A SWAT Team Wrongfully Raided Her Home. Now Cops Say Footage From the Raid Is Private Since No One Was Killed.

Plus: A wave of educational gag orders, marijuana banking measure moves forward, and more...

Judge says footage shouldn't be made public. In May 2020, a SWAT team burst into the Raleigh, North Carolina, home that Yolanda Irving shared with her five children. For nearly two hours, the cops poked around and pointed guns at the family, searching the home and three of Irving's kids. "The entire family was terrified that they were about to be shot and killed," Irving's lawyer said in court this week. The cops were looking for drugs and money, one officer told Irving.

They had the wrong house.

Their search warrant listed her address but featured a picture of another place, Irving told the Raleigh News & Observer. "I never got an apology. I never got anything from the Raleigh Police Department," she said. "You have my kids scared. I am petrified.…On top of that, you are running behind my son with a gun. I could have lost him."

Now, Irving is fighting for the release of bodycam videos of the encounter. She and her neighbor—who was also detained during the encounter—have taken the matter to court with the help of civil rights group Emancipate NC.

"This footage and case provides a great opportunity for public assessment of no-knock raids, as well as the use of confidential informants," her lawyer, Abraham Rubert-Schewel, told a judge this week.

The raid on Irving's home was one of the last investigations involving Omar Abdullah—a Raleigh police detective accused of improperly arresting 15 black men in fake drug busts. Abdullah—and an informant who was involved in these busts. "The informant has since been charged with obstruction of justice, as prosecutors started to dismiss drug charges in those cases," the News & Observer reports. Abdullah was fired in late 2021, after more than a year on paid leave.

On Wednesday, Wake County Superior Court Judge G. Bryan Collins ruled that footage from the raid of Irving's home could be released to her attorney but could not be made public.

"These rulings are the game being played by the rules law enforcement creates and not in the best interest of the public or transparency," tweeted Emancipate NC. "Living people have just as much right as the dead to have the public see the trauma they suffer at the hands of police."

"The decision denying public release of BC footage is disappointing," said Rubert-Schewel. "We plan to ask the Court to reconsider."

"The RPD claimed release was inappropriate because it was not a 'critical incident,'" tweeted Rubert-Schewel. "Yolanda Irving and her family very easily could have lost their lives. We are too late if we wait until that moment to shed transparency on these important issues."

"Importantly, nowhere does the [bodycam] statute discuss 'critical incidents,'" he added. "The relevant questions include whether release is necessary to advance a 'compelling public interest.'"

---

FREE MINDS 

PEN America looks at new educational gag orders, which were enacted in 10 states in 2021. "Last year's wave of educational gag orders – legislative restrictions on the freedom to learn, read, and teach…focused predominantly on K-12 schools; only 26% of the proposed gag orders explicitly implicated higher education institutions," the group reports. But this year will be different:

In 2022, educational gag orders are being aimed squarely at colleges and universities to exert ideological control over what is being taught and read in classrooms and lecture halls.

Last year, only three states (Idaho, Iowa, and Oklahoma) passed these sorts of laws aimed at colleges and universities. "This year's crop of educational gag orders, however, suggests their proponents are increasingly seeking to exercise ideological control over college teaching," notes PEN America:

According to a recent legislative review by PEN America researcher Jeffrey Sachs, 46% of all educational gag orders filed so far this year implicate higher education directly.  As of January 24, there were 38 higher education-focused bills under consideration in 20 states.

---

FREE MARKETS 

A good marijuana and banking measure is tucked into a bad bill. "The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday preliminarily approved an amendment that would protect banks that work with state-legal marijuana businesses," reports Marijuana Moment.

But while the measure was procedurally adopted in a voice vote without debate as part of an en bloc package with other amendments, a roll call vote was requested for formal passage, which is expected on Thursday.

Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-CO) has been seeking potential vehicles for his Safe and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act, which has previously cleared the chamber five times in some form. His latest attempt is to attach the measure to large-scale innovation and manufacturing legislation that's now advancing through Congress.

Following roll call votes on amendments on Thursday, floor action to officially pass the comprehensive bill known as the America COMPETES Act is planned by the end of the week.

More on the America COMPETES Act here.

---

FOLLOW-UP

More criticism of the EARN IT Act. We looked at this bill—yet another attempt to amend Section 230 of federal communications law—and what people were saying about it earlier this week. Since then, criticism of the measure keeps on pouring in, especially over the EARN IT Act's provisions regarding encryption.

"Strong encryption means platforms don't know what their users are doing. EARN IT allows platforms to be sued or prosecuted under state laws for 'recklessly' disregarding risks to children that they would not even be aware of because they use strong encryption," noted Ari Cohn of TechFreedom in a statement. "This liability will pressure platforms to create security flaws ready for exploitation by hostile actors."

"Under the new version of the bill, offering users encrypted services can be considered evidence of an intermediary's liability for [child pornography] claims, even if it cannot be considered an 'independent basis for that liability," explained the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) in a press release. "By dramatically expanding the risk of lawsuits intermediaries will face over user-generated content and their use of end-to-end encryption, the bill will cause intermediaries to over-remove even lawful content and disincentivize them from offering encrypted services, to the detriment of all internet users."

CDT President and CEO Alexandra Reeve Givens described it as "paint[ing] a target on the backs of providers who offer end-to-end encrypted services."

---

QUICK HITS

• The Pentagon said a U.S. raid in northwest Syria was "successful." The White Helmets, a Syrian civil defense group, said that it killed six kids.

• Japan is using a huge surveillance network to track elderly people with dementia.

• "Is there a constitutional right to sex work?" asks the Boston Review. "The Supreme Court recognizes the right of consenting adults to an erotic life free of state control. Given that, it shouldn't matter whether sex is your job."

• Facebook lost about half a million users in the last three months of 2021.

• The 10 worst colleges for free speech.

• Face scans at traffic stops?

• Yikes:

DHS and Border Patrol are working together to eventually deploy Ghost Robotic's "dogs" on the border, in particular desert terrain.

Terminator dogs will supposedly act as a "force multiplier" for CBP in patrols and interdiction. https://t.co/rFp6ITp3Ak pic.twitter.com/ekgmb6Juih

— Jack Herrera (@jherrerx) February 2, 2022

• Mississippi legalizes medical marijuana.

• In Chicago, "19 people convicted of crimes they did not commit, all tied to former Chicago police sergeant Ronald Watts, will have their cases thrown out," WGN-TV reports. So far, 115 cases associated with Watts have been thrown out.

• The first episode of Justin Amash's podcast is out.

• "Trump's pandemic travel bans received vastly different media treatment than Biden's," writes Reason's Matt Welch.

• Pandemic lessons from Denmark:

Today, Denmark lifted *all* restrictions, while cases are soaring.

The international reaction: Disbelief.

I am leading the largest Danish project on pandemic behavior & I am advising the gov.

Here is why Danes are still supportive. And what may be learned from this.

????(1/19) pic.twitter.com/C6E9Fc9D1G

— Michael Bang Petersen (@M_B_Petersen) February 1, 2022

• LOL:

*I Didn't Exhale* https://t.co/mXi3d4Brnd

— Conor Friedersdorf (@conor64) February 3, 2022

Comments

[damikesc]

"On Wednesday, Wake County Superior Court Judge G. Bryan Collins ruled that footage from the raid of Irving's home could be released to her attorney but could not be made public."

If they're officially acting on OUR behalf...why the hell should we not see what they hell they are doing on our behalf?

[Cyto]

I have no clue what possible law they are citing to say that she cannot have the video and do with it as she pleases. It is her family, her home and her privacy that is at stake. Nobody else had an expectation of privacy.

[JesseAz]

If there is a pending lawsuit over the raid, I'm not overly outraged. While it should be public, I don't think all material pertinent to lawsuits needs to be public. I'm interested in which legal protections for the secrecy order. But this could be temporary until ruled on in trial.

[Cyto]

I am pretty sure those are public records.

[JesseAz]

Not all police records are immediately public. They are often held for investigatory reasons. Why I would like to see their actual reasoning.

[mad.casual]

Not just investigatory reasons. There are lots of very valid judicial reasons why we would withhold, say, footage of a rape victim engaged in other sex acts on a street corner prior to trial. It would be one thing if the victim was alleging prostitution took place and there's evidence of such on the video, but AFAICT, the victim makes no analogous allegations. Even then, the MO would be to do what the judge has done and release the footage to the attorney to build a case, with instructions not to disclose to the public.

I said, when Reason was originally on the body cam bandwagon, that it wasn't going to be the libertarian panacea they hoped for and they seem hell-bent on tearing down longer-standing and more fundamental parts of the justice system in order to make it so. Progressives gonna progress.

[Illocust]

With the rape victim though. Shouldn't it be up to her and not the judge whether the video can be made public? Unless the victim is under age, the judge should be deferring to the non-government employee in the video on whether a video can be made public (government employees should have no expectation of privacy while on the job).

[mad.casual]

With the rape victim though. Shouldn't it be up to her and not the judge whether the video can be made public?

Justice is blind and the video is public (Does the video show the accused rapist soliciting other women on the same corner?). The judge may consider circs one way or the other (Is there footage of another missing victim, witness, or suspect that the police need help searching for on the tape?), but the traditional default that makes the most sense, IMO, is no disclosure to anyone except the litigants until the verdict. There may be a case to be had as to whether the owner of the same video or another video released footage before it had been turned over to the police but that's getting pretty far afield from the case at hand.

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[Commenter_XY]

Sunlight is the best disinfectant - Justice Louis Brandeis

I bet some sunlight would works wonders here.

[Overt]

"Sunlight is the best disinfectant "

I BEG TO DIFFER! - Dr Fauci

[Derp-o-Matic 6000]

TRUMP JUST TOLD PEOPLE TO INJECT THEMSELVES WITH SUNLIGHT!!!1!!1111!!!

[R Mac]

DRINK THE BLEACH!

[Gladys Stone]

In 2022, start earning cash from your home and getting paid(500$ to 700$ / hour ) by this job.HJk These are the best online jobs I’ve made $84, 8254 so far this year working online and I’m a full time student.

