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

Draghinazzo (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: I get a feeling so complicated...
#341751: Nov 30th 2020 at 8:03:29 AM

Biden doesn't have to get personally involved, which he said he isn't going to. It's all up to whoever's in charge of the DOJ.

archonspeaks Since: Jun, 2013
#341752: Nov 30th 2020 at 8:06:01 AM

Small incremental policy and legislation changes do not work nearly as well, because every fucking time they're attempted, the opposition immediate negates or subverts them.

Sure, because big pieces of legislation are impossible to negate or subvert. You also seem to be conveniently neglecting the fact that little legislation builds up to big legislation. Multiple states had to decriminalize marijuana on their own before the federal government began considering it, by your logic those little victories were worthless and legislators should have just shot for the highest federal level immediately.

That’s not how politics works. It’s a losing strategy. The major victories of every civil rights movement you listed were built on hundreds of tiny victories both legislative and otherwise, and neglecting that not only devalues the work of all the activists who pushed for those little victories that eventually became big victories but also harms our chances of future big victories.

Edited by archonspeaks on Nov 30th 2020 at 8:07:27 AM

They should have sent a poet.
DrunkenNordmann from Exile Since: May, 2015
#341753: Nov 30th 2020 at 8:10:14 AM

[up] They, uh, don't go peacefully to sleep. That's the propaganda around lethal injections, but it is rather far from the truth. You should read up on it, if you can stomach it. It's not pleasant.

Not to mention how often these are botched in the first place due to the people doing the injections not being trained professionals - because the people who are properly trained (read: doctors) refuse to do it for obvious reasons.

We learn from history that we do not learn from history
Memers Since: Aug, 2013
#341754: Nov 30th 2020 at 8:10:21 AM

With the present state of the Supreme Court, big wins are just not on the table for the next decade or longer sadly.

Altris from the Vortex Since: Aug, 2019 Relationship Status: Not caught up in your love affair
#341755: Nov 30th 2020 at 8:11:12 AM

The problem with incremental legislation is that people don't see most of it. They want visible and sweeping change, and they see action at the federal level as the only way to get that without realizing that smaller changes are required to build up precedent for federal action.

So, let's hang an anchor from the sun... also my Tumblr
TobiasDrake (•̀⤙•́) (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
(•̀⤙•́)
#341756: Nov 30th 2020 at 8:14:30 AM

In theory, most of the guns having blanks helps to mitigate the psychological effects by letting everyone in the firing squad tell themselves they didn't fire the bullet that killed the condemned.

I've always been a bit skeptical of that, myself. The intent is to give everyone on the squad mental plausible deniability, but that assumes that every person has a mind that always believes the best about themselves. I know my brain well enough to know that if I was on that squad, my brain would tell me that my gun probably had the live bullet.

In absence of a clear answer, "My gun had blanks/a live bullet" is a Schrodinger's Box. Both answers are equally valid, and it's up to the involuntary brain functions to decide what an individual believes.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Nov 30th 2020 at 8:15:50 AM

My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.
M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#341757: Nov 30th 2020 at 8:14:47 AM

[up][up]People want the big flashy victories that make headlines and trend on Twitter.

The problem is that to get said big flashy victories we gotta do a lot of low key boring stuff like winning in state legislatures and boards of education and other local stuff.

Edited by M84 on Dec 1st 2020 at 12:16:02 AM

Disgusted, but not surprised
clemont107 Mega Togekiss?! from Land of Missed Opportunities (Experienced, Not Yet Jaded) Relationship Status: YOU'RE TEARING ME APART LISA
Mega Togekiss?!
#341758: Nov 30th 2020 at 8:15:35 AM

[up]x4 Let's wait and see before concluding that big wins are off the table for the next decade or so just because of the Devil's Court. If Biden and the Dems can come up with something that's a win already.

Edited by clemont107 on Nov 30th 2020 at 11:15:50 AM

"Wow, no Mega Togekiss in Legends Z-A. Or any non-Froslass new Sinnoh Mega Evolutions. Round of applause, everybody." - Dawn
Forenperser Foreign Troper from Germany Since: Mar, 2012
Foreign Troper
#341759: Nov 30th 2020 at 8:17:23 AM

If done correctly, execution by firing squad is the most painless and "clean" way of executing somebody.

Which really tells you everything about how barbaric capital punishment really is.

