'Swatting' Suspect Charged With Manslaughter, Steve Mnuchin Promises Hard Look at Bitcoin, and Trump Waives Sanctions on Iran: P.M. Links

• 

  Ron Sachs/SIPA/Newscom

  L.A. 'swatting' suspect charged with manslaughter.

• Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin wants to sure bad people aren't doing bad things with Bitcoin.

• Trump's lawyer arranged for hush money to be paid to a porn star who allegedly had a sexual encounter with the President in 2006, according to the Wall Street Journal.

• Trump waives sanctions on Iran "for the last time."

• 'Bomb Cyclone' inconveniences humans, spares cockroaches.

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

L.A. 'swatting' suspect charged with manslaughter.

You can't point a loaded cop at someone and pull the trigger.

[Unicorn Abattoir]

If the cop says the victim made a furtive move, can this guy make the same argument?

[IceTrey]

Clearly he swatted in self defense.

[Rufus The Monocled]

Hello.

[Unlabelable MJGreen]

That's it?

[Rufus The Monocled]

I got nothing.

YOU PEOPLE ARE GIVING ME NOTHING TO WORK WITH.

[Unlabelable MJGreen]

*shrug* I figured you might have something on the Letterman-Obama interview.

[BestUsedCarSales]

Ah, did that come out? I can only imagine how horrible that will be. I have such a hard time figuring out whether politicians should be roasted in the sunlight of public opinion, or completely ignored. Maybe only highlight their flaws.

[HeteroPatriarch]

I've seen people act more dignified at a glory holes.

[Longtobefree]

Like how many women accused Letterman of harassment?

[Elias Fakaname]

I'm sure Letterman lovingly fellated Obama and swallowed real good.

[finnlee]

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[Fist of Etiquette]

'Bomb Cyclone'

Ice-IS has claimed responsibility for that, btw.

[Citizen X - #6]

BOO.

[BestUsedCarSales]

AHHHHHH

[Chipper Morning Baculum]

Someone check Fist's pH, because that joke was very basic.

[BestUsedCarSales]

Good call. I just checked his dissertation and realized it was just The World As Will and Representation except written in Pink Gel Pen. His Ph.D is a sham.

[Fist of Etiquette]

AND YET NONE OF YOU THOUGHT OF IT.

[Citizen X - #6]

L.A. 'swatting' suspect charged with manslaughter.

The trigger-happy cops, however, remain at large.

[Unlabelable MJGreen]

What did we ever do to you, Christian?

[Stormy Dragon]

Repeated verbal abuse?

[Citizen X - #6]

Which came first, the verbal abuse or the hostile truncation of the links?

[Chipper Morning Baculum]

Christian is also known around the Reason office as Robby's Revenge.

[Entropy Drehmaschine Void]

Fuckin' Britches.

47 words and still no Alt-Text.

Bet he broke Reasonable, too ...

[Fist of Etiquette]

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin wants to sure bad people aren't doing bad things with Bitcoin.

They should just ban bad guys.

[IceTrey]

Maybe just don't make every little thing a crime.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Trump's lawyer arranged for hush money to be paid to a porn star who allegedly had a sexual encounter with the President in 2006...

Apparently it wasn't enough.

[Unicorn Abattoir]

If you don't stuff something in their mouth, they're gonna talk.

[paranoid android]

Someone needs to school these reporters on the dog-bites-man/man-bites-dog distinction. If Donald Trump had *never* cheated on his wife with a porn star and paid her to keep quiet about it, that would be news.

[Elias Fakaname]

The media has lied so much about Donald Trump that no one who supports him will believe anything they have to say anymore. And no one gives a shit what a progtard believes.

[Citizen X - #6]

'Bomb Cyclone' inconveniences humans, spares cockroaches.

Alligators also unimpressed.

[Unicorn Abattoir]

That's a great idea! I'll see all you suckers in April!

[Stormy Dragon]

*runs around Shallotte River Swamp Park, booping gator noses*

[BestUsedCarSales]

Is this your way of admitting you're a dragonkin?

[Stormy Dragon]

It's my way of admitting the photo in the article made me want to touch that gator's nose and go "BOOP", and there's nothing the gator can do to stop me since it's frozen in a block of ice.

