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

[Scott Taylor]

My take from watching this, Aubrey was a 'threat' because he wasn't obedient. The person who shot him admitted that Aubrey didn't exhibit any signs of being threat, but he called him a threat, just because he wouldn't stop and he wouldn't talk to him and he was black on a white neighborhood.

Either way he would have been shot.

From watching others from the neighborhood testify, it sounds pretty much like any of them would have shot the guy for those same reasons. Over a few petty thefts that happened from time to time. Its not as if they lived in a complete war zone or crime was some kind of plague on the area, but they were still pretty much panicking anytime a black guy was seen around the neighborhood. And it sounds like they all had guns.

Sigh.

[Jack Dracula]

Ugggg

NYT and WP both have headlines that states that Travis the shooter feared for his life. I mean, my god, the prosecution pretty much shot that theory all to heck. Aubry was no threat.

I’d hope the juries in this and the Rittenhouse case share my view that voluntarily putting yourself in harms way excludes someone from claiming self-defense.

[babyblob]

New: House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy says Paul Gosar and Marjorie Taylor Greene will be reinstated if Republicans take House majority: “They’ll have committees — They may have better committee assignments.”


Let's pray that the Republicans don't take back Congress in 2022.

Between McCarthy bashing the GOP members who voted for the Infrastructure Bill And now this I just cant wait to listen to Biden and his almost daily speech about working with the GOp and how important that is and how he thinks he can get their support.

[shooshoomanjoe]

I’d hope the juries in this and the Rittenhouse case share my view that voluntarily putting yourself in harms way excludes someone from claiming self-defense.

If guns were pointed at Rittenhouse, then it looks, to me, that he was in the right to shoot back. But the judge seems very biased, especially after he said it wasn't illegal for underaged Rittenhouse to carry a weapon. From what I understand, the judge said he can call a mistrial at any time so I hope he won't call it a mistrial if the jury finds Rittenhouse guilty.

I very much hate how much power judges have. I hope I never find myself in front of one.

[InformationGeek]

This... this is real.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

New: House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy says Paul Gosar and Marjorie Taylor Greene will be reinstated if Republicans take House majority: “They’ll have committees — They may have better committee assignments.”


Let's pray that the Republicans don't take back Congress in 2022.

One man’s half baked theory behind why Craven Kevin said what he did: If he doesn’t reinstate Gosar and Trashy Greene, he’ll lose any and all support from his fellow Qpublicans for his bid to become Speaker should the GQP reclaim Congress.

[babyblob]

One man’s half baked theory behind why Craven Kevin said what he did: If he doesn’t reinstate Gosar and Trashy Greene, he’ll lose any and all support from his fellow Qpublicans for his bid to become Speaker should the GQP reclaim Congress.

To be honest I dont think they will vote him speaker anyway. He is no where near extreme enough to suit them.

[Kirby101]

A good chance the GQP will retake the House next year (GOP State Legislatures have assured they will) Trump will decide who the Speaker will be.

[Tami]

GOP senator suggests Soviet upbringing of Biden’s pick for top bank regulator indicates Communist loyalty

Saule Omarova, nominated to serve as Comptroller of the Currency, faces a difficult path to confirmation. The Cornell University law professor and Wall Street critic is confronting probable unanimous opposition from Senate Republicans and has drawn skepticism from some moderate Democrats for recent policy positions she has staked out, including in papers exploring structural reforms to the banking system.

But her confirmation hearing erupted into partisan sniping Thursday over her biography, after Sen. John Neely Kennedy (R-La.) suggested Omarova may harbor loyalties to the Communist ideology of the regime that brutalized her family.

“I don’t know whether to call you ‘professor’ or ‘comrade,’” Kennedy told Omarova, after pressing her to produce a letter of resignation from a Soviet youth group to which she was required to belong when she was a girl..

“Senator, I’m not a Communist,” Omarova said. “I do not subscribe to that ideology. I could not choose where I was born.”

She said her family “suffered under the Communist regime. I grew up without knowing half of my family. My grandmother herself escaped death twice under the Stalinist regime. This is what’s seared in my mind. That’s who I am. I remember that history. I came to this country. I’m proud to be an American.”

[JB]

CNN has a profile of Kamala Harris' struggles. This is relevant with someone set up as the future of the party.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/14/polit...ent/index.html

CNN just posted this story, possibly related.

Kamala Harris' communications director is leaving the administration
https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/18/polit...ris/index.html

Vice President Kamala Harris' communications director, Ashley Etienne, is leaving the administration, according to a White House official, to pursue "other opportunities."

