Open Thread

What’s on your mind?

Comments

[Malika la Maize]

The Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, is authorized by law to make final decisions about coin designs, including these 250th anniversary coins — a dime, a half-dollar and five quarters — which are both collectible and legal tender. But his choices ignored the more diverse recommendations for the quarters by the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee, a bipartisan group mandated by Congress to review the U.S. Mint’s proposed designs for American coins.

To commemorate the abolition of slavery, the committee had recommended an image of Frederick Douglass on the obverse and shackled and unshackled hands on the reverse. To honor women’s suffrage, a World War I-era protester carrying a “Votes for Women” flag. And to evoke the civil rights movement, a 6-year-old Ruby Bridges, books in hand, helping to desegregate the New Orleans school system in 1960.

Mr. Bessent opted instead for the more general, and much whiter. For the Mayflower Compact, a Pilgrim couple staring into the distance. For the Revolutionary War, a profile of Washington. For the Declaration of Independence, a profile of Thomas Jefferson. For the Constitution, a profile of James Madison. And for the Gettysburg Address, a profile of Lincoln on the obverse, and on the reverse, a pair of interlocking hands. No shackles…

This latest skirmish over how the United States sees and presents itself is rooted in the little-known Circulating Collectible Coin Redesign Act of 2020, signed by Mr. Trump on Jan. 13, 2021, one week after the Capitol riot. The act authorized the production of coins celebrating the country’s 250th anniversary, including quarters of up to five different designs, with the specification that one of the five be emblematic of women’s contribution “to the birth of the Nation or the Declaration of Independence” or any other monumental American moment…

As for the requirement that one of the coin designs celebrate the contributions of women to the great American experiment, the Mint cited the image of a Pilgrim holding the hand of, and being embraced by, her protective male partner.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/14/us/coins-us-250th-anniversary.html

[Frank Drackman]

(People are saying) that Frederick Douglas has done an amazing job and is being recognized more and more I notice

[Dr. Ed 2]

It's about time someone stood up for White Males.

[Malika la Maize]

On coins? It’s been pretty much all white makes all the time, ya goof.

[grb]

Dr. Ed 2 : "It's about time someone stood up for White Males."

Yep. Today's Right is all about 24/7 never-ending nonstop professional Victimhood™, no matter how ludicrous.

And no victimhood is more absurd than that of whiny white males....

[Dr. Ed 2]

And the middle shall cease to hold.

[Frank Drackman]

On our Israel Trip in 2008 (we didn't call it Aliyah) I said to my then Teen Daughters, who wanted to stay at our Hotel in Tel Aviv,
"You're going to Bethlehem and you'll like it! Now stop the Slouching!!!!"
Nobody got it.

Frank "You're making Aliyah? I've got some Imodium"

[DDHarriman]

Oh Em Gee! What will the Euros and Israeli's think of us if we don't profess our loyalty to The Current Thing!

We'll be on the Wrong Side of History!!!! It's The Worse Thing, Literally, Imaginable!

[Magister]

Stephen Colbert observed that the Revolutionary War quarter depicts a soldier on the reverse, thus violating the 3rd amendment: "No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered...".

[Zarniwoop]

I LOL’d when I saw that; not a lot of 3rd Amd jokes in late-night comedy!

[Frank Drackman]

Colbert's about as funny as giving a rubber crutch to the kid on that Shriner's Hospital Commercial.

[MoreCurious]

Don't stop now! We can hardly wait for your reviews of Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon.

[not guilty]

Another federal district court judge -- this one appointed by Donald Trump -- has entered a scathing order calling out the Department of Homeland Security agents and government lawyers for submitting “evasive and demonstrably false” claims to the court under oath. https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/central-islip-holding-room-ruling-brooklyn-federal.pdf

The nut graph of the December 18, 2025 order states:

Therefore, it is further ORDERED that as part of the above-described December 30 submission, counsel for respondents shall SHOW CAUSE why the Court should not consider entering an order of contempt or some other remedy in connection with ICE’s failures to follow its orders in this case.

The Court does not explicitly specify whether the contemplated order of contempt is civil or criminal in nature. That is unfortunate, IMO. The Respondents need to know whether the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination is or is not available to them.

An order imposing criminal contempt sanctions could become nugatory if the Doofus-in-chief exercises his pardon power. OTOH, an order of civil contempt jailing DHS officials until compliance with prior court orders is had could help to put the fear of the Courts into other Trump administration officials.

Pass the popcorn.

[Drewski]

It's civil. A show cause for criminal has to say it's for criminal, per crim p 42.

[not guilty]

Actually, the notice of criminal contempt proceedings can be given in open court at a later time or in an arrest order. Per Fed.R.Crim.P. 42(1), such notice must:

(A) state the time and place of the trial;

(B) allow the defendant a reasonable time to prepare a defense; and

(C) state the essential facts constituting the charged criminal contempt and describe it as such.

The December 18, 2025 order would not by itself satisfy the notice requirement, but that does not preclude future criminal contempt proceedings upon subsequent notice.

[Drewski]

This is for civil, as I say. If the judge wants to later initiate criminal proceedings then yes obviously they can you blithering idiot. Any child could have told you that. You're not contributing usefully to the dialogue here.

[Magister]

Isn't it just a statement that court might in the future consider entering an order of contempt? So whether or not it says anything now about civil or criminal contempt does not mean it must be civil. Seemed like a useful observation to me. I'm not sure I've ever known any children who would have been able to tell us that.

[Drewski]

There's a show cause hearing notice. NG wasn't sure if it was for civil or criminal. If it were for criminal contempt, it must specify that. It does not. Therefore it is civil.

Not a big deal but NG is so insecure he had to say a bunch of stupid shit to save face and format it to look well-thought-out. It successfully impressed you because you are a child. But it's bullshit behavior. He'd be insufferable to work with. He's pretty insufferable to read here and I usually agree with him.

[Dr. Ed 2]

Trump 45 made mistakes with Judicial appointments because of Blue Slips

[not guilty]

Judge Brown, who was then a United States Magistrate Judge, was initially nominated by President Obama. That nomination expired on January 3, 2017, at the end of the 114th Congress. He was then nominated twice by President Trump before being confirmed on December 19, 2019. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_R._Brown

No matter what the circumstances of their nominations, federal judges do not take kindly to being trifled with.

[Dr. Ed 2]

Like I said, someone whom Trump ought not have nominated.

And as to Federal judges, let's see how they like being "disappeared" to GITMO. I'm totally serious, Trump has been thwarted by these fascists in black -- who should be removed to black sites...

What do you think Eisenhower would have done if his "Operation Wetback" had been thwarted by fascists in black?

[SRG2]

Dr Ed clearly believes that the purpose of a Federal judge is to approve what the regime does.

[Stella Link's Ghost]

Don't you think it's cute how he brands people desirous of preserving the rule of law 'fascist"? Bless his little black heart.

[DDHarriman]

Now tell us your thoughts on SCOTUS...

[SRG2]

You need to be more specific.

[Stella Link's Ghost]

"What do you think Eisenhower would have done if his "Operation Wetback" had been thwarted "

Probably had another heart attack or stroke. Otherise, he might have hit the links. (more than 800 rounds during his presidency).

[Sarcastr0]

Dude should read more about Eisenhower.

He was a pretty chill guy, considering. He knew how to handle a setback by switching to another tact, vs. becoming a maniac.

[Dr. Ed 2]

Yes, he sent in the CIA...

[David Nieporent]

I'm totally serious,

Of all the things Dr. Ed is not, a serious person is at the very very very very very very very top of the list.

[David Nieporent]

Like I said, someone whom Trump ought not have nominated.

Yes, but you are — functionally — retarded. And you know nothing about this judge.

What do you think Eisenhower would have done if his "Operation Wetback" had been thwarted by fascists in black?

Telling the government that it can't round up and disappear people is literally the opposite of fascism. And I think Eisenhower would have complied with the order, because that's what normal sane people do.

[Riva]

It couldn’t possibly be more gross judicial overreach. That never happens.

And Not Guilty, all these political rants and you apparently don’t understand blue slips that effectively give home‑state senators a veto or leverage over presidential nominees to federal district courts. With district judges, it’s almost always the choice of the sitting democrat senator. That’s why most are political hacks regardless of whether they were nominated by a republican president.

[Stella Link's Ghost]

"blue slips that effectively give home‑state senators a veto or leverage over presidential nominees "
As is the filibuster, the blue slip tradition is a feature of the Senate's rules which can be modified by a simple majority of senators. Why do you suppose the Republican majority in the Senate does not simply change the rule if it is so hampering to El Puerco's agenda?

[DDHarriman]

Because the Establishment Republicans are more Democrat than they are American.

[Riva]

Whether they should change that rule or the filibuster is an entirely different question. The fact remains that while it is in place, it is absurd to blindly refer to the nominating president to support the “credibility” of any given insane district court overreach. But that’s a game Not Guilty and other trolls love to play.

[David Nieporent]

The "game" is to pretend that blue slips prevent presidents from appointing reasonable people of their own ideological persuasion.

[Riva]

The purpose of blue slips is to interfere or block presidential nominees. They’re not colorful Post-It Notes.

[David Nieporent]

The purpose of blue slips is to make sure that a president consults with home state senators on nominations and nominates people acceptable to the home state. Of course, its mechanism is to sometimes block nominees if the president decides not to engage in such consultation.

In that way, of course, it's the same as the advice-and-consent provision generally; its purpose isn't to block nominations, but to ensure that the president's nominees are acceptable. The only way to ensure that is to sometimes block nominees.

[Riva]

Uh huh. In other words (and more honestly and succinctly), it’s purpose is to block presidential nominees.

[David Nieporent]

Those are indeed other words, but they are wrong.

[SRG2]

"Judicial overreach" - i.e., finding against Dear Leader, whose word is law.

[not guilty]

Blue slips are irrelevant here, Riva. A federal district judge, no matter the circumstances of his/her appointment, should not tolerate litigants and lawyers submitting “evasive and demonstrably false” claims to the court under oath, as is the case here.

Your "Look! There's a squirrel!" tactic is unavailing.

[Riva]

You’re the one who went out of his way to make a note of the nominating president, as if this somehow lent credibility to this judge. And I don’t take this particular judicial hack’s claims as valid, any more than I do your comments.

[David Nieporent]

The Court does not explicitly specify whether the contemplated order of contempt is civil or criminal in nature. That is unfortunate, IMO. The Respondents need to know whether the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination is or is not available to them.

As long as the possibility of criminal contempt is on the table, the 5A is available to them.

[not guilty]

"As long as the possibility of criminal contempt is on the table, the 5A is available to them."

