"'Texas has one of the strongest "stand your ground" laws of self-defense that cannot be nullified by a jury or a progressive district attorney,' Abbott said in a statement."
The obvious flaw in logic in that argument being that "stand your ground" is not based so much in law, which is static, as it is in mood and feeling, which are momen…
"'Texas has one of the strongest "stand your ground" laws of self-defense that cannot be nullified by a jury or a progressive district attorney,' Abbott said in a statement."
The obvious flaw in logic in that argument being that "stand your ground" is not based so much in law, which is static, as it is in mood and feeling, which are momentary and variable. It also becomes an easy justification for violent actions when nobody has to do much more than say that they felt threatened, scared, intimidated, whatever (the "I was triggered" argument), to justify their own aggressive behavior and assault against others and with no accountability. It becomes a crime of convenience of its own, all the more so when Abbott and his fellow slime on the far right choose to smear their perceived opponents and openly justify hunting of those on the left, as long as they can say they were afraid. So much for F Your Feelings. Now its all about state-empowered violence in the name of them.
On another note, no discussion of Alito's flag-flying preference and the message it sends about the willingness of at least one Supreme Court justice to engage in political theater? Seems like kind of a big deal when they become activists with a message rather than simply adjudicating from the bench and a significant break from established protocol. One more nail in the coffin of high court impartiality -- supposedly, theoretically, maybe, kinda, sorta ... um, never mind.
The insurrection flag on a SCOTUS house boggles my mind, which I had thought was beyond boggling by now. How much immunity is this far right, MAGA -supporting, judicial temperament-lacking, backward-facing, man willing to grant an ex-POTUS?
As much as he can get away with, it seems, and on an unlimited basis. If the Clarence/Ginny Thomas example, egregious as it is, carries no consequences, there appears little hope that any of our unelected, unaccountable, tenured-for-life Supreme Court justices will face any restrictions on their behavior. That used to come in the form of generally accepted societal standards, a mindset which in this era has become about as antiquated as a typewriter. It's become far more about how far you can push the envelope without having to answer for it, and who/how many people have your back when you do cross the line -- a non-economic version of the haves and have-nots.
You know when the only standard for a cop, and now individuals (stand your ground) is that a person or cop feels threatened, perceived or real; bad sh*t will happen. This truly is a recipe for disaster.
And these MAGA morons are even creating laws allowing white nationalists to run down protestors. I’m not sure they’ll hold up as constitutional, but it just might, and then what? It’s licensed state murder. Apparently, every gun owner is the new 007; except lacking brains and any semblance of morality…:)
As for Alito, he and Thomas are in a class of their own; amongst a group of the most corrupt jurists ever to sit on the bench; and we’ve had KKK jurists in the past, which speaks volumes.
This country is truly going to hell in a hand basket….:)
Your line of thinking, with which I agree, is why I inserted the "I was triggered" reference as well. We see this more and more often in society, that people feel like if they are "triggered" by an action or an event, they have the right to pass the buck as they see fit, a convenient escape hatch for just about anything. It essentially becomes a self-empowering defense of "I can't accept this and don't want to deal with it, so you'll have to do it my way." It is a dangerous precedent and a slippery slope when we create a circumstance where there is no accountability as long as someone has strong feelings about something, with or without a gun. The guns just make the resolution that much more permanent.
I was raised in New Hampshire, where everyone always had a weapon, mostly for hunting, but more recently just because going out in the woods and firing of a few hundred rounds from an AR-15, “is a real blast” (pun intended). When I {barely} graduated from high school in the mid 1970’s I was all about doing the unexpected, so I joined the US Marine Corps, because I didn’t like anyone telling me what to do- one of many exhibitions of poor judgement that have colored my life experience. Anyway, it would likely come as no surprise that I became a gun owner whilst serving in the Corps. I had pistols, shotguns, rifles. I also had two young children and a wife. I rationalized the need for various weapons for, “Self-defense”, and brandished them like any other fool to show what a man I wasn’t and had occasion to threaten those I disliked by making sure they knew I had them. After leaving the Marine Corps I continued to be a raging fool, unconsciously waiting for a karmic experience to prove what a man I was. Luckily fate, as opposed to karma, intervened. A man from my town who had also enlisted in the Marines a couple of years after me was home on leave, got drunk and decided it would be a great idea to play a little game of Russian Roulette with a friend. He killed himself with the first pull of the trigger. My personal epiphany with regard to my friend, Chuck’s fate was to realize the simplest fact, that being the likelihood of shooting someone who made me feel threatened was a thousand times less likely than my killing my self or someone I loved through stupidity, intoxication, rage, or even by accident. I discarded all of my weapons and have consistently told those friends and acquaintances when discussing guns in general that I believe they have Every right to own them, and I have every right to disassociate myself from them when they choose to carry them. I just don’t trust anyone who’s carrying a gun to always act rationally whilst doing so
OMG, Timothy. What a story! Was Chuck, your friend, the man who shot himself? If so, what a heartbreak for you.
