report
Donald Trump gets kicked in the teeth in the civil suit brought by NY AG James. The text of the decision is embedded in the link:
https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-letitia-james-fraud-lawsuit-1569245a9284427117b8d3ba5da74249Report
I have very rarely seen plaintiffs’ bring motions for summary judgment and win. I rarely even see them try. The fact that Trump and Fox News lost at least some affirmative defenses or maybe all in Trump’s case) on summary judgment is revealing. Also astonishing is the fact that Trump probably only brought this on himself by somehow getting the Presidency as a black swan in 2016. I saw a tweet that stated the Judge is putting or has put Trump’s three LLCS under the control of state-appointed receivers for dissolution.Report
Apparently the facts weren’t in dispute so there was nothing to hand to a jury.
Also seems some of the lawyers involved on Trump’s side were fined by the Judge and might get other discipline actions.Report
It’s good that this happened, though. Trump destroyed cooperation in the Pacific Sphere, Biden brought it back.
Report
Tiktok, ticking ticking ticking clock.Report
Catherine Herridge doing tryouts for Fox News:
Report
And now CNN is deliberately releasing information. What is their agenda?
Report
I am sure that everybody here knows the sandwich story about the start of World War I? Basically that Gavrilo Princip was eating a sandwich when Franz Ferdinand drove by and took the opportunity to shoot him and his wife? Guess what. It’s false and comes from a 2001 Portuguese novel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbOjIw5d-MUReport
Fox attempts to do an urban scare story on Seattle only to get everybody they interview say that they never saw any crime in Seattle:
https://twitter.com/abughazalehkat/status/1706777915516715084?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1706777915516715084%7Ctwgr%5Ef92e0d61542cc7a493b92498792a2050929f12ac%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com%2F2023%2F09%2Fits-no-jackson-or-montgomery-but-we-like-itReport
Surprise surprise San Franciscans do not think they live in a hellhole: https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/are-ok-san-francisco-residents-say-18388220.php?IPID=SFGate-HP-Editors-PicksReport
Oh?
“SF considers bringing back ‘patrol specials’ from Gold Rush-era amid police shortage”
https://abc7news.com/san-francisco-police-department-patrol-specials-sf-crime-sfpd-staffing/13817155/
“SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — Short hundreds of officers, San Francisco is now looking back to a Gold Rush-era idea for a possible staffing solution.
The police commission is hoping a new squad of officers will free up the police department to focus on more serious crimes.”
“Crime in San Francisco is trending up. According to the latest city police data, robberies over the last 12 months are up 6% compared to the annual average over the last four years.”
“Vehicle thefts are also up 19% compared to the yearly average. City officials are now getting creative, looking at the past to stop future crime, which is leading them to considering patrol specials.”
May not be a hellhole everywhere….Report
interesting seeing “white people in the good part of town say that they aren’t aware of any problems” rolled out as a liberal defense of somethingReport
It is always funny to see the “Urban Dystopia” narrative get disrupted.Report
Target put out a press release: Target Closes Select Stores to Prioritize Team Member and Guest Safety
One store in NYC, two stores in Seattle, three stores in San Francisco/Oakland, and three stores in Portland.Report
The Decline narrative cannot fail, only be failed.Report
It’s downright offensive how much these corporations are willing to sacrifice to keep the Decline narrative going.
Don’t they have a fiduciary duty to their shareholders?Report
Your narrative can’t explain the empirical data we see, while other theories can.
As I explain below, closing stores is perfectly in keeping with the idea of cities being healthy and vibrant.Report
Do we even have any evidence of increased crime?
I mean, other than FBI statistics.Report
You mean the FBI statistics showing a long term trend towards cities becoming safer?
Sure, I totally accept them.Report
I’m talking about the middle-term trend showing violent crime going up.
Do we have evidence of that existing?Report
Yes.
And this means what?Report
I just wanted to establish whether FBI stats were okay now.
