It's newsworthy only because it's rare. These sorts of "respect" killings (assuming that's what this is) don't normally happen in that zip code. Neither school is especially disadvantaged, both have median incomes significantly above the average.
These sorts of "narratives" created by cherry-picked data show more about where the listeners' heads are at than any sort of statistical reality.
I've pointed that out when the nation pearl clutches over a white cop killing an unarmed black man.
I'm not sure if it was an "invitation only" event or "open to the public". I know the White House can dis-invite people so there's that.
I can see why the family of the killer thought having the father of the victim there would end poorly.
I'm not sure if "poorly" mean "dualling press conference" or accusations. Austin Metcalf’s father has handled his son's death pretty well thus far so it's unlikely he was there to kill him (and that assumes Karmelo would be there which is unlikely).
From the raw police reports and reviews of the same; Karmelo looks guilty of inviting a fight with the intention of instantly stabbing the other guy "in self defense". At best he felt he was being disrespected and killed him because of that.
Karmelo and his family suffer from having no case. Their best move at this point is to place the race card, lie to the media about what happened, and throw mut at the victim.
I wonder if Trump has gotten involved and is giving "ignore due process and make this happen" orders. He listens to the news and this looks pretty abnormal.
In a "normal" situation the gov would say "my bad", ship him back, and call it a day.
They deal with absurd numbers of people a day. It's acceptable if they drop the ball occasionally and there doesn't seem to be any reason to view this guy as a threat.
What you don't want to do is jeopardize your entire "ship them to a foreign prison" program over some guy you can't defend keeping there.
Members of my extended family are homeless or headed there. They make terrible choices because of some combo of mental illness and addiction.
Give them a business and they'll destroy it. Give them money and they'll spend it in insane ways. Try to be friends and they'll emotionally abuse you. They can't make deals. I assume everything they tell me is a lie because that's normally correct.
My moral judgements aren't the source of the problem. For my own sake I refuse to deal with them.
There are no good solutions. One of the problems is showering them with money is rewarding what should be punished and will have side effects we dislike more.
And there you go. As fun as it was to think he was a stawman villain we want to oppose and proving what we want to believe, the reality is he's an incoherent nut.
Just like the last time. And the time before that. And so on.
Phil: If the time line is correct he was granted his legal status well before Biden came into office.
The "timeline" is 2011 Obama was President and Biden was VP.
It's unclear how much influence Biden had in that administration but probably more than normal. More importantly we tend to lump the VP in there with the President when it's politically convenient.
Team Blue had a super majority at one point. There is no compromise with the xenophobes but everyone else wants to keep the issue alive to show they're not xenophobes.
Being "nasty and scummy" doesn't make someone unfit for office.
He's unfit because he refused to leave office after having lost and then attempted to overturn the election. He's unfit because he's mentally ill, I assume he really does believe that he "won" the previous election.
He is presumably giving orders that are self conflicting which is a massive problem in terms of not breaking the government.
Because of all that he's had to surround himself with cranks because serious and talented people have refused to work for him.
Elections have consequences. The alternative to "enduring what comes" is worse than the alternatives. The Electorate needs to experience this to learn it's lesson.
Will we have elections in a year and a half, yes we will.
I had been willing to assume extreme incompetence because of the shear chaos and incompetence that Trump has brought to the gov.
When Trump entered office he fired everyone he could, this included a large number of people whose jobs were to make stuff get done. There has been a massive loss of knowledge and a massive lowering of general competence of the gov. Every department in the gov is going to struggle to do basic things for years as those people are replaced and learn to do their jobs. One of the big things to suffer is due process because these people have zero experience with the process.
Here I think we've moved past extreme incompetence and into non-compliance so there's that.
I view these public own-goals as a good thing because the voters need to throw these guys out.
The claim is this was inspired by the far right. That he's consuming far right media and is a member. Checking his political views seems a good way to judge that.
If you're going to claim that all violence stems from the far right no matter what the guilty individual thinks then imho you're just drawing a line between something you don't like and something else you don't like.
If you're claiming something else then I don't understand what you're saying.
Phil: Lone wolves don’t act just because.
Jan 6th was clearly caused by Trump and company, but that's a group with well defined sources, motivations, and we can draw clear lines.
With lone wolves, especially dysfunctional mentally ill lone wolves, it's a lot harder. The claim is they're inspired by the ideology but the counter argument is people who want to commit violence are attracted to violent ideologies.
