That’s bullshit. You’re a white suburban punk just like me.
Blame Canada.
You forgot the best quote, she went all third person:
““You can never cancel Jenna Ryan,” she wrote. However, by Monday, she said her publisher had canceled her self help book that was due out next month.”
Well Yak’s statement was not based on evaluation of a specific person’s behavior nor was it researched beyond well there must be some in there. It’s knee-jerk reaction we often see when a white person commits a crime that pretty much no other excuse can cover because guilt is basically right there, in front of everybody, so naturally, must be more to the story is no longer available which leaves, oh well, they must be mentally ill.
It’s simply not an automatic shield any other group receives, and it needs to stop being one for entitled white people who just do unusual, stupid or just things that are difficult to explain type of things.
There was pretty much zero consideration for people with actual mental health issues since you don’t need to wait for a mass of violent white people to commit crimes in order have that consideration.
Eyes wide open huh? Sure…
Oh I agree. I was just as mad that using it as an excuse makes ‘real’ mentally handicapped people look incapable of not understanding right from wrong. That’s just not true. Ignorance is not a handicap nor is it something you are born with.
And stupidity is not something someone has to live with either. They’re choosing to maintain a world view that either assuages their often imagined slights and reinforces a view and experience of their choosing.
There is a reason this group stormed the Capitol and killed someone while leading to the death of others, and it’s not because they somehow have more mental illness, more people with depression or harder lives than all the other groups that did not literally try to overthrow the government. There are still a bunch of people just pissed the black votes are being counted and not thrown out. That’s just racism.
Language falls short here, I think. These are profoundly stupid people that have completely and utterly disconnected themselves from reality. Under other circumstances, I’d call that “crazy,” but I agree that we’re not really talking about mental illness in a health sense here - certainly not in any sense that would excuse the behavior. It’s a willful insanity, a deliberate choice to disengage from the real world and live in a white supremacist fantasy realm of endless grievance and no personal responsibility.
I still don’t know what the hell we do about it, though. Tempting as it is, we don’t have the capacity to lock up the 10’s of millions that have chosen to participate in this shared delusion nor do we have the fuel resources to launch them all into the sun.
I’m really disappointed he wasn’t there.
… he wasn’t, was he?
So on ATPL, Ken White mentioned a charge that could come into play: felony murder.
It sounds like he kiiiinda hates that charge, just because it gives so much power to a prosecutor. But still… The classic example of felony murder is the getaway driver in an armed robbery. You’re sitting out in the car waiting for your accomplices, and one of them shoots and kills someone in the bank. You didn’t pull the trigger. You weren’t even in the bank. But you can still be charged with felony murder for your participation, with one of the main requirements being that a murder was a foreseeable outcome from the illegal activity you participated in.
It gives the prosecutor a lot of lee-way, and a jury a lot of open space to deliver a conviction, if they’re feeling it.
And when I look at 37 people being persons the FBI wants to talk to regarding the murder of the USCP officer, that felony murder charge came to mind immediately.
Could that apply to Trump? He incited it.
Sadly, the difficulty in legally proving incitement (which is super tough, but Trump may have cleared that high bar) makes me think that he’s probably OK on that one.
They hit common criminals all the time with the felony murder thing.
He had his “what are you going to do, stab me?” moment there.
Sorry to hear that Chaplin. It’s not comfort but conservativism in the US today is closer to a religious movement than a political movement. And this isn’t something that can be easily defeated with facts and figures.
Well yeah, but they aren’t rich and influential so the system is much harder on common criminals. I doubt it could be made to stick to a member of the administration. That’s just the system working as designed. And yes, the design is a bit awful, but that’s what we have.
I like this Atlantic article about the level of threat from the R’s who voted to overturn the election:
Unlike the insurrectionists, they were polite and proper about it. But the danger they pose to our democracy is much greater than that posed by the members of the mob, who can be identified and caught, and who will face serious legal consequences for their acts. Donald Trump’s ignominious departure from office—whether he is impeached and removed, resigns, or simply sulks away in disrepute—will leave us to solve the problem of the politicians who worked hard to convince millions that the election had been stolen, and then voted to steal it themselves.
The Republicans who backed Trump’s effort to overturn the election may have known that it didn’t have a high chance of success, but that doesn’t change the nature of the attempt, especially given their lack of remorse or apology. Unless they are convinced that it was a mistake—unless they pay such a high political price for it that neither they nor anyone else thinks of trying again—they are likely to seize the next available opportunity to do the same. If a future election comes down to one state instead of three, if a future presidential candidate uses lawsuits and coercion more competently, or if a few election officials succumb to threats more easily, they’ll be in the game.
A line must be drawn. The increasing entrenchment of minority rule and democratic backsliding in almost every level of government was terrible enough, but now we’ve even moved past that. Throwing out an election isn’t like disagreeing on tax policy or stimulus checks. It’s not something to move on from or forget. If no line is drawn, the attempt will surely be repeated, quite likely without the mob, by the polite legislators in suits and ties insisting that they want fair elections as they vote to gut what remains of our democracy. If anything, the unruly mob on January 6 may have made it a bit harder for them, by exposing the nature of the whole attempt.
Another another one:
Right off the bat this guy got more than the introductory tresspass/disorderly conduct charges. A trend I’d like to see continue.
I saw him once, tossing cabers at rest stops along I-9. Before I could get close enough to ask him where he’d been, he’d vanished, headed off for the next stop.
edit: I have no point. Just felt like making an “Elvis sighting” joke.