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[con_fuse9]

Lets go Darwin!

[Rev. Arthur L. Kuckland]

Fuck you stay inside, get fat, and become vitamin d deficient... Or the covid will get you

[ElvisIsReal]

Yet another study showing the link between vitamin d deficiency and bad covid outcomes.

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0263069

Results
Of 1176 patients admitted, 253 had records of a 25(OH)D level prior to COVID-19 infection. A lower vitamin D status was more common in patients with the severe or critical disease (<20 ng/mL [87.4%]) than in individuals with mild or moderate disease (<20 ng/mL [34.3%] p < 0.001). Patients with vitamin D deficiency (<20 ng/mL) were 14 times more likely to have severe or critical disease than patients with 25(OH)D ≥40 ng/mL (odds ratio [OR], 14; 95% confidence interval [CI], 4 to 51; p < 0.001).

[R Mac]

Nobody makes money off vitamin D.

[mad.casual]

Sunlight is the best disinfectant - Justice Louis Brandeis

Justice Brandeis apparently never tried to grow anything in sunlight or used gamma radiation to kill microbes growing in deep, dark corners. Either way, I don't surmise his intent to be needlessly showering every last human interaction, obvious to anyone capable of detecting it with harmless visible radiation, with a spotlight of ionizing radiation.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

Somebody wants a Netflix deal.

[mad.casual]

Not to side with the judge too much but I don't see anything in the article detailing what exactly the body cam footage is expected to reveal. AFAICT, the allegations of B&E, illegal detention, and assault aren't exactly in dispute even without the video. It's been disclosed to her lawyers and calls that video of an otherwise unalleged crime have a very distinct feeling of being between a fishing expedition and a witch hunt/lynching.

That's not to say the police aren't closet KKK members, but I also wouldn't be surprised to find out Yolanda holds some pretty radical BLM fundamentalist ideas.

Admittedly, the officers names probably haven't been revealed and should be but if this were a private B&E and assault and the perps names had been listed. However, I'm not entirely sure a full display of any such videos, generated by the perps, to the public wouldn't/shouldn't be regarded as prejudicial and get the videos tossed.

[Full Of Buckminster]

How is any evidence that sheds light on what actually happened prejudicial?

[mad.casual]

Release the video?

[mad.casual]

This statement, alone, pretty much asserts that there's no such thing as prejudicial evidence. So, every rape of a stripper or prostitute, her occupation as a sex worker, even if previously undisclosed, is fair game to disclose to the public. Every suspect's prior convictions, even if sealed by court order, protected by witsec, or whatever, even if irrelevant, counts as admissible evidence.

[mad.casual]

I mean, FFS, she *just* penned an article, where I made this exact point, favoring the police footage of gay men being arrested being withheld from the public?

So, which is it ENB? Should all the footage be made available to the public or should it only be withheld when it might cast homosexuals in a bad light? With libertarians like you, who needs libertarianism?

[Full Of Buckminster]

Here’s a possible distinction. Footage that shows what happened during the commission of an alleged crime should be made. Footage that does nothing to illuminate the alleged crime maybe shouldn’t. I don’t know the facts of the gay arrests to know if this distinction applies.

[mad.casual]

I understand the distinction and, presumably, so does ENB. A good faith or impartial reading of your guidance applied equally or blindly in both cases. ENB doesn't want that. She wants (or just presents the rational/desirable position as) the footage in a case where the alleged crime was the issuing of a false/mistaken warrant to be released to the public and she wants the video in a case where the alleged crime was public indecency, captured entirely on video, withheld from the public.

She even goes further to cite spurious reasoning to support the latter, public shame producing suicides in a disproportionately susceptible population, while ignoring that the exact same reasoning applies to the former. And, as I said there, I don't give a shit about the suicides, but invoking them as a defense and ignoring them everywhere else isn't in any way a good, let alone better, system of justice.

[n00bdragon]

Does it matter at all that, public or not, the police get to use the bodycam footage they took (under the pretext of holding police accountable for their actions) to make cases against gay men in parks while the SWAT-victim homeowner does not get to use the video the police took (under the pretext of holding police accountable for their actions) to make a case against the police?

Consider the flip side: If the police had been planting drugs on gay men in parks and the gay men in parks were adamant that the video be released, would that still be fair to conceal it? Intent matters. Police camera footage exists for the purpose of holding police accountable for their actions and its dissemination and storage is controlled by the state itself, despite the fact that its purpose is for the benefit of private citizens as they interact with the state. When the crime in question is supposedly committed by the citizen, releasing the footage is prejudicial because it isn't there for the citizen's benefit. It exists only to bias a potential jury. When the crime in question is the state's, releasing the footage is essential for citizens to build a case against the government. Yes, it's unbalanced. The king's men must be held to a higher standard than private citizens and deserve NO privacy in their professional capacities.

[Hank Phillips]

Ah, so now we begin to see the value of Wikileaks?

[Chumby]

If the raid was private, then those police should lose the pay they received that day and have QI removed from consideration. But then the footage can be taken as evidence of their armed home invasion.

[damikesc]

"PEN America looks at new educational gag orders, which were enacted in 10 states in 2021. "

It is vital...VITAL...that we teach open racism and anti-scientific bullshit or else we're just not free.

[damikesc]

From PEN's site about an important issue to them:

"The proliferation of false information and rising distrust in the established news media, due in part to a deliberate campaign of denigration, pose a looming crisis for American democracy"

They seek to deplatform "misinformation" sources (which, rest assured, will not be the mainstream press).

"The report comes out as tech giants Facebook, Google, and Twitter are being called to Capitol Hill to testify about how their companies’ platforms and technologies were used by Russian actors in an effort to sway the 2016 presidential election."

Note: THIS is disinformation. They are on board with it.

Anybody else shocked ENB cited a group seeking to silence voices they dislike?

[damikesc]

More from PEN (remember, "libertarian" editor at Reason cited their studies as being important): "When given the opportunity to separate himself from them, Trump insisted
that the marchers were not all bad—that some were
“very fine people”

Now, this, of course, does NOT run afoul of their concerns about misinformation. They also cite the SPLC on hate groups, which is surely a sign of a serious body.

[JesseAz]

Doubt she even read her own links.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kuckland]

Who is the most disingenuous retard at reason? place your votes
ENB
Eric bohem
Sullum (aka Los)

[Chumby]

ENB should be sandwiched between those other two.

[The Encogitationer]

DVP threesome? DAP Threesome? Both? Spitroast?

[mad.casual]

Yes.

With a verbose 'both sides' prelude that would feel more honest being read by Stormy Daniels.

[Eeyore]

What happened to the classic DP?

[mad.casual]

It's more fun with a caulk gun.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kuckland]

I am voting bohem for his unwavering support of Biden, and is now nonstop bitching about getting what he voted for

[Nardz]

They're all the same hivemind

[The Encogitationer]

More like the same clusterfuck, amirite?

[Uilleam]

"We are the Borg. Lower your shields and surrender your ships. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile."

[Chumby]

Resistance is futile. Prepare to be whataboutismed.

[Uilleam]

You are doing the Lord's work Chumby.

[Uilleam]

I vote for Sullum because he's disingenuously retarded in the comments section as well.

[A Thinking Mind]

Sullum is generally my go-to but I've absolutely stopped reading his stories over the past year so I don't know if he's doing any better.

[Agammamon]

Nobody seemed to have much of a problem with 'educational gag orders' when they prohibited teaching Creationism.

[damikesc]

That's different because it's not scientific --- unlike the belief that a man can be a woman if he feels like a woman (and it is rude --- cruel even --- to ask them what the fuck that even means).

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

But please remember the current infatuation (and institutionalization) of Native American Creationism, with growing trends even in university "science" departments.

[mad.casual]

I wonder (not really), if the police suddenly discovered footage of Yolanda performing some form of illegal sex work from her home, that ENB would be so reticent about a judge refusing to allow the video to be released to the public?

[Moonrocks]

Changing the public school curriculum according to the students' parents' wishes is a gag order?

[JesseAz]

Was about to look to see what the consider gag orders. Haven't looked through the links. But was guessing it was states saying their public funds can't teach racial superiority.

[damikesc]

I did look at their bullshit. And, yes, it did.

And, as expected, most of the problems on campus, per this group, started in 2016 with the rise of Trump. Apparently, BEFORE then, free speech Shangri-La existed.

[JesseAz]

From their About:

Our strength is our Membership—a nationwide community of more than 7,500 novelists, journalists, nonfiction writers, editors, poets, essayists, playwrights, publishers, translators, agents, and other writing professionals, as well as devoted readers and supporters who join with them to carry out PEN America’s mission.

So why is this even a national story? They seem like they have biases from the outset. And the ads that get delivered on their web page are very telling, got some socialist support ads.

One of their examples is a bill that just limits sexual material in K-5 and reviews books for students under 12.

https://legiscan.com/IN/text/HB1362/id/2470063

This is in response to some of the books found in grade school containing even images of acts not suitable.

And this doesn't stop authors from creating these books, they just won't be used in schools.

This organization is a joke.

[Overt]

Dude, the literary world was the crossover species where intersectional sjw nonsense spilled out from academia into private institutions. This is where it started. They began glorifying TG and SJW stuff, and chased away anyone who dared write with a traditional perspective. And we are supposed to be concerned with ANYTHING they say? They became zombies over a decade ago.

[Derp-o-Matic 6000]

the literary world was the crossover species where intersectional sjw nonsense spilled out from academia into private institutions

I think HR departments bear a good deal of that blame.

[I, Woodchipper]

try reading any modern sci-fi award winners.

full throttle SJW woke bullshit to the point of being unreadable

[tracerv]

That's the truth.

I pretty much only read Amazon self published sci-fi/fantasy authors now to get away from a large chunk of that bullshit.

I'd rather deal with some bad grammar not caught by an editor than sjw/woke stories.

John Scalzi can fuck himself.

[jimc5499]

There was a faction of sci-fi authors who broke away from that. Try Baen.

