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Post by sharksrog on Nov 4, 2021 21:02:38 GMT -5
A juror was excused from Kyle Rittenhouse's trial when he told a very inappropriate joke to a sheriff. He asked why the black guy who was shot in the back seven times by police, leading to the protest, which then led to Rittenhouse shooting three persons, killing two of them. He then answered his own joke with the punchline: Because they only had seven bullets.
What gets me is that the defense had the guts to question his removal. What gets me further is that the jury pool was so shallow that this guy wasn't even one that the prosecution challenged.
Being the fine white supremacist he is, President Trump backed Rittenhouse. As did at least one poster here.
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Post by Islandboagie on Nov 5, 2021 23:51:14 GMT -5
That's a good one.
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Post by sharksrog on Nov 6, 2021 4:44:18 GMT -5
If it weren't for the horrible context, it wouldn't be bad. I think the "joke" though is that the defense protested the removal of the juror. Or perhaps the "joke" is that the person was able to get on the jury at all. Man, that's one horrible jury pool if that person made the jury.
I saw that the defense is claiming self-defense for Rittenhouse because he was afraid his rife would be taken away and used against him. If that were a concern for Rittenhouse, obviously he shouldn't have been there with a gun in the first place. Just what we need. More 17-year-old vigilantes! Especially those who get their guns illegally.
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Post by sharksrog on Nov 15, 2021 16:34:09 GMT -5
Based on what I've seen of the trial, I think Rittenhouse will get off pretty easily. He came across very well as his own witness, and the prosecution botched their examination of him, even causing the judge to threaten to declare a mistrial with prejudice.
I think Kyle is a decent kid who may have been thrown off a bit by some grandiose ideas. His twitter handle is something like "Imagonnabefamous" or something like that. He has done some foolish things like wearing a T-shirt that said "I'm f'ing free!" which wasn't very appropriate under the circumstances. One night he said he wished he had his AR-15 so he could kill the looters, which wasn't a great thing to say, and there were other things he did (perhaps out of the foolishness of being a kid) that weren't allowed into evidence. I guess I would call him a good kid with an asterisk.
The big mistake he made was in carrying his AR-15 despite being a minor. He took the weapon to protect himself, but if he truly felt he needed a weapon he wasn't old enough to possess legally (although because it didn't have a short barrel, the illegal possession charge was dropped, possibly setting it up for Kyle to get off Scott free), he probably shouldn't have gone where he went. I don't think he'll get convicted (maybe of lesser charges), but he didn't use very good judgment (which just might be why it's usually illegal for minors to carry AR-15's).
Rittenhouse appeared to be shaken by killing two people and wounding another, which he should be. Hopefully he will use much better judgment the rest of his life.
By the way, Matt, saying "That's a good one" without any type of qualifier was pretty racist IMO. I agree the "joke" was clever, but that was overwhelmed by how distasteful and hurtful it was in context.
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Post by sharksrog on Nov 17, 2021 10:02:29 GMT -5
With all the problems that occurred in Kenosha after the police shot a black man and paralyzed him from the waist down, the only people killed in Kenosha were the two killed by Rittenhouse. Rittenhouse was a 17-year-old minor. If he felt he needed an AR-15 to protect himself, he shouldn't have gone into Kenosha.
I don't think he went there with bad intentions. But he did go there with very bad judgment. Had he not turned into a vigilante, I think he could have become the hero he wanted to be. Instead, for all the rioting in Kenosha -- and it was appalling -- Kyle wound up doing the only killing. There was a lot of property damage and looting, which was horrible, but the truly sad things were the paralyzing of the black man, and Kyle's killing two white men and seriously injuring another.
The moral of the story: Don't play with guns.
Something I came across over the weekend that shocked me. I figured the states with the highest gun deaths per capita would be states with large urban areas. I figured with New York City, the state of New York would be among the highest. I was shocked to find that aside from Hawaii, New York has the lowest per capita gun death rate of any state.
Alaska and Montana, two states with some of the least dense populations, lead the way in gun deaths per capita, followed by mostly southern (red neck) states. I would have thought that Texas and Florida might have been near the top, but they were actually in the middle. Despite having Los Angeles, California was in the bottom 10.
Kyle Rittenhouse is a kid who could have done some fairly good or even great things. Instead, when his life history is written, he will almost certainly be best known for killing two people and seriously injuring another.
