“Not guilty” is distinct from “innocent”, and such a verdict, if a trial ever comes of this, would not impact libel or slander. Being unable to prove your accusations in court to the standard required is not a determination that the accusations were false, only that doubt remained.
I know people are quick to jump on this as a sign of cognitive impairment, but could this be a form of aphasia resulting from his fall a few months ago?
I just ask because it’s possible it’s a motor issue (knows what he wants to say but can’t physically say it) rather than a cognitive issue (can’t think of something to say).
As much as I’d love for McConnell to GTFO, and certainly support age/term limits in Congress, if it is a motor issue it’d be similar to what Fetterman has dealt with since his stroke (auditory issue vs. cognitive issue).
Genuine belief in fraud, ignoring that it’s obviously bs for a moment, does not give you a right to usurp power through illegal means.
What procedural step is being abused here to allow one Senator to have this much influence? Or is this another case of one Senator being the face while backed by the rest of their party?
I think too often we get caught up on “the game” and try to frame decisions solely in that context.
The reality is that sometimes in politics people hold genuine beliefs, and when it comes to the GOP I think a non-insignificant caucus of them genuinely opposes abortion for various personal reasons.
Of course, it’s just his “get out of jail free” card to save face publicly when he starts rejecting requests.
He qualified it by specifying it’s if you were “unfairly” facing repercussions, which of course means he can deny or accept anyone he wants for any reason that he wants and still claim he’s upholding his pledge.
There’s a significant difference between the people rising against their government and the people rising against some of the government on behalf of the rest of the government.
That’s what happened on Jan 6th. Those people were launching an assault to support their preferred representatives, they were very much pro-government. Nothing libertarian about it.
I think their words are accurate, it’s just that their allegiance isn’t to the United States of America.
I don’t think he knows how SCOTUS works…
Haven’t used my desktop in ages, has been completely replaced by my personal and work laptops.
It’s so incredibly frustrating. One of the main reasons Trump rose to popularity was his campaigning against D.C. ineptitude and corruption. Drain the swamp and all of that. And now we have the perfect encapsulation of why those issues exist. He is the ineptitude and corruption. But the people who are supposedly railing against that are embracing him without wavering. Now they’re about to nominate someone who had a laundry list of indictments.
If you can’t hold yourselves accountable how could you ever expect to hold others accountable? It doesn’t work like that. The GOP is broken, but perhaps more concerning are the supposed independents who for one reason or another just don’t seem to care.
He’d probably have to put all of his eggs in the reincarnation basket and start doing some good deeds.
Or bad deeds, depending on your opinion of actors.
This line from Schindler’s List always stuck with me:
“Whoever saves one life saves the world entire.”
The context is that at the end of the movie Schindler is distraught thinking of how many more he could have saved if he just did certain things differently, like selling a ring and using that money to hire another Jewish worker. One of the people he saved tells him the above line.
It’s stuck with me for two reasons, I think.
First, it’s an interesting perspective on individuality. Each person has their own unique perspective of the world. When that person dies, that perspective is gone forever. An entire universe dies with them, never to be seen again. I think that’s a powerful way to view the individual.
Second, it’s a reminder that we do what we can, and while it may be imperfect, it’s enough. You can’t save everyone, just live well and help those you can in the capacity that you can. If you save one of those people, you’ve saved the world.
The Exorcist got me pretty good
They claimed that his statements made while President served an interest to the government. It’s wildly stupid, and really just a flimsy excuse to protect him, but that’s what they said.
I think this may just be another excuse, but part of why they’re reversing course is that he’s now made statements long after losing office, so how could you argue that his actions were driven by his service to the office?
Justice Department lawyers said they took into consideration Trump’s deposition that was played in the battery and defamation trial, as well as statements Trump made last October repeating the denials long after he left office, as an indication that he was not motivated to protect and serve the US when he first made the comments.
When the success of a media organization is bound to the rules of capitalism, it’s unsurprising that their objectives becomes capitalistic. The responsibilities of the 4th estate and the incentives of capitalism are misaligned.
The catch-22 is that the solution to this is regulation by the government. But the 4th estate is itself a check on government. So if the government is given regulatory control over the 4th estate, you open up the possibility of neutering that check.
Then again, that check has already been neutered by capitalism so…
I don’t think he “face planted”, he’s telling us exactly who he is. The good Senator from Alabama, one of the lucky 100 to make major policy decisions for all of us, is a defender of white supremacists.
But don’t worry, racism is dead and gone. SCOTUS told us so.
I feel like there’s a concerted effort to delegitimize the entire concept of whistleblowing. They’re getting more common, more partisan, and less backed by physical evidence.
It was a defamation case in which the courts determined that Trump made false statements by denying the allegations because he most likely did sexually assault E. Jean Carroll.
No criminal case was brought because it’s beyond the statute of limitations, and since the legal bar in a criminal case is higher I don’t think any prosecutor would bring those charges even if statute of limitations wasn’t an issue.
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/e-jean-carroll-sued-trump-defamation-last-resort-blame-statute-ncna1077321