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A story about a pathetic man's downfall [34 Felony Convictions]


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1 minute ago, Brisketexan said:


I am in the conflict business, have been for a long time, and in my business I am far from alone in this observation: people have gotten fucking mean. They act like it’s ok to be mean. Many act like it’s actually a virtue, to be proud of. It’s exhausting and demoralizing for the rest of us. And it’s making it harder and harder to negotiate resolutions to disputes. Causing the other side to suffer is the point, the cruelty is the point. And every tactic is ok in furtherance of your cruelty. Lying? That’s winner talk there.

We’re in a bad place. And it’s getting worse, egged on by an entire side of the political spectrum. It’s fucking sick.

This has been my recent observation as well. There is no greater good or “enough for both of us” mentality anymore. Everyone wants theirs and if that means fucking everyone else over that’s okay, which is just an absurd stance. 

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Since generation discussions aren’t going away, and it’s a Saturday night, I always like to point out that the “greatest generation “ was absolutely for staying on the sidelines as Nazis bombed London.
Maybe that’s a testament to restraint. But, more realistically, it just means generational differences are overstated.

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32 minutes ago, RomaVicta said:

I and the beloved went to the hill country today, out to Fredericksburg and back. Saw the usual signage. Trump campaign sign. Trump Promises Kept painted on a rusty box truck. The Democrats are Destroying our country. 

There was a pretty good outlaw country band playing at the Fredericksburg Market Days. One member had a Let's Go Brandon t-shirt. No tip from me. Leaving the little pavilion where the show was, I came face to face with an old guy (likely a more aged boomer than myself). We were in each other's way. I said excuse me while he just scowled as we moved shoulders and passed. Red MAGA hat.

I really don't like what has happened to this state where friendliness was once the standard. There was a great guy manning the burger booth. Old school smile and appreciation for the purchase. Some other nice people, too. It feels like that type is fading away. 

Trump has exposed what was built for decades by the hateful right. You now see individuals proudly displaying this awful legacy in the open. They're not just ditto head cultists on the radio. 

We've thought of retiring to the Hill Country. We still may, but I don't like the prospect of choosing between silence and confrontation with my neighbors over something so basic as what makes our republic a republic. 

None of this is new. It's just sickening to see disease spread.

Yeah, we have considered retiring to various ruralish areas.  I'm not sure we're totally cut out for it, regardless, but the strident politics of the rural folk are a big, big issue.

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10 hours ago, RomaVicta said:

You succinctly describe the formula. Now multiply by 42 years. It's how you create a hate engine.

In my old truck (god, I loved that Toyota 4x4), FM went out on my radio. I was poor, so I listened to AM for years. I'd listen to Rush Limbaugh do that everytime I listened. The first time I caught it, he went down this road.

Somebody spiked trees to break lumberjack chainsaw. It's very dangerous, terrorism in fact.* > They're environmental wackos > They represent all tree huggers > Dems (liberal conspiracy) support environmentalist terrorists who want to kill lumberjacks > Dems support terrorism as part of their plan to destoy individuality, Amercanism, and you, you good person! 

Over and over and over. I didn't realize he was creating a cult until I read about the Ditto Heads and started hearing Limbaugh come up regularly in conversations; always spoken about as though we surely all agree. 

 

*I agree it's akin to terrorism although the intent was not to harm lumberjacks, just stop them. I'm not sure how I would stand if the culprits had warned the logging companies ahead of time. Certainly still criminal.

 

 

Typically, the spikes are driven into the tree high enough off the ground where they won't affect a lumberjack with a chainsaw. However, they could damage or destroy a mill saw (and potentially hurt or kill mill workers). Most (maybe all?) mills nowadays have metal detectors that scan the logs before they are cut in the mill.

Also, environmentalists who used to spike trees would label the tree as being spiked, so they would never be cut down.

No recorded instances of anybody being killed by a spiked tree in the US.

