ChiGoose

I don't understand why anyone still believes her analysis. She's constantly being proven wrong by people with actual expertise. Do people even care if they're being lied to or misinformed? It's like getting football analysis from someone who maybe watched a game one time.

Is there any evidence of this? Every article I've seen from when the photo originally came out stated that they found the photo in a court filling, not that it was leaked to the outlet. I'm not aware of any outlet that published or referenced the photo before the filing. In the filing, the government clearly states that the documents in the picture (which are on the floor) were found within a container in Trump's office. So from day one, the government is saying "this picture is of documents we found in a box" not "hey, these documents were all over the floor." Unless I'm missing something, it really seems like this idea of it being a leaked photo staged to damage Trump is just a bad faith concoction.

I'd go primarily election reforms that would destroy the two-party system and end the duopoly of the Democratic and Republican parties. Elections no longer being First Past the Post, but instead using Single Transferable Vote or Ranked Choice voting. Congressional districts being multi-member districts. Repeal the arbitrary cap of 435 seats in the US House set in 1911 and greatly increase the size of the House to reduce the ratio of members of Congress to people living in a district. I'd start with doubling it and go from there. End gerrymandering nationwide through methods like independent committees, shortest split line, efficiency gap, etc. Overturn Citizens United, ban SuperPACs, and seriously clamp down on how much money can be spent on elections This would likely result in: Viable minority parties being able to get elected Both the Democratic and Republican parties splitting up into smaller parties like leftist, center-left, center-right, and right wing No real Spoiler Effect Voters being able to choose their representatives instead of the other way around Voters actually being able to hold elected accountable since they won't have to choose between the lesser of two evils Reduction of zero-sum "us vs them" politics as parties will likely need to partner in coalitions to get things done; likely also reduction in negative partisanship Elections not being dominated by the ultra rich who can just buy their way in Conservatives in liberal areas able to get representation and vice versa with liberals in conservative areas Reduction in geographic polarization

Was it a leak? As far as I can tell, the media picked up on the photo from a court filing by the government in response to a motion by Trump's team. As to the inclusion of the photo, it was provided with the context of "Certain of the documents had colored cover sheets indicating their classification status. See, e.g., Attachment F (redacted FBI photograph of certain documents and classified cover sheets recovered from a container in the “45 office”)." (p13) which highlights that, as part of the search, investigators removed the documents from a container in order to document them and the cover sheets. Looks to me like the DoJ included the photo to bolster its argument that there were government documents with classification markings present at Mar a Lago after Trump's team had certified that all such documents had been returned. I'm not sure what the government can do about bad faith outlets taking that out of context to promote a narrative.

I think this is also a good explanation of why we haven't met alien life. I don't think there's one solid reason, but more a combination of things. Looking for that anthill in the forest is already difficult, but even harder if a percentage of the ant colonies kill themselves. Or the ants or their anthills don't look like anything we're expecting so we walk right by them.

They are definitely not here. As to elsewhere, that's the crux of Fermi's paradox. Given the complexity and difficulty of interstellar travel, it's possible (likely? probable?) that civilizations tend to destroy themselves before they develop the means to travel the stars.

The photo was included in a court filing to show the types of documents that were found during the search. The fact that some in the media took that and did not put it in the proper context isn't the fault of the investigators. Should they have just decided not to provide evidence to the court under the theory that some people might misinterpret it? People still seem to be confusing the investigation with the media coverage of it...

Shocking news as it turns out the police regularly fabricate photos such as these:

Given all of the coverage, and all of the analysis and even the Hur report, I really don't get how people still don't understand this. Trump got in trouble solely because he obstructed the investigation. He could have stolen all of the documents, not declassified them, paraded them about Mar a Lago, wallpapered his office with them, and he *still* wouldn't have been charged if he had simply given them back when the government asked.

Well, not in the Mar A Lago case where they found documents with classification markings as well as classification folders/cover sheets (many of which were empty).

Do not take legal advice from food bloggers.