For example the various school shooters are inspired by the previous school shooters.
It's probably unrelated. This lone wolf stuff has been a problem for decades.
If he's an outright lunatic then it's a mental health issue. If he's higher functioning then it's more connected to how poisonous our social/political media is.
That doesn't mean the pardons don't encourage groups (especially the groups that got pardoned).
This is like saying that MSU sex predator doctor wasn't accused of any crimes. It was true, but only because the Administration wasn't doing their job.
We have serious accusations of serious crimes, but the U doesn't want to go there so we don't.
Unless you're claiming that harassing/threatening Jews for being Jews and shutting down the U aren't crimes. Or maybe that he's not involved when his own organization under his leadership does those things.
This situation reminds me of the whole "U leaders don't deal with sex offenders" problem. The complicating factor is the U President doesn't want to deal with the issue so they ignore it and pretend there isn't a problem.
There are actual laws and rules which could be enforced, but U Presidents don't get their jobs because they're strong leaders with a history of making unpleasant decisions.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.
On “Open Mic for the Week of 4/14/2025”
Law enforcement is easy when you're dealing with the law law-abiding.
"
Far as I can tell, most press conferences are not open to the general public. That seems to be what the cops who took him away thought.
"
It's in NY, against an unpopular victim, with an attractive killer whose motivation was presumably social justice, with a well funded the defense.
The Death Penalty is unrealistic.
"
Very true.
It's newsworthy only because it's rare. These sorts of "respect" killings (assuming that's what this is) don't normally happen in that zip code. Neither school is especially disadvantaged, both have median incomes significantly above the average.
These sorts of "narratives" created by cherry-picked data show more about where the listeners' heads are at than any sort of statistical reality.
I've pointed that out when the nation pearl clutches over a white cop killing an unarmed black man.
"
I'm not sure if it was an "invitation only" event or "open to the public". I know the White House can dis-invite people so there's that.
I can see why the family of the killer thought having the father of the victim there would end poorly.
I'm not sure if "poorly" mean "dualling press conference" or accusations. Austin Metcalf’s father has handled his son's death pretty well thus far so it's unlikely he was there to kill him (and that assumes Karmelo would be there which is unlikely).
From the raw police reports and reviews of the same; Karmelo looks guilty of inviting a fight with the intention of instantly stabbing the other guy "in self defense". At best he felt he was being disrespected and killed him because of that.
Karmelo and his family suffer from having no case. Their best move at this point is to place the race card, lie to the media about what happened, and throw mut at the victim.
"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Austin_Metcalf
I've been following that one and I don't think there's a case for self defense.
"
I wonder if Trump has gotten involved and is giving "ignore due process and make this happen" orders. He listens to the news and this looks pretty abnormal.
In a "normal" situation the gov would say "my bad", ship him back, and call it a day.
They deal with absurd numbers of people a day. It's acceptable if they drop the ball occasionally and there doesn't seem to be any reason to view this guy as a threat.
What you don't want to do is jeopardize your entire "ship them to a foreign prison" program over some guy you can't defend keeping there.
"
Members of my extended family are homeless or headed there. They make terrible choices because of some combo of mental illness and addiction.
Give them a business and they'll destroy it. Give them money and they'll spend it in insane ways. Try to be friends and they'll emotionally abuse you. They can't make deals. I assume everything they tell me is a lie because that's normally correct.
My moral judgements aren't the source of the problem. For my own sake I refuse to deal with them.
There are no good solutions. One of the problems is showering them with money is rewarding what should be punished and will have side effects we dislike more.
On “Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro’s Residence Attacked, Suspect Arrested”
Wait, if he attacked the Dem Governor because the Governor is Jewish then it's at least somewhat coherent. (EDIT: And that's the case).
I thought he was attacking the Governor because he himself (the arsonist) was Jewish but also supported Palestine.
"
And there you go. As fun as it was to think he was a stawman villain we want to oppose and proving what we want to believe, the reality is he's an incoherent nut.
Just like the last time. And the time before that. And so on.
On “The Lawless Lying Duplicitous Bastards of Abrego Garcia”
Phil: If the time line is correct he was granted his legal status well before Biden came into office.
The "timeline" is 2011 Obama was President and Biden was VP.
It's unclear how much influence Biden had in that administration but probably more than normal. More importantly we tend to lump the VP in there with the President when it's politically convenient.
"
Let the Blue on Blue battle begin.
