Open Thread

What’s on your mind?

Comments

[Mr. Bumble]

Good Morning fuckwits.
H/T SRG2

[Dr. Ed 2]

It’s 4°F, the heat exchanger is blowing cold air, and I’m working on another case of pneumonia.

The green assholes have decreed that we have to buy Hydro power from Quebec, except it’s (a) cold in Quebec as well, and (b) a drought there, so they’ve cut us by 20%. And the green asshole shut down a perfectly good nuke plant, along with the last of our cold plants. I’m just waiting until we start having to shiver in the dark.

Good morning to you as well…

[Dr. Ed 2]

Talk about pissing on the Koran, gaga as Mr. Rogers is every bit as much an attack on White Protestant America as, well, urinating on a Korean. See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMFQmOBO6D4

Fred Rogers was an ordained Presbyterian minister. She parodying him, reportedly for the Super Bowl, is this sort of thing that would have the Muslims out beheading people. By contrast, the Christians are merely infuriated, and that is the problem.

In a just world, that Delta Charlie wouldn’t dare do this….

[Mr. Bumble]

...and the first fuckwit logs in.

[Dr. Ed 2]

Says the fuck wit who can’t count, and isn’t bright enough though that he was first.

Maybe we should stop burning environmentalist for heat.

[Mr. Bumble]

Burning environmentalists for heat. Who knew? Shutting down "cold" plants?
Ed must be suffering from hypothermia.

[Dr. Ed 2]

What the radical left has shown us is it crime pay.

They sought to skew elections by bringing in a large number of illegal aliens. Illegally. And then rioted when we attempted to remove them.

So much for the concept of Democratic elections.
I am beyond merely fearing for the future of the republic…

[hobie]

It's like Trump said during the campaign: America is a 'garbage nation', a 'failed country'.

[Dr. Ed 2]

And in the case of isn’t there someway they can both lose, there is this: https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/8e/74/28b504ab452fb792c0e189f8c82c/complaint-umass-final.pdf

Because, only the left can find legal representation.

[Commenter_XY]

So it begins....the identification of predators in the Epstein files.

Steve Tisch, a sick predator of underaged women. This man should be shunned. He is a disgusting cretin.

[Baseballhead]

America literally made one of the main predators in the Epstein files the President of the United States... again. I fear that rape and human trafficking simply isn't a big deal to enough people.

[Mr. Bumble]

Baseballhead=too many beanballs.

[Baseballhead]

Thanks for proving my point.

[Michael P]

You're just proving theirs.

[Frank Drackman]

Can you leave Bill Clinton alone? He’s almost 80 and doesn’t have a lot of time left.

[Baseballhead]

Thanks for proving my point.

[EllaWilson]

I left Virginia when I saw where it was headed. I was correct.
Enjoy your return to Slave State status only this time most of your slaves are black.

[Frank Drackman]

I think most of the Slaves were Black “last”time.

[Mr. Bumble]

Seems like it's fuckwits all the way down so far (excluding you and me).

[not guilty]

Having had time now to cogitate upon the indictment of the defendants who are accused of disrupting the worship service in St. Paul, I am unimpressed. https://d3i6fh83elv35t.cloudfront.net/static/2026/01/CASE-026-cr-00025-LMP-DLM.pdf

Per ¶6 the object of the alleged conspiracy to violate civil rights attempted to be set forth in Count One is said to be that the nine defendants:

conspired and agreed with one another, and with other persons known and unknown to the Grand Jury, to injure, oppress, threaten and intimidate multiple persons, including the clergy, staff, and congregants of the Cities Church, in the free exercise and enjoyment of the rights and privileges secured to them by the laws of the United States, and because of such persons having exercised such right, namely, exercise of the First Amendment right of religious freedom at a place of religious worship, as secured by Title 18, United States Code, Section 248(c),[*] all in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 241 (Conspiracy Against Rights).