In a somewhat related aside, what will Donald Trump be best known for when all is said and done. It appears likely he will be best known not for the good things he accomplished, but for his deadly mishandling of the pandemic and for his threat on democracy. Donald came up with the term "fake news" to disparage the press and help him cover up his lies, and the worst "fake news" was the misinformation he spread about COVID-19 and then the Big Lie in which he continues to say the 2020 presidential election was stolen.
In one sense, the election WAS stolen. Despite his horrible mishandling of COVID-19, all Trump had to do was express some remorse about the hundreds of thousands who died from the disease. He tried to get the Secretary of State of Georgie to come up with 11,780 fake votes so he could win the electoral votes in that state, when he could have come up with more than enough himself if just half the 28,000 Georgians who voted down ballot but abstained from voting for the presidency had instead voted for him. Those are among the people he could have won over had he simply showed remorse and compassion.
One thing Donald has never been able to explain is how so many Republicans down ballot from him managed to win their elections FROM THE VERY SAME BALLOTS THAT DEFEATED DONALD. The Republicans unexpectedly picked up quite a few house seats. If the election was rigged against them, how did they do that?
And with regard to this board, why is it that Matt and Boly support Trump with very, very few facts to back up their positions? If one looks at their arguments, they usually have far more emotion and opinions than facts and logic. Because they're not into facts and logic, they're subject to falling for the Big Lie.
Remember, the more intelligent and better-educated people are, the less likely they are to support Donald. In the cases of Matt and Boly, they are unwilling or unable to even answer Trump questions with facts and logic.
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Post by sharksrog on Nov 19, 2021 15:27:50 GMT -5
I'm not overly surprised that Kyle was acquitted. At heart I think he's mostly a good kid, and he was extremely well-prepared and testified almost masterfully. Meanwhile, the prosecuting attorney did such a poor job the judge nearly called a mistrial with prejudice.
I do believe that Rittenhouse shows why we need better gun control. As I said, I think at heart he's mostly a good kid, but he got WAY off track.
He's wanted to become famous, and he's certainly done that. Part of the country sees him as a hero.
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Post by sharksrog on Nov 19, 2021 16:09:36 GMT -5
I would say that Kyle Rittenhouse was not guilty, but he wasn't innocent. As one Fox News legal commentator said, Kyle shouldn't have been there with his AR-15.
Once the Wisconsin law technicality got Kyle's underage charge kicked, I think it was unlikely that he would be convicted of anything. I didn't come close to seeing the full trial, but I saw a fair amount of Kyle's testimony, and I didn't see anything that should convict him. The prosecuting attorney might have been guilty of malpractice.
Another of Fox News' commentators said that if one was surprised by the verdict, he wasn't watching the right news coverage. That might have been a little self-serving for Fox News, but as you know, we weren't surprised by the verdict. That's because we try quite hard to get balanced coverage. Thus far I've seen much more of the reaction on Fox News than anywhere else.
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Post by sharksrog on Nov 19, 2021 16:20:53 GMT -5
It is clear that President Biden was disappointed by the verdict, but we saw from his reaction and statement why he is such a much better president for our split country than Donald Trump was. Biden said that while he was disappointed by the verdict, he believed in our jury system.
What do we think Donald Trump would have said had the opposite verdict been rendered? Wouldn't he likely have flown off the handle as he usually does, cried foul and split our country further?
It's not that Donald was without any accomplishments as president. But his four biggest faults were:
. Costing our country hundreds of thousands of lives, tens of millions of jobs and trillions of dollars with his failure to promptly control COVID.
. Splitting our country and the Republican Party (once the Great Old Party) with his animosity and lies.
. Causing or at the very least not stopping the biggest internal insurrection our country has experienced since the Civil War.
. Failing on some of his top campaign promises -- no infrastructure bill, Mexico DIDN'T pay for the incomplete wall, etc. -- and putting us two trillion dollars in debt with his top-heavy tax reduction.
Other than Lincoln, I can't think of ANY president who accomplished anywhere close to enough to offset those massive failures. Perhaps FDR was the next closest, but not even Lincoln had enough plusses to outweigh the many major minuses of Trump.
In bridge, the highest bid is No Trump. Sadly, the same became true in real life.
