[kenberg]

I guess he is being arraigned, or about to be arraigned. I have decided I can wait for the summary on the evening news.

How to think of this?

If I wish to take some action X but doing X is illegal I regard that as very relevant. Always or almost always decisive. I like to sleep well. I like to be trusted. Some laws might be stupid, but ignoring them is stupider.
For Trump, legality is irrelevant. He has lawyers, he pays them well, so the illegality of his actions is their problem. If he wants to do it he does it. This thinking was expressed long ago when he was talking about how he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue (or wherever it was). It was not a joke, it's the way he thinks.
For Trump, the law simply is of no importance in making his choices.


Sooner or later this approach to life is supposed to turn sour. He has had quite a run. Maybe his time is up. We can hope.

[Winstonm]

Oh, the perp walks
on his feet, dear,
and his lawyers are
pearly white

been abandoned
by his wife, now
is he related to
Mack the Knife?

[pilowsky]

The devil went down to Georgia, he was lookin' for an election to steal
He was in a bind
And he was willin' to make a deal

[Winstonm]

I hear those planes a flyin’
they’re flyin’ through the air
they’re full of Saudi money
but I can’t get my share

I’m stuck here in Manhattan
the DA wants my head
but when I ask for Saudi dollars
a Prince is even better than a dad

[pilowsky]

In news just to hand it appears that the scions of Llano county Texas, after being told they can't ban books that say the KKK is a terrorist organisation, have decided to solve the problem by closing all the libraries and firing the librarians.

[Winstonm]

pilowsky, on 2023-April-13, 03:36, said:

In news just to hand it appears that the scions of Llano county Texas, after being told they can't ban books that say the KKK is a terrorist organisation, have decided to solve the problem by closing all the libraries and firing the librarians.

The American taliban flexing.

[mikeh]

Tucker Carlson fired! Probably as a result of the Dominion lawsuit….it would be delicious if it was required as part of the settlement but is good news anyway…for anyone hoping for the survival of American democracy. The reality may well be that he was fired not for lying on-air but for writing privately accusing management of being liberal (!) and incompetent.

Lesson, if so, don’t bite the hand that feeds you.

Kama is great…the lying asshole who was a big complainer about left-wing cancel culture is now a victim of right wing cancel culture.

[Gilithin]

mikeh, on 2023-April-24, 12:10, said:

Tucker Carlson fired! Probably as a result of the Dominion lawsuit…

Word on the street is that it is actually related to the Abby Grossberg lawsuit.

[shyams]

I don't watch Fox News. The most I have done is occasionally watch clips of Tucker on YouTube (barely 5-10 such clips in my lifetime). My takeaway from it was that his partisan rants were full of exaggerations and untruths.

What I found surprising is a trivia factoid that was circulating on one of my WhatsApp groups. It seems Tucker had the highest viewership of a cable news programme among the Registered Democrat Americans. I responded saying that's ridiculous and must be wrong. However it seems there is some truth to it. I don't understand this!

[hrothgar]

Gilithin, on 2023-April-24, 14:16, said:

Word on the street is that it is actually related to the Abby Grossberg lawsuit.

From what I understand the most significant trigger here involved language and behavior which is documented in the redacted sections of the papers released in the Dominion lawsuit.

So, the Dominion lawsuit provided the documentary proof, however, exposure to lawsuits such as the one involving Grossberg was almost certainly a concern

[barmar]

shyams, on 2023-April-25, 00:56, said:

What I found surprising is a trivia factoid that was circulating on one of my WhatsApp groups. It seems Tucker had the highest viewership of a cable news programme among the Registered Democrat Americans. I responded saying that's ridiculous and must be wrong. However it seems there is some truth to it. I don't understand this!

Maybe it's a "know your enemy" thing.

And remember, it's not either/or. Democrats who watch CNN or MSNBC can also watch Carlson.

[kenberg]

shyams, on 2023-April-25, 00:56, said:

I don't watch Fox News. The most I have done is occasionally watch clips of Tucker on YouTube (barely 5-10 such clips in my lifetime). My takeaway from it was that his partisan rants were full of exaggerations and untruths.

What I found surprising is a trivia factoid that was circulating on one of my WhatsApp groups. It seems Tucker had the highest viewership of a cable news programme among the Registered Democrat Americans. I responded saying that's ridiculous and must be wrong. However it seems there is some truth to it. I don't understand this!

I have been in Minnesota since Thursday visiting friends from the (very) early days, ignoring the outside world. This morning I checked my email. The NYT sends me "Breaking News" messages and the following were two were adjacent:

Breaking news: Don Lemon, CNN star anchor, to leave the network


Breaking news: Tucker Carlson is leaving Fox News

I have never watched or listened to Tucker Carlson. I had never heard of Don Lemon before reading the note from the NYT.


