Two Trials, Judge Not, Jan 6, Alex Jones, Eric Trump, Antifa Infiltration, Boosters

  • Ted McLaughlin at jobsanger looks to the just verdicts in the Arbery murder for hope, but points out the fight is far from over.
     
  • Dave Dubya is grateful for the application of justice by a mostly white jury to three white neighborhood vigilantes, but sees racism continuing as a powerful undercurrent. He has a deeper gratitude for our opportunity to work and vote for sanity and decency.
     
  • Vixen Strangely at Strangely Blogged points out that it should not have been so hard to expect a conviction in the murder of a jogger. But the system nearly failed. It took more effort than it should have even to bring charges.
     
  • Hackwhackers keeps the week’s justice score. 1 good, 1 not so good.
     
  • We have all seen the same video by now. Ahmaud Arbery was murdered by the father-and-son McMichael team with the help of their friend Roddie Bryan.
     
    The question that should not have been a question was whether a southern, nearly all white jury would follow the evidence and convict.
     
    Tommy Christopher has the numbers. A new national poll taken just before the verdict shows that only a third of Republicans thought the three were guilty of anything.
     

  • At The Moderate Voice David Robertson has a criticism. Those of us who were not on the juries in the Wisconsin and Georgia murder trials are not entitled to make judgments.
     
    On the Arbery verdict:
    I am not a member of the Arbery jury. So, I am not in a position to declare Arbery’s killers guilty of murder. Neither is anyone else who isn’t a member of the jury.
     
    I hold an opposing view.
     
    It is true that, as a member of a jury, I am constrained by the Constitution and my own notions of fairness in deciding whether a defendant will be deprived of liberty for the crime of murder. The prosecution must prove its case conclusively on the basis of submitted evidence.
     
    Not being on a jury, I am allowed to non-judicial opinions, to wit:
    – O.J. Simpson is a murderer.
    – So was Charles Manson.
    – And so were Byron De La Beckwith and Deputy Sheriff Cecil Price.
    – So were a host of lynch party enthusiasts in the often sad history
         of US civil rights.
     
    While my opinion may be of little value, except to myself, I violate no-one’s rights in holding to it.
    Not sorry, O.J.
     

  • Frances Langum listens carefully as Alex Jones explains that he doesn’t want to go to prison. He will testify to the Congressional committee investigating the Jan 6 lynch mob insurrection. He will refuse to answer questions, based on his 5th Amendment rights. He will claim that in answering truthfully, he would incriminate himself.
     
    But he wants everyone to know that he won’t really mean it.
     
  • The Palmer Report contemplates the story now circulating that Eric Trump’s wife was in secret communication with organizers of the Jan 6 lynch mob insurrection. They supposedly used burner cell phones – to be used and discarded. Well… so far, it’s a single story in a single magazine, so who knows whether it will stand up. And Eric Trump can be expected to issue a blistering denial – fake news, unfair smear, and all.
     
    Except for this:
     
    So far, Eric hasn’t said a word. Deafening silence.
     
    Remembering one of Arthur Conan Doyle’s favorite Sherlock Holmes adventures The Adventure of Silver Blaze and the dog (which is to say Eric) that didn’t bark.
     
    About those secret calls:

  • It’s looking like white supremacist infiltration was responsible for a whole lot of the violence blamed on antifa and BLM. Much more than we thought.
     
    While it is accepted by most as a legitimate news source, I do have a bias about The Intercept. It was founded, in part, by the prickly Glenn Greenwald, so we should put it in the Trust-but-Verify category. I confess to a low opinion of Mr. Greenwald. Let’s wait for the verify part.
     
  • Wearying though it may be…
     
    Our favorite Earth-Bound Misfit looks to South Africa to find that while you may be done with COVID, COVID is not done with you.
     
  • John Scalzi at Whatever explains why he got the booster shot.
     
    Has to do with listening to the experts about vaccines, and not, say, podcast hosts or virulently racist and/or performatively ignorant politicians.
     
    Well… when you put it that way.
     
  • Andy Borowitz reports as Dr. Anthony Fauci urges Americans to use COVID as an excuse to skip Thanksgiving with horrible relatives.

  • North Carolina pastor John Pavlovitz lists the lessons MAGA types teach:
     

  • Libertarian Michael A. LaFerrara is thankful this year for fellow climate deniers. He sees the enemy, meaning folks like me, as adherents to climate catastrophist religion.
     
    One characteristic many of the most extreme of ideologues have in common is a tendency to become impervious to evidence. Ideology is not a conclusion, but rather an intractable, firmly understood premise.
     
    To Mr. LaFerrara, most government action must be futile, immoral, or both. So any urgent problem, the only solution to which is some regulation, must be a mere contrivance. Climate catastrophe has to be a plot by the enemies of freedom, motivated by … I dunno … some psychopathic hatred of everything good and decent, and pretty much every credible scientific climate expert is a participant in a massive cultish plot against humanity.
     
  • This time they’re not being all Texas slippery – simply privatizing anti-abortion activism with legal cover. Imani Gandy and Jessica Mason Pieklo of Rewire News Group talk about a new Mississippi law. On December 1, the US Supreme Court will consider the first direct challenge to Roe v. Wade. Your choice of a podcast or a transcript.
     
  • M. Bouffant at Web of Evil reacts to the scandal as Vice President Kamala Harris buys cookware.
     
    Could be worse, I suppose. She could have worn a tan suit.
     

  • This slapping-around repeat performance never seems to get old. News Corpse covers the massacre this week as Peter Doocy of FoxFame attacks President Biden yet again, this time for spending Thanksgiving with his family. Press Secretary Jen Pasaki smiles her friendly smile and gently teaches Doocy how to spill his blood all over the White House Press Room.
     