[American Mongrel]

Id blame it on those gay marriage activists and orgs that suddenly found themselves looking at getting real jobs.

[Gaear Grimsrud]

I thought maybe people were being ordered to slip on banana peels and deliver hilarious one liners. But you're probably right.

[Cronut]

Anyone who uses the term "educational gag order" is not to be taken seriously.

[Hank Phillips]

President Harding had three galpals who travelled to dope-exporting Germany a lot. One kept the lust letters he sent her on Senate stationery. Such a letter was included in "The Shadow of Blooming Grove" but a federal judge ordered it struck from the book, First Amendment Be Hanged! But... it really wouldn't interest anybody, outside of a small circle of friends.

[Cyto]

Interesting summary of the erroneous SWAT raid. No identification of the race of the family or neighbor. No identification of the race of the officers involved. No identification of the race of the lawyers.

But we get an ID on the race of some unrelated people who may have been falsely targeted by this officer and his informant (race not identified) in the past.

How are we supposed to properly evaluate these allegations if we don't know all of the races involved? How can we tell if it is a case of white nationalism, white privilege, internalized racism. Anti Asian bias... Heck, we don't even know the gender of the mayor! This whole thing could be sexism.

[Commenter_XY]

Even worse, it could be an intersectionalism violation... 🙂

[Jerryskids]

*Ahem* They mention a mother and 5 kids and no father. I think we can figure out the race.

[Nardz]

Leave the Irish alone!

[Rev. Arthur L. Kuckland]

You don't know that, the dad went out for a pack of smokes, hell be back soon

[HorseConch]

He could be working the night shift.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

Democrats?

[Commenter_XY]

The de rigueur posting: Let's Go, Brandon!

[Moonrocks]

I'll go with the R version today.

Fuck Joe Biden

[Sometimes a Great Notion]

Etslay Ogay Andonbray

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

Speak English!

[The Encogitationer]

IxNay Noay Hethay Igpay-Atinlay.

[Fist of Etiquette]

This footage and case provides a great opportunity for public assessment of no-knock raids, as well as the use of confidential informants...

WHICH IS WHY IT CANNOT BE RELEASED

[Fist of Etiquette]

These rulings are the game being played by the rules law enforcement creates and not in the best interest of the public or transparency...

The judge ain't law enforcement, but he might consider himself so.

[Cyto]

The judge ain't supposed to be law enforcement.

[Cyto]

Also, supposed to rule on the law, not politics, opinion, or policy preferences.

[Cyto]

And I want a pony!

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

The cops will just shoot it when they raid your house.

[Uilleam]

I feel horrible for laughing at that.

[R Mac]

No ponies were actually shot during the commission of this joke.

[Chumby]

Given the current state of QI, they wouldn’t have to pony up the funds to buy a replacement.

[Don't look at me!]

Some old fashioned horse trading.

[Chumby]

Even if they were forced to I imagine they would use a stall tactic.

[Fist of Etiquette]

A good marijuana and banking measure is tucked into a bad bill.

À la carte legislation would be too taxing on our congressmen and their lobbyist overlords.

[Sometimes a Great Notion]

No wonder they have a lower rating then the cable company.

[Derp-o-Matic 6000]

They are still beating journalists, though

[JesseAz]

Almost as interesting a story as Congress/DoJ/Capitol Police refusing to handover communications and video footage regarding J6.

https://thefederalist.com/2022/01/04/pelosi-is-blocking-access-to-house-january-6-records-what-is-she-hiding/

Capitol Police just recently claimed they are not subject to FIOA in their denials of requests to journalists.

[JesseAz]

Here is the claims from Pelosi claiming sovereign immunity in helping stop exposure of the communications.

https://www.judicialwatch.org/pelosi-congress-claims-immunity-in-court/

[damikesc]

"Congress exempts itself from the Freedom of Information Act. "

One of the many reasons why the 1/6 Committee is openly and blatantly illegal. Congress does NOT have police powers. They have oversight of the Executive and information in regards to legislation. They are doing neither.

Every member of the Committee should be jailed.

[Zeb]

I'd settle for them being expelled from the House.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kuckland]

Then I should get sovergn immunity from all of the crap bills Pelosi voted for

[Mother's Lament]

This is so utterly sinister.
It blows my mind how the media is cool with it.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

Lap dogs, boot-lickers, and fascist wanna-bes.

[Moonrocks]

What a shock: Reason Editor not naming that which shall not be named.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

Would YOU want to be barred from the D.C. cocktail party list?

[mad.casual]

In actual fairness to Reason (I'm surprised too), it's getting to the point where 'barred from the D.C. cocktail party list' is like a mafia euphemism.

To rebut my own defense of Reason, we told them to put down the cocktails because this was coming.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The Pentagon said a U.S. raid in northwest Syria was "successful." The White Helmets, a Syrian civil defense group, said that it killed six kids.

Who knows if either of those things is true, but the Pentagon doesn't see them as mutually exclusive.

[Chumby]

The same mechanism that warboners here want in Eastern Europe. It is one thing to commit war crimes against people that really cannot retaliate.

[Moonrocks]

Isn't this exactly like that time the Biden regime "got back" at the Taliban by killing some Taliban guy but it turned out they just killed a bunch of kids?

[Rev. Arthur L. Kuckland]

Bidens initial plan was to shower with them. They got the better deal

[Gaear Grimsrud]

No. That time they killed 7 kids. This time only 6. That's a significant reduction that we should all celebrate.

[HorseConch]

Exponential reduction in collateral damage.

[freedomwriter]

I especially liked the news reports that the bad guy blew himself up along with family that included children. The media and government doesn't want to know how many children America killed, kinda like Vietnam civilian deaths....

[Ronbback]

when Trump took out a terrorist it was WWIII
Biden watches live killing of terrorist and he is a strong leader deserving of hero worship.
Failing president waging the dog to boost ratings

[Mike Laursen]

Maybe on CNN or something. Now do how Trump and Biden's drone strikes were covered on Fox or OAN.

[JesseAz]

The timid sea lion roars trying to find a mate.

[HorseConch]

Sarc will be by soon to oblige.

[sarcasmic]

Huh?

[R Mac]

Poor sarc.

[sarcasmic]

I don't oblige idiots.

[R Mac]

You just called Dee an idiot.

[R Mac]

How?

[Minadin]

You know, I don't really watch Fox News or OAN. Most of the people who talk about those networks seem to be Democrats, though. And now we know why:

https://notthebee.com/article/lol-new-nielsen-ratings-reveal-that-tucker-carlson-is-the-most-watched-cable-news-host-among-young-democrats

[freedomwriter]

Exaggerate much?

[American Mongrel]

I'm going to need ages and sexes before I care. Males 14 and over could easily be terrorists and children at the same time. True for females as well, but far less likely.

[Eeyore]

Aren't young girls actually the worst? Little terrorist factories.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Japan is using a huge surveillance network to track elderly people with dementia.

You know who else Japan tried to track with surveillance?

[Moonrocks]

Americans looking to purchase transistor radios in the 1960s?

[Cronut]

Everyone who plays Pokemon Go?

[Chumby]

Gilligan?

[The Encogitationer]

Hollis Wood in 1941?
https://youtu.be/j7O-SUEh-54

(I wonder if Misek looks anything like Christopher Lee? 😉 )

[Utkonos]

Godzilla?

[Minadin]

Godzirra.

[Agammamon]

The Pentagon said a U.S. raid in northwest Syria was "successful." The White Helmets, a Syrian civil defense group, said that it killed six kids.

Yes, successful.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Facebook lost about half a million users in the last three months of 2021.

Right into the metaverse.

[Mike Laursen]

I blame Wordle.

[Dick Hardwood]

Cite?

[Rev. Arthur L. Kuckland]

And they were all counted as covid deaths

[Sometimes a Great Notion]

Who knew if you ban or censor your users, that they might leave?

[Mike Laursen]

Analysts are saying its Facebook's lack of appeal to young people. Do you have any evidence that it is from conservatives leaving because of Facebook's censorship?

[JesseAz]

He said users. You assume all banned users are conservatives. Why? It hasn't been just conservatives.

[Sometimes a Great Notion]

Do you have cite for where I said this was driven by conservative?

[Mike Laursen]

You implied the people leaving care about bans and censorship. It ain’t liberals Facebook is accused of banning and censoring.

[JesseAz]

Yes it is. Many liberal groups have also complained about Facebook.

It happens far more to the right, but actual classical liberals also disagree with the censorship. The only people who seem not to care are the leftists you associate with.

[Utkonos]

In UK, a lot of Labour activists accuse Facebook of this, so yup.

[Sometimes a Great Notion]

I implied = your head thought.

So your saying that 13 year old boys don't mind having mommy around 24-7 saying what they can and can't say? Were you ever young?

[Mike Laursen]

Look, you said what you said about Facebook losing users due to bans and censorship. Everyone knows exactly what that means.

Own what you said. You’re not going to come up with some clever argument that what you said doesn’t mean precisely what everyone knows it meant.

[R Mac]

He did own what he said. No one is required to own what you thought bird.

[JesseAz]

He doesn't need a clever comment. He has a clear and concise statement that you sought to twist into an anti-conservative diatribe.

[Uilleam]

You should consider getting a real job.

[R Mac]

She should consider playing in traffic.

[Eeyore]

I have had several leftists friends blocked on Facebook for posts. Usually because of errors in the machine learning algorithms that auto block people. The appeals process doesn't work.

That said. I think the censorship does contribute to the user loss, but I have no idea if it is a significant percentage.

[Dick Hardwood]

Cite?

[Cyto]

I wonder if that had anything to do with the end of a toe-in deal with free Netflix from your mobile carriers.

[Hank Phillips]

Who is Faecebook?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Today, Denmark lifted *all* restrictions, while cases are soaring.

BUT THE CASES!

[ElvisIsReal]

Some places can admit that nothing we do makes any difference.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

Idiots, wasting a Grade A crisis.

