RoyGBivensAction
Zensunni Scientologist
Married to a tomboy, so I have that going for me, which is nice.
User ID: 3756
RoyGBivensAction
Zensunni Scientologist
1d ago
"In the interests of justice" isn't a judge thing, it's prosecutor-speak. That's the language they use when they file a motion to dismiss a case. It's intentionally vague because it can mean many different things.
It could be "there is new evidence indicating this defendant is innocent and we fucked up badly by charging him," "this case is going to fall apart because the victim is no longer cooperating," "the victim disappeared so we need more time to try to locate them and maybe we'll refile if they're found," "there is now a newly elected DA who doesn't want to waste time on a case this small," or "this case is now politically toxic and we want it to go away." Or dozens of other options.
Judges don't question the motion because regardless of the true reasons, if a prosecutor doesn't want to pursue a case, then practically speaking it's dead because there has to be a prosecutor for the case to proceed. The judge grants the dismissal (usually without prejudice meaning it can be re-filed if necessary) and everyone goes to work on other cases.
RoyGBivensAction
Zensunni Scientologist
1d ago
Time is a flat circle. I thought it was absurd the first time around, and it's no less so on the second pass.
RoyGBivensAction
Zensunni Scientologist
2d ago
and a brain
I see the problem with your analysis.
RoyGBivensAction
Zensunni Scientologist
2d ago
Lifted pickup trucks. Nobody drives off-road. Nobody. It's not a real thing people do at the scale where you would need any kind of rig to do it beyond a Subaru Outback with good tires. But I can't go anywhere without seeing trucks that have been lifted to the point where they handle like hell, at a cost of thousands of dollars.
I drive off-road, and my pickup has the pinstriping from scratchy brush to prove it. However, my truck is not lifted. A factory pickup with high-quality all-terrain tires will take you almost anywhere, and you'll need a customized rock-crawling Jeep to go those last few places (watch some Moab off-roading videos for examples).
The lifting you're talking about is vanity and signalling and makes all driving worse. They usually have shit tires, too, so it's extra terrifying when you see one whipping down the road at 85 mph in the rain.
RoyGBivensAction
Zensunni Scientologist
2d ago
Or the Jungian Ishmael explanation
I prefer to think that the collective unconscious is accurately remembering Atlantis.
RoyGBivensAction
Zensunni Scientologist
2d ago
The conviction probably is shaky, but it's more "we have very strong suspicion he dunnit but we can't prove that on the evidence we have now, so we'll have to lean on him having a past violent criminal history".
This is the precise set of circumstances where the rules of evidence are designed to prevent past criminal acts from being introduced. "Our case against this guy is weak, but look at all this bad stuff he's done. Therefore, he's a bad guy and probably did this and you the jury should convict." It's understood that prior bad acts are some of the most prejudicial/powerful things to a jury, so in theory there are limits on when those things can be introduced.
The rule against introducing prior bad acts (numbers vary, but called 404(b) at the federal level) has so many exceptions that they almost swallow the rule. Even ignoring those exceptions, convictions will often be upheld because the evidence is so overwhelming against the defendant (on camera, clear cut DNA evidence, a dozen witnesses, a solid confession, being caught with the victim's property, etc.) that the appellate court will say even if the wrongfully introduced prior bad acts weren't present, the jury still would have convicted (appellate courts apparently have crystal balls and can see alternate realities). The likelihood of a conviction getting overturned go up as the evidence against a defendant gets weaker because those prior bad acts start looking like they carried more weight with the jury. When it's a marginal case like the discussed one, that's where the bad acts can have the most impact and it's the most important to exclude them.
RoyGBivensAction
Zensunni Scientologist
2d ago
It depends on the state/jurisdiction, but my state is pro-prosecution and the average judge is very pro-prosecution. The jury pool is also generally pro-prosecution. It's a grim state of affairs for a defendant who chooses to go to trial.
