Chauvin gets 22 1/2 years

StuartEugene

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Friday June 25, 2021 · 1:01 PM PDT

2021/06/25 · 13:01

www.cnn.com/…

A question about filming cops in action

StuartEugene

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Wednesday April 28, 2021 · 2:34 PM PDT

2021/04/28 · 14:34

Fifteen years or so ago, states and local governments were passing laws making it illegal — really a crime — to film a police officer performing his or her duty. Now, as we all know, cops are routinely being filmed, and I’ve never heard of any of the filmers being arrested or prosecuted for it.

Does anybody know what happened in the meantime? Did I miss a Supreme Court decision or something?

Don't Panic! The Morons at RawStory.com Have Gotten It Wrong Again

StuartEugene

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Sunday March 07, 2021 · 7:08 AM PST

2021/03/07 · 07:08

Rawstory.com is a reliably liberal site with the absolute worst copy editors and proofreaders on the web (if they have any at all). Usually their errors are merely annoying, like overreliance on spell-checking software, misusing homonyms like principal/principle or leaving out the little words that make a collection of words a sentence.

This morning, however, in an article headed “Top 100 counties with the highest COVID death rates voted for Trump by 18 points” they posted the following:

Jerauld County, South Dakota had the highest death rate in the country, with 79.4 deaths per every 1,000 residents. Foard County, Texas had the second highest death rate at 77.9 deaths per every 1,000 residents.

That is to say, they think nearly 8 percent of the populations of these two counties have died of Covid-19.

FALSE! If you refer back to the article, you’ll find they meant to say 79.4 and 77.9 deaths per 10,000 residents — less than one percent. Still the highest in the nation, but not — literally — decimating the population.

Jeezh, guys! Pay attention to what you’re doing!

Biden can put his thumb on the scale...

StuartEugene

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Thursday February 11, 2021 · 8:27 AM PST

2021/02/11 · 08:27

What if President Biden — it’s so much fun to write that; President Biden, President Biden, President Biden — Where was I?

Oh, yes. What if President Biden says, in a press conference, “If Mr. Trump is convicted and barred from office, in my opinion there’s no point in pursuing any federal criminal charges against him.” That’s all.

From President Biden’s lips to Attorney General Garland’s ears. And, suddenly the GOP will have to decide: convict him now, or leave him hanging out to dry with a score of federal indictments coming his way?

Just a thought.

A Better Metric for Job Creation

StuartEugene

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Monday February 08, 2021 · 10:54 AM PST

2021/02/08 · 10:54

I was just reading about how cancelling the Keystone XL project will wipe out 11,000 jobs; others dispute that figure, and there’s quite a controversy over how many jobs actually will be lost.

But here’s the thing. Most of those jobs are by their nature temporary; sure, a construction worker has a job now, but only until the project is finished. Then he or she has to move on to another job. This is true not only of the Keystone XL, but also of building the Minnesota Vikings’ new stadium.

Wouldn’t a better job metric be “job-years?” If the Keystone project were allowed to continue, and be finished in 2 ½ years (I have no idea; I’m making this up), then using the 11,000 figure means cancelling it would cost about 27,500 job years. That sounds like a lot, but if all other projects were costed in this way, we’d have an honest measure of the costs and benefits of going forward or cancelling.

SecDef Memo Tying the Hands of the DC National Guard

StuartEugene

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Sunday January 31, 2021 · 3:09 PM PST

2021/01/31 · 15:09

Haven’t seen this posted here yet. The “acting” Secretary of Defense prohibited the National Guard from making itself ready for the insurrection of January 6.

www.rawstory.com/...

This will go down in history like the obtuse failure of the military officials in Hawaii on December 7, 1941 or the memo — ignored by George W. Bush — warning him about pending attacks such as materialized on 9/11, given to him a month before the event.

