Politics Thread

[Ming]

"It's hard to find on Google, so here's what you need to know about E. Jean Carroll, most of which was deemed "inadmissible" by the judge:

- She couldn't recall the date, month, season, or year the incident happened
- She never told anyone about it, despite being publicly obsessed with her own sexuality.
- The dress she claims to have been wearing didn't exist at the time
- Her description of the dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman was inaccurate, making her sequence of events impossible
- Her lawsuit was bankrolled by Jeffrey Epstein pal and Democrat (and Nikki Haley) mega-donor Reid Hoffman
- Democrats created a law (The Adult Survivors Act in 2022) to enable her lawsuit to proceed
- Her accusation is the exact plotline of an episode of Law & Order (one of her "favorite shows")
- Trump's Apprentice was also one of her favorite shows
- She has a history of falsely accusing men of r*pe, including Les Moonves
- She told Anderson Cooper, "most people think of r*pe as being sexy. Think of the fantasies."
- She made a career promoting promiscuity, even writing glowingly of sexual assault and naming her cat Vag_na"

Politically targeted retribution under the guise of justice..."

from No Jo From Jerz on X

I see you are defending your hero Trump again... oh, that's right, you don't like him, just defend him.

All you need to know
And Trump thought it was ok to grab women by the crotch because they love it... On tape.
Paid hush money to a porn star... Fact
Is a proven liar about just about everything.
Was found GUILTY by a jury based on the facts in the case, and not some mumbo jumbo Berz found in an internet video.

[Berzerker]

My position wouldn't change regardless of who was in Trump's shoes

[Geronimo]

I see you are defending your hero Trump again... oh, that's right, you don't like him, just defend him.

All you need to know
And Trump thought it was ok to grab women by the crotch because they love it... On tape.
Paid hush money to a porn star... Fact
Is a proven liar about just about everything.
Was found GUILTY by a jury based on the facts in the case, and not some mumbo jumbo Berz found in an internet video.

This is all true. Trump is an embarrassment as a US president and an appalling disgrace as a human in general. He may actually make me vote Biden rather than protest vote this year just to do my small part to stop him. For the record, Biden may be the most damaging president in my lifetime. I will still often "defend" Trump when I suspect I see a double standard however, especially in left leaning forums.

In this thread I am also disgusted that defendants, even those never criminally prosecuted, can be punished for publicly verbally denying accusations against themselves. This should be shocking but the potential has been established in the dystopian legal system for decades. However I am astonished nonetheless that people can so breezily dismiss this dangerous flaw in the legal system
so long as the example they see is a public menace like Trump.

[N35t0r]

Okay, had thousands of US citizens killed and billions of dollars. I'm sure Biden has been much worse.

[Berzerker]

Biden helped Bush and Cheney lie us into invading Iraq, Trump opposed it.

[-Jrabbit]

Biden was just a senator from Delaware; he was just part of the Congressional mob Bush, Cheney, and Powell lied to.
Trump? LOL, he wasn't even in politics; no one cared what he thought. His opinion wasn't any more important than yours or mine.

[Dauphin]

In this thread I am also disgusted that defendants, even those never criminally prosecuted, can be punished for publicly verbally denying accusations against themselves. This should be shocking but the potential has been established in the dystopian legal system for decades. However I am astonished nonetheless that people can so breezily dismiss this dangerous flaw in the legal system
so long as the example they see is a public menace like Trump.

1) Trump was found liable in a civil court for defamation, not for protesting innocence. To my knowledge a criminal conviction has never been required to win a civil case, but it would make the civil case a slam-dunk. People and corporate entities are constantly being sued successfully for fraud, negligence, etc without ever having a criminal conviction for the alleged act. Class action lawsuits often allege acts that are criminal, but criminality is not required to be proven to be successful in the action.
2) Trump was found liable on more than just a 50:50 basis. He was found liable on the standard of clear and convincing evidence - which is a higher standard.
3) Trump was found to have been acting with malicious intent.

FWIW, I don't think the damages awarded are commensurate with what he did, but I don't have a concern with the principle at play.

The alternative is to make any civil claim based on a criminal offence (e.g. fraud) require a criminal conviction. I think that would be a more concerning legal development.

[Geronimo]

Either you're way younger than I think, or you seem to have forgotten that Bush invaded two countries, one under totally false premises, and squandered millions of lives and billions of dollars in the process.

Okay, had thousands of US citizens killed and billions of dollars. I'm sure Biden has been much worse.

Budget deficit under Bush was -3.4% of the national economy. terrible. Budget deficit under Obama -5.8% of the national economy. even worse. Budget deficit under Trump -5.6% of the national economy (how can he call himself a conservative??) Under Biden the budget deficit has averaged -8.8% of the national economy. Just wow. It's like he had to upstage them all somehow. other fusterclucks can be fixable but national debt is extremely difficult to fix even when times are good.

[Berzerker]

YOU RAPIST!

YOU LIAR!

How is the response defamatory and not the accusation?

