netstack
Texas is freedom land
No bio...
User ID: 647
netstack
Texas is freedom land
2mo ago
Man, I thought the immigration fraud argument was stupid when it came up years ago, and I think it’s stupid now. Are you the same guy who brought it up on Reddit? Because I’m pretty sure you’re citing the exact same tabloid. Do you have anything more credible?
netstack
Texas is freedom land
5mo ago
I think showing up to a protest armed merits some increased suspicion.
When someone is killed, the more effort it took to get into that situation, the less likely it was an accident.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
7mo ago
That’s exactly the issue!
Why should we expect similar charges and sentences in these two scenarios?
One one hand, we have various obviously dysfunctional, obviously embattled city police departments. The bureaucrats who fund and control them are somewhere between uncooperative and actively hostile. They are pursuing chaotic, personal crimes.
On the other, we have the security apparatus of the most powerful country in the world. Its directing bureaucracy feels, for once in their lives, personally threatened. They also have a short list of high-profile suspects who carefully organized and documented their participation.
Which of these two do you think will be better at building a case?
It is unreasonable to expect a tragic accident among protestors to spawn comparable charges to a deliberate plan. It is impractical to compare the FBI’s resources and political will to those of random police departments. And it is irresponsible to insist that, when these vastly different scenarios yield any difference in outcome, it is proof of an insidious conspiracy.
Out of all these examples, the best intuition pump is the murder at CHAZ. Did Tarrio’s crime really deserve harsher sanction than an actual murder? I’m not sure. I can’t find information on his plea. His subordinates certainly didn’t earn such sentences. At best, it’s the old problem of utilitarianism, adding and distributing harms until our intuition complains.
But I think it’s telling that the murder—the most heinous crime which can be thrown at the feet of a BLM protestor—gets closest to your sharpshooter’s 15-year line.
I don’t believe for a minute that Trump supporters would be satisfied with 13-year sentences for the ringleaders. There is no line. Only the belief that there was an injustice, and a search for the facts which will best support it.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
7mo ago
I argued this after the Martha’s Vineyard stunt, but it really doesn’t have to be hypocrisy.
So New York probably isn't far off from its proportional share, it's not being obviously exclusive, and it clearly has handled previous migrants well enough that residents aren’t upset.
If they’re already at equilibrium, but Abbott or DeSantis decides to put his thumb on the scales, why shouldn’t they be annoyed? The outgroup is benefiting at their expense; it doesn’t matter how much!
It’s the difference between choosing to paint your house and being compelled to do so by your neighbors.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
4mo ago
A world in which men can fuck boys and don’t want to is such a perversion, too. Which is to say not at all. Pederasty and teen sex drive are far from the “focused drive” you’re lionizing.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
5mo ago
You’re forgetting the other moderate position, “smelt him into cannons.” I guess the idea was something museum/battle memorial worthy, but not honoring the guy in particular? It strikes me as a bit odd, so I’m not surprised it didn’t satisfy either side.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
6mo ago
I have to assume you mean this WaPo article.
If so, I guess I’d better head off any misunderstandings. There’s really no sense in getting heated over this long-dead loser. Even in its current state, this statue holds together better than the Lost Cause mythos. It’s more defensible than the Confederacy, too. I think Lee’s just getting caught up with what Sherman did to Georgia.
Also, it looks like the detractors are doing this legally. I don’t see why you should get the final say over whether Lee’s body parts get to remain in a Union.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
9mo ago
If you visit the bank, and stock your trunk with balaclavas and zip ties, and text your friends about how great it would be to have more cash on hand…maybe they should?
Jurors aren’t automatons. They are capable of judging intent, just as you are when you assume these protestors had the purest of intentions.
I notice that there are still no convictions!
Edit: whoops—a guilty plea does count. I was wrong, then.
I also notice that you’re determined to work in Ron “JEW” DeSantis’s JEWISH hate speech law signed JEWISHLY in JEWrusalem. You’re very persistent. I will stand by what I said before: that bill is a sensible modification of existing law. Hanging out on a campus was already a crime; this breaks out intimidation as a specific motivation with different charges and reporting requirements. As @Gdanning pointed out, there’s a firm constitutional basis for that regardless of Charlottesville.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
10mo ago
Looks good to me.
The most invasive part is potentially deplatforming some people on Twitter. Anything which discourages treating that cesspit as a “public square” is a net good in my book.
All the rest looks like boring cultural initiatives. Business as usual for the NEA and friends! Hardly worth being a Concerned Citizen over, no?
netstack
Texas is freedom land
10mo ago
I don’t honestly have a great handle on what constitutes CRT. I guess I’d believe that the military has picked it up; if they did, it was probably down to the executive.
In the defense industry, diversity training has remained fairly anodyne. The closest we got to Internet-activist talking points was “race-blind isn’t good enough.” I wanted to see Trump’s EO so I could tell whether that would have made it past.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
5mo ago
As far as I know, the locals got a say. They didn’t want Lee to hang around. I believe the bronze is going to be used for some sculpture or installation. While I’m sure you will find it low-effort or objectionable, it will still be public art. I think that’s a perfectly valid use of the materials. There’s no statute of statue limitations, and if the current residents (owners? Caretakers?) wanted to melt the statue, more power to them.
I do think the authorities were wary of what you describe. The article also cited a risk of “violence” if the statue were to remain on display somewhere. I imagine they were thinking of white supremacists reclaiming Mr. Lee for Stone Mountain, Dukes of Hazzarding their way over innocent museum visitors along the way. If I’m feeling charitable, they were probably also worried about attracting anti-Confederate vandals.
