shoulda woulda coulda
From the link:
No you're not.
From the link:
"We're going to find a way ..." MW
No you're not.
You got nothin'.
HEADLINES: 2025
- Thread starter sear
- Start date
Biden grants clemency to 2,500 people convicted of nonviolent drug crimes
Published On 17 Jan 2025Outgoing US president says move is ‘important step toward righting historic wrongs, correcting sentencing disparities’.
United States President Joe Biden has commuted the sentences of nearly 2,500 people convicted of nonviolent drug crimes just days before his White House term ends.
In a statement on Friday, Biden said the individuals granted clemency were “serving disproportionately long sentences compared to the sentences they would receive today under current law, policy, and practice”.
Biden grants clemency to 2,500 people convicted of nonviolent drug crimes
Outgoing US president says move is ‘important step toward righting historic wrongs, correcting sentencing disparities’.
"Correcting sentencing disparities" may be well & good Mr. President. What about justice?
Rather than taking this action your last week in office, why not your first week in office?
"Justice delayed is justice denied" Mr. President. If it was your son Hunter languishing in prison would you not have acted more promptly?
Shiftless2
Well-known member
He waited till the 11th hour to pardon Hunter.
Even if so, that doesn't mean there isn't a double-standard here.
To offer a more Biden-friendly spin than #23 provides, President Biden might not have pardoned son Hunter at all. Didn't Joe say he wouldn't (before he did)?
Joe had reason to believe son Hunter might have been vulnerable to a vengeful re-president Trump.
None the less, if Hunter were in the same situation the "2,500" Biden granted clemency to, it wouldn't surprise me if Joe would have acted for Hunter sooner, perhaps much sooner.
It's speculation, a hypothetical.
But to approximate the math, if the 2,500 granted clemency this January were granted clemency 3 January's ago, that's 8,700 man hours per prisoner per year wasted, punishing pointlessly in a Drug War that never should have begun, and is long overdue for ending.
8,700 man hours X 3 X 2,500 = over 65 million man-hours wasted, at tax payer's expense, squandered for the cause of martial oppression. That's an atrocity. And Joe could have prevented it with little more than a finger-snap. Anyone that disagrees treats Liberty like an enemy, regards the exercise of Liberty as a crime.
It's a Founding principle of the United States of America that Liberty is a:
- Creator endowed
- Constitutionally enumerated
- unalienable right.
How can the exercise of an unalienable right POSSIBLY be a crime ?!
- absurd -
Shiftless2
Well-known member
Under normal circumstances I would have said that Biden shouldn't pardon Hunter. But given that Trump and his sycophants have made it clear that they're out for revenge against anyone who even looked sideways at Trump I don't see how Biden had any choice. If he can't find any way to get at Biden attacking his family is exactly what I'd expect Donnie to do.
Makes sense. *
Thus the conspicuous blemish here is not the pardon, but the self-contradiction, Joe having previously asserted he would NOT pardon Hunter.
20:20 hindsight renders such critique as easy as shooting pickles from a barrel.
Far, far easier said than done, BUT !
President Abraham Lincoln aka "honest Abe" dodged these bullets by being parsimonious about such comments. I'm not as good at it as Lincoln. But then, I'm not president. Joe Biden is, until tomorrow.
* Some editorial comments assert those with record of transgression similar to Hunter's were not dealt with as severely as Hunter, suggesting political motive ....
Shiftless2
Well-known member
Remember that Trump said he'd go after the families of terrorists so it's a given that he wouldn't hesitate to attack Hunter.
Guilt by association?
Either way, I gather deliberately killing blood kin of terrorist criminals is technically murder.
Because Joe is a terrorist?
Not as much as GWB.
President GWB lied the U.S. into invasion & occupation of Iraq. The result, GWB killed more innocent Americans during his 8 year presidential tenure than 9/11 mastermind UBL did.
The difference?
UBL dismissed as a terrorist.
GWB receives lifetime Secret Service protection, and a generous pension.
Published January 22, 2025 8:30am EST
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., reported several stock trades on Inauguration Day that were made in December and early January involving several of the world's largest tech companies, an industry her husband Paul has traded in before.
www.foxbusiness.com
"Insider trading" is illegal. Martha Stewart did time for it.
a) Did Pelosi have inside information? Or was the headline of Trump's Jan. 20 inauguration, known the day after November's election enough?
b) Should the investments of members of congress (MOC) be held in blind trust, as VP Cheney's were, while he served in the GWB white house?
Pelosi discloses sales of Nvidia and Apple shares, purchase of Alphabet and Amazon
Congressional stock trades have attracted attention in recent years amid calls for a ban on members trading
By Eric Revell FOXBusinessFormer House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., reported several stock trades on Inauguration Day that were made in December and early January involving several of the world's largest tech companies, an industry her husband Paul has traded in before.
