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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
The cynic in me (which is a big part) is dreading and expecting the day when two or more school/mass shootings go down in the same day.
I really don't want this thread to have to clarify which massacre we are referring to, but it wouldn't be a surprise in the slightest.
Nicholas Kristof just published this.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/05/17/opinion/sunday/kevin-cooper-california-death-row.html
Note, original DNA testing did seem to convict the guy. HOWEVER, there's reason to believe the results were sabotaged (evidence was checked out off the books by an expert who was caught lying about how he did testing AND who has come under fire for forging evidence in another case, even after the judge rigged testing to determine whether the blood was planted she had to ignore that a.) 4 of the controls had DNA or were inconclusive b.) within the samples that had DNA the results corresponded almost perfectly with the preservative (barring one sample that was unevenly divided).). Notably there was also evidence that TWO bloodstained t-shirts were recovered, and a sample that was supposed to be Cooper's blood alone was found to have the blood of TWO people at least (the defense tried to have the vial tested but were blocked from doing so.)
In addition there's strong circumstantial evidence pointing to a man named Lee Furrow and two other men as the actual killers (his girlfriend turned in bloody coveralls and claimed he was missing a hatchet from his tool belt. The officer falsely claimed he threw them out on his own when in fact his superior had signed off on it, he matched the initial description given by the sole survivor as to what one of the attackers looked like and his stepmom lived about five minutes away from where the victim's car was ultimately found.) Furrow had also committed murder (he strangled a teenage girl to death, hacked up her corpse and then dumped it in the kern river). Notably when he was interviewed for 48 hours in 2000 he got caught lying (he claimed he passed a lie detector test when he never even took one).
Notably ELEVEN Federal judges voted to give the guy a new hearing, with quite a few of them accusing the police of railroading the guy and the judge of sabotaging the hearings held to determine the matter.
Part of the reason that this came up is that Kamela Harris was attorney general when the defense was making requests for tests to determine the matter (2 years ago.) Soon after the article Harris said that testing should be done.
edited 19th May '18 1:06:42 AM by LordYAM
Keep in mind there was another shooting scene at a school yesterday
, although it wasn't a "mass" shooting (one person killed, another shot and injured).
He's back on "clean coal", again.
1. Coal is not and has never been "clean". Does the term "Black Lung" mean anything to you?
2. I'm just going to let Theodore Roosevelt speak for me here.
edited 19th May '18 6:42:57 AM by megaeliz
And he just confirmed my theory, that when Trump says "clean coal" he does not mean "coal that has been made cleaner", he means "coal is already clean and beautiful and harmless". Seems obvious, but every other time he's said "clean coal", the news websites insisted on giving him the benefit of the doubt and reported that he was talking about coal that has been made cleaner.
On that note, I'm really looking forward to when Last Week Tonight with John Oliver covers the Frivolous Lawsuit they were on the receiving end of from Bob Murray, aka "geriatric Dr. Evil," especially because Murray is about as eager to sue as Trump himself is.
edited 19th May '18 6:44:53 AM by ironballs16
"Why would I inflict myself on somebody else?"I'm starting to think that Donnie never actually minded that he kept getting coal for Christmas, because his descriptions of black rocks as "beautiful" seem to by all means implicate a sexual fetish that makes him . . . rock hard.
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I've actually heard of some scientific plans for using coal for clean energy that seem plausible (disclaimer: I am only an amateur physicist).
But that would require the existing electric companies to upgrade. That would cost short-term profits! Also, getting in on that would require admitting that there's a problem with just burning coal.
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. It's still releasing carbon that has been sequestered underground for millions of years to the atmosphere, and it's not renewable, or, for that matter, particularly efficient.
Generally, I'm okay with some forms of bio-energy (not necessarily ethnol, though) because it's renewable and still within the natural carbon cycle, and is more or less "carbon neutral", (E.g. biomass from second growth managed forests, or using waste food to create biogas).
While they are almost certainly part of a sustainable future, truly clean source are always better.
edited 19th May '18 9:47:06 AM by megaeliz
The problem with biofuels is that it takes more energy to convert biomass into combustible fuel than you can get out of said fuel by burning it. Once they figure out how to streamline the process and make it more energy-efficient, this deficiency may be reduced. But I don't think it will ever balance out completely, and a net gain seems impossible. (Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.)
edited 19th May '18 11:41:53 AM by pwiegle
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Sorry about that, but I couldn't help but wonder why the hell would someone constantly praise the beauty of black rocks and their physical attractiveness.