Here’s the play you should go for. “The most recent stats are from 2019! We don’t have stats for 2021. How do you know shoplifting is going up at all? Maybe it’s not! The FBI stats are our official stats now, why are you appealing to them when they don’t even include 2020, 2021, or 2022?”Report
So now that we both agree FBI stats are ok, I just go back to saying that your narrative can’t explain the empirical data, while other theories can.Report
The empirical data seems to be showing that property crime and violent crime are both going up.
Here’s the Public Policy Institute of California for 2021.
And if the California Government’s “Open Justice” page is allowed, here’s a pdf with the numbers for 2022.
It looks like after a remarkably unlarcenous 2020, the numbers are going up and they aren’t going up in a particularly evenly distributed manner.
(Golly, look at page 17 on that second one! Even taking into account that they smooshed $200-$400/Over $400 into the singular category of “over $200”, it *STILL* went up pretty substantially.)
The empirical data is what the empirical data is, of course.
The narrative of crime going up seems to not contradict the data.
Even if, as you point out, it’s not as bad as the early 90’s.Report
OK lets agree that although lower than in previous years, over the past couple years crime rates have gone up.
You’re still missing massive categories of data which would be necessary to prove your point.
Everything you’ve shown so far fits perfectly with a healthy vibrant city, and in fact fits perfectly with most American cities, towns, and suburbs.
Would you like me to list the categories you need?Report
Please do!
Could you include whether it’s possible to make predictions about the future with any degree of accuracy?
Like, if some analyst out there said “I predict that 4th quarter 2023 will be like this and 2024 will be like that and 2025 will be more of both”, is that effectively flipping a coin? Instead, could someone with access to pretty good data make pretty good predictions with pretty good accuracy, all things considered?Report
OK so city is like any other living entity like a business, group, or person.
So if you want to persuade us that the city is dying, or spiraling into some sort of doom loop, you need a series of metrics that all point in the same direction.
And, the metrics have to be explained by your theory, and not by any others.
What you have now is a couple data points (store closings) and a short term metric ( two year spike in crime).
But this is like a blood pressure reading and a fever; its a metric, but not enough to pronounce the patient dying. There are plenty of other simpler explanations for the data.
Some of the metrics would include:
Rents- Residential, office, retail, industrial;
Rents are a good proxy for how desirable a place is;
Another is construction activity, as builders take advantage of the demand, and investors express a belief in future rents.
Another metric of a city is tourism; Do people like visiting there?
Another is employment- is there a healthy employment market, with a good mix of opportunities as opposed to a town where there is say, a single large employer.
Another is demographics- is there a healthy mix of age ranges in city, or is it losing all its young people?
And one more might be tax revenue and expenses- is the city on a sustainable fiscal course?
All these metrics change year to year, so any attempt to paint a doom loop needs to look at probably a 5 year trend, maybe 7 if we account for the massive disruptions caused by the pandemic.
There aren’t any harbingers, no portents where we can point to metric and say “This is big”. There is only a set of metrics which can create a mosaic from which we can draw a conclusion.Report
So if you want to persuade us that the city is dying, or spiraling into some sort of doom loop, you need a series of metrics that all point in the same direction.
I am not confident that I could persuade you.
That said, I think that I *CAN* persuade you that a spokesperson for Company So-and-so said “X”.
That’s pretty easy to prove.
I think that I can persuade you that a prominent politician sent out a press release that said “Y”.
So instead of trying to persuade you that “SAN FRANCISCO IS DOOMED!”, I would, instead, say “analysts at Company Whatever shut down a store saying that they looked at the numbers and shut it down.”
“But the numbers are good!” you can tell me. “The company is lying!”
Well, I’ll need you to persuade me of that, Chip.Report
Whatever the company thinks or doesn’t, whether they are lying or speaking the gospel truth, its a data point.
No big meaning can be derived from it.Report
Which is what makes multiple data points interesting.
If all I did was post one story about the Hilton shutting down, that wouldn’t be interesting at all. Hotels shut down all the time. If you go up Nevada avenue in Colorado Springs, you pass by a bunch of shuttered motels that were probably popular with tourists back before color television.
