What about a thread for good news?

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Thad
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Re: What about a thread for good news?

Postby Thad » Tue May 23, 2017 8:31 pm

I dunno, I'd say that reading his refusal to ask questions as a lack of curiosity is a reasonable conclusion. But I respect your opinion, especially on matters of legal scholarship, enough that I guess I have to give him another look.

I haven't read any of his opinions since his dissent in Brown v EMA, which I thought was baffling and incoherent (unlike Breyer's, where I disagreed with his conclusions but understood his reasoning).

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pacobird
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Re: What about a thread for good news?

Postby pacobird » Tue May 23, 2017 9:33 pm

Thomas in Brown v. EMA is just pure Originalism. It's not going to convince you because you, like me, don't accept the premise of Originalism, but give him credit for consistency.
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Re: What about a thread for good news?

Postby Thad » Wed May 24, 2017 12:13 am

My issues with originalism notwithstanding, I think Scalia's First Amendment stance in Brown made a better originalist argument than Thomas's "the father controls what his children can see" rationalization. ("Justice Scalia is trying to figure out what James Madison's stance on video games was," as Alito put it.)

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Re: What about a thread for good news?

Postby pacobird » Wed May 24, 2017 9:47 am

A question to which Thomas has an answer, because even if it were possible to get inside Madison's head, he's not the only person who ratified the Constitution and in the end we're left with the text. Thomas isn't saying parents ought to control the speech children hear because the Founders believed it so; he's just saying the Constitution doesn't prevent a legislature today from doing it.

This split between Thomas and Scalia here is telling, because even if Scalia is right as a practical matter Thomas is being the better Originalist. If I had to defend Originalism (which, again, is not a philosophy I subscribe to), it's a pushback against litigants using the Court as a tribune to veto legislative action even when said action is the result of a broken legislative process. If people opposed California's ratings laws, the phone number of their state legislator is over there ---->

Scalia is claiming to find out what James Madison thought, which beyond being absurd, is really just saving a broken legislative process from itself.
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Re: What about a thread for good news?

Postby Thad » Thu May 25, 2017 10:27 am

I guess the difference between Brown and Stevens is that Brown merely sought to restrict the distribution of speech to minors, rather than creating a new form of speech that was prohibited entirely? The ban in Brown would have been similar to the "girlie mags" ban (as Breyer noted), whereas the ban in Stevens would have been more like the ban on child pornography.

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Re: What about a thread for good news?

Postby Mongrel » Wed May 31, 2017 10:49 pm

ExxonMobil management was defeated Wednesday by a shareholder rebellion over climate change, as investors with 62.3 percent of shares voted to instruct the oil giant to report on the impact of global measures designed to keep climate change to 2 degrees centigrade.

The shareholder rebellion at the ExxonMobil annual meeting in Dallas was led by major financial advisory firms and fund managers who traditionally have played passive roles.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/ene ... dc8cbee92b
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Re: What about a thread for good news?

Postby Mothra » Thu Jun 01, 2017 11:54 am

What in satan's name is going on when fucking ExxonMobil can be forced into taking climate change more seriously, but we can't get our president to hold to the Paris Accord?

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Re: What about a thread for good news?

Postby Thad » Thu Jun 01, 2017 8:56 pm

ExxonMobil's leadership believes it's more profitable to ignore climate change; its stockholders have realized that ignoring reality is not a viable long-term business strategy.

You could make a similar point about the US leadership versus the American public, but we don't get to vote as often and there are lots more ways for our leaders to ignore us and still get to keep their seats.

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Re: What about a thread for good news?

Postby Mongrel » Wed Aug 16, 2017 8:43 pm

There's a Trump rally in DC on the National Mall that's scheduled for September 16th.

Which is the same day as the Juggalo march on Washington is scheduled.

I thought this wasn't real, but a quick double-check seems to confirm that, this is (for now), actually going to be a thing that happens.

Mark your calendars, people. We can only hope this is going to be one for the ages.
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Re: What about a thread for good news?

Postby Blossom » Wed Aug 16, 2017 10:36 pm

It's a good thing. Juggalos and the ICP are very, very anti-racist and anti-confederate.


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Re: What about a thread for good news?

Postby Bal » Wed Aug 16, 2017 11:08 pm

You know, I never really understood ICP and the people who love them, but you're all right, juggalos. Go ahead and make them think twice about showing up lest there be ax violence.

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Re: What about a thread for good news?

Postby Thad » Thu Aug 17, 2017 12:26 am

Nathan Rabin covered the latest Gathering of the Juggalos and he didn't have a lot of confidence in the March on Washington; he thought ICP themselves did a piss-poor job of publicizing it, and the Juggalos in general aren't interested in politics and don't seem likely to engage.

I hope he's wrong, because regardless of my feelings on ICP or Juggalos, the FBI classifying them as a gang is fucking bullshit.

And hell yeah, my hat's off to anyone who uses their platform to tell off racists.

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Re: What about a thread for good news?

Postby Büge » Thu Aug 17, 2017 11:45 am

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Re: What about a thread for good news?

Postby Mongrel » Thu Aug 17, 2017 1:34 pm

NYT: Jack Daniels is embracing the fact that Nearest Green, the man who taught the founder of the company to distill whiskey, was black.

Of note, they are actually changing their official history such that Green is listed as Jack Daniel's first master distiller - ahead of Jack Daniels himself.
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Re: What about a thread for good news?

Postby Mothra » Thu Aug 17, 2017 8:10 pm

Nice

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Re: What about a thread for good news?

Postby Mongrel » Thu Sep 14, 2017 1:37 am

Hey Thad: The NYPD just graduated their first pit bull police dog.

EDIT: Link removed - see Grath's post below
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Re: What about a thread for good news?

Postby Grath » Thu Sep 14, 2017 7:58 am

Mongrel wrote:Hey Thad: The NYPD just graduated their first pit bull police dog (photo gallery)

The shitbird who made that Imgur post later edited it to be spammy cancer links, so here's an article about said pit bull instead.

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Mongrel
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Re: What about a thread for good news?

Postby Mongrel » Thu Sep 14, 2017 12:00 pm

Thanks Grath.

EDIT: Here's the pics not in Grath's article link:

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Re: What about a thread for good news?

Postby IGNORE ME » Thu Sep 14, 2017 1:04 pm

That is the face of a dog who knows who is a good boy.

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Re: What about a thread for good news?

Postby Mongrel » Tue Nov 07, 2017 10:51 pm

So Northam won in VA, which is kinda-sorta good-ish news, I suppose.

But the actual story that made me bump this was that VA elected their first ever Transwoman State Assembly member - and it was for the seat of the incumbent schmuck who sponsored VA's bathroom bill.

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