And what guts you have to admit you were motivated by proving what a man you were. To whom were you proving that? Yourself or somebody else? Recognizing not liking anyone telling you what to do was poor judgement is superior character as well. You're talking about a different level of manhood - judgement and character, not the ability to violate another human being.
Thanks for speaking out and I hope you are doing so throughout NH. God bess you!
I wrote a long reply and deleted it inadvertently - I think
Sure, I knew Chuck. My graduated class was little more than 100 from a 4 town regional school district! So everyone knew everyone and Chuck was a guy I knew most of my life. And there were a lot of kids in small town NH that never saw 18 through drugs, booze, car wrecks and guns. And many more who were lost to Vietnam.
I don’t think that much has changed in my lifetime. Different Drug epidemics, more gun violence & accidents, safer car wrecks but plenty of American carnage to go around.
Regarding who I wanted to prove what a man I was? Me & everybody else too! And I think that reason rings true today. Lots and lots of insecure young men, perhaps more alienated & alone but insecure nonetheless that feel powerful with a killing instrument in their hands.
Thanks and good evening or good morning as the case may be when you read this.
Thanks for your reply. (It's morning now.) As a retired social science teacher (history, geography, government, etc.), I want to know why there are so many insecure young men. Is it because the economy has changed so drastically that high school graduates can no longer get good-paying manufacturing jobs. Is it because relationships between men and women have so drastically changed that men without a good income are not good marriage material and women have the option now of not marrying or marrying later in life?
They've basically taken the qualified immunity that cops enjoy for shooting anyone whenever they feel threatened and extended it to the civilian populace. Just like the cops who shot the airman in Florida, Perry had no reason to be at that place at the time of the shooting and had inserted himself there wrongfully, the victim had a right to have a weapon on their person at that time, but because the assailant felt threatened while being in a place he shouldn't have been was granted the right to kill someone who had the right to be armed where they were.
This fucking backwards logic is insane and if the shoes were reversed--a pro-Palestinian lefty driving into a pro-Israel counter-demonstration and then shooting an armed conservative pro-Israel protester when feeling threatened--there would be no pardon from Abbott over the same circumstance.
Well said, Travis (as always). This especially: "Perry had no reason to be at that place at the time of the shooting and had inserted himself there wrongfully . . . "
Absolutely! “For way, way too many Republicans, political violence has become a matter of shirts and skins,” except only the Rs get to go on offense. It’s always heads they win and tails anyone else loses.
“This fucking backwards logic is insane and if the shoes were reversed--a pro-Palestinian lefty driving into a pro-Israel counter-demonstration and then shooting an armed conservative pro-Israel protester when feeling threatened--there would be no pardon from Abbott over the same circumstance.”—Travis
Excellent commentary as usual. Always remember, duplicity and hypocrisy are features, not bugs in the MAGAverse.
My only question to you is, “how are you even shocked at this point? We can’t even get Congress to put up a plaque in Congress honoring all the J6th police officers who risk their lives to save these bunch of despicable ingrates!…:)
It's not surprising, just insane. The thing all authoritarians want is to wear you down and get you to stop caring and tune out. That's how they win. Never forget how abnormal any of this shit is.
Agreed, and very true. Between the state shenanigans, the SC, and the Republican Party, it’s a war of attrition, and a slow death by a thousand cuts…:)
It's gonna take a lot of caring enough to not tune out. That's the challenge before those of us in the pro-democracy movement. I worry we are so isolated behind our screens that we will falter.
Again, I ask the Bulwark: Please give us a way to set up local, pro-democracy, in-person Bulwark pods (I am so sick of Zoom) we can opt in to so we can support each other in caring enough to defeat this minority, authoritarian illness taking hold in our country that is fuled by social media and cable news.
