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immutable

@ immutable @lemm.ee

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3 yr. ago

  • Pardoned January 6 rioter said ‘I’m shooting myself’ before Indiana deputy fatally shot him

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  • Yea I feel bad for him too, you can tell when the officer tells him he has no choice to arrest him that he’s realizing how badly he just messed up.

    In his mind he was about to lose his pardon and go back into the prison system.

    But to me that also makes me think the officer is justified in his use of force. People that think everything is ruined are unpredictable and he was reaching for violence. While he was saying he was going to turn that violence on himself, there’s no particular reason to trust what he’s saying. I think there’s a very real possibility he gets the gun saying “I’m shooting myself” but then once he has it maybe shooting the cop sounds a bit better.

    If I’m the officer I’m not rolling the dice to see if he points the gun at his head or mine.

    And as much as I can empathize with the feeling of fear and loss in that moment, ultimately he made a bunch of choices that led to that. He did whatever he did to get his license suspended, he drove on a suspended license, and even in this instance he broke the speed limit knowing that the results of even a minor infraction could lead to the loss of his freedom.

    At some point he has to be responsible for the consequences of his actions.

  • Pardoned January 6 rioter said ‘I’m shooting myself’ before Indiana deputy fatally shot him

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  • Police Activity posted the bodycam footage.

    https://youtu.be/zf6BgUd86I4

    It’s under 7 minutes and when the shooting happens it’s blurred out. It’s relatively tame from a gore point of view, but it’s still a video of someone being shot so watch with care.

    Here’s my synopsis of the footage for people that don’t want to watch it themselves, you can skip the preamble if you just want to understand the shooting. In my opinion the officer acts reasonable, friendly, and professional throughout.

    Preamble

    • Officer pulls the guy over for going 70 in a 55
    • Guy offers up unprompted that he’s a J6 defendant that was recently pardoned
    • Officer doesn’t seem to care one way or the other asks for license
    • Guy says he’s coming from church and his mother’s grave. He doesn’t have a license and has been trying to get a hardship license, produces an expired license
    • Officer asks how often he’s been caught driving suspended
    • Guy says “in my life”
    • Officer clarifies “recently”
    • Guy indicates not much
    • Officer goes back to his patrol car to run the guys information.

    Shooting

    • Officer asks the guy out of the vehicle, they go to the rear of his vehicle
    • Officer explains that he’s reached habitual traffic offender status because of driving suspended.
    • Guy begs for leniency
    • Officer explains its now reached the point of being a felony and he has no choice but to arrest him.
    • Guy says he’s not going back to jail
    • Guy runs away from the rear of the vehicle and jumps back into the drivers seat
    • Officer gives foot chase back to drivers door, he provides verbal commands to stop
    • Before the officer can reach the guy, he says “I’m shooting myself” and reaches for something in the passenger seat.
    • Officer says “no no no” and fires three shots at the guy.

    This is shown from his bodycam and also from his dashcam.

    A felon retreated into a vehicle, stating he wouldn’t go back to jail, produced a firearm, and threatened violence. Was the guy lying about shooting himself, was his plan to fire the firearm at himself or the officer? Based on my view of the video, the officer acted within his lawful authority, was polite and professional, and only used force consistent with what the situation required. But I’d encourage you to watch the evidence and make up your own mind.

    There are a ton of bad cops and awful shootings. I don’t like J6 but I don’t see this as justified because the guy is an asshole, but justified because of his actions at this traffic stop.

  • 7 key takeaways from the Supreme Court's 'reverse discrimination' case

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  • The headline here is kinda absurd. From the article

    The case, brought by Marlean Ames, a former Ohio Department of Youth Services (the state’s juvenile justice department) employee, challenges a rule the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals applies, requiring majority-group plaintiffs to demonstrate additional “background circumstances” to establish a discrimination claim.

    This case is about whether or not the sixth circuit rule that a majority group plaintiff has to demonstrate additional background circumstances is constitutional.