If that were the only data point, that would be uninteresting as heck.Report
Weird if this is all about shoplifting, their closing their two stores that basically have 1/8 to 1/4 the stock of a normal store (and one of which is on a bad corner because of a lack of parking), as opposed to the downtown or Northgate store that actually has issues with shoplifting.
Also, one of the NYC stores is opening a new one basically around the corner and just as a coincidence, they’re closing just as their tax abatement runs out.Report
I was going to quote the press release and talk about how the emphasis was on Team Member and Guest Safety, but they’ve apparently yanked it since this morning.
Maybe they won’t close the stores after all!
They must have been bluffing.Report
I have this weird thought for you – a corporation may in fact, lie. Again, I live in Seattle – if they would’ve said they were closing the downtown store, I may buy the argument, but neither the Ballard or University Way stores are in places like that – again, you can find posts on the Seattle subreddit saying the Ballard location was doomed the day they announced it.
I’m not saying there has been any rise in shoplifting, I’m saying it’s a good excuse for well paid corpos to use for their own failures.Report
Sure, corporations lie. I’m not surprised at all by that.
But “we’re closing a profitable store” is certainly putting their money where their mouth is.Report
That’s the thing – I don’t think the Ballard or University stores were profitable (enough), but “CRIME” is a better thing to sell to your likely conservative shareholders than “we messed up.” There’s a reason why multiple CEO’s have talked big about shoplifting in interview, but then in SEC filings they basically say, “shoplifting was a factor, but so was x, y, and z, with all of those possibly mattering much more,” or other more reasonable sounding things.
Two things can be true at the same time – shoplifting has increased and it’s being used as a get out of jail free card by companies looking to close underprerfoming stores without get hurt by it.Report
They didn’t say “crime”, though. They’re talking about “Team Member and Guest Safety”.Report
Okay, they *ARE* saying crime.
But they’re putting emphasis on how the crime threatens safety.
From what I understand, this isn’t bad.
These stores will be quickly replaced by mom and pop bodegas.Report
Even prepandemic, we in the real estate world were calling it the Retail Apocalypse where online retail sales were making the brick and mortar stores irrelevant. The pandemic of course supercharged the trend and the spiralling down of office work has only added fuel to the fire.
What’s noteworthy to me is that when our local Walgreens and Rite Aid closed, they were immediately replaced by a bunch of mom & pop bodegas selling much of the same stuff.
Even in our own personal experience we prefer to buy online rather than walk 4 blocks to the nearest Rite Aid. We can order in the morning and usually get delivery the same afternoon.
All of which makes me think that brick and mortar stores just are finding fewer and fewer reasons to stay open, and more and more reasons to close. Shoplifting may be less than it was 10 or 15 years ago, but the need to have a physical presence is even less so it doesn’t take much to tip the scales in one direction.Report
Did you read the release? Cuz, sure, they cite “safety” in the headline but all they talk about in the release is theft and “organized retail crime.”
The National Retail Federation defines “organized retail crime” as:
“the large-scale theft of retail merchandise with the intent to resell the items for financial gain. ORC typically involves a criminal enterprise employing a group of individuals who steal large quantities of merchandise from a number of stores and a fencing operation that converts the stolen goods into cash.”
Based on polling by the NRF, retailers claim more violence associated with these various thefts. But, well… hold on… is polling by the NRF good data or not? Let’s agree on that first!Report
Ooohhh… the police disagree with the move.
Are the opinions of the police good data?
https://abc7ny.com/target-nyc-east-harlem-stores-closing/13832903/Report
Let’s look at the opinions of the police!
Arrests went up but cases that make it to the DA went down 14%?
I guess I see why Target would pay extra for police in the store but if arrests go up but cases go down, I could also see why Target would feel like they’re not getting bang for their buck.
I can *TOTALLY* see why the cops would be disappointed. Seriously. That absolutely makes sense to me.Report
YAY IT’S BACK!
Let’s see what it says:
Target said that.