[Mike Laursen]

From the twitter feed:

"Why this lack of worry? Because Danes are highly vaccinated - and our data shows that their trust in the vaccines are high. 81 % of the entire population are vaccinated and 61 % of the population have received a booster vaccine."

I guess Danes are just complacent "morons" in the words of one commenter here, who calls anyone who received the vaccination a "moron", even though he himself got vaccinated.

[R Mac]

Cite?

[JesseAz]

81%? Like many US cities. So time to stop it here right Mike?

[Mike Laursen]

Also from the Twitter feed:

"But people in ICUs are dropping."

Maybe not the best way to word that.

[Minadin]

HA!

It's a translation thing, probably.
Danish humor/language isn't too big on the two meanings / double entendre / dos sentidos thing. Generally*.

(*Although their word for 'clearance sale' is slut-sport, which we Americans found hilarious, they didn't see the humor)

[Mike Laursen]

https://twitter.com/drericding/status/1489257162677186569?s=21

“Th FT estimates that US hospitalizations for COVID would have been *halved* if vaccinations in Us matched Denmark”

[ElvisIsReal]

We would have halved them if we only counted people in the hospital for covid......

[Mike Laursen]

OK, that still means we would have halved whatever number that comes to, if we had had Denmark’s vaccination rates.

[Don't look at me!]

Cite?

[Utkonos]

He won’t Dane to give you one.

[Dick Hardwood]

Cite?

[JesseAz]

Based on models that have failed on every prediction?

[Idaho Bob]

Me and my entire family had Covid last week. 27 people from my work facility the week before. Five of these people have gotten jabbed. No one had symptoms for more than 5 days.

[Mike Laursen]

Yes, because the new strain, omicron, is more contagious and has milder symptoms. I had it, too.

Has no bearing on how the pandemic went before omicron came along.

[Don't look at me!]

I had it, too.

No proof, you never got tested.

[JesseAz]

But he has feelz.

[Dick Hardwood]

Cite?

[Fist of Etiquette]

So far, 115 cases associated with Watts have been thrown out.

See? The system works.

[Chumby]

They dropped all charges?

[Don't look at me!]

Who gave them the power?

[Chumby]

Is this current?

[Its_Not_Inevitable]

Enlightening.

[Chumby]

Was there resistance to do this?

[Don't look at me!]

Time to amp up the puns.

[Uilleam]

I'm not sure I appreciate this conduct.

[Its_Not_Inevitable]

Don't tell the coppers.

[Chumby]

What of there was assault and battery?

[R Mac]

Then their should be charges.

[Utkonos]

Watt’s the difference? They’re not going to do a volt face at this juncture

[Utkonos]

Boy, these Watts puns are a real riot!

[Dace Highlander]

Ohm my God will you people please stop the puns.

[sarcasmic]

The Pentagon said a U.S. raid in northwest Syria was "successful." The White Helmets, a Syrian civil defense group, said that it killed six kids.

Well that's a little misleading considering this headline on the Daily Mail:

New ISIS leader wipes out his whole family as US special forces swoop: Biden says 'world is a safer place' after Ibrahim al-Qurayshi blows himself up during raid on Syrian house, killing 13 - including SIX children

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10471299/U-S-confirms-counterterrorism-mission-northwest-Syria.html

[Cyto]

So.... "He blew himself up" as in hellfire missile targeting him was totally his own fault, or "He blew himself up" as in suicide vest, or "He blew himself up l" as in "attempting to fire an RPG he was shot and he blew himself up?

Just asking because.... Well, you know why.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

Pjen Psaki can probably present a scenario where all of that is true.

[Morbo]

Morning news said it was a suicide vest.

[Dick Hardwood]

Jeffy blows himself up every day using only a fork, knife, and spoon. Sometimes just his hands.

[Mike Laursen]

That’s pretty fucked up.

[Don't look at me!]

So are you.

[Dick Hardwood]

Cite?

[JesseAz]

The Pentagon said a U.S. raid in northwest Syria was "successful." The White Helmets, a Syrian civil defense group, said that it killed six kids.

More recent reporting says the children and women were killed by a suicide vest from inside. Waiting on more information prior to outrage.

[Cyto]

And this is why you don't lie about your missile strikes. Kinda hurts the credibility when you need it later.

[Ronbback]

and we should believe that, history tells us otherwise

[I, Woodchipper]

one thing we should assume is that the early reports are definitely false.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Trump's pandemic travel bans received vastly different media treatment than Biden's...

I'm told Biden has been treated worse by the press.

[Cyto]

Yeah, I am pretty sure the science is settled on that one. Dude had a PhD and everything

[JesseAz]

The first episode of Justin Amash's podcast is out.

An hour of reading post office names. Can't wait.

[R Mac]

I’m guessing a decent amount of Orange Man Bad.

[Illocust]

Reason needs to explain how unilateral disarmament works when it comes to college curriculum. The blue team has been using the force of law and threats to funding for years to create the environment that could support a toxic ideology such as crt. How would the red team sitting on their thumbs and continuing to do nothing result in a freer college environment?

[Cyto]

Look.... We saw what happened when Milo violently spoke at campuses with racist, sexist and homophobic antisemitism. There totally was not any censorship worth mentioning and he was totally just being proactive in the first place and besides, this is a slippery slope fallacy anyway. They will never try to deplatform anyone outside of college campuses. I know, because even libertarian luminaries agree. Especially because we have the internet, and nobody could censor Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and MySpace.

[Moonrocks]

nobody could censor Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and MySpace

At least not simultaneously in a seemingly coordinated manner...

[Cyto]

Exactly!

[JesseAz]

Look, it is fine with public colleges refuse to fund speeches from the ideological right. Free speech of colleges! But don't you dare tell them how they can use their public funds.

[Sometimes a Great Notion]

What reason should always be advocating for is the end of public financing of education or at least a Charter/Voucher system (which they do quite a lot) .

[Mike Laursen]

This is college level education we are talking about. There is public funding, but charters/vouchers are a K-12 thing.

[R Mac]

Caw caw!

[Sometimes a Great Notion]

the end of public financing of education
or at least a Charter/Voucher system (which they do quite a lot) .

The first line spoke to all public funding K thru higher education. The second line was to distinguish that I still think that there maybe a role in funding K-12.

Now if you don't mind I have better things to do then engage with mendacious cunt.

[Mike Laursen]

You are right. I was out of line and I apologize.

[Dick Hardwood]

Cite?

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

Don't you understand? Resisting fascism is exactly the same as fascism.

[Hank Phillips]

Mussolini and The Pope made a deal to add mystical brainwashing to government schools. To Republican nationalsocialists, that settles the matter.

[Dick Hardwood]

Was that supposed to be funny?

[Commenter_XY]

Personal observation on second booster....

I am one of those rare people with an autoimmune condition, and take immunosuppressive medications; no other co-morbidities. So when I looked at the data, it made sense to me to vaccinate because of my unique medical circumstance. Note that I have no problem with people who choose not to vaccinate; they need to look at the data and come to their own conclusion. I have close family members who choose not to vaccinate. Others got the first two dose series. One family member died from Covid-19 (it was horrible, BTW) in a nursing home. But I did want to tell you a little on how it actually felt, post-booster.

The side effect for me was minimal. All of my shots have been Moderna (by my deliberate choice). It was a full-dose, not half-dose, per American College of Rheumatology guidance. My upper arm was a little sore for two days (no biggie). I did get tired for the next couple of days and took a nap for maybe an hour. That is rare for me, but hey...the worst that happened was I took a an hour long nap? Shit...we should all be so lucky!

So far, so good. Haven't grown a third eye or anything. 🙂

[not trying to persuade anyone to do anything, only reporting what side effects I personally experienced with second booster]

[The Encogitationer]

Great! After I get my second booster, we can communicate with the 5G antennae we have growing out of our ears now. 😉

[Ronbback]

One family member died from Covid-19 (it was horrible, BTW)

in reality there is no reason for them to suffer. my dad had COPD which can result in a similar death by being intubated however his doctor told him almost no ever survives that so my dad chose not to do that and just increase his pain med till he painlessly never woke up again.

[Mike Laursen]

Sorry to hear about your family member's death.

[R Mac]

What if they’re related to Meatloaf?

[JesseAz]

Mike has danced on enough graves. This is his usual fake empathy.

[Dick Hardwood]

Do you have a citation to back up that claim?

[Illocust]

Your not feeling terrible after the shot would be expected with a suppressed immune system. Most of what we think of as symptoms of colds/flus are actually symptoms of our immune system going to war with perceived invaders. People with healthy immune systems are much more likely to have severe reactions to the shot.

[mad.casual]

People with healthy immune systems are much more likely to have severe reactions to the shot.

Knock it off with the nihilist, armchair, pseudo-scientific "don't believe your lying eyes (and arms)" bullshit. People with healthier immune systems get sicker when they're treated? Fuck off. I'd believe a narrow "His immunosupressants may've ameliorated an adverse immune response." but the larger statement you make above is abject B.S. People have all kinds of adverse reactions to vaccines and all manner of other injections that have shit to do with their immune system. People with healthy immune systems have zero response to either the virus or the vaccine(s) and people with, by every same metric, healthy immune systems have adverse reactions to the vaccine(s). People with unhealthy immune systems have adverse reactions all the time. The CDC even lays out guidelines by which people who have unhealthy immune systems should *not* get vaccines and for many/most it's explicitly because of the vaccine.

[Not Robbers=Nut Rubbers]

The 10 worst colleges for free speech.

Did the Ivy League add two schools?

[Mike Laursen]

Boise State made it right up there with the Ivy's!

In all seriousness, I think FIRE's characterization of what happened is a little off.

[Dick Hardwood]

Cite?

[Ken Shultz]

I find the transformation of CNN fascinating. We've seen Cuomo kicked off the air, Chris Wallace brought over from Fox News, and now Zucker is being let go--for having a consensual relationship with a subordinate. I maintain that the most reasonably explanation for all of this is that CNN is being spun off to a new joint venture to be headed by the current CEO of Discovery Networks, and the new CEO is genuinely concerned about ratings (appealing to people who aren't on the far left of the political spectrum).