Joe Biden hasn't been a great president yet, and he may never become one. But he had an amazingly easy act to follow. It's not quite like he had to be Steve Young to Trump's Joe Montana. Mickey Mantle to Trump's Joe DiMaggio.
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Post by Islandboagie on Nov 19, 2021 17:30:34 GMT -5
I recall you saying Trump was dividing the country and being foolish when he claimed Kyle Rittenhouse was defending himself, which is now what a jury and our legal system has determined to be accurate.
I don't think Presidents should comment on trials, before or after, because it might affect the criminal trial, or the civil trial that might follow.
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Post by sharksrog on Nov 19, 2021 18:15:20 GMT -5
Trump WAS dividing the country and being foolish when he claimed Kyle was defending himself. I'm almost certain he didn't have the evidence the jury ultimately had, and as you point out, he shouldn't have been commenting from his perch as president. Joe Biden wasn't pleased by the verdict, but he united Americans by saying that he puts his faith in the jury system.
Trump did nothing to quell violence with his comments, while Biden later commented in a way designed to reduce violence and heal the country. Biden behaves like a president; Trump behaved (and continues to behave) like a dictator.
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Post by sharksrog on Nov 19, 2021 18:22:40 GMT -5
My question to you, Matt, is why did you comment on Kyle, when you've remained mute on far more important questions such as:
. Why did Donald Trump fail so miserably to contain COVID when he first heard from his top security advisors on January 28th that it was the worst threat to national security that he would face during his administration? Did he not care enough about national security to put his own agendas in the background? As it turned out, had he dealt properly with COVID and THEN come back to his own agendas (the stock market and getting re-elected), he could have avoided hundreds of thousands of deaths, tens of millions of jobs lost, and one of our largest economic disasters.
. Why did he fail to avert or at the very least slow down the biggest insurrection against our Capitol since 1814?
. Why did he so badly divide not only our country, but his own party?
. Why did he fail to deliver on his campaign promises to balance the budget, deliver a badly-needed $1 trillion infrastructure bill, and have Mexico pay for a completed wall between our two countries?
Aren't those issues far more important than Kyle Rittenhouse (which is not to say that Kyle isn't important)?
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Post by sharksrog on Nov 19, 2021 21:00:04 GMT -5
Although I think that Kyle is basically a good kid, he's far from a saint. As I mentioned before, many of his previous transgressions weren't admitted at trial, and he testified that he drove himself from Illinois to Wisconsin despite not having a driver's license.
What I wonder is what he learned from all this. Is he sad that he killed two people and seriously injured another? Does he realize how big a mistake he made by carrying his gun with him? Did he learn that if he truly feels he needs a gun to protect himself somewhere, that's probably not a place he should go?
On the other hand, he certainly achieved his goal of becoming famous. Some expressed a concern about how he would put his life back together, but I'm not sure that should be a problem for him. To many, he's a hero. Certainly his life will be easier to put back together than the people that he shot. For all the needless violence in Kenosha two summers ago, he was the only one who killed anyone as far as I know.
Let's hope that community and our country as a whole heal themselves.
Interesting, isn't it, that Biden apparently believes in our justice system, while Trump apparently does not?
So now, Matt, about those key questions ...
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Post by Islandboagie on Nov 20, 2021 2:00:14 GMT -5
Rog- Let's hope that community and our country as a whole heal themselves.
Boagie- I agree. But that starts by not having knee jerk reactions to the spin that media puts on things, like your reaction to Kyle Rittenhouse a few months ago. This verdict has exposed you for what I've been saying all along, Rog. You're not thinking logical, you're just listening to the fear mongering from one side. It's made you so irrational that nobody wants to discuss these things with you anymore.
Biden accepted the verdict, eventhough he didn't like it, which I guess is good...but if he truly doesn't like the verdict, why accept it? If I thought someone was guilty and they got off I wouldn't accept it. The point being is that Biden has eyes, he saw what happened, he accepts the verdict because he knows that the kid was being attacked by 4 criminals that were looking to beat him. Everyone who is logical sees that video and says "yes..that looks like self defense to me." I mean c'mon, one of them was even raising his gun at Kyle. The other one hit him with a skateboard, and one tried to kick him in the head. But yet a few months ago you were singing a much different tune, because the Liberal media told you to not look at the video logically, you obliged. The trial is over now, and justice prevailed...but the narrative remains because Biden's a Democrat and the Democratic Party has become illogical, so he too must disagree with a logical verdict. It's not about self defense, or right and wrong anymore with Democrats. It's about the color of someone's skin and the perception of white males that don't have a black lives matter sticker on their bumper of their car.