[BestUsedCarSales]

Booping snoots without permission is equivalent to rape.

[Red Tony]

STEVE SMITH BOOPS SNOOTS ALL THE TIME THEN.

[Stormy Dragon]

Is this your way of admitting you're a dragonkin?

I hate to break it to you, but dragons do not actually exist.

I am an occluded front.

[Elias Fakaname]

I think the Komodo dragon might like to have a word with you.

[Chipper Morning Baculum]

There is a reason those fuckers survived the dinosaurs.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Trump waives sanctions on Iran "for the last time."

BECAUSE HE'S GOING TO BE IMPEACHED

[BestUsedCarSales]

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin wants to sure bad people aren't doing bad things with Bitcoin.

Christian's lethargy now extends to dropping verbs in his writing.

[DiegoF]

Regarding those who drop pronouns:

By "the Mexicans" I mean the Mexican government, Mexican politicians. (Mexican people, and Mexican-Americans, are awesome.) They cannot provide a safe and promising country for their own people, they have fucked it up so badly that their citizens risk their lives to leave it, and they have the balls to wag their fingers at us about our moral obligation to take care of their people, who came here in explicit violation of our laws because their country is such a hellhole? To take them in as our own and make them our own? Their people are their responsibility (which they have failed) not ours. Illegal immigration is their shame.

What kind of country talks like this to another, lectures them: You are not being welcoming enough of our people, taking care of our people, who fled our country and entered yours in violation of your laws? Yet they have done so constantly. They have no sense of shame. I can't believe this shit passes for normal.

[BestUsedCarSales]

Got it. Thanks for clarifying. I understood that "The Mexicans" was the government, but didn't follow the rest of your statement.

The answer is that it doesn't cost them anything and actually gets them kudos on the world stage. People don't particularly pay attention to their politics so they get a little spotlight by poopooing us. Why not lecture us? It's not as if we are uninvolved with other countries, and in this way they get a punch in. No matter if that punch is banal or not.

Their people are their responsibility (which they have failed) not ours. Illegal immigration is their shame.

No, and neither is US citizens our shame and responsibility.

[DiegoF]

I don't know if you misunderstand me or what. I should clarify that (at least for now) I believe in some role for government. The Mexican government is stealing from their people, oppressing them, treating them violently lining the pockets of themselves, criminals, and cronies (yes, all much more than ours). Instead of making things safer for their people, they are making them more dangerous. And so forth. Basically everything a liberal could want from a government, they are making a perversion of. They don't have the responsibility to "take care" of their people in a paternalist way of course (in fact they have the responsibility not to); and no one is more fervent than me that countries should not police their citizens outside their borders (that is the responsibility of the host country--but that is precisely what they are presuming to interfere with, see)...

[DiegoF]

...Not many people sneak out of the U.S. But:

A lot of Americans became illegal immigrants to Canada during Vietnam. We waged an unjust, stupid war in Indochina; and we told ostensibly free men that they were hereby conscripted to fight it. They died by the tens of thousands.

Today a handful of Americans choose to expatriate for tax reasons, and a handful of companies decide to do the same. We are in terms of regulations a far more onerous and unfree place to do business in many ways than those supposed socialist paradises everyone harps on about.

In both of these cases our government sputters on about the lack of "patriotism" of these parties, and even, indeed, tries to strongarm foreign countries into governing themselves a certain way to cover for our shortcomings. I'd say that's pretty perverse. I'd say our government, instead, should be hanging their heads in shame for not providing a better and more just and promising environment for its people and businesses.

[BestUsedCarSales]

I believe I understand you, though we could just be shouting past each other.

So, to your first point. I agree, the Mexican government seems to have a lot of problems and seems to be quite corrupt. I think their growth and place in the world is definitely in spite that. We can discuss other factors and excuses all we wish. But I have no urge to do so.

In both of these cases our government sputters on about the lack of "patriotism" of these parties, and even, indeed, tries to strongarm foreign countries into governing themselves a certain way to cover for our shortcomings. I'd say that's pretty perverse. I'd say our government, instead, should be hanging their heads in shame for not providing a better and more just and promising environment for its people and businesses.