That is correct. I worded my comment above inartfully. The privilege against self-incrimination is available in civil litigation as well as in criminal proceedings. But if the privilege is asserted, the factfinder in a civil action can draw an adverse inference. The defendants in the instant matter should be apprised of the potential consequences of asserting the privilege.

[John F. Carr]

Unless the individual ICE agents are facing personal liability for monetary damages, the possibility of an adverse inference ought not to scare them. What's it to them if one alien can't be deported?

[not guilty]

"Unless the individual ICE agents are facing personal liability for monetary damages, the possibility of an adverse inference ought not to scare them. What's it to them if one alien can't be deported?"

If some agents are jailed until the photograph(s) which the Court ordered are produced, do you doubt that they will squeal like Bobby Trippe? (Showing my age here.)

[Magister]

The Trump administration might fire them if they demonstrate any reluctance to lie on its behalf, which would be a personal financial consequence.

[John F. Carr]

If a picture of the holding cell all that is at stake the easy way out is to order some previously uninvolved ICE agent to take the picture. Otherwise, self-incrimination ought to protect an agent from having to take a picture that might be used against him in a criminal case. I assume ICE was not so careless as to take a picture and then conceal it. Once the picture exists providing it is no more self-incrimination than unlocking a phone so police can find child porn. (Under federal law. The states are not uniform.)

[David Nieporent]

Taking a picture of something that exists that you are directed to take a picture of is not testimonial, so self-incrimination does not come into play.

[John F. Carr]

The judge was concerned with the conditions in the overcrowded holding cell. Federal judges have ordered state prison systems, notably California's, to reduce crowding. I don't know the procedural posture of those state prison cases. A class action habeas corpus action might be suitable to uncrowd ICE facilities.

This judge puts all the blame on ICE, not on the Assistant US Attorney.

[Mr. Bumble]

Now do NYC, Fulton County and DC jails.

[Malika la Maize]

An order imposing criminal contempt sanctions could become nugatory if the Doofus-in-chief exercises his pardon power.

?? ?

[not guilty]

"Criminal contempt is a crime in the ordinary sense; it is a violation of the law, a public wrong which is punishable by fine or imprisonment or both." Bloom v. Illinois, 391 U.S. 194, 201 (1968). A contemnor before or after a judgment of criminal contempt accordingly can be pardoned by the President. Ex Parte Grossman, 267 U.S. 87, 115-116 (1925). The same is not true, however, of civil contempts. Id., at 111.

[Frank Drackman]

You 2 should get a room

[Bwaaah]

I no longer need to remember Margaret Thatcher naked on a cold day.

[Malika la Maize]

I was disagreeing with him, dolt.

[not guilty]

On what basis do you disagree? A president can pardon a federal criminal contemnor, but not one subject to a civil contempt order.

[TwelveInchPianist]

Wow. Take a cold shower, dude.

[A Japanese Student]

While the SCOTUS is hearing cases on the right to bear arms, the Supreme Court of Japan is hearing a case on... the right to kill a bear with arms. Bear sightings are common occurrences today (consuming living human every week or so), but bears were not a news topic in 2018, when the incident occurred.

The police called a licensed hunter to shoot a bear in a neighborhood. Supervised by a cop, he shot and killed the bear.

Six months later he is subjected to police investigation for recklessly discharging a firearm, allegedly aimed at a house. The criminal case is dropped while the police revokes the hunting license. According to the police, the shooting violated hunting laws, which prohibits hunting in residential areas, and the shot "could have been reflected by the embankment and hit a house."

District court found this unreasonable and restored the license; on appeal the court reversed and the police won. The Supreme Court scheduled oral argument next year. Given that the Court almost always reverses when it hears a case, the hunter is almost certain to get his license back.

[Frank Drackman]

Do Japs have the right to keep and arm Bears?

[Malika la Maize]

Frankie remembers his dad keeping many a bear.

[Frank Drackman]

I get it, My Mom's a Slut and My Dad's a Fag, and your Mom put Velcro on the Ceiling to keep you and your 27 Bruthas and Sistas from jumping on the Bed, Good thing I don't believe in Santa Claus.

Frank

[NvEric]

Back in the late 70s, chrome mask making, where the layers of a chip were put on glass substrates with chrome patterns, there occurred defects on the edges of the lines, half circles called 'mouse nips'. Well, by the early 80s they changes the wording to 'mouse bites' so as to not be offensive.

Those were the heyday years of walking off the street and later becoming and engineer in the real Silicon Valley, the once proud manufacturing base for semiconductors in the USA which was already being disbursed to overseas plants.

There was a freak accident on Central Expressway next to National Semiconductor, where a semi-truck came over the top of the Wolfe Rd. overpass, and the bump, a grade mismatch from the concrete, somehow unhitched the trailer which then traveled over and into the on coming traffic where it decapitated one of the chemical handlers as he was going home.

[ducksalad]

consuming living human every week or so

Wait, what?

[JoeFromtheBronx]

Yogi is no longer satisfied with picnic baskets.

[David Nieporent]

He's smarter than the average bear, though.

[Brett Bellmore]

"Six months later he is subjected to police investigation for recklessly discharging a firearm, allegedly aimed at a house."

Not quite clear: Is this the same incident where the police themselves had brought him in to shoot a bear, or a different incident?

[JoeFromtheBronx]

Cleveland Amory, who wrote about his cat Polar Bear, once promoted (perhaps facetiously) the right to arm bears.

[Frank Drackman]

Must have been a long time ago, I bought a "Right to Keep and Arm Bears" T-shirt at a Gun Show in 1988
That was before the Homos bogarted the term "Bear"

Frank

[SRG2]

It baffles me why Japanese suffer so many more harmful incidents with bears than Americans. While grizzlies and polar bears are known for their dangerousness, the number of people actually attacked or killed by either is very low.

Do Japanese, on seeing a bear, think that this particular bear will be friendly?

[Absaroka]

Interesting question. One discussion. They don't give numbers, but one possibility is the human population density in bear areas. For most of the grizzly habitat in the US the human density is pretty low.

The grizzly was hunted almost to extinction in the lower 48. One theory is that only the most human-avoiding bears survived. Even today messing with people is dangerous for bears. For example, in Montana this year almost half of known mortality was self defense or killing problem bears (click on 'Table' for a list) (n.b. this is known mortality - I have no idea how many deaths are due to old age or whatever).

We have a cabin in bear country and regularly interact with bears, black and grizz. Their reaction is usually to leave rapidly. A majority of people in the area are armed, so that's a good outcome for everyone. A bear that started stalking people would probably not last long.

[Magister]

Another story about bear attacks in Japan:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/11/14/whats-behind-a-surge-in-bear-attacks-in-japan

[TwelveInchPianist]

Protip: if you carry a pistol for protection in Grizzly county, always file the front sight off.

[SRG2]

Ah yes, that oldie but goodie!

[Brett Bellmore]

I suspect it's got something to do with the way the Japanese are abandoning their countryside, which is returning to the wild.

The range of the bears is growing, bringing them into areas where people aren't acquainted with them.

[not guilty]

My fellow Middle Tennessean, David French, is a unicorn -- an intellectually honest conservative whom I can respect.

He has an interesting New York Times op-ed column with sone interesting insights into self-styled "Christian" fundamentalists. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/21/opinion/christ-christmas-humility-kingdom-god.html For those who are too cheap to subscribe to the Times, this may be helpful. https://lifehacker.com/how-to-bypass-a-paywall-to-read-an-article-for-free

During this season when we celebrate Christmas, I am very glad that Gaius Turranius, prefect of Egypt from 7 B.C.E. to 4 B.C.E., did not have to deal with a Make Egypt a Great Roman Province Again movement that demanded that Mary, Joseph and their offspring be sent back to Herod the Great in Jerusalem.

[Mr. Bumble]

I think you meant eunuch.

[Frank Drackman]

I guess you're not a Christer? Because even a Hebrew like me knows that going to Jew-rusalem was the whole point of His coming to Earth in the first place. Herod the "Great"?? more like Herod the Mediocre, although he does make me realize my Dad wasn't so bad after all. (Didn't murder me, just made me get a Crew Cut when everyone else had the long hair, then why I could have the long hair, short hair made a comeback)

Frank

[not guilty]

"I guess you're not a Christer? Because even a Hebrew like me knows that going to Jew-rusalem was the whole point of His coming to Earth in the first place"

I am a Christian believer, albeit with healthy skepticism about whether Yahweh is the Father to whom Jesus the Christ refers.

[Dr. Ed 2]

Egypt was part of the Roman Empire at the time, Jesus, Mary, Joseph were Roman subjects, it was like going from Maine to Missouri.

[Moderation4ever]

The point is the Holy Family and Jesus were refugees! What does it take for that to sink in. You are quibbling with technical details to avoid the issue.

[Dr. Ed 2]

People fleeing blue states are refugees?

[Moderation4ever]

Really are they under death threats? You can not rationalize the facts away.

[Stella Link's Ghost]

"People fleeing blue states are refugees?"

Just like Mary and Joseph.

[Bob from Ohio]

They soon went back. Our "refugees" live here forever.

[Moderation4ever]

Your comment is not exactly true. Joseph returned his family to Israel when the situation was resolved, Herod was dead and no longer a threat to Jesus. Refugees in this country do leave. Many returned to eastern Europe after the fall of the Soviet Union. I don't have numbers for this but one example Valdas Adamkus. Born in Lithuania he would immigrate to the US work for years for the US EPA including as Administrator of EPA Region 5 in Chicago. Valdus would return an become President of Lithuania.

[Commenter_XY]

They need to leave faster. Much faster.

[SRG2]

The point is the Holy Family and Jesus were refugees!

Careful, you'll be claiming that the Holy Family and Jesus were not really whites next.

[Malika la Maize]

Did Rome have something like a right to interstate travel?

[David Nieporent]

MAGA hates David French more than almost anyone else, because French holds up a mirror to their 'unchristian' behavior. He's one of the few prominent evangelicals who actually mean it when they claim to be religious, as opposed to the fakers who just wear Christianity as a political costume. (Until I really started paying attention to French about a decade ago, I was pretty convinced that everyone on the religious right was insincere, that they all just used the label as a cloak to justify doing whatever it is they wanted to do anyway. He revealed to me that it's possible to be a religious conservative without being a sanctimonious prick.)

[Bob from Ohio]

Maybe some day someone will reveal to me that it's possible to be a libertarian without being a sanctimonious prick.

