Wednesday’s Forum

FILED UNDER: Open Forum
James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.

Comments

  1. Mikey says:

    Pretty sure today’s Wednesday.

    2
  2. Jen says:

    @Mikey: Some weeks are just looooooonger than others. It does feel like it *should* be Thursday.

    2
  3. OzarkHillbilly says:

    @Mikey: @Jen: Time flies when you’re having fun.

    1
  4. OzarkHillbilly says:

    A Michigan district court will implement reforms that will force judges in Detroit to state on record how implementing cash bail will protect the community. The reforms are meant to end practices that commonly jail people from low-income and Black communities and could serve as a model for court systems across the US, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said.

    In 2019, the ACLU, the Legal Defense Fund, the Bail Project and the law firm Covington & Burling filed a lawsuit challenging Detroit’s cash bail system, which members said disproportionately incarcerates Black and brown people. The suit was filed on behalf of seven Black Detroiters challenging the two-tiered Michigan legal system in which freedom depends on the ability to afford bail.

    William McConico, chief judge of the 36th district court, said settlement of the suit presented an opportunity to show law enforcement and activists can work together to change the criminal legal system.
    ……………………
    Besides establishing an on-record determination of how imposing bail would protect the community, the new reforms say judges must make an on-record determination as to how much a defendant can afford to pay. The settlement also indicates that a defendant at 200% of the federal poverty level or less, roughly a $27,000 annual income for an individual and $55,000 for a family of four, will be assumed unable to post a cash bond.

    2
  5. CSK says:

    Yesterday my sister emailed me a clipping from an 1887 edition of the Boston Herald, informing me that we come from a “large, reputable, and important family.”

    I’m so relieved.

    1
  6. Sleeping Dog says:

    @CSK:

    That clipping was from the Herald… 😉

  7. CSK says:

    @Sleeping Dog:
    It was an eminent broadsheet in those days. Really. It didn’t become a crazy tabloid till the 1970s.

    1
  8. Beth says:

    So I do REO work* for a bank. As part of these sales I’ve created an addendum that goes with all the local sales contracts. I started with a template that was ok, but every time I ran into a problem or even a minor inconvenience I made the thing more odious. It’s not entirely one sided, but it’s pretty harsh. I giggle every time I ratchet this thing down because I am a mercenary.

    I am shocked by the number of people who sign it without reading it. However I am truly appalled by the number of attorneys who don’t read it. Last night I got half a dozen emails from the attorney and loan officer accusing me of not doing various things. Today I get to respond with “have you read paragraphs 9, 11, and 14 or the addendum?” They will be pissed and I will laugh.

    *For those of you who don’t know REO is when a bank takes a property back in a foreclosure. I come in after the foreclosure attorney is done and work with the realtor to sell it to a third party. IL is an attorney state so we’re involved in the sale. This particular sale is a 50k condo. Please read your contracts.

    2
  9. OzarkHillbilly says:

    As drought shrivels Lake Powell, millions face power crisis

    Lake Powell’s considerable power-generating abilities are already on the decline.

    When the lake is full, its dam can produce 1,320 megawatts, or 5bn kilowatt-hours of power annually – about the same amount as a large fossil fuel plant. But with water levels now 100 feet below the lowest elevation marker, hydropower production has dropped to 800 megawatts.

    The alarming drop has forced authorities into extraordinary action. On 14 June, the Bureau of Reclamation announced that to protect critical reservoir levels in 2023, between 2 and 4m acre-feet of water must be conserved, setting a 60-day timeline for state and tribal leaders to agree a plan. Water use estimates released in June show the upper basin states collectively used 3.5m acre-feet of Colorado River water last year, while the lower basin states used around 10m acre-feet.

    “The system is at a tipping point,” Commissioner Camille Touton told the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. “Unprecedented is now the reality and the normal in which Reclamation must manage our systems.”