The balance of Count One describes the defendants' entry into the sanctuary and disrupting the service with chanting, gesturing, occupying the aisles and berating the pastor. There is no averment of any physical contact by any defendant with any person other than some incidental contact by the pastor with the Defendant Lemon described as Overt Act # 24, which states: "While talking with the pastor, Defendant LEMON stood so close to the pastor that LEMON caused the pastor's right hand to graze LEMON, who then admonished the pastor, 'Please don't push me.'"

The operative provisions of 18 U.S.C. § 241 prohibit conspiring to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United States, or because of his having so exercised the same. Under §§ 241 and 242, criminal liability may be imposed for deprivation of a constitutional right if, but only if, "in the light of pre-existing law the unlawfulness under the Constitution is apparent." United States v. Lanier, 520 U.S. 259, 271-272 (1997).

The First Amendment provides that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." The rights mentioned therein are secured against interference by governmental actors, not against deprivation by private persons. See, Manhattan Community Access Corp. v. Halleck, 587 U.S. ___ (2019). As SCOTUS opined in Cantwell v. Connecticut, 310 U.S. 296, 303 (1940):

The First Amendment declares that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. The Fourteenth Amendment has rendered the legislatures of the states as incompetent as Congress to enact such laws.

The parishioners of Cities Church have a clearly established constitutional right to be free from interference with their freedom to worship by the Congress, officials of the federal government, the State of Minnesota and its political subdivisions such as Ramsey County and the City of St. Paul, and persons acting on behalf of these governmental entities. That First Amendment freedom does not attach vis-a-vis interference by private actors.

There is no averment in the indictment that the defendants employed governmental authority to disrupt the worship service in St. Paul. An extended treatment of when the action of private persons violates First Amendment rights is available in Brentwood Academy v. Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Assn., 531 U.S. 288 (2001). The actions of private persons are attributable to governmental action only when an organization performed a public function; was created, coerced, or encouraged by the government; or acted in a symbiotic relationship with the government.

The Court in Brentwood Academy opined that the private organization there was a state actor subject to First Amendment requirements because "The nominally private character of the Association is overborne by the pervasive entwinement of public institutions and public officials in its composition and workings, and there is no substantial reason to claim unfairness in applying constitutional standards to it." Id., at 295.

Rule 7(c)(1) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure requires that "The indictment or information must be a plain, concise, and definite written statement of the essential facts constituting the offense charged and must be signed by an attorney for the government." Such "essential facts" do not extend to legal conclusions. The instant indictment simply does not show that the nine defendants conspired to work a governmental prohibition of or interference with any person's or entity's free exercise of religion.
__________________________
* This reference to 18 U.S.C. § 248(c) is curious. That subsection provides for civil remedies for violation of the FACE Act, not criminal prosecution.

[Commenter_XY]

So NG, it is A-Ok for a mob to disrupt religious services willy-nilly, and they are not guilty of anything except boorish behavior? That is what you are saying?

[Michael P]

Yes. He thinks violating civil rights is perfectly fine as long as the left is violating the right rights.

[Voize of Reazon]

The reason 248(c) is referenced is as a provision of law that secures a right or privilege, conspiracy to interfere with which leads to criminal liability under 241.

[Frank Drackman]

So Luigi Mangione’s premeditaed murder of an Insurance Exec doesn’t qualify for the Federal Death Penalty, so what DOES???
I mean besides murdering Black Peoples in a Church(Dude should have said he was just exercising his First (and Second) Amendment rights

Frank

[Malika la Maize]

Somehow, Elon Musk’s infamous outburst accusing Donald Trump of being in the Epstein files has managed to age both incredibly well and incredibly poorly.

Trump, as you’re probably well aware by now, has featured quite a bit in the DOJ’s ongoing releases of documents from its investigation into the deceased sex criminal and billionaire financier.

But now so does Musk, after the government released a new batch of millions of more files on Friday. They show that Musk had more than a few email exchanges with Epstein, including one correspondence where he asks to visit the convicted sex trafficker’s notorious island, where he allegedly brought dozens of underage girls to be abused.

https://futurism.com/future-society/elon-musk-jeffrey-epstein-island