[Sarcastr0]

Trump -
Claims he won a random county in North Carolina by 92%
Claims the US controls 92% of the Gulf of Mexico
Claims he won the votes of veterans by 92%
Claims he won the votes of farmers by 92%
Claims egg prices have fallen by 92%
Claims that 92% of the media are "sick people"
Claims that drug traffic by sea is down 92%
Claims that the VA has an approval rating of 92% (actually true when it comes to VA health care, but did Trump know that?)
Claims the media had an approval rating of 92% before he ran for president

Anyone claiming this is just a normal President except the left hates him is denying reality.

https://www.theatlantic.com/national-security/2025/12/trump-strikes-caribbean-military-number-venezuela/685348/

[Frank Drackman]

You left out calling a woman a "Dog Faced Pony Soldier"
and who the (redacted) are they polling that gives the VA a 92% approval rating?? Even the VA Doctors will tell you it sucks.
"Well Sergeant Jones, I have good news and bad news about your Colonoscopy,
Good News is you don't have Colon Cancer,
Bad News is we gave you HIV because Jartavious didn't put the Scope in the "To Be Sterilized" tray, but hey, HIV can be treated!!
Umm, well, not by us, we'll refer you to "Community Care" (Announces over the Intercom) "Hey Nurse Ratchet, can you come set up Sergeant Jones HIV referral?......"

That's a true story btw

Frank

[Malika la Maize]

What a pathetic what about attempt.

[Moderation4ever]

Basic rule is that the Presidency is too much for late septuagenarians and early octogenarians. Trump is an old man with dementia. We know what it took to get Biden to drop out. What will be the tipping point for Trump? VP Vance want the Presidency in 2028 but he could be Harrised if he sticks by Trump for too long.

[Sarcastr0]

I have a different take in Vance. I think without Trump’s coat-tales he doesn’t have the juice.

[David Nieporent]

*tails.

[Magister]

Melania Trump had a controversial coat-tale.

[JoeFromtheBronx]

I saw an article regarding Ted Cruz talking about running for the presidency again, in part to run against Vance.

I think the Republicans would pick Door #3.

[Mr. Bumble]

Funny, you didn't feel that way when you voted for Biden.

[Moderation4ever]

I did not vote for Biden in the primary or the general. I voted for younger candidates in both. Where you silly enough to think Trump could make it four years? I guessing he doesn't make one and a half at the rate he is deteriorating.

[grb]

Brett Stephens in the NYT:

Right now, in every grotesque social media post; in every cabinet meeting devoted, North Korea-like, to adulating him; in every executive-order-signing ceremony intended to make him appear like a Chinese emperor; in every fawning reference to all the peace he’s supposedly brought the world; in every Neronic enlargement of the White House’s East Wing; in every classless dig at his predecessor; in every shady deal his family is striking to enrich itself; in every White House gathering of tech billionaires paying him court (in the literal senses of both “pay” and “court”); in every visiting foreign leader who learns to abase himself to avoid some capricious tariff or other punishment — in all this and more, our standards as a nation are being debased, our manners barbarized.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/16/opinion/trump-reiner-death-post-truth-social.html

(Of course today's Right thinks it's hilariously entertaining to see the once-proud USA become a third-world-grade banana republic)

[Joe_dallas]

Mod comments on Trump with dementia

First question is where were you biden's mental acuity during the biden administrations

Second - Tell what signs trump shows that are indications of dementia.

[Moderation4ever]

I made my point about Biden above. With regards to Trump he simply seems disconnected from reality. He gave an 18 minute speech last week demonstrating pressured speech. The speech itself was riddled with inaccuracies. His response to questions he doesn't like is anger, a trait of a people with failing mental health. I am not a mental health professional, but I have seen family and friends with failing mental health and I believe I am right about Trump.

[Bob from Ohio]

"pressured speech"

Its cute when people discover a concept and think they are and expert.

[Commenter_XY]

'I believe'. Sure, I believe you're a partisan.

[David Nieporent]

The first question is a stupid whatabout. It's a whatabout — which is inherently stupid — and it's also an extra special stupid whatabout because it's illogical. "If you didn't support increased airport security before 9/11, you shouldn't support it after 9/11."

The second question is: everything people claimed about Biden. He often has no idea where he is or who he's talking to or what he's saying or doing. He blurts out random inappropriate things, like senile people often do He had to actually have places in the White House labeled so he wouldn't get confused about where he was. He repeats himself without realizing it. When confused, he lashes out at random. The usual signs, in other words.

[Joe_dallas]

gotta scream "whataboutism" to distract from leftists double standards.

Consistently inconsistent

[Sarcastr0]

60 Minutes suddenly announced, without explanation, that they will not be airing a segment about the infamous CECOT prison in El Salvador tonight, as previously advertised.

Oh hey guess why:

"Ms. Weiss had raised numerous concerns to “60 Minutes” producers about Ms. Alfonsi’s segment on Friday and Saturday, and she asked for a significant amount of new material to be added, according to three people familiar with the internal discussions.

One of Ms. Weiss’s suggestions was to include an interview with Stephen Miller, a White House deputy chief of staff and the architect of Mr. Trump’s immigration crackdown, or a similarly high-ranking Trump administration official, two of the people said. Ms. Weiss provided contact information for Mr. Miller to the “60 Minutes” staff.

Ms. Weiss also questioned the use of the term “migrants” to describe the Venezuelan men who were deported, noting that they were in the United States illegally, two of the people said."

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/21/business/60-minutes-trump-bari-weiss.html?unlocked_article_code=1.-k8.II-C.7713nBT68i2v&smid=url-share

An internal letter about it is here:
https://bsky.app/profile/annabower.bsky.social/post/3makcwgejas27
Bari did not accept a call with the producers to discuss her decision.

Shameful, and telling. Gotta keep out hell-prison for immigrants secret!

I hate how I live in a country where we are now unequivocally the baddies, and will be for at least another year probably more.

But I do believe it won't be too long. The populism is already fading.

[Frank Drackman]

That's why they're called the Fake News.

[Dr. Ed 2]

No Gaslighto the populism is NOT fading.

[Mr. Bumble]

"I hate how I live in a country where we are now unequivocally the baddies, ..."
Feel free to leave any time it becomes too much to bear.

[Michael P]

Are you kidding? He could be surrounded by death's head regalia and still deny what they mean.

[Malika la Maize]

Maybe he just wants America to be great again?

[Mr. Bumble]

Maybe he should start by not shitposting from work.

[Malika la Maize]

If it’s good enough for the Executive…

[Stella Link's Ghost]

Beat me to it. Was going to ask if he was referring to Sarc or Trump.

[Moderation4ever]

60 Minutes has a proud tradition and Ms. Weiss is throwing that away. Being neutral means being neutral, not bowing to the Trump administration.

[ThePublius]

60 Minutes has never been neutral. It only seems neutral to people whose views coincide with it.

[Sarcastr0]

This is a factual reported story.

That you think neutrality enters into whether it’s worth putting out says a lot about your shallow worldview.

[grb]

One of the main issues Weiss raised was the lack of a response from the Trump administration to the reporting. According to Alfonsi, “we requested responses to questions and/or interviews with DHS, the White House, and the State Department.”

But the administration did not engage, which concerned Weiss. At one point, Weiss suggested that the program try to interview White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, and provided Miller’s number, one of the CBS sources said. Alfonsi argued in her memo that the administration’s strategic silence cannot be allowed to become a “veto” of a critical story.

“Their refusal to be interviewed is a tactical maneuver designed to kill the story,” she wrote. “If the administration’s refusal to participate becomes a valid reason to spike a story, we have effectively handed them a ‘kill switch’ for any reporting they find inconvenient.”

[ThePublius]

What story are you talking about? My comment was about 60 Minutes in general. Your reading comprehension leaves something to be desired.

[Sarcastr0]

So your comment was both irrelevant to this thread as well as being an unsourced, and thus substanceless, partisan attack on the media.

Sorry, gave you too much credit yet again.

Stick to the Federalist. It's carefully curated but badly sourced outrage-bait is about your speed.
Wouldn't want reality to intrude on your very angry partisan world.

[ThePublius]

It wasn't irrelevant, it was directly in response to Moderation4ever's comment that 60 Minutes has a proud tradition and has been neutral, both of which I disagree with. If you spend a little time you can find many of the controversies - scandals - 60 Minutes has perpetrated over the years. I just linked to an article listing 10 of them.

Partisanship has nothing to do with this. It's about 60 Minutes' bias and fraud.

[Sarcastr0]

OK.

60 minutes has been on the air for 57 years. Of course it's going to have some scandals in all that history.

By and large it does well resourced, well researched, factual reporting. It's gotten some things wrong over the years, as anything does. But it cares about the truth.

If you're going to make an accusation of non-neutrality, you should start by thinking about what you mean by neutrality, and why it matters.
Then, maybe back up your accusations.

Because as it is, you look like a partisan yawper, who just calls everything they don't like fake news.

[ThePublius]

That's baloney. I did post an article on a bunch of 60M scandals, most of which involved fraud, and referenced it twice in replies to you, which you conveniently ignored. In those cases they didn't care about the truth, they very intentionally lied.

And you - why didn't you call for Moderation4ever to back up his claims that 60M has a proud tradition and is neutral, as you did for my assertions? Because you are biased, Sarcastr0.

[Moderation4ever]

I am not going to suggest that 60 Minutes is neutral. Mike Wallace was a real SOB going after people. What I am suggesting is that if Bari Weiss's goal is a more neutral presentation, then pulling this story see to defeat the goal.

[Absaroka]

"Of course it's going to have some scandals in all that history.

By and large it does well resourced, well researched, factual reporting. It's gotten some things wrong over the years, as anything does. But it cares about the truth."

'OK, honey, you did catch me with lipstick on my collar a few times over the years when I said I was working late, but I really care about you and you should trust me about where I was tonight'

Credibility isn't symmetrical - it's hard to build and easy to lose. And it's not like the show made innocent, accidental mistakes - more than once they got caught bending the truth over the lunchroom table in broad daylight.

It is highly entertaining show - who doesn't like Mike Wallace sticking the mike in some sleaze's face. But they are deep in 'trust but verify' land.

Obligatory Far Side.

[Sarcastr0]

It's an instruction staffed by humans. Though I'd be interested in which stories and from when made you decide 60 Minutes intentionally deceived its audience.

I don't watch the show, but it's not lost it's reputation, except for the usual right-wing attack on all media.

I challenge your personal cynicism as overtuned if you've come to the belief that stories by 60 Minutes cannot be believed because they are making stuff up.

Let us not forget how this thread started - the new and partisan head of CBS by all accounts spiked a story for no other reason than that it was critical to the administration. It's topsy-turvey to say that's fine then because you believe 60 Minutes is biased.

[grb]

Absaroka : "But they are deep in 'trust but verify' land."