    According to Jack Schmidt, the Janet Quinney Lawson Chair of Colorado River Studies at Utah State University, that would be the largest cut in water use in the 100-year history of the Colorado River Compact, an agreement made in 1922 that divided the river’s water between the upper basin states (Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming), the lower basin states (Arizona, California and Nevada), 30 tribal nations and Mexico.

    “It’s huge,” says Schmidt, who believes the cutbacks could represent up to a third of water use in the entire basin. “We have to reduce consumption right now,” says Schmidt. “That’s the only big solution that is available.”

    I can’t wait for the lawsuits.

    1
  10. OzarkHillbilly says:

    @OzarkHillbilly: No edit function, meant to quote this too:

    Such a calamity might not be far off. The Bureau of Reclamation, the US federal agency which manages the Colorado River’s infrastructure, forecasts that even with significant proposed cuts to water allowances there is a 23% chance power production could halt at Glen Canyon Dam in 2024 due to low water levels and that it is within the realm of possibility that it will happen as soon as July 2023.

    1
  11. Sleeping Dog says:

    @CSK:

    Yeah, when it merged with the Record-American. They kept the honorable name and attached it to a trash can.

    Do you know why the R-A was such a popular paper, not including the girly picture on page 3? 1. It was a convenient size for turning the page in a bathroom stall and 2. Each day they printed the winning number for the mobs’ ‘numbers racket’ on the editorial page.

    1
  12. grumpy realist says:

    @Beth: Considering the mound of boilerplate that gets attached to every real estate transaction in Illinois, I’m not surprised that attorneys may simply *BLEEP* over it out of exhaustion. Addendums are usually important enough that unless you’ve mischievously started it off with boilerplate they should however at least check it…

    (I swear, the stack of paper I had to go through when I bought my condo was at least 1 inch thick. The $400 bucks I paid a real-estate attorney to yank out the essential bits to sign was well spent.)

  13. CSK says:

    @Sleeping Dog:
    I didn’t know that, but it makes sense.

    The original Herald was the newspaper for Brahmins; the Globe was for Irish servants.

  14. Sleeping Dog says:

    @CSK:

    In grad school, I knew a guy who worked at the Record, and a good friend, who grew up in Lynn (city of sin), had an uncle that ran the numbers game for the mob out of his barber shop. Basically he took and tracked the bets and paid out any winnings. The ‘number’ was printed on the editorial page as the “Treasury Balance.”

    1
  15. Jen says:

    @Beth:

    I am shocked by the number of people who sign it without reading it.

    My husband and I bought the house we’re currently living in back in 2015. It was our first joint home purchase after getting married (I had moved in with him in a house he’d purchased previously).

    Ages ago, I worked at a mortgage banking company in the 80s. I knew things got missed all the time, so I insist on reading what we will be signing.

    My husband was irritated to no end–“they do this all the time, they know what they are doing, just sign these documents, you don’t have to read everything.”

    I found at least four errors in our loan documents, one of which was pretty substantive (I think it was a typo in the section where we bought down points).

    He now knows that I am going to read everything, and no longer gives me a hard time about it. 🙂

    3
  16. Kathy says:

    @Beth:

    When we start a new project, the first order of business is to send the requirements to the operating area, and a copy to the managers in charge of the project at our department. This includes dates for various deadlines (sample delivery, questions and observations, costs, brand names, etc.) As a matter of course, these are sent with read/receipt requests.

    I can’t tell you how many times a manager in charge will ask me whether I’ve sent the email, when I have his receipt in my inbox. Or how often they’ll ask what the deadline is for samples, right after they’ve read the email.

    Worse, but a bite less frequent, is when a manger will tell me, “I called X at supply and they say you never notified them about the new project.” Every time I have not only the receipt, but also a return email from X with questions about the project they say I didn’t notify them about.

  17. OzarkHillbilly says:

    Texans urged to save energy as extreme heatwave strains power grid

    I wonder if musk is having 2nd thoughts about moving his operations to Texas.