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Well, the fossils preserved in coal
can be absolutely gorgeous. Geologists can tell you horror stories about how much of them have been destroyed.
I'm sure he has no idea though.
edited 19th May '18 11:27:21 AM by megaeliz
This is kind of hilarious. It got deleted and rewritten quickly enough
, but it was up long enough to be on record.
He (or whomever wrote that) misspelled Melania's name!
edited 19th May '18 11:44:20 AM by megaeliz
Trump Jr. and Other Aides Met With Gulf Emissary Offering Help to Win Election
The meeting was convened primarily to offer help to the Trump team, and it forged relationships between the men and Trump insiders that would develop over the coming months — past the election and well into President Trump’s first year in office, according to several people with knowledge of their encounters.
Erik Prince, the private security contractor and the former head of Blackwater, arranged the meeting, which took place on Aug. 3, 2016. The emissary, George Nader, told Donald Trump Jr. that the crown princes who led Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were eager to help his father win election as president. The social media specialist, Joel Zamel, extolled his company’s ability to give an edge to a political campaign; by that time, the firm had already drawn up a multimillion-dollar proposal for a social media manipulation effort to help elect Mr. Trump.
The company, which employed several Israeli former intelligence officers, specialized in collecting information and shaping opinion through social media.
It is unclear whether such a proposal was executed, and the details of who commissioned it remain in dispute. But Donald Trump Jr. responded approvingly, according to a person with knowledge of the meeting, and after those initial offers of help, Mr. Nader was quickly embraced as a close ally by Trump campaign advisers — meeting frequently with Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, and Michael T. Flynn, who became the president’s first national security adviser. At the time, Mr. Nader was also promoting a secret plan to use private contractors to destabilize Iran, the regional nemesis of Saudi Arabia and the Emirates.
After Mr. Trump was elected, Mr. Nader paid Mr. Zamel a large sum of money, described by one associate as up to $2 million. There are conflicting accounts of the reason for the payment, but among other things, a company linked to Mr. Zamel provided Mr. Nader with an elaborate presentation about the significance of social media campaigning to Mr. Trump’s victory.
The meetings, which have not been reported previously, are the first indication that countries other than Russia may have offered assistance to the Trump campaign in the months before the presidential election. The interactions are a focus of the investigation by Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel, who was originally tasked with examining possible Trump campaign coordination with Russia in the election.
Mr. Nader is cooperating with the inquiry, and investigators have questioned numerous witnesses in Washington, New York, Atlanta, Tel Aviv and elsewhere about what foreign help may have been pledged or accepted, and about whether any such assistance was coordinated with Russia, according to witnesses and others with knowledge of the interviews.
The interviews, some in recent weeks, are further evidence that special counsel’s investigation remains in an intense phase even as Mr. Trump’s lawyers are publicly calling for Mr. Mueller to bring it to a close.
It is illegal for foreign governments or individuals to be involved in American elections, and it is unclear what — if any — direct assistance Saudi Arabia and the Emirates may have provided. But two people familiar with the meetings said that Trump campaign officials did not appear bothered by the idea of cooperation with foreigners.
A lawyer for Donald Trump Jr., Alan Futerfas, said in a statement that “prior to the 2016 election, Donald Trump Jr. recalls a meeting with Erik Prince, George Nader and another individual who may be Joel Zamel. They pitched Mr. Trump Jr. on a social media platform or marketing strategy. He was not interested and that was the end of it.”
The August 2016 meeting has echoes of another Trump Tower meeting two months earlier, also under scrutiny by the special counsel, when Donald Trump Jr. and other top campaign aides met with a Russian lawyer after being promised damaging information about Hillary Clinton. No evidence has emerged suggesting that the August meeting was set up with a similar premise.
The revelations about the meetings come in the midst of new scrutiny about ties between Mr. Trump’s advisers and at least three wealthy Persian Gulf states. Besides his interest in Saudi Arabia and the Emirates, Mr. Mueller has also been asking witnesses about meetings between White House advisers and representatives of Qatar, Saudi Arabia’s bitter rival.
