All purpose news and politics thread part VI: This Is Not The Time For Posing

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

Bill Cosby is freed, James Franco only had to pay a fine for all his sexual harassment allegations, and now a judge rules that Britney Spears has to remain in conservatorship and watched by her abusive dad.

What a f**ked day for women. >_<

On the Brittany front, she was never going to get released from the conservatorship today. The judge granted a special hearing so she could speak out. She requested to be immediately released. That wasn’t going to happen and you need to file a motion and go through the process. The judge basically said she should file

[JackDaw]

On paper?

I see what you are saying.

In the actual America I am living in?

A lot of the time, civil court can be the best shot someone will have at anything like justice.

But the civil case was going to happen anyway. The only question was whether Cosby was going to plead the 5th Amendment or not. If he had pleaded the 5th, then surely it would have damaged his chances in that case.

To me it feels like the agreement helped Cosby, not only by giving him immunity in a potential future criminal case, but also by giving him opportunity to give evidence on his own behalf in civil case.

That’s what baffles me…I don’t see how anybody benefits other than Cosby.

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

Cheers.

According to BBC report it was a written agreement rather than a verbal one…which I think makes more sense, one thing that baffled me was how a verbal agreement could be agreed in the case. (If verbal, how could Cosby rely on it later—the then DA could just deny there was any agreement.)

In any case the DA’s action seems bizarre to me. He gave up any chance of future justice, for what? (If Cosby had pleaded the 5th amendment in the civil case…it would not have helped his chances of winning the civil case…it would have resulted in the woman’s testimony being unchallenged.)

He felt the only chance he had was a civil case because taking criminal charges off the table forced Cosby to not invoke the 5th and he was compelled to incriminate himself in several depositions. The victim got 3 million in a settlement as a result.

The other issue was that they used his testimony against him years later in the criminal trial. It’s unclear if they would even have had a good case at all if they weren’t able to use that testimony. And since that testimony was given under the pretenses that he couldn’t utilize his rights it taints them trial.

It was with the intention of getting some type of win for the victim

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

But the civil case was going to happen anyway. The only question was whether Cosby was going to plead the 5th Amendment or not. If he had pleaded the 5th, then surely it would have damaged his chances in that case.

To me it feels like the agreement helped Cosby, not only by giving him immunity in a potential future criminal case, but also by giving him opportunity to give evidence on his own behalf in civil case.

That’s what baffles me…I don’t see how anybody benefits other than Cosby.

Pleading the 5th doesn’t damage a case. In most trials judges explicitly instruct juries that the 5th is a constitutional right and is not to be taken as an admission of guilt.

Not pleading the 5th meant he could be compelled to answer questions that incriminated him. They did in fact incriminate him and it was used against him later. The victim benefitted because she got a civil case win where Cosby was forced to testify against himself and it hurt his case enough that they settled for millions.

Yes it took criminal charges off the table, but it likely means he is pleading the 5th, it damages his civil suit for the victim and they don’t even get to the criminal trial because without testimony from him, they don’t have much. Honestly the more I read about it, the more it seems like the judge in the criminal case let the prosecution trample over the defenses due process. It also doesn’t help that the judge was a political rival for DA with the previous DA who made the deal (which this judge later ignored). It just got really messy.

[Zauriel]

Teapot Dome was WAAAAY worse than anything Nixon did. And that is just the beginning of the scandals for Harding. The thing with Harding was all this came to the open AFTER he left ... which starting with Nixon and on through Trump ... I don't think you could do things like Watergate, Teapot Dome, etc. without it becoming public. I think technology has gotten to a point that it is really hard to suppress that kind of scandal. For example, see Gaetz. That is SOP for your post-FDR GOP and sadly, a lot of Dems. But now you get caught so easily.

I often debate between Harding and Nixon as my 4th ... and it usually comes down to senseless war vs. crazy bribery scheme. Today I would lean towards Harding but tomorrow ... It could be Nixon. Sometimes I remember Hoovervilles and go with Herbert.

Both are worthy of the hall of shame.

Speaking of Teapot, in 2019 it was looking like Trump was doing the same thing, got caught, and had to end it.

Can't even bribe people correctly.
.

While Teapot Dome has made Harding administration one of the most corrupt administrations in US history, it did not shake American public's confidence in the integrity of their government as much as watergate.

