America - The Official Thread

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Okay, so we all knew Trump was power-dumb, but at least Musk had the vague sense of someone who'd read (and then stolen all the ideas from and repackaged as his ambitions) a book once.

docs.google.com

Elon Musk_Donald Trump Twitter transcript 12 Aug 2024

Elon Musk Yeah, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I should probably say something about like, you know, maybe my views on, you know, climate change and oil and gas, because I think I'm probably different from what most people would assume. Because my views are actually pretty, I think moderate in t...
docs.google.com docs.google.com

Is it all the drugs? They're a pair of demented whackjobs.

Also Musk's own "AI" didn't like the whole "debate" (two-hour mutual masturbation session):





Why are so many Americans totally fine with an (allegedly illegal) African immigrant trying to guide policy and influence the election, when the same people were unhappy with a whole entire president because they thought he was an African immigrant (without foundation).

Can't just be a black and white situation, surely?
 
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Eunos_Cosmo
Trump said 60,000,000 illegal immigrants would come to the US if he lost the election, with zero push back from Musk. Excluding Mexico, that is 10,000,000 more than the entire population of central America.
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So Trump will personally send all of them to the border if he loses?
 
www.newsweek.com

Joe Biden's Supreme Court reform plan backed by majority of Republicans

According to a new poll, 70 percent of Republicans said they support establishing a binding code of conduct for the Supreme Court.
www.newsweek.com www.newsweek.com
Newsweek
The reform plan would create a constitutional amendment ensuring former presidents are not immune from crimes committed while in office, establish a single 18-year term limit for justices who currently are allowed to serve on the Court until retirement or death and establish a binding, enforceable code of conduct that would require justices to disclose gifts, not publicly participate in political activity, and recuse themselves from cases in which they or their spouses have a conflict of interest.
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All things you'd expect someone with even a miligram of humility would morally follow rather than need to be instructed on.
 
So, help someone unsophisticated - at this point, are we hoping Harris will win?

I don't know her, but I do know Trump. And while she's also looked down upon, I guess she's the lesser evil?
 
TumeK5
So, help someone unsophisticated - at this point, are we hoping Harris will win?

I don't know her, but I do know Trump. And while she's also looked down upon, I guess she's the lesser evil?
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Most people are justifiably worried about a Trump victory coupled with Project 2025 installing a bunch of yes men incompetents in the government. Harris is definitely the lesser of two evils.
 
Danoff
Well Trump tried to overthrow democracy and is a rapist, and Harris is... how is she evil again?
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For me it's the support for Israel. She rejects any arms embargo and repeats the "Israel has a right to defend itself" nonsense which doesn't apply because a) As UN ruled, Israel is occupying Palestine which means it has no right to defend against the people it occupies, and b) the murder of tens of thousands (likely hundreds of thousands at this point) is not and never has been "self defense".

She will be a better president than Trump by far. Maybe even better than Biden. But if she doesn't immediately replace Blinken and the other war criminals in the administration, she doesn't get an exemption from evil just because her domestic policy is good.

It only takes on evil act to be evil. I mean I don't believe in "good and evil" as real tangible properties of a human being, but I will never think of her as a "good person" if she doesn't stop US enabling of genocide.
 
dylansan
For me it's the support for Israel. She rejects any arms embargo and repeats the "Israel has a right to defend itself" nonsense which doesn't apply because a) As UN ruled, Israel is occupying Palestine which means it has no right to defend against the people it occupies, and b) the murder of tens of thousands (likely hundreds of thousands at this point) is not and never has been "self defense".

She will be a better president than Trump by far. Maybe even better than Biden. But if she doesn't immediately replace Blinken and the other war criminals in the administration, she doesn't get an exemption from evil just because her domestic policy is good.

It only takes on evil act to be evil. I mean I don't believe in "good and evil" as real tangible properties of a human being, but I will never think of her as a "good person" if she doesn't stop US enabling of genocide.
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We'll see what she does. She seems more skeptical of Israel than Biden. I expect her to take a different path.
 