[Ming]

You obviously haven't been following all of his posts on truth... It goes far beyond Liar.
And he hasn't stopped, even after 2 cases. I guess 80 million can't even shut him up.
But go ahead and keep defending your hero.
Both cases were decided by juries. (I'm sure you will say liberal or democrat something, but two different juries where the lawyers could exclude people)

[Broken_Erika]

They're censuring Lankford, who ias in charge of negotiations on a border deal for collaborating with democrats to pass a border security deal.

Lankford has been the chief Republican negotiator as senators have spent weeks trying to hammer out a deal on border and immigration policy to address the influx of migrants coming over the U.S. border with Mexico. The border talks are also tied to President Biden’s request for some $60 billion in support for Ukraine in its war against Russia. Lankford spoke Sunday about the border negotiations and blowback from his colleagues during an interview on “Fox News Sunday.”
.......
“It is interesting, Republicans, four months ago, would not give funding for Ukraine, for Israel and for our southern border because we demanded changes in policy. So we actually locked arms together and said, ‘We’re not going to give money for this. We want a change in law,'” he said.
........
“And now, it’s interesting, a few months later, when we’re finally getting to the end, they’re like, ‘Oh, just kidding, I actually don’t want a change in law because of presidential election year,’” he continued.

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/4436232-oklahoma-gop-director-lankford-censure-illegitimate/

[-Jrabbit]

FYI, it's the Oklahoma state GOP that is censuring Lankford. It's basically local political theater.

Interesting that he's the senior senator from a very red state, has a great background in the Baptist Church and a staunchly conservative pro-MAGA voting record. But heaven forbid that he try to actually accomplish immigration reform through legislation and negotiation!

BTW, Lankford just won a new term in 2022, so the state-level censure is meaningless.

[Dauphin]

YOU RAPIST!

YOU LIAR!

How is the response defamatory and not the accusation?

It can't be defamatory if it is more likely true than not. Amongst other reasons.


Side bar: Trump went way farther than saying she was a liar. He claimed she was making false claims for publicity, making false claims to sell a book, making false claims as part of a political agenda, making false claims to save her business, making false claims as she had been paid to make the claims, etc

He could have just said 'Her accusations are false' and moved on. Hell he could have done his usual shtick of saying 'I wonder if....' and therefore not owning it is an assertion

The original jury found that she was not lying, and that his claims were therefore defamatory

[Berzerker]

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi., D-Calif., was blasted on social media after a video surfaced from October in which she told pro-Palestinian protesters from Code Pink to "go back to China" where their "headquarters is."

"In October, Pelosi told our members calling for a ceasefire to ‘go back to China,’ Code Pink posted on X on Monday along with a video of Pelosi interacting with protesters.

"These same women have been protesting for peace at her house for 17 years. Pelosi takes thousands of dollars from AIPAC every year. Who’s the foreign agent here?"

[Ming]

Republicans are totally bat**** crazy. Their latest conspiracy theory... The "corrupt Biden" government and the NFL are going to rig the Super Bowl for the Chiefs so Taylor Swift can endorse Joe Biden

You couldn't make this stuff up

[pchang]

I’m sure Berz finds this completely reasonable.

[Geronimo]

Republicans are totally bat**** crazy. Their latest conspiracy theory... The "corrupt Biden" government and the NFL are going to rig the Super Bowl for the Chiefs so Taylor Swift can endorse Joe Biden

You couldn't make this stuff up

apparently someone can make this stuff up =-P

[-Jrabbit]

I'm surprised the right has noticed. They told us they stopped watching the NFL after Kaepernick took a knee during the anthem.
Also, Taylor Swift opened up about her politics in 2020:

Swift endorsed Biden in the 2020 presidential election and has been vocal about her unfavorable views on Trump. “I spoke to @vmagazine about why I'll be voting for Joe Biden for president. So apt that it's come out on the night of the VP debate,” she tweeted in October 2020.

[Berzerker]

Kelce advised getting the covid and flu vax together, that increases the risk of stroke

[pchang]

Yes, because getting Covid or the flu has no risk at all.

[Ming]

The increased risk is slight... and there is an increase in risk of a stroke simply by getting covid.

[Dauphin]

In other news, exposure to water increases the risk of drowning.

[Dauphin]

And if you don't trust me, check out the CDC

https://www.cdc.gov/drowning/facts/index.html

Many factors might contribute to higher rates of drowning among males, including increased exposure to water

[EPW]

You guys do realize all other vaccines are absurdly safe right? It's just the covid vaccine that's allowed to damage your heart, give you a stroke, and occasionally kill you. Also covid and the flu vaccines aren't particularly effective since the variants change so fast.

[Berzerker]

Actually they think the flu vax is the culprit and while I haven't seen studies I suspect the myocarditis linked to the covid vax was largely a result of introducing too much of the vaccine into the bloodstream at the injection site. The clotting problem was associated more with the J&J 1 shot. An old black guy I know at the pro shop was on the phone scheduling both covid and flu shots together and I told him to ask them if it was better to get one at a time and they agreed. He said his wife is pissed at him for pushing her into getting the covid vaccine, it messed her up. Typhoid Tony should be in prison... or staked out on an ant hill.

Nikki Haley got 31% in the Nevada primary, 63% went to none of the above. The state's delegates will be determined later at caucus or something.

A rebounding economy and peace deal in Ukraine may save Biden