Pelosi discloses sales of Nvidia and Apple shares, purchase of Alphabet and Amazon
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., disclosed several new stock trades involving Big Tech names like Nvidia, Apple, Alphabet and Amazon that occurred in the last month.
www.foxbusiness.com
"Insider trading" is illegal. Martha Stewart did time for it.
a) Did Pelosi have inside information? Or was the headline of Trump's Jan. 20 inauguration, known the day after November's election enough?
b) Should the investments of members of congress (MOC) be held in blind trust, as VP Cheney's were, while he served in the GWB white house?
Shiftless2
Well-known member
Re #29
Trading of stocks by government officials who are privy to non-public information isn't explicitly banned but they are required to disclose those trades
www.britannica.com
Trading of stocks by government officials who are privy to non-public information isn't explicitly banned but they are required to disclose those trades
Insider Trading by Congress | Pros, Cons, Debate, Arguments, Stock Exchange, & Securities | Britannica
Should Insider Trading by Congress Be Allowed?
www.britannica.com
Thanks for the #31 link. That's useful context for whatever happened.
Whatever happened?
Former President Donald Trump said Thursday he believes Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) “should be prosecuted” over her husband’s $500K Visa stock trades ahead of a Justice Department lawsuit against the credit card giant. By Victor Nava / Published Sep. 27, 2024, 1:02 a.m. ET
“Nancy Pelosi has a little problem because her husband sold their Visa stock – they had a lot of Visa stock – one day before it was announced that Visa is being sued by the Department of Justice,” the GOP nominee said during a press conference at Trump Tower in New York.
The former House speaker’s husband, Paul Pelosi, unloaded 2,000 shares of Visa stock worth between $500,000 and $1 million on July 1, financial disclosures show.
Trump calls for Nancy Pelosi to be ‘prosecuted’ over husband’s $500K Visa stock trade
“You think it was luck? I don’t,” Trump said.
nypost.com
ok
Widely considered Republican friendly, the New York Post brings to this controversy at least the appearance of bias against Speaker Pelosi [D-CA].
Yet in NYP own words: "financial disclosures show."
My personal opinion, legal or not, it doesn't look good. BUT:
If the requirement is disclosure, and even Pelosi's critics acknowledge disclosure, what's Trump's justification for “should be prosecuted” as in the headline above?
And btw:
“should be prosecuted” is a can of worms you do NOT want to open here Mr. rePresident.
Shiftless2
Well-known member
Instagram and Facebook Blocked and Hid Abortion Pill Providers’ Posts
Some posts related to obtaining abortion pills were recently hidden on Instagram and Facebook and some accounts were suspended, before being later restored.Instagram and Facebook have recently blurred, blocked or removed posts from two abortion pill providers. Instagram also suspended the accounts of several abortion pill providers and hid the providers from appearing in search and recommendations.
The actions ramped up in the last two weeks, and were especially noticeable in the last two days, abortion pill providers said. Content from their accounts — or in some cases, their entire accounts — were no longer visible on Instagram.
Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, confirmed some account suspensions and the blurring of posts. The company restored some of the accounts and posts on Thursday, after The New York Times asked about the actions.
Meta has been under scrutiny since Mark Zuckerberg, its chief executive, announced sweeping changes to the company’s speech policies earlier this month. Mr. Zuckerberg vowed to loosen restrictions on online speech, causing concerns among ...
Instagram and Facebook Blocked and Hid Abortion Pill Providers’ Posts
Some posts related to obtaining abortion pills were recently hidden on Instagram and Facebook and some accounts were suspended, before being later restored.
We could write a book. Perhaps @CitizenVoice.us we have.
But from the historic perspective of January 24, 2025 it appears U.S. President considers law a tool for accomplishing his own personal preference objectives.
We needn't read tea leaves to recognize this. Simply reading the literal meaning of the printed word vividly demonstrates it. note: Coughenour reportedly a Reagan appointee
Seattle CNN
A federal judge said Thursday that President Donald Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship was “blatantly unconstitutional” and issued a temporary restraining order to block it.
“I have been on the bench for over four decades. I can’t remember another case where the question presented was as clear,” Coughenour said.
Is it not clear Trump sows the seed of future adversity for Republicans by preventing women from exercising their healthcare rights?
Economist Steven Levett, co-author of Freakonomics has acknowledged the statistical correlation between the 1973 SCOTUS ruling Roe v. Wade
and the reduction in violent crime two decades later.
Here's a hint for you the Donald:
the children your actions may compel today's women to bear are likely to vote Democrat.
Bills: 15 - 4
Chiefs: 16 - 2
BUT !
One of those two losses the Chiefs acquired this season was to the Bills.
The Bills QB Josh Allen is a capable guy.
The Chiefs Patrick Mahomes is also.
Sunday's game may be entertaining.
Was.
So this year's superbowl, Eagles vs Chiefs. If Mahomes brings his A-game I expect the Eagles will be this season's 2nd best in the entire NFL.
Why Baltic Sea Cables Are in the News and What NATO Is Doing to Protect Them
At least 11 Baltic cables have been damaged since October 2023—the most recent being a fiber optic cable connecting Latvia and the Swedish island of Gotland, reported to have ruptured on Sunday. Although cable operators note that subsea cable damage is commonplace, the frequency and concentration of incidents in the Baltic heightened suspicions that damage might have been deliberate.