"'Texas has one of the strongest "stand your ground" laws of self-defense that cannot be nullified by a jury or a progressive district attorney,' Abbott said in a statement."
The obvious flaw in logic in that argument being that "stand your ground" is not based so much in law, which is static, as it is in mood and feeling, which are momentary and variable. It also becomes an easy justification for violent actions when nobody has to do much more than say that they felt threatened, scared, intimidated, whatever (the "I was triggered" argument), to justify their own aggressive behavior and assault against others and with no accountability. It becomes a crime of convenience of its own, all the more so when Abbott and his fellow slime on the far right choose to smear their perceived opponents and openly justify hunting of those on the left, as long as they can say they were afraid. So much for F Your Feelings. Now its all about state-empowered violence in the name of them.
On another note, no discussion of Alito's flag-flying preference and the message it sends about the willingness of at least one Supreme Court justice to engage in political theater? Seems like kind of a big deal when they become activists with a message rather than simply adjudicating from the bench and a significant break from established protocol. One more nail in the coffin of high court impartiality -- supposedly, theoretically, maybe, kinda, sorta ... um, never mind.
Love this: " . . . openly justify hunting of those on the left, as long as they can say they were afraid. So much for F Your Feelings."
Didn't Florida also pass a law that pretty much legalized driving your car into a crowd of protesters?
I think so, Steve.
Alito Flag story has not hit Foxnews.com as of yet (11:27 AM)
It's a dog-bites-man yawner to them.
The insurrection flag on a SCOTUS house boggles my mind, which I had thought was beyond boggling by now. How much immunity is this far right, MAGA -supporting, judicial temperament-lacking, backward-facing, man willing to grant an ex-POTUS?
As much as he can get away with, it seems, and on an unlimited basis. If the Clarence/Ginny Thomas example, egregious as it is, carries no consequences, there appears little hope that any of our unelected, unaccountable, tenured-for-life Supreme Court justices will face any restrictions on their behavior. That used to come in the form of generally accepted societal standards, a mindset which in this era has become about as antiquated as a typewriter. It's become far more about how far you can push the envelope without having to answer for it, and who/how many people have your back when you do cross the line -- a non-economic version of the haves and have-nots.
As a former American history teacher, I have to ask: How unprecedented is this ethical violation in our judiciary? Anyone?
The next step for Alito and Thomas is to wear red MAGA hats during the next court hearings.
You know when the only standard for a cop, and now individuals (stand your ground) is that a person or cop feels threatened, perceived or real; bad sh*t will happen. This truly is a recipe for disaster.
And these MAGA morons are even creating laws allowing white nationalists to run down protestors. I’m not sure they’ll hold up as constitutional, but it just might, and then what? It’s licensed state murder. Apparently, every gun owner is the new 007; except lacking brains and any semblance of morality…:)
As for Alito, he and Thomas are in a class of their own; amongst a group of the most corrupt jurists ever to sit on the bench; and we’ve had KKK jurists in the past, which speaks volumes.
This country is truly going to hell in a hand basket….:)
Your line of thinking, with which I agree, is why I inserted the "I was triggered" reference as well. We see this more and more often in society, that people feel like if they are "triggered" by an action or an event, they have the right to pass the buck as they see fit, a convenient escape hatch for just about anything. It essentially becomes a self-empowering defense of "I can't accept this and don't want to deal with it, so you'll have to do it my way." It is a dangerous precedent and a slippery slope when we create a circumstance where there is no accountability as long as someone has strong feelings about something, with or without a gun. The guns just make the resolution that much more permanent.