During jury selection, any juror biased in favor of the prosecution is very likely to make it onto the jury. They just need to parrot that they can be fair and impartial no matter how implausible that claim is. Any juror with a defense bias is very likely to be struck. On appeal, the standard for review is deferential to trial judges on this issue, so as long as their decision for each individual juror has some reasoned basis, it's likely to be upheld even if that reasoned basis applies very differently depending on the bias exhibited by the potential juror.
As noted by @anti_dan, his jurisdiction is much different.
RoyGBivensAction
Zensunni Scientologist
2d ago
That is not true in my county courts. At least around here the practical reality is the jury pool is more prosecutor-friendly than the average judge. Thus, most defendants opt for bench trials even in large cases, particularly sex involved cases.
It certainly depends on jurisdiction. My state and the caselaw is very pro-prosecution and the judges do their part. Bench trials are rare here.
However, once a jury is empaneled and selected, jurors tend to have to show clear and convincing evidence of bias that cannot be overcome to be dismissed.
That's why I mentioned what happens during jury selection, not once a jury is empaneled. Once empaneled, the judges become reluctant to dismiss a juror for fear of running out of jurors and having to end the trial. However, the judges have found a way around this: empanel a large number of alternates. Serious trials that use 12-person juries will sometimes have 6+ alternates, and the most serious cases (likely to run for a month+) can have over a dozen alternates. This avoids ever ending a trial early due to insufficient jurors.
RoyGBivensAction
Zensunni Scientologist
3d ago
My body just eats itself, constantly.
Good way to put it. I occasionally wonder what exactly causes this kind of metabolism. I'm thankful that GLP1 is now a thing so that the odds are greatly reduced of us metabolic weirdos getting kidnapped and our bodies being picked apart to find the secret.
RoyGBivensAction
Zensunni Scientologist
3d ago
In St. Johnsbury, Vermont, a town of 7k, there is the St. Johnsbury Athenaeum. It was founded by an industrialist who was part of a family who got wealthy thanks to industrial weighing scales and I imagine 0% of the public in the US has heard of the guy (his brother also founded a museum that is in St. Johnsbury). Even so, the place is astounding. It has so many collections and so much stuff that it's impossible to process it all in a day. It would take many trips to really grasp everything that the Athenaeum has. You could spend hours just staring at this Bierstadt painting of Yosemite (it's 10' by 15'). These brothers were not wealthy to the level of Carnegie, Morgan, Rockefeller, etc. and yet they spent money to build museums and collections that are still amazing 150 years later.
In contrast, the current richest man spends his time complaining about stuff on Xitter and proposing to have a computer make a movie.
RoyGBivensAction
Zensunni Scientologist
3d ago
In my jurisdiction, I can tell you the practical reality of what happens during jury selection:
a) a potential juror who expresses even the slightest bit of possible bias in favor of the defendant: they are gone in 3 seconds.
b) a potential juror who blatantly and loudly expresses pro-prosecution/pro-cop sentiments but then manages at some point to make an ambiguous claim that they can be "fair and impartial" (usually after heavy coaching by the judge): they are staying on the jury.
I see the judge in this case understood this system.
RoyGBivensAction
Zensunni Scientologist
4d ago
I dunno. Both my working-class grandfathers (WW2 vet and Korean vet) were "no outdoor shoes in the house" guys. Adults had house shoes or slippers they changed into and kids ran around in sock feet.
RoyGBivensAction
Zensunni Scientologist
4d ago
Regarding 5, one of my stranger dating experiences was the sole time I was truly stood up. She confirmed an hour beforehand, I arrived at the bar, and she failed to show. No excuses or apologies or claims of a medical crisis, just silence. No response to a "are you on your way" text. I had my beer and left.
Later that day, I texted something along the lines of "wtf happened? Did you die in a car wreck?" She actually responded and said that meeting me at the bar felt too high pressure and she felt uncomfortable. I (flippantly) asked if meeting me the next night at a house I was housesitting would be more comfortable, and she responded yes. As planned, the next night she showed up at a total stranger's house to meet a second total stranger who didn't even own the house.
Baffling.
These charts comparing cities in the Southwest are the ones that stuck in my mind. 2023-24 data, so things might have changed since then, but ABQ is pretty bad. I'd note, though, that the comparison doesn't include Bakersfield, which ABQ recently surpassed for most car thefts per capita and is by all accounts a dreadful place.
