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God this pisses me off We had 44 presidents before Trump and NONE of them were ever prosecuted for what they did in office. The only fucking moron who opened that door was Trump - BECAUSE HE DID ILLEGAL THINGS THAT WERE NOT OFFICIAL ACTS Fuck, no one in Obama's DOJ even seriously entertained prosecuting Bush for war crimes. Because going to war is within the purview of the office of the President. Attempting to overturn an election that went against you and inciting an insurrection is not part of the office.

There HAVE been antisemitic acts at these protests over these past few months. Staging a pro-Palestinian protest directly outside a Jewish museum or place of worship or where Jewish students are known to be gathering is a clear statement of intent. Acting like there is no antisemitism at all is ignorant at best, gaslighting at worst. BUT Lumping any pro-Palestinian protest into the antisemitism category and using this to justify political force is a clear abuse of power, is not what (any level-headed) Jews are wanting, and only serves to escalate the situation, empower the protesters, and actually increase the likelihood of retaliation against Jews. As I said yesterday, I am really tired of non-Jews using antisemitism as justification for carrying out their authoritarian fantasies.

It's really fucking weird and concerning how coordinated the gaslighting attempt has been to set the narrative of "threats violence and intimidation" being the reason cops were called to campus. I have not seen a single instance of it occurring at Texas yesterday, and to the contrary have read multiple firsthand reports of Jewish students peacefully talking with the protesters, with some even joining the protest. There was not a """march of antisemitism""" on campus yesterday. The police were there in riot gear before noon. They had decided yesterday morning that they were going to crack some heads. Those students committed the cardinal sin of protesting the wrong thing. The state of Texas and University of Texas is now deploying force to stop speech it doesn't like. That's what fascism looks like.

Weird that these protests don't get defended as much as the peaceful demonstration 3 years ago in DC Maybe the students should have pushed past the barricades, broken some windows in the Tower, gotten into Hartzell's office and put their feet up on his desk, stolen some shit from the Tower and threatened to hang Sharon Wood Bonus points if they beat some police officers with flag poles

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KVUE had an interview with one of the leaders of the Jewish counter-demonstration that was happening at the same time and place. He had strong words and opinions, as you might expect. He related tales of being hit with anti-Semitic threats…in the past. But as for today? He said that it was respectful, and he could go among the people and talk, including with people with whom he disagreed. Everything bad that happened today was due to Abbott’s jackboot praetorian guard, who showed up to ENSURE that things got bad, and succeeded in their mission. Even the Jewish counter-protestors, who one would think are the very people who would have needed protection today from that “dangerous and violent mob,” tell us that they were fine. Today was a shameful day. But nothing good will come from it. The bad guys won. The people who should stand up for the people folded like the cowards that their entire generation is. The Boomers are the worst that humanity has to offer.

You're a fucking embarrassment to the university. Whether you agree with students or not, you should damn well understand that they have a right to protest. People were constantly protesting shit on the west mall when I was there in the 90's. I disagreed with half of it, but actually dug hanging out around those protests. It was a great way to hear viewpoints different from mine, and I occasionally learned something. That exposure to differing viewpoints was a critical part of the university experience which formed the person that I am today. The 40 acres shouldn't be forced to bend a knee to whatever dipshit political animal inhabits the gov's mansion. My opinion of Hartzell is pretty goddamned low right now. What the fuck crimes were committed that warranted that response?

Hartzell wanted to avoid campus interruptions and maintain student safety, so he called the cops in to create disruptions and threaten student safety.

When I was a student at UT, I got involved in the protests demanding the school divest from South African holdings (apartheid). Never in a million years did I fear cops or arrest or worse. This is a shameful day in the history of our school. Fuck Jay Hartzell, fuck Greg Abbott, and fuck any anti-education fucksticks.