Query re Dominion's defamation suits

StuartEugene

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Monday January 18, 2021 · 1:17 PM PST

2021/01/18 · 13:17

OK. So far, we know that Dominion has sued Sidney Powell for $1.3 billion in defamation, and that it has a dozen other defendants lined up: Rudy, Trump, Fox, Newsmax, OAN, Mike Lindell, others. They’ve already been served with anti-spoliation warnings, a precursor to litigation.

Now. Suppose you figure you have $2 billion in damages. You can’t sue all of these defendants for one or two billion, because if you win all the suits, you’ve overcollected, which contradicts the whole purpose of tort law that you be “made whole.” And if courts said, “Well, you’ve already gotten $800 million from Powell, and $600 million from Giuliani, and $600 from OAN, so that’s your $2 billion, and this suit against Trump is moot,” that wouldn’t be fair to Powell, et al. because they’d pay more than their share and it would let the later defendants off the hook. Or, you could sue them all together, alleging that they are “jointly and severally liable” for your damages and, assuming you win, let them figure out who’s gonna pay how much. But Dominion isn’t doing that; they’ve already sued Powell, solo.

What’s the legal play here?

Calls grow for Klete Keller to be stripped of his Olympic medals

StuartEugene

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Tuesday January 12, 2021 · 6:50 PM PST

2021/01/12 · 18:50

www.rawstory.com/…

Sorry, folks, this is ridiculous. The man won his medals fair and square on a level playing field (er… pool). They are not in the slightest way political, like Gym Jordan getting the Medal of Freedom or, for that matter, Barack Obama getting the Nobel Prize. It’s not even like, as sometimes happens, figure skaters getting extra points from home-country judges. In swimming, the winner is determined by a stopwatch, period. There is no taint of politics.

The whole point of the Olympics is for athletes to come together from all over the world and compete to see who’s best. Keller was the best, he earned his medals, and he should keep them.

Farewell, Eric Alterman

StuartEugene

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Thursday December 31, 2020 · 5:46 AM PST

2020/12/31 · 05:46

I don’t know why or where he’s going, but this is his last column for the Nation. He will be missed.

www.thenation.com/...

RIP Chad Stuart

StuartEugene

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Monday December 21, 2020 · 3:30 AM PST

2020/12/21 · 03:30

Of Chad & Jeremy. I remember back in 2000, during the post-election brouhaha about “hanging chads” some web site asked for a good name for the controversy. I suggested “the Chad Jeremiad.” The site manager came back saying, “Wow! Somebody remembers Chad & Jeremy?”

I do. They had some good hits and must have set some kind of record for appearing on TV shows: Batman, Dick Van Dyke, others.

Here’s the two they performed on Dick Van Dyke:

My How the Time Goes By

No Other Baby

What if DeSantis doesn't allow Trump to be extradited?

StuartEugene

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Tuesday December 15, 2020 · 4:35 PM PST

2020/12/15 · 16:35

If, on January 21, Donald Trump moves to Florida, and if in the following months (weeks, God willing) he is indicted in New York, there is still the procedural step of extraditing him to New York to face charges.

Ordinarily the State of Florida, Ron DeSantis, governor, would sign off on the extradition request and send the miscreant back to New York. But, the governor has some leeway — he can refuse an extradition request on humanitarian grounds or if he thought the New York charges were unjust or trumped-up (sorry).

What then?

Smerconish of CNN is wrong

StuartEugene

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Saturday December 12, 2020 · 4:55 PM PST

2020/12/12 · 16:55

CNN expert Michael Smerconish is on TV right now saying he wished the Supremes had fleshed out their rejection of Paxton’s suit — perhaps using language similar to that of some of the lower courts to the effect that lawyers don’t elect the president, voters do, and so on.

He’s dead wrong. Once the Supremes determined Paxton didn’t have standing, they were done. No court can ramble — once it has described the reason for its ruling, it’s over. Anything else it says is no more worthy of deference than the opinions of the guy at the end of the bar. It’s called obiter dicta — commentary without the force of law.

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