Remember Nikki being so happy a while back to have Sarah Palin’s endorsement? Just thought I’d mention that…
Just a few random things…
- SC attorney tells court how he ‘misread the case’ and got Michael Slager 20 years — A couple points to make. Counselor, it wasn’t you. It was your client. You see, he shot a defenseless, fleeing man in the back five times. Tried to shoot him eight times, but missed three times. Killed him, as you would expect would happen. Why would we ever want this guy out? I just can’t believe time in our overloaded criminal justice system is being wasted on this nonsense. It’s an outrage. If I were a Black Lives Matter protester — I’m not, but if I were — I’d look at this and see one thing: Part of the system saying to another part of the system, “Whoa! I know we didn’t mean to give this white cop 20 years! All he did was shoot a black fella!” And the other part of the system deigning to listen to it.
- Minnesota Officer Who Shot Daunte Wright Meant to Fire Taser, Chief Says — Oh, come on! This had to happen in Minnesota? Right now? Let’s talk about something else: I used to work with a guy in Wichita. He was an editor on the sports desk. He’d be minding his own business trying to get the paper out, like all of us, and something would go wrong, and he would cry out, with pain, but also with the comic sense of a guy doing standup in the Catskills, “Do I need THIS?!?!?” He did this a lot, usually late in the night when things were quieter, after the daytime people had gone home. And it would crack me up. You had to be there. Anyway, right now I’m hearing America say, “Do I need THIS?!?!?” Only it’s not funny, at all. It’s horrible. Because, to answer the question, we most assuredly do not need this.
- The term ‘vaccine passports’ pushes every button on the political right — I heard this on the radio today. “The term ‘vaccine passports’ pushes every button on the political right,” a source explains. Sheesh. As I said on Twitter today while listening to this, “too bad we don’t have an anti-lunacy vaccine…” Sheesh again. These people.
- SC’s Nikki Haley says she won’t run for president in 2024 if Trump seeks reelection — I see Maayan Schechter wrote this. I need to ask her: How do you get your fingers to type “Nikki Haley,” and soon after type “run for president,” without your fingers having a seizure? I’ve seen quite a few reporters do it, and I always wonder. Anyway, I don’t care whether she runs or not, for at least three reasons: 1) She’s Nikki Haley, and I know Nikki Haley. I have a pretty good grasp of her lack of qualifications. 2) Even if she were qualified, I’d cross her off my list the moment I saw she would decide based on what Donald Trump would do. 3) We have a president. A really good one. A qualified one. Why on Earth would I, or any sane person, be interested in anyone else?
- Prince Philip: William and Harry pay tribute to grandfather — Glad to see Harry could make time for it. No, really, I am. Good to see family and duty outweigh all that other stuff for a moment.
Enough for now. I’m tired.
Related Posts
When a song could change the world…
55 years ago this week, The Beatles entered EMI Abbey Road Studios for what would arguably be the most revolutionary week of their recording career. Working closely with their beloved producer George Martin and an eager young EMI engineer named Geoff Emerick, the band developed a slew of innovative new techniques that would forever change their sound and the sound of pop music.
The song “Rain”, born out of these sessions and released as the B-side to Paperback Writer in mid-1966, would be the world’s first glimpse into the brilliant new ideas and sounds that burst forth on the landmark Revolver album in August 1966:
She confused her Taser for her service weapon? The incompetence is stunning.
By the way, I generally support police but I’ve been looking online at the abundance of videos people have taken from traffic stops and the amount of lying that police do is surprising to me.
Do yourself a favor and buy a dashcam and record any interaction with law-enforcement. I haven’t been pulled over by police in over 20 years for anything but I have bought myself a dashcam and I use it every time I drive.
Nikki visiting SC State? For what? Can anyone pander in such an obvious manner?
She’s an odd duck. she criticizes trump and blames his constant for January 6 but depending on who she’s talking to she can’t quit praising him. In a normal world the lies that a president told that led to something like January 6 would be disqualifying.
“She confused her Taser for her service weapon? The incompetence is stunning.”
Yeah. I watched the body camera video of that traffic stop. The officer who shot Wright seemed to be so flustered she confused her service pistol for her taser, which is a galactically stupid. You can see in the video she’s pointing her pistol at Wright for a moment before shooting him with it, while yelling “Taser! Taser! Taser!” After she shoots him, she realizes her mistake immediately, but it’s too late.
Even giving her every benefit of the doubt, it’s grossly negligent. It’s either a failure of training, or she isn’t cut out to be a cop.
At this point, I wouldn’t have much of a problem going to the British police method. Oh, you want to be a policeman? Fine. Here’s a badge, a stick, and a whistle.