Kyle was attacked by 4 people, 3 were shot, all white, the one that wasn't shot was black..despite that fact, the narrative from the left is Kyle is some kind of racist that showed up in Kenosha because he's a white supremacist and he got off today because of white privilege.
That said, I don't agree with what Kyle did initially, I think it was dumb to bring a gun to a protest. We had protests and riots here in Seattle as you know, some friends and clients of mine were affected...I thought about getting a gun and going there to defend those businesses for perhaps half a second..but it quickly occured to me doing that would only lead to me being put into a position where I might have to use it. While defending oneself is human nature, I believe not putting yourself in situations where you might have to take someone's life to defend yourself is a civilized nature. Kyle made a mistake, because he entered into a situation where he was going to be around irrational people with a loaded weapon. He probably should have gotten a lesser charge, perhaps reckless endangerment. But it's his right to carry a gun and defend himself, even if it's a stupid thing to do.
I know one topic of the trial was considering if Kyle actually provoked the situation, which I don't think HE provoked it...the Liberal media's narrative did all the provoking that was needed. The people who were shot by Kyle were absolutely victims, but not victims of Kyle's gun, they were victims of the Liberal media. It convinced people of irrational thoughts to the point that they felt it was worthy of losing their life for, stupid people that felt it was a good idea to run at someone holding an AR-15 because someone believes differently than they did. That same narrative convinced you to descend into a state of Trump derangement syndrome to the point where it has become a big part of your daily life. Trump is only talked about in the media today because Joe Biden is boring, but you talk about Trump like he's still President, because hate is the strongest emotion and the media has kept that narrative to keep people like you clicking on their links. Justice won today, but logic has been failing for a while now and you're one of the victims along with the criminals Kyle shot.
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Post by sharksrog on Nov 20, 2021 5:03:39 GMT -5
I may have given Kyle too much benefit of the doubt.
I hadn't realized he was affiliated with the Proud Boys. According to Wikipedia, "The Proud Boys is an American far-right, neo-fascist, and exclusively male organization that promotes and engages in political violence in the United States."
I hadn't realized that Kyle had attacked a woman.
I hadn't realized he had moved without telling the court, an apparent violation of his bail agreement.
I knew Kyle wasn't an angel (the jury didn't), but finding out that he was affiliated with "a far-right, neo-fascist" group whose mottos is "Stand Back. Stand By," and who has attacked a woman wasn't known to me. I did know that he had said a few days before the killings that he wished he had his AR-15 with him so that he could shoot some looters and several other things that were excluded from trial.
AP -- "Some of the judge's pretrial rulings in the Rittenhouse case have also drawn attention. He ruled that prosecutors couldn’t argue that Rittenhouse was affiliated with the Proud Boys or that he attacked a woman months before the shootings. Nor would he allow the people Rittenhouse shot to be referred to as 'victims.'
Awaiting the trial, Rittenhouse had been out of custody on bail. When he moved and failed to update his address — an apparent violation — prosecutors sought to have him re-arrested, with his bail increased.
During a testy hearing earlier this year, the judge refused — and wouldn’t share the defendant’s new address with prosecutors, noting defense arguments that Rittenhouse was in hiding because of threats.
'I hope you’re not suggesting sharing this with our office would lead to further violence,” Binger said at the time. “I have never heard of a situation where the information has been withheld from my office.'”
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Post by sharksrog on Nov 20, 2021 5:09:58 GMT -5
Rog- Let's hope that community and our country as a whole heal themselves.
Boagie- I agree. But that starts by not having knee jerk reactions to the spin that media puts on things, like your reaction to Kyle Rittenhouse a few months ago. This verdict has exposed you for what I've been saying all along, Rog. You're not thinking logical
Matt, I go with as many facts as I can gather. Once I learned from the trial that Kyle had faced factors that indeed led him to feel threatened, I announced right here that I didn't believe he would be convicted of much of any charges. I agree that Kyle was not guilty, but he is far from innocent. He shouldn't have taken an AR-15 rifle with him. I agree with you that I'm not thinking logical. But I am and do think logically.
