Mailwatch(ed) Forum

David Simon on good form here (and in the replies).

The US culture war left are so obviously stupid- substitute this woman on the last day of Ramaadan protesting Israel with a man protesting abortion rights on Easter Sunday, and they'd so obviously not defend it. Stunts for the internet aren't just limited to the left, of course. And the upshot is that we all get fewer nice things (the occasion here was the Dean holding a dinner to celebrate academic achievement) because it's too much hassle to worry about unrepresentative goons fucking them up.

Sairo Rao runs or ran a company called race2dinner where white women would pay Sairo and her business partner thousands of dollars to be told how they are awful racists.

Iglesias is a bit polarising, but look at the response to this pretty uncontroversial tweet. Things have got better in America for most people. It's not "liberal elite" or whatever to point that out. Note the lying below the line. This is what Biden is up against.

Here's another. Homicides falling fast in big cities. Oh no it isn't, they say,

Strange obsession with comparing to 2019- do they think Trump wasn't president in 2020?

Yep a good example is how many people progressive types will complain about the cost of fast food ignoring the facts that they're using doordash (a bit like deliveroo) which has add ons for its services and that wages for workers in the fast food industry have risen. So unless they want to lower the wages of these workers they're going to have to put up with higher prices.

(not entirely) Hypothetical question : If (when) Trump fails to be elected president again, will he just Fuck Off And Die ?

He'll have a constitution right to run again, no? So, he probably won't fuck off, but he'll probably and hopefully die.

kreuzberger wrote: ↑Mon Apr 15, 2024 6:50 pm He'll have a constitution right to run again, no? So, he probably won't fuck off, but he'll probably and hopefully die.

Yes, he would theoretically be eligible to run again , but by the next election he will be as old as Biden is now, and hopefully either dead or in gaol.

You know this thing where at Trump’s trial in NYC they are doing the selection of jury members ? Apparently asking potential jurors if they are impartial, and rejecting them if not ?

That doesn’t happen in the UK, does it ? Here, you just get called up completely at random and are obliged to serve on whatever jury you are needed to be a member of - aren’t you? Impartiality is just assumed, no?

In short, I don’t get it. How did the American system arise? Seems to me it makes it more difficult to get a set of impartial jurors, not easier.

Not entirely. In England/Wales, you are part of a pool of jurors who are there to serve on whatever trials are going ahead in that batch. When it comes to selecting the 12 for a given case, barristers can (and do) challenge and bar jurors on assumptions about how they will lean. So out of a pool of maybe 20, they just need to whittle it down to 12.

In America, it's mainly down to litigation culture. If you have the means, you do everything you can to stay out of jail, and any hint of bias or impropriety is seized upon as grounds for appeal or mistrial.

Ahh, I see. So it's a bit less of a thing in the UK by comparison with the litigation-crazy Americans.

There must still be an assumption here that jurors will approach their duties with impartiality - 12 good men and true, jury of your peers, and all that. I'd be interested to know how many potential jurors in the UK are actually excluded from trials by challenges from defence barristers.

The Yanks probably think 12 Angry Men was too woke

Well, yes. They didn't execute the kid. Or juror number 8.

Abers - more a bargaining thing that goes on. As you need to have 12 people on the panel, there's usually a bit of to and fro - "OK, you can have the Hell's Angel if I can include the sweet little old lady". But it's more on initial perceptions than on intimate knowledge of the case or strong opinions on the defendant.

Of course, a heavily biased juror, or one with inside knowledge or a relationship with an involved party could be grounds for an appeal.

kreuzberger wrote: ↑Mon Apr 15, 2024 6:50 pm He'll have a constitution right to run again, no? So, he probably won't fuck off, but he'll probably and hopefully die.

When he, inevitably, does shuffle off - who's the new head of the MAGA movement?

There are unfoolish Republicans? Nope, me neither.

Bones McCoy wrote: ↑Tue Apr 16, 2024 12:33 pm

kreuzberger wrote: ↑Mon Apr 15, 2024 6:50 pm He'll have a constitution right to run again, no? So, he probably won't fuck off, but he'll probably and hopefully die.

When he, inevitably, does shuffle off - who's the new head of the MAGA movement?

Ordinarily, the answer is the next guy down the line who can speak in coherent-ish sentences and hasn't a closet full of sexual and financial skeletons, but that's almost a hindrance for this crowd

Abernathy wrote: ↑Mon Apr 15, 2024 9:39 pm

kreuzberger wrote: ↑Mon Apr 15, 2024 6:50 pm He'll have a constitution right to run again, no? So, he probably won't fuck off, but he'll probably and hopefully die.

Yes, he would theoretically be eligible to run again , but by the next election he will be as old as Biden is now, and hopefully either dead or in gaol.

Yup term limits apply to terms as President not as a candidate, after all Richard Nixon ran for president three times, 1960, 1968, 1972.

Simon

I think Trump's shamelessness is part of the attraction, a bit like it was over here for Johnson. The idea of a powerful person just not giving a shit - you can see the appeal. Projection, wish fulfilment and so on.

A successor? Hard to say. Possibly his daughter? Forget the sons, they're idiots. But she provides a) whacking material for his core supporters, and b) a rather steely "remove the problem rather than solve it" attitude.

I've read several tweets this evening about Trump falling asleep in court and farting in court. Small things like this could be more damaging to his campaign than any evidence or any verdict. He keeps attacking Biden for being too old but if Trump keeps falling asleep in court his attacks on Biden quickly start to diminish.

Biden is over the hill and senile.

He is merely demonstrating his contempt for the crooked court and deep state.