Everything posted by TwiceHorn
-
Trump’s America
He's still not going to fuck you, Peter. Hell, he didn't even help you out on your contempt of Congress case.
-
Trump’s America
Yeah, that's correct. As with most things Trump, there were a few pre-existing trade problems with Canada. But most of the problems are of Trump' own making, in retaliation for his tariffs.
-
Do We Have a Christ Followers Thread?
From a strictly Christian doctrinal stance, the Ten Commandments are the Old Testament law, which the New Testament vitiated for lack of a better term. As stated before, adherence to the law does not secure Christian salvation. For one thing, it is impossible to adhere to the law perfectly and any deviation is sin. So we're all sinners and the New Testament, or Christ's teachings, do not have 10 cent and 10 dollar sins, it's all sin. And there's more sin than that defined in the Ten Commandments. The law and the Ten Commandments do serve as guidelines of what is and is not "Christian behavior" but again are not definitive or dispositive of one's Christianity. So, a true Christ follower is not going to focus on violation of the Ten Commandments, or the book of Leviticus, but rather more on the words and teachings of Christ. Certainly Christ did not advocate breaking the Commandments or say that it was OK. But it is not the sine qua non of a Christ follower. Bagging on people for not following the Ten Commandments is really a more Jewish thing than Christian thing.
-
Jeffrey Epstein needs his own thread
Yeah, it is one of the very plausible use cases for AI in the legal field. As mentioned, it is increasingly common for big document productions to be hosted in image/pdf and native data form on a document server in the cloud. And the "viewing" software allows image review and native data searching on the documents and data therein. And I imagine there are increasing AI features in that software. Still, using any kind of analytical tool short of someone attuned to the issues looking at every goddamn document risks missing something "huge."
-
Epstein and Maxwell
In an ordinary administration, you make a plea for clemency based on the unjustness of the conviction and the good behavior and redeeming characteristics of the defendant. Someone like Alice Marie Johnson, for example. That plea is made to/through the Pardon Attorney, who has a whole apparatus to review the petition and available facts and recommend a pardon or commutation, etc. to the President. Making an extortionate demand like this would blow an ordinary clemency petition right to hell. Of course, pardons in the Trump administration are granted on the basis of quid pro quo, so this is an excellent move.
-
Tulsi Gabbard
The Guardian article is only as good as its sources. There's some implication that that source might be British intelligence. At least until recently, the Brits had all the stuff we had for the most part and I think they may actually better at analyzing the intel than NSA or US IC. And they're not as constrained in many or most cases as the US IC in reviewing and using intel. That is, NSA gathers a shit ton of stuff, but is forbidden in a lot of cases from looking at it. GCHQ is less constrained, and especially as that might implicate US elected or appointed officials.
-
Jeffrey Epstein needs his own thread
She raises a fair point. In a usual civil case, when you do document discovery, you're entitled to produce them as they are stored in the course of business. And originally the way that went is you brought the other side to your file cabinets or document storage facility and said "have at it." The idea being the other side rifles through the documents and picks the ones they want copies of, the ones that might help prove something. But you need to review them for privileged stuff, trade secrets, and the smoking gun stuff you don't want em to see but have no basis to withhold, so you review, cull out the stuff to withhold, make copies, and just send them the copies. Now digital on media, or, increasingly common, in a cloud server hosted by a discovery company. So, sometimes lawyers would deliberately make a mess of the documents before providing the copies. Malicious compliance. In one of the tobacco cases, they provided copies on green or red paper printed with some kind of stinky ink that resists reproduction (think Paradigm notes for the old school) so people could barely stand being in the room with them and they were very hard to read. The ostensible reason for this is they were confidential internal business records that shouldn't be copied and distributed to non parties (principally other plaintiffs lawyers). And, yes there is considerable thought given to how to deal with "dangerous documents" in the courtroom before a jury. But those are very different circumstances than just a mass production of documents like here. I suppose some of the theories may be applicable. And, I've never seen/heard of it per se, but there's some validity to the notion to time and stage document productions to make it a maximum pain in the ass and to minimize the likelihood your opponent finds the good stuff. That is, unload it all at once, or in bits and pieces, whatever you think might be most confusing. I am not aware of any deployment of psy ops here, but I guess it's possible. That's not the kind of thing the US DOJ did. You could usually count on them to be straight shooters in litigation. Obviously not this DOJ. But conspiracy theories aside it raises one really excellent point. As far as I know, these documents are a disorganized mess. If they had been evidence in an actual investigation, you might think there would be some degree of organization to them. Like all the Clinton-implicating documents together. All the Wexner, etc. Or all witness statements together, organized by witness. Or both. So, that raises the question whether these were ever actually reviewed systematically for investigation purposes, and/or whether they have been deliberately disorganized for production to keep the public from making heads or tails of them. To some extent, not producing them as they are kept in lawyer or investigative files is legit, as that organization might constitute attorney work product "privileged" information: an insight into the lawyers thinking. But that wouldn't entitle you to throw em up in the air, mess em around, and then produce them. And these aren't being produced to a litigation opponent. When I entered the practice of law 30 some odd years ago, this kind of bullshit was uncommon in IP litigation, probably because all the lawyers were engineers. As general civil and Biglaw has taken over IP litigation, the quality of advocacy has probably improved, but along with it has come a bunch of bullshit fuck-fuck games like this. Which is why your author minimizes his involvement in litigation.