But there are no 'trust but verify' issues here. Weiss has already been quoted multiple times explaining her "reasons" and has raised no substantive problems with the reporting. Here's her latest:

"I held a 60 Minutes story because it was not ready. While the story presented powerful testimony of torture at CECOT, it did not advance the ball—the Times and other outlets have previously done similar work. The public knows that Venezuelans have been subjected to horrific treatment at this prison. To run a story on this subject two months later, we need to do more. And this is 60 Minutes. We need to be able to get the principals on the record and on camera."

As noted above, her primary objection is the White House refused to respond to factual reporting. And as the reporter in question replied, you don't spike a story because the subject of that story decides to boycott it. Not in less you're the subject's own pet bootlicker, which is the case w/ Weiss.

Please also note the remaining element of her "reasoning": Although the story "presented powerful testimony of torture at CECOT" with firsthand accounts never heard before, that's not worth getting His Royal Highness upset. Per Weiss, news that irks Dear Leader should only have the shortest of lifespans and then be completely forgotten. Dear Leader must be kept happy. Thus Weiss.

[Absaroka]

FWIW, 'cannot be believed' != 'trust but verify'. The overwhelming majority of priests and scoutmasters aren't pedophiles, but given the scandals I'm not going to trust those institutions 100% either, and I'm not going to say that the church or Boy Scouts have a proud tradition of keeping out pedos.

For a couple examples, from the wiki Killian page: "The authenticity of the documents was challenged within minutes on Internet forums and blogs, with questions initially focused on anachronisms in the format and typography, and the scandal quickly spread to the mass media. CBS and Rather defended the authenticity and usage of the documents for two weeks...".

When internet randos immediately identify your documents as forgeries and you stonewall for two weeks ... that's not good journalism.

For another, from the wiki page 'Sudden Unintended Acceleration': "60 Minutes aired a report titled "Out of Control" on November 23, 1986,featuring interviews with six people who had sued Audi after reporting unintended acceleration, including footage of an Audi 5000 ostensibly displaying a surge of acceleration while the brake pedal was depressed. Subsequent investigation revealed that 60 Minutes had not disclosed they had engineered the vehicle's behavior — fitting a canister of compressed air on the passenger-side floor, linked via a hose to a hole drilled into the transmission".

That's not just incompetent source checking, it is deliberate falsification to mislead the public.

If you think that's a proud legacy your standards are lower than mine. If you think it's reasonable to trust 60 Minutes w/o verifying, you are more credulous than I am.

These are (some of) the scandals we know about. Is your faith strong that the people who created those segments only compromised their integrity for those few episodes, or might they have been sloppy in other episodes and gotten away with it?

[Sarcastr0]

What does 'not trust 100%' mean in this context? It's a good idea to not trust any source 100% on accounta humans being humans.

I also note your example has some issues. 1) it is by all accounts not intentional; 60 minutes didn't decide it was too good not to print, they just failed to do good due diligence. 2) It's retroactive confirmation bias to point out Internet randos called out the documents. They do that for basically every document, the one where they were right is hardly a representative example.

I don't know what happened in 1986. I would not that despite the wiki source, 60 Minutes did not engineer the phony unintended acceleration - it was one of the experts who had testified on behalf of a plaintiff in a then pending lawsuit against Audi's parent company. But the lack of disclosure seems disingenuous.

It was also 40 years ago. If you're reaching that far back, you might want to check your own priors.

And your thesis is muddy. No one here is counseling blind faith in 60 Minutes.
TP dismissed them as not a neutral source. Not even he seems to be standing by that thesis anymore.
And Bari Weiss is spiking stories for reasons other than their truth value.

Those are the issues people are taking. You may be assuming an argument other than what people are making.

[David Nieporent]

These are (some of) the scandals we know about. Is your faith strong that the people who created those segments only compromised their integrity for those few episodes, or might they have been sloppy in other episodes and gotten away with it?

You just cited a grand total of two instances, one from 20 years ago and one from 40 years ago. The very fact that you have to do that should answer your question.

[Absaroka]

@GRB - I'm not commenting on the wisdom of this particular editorial decision. It seems a little fishy at a glance, but I haven't looked into it enough to offer an opinion. I pretty specifically commented on the general proposition whether the show has a 'proud tradition'.

@DMN: A)if I know someone has only cheated on their spouse twice in 50 years of marriage, I don't describe them as 'faithful'.
B)Giving two examples is not meant to imply there are only two examples. If someone has two convictions for GTA, it's possible they only stole two cars, but I'm not going to be shocked if it turns out they stole a lot more than that. If an organization will create deliberately deceptive content in one instance it seems reasonable to suspect that those same people and institutional controls might have failed in other instances. The Audi scandal wasn't just failing to adequately check sources.

[grb]

So two instances from 20 & 40 years ago are enough to establish there are No True Scotsmen in any media with anything critical to report about this administration. It seems Absaroka (and others here) are safe from hearing news they don't want to know.

I can only wonder these two things:

1. Can the "proud tradition" of Absaroka (and I'm confident one exists) also survive this 20 & 40 year timeframe? Granted, this is not geological time, but it's still a brutally strict standard.

2. And is it applied equally and universally, such as to media more obsequious and toadying to the whims of Trump? Because I'm sure Absaroka can find equal affronts to journalistic integrity from (say) Fox News, but occurring every 20 & 40 minutes, not years.

[Joe_dallas]

David Nieporent 1 hour ago
"You just cited a grand total of two instances, one from 20 years ago and one from 40 years ago. The very fact that you have to do that should answer your question."

there have been several links today showing considerably more than two - pretty weak attempt at deflection.

[Joe_dallas]

Hey remember the 60 Minutes hit job on DeSantis over the Florida vaccine roll out? Guess who.

[Absaroka]

"And is it applied equally and universally, such as to media more obsequious and toadying to the whims of Trump?"

Fox News is also firmly in trust but verify territory! TBH, most media is.

I know that the handful of times I have personal knowledge of the inside scoop for something that made the local papers, they got important details wrong. And none of those events had any particular political valence. I have no reason to think the media will be more scrupulously accurate when a story runs counter to their political worldview.

If you have noticed a pattern of the media you align with politically always getting things right while the opposing media is always wrong about the facts ... you might not be looking hard enough.

[Sarcastr0]

Who is in just trust no need to verify territory with you, Absaroka?

[Brett Bellmore]

"If you have noticed a pattern of the media you align with politically always getting things right while the opposing media is always wrong about the facts ... you might not be looking hard enough."

Truer words were never spoken.

[Magister]

Fox News is also firmly in trust but verify territory!

Fox News settled for $787.5 million paid to Dominion Voting Systems for saying things they knew were false. That looks more like "don't trust until verified" territory.

The largest defamation payment from CBS News was $16 million to Trump's presidential library, which was mostly driven by needing Trump administration approval for a merger with no evidence of actual wrongdoing.

[Absaroka]

"Who is in just trust no need to verify territory with you, Absaroka?"

Most of my friends (because if you aren't trustworthy...) and some of my relatives.

Even if you believe the media never spins things deliberately, the get stuff wrong. When you go interview a couple of men about the elephant you end up reporting it's a cross between a snake and a tree trunk. In the events I was referring to above, the reporter was neither incompetent nor malicious. They only had limited time to research a complicated situation, and they ended up with an incomplete picture.

Heck, historians don't have the time pressure and they use the same information to come up with very different conclusions. They can't all be right. To think that your preferred media should be uncritically accepted is ... wildly optimistic.

[Sarcastr0]

“ Even if you believe the media never spins things deliberately”

I never said that!

My position is grit but verify everything. My friends share badly sourced stuff all the time.
I do it too.

Switching from 60 Minutes to ‘the media’…I don’t know what you are arguing against, at this point.

[Absaroka]

"I don’t know what you are arguing against, at this point."

I was answering the question you asked.

[Sarcastr0]

You answered my question in your first paragraph.

I don't know at what issue the rest was directed.

[Joe_dallas]

60 minutes has a long history of false reporting .
Why would you think this story is factually correct.

[Commenter_XY]

Factual? Really? Are you so sure, Man of Vibe's?

[Sarcastr0]

Yes, I'm sure.

I take it you didn't read my original post, you just knee-jerk responded because you thought you could get a shot in.

Lame.

[Brett Bellmore]

Is 60 Minutes proud of rigging Audis to uncontrollably accelerate? Of rigging jeeps to roll over? Of using forged documents to attack Bush?

60 Minutes has a very mixed tradition, not a "proud" tradition. They've never been particularly neutral.

[Frank Drackman]

What I remember about the "Audi 5000 Unintended Acceleration" story was that every one of the Idiots who swore they would never mistake the Brake for the Gas looked exactly like the Idiots who would mistake the Brake for the Gas.

Frank

[David Nieporent]

When did 60 Minutes rig jeeps to roll over?

[Stella Link's Ghost]

"When did 60 Minutes rig jeeps to roll over?"
Probably the reference is to the reports on the Suzuki Samurai's tendency to go bottoms up. As I recall, when the rollover proclivity was demonstrated, the vehicles were fitted with safety outriggers to prevent the rollovers. The outriggers changed the vehicle center of gravity, probably making the rollovers more likely.

It was not intentionally a rigged demonstration, just inept.
The outriggers were installed because it was judged unsafe to allow the vehicles being driven by actual human drivers to roll over. And, the Samurai vehicles did roll over more than one should expect.

[Stella Link's Ghost]

Ok, in the link given earlier there is this about a 60 Minutes report regarding Jeep CJ5 vehicles which states:
"In actuality, testers only logged eight rollovers out of 435 runs and had hung weights on the sides of the Jeep, not visible on camera, per the National Review."

[Brett Bellmore]

They'd weighted the Jeeps to be top heavy, rotated the steering wheels faster than humanly possible, AND gunned the accelerator when they started turning the steering wheel. I'm actually impressed with how much they had to do, to achieve such a low rate of rollovers; That Jeep CJ was more stable than I realized.

If you read the National Review story, they go over several other 60 minutes auto related frauds, like the Emmy winning story about how truck wheels could come flying off... if you machined away 70% of the metal in a key area.

[David Nieporent]

Ah. I was familiar with the Suzuki one because it was 1986. Googling, I see this Jeep story was 1980. I did not recall that, because it was 45 years ago and I was 8 when that aired. LOL; any minute they're going to start talking about Duranty.

[ThePublius]

Here's some proud tradition for you:

10 Biggest ‘60 Minutes’ Controversies: Tobacco Insider, Benghazi, Trump & More

[Sarcastr0]

Nice Googling.

Here's the intro, that you didn't read:
"The CBS newsmagazine 60 Minutes isn’t just television’s longest continually running primetime series — it has also been the top U.S. news program for more than 50 years and won more Emmy Awards than any other primetime series, as its network touts.