It's hard to get rid of people in a far left news organization like that, but generally speaking, powerful men tend to either attract the attention of the women they work with or tragically imagine it to be so. In either case, if you want to get rid of a powerful person in far left outlet, but you don't want to cause too big of a fuss, if you look for an inappropriate relationship, chances are you'll find one. The interesting thing is that the people affected know what you're doing.

Exhibit A: CNN employees go hyper over the dismissal of Zucker (head of CNN).

"WarnerMedia Chief Executive Jason Kilar was subject to intense criticism during a meeting with CNN employees Wednesday evening, where he was grilled over his decision that CNN President Jeff Zucker should step down after Mr. Kilar learned the network boss had a romantic relationship with CNN’s marketing chief.

"During an hourlong meeting with Mr. Kilar, CNN anchors and employees expressed frustration that Mr. Zucker didn’t get a second chance after disclosing his relationship with Ms. Gollust and asked Mr. Kilar why Mr. Zucker was replaced abruptly. Mr. Kilar declined to answer questions about the timeline of Mr. Zucker’s departure, though he said that he followed a process “with an appropriate sense of urgency.”

“I wasn’t focused on the business of it all,” Mr. Kilar said. He said he was primarily focused “on the values that we stand for as a company.” Mr. Kilar said there are no plans to issue additional information about the investigation, which he said is complete.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/cnn-employees-grill-warnermedia-ceo-over-jeff-zuckers-departure-11643863540?

The staff at CNN don't care about inappropriate power relationships between men and women in the workplace. I bet they don't really care about Zucker either. CNN is being transformed into a news service that appeals to people on the right and in the center, and they hate that. Meanwhile, Kilar, the CEO of WarnerMedia will soon be the underling of the CEO of Discovery Networks--or he'll be gone.

Exhibit B: Lina Khan appears to be ramping up to use her powers at the FTC to try to challenge the joint venture that merges WarnerMedia's CNN with Discovery Networks. (Link Below).

We'll see how this all plays out. It wouldn't surprise me at all if Lina Khan were to object to the joint venture on the premise that Discovery Networks can't be trusted not to tweak CNN's programming--so she needs to step in and save CNN in the name of protecting consumers and their freedom of choice.

Discovery may be directing all these changes before the merger in anticipation of just such an argument. Sometimes, it's better to ask for forgiveness rather than permission. "Sorry Ms. Khan, but in the era of #MeToo, what else could we do but fire Zucker?" We had to find another head of CNN, and the ratings of the guys that are running Fox are four times higher than CNN's! Why wouldn't we hire them for the job?"

And there are no buyers for WarnerMedia right now. The reason they're spinning it off to a joint venture is because they don't want to book such a huge loos. AT&T paid $100 billion for WarnerMedia just a few years ago. And it's plagued with properties like CNN--that no one wants to watch. The ratings are terrible. Consumers wouldn't be best served by Ms. Khan protecting their freedom of choice by protecting the content on CNN. Consumers would be best served by respecting their choice to avoid CNN--until there are some radical changes.

[Ken Shultz]

“Illegal mergers can inflict a host of harms, from higher prices and lower wages to diminished opportunity, reduced innovation, and less resiliency,” stated FTC Chair Lina M. Khan. “This inquiry launched by the FTC and DOJ is designed to ensure that our merger guidelines accurately reflect modern market realities and equip us to forcefully enforce the law against unlawful deals.”

----Hollywood Reporter

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/worrying-signs-for-hollywood-mega-deals-1235081282/

She's a central planner. If Trump had won, she wouldn't be anything.

[Cyto]

Well... Good thing we got rid of thant Nazi dictator then, isn't it?

[Overt]

It is amazing how so much of the Democratic agenda is being run by a couple power brokers and blue check twitterati journalists. I really do think they believe that their insular bubble is what the rest of the country feels. It is why they react with such surprise that independents and republicans aren't buying their stories any more.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

" I really do think they believe that their insular bubble is what the rest of the country must submit to"

FIFY

[Cronut]

"Consumers wouldn't be best served by Ms. Khan protecting their freedom of choice by protecting the content on CNN."

Well, there's your mistake: assuming that Khan has any interest in protecting consumer freedom of choice.

[Bill Godshall]

Per comments on The Five and Gutfeld shows last night, Chris Cuomo exposed Jeff Zucker's affair (which everyone at CNN already knew about) as payback after Zucker fired Cuomo.

CNN will never present nonpartisan, objective and truthful information as long as it continues to employ Don Lemon, Brian Stelter, Jim Acosta, Erin Burnett, Anderson Cooper, Jake Tapper, Chris Wallace and several dozen other far left wing woke totalitarian and racist correspondents and panelists.

[Ken Shultz]

That's the point.

All those employees were screaming at the head of WarnerMedia last night because they're afraid that they're next on the chopping block.

They're under new ownership. There's an ongoing performance evaluation by the new CEO, and it's all about ratings and advertising revenue over at Discovery Networks.

AT&T bought WarnerMedia because they were planning to try to sell it as a perk to customers who signed up for their 5G service. Content was something you used to sell subscription plans. They were probably okay if you just broke even. That's the only way Zucker was able to get away with programming that only appealed to one end of the political spectrum. That's why CNN didn't even bother to put out a streaming app--what four, five years after Fox put out Fox Nation, which was a massive hit?

The merger hasn't even happened, officially yet, and they already got rid of Zucker and Cuomo. All that "talent" you just mentioned can see the writing on the wall. They know their ratings are one-fourth the size of Fox's, and they know that Discovery Networks is a content business driven by ratings. The people you mentioned who are near the end of their contracts are calling their agents to see if they can get off the U.S.S. Progressive before it sinks.

[Bill Godshall]

Hope you are right. This could become very entertaining.

[Dick Hardwood]

Let’s hope they all become unemployable. At least as far as anything lucrative is concerned. I would be thrilled if Jim Acosta ended up bankrupt after getting canned. Are there any new far left media ventures that can afford to pay these assholes the ridiculous compensation packages to which they’ve become accustomed?

[Dick Hardwood]

The affair wasn’t a secret. I think I first heard about it back 8n 2018. Possibly here.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kuckland]

They also don't care about inappropriate relationships between their execs and kids

[damikesc]

Hey, any bets on how many writers in 2024 will still say they'll vote for the Democrat if it is close in their state?

[Moonrocks]

You mean Editors? I'm willing to bet it will be no less than in 2020.

[JesseAz]

Biden is such an embarrassment they'll go back to hiding their proclivities and just continue to cite Vox, CNN, Wapo, and the Atlantic instead.

[Zeb]

I bet less than 2020. But will depend on whether Trump runs and gets the nomination.

[Hank Phillips]

This sockie misspelled females. Thanks to past mystical Republican advice on how Libertarians need to change our platform, rights-respecting women now cross the street to avoid our candidates and magazine. They can't be blamed for voting against bigots and cowards as two of a kind.

[Dick Hardwood]

You shouldn’t post. Ever. You just Luke up your bizarre brand of word salad and communicate nothing other than some confused bigotry. You also denigrate libertarianism with your weirdo rants.

[Mother's Lament]

"The Pentagon said a U.S. raid in northwest Syria was "successful." The White Helmets, a Syrian civil defense group, said that it killed six kids."

Looks like war's back on the menu, boys!

[R Mac]

The return to normalcy all good liberaltarians should celebrate!

[Ken Shultz]

General Premise: Mutual defense treaties are a deterrent to war.

Specific Premise: NATO has successfully deterred Russian aggression against our allies in Europe since 1949.

Conclusion: Withdrawing from NATO will make war with Russia more likely.

Legitimate responses attack the premises, attack the logical structure of the argument, or they formulate a fact based, logical argument of their own that contradicts the conclusion of this argument. Failing to do any of that, rational people are persuaded by such arguments.

[Moonrocks]

Conclusion: Withdrawing from NATO will make war with Russia more likely.

You should specify whether you mean for us or just for Europe.

[Ken Shultz]

I'm not saying we couldn't avoid a war with Russia even if we withdrew from NATO.

I'm saying that withdrawing from NATO makes a war with Russia more likely--even if we don't go to war.

I'm saying that if you want to avoid a war with Russia, you should support our membership in NATO.

[Moonrocks]

Again, you should clarify whether you mean "US and Russia going to war" or "Europe and Russia going to war".

I don't even necessarily disagree, but that would be pertinent for anyone that might.

[Ken Shultz]

I'm not sure there's a need for that distinction--unless you think there's some reason to believe that this president, this Congress, this Pentagon, or this country wouldn't rally to a war with Russia if Europe went to war with Russia.

[Dick Hardwood]

Joe Biden is a cognitively infirm buffoon. His handlers are fanatical leftists so incompetent that I wouldn’t hire them to be firewatchers. So don’t sell them short. They’re terrific slouches.

[Ronbback]

Does Russia have evil intent like eliminating certain ideals or ethnicities like china has towards other races or religions?

In reality what would be the big deal if Russia suddenly ruled over all of Europe would anything really change, other than ownership.

Am i being sarcastic, not sure myself. we see ourselves as free but are we really any different

[Dick Hardwood]

Yes. Right now authoritarian Europe is run by a bunch of soft headed pussies. They’re weak and not able to threaten much of anyone. If Putin took over, Russia would become a global threat again. We already have one of those with China.

[American Mongrel]

Im not one to spend all day in the comments, but here goes anyways...
My question is, why haven't we ever tried to get "new" Russia on our team?
They have more in common with the west than they do with China. At some point china is going to get shitty with them about all that Russian land that contains nothing but people with genetics, culture and history closely linked to china.
It would be short sighted for the russians to expect china to not do what the russians did with georgia, crimea, etc (and hitler did in austria, poland, etc (and the US did with texas)).
If we're cool with all of the other former communists, what makes them so exceptionally bad? We were ready to jump into bed with china because we hate russia, maybe the reverse would have been more successful.

[Moonrocks]

My question is, why haven't we ever tried to get "new" Russia on our team?

