22 thoughts on “Tuesday Open Thread”

1. "Lack of Bloodlust." Kate Riga on the Hegseth Hearings.

   Reed Doesn’t Have The Bloodlust For This Hearing

   Tale as old as time — you have eyeballs on this hearing and a rare chance to maybe even notch a win, if Democrats can make Hegseth radioactive enough to sink him.

   Instead, Reed is just bleating “excuse me” while Hegseth rolls him over.

   This is what liberals are talking about when they are desperate for fresh blood. It puts the decision in the other chamber to keep AOC out of a major ranking member role even more baffling.

   Hegseth is media trained and exceedingly comfortable. Reed isn’t even close to landing a glove on him.

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   1. Hegseth is a nominee for dudebros who think being in the military is just men blowing shit up while looking cool in camo with big guns. It's embarrassing that he's even a nominee.

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      1. Agree about  the YOUTUBE warriors,…… however the questions and give and take from the dems was mostly a joke too. Once again as a liberal voting disabled veteran I'll get screwed by both sides.  Liberals don't generally serve, MAGA is a joke, and there are no real conservatives left to respect.  Hmmmm maybe we need a realignment of parties but I am too tired to even phone call anymore as my physicality and brain declines. 

         Trump won so part of a real constitutionally effective resistance is allow him to F up and take us for a ugly ride. 

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   2. I predict the Dems will f_ck this up worse than Thomas and Kavanaugh combined. The Corporate Dems will listen to their K street lobbyists and decide to hyperfocus on his sleaziness (choose your incident) and think that X trends on their snarky tweets equate to NO votes for confirmation. 

      I just want ONE Senator of either party to ask PeteBro "Mr Hegseth, you have NEVER held a military leadership position above Company-Grade officer. Tto paraphrase Presidential Candidate Ross Perot….by being the CEO of a relatively small NGO,  what makes you think you can lead a branch of the executive that has a budget exceeding $800 billion, with about 1.3 million active-duty troops and another 1.4 million in the National Guard and Reserves and civilian employees based worldwide?"

      Watching PeteBro stumble and stammer throught THAT answer is what will peel off repub votes and sink his nomination. Now, having said that, I'm perfectly fine with PeteBro destroying DoD in a year and being fired by a curt Truth Social Post….

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      1. The dems did. Mostly. Major Hegseth actually did well with public, the GOP sycophants that want to cut DOD at knees in some cases, and keeping the testes chopper combat  REMF SUPPLY woman (senator Ernst) on his side while stroking Donny Draft dodger as best he could.  WIN for MAGA. 

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2. Reading about Jack Smith's special counsel report, I'm left thinking: Aren't The People also promised a speedy trial too? It's been 4 years since this happened and there's been no justice when it comes to Trump.

   The speedy trial promise is great for those of us without the resources to fight government accusations at every possible weak point. It means governments in the US can't just detain us, or hold an accusation over our heads, for years. It means we get accused, then judged, then our communities get to move on.

   With the federal accusations against Trump, there's no judgment and no moving on. There's been no justice. Instead, Trump was able to delay his trial basically indefinitely then hide behind his candidacy and his ultimate election as President.

   I'm all for governments needing air-tight cases to prosecute us. I'd rather the edge cases of our justice system result in guilty people going free over innocent people getting punished. But none of us have the resources that Donald Trump has and so many people lack the resources to even stand up any sort of defense.

   This case just serves to highlight the vast inequality in our country. Trump really could shoot someone and get away with it.

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   1. I guess now if he decides to shoot someone he'll have to borrow a gun.

      And speaking of resources to evade/avoid justice, think of all the other billionaires (Musk, for example) who are watching Trump's example and thinking about what all they can now get away with. 

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      1. I know a guy LLOL 

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   2. Answer is — the Right to a Speedy Trial comes from the Constitution,

      In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.

      So no, there is no "right" of the citizenry to have a speedy trial.