That legacy is not without controversy, however. Many times in its five-plus-decade history, the program has gone from reporting the news to becoming the news. Here are our picks for the ten biggest 60 Minutes controversies…"

This is not an article about bias. Hell, read the scandals and you will see they're all over the political map.

You've taken to bringing sources. That's good. Next, try reading them. They may just show you some issues in the unearned confident you take in every position you have.

[ThePublius]

I never said it was an article about bias.

I'm tired of your snide remarks. You can't just refute something or bring a case, you always resort to personal attacks and insults.

BTW, I'm not the only one in this thread criticizing 60M. Why not pick on someone else? It's like you're obsessed with me.

[Sarcastr0]

You started going after 60 minutes neutrality.
Now you say no, it's about something else.

If you can't handle when I point out issues with your comments, you should comment better.

It takes a bit of effort, but I think you'll like the results.

[Joe_dallas]

The problem with your comments through out this thread - along with multiple others, is that you fail to see the outright fabrications in many of the 60 minutes stories. There is a reason the MSM has a poor reputation.

[David Nieporent]

As always, bookkeeper_joe makes vague allusions to falsehoods without identifying a single one.

And the MSM doesn't have a poor reputation. MAGA liars just say that because they hate the things that the MSM exposes about them, or because they're trying to work the refs.

[Joe_dallas]

quite a few others have provided links to many of 60 minutes fabricated stories - do you really think they need to be linked multiple times?

I have also provided links to fabricated and distorted stories from NPR - do you need those repeated?

Are you forgetting other msm fabricated stories?
Chevy PU exploding gas tanks
NPR fake impossible lab leak
suzuki roll over,
to name a few

[David Nieporent]

quite a few others have provided links to many of 60 minutes fabricated stories -

I know that there were some primitive cultures in which (supposedly) their counting system was "1, 2, many," with no numbers past 2. I would say that bookkeeper_joe is from one of those cultures, except that he skipped from "1" to "many" without even passing through "2."

Are you forgetting other msm fabricated stories?

Are you forgetting that the topic was "fabrications in many of the 60 minutes stories"?

Chevy PU exploding gas tanks

Dateline, not 60 Minutes, and it was over 30 years ago.

NPR fake impossible lab leak

Whatever weird version of your virology expertise this refers to, I'm pretty sure that NPR is also not 60 Minutes.

suzuki roll over,

Consumer Reports, not 60 Minutes, and it was over 20 years ago.

to name a few

So, in other words: a few, very old things, none of which involved 60 Minutes.

[Magister]

Even the rabbits in Watership Down could count to four.

[Joe_dallas]

David Nieporent 3 hours ago
"And the MSM doesn't have a poor reputation"

DN forgot he made this comment!

[Bob from Ohio]

"MSM doesn't have a poor reputation"

Sure, sure.

https://news.gallup.com/poll/695762/trust-media-new-low.aspx

[Commenter_XY]

The MSM has a poor reputation. Any assertion to the negative is humorous.

[Bwaaah]

Oh. Is there new information you think Sixty Minutes was going to add? Something you think Weiss is trying to hide? How can we be an informed populace with this kind of selective journalism?

Gimme a fuckin' break. It's a big world. There's lots more to cover. And you'll still have no shortage of cheerleading sessions.

Get a grip.

[Bob from Ohio]

The thing I do not get is why media outlets let junior staffers go public with purposely leaked e-mails/memos with attacks on leadership.

Do this in most businesses, a guard is escorting you out.

[Bob from Ohio]

"Oh hey guess why:"

New leadership, brought in to bring balance to reporting, actually wants balance. Shocking!

Sad for you that one of your propaganda outlets is slightly less propaganda-y.

[Glaucomatose]

With "balance" being defined here as "If you can't say anything nice about the Trump administration, don't say anything."

[Bob from Ohio]

It will run in a few weeks. Its FACISM not to run it yesterday!

[Glaucomatose]

Private news outlets can't really be fascist absent unusual circumstances, but it was craven capitulation by a boot-licking toady to kill the story.

It's good that the public backlash has gotten them to say they'll run it later on, but we'll have to wait and see whether that actually happens or not.

[Kazinski]

Well you see that's the problem:
"unequivocally the baddies".

Then you don't have to worry about airing the other side.

If Miller is "unequivocally the baddies" why not interview him?

Why not use the legal term for people who have come to the country without authorization?

Are you afraid telling the whole truth, and both sides, with fact checking won't have the impact you want?

Well then you aren't really a "news" organization, and that's how you get Bari Weiss, as your boss.

[Sarcastr0]

If Miller is "unequivocally the baddies" why not interview him?

Ask Tucker Carlson.

Are you afraid telling the whole truth, and both sides, with fact checking won't have the impact you want?
Yeah, that's what's going on here.

Good lord have some fucking pride. The boots can't taste that good.

you aren't really a "news" organization, and that's how you get Bari Weiss, as your boss.
Yum yum boot.

[Kazinski]

Here is the Bari Weiss memo what she wants added to the story.

https://x.com/i/status/2003142908854313225

Pick out what the most unreasonable thing there is, and why, if you are so outraged by it.

[Sarcastr0]

For fuck's sake. They asked the admin to comment. They did not. So Weiss is saying the story isn't complete.

You're not this stupid, you know what's going on here.

'Why did the Admin send those people to that prison?" We all know. And we all know what the administration will claim. And we all know the level of evidence they will provide. And we all know who will believe them anyhow.

[Kazinski]

"We all know."

Then why not put it in the piece for the record?

Isn't that the point of longer form "journalism", to cover issues in more depth?

[Sarcastr0]

Weiss didn’t engage with the producers. Or the fact checking. Or legal.

This wasn’t about not going in depth. This was about spiking a story that is he admin wouldn’t like.

Weiss didn’t go through most of these concerns until it got to be a thing. That smacks of pretext.

DMN below shows how shallow and slapped together these concerns appear.

Except she did mention they should get a take from Miller which…we know what he thinks.

This wasn’t not tightening up a story, and you are smart enough to see that.

[Kazinski]

They had plenty good reason to want to make sure both the reporter and the Producer were fairly reporting the story and not just grinding a partisan axe.

Here is some details about another story they did:
"There's precedent warranting additional legwork on Alfonsi's segments. Alfonsi was the lead correspondent on a debunked story in 2021 that DeSantis gave preferential treatment to the supermarket chain Publix to distribute coronavirus vaccines because the company donated $100,000 to DeSantis's campaign.

"How is that not pay-to-play?" Alfonsi asked DeSantis when she confronted him after one of the governor's press conferences.

Alfonsi's producer for that story, Oriana Zill de Granados, also produced the "Inside CECOT" report.

Several Florida officials, including Democrats, blasted the 60 Minutes report, saying that DeSantis's office was not involved in awarding contracts to Publix.

Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D., Fla.), who oversaw Florida's emergency management division in 2021 and is known for tangling with the GOP, said that the division recommended Publix for the contract because other pharmacies were not equipped to distribute vaccines.

"No one from the Governor's office suggested Publix. It's just absolute malarkey," he said.

Then-Palm Beach County mayor Dave Kerner (D.) called the story "intentionally false." Publix said the story was "absolutely false and offensive." And DeSantis said the story provides an example of "why nobody trusts corporate media.""

https://freebeacon.com/media/60-minutes-correspondent-sharyn-alfonsi-who-cried-foul-over-delayed-immigration-piece-was-behind-intentionally-false-hit-piece-on-ron-desantis-that-even-democrats-said-was-wrong/

Now I know your are going to say Freebeacon doesn't count, but here is independent verification of what Moskowitz said at the time about the contract.

https://floridapolitics.com/archives/409437-jared-moskowitz-denies-reporting-on-publixs-vaccine-plan-favoritism/

[David Nieporent]

Pick out what the most unreasonable thing there is, and why, if you are so outraged by it.

1) As the reporter noted in her email, holding a piece for a quote from an administration that refused to be interviewed for it is unreasonable and outrageous.
1b) Wanting to ask whether Stephen Miller regrets brown people being tortured borders on the delusional.
2) I don't even understand what she wants about "the legal rationale." It's exactly as simple as what she claims as "it's not that simple."
3) She wants a phony debate about Trump's authority inserted.
4) "You said that nearly half had no criminal records, but you didn't say that half do" is obviously pretextual, since there's no need for that tautology.

[Kazinski]

Outrageous.

The legal rationale was they were deportable and their country of origin wouldn't accept them. I don't know whether that's in the report or not, but it should be.

[David Nieporent]

That's the practical rationale for picking CECOT. It's not the legal rationale for deporting them in the first place. Which was some fictional claims about TdA being an invasion sponsored by the Venezuelan government.

[Kazinski]

The legal rationale was they had never been legally admitted to this country and whatever parole they had was revoked and it was time for them to go home, or any other country that would "welcome" them.

[Sarcastr0]

So time for a horrific prison?

That's what you're defending, to be clear. Not deporting to a third party country, but specifically to a prison with terrible conditions.

And you're cool with not covering that story because...I have no idea.

As I said off the break, this is us being the baddies. You seem into it. Which inhuman.

[David Nieporent]

The legal rationale was they had never been legally admitted to this country

You are simply mistaken. The application of the AEA is for people who are here lawfully, including those legally admitted. It applies to any non-citizen from the target country, including even green card holders.

[Absaroka]

"1b) Wanting to ask whether Stephen Miller regrets brown people being tortured borders on the delusional."

I dunno. Mike Wallace pushing a mic into a sleazeball's face and asking questions like that was kinda what 60 minutes did best, IMHO. I'd love to see a zombie Mike Wallace interview Miller.

[Frank Drackman]

Anyone else get told the story about how Animals can speak at Midnight Christmas Eve?? (Apparently our Ferret, Cat, and Pomeranian didn't get the news, they talk all the time)
Of course when I was 8 we didn't have any pets, but we told our Daughters the Story (changing it to the last day of Hanukkah) making sure they were asleep well before Midnight, then telling them the next morning how they missed out. I think they were 12 or 13 before they caught on (Damn Internets)

Frank

[Moderation4ever]

Talking animals? New one on me, but there are so many stories that go with Christmas. Keeping them all straight would be difficult.

[Malika la Maize]

His dad told Frankie there were talking animals in there with his mom and her man friends on Xmas eve to explain the noises….

[Frank Drackman]

It's only been around for centuries, I thought I was supposed to be the Ignoramus on this Blog?

[Moderation4ever]

Ken Martin is making a big mistake in withholding the Democratic autopsy report on the 2024 Election. Withholding the report will be more divisive than releasing it. There will be speculation and leaks that will be the story in 2026 rather than the candidates running for office. Better to get it out early, deal with what the report says, and get it behind the Party. Will Martin do that, probably not and they can add that problem to the 2026 autopsy report.