Certified: 48.0% West Asian, 6.5% South Asian, 15.8% North/West European, 15.7% English, 7.4% Balkan, 6.6% Scandinavian
DrunkenNordmann from Exile Since: May, 2015
#341760: Nov 30th 2020 at 8:22:30 AM

[up] "Humane execution" is pretty much an oxymoron.

Edited by DrunkenNordmann on Nov 30th 2020 at 5:23:03 PM

We learn from history that we do not learn from history
TobiasDrake (•̀⤙•́) (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
(•̀⤙•́)
#341761: Nov 30th 2020 at 8:23:17 AM

Biden and the Dems will only have the ability to "do something" about the Supreme Court if we win the Georgia Runoffs. We didn't get the massive sweeping rebuke of Republican leadership that some leftists managed to convince themselves was coming, and part of what that means is that we're sitting at an unfavorable 48-50 Senate position.

If we pick up both Georgia seats, we'll match 50-50, allowing Kamala Harris to serve as tiebreaker in any vote that breaks down along party lines. Even then, the Blue Dogs will be a complication.

If even one Georgia seat goes Red, Mitch will retain control of the Senate and do his level best to ensure that Biden cannot do anything that involves Senate input. This includes long-held leftist ideas for "solving" the Supreme Court via court-packing or impeaching Kavanaugh or whatever. It's going to play havoc on Cabinet appointments too.

Georgia voted for Biden, but the situation in the Senate is still unfavorable. It's likely that Biden will spend the first two years of his Presidency with legislative shackles around his wrists, forced to do what he can to carry out his agenda through Executive action alone. Trump's defeat is not, and was never going to be, the "Credits Roll, democracy saved forever, we can all go home!" moment.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Nov 30th 2020 at 8:25:34 AM

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Forenperser Foreign Troper from Germany Since: Mar, 2012
Foreign Troper
#341762: Nov 30th 2020 at 8:25:10 AM

[up][up] My example was meant to invoke Damned by Faint Praise.

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Gaon Smoking Snake from Grim Up North Since: Jun, 2012 Relationship Status: Above such petty unnecessities
#341763: Nov 30th 2020 at 8:27:27 AM

Actually, from what I've seen, the most "humane and less painful" way of executing someone would either be the a gas chamber of sorts which slowly replaces oxygen until the victim essentially falls asleep in eternal slumber or the gullotine, with the quick and brutal severing of the brain being very effective at ending someone's life very quickly and without pain. But the first method brings uncomfortable memories of the holocaust and the second of the Terror in France (as well as being considered by many a form of body desecration due the separation of head and body), so they have their downsides.

Better to just not execute anyone at all.

"All you Fascists bound to lose."
clemont107 Mega Togekiss?! from Land of Missed Opportunities (Experienced, Not Yet Jaded) Relationship Status: YOU'RE TEARING ME APART LISA
Mega Togekiss?!
#341764: Nov 30th 2020 at 8:30:00 AM

[up]x3 Biden could just use his executive power the same way Mr. Tinyhands abused it when in office. Any executive action he takes is better than nothing.

And democracy is not saved forever until the GOP stops existing. As long as the GOP is there, and as long as people continue to support them, democracy will continue to be at risk.

Edited by clemont107 on Nov 30th 2020 at 11:30:25 AM

"Wow, no Mega Togekiss in Legends Z-A. Or any non-Froslass new Sinnoh Mega Evolutions. Round of applause, everybody." - Dawn
SeptimusHeap from Switzerland (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Mu
#341765: Nov 30th 2020 at 8:31:59 AM

#Actually, Donald Trump cannot escape New York justice by virtue of being a citizen of Florida.

Article IV, Section 1 of the US Constitution:

Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each State to the public Acts, Records, and judicial Proceedings of every other State. And the Congress may by general Laws prescribe the Manner in which such Acts, Records and Proceedings shall be proved, and the Effect thereof. (emphasis mine)

Thus, if a New York state court issues a legally valid arrest warrant Florida has to follow it, no questions asked. V.L._v._E.L. is an example case that deals with a LGBT adoption concluded in Georgia which Alabama didn't want to recognize.