I was raised in New Hampshire, where everyone always had a weapon, mostly for hunting, but more recently just because going out in the woods and firing of a few hundred rounds from an AR-15, “is a real blast” (pun intended). When I {barely} graduated from high school in the mid 1970’s I was all about doing the unexpected, so I joined the US Marine Corps, because I didn’t like anyone telling me what to do- one of many exhibitions of poor judgement that have colored my life experience. Anyway, it would likely come as no surprise that I became a gun owner whilst serving in the Corps. I had pistols, shotguns, rifles. I also had two young children and a wife. I rationalized the need for various weapons for, “Self-defense”, and brandished them like any other fool to show what a man I wasn’t and had occasion to threaten those I disliked by making sure they knew I had them. After leaving the Marine Corps I continued to be a raging fool, unconsciously waiting for a karmic experience to prove what a man I was. Luckily fate, as opposed to karma, intervened. A man from my town who had also enlisted in the Marines a couple of years after me was home on leave, got drunk and decided it would be a great idea to play a little game of Russian Roulette with a friend. He killed himself with the first pull of the trigger. My personal epiphany with regard to my friend, Chuck’s fate was to realize the simplest fact, that being the likelihood of shooting someone who made me feel threatened was a thousand times less likely than my killing my self or someone I loved through stupidity, intoxication, rage, or even by accident. I discarded all of my weapons and have consistently told those friends and acquaintances when discussing guns in general that I believe they have Every right to own them, and I have every right to disassociate myself from them when they choose to carry them. I just don’t trust anyone who’s carrying a gun to always act rationally whilst doing so
OMG, Timothy. What a story! Was Chuck, your friend, the man who shot himself? If so, what a heartbreak for you.
And what guts you have to admit you were motivated by proving what a man you were. To whom were you proving that? Yourself or somebody else? Recognizing not liking anyone telling you what to do was poor judgement is superior character as well. You're talking about a different level of manhood - judgement and character, not the ability to violate another human being.
Thanks for speaking out and I hope you are doing so throughout NH. God bess you!
I wrote a long reply and deleted it inadvertently - I think
Sure, I knew Chuck. My graduated class was little more than 100 from a 4 town regional school district! So everyone knew everyone and Chuck was a guy I knew most of my life. And there were a lot of kids in small town NH that never saw 18 through drugs, booze, car wrecks and guns. And many more who were lost to Vietnam.
I don’t think that much has changed in my lifetime. Different Drug epidemics, more gun violence & accidents, safer car wrecks but plenty of American carnage to go around.
Regarding who I wanted to prove what a man I was? Me & everybody else too! And I think that reason rings true today. Lots and lots of insecure young men, perhaps more alienated & alone but insecure nonetheless that feel powerful with a killing instrument in their hands.
Thanks and good evening or good morning as the case may be when you read this.
Thanks for your reply. (It's morning now.) As a retired social science teacher (history, geography, government, etc.), I want to know why there are so many insecure young men. Is it because the economy has changed so drastically that high school graduates can no longer get good-paying manufacturing jobs. Is it because relationships between men and women have so drastically changed that men without a good income are not good marriage material and women have the option now of not marrying or marrying later in life?
Need bumper stickers: "I'm scared as shit and heavily armed!"
Love this!
I get it, and agree. Another excellent post as usual Deutschmeister…:)
They've basically taken the qualified immunity that cops enjoy for shooting anyone whenever they feel threatened and extended it to the civilian populace. Just like the cops who shot the airman in Florida, Perry had no reason to be at that place at the time of the shooting and had inserted himself there wrongfully, the victim had a right to have a weapon on their person at that time, but because the assailant felt threatened while being in a place he shouldn't have been was granted the right to kill someone who had the right to be armed where they were.
This fucking backwards logic is insane and if the shoes were reversed--a pro-Palestinian lefty driving into a pro-Israel counter-demonstration and then shooting an armed conservative pro-Israel protester when feeling threatened--there would be no pardon from Abbott over the same circumstance.
Well said, Travis (as always). This especially: "Perry had no reason to be at that place at the time of the shooting and had inserted himself there wrongfully . . . "
Absolutely! “For way, way too many Republicans, political violence has become a matter of shirts and skins,” except only the Rs get to go on offense. It’s always heads they win and tails anyone else loses.
“This fucking backwards logic is insane and if the shoes were reversed--a pro-Palestinian lefty driving into a pro-Israel counter-demonstration and then shooting an armed conservative pro-Israel protester when feeling threatened--there would be no pardon from Abbott over the same circumstance.”—Travis
Excellent commentary as usual. Always remember, duplicity and hypocrisy are features, not bugs in the MAGAverse.
My only question to you is, “how are you even shocked at this point? We can’t even get Congress to put up a plaque in Congress honoring all the J6th police officers who risk their lives to save these bunch of despicable ingrates!…:)
It's not surprising, just insane. The thing all authoritarians want is to wear you