Danoff
We'll see what she does. She seems more skeptical of Israel than Biden. I expect her to take a different path.
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I'm hopeful, too. I'm split on whether she's willing to do more but feels she can't deviate from the Biden admin while she's still VP, or whether she's cynically courting voters with non-committal "I hear you" stuff while actually supporting Israel exactly as much as Biden.
 
dylansan
but feels she can't deviate from the Biden admin while she's still VP,
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I think it is impossible to truly know what she will do or wants to do. She has recently started to separate her voice from the Biden admin on this particular issue, so I think we have reason to be hopeful.
 

A Teenage Girl Fell Asleep In Judge Kenneth King's Courtroom. He Put Her In Handcuffs

15-year-old Eva Goodman was promised a look at what courts really do. In Judge Kenneth King's courtroom in Michigan, she found out.
ballsandstrikes.org ballsandstrikes.org
Normally, when 15-year-old Eva Goodman participated in summer programming run by Greening of Detroit, a local environmental nonprofit, she did active work like planting trees around the city. But last week, her youth group went on a field trip to Detroit’s 36th District Court. The group planned for attendees to speak with a judge and observe a real trial. And while Judge Kenneth King addressed the young people, Eva fell asleep.

King, who presides over the 36th District’s criminal division, responded to the tired teen with threats. “You fall asleep in my courtroom one more time, I’m gonna put you in the back,” he said. “Understood?”

Eva inadvertently dozed off again a few minutes later. At this point, King began to berate her. “You sleep at home in your bed, not in court,” he said. “And quite frankly, I don’t like your attitude.” Eva does not currently have a permanent residence; her mother says they “have to bounce around” right now, and they “got in kind of late” on the night before the field trip.

Angered by the poverty he perceived as disrespect, King ordered court staff to take Eva into custody. Eva was made to undress and change into one of the jail’s green jumpsuits, and was handcuffed. Then, King pantomimed a court hearing, complete with an attorney assigned to act as Eva’s faux-representation. And he asked her peers for a show of hands on whether Eva should spend time in jail. “I’m thinking maybe she needs to go to the juvenile detention facility,” King said. “You do understand we have a jail for kids.”

Most of Eva’s peers voted for King to let her go. King later said he “probably” was not really going to jail the teen, but he “probably” could have done so.



A video of the incident went viral and prompted considerable condemnation. But King has stood by the actions and basically characterized the traumatizing incident as a form of tough love, saying, “I’ll do whatever needs to be done to reach these kids and make sure that they don’t end up in front of me.” He went on, “I wanted to get through to her, show how serious this is and how you are to conduct yourself inside of a courtroom.” King later contacted Eva’s family and offered to help “mentor” her. (They declined.)

King also clarified to reporters that the discipline he meted out wasn’t really a consequence of Eva’s tiredness, which is “not too big of a deal” since attorneys have fallen asleep in his courtroom, too. Rather, King publicly humiliated the teenager because he thought she had bad vibes: Ordering a kid who committed no crime into lockup is “not something that normally happens,” he said, “but I felt compelled to do it because I didn’t like the child’s attitude.” King claimed that he had not “been disrespected like that in a very long time,” and he was “disturbed” by the teen’s “whole attitude and her whole disposition.”

Paradoxically, Eva’s shocking story is also depressingly banal. A powerful man punished a girl he thought was insufficiently deferential—what a surprise. A judge saw someone in his courtroom as disposable, and jail as the place where one disposes of problems—groundbreaking. The legal system was the means by which poor people were put in their presumed place—how unprecedented. Handcuffing and threatening a kid with jail time because their sleepiness rubbed you wrong is an absurd abuse of power. But beneath the outrageousness of the particular details of this story lies the common, everyday brutality of a legal system that has never met a problem a cage couldn’t fix.

King’s views aren’t universal: The court’s chief judge, William McConico, said he was “dismayed” by the video, and that Judge King has been suspended pending completion of “sensitivity training.” McConico also emphasized that King’s actions were improper regardless of Eva’s current residence: “Whether the young lady was homeless or whether she lives in a mansion, she should not have been treated that way at 36th District Court.” For his abuses of power, King got a slap on the wrist; for being sleepy, Eva got handcuffs.