Also said this:
Seems like the meat of the press release contains a lot of talk about both and stuff they’ve done to address “theft and organized retail crime”.
And they seem to be closing these nine stores and giving those reasons as the reasons why.
Hey, maybe they’re just closing down unprofitable stores and blaming crime.
Maybe it’s a conspiracy to make Biden look bad!
As it is… that’s the press release.Report
Do we have any data on violence at these Target stores?Report
I haven’t seen any numbers but if someone said something like “I saw this and it upset me”, does that count as violence this week?Report
No, because you’re a racist.Report
I just got onto the ‘net and the first thing I see is this comment. It’s going to be a day on the ‘net.Report
For volcano fans, there’s a rare (once every 10 years or so) lava flow going on right now along with the usual explosions on Monte Stromboli:
https://www.skylinewebcams.com/en/webcam/italia/sicilia/messina/stromboli.htmlReport
A little over six months ago, I asked OpenAI to write me an upbeat song appropriate for a Broadway Play.
It gave me something that wasn’t very good.
To play it, go to
https://www.abcjs.net/abcjs-editor.html
It got updated yesterday. I asked it the same question again.
That’s much better. It’s almost good.Report
What AI is going to ruin is not Actually Good Artists.
What AI is going to ruin is Jobbers, people who crank out background tunes for corporate annual-review videos or golf-resort advertising reels or the local car dealer’s radio blipverts. Jingles, sort of thing. The stuff where you don’t need artistry so much.
Which, same thing as anything else. The highest of the high end will be okay, and the lowest of the low end, but the middle’s going to be completely hollowed out; the people whose whole value proposition was “I know how to push the buttons on the Thing Doer” will not have jobs anymore because now the Thing Doer is able to push its own buttons.Report
Yup. The actors who can’t emote better than CGI and the writers who can’t come up with better stories than robots.Report
AI requires a lot of input to synthesize. It’s mostly pirated.
https://www-stage.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2023/09/books3-database-generative-ai-training-copyright-infringement/675363/Report
Sure, but listen to those tunes. Just copy/paste into that link.
I don’t know that I recognize the tune. Now, I haven’t heard *EVERY* song ever made and so if this is lifting the melody from an obscure jazz album from 1959 then I wouldn’t know it.
But I’ve never heard either of them before. And the second one approaches being good. It certainly strikes me as something that a skilled musician could build on.Report
A story I remember is about the cover art for Iron Maiden’s album “Dance With Death”, which was basically just a Blender 3D-modeled scene with terrible flat shading and janky poses. People wondered how the artist could possibly have justified taking money for something so terrible. And then the artist came out and said “that wasn’t what I meant to do, that was just my quick sketch of the layout for the actual painting, but when I showed it to the band they all thought it was really cool and insisted it be the final artwork, and all they would let me change is to put Eddie’s actual face in there instead of the CG skeleton”.
And, y’know. That’s the kind of thing that’s going to happen with AI artwork, that people will say “that makes me happy to look at so I guess it doesn’t need to be any better, and so I’m not paying for it to be any better”. You say “it strikes me as something that a skilled musician could build on” but what if people decide that they don’t want anything built better than the beepbooper produces?Report
I don’t want to come off as a music snob but boy howdy is this going to sound like I’m talking down to you. Sorry. The pieces were just single notes in a scale, following a very simple chord structure. I could program software to produce it. It’d take maybe three parameters. Honestly, using the rand() function I could probably program Excel to write it, and that’s not me bragging about my Excel or musical skills.
What I find interesting about the story is that AI relies on examples in order to determine what “fits”, and it doesn’t look like they’ve been careful about how they’ve obtained their examples. Like if I opened a restaurant that sold Whoppers with Big Mac special sauce on them.Report
But we’re in “That’s not a full orchestral overture” territory rather than “computers will never be able to pull this off” territory.
This is a dog saying “hello”.
“The dog didn’t say it particularly well and the aspirate was off so it sounded more like Scooby Doo.”
