@stevedonsky@HowardA_AtLaw No, he doesn't celebrate the people who did it. Israel doesn't treat the U.S. like an ally. I was a hardcore supporter of the Israeli alliance until Netanyahu saw our idiot clown president as a perfect mark. State Dept. says we are in Iran on behalf of Israel. Time to end this .
@stevedonsky@HowardA_AtLaw No, he doesn't celebrate the people who did it. Israel doesn't treat the U.S. like an ally. I was a hardcore supporter of the Israeli alliance until Netanyahu saw our idiot clown president as a perfect mark. State Dept. says we are in Iran on behalf of Israel. Time to end this.
@fieldatsunset@mtracey No, nothing is proven. It's a lot of smoke but no fire has been proven. I can't say there's more than circumstantial evidence that he blackmailed people w/ underage material. But I don't find the 'it was too risky' gambit remotely persuasive. People take crazy risks all the time
@fieldatsunset@mtracey Life is rich with examples of people taking extraordinary risks in pursuit of something they've decided is important. If you tried to analyze any serious crime through the lens of rationality, it would be hard to believe anyone would commit the crimes they do.
@fieldatsunset@mtracey It doesn't prove it, but there's only so much circumstantial evidence that can pile up before it is no longer reasonable to insist that there's no 'there' there. The odds seem low that he'd blackmail and sexually exploit separately but *never together.
@fieldatsunset@mtracey I don't feel like an endless back and forth so I pointed to something in the headlines that proves Epstein's willingness to blackmail very powerful people. It's sufficient proof that it's not a conspiracy theory to think he was blackmailing people.
@speechboy71 Studies show that if you ask people about a policy simply by describing it, whether they support or oppose it correlates weakly with self-reported ideology and partisanship. Explain first that one or the other party supports it and people go right into their respective camps.
@fieldatsunset@mtracey Bill Gates just testified to Congress two days ago that Epstein tried to blackmail him over his infidelity! Are you not paying attention to this at all?
Damn, I actually like him again after this post. Very rarely do I see a post that makes me feel I have nothing to add. This is a beautiful post. We have to allow real human beings with messy lives in public life unless we want an endless parade of robotic empty suits.
To everyone so eager to cancel someone for a tattoo they got at age 22, a drunk text, a selfie they took in the middle of a mental health crisis:
Show us your laptop.
Show us your iCloud.
Open your entire digital life to your worst enemy. No context. No filter. No explanation.
You wonโt.
You wonโt because you know what I know. Any one of us, frozen at our worst moment, photographed in our lowest hour, looks like a monster. Looks like a stranger. Looks like someone who deserves to be cast out.
That is not who we are.
My mom and baby sister were killed in a car accident when I was just a kid. Cancer took my brother Beau, my best friend and my rock. I battled alcoholism. I battled addiction. I chose the cowardโs way out more times than I can count.
For years I believed the defining chapters of my life were written by tragedy, loss, and shame.
I no longer believe that.
Pain can shape us. Loss can humble us. Failures can leave scars that never fully fade. But none of them have the authority to define us.
And it sure as hell ainโt the critic that counts.
That authority belongs to us alone-the person in the arena.
Every setback presents a choice. Play the victim, or cut the bullshit and take ownership for who we become next.
Life does not determine our character. It reveals it.
Again and again we are asked the same question. When shit happens, what next?
We are not defined by what happened to us. We are not defined by the worst photo, the worst text, the worst tattoo, the worst night. We are defined by the person we choose to become. And by the courage to choose that person, every single day.
So before you reach for the gavel - show us your laptop.
You wonโt.
The whole world saw mine. And I am still here. Still becoming. Still choosing. Still standing.
That is the only definition that matters.
@HunterBiden Damn, I actually like you again after this post. Very rarely do I see a post that makes me feel I have nothing to add. This is a beautiful post. We have to allow real human beings with messy lives in public life unless we want an endless parade of robotic empty suits.
@mtracey You know the whole point of the OK symbol thing was to deliberately pick a benign symbol to assign a right-wing code-meaning to so that when liberals pointed it out, they could turn to naive normies and say 'Look, they think everything is racist!', right? That's the 'somehow'
@JonahDispatch It's lonely being consistent. I didn't believe Christine Blasey Ford or Tara Reade, and I don't believe Platner's accusers. Yet I keep hearing from Republicans: what happened to Believe All Women?! and I have to be like -- I did not participate in that! Go yell at someone who did
@SeanTrende@RandyEBarnett Am I missing something? How would this even work? Let's say Dems expand from 9 to 11, add 2 Dems. What stops Republicans from making it 13 next time they're in power, such that we'll end up with a 23-member Supreme Court sometime when I'm an old person. This is so half-baked!