In a roundabout way, the group’s trip accomplished its objective. The point of the trip was for the youths to learn about what courts do. King’s treatment of Eva taught them all too well.
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"My version of scared straight." Bitch, a teenage girl fell asleep during a field trip.

As the district court's chief judge said, the reaction isn't wrong because the girl's tiredness is the result of an unstable home situtation. The reaction is wrong because she fell asleep during a field trip.

The bitch needs to go. Just absolute garbage.
 
TexRex

A Teenage Girl Fell Asleep In Judge Kenneth King's Courtroom. He Put Her In Handcuffs

15-year-old Eva Goodman was promised a look at what courts really do. In Judge Kenneth King's courtroom in Michigan, she found out.
ballsandstrikes.org ballsandstrikes.org
"My version of scared straight." Bitch, a teenage girl fell asleep during a field trip.

As the district court's chief judge said, the reaction isn't wrong because the girl's tiredness is the result of an unstable home situtation. The reaction is wrong because she fell asleep during a field trip.

The bitch needs to go. Just absolute garbage.
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It sounds like a fly on the wall camera at King's sensitivity training sessions would make ideal fodder for a reality show.
 
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TexRex

A Teenage Girl Fell Asleep In Judge Kenneth King's Courtroom. He Put Her In Handcuffs

15-year-old Eva Goodman was promised a look at what courts really do. In Judge Kenneth King's courtroom in Michigan, she found out.
ballsandstrikes.org ballsandstrikes.org
"My version of scared straight." Bitch, a teenage girl fell asleep during a field trip.

As the district court's chief judge said, the reaction isn't wrong because the girl's tiredness is the result of an unstable home situtation. The reaction is wrong because she fell asleep during a field trip.

The bitch needs to go. Just absolute garbage.
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Hot damn.
www.freep.com

Teen girl sues Detroit judge who detained her after she fell asleep in courtroom

The lawsuit states Judge Kenneth King violated the teen's constitutional rights when he detained her after she fell asleep in his courtroom.
www.freep.com
The teen girl without a permanent home who was forced to don jail garb, wear handcuffs and ask for mercy after falling asleep in a courtroom is suing the Detroit judge who had her taken into custody.

Eva Goodman, 15, and her mother filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday in U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Michigan against 36th District Judge Kenneth King. They allege he violated the teen's civil rights, arguing King acted outside the scope of his judicial authority when he detained her, yelled at her and threatened her with jail time.

"Common sense and the facts demonstrate that a grown man became rattled by a young girl that he falsely concluded to be and cast as a delinquent, who was actually a fragile teenager forced to attentively face a past trauma during an actual prior court proceeding that had ended, before shutting down during class," the lawsuit states.

Goodman and her mother, Latoreya Till, are represented by James Harrington and Gary Felty of Fieger Law. In addition to suing King, the family is suing the private security services at the court and two unidentified court officers in King's courtroom that day.

"It's been pretty devastating. Eva does not want to come outside," Till said at the news conference. Her daughter was at the law firm during the event but declined to be interviewed.

"I just want Judge King to take accountability for the way that he humiliated my daughter...I feel like he owes her a public apology. Not only that, he owes her more than just a public apology."

King did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment. Last week when he spoke with the Free Press, he defended his actions but acknowledged a lawsuit could be coming. He's also reported receiving death threats.

36th District Court Judge William McConico removed King from his docket late last week, saying King would not return until after undergoing training. King will still receive pay during his time away from the bench. A 2023 Michigan legislative analysis states district court judges receive just under $170,000 annually.

Wayne State University also recently removed King from two classes he was scheduled to teach this fall.

On Aug. 13, Goodman attended King's courtroom as part of a field trip with a nonprofit group. Till said her daughter did not know about the trip ahead of time and had never been in a courtroom before. Goodman and her peers first watched a hearing related to a homicide charge. The lawsuit states watching the proceeding forced the 15-year-old to relive a traumatic event and caused her to "shut down," prompting the sleeping. Lawyers declined to provide additional details about the event.

In between hearings, King spoke with the group, according to video of his courtroom posted to YouTube. He took off his robe at one point, handing it to a young man who also sat in the judge's chair while King spoke. Eventually King noticed Goodman sleeping and yelled at her to wake up. But after he saw her sleeping again, he had her taken away.