A lawyer for Mr. Zamel denied that his client had carried out any campaign on Mr. Trump’s behalf. “Neither Joel Zamel, nor any of his related entities, had any involvement whatsoever in the U.S. election campaign,” said the lawyer, Marc L. Mukasey.
“The D.O.J. clarified from Day 1 that Joel and his companies have never been a target of the investigation. My client provided full cooperation to the government to assist with their investigation,” he said.
Kathryn Ruemmler, a lawyer for Mr. Nader, said, “Mr. Nader has fully cooperated with the special counsel’s investigation and will continue to do so.” A senior official in Saudi Arabia said it had never employed Mr. Nader in any capacity or authorized him to speak for the crown prince.
Mr. Prince, through a spokesman, declined to comment. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
Advisers to the Court
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan of Abu Dhabi, the de facto ruler of the United Arab Emirates, and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, the king’s main adviser, had long opposed many of the Obama administration’s policies toward the Middle East. They resented President Barack Obama’s agreement with Iran over its nuclear program, his statements of support for the Arab Spring uprisings and his hands-off approach to the Syrian civil war.
News outlets linked to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates fiercely criticized Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Trump’s Democratic opponent, when she was secretary of state, and diplomats familiar with their thinking say both crown princes hoped for a president who would take a stronger hand in the region against both Iran and groups like the Muslim Brotherhood.
Mr. Nader had worked for years as a close adviser to Crown Prince Mohammed of Abu Dhabi, and Mr. Zamel had worked for the Emirati royal court as a consultant as well. When Mr. Trump locked up the Republican presidential nomination in early 2016, Mr. Nader began making inquiries on behalf of the Emirati prince about possible ways to directly support Mr. Trump, according to three people with whom Mr. Nader discussed his efforts.
Mr. Nader also visited Moscow at least twice during the presidential campaign as a confidential emissary from Crown Prince Mohammed of Abu Dhabi, according to people familiar with his travels. After the election, he worked with the crown prince to arrange a meeting in the Seychelles between Mr. Prince and a financier close to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.
Companies connected to Mr. Zamel also have ties to Russia. One of his firms had previously worked for oligarchs linked to Mr. Putin, including Oleg V. Deripaska and Dmitry Rybolovlev, who hired the firm for online campaigns against their business rivals.
Mr. Deripaska, an aluminum magnate, was once in business with the former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who has pleaded not guilty in the special counsel investigation to charges of financial crimes and failing to disclose the lobbying work he did on behalf of a former president of Ukraine, an ally of Mr. Putin. Mr. Rybolovlev once purchased a Florida mansion from Mr. Trump.
Mr. Nader’s visits to Russia and the work Mr. Zamel’s companies did for the Russians have both been a subject of interest to the special counsel’s investigators, according to people familiar with witness interviews.
A String of Meetings
Mr. Zamel and Mr. Nader were together at a Midtown Manhattan hotel at about 4 p.m. on the afternoon of Aug. 3 when Mr. Nader received a call from Mr. Prince summoning them to Trump Tower. When they arrived, Stephen Miller, a top campaign aide who is now a White House adviser, was in Donald Trump Jr.’s office as well, according to the people familiar with the meeting.
Mr. Prince is a longtime Republican donor and the brother of Betsy De Vos, the education secretary, and Mr. Prince and Mr. Nader had known each other since Mr. Nader had worked for Blackwater as a business agent in Iraq in the years after the American invasion. Mr. Prince has longstanding ties to the Emirates, and has frequently done business with Crown Prince Mohammed.
Mr. Prince opened the meeting by telling Donald Trump Jr. that “we are working hard for your father,” in reference to his family and other donors, according to a person familiar with the meeting. He then introduced Mr. Nader as an old friend with deep ties to Arab leaders.
Mr. Nader repeatedly referred to the crown princes of Saudi Arabia and the Emirates as “my friends,” according to one person with knowledge of the conversation. To underscore the point, he would open his mobile phone to show off pictures of him posing with them, some of which The New York Times obtained.
Mr. Nader explained to Donald Trump Jr. that the two crown princes saw the elder Mr. Trump as a strong leader who would fill the power vacuum that they believed Mr. Obama had left in the Middle East, and Mr. Nader went on to say that he and his friends would be glad to support Mr. Trump as much as they could, according to the person with knowledge of the conversation.