There also are fears that Russia could target cables as part of a wider campaign of so-called “hybrid warfare” to destabilize European nations helping Ukraine defend itself against the full-scale invasion that Moscow has been pursuing since 2022.
Without specifically blaming Russia, Rutte said: “Hybrid means sabotage. Hybrid means cyber-attacks. Hybrid means sometimes even assassination attacks, attempts, and in this case, it means hitting on our critical undersea infrastructure.”
Undersea pipes and cables help power economies, keep houses warm and connect billions of people. More than 1.3 million kilometers (807,800 miles) of fiber optic cables—more than enough to stretch to the moon and back—span the world’s oceans and seas, according to TeleGeography, which tracks and maps the vital communication networks. The cables are typically the width of a garden hose. But 97% of the world’s communications, including trillions of dollars of financial transactions, pass through them each day.
Several Western intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of their work, told The Associated Press that recent damage was most likely accidental, seemingly caused by anchors being dragged by ships that were poorly maintained and poorly crewed.
One senior intelligence official told AP that ships’ logs and mechanical failures with ships’ anchors were among “multiple indications” pointing away from Russian sabotage.
time.com
Fine.
But:
Remember this one?
This is a widely published image of a damaged Russian Gazprom undersea natural gas feed headed West.
Wasn't this damage, sabotage eventually traced to Ukraine's President Zelenskyy?
So what?
From the above time.com article:
Let us hope this is a rhetorical lapse, and not a definitive disclosure.
At least 11 Baltic cables have been damaged since October 2023—the most recent being a fiber optic cable connecting Latvia and the Swedish island of Gotland, reported to have ruptured on Sunday. Although cable operators note that subsea cable damage is commonplace, the frequency and concentration of incidents in the Baltic heightened suspicions that damage might have been deliberate.
There also are fears that Russia could target cables as part of a wider campaign of so-called “hybrid warfare” to destabilize European nations helping Ukraine defend itself against the full-scale invasion that Moscow has been pursuing since 2022.
Without specifically blaming Russia, Rutte said: “Hybrid means sabotage. Hybrid means cyber-attacks. Hybrid means sometimes even assassination attacks, attempts, and in this case, it means hitting on our critical undersea infrastructure.”
Undersea pipes and cables help power economies, keep houses warm and connect billions of people. More than 1.3 million kilometers (807,800 miles) of fiber optic cables—more than enough to stretch to the moon and back—span the world’s oceans and seas, according to TeleGeography, which tracks and maps the vital communication networks. The cables are typically the width of a garden hose. But 97% of the world’s communications, including trillions of dollars of financial transactions, pass through them each day.
Several Western intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of their work, told The Associated Press that recent damage was most likely accidental, seemingly caused by anchors being dragged by ships that were poorly maintained and poorly crewed.
One senior intelligence official told AP that ships’ logs and mechanical failures with ships’ anchors were among “multiple indications” pointing away from Russian sabotage.
What to Know About NATO Guarding Baltic Sea Cables
NATO is ratcheting up its guard against suspected attempts to sabotage underwater energy and data cables and pipelines that crisscross the Baltic Sea.
Fine.
But:
Remember this one?
This is a widely published image of a damaged Russian Gazprom undersea natural gas feed headed West.
Wasn't this damage, sabotage eventually traced to Ukraine's President Zelenskyy?
So what?
From the above time.com article:
"Everything in our power" includes nukes.
Let us hope this is a rhetorical lapse, and not a definitive disclosure.
Shiftless2
Well-known member
True patriotism ....
Doomsday Clock is now 89 seconds to midnight, what does that mean?
The Doomsday Clock is a symbolic timepiece showing how close we are to ‘destroying our world with dangerous technologies of our own making’.The Doomsday Clock of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, set at 89 seconds to midnight, is displayed during a news conference at the United States Institute of Peace
Published On 29 Jan 202529 Jan 2025
For the first time in three years, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (BAS) moved the Doomsday Clock forward by one second to 89 seconds before midnight, signalling a heightened risk of global catastrophe.
“It is the determination of the science and security board of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists that the world has not made sufficient progress on existential risks threatening all of humanity. We thus move the clock forward,” Daniel Holz, chair of the organisation’s science and security board, said during a livestreamed event on Tuesday.
Doomsday Clock is now 89 seconds to midnight, what does that mean?
For the first time in three years, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moved the Doomsday Clock forward by one second.
note:
In our hyper-partisan news cycle, we might expect an article presented by FOX News to be pro-Trump, and that presented by CNN to be anti-Trump.
Thus international news sources including BBC & aljazeera help sidestep domestic U.S. partisan news slant.
If this Doomsday Clock report were from CNN it might be deemed anti-Trump partisanship, even if factually, objectively presented.
This aljazeera.com/news source circumvents that deflective / dismissive criticism.