Edit: and I'll have to look on a computer later, but everything I'm finding on a quick phone search is saying ABQ still has almost double the crime rates of SF.
RoyGBivensAction
Zensunni Scientologist
4d ago
Or maybe, just maybe, science didn't solve the entire planet's climate model in 1975
Considering the science (or Science(tm) if you prefer) can't account for all the emitted carbon with a basic mass/energy balance, I do have some skepticism about the overall climate models that predict doom.
RoyGBivensAction
Zensunni Scientologist
4d ago
Content warning: first world "steak too juicy" problems.
It is strange to have the opposite problem of the vast majority of people: even at age 45, I can lose weight too easily.
I recently went for a 7-day/6-night hiking trip. Due to the vagaries of national park permitting, there were 2 very short days in the trip such that my average was below 15 miles per day (for comparison, when I can hike as much as I want, I consider 20 miles the minimum for a full day). I carried as much food as I physically could. After the trip, I spent a week with family where my exercise was some daily walking, but mostly lots of eating, including plenty of meat, potatoes, and bread.
Upon returning home, I was still down 15 pounds from the trip start (210 down to 195 at 6'2"). Some of it water weight, but not much given the week of eating afterwards. It is very obvious in my suits where I have lost weight: some around the waist, but also my ass, thighs, and arms. My lifting numbers have suffered as expected.
I have another, longer trip coming up, so I am eating much more than usual. However, I don't have access to a all-you-can-eat cafeteria plan, so the Oliver Sacks 5 double cheeseburger/6 milkshake per day option is not available. Some bonus photos here.
I am curious to see what the trip does to me. I'm guessing I'll be under 190 by the end.
RoyGBivensAction
Zensunni Scientologist
4d ago
The global Latina belt strikes again.
RoyGBivensAction
Zensunni Scientologist
5d ago
Weight lifting and distance hiking cured me. Now it's the rest of society that's the problem.
RoyGBivensAction
Zensunni Scientologist
5d ago
"you need to be cut off from the internet for about six months during which you're put through boot camp training designed to get you into decent shape and have a healthy routine in life and THEN you can have some anime, as a treat."
Unironically, I think many ills could be cured with a year on a Wyoming ranch with lots of physical activity, healthy same-sex role models, and no internet.
RoyGBivensAction
Zensunni Scientologist
5d ago
I knew kids who were Jehovah's Witnesses, and even though I was casual acquaintances with them, all the restrictions their parents made them live under (no Pokemon, no holidays, etc.) made them stand out like a sore thumb, and made it hard to form the easy, breezy friendships typical of K-12 education.
Having also gone to school with JWs and now working with a few as a middle-aged person, it's the "no holidays" thing that kills casual socializing more than the media restrictions. It doesn't matter if the only media they consume is reading the Bible each night because there will never be a discussion about it because they never attend any kind of social occasion if there is the slightest whiff it could possibly be associated with a holiday (religious or secular).
RoyGBivensAction
Zensunni Scientologist
5d ago
There but for the grace of God go I.
A statement I find myself saying far too often. I'm thankful I've never felt the slightest interest to watch anime or read manga or go anywhere near that subculture.
RoyGBivensAction
Zensunni Scientologist
5d ago
What is normal in today's world?
In the US: being obese, wearing pajamas in public, spending 4 hours per day watching tiktok reels, binge watching streaming content, eating HFCS-laden hyper-palatable slop at most meals, avoiding exercise, drowning in CC debt, and probably a few things I'm forgetting.
RoyGBivensAction
Zensunni Scientologist
6d ago
Harmonica
Music
A likely story.
RoyGBivensAction
Zensunni Scientologist
6d ago
Then again, this is the country where a day long class and a background check entitles people in most states to carry a firearm anywhere they go.
And some states don't even require that. Up to 29 states now that allow concealed carry with no permit.
Well, you don't need a million dollars to do nothing, man. Take a look at my cousin: he's broke, don't do shit.
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