I agree, even though it seems weird from an American perspective.
I watch a lot of British cop shows, and every once in awhile there will be “raid” scene that will have the cops strapping on their vests (I’m not remembering whether they look like Kevlar, but maybe they are) that say “POLICE,” knocking the door in, encountering a chaotic and often violent situation, and at some point I expect them to say, “Wait! We forgot our guns!”
Of course, they have an advantage: While occasionally they run into armed criminals, they are FAR less likely to do so than cops here. Why? Because there just aren’t as many guns out there.
Over here, people are always going on about how we shouldn’t in any way inhibit the rights of the law-abiding to have unrestricted access to lots and lots of guns. The thing is that leads to having 393 million out there in civilian hands. Mind you, a lot of those civilians are having to use BOTH hands, because there are only about 328 million people in the country, and a lot of them don’t have any guns.
This of course makes it MUCH easier for the bad guys to get their hands on them. There are guns everywhere they look…
I felt really horrible the morning after the 2008 election. No, not because of the election results.
I felt bad because I had brought home my laptop from the office — for election-night blogging and such — and ended up leaving it in my truck, and using the desktop in the house instead.
And that night, someone came through our neighborhood smashing out car windows and grabbing whatever they saw inside.
The sheriffs deputy was here interviewing me, and suddenly I had a horrible realization: I had left my Dad’s old .38 revolver, which he had brought home from Vietnam (captured from the Vietcong), behind the driver’s seat in the truck. With a box of ammunition.
Oh, my God, I thought — I’ve provided a thief with a firearm!
I immediately checked — but it was still there.
Fortunately, as the deputy explained, the thieves were professionals. They were smashing the windows of vehicles in which they could SEE something to steal, grabbing that thing and running on. They weren’t rummaging around in the vehicles to see what else they could find. Just smash and grab. And I had left the laptop bag in plain sight on the floor. (Why? Because nothing like this had ever happened before in my neighborhood.)
Anyway, I’ve never left a gun in the truck since then…
Yep. I realize she was stressed by a taser and a pistol feel completely different- by design. It’s not even close.
But how much stress? Apparently she had 25+ years experience. There were other officers there. She WAY overrated to the situation.
The other officer had his hands on him inside the car. How about just grabbing the keys? Where is he going?
Just stunning to me.
Tasers still look like smaller, yellow Glocks. That should change; why do they need a pistol grip? Sure it might increase accuracy a little, but the tragic alternative is just that.
Tasers used to have a rectangular shape; I don’t think the improved design really was one.
But still, she really blew it – over absolutely nothing.
Police officer body slams citizen and breaks his wrist only to find out he had the wrong man.
https://fb.watch/4S7I40xJpM/
Sadly, this happens all the time.
For consideration: Maybe police officers shouldn’t use Glocks, as they have no manual safety. Sure, not having a manual safety makes it easier to shoot more quickly, but there’s also a downside to that, as is evident in this case.
Not having a manual safety is fine if you are well-trained. For an ill-trained individual, it can lead to problems. I have no idea what police standards are for firearm proficiency and training.
The strapping young buck of an officer got me down on my knees and I showed my utmost respect
His name was Tim and he’s a former Trump supporter and police officer and he’s large all over
The defense will start presenting its case in the Chauvin trial today. Given the extremely compelling case laid out by the prosecution I’m very interested to see the rebuttal. Surely they’ll have some type of medical “expert” to explain why the half dozen experts for the prosecution are wrong. Beyond that I dunno. Will be fun to watch.
And they’ll also try to damn George Floyd, in the hopes that the jury will decide, on some level, that killing him wasn’t such a bad thing.
I suppose. I can’t imagine any other way it would be relevant to the case…
I’m guessing it will end up being a manslaughter conviction but all it takes (supposedly) is reasonable doubt from one juror. That’s how the system works. If Chauvin somehow is acquitted, I would hope/expect Biden to condemn any violence and looting that will likely occur and be prepared to send in whatever assistance is required to maintain law and order.
Biden wanted against looting yesterday for this latest shooting. But no one pays politicians any mind in such a situation.
4. “ Why would any sane person want anyone else.”
A bit hyperbolic there Brad. For one thing he’s dithering over troop withdrawal in Afghanistan. This is the great fear I had with Biden. Waaaay too much of a hawk.
Hawk? Not wanting to hand over Afghanistan to the Taliban is being a hawk?
Why do people pretend it’s easy to leave Afghanistan when it so obviously is not — not to anyone who accepts any responsibility for what happens next…
But you may be interested this, just in: “Biden will withdraw all U.S. forces from Afghanistan by Sept. 11, 2021.”
