If we're talking about Jordan Neely then "harmless but scary spider" isn't the correct comparison.
Neely had a cycle of mental health crises, arrests, hospitalization, (presumably then release) and then repeat. His criminal record includes three unprovoked assaults on women in the subway.
Penny stepped in to prevent what would have been his fourth. The problem isn't that the people are scared. The problem is they should be scared because that's where Neely was in his cycle.
This guy had a history of randomly attacking women on the subway. If the state wants to keep its monopoly on violence then they have to keep people like that locked up.
There are categories other than "filled with rage right now" and "professional".
Thus far it looks planned and well thought out.
Planned suggests a fair bit of time. Well thought out suggests relatively high functioning and not a random lunatic.
I can think of somethings which would have made his escape go better but I don't post "how to commit a good murder" ideas in public. However it looks like he had a plan, followed it, and thus far it seems to have worked.
We can speculate on his motives, but typically we're wrong so maybe we shouldn't.
The part that suggests it's not a pro is I'd think a real professional wouldn't want to end up in the national news with entire departments looking for him. Killing a CEO openly in public can reasonably be predicted to do that.
The cops have the resources to solve close to any crime. They just don't have the resources to solve all of them.
Certainly not- we both agree Hunter is guilty of the tax charge and the picayune gun form charge.
The Biden pardon covers everything, including crimes we both agree upon.
President Biden could have trivially had the pardon only cover whatever Trump might do. He choose to have it cover everything that his own Justice Department found.
No matter the rhetoric, the black letter of the pardon isn't designed to prevent Trump from misusing justice, it's designed to prevent his own Justice Department (yes, and Trump's later) from doing anything.
The AI is supposed to make stuff up. That's it's job. It creates a rough draft that is spell checked.
When you ask for anything from an English paper to the bare bones of a program, it's making stuff up. It's strengths are speed of content creation and grammar/syntax. It's weakness is it doesn't understand what you want.
I've used it professionally. It's great, but it's a tool I use and not a thinking entity that could replace me.
Those idiot lawyers were trying to use it as a search engine and not an intern.
also admitting that all the spilled ink and investigations and also Trumps foreign policy interventions on the subject were all baseless.
No. Hunter's resume and the behavior of the people hiring him look a lot like he's selling political favors. The investigations were well deserved. Adding to that the whole sex, drugs, and criminals angles made them doubly so.
But ultimately it’s a gesture, as I originally said, of fear and despair from Joe who doesn’t believe the Justice system under Trump will be Just towards his son.
This is total nonsense.
Biden had the ability to pardon him for anything Trump could have done but also let Hunter serve his time for the things his own justice department found. Biden could have also not pardoned him for the things he's already been found guilty of but then zapped everything else.
Hunter has been given a breathtakingly large scope of a pardon when normally those are extremely narrow. It was also done without involving the people who normally vet and write these things.
But the conclusion is only that Joe is clean. According to the Biden Justice department, Hunter is not.
And this wouldn't have come up if Hunter himself (yes, and the GOP) hadn't shined a spotlight on this.
The legal system is then faced with the problem of what to do. If we follow the normal laws and rules, Hunter ends up doing time.
This is pretty normal for someone who burns his life down, does a lot of things we've criminalized, and then writes a book about it.
That's what the pardon is protecting him from. Not the GOP weaponizing the justice system, but the justice system functioning as it normally would at this point.
I think Biden would have pardoned Hunter no matter what happened. His own Justice department has found enough to lock him up for years, and that's bad enough.
Hunter went through a period of time when he burned his life down. He's much better now.
The argument for a pardon isn't that the GOP is coming after him. With Biden stepping down there is no point and we saw what Trump did with HRC after she lost power, i.e. nothing.
Hunter's problem has been with the Joe Biden Justice department. Trump won't change that... but as part of burning his life down he crossed lines and then his tell all book broadcast them.
The argument is that he is a different person now and deserves a second (or 3rd, or however many chances Joe has given him) chance. Joe Biden has been helping him his entire life, this is just once more.
Charges were -only- brought on these cases because of who Hunters’ father was.
Hunter has lived his life capitalizing on his father's political influence. That's everything from his highly paid college "internship" to his series of jobs for various people who pretty nakedly want to influence his father.
He then wrote a tell all book going over his coke addition and some of the things he did during that time.
It is awkward to claim he's not a player when he's clearly been claiming the reverse for his entire adult life. It's also awkward to claim there is no evidence when he wrote a book about the things he's charged with.
"The plan" hadn't been created yet and was still subject to negotiations and pressure by various interested parties.
There is no one, other than Biden, who has the ability to select one specific candidate and/or rules and the party needs to be unified.
We're also going to have the problem of "what is wrong with Harris" and not taking her isn't going to sit well. Her supporters will claim it's because she's a black female. Figuring out that she's really bad at this will take longer than they have.
Never put down to malice what can be explained with incompetence.
Biden was forced to step down. It probably never occurred to him that Team Blue wanted someone other than Harris to step in and he was just being a team player.