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Post by sharksrog on Nov 20, 2021 5:22:48 GMT -5
I have a very good friend who shot a man after the man shoved a phone in his face. The man had just gotten off a stay-away order because he had pushed my friend over backward, breaking my friend's back. As was the case with Kyle, my friend shouldn't have taken a gun with him, but his doctor had told him that if he broke his back again, he likely would never walk again, and he was scared.
I believe that had my friend had a jury trial (I believe his attorney made a big mistake in Mendocino County in having a trial by judge.) and been prepared as well as Rittenhouse had been, he too would have gotten off on self-defense charges. Instead, he was convicted of attempted murder and is now serving 11 years, 11 months.
I don't disagree with Kyle's verdict, and I said before that I thought he was mostly a good person. I no longer believe the latter. I think he is a confused person, seeking mostly to do right, but making mistakes, associating with the wrong people and making the mistake that some people do, of being something of a vigilante and fame seeker. He was certainly wrong to attack a woman, and he was certainly wrong to affiliate with the Proud Boys. He was wrong after he was released on bail to wear a T-shit that said "I'm f---ing free" and to be taking selfies at a bar.
I believe that had Kyle been black, he might well have been shot by police when he approached them with his AR-15 after the shootings. I believe that had Kyle been black, he likely would have been convicted. I don't know either of those two things, but I do know that minorities are treated differently by the police.
That said, I believe in giving the police MORE money, not defunding them. And now that the Justice Department is no longer the president's personal attorneys, they just gave $139 billion to the police.
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Post by sharksrog on Nov 20, 2021 5:25:06 GMT -5
Matt -- Biden accepted the verdict, eventhough he didn't like it, which I guess is good...but if he truly doesn't like the verdict, why accept it?
Because he believes in our justice system, which isn't perfect, but which is the best we've got? You and I disagree on justice, Matt. I believe in it; you believe that if the Democrats stole the election, they should be applauded. How is your belief there not wrong?
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Post by sharksrog on Nov 20, 2021 5:25:33 GMT -5
Because as president, he needs to bring us together, not tear us apart as his predecessor did?
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Post by sharksrog on Nov 20, 2021 5:30:44 GMT -5
Matt -- It's about the color of someone's skin and the perception of white males that don't have a black lives matter sticker on their bumper of their car.
I'm basically a Republican who is a white male and don't have a Black Lives Matter sticker on my bumper. I believe that ALL lives matter, which implies that black lives matter, whereas saying that black lives matter doesn't imply that all lives matter. I've been at dinner and joked against Hillary and for Trump with a member of the local Democratic Party organization (back when I believed in Trump, before I got to know what he truly is), and the more she drank, the funnier she thought I was. You badly misjudge most Democrats, Matt. As for Trumpers, they misjudge a lot of both Democrats AND Republicans.
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Post by sharksrog on Nov 20, 2021 5:37:10 GMT -5
Matt -- Kyle made a mistake, because he entered into a situation where he was going to be around irrational people with a loaded weapon. He probably should have gotten a lesser charge, perhaps reckless endangerment. But it's his right to carry a gun and defend himself, even if it's a stupid thing to do.
Kyle was a minor, so it was legal for him to carry the gun only because of a quirk in Wisconsin law that allowed the gun to be carried for hunting purposes. Let's HOPE that Kyle wasn't hunting (and I don't think he was). Here's the thing, Matt. IMO Kyle wasn't guilty, but he was, as you admitted, wrong. It's possible he pulled the wool over the jury's eyes, but from what I saw, the verdict aligned with the evidence that was presented. Kyle came across as a credible witness, and he had been excellently prepared by his attorneys, who did a fine job of defending him, while the prosecuting attorney was practically guilty of malpractice.
I hope Kyle learned a lot of constructive things from this experience. I see him as a person whose life could go either way -- for good or for evil. I won't be surprised if he is arrested again for something, but I also won't be surprised if he turns his life for good. I do worry that he will be receiving positive attention for negative reasons.
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Post by sharksrog on Nov 20, 2021 5:38:43 GMT -5
Matt -- The people who were shot by Kyle were absolutely victims, but not victims of Kyle's gun, they were victims of the Liberal media.
What is your evidence for that, Matt?
