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

[kidfresh512]

Unless they appear to be skinheads...

Then, it is just a sensible call.

Yep I am actually glad those "southern pride" people use the confederate flag on trucks. Tells me who to watch out for. I am way more wary of those crazies than I am some hungry immigrant that wants to feed his family.

[numberthirty]

Why isn't this trial over in half an hour?

Because Kyle happens to be the right skin color for everyone to ignore that a gun's only function is to kill.

Or...

Sometimes things actually are about the finer points of the law...

https://mckinneylaw.iu.edu/news/rele...fense-law.html

Professor Schumm Discusses South Bend Murder Case and Test of State's Self-defense Law

Professor Joel Schumm, ’98, talked with a reporter in South Bend about Indiana’s self-defense law in connection with a murder case in that city. The South Bend Tribune story also notes the argument Professor Schumm made in a similar case before the Indiana Supreme Court.

In South Bend, Kyle Doroszko was robbed at gunpoint when he opened fire himself, killing another teenager. Police don’t dispute this, yet prosecutors charged Doroszko with murder, arguing that he didn’t have the right to defend himself because he was selling marijuana and possibly a gun.

“The problem is the self-defense statute has language that if you’re committing a crime, you can’t use self-defense,” Professor Schumm said in the story. “If you take the statute literally, someone using marijuana or playing in an illegal card game cannot use self-defense no matter what someone does to them.”

The story delves into Anthony Gammons, Jr. v. State of Indiana, which Professor Schumm argued before the Indiana Court of Appeals in October 2019, and before the Indiana Supreme Court on March 12. Gammons was convicted of murder in Marion County in a shooting he claimed was self-defense. The prosecutor argued Gammons had no right to defend himself because he was carrying a handgun without a license.

[The Cool Thatguy]

Or...

Sometimes things actually are about the finer points of the law...

https://mckinneylaw.iu.edu/news/rele...fense-law.html

...your link only supports my position, though.

The commission of a crime negates self defense. He had no right to wield that weapon, ergo...

[Mister Mets]

Or...

Sometimes things actually are about the finer points of the law...

https://mckinneylaw.iu.edu/news/rele...fense-law.html

One distinction I'm curious about is whether the defense was allowed to argue self-defense in this case. Did the jury hear the self-defense argument and reject it, or was that something the judge said couldn't be part of the case?

[Tami]

I guess Trump no longer has a use for it, or he is desperate for money

Report: Trump’s company inks $375 million deal to sell D.C. hotel lease

Donald Trump’s real estate company plans to sell the federal lease to its luxury D.C. hotel to Miami-based CGI Merchant Group, according to a report Sunday in the Wall Street Journal.

The Trump Organization, which leased the Old Post Office property beginning in 2013, has been in discussions with CGI Merchant about selling the lease, according to two sources who spoke to The Post on the condition of anonymity because of the private nature of the discussions. CGI Merchant signed a contract to buy the lease for $375 million, according to the Journal, citing anonymous sources.

An investment firm whose investors include former Major League Baseball star Alex Rodriguez, CGI Merchant announced a fund last year in which it acquires hotels and partners with McLean-based Hilton Worldwide to operate them.

Hilton attempted to win the Old Post Office deal originally, partnering with a different investment group to turn the building into a Waldorf Astoria, but losing out when the GSA selected the Trump bid. Hilton did not immediately respond to a request for comment Sunday evening.

Trump’s company beat out other competitors to win the lease by offering to spend more than $200 million to redevelop the building, transforming it from federal offices and a food court into a 263-room luxury hotel with one of the largest ballrooms in the city. Donald Trump, then two years from entering the 2016 presidential race, oversaw the development along with his daughter Ivanka Trump.

Trump’s company tried to sell the lease for its hotel in 2019, as soon as its contract with the GSA allowed. But when the coronavirus pandemic struck, crushing the hotel business for months, the company pulled the hotel off the market.

Though the agreement allows Trump to sell the lease, the sale requires approval of the GSA, which receives $3 million in base rent annually plus increases tied to inflation. The GSA could also be entitled to a cut of profits depending on how much the lease sells for, according to the lease terms.

[Malvolio]

I guess Trump no longer has a use for it, or he is desperate for money

Report: Trump’s company inks $375 million deal to sell D.C. hotel lease

As President, Trump could invite foreign dignitaries to Washington and put them up at his hotel. A clear violation of the emoluments clause, which Trump should have been impeached for from day one, but never mind that. Since he's no longer President, he can't profit so easily from that hotel, so he figures he might as well sell it. It might also be a sign that he will NOT run for President again in 2024. Note that I said, "might."

[The Cool Thatguy]

As President, Trump could invite foreign dignitaries to Washington and put them up at his hotel. A clear violation of the emoluments clause, which Trump should have been impeached for from day one, but never mind that. Since he's no longer President, he can't profit so easily from that hotel, so he figures he might as well sell it. It might also be a sign that he will NOT run for President again in 2024. Note that I said, "might."

Hate that damn hotel.

When I used to live in DC, it had it's own damn light off of 12th street. If you turned off of constitution, it would always get you, even if no one was crossing. Probably Trump's way to screw the locals.

[numberthirty]

...your link only supports my position, though.

The commission of a crime negates self defense. He had no right to wield that weapon, ergo...

Not when it is in a different state...