[Zauriel]

CSpan has done a survey of historians of presidential leadership to rank Presidents.

https://www.c-span.org/presidentsurvey2021/

The top ten...
10. Barack Obama
9. Ronald Reagan
8. John F Kennedy
7. Thomas Jefferson
6. Harry Truman
5. Dwight Eisenhower
4. Theodore Roosevelt
3. FDR
2. George Washington
1. Abraham Lincoln

Donald Trump is fourth from the bottom, rated higher than Franklin Pierce, Andrew Johnson and James Buchanan.

All the presidents are rated in the categories of Public Persuasion, Crisis Leadership, Economic Management, Moral Authority, International Relations, Administrative Skills, Relations with Congress, Vision / Setting an Agenda, Pursued Equal Justice For All and Performance Within Context of Times

I'm sure everyone here will find different things to disagree on. JFK seems really overrated.

JFK only had two years and half in office so he didn't live to accomplish more. Bay of the Pigs was a disaster. But he created the Peace Corps and had the Congress invest a lot in the space race. His idea of American Camelot was beautiful.

LBJ created the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Transportation. LBJ's War on Poverty was a solid achievement.

Jimmy Carter created the Department of Education and the Department of Energy.

James Buchanan was an enlisted soldier rather than an officer. He was the only POTUS who was previously an enlisted soldier. That explains why he was the worst commander-in-chief in U.S. history.

[JackDaw]

Pleading the 5th doesn’t damage a case. In most trials judges explicitly instruct juries that the 5th is a constitutional right and is not to be taken as an admission of guilt.

Not pleading the 5th meant he could be compelled to answer questions that incriminated him. They did in fact incriminate him and it was used against him later. The victim benefitted because she got a civil case win where Cosby was forced to testify against himself and it hurt his case enough that they settled for millions.

Yes it took criminal charges off the table, but it likely means he is pleading the 5th, it damages his civil suit for the victim and they don’t even get to the criminal trial because without testimony from him, they don’t have much. Honestly the more I read about it, the more it seems like the judge in the criminal case let the prosecution trample over the defenses due process. It also doesn’t help that the judge was a political rival for DA with the previous DA who made the deal (which this judge later ignored). It just got really messy.

Thanks for that…finally “I get it”.

In UK law used to operate in a similar fashion (i.e. nothing could be read into a refusal to answer questions), but way law operates here was changed here a few years ago….people still have right of silence, but it’s now permitted to jury to draw sensible conclusions if that right is exercised. (Of course, it’s not an admission of guilt by itself, but it’s a factor that may be reflected on by the jury in coming to their decision.)

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Bill Cosby is freed, James Franco only had to pay a fine for all his sexual harassment allegations, and now a judge rules that Britney Spears has to remain in conservatorship and watched by her abusive dad.

What a f**ked day for women. >_<

According to this Franco and his lawyer are claiming that the suit settlement is Franco still denying the claims made. That they settled it to stop more claims like this from coming forward about his acting school he ran from from 2014 to 2017.


https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...-suit-n1272836

[CSTowle]

I'll have to disagree with you there. I believe the good of the country took a back seat to corporate greed and opportunism.

I have no doubt those who got the contracts did so in part because of their connections. I just mean I think the Right legitimately believes that privatizing everything from prisons to infrastructure projects to the military is better for the country than having government-run programs. If their friends/family/"blind trusts" happen to benefit, well hey. It's good to have friends.

[Kirby101]

David Brin, science fiction writer and political polemicist had an interesting take on worse President.

This list ought to also be given by "era." And to my mind by far the worst president of the 20th Century was George H. W. Bush. "Poppy" seemed eminently qualified on paper. In fact the only Republican VP (elected or candidate) since 1940 to be remotely qualified for taking the highest office.). But his betrayal of the Iraqi Shiites, when we could trivially have saved one MILLION of them from Saddam (at zero cost) will be a stain on our honor forever and that crime's repercussions still endanger all our lives. But botching the "help to transition to capitalism" of the fallen USSR, assisting a small coterie of commissars to steal every state asset (with Bush pals holding strings) created Putinism and today's worldwide Mafia putsch. Sure, he was less of a dunce/jibbering loon than GOP presidents to follow. But when looking only at palpable after-effects, he was vastly worse than either his son or Trump.

Buchanan was wretched, but the war would have happened anyway and it's maybe best he didn't make a deal. Andrew Johnson did us fantastic harm by betraying the freed slaves and we are still paying for it. Both rank up there with Poppy for 'harm done"... And W+Cheney stole vastly more than Harding's cronies ever did. But as an absolutely ludicrous crap show, nothing will ever beat Trump.