    “Because Ames is heterosexual, she must make a showing in addition to the usual ones for establishing a prima facie case,” Kagan read from the ruling, emphasizing that the opinion itself makes clear that different rules are being applied.

    That’s liberal justice Elana Kagan making an argument reading the sixth circuits ruling.

    A prima facie case is the first step in proving employment discrimination. Under the McDonnell Douglas framework, a plaintiff must show they belong to a protected class, were qualified for the job, suffered an adverse employment action, and occurred under circumstances suggesting discrimination. If these criteria are met, the burden shifts to the employer to provide a non-discriminatory reason for their decision.

    So this case boils down to, “do members of the majority group have to jump over a higher bar to require that employers provide a non-discriminatory reason for their adverse employment action.”

    The working class should be shoulder to shoulder in solidarity here.

  • 'We're not prepared': States brace for Trump's plans to dismantle the Education Department

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  • I mean I’m sure the forms aren’t identical but is having to tell the same information so much of a burden that removing it materially changes anything?

    It seems like to work would be in tracking the spending and then once that is done what all is there to save from only having to hand that data to one watchdog instead of two?

    Unless of course one of those watchdogs, being a smaller state agency, could be cheaply bought and have their reporting requirements gutted.

    When powerful people want small government what they really want is cheaper bribes.

  • Removed

    Trump says he’s confident Putin will ‘keep his word’ if there’s a deal to end the war in Ukraine

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  • I’m sure he will keep his word on every concession he’s gotten from the US without the US getting anything at all.

  • US egg prices hit a record high of $4.95 and are likely to keep climbing

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  • This has real “let them eat cake” vibes

    Eggs have traditionally been one of the cheapest staple sources of protein for the working poor.

  • Gold Tesla Cybertruck owner in Massachusetts says he's been threatened and harassed.

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  • The right is living out their wet dream right now, in charge of almost every facet of the federal government.

    And your concern is that people aren’t being nice enough to them and their supporters.

    Collaborators can eat shit

  • Branded pothole repairs.

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  • I dunno, reading the FAQ this seems like some of the least bad public private partnerships

    https://potholepatrol.co.za/faq/

    It’s an insurance company that doesn’t want to pay out for people damaging their cars on potholes. Seems like a rare win for everyone. Insurance company pays out less, people don’t slam into potholes damaging their cars, and I guess the insurance company gets some advertising.

    There are so many dystopia things going on, but I think this one is fine.

  • Unmasked: Elon’s Secret DOGE Goon Squad—Every One Under 26

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  • There’s no way a busty woman talking about bitcoins could honeypot any of these people. No sir. These young men are definitely above that sort of thing and no enemy of America would be wise enough to take advantage of these young lads.

    Nope, totally safe and secure. We should all sleep soundly tonight knowing some 19 year old has access to our national treasury under the order of a ketamine addict.

  • Trump Tariffs Threaten to Upend Global Economic Order

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  • You know what they say when you are at the top of a global order and reap substantial benefits from having that coveted position?

    Blow it all up and hope that it’ll come out better by having you… at the top… which is where you already were… hold on.

  • Trump says Canada and Mexico to be hit with 25% tariffs on Saturday

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  • American ruling class, “Oh would you look at that, we just found a 24.99999% price hike that we definitely have to do because economy. Still cheaper though than the Canadian and Mexican imports.”

    It’s just the rest of America that is going to get fucked.

  • Democrats’ brutal poll problem - The Democratic Party is now at 31% Favorability

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  • Ok what did they do in those 4 months.

    You see what republicans do the moment they get any kind of power? They have shit ready to go. New tax plan, sure half of it is scribbles in the margins, but push it through. No child left behind? Why not, let’s just overhaul the education system, no need to know what we are doing.

    They just signed a bunch of executive orders reclassifying everyone as female and turning the government off. They just had them ready to go.

    If I were locked out of power in a deeply broken nation, what else do I have to do but get together with the rest of my party and hammer out the shit we want to get passed when we get some power back.