      "As of June 30, 2024, America’s federal district courts currently have 724,209 pending cases, 554 weighted filings per judgeship."  And while there is a priority on criminal cases, those wind up "taking a median of 10.4 months to close from filing to disposition in 2023, a 60 percent increase from just five years ago, when the median case closure time was 6.5 months in 2018, according to data from the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts."

      There have been no new district judges since 2002, and no system-wide increase since the early 1990s.  In debate over the JUDGES act, several people commented on the delay in criminal disposition increasing to a median of over 11 months. [Biden vetoed the JUDGES Act.]

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      1. what did you think of Biden's explanation for the veto? This second part I did find pretty interesting:

          S. 4199 would create new judgeships in States where Senators have sought to hold open existing judicial vacancies.  Those efforts to hold open vacancies suggest that concerns about judicial economy and caseload are not the true motivating force behind passage of this bill now.

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   3. Yep an consider that Trump isn't that rich!  The "proper" rich never get to court.  Trump is THE MOST EFFECTIVE FUCKIN' GRIFTER ever. 

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3. What Chickenheed said. But on top of the justice delayed, I remain mindboggled by going through the report and wondering how such a segment of We The People could just look the other way and return him to office – the fake elector scheme, the pressuring of state election officials to change results, of course the insurrection, and the rank callousness over what was going on:

   Then, at 2:24 p.m., sitting alone, Mr. Trump issued a Tweet attacking Mr. Pence and fueling the riot: "Mike Pence didn't have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!"

   One minute later, the United States Secret Service was forced to evacuate Mr. Pence to a secure location at the Capitol. When an advisor at the White House learned this, he rushed to the dining room and informed Mr. Trump, who replied  "So what?"

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   1. I choose to stay mindboggled. This is because if I were to keep asking "How could you learn about this and then vote for Trump to be President?" I would never receive an answer that I find acceptable.

      I still have faith in our judicial branch, although that faith is sadly waning as super rich folks continue to avoid justice. I have no faith that our nationwide electorate will do the right thing for reasons I think are right.

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4. Waiving your right to a speedy trial is pretty common in felony cases. Cheeto Mussolini found exactly the right legal scumbags to help him run out the clock.

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   1. "Speedy" trials also may not occur in civil cases. Example: what is the status of the lawsuit against Fox News by SmartMatic Voting Systems relating to the 2020 election? I haven't heard anything about a settlement, like when Fox settled with Dominion for that fat $787 million.

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      1. Update from 4 days ago — the suit is on!  Fox lost their bid to have the case dismissed.

          Fox Corp must face Smartmatic $2.7 billion defamation claim

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         1. Thanks! Somehow I missed that reporting.

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5. Well, at least South Korea is trying to arrest its impeached president: https://www.bbc.com/news/live/c4g317rj49zt

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6. "GoF**kYou: the new crowdfunding site from Congressional Republicans."

   Thank you Daily Show!

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7. Today's post: 

   Hydrocarbon Use Will Continue Increasing For Now

   No country will reduce their usage, most will increase it.

   Remember – don't shoot the messenger

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   1. Yep and in US the voters want to burn, drown, and go bankrupt.  MERIKA! 

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8. Word to the wise for aspiring Trump Toadies.  Loyalty only flows in one direction in Trumpworld — UP:

   … Rudy Giuliani had another pretrial hearing today for his contempt case. Trump posted: “SAVE RUDY!!!” to show his support. That is interesting since Trump stiffed Rudy on his legal fees for all the work he did running around the country filing lawsuits, appeals, testifying before state legislative committees and election canvasing boards. Three years of work by Rudy on Hunter Biden and election challenges which cost him his lucrative job a big law firm, his bar license, his NY apartment, and everything he owns.

   … Trump raised over $200 million right after the 2020 election, which was supposed to go to Rudy and his team to fund the election challenges and audits. But Trump did not pay one penny of Rudy’s $2 million bill. Trump simply kept most of it for the Republican primary in 2023, where he used the money to defeat Desantis and Haley. But the PAC did pay $60,000 to Kim Guilfoyle for a speech and hundreds of thousands of dollars to Melania’s stylist. But not a penny for Rudy. All Rudy got was a “SAVE RUDY!” post on Truth Social.

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