    2
  18. stevecanyon says:

    @Beth: When we bought our first (and so far only) house in California, my wife and I went to the title company to sign papers. There was a huge stack of em. Things commenced and as they were given to me I read each document (even the annoying fine print ones) before signing. After about 10 minutes, the title agent, clearly frustrated by the time this was taking, stopped me and said, “what are you doing?”. I said, “reading these documents.” She then said, “Oh? Nobody does that.”

    1
  19. steve says:

    Its not the fault of Texas. It is the wind turbines freezing again… Oops, I mean they are melting this time.

    Steve

    3
  20. Beth says:

    @grumpy realist:

    I see the 7.0 Real Estate Contract in my sleep. I basically know where everything is in it and a quick scan will show if anyone made any modifications to it. I bet about 3/4 of attorneys delegate that to their assistants. I’m a one woman shop so I can’t do that. Any addendums that come across the file get read with a fine tooth comb and I agonize over every word in it.

    My addendum starts off with a page of boiler plate that basically says we disclaim everything. That and the formating are the only things left from the original template. I ran into a problem with tenants in one property so now there’s a paragraph that says that if you bought the house, you bought the tenants/occupants/squatters. You deal with it. My client HATES paying for surveys. I have no idea why. You could ask them for a grand off the deal and they would consider it, if you ask for a survey they kill the deal. I’ve had to add three paragraphs saying “no survey”, if there are any title issues that a survey would show, too bad, and you should get your own survey. The latest drama is over the paragraph I added that says whatever the county says the taxes are, that’s what we give you. They could be wrong, we don’t care. You deal with it. Anything that irritates me gets dealt with an immediate revision.

    @Jen:

    I see the Freddie/Fannie standard loan docs in my nightmares and breeze through those pretty quickly only stopping to check that the important figures are what the loan officer told the client. Almost every time everything is normal.

    EXCEPT, with my black clients who get a whole speech about discrimination in loan docs that banks get sued over all the effing time. Then we have discussions about every figure. This isn’t to be patronizing or white savory, this stuff is complex and easy to mis-disclose. Thankfully I’ve caught the couple of times something hinky was going on with my clients. I’ve been at closings where the Buyers were black and it was clear their loan officer either lied to them or changed things after the disclosure and their attorney did nothing or didn’t care. I’ve had to try to subtlety tell them to fight (it would be malpractice if I killed a deal to protect the otherside).

    @Kathy:

    That sort of thing infuriates me and, oddly enough, only started happening to me after my name change. If only I knew why, but as a girl my only job is to be pretty and useless… /snark.

    @stevecanyon:

    I had a closing take 6 hours once cause the buyers attorney decided to recalculate everything by hand and go through all of the docs, muttering to himself, before he even started talking to his clients. By the end of the closing the Buyers were signing docs and crying and I was laying on the floor watching a baseball game on my phone.

    I generally get a Buy side done in about an hour. That’s going through all the figures and numbers with fine toothed comb, explaining all the docs, and making all the jokes I’ve come up with over the last 12 years. The jokes have not improved.

    3
  21. Scott says:

    @OzarkHillbilly: We’ve pretty much have had over 100F temperatures since Jun 30th. Not to worry, Greg Abbott says the grid was fixed after the debacle in Feb 21.

    I am so over summer.

    1
  22. Kathy says:

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Nah. Elon can launch a constellation of power satellites by the end of the year to provide power for his Texas ventures.

    Of course, going by the patented Musk Over Promise System (patent pending), this means he can maybe loft one satellite before the end of the decade to provide 5% of the power for his Texas ventures.

    On other things, I made a quiche. Meh. I can see hwy it’s not a popular dish. I can’t say what got into me to bake one. I used milk and eggs only, and chorizo, green onions, cheese, beans, and corn for the filling. Beans are not a good choice in the filling, though the dish would have improved with a spicy bean sauce on top (maybe next time).