As I was in the Mpls-St Paul airport yesterday, I got a copy of the St. Paul Pioneer Press. The main headline (well, second to how the Wild were doing against the Dallas Stars) was

Founder of BikeMN reminisces on career as he steps into retirement.
[BikeMN advocates for better and safer bicycling.]

Make of this whatever you will.

[pilowsky]

Why not "rolls into retirement".
Seems like they mis-'spoke'.
So to speak...

[Winstonm]

The "Proud Boys" verdict is in: guilty of seditious conspiracy among other charges. The legal theory used to gain conviction, that they used non-members as tools to foment insurrection opens the door for Donald Trump to be charged for the same conspiracy.
The matter now is gathering enough evidence to make conviction a near crrtainty.

[thepossum]

Any mention of the embedded media "agents" or provocateurs��

As for partisan rubbish in the media - that other character - what's his name who just resigned or was sacked - he would not exactly be what's that character's name stuck on an island - and in some ways much of the other partisan rubbish is even more scary because so many in power reckon its the truth - unlike what's his name who we all know spoke rubbish regularly

[Gilithin]

Lawyer: And you say it - again this has become very famous in this video - "I just start kissing them. It's like a magnet. Just kiss. I don't even wait. And when you're a star they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab 'em by the pussy. You can do anything." That's what you said, correct?
Trump: Well historically that's true with stars.
Lawyer: True with stars that they can grab women by the pussy?
Trump: Well that's what it's...if you look over the last million years I guess that's been largely true.. Not always but largely true. Unfortunately or fortunately.
Lawyer: You consider yourself to be a star?
Trump: I think you can say that, yeah.

Could someone please explain how truly devout white Christians manage to rationalise this as the ideal morals for the highest office in the USA? It's genuinely very difficult for people outside of America to understand.

[Winstonm]

Gilithin, on 2023-May-06, 20:11, said:

Lawyer: And you say it - again this has become very famous in this video - "I just start kissing them. It's like a magnet. Just kiss. I don't even wait. And when you're a star they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab 'em by the pussy. You can do anything." That's what you said, correct?
Trump: Well historically that's true with stars.
Lawyer: True with stars that they can grab women by the pussy?
Trump: Well that's what it's...if you look over the last million years I guess that's been largely true.. Not always but largely true. Unfortunately or fortunately.
Lawyer: You consider yourself to be a star?
Trump: I think you can say that, yeah.

Could someone please explain how truly devout white Christians manage to rationalise this as the ideal morals for the highest office in the USA? It's genuinely very difficult for people outside of America to understand.

If you can justify a superior being who has had a plan for every person ever born on earth and is invisible but will punish everyone who doesn’t believe he is real then justifying Trump is easy-the invisible magic man wants him to be president.

[pilowsky]

Trump was a means to an end.
In the USA 35-40% of the population are fervently anti-abortion.
They will vote for a ham sandwich if it promises to prevent abortion and allow children to buy guns.

In the UK and Australia a much larger proportion of the population are pro-abortion and anti-gun but more importantly, non-US anti-abortionists will not necessarily decide their vote just on that issue.

To say nothing of the dog-whistling about the southern border.
Australian conservatives ranting about "stopping the boats" and Tories promoting BREXIT to keep immigrants out fall into the same racist idea as the BS about building a wall to keep the alien rapists at bay.

No wonder the neo-NAZI's lap it up.

[kenberg]

We senior-and-then-somes have been discussing matters, trying to see what is going on. Not much success. Growing up in the 40s and 50s the predictions were that long before 2023 life would be very easy because of technological advances. Well, this was half right. Technology has advanced.

The economy: Apparently there is much worry across the country. Prices are going up. But that's not the whole story. I, and everyone else, noticed that every month economic numbers come out and economists are said to be caught unaware. See
https://www.washingt...ing-indicators.
for comments that I think are relevant.

And then there is the annual fight over the debt ceiling. Maybe we need a name change. If every year we do a budget, look to see how much it will increase the debt, and then raise the debt ceiling to accommodate that debt, we do not have anything that can reasonably be called a debt ceiling. Becky suggested calling it the debt elevator.

Immigration: AFAIK nobody has a plan. Probably because the goal depends on the day of the week. Save everyone whose lif is in danger in their home country? Get more immigrants working at Burger King? Get votes from the Latino community? To borrow a song title, this problem will go on until the 12th of never.

Covid: Have we actually done anything right?

Eisenhower was elected in 1952 because there was a war going on in Korea and the electorate figured he would know how to handle it. And he did.

The confidence that the everyday person has in our leaders is at an all-time low, or at least it is very low. See
https://www.washingt...ionism-economy/
Again I agree with many of the comments.

We have a mess.

[pilowsky]

I just heard a striking writer complaining about shrinking income because of changes in the way streaming organisations compensate them.
She said (inter alia) that:


"Our door is open but the ball is in their court"
"Our demands are extremely reasonable"

If they keep their door open and the ball is smashed back into their court it might hit someone in the living room causing unreasonable damage.