    What were they doing for the other months in that 40 years?! Sitting around dialing for dollars begging for plutocrats to give them enough money that they could do fuck all when they finally got power? Yea, that’s it. That’s what they did.

    Why didn’t they have ANYTHING ready for when they had power? Why do they always act like “well now that the voters have given us a mandate, you know government is slow going, we don’t even have drafts ready to go to solve any of these problems. Gotta go get my thinking cap and a big cup of cocoa and noodle this… fuck we lost power again. Jimminy jillickers, I can’t believe our rotten luck”

    Either they are the most incompetent gaggle of idiots ever assembled under one banner. Or the people that bought their seats for them would rather they talk a big game on msnbc and sit around and not threaten the broken system that has made them incredibly wealthy.

    I’ll let you consider which is better.

  • Democrats’ brutal poll problem - The Democratic Party is now at 31% Favorability

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  • The republicans are bringing back fascism but they are at least doing awful things their constituents want.

    I disagree with these things, but they deliver on their stupid backwards promises.

    I’ve voted for the democrats for my entire adult life, the very first vote I cast was for John Kerry.

    Here’s the thing though. Are you a liberal, you wonder why the party is hated, have you ever seen Last Week Tonight?

    Jon Oliver gets on tv every week and talks about some horrible problem that started with Reagan or Nixon and has just been going strong ever since. There are so many of these. And which ones can I look at and go “well the democrats sure did fix X when they finally had the levers of power”

    I can’t think of a single thing. The most important project they’ve undertaken was the ACA, and I don’t know if entrenching health insurance companies permanently and legally into the fabric of our nation is all that much to celebrate.

    Do they do some good things from time to time, sure. You can point to a policy here or there that are nice. But it’s a party of not-even-half-measures.

    Can we have single payer? No How about a public option? No What can you do? Romneycare… great

    Can we have immigration reform? No What can you do? DACA and that’ll be rescinded the moment we lose power.

    Can we reign in the banking sector? Nah

    Can we close Guantanamo? Too difficult

    Can we enshrine the right to abortion in law? No, but we will ask justices to pinky swear… oh they just removed it, nevermind

    Can we do anything to help the common man? Let me check with the donors, nah they don’t like that, but if you like some tweets about how trump is bad, I’ve got those for you.

    A party that refuses to use the power you give it is not much use.

    And before you type up your essay about how Ackshually! There was only one weekend in 2009 when they could have passed any kind of legislation at all. Fucking stuff it. Then they should have sat there all goddamn weekend and passed bill after bill fixing this shit box nation. Their lack of any kind of foresight and planning and doing anything but building a better and better donation collection machine has led us to fascism.

    They can collect a billion goddamn dollars but have to text me to see if I can give them just $27 more dollars before they can pass a bill. We need a new party to represent the people.

  • OpenAI is becoming the next IBM

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  • Amazing what $500B can do to change someone’s mind.

  • Deleted

    Permanently Deleted

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  • I still remember being taught about how politics is America is a pendulum.

    It swings too far to the right and people get pissed and send it leftward. Then it swings too far to the left and people get pissed and send it rightward.

    I have waited my entire life for the swing leftward, and I think I identified what broke America.

    Let’s say that this pendulum swinging is necessary, we are a pack of goldfish swinging from left to right looking for something good with short short memories. This system can be metastable, you don’t make a ton of progress on anything but you just sorta bounce between the two sides and the status quo sticks around and you don’t slide into madness.

    When 9/11 happened and Ws war on terror emerged, I worried that it would break the system. But in 2008, Obama emerged with a progressive message of hope and change. The pendulum I was told about was about to swing left. I had lived through the right swing of Ws time in office, and now I got to see what the left had to offer (which as a leftist was very exciting).

    I watched two phenomenons happen concurrently that broke the system.

    1. Obama captured the leftward energy that should have swung us back to the left and held it solidly in the center / center-right. He ran as a progressive firebrand and then governed from the center / center right. The big hop and change we got was nationwide Romneycare, a program devised by the Heritage Foundation which has done nothing but entrench the powers of the insurance industry into law.
    2. Racism broke a large part of the voting public away from reality.