-
Trump’s America
Ah fuck. I'm wrong on this. Supreme Court denied his motion for release/postpone sentence pending appeal. His cert petition remains pending after dicking around at the DC Circuit for a year.
-
Jeffrey Epstein needs his own thread
The qualifiers for minimum security camps are a) relatively short sentence (5 or less) or time remaining (you can be assigned to a minimum security facility at the end of a longer term b) non-violent crime and c) non-sex offender. Good or bad behavior can get you in or out of a "Club Fed," but it's not a basic qualifier. Maxwell fails on at least a and c, and I don't know that trafficking isn't regarded as a crime of violence under federal criminal law. So, they aren't for "white collar crimes" specifically. The first problem with white collar crimes is that they get low sentences, generally. And, I kind of get the notion that there should be one type of prison, but it's wrong. If we had one type of prison it would be Angola or an AdMax, not a low or even medium security joint. There are too many low-level offenders in our system that don't need to be destroyed further by our incarceration system.
-
Trump’s America
A reminder here. Bannon was tried, convicted, his appeal affirmed by the DC Circuit, and SCOTUS denied cert. in May 2024. He's even served his sentence. There should be no ongoing matter to dismiss. Interdasting that he didn't just go straight to the Pardon.
-
Do We Have a Christ Followers Thread?
And yeah, as KYHorn notes, "inerrancy" maybe doesn't accurately describe what we mean anymore, but I'm kind of using it in its original meaning or connotation as absolute, literal truth. I remember as a little kid, my Dad read me stories from Hurlbut's Stories of the Bible, a classic illustrated tome of Bible stories. I asked my Dad if this stuff really happened. He didn't say "yes" or "no." He said, that doesn't really matter, I think you can see what the stories mean.
-
Do We Have a Christ Followers Thread?
My Mom wisely observed about 30 years ago that our UMC had a lot of undercover Baptists in it. My Mom was raised Baptist, but I think of the Missionary strain but I don't think there was a whole lot of thought behind it in her family, just the local country church with a good pastor and "nice" congregation. Dad was raised Methodist, took it pretty seriously, went to Hendrix for a couple of years before the war and I found out late in life had considered the ministry (anyone that knew my Dad would have found this ludicrous, he didn't have the personality for it). I fell away from the church during college and years after as most do, but not because of anything objectionable taught to me by the UMC. I really had a pretty positive experience with church as a kid. It later became important to me again and I came back and have been overall pretty proud of the denomination. Ironically, a lot of people that come back to religion/spirituality through addiction recovery wind up at non-denominational, congregational churches that seem laid back and do stadium Jesus, but have pretty toxic theology lurking under the surface.
-
Do We Have a Christ Followers Thread?
Our exes at the Global Methodist Church are very seriously flirting with adopting biblical inerrancy. That's probably gonna cause them another schism.
-
Do We Have a Christ Followers Thread?
Yep, mostly through their actions rather than trying to take on the hateful shit on social media. The former is very Christian, the latter not so much. I've cited it ironically on at least one occasion, but it's how it's supposed to work: They will know we are Christians by our love.
-
Trump/MAGA has ruined sports
How do I know that Matt Walsh doesn't go to any NFL games, or any in a locale with a sizable Hispanic population.
-
The Leopards Eating Faces and Unlubed Dildo of Consequences Thread
It's kind of a natural MAGA thing not to expect consequences for actions, no matter how outrageous. They get it from their leader.
-
Do We Have a Christ Followers Thread?
Almost all the people crowing about their Christianity in the last couple of decades believe in biblical inerrancy. Baptists, Christers, and most non-denominationals believe in biblical inerrancy. Or at least their church/pastor does.
-
Trump’s America
Digame what you know about poll taxes and literacy tests, puta.
-
Do We Have a Christ Followers Thread?
I don't believe in biblical inerrancy. On the one hand, because the Bible is all we've got, it invites interpretation and unprincipled deviation from the "word of God." Cafeteria Christianity some like to call it. But my Christianity is mostly about how I conduct myself. People's Front of Judea stuff like whether women can be ordained or should be, or whatever, doesn't really affect me. .Christ tells me I can't earn salvation by compliance with the law, so I'm not going to get legalistic about it. I have yet to be appointed Judge of Christians, Christianity, and correct church doctrine. As soon as I am, I'll take these issues under serious advisement.
-
Do We Have a Christ Followers Thread?
That said, I violently dislike fundagelicals and have for a good long while, really before they highly visibly started tearing this country apart. They did it quietly and insidiously for a good many years. And that's really a very un-Christian sentiment. Oddly enough, it's not that far off from criticizing other Christians for believing or not believing in the Trinity, or how they interpret "faith without works is dead," whether there was a virgin birth, or whether there's predestination and what that means. Peoples Front of Judea/Judean People's Front shit. That's spiritually dangerous territory. So, I am conscious of what Christ calls me to do (and not do), and how badly I fail to live up to that calling. There's a way for real Christians to criticize the fake or bullshit ones while not separating themselves further from the divine. I'm not good enough to do that, so I just say fuck em.
-
Tulsi Gabbard
I think prior to her appointment as DNI, you saw mostly campaign and image-controlled photos. Now, she gets snapped more often by the press. You can still see they try to flatter her, but . . . .