I give him a pass. That “I haven’t seen my mom and sister cry like that in over 20 years” bit is almost certainly referring to the death of his father as a firefighter during 9/11. So the death of that pet was clearly triggering for all of them. And then having the pet store (and PETA) turn it into a media circus (and…

“with many praising him for his articulation”
*eyeroll* Everything was great until that bit.

It wasn’t a federal crime. It was a State crime. He was charged under FL State law, and some of the charges qualified as FL State hate crimes according to the judge. There has to be some connection to federal jurisdiction for there to be a federal crime. For instance, if he had made the same threats to kids via the…

That’s an Alford plea, and it’s not pleading guilty.  In this case, the guy was pleading guilty.

“I apologize for my conduct that day. I was wrong to use those words and correct the pain that my words have caused anyone. I sincerely apologize,” was all he had to say for himself during the hearing… and also because an apology was part of the deal.

This is on the Federal Government. They should have initiated a declaratory judgment action in every State where these laws are being passed with vague standards. Federal preemption prevents a State from criminalizing or imposing penalties for conduct that is mandated by Federal law. It can’t be left to the hospitals…

Read the case:

Even news organizations don’t tend to include the congressional district in the parenthetical. The NAB style guide may be followed for correspondence with members of Congress or their staff, but they don’t follow that guide for publishing news stories. And that makes more sense as the members of Congress and their…

The right wing has flocked to his defense, so he’s being defended and advised (no doubt) by right wingers. And right wingers are not the smartest about this sort of thing (think the attorney advising Gregory McMichael, et al, who uploaded the video of them chasing and murdering Ahmaud Arbery, thinking it would…

My point is that no one outside of that area will recognize even those region names or might mistake them for part of their names. Patrick? Floyd? You think more than 1% of the country would recognize those as county names? Assume that the person reading is not from that State. They would know absolutely nothing from…

I don’t think 99+% of people gain anything by having the number of the district included in the parenthetical. Maybe people in the U.S. House of Representatives or people who live in Virginia would know where Virginia’s Federal 11th district is, but no one else would. If it says Representative (rather than Senator),…

Clearly a bit of both but mainly out of touch. After all, she’s the one who did an interview telling women to “get your f-ing ass up and work. It seems like nobody wants to work.” That is some grade A out of touch right there.

The problem was that Roe v. Wade was the umbrella protecting them from what was clearly part of the official GOP agenda - banning abortion. It didn’t matter if the GOP candidate they elected because they liked his/her fiscal conservatism (or whathaveyou) promised to and in fact passed a complete abortion ban that…

Manchin will hopefully never switch sides. He’s the most progressive candidate that could actually get elected in that State... and even so he only barely got elected last time (and will likely lose next time). People need to stop criticizing Manchin for voting as his electorate demands. People need to be flipping…

Abortion doesn’t cause the embryo/fetus to disappear. If a father takes a 12 year old to a medical facility for an abortion, the facility would no doubt retain the aborted remains for DNA testing. Even if that’s not the automatic procedure (it probably is), that is the law they should pass - mandating that the aborted…

It means they’re calling no witnesses and presenting no evidence in his defense - just cross examining the plaintiff’s witnesses’ and challenging the plaintiff’s evidence. If that remains the case, procedurally, it will go from the plaintiff’s attorney saying that the plaintiff rests to any motion to dismiss the case…

If a father takes a 12 year old for an abortion, it will be automatically reported as a statutory rape and investigated. Pedophiles are not out there taking their victims to the doctor to get abortions for that very reason.

All this “I obeyed the racism rules like a good Texan” stuff is obscene. He wonders, with bated breath like a sad puppy in the rain hoping to be let in, whether the white kids he played with when he was a child support him today (in secret as he clearly is not in touch with any of them or he would already know the…

There is a fascinating documentary series (I think on Netflix) with Remini about Scientology.

This is the first I’m hearing of this ascension stuff. That is scary. It makes these guys sound more like a religious cult.