 

 

 

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Granted, I live in a relatively Trump free world (real world as opposed to the internets).  But I'm not seeing any real difference in how people act with each other on an individual basis.  Am I likely to befriend a bald guy wearing a "Let's go Brandon" t-shirt at Love Field?  No, I'm not going to engage with that fucktard unless I have to. 

But actually going about and engaging in the world doing things you want to do?  I'm not seeing a huge difference.  Neither am I in terms of the labor and employment cases I deal with. 

I actually think that the bullshit has kind of run its course and people are actually taking more affirmative efforts to try to counter the hate.  Again, assuming you are making wise choices about the friends you keep an the communities you favor. 

 

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14 minutes ago, immamac said:

This has been my recent observation as well. There is no greater good or “enough for both of us” mentality anymore. Everyone wants theirs and if that means fucking everyone else over that’s okay, which is just an absurd stance. 

Unprecedented charitable giving in 2020.

https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=content.view&cpid=42

https://www.fidelitycharitable.org/insights/how-covid-19-will-influence-giving-in-2021-and-beyond.html

 

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I believe that. Both can be true. We’re giving more, but merely rude and selfish people are now emboldened to be openly mean assholes, and they celebrate it.
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10 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

Yeah, we have considered retiring to various ruralish areas.  I'm not sure we're totally cut out for it, regardless, but the strident politics of the rural folk are a big, big issue.

You'll be fine.  I recommend a safe space up near the ridge if the neighbors get especially prickly.

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1 minute ago, Brisketexan said:


I believe that. Both can be true. We’re giving more, but merely rude and selfish people are now emboldened to be openly mean assholes, and they celebrate it.

There's eight billion people in this world.  I have no doubts that your observations are correct, but there are plenty of nice people to go around. 

The irony of my "8 billion" comments is not lost on me.  People are assholes in airports more because we're being crowded than they are because of their politics.  We also see videos of assholes everyday, which adds to the perception of more asshole behavior. 

All I am saying is that in terms of real interaction in the real world, I'm not seeing what you guys are seeing. Many of you are younger and still give a shit about more shit than I do. 

Either that or Ryan Holiday and the Daily Stoic are having an effect on me.

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1 hour ago, immamac said:

This has been my recent observation as well. There is no greater good or “enough for both of us” mentality anymore. Everyone wants theirs and if that means fucking everyone else over that’s okay, which is just an absurd stance. 

Yep.  Zero sum is the only thought process anymore.  It's dumb.

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17 minutes ago, Tuco said:

Since generation discussions aren’t going away, and it’s a Saturday night, I always like to point out that the “greatest generation “ was absolutely for staying on the sidelines as Nazis bombed London.
Maybe that’s a testament to restraint. But, more realistically, it just means generational differences are overstated.

I’ve been doing a lot of genealogy research around the WWI and WWII generations lately, both my own family, but also freelancing on the side for others - the 1950 federal census was recently released which is a Big Fucking Deal for genealogists.  I’ve read a lot of accounts, journals, etc. from that time, read a lot of family stories.

Most of the WWII generation (born late 1910s into the 1920s) directly knew (friend/family friend/boss), knew of (dad or uncle of a friend or an in-law), or were related to somebody that had served in WWI.  

WWI left an incredibly deep impression on many Americans.  There were only about 4 million Americans who served in the Army (another 750,000 or so in the other services), and only around 75,000 gas casualties (I want to say it was under 2,000 died).  A total of around 115,000 deaths and 200,000 wounded.  

The gas attacks, the machine gun fire, the artillery, the trenches, just left a really indelible impression on those who served in combat, and those they talked to, as well as the civilian population (who read and heard the stories and saw photos and film). It really dominated the American news coverage during that time, and more than a few dads and uncles and fathers-in-laws and teachers would have been telling young men and women to stay the fuck out of European wars.

TLDR: A lot of Americans had good reasons for wanting to avoid another European war.  The fear of chemical weapons on a much larger scale was also present (and continues in the US military to this day).

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1 hour ago, RomaVicta said:

Trump Promises Kept painted on a rusty box truck. 