    For next week I got the idea of rice boiled in chicken bouillon, then stir fried with snow peas, bell pepper, soybean sprouts, celery, carrot, garlic, onions, ginger, and shredded beef. Dry pasta shapes with tomato and lime on the side.

    2
  23. grumpy realist says:

    @Kathy: (My own feeling about quiche is Make Sure You Use A Traditional Recipe. Quiche Lorraine is fantastic, but get the recipe off one of those cranky websites written in French and insisting on Ye Olde Traditional version. Creme fraiche (or whatever you substitute for it, eggs, bacon/ham. Handmade crust. And fugghetabaht any cheese. Cheese does NOT belong in a traditional Quiche Lorraine.)

    2
  24. Kathy says:

    @grumpy realist:

    The cheese was the best part, though I think a variety like Gruyère might have worked better. When it had half baked, I added some grated Parmesan on top. the filling was my idea for further fusion.

    As to crusts, I didn’t bother. The point was to make a simple dish with minimal prep and subsequent washing of dishes. That was 100% successful. And that’s why there will be a next time.

  25. Mikey says:

    There had been some on the right who had questioned the case of the Ohio 10-year-old girl who had been raped and then refused an abortion in Ohio, instead needing to travel to Indiana. The Wall Street Journal published an editorial titled “An Abortion Story Too Good to Confirm.”

    Well, it’s confirmed now, because a man has confessed to it and been charged in court:

    A Columbus man has been charged with impregnating a 10-year-old Ohio girl, whose travel to Indiana to seek an abortion led to international attention following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade and activation of Ohio’s abortion law.

    Gershon Fuentes, 27, whose last known address was an apartment on Columbus’ Northwest Side, was arrested Tuesday after police say he confessed to raping the child on at least two occasions. He’s since been charged with rape, a felony of the first degree in Ohio.

    Columbus police were made aware of the girl’s pregnancy through a referral by Franklin County Children Services that was made by her mother on June 22, Det. Jeffrey Huhn testified Wednesday morning at Fuentes’ arraignment. On June 30, the girl underwent a medical abortion in Indianapolis, Huhn said.

    Huhn also testified that DNA from the clinic in Indianapolis is being tested against samples from Fuentes, as well as the child’s siblings, to confirm contribution to the aborted fetus.

    3
  26. Kathy says:

    I’ve been re-watching selected eps of Babylon 5 on HBO Max. It strikes me that Kosh (and JMS on USENET comments) gave away the climax of the war in the first season ep Deathwalker.

    That’s when Kosh says “Understanding is a three-edged sword.” JMS in comments to fans gives the same explanation that Sheridan does two seasons later “Your side, their side, and the truth.” And that’s like key to ending the war in season 4.

    I’ve been thinking, too, about a B5 reboot.

    IMO, given the current penchant for arc shows with short seasons, B5 could go back to the original Sinclair plot. That is, Jeff loses Katherine at the end of ten eps, eventually gets close with Delenn, then Katherine comes back from the dead 15 episodes later, and the war ends after 30 eps total (three seasons).

    The fourth and fifth seasons should be Crusade. We not only never got to know how it ends, but I think the show wasn’t really going to be about the Drak plague. I figured that would get “cured” by the end of season 1, and then we’d know what really was going on.

  27. Stormy Dragon says:

    Picking up something from yesterday:

    @Beth:

    The fact that her sisters marriage might be forcibly terminated or my existence outlawed hasn’t moved her because something something taxes, something woke Democrats.

    One thing I’ve increasingly noticed about my Trumpy relatives is they have this general belief that they’re entitled to frictionless relationships where they do whatever they feel like and it’s other people’s responsibility to do all emotional labor of keeping the relationship work.

    In the worst cases this basically turns what I can only describe as “emotional chicken” where they’ll intentionally do things to damage the relationship, knowing that you’ll “hit the breaks first” because you care about the relationship far more than they do.

