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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM

Ultimatum Disasturbator from the Amiga Forest (Old as dirt) Relationship Status: Who needs love when you have waffles?
Disasturbator
#283201: Jun 21st 2019 at 9:10:29 AM

Your thinking of Swans,they'll pek you though

have a listen and have a link to my discord server
M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#283202: Jun 21st 2019 at 9:10:57 AM

Nah, Canada Geese will also absolutely wreck your shit.

Disgusted, but not surprised
Euodiachloris Since: Oct, 2010
#283203: Jun 21st 2019 at 9:14:27 AM

[up][up]Swans are as bad as geese. <canal lock flashbacks>

HailMuffins Since: May, 2016 Relationship Status: Shipping fictional characters
#283204: Jun 21st 2019 at 9:22:34 AM

This thread goes on the weirdest tangents sometimes.

[up]I assume you're speaking from experience.

Kevan from Somewhere, like most. Since: Jan, 2017 Relationship Status: Armed with the Power of Love
#283205: Jun 21st 2019 at 9:24:17 AM

Trump's constant cowardice can be either useful or terrible in this situation. On one hand, it can prevent from going into a long war, during wich he would be forced to explain himself rationally by people with power over him, wich is probably impossible to do for someone in his mental state. On the other hand, it could push him to try the hit-and-run tactic, blowing up a city or two and then tweeting "now we're even".

Euodiachloris Since: Oct, 2010
#283206: Jun 21st 2019 at 9:26:16 AM

[up][up]Two cygnets and a mum. On the Bingley Five Rise.

The two numbties continually got on the wrong side of the sluices and panicked as we tried to work the gates for two bloody locks.

Every time she (and we) thought we'd herded them to safety (all the while she attacked us for going anywhere near her precious, grey bundles of idiocy)... Nope. Back in danger. How? Why? We'd turn around from doing something, and there they were, again. Trying to get us to accidentally kill them.

Edited by Euodiachloris on Jun 21st 2019 at 6:01:44 PM

HailMuffins Since: May, 2016 Relationship Status: Shipping fictional characters
#283207: Jun 21st 2019 at 9:33:19 AM

[up]Well, children are well-known disaster magnets [lol]

But getting back on topic, from what I gathered here, Trump will chicken out of trying to declare war with Iran unless that country gives him a reason to make doing that reflect well on him, or at least make him think it does. So what are the odds of that happening? I mean, according to Tobias, Iran actually stands quite a lot to gain with an armed conflict against the US.

tclittle Professional Forum Ninja from Somewhere Down in Texas Since: Apr, 2010
Professional Forum Ninja
#283208: Jun 21st 2019 at 9:58:49 AM

Wisconsin Supreme Court upholds the laws limiting the governor's power made by the Republican controlled Legislature during the lame-duck session after a Democratic governor was elected last year.

Edited by tclittle on Jun 21st 2019 at 11:59:39 AM

"We're all paper, we're all scissors, we're all fightin' with our mirrors, scared we'll never find somebody to love."
wisewillow She/her Since: May, 2011
She/her
#283209: Jun 21st 2019 at 10:25:35 AM

The Wisconsin supreme court is elected. This is a blatantly partisan decision because the open spot in the last election was taken by a conservative judge. This is so fucked up.

ciyinwanderer Since: Dec, 2018
#283210: Jun 21st 2019 at 10:42:00 AM

https://judiciary.house.gov/sites/democrats.judiciary.house.gov/files/documents/HJU170550%20Hicks%20interview.pdf

The Hope Hicks interview transcript is available. It's another great artifact of the bizarro world we've slipped in to.

This signature was thumped to preserve the dignity of the moderators.
Ultimatum Disasturbator from the Amiga Forest (Old as dirt) Relationship Status: Who needs love when you have waffles?
Disasturbator
#283211: Jun 21st 2019 at 10:43:32 AM

Summary please

have a listen and have a link to my discord server
ciyinwanderer Since: Dec, 2018
#283212: Jun 21st 2019 at 10:48:16 AM

The 273 pages can be summed up as "Objection!!!"

Not on any grounds of exerting executive privilege, just on the argument that anything she said, did or saw while at the White House is covered by a blanket immunity from Congressional subpoena.