Clinton tried, and then Bush tried, and then Obama tried. Trump was the first president since the cold war to not seek a "reset" with Russia.

[Chumby]

For the umpteenth time, USA =/ Europe no matter how much Dee-esque squawking you do about it. It is not the American taxpayer’s obligation to pay for hall monitors on another continent. They have resources and the population to decide their own path. Russia is not going to invade the United States. The defense contractor crony capitalist cycle needs to end.
Putting more forces in Eastern Europe will make a nuclear exchange with Russia more likely. The warboners and Lockheed Martin shareholders in urban areas should think about that. Any of those folks that feel this way are free to go there now to volunteer.

[Ken Shultz]

You don't seem to be differentiating between what we should do and what we will do. Intellectually, you realize that we could go to war with Russia even if we shouldn't, but you also seem to be making the case that we shouldn't go to war with Russia--as if we won't because we shouldn't. It may be that neither the Commander-in-chief nor the Democrats in Congress nor the brass in the Pentagon share your libertarian sensibilities. They can and do sometimes go to war when they shouldn't. I've seen 'em do it! Our mutual defense treaty has deterred Russian aggression against our allies despite all sorts of different presidents and congresses since 1949.

[Chumby]

Russia isn’t going to invade the United States. I don’t think that is a controversial statement. So why should a crony capitalist system be continued to protect socialists on another continent? Europe has the resources to do this for themselves. If they choose not to, that is not for others to pick up the tab, provide the people and increase their own risk.
So we shouldn’t be critical of CRT in government schools, mask mandates, vaccine mandates, government over spending because what ends up happening might be different than what should happen?
We almost went to war with the Soviet Union over them putting missiles in Cuba. Castro later said that had the US attacked, which was on the table, they would have launched. The world was fortunate that a Kennedy aide had actually lived with Kruschev when he was diplomatically stationed in Russia. He understood the man and it was that relationship that stopped it. We got lucky. Increasing that possibility is the wrong move.

[Ken Shultz]

"So why should a crony capitalist system . . . "

Again, you seem to be talking about what we should do--as if we won't do something because we shouldn't--but I've seen us do lots of things that we shouldn't.

I saw us go to war in Iraq!

[Chumby]

And?

[Ken Shultz]

I'm talking about the real world, where the president, Congress, and the Pentagon sometimes do things they shouldn't--and the American people sometimes support them. If you want to avoid war with Russia, you should want to avoid it in the real world.

[Chumby]

And by putting US troops in eastern Europe, it gets the United States closer to a war with Russia. In the real world.

[Ken Shultz]

That hasn't been the case in the past. The effect of our NATO forces in Europe have been as a deterrent since 1949. I can't remember when stationing troops in our NATO allies' countries provoked an attack from Russia because that never happened.

[Chumby]

Deterrent for whom? I’m in America. Europe has an obligation to defend themselves. Russia isn’t going to invade North America.

[Commenter_XY]

Chumby, the points you are making are perfectly valid points. I just want to mention the very points you are making were made by several US senators back in 1916,17 and 1937, 38. Both times, Russia was involved, and so was Europe.

A European issue is an American issue, whether we in America wish it to be an issue for us or not. Can't escape it.

Better to be proactive in these matters than reactive, IMO.

[Chumby]

We didn’t need to get involved in the Great War. The country had a financial interest in the Triple Entente succeeding given the amount of financial assistance being provided to them. I felt that focusing on hunting and sinking the Uboats would have been a better response to the Zimmerman telegraph.
The second go around, Germany declared war on the United States. America avoided the European conflicts of the 1800s. The British did cut the trans Atlantic cable and enforced a naval blockage on nuetral nations from doing commerce with the Central Powers.

They need to work things out on their own. Without our money

[Ronbback]

has nato really deterred or did the then USSR realize they couldn't really do it. The U.S. has troops thru out the world yet we really can't stop anything maybe they realize this as well you can only hold so much land has history has shown time and time again

[Overt]

"General Premise: Mutual defense treaties are a deterrent to war."

Assumes facts not in evidence. The assassination of Arch Duke Ferdinand led to a small regional conflict. It was the web of mutual defense pacts among all the great powers that turned that small conflict into WWI.

This premise may be right, and may be wrong depending on the circumstances, but to just assume it is always true is a grave logical mistake.

[Ken Shultz]

Because mutual defense treaties sometimes aren't enough to deter a war doesn't mean they aren't a deterrent force. Because dams sometimes burst, doesn't mean they aren't good at doing what they're supposed to do. Bridges are good at getting you across a river even if some of them fail sometimes. I'm not saying that mutual defense treaties are so great and strong that they can always stop stupid leaders who are hellbent on making big mistakes. I'm saying that mutual defense treaties are a deterrent force, and getting rid of that deterrent--lessens the deterrent force.

[Sevo]

Agreed, but they also can lead to the involvement in a conflict of those who have no dog in that particular fight; the US in this case.
How about the US quit being he EU's daddy who can beat the Russki's daddy; let the EU grow up and find out what it's like to be an adult.

[Chumby]

^ this

[Ken Shultz]

No doubt, we need to get our troops, bases, and hardware out of Germany.

They're big enough to take care of themselves, and if they're our allies, they should be taking care of us, too.

But even if mutual defense treaties have the potential to drag us into something, they still have a might deterrent force, and this mutual defense treaty kept us from having a conventional war with Russia throughout the Cold War, when the propensity for aggression against the U.S. and its allies was much greater than it is now.

I think we should also account for the nuclear deterrent. Nuclear deterrents tend to make conventional wars more likely through proxies. The United States isn't likely to nuke Moscow because the Russians make a play for one of our allies with conventional weapons. North Korea takes potshots at the South periodically just to make sure everyone knows they're still awake. The U.S. doesn't respond with nuclear weapons.

I think the best explanation for why the USSR didn't press its case against our allies with conventional forces is because of NATO. The reason they tried to expand in places like Afghanistan rather than Europe was because NATO wasn't in Afghanistan. NATO was in Europe.

If it weren't for NATO, Europe would have made for a much nicer addition to the USSR.

[Sevo]

"...If it weren't for NATO, Europe would have made for a much nicer addition to the USSR."

Post WWII, NATO made sense for the US; Europe was barely able to feed itself, let alone take care of defense. And there WAS a USSR.
By about (picking a date here) 1975, the US should have (as my parents did) told Europe it's time for you to pay your own way, and stuck to it, winding down physical presence and promises.
By now, we've let little Francois stay home well beyond adolescence and while the old boogie man is gone, he still whines about how there might be a bully out there.
"For God's sake go!"

[Ken Shultz]

"Post WWII, NATO made sense for the US; Europe was barely able to feed itself, let alone take care of defense. And there WAS a USSR."

I don't think you're seeing the advantages to the U.S. of NATO deterring Russian aggression. The legitimate purpose of government is to protect our rights. The legitimate purpose of foreign policy and the military is to protect our rights from foreign threats. This constitutionally ratified defense treaty has been an excellent means to that end. It successfully deterred World War III, and it's deterring a war against us and our allies right now.

[Chumby]

Again, Russia is not attacking the United States. What happens in another country is that country’s business. The rights of Americans are violated when they are forced to fund the defense of another nation. It also increases the risk of a direct conflict with a nuclear power. All it does is give a free pass to people that are not Americans and lines the pockets of crony defense contractors, America’s most horrible people.
Iirc, several member nations violated the terms of the agreement. This provides an excellent opportunity to exit it.

[Joe Brandon]

^^^^+100

[Chumby]

And? Europe =/ United States.

The USSR collapsed because socialism doesn’t work. It currently works in western Europe because the US does the heavy lifting for their defense. And had done so. Russian socialists trying to pay for the occupation of western European socialists? Vassal states are expensive.

Children shouldn’t be drone striked but it happens. Troops crossing a line on a map get hit with a tactical nuke. Then what? Does everyone sit down in Geneva to discuss it or do things get escalated further? Gulf of Tonkin didn’t happen yet was used to justify the debacle of what followed.

[Ken Shultz]

"The USSR collapsed because socialism doesn’t work."

Why did the USSR collapse without an exchange of ICBMs or an invasion of Europe?

[Ken Shultz]

The correct answer isn't, "Out of the goodness of their hearts", and a really persuasive explanation rhymes with "Plato".

[Sevo]

Ken, Conquest was alone in hitting the date pretty much correctly, but most all 'classical' economists made the point that the USSR (and China) were subject, as you often point out, to the rules of the marketplace; they both collapsed because the market said 'you can't afford this'. Those 'economies' HAD to (and did) collapse from internal contradictions.
NATO (or the US more properly) assisted by causing the USSR to 'compete' in a weapons race, but even Judt ("Post War") makes it clear that Gorbachev knew the game was up and had been for some 20 years; the only way city dwellers fed themselves was shopping in the black-market alleys, which were tolerated by the Kremlim, since shutting them down would have lead to riots.

[Chumby]

Because they couldn’t afford it. And the people wanted more than what they had.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kuckland]

Like Michel vic

[Overt]

"Because mutual defense treaties sometimes aren't enough to deter a war doesn't mean they aren't a deterrent force. "

But that is not what I said. I said the mutual defense treaties CAUSED a small regional war to turn into WWI. So it isn't a matter of questioning whether or not the treaty will prevent war, you need to also ask whether the treaty will make war more likely.

We all know that sometimes, when you provide a veneer of safety, it causes people to take on more risk than they otherwise would. Helmets led NFL players to lead with their heads more, leading to more concussions. Credit Default Swaps among banks caused them to amass significantly risky real estate portfolios. Mutual defense pacts led the Great Powers of Europe to embark on small battles, confident that they had allies to back them up.

Germany is certainly acting more risky by climbing into bed with Russia on energy, rather than face difficult political problems at home. When our biggest ally in the mutual defense treaty is determined to make itself increasingly vulnerable to the "enemy" the treaty is supposed to deter, it is reasonable to conclude that the treaty has introduced a moral hazard, and that the deterrent effect (if any exists today) is waning, and we are approaching a point where the treaty increases the risk that we are pulled into a regional war.