21 minutes ago, Biff Tannen said:

I'm convinced this is performance art.

I’ve seen that truck, and am 95% convinced it’s meant to fuck with Trumpkins, because it looks like it’s been rusted/fucked up for years, long before Trump was President, and somebody thought it’d be funny to paint that on the side.

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I’ve been doing a lot of genealogy research around the WWI and WWII generations lately, both my own..

Sure. But let’s keep I’m mind that the US was an extremely late entry in WW1. Whatever you can say about the American experience in WW1, you can say tenfold about any any other participant in WW2.
Also, my point is less about why the generation was the way the way they were, and more about how they have been misconstrued since.
FWIW, I was talking to an engineer today who recently left the workforce, and riffing on how I think we are running into a parallel with the “lost generation”, except coming out of COVID instead of WW1. We are in weird era that has yet to be defined.
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2 hours ago, Tuco said:

Since generation discussions aren’t going away, and it’s a Saturday night, I always like to point out that the “greatest generation “ was absolutely for staying on the sidelines as Nazis bombed London.
Maybe that’s a testament to restraint. But, more realistically, it just means generational differences are overstated.

Seeing how the Boomers turned out has long had me question how "great" their parents really were.

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1 hour ago, Macanudo said:

Seeing how the Boomers turned out has long had me question how "great" their parents really were.

They were great soldiers and riveters....builders of future generations through their parenting, probably not so much.  But experience and perception have an awful lot to do with that.  It's probably hard to be a good dad when your kid bumping into something and breaking it in the middle of the night wakes you up and makes you think that the Nazis or Japanese are about to fuck your shit up....etc etc.  

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1 hour ago, Surly Bevo said:

They were great soldiers and riveters....builders of future generations through their parenting, probably not so much.  But experience and perception have an awful lot to do with that.  It's probably hard to be a good dad when your kid bumping into something and breaking it in the middle of the night wakes you up and makes you think that the Nazis or Japanese are about to fuck your shit up....etc etc.  

Hmmmmmmm....  

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1 hour ago, Chad Fuck said:


I think you answered your own question there my friend.

Too. Many. Dumbs.

That and the fact that people hardly talk to one another any more, just walk around with a phone or music player blasting in their ears.  I am one of those who does not even know the names of my next door neighbors.

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14 hours ago, Brisketexan said:


I am in the conflict business, have been for a long time, and in my business I am far from alone in this observation: people have gotten fucking mean. They act like it’s ok to be mean. Many act like it’s actually a virtue, to be proud of. It’s exhausting and demoralizing for the rest of us. And it’s making it harder and harder to negotiate resolutions to disputes. Causing the other side to suffer is the point, the cruelty is the point. And every tactic is ok in furtherance of your cruelty. Lying? That’s winner talk there.

We’re in a bad place. And it’s getting worse, egged on by an entire side of the political spectrum. It’s fucking sick.

It's the same in the transactional world. Getting a deal done is the bare minimum. It isn't a win unless you've extracted a pound of flesh, cause as much heartache for the other side, gaslight the terms of the deal, straight lie about the facts surrounding the deal, make as many last second changes as possible, and then close the deal. Did they get an extra dollar or two for all that effort? Nope. But it was still a huge win because you got to bill for being an asshole.

Edited by Eastwood
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Federal Appeals Court Halts Graham Testimony Before Atlanta Grand Jury

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ATLANTA — A federal appeals court temporarily blocked Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, on Sunday from testifying in the investigation into efforts by President Donald J. Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia. The appeals court instructed a lower court to determine whether Mr. Graham should be exempt from answering certain kinds of questions, given his status as a federal lawmaker.

The ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit gives a temporary reprieve to Mr. Graham, who has been fighting prosecutors’ efforts to bring him before a special grand jury. After a protracted bout of legal sparring, Mr. Graham, at the end of last week, appeared to have failed in his efforts to remain above the matter and had been expected to testify behind closed doors on Tuesday in a downtown Atlanta courthouse.