[Sarcastr0]

It is a mistake, but I dunno how big it is.
Larger forces are at work in the electorate.

Holding yourself to account is always good, and often difficult. De,s should be the adult in the room on this, as with other things.

[David Nieporent]

Without knowing what it says we can't know if it's big or not. It may be a media-inside-baseball thing that few care about. But it's obviously a mistake since there is a 100% certainty that the report will leak.

[Commenter_XY]

Uh huh, sure.

[Dr. Ed 2]

White males deserve reparations:
https://www.compactmag.com/article/the-lost-generation/

It's actually two lost generations in education.

Burn, baby, burn!

[hobie]

HaHa! That's the lamentation - the jeremiad - on Clay and Buck last week. Grousing how white heterosexual men between the ages of 20 and 50 have been the most discriminated group in America. And now here you are saying the same thing...even citing one of the examples they gave. You, sir, are an independent thinker!

[Dr. Ed 2]

Burn, baby, burn...

[DDHarriman]

Notice how he ignores the evidence.

[Dr. Ed 2]

The middle shall not hold.

[Ridgeway]

Centre, not middle

Also, Yeats was not celebrating that fact

geez.....

[David Nieporent]

He's been told repeatedly that he has gotten the quote wrong. He's proud of being wrong in everything he says.

[Frank Drackman]

No wonder he keeps losing all of his Falcons.
Speaking of "Falcons" they finally get a decent Win, right at the time they should be losing to get a higher Draft Pick.

Frank

[Bob from Ohio]

Centre [sic] and middle describe the same thing.

[David Nieporent]

Yes, and "To be or not to be" and "Should I do something?" describe the same thing, but one is a literary reference and one is a half-assed allusion to said reference by a guy who never read it.

[Magister]

Yeats used "centre".

[Bob from Ohio]

Duh. The [sic] is a small spelling joke,

[Magister]

And you are the joke.

[hobie]

And what orange beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Qatar to be bribed?

[David Nieporent]

The evidence is that white males have the lowest unemployment of any racial group in their respective age cohorts, so the above is pretty much anecdotal b.s.

[Frank Drackman]

Because we're the smartest, hardest working, and best looking, makes up for not having Rhythm.

[Dr. Ed 2]

Yes, because we're most willing to do shyte jobs.

[Magister]

The groups most likely to have jobs with low pay, few benefits and poor conditions are racial and ethnic minorities, and people with less education. Which group does "Dr." Ed 2, champion of white men, think he's part of?

[jb]

Haha, that guy thinks you just put in your time and you automatically get a job as a Hollywood writer? That's where all his anger comes from? Maybe he should have tried to be a pop star or a professional athlete too!

[not guilty]

The kvetchfest that Dr. Ed links says not one word about reparations.

[Malika la Maize]

Like our representative government itself, the images chosen to appear on American coins were another statement of difference between the system against which American colonists rebelled and the government for which American citizens would work. England was just one in a long line of civilizations that routinely paid tribute to their current sovereign by engraving his or her portrait onto the coins of the realm. That tradition extended back to the very beginning of coins as medium of exchange. Emperors and kings have always been so honored.

It is reasonable to suggest that it was a belief in unrestricted opportunity as an American birthright that helped guide the Congress in the creation of many of the federal institutions charged with governing the new nation, including the United States Mint, whose chief purpose was the coining of American money. With respect to the images that would be featured on American coins, the Mint Act of 1792 specifically states “…there shall be the following devices and legends, namely: Upon one side of each of the said coins there shall be an impression emblematic of liberty…” The elected representatives knew that they could more effectively strengthen the democratic principles on which the nation was formed by stamping coins with designs of Liberty rather than an image of President George Washington.

https://www.usmint.gov/learn/history/historical-documents/history-of-presidents-on-our-coins?srsltid=AfmBOorCtVAboeZM8EioDfrUwBiekLH9361WiFFHWq-7Jva2Rc6dR216

[DDHarriman]

How could so much fraud happen in Minnesota without institutional Democrat support?

[David Nieporent]

Who said that "so much fraud" happened?

[ThePublius]

You're kidding, right? Estimates now are in the $8B neighborhood. Powerline Blog has been covering this story for years. It's only recently that national media picked up on it. I guess you missed that.

"Fox News (video): Minnesota welfare fraud may exceed $9 billion.

Fox News: Media ‘complicity’ blamed as feds say Minnesota fraud crisis could reach $9B: ‘Shown their true colors’

New York Post: Minnesota’s Somali social-services scammers may have stolen $9 billion — nearly Somalia’s entire economy.

New York Post: Minnesota’s multibillion-dollar welfare scammers surely have counterparts in New York.

U.K. Telegraph: The midwestern city torn apart by a Somali fraud scandal."

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2025/12/today-in-minnesota-fraud-2.php

[David Nieporent]

s/"Estimates are"/"One random guy made an unsupported claim"

[grb]

Here's how the $9 billion was generated:

One person claimed it, using the assumption that 50% of all Medicaid funding in all Medicaid programs was fraudulent over the past twelve years.

I invite ThePublius to step up to the plate and opine whether he finds that assumption likely. Even if it does involve the black people he loathes, is it a credible number?

[Life of Brian]

50% of all Medicaid funding in all Medicaid programs was fraudulent over the past twelve years

Have a source for "all Medicaid funding in all Medicaid programs . . . over the past 12 years"? Total Minnesota Medicaid spending in 2023 alone was $19.1 billion, so something's off by about an order of magnitude.

[grb]

I'm sure you're right. There's a reference I found to "14 programs", so we're dealing with a subset of the total.

[grb]

By this point, Trump barely has half a brain remaining. Random neurons fire-off and he's babbling incoherently about sharks & electric boats, or railroads to Hawaii, or how magnets lose their magnetism when wet, or the danger of windmills, or the special history of the word "groceries". And this scattershot dysfunction includes foreign policy. Betcha thought this nonsense was forgotten, dead & buried :

"President Donald Trump on Sunday announced he is appointing Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry to serve as the U.S. special envoy to Greenland, the vast, semi-autonomous territory of Denmark that Trump has said the U.S. needs to take over. “Jeff understands how essential Greenland is to our National Security, and will strongly advance our Country’s Interests for the Safety, Security, and Survival of our Allies, and indeed, the World,” Trump said in announcing the appointment.

Trump during his presidential transition and in the early months of his return to the White House repeatedly called for U.S. jurisdiction over Greenland, and has not ruled out military force to take control of the mineral-rich, strategically located Arctic island. The issue had drifted out of the headlines in recent months, but in August, Danish officials summoned the U.S. ambassador following a report that at least three people with connections to Trump had carried out covert influence operations in Greenland."

You were sure this was safely forgotten - and it was. But random neurons lit-up and this halfwit lunacy floated to the top of Trump's brain.

[DDHarriman]

Do you think there is any strategic value for the US regarding Greenland? Or this is just a total hallucination by Trump?

[apedad]

No strategic value since we already have a good estimate of Russia's capabilities.

https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/IF12672

Additionally, I favor the space defense system over additional landbased systems.

[DDHarriman]

https://www.belfercenter.org/research-analysis/explainer-geopolitical-significance-greenland

https://hir.harvard.edu/the-coldest-geopolitical-hotspot-global-powers-vie-for-arctic-dominance-over-greenland/

gd you ppl are so low information -- how can you stand it? don't you have any sense of self respect?

[grb]

Uh huh. We might need to invade a NATO ally unless they "sell us" Greenland.

Are you actually dumb enough to try and sanewash that delusional nonsense? Is there no limit to how far you'll debase yourself defending Trump?

[DDHarriman]

https://www.belfercenter.org/research-analysis/explainer-geopolitical-significance-greenland

https://hir.harvard.edu/the-coldest-geopolitical-hotspot-global-powers-vie-for-arctic-dominance-over-greenland/

You ignorant Democrat (as if there's any other kind) and Anti-Trump lunatic.

You're siding with people who hate America and are her enemies.

[grb]

DDHarriman : "You're siding with people who hate America and are her enemies."

Yeah.
Denmark!
Why do you come to this site to beclown yourself?

[jb]

RFK Jr loves Denmark!

[grb]

Yep. He's obviously "siding with people who hate America and are her enemies."

( Though DDHarriman and his anti-Denmark jihad might have a point. I have it on good authority that Danes are sometimes "incestuous, murderous, damned")

[SRG2]

The way it's supposed to go is that if the US finds that an ally has a territory with a strategic location and desirable resources, the US uses its existing friendly relations to reach an amicable agreement concerning that territory.

The way it's not supposed to go is for the US to keep suggesting that in the US's interest it should simply annex that territory while paying no mind to the concerns and desires of that ally.

Nor is it right for the US to suggest - as Dear Leader will surely do - that failure to conform to US wishes means that the country is no longer a real ally.

[hobie]

Looks like Ben Shapiro is about to go under the bus. Like the ADL, he's another Jewish frog alarmed at MAGA's descent into nationalist racism. And like the ADL, he touched the third rail and is gonna get that MAGA scorpion sting.

I actually liked the Ben Shapiro pre-MAGA. He is so dangerously intelligent. I'd pay money to see him and Mayor Pete debate: America's two political, intellectual titans

[DDHarriman]

You like someone who supports Israel's genocide? I think you're just saying whatever you think will rile someone up.

Shapiro is an Israel Firster. Fuck him and every single MIGA asshole out there. They're our greatest enemy.

[hobie]

An excellent article in Harper's Magazine on how Turning Point is turning away from Israel. After Shapiro had his bus-worthy speech at TP rally last week, he was followed by Megyn Kelly and Tucker Carlson who rallied the crowd to turn on Shapiro and Israel:

[Carlson] "“MAGA is America First, which means Americans should put no country before America,” he said. “No pointless wars, period.” This comment drew loud and hearty applause from the three-thousand-strong crowd, as did a later observation that “what’s happening in Gaza is disgusting.”"

https://harpers.org/archive/2026/01/turning-point-andrew-cockburn-israel-gop-consensus/

[Frank Drackman]

Oohhh Internet Tough Guy!!! What is Ben Shapiro, 115lbs?? (With his Yarmulke)
Like to see you say that to Goldberg or Arik Cannon, you could be the Poster Boy for Aspen Dental.

Frank

[Commenter_XY]

If you call Mayor butthead an intellectual titan...ROTFLMAO

[hobie]

Many people have been putting to music the 'They're eating the dogs...They're eating the cats' phrase.