Hogg is mostly known for being anti-gun so I'm guessing he'll target pro-gun Democrats, also known as "Democrats who can win in Red areas".
"
Team Blue had a super majority at one point. There is no compromise with the xenophobes but everyone else wants to keep the issue alive to show they're not xenophobes.
On “Open Mic for the Week of 4/14/2025”
They'll come back. The dollar is pretty much invincible, not because it's great but because all the alternatives are so much worse.
On “The Lawless Lying Duplicitous Bastards of Abrego Garcia”
After he's gone we'll have to pass a new Amendment, I'm not sure what it will say.
The core problem is his base disagrees on whether or not he should stay. Maybe him trashing the gov will change things enough.
If his base turns against him then he'll be out in a month.
"
Being "nasty and scummy" doesn't make someone unfit for office.
He's unfit because he refused to leave office after having lost and then attempted to overturn the election. He's unfit because he's mentally ill, I assume he really does believe that he "won" the previous election.
He is presumably giving orders that are self conflicting which is a massive problem in terms of not breaking the government.
Because of all that he's had to surround himself with cranks because serious and talented people have refused to work for him.
"
Elections have consequences. The alternative to "enduring what comes" is worse than the alternatives. The Electorate needs to experience this to learn it's lesson.
Will we have elections in a year and a half, yes we will.
"
I had been willing to assume extreme incompetence because of the shear chaos and incompetence that Trump has brought to the gov.
When Trump entered office he fired everyone he could, this included a large number of people whose jobs were to make stuff get done. There has been a massive loss of knowledge and a massive lowering of general competence of the gov. Every department in the gov is going to struggle to do basic things for years as those people are replaced and learn to do their jobs. One of the big things to suffer is due process because these people have zero experience with the process.
Here I think we've moved past extreme incompetence and into non-compliance so there's that.
I view these public own-goals as a good thing because the voters need to throw these guys out.
On “Open Mic for the Week of 4/14/2025”
Jan 6th was more than 4 years ago and proved conclusively that Trump was unfit for office. At that point ideology doesn't really matter.
The flaws in "wokeness" are an issue but that's a different conversation.
On “Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro’s Residence Attacked, Suspect Arrested”
The claim is this was inspired by the far right. That he's consuming far right media and is a member. Checking his political views seems a good way to judge that.
If you're going to claim that all violence stems from the far right no matter what the guilty individual thinks then imho you're just drawing a line between something you don't like and something else you don't like.
If you're claiming something else then I don't understand what you're saying.
Phil: Lone wolves don’t act just because.
Jan 6th was clearly caused by Trump and company, but that's a group with well defined sources, motivations, and we can draw clear lines.
With lone wolves, especially dysfunctional mentally ill lone wolves, it's a lot harder. The claim is they're inspired by the ideology but the counter argument is people who want to commit violence are attracted to violent ideologies.
For example the various school shooters are inspired by the previous school shooters.
"
DavidTC: The ‘lone wolves’ are a logical and deliberate result of that environment.
This is the sort of thing we hear just before we find out his politics are wrong.
The way to bet is he's mentally ill and has no sane politics.
Looking him up... he's a bipolar schizophrenic who hates Trump (and to be fair, Biden. Apparently all politicians).
On “From the NY Times: DOGE Savings “85 percent less than its objective””
I like that headline. Well put.
On “Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro’s Residence Attacked, Suspect Arrested”
It's probably unrelated. This lone wolf stuff has been a problem for decades.
If he's an outright lunatic then it's a mental health issue. If he's higher functioning then it's more connected to how poisonous our social/political media is.
That doesn't mean the pardons don't encourage groups (especially the groups that got pardoned).
On “Open Mic for the Week of 4/7/2025”
DavidTC: He is not accused of a crime.
This is like saying that MSU sex predator doctor wasn't accused of any crimes. It was true, but only because the Administration wasn't doing their job.
We have serious accusations of serious crimes, but the U doesn't want to go there so we don't.
Unless you're claiming that harassing/threatening Jews for being Jews and shutting down the U aren't crimes. Or maybe that he's not involved when his own organization under his leadership does those things.
"
This situation reminds me of the whole "U leaders don't deal with sex offenders" problem. The complicating factor is the U President doesn't want to deal with the issue so they ignore it and pretend there isn't a problem.
There are actual laws and rules which could be enforced, but U Presidents don't get their jobs because they're strong leaders with a history of making unpleasant decisions.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.