Edited by ciyinwanderer on Jun 21st 2019 at 1:48:53 PM

This signature was thumped to preserve the dignity of the moderators.
wisewillow She/her Since: May, 2011
She/her
#283213: Jun 21st 2019 at 10:56:11 AM

ICE raids targeting migrant families slated to start Sunday in major U.S. cities

President Trump has directed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to conduct a mass roundup of migrant families that have received deportation orders, an operation that is likely to begin with predawn raids in major U.S. cities on Sunday, according to three U.S. officials with knowledge of the plans.
The “family op,” as it is referred to at ICE and the Department of Homeland Security, is slated to target up to 2,000 families facing deportation orders in as many as 10 U.S. cities, including Houston, Chicago, Miami, Los Angeles and other major immigration destinations, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the law enforcement operation.

...

“We’re at the point right now where we have no other choice but to use our interior enforcement statutory authority to identify where these individuals are and remove them.”
Families cannot be exempted, he said: “The law must be applied fairly and equally. We’re going to do that with compassion and dignity, but we’re going to enforce the law.”
The expedited family court docket, or “rocket docket,” was developed by Trump officials late last year in an effort to deport more migrant families with the belief that a highly visible roundup operation could have a deterrent effect on others in Central America considering the journey.

Kaiseror Since: Jul, 2016
#283214: Jun 21st 2019 at 11:03:24 AM

The goose analogy may be more accurate. While theu have a reputation for being aggressive, it's really a cowardly aggression (unless they have offspring), they hiss, posture and even bite but they are more likely to do it when your back is turned or are running away, if you stand your ground and hit back they'll typically retreat.

[up]...Motherfucker!

ironballs16 Since: Jul, 2009 Relationship Status: Owner of a lonely heart
#283215: Jun 21st 2019 at 11:06:41 AM

In somewhat brighter news, the Supreme Court voted 7-2 to overthrow the conviction of Curtis Flowers, who'd been on Death Row for 22 years after six trials in which the same Prosecutor "with a history of racial bias in jury selection" presided. The dissenters were Gorsuch and Thomas, with Thomas writing the dissenting opinion, and Kavanaugh authoring the majority opinion.

Writing for the court's 7-2 majority, Justice Brett Kavanaugh said, "The numbers speak loudly. Over the course of the first four trials, there were 36 black prospective jurors against whom the State could have exercised a peremptory strike. The State tried to strike all 36."

...

"The majority's opinion is so manifestly incorrect that I must proceed to the merits," Thomas wrote. "Flowers presented no evidence whatsoever of purposeful race discrimination by the State in selecting the jury during the trial below."

Thomas added, "If the Court's opinion today has a redeeming quality, it is this: The State is perfectly free to convict Curtis Flowers again. Otherwise, the opinion distorts our legal standards, ignores the record, and reflects utter disrespect for the careful analysis of the Mississippi courts. Any competent prosecutor would have exercised the same strikes as the State did in this trial. And although the Court's opinion might boost its self-esteem, it also needlessly prolongs the suffering of four victims' families. I respectfully dissent."

Flowers' case is anomalous only because of the number of times he was tried by the same prosecutor and the prosecutor's repeated misconduct.

Doug Evans, a district attorney in Winona, Miss., prosecuted Flowers — who prior to this case had no criminal record — six times.

During that time the state Supreme Court three times threw out his murder conviction for prosecutorial misconduct.

The misconduct was not some technicality. It ranged from misleading the jury about evidence that did not exist to striking prospective jurors based on race.

In the fourth and fifth trials, the prosecutor ran out of strikes — meaning he had used up the limited number of prospective jurors he could eliminate from the jury for no reason. As a result, two black jurors were seated, and the juries deadlocked.

But in the sixth trial, with one black juror, the jury convicted, and the Mississippi Supreme Court upheld the conviction, ruling that this time there had not been any racial discrimination in jury selection.

This would be comedic if it weren't so tragic.