Either it was less than clear to him that she wasn't ready or he didn't care or he didn't see any alternatives. To be fair, time pressures made the alternatives ugly.
After having a crazy quick nomination contest, with no notice, they'd need to then unify Team Blue behind someone.
Joe will ride off into the sunset. Not sure what his life expectancy is considering his age related mental decline but he's never going to be in office again.
Last I checked, there are something like 3x more people being born in Gaza than dying. If Israel is engaging in "genocide" then they aren't doing a good job.
Gaza is a war. Mislabeling it as something else is not helpful. Further the desired solution seems to be that Hamas gets a pass for terrorism rather than they're forced to surrender.
It is better to respond to an over extension than to over extend yourself.
Trump's big skill is spinning people up by running his mouth, he almost never follows through. Responding to everything he "might" do is giving him a super power that he will abuse.
As recently as the Trump peace plan, we've had the Palestinians assert there can't be peace without a right to return, which is also the right to destroy Israel.
The right wing of Israel is a serious problem, but they're not the rate limiting step because the root issue is the Palestinians won't accept any peace that doesn't destroy Israel.
That total refusal creates a power vacuum that is filled by the Right Wing. For example when Hamas attacked those peace lovers on 10-7, they were proclaiming that peace isn't an option.
They still have a point that their claim to that land is as valid as Israel’s.
These sorts of issues are normally resolved with wars. If we're going to have wars but still insist that the issue is unresolved, then we'll have more wars.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.
On “Open Mic for the week of 12/9/2024”
If we're talking about Jordan Neely then "harmless but scary spider" isn't the correct comparison.
Neely had a cycle of mental health crises, arrests, hospitalization, (presumably then release) and then repeat. His criminal record includes three unprovoked assaults on women in the subway.
Penny stepped in to prevent what would have been his fourth. The problem isn't that the people are scared. The problem is they should be scared because that's where Neely was in his cycle.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Jordan_Neely#Jordan_Neely
"
This guy had a history of randomly attacking women on the subway. If the state wants to keep its monopoly on violence then they have to keep people like that locked up.
On “From the New York Post: UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson fatally shot outside Hilton hotel in Midtown in targeted attack: cops”
The majority of our assassins are lunatics and incoherent politically.
The majority of our civil disorder and the occasional accompanying riots is from the Left. If you are looking for "excuses to crack down", look there.
"
One hopes they're just being quiet about what they know.
"
2nd degree murder is still called "murder" even if the "intention" wasn't to kill anyone.
"
There are categories other than "filled with rage right now" and "professional".
Thus far it looks planned and well thought out.
Planned suggests a fair bit of time. Well thought out suggests relatively high functioning and not a random lunatic.
I can think of somethings which would have made his escape go better but I don't post "how to commit a good murder" ideas in public. However it looks like he had a plan, followed it, and thus far it seems to have worked.
We can speculate on his motives, but typically we're wrong so maybe we shouldn't.
The part that suggests it's not a pro is I'd think a real professional wouldn't want to end up in the national news with entire departments looking for him. Killing a CEO openly in public can reasonably be predicted to do that.
The cops have the resources to solve close to any crime. They just don't have the resources to solve all of them.
"
Google's robot says there are 4 different categories.
1st Degree, i.e. intentional and done with forethought. (This was clearly that).
2nd: A killing committed during a felony. So you're robbing a store and your partner kills the clerk.
Manslaughter: Not the previous ones and often resulting from reckless or negligent behavior.
Justifiable: Self defense or defense of others.
On “Open Mic for the week of 12/2/2024”
She didn't run as moderate or progressive. She ran as undefined.
On “Joe Biden Pardons Local Man”
Certainly not- we both agree Hunter is guilty of the tax charge and the picayune gun form charge.
The Biden pardon covers everything, including crimes we both agree upon.
President Biden could have trivially had the pardon only cover whatever Trump might do. He choose to have it cover everything that his own Justice Department found.
No matter the rhetoric, the black letter of the pardon isn't designed to prevent Trump from misusing justice, it's designed to prevent his own Justice Department (yes, and Trump's later) from doing anything.
"
AI making stuff up is a known issue.
The AI is supposed to make stuff up. That's it's job. It creates a rough draft that is spell checked.
When you ask for anything from an English paper to the bare bones of a program, it's making stuff up. It's strengths are speed of content creation and grammar/syntax. It's weakness is it doesn't understand what you want.
I've used it professionally. It's great, but it's a tool I use and not a thinking entity that could replace me.
Those idiot lawyers were trying to use it as a search engine and not an intern.
On “From the New York Post: UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson fatally shot outside Hilton hotel in Midtown in targeted attack: cops”
Cops now say no ebike.
On “Joe Biden Pardons Local Man”
The "out of fear" explanation doesn't cover what Biden actually did.
For that to work, we need to believe Hunter is an innocent lamb and Joe Biden's Justice Department's findings and actions were politically motivated.
This is a helicopter parent saying "not my child".
"Out of fear" is an excuse, not an explanation.
"
also admitting that all the spilled ink and investigations and also Trumps foreign policy interventions on the subject were all baseless.