Etienne's departure comes after CNN detailed significant tension between West Wing aides and the vice president's office. CNN reported that several people on Harris' staff had started to reach out to contacts to say they're looking to leave, according to sources who've gotten calls.

"Ashley is a valued member of the vice president's team, who has worked tirelessly to advance the goals of this administration," the official said. "She is leaving the office in December to pursue other opportunities."

[Mister Mets]

I’d hope the juries in this and the Rittenhouse case share my view that voluntarily putting yourself in harms way excludes someone from claiming self-defense.

These are different situations.

A piece in New York magazine critical of Rittenhouse's defense notes that he was making an effort to withdraw from the fight, and had reason to assume he was facing imminent bodily harm.

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021...-analysis.html

Before examining the substance of Rittenhouse’s defense, it’s worth reviewing the case’s undisputed facts. Bystanders’ cell-phone videos establish that 36-year-old protester Joseph Rosenbaum chased Rittenhouse into a parking lot, shouted “Fuck you!,” and threw a plastic bag at his back; that a different protester fired a gun into the sky, and immediately following this shot, Rittenhouse ceased fleeing and turned around; that Rosenbaum then moved toward Rittenhouse, who proceeded to fire four times.
Those shots attracted the attention of nearby demonstrators. One ran up behind Rittenhouse and hit him in the head, another kicked the gunman to the ground. Then, 26-year-old Anthony Huber whacked Rittenhouse with a skateboard and appeared to reach for his rifle; Rittenhouse shot Huber through the heart, instantly killing him. Gaige Grosskreutz, 28, approached and pointed a handgun at Rittenhouse; Rittenhouse nearly blew Grosskreutz’s right arm off.

In Wisconsin, as in most U.S. states, the prosecution bears the burden of disproving self-defense claims beyond a reasonable doubt. Thus, at his trial, Rittenhouse did not need to prove that each shooting in Kenosha was an act of self-defense; the prosecution needed to prove that this was not the case.

Under Wisconsin law, you can kill people in self-defense if you reasonably believe that doing so is necessary to spare yourself or others from imminent bodily harm or death. This belief need not be accurate. Nor must it be reasonable from an objective perspective. It only needs to be reasonable from the subjective point of view of the shooter in the moment he or she pulls the trigger.

There is one caveat to this rule: If you engage “in unlawful conduct of a type likely to provoke others to attack,” then you can’t kill the attackers whom your unlawful actions provoked. (Though even here there is some ambiguity, as Wisconsin’s statute appears to directly contradict itself.)

It is legal in Wisconsin for an adult to openly carry an AR-15, as Rittenhouse did. Since Rittenhouse was 17 on the night of the shooting, however, it was unlawful for him personally to be carrying such a weapon. But there was no way for those around Rittenhouse to know his exact age. And as Harvard law professor Noah Feldman explains, “Provocation is in the eye of the beholder”: If you do not know that someone is engaged in unlawful conduct, then that conduct cannot constitute a legal provocation inviting attack. Further, it does not seem true that “carrying an assault weapon in an open-carry state while being 17” is a form of unlawful conduct that typically causes other people to attack a person.

To nullify his eligibility for self-defense, Rittenhouse likely would have had to provoke Rosenbaum through some concrete act. And yet, under Wisconsin law, the privilege of self-defense “lost by provocation” may be regained if one “withdraws from the fight.” Given that Rittenhouse was running away from Rosenbaum before their fatal encounter, any preceding provocation would seem immaterial.

The prosecution therefore needed to prove that Rittenhouse could not have reasonably believed that it was necessary to shoot Rosenbaum in order to spare himself from imminent bodily harm. Rittenhouse testified that Rosenbaum reached for his gun. Video evidence does not contradict this claim. And Richie McGinniss, a videographer for the Daily Caller and eyewitness to the shooting, corroborated Rittenhouse’s account, testifying that Rosenbaum lunged at the defendant and reached for the barrel of his gun. A medical examiner testified that Rosenbaum’s hand showed gunpowder residue.

If prosecutors failed to prove Rittenhouse legally culpable for the killing of Rosenbaum, the rest of their case gets significantly weaker. Killing in self-defense is a lawful act, and lawful acts cannot constitute “provocations” that strip an individual of the right to self-defense. Videos suggest that Huber hit Rittenhouse and reached for his weapon. Grosskreutz, meanwhile, testified that he pointed a handgun at Rittenhouse before he was shot. If these actions were not “provoked,” then Rittenhouse plausibly had a legal right to respond to them with lethal force.