[InformationGeek]

Pelosi is going forward with the 1/6 Commission today, announcing who will be joining... and man with clearly nothing to hide, Kevin McCarthy, is threatening any Republican who joins with expulsion of any committee assignments.

[Hellion]

David Brin, science fiction writer and political polemicist had an interesting take on worse President.

Well unfortunately what's still in play is that Trump could beat Trump. If he runs in 2024 and somehow wins, it'll be four years of "Hold my KFC bucket and watch this!"

[worstblogever]

In 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, as well as 2020, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" published profiles of the current U.S. House Representative from New York’s 27th Congressional District, Chris Collins, a man who while running for Governor of New York in 2010, compared the Speaker of the New York House of Representatives to the Anti-Christ and Hitler, which was super-awkward because he was Jewish. He also sexually harassed a colleague by telling her she should offer up a lap dance to get a seat at the State of the State address that year, and tried deriding the need for healthcare reform by saying that people nowadays "don't die from prostate cancer" (except for the tens of thousands of people a year who do). Upon being elected to office in 2012, he quickly made himself a laughing stock by accidentally attending a Democratic Caucus meeting, grabbing breakfast, and then bolting after he realized he was in the wrong room. not only voted for the 2013 Government Shutdown, but voting to keep the government closed when the vote came up to re-open it. Collins also has the dubious honor of being the first Congressional Republican to endorse Donald Trump for president, and tried squaring up Trump’s hardline conservative stance on immigration by claiming that his statements were only “rhetorical” and not actually policies. On the day of the shooting of House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, Collins claimed that it was the “dangerous rhetoric” of Democrats that caused the shooter to act, and they need to “tone it down”. In 2017, Chris Collins he admitted voting for Trumpcare without even reading the bill in a live CNN interview. While Rep. Mark Sanford and Rep. Tom Garrett also admitted to doing the same, the difference is a provision in Trumpcare would have cost the state of New York $3 billion in funding, which, y’know, is where Collins is from. But in a bizarre turn of events, it turns out that Chris Collins feels like maybe Donald Trump’s statements shouldn’t just be considered “rhetorical”, after he recently came out in defense of Trump, and saying that the American people should take his Twitter account seriously, only a short time after Trump’s infamous “covfefe” post. But really, Chris Collins was trying to defend Donald Trump’s artful choice to attack the mayor of London on social media on the day London had experienced a terror attack, saying that Mayor Sadiq Khan “had started it”. Collins was eventually placed under an ethics investigation for violating the Stock Act, after voting on bills that helped a company he’s a major shareholder in profit. Perhaps no one would have noticed that conflict of interests had Collins himself not bragged in the House Speakers' Lobby about “how many millionaires I’ve made in Buffalo the past few months.” And perhaps no one would have thought much of the accusations if Collins hadn’t drawn more attention to it by responding by claiming it was a “witch hunt” and calling fellow Congresswoman Louise Slaughter a “despicable human being” for putting him under ethics review for it. In fact, Collins’ actions outright led to his arrest, indictment, and conviction for insider trading, He only served a few weeks out of a 26 month sentence because Donald Trump f***ing pardoned this crooked-*ss mother***er. It will be hard for him to make a political comeback, in any event, after that, so we will retire his profile at this time to take a look at a different wacky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 997-50, since this was established in July 2014.


Amber Krabach

Welcome to what is the 997th profile here at “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day”, where we’ll be profiling Amber Krabach, who was a 2018 and 2020 candidate for District 45 of the Washington House of Representatives, who is the latest Republican we’ve covered who actively promoted of the Qanon conspiracy theory. She’s a little more “extra” than the average loon, though, as she has ties to more dangerous militia/hate groups like Patriot Prayer and the Proud Boys.

But alas, Krabach, like others of conspiratorial ilk, cannot be content with just one paranoid, raving plot being undertaken to ramble about. Behold, in April of 2020, where she began making up a conspiracy theory during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic when the supply chain was negatively impacted while simultaneously the public panicked and began hoarding basic supplies like bottled water, non-perishable food, and toilet paper. You see, Amber’s local grocery store was temporarily out of flour, but she saw online that someone else was donating 3,000 lbs. of flour to charity, and then connected the dots to posit a conspiracy theory of an Antifa/communist plot to… hoard baking supplies.

…hngh?

Anyway, in her second attempt at getting elected to the Washington state legislature, Amber Krabach fell far short, getting just 33% of the vote and losing by a two-to-one margin. We’re hoping her interest in flour is the only whiteness she continues being dedicated to, and those militia ties don’t further radicalize her to become a truly toxic presence.