Hey, I’m back (sort of). Still at the meeting, but my portion is over. So, out came the iPad and here we are: David Pecker testifies that once negotiations had taken place with Karen McDougal, Pecker again asked Michael Cohen who would pay for her story. Cohen — who Pecker said just minutes ago had earlier promised that Trump would take care of it — this time said, “You should pay.” Pecker was reluctant, having already purchased another story on Trump’s behalf, but Cohen again pledged that Pecker would eventually be made whole by Trump. In addition to $150,000 for her lifetime rights, Pecker says that McDougal had a number of other requests, including being able to write for celebrity magazines, appearing on the cover of health and fitness magazines, and starting her own fitness clothing line and beauty product line. She also wanted to work as a red-carpet anchor. Side note: He's not in the courtroom, but traveling with Trump to the courthouse today for the first time during this trial was Boris Epshteyn, Trump’s legal strategist who was indicted in Arizona yesterday in connection with the efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. David Pecker is now attesting to a key point prosecutors made in their opening statement, that Trump was famously frugal. He testifies that he knew that Michael Cohen “didn’t have any authorization to disperse any funds from” the Trump Organization. Even when the two went for lunch, Pecker says, Pecker always paid. Joshua Steinglass, the prosecutor, is now asking David Pecker, the former National Enquirer publisher, about a call he had with Trump about Karen McDougal. The call came after Dylan Howard interviewed her and the three-way call with Michael Cohen, and the jurors have heard about it already. But Steinglass is reminding them that it happened, and reemphasizing that Trump himself was personally involved, this time with more details. These chronological leaps would not work in a written story, but they’re almost like a “previously on” tag here at trial. Pecker is testifying about a conversation he had with Trump where Trump described Karen McDougal as “a nice girl.” Pecker said this conversation made him believe that Trump “knew who she was.” Trump is stone-faced as Pecker talks about this conversation. Pecker is now describing a follow-up conversation with Michael Cohen in which he asked Cohen who would pay for McDougal’s story of having had an affair with Trump. This was a central concern for Pecker. Cohen reassured him, telling him, “The boss will take care of it.” A recurring theme is the concern over who would pay for these Trump-related efforts.

I am sickened. So disappointed in my school. I am embarrassed of my school and state. I’ve walked out of dkr after Arkansas beat us unexpectedly and out of the cotton bowl in the early 2000s. That pales in comparison to real actual life. This is real actual life. And this is way more embarrassing. Fuck you abbott. This is straight up fascism. Send in your jackbooted thugs just to provide red meat for your brainwashed base. They’re too chickenshit scared to face one shooter when children the age of my own offspring are being murdered. I am sickened and embarrassed to call myself a Texan. Sorry for the ranting. I just now found out about this and I’ve been drinking. This is terrible and just another thing in the list of things that can’t be undone toward our downfall. Maybe it’s me watching band of brothers and getting to the “why we fight” episode right as I hear about this. Maybe im just drunk of a Wednesday. Fuck. This is bad. Sgt. hulk can get fucked too.

The protests yesterday were not "antisemitism". Stop fucking gaslighting the thread.

This is correct. None of that shit happened on campus yesterday. Therefore, the overwhelming and thuggish response by DPS was completely fucking unnecessary. Everything else is peripheral, so stop bringing that shit up. What the cops did yesterday turned this whole thing from a pro-Palestinian protest into something that strikes at the core of what it means to be an American: the violent suppression of Free Speech by the State.

WTF? Even in my younger, more conservative days, when I walked by any number of hippies, activists, and dipshits with their pet issues ("marijuana is great! We should legalize it because you can make rope with it, not because you can smoke it!" Well then, why are you constantly baked, Moonbeam? Just be honest with us. And of course, "The Shanty." And all that shit)....not only did it not occur to me that I should be pissed at them and want them beaten, seeing the cops beat them would have made me ripshit pissed. Because I guess I'm one of those rare folks who 1) says he believes in the Constitution, and 2) ACTUALLY believes in the Constitution. Fascinating to me how all the "freedom and liberty" types are....totally fucking opposed to some of our most foundational freedoms and liberties.

This legitimately brand new poster sure studied up on the rules before joining this site for what was surely the first time!

It’s not even about Palestine. It’s about students assembling peacefully getting attacked by cops unprovoked. If you have a modicum of respect for the first amendment, you should have a problem with the images we’re seeings. Students on college campuses should have the ability to assemble peacefully. Universities are supposed to be a place where differing opinions are debated peacefully without the fear of being beaten down by cops in riot gear.

They absolutely did today. With 10 times as many people in attendance. I was there, as my office is in the tower. The Statesman estimated over a thousand today, and no issues. Amazing how when you treat folks with respect and don’t try to drive them into the ground, you don’t need a goon squad.

Not ashamed to admit I had to look up the definition of sopoforic. Sure, it might be "standard operating procedure" to buy stories and not run them for whatever reason. I don't believe that part is inherently illegal. Unethical, perhaps, but not against the law. The illegality is on Trump (and Cohen and others) for trying to conceal how the payments were handled and how they were accounted for. He has to lose in November. The courts are not going to handle this for us. They might bury him after the fact but he must lose the election first. Otherwise, we're turbo-fucked.

That's your takeaway from that list?