Sure, our government does a lot of things that are horrible. But I don't believe that any of us is analogous to the government to the point that any one of us should be ashamed of the actions it takes despite us. The government workers responsible for those things should be ashamed, claims of patriotism do seem to aid their conscience and allow them to continue to do wrong. Even if people like to claim that the government is the people in a democracy or republic I do not believe this is true. At least not once the government becomes of any size. So I think we are agreeing now.

[DiegoF]

But I don't believe that any of us is analogous to the government to the point that any one of us should be ashamed of the actions it takes despite us...

This just goes back to my original clarification on this page--that I have been talking about Mexican politicians like Fox and his predecessors, not at all about the Mexican people themselves, whom I like very much and feel profound sympathy and solidarity with against their loathsome, criminal political order (which they do despise).

[DiegoF]

Yes, I think we do indeed agree. The clarification that the founders of our own republic made, with "We the people," was extremely important but of course it can easily be misunderstood and perverted! Earlier the Declaration of Independence had affirmed the right of the people to overthrow an unjust government, but that does not mean that a government, as long as it does exist un-overthrown, has thereby secured "consent" for its actions!

Anyway, the perversion of this subtlety is a fascinating thing to get into but of course I won't here. We are indeed on the same page, I think.

[DiegoF]

Addendum:

To clarify: I don't know if you believe a government has no responsibility to its citizens. I would say: Enforcing the law, defending from external enemies; but also treating them fairly, following the law, not oppressing them, not stealing from them, etc. I don't know how anyone can say, "a government has no responsibility to its citizens"; an anarchist would say no government is just, but not that.

Of course the free actions of a person are not the responsibility of any other party, but of himself. But again, Mexico is presuming to dictate to the U.S. how to treat Mexicans (including illegally) in the U.S.; I'm not criticizing them for "wrongly" ceding that responsibility.

And yes, as I said, a government should be ashamed if the are so derelict in their duty to not turn their country into a hellhole that people are risking their lives to flee it. I said they should be ashamed of illegal immigration, the phenomenon, not of their citizens as persons.

[Francisco d'Anconia]

What kind of country talks like this to another, lectures them:

Um...

[DiegoF]

Yeah I guess I stepped in that one. But of course more countries should stand up to us, too, where appropriate. But they might start out by standing up to the criminals and gangsters at the WHO, UN, etc.

[CE]

Robby would never drop the "be" in "to be sure...."

[Bacon-Magic glib reasonoid]

Britches,
How are you ever going to propel yourself past Reason with half-assed attempts like this? You belong in this shithole.

[BestUsedCarSales]

His twitter is even weirder. All it is is death threats against KFC if they don't bring back Norm MacDonald as spokesperson. Also, he twitter pic is him standing with the Box Trolls, and apparently he is also 15 years old.

[DiegoF]

I do think if Gillespie is the leather-jacketed, a-little-too-old-to-be-doing-this leader of this gang of cosmotarian toughs, and Robbie is the effeminate varsity Casanova who stands behind him combing his hair all the time, that this new guy is the twitchy little fellow bouncing around all over the place shadowboxing and squeaking excitedly and shit.

[Juice]

Just looked it up. Yeah, he retweeted Gillespie wanting someone with "experience" to run for president. Pretty sure both Trump and Oprah have plenty of experience they can bring to the office. Unless, you think he means that he would prefer a career politician to be president, but he could never mean that.

[CE]

Ron Paul is rested and ready.

[This Machine Chips Fascists]

ources tell me "experience" is The Jacket's code name. Connect the dots.

[Citizen X - #6]

"I don't expect this cold spell to affect bedbug populations in the coming months," said Jeff White, an entomologist at BedBug Central, a company that provides training and information on bedbugs and pest control. "Although it's cold outside, it's not cold inside."

Mr. White then observed that taking showers often causes people to become wet, and noted that eating some food is an easy way to get rid of hunger pangs.

[Bacon-Magic glib reasonoid]

Fake news Citizen Weigel.

[Citizen X - #6]

Bacon-Magic is absolutely covered in bedbugs, and doesn't think it's that big a deal.