In my mind, however, I've always applied Billy Joel's 'Scenes from an Italian Restaurant:

"A bottle of red...a bottle of white"
"They're eating the dogs...they're eating the cats" (Just depends on your appetite)

[Moderation4ever]

Have we heard anything from Congressional Republicans since Jack Smith testified last week? Seems like they are pretty quite. I am wondering if getting the transcript out will be as hard as getting out the Epstein files?

[hobie]

True dat. If Smith had said anything for MAGA to crow about, we would have heard it by now.

[not guilty]

There is a reason that folks like Rep. Gym Jordan didn't want to match wits with Jack Smith in the light of day.

[David Nieporent]

In another massive embarrassment and monument to the incompetence of this administration, they lost yet another vindictive trial last week. Bobby Nunez was acquitted by a jury; the URL below summarizes the facts:

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-12-20/jury-acquits-la-man-who-towed-ice-vehicle-during-influencers-arrest

There's no way to know — again, paging Martinned — why a jury made a particular decision, but one possibility is that the jury was reacting to the government's overreach. The guy moved an ICE car around the corner with his tow truck to get it out of the way. Instead of just charging obstruction or the like, they decided to call it "theft of government property."

At the time of the incident, the guy posing as the USA for the CDCA — Bill Essayli (he has since been ruled to have been unlawfully appointed like several other Trump USAs) — unprofessionally taunted Nunez by saying,

“Apparently he thought it would be funny to interfere with our immigration enforcement operations,” Essayli said. “Now he can laugh behind bars while he faces justice.”

After the acquittal, did Essayli feel chastised or humbled in any way? Nope. Here's what he tweeted, even more unprofessionally:

The jury may have acquitted him, but guess what Bobby wasn’t doing the last few months while awaiting trial: obstructing our ICE agents.

https://x.com/USAttyEssayli/status/2002917434848862275

Predictably, MAGA twitter blamed… juries. You know: if only it were the good old days when they could keep blacks and other undesirables off juries, they could secure convictions. (They have no knowledge whatsoever of the composition of this jury, but they assume that it must have been because they're the wrong kind.) Well, the marginally less stupid MAGA blamed juries; the deeply stupid blamed judges, not understanding that it was a jury verdict.

[hobie]

Charlie Kirk [commenting from Hell]: "I question the qualifications of Black jurors."

[Dr. Ed 2]

Hobie, you've gone too far...

[hobie]

You name a Ten Commandment or Matthew 25 commandment MAGA doesn't break on a daily basis for money and power. I doubt any MAGA American Christian is gonna end up in Heaven.

[Sarcastr0]

That Essayli quote is chilling.

That's not the standard for why or when to prosecute someone.

[MarkJawz]

Unprofessional, yes, but no worse than the Biden DOJ officials who taunted 1/6 defendants.

[David Nieporent]

Whataboutism that relies on 'facts' found only in MAGA fever swamps.

[JoeFromtheBronx]

A Life Rooted in Activism and Listening to Others

Michele Singer Reiner was the guiding force in the lives of her family, stressing the need to help and respect one another.

https://archive.ph/eqYiS

She was the daughter of an Auschwitz survivor who was raised in a home with a deep sense of civic responsibility. More than one friend said she struggled to get comfortable at night when it was raining outside: She couldn’t sleep knowing there were people on the streets. She had a famous husband, Hollywood connections and projects of her own, but to many of her friends, she was simply the warm head of the table wanting everyone to be heard.

[JoeFromtheBronx]

Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck are in multiple holiday-themed favorites. For instance, she is in Christmas in Connecticut while he (as a heavy) is in The Apartment.

They are both in Remember the Night (1940). She is arrested for theft in Manhattan. He is the prosecutor.

He obtains a continuance, determining the jury was likely to be lenient on her if they decided it before Christmas. Feeling guilty about her spending the holidays in jail, he helps to bail her out.

Complications arise, they spend the holidays together, and fall in love. It is a touching film with some dark edges (including her childhood). Plus, for a legal blog, some legal touches.

Preston Sturges wrote the screenplay. A TCM tidbit noted he was upset that the director cut many of his lines. So, Sturges decided to start directing on his own. He later directed Stanwyck.

[Bob from Ohio]

Was he disbarred in a sequel?

[Dr. Ed 2]

This was pre-watergate...

[Dr. Ed 2]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezhx_QNZe44

When you are at least a couple of miles from a nuculear explosion, doesn't the light arrive first?

[Jerry B.]

Not in the movies. The light and sound from and explosion always arrive at exactly the same time. And explosions can be heard in a vacuum.

[hobie]

Sound/explosions cannot be heard in a vacuum.

[Brett Bellmore]

I think that was the point?

[Dr. Ed 2]

Actually, they would be.

An explosion is rapidly expanding gasses -- you can't have an explosion in a vacuum because there are no gases to expand.

So an explosion creates a shock wave -- sometimes subsonic, sometimes supersonic -- it is an overpressure which radiates outward and that is what you hear.

This would still happen in a vacuum -- there still are the same superheated and expanded gasses and even in a vacuum, you'd hear it when they hit you. If you were close enough, it could act like a depth charge and destroy your spacecraft.

I think this would even include a nuke -- Starfish Prime was pretty much a vacuum and it spewed stuff out in all directions. Only an overpressure would do that, and hence there would be a related shock wave.

[mulched]

The explosion in Oppenheimer had about a minute delay between the fireball and when the sound/shockwave hit. That anticipation in the theater was delicious.

[ducksalad]

At two miles it's enough delay that there is time to take cover from the blast wave. Too late for the retinas and burns though.

[Moderation4ever]

Jim Bean is shutting down one of its major Kentucky distilleries because of a whiskey glut. Seems that tariffs are leading to reprisals and American bourbon sales are suffering. So the Jim Bean workers will be out of work and the farmers will lose corn sales. Maybe we can hear again how the tariffs are helping America, because it sure doesn't look like they are helping.

[JoeFromtheBronx]

https://www.kentucky.com/news/business/article313847580.html

[SRG2]

There seems to be a general glut - my local liquor store has plenty of discounts atm on bourbon.

[Bob from Ohio]

Bourbon had a demand boom, supply massively expanded to meet it, demand slowed, now its oversupplied. So production is being decreased. Basic economics, marginal tariff impact not withstanding.

[Kazinski]

That's what I voted for.

Bourbon should be reserved only for Americans.

If they have a surplus the government should start supplying a daily bourbon ration, half pint a day, same as the Royal Navy got.

[hobie]

I'm not sure the distillers agree with limiting their sales to domestic only. That is contrary to free market capitalism. Strike one.

I'm not sure the government should be subsidizing an industry and buying up its excess for distribution to the people. That is socialism. Strike two.

[Why Kazinski! I do believe all the gymnastics you MAGA are employing to rationalize your boy is turning you guys into little Mamdanis.]

The Royal Navy was given rations of rum (preferably Pimms), not bourbon. Strike three.

[Kazinski]

Limiting International sales to make the product cheaper for Americans was a key rationale for the Biden Administration Natural Gas Terminal moratorium.

Why should the analysis be different for a critical resource like Bourbon?

[Dr. Ed 2]

So much corn is going into gasoline that there isn't enough to export to Mexico for tortillas.

US domestic beer consumption is down, people are switching to pot, and an aging population drinks less. I don't think it is just tariffs.

[Moderation4ever]

The Canadians drank plenty of bourbon until we pissed them off with tariffs. Plenty of tortillas in my grocery store and plenty cheap.

[Bob from Ohio]

"Canadians drank plenty of bourbon"

"Canada imports about $40 million of Kentucky bourbon every year, less than one percent of all bourbon sold, but the tariffs are hitting smaller distillers hard."

https://www.wdrb.com/news/business/kentucky-bourbon-industry-caught-in-the-middle-as-tariff-war-escalates-with-canada/article_a47c0b64-f975-11ef-aa46-ef74cb713e7c.html

[Kazinski]

Although a lot of Canadian Whiskey is swill, they do have some outstanding Rye Whiskeys.

Crown Royal Northern Harvest Rye is very affordable and won World Whiskey of the Year in 2016.

https://www.crownroyal.com/canadian-whisky/crown-royal-northern-harvest-rye

[Michael P]

Seattle let this "known wolf" loose. Eight times this year alone. A 75-year-old woman lost an eye as a result.

https://komonews.com/news/local/newly-released-video-75-year-old-downtown-seattle-police-department-spd-law-enforcement-king-county-superior-court-wooden-board-charges-filed-courthouse

[ThePublius]

The victim's name is Jeanette Marken.

Her assailant was known to police, who recognized him after the attack, as a 'known puncher,' who decidedly upped his game with a stick with a protruding screw.

0 AP stories on Jeanette Marken
0 PBS stories on Jeanette Marken
0 NYT stories on Jeanette Marken
0 NPR stories on Jeanette Marken
0 WSJ stories on Jeanette Marken
0 BBC stories on Jeanette Marken
0 CNN stories on Jeanette Marken
0 WAPO stories on Jeanette Marken
0 Reuters stories on Jeanette Marken
0 MSNBC stories on Jeanette Marken

[grb]

On the other hand, in Der Stürmer of mid-30s to 40s Germany, you could always find multiple accounts of crimes by Jews in every single edition. Hell, if you were a stolid upright member of Volksdeutsche (and I picture ThePublius in my mind's eye while typing), you might be excused for believing every crime committed in Germany was by a Jew based on the ubiquity of those stories.

Though many of us would have remained skeptical about that. Per-war Germany had a population of about 70 million. I'm guessing it was always possible for Nazis to find a Jewish crime or two to keep the Volksdeutsche entertained......

[Dr. Ed 2]

I'm going to say this -- the other side of this is that a lot of Jews were Communists. Beyond the Jews being interlectuals, no one has ever given me a rational reason why Jews were disproportionately represented in the Communist movements of the '20s &'30s.

Yes, the Nazis lit the Riechstag fire but why did people BELIEVE that the Jewish Commies had done it???

[David Nieporent]

Why would you expect a random local crime to have any national coverage? There are several million assaults in the U.S. annually. What makes this one worthy of coverage by any of the outlets you name?

[Mr. Bumble]

Guess you never heard of Floyd George (H/T Drank Frackman)

[Magister]

George Floyd's murder by police while he was handcuffed, videotaped by bystanders, took over 9 minutes. Black Lives Matter had demonstrated for years because of various earlier incidents, and this one was particularly brutal and unambiguous, and not surprisingly led to protests all over the country. That's what made it worthy of national coverage.

[Mr. Bumble]

Got it.
National coverage requires the victim to be black, the police to be involved and the homies to riot, pillage, loot, burn and murder during "mostly peaceful "demonstrations.