[Ken Shultz]

"NATO has successfully deterred Russian aggression against our allies in Europe since 1949."

It seems to me that tensions between Russia and our allies were greater before 1991 than they are now, and NATO successfully deterred Russian aggression against out allies when the pressure for the Soviet Union to be aggressive was much higher than it is now. I don't see why I should think a deterrent force will be insufficient against weaker pressure than it has withstood in the past, and I certainly don't think that we're less likely to go to war with Russia if we pull the rug out from under that deterrent force.

I'm on board with the idea that we shouldn't be drawn into a war with Russia unnecessarily. I'm not sure we can avoid that with or without NATO if Russia attacks our current NATO allies. We were drawn into the European war when the UK went to war over an invasion of Poland, and with or without NATO, I don't believe we're more isolationist now than we were before Pearl Harbor. I remain persuaded that deterring a war with Russia is the best way to avoid one, and that tearing up our mutual defense treaty will only make war with Russia more likely with that deterrent gone.

[Chumby]

We were drawn into the European war because Japan, an ally of Germany, attacked the United States and both of those nations declared war on the United States.
The US leaving NATO may result in an increased risk of conflict in Europe. But not in North America. Europe's issues should be for Europe to deal with.

[Overt]

"It seems to me that tensions between Russia and our allies were greater before 1991 than they are now, and NATO successfully deterred Russian aggression against out allies when the pressure for the Soviet Union to be aggressive was much higher than it is now. "

It seems to me that you are letting a single data point mascaraed as a universal truth. The Cold War saw the west arrayed against a regime whose FOUNDING MISSION was world domination- the establishment of a Global communist regime. That is an existential threat that effectively kept NATO together, despite internal divisions.

That is no longer the case, and NATO's own members are NOT sufficiently afraid of Russia. Germany is in fact working *with* Russia to undermine the stability of the region. They are not deterring Russian adventurism. They are actively supporting Russia with money, and blocking aid to Ukraine. This is the opposite of deterrence. It is enablement.

Germany is the #2 or #3 partner in NATO, and they are actively working to support the "enemy" and against the interests of other NATO allies and other regional neighbors.

While it may be too late to prevent a war with Russia, the best path ahead is to immediately announce our intent to withdraw from NATO. If you are correct that the MDP deters Russia from attacking, then this will give a year of breathing room to nations in the region, as Russia will happily de-escalate if they only need to wait a year for the US to clear the area.

From there it is up to Germany and other countries in the EU to figure out what they want. If Germany wants cheap Russian energy so much that they are willing to sell out Ukraine and her neighbors then they need to accept the consequences to that. And they will be much harsher consequences from the EU community than they experience when they think the US will always be there to bail them out.

[I, Woodchipper]

I'll become Canadian or Mexican before I send my sons off to die for the Ukraine.

[Ken Shultz]

No one is arguing for a war over Ukraine. Ukraine isn't in NATO.

[I, Woodchipper]

or any Nato country

[Ken Shultz]

If the decision were up to me, your sons wouldn't be sent to a war against Russia for these other counties, but I hope you can see that this mutual defense treaty is actually a deterrent to war. What if the reason your sons aren't sent off to war is because of NATO?

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

"The raid on Irving's home was one of the last investigations involving Omar Abdullah—a Raleigh police detective accused of improperly arresting 15 black men in fake drug busts."

Obviously an alt-right white supremacist.

[Gaear Grimsrud]

Yeah his name is the giveaway.

[Utkonos]

Damn Presbyterians!

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

'Last year, only three states (Idaho, Iowa, and Oklahoma) passed these sorts of laws aimed at colleges and universities. "This year's crop of educational gag orders, however, suggests their proponents are increasingly seeking to exercise ideological control over college teaching," notes PEN America'

Next year, Pi = 3.

[Moonrocks]

Why not? It's been almost two years since 2+2=5 was declared the truth.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

Critical Math Theory!

[Chumby]

Your slice of the Pi will be reduced to 2.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

" Japan is using a huge surveillance network to track elderly people with dementia."

When it comes to the US, "elderly" will mean anyone over 40, and "dementia" will mean any questioning of authority.

[Nardz]

So... nothing on gofundme freezing the $10m raised for the truckers protest?
How "libertarian"

[JesseAz]

I've seen very little coverage of the fact that the Truckers shut down one of the largest crossings to Ottawa from the US. Just the fact that Trudeau thinks they are ole meanies.

[Moonrocks]

Private Company something something...

[Mother's Lament]

It's only libertarian if the UniParty and its billionaire donors approve.

Plebian independent truckers protesting for bodily autonomy and against government compulsion is communist or something.

[Gaear Grimsrud]

Too local. Now Kenny G on the other hand...

[Overt]

"So... nothing on gofundme freezing the $10m raised for the truckers protest?"

So I do not like the idea of platforms shutting down things for political reasons, but I also think there is legitimate reason to be warry of scams here. It was never clear to me how these $10 Million were intended to get distributed to truckers. I haven't seen any pictures of booths or the like distributing gift cards to these truckers.

Back in 2010, the Tea Party movement faced a similar grift. Dozens of Tea Party organizations turned up that ended up doing nothing but enrich the founders. They maybe put out a commercial or two, but their main cause was to pay a couple of con men hundreds of thousands of dollars in salary.

Again, I have not seen any evidence to show one way or the other if this GFM was a scam- but my spider sense *is* tingling. At first blush I was wondering how the founders of that fund could possibly plug into a grass roots protest and appropriately distribute meals and hotel rooms and fuel to thousands of truckers. And I still haven't seen a lot of reason to assuage those concerns.

Don't get me wrong- if people want to throw their money away, that is their right. But I do believe a platform has it in their interest to confirm that their funds aren't a big con.

[Sevo]

See BLM, for example.

[Overt]

Yes, that is a more recent example.

[Gaear Grimsrud]

Diesel ain't cheap even if you're just idling a 500 horse power engine to stay warm.

[Cronut]

I tried to do some digging on this, but it's hard to find a story that has any decent level pf detail and doesn't degenerate into some ridiculous TDS-addled screed within 3 paragraphs. Although most of them did include the fact that the organizer has been working with Go Fund Me to provide distribution plans for the funds. GoFundMe does have an interest in making sure their platform isn't used fornfraud, so I don't think that's a terribly unreasonable request by them, especially considering the huge amount of money.

One interesting tid bit I did find was this:

"City councilor and chair of the Ottawa Police Services Board Diane Deans suggested that Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson and Trudeau get in touch with GoFundMe and demand that protesters not be given access to the millions of dollars raised."

https://www.ctvnews.ca/mobile/politics/calls-rev-up-for-feds-to-intervene-in-ottawa-trucker-convoy-protest-1.5765613

Maybe it has nothing to do with it, but it's interesting that this story was published on Wednesday and today the funds are frozen, to make sure they don't violate "terms of service," which include "funds cannot be used or raised with the implicit or explicit purpose of violating any law or if there is involvement of “User Content” that is in support of hate, violence, harassment, bullying or “intolerance of any kind relating to race, ethnicity, national origin.” It also happened a few days after some pictures of some guys with Nazi flags and some vague reports of people committing crimes or harassing other people...

[JesseAz]

They already provided a plan to GoFundMe for distribution.

[ElvisIsReal]

I linked it briefly today.

https://simulationcommander.substack.com/p/quick-news-hits

[Sevo]

When Denmark leads, you know you're in trouble:
"Denmark becomes first EU country to lift all Covid-19 restrictions"
[...]
"Denmark has lifted all Covid-19 restrictions within the country, with coronavirus no longer considered a "socially critical sickness," according to the government.
This means that an indoor mask mandate, the use of a "Covid pass" for bars, restaurants and other indoor venues, and the legal obligation to self-isolate if you test positive are all ending.
"No one can know what will happen next December. But we promised the citizens of Denmark that we will only have restrictions if they are truly necessary and we'll lift them as soon as we can," Danish Health Minister Magnus Heunicke told CNN on Monday. "That's what's happening right now."..."
https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/denmark-becomes-first-eu-country-to-lift-all-covid-19-restrictions/ar-AATmoJM?ocid=uxbndlbing

A sane government!

[I, Woodchipper]

Besides Sweden that is...

[R Mac]

They can’t lead the way out because they never went in in the first place.

[Utkonos]

That’s Great for the Danes, but why are the rest of us being thrown to the dogs?

[Sevo]

Expect an exponential rise in deaths from cancer:

"Biden Aims to Reduce Cancer Deaths by 50% Over Next 25 Years"
[...]
"WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Wednesday set a 25-year timeline to cut in half the cancer death rate, a lofty but perhaps unrealistic goal that is meant to “supercharge” an initiative started when he was vice president to eradicate the disease that killed his older son, Beau..."
https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2022-02-02/biden-aims-to-reduce-cancer-deaths-by-50-over-next-25-years

[damikesc]

Didn't that Initiative get shut down and give literally zero to cancer research?

[JesseAz]

That's why he tried to increase cancer deaths by discouraging people from getting tests for cancer during the lockdown. Raise the rates, then go back to normal. Win.

[I, Woodchipper]

"Stop indoctrinating young children with communism, trans-gender bullshit, and class marxism in the public schools I'm forced to pay for at gun point" is not a "gag order"

[I, Woodchipper]

"Is there a constitutional right to sex work?" asks the Boston Review. "The Supreme Court recognizes the right of consenting adults to an erotic life free of state control. Given that, it shouldn't matter whether sex is your job."

In any country that wants to call itself "free", you should, as a starting point, at least own your own body. That includes whoring yourself out for money.

That is not the case here in the USA sadly.

[The Encogitationer]

"Is there a constitutional right to sex work?" asks the Boston Review. "

Yes. Next question.

The Supreme Court recognizes the right of consenting adults to an erotic life free of state control. Given that, it shouldn't matter whether sex is your job."

George Carlin said it first and best. If it's legal to get paid and it's legal to fuck, why isn't it legal to get paid to fuck?