[Bacon-Magic glib reasonoid]

Quit bugging me.

[Chipper Morning Baculum]

A good way to prevent getting bitten by bedbugs is to wrap your legs in bacon.

[paranoid android]

Imagine my surprise

The Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi website, likewise welcomed Mr. Trump's comments. "This is encouraging and refreshing, as it indicates Trump is more or less on the same page as us with regards to race and immigration," the site said.

[BestUsedCarSales]

I wonder if they're just trolls. They must know their endorsement hurts things more than almost anything else.

[Juice]

Yeah, they're kind of giving it away with that statement.

[Citizen X - #6]

If there's one thing that's become obvious over the last year or so, it's that public figures seldom have any clue that their actions might ever backfire on them.

[Red Tony]

Gosh darn it people like them!

[Unlabelable MJGreen]

Depends on what you think their objective is, the "things" that are hurt. Also, blacks were more wealthy 50 years ago.

[BestUsedCarSales]

I'm just happy we brought those greedy blacks back down to earth with the rest of us.

[paranoid android]

Well, if that were true, I would point to Popehat's Rule of Goats: if you go around fucking goats, but tell everyone you're doing it ironically, that still makes you a goatfucker. And I have difficulty fathoming the kind of person who would play the part of a Nazi and spread their propaganda just for amusement...

I think it's more likely that they've convinced themselves they're really the silent majority and that the day is soon coming when people will flock to them in the millions to join their apocalyptic race war. Pretty easy when you seal yourself in a bubble of like-minded psychos all repeating the same points. Sounds far-fetched but would it really be the craziest thing anyone ever believed?

[BestUsedCarSales]

And I have difficulty fathoming the kind of person who would play the part of a Nazi and spread their propaganda just for amusement...

There's whole websites of that person.

[Jgalt1975]

Pretty easy when you seal yourself in a bubble of like-minded psychos all repeating the same points.

Look, man, you've got to at least make the pitches a little challenging!

[gaoxiaen]

Didn't work out so well for Charles Manson.

[Zeb]

It does sound a bit like our new "liberaltarian" troll/spoof.

[DiegoF]

Who is he? Any fan theories? (I'm thinking it has to be one of my fellow travelers over at the Glibertarians, but beyond that I got no conjectures.)

[Stormy Dragon]

It's Tulpa obviously. We're all Tulpa.

[Red Tony]

Dalmia's husband?

Some rando you've never seen before who thought it was a good gag?

[DiegoF]

Your fan theories are boring.

[BestUsedCarSales]

I'm going with DD.

[Elias Fakaname]

I'm a huge fan of double D's.

[DiegoF]

That doesn't mean they're trolls (though certainly nowadays sincerity and "for the lulz" have an ever vaguer border). It just means they are aware of the fact that mentioning their support for Trump is their instant ticket to the global news headlines. Yeah, they're in a symbiotic relationship with the various Trotsyists, "anarchists," and professional racial grievancers, but that was the minor leagues of publicity compared to this.

[Juice]

"Mr. President, are you a racist?"

He did not answer and instead headed for the door.

I guess if he had said no it would have read, "He curtly denied being racist then turned and bolted for the door."

[BestUsedCarSales]

"The president defiantly denied his racism (something to hide?) and then stared me down for 2 minutes, as if taunting me to expose the truth of his racism.

[BestUsedCarSales]

"

[Rhywun]

"...on his way home to beat his wife."

[BestUsedCarSales]

"...on his way home to possibly beat his wife."

WE ARE JOURNALISTS DAMN IT.

[This Machine Chips Fascists]

alleged journalists

[Telcontar the Wanderer]

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin wants to sure bad people aren't doing bad things with Bitcoin

"...and we will be suing for discovery of their ledgers and accounting books immediately."

[Longtobefree]

Uh, the openness of the block chain is it's strong point.

[Telcontar the Wanderer]

O RLY

[BestUsedCarSales]

When's the government ever let a little thing like lack of necessity get in the way of a suin'.

[Juice]

L.A. 'swatting' suspect charged with manslaughter.

Wow. The cop is actually being prosecuted?

[Zeb]

No, just the guy who called the cops, I think. Would be nice to see them all prosecuted.