    4
  28. Scott says:

    @Kathy: If you really want to do a deep dive, the Lurker’s Guide to Babylon 5 is still available on midwinter.com

  29. becca says:

    @grumpy realist: My 1963 edition of Joy of Cooking recipe for Quiche Lorraine does in fact have Swiss cheese in the mix. Granted, it says something about having an Alsatian influence.

    I make an herbed pate brisee, heavy cream and egg custard, Swiss or Gruyère. Sometimes bacon, mushroom, scallion. Skip the nutmeg. It is very light and wonderful comfort food.

  30. Kathy says:

    @Scott:

    I think I consumed all the content of that site back in the day (is the internet really that old? It seems hard to believe).

    I even remember when the hosting domain was hyperion.com, which JMS nodded to in one ep naming an older Earther cruiser Hyperion. I expected one of the White Stars would be named Midwinter, but that never happened.

  31. Mu Yixiao says:

    @Stormy Dragon:

    Over the past 10 years or so, I’ve been clearing out the chaff in my life. There were people who had been my BFF for decades that I just walked away from. I’ve got two “I’ll help you hide the body” friends, and a bunch of “I’ll come to your New Years Feast” friends, and I’m happy with that.

    I’ve got no tolerance for emotional abuse or emotional blackmail. Been there, done that, got the scars.

    2
  32. Beth says:

    @Stormy Dragon:

    I very much agree with that. I also think it’s coupled with their idea that they are entitled to a frictionless life. They have all these ideas and those ideas are TRUE, regardless of the actual truth, and if you confront them its your fault and you’re full of shit. My FIL fervently believes that gay people have never had it bad. It was all just joking. I’m sure he believes that Trans people are a brand new concept designed to irritate him.

    On your point I’ve seen that blow up in their face. My partner, a straight Cis Woman, had the closest thing to a bad coming out with her family when she told her mom that she wasn’t divorcing me. It took her whole family to sit mom down and explain that they were all about to lose a family member over it (to say my partner is obstinate is an understatement). Mom didn’t want to do the work of understanding why someone would stay with someone like me. You know, forget all that till death do you part crap.

    @Mu Yixiao:

    I’ve got no tolerance for emotional abuse or emotional blackmail. Been there, done that, got the scars.

    Same. lol, still finding scars. While I’ve walked away from my birth family, my youngest sister still follows me on Instagram. I’ve been using that to post memes about trauma and childhood abuse in the hopes that they plant the seeds of deprogramming in her. I miss my sisters, but it’s not worth having them back in my life if they don’t heal their own trauma.

    1
  33. Just nutha says:

    @grumpy realist: Hmm… I had really good results melting gruyere into the custard before adding it to the crust. Never tried adding creme fraiche tho.

  34. Mikey says:

    @Kathy:

    The fourth and fifth seasons should be Crusade.

    YES! Now I still have my “Save Crusade” pin I got from David Allen Brooks (Max) around here somewhere…

  35. Just nutha says:

    And under the category of ideas whose time has come, my local Target is selling sugar free strawberry vodka. With rose infusion added, no less.

    1
  36. Stormy Dragon says:

    @Mu Yixiao:

    Over the past 10 years or so, I’ve been clearing out the chaff in my life. There were people who had been my BFF for decades that I just walked away from. I’ve got two “I’ll help you hide the body” friends, and a bunch of “I’ll come to your New Years Feast” friends, and I’m happy with that.

    Discarding friends is easier, because you can still make new friends. If you discard family, there’s no way to, say, get new parents.

    The other problem is how family often becomes an all or none thing, because the rest of the family isn’t going to take sides and so you either have to keep enduring their bad behavior at family events or just avoid everyone.

    3
  37. CSK says:

    Is it possible that Merrick Garland is hesitant to prosecute Trump for fear of what his followers might do? Such as descend on Washington and try to blow up the place?