Perhaps that pleases you. It worries me. Of course, I know we’ll pull out sometime, because politics. Americans have trouble holding on to the notion that if you have a military, it makes sense for them to be stationed where their presence prevents trouble — like in the Balkans, or in Germany. (Who knew WWII was a “forever war,” huh?)
But perhaps it pleases you.
Anyway, thank God it’s Biden doing it. He and his people will take all possible precautions, rather than just do it so he can Tweet out that he did it…
Why do people pretend that it’s easy to leave Afghanistan? No pretending needed. It is easy. Just bring in the transports, order the troops to get in and voila out of Afghanistan. You can ALWAYS make an excuse to stay. It’s way past time to just get out.
And by the way Afghanistan is NOT ours to keep or hand over. It is extremely off putting to suggest that it is.
American exceptionalism at its best.
Of course Lindsey is weighing in with his usual scare tactics.
brad,
What has happened to JD Vance? Or has he always been a right wing bomb thrower?
Dude is giving Mike Lindell a run for his money.
He’s now advocating for punitive tax increases for corporations that have voiced concerns with voting “rights” legislation (Which now includes hundreds of companies). I doubt that is legal and would suspect a Yale law guy knows that.
I thought right wingers believed corporations are people. So “people” can’t express their opinion?
He’s thinking for a run for office so I guess he’s got to sound like a right wing extremist in today’s GOP.
Thankfully it seems JD realized he made a mistake and just resigned from some sort of Board. He “gets” some of the challenges of rural “ecodevo” and has identified some relevant social issues affecting our rural areas. But, Tucker Carlson. REALLY JD?
JD has been financed by a billionaire
and is whining about others doing the same thing.
The guy has went full Qanon.
Too bad. I’ll try not to drink the water. He has lost all credibility with me – TUCKER CARLSON! REALLY?!
Brad may appreciate this; certainly his father would. Damn US Marines. Tough- get the job done. Did you hear about the US Marine that blew up a school bus? Burnt his lips. What does it sound like when s**t hits the fan? MARINE!
Certainly.
But y’all had me confused there for a moment, because I didn’t know who J.D. Vance was. So I looked him up.
Oh. That guy. I still haven’t read the book or watched the movie version. It’s just never seemed like something I wanted to spend time on. Especially after seeing some of the reviews of the movie.
Among other concerns, it bugs me that the guy exposes his family that way. That sort of thing has always bothered me.
It’s sort of like The Sun Also Rises. I still haven’t gone back and watched all of the Hemingway series — although I will — but I assume it discusses the writing of that, his first masterpiece.
I’ve always been a fan of the book, but am much disturbed by the personal betrayals it represents. I thought it was fiction back when I was a huge Hemingway fan. Then I learned how basically it was a case of young Hemingway exposing his “friends,” and changing their names.
It’s one of the reasons I haven’t written fiction, although I always thought when I was young that I would — you know, do journalism for a few years, then write the great American novel.
They say, “write what you know.” But what I know best involves things that I know as privileged information, about family or friends. How can I tell stories that might hurt those people? Your loved ones are not laboratory specimens. You don’t dissect them for the entertainment of strangers.
It didn’t seem to bother Hemingway. Or apparently, this Vance guy…
Oh, dang! I meant to put this on the Open Thread above:
Who will Joe Biden send to Rome? 8 top contenders for U.S. ambassador to the Vatican — Send me! Send me! Yeah, I know these other people have credentials and stuff, and one of the reasons I voted for Joe is because I believe in stuff like that, but dang! This would be cool. All day every day, I’d be involved with one of my two current blogging obsessions — by which I mean the intersection of politics and the Church. This, to me, would almost be worth leaving home and meeting with people and stuff — as long as we’re masked and everybody has been vaccinated, of course.
What’s the other thing — my other current obsession? The Rabbit Hole thing, of course…
I’m guessing it will end up being a manslaughter conviction but all it takes (supposedly) is reasonable doubt from one juror. That’s how the system works. If Chauvin somehow is acquitted, I would hope/expect Biden to condemn any violence and looting that will likely occur and be prepared to send in whatever assistance is required to maintain law and order.
Doug, were you having trouble posting that? It showed up twice…
OMG! The defense was allowed to present a previous Floyd police encounter with police. WTF! Why can the defense smear Floyd but Chauvin’s previous misbehavior is off limits?
Some thangs never effing change
Wait until they show the body cam footage of Floyd saying he couldn’t breathe while he was still in the police car… and when they introduce the toxicology report. It’s not a done deal.