Hey, the Times is also doing a narrative about the Supreme Court hearing: Alito suggests there are not enough legal safeguards in place to protect presidents against malicious prosecution if they don’t have some form of immunity. He tells Dreeben that the grand jury process isn’t much of a protection because prosecutors, as the saying goes, can indict a ham sandwich. When Dreeben tries to argue that prosecutors sometimes don’t indict people who don’t deserve it, Alito dismissively says, “Every once in a while there’s an eclipse too.” If you are just joining in, the justices are questioning the Justice Department lawyer, Michael Dreeben, about the government’s argument that former President Trump is not absolutely immune from prosecution on charges that he plotted to subvert the 2020 election. Dreeben has faced skeptical questions from several of the conservative justices, including both Justices Alito and Kavanaugh, who have suggested that the fraud conspiracy statute being used against the former president is vague. That statute is central to the government’s case against Trump. Justice Alito now joins Justice Kavanaugh in suggesting that the fraud conspiracy statute is very vague and broadly drawn. That is bad news for the indictment brought against Trump by Jack Smith, the special counsel. The scope and viability of this fraud statute, which is absolutely central to the Trump indictment, wasn’t on the menu of issues seemingly at play in this hearing. Kavanaugh and Alito appear to have gone out of their way to question its use in the Trump case. Justice Sotomayor points out that under the Trump team’s theory that a criminal statute has to clearly state that it applies to the presidency for it to cover a president’s official actions, there would essentially be no accountability at all. Because only a tiny handful of laws mention the president, that means a president could act contrary to them without violating them. As a result, the Senate could not even impeach a president for violating criminal statutes, she says — because he would not be violating those laws if they don’t apply to the president. Dreeben is under heavy fire from the court’s conservatives. Justice Gorsuch is questioning Drebeen directly on whether another key charge against Trump — an obstruction statute — should apply to Trump’s alleged disruption of the certification of the election. The court held a hearing earlier this month on whether that obstruction law should be applied to members of the pro-Trump mob that attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6. Trump was never mentioned in that hearing. But now the use of the obstruction law against Trump has come up. Dreeben says there are some core constitutional functions of a presidency — he cites the pardon power, the power to recognize foreign nations, the power to veto legislation, the power to make appointments — that Congress cannot regulate and so criminal statutes cannot be applied to such actions. Justice Gorsuch declares that is essentially immunity for some official acts. Justice Kavanaugh just dropped a bit of bombshell, saying that the main fraud conspiracy statute Trump has been charged with in this case — 18 U.S.C. 371 — is written so vaguely that an aggressive prosecutor could use it against future presidents in a very broad way. Dreeben argues that the Constitution has explicit textual immunity for legislative acts by members of Congress (the Speech and Debate clause) because there had been an historical example of legislators being harassed and prevented from doing their jobs. The framers of the Constitution did not put anything like that in for presidents, he argues, because they had a very different concern — after rebelling against the British king, one of their chief concerns was the risk of presidential misconduct. Overall, several justices — maybe a majority — apear to have suggested through their questions that presidents should indeed enjoy some level of immunity from criminal prosecution. The questions seem to be how to decide what actions are protected from criminal charges and whether the allegations in Trump’s indictment in particular would qualify for immunity. Justice Thomas cites “Operation Mongoose” in asking why no ex-presidents have been charged in the past. That is an odd example. President John F. Kennedy ordered Operation Mongoose — a covert operation in Cuba. Of course, Kennedy never had an opportunity to be an ex-president. An exchange with Sauer a few minutes ago and now Dreeben’s opening statement gets at a central question: is the fact that no ex-president was charged with a crime before Trump evidence that presidents have always been understood to be immune, or is it evidence that there are layers of protection against abusive or politicized prosecutions of ex-presidents who did not really commit crimes like Trump allegedly did? Michael Dreeben, speaking for the government, lays out his bottom line. Executive immunity would license a president to commit “bribery, treason sedition, murder” and, as in Trump’s case “conspiring to use fraud to overturn the results of an election and perpetuate himself in power.” “The framers knew too well the dangers of a king who could do no wrong,” Dreeben says.

Cybertruck spotted in Kenya

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I'm more embarrassed by abbot deploying riot cops to put down student protesters and arresting kids walking between classes.

Youngest is in her second freshman semester. She sent this text to me to illustrate what was a common event last semester, and the disconnect between the response to perceived hate speech and blatant, ongoing hate speech. I had no idea she was subjected to this shit day after day. Those two shitbird misogynists would yell at female students using vile and sexually charged derogations. She said police were often in the vicinity, but were unconcerned. Shouldn’t female students be afforded the same protection from hate speech as other groups? Those guys have left. I feel deprived of the opportunity for a righteous face to face confrontation.

I want to visit the alternate universe where that fucker kept his mouth shut, and we avoided this nightmare for the past eight years.