Mr. Graham has argued, among other things, that he should be exempt from testifying under the U.S. Constitution’s speech and debate clause, which prohibits asking lawmakers about their legitimate legislative functions. The appeals court laid out further steps on Sunday that must be taken before Mr. Graham gives any testimony.

 

First, the court ruled, a Federal District Court must determine whether Mr. Graham is “entitled to a partial quashal or modification of the subpoena to appear before the special purpose grand jury” based on the speech and debate clause issue. After that, the appeals court said, it will take up the issue “for further consideration.”

 

Lawyers for Mr. Graham have said that he was informed by Fulton County prosecutors that he was a witness, not a target, in the case.

Even so, prosecutors want Mr. Graham’s testimony for a number of reasons. Among them are two phone calls that he made just after the 2020 election to Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s secretary of state, in which Mr. Graham inquired about ways to help Mr. Trump by invalidating certain mail-in votes.

They also want him to answer other questions about what they have called “the multistate, coordinated efforts to influence the results of the November 2020 election in Georgia and elsewhere.” Prosecutors have said in court documents that they expect Mr. Graham’s testimony “to reveal additional sources of information” related to their investigation.

JFC

Edited by trauma babe
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1 minute ago, trauma babe said:

Not an unequivocal win for Graham.  According to the district court, the only argument presented by Graham was to quash the entire subpoena, which means throw it out entirely.  Because he didn't ask for a more limited modification or "quashal" of the subpoena, the district court declined to consider whether that was appropriate.

The court of appeals merely says that the district court has to consider a modification of the subpoena, too.  

That means, in all likelihood, that Graham will testify before the grand jury, maybe even as originally scheduled.  But the district court does have to consider whether some topics of questioning should be circumscribed.  And, I think the answer to that is going to be, lil Lindsey ladybugs is going to have to testify to the grand jury.  He's going to be able to refuse to answer questions based on the Speech and Debate Clause and any other applicable privileges and then some court is going to have to evaluate whether those privileges apply to the actual questions asked.

Unfortunately, even fuckbags like Lindsey Graham have some rights.

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I guess I'm frustrated that this shit hasn't already been dealt with? Why wasn't all this considered in prior cases? It seems like a pretty surface-level issue with the case, judging by how you've spoken about it.

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29 minutes ago, trauma babe said:

I guess I'm frustrated that this shit hasn't already been dealt with? Why wasn't all this considered in prior cases? It seems like a pretty surface-level issue with the case, judging by how you've spoken about it.

Here is why you’re frustrated 

The legal system isn’t made to punish the rich. It’s made to punish the poor. If you’re rich, you can hire the best lawyers in the world and have them sandbag the process with mountains of paperwork in a battle of attrition. And it works. Why? The public isn’t rich. They can’t afford millions in attorney fees, spending years and years burning money they don’t have with no tangible results. Rich people know this. In the end, the public will just settle for something way less, if anything, just to get a W on the board and end the money burn. 

Donald Trump has been doing this for years. 

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1 hour ago, trauma babe said:

I guess I'm frustrated that this shit hasn't already been dealt with? Why wasn't all this considered in prior cases? It seems like a pretty surface-level issue with the case, judging by how you've spoken about it.

It's frustrating, yes.  Because you actually give a shit about the outcome and we all know lil Linds has things to hide.  But this is kind of the norm in litigation, where no one gives a shit except the parties to it.

And what prior cases?  Lil Linds is a Senator, as such, he has different privileges from a nobody like Giuliani, or from the Executive or an executive officer.

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43 minutes ago, ChuckNorrisActionJeans said:

Yep. I guess if you're a trumper, courts will make your argument for you. 

His claimed exception is bullshit anyway and all this does is add to interminable delays, playing right into their tiny hands.

It is mostly bullshit, but I submit that the only way you can cut through that bullshit is to make him sit for questions and see what his answers are and what privileges he asserts and address them on that basis.  Doing it in the abstract is a waste of everyone's time.