[Magister]

Even if like Bumble you want more police doing more murders, it's definitely a man bites dog story; the most blatant police murder of a sort that right wingers claim are very, very rare. Crazy person in and out of jail for other stuff and people complaining that sentences are too light is sadly common in lots of places.

[Sarcastr0]

No doubt they all got together and decide to do a coverup, so they could hide...uh...what? A violent crime happened?

[Sarcastr0]

What do you want, Michael?

For us to lock up people based on the crimes they're anticipated to do next time?
Lock up more mentally ill people?

You're just yelling 'do something!' which is has a history of ending badly.

[Bob from Ohio]

"For us to lock up people based on the crimes they're anticipated to do next time?"

No, lock him up for all the assaults he has committed. Eight in one year.

[Sarcastr0]

Did you read the article? This was an escalation from his previous crimes.

Of course we have discussed, and you want harsher penalties for the pettiest of crimes, thinking there is a type of person who is a criminal and we should lock up forever the moment they step out of line.

[Brett Bellmore]

Yes, it was an escalation from his previous crimes, which previous crimes should have resulted in him being locked up so that he couldn't escalate any further.

The guy has a years long record of just walking up to people and attacking them unprovoked, without warning. 8 times just this year! As the saying goes, "Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent."

You're pretty casual about other people being attacked.

[Sarcastr0]

Harsher penalties for more minor offenses!

The worst libertarian.

[Brett Bellmore]

I don't think walking up to somebody and punching them with no cause is a minor offense. This guy has knifed people, too, for that matter.

Quantity has a quality all its own, as they say.

[Sarcastr0]

Quibble about what counts as serious.

The point is you are arguing for harder penalties for relatively minor offenses motivated by more seriousness offenses.

This bad policy for any number of reasons. But most importantly your analysis is that harsher criminal penalties are costless.

The worst libertarian.

[Bob from Ohio]

"This was an escalation from his previous crimes."

So what? 8 prior crime this year alone!

"moment they step out of line"

LOL He routinely steps out of line by punching people.

"pettiest of crimes"

Punching people is not "petty".

[Sarcastr0]

Sometimes I think you want peoples hands chopped off for assault.

We already have a huge population in jails and prisons, as compared to other countries. The issue is not as easy as we are too lenient.

[Brett Bellmore]

I think we often put the wrong people in prison, but a guy who year after year just can't refrain from attacking other people out of the blue is NOT "the wrong people", he's exactly the sort of person incapacitation is for.

[Sarcastr0]

Retroactivity will get you anywhere you want.

Do you want to return to the days of much wider involuntary commitment?

I’m not, but I do think a salient issue is our metal health infrastructure is underfunded.

[hobie]

Uh oh, it's MichaelP. Better check the photos...

[Checking]

Yep.

[jb]

Oh, are we doing random stories about people who got let out of jail and then did a crime afterwards? I've got a good one!

https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/national/capitol-riots/january-6-capitol-riot-zachary-alam-donald-trump-pardon/65-18b573a8-b4c3-4072-9493-67cb405fc2a1

[David Nieporent]

Donald Trump was booked for multiple criminal offenses in multiple jurisdictions, released, and then went right back to criming.

[hobie]

It's MichaelP as I explain above. There is nothing random about it. Of the thousands of pedestrian crimes committed around the U.S., Michael seems to only find brownie-on-white ones. All the others don't seem that important.

[MarkJawz]

These stories make me yearn for the lynch justice of the past.

[Moderation4ever]

Are imported Swiss cheese under a tariff? My Christmas fondue is likely to cost as much a couple of good steaks.

[Bob from Ohio]

Buy American.

[Magister]

There is a tariff on imported cheese from Switzerland. You could join Bob from Ohio in a Velveeta based fondue.

[Bob from Ohio]

"Velveeta "

Yes, that is all the American made cheese there is! Good point!

[Magister]

Technically I think it's cheese product, not cheese. Maybe it's cheese food. Its quality is somewhat higher than that of Bob from Ohio's comments.

[Brett Bellmore]

Our local fondue restaurant is has been that expensive for years; I like a good fondue, but if it's going to cost as much as a steak, I'll have the steak, instead.

[John F. Carr]

A State Police officer involved in the Karen Read prosecution had his law enforcement license suspended. He had already been suspended from the State Police.

https://www.wcvb.com/article/michael-proctor-certification-suspended/69827254

His offense was "sending insulting text messages about Read, sharing sensitive information about Read's case with people from outside law enforcement, creating an image of being biased against Read and drinking while on duty in connection with an unrelated cold case." None of this sounds unusual.

The POST commission was created as a result of the brief period of skepticism of police back in 2020. It is needed because union contracts make it almost impossible to get rid of bad cops. The POST commission is an independent agency not a party to the contract. You can't be a truck driver without a license no matter what your contract with the truck company says. And you can't be a police officer without a license no matter what your contract with the police department says.

[John F. Carr]

I should have inserted "Massachusetts" somewhere in that comment.

[JoeFromtheBronx]

Trump is expected to announce a new type of ship for the Navy on Monday, according to a Pentagon official who requested anonymity to preview the plan. The official said the Navy was expected to call the new vessels Trump-class battleships.

The jokes ... Also, this isn't pathetic authoritarian behavior at all ...

Mr. Trump, who is scheduled to appear later Monday with Defense Secretary (sic) Pete Hegseth and the secretary of the Navy, John Phelan, in Palm Beach, Fla., has criticized the appearance of Navy warships.

Damn fat beardos.

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/12/22/us/trump-news?smid=bs-share

[hobie]

All to be coal-powered?

[Mr. Bumble]

Got to give your homies something to do besides being cooks.

[John F. Carr]

The odds are good that a Democratic administration will be in power before these ships are combat ready. If Trump can rename Harvey Milk after it joined the fleet Newsom can rename Donald Trump before it joins the fleet.

[Mr. Bumble]

Newsom, Hahahahahaha.

[Mr. Bumble]

https://x.com/KevinKileyCA/status/2002791344566411594?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2002791344566411594%7Ctwgr%5E8a1ff41f5e42ebe2f705ddd65d5bfe0df2fdfec7%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fpjmedia.com%2Feric-florack%2F2025%2F12%2F22%2Fthe-fraud-hits-just-keep-coming-n4947377

[Dr. Ed 2]

First one to be called "The Defiant."
Bigger than the Iowa and half the weight -- that means less armor.
He wants something bigger than a destroyer.

[Zarniwoop]

The Onion is slapping their collective forehead and saying "damn we should have thought of this!"

Back to reality: timelines for new ship designs by the USN are not fast these days.

So my prediction: the Navy will not get a keel laid before Trump leaves office.

And even if by some miracle construction starts ... the last two Iowa-class battleships were suspended before completion at the close of WWII, and finally scrapped in 1958: USS Illinois (BB-65) at about 22% complete, and USS Kentucky (BB-66) at about 72% complete.

[John F. Carr]

Looking for the "battleship" announcement I found this:

On Friday, December 19, 2025, the President signed into law:
H.R. 165, the “Wounded Knee Massacre Memorial and Sacred Site Act,” which directs the Secretary of the Interior to take actions necessary to place certain land in South Dakota into restricted fee status for the Oglala and Cheyenne River Sioux Tribes.

That's not the Trump I know. Trump doesn't like losers and the Indians lost the wars of the 19th century.

[JoeFromtheBronx]

https://www.c-span.org/program/white-house-event/president-trump-secretaries-hegseth-rubio-and-phelan-on-naval-battleships/670900

John Phelan, the navy secretary, added: “Our adversaries will know, when the Trump-class USS Defiant appears on the horizon, American victory at sea is inevitable.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/22/trump-new-navy-warships

As to Native Americans, the Administration went the extra mile to help the federal recognition of the Lumbee Nation, helped by the fact they supported Trump.

[John F. Carr]

The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts issued a rare published decision in a pretrial detention case. The case is in the news, and reached the SJC, because the defendant is a police officer. She pulled a gun when other officers tried to serve a restraining order. She faces a charge of assault with a dangerous weapon and is being held without bail on the grounds of dangerousness.

Apparently, allegedly, she had postpartum depression and is a mean drunk. Having been shot after pulling a gun she is physically incapable of performing the alcohol tests normally imposed as a condition of release. The SJC ruled the Americans with Disabilities Act does not require her release. The judge's discretion in setting bail duplicates the requirement for a reasonable accomodation. The hearing judge did not abuse her discretion in finding that urine screening for alcohol was not an adequate substitute for the normal SCRAM breath test.
Fitzsimmons v. Commonwealth, SJC-13839
https://www.mass.gov/doc/fitzsimmons-v-commonwealth-sjc-m13839/download

Massachusetts is much more willing than the average state to release defendants on low or no bail to await trial.

[Dr. Ed 2]

I suspect the SJC published it knowing it will be going to Federal Court under ADA.

I deal with ADA as an educator not lawyer -- I think the SJC got this one wrong. And the other thing is that she has to have *serious* that would not only preclude her from doing much physically but which alcohol would really screw up.

And there's no other way of capturing her breath? In 2025?
Bullshyte!

[John F. Carr]

The Tenth Circuit denied rehearing en banc in Ortega v. Grisham. The panel held that New Mexico's seven day waiting period to buy a gun was likely unconstitutional. One judge dissented, echoing the panel dissent's opinion that Rocky Mountain Gun Owners v. Polis set a higher bar to challenge gun regulations. RMGO upheld a 21 year minimum age to buy a gun.

https://ca10.uscourts.gov/sites/ca10/files/opinions/010111355976.pdf

[Dr. Ed 2]

Maine just passed a waiting period.

[MarkJawz]

RMGO was pure judicial bad faith. If you read it, it basically just says "But guns!"

[John F. Carr]

The Supreme Court of Colorado ruled that changes to misdemeanor sentencing in 2021 preempted local ordinances. The city of Westminster makes theft in any amount punishable by 364 days in jail. State law punishes theft under $300 by no more than 10 days in jail and other theft less than $1,000 by no more than 120 days in jail. For many decades such disparities were allowed. When it comes to local matters, home rule cities know best and can create their own local misdemeanors. No more. In cases that would be subject to the 2021 sentencing reforms if prosecuted by the state, the state statutes limit the maximum sentence.

I consider this to be a major change in the law despite the court's attempt to distinguish precedent.

The sentencing reform law looks like fallout from the events of 2020, like the Massachusetts police officer decertification process was.

People v. Camp and People v. Simons, https://www.coloradojudicial.gov/system/files/opinions-2025-12/24SA276_24SA308_24SA309.pdf

The court took these cases on pretrial discretionary review observing, "Both Camp and Simons may suffer irreparable harm because it is possible that they could serve most, if not all, of any sentences imposed before any appeal could be resolved." This attitude is unusual in the American criminal justice system.