Adding classification markings to both protect the underlying classified material and to document for evidentiary purposes which documents were classified is not embellishment. There seems to be quite a bit of confusion here between the investigators and the media. I do not blame investigators for the media being dumb and bad. If the cops put a sign on the drugs that said "cocaine" and a sign on a gun that said "glock," I don't think that'd be embellishment.

I wonder if the people who believe that the FBI was trying to set up Trump also believe that drug dealers neatly stack their drugs, guns, and money on tables at police precincts...

Infant deaths increased after Texas banned abortion in early pregnancy “Since Texas’ ban on abortion went into effect, infant deaths in the state increased by nearly 13%, according to a new analysis published on Monday in JAMA Pediatrics. In the rest of the country, infant mortality increased less than 2% over the same period.” *** ”Among the causes of infant deaths, one increased the most: congenital abnormalities, which increased 22.9% in Texas in children between 2021 and 2022, while they decreased 2.9% in the rest of the country. That trend suggests that at least in some cases, parents were forced to carry a pregnancy to term while knowing their children had little to no chance of survival, said Gemmill.” *** “Significant increases were also found in babies who died because of maternal complications of pregnancy; in Texas, those deaths increased by 18.2% between 2021 and 2022, compared to 7.8% in the rest of the country. Infant deaths caused by unintentional injuries, which can be associated with unwanted pregnancies, also increased by 20.7%, compared to a 1.1% increase elsewhere in the U.S.”

Thank God for Mississippi

Nope. SCOTUS has found that the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment incorporates the Establishment Clause of the 1st Amendment to the states. Under current law and SCOTUS precedent, a law mandating that the Ten Commandments be displayed in public buildings (like schools) is clearly unconstitutional. That doesn’t preclude SCOTUS for overturning precedent (something the current SCOTUS loves to do) and changing the rules. That’s likely the point of this law: pass a clearly unconstitutional law hoping it goes to SCOTUS which overturns precedent to allow the law. Just like the Dobbs decision.

It’s clearly unconstitutional but if I’m honest, I’m not sure this SCOTUS would find it so.

Reminds me of when the Russians put out picture of a Nazi shirt claiming it showed that Ukrainians were Nazis but it also included copies of the video game The Sims because the Russians got confused by the order to include SIM cards…

At this point, you’d think some people would have a bit of skepticism after how many of these videos had been shown to be deceptively edited, but it really does seem that unbelievable levels of gullibility is a big part of MAGA these days.

Unlike the border wall, which is dumb, the Lankford bill would have actually significantly reduced illegal immigration and helped fix the border. No bill is perfect but that one was so conservative that the Dems would never have voted for it but for the linkage to fighting back against Hamas, Russia, and China. You can find any reason not to support a bill, because they are vehicles of compromise. It takes an adult to admit that it’s not perfect but it’s better than the status quo. But the bottom line is the GOP had a chance to improve the border situation and they didn’t want to do it because they want the chaos.

Remember when Biden said he’d accept the Lankford immigration bill but the GOP reneged because they realized it would help the border? The GOP owns that. Deep down, you know they don’t want to solve the border crises. It’s too good an issue for them.

The GOP does not want to solve the border problem. When in power, their proposal was an expensive and dumb wall that was never going to work. Then, the Dems let them craft an immigration bill in exchange for support to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan but they tanked it when they realized it might actually work. They want border chaos because it helps them political and they can continue to push the lie that illegal immigrants increase crime. All they do is find an “other” to scapegoat because they do not actually solve any problems. Immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than U.S.-born Americans, studies find

It might, but he’s such a big figure and his popularity is so consistent, that I’m not sure how much the traditional model applies

I feel like Trump is different, though. What is the world of people who watched the 2016 election, watched his presidency, watched the 2020 election, watched his behavior since the election, watched him during the campaign and is still thinking “Well, I dunno about this guy. Maybe if his VP does/has experience with/is X, I could get behind him”? How many people fall into that category and for them, what is the X that a potential VP solves?