And, I think it varies some by circuit, but in ordinary civil discovery, even if the only objection lodged is to the entire question, the court must take up the issue of whether the entire question (interrogatory, document request) is objectionable, or only part of it, and whether a partial response is required.  Which is fairly analogous to this.

The rules are a little less clear as pertains to subpoenas.

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15 hours ago, The Original Greaser Bob said:

We’ve made it easier for people to do nice things, and I think that’s great, because mostly people are pretty nice. 

15 hours ago, Brisketexan said:


I believe that. Both can be true. We’re giving more, but merely rude and selfish people are now emboldened to be openly mean assholes, and they celebrate it.

Well, that’s the thing- I don’t intend to embolden them. This behavior has been normalized, as these people we are talking about are experiencing something like unanimity because those of us who don’t agree with them decide to be invisible. I don’t wear my politics on my head or sleeve and I’m not a sign guy. But I’m not going to be invisible either, and I don’t intend to countenance public incivility.

Edited by Bozo_Casanova
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15 hours ago, The Original Greaser Bob said:

There's eight billion people in this world.  I have no doubts that your observations are correct, but there are plenty of nice people to go around. 

The irony of my "8 billion" comments is not lost on me.  People are assholes in airports more because we're being crowded than they are because of their politics.  We also see videos of assholes everyday, which adds to the perception of more asshole behavior. 

All I am saying is that in terms of real interaction in the real world, I'm not seeing what you guys are seeing. Many of you are younger and still give a shit about more shit than I do. 

Either that or Ryan Holiday and the Daily Stoic are having an effect on me.

I think we'll retire to where you live. 

I don't think we're saying everyone is bad. We are observing what we're observing in Texas. The traffic wave for someone letting you in or pulling onto a solid shoulder to make it easier for someone to pass were quite common 40 years ago in Texas.  People move in and change things, but I think there is a change in Texans as well. Not all of them, of course.

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15 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

I’ve been doing a lot of genealogy research around the WWI and WWII generations lately, both my own family, but also freelancing on the side for others - the 1950 federal census was recently released which is a Big Fucking Deal for genealogists.  I’ve read a lot of accounts, journals, etc. from that time, read a lot of family stories.

Most of the WWII generation (born late 1910s into the 1920s) directly knew (friend/family friend/boss), knew of (dad or uncle of a friend or an in-law), or were related to somebody that had served in WWI.  

WWI left an incredibly deep impression on many Americans.  There were only about 4 million Americans who served in the Army (another 750,000 or so in the other services), and only around 75,000 gas casualties (I want to say it was under 2,000 died).  A total of around 115,000 deaths and 200,000 wounded.  

The gas attacks, the machine gun fire, the artillery, the trenches, just left a really indelible impression on those who served in combat, and those they talked to, as well as the civilian population (who read and heard the stories and saw photos and film). It really dominated the American news coverage during that time, and more than a few dads and uncles and fathers-in-laws and teachers would have been telling young men and women to stay the fuck out of European wars.

TLDR: A lot of Americans had good reasons for wanting to avoid another European war.  The fear of chemical weapons on a much larger scale was also present (and continues in the US military to this day).

Good post. I'm not sure that the US should have felt obliged to enter the European war. We were attacked by Japan.  Germany declared war on the US, so there you go. It's pretty surprising how much more effort we put into defeating Germany than Japan. Roosevelt wanted to enter the war against Germany. 

In hindsight, our efforts were a spectacular success and left us the only industrialized country with no war damage. We ended destroying two brutal, murderous regimes. It was one of the rare instances where you can say good won over evil in black and white terms. Respect to the people of that generation who made the sacrifices. Just as the WWI generation described by AtomHeartBevo, the WWII generation was shaped by their times. We all are.

Then we got rich. Then we thought sending our boys overseas was the answer to pretty much anything we couldn't handle through covert actions to overthrow foreign governments who didn't bow to American corporate greed. That generation, like other generations, did some awful shit. It was a white man's world period.

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