  • At The Onion, former New Jersey Governor and one-time Trump sycophant Chris Christie is energized and ready for more public humiliation.
     
  • Cato Institute’s Julian Sanchez watches the apparent deterioration of Michael Flynn:
     

  • Wisconsin conservative James Wigderson seems unenthusiastic about the current direction of his party:
     

  • driftglass reacts to Cenk Uygur in much the same way as do I. He’s a leftward conspiracist who believes Joe Biden was chosen by Democrats only because James Clyburn and Barack Obama were traitors to the noble cause of we-must-choose-Bernie.
     
    Recovering conservative Joe Walsh interviews the Cenk to the gentle amusement of driftglass. And his amusement is not hard to share as he recounts the dialogue.
     
    I’m fairly sure that, had I enough national stature to deserve the notice of driftglass, I would not escape his acerbic wit.
     
    I admire Joe Walsh. He has done what few public figures are capable of doing: admit he was wrong in major ways, engage in harsh self-critique, and try like hell to make up for it.
     
  • Green Eagle has advice for Democrats on how to win in 2022 and 2024. Please note one nuanced, well considered, comment.
     
  • Nojo points out something about America, specifically white America, that has been true for a couple of generations.
     
  • Infidel753 supports workers around the world striking against the notoriously abusive employment practices of Amazon.
     
  • PZ Myers seems unimpressed with the justice system as a young convicted serial rapist from a wealthy, influential family escapes actual jailtime. Seems the judge made his decision, not on the evidence, or the seriousness of the series of crimes, or sentencing guidelines, but rather by saying a prayer and waiting for divine guidance.
     
  • My long time friend Darrell Michaels, who is Unabashedly American, starts off confessing his imperfections as a Christian, and wishing more folks would accept God’s wish that we love others.
     
    So far so good.
     
    He criticizes those who profess belief, but go on to define God as being pretty much like themselves, with their own parochial values.
     
    Okay.
     
    He then talks about what real acceptance of God actually means. And it turns out to be a litany of contemporary conservative legalities:
     
    Anti-homosexuality, anti-sexuality outside of marriage, above all anti-abortion in all circumstances.
     
    All of which seem to reflect a definition of God that, luckily for Darrell, turns out to be very much like my friend himself.
     
    The standard that Jesus suggests, and Paul the Apostle reenforces, has the virtue of simplicity. If you love God and love your neighbor, you have fulfilled all the laws.
     
  • In Scotties Toy Box, a conservative Christian pastor explains the key to a happy marriage.
     
    I suspect most couples will wisely choose another door with another key.
     
  • Nan’s Notebook contains a bit of skepticism over legal protections of religious beliefs that end up protecting only Christian theology.
     
  • In The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser, one time pastor, current atheist Bruce receives an attack on his character written by a Christian counselor.
     
  • In MadMikesAmerica, Glenn Geist enjoys speculation about Buddhist belief on the ultimate destination of reincarnation, but only to a point. He doesn’t enjoy the rite of passage most folks require before honoring those who have gone before us: a sort of purity rating apart from time, place, or circumstance.
     
  • In Letters from an American, Heather Cox Richardson explains how she started writing a daily summary of the news from an historian’s perspective. It started with a yellow jacket sting, a startling letter from Adam Schiff (D-CA) demanding the Trump admin follow the law, and the massive reaction from those who happened to read her note.
     
  • Sarah Cooper found one of the best ways to be thankful this weekend:
     

  • Reductress discovers 4 (that’s FOUR) holiday deals you can make with the Devil.
     
  • CalicoJack, in The Psy of Life, has a well summarized overview of last week’s news in law, history, social progress, and music. The music is a special treat, especially if you like classic blues. A likely treat even if you don’t.
     
  • SilverAppleQueen reminds us, in poetry, of the fearful, beautiful conversation each of us may eventually have with death.
     
  • @momwino98 kinda sorta has holiday thoughts for us:
     

    @momwino98

    No seriously but..😂😂##tiktokmom ##fyp ##foryourpage ##hell ##grudge ##didmewrong ##Sing2gether

    ♬ original sound – Amy Strydom

  • This is the sort of question that keeps me up at night. The Journal of Improbable Research finds a study by researchers at two major universities, who use high speed infrared cameras to track airflow exhaled by opera singers. At last!
     
  • tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors does us the favor of posting what I consider one of the most entertaining videos of all time. From WKRP in Cincinnati, it is more than worth the investment of 6 minutes and 44 seconds.

    •  

She seems nice, doesn’t she? She jokes, she apologizes, and a couple of us react.


More Tweets I thought worthy:


And I’m allowed a few of my own:
 


Another couple of answers about willpower:

– Podcasts –
 

4 thoughts on “Two Trials, Judge Not, Jan 6, Alex Jones, Eric Trump, Antifa Infiltration, Boosters”

  1. Howdy Burr et al.

    With regard to the “long dirty toenails” strategy in the Aubrey case, I don’t believe it was “The Producers” strategy. I believe it was the lack of theory of mind strategy. The attorneys couldn’t believe that in an almost all white jury there wouldn’t be at least one of them whose inner racist wouldn’t resonate with their racist dog whistles and cling stubbornly to a not guilty verdict bringing home a well-hung jury.

    Huzzah!
    Jack

    1. Thank you for the comment, Jack.
      I suspect you are correct in all respects.

      That it didn’t work is encouraging.
      Our celebration is tempered, of course, by the fact that there was ever any doubt.

  2. Dude. Has Joe Walsh paid up his child support? It’s an important question; he may have, and I’m not aware. I don’t pay attention to this Joe Walsh.
    Anyway, thank you so much for doing this! It’s an extra-enjoyable one; I clicked a lotta links!

Comments are closed.