All that’s already come out. I actually agree with you that manslaughter is the most likely outcome. A hung jury is also a possibility. An outright acquittal is extremely unlikely. Murder 2/3 is still a possibility given the extremely compelling case made by the prosecution. But the bar is so high any bit of doubt is enough to sink the most severe charges. So mark this down bud and Doug agree.
This is the Minnesota 3rd degree murder statute:
“609.195 MURDER IN THE THIRD DEGREE.
(a) Whoever, without intent to effect the death of any person, causes the death of another by perpetrating an act eminently dangerous to others and evincing a depraved mind, without regard for human life, is guilty of murder in the third degree and may be sentenced to imprisonment for not more than 25 years.”
This clause is going to be very difficult to convict on:
“eminently dangerous to others and evincing a depraved mind, without regard for human life”
DANGEROUS and DEPRAVED
It was excessive force in the act of doing law enforcement work under stressful conditions.
Well of course it was both dangerous and depraved. But you illustrate why conviction for murder is unlikely. Some people just won’t convict a cop no matter how compelling the evidence.
not in the context of a cop arresting a criminal who was obviously under the influence of drugs. It was excessive but not depraved. Do you think he intended to kill Floyd in front of everyone?
Intent is not an element of a depraved heart murder.
Seems pretty depraved and without regard for human life to kneel on someone’s neck for nine minutes, but that’s just me. Your mileage may vary.
One of my sons was horsing around with me a week or two ago and “pinned me” on our living room floor (carpeted).
He’s been taking weightlifting classes for about 3 months now and I could tell. He made a move where he had his arm across the back of my neck while I was face down. For about 3 seconds I had trouble catching a breath because of the pressure and it freaked me out enough for us to stop the playing around for the evening. I told him never to do that to any of his friends. (It wasn’t really a move, it was just something he did almost by accident)
I didn’t think of Georgie Floyd at the time but that 3 seconds was a bit scary- and it was just my son.
I can’t imagine a police officer doing that to me. That would be awful.
Do I believe he intended to kill Floyd? The charge is for unintentional murder so intent is not necessary to support the charge. However, it seems clear that at some point during the 9+ minutes that Chauvin was crushing the life out of a human being his intent was likely to kill him. As for the drugs, really Doug that is extraordinarily lame comment. The drugs didn’t give Floyd super human strength.
There will be evidence presented by the defense that the drugs at a minimum contributed to Floyds difficulty breathing. All it takes is for one juror to be convinced of that.
Personally, I think he should be convicted of manslaughter for his excessive force. No question about that. I don’t think what Chauvin did falls under my definition of depraved. That would have to require some belief that he didn’t care if Floyd died. If it happened in a back alley with nobody witnessing it, yes. But to think he was there in front of his partners and the witnesses and consciously, depravedly thought he wouldn’t care if Floyd lived or died just doesn’t fit what I saw. If you asked him today if he wished he could have handled it differently (not because he is on trial but because Floyd died), I would expect he would say yes. That’s what keeps me from thinking it was murder.
He had an opportunity to say, under oath, that he wished he’d done something different. But he took the fifth.
That’s his right, correct?
Saying yes to THAT question implicates him as doing something wrong. Not the time to say it in the middle of a trial.
Yeah, it’s a trick question. Say yes and you admit doing something wrong; say no and you’re an a-hole.
Probably better to take the Fifth, even though it makes the jury think either:
— He doesn’t think he did anything wrong, and doesn’t want us to know he’s an a-hole.
— He knows what he did was wrong, and is dodging having to admit it.
I assume the prosecution asked that. It would have been stupid for the defense to do so.
I ask because I’m not following it. I seldom follow trials. I did enough of that during my brief time as a reporter. It was interesting, but I’ve had enough of it.
I’m not on Chauvin’s jury, so I don’t feel obligated to follow the presentations. Just let me know when you have a verdict…
Surprise, surprise..the whole Russia bounty story that was conveniently spread last summer turns out to be a hoax. All the liberal media who ran with that as fact will undoubtedly apologize for either their stupidity or gullibility, right. Nope.
The media is a joke these days. No semblance of accuracy or objectivity. They go for ratings and clicks.
Nah. It wasn’t a hoax.
The story was that Trump’s intelligence officials had briefed him on that bounties were being paid. Trump denied it he had been briefed but trump lied constantly.
The new reporting is that Biden intelligence officials have “low to moderate” confidence that bounties were paid. The new reporting wasn’t that it never happened.
Nine months later and we’ve gone from “it happened” to “low to moderate confidence it happened”… you’d think there would be MORE evidence after all this time of it happened. But that’s not how the liberal media works. Go with the most damaging story first even when there is no evidence or based on anonymous sources.. anyone who believes anything on MSNBC, CNN, or Fox is a moronic lemming.