Even there...

https://www.criminallegalnews.org/ne...-self-defense/

Indiana Supreme Court: Must Be Immediate Causal Connection Between Confrontation and Other Crime by Defendant to Negate Self-Defense

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, as well as 2020, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” posted profiles of U.S. Senator Mike Rounds of South Dakota, who clearly has been taking hairstyle tips from Donald Trump on how to rock a comb over. Rounds, a former governor of South Dakota, once tried to outlaw all abortion in his state, and was turned back by the courts for it being a violation of Roe vs. Wade. He also insisted the Keystone Pipeline would create 40,000 new jobs in South Dakota alone, which was a gross exaggeration over four times the amount the company who would have owned the pipeline claimed there would be (It was more like 50, in reality). That’s not his only big lie, though, he actually has argued in favor of repealing Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform on the fallacy that the economy got WORSE after it was passed (the opposite is true). Sen. Rounds also was investigated for an immigration scandal, where he supposedly abused the EB5-Visa program to offer green cards to foreign investors if they would pony up $500,000 into beef packing plants in South Dakota. The visas were then not given, and the beef packing plant in question went bankrupt… and the money vanished with several of Rounds’ closest aides. After almost a year and a half, someone was finally charged with a crime in the EB5 Scandal. Regrettably, it was not Mike Rounds, but his associate Joop Bollen, who was charged with five felonies. On March 1st, 2016, Rounds commented on GOP Presidential Nominee Donald Trump, specifically, Trump’s reluctance to disavow the endorsement of David Duke, the former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, which Rounds took time to defend him for. Yeah, you got that right. On top of all the other horrible things about Mike Rounds, he also doesn't object to his party being linked with the Klan that much.

If the EB-5 scandal didn’t already make it plainly clear how comfortable Rounds is corruption, we have to point out that he also went out of his way in April of 2018 to defend former EPA Director Scott Pruitt, who was the subject of over a dozen investigations into corruption, saying that people calling for his resignation were “nitpicking”. From where we’re sitting, those nits were the size of house cats, at least.

Not surprisingly, Sen. Rounds was on board with every other terrible idea Donald Trump has managed to float through the Senate, including approving every member of Trump’s “Cabinet of Horrors”, voting for the attempt the Senate GOP made at the “skinny repeal” of the Affordable Care Act, and he also voted for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, frequently complaining about protestors in the Capitol who had more sense than Rounds, at least enough to know that you shouldn’t put a rapist on the bench, let alone on the highest court in the land, and claiming that the “FBI Investigation” the GOP made into accusations against Kavanaugh was adequate, in spite of the fact that they weren’t even asked to interview Kavanaugh’s friend Mark Judge, who was in the room when the assault happened, and, y'know, the fact that we would learn later that said investigation was about as inadequate as it gets.

Rounds’ seat in the Senate was up in 2020, and even though he blindly voted against witnesses in the impeachment trial of Donald Trump, and then voted to acquit an obviously guilty Oval Office occupant, he survived a primary challenger in the form of Scyller Borglum (not a character in Harry Potter), and had a huge financial advantage, with almost $2 million in fundraising saved up even as early as November of 2019. In the general election, he defeated Democrat Dan Ahlers with 68% of the vote.

He thus returned to the Senate to do whatever Mitch McConnell tells him until 2026, including voting against the American Rescue Plan Act to deny his constituents Covid-19 relief, voted as part of the filibuster against having a non-partisan commission investigate the January 6th attacks, voting as part of the filibuster against the “For the People Act” to galvanize voting rights, failed to even show up to vote one way or the other for the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and if he was given the chance, said he would have voted against raising the debt ceiling, which would have destroyed both the United States’ economy as well as the global economy.

We’re not sure what motivates him, at this point, other than sheer corruption and stupidity.

[Xheight]

Yep I am actually glad those "southern pride" people use the confederate flag on trucks. Tells me who to watch out for. I am way more wary of those crazies than I am some hungry immigrant that wants to feed his family.

Yeah because that's who they all are right? As if the poor don't rob from the poor.

Marie Gottschalk
If we released everyone now serving time in state prisons whose primary charge is a drug offense, we would reduce the state prison population by only 20 percent.
The overwhelming majority of people in prison are not there because of a drug offense. And even many of the people who are serving time primarily for a drug charge have other kinds of offenses on their records.

[Xheight]

Hate that damn hotel.

When I used to live in DC, it had it's own damn light off of 12th street. If you turned off of constitution, it would always get you, even if no one was crossing. Probably Trump's way to screw the locals.

LOL. As if that's a bad thing.

[Xheight]

You know how insane that is, this whole "The Other" nonsense.

I mean, yes, there are times when having your Spider Sense on high alert is smart. Going someplace alone, at night, isn't usually smart unless you are out in the open and are confident of the area and the route.

That's just an example.

But grouping people together and being afraid of that group, is just dumb.

I am always wary of groups of teen boys, it doesn't matter their color. That they hang out and travel in groups just feeds bad vibes toward stereotypes.

[Xheight]

...your link only supports my position, though.

The commission of a crime negates self defense. He had no right to wield that weapon, ergo...

It is law making like this that leads people to have contempt for the system as a whole. That is just stupid. Sounds Like Indiana is using common sense.

[Xheight]

I don't think there was a congressional committee looking into Bill O'Reilly either.

Well it isn't out of the realm of possibilities for this power drunk congress.

[Xheight]

The Time article did not talk about anyone manufacturing fake ballots. It's about different organizations refusing to go with a bad-faith argument.

It also shows how any election-related coordination is hard to keep secret.

Not really as this weren't an attempt to make the Offense look like the Defense? Which is essentially the argument we are hearing about the John Lewis.
There already exists a huge and anonymous nomenklatura that is evidenced by the article populated by true believers. Defections don't come from such.

Further the poll workers simply think they are processing legal and therefore authentic ballots.