[JesseAz]

Constitution doesn't technically grant rights, it grants powers to the federal government.

[damikesc]

Yeah, not sure why I should care if a woman wants to sell her pussy or a man wants to sell his dick. Not my business.

[Mother's Lament]

It could be your business for as little as $20 if you're not fussy.

[damikesc]

I have no desire to have my dick fall off. 🙂

[I, Woodchipper]

Due to the demise of the 9th and 10th, we now need a constitutional amendment establishing full personal sovereignty over one's own body.

[American Mongrel]

Good luck on hashing out the formal legal definition of one's own body.

[Don't look at me!]

The unborn may have some ideas.

[I, Woodchipper]

"Trump's pandemic travel bans received vastly different media treatment than Biden's," writes Reason's Matt Welch.

Is this actually news to someone? Imagine being that person who didn't already know this.

[Stuck in California]

That'd be great.

Ignorance is bliss, afterall. And anyone who genuinely does not think Trump coverage was different has to be remarkably blissful.

[Hank Phillips]

Imagine being a person... as opposed to a Trumpanzee.™ Nobody else cares about the minority candidate the electoral college gave a pass to any more than we care about Hillary whining about Rooshian hackers robbing "her" votes. Crybabies who insist on bad and worse coercion need to learn to handle disappointment.

[Joe Brandon]

fuck off grandpa.

[damikesc]

In lame pop culture news: Masked Singer judges Ken Jeong and Robin Thicke left the set over being upset that Rudy Giuliani was a contestant.

Sure, working with a bigot like Nick Cannon (seriously, look at what what he has said in the past) is no biggie. But a Trump guy? Don't people know Trump is racist?

[ElvisIsReal]

Holy shit that's hilarious.

Rudy's life has been going downhill ever since Ron Paul delivered that smackdown during the debate (then afterward with the reading list, including the 9/11 commission report).

[Unicorn Abattoir]

The Pentagon said a U.S. raid in northwest Syria was "successful." The White Helmets, a Syrian civil defense group, said that it killed six kids.

6 kids killed in Syria is a 40% reduction from the 10 killed in Afghanistan. Success!!

[Hank Phillips]

Killing kids is the Republican definition of success. Why else poison alcohol with methanol, ban non-addictive drugs like acid, cacti, weed and shrooms and send SWAT teams shooting up neighborhoods over everything that is not booze or tobacco?

[Joe Brandon]

fuck off grandpa.

[Ali Akbar Alexander]

https://theweek.com/feature/1009651/the-strange-return-of-the-libertarian-moment

Boy, these guys sure have it wrong. Read this…

But it would be a mistake to think these appeals succeed because Americans have any newfound appreciation for Milton Friedman, Friedrich Hayek, or other libertarian thinkers. More than any coherent political theory, the libertarian revival draws on inarticulate but powerful currents of anti-authoritarianism in American culture.

{LOL}. These guys apparently haven’t read the comments section of reason.com. Apparently, all you have to do now to be a libertarian is shovel down Trump’s cock all the time, which I might mention as a gay, Black conservative who is GOPProud I’m just fine doing. Much easier than reading Hayek.

[Mother's Lament]

"apparently, all you have to do now to be a libertarian is shovel down Trump’s cock all the time"
Poor Shrike. Parody doesn't work when it's twisted with the pathetic bitterness and foot-stamping rage of the wannabe parodist.

[Sevo]

"apparently, all you have to do now to be a libertarian is shovel down Trump’s cock all the time"

Dunno which (muted) TDS-addled pile of lefty shit posted that, but I have a hint: Nobody here cares about your erotic fantasies.
Fuck off and die, asshole.

[Hank Phillips]

Ayn Rand was explicitly in favor of decriminalizing drugs and porn, though she was opposed to both. However, unlike the former fascist or exclusively male "libertarians" that give conservatives such hard-ons, she pointedly defended an individual woman's right to birth control and termination of unwanted pregnancies.

[Bubba Jones]

The cops raided the address on the warrant. They didn't injure anyone.

Cops being scary on a raid isn't actionable.

[damikesc]

The innocent person was put thru hell. She deserves and is warranted compensation. If the wrong address is there, then either the judge who issued it or the cops who requested it should be forced to answer for it.

If it happened to the cops or the judge, rest assured, heads would roll.

[mad.casual]

You're extrapolating from what Bubba didn't write. As you state, the wrong addy is on the warrant. If the warrant had disappeared and the only footage of it was on the video I could maybe understand wider disclosure of the video. But since the warrant hasn't disappeared, and AFAICT none of the other conduct has been in any way refuted, I don't see what benefit disclosing the video to the public would achieve other than publicly defaming the police/defendants, which the court *should* be barred from participating in or facilitating.

'Running behind someone with a gun' is not a crime for civilians or police officers. If you think there is a crime on the video, sit down with your attorney, who has the footage, identify it, and then get back to us.

The 'no one was killed' clause is bullshit. They're *obligated* to disclose it if someone was killed but, per discussions about Reason's retardations when they were on the body cam bandwagon, the police cannot force officers (or civilians) to provide body cam footage establishing their own guilt in failing to wash their hands after leaving the restroom. If they planted evidence, allege that and disclose the video. If they threatened to shoot someone for disobeying, allege that and disclose the video. Don't say "They showed up with guns!" and then get pissy that the courts won't let you publicly impugn people for showing up in places with guns. Again, ENB laid out these exact arguments in her typical "borders for thee, but not for me", totally-not-unprincipled, "bowf sidez but not my side" hot take about gay men being outed by police article just yesterday.

[Dace Highlander]

Well Kyle Rittenhouse wasn't accused of running behind someone with a gun, he was accused of just running with a gun.

[I, Woodchipper]

Just one of those things I guess, eh? It's all part of the price we pay to live in civilization. Gotta be ready to be accidentally raided by agents of the police state at any time!

[Hank Phillips]

Like Parsons in 1984, when his kids ratted him out to the Thought Police.

[Sevo]

Satire?

[mad.casual]

Fact.

Yolanda's allegations with regard to the video is 'Men showed up with guns and I was scared!' Even private citizens can't be sued for 'owning guns and people being scared' and it would be unjust and immoral for a court to participate in the public impugning of them for it just as much as it would be immoral for the police to be broadcasting the arrest of gay men in the Mt. Fairy Forest even though those gay men actually did commit a crime. Even by the same stupid precepts that I cite as being stupid in ENB's reporting of Mt. Fairy Forest; police commit suicide at much higher rates than the gen pop. If gays should be shielded from public shame because of suicide risk, why not anyone/everyone else?

[mad.casual]

Fact.

That is, 'Not satire, Fact.'

[Hank Phillips]

Was the warrant for sticks and seeds, plant leaves or asset-forfeiture loot?

[Jerry B.]

“The 10 worst colleges for free speech.”

Rev. Kirkland outraged that Liberty University doesn’t top the list.

[Unicorn Abattoir]

He'd be pissed if his own university didn't top the list.

[Don't look at me!]

Pfft. Like he went to one.

[mad.casual]

OK, first, let me say "Yay for Denmark!" (I believe my positions on science, Science!, and libertarianism have been otherwise clearly established) but, also, I do kinda feel the need to lament the definitive death of *s*cience and subsequent grave pissing:

Michael Bang Petersen @M_B_Petersen
Why this lack of worry? Because Danes are highly vaccinated - and our data shows that their trust in the vaccines are high. 81 % of the entire population are vaccinated and 61 % of the population have received a booster vaccine. Vaccines are available from 5 years & up. (6/19)

Uh, so belief in a fickle vaccine is sufficient but belief in a fickle God and 'nature is gonna nature' is (still) lunacy? Got it.

Furthermore, virtually all infections in Denmark are now omicron. The combination of omicron and high booster coverage decouples infection and severity (https://ft.com/content/03aa46e2-ac3a-4c16-82be-431ea4c43e58). While there are high case counts, the pressure on hospitals is lower than in previous waves. (7/19)

Uh, your own graph shows an 'in hospital' peak, higher than any other, distinctly centered in a region you've labeled as the 'Omicron wave'. And your 'in ICU' numbers are higher now than when lockdowns were initially announced in Denmark in May '20. So, in the context of favorability of re-opening on spurious reasoning, it would be fair to say the whole reaction was bullshit, right? That any/all of your data other than the favorability of reopening is just wasted ink and public health dollars?

[Zeb]

The idiots and authoritarians need a way out where they can save face. Probably the best we can hope for. They will never admit how badly they fucked up.

[mad.casual]

I understand they need a way out and would like to save face. I don't need them to admit to anything, especially if I can hit them hard enough with the door on the way out. And it's not about vengeance or retribution, it's about making sure that they get the message not to bother with numbers and percentages in the future, that everything should literally be on fire, the sky should literally be falling, and we're literally running out of places to store the bodies before they come back. They've more than used up their free cries of 'Wolf!'.

[Sevo]

"In Chicago, "19 people convicted of crimes they did not commit, all tied to former Chicago police sergeant Ronald Watts, will have their cases thrown out," WGN-TV reports. So far, 115 cases associated with Watts have been thrown out."

Has Watts been thrown out? If not, why not?

[Chumby]

Watts should at least be grounded.

[Don't look at me!]

Run it through the circuit court.

[Uilleam]

He's too well insulated.

[Its_Not_Inevitable]

The copper may be in for a shock.

[mad.casual]

110 cases... 115 cases, whatever it takes.

[Chumby]

sarc likes to get to the bottom of a case.

[R Mac]

And that’s just before dinner.

[Chumby]

Squirrelock Holmes and the case of the missing case

[Hank Phillips]

The Mechanical Hound in Fahrenheit 451 injected its suspects with a speedball of morphine and cocaine. I'm wondering about these border Hounds. Most are fleeing the Hooverville slums "our" looter government has exported to "their" politicians at gunpoint wrapped in "aid" bribes. Left alone, they could export cocaine and have a healthy economy. If the border Hounds also jab people with drugs, where's the deterrent, now that they are more difficult to get abroad?