[Vernon Depner]

They'd never get conviction of the cop. The legal precedent is firmly established that the cops have the right to kill anybody who frightens them.

[Elias Fakaname]

And they're huge cowards so.......

[Citizen X - #6]

I just noticed the picture. When did Fred Armisen start doing Subway ads?

[Bacon-Magic glib reasonoid]

^^^

[Unlabelable MJGreen]

Lots of Armisen comparisons today.

[Michael Wolff] can come off as meekly obsequious and sinister simultaneously?on television, the effect is Fred Armisen meets Nosferatu.

[BestUsedCarSales]

I thought we already stopped talking about that book.

[Elias Fakaname]

I already saw "Fred Armisen Meets Nosferatu" during it's theatrical run.

[Vernon Depner]

The Swatter will go free. In order to get a conviction, a prosecutor would have to argue that innocent people being shot by police is an easily predictable outcome of calling the police to such a scene. No prosecutor is going to be willing to say that.

[DiegoF]

They may be overreaching. Shocking behavior from a prosecutor, I know. Meanwhile, of course, the man who pulled the trigger is not being charged. I wonder if the victim's family are being billed for the bullets like the Red Chinese.

[DRM]

No, he won't, because the prosecutor doesn't have to prove that.

To quote the Kansas statue, "Involuntary manslaughter is the unintentional killing of a human being committed . . . in the commission of, or attempt to commit, or flight from any felony . . . or a misdemeanor that is enacted for the protection of human life or safety[.]" -- KSA 21-5405.

And falsely reporting a felony to the police in the expectation that the police will act relying on such a report is a felony -- KSA 21-5904.

So the mens rea requirement ends at the necessary level to convict him of the underlying felony, and then the death automatically makes it involuntary manslaughter, regardless of foreseeability of the death.

Thus, if they can prove he made the call expecting the police to respond, and they can prove someone died as a result of that felony, he's guilty of involuntary manslaughter. Looking at about three years in prison.

[Longtobefree]

hush money to be paid to a porn star who allegedly had a sexual encounter with the President in 2006

That would be Bush?

[DiegoF]

Bush or Trump, I hope it was the chick who played Hillary in Who's Nailin' Paylin.

[Elias Fakaname]

Porn legend Nina Hartley.

[Hank Phillips]

On the Mnuchkin or Munchkin blurb, possible missing verb?

[Entropy Drehmaschine Void]

Lots of things go missing when Britches fucks around with it.

[loveconstitution1789]

Fun Presidential cussing that should temper the TDS:
Abraham Lincoln: "There is nothing to make an Englishman shit quicker than the sight of General George Washington."
Barack Obama: "Obama really drew the ire of the pious, calling opponent Mitt Romney a 'bullshitter.' Sometimes the dirty word is the most precise."
Joe Biden: "This is a big f**king deal."
Dick Cheney: "Cheney reportedly told Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy to 'go f**k [himself]'"
George W. Bush: "Commented on the presence of New York Times reporter Adam Clymer. Believing he had an audience of one, Bush called Clymer a 'major-league asshole.'"
Barack Obama: "I don't think I should take any sh*t from anybody on that, do you?"
Richard Nixon: "The Watergate tapes put the phrase 'expletive deleted' on the map."
Lyndon Johnson: "I do know the difference between chicken sh*t and chicken salad,"
John F. Kennedy: "This is obviously a f**k-up."
Harry Truman: "In Truman's eyes, General Douglas MacArthur was a "dumb son of a bitch," and Nixon was 'a shifty-eyed goddamned liar.'"
-Rolling Stone Dec 10, 2012

[loveconstitution1789]

Sorry. Not just presidents but VPs too.

[Irwin Mann]

If they had sex and he then paid her, that is prostitution.
Prostitution and porn are fucking cousins if not twins.
Someone(s) gets paid for having sex. That is prostitution.
So the prostitute got paid and agreed to keep it confidential.
They apparently did not keep their end of the bargain and
we're supposed to see the John as the bad actor not the
person who broke the agreement? Right.

[shortviking]

I love how a man who makes a phone call is charged with manslaughter but a man who slaughters another man is charged with nothing.