"Why would I inflict myself on somebody else?"
tclittle Professional Forum Ninja from Somewhere Down in Texas Since: Apr, 2010
Professional Forum Ninja
#283216: Jun 21st 2019 at 11:10:25 AM

Here's a bit more on Acting DHS Secretary Mc Aleenan's Pragmatic Villainy from the article on Sunday ICE raids above:

Acting DHS Secretary Kevin Mc Aleenan has been urging ICE to conduct a narrower, more-targeted operation that would seek to detain a group of about 150 families that were provided with attorneys but dropped out of the legal process and absconded.

Mc Aleenan has warned that an indiscriminate operation to arrest migrants in their homes and at work sites risks separating children from their parents in cases where the children are at day care, summer camp or friend’s houses and not present for the raids. He also has maintained that ICE should not devote major resources to carrying out a mass interior sweep while telling lawmakers it needs emergency funding to address the crisis at the U.S. border.

Edited by tclittle on Jun 21st 2019 at 1:12:35 PM

"We're all paper, we're all scissors, we're all fightin' with our mirrors, scared we'll never find somebody to love."
Soban Since: Aug, 2009 Relationship Status: 700 wives and 300 concubines
#283217: Jun 21st 2019 at 11:13:32 AM

Has anyone done an analysis on Kavanaugh and Gorsuch voting patterns yet? I feel like they are more moderate then feared. For being appointed by the same president, they seem to end up on opposite sides a lot.

wisewillow She/her Since: May, 2011
She/her
#283218: Jun 21st 2019 at 11:14:10 AM

[up][up][up] They’re gonna retry him. Again. Same prosecutor and everything, new jury. And the ruling was only like this because the racism was SO blatant.

Edited by wisewillow on Jun 21st 2019 at 11:14:18 AM

sgamer82 Since: Jan, 2001
#283219: Jun 21st 2019 at 11:14:52 AM

I know it's been said here that kavanaugh has actively tried to buy rock the boat on issues related to things like abortion, not that's all I can offer.

ironballs16 Since: Jul, 2009 Relationship Status: Owner of a lonely heart
#283220: Jun 21st 2019 at 11:19:42 AM

And in news of the bizarre, a Philadelphia oil refinery had its second fire this month, but this one triggered three explosions before dawn today. It was even visible via thermal satellite imaging, which is really saying something.

I can't help but wonder "when was the last time their facilities were inspected?"

Edited by ironballs16 on Jun 21st 2019 at 2:46:14 PM

"Why would I inflict myself on somebody else?"
TobiasDrake (•̀⤙•́) (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
(•̀⤙•́)
#283221: Jun 21st 2019 at 11:35:41 AM

They’re gonna retry him. Again. Same prosecutor and everything, new jury. And the ruling was only like this because the racism was SO blatant.

How is that not a violation of double jeopardy?

My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.
Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#283222: Jun 21st 2019 at 11:38:06 AM

If the verdict is voided due to appellate action, as it was in this case, the conviction never happened and double jeopardy does not apply.

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
Soban Since: Aug, 2009 Relationship Status: 700 wives and 300 concubines
#283223: Jun 21st 2019 at 11:38:52 AM

It is not double jeopardy because in essence they are redoing the first tiral.

[nja]

Edited by Soban on Jun 21st 2019 at 2:39:37 PM

tclittle Professional Forum Ninja from Somewhere Down in Texas Since: Apr, 2010
Professional Forum Ninja
#283224: Jun 21st 2019 at 12:03:18 PM

[[https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/449710-conservative-supreme-court-justices-reverse-precedent-on-property?amp&__twitter_impression=true. The Supreme Court overturned a 1985 decision which prevented people from taking local governments to federal court over taking their property without compensation, but still allows local governments to take property without immediate compensation.]]

"We're all paper, we're all scissors, we're all fightin' with our mirrors, scared we'll never find somebody to love."
ironballs16 Since: Jul, 2009 Relationship Status: Owner of a lonely heart
#283225: Jun 21st 2019 at 12:43:04 PM

So apparently Elle columnist E. Jean Carroll is accusing Trump of having raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the '90s. Sadly, I can't help but wonder why she didn't come forward with this in 2016.

Edited by ironballs16 on Jun 21st 2019 at 3:43:18 PM

"Why would I inflict myself on somebody else?"

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