This thread is absolutely worth a read. Hilarious and infuriating at the same time.
37 years old 
Been a judge six months
About to be confirmed for a lifetime federal appellate seat
Huh. Turns out the governor is just as incompetent as Republicans have been saying all along! Chessmate Libtards!
Iāve keep bringing that up to some people. That for Republicans governmental incompetence is not a bug. Itās a feature that they intentionally design into the system.
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To be clear, Iām not saying DO NOTHING. And certainly the world we live in necessitates compromises even for people as hopelessly naive as I am. I compromise lower order priorities for higher order priorities all the time.
But think of what we mean when we mock the GOP by saying ācruelty is the point.ā
Do you believe people DESERVE to be hurt for some choices?
I donāt think so. Some people do. In my view, whether you believe you could make mistakes where you DESERVE to be hurt serves as a foundational belief. It guides countless things about a person. It shapes the very core of our strategies in how to make the world a better place. And further, what we mean when fully describing āa better place.ā
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The people truly responsible for the evil in politics and business need to be jailed regardless of political affiliation. The world would be a dramatically better place if the perpetrators were actually punished to any real extent. Our current system literally rewards you the more corrupt and evil we are. We need to find a way to change that one way or another.
The real problem is the system we live in and itās hard to see that changing just through the electoral process (see Sanders, Bernie).
Itās like what happened in Frank Millerās ROBOCOP VS TERMINATOR.
Ever since being reborn as RoboCop, he has wondered whether he still contains the soul that was once Alex Murphy. This conflict is extended when Skynet uses RoboCop as the bridge between human and machine intelligence necessary to fuel the AI in its robot army.
To survive Judgement Day, RoboCop hides his consciousness deep within Skynet. Until one day, what remains of his mind hacks into an abandoned robot factory and builds a new body for himself straight out of RoboCop 3.
And yet despite helping humanity defeat Skynet, despite then traveling back in time to ensure Skynet is never made, Murphy cannot help but notice how cold he feels. How like a machine. How quickly he is willing to make compromises and sacrifices he once would have considered inhuman.
He has replicated his consciousness and his body so many times. Does anything that was once āhumanā remain?
In the real world, we donāt have time machines so we can go back and stop the GOP from ever being created. We have to confront evil like them, or Nazis, or Skynet as we find them.
There are people among us who by our very natures have less empathy. Less compassion. Not less of an ability to manifest those things, but they simply do not care. Call them soldiers or call them Terminators. People who are perhaps best suited to inflicting violence and suffering in order to stop Skynet.
But once you start saying some peopleāor all people if you want to go thereāneed to be willing to sacrifice compassion as a guiding principle, I fear that is a circumstance where slippery slope concerns are too strong for me to ignore. Not that there isnāt hypothetically an argument that wouldnāt persuade me. Iāve just not found one strong enough to counter my intuitions here.
This is where we disagree. I see no value in desiring to punish people.
Again, not that we ought to do nothing. But our intentions, whether we want to hurt someone as an act of aggression or defense, in my view is a huge difference.
Not that I donāt sometimes feel the desire to punish people. But I am speaking from an ivory tower where I can point towards philosophical purity :P
It has nothing to do with what a person deserves or doesnāt deserve. The whole concept of deserving is beside the point. The reason why people who are acting out have to be put down hard is that if they arenāt that behavior is de facto incentivized. When something bad happens there has to be some kind of reaction or that something bad will happen again.
Where this line of thinking goes wrong is when you dramatically overreact. Notice I said you do what needs doing to the point where the person doing it canāt do it anymore and probably doesnāt want to do it againā¦ sending someone to a maximum security prison for 15 years because they robbed a convenience store is exponentially more than you probably needed to do to convince them not to do it againā¦ and these kinds of actions have very real costs to the person doing the defending.
Fundamentally though these kinds of encounters with bad actors arenāt about right and wrong, and morality is the wrong filter to view them through. You arenāt hurting them because you enjoy it, or because they deserve itā¦ youāre hurting them because if you donāt theyāll keep doing this thing to other people, which in my mind makes me responsible for every depredation they commit down the line. They came to me and offended, which makes them my responsibility. If I pass the buck and do the least expensive thing for me (which is usually to roll over and let them do what they want) Iām being a bad person.
And letās be really clear Iām talking about the real world not comic books or other media. I genuinely believe that all of that bullshit they put in your head about ādonāt let hatred turn you into someone just like the person who hurt youā is a purpose built propaganda message to make their getaway easier. Itās a fairy tale with a very clear purpose in my mind, which is to get you to feel superior while you let them do what they want. Itās a scam. The reason itās so appealing is that it lets you feel like you did the right thing while doing absolutely nothing. Itās seductive that way.
I agree with a lot of what you said here. I pulled this quote out to again emphasize that this is not what I said.
I donāt know what youāre responding to here. I donāt think anyone ITT has suggested ādoing absolutely nothing.ā
Sure, sometimes. But some of us have this position after a lifetime of consideration.
I apologize. I am reflecting and realize I have shifted the goal posts. I started by saying certain behaviors are off limits but am now saying certain INTENTIONS are off limits. Not the same thing 
Yeah look Iām not trying to pass some kind of horrible judgement against you or suggest that youād just let the bad people do whatever they wantā¦ I just think thatās where that road leads you naturally. Someone does something bad and maybe we (the people on the āgood pathā) do something slightly dickish back that makes it cost them slightly more.
Letās be really clear about how far Iām willing to go: I will never, ever settle a frivolous lawsuitā¦ except as a tactical maneuver. I will always counter sue, and in situations where I settle as a tactical maneuver I 1000% guarantee we are not done and I will be back, in force, in a very short time. I will spend significant time and money to make absolutely certain that I get the bad guys head mounted on a spike outside my castleā¦ and what I mean by that is that I donāt really care about getting back to even or justiceā¦ I care about making it very public so that everyone else knows Iām a lousy target.
I think that responding like that is the right thing to do ethically. Think about what happens if someone does something bad for the first time and accidentally picks me (actually way more likely than a seasoned bad guy picking meā¦ they usually table select way better). Thereās a very good chance they never even consider going that way ever again. Morality wasnāt good enough to convince them it was a bad idea, but very few people get beaten to a pulp and try again.
In my bag of tricks as a freight agent I have a lawyer, a fairly nasty risk management guy at my brokerage, and the personal contact information of four different federal law enforcement agents whose beat is freight brokerage. Because I am a huge mistake. Itās not a coincidence that I want to add real cyber security skills to my skill stack either.
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All we can do is hope his life isnāt very long.
https://twitter.com/williamshatner/status/1258012040435625984?s=21
Iām glad nothing like this happens in Trumps Americaā¦
Oh yeah. Never mind.
Mitch praising the guy for being rated āqualifiedā by the ABA after confirming dozens of ānot qualifiedā clowns is pretty elite trolling.
Letās say for shits and giggles, the Dems control all 3 branches for the next 20 years. How much damage can all these judges Mitch confirmed do?
How do we dissuade people from breaking the rules if there is no punishment for it?