“THE FREAKING DOG SAID RELLO.”Report
This is a husky saying hello. That’s not accurate, but I like the line, so I went with it. A more realistic reply is that this demonstrates a computer’s ability to follow strict rules, not to create.Report
But how many humans does that definition exclude?Report
So it turns out that many of the union members and auto workers that attended a Trump rally are neither:
https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1707222947608322333?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1707222947608322333%7Ctwgr%5E1490d4ca27f15d434c961217a7ab47a84ffd9667%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fdisqus.com%2Fembed%2Fcomments%2F%3Fbase%3Ddefaultf%3Dlawyersgunsmoneyblog-comt_i%3D13607820https3A2F2Fwww.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com2F3Fp3D136078t_u%3Dhttps3A2F2Fwww.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com2F20232F092Frepublican-kiddie-table-open-threadt_e%3DRepublican20kiddie20table20open20threadt_d%3DRepublican20kiddie20table20open20thread20-20Lawyers2C20Guns202620Moneyt_t%3DRepublican20kiddie20table20open20threads_o%3Ddescversion%3D62db764f4f0426e1eaaed71de8896900Report
GOP star witness admits that Biden did not commit impeachable offenses. https://newrepublic.com/post/175841/republican-biden-impeachment-witness-turley-debunk-evidenceReport
Actually no, that’s not what it said:
““I do not believe that the evidence currently meets the standard of a high crime and misdemeanor needed for an article of impeachment,” Turley said in written testimony submitted ahead of the hearing.”
That’s a long way from a legal conclusion that Biden didn’t commit impeachable offenses.Report
What they’re saying is they can’t prove Biden committed any crime at all, let alone an impeachable offense. As for proving he didn’t? Well, you can’t prove a negative.Report
It is amazing how much the GOP continues to try and pin on Biden without any success. The most they have is that they have seemingly convinced a lot of people that Biden is old but the subtext here is “the scary black lady will be in charge if Biden keels over.”Report
“What they’re saying is they can’t prove Biden committed any crime at all, let alone an impeachable offense.” Agreed. That’s exactly my point.
The conclusion was NOT, as Saul stated: “GOP star witness admits that Biden did not commit impeachable offenses.” What the witness said was the evidence wasn’t enough for an incitement. That is NOT a conclusion that “he didn’t do it”.Report
Turkey may not have said it but the other witness goes there:
Report
Again, you’re conflating a statement that “we have no evidence currently to say that he did it.” with as a statement that “he didn’t do it”. I’d think English wouldn’t be so hard to understand. You should know well “gov’t speak” Phillip, aren’t you a federal employee?Report
The witness I quoted ins not a government employee.
That aside, he said forthrightly that the evidence gathered to date does not support the allegations made. Certainly other evidence might at some point, but the GOP keeps saying it already has a a smoking gun and its own witnesses say it does not.Report
Oh, I agree. I think it’s about time that the GOP table that stuff. It’s a waste of time. If there was a smoking gun where the hell is it? But, again, that was never my point. Sure, I’m probably being pedantic….Report
A defendant isn’t guilty until someone proves they’re innocent.Report
Well. Trump, thus far, has not been convicted of any crimes, and the Senate did not convict him either time he was impeached.Report
Trump has repeatedly been convicted of civil fraud. He’s legally barred from operating or owning charitable foundations or educational institutions.Report
I’m not a lawyer but i’m pretty sure they would confirm that a civil judgment is not a “conviction”, and the evidentiary standard is different.Report
Heh, my how the bar has lowered over the decades. I’d say it’s a shame the right wingers of the two Clinton and Obama freakouts didn’t live to see the goalposts shift but that’d be nonsense since they not only lived to see it but personally sold out on it too.Report
Ummm…. what? Are you super-distracted and forgot the context of this subthread? Maybe hop back up a few comments and re-read…Report
Not at all, just noting how the definitions, terms and goalposts change when discussing a Republican figure vs a non-Republican one.
