https://twitter.com/USFWS/status/1471961860236791819
Letting the 20 something interns run the government agency Twitter accounts is way more funny then letting 20 somethings run old politicians’ blogs
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The total closed 46. Would be a brutal loss for under.
Counterpoint: seagulls are assholes.
Oh they’re asshole there too?
The owners of target don’t give a shit insofar as their wallet isn’t getting destroyed. The smaller businesses certainly do as both insurance isn’t what folks think it is and detracting customers kind of sucks.
I mean, if you want to speed up the monopoly of Amazon delivering your wrangler jeans and turkey melt via a doodash robot then, okay. It’s still kind of nice to still have some successful businesses that haven’t closed up yet or left as a result.
Noah Smith with part 2 of uses and abuses of Shorism (finger wagging the left for their supposed unpopularity by using mostly polls as an indicator of objectivity)
https://twitter.com/Noahpinion/status/1473022658824441858
He cites a lot of polls that unsurprisingly shows that Americans of all races have generally positive views of the flag. He then says obviously no one should be censored, but you know progressives are just going to have to think about patriotism vis a vis the flag.
USFWS is responsible for protecting and recovering species listed for protection under the Endangered Species Act. This tweet is perfectly acceptable and in their wheelhouse.
I feel like there should be an American “justice” system thread.
This dude lost control of his truck and plowed into vehicles, killing 4. Prosecutors allege he passed by a safety ramp and didn’t take it, but that is the worst that is alleged. He was clean for drugs and alcohol and has no criminal record.
The judge said he had “no desire” to sentence the 26-year-old to life in prison but that his hands were tied due to the number of charges the defendant was found guilty of and the rules under state law.
In Colorado, each count should be served consecutively rather than concurrently.
“If I had the discretion, it would not be my sentence,” the judge told the court.
Before the sentence was handed down, Aguilera-Mederos gave an emotional plea for leniency as he said he wished he could swap places with the people killed.
“I know that it has been hard and heartbreaking for everyone involved in this tragedy,” he said.
“Your honour I don’t know why I’m alive. Like for what?
“I ask God too many times why them and not me? Why did I survive that accident?”
Aguilera-Mederos sobbed as he told the court he was “not a criminal” and is “sorry” for the trauma he has caused.
One of the victim’s daughters even pleaded with the court to have mercy.
“I know I don’t get to have my dad for the rest of my life, but I hope that the defendant’s son can have his dad for the rest of his life,” she said, per Fox 31.
Sorry bro, off to life in a cage for you.
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This is mandatory minimums meets prosecutorial overreach. Hopefully the governor commutes his sentence to something reasonable like five or ten years.
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The LOL Law thread is pretty close.
Regarding the actual case:
In October, he was found guilty of 27 criminal charges including four counts of vehicular homicide, six counts of first-degree assault, 10 counts of attempt to commit assault in the first degree–extreme indifference, two counts of vehicular assault- reckless, one count of reckless driving, and four counts of careless driving causing death.
WTF at these charges? Vehicular homicide? Attempt to commit assault? This is absurd.
The guy massively fucked up, but clearly had no intent to injure anyone. I’m not really sure how it should best be handled, but it ain’t vehicular homicide.
Unfortunately the guy just isn’t white enough. Alas, the judges hands are tied.
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He got back in his truck with the brakes smoking and couldn’t read the English road signs. If the jury found criminal negligence I won’t quibble with that, and criminal negligence is all you need for vehicular homicide, right?
As far as first degree assault, it’s a similar thing:
(c) Under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life, he knowingly engages in conduct which creates a grave risk of death to another person, and thereby causes serious bodily injury to any person; or
I think extreme indifference is an even higher standard than criminal negligence but if the jury got there, OK. They saw all the evidence and I didn’t. But then this comes back to the prosecutors and the judge, who could have either dismissed some of these charges or not brought them in the first place. And then logically if the assaults are first degree then why aren’t the vehicular homicides depraved heart murder? For the same act they’re going for the more serious assault and the less serious homicide charge. To hedge their bets and try to exert maximum pressure on the defendant to plea. They don’t care that the first degree assault charges are a stretch because they can still get a serious conviction on the vehicular manslaughter charges. And they have the threat of a 110 year mandatory sentence if the jury comes back guilty on everything. Despicable. They probably offered the guy five years.
And this is a situation where the jury probably has no idea that they’re handing down a 110 year sentence and will be sickened by the sentence.
Actually the “extreme indifference to human life” definition quoted up there sounds pretty similar to other states versions of depraved heart murder. I agree this sounds like a terrible overcharge/over conviction. I have people I sent to prison for murdering children who will be eligible for parole decades before this guy.
It does sound like he was pretty fucking negligent/reckless though based on the facts of the case. Agree with Keeed that this guy is guilty of something, just not what he was convicted of.
Yeah, that was my point. The extreme indifference to human life was from the 1st degree assault statue. If he’s guilty of that for the non-fatalities, he’d be guilty of depraved heart murder too, right? It’s the same act. Extreme indifference to human life is for the 1st degree assault, but vehicular homicide only needs criminal negligence, right? My thought is they didn’t charge depraved heart murder because that would probably be a bridge too far for the jury, whereas a bunch of first degree assaults, who cares. But it’s the first degree assaults that get him to 110 years. Sickening conduct by the prosecutors.
Sickening that this guy is getting 5 times longer than the maximium possible sentence of that drunk wide receiver that was going 160 mph.
Not an expert in Colorado law, but yeah, it looks like it.
Happy Winter Solstice
And so the Shortest Day came and the year died
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world
Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.
They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their homes with evergreen;
They burned beseeching fires all night long
To keep the year alive.
And when the new year’s sunshine blazed awake
They shouted, reveling.
Through all the frosty ages you can hear them
Echoing behind us—listen!
All the long echoes, sing the same delight,
This Shortest Day,
As promise wakens in the sleeping land:
They carol, feast, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends,
And hope for peace.
And now so do we, here, now,
This year and every year.
Welcome, Yule!
- Susan Cooper, “The Shortest Day”
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Need to watch this at least once a year because it makes me smile.
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