Also
NEW: U.S. intelligence community has developed new information about Konstantin Kilimnik that leads them to believe he passed internal Trump campaign polling and strategy information to Russian intelligence services, two U.S. officials say.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/u-s-has-new-intel-manafort-friend-kilimnik-gave-trump-n1264371
Going with the most damaging story first is not a liberal approach alone
anyone with an second of time can watch conservative media repeatedly lead with the most damaging news possible regardless of the source or evidence
Ser Jaime Lannister was stuck for life with the sobriquet “Kingslayer.” Poor guy killed ONE king, ONE time, and was forever known for it.
After the years of strenuous effort, our friend Doug has well earned the title, “Trump Defender.”
There’s probably no one in the country who — like Doug — did NOT vote for Trump (correct me if I’m wrong) who has spent this much energy sticking up for him, and slashing at his “enemies,” such as what Doug refers to as the “liberal media”…
Trouble is, I hear that you can only destroy the “liberal media,” a.k.a. “the Enemies of the People,” with Valyrian steel.
And where are you gonna get it, this far from Westeros?
No wonder these foul media keep roaming the land freely, sowing destruction to the Trumpian definition of American greatness…
Trump is and was an idiot. Identifying the bias and hypocrisy of the media should be non partisan. Feel free to defend them due to your Trump derangement.
I voted libertarian rather than choose an old fool versus an older fool. So far, Joe hasn’t even met my low expectations. His grand plan for the first 100 days has turned into a dud. All talk, no action.
Didn’t you get your stimulus check and buy some weed?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFwhCLYO_-M
Unlike you, I have a job and my taxes pay for the stimulus checks of everyone else. I
Again, I regret to inform you that the time you expend posting “oh so hip” links to videos is wasted on me. I have better things to do than watch whatever you thought was cool back when you weren’t an elderly self loathing troll.
Nice to hear:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPaTkjEMnU4
For decades it was regarded as fact that the Titanic sank as a whole ship. When the wreck was found it was in two major pieces, a bow section and a stern section. As additional information comes to light so does the narrative. The really important aspect of the bounties story is that the Biden administration came forward with the new estimates. That’s commendable and should be regarded as praiseworthy for the Biden administration. What a refreshing change from the previous narcissistic approach to everything. The press may have gotten the facts a bit wrong. But the first draft of history is seldom the final word.
This is how Brad’s blog works.. I post something and Brad and the trolls go after me instead of addressing the issue. Brad’s best comeback is that I’m a Trump defender. Weak sauce. Trump’s gone. You don’t have to keep talking about him everyday. It’s boring.
Do you want to be a bully or a victim?
High Conflict Personality Disorder…
Pew says Biden has the second most popular start of any president since Reagan — only bested by Obama, and within the margin of error with HW Bush. The comparison vs Trump is striking.
Trumper Lin Wood, at the “Heatlh and Freedom” meeting in Oklahoma gets a standing ovation from conservatives when he starts referencing Qanon.
“OAN rapidly cuts away from Lin Wood after he starts making QAnon Q’s in the air.”
Video here
https://twitter.com/willsommer/status/1383277740233687048?s=21
The jury has reached a verdict in the Chauvin trial. Just for the record I’m predicting manslaughter. Not a just verdict; he deserves murder 2. But it seems unlikely 12 people in this country will convict a cop of anything more serious.
praise jesus
Guilty on all 3 counts!!! My faith in the justice system is somewhat improved tonight. The evidence was pretty damning. Still, I thought at least one juror would balk. Great day for America.
Yes, it is. And we can thank 17-year-old Darnella Frazier for pressing “record.” Without that video, the Minneapolis police department’s whitewashed explanation of Floyd’s death would have been the end of it, most likely. And Chauvin’s utterly depraved act would have gone unpunished.
Yes, a very satisfactory conclusion.
Alas, The State couldn’t quite get the verdict into its print edition. Because it didn’t happen until around… 5 p.m. Which means, what with stupid Daylight Saving Time, three hours before the sun went down.
I’m sitting here thinking about all those years, back in the days when there were newspapers, that I worked night after night until 2 AM. Sure, we didn’t get all that much in that happened after midnight, but then, not much DID happen after midnight…
I don’t think they got the impeachment in, either, if I remember correctly. I thought maybe it was old news because it was Trump’s second one.
No. Their press time actually is that early. It’s very sad.
I look at that E-edition every morning, and regularly see things I had written about on the blog or social media two days before…
Has to be re elected and impeached a third time before he’s officially out
He and I don’t care have secret quarters behind the Rose garden