Edited by SeptimusHeap on Nov 30th 2020 at 5:37:23 PM

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
TobiasDrake (•̀⤙•́) (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
(•̀⤙•́)
#341766: Nov 30th 2020 at 8:34:00 AM

We've been executing people humanely for about as long as we've had a justice system. The most humane execution method is not the firing squad, the lethal injection, or even the guillotine. The most humane execution method is time.

Life imprisonment is a death sentence. Convicts sentenced to both life and to death are to remain in prison until death takes them. In both situations, the justice system declares that, due to the severity of their crimes, the convicted is to be removed from society permanently, though they are allowed to appeal until such a time as the death they are sentenced to takes effect.

Life imprisonment and the death penalty are not at odds the way many believe. Life imprisonment is a death penalty. Specifically, the most humane death penalty we've ever conceived.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Nov 30th 2020 at 8:34:10 AM

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Forenperser Foreign Troper from Germany Since: Mar, 2012
Foreign Troper
#341767: Nov 30th 2020 at 8:36:45 AM

"But it wastes precious tax payer money!"

Certified: 48.0% West Asian, 6.5% South Asian, 15.8% North/West European, 15.7% English, 7.4% Balkan, 6.6% Scandinavian
Resileafs I actually wanted to be Resileaf Since: Jan, 2019
I actually wanted to be Resileaf
#341768: Nov 30th 2020 at 8:40:19 AM

[up]Ignoring of course that the death penalty is usually more costly because of all the court time the accused gets access to to appeal their penalty.

Forenperser Foreign Troper from Germany Since: Mar, 2012
Foreign Troper
#341769: Nov 30th 2020 at 8:41:35 AM

Yeah, I mean people often have to wait several decades until the execution. Some of them even die before that.

Cannot even imagine what kind of psychological terror that must be.

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Redmess Redmess from Netherlands Since: Feb, 2014
Redmess
#341770: Nov 30th 2020 at 8:43:26 AM

Given the circumstances in the US prison system, I think that "humane" should come with a huge asterisk.

And Biden doesn't need to be actively involved with Trump's prosecution to be affected politically. Whatever actions the government as a whole takes against Trump will ultimately be seen as stemming from the Biden administration, and by extension, from Biden. This is the consequence for putting all political responsibility with the president. For that reason alone, Biden will likely want to be involved in some way in order to have it not blow up in his face, even if we don't hear all that much about it.

Hope shines brightest in the darkest times
PushoverMediaCritic I'm sorry Tien, but I must go all out. from the Italy of America Since: Jul, 2015 Relationship Status: watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
I'm sorry Tien, but I must go all out.
#341771: Nov 30th 2020 at 8:44:46 AM

I've always thought that just executing a person is more humane than life imprisonment.

DrunkenNordmann from Exile Since: May, 2015
#341772: Nov 30th 2020 at 8:45:58 AM

[up] We shouldn't go around killing people in the first place, if it can be avoided.

We learn from history that we do not learn from history
TobiasDrake (•̀⤙•́) (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
(•̀⤙•́)
#341773: Nov 30th 2020 at 8:47:16 AM

I've always thought that just executing a person is more humane than life imprisonment.

I've heard that line of reasoning but have always thought that the only people qualified to make that decision is the condemned themselves. Which may differ from person to person.

Which in turn leads down the bizarre rabbit hole of "Opt-in executions".

My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.
Forenperser Foreign Troper from Germany Since: Mar, 2012
Foreign Troper
#341774: Nov 30th 2020 at 8:47:28 AM

[up][up][up] Some prisoners might certainly see it that way.

Giving them an option for it would probably be the best solution. But then again, that would be open for so much abuse and corruption, so please forget I said that.

Edited by Forenperser on Nov 30th 2020 at 5:47:36 PM

Certified: 48.0% West Asian, 6.5% South Asian, 15.8% North/West European, 15.7% English, 7.4% Balkan, 6.6% Scandinavian
PushoverMediaCritic I'm sorry Tien, but I must go all out. from the Italy of America Since: Jul, 2015 Relationship Status: watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
I'm sorry Tien, but I must go all out.
#341775: Nov 30th 2020 at 8:47:47 AM

Honestly, if we're doing away with the death penalty, we should do away with life imprisonment with no chance of parole as well. At least make it a hard rule that anyone sentenced to life imprisonment is given a chance to get out on good behavior.

Edited by PushoverMediaCritic on Nov 30th 2020 at 9:48:17 AM


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