Mr. Zamel, for his part, laid out the capabilities of his online media company, although it is unclear whether he referred to the proposals his company had already prepared. One person familiar with the meeting said that Mr. Nader invited Donald Trump Jr. to meet with a Saudi prince — an invitation the younger Mr. Trump declined. After about half an hour, everyone exchanged business cards.
“There was a brief meeting, nothing concrete was offered or pitched to anyone and nothing came of it,” said Mr. Mukasey, the lawyer for Mr. Zamel.
By then, a company connected to Mr. Zamel had been working on a proposal for a covert multimillion-dollar online manipulation campaign to help elect Mr. Trump, according to three people involved and a fourth briefed on the effort. The plan involved using thousands of fake social media accounts to promote Mr. Trump’s candidacy on platforms like Facebook.
There were concerns inside the company, Psy-Group, about the plan’s legality, according to one person familiar with the effort. The company, whose motto is “shape reality,” consulted an American law firm, and was told that it would be illegal if any non-Americans were involved in the effort.
Mr. Zamel, the founder of Psy-Group and one of its owners, has been questioned about the August 2016 meeting by investigators for the special counsel, and at least two F.B.I. agents working on the inquiry have traveled to Israel to interview employees of the company who worked on the proposal. According to one person, the special counsel’s team has worked with the Israeli police to seize the computers of one of Mr. Zamel’s companies, which is currently in liquidation.
In the hectic final weeks of the campaign and during the presidential transition, several of Mr. Trump’s advisers drew Mr. Nader close. He met often with Mr. Kushner, Mr. Flynn and Stephen K. Bannon, who took over as campaign chairman after Mr. Manafort resigned amid revelations about his work in Ukraine.
In December 2016, Mr. Nader turned again to an internet company linked to Mr. Zamel — White Knight, based in the Philippines — to purchase a presentation demonstrating the impact of social media campaigns on Mr. Trump’s electoral victory. Asked about the purchase, a representative of White Knight said: “White Knight delivers premium research and high-end business development services for prestigious clients around the world. White Knight does not talk about any of its clients.”
After the inauguration, both Mr. Zamel and Mr. Nader visited the White House, meeting with Mr. Kushner and Mr. Bannon.
At that time, Mr. Nader was promoting a plan to use private contractors to carry out economic sabotage against Iran that, he hoped, might coerce it to permanently abandon its nuclear program. The plan included efforts to deter Western companies from investing in Iran, and operations to sow mistrust among Iranian officials. He advocated the project, which he estimated would cost about $300 million, to American, Emirati and Saudi officials.
Last spring, Mr. Nader traveled to Riyadh for meetings with senior Saudi military and intelligence officials to pitch his Iran sabotage plan. He was convinced, according to several people familiar with his plan, that economic warfare was the key to the overthrow of the government in Tehran. One person briefed on Mr. Nader’s activities said he tried to persuade Mr. Kushner to endorse the plan to Crown Prince Mohammed in person on a trip to Riyadh, although it was unclear whether the message was delivered.
Asked about Mr. Nader’s plans to attack Iran, the senior Saudi official said Mr. Nader had a habit of pitching proposals that went nowhere.
Mr. Nader was also in discussions with Mr. Prince, the former head of Blackwater, about a plan to get the Saudis to pay $2 billion to set up a private army to combat Iranian proxy forces in Yemen.
Since entering the White House, Mr. Trump has allied himself closely with Saudi Arabia and the Emirates. His first overseas trip was to Riyadh. He strongly backed Saudi and Emirati efforts to isolate their neighbor Qatar, another American ally, even over apparent disagreement from the State and Defense Departments.
This month, Mr. Trump also withdrew from an Obama administration nuclear deal with Iran that both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates had campaigned against for years, delivering them their biggest victory yet from his administration.
@megaeliz: I'm really, really not concerned about coal supplies running out. IFF we can solve the issue of releasing carbon and still use coal cost-effectively, then I don't mind "clean coal" projects as a transitional fuel - assuming that said projects are offered in good faith instead of "clean coal" being Republican shorthand for "do nothing, as usual."
And at this point, combining carbon capture with biofuel would be an important way to reduce carbon concentration, but the specifics of that are getting off topic.

The cynic in me wonders if someone is going to try to cash in on this by selling child-sized bulletproof vests.
Disgusted, but not surprised