But in the strictest technical sense it is true that Trump isn’t criminally guilty of anything, yet. Merely civilly guilty.Report
I think you’ve totally missed the point of the various people responding to you here, probably not productive for me to continue.Report
You mean how Saul made a completely false statement to start this off? Yeah, he might not have done that for a Republican.Report
It’s *presumed* innocent until proven guilty. Saul is looking at a presumption and calling it a vindication.Report
Saul is a tch more enthusiastic than the facts warrant, I suppose, but his vector appears correct unlike the entirety of the right.Report
Thank you for saying what I was trying to say much more clearly 🙂Report
We are less than 24 hours from a government shutdown but can find one thing the Senate can apparently vote on unanimously and that is that it is the world’s most horrible thing to imagine men going to the Senate floor and not wearing a necktie.Report
They did actually pass a CR earlier in the week with Ukraine aid attached.Report
True. I am just continuing my war against necktiesReport
If you want to fight dirty, you should start a rumor that neckties originated from nooses that Southern whites hung around their necks so that they would be ready should the need for a lynching arise.Report
https://medium.com/@lee-steers.0u/neckties-and-white-supremacy-8ce71947c45bReport
Paddlin’ the school canoe? You better believe that’s white supremacy.Report
The Senate did but the House rejects:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/government-shutdown-2023-house-vote-continuing-resolution/Report
Today’s free legal advice, if you are a person of interest in an unsolved and high-profile murder of a famous person, writing a tell-all memoir is not the best idea in the world: https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/man-connected-to-suspected-shooter-in-tupac-shakurs-1996-killing-arrested-in-las-vegas/Report
New York City and the surrounding area are facing catastrophic flooding.Report
Climate change previews have been common this year…Report
Leighton Woodhouse captures one hell of a prediction about the future with regards to crime in Oakland:
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He Said He Was Falsely Accused of Sexual Harassment. Now This Ex-Republican Official Allegedly Dismembered His Fiancée
Roberts made a name for himself as an advocate for men who said they were falsely accused of sexual harassment in college. He hailed Trump appointee Betsy DeVos as a hero when the education secretary unveiled new Title IX rules bolstering due process rights for college students accused of sexual misconduct.
Roberts said in numerous interviews that he was wrongly accused of sexual harassment and suspended from Savannah State University in Georgia in 2013. In one interview, he said his accusers were three sorority students.
“They said things like they were afraid for their lives,” Roberts said in a YouTube interview with The Exceptional Conservative Show. “It was just total lies.”
In 2018, he was featured in a nine-minute segment on ABC’s Nightline wearing a Make America Great Again hat to tell his story. Roberts said he was unfairly punished and tried to take his own life.
In 2020, when Roberts lived in Lower Nob Hill, he campaigned for a local Republican Party committee seat with the slogan, “For God. For Country. For San Francisco.” He described himself as a “law and order candidate”who sought to support the police, unleash economic growth and diversify leadership.
https://sfstandard.com/2023/09/29/san-francisco-elected-republican-official-arrested-dismembered-body/Report
That’s even worse than what happened to Harvey Milk!Report
<Man Wearing A MAGA Hat Guns Down Indigenous Man
A man was shot Thursday during a protest against plans to reinstall a statue of a controversial Spanish conquistador in northern New Mexico, police say.
Demonstrators were gathered in the city of Española, where officials had planned to reinstall a statue of Juan de Oñate but canceled the event over public safety concerns.
Ryan Martinez, 23, is suspected of shooting a man during an altercation that broke out at the protest, Rio Arriba County Sheriff Billy Merrifield said.
Martinez, who was taken into custody Thursday, was being held on charges of attempted murder in the first degree and aggravated assault, New Mexico State Police said Friday.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/29/us/new-mexico-protest-shooting-juan-de-onate-espanola/index.htmlReport
Yeah, I think I’m no longer open-minded when it comes to prison abolition.
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If he were better organized he’d be a serial rapist/killer.Report
I saw this yesterday. In Baltimore you need to be strapped just to answer your damn door.Report
Running stories like this is always a tightrope. I don’t think I’ve seen someone succeed at it yet.
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