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Post by sharksrog on Nov 20, 2021 5:44:16 GMT -5
Matt -- Trump is only talked about in the media today because Joe Biden is boring
What is your evidence for that, Matt? Trump is still talked about because even now, he falsely maintains that the election was the insurrection and that January 6th was the protest. How do you rationalize his saying that, Matt? Why are you apparently afraid to answer fact-based questions about him?
Why are you comfortable answering questions about Kyle Rittenhouse, but not about Donald Trump?
Trump is also still talked about because his failure to control COVID while it was still an epidemic and hadn't yet become a pandemic is the greatest presidential failure of our lifetimes. He is still talked about because he is the greatest liar the office has ever seen. He's still talked about because he's tearing our country and his own party apart.
Just give fact- and logic-based answers to my questions, Matt. That's all I ask. Is that too much?
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Post by sharksrog on Nov 20, 2021 5:46:39 GMT -5
Why did Donald say that it was "common sense" for the rioters to cry out "Hang Mike Pence?" Wouldn't anyone with common sense know it WASN'T common sense to cry out such a thing? Doesn't Donald's saying it was "common sense" show us how far off track he's gotten?
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Post by Islandboagie on Nov 20, 2021 9:13:11 GMT -5
Matt -- Trump is only talked about in the media today because Joe Biden is boring What is your evidence for that, Matt? Media is a business that wants to make money, Rog. Below is a piece of an article from Slate. "The New York Times told Slate that they closed out 2017 with 3.4 million subscribers. By the end of 2020, and the end of Trump’s term, they had 7.5 million. Subscribers to the Washington Post tripled over the course of Trump’s presidency. The Wall Street Journal attracted about a million subscribers between January 2017 and March 2020. The Atlantic told Slate that it gained 400,000 new subscribers in 2020 alone. When Trump left office, many pundits hailed the incoming Biden presidency as a “return to normalcy.” Yet for news, Edmonds—the media business analyst—says, this has been “a return to, sort of, boring.” The constant vibration of news alerts has quieted. And the industry has too. As the Nieman Journalism Lab wrote in its 2021 journalism industry predictions: “The ‘Trump Bump’ is already waning. The question now is: How many of those readers will remain loyal and enter their credit card info again once the sense of alarm that moved them in the first place dissipates?” Not as many, it seems. On Wednesday, the New York Times reported the smallest subscriber increase in over a year. The paper gained only 301,000 new subscribers in the first three months of 2021. The Washington Post revealed that their traffic “plummeted” in February of 2021. CNN lost 45 percent of its viewers across February and March, though Don Lemon of CNN told the New York Times that he would rather have fewer viewers than have to deal with Trump. But Trump was good for the press business."
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Post by sharksrog on Nov 20, 2021 12:38:55 GMT -5
That was some good partial evidence, Matt. But let me ask you this question: Would Trump still be talked about if Biden weren't boring (and I agree that he is, which by the way IS a return to normalcy and isn't entirely bad)? Of course Trump would still be talked about. He's a very divisive figure.
Thus your statement that "Trump is only talked about in the media today because Joe Biden is boring" is false. You see that, right? You realize that you use the word "only," even one counter example disproves your statement. I sometimes don't think you understand that. I asked for evidence that proved your statement, and while your evidence was somewhat relevant, it didn't prove your statement.
But more importantly, why can't you at least ATTEMPT to answer the critical questions about Donald Trump? Do you realize you don't have honest and logical answers? Are your arguments kind of "common sense" like Trump's was?
That was a big part of the problem with Trump's presidency, wasn't it? We needed a president with the common sense to, say, jump on an epidemic BEFORE it could become a pandemic. You or I would have been scared out of our minds when the top national security advisors told us that the virus was the biggest threat to national security that we would face. We would have quickly gathered experts to come up with a way to head off this disease that was capable of killing millions of people. You or I, just ordinary people, would have been capable of handling what might be the worst threat of our lifetimes. We needed someone with common sense, not narcissism, as our leader at that moment.
Trump pretty much undid all the good things he had done when he failed so brutally at containing COVID. He had the power, he had the time, and he had the resources, but time was of the utmost essence, and he frittered it away because he wasn't frightened as much as you or I would have been. Donald is a power of positive thinking person, and that has worked quite well for him in business and in building his base. But what we needed to combat COVID was realistic thinking. Donald didn't realize that he can overpower people with his personality, but he couldn't overpower the virus.
