The Frankish Reich

I doubt anyone scripted that thing about how his uncle was eaten by cannibals.

NC Bills Fan, was this you? https://heavy.com/news/max-azzarello-5-fast-facts-you-need-to-know/ The manifesto makes accusations against Peter Thiel and mentions former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush as well as Trump. “That Bill Clinton was secretly on (former CIA Director) George H.W. Bush’s side, and that the Democrat vs. Republican division has been entirely manufactured ever since: Clinton is with Bush; Gore is with Bush; Trump is with Hillary, and so on,” it reads, claiming, “As it turns out, we have a secret kleptocracy: Both parties are run by financial criminals whose only goals are to divide, deceive, and bleed us dry.” The New York Post reported that left “a rambling, incoherent 2,648-word manifesto. Bears the hallmarks. Rambling. Incoherent. Angry. RIP, buddy.

It is before the Supreme Court of New York State, which despite its name is the trial level court of general jurisidiction. County courts are lower level, handling the stuff you talk about. Because it is INCONCEIVABLE that your God Who Walks The Earth could doze off during an incredibly boring court proceeding.

Ask the guy who started the "Uniparty" thread. Unless he's currently a crispy critter, that is.

Well, there really was no such thing as people here illegally at the time, since the USA was birthed in a time of open borders. So there is that ...

Good point. This is what economists would call the moral hazard problem. If the fees are capped at a low amount, we'd all love to think that someone carrying significant credit card debt would save that $25 difference and all consumers would be better off. But as you point out, that's not necessarily what happens. And a larger point: I don't like throwing these credit card fees in with Biden's general attack on "junk fees." I'm in favor of that because it ought to relate to those annoying/unjustifiable fees on things we can't opt out of - the classic $30 "resort fee" that I'm charged every night (and can't opt out of) that allows me to do ordinary things like make local telephone calls (who does that on a hotel phone anymore?) and access the hotel swimming pool. The idea is that if I can't opt out, you've got to wrap that fee into the disclosed nightly rate. That makes sense as a consumer/advertising fairness issue. Things like paying a credit card bill late are not the same thing.

I could agree with that. It would seem to be a fair result in those individual cases. There are various reasons the government brings prosecutions, and only one of them is punishment for a crime. Sometimes it's to deter other people from trying the same thing again, and I have to say that the deterrent effect should be clear.

I went to a talk by a legal historian many years ago. And that was exactly his point: the right to be tried by a "jury of your peers" traditionally meant being tried by the townfolk who no doubt knew you, or at least knew your family and knew who you were. It's only in modern urban times and places that we assume some kind of anonymity.

Remember the conservative approach to statutory interpretation: we give effect to the words of the statute - the text - and don't try to probe the minds of the representatives and senators who passed the statute decades ago. And here, the Government wins: the words of the statute clearly encompass the conduct of those convicted under it based on their J6 activities. So maybe they should also prosecute Jamal Bowman. Sure. Fine. But that doesn't mean the prosecutions/convictions of the J6 rioters were illegal. Gorsuch is generally pretty firm on the law and the meaning of the words, so it's a little jarring here to see him go for a purely political point.

Hey, keep your story straight. It was hush money, but it was just to save Melania and the kids from embarrassment. Seriously though ... I'm not interested in another Trump trials thread. I'm interested in what people thought of the process and whether they think they would up with a fair and attentive jury.

Interesting stuff (at least to me) about jury selection in the hush money case. Anyone here have any first-hand experience?

True. If Melania cared about marrying an uber wealthy philanderer, she never would've married Trump. Trophy wife gonna trophy wife.

Your geopolitical considerations are, I'm afraid, pretty compelling. Take a look at the last Trump Administration proposal for linking Gaza to the West Bank. Gaza would be connected to the rest of the Palestinian independent state by a tunnel. t was pretty clearly never going to work. I guess something similar worked for two or three decades with West Berlin, but still ... "unstable" is the keyword. (And by doing this, I'm not specifically targeting the Trump plan; no other plan has had any acceptable way of dealing with Gaza)

Good question that remains largely unanswered after 230 some years.

Oh, look at who's back in TrumpWorld's good graces! None other than Steve Bannon. And the very very truthful and adept "Mike Davis" is happy to appear on his show to praise the treasonous former prez and his family. Trump on Bannon: “Steve Bannon has nothing to do with me or my Presidency. When he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind. Steve was a staffer who worked for me after I had already won the nomination by defeating seventeen candidates, often described as the most talented field ever assembled in the Republican party.” Trump continued, “Now that he is on his own, Steve is learning that winning isn’t as easy as I make it look. Steve had very little to do with our historic victory, which was delivered by the forgotten men and women of this country. Yet Steve had everything to do with the loss of a Senate seat in Alabama held for more than thirty years by Republicans. Steve doesn’t represent my base - he’s only in it for himself.” Bannon on Trump: Stephen K. Bannon — Trump’s former top strategist, who now heads the conservative Breitbart News — describes a meeting that Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. and son-in-law Jared Kushner had with a Russian lawyer at Trump Tower during the 2016 campaign as “treasonous” and “unpatriotic.” The book also quotes Bannon as describing Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter, as “dumb as a brick.”

Cute AND really good at her job. I've never argued a Supreme Court case (that's admittedly out of my league), but I have argued to appeals courts panels of three judges. It's tough. They come at you from different angles. They all have their pet views. You have to be ready for everything, preferably ready with a cite to the huge trial record or to the law cited in the briefs. And I gotta say: she's one of the best I've heard. And probably even more, umm, captivating in person.

"Just as the Founding Fathers intended." You mean those same Founding Fathers who promulgated the First Amendment? Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Lincoln couldn't have said it better. In fact, Lincoln didn't say it better.

Deep thoughts of a deep thinker.

So vicious, so beautiful. Wow, Gettysburg! You are fighting an uphill battle, sir. And you are no longer in favor.

Yes. And I would expect them by high school to be able to think for themselves without getting mom's permission slip for any and everything they do.

Poor Tanner! His mommy needs to come to his rescue so he can try out for the team

Which implies that Jerry Jeudy would profile as their No. 1 wide out if he hadn't been traded. Which is just absurd. Sutton is good, and an excellent red zone threat. But basically a non-entity with anything involving the middle of the field. He'd fit in well with the Bills. Except we can't afford him.

⬆️ Front seat on the Short Bus. Sometimes the driver lets him work the turn signal for him. EDIT: Supreme Court oral arguments on this still going on right now. Damn, Elizabeth Prelogar, Solicitor General, is good. This law geek is in love. And then I find out this: https://www.law.com/americanlawyer/almID/1202790713323/ Yes, she's the former Miss Idaho. How bout them potatoes. Put her on the Supreme Court now! Get some foundation to take Sotomayor to that West Texas rancho. https://people.com/sports/antonin-scalia-died-during-getaway-with-members-of-secret-hunting-society/#:~:text=When Supreme Court Justice Antonin,origins date back to 1695.

⬆️ So brainwashed by his actual, true-blue KGB Man in Moscow that he fails to grasp the absurdity/irony of his argument.