Goodman later told her mother that staff asked her to disrobe and put on jail garb. The teen took off her hoodie but refused to remove other garments, according to the lawsuit. Once she had on the green jail jumpsuit, she was placed in an isolated holding cell and handcuffed. Goodman told her mother there was a camera in the room, but otherwise she was alone.

About two hours after she was taken away, King had Goodman brought back to court. Video shows he stands, yells at her about being disrespectful, then asks her if she wants to go to jail. A defense lawyer King asked to stay to represent Goodman said the teen was tired and did not understand the seriousness of the situation.

Till later told the Free Press her daughter was tired because the family does not have a permanent place to stay and did not make it to bed until late the night before Goodman went to King's courtroom.

Eventually, King asked Goodman's peers by a show of hands to indicate whether he should let her go or send her to jail. Amid nervous laughter, most agreed he should show leniency, according to the video, which has since been removed from YouTube.

The lawsuit lists a litany of alleged violations of constitutional rights. That includes unreasonable search and seizures, being detained without due process, being compelled to provide evidence against herself, not getting the chance to hire a lawyer of her choosing and protection from "unusual punishment."

Harrington and Felty argues King had no authority to hold Goodman, and noted she was never charged with a crime. Even if he attempted to charge her with contempt of court, the lawsuit states King overstepped his authority to do so by ignoring rules dictating when and how a judge can use contempt powers.

Notably, the lawsuit points out King was not in the middle of any court hearing when he had Goodman detained. King previously told the Free Press court is in session any time he is in his courtroom; Harrington and Felty disagrees.

"(King) was acting as teacher, not judge when (Goodman) nodded off, and Court was not in session because there was no proceeding pending," the lawsuit states.

Broadly speaking, judges have immunity that protects them from lawsuits directly stemming from their actions on the bench. However, Harrington argues King's conduct occurred outside his purview as a judge.

"I can tell you with 100% certainty that there is zero immunity for what happened in the court room on this day," Harrington said.

"Eva wasn't a litigant. She wasn't a party. She wasn't a witness, she wasn't a lawyer, she wasn't a court officer. She was there on a field trip."

The same principle applies to the court officers named in the lawsuit. Harrington and Felty argues they acted inappropriately by complying with extra-judicial orders.

The lawsuit also states King inappropriately forced Goodman to reveal her name, age and other personal information during a proceeding broadcast online.

There is no specified dollar amount sought in the lawsuit. Rather, the lawsuit asks for more than $75,000 on each of the eight alleged violations.
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The bitch had her cuffed and subsequently imprisoned absent formal charges. She violated no laws. She was on a field trip.

It says the bitch received death threats, and...I mean...fine? Obviously such threats are criminal, and they should be, but it was the bitch's desire to terrorize and so the bitch should know terror.
 
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TexRex
Hot damn.
www.freep.com

Teen girl sues Detroit judge who detained her after she fell asleep in courtroom

The lawsuit states Judge Kenneth King violated the teen's constitutional rights when he detained her after she fell asleep in his courtroom.
www.freep.com

The bitch had her cuffed subsequently imprisoned absent formal charges. She violated no laws. She was on a field trip.

It says the bitch received death threats, and...I mean...fine? Obviously such threats are criminal, and they should be, but it was the bitch's desire to terrorize and so the bitch should know terror.
Click to expand...

I'm very glad she's suing.
 
Danoff
I'm very glad she's suing.
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I feel like so many wouldn't have the appetite for it. Americans are litigious, but so few suits are brought against the powerful who are part of the system. I think the justified outrage over it has fed that appetite a bit, because there's apparent support.

I just wish I could feel like something will come of it. Law enforcement officers, prosecutors and judges have been given so much rope, and it's about time they hang from it. ... Figuratively.
 
I wonder whether he was trolling Lou and his buddies when he posed for his official portrait six years later.

DCIVmvhV0AINDzL.jpeg


I guess it's a hard look to turtle-y pull off:

Dkvpws8X4AASXeP.jpeg
 
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