    2
  38. Stormy Dragon says:

    this has to be the stat of the day:“12% of people told Ipsos that they knew either a great deal or a fair amount about Stewart Lewis, a fake candidate created by the pollster” https://t.co/Q4OmUQiwFq— Jim Pickard (@PickardJE) July 13, 2022

    1
  39. Beth says:

    @Just nutha:

    This sounds amazing. All of it. Well, except for the no sugar part, but I can make due.

  40. Just nutha ignint cracker says:

    @Beth: Not a vodka guy, so I wouldn’t know. Did buy a bottle of bourbon and a bottle of rum–for my summer drinking. Supply chain problems (I assume) resulted in needing to go with rum to replace my usual summer gin. Still in all, I’m set for booze for the next year–maybe two.

  41. Just nutha ignint cracker says:

    @Just nutha ignint cracker: [singing] Drinking rum and Co co Co la! Bo ki bo ki bo ki bo la.

    (Cracker doesn’t actually KNOW the lyrics.)

    2
  42. JohnSF says:

    All here will doubtless be thrilled to hear, next stage in Conservative leadership election is done:
    The remaining candidates and their vote totals now are:
    Rishi Sunak – 88
    Penny Mordaunt – 67
    Liz Truss – 50
    Kemi Badenoch – 40
    Tom Tugendhat – 37
    Suella Braverman – 32

    As they fell below the 30 vote cut-off, Hunt and Zawahi are out.
    Still looks like Sunak vs Truss or Mordaunt in the membership vote on the final two.

    Then it’s all down to how much kool-aid drinking the membership has done.

    Tugendhat is the closest to a good choice: but that pretty certainly means he won’t get to the last two, and if he did wouldn’t have prayer of winning the members.

    Sunak is Thatcherite Leaver, but a relatively realistic one.

    Mordaunt similar, but less honest, and more able to promise multiple things to multiple factions, while appearing more straight forward. Good trick, but how much mileage in it? Currently ahead in the (limited) polling of members, but that is very iffy, for a bunch of reasons.

    Rest are riding the Crazy Train.
    Of them Truss has the best shot at final two place.

    Incidentally, the fourth contender I thought in with a chance, Defence Secretary Wallace, decided not to run.
    IMO he just doesn’t want the job that much; has good odds of retaining his current post whoever wins. Then it’s hello Lord Wallace, and a fair shot at NATO Secretary General.

    2
  43. OzarkHillbilly says:

    @Beth: My FIL fervently believes that gay people have never had it bad. It was all just joking.

    Maybe he can tell Matthew Shephard that it was all just a joke.

    2
  44. OzarkHillbilly says:

    @CSK: That question should only thought of in the context of “If we do A), and they do B), do we do C), D), or E)? And if they do F), do we follow up with G) or H)?

  45. CSK says:

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    I don’t know. Trump got them to invade the Capitol, didn’t he?

  46. Kathy says:

    @CSK:

    Yes, but not very well.

    As coup attempts go, this one is rather puzzling. A coup may succeed or fail, but this one didn’t even seem to try very hard.

    It’s easy to see why. Benito had 4 years to plan it, to place his people in key positions, to shape policy within the executive branch, etc. But he only began to do it less than a month before the appointed date (which he didn’t even choose). To make matters worse (for him), he kind of outsourced it to the Cosplay Militias and the Krazy Kabal of Kraken Lawyers.

    I called it the Keystone Koup at the time, and I maintain it was so.

    A coup is a coup, though. Real people got killed. Real people were hurt. Real people wound up in prison. And Benito needs to be prosecuted, convicted, and imprisoned as well.

  47. OzarkHillbilly says:

    @CSK: Yeah, and apparently nobody thought about “If we do A), and they do B), do we do C), D), or E)? And if they do F), do we follow up with G) or H)?”

    I mean, the question is no longer, “Nah… They won’t do that, right?” because they already have. We now know they will, and given the right circumstances will do it again. So let’s plan for it.