Your speculation, though, is off-base. Lee is just too removed to merit personal hostility. Can you think of any particularly gentlemanly myths about the guy? All I’ve got is that he joined the Confederacy out of some kind of principled stance; partial credit, but not particularly unique. And I expect my knowledge of historical trivia is a lot broader than the average statue-tipper.
No, sometimes people mean what they say. Lee represents the Confederacy more than he personifies it. Hundreds of thousands died because he, and people like him, chose to stand up for a garbage cause. Nothing personal about it.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
9mo ago
Why not? It’s not like SS has the phones, either.
The defense wanted to make the seizure into a controversy, claiming that one of the phones was very cool annd very exculpatory. Since the only information we’ve been given is that one brief, we can’t assess whether that’s plausible. But the jury could.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
3mo ago
Almost simultaneously, the DOJ has announced that they will begin prosecuting J6 protesters who did not enter the Capitol building but were present in the demonstration outside. These protesters are expected to be charged with something more than misdemeanors.
Expected by whom?
Let’s make a prediction: out of cases brought against outside demonstrators, I don’t think very many will see felony charges. Perhaps none. The government has already picked its low hanging fruit—you’ve listed plenty of them. If they haven’t already been brought in, why do you think that will change?
As for Ray Epps, I do believe the truth is still an absolute defense against defamation. That makes it very hard for him to win dishonestly. If the suit succeeds, it means the centerpiece of right-wing media couldn’t put together enough evidence to cover their asses. If it fails, perhaps you’re on to something, but at least the plant won’t get a payout for it. I suppose the most likely outcome is a settlement, which could happen either way.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
4mo ago
Problem is, if he were behind in the polls, he’d say the same thing. I suspect he’d still say it if he wasn’t running. It’s a bad look, a third of the country would be furious, and the bastard knows it. He’s going to claim complete immunity for everything until the day he dies, because “witch hunt!” is apparently an effective rallying cry.
Regardless of how I feel about his actual decisions, that’s kind of infuriating.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
4mo ago
Huh? Are you saying the dreaded Soros DA argued against cash bail, or for it?
More importantly, why is "(Soros DAs position)" supposed to convince me that something is or isn't a terrible instinct? I agree with stupid, uninformed, or contrarian people all the time.
For what it's worth, I never found the Syria false flag argument convincing, either.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
7mo ago
Jesus Christ.
I can think of half a dozen reasons it’s not particularly funny. Starting with demographics. Perhaps you ought to take it as evidence that the “diversity” party cares about literally anything else? No, surely not.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
7mo ago
I feel a little bad about this, but whenever I see you complaining about Trump-persecution, it biases me in the other direction. As if the fact you felt a need to explain is evidence against his behavior. I know this isn’t really rational; it’s a reflex from years of apologetics.
I’m aware that courts, including NY in particular, have gone after Trump for stupid gotchas. Is this really one of them? The judge is granting a summary judgment in part. He gives detailed reasons why plaintiffs’ arguments were credible, while the defendants have consistently misrepresented their position. Throwing that out on the basis of one sloppy valuation is the definition of an isolated demand for rigor.
It looks like Trump has employed his traditional legal strategy of Throwing Shit at Walls. Dismiss this, dismiss that, usually in direct contradiction to precedent or to rulings earlier in the same case! See the fascinating section “Arguments Defendants Raise Again.” None of this inspires confidence.
If you’re going to do fraud, shouldn’t you avoid obvious mistakes? Mistakes like claiming a 3x overstatement of square footage was “subjective,” or that Mar-a-Lago was totally worth $1.5B, or that the SFCs could include a 15% premium for the “Trump brand” while simultaneously stating that they include no brand value. Easy things to avoid, right?
netstack
Texas is freedom land
7mo ago
Funny, I was thinking the exact opposite. It’s silly to demand justice for statue-toppling and courthouse-torching, then turn around and insist that the other guys were just being good citizens.
I’m not sure how many of the CHAZ folks ended up arrested or convicted, but I hope it was a lot.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
10mo ago
There is a vast gulf between the Battletech and Kiwifarms situations. The latter attracted culture warfare in a way that a Battletech successor would not.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
5mo ago
If the locals are saying “nah we don’t need this statue, we want to make mediocre abstract art out of the pieces”…
And you don’t have any skin in the game, except for the vibe that Lee was a pretty gentlemanly guy…
Then what’s wrong with the locals going on ahead?
netstack
Texas is freedom land
6mo ago
Isn’t that the point, though?
There is some level of association at which I should assume he knew what was going on. Coaching these kids, managing the locker room, and working alongside the rapist clears that bar, IMO. That’s ignoring any statements from the alleged victims!
I want to stress that I don’t really care, and don’t find such knowledge to be some sort of disqualifier. I just think it’s reasonable to assume he knew.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
7mo ago
being mean implies…
I don’t think this is true.
no harm no foul
I don’t think this is true, and I doubt you do either.
all “being mean” should become “violence”
I am quite sure that this doesn’t follow from the premises. Who is complaining that harm is avoidable?
I want you to know that your tireless coverage of previous issues has led me to assume, prior to reading any details:
Good.
It’s very kind of you to link your previous essays, reminding me of precisely why I was unconvinced. There exists no small injury, only existential threats to truth, justice, and the American way. Truly a terrifying place to live.
Now, reviewing the evidence rather than making a knee jerk reaction, I have to say:
Good.
It’s nice to see the jury system working as intended. Not a hung jury, no technicality. These guys obviously violated the letter and spirit of the relevant statute. A five-day sentence is appropriate for such a mild crime.
The real lesson learned? If your plans for a wholesome right-wing rally includes arming up to beat your opponents…don’t. Problem solved.
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