In the Georgia case, the defendant admits he shot someone who did not say or do anything threatening, and was trying to get away from them, clearly trying to withdraw from the situation.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/travis-mcm...ry?id=81254629

During his direct testimony on Wednesday, Travis McMichael testified that he walked out of his house with his shotgun and saw a neighbor pointing in his direction as if signaling where he saw the young Black man running.

Travis McMichael testified on Thursday that at no time did he go and speak to the neighbor about what had occurred before he and his father jumped in his truck with their guns and set out after Arbery.

He testified that he drove close enough to Arbery on three separate occasions to ask him to stop running so he could speak to him, but in each instance, Arbery kept running, never said a word to him and altered his course in an apparent attempt to get away from the McMichaels.

"When you first see him, he's not reaching into his pockets?" Dunikoski asked.

Travis McMichael answered, "No, ma'am."

Dunikoski continued her line of questioning, saying, "And he never yelled at you guys, never threatened you at all?"

Travis McMichael responded, "Did not threaten me verbally."

He agreed that Abery never brandished a knife, gun, or had anything in his hands at any time during the pursuit, testifying, "He was just running."

[Mister Mets]

There's an interesting #Metoo type story in China. Peng Shuai, a top tennis player (ranked in the Top 20 for over a decade) has pretty much disappeared after an email two weeks ago suggested she was sexually assaulted by a top CCP official.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/17/w...na-tennis.html

First came the shocking #MeToo accusation by a famous athlete against one of China’s top leaders. Then came the accuser’s disappearance from public view, one so thorough that questions swirled about her health and personal safety.
The authorities in China had hoped the apparatus of a repressive state could simply make the whole thing go away. Instead, an accusation by the tennis player Peng Shuai that she was sexually assaulted by a former vice premier, Zhang Gaoli, continues to confront the political establishment as few things have.

The latest pushback on China’s effort to squelch the accusation came early on Thursday after Chinese state media tried to refute it, while saying Ms. Peng was safe and sound. It published an email purportedly written by Ms. Peng herself, saying the sexual assault accusations were not true and asking for officials who run women’s tennis to stop meddling.

The response by the Women’s Tennis Association just hours later was unequivocal, suggesting that the email was very likely a crude fraud. “I have a hard time believing that Peng Shuai actually wrote the email we received or believes what is being attributed to her,” said Steve Simon, the association’s executive director.

The official story is that someone faked comments by a celebrity accusing a top official of sexual assault, and the celebrity responded by disappearing from the public eye for weeks, before issuing a written statement denouncing the email.


In other news, Morning Consult has come out with their latest approval ratings for Governors.

https://morningconsult.com/2021/11/1...g-senate-race/

The top four are blue state Republicans (Phil Scott of Vermont, Charlie Baker of Massachusetts, Larry Hogan of Maryland and Chris Sununu of New Hampshire.) The rest of the top ten is red state Republicans, with the exception of Democrat Ned Lamont of Connecticut (As a side note, I'm glad things worked out for him after he lost to Lieberman as the Democratic nominee in 2006, and a primary for Governor in 2010.)

Phil Murphy was in 17th place, which may be concerning for Democrats given his narrow reelection.

The least popular Governors have approval ratings in the Mid-40s. Which is higher than Biden's often is.

Although in some good news for Biden, a Marquette Law poll suggests he would still beat Trump handily.

https://twitter.com/PollTrackerUSA/s...61020379688967

[inisideguy]

Have you guys heard this story of this Chinese pro tennis player who has disappeared after accusing a state official of sexual assault? This is becoming a major story. There are a lot of people with a lot of money on the line here. Its crazy.

[worstblogever]

A good chance the GQP will retake the House next year (GOP State Legislatures have assured they will) Trump will decide who the Speaker will be.

Rumor is, Trump himself will want the job, that he won't do properly, just to try and impeach Biden everyday and reinsert himself into the White House.

Not to mention in your post about Jennifer Fielder where a group of civilians armed with assault rifles showed up looking to possibly kill a group of “Antifa” because of a tweet from an elected official. How did we get to the point where that isn’t profoundly unsettling? A point where armed groups believe they are sanctioned by the government to shoot protesters.
We didn’t get here from hyperbolic comments by Democrats.

Exactly. It's party policy for the GQP now to enact change more through stochastic terrorism than actual policy, and there are loons ready to take up torches and pitchforks towards whoever they point at.

[worstblogever]

And.., here's Republican candidate for Congress in Ohio's 9th JR Majewski sharing an image honoring mass killer Kyle Rittenhouse by photoshopping him to dress up as Captain America.

Rallying around a murderer.