    I mean, if I had been in charge, I’d have had the capitol Police and DC metro police armed with…. Well, never mind that. But bulldozers and high lifts could have come in handy. So could fire hoses.

    Let’s face it, we knew they were gonna be there, and we knew they didn’t have a real tight grip on reality, and we knew some of them were gonna come armed, and we knew

    Lesson learned, right? Right? Hmmmm… Maybe we’ve learned the wrong lesson.

    1
  48. OzarkHillbilly says:

    @Kathy: But he only began to do it less than a month before the appointed date (which he didn’t even choose).

    That’s only because he couldn’t believe he would lose the election a 2nd time. (and I mean the popular vote with a different distribution)

    1
  49. Gustopher says:

    @Stormy Dragon: Sounds like this recent description of Sovereign Citizens.

    https://twitter.com/superdago/status/1547227004491255808

    First and foremost, the underlying belief of every sov cit is that the rules don’t apply to them when they don’t want to face the consequences.

    Read the thread, and then replace law with social rules. It’s pretty much the same attitude.

    I have a brother I have stopped speaking to and blocked everywhere because he’s just not worth it. I’m sure he thinks I’m the asshole, but life’s too short to bother with him.

    The other brother edges into that territory but is at least less of an aggressive asshole.

    2
  50. OzarkHillbilly says:

    Lindy Li
    @lindyli

    ·
    1h
    A 10 year old girl was raped at least TWICE in Ohio. So what did Republicans do? Deny her an abortion, erase her identity and then call her a liar. Shaming rape victims and smearing their doctors is the GOP way. Blaming women and girls for getting raped is the ChristoFascist way.

    Republicans from Kristi Noem to Jim Jordan ruthlessly shamed this girl on the national stage, attacking her story as completely fabricated and “too good to be true”. Eat crow, misogynist dipshits

    Bethany Bruner
    @bethany_bruner
    · 6h
    I was the ONLY reporter in the courtroom this morning as the man accused of raping a 10-year-old girl, impregnating her, leading to an abortion in Indiana, was arraigned. This confirms that the case exists.

    https://dispatch.com/story/news/2022/07/13/columbus-man-charged-rape-10-year-old-led-abortion-in-indiana/10046625002/

    2
  51. Jax says:

    @OzarkHillbilly: And now they’re running with “He was an ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT, this is all Biden’s fault! Open Borders! Squeeeeee!” 😐

  52. Jax says:

    Yay! I FINALLY have cold AND hot water! Man, it’s been a long week. 😛

  53. DK says:

    @CSK:

    The original Herald was the newspaper for Brahmins; the Globe was for Irish servants.

    I’m student of the 1892-93 Borden tragedy — an endlessly fascinating study of that era’s surface and hidden cultures.

    The story goes the Heralds (and the Massachusetts political establishment) pushed hard for Miss Lizzie Borden’s acquittal. The very Anglo, Sunday-school teaching Mayflower descendant and wealthy heiress could not have possibly bludgeoned her parents to death with a hatchet. And, while patricide is one thing, she definitely could not lie about it. I mean, really.

    Meanwhile, the local Globes — and Fall River’s very Irish police force — went all-in on her guilt. Of course, she did it, nevermind the lack of evidence. I mean, duh. Her haughty, cold superciliousness represented everything wrong with the entitled, anti-Catholic upper class. Let’s nail is arrogant, spinster murderess!

    It’s a famous example of the referenced Brahmin-Irish divide.

    1
  54. CSK says:

    @DK:
    Interesting.

  55. DK says:

    @Mikey:

    The Wall Street Journal published an editorial titled “An Abortion Story Too Good to Confirm.”

    It’s so delicious that the story, which had already been confirmed by local reporters, was further confirmed by an indictment and possible confession within hours of the WSJ publishing their false and embarrassing editorial.

    Republicans were desperate to debunk because they know how toxic abortion politics is for them. And now they’ve further amplified the horror of forced birth. Dog, meet car.