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Post by sharksrog on Nov 20, 2021 12:51:00 GMT -5
Kyle Rittenhouse is a fine fundraiser. He raised over $2 million for his defense, which was an outstanding defense. He himself was the greatest risk to the defense, and he performed admirably. I think he may have lied when he said that he had been "employed" to protect car lots, whereas the owner of the lots said otherwise. But that may have been a misunderstanding. Maybe the owner asked or implied that he would like the help of someone else, and that flowed down to Kyle.
Kyle may not be entirely off the hook despite his acquittal. He may face civil charges that may turn on his reckless behavior rather than on whether in the moment he was defending himself. But my biggest goal for Kyle would be that he turn his good side for good, not evil. He seems to have plenty of each in him, and I hope the good side wins out. He's a national figure now, and he could do a lot of good.
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Post by Islandboagie on Nov 20, 2021 13:32:09 GMT -5
Rog- Would Trump still be talked about if Biden weren't boring (and I agree that he is, which by the way IS a return to normalcy and isn't entirely bad)? Of course Trump would still be talked about. He's a very divisive figure.
Boagie- So you think the Presidents of these media corporations want to still focus on Trump because he's divisive, not because he makes them loads of money? I would like to know the facts on why you believe that. You said it rather matter of factly.
Many people are divisive in this world, they don't get nearly the same coverage that Trump gets. I think it's logical to assume that if Biden were pushing subscriptions like Trump had they'd abandon Trump stories in a second. But maybe you're right, perhaps they were brainwashed by their own stories and developed TDS like you did, but I think they're smarter than that. Trump rips them up and down but deep down he loves the attention, I think they'd love to make Trump a non-story. But there's one thing that matters more to them than anything, and that's money.
Don Lemon himself said he would rather have less viewers than have to talk about Trump anymore, but he gets paid the same regardless. I'm pretty sure the people at MSNBC and CNN feel the same about not wanting to talk about Trump, but they know Trump headlines sell. That's been the problem with these media companies, they stopped caring about real news and they instead just care about what sells, even if they have to twist the facts or make it up. If Biden sold subscriptions they'd focus on him, but he doesn't.
Biden is boring, and I guess you could say it's a return to normalcy, if normalcy means to completely ignore all the problems affecting this country today. I guess I don't like normalcy. I prefer pressure being put on China, energy independence, secure borders and lower taxes.
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Post by sharksrog on Nov 20, 2021 14:54:04 GMT -5
I can't answer why the presidents of media corporations want to still focus on Trump, but it might even be because he's newsworthy. Trump is nothing if not outrageous. Biden is indeed boring by comparison.
As for pressuring China, I wish Trump had done that when the pandemic was still merely an epidemic, back when Trump instead praised China for its handling of the virus and told us that it was just one person coming in from China, that soon it would go away.
Why are you not honestly answering my questions, Matt? Cat got the tongue?
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Post by sharksrog on Nov 20, 2021 15:01:11 GMT -5
Donald thinks the jury system is a good one when it exonerates Kyle Rittenhouse, but not when the Supreme Court and 60 other courts say there was no serious election fraud. Donald said the election stolen to disguise his intention to try to steal it himself. "Hang Mike Pence!"
He said the news was fake to discredit it before it could expose his lies.
He turned on White House employees not because they turned on America, but because he believed they had turned on him. He turned on Mike Pence because Mike wouldn't break the constitution -- even after Pence had kowtowed to Donald for four years. Mike Pence was nothing if not loyal. But in the end, Mike showed himself to be a patriot who wouldn't defy the constitution. Donald had already TOLD people that if they broke the law for him, he would pardon them. He couldn't understand why Mike couldn't "understand." He couldn't understand how Mike could have a shred of common decency.
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Post by sharksrog on Nov 20, 2021 15:06:02 GMT -5
When Joe Biden didn't agree with a verdict (in the Rittenhouse case), he remained a patriot and said he believed in our jury system. When Donald Trump didn't agree with 61 verdicts (that the election WASN'T stolen), he remained a narcissist and basically defied our justice system.
Why couldn't Donald believe 61 courts that ruled against him? Because he has his own version of the truth, and his version isn't limited by reality. Have you got a better explanation, Matt?
Probably not. You have lots of opinions, but few facts and not enough logic. Trump is a very difficult person to defend, and quite honestly, you're not doing a good job of it. In that regard though, you're far from alone.
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