    Obama wasn’t the first to do this, Clinton’s triangulation strategy was also a democrat governing from the center.

    So we have a captured Democratic Party, beholden to the donor class and they capture the periodic leftswing energy and hold it center / center-right. Things fail to get better and the population goes “well fuck the left doesn’t have any answers, let’s swing the pendulum back the other way”

    Over time the result is that the Overton window shifts and shifts and shifts until an oligarch is doing nazi salutes and the corporate media is going “oh he probably isnt really doing a nazi thing, he’s just advancing policies that nazis would love and saying things nazis would say and is excited and you know how hard it is to not do a nazi salute when you are excited.”

    Our only hope now is that trump doesn’t slowly boil us into fascism and overplays and the people revolt. But Americans have proven to be willing to just take it in the ass rougher and longer than I’d ever imagine.

  • Trump 'not confident' Israel-Hamas ceasefire will hold as truce enters third day

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  • His plan seems as obvious as it is simplistic.

    Make honking sounds in public about how only he can end the war.

    In private tell Bibi to hurry up and finish killing / imprisoning the Palestinians.

    At some point Bibi will have killed and subjugated the lot of them and then trump can make additional honking noises about how he ended the war (just no one look for any of those pesky Palestinians, don’t know where they went, war is chaotic and it wasn’t even our war and he ended it bigly)

    Bibi gets his genocide, trump gets to take credit as a peace maker, and all it will take is the wholesale slaughter of the Palestinian people.

  • Democrats in denial over Trump defeat, voters say: ‘Haven’t learned the lessons’

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  • And when people wonder why it’s so hard to get out the vote, I think this is a key reason why. I’m old enough to have gone to Obama’s rallies, knock on doors for his campaign as a volunteer, vote for him and watch with joy as he won.

    Hope and change. After the George W Bush presidency and the war on terror, it finally seemed like it was time for the pendulum to swing back.

    And then every issue they came to the table with a position already in the center in hopes of appealing to the republicans who would then hold their breath and kick their feet and then it would slide further and further to the right until they were holding up romneycare as a progressive victory while also getting completely destroyed in the court of public opinion for passing romneycare.

    I knew a lot of people that were very excited for Obama the candidate and completely disillusioned by Obama the president.

    And I await the apologists to come out and tell me how he had to do it this way, they only had a super majority for a few weeks. Sure if the republicans have the slimmest majority they rewrite the tax codes and give away trillions to the wealthiest, and if they are in the minority they still somehow get their policies passed. But when democrats have power, well you see, government takes time. They can’t possibly just have the bill ready and call for a vote, you see, that’s just not how it works.

    You can only tell people so many times. Vote blue and we promise this time, this time, we will make it better. I know last time we didn’t, but it was because of the blue dogs, or Joe Lieberman, or Joe Manchin. Sure, we have no plan to get rid of those people or other spoilers and we will doggedly support them in every primary… but somehow this time will be different.

  • Los Angeles wildfires could be costliest blaze in U.S. history

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  • But that carbon tax would have made a few mega wealthy people ever so slightly less mega wealthy.

  • Making America great!

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  • The best thing everyone can do is just tune out this bullshit.

    MAGA is what happens when edge lords grow up. They love laughing at people freaking out over every dumb thing they do.

    During the first trump term I watched the news, I got angry at every thing he did, his supporters lapped that outrage up.

    This time fuck it. Rename the Gulf of Mexico to trumps big boy bathtub if you want. Enjoy it MAGA people, enjoy all your epic trolls but I won’t be on the other side getting upset. And then enjoy when the tariffs make your construction business unprofitable. Enjoy when his bungling jacks up prices sky high and you can’t buy bananas anymore because he threatened to nuke the countries that grow them for reasons no one can identify.

    This term they can just enjoy the fucking mess they’ve made and I’m not going to give them any satisfaction in getting upset and yelling at the village idiot to not play with fireworks. Go ahead, blow your fucking fingers off dumbass.