No. Hunter's resume and the behavior of the people hiring him look a lot like he's selling political favors. The investigations were well deserved. Adding to that the whole sex, drugs, and criminals angles made them doubly so.
But ultimately it’s a gesture, as I originally said, of fear and despair from Joe who doesn’t believe the Justice system under Trump will be Just towards his son.
This is total nonsense.
Biden had the ability to pardon him for anything Trump could have done but also let Hunter serve his time for the things his own justice department found. Biden could have also not pardoned him for the things he's already been found guilty of but then zapped everything else.
Hunter has been given a breathtakingly large scope of a pardon when normally those are extremely narrow. It was also done without involving the people who normally vet and write these things.
This was a favor to his son.
"
Sure. All of that is true.
But the conclusion is only that Joe is clean. According to the Biden Justice department, Hunter is not.
And this wouldn't have come up if Hunter himself (yes, and the GOP) hadn't shined a spotlight on this.
The legal system is then faced with the problem of what to do. If we follow the normal laws and rules, Hunter ends up doing time.
This is pretty normal for someone who burns his life down, does a lot of things we've criminalized, and then writes a book about it.
That's what the pardon is protecting him from. Not the GOP weaponizing the justice system, but the justice system functioning as it normally would at this point.
"
I think Biden would have pardoned Hunter no matter what happened. His own Justice department has found enough to lock him up for years, and that's bad enough.
Hunter went through a period of time when he burned his life down. He's much better now.
The argument for a pardon isn't that the GOP is coming after him. With Biden stepping down there is no point and we saw what Trump did with HRC after she lost power, i.e. nothing.
Hunter's problem has been with the Joe Biden Justice department. Trump won't change that... but as part of burning his life down he crossed lines and then his tell all book broadcast them.
The argument is that he is a different person now and deserves a second (or 3rd, or however many chances Joe has given him) chance. Joe Biden has been helping him his entire life, this is just once more.
"
Charges were -only- brought on these cases because of who Hunters’ father was.
Hunter has lived his life capitalizing on his father's political influence. That's everything from his highly paid college "internship" to his series of jobs for various people who pretty nakedly want to influence his father.
He then wrote a tell all book going over his coke addition and some of the things he did during that time.
It is awkward to claim he's not a player when he's clearly been claiming the reverse for his entire adult life. It's also awkward to claim there is no evidence when he wrote a book about the things he's charged with.
On “Open Mic for the week of 12/2/2024”
That. That exactly.
On “Huffpo reports that Harris internals *NEVER* had her ahead.”
The key point is this is why we have VPs.
We don't have time for a full state-by-state. We don't use the smoke filled room anymore.
I think they didn't think it through. These are people who knew Harris. Ergo they knew she wasn't a great choice.
"
"The plan" hadn't been created yet and was still subject to negotiations and pressure by various interested parties.
There is no one, other than Biden, who has the ability to select one specific candidate and/or rules and the party needs to be unified.
We're also going to have the problem of "what is wrong with Harris" and not taking her isn't going to sit well. Her supporters will claim it's because she's a black female. Figuring out that she's really bad at this will take longer than they have.
"
Never put down to malice what can be explained with incompetence.
Biden was forced to step down. It probably never occurred to him that Team Blue wanted someone other than Harris to step in and he was just being a team player.
Either it was less than clear to him that she wasn't ready or he didn't care or he didn't see any alternatives. To be fair, time pressures made the alternatives ugly.
After having a crazy quick nomination contest, with no notice, they'd need to then unify Team Blue behind someone.
On “Joe Biden Pardons Local Man”
Joe will ride off into the sunset. Not sure what his life expectancy is considering his age related mental decline but he's never going to be in office again.
On “Open Mic for the week of 12/2/2024”
Last I checked, there are something like 3x more people being born in Gaza than dying. If Israel is engaging in "genocide" then they aren't doing a good job.
Gaza is a war. Mislabeling it as something else is not helpful. Further the desired solution seems to be that Hamas gets a pass for terrorism rather than they're forced to surrender.
On “Huffpo reports that Harris internals *NEVER* had her ahead.”
They're throwing Biden under the bus. Again.
On “Making Lawfare Great Again”
It is better to respond to an over extension than to over extend yourself.
Trump's big skill is spinning people up by running his mouth, he almost never follows through. Responding to everything he "might" do is giving him a super power that he will abuse.
On “Open Mic for the week of 12/2/2024”
As recently as the Trump peace plan, we've had the Palestinians assert there can't be peace without a right to return, which is also the right to destroy Israel.
The right wing of Israel is a serious problem, but they're not the rate limiting step because the root issue is the Palestinians won't accept any peace that doesn't destroy Israel.
That total refusal creates a power vacuum that is filled by the Right Wing. For example when Hamas attacked those peace lovers on 10-7, they were proclaiming that peace isn't an option.
They still have a point that their claim to that land is as valid as Israel’s.
These sorts of issues are normally resolved with wars. If we're going to have wars but still insist that the issue is unresolved, then we'll have more wars.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.