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What the briefing should say is that the freshwater condenser on Midway Island is out of commission.

I'm not an experienced moderator but I would suggest replying to all those reports with dick pics. The idea that grown men run off to the mods complaining about this kind of thing just bottles the mind.

They don’t have to vote for Biden. They just don’t have to vote for Trump.

In the replies to the tweet:

You can't say, no harm, no foul after you've disrupted someone's right to free speech. That moment is lost forever. And, despite your minimizing of the difficulties the protesters suffered, the threat of future action is most certainly designed to have a chilling effect on their desire to participate in free speech later on. If there is any chance that actions like this will make anyone less likely to exercise their rights, then it absolutely is a big deal and must be dealt with and prevented from happening again. And all of the above sets aside any potential physical or mental injuries caused by the actions of the police and concerns of falsely imprisoning someone for any period of time. If we allow the state to trample rights with a "whoopsie", then we really don't have any rights at all.

Yeah I read the letter. And then I watched the videos of what actually happened and quickly realized that Jay Hartzell is full of shit.

Ukraine is fighting to exist. I'm sure they're fighting by the rules. To be clear, Ukraine targeted Russian oil terminals this week, NOT the oil refineries. The only thing in common is the word oil. Huge, huge difference on the longer term impact of each. Ukraine targeted the Yartsevo Oil Terminal, Smolensk on 4/23/24 and the Talashkino Oil Terminal on 4/24/24. These are not refineries, they are terminals or depots, a series of storage tanks and a means to load/unload railcars and tanker trucks for further distribution. Both of these terminals/depots have smallish storage tanks, less than 50 ft in diameter, (~ 17,500 bbl each, or ~750,000 gallons). Chicks dig the long ball, the media likes big fires. Though the tanks are relatively small, they make big fires, and always make the news, because the news moves oil prices. Yartsevo Oil Terminal, Smolensk Talashkino Oil Terminal This is a screenshot of the Lukoil - Nizhny Novgorod Refinery (~ 340,000 bbl/day) that Ukraine attacked on 3/12/24. This is similar in size to the Conoco Westlake Refinery (~ 250,000 bbl/day) north of I-10 in Lake Charles. There are multiple, individual process units within the refinery, that are related, yet distinct in what they do. The footprint of the Lukoil Refinery is over 5 square miles. Much different than the oil terminals/depots. The largest tanks at Lukoil are ~ 200 feet in diameter, (~ 400,000 bbl each, or ~17,500,000 gallons). That is ~ 1 days production from the refinery. You take out a few tanks, and you burn up a few days production. If you take out the refinery towers, which Ukraine did target the last few months, that is a much different issue. While the refinery has multiple units, the big "crackers" at the start of the refining process may process ~ 30-70% of the refineries capacity. I'm a gas processing guy not oil refining guy, so take this with a grain of salt. US processing facilities are automated to the point that the most things are controlled from a central control from, or a series of control rooms. You look at a screen, you flip a switch or select an icon, and a valve opens or closes, and you move on to the next thing. (When you do routine maintenance, you physically make sure valves are closed, and you chain them so they can't be opened. - Safety First). Automation and centralized control works very well, until someone starts lobbing rockets and missiles at you.) The Russian facilities built by US companies, Sakhalin Island LNG for example, formerly Exxon operated, now Russian, would have state of the art automation. The traditional Russian oil facilities are probably similar in nature to their military equipment, cars, and toilets. Regardless of the technology involved, damaging a refinery has much more effect that simply hitting some storage tanks. Russian oil production is key contributor to the world market. Russian refinery production, not so much. As long as the production makes it into the market place, with or without sanctions, the world oil price is moderated. The Arab oil embargo quadrupled world oil prices, Russia-Ukraine raised them ~ 20%. If Russian oil production was shut off, whole different ball game. Russia is not a big exporter of refined products. Damaging their refineries is much more localized for Russia and not so much the larger marketplace. This impacts Russian's war effort without much impact on others. I would think some of these distinctions played a part in green lighting the longer range weapons that are on the way to Ukraine.

And in DC: The Supreme Court’s relatively new process (coming out of Covid) of letting each justice ask questions at the end in order of seniority has an interesting consequence, as seen here. Dreeben kept wanting to say these things about government legal memos and to go into the details about the actions Trump is accused of taking, but the Republican-appointed justices kept cutting him off. It’s the turn of Kagan, a Democratic appointee, to ask any final questions she wants, and she is letting him talk on and on.

$3.9 million per hour.

I’m going to go out on a limb and guess the same people were singing a different tune when Britney Griner was detained in Russia.

My only regret is I have only one “fuck you” reaction emoji to give.