[kidfresh512]

Supreme Court upholds restrictive Arizona voting laws in test of Voting Rights Act

"This significantly dilutes the Voting Rights Act," said Rick Hasen, a law professor at the University of Califorinia, Irvine. "Minority groups will now have to meet a much higher standard beyond showing that a change presents a burden to voting. It puts a thumb on the scale for the states."

Writing for the majority, Justice Samuel Alito said the law requires "equal openness" to the voting process. "Mere inconvenience cannot be enough to demonstrate a violation" of the law, he wrote.

Voting law changes may have a different impact on minority and non-minority groups, Alito said, "but the mere fact there is some disparity in impact does not necessarily mean that a system is not equally open or does not give everyone an equal opportunity to vote."

Alito's comments concede that minority groups might be impacted "differently or harder" with these laws. But, that "disparity" between minority and non minority voters doesnt mean unequal opportunity to vote.

For anyone under the illusion that the conservative majority thing was overblown since they didn't just repeal ROE vs Wade immediately and revoke Gay Marriage and Obamacare out the gate.

There is NO reason that there should be voting laws that create any "disparity" on minorities at all. There is no reason for it. On one hand the impact is acknowledged , we all know why the GOP is doing it. But, you take a pass and say it isn't enough to make them stop.


University of North Carolina Grants Tenure to Nikole Hannah-Jones After All

Trustees for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill voted Wednesday to give tenure to Nikole Hannah-Jones, the New York Times Magazine writer behind the 1619 Project, NPR reports.

After the Board of Trustees met for three hours, its Vice Chairman, Gene Davis, said “We welcome Nikole Hannah-Jones back to campus. Our university is not a place to cancel people. Our university is better than that. Our nation is better than that.”

The dean of UNC’s journalism school, Susan King, also spoke about the development. “It has taken longer than I imagined, but I am deeply appreciative that the board has voted in favor of our school’s recommendation,” she wrote. “I knew that when the board reviewed her tenure dossier and realized the strength of her teaching, service and professional vision they would be moved to grant tenure.”

Should piss off some of the FOX News conservatives tonight I imagine.

[Tami]

Okay, I spent time i shouldn't have running the data and here are my results using the 2021 rankings

Early 1700s - Best President - George Washington (Overall 2021 Ranking - 2)
Early 1800s - Best President - Thomas Jefferson (Overall 2021 Ranking - 7)
Early 1800s - Worst President - William Henry Harrison (Overall 2021 Ranking - 40)
Late 1800s - Best President - Abraham Lincoln (Overall 2021 Ranking - 1)
Late 1800s - Worst President - James Buchanan (Overall 2021 2021 Ranking - 44)
Early 1900s - Best President - Franklin D. Roosevelt (Overall 2021 Ranking - 3)
Early 1900s - Worst President - Warren G. Harding (Overall 2021 Ranking - 37)
Late 1900s - Best President - Dwight D. Eisenhower (Overall 2021 Ranking - 5)
Late 1900s - Worst President - Richard M. Nixon (Overall 2021 Ranking - 31)
Early 2000s - Best President (so far) - Barack H. Obama (Overall 2021 Ranking - 10)
Early 2000s - Worst President (so far) - Donald J. Trump (Overall 2021 Ranking - 41)

Below is the results using an average rank score from 2000 to 2021 - Surprisingly there was no real change

Early 1700s - Best President - George Washington (Overall Average Ranking - 2)
Early 1800s - Best President - Thomas Jefferson (Overall Average Ranking - 7)
Early 1800s - Worst President - William Henry Harrison (Overall Average Ranking - 39)
Late 1800s - Best President - Abraham Lincoln (Overall Average Ranking- 1)
Late 1800s - Worst President - James Buchanan (Overall Average Ranking - 43)
Early 1900s - Best President - Franklin D. Roosevelt (Overall Average Ranking - 3)
Early 1900s - Worst President - Warren G. Harding (Overall Average Ranking - 38)
Late 1900s - Best President - Dwight D. Eisenhower (Overall Average Ranking - 7)
Late 1900s - Worst President - Richard M. Nixon (Overall Average Ranking- 28)
Early 2000s - Best President (so far) - Barack H. Obama (Overall Average Ranking - 11)
Early 2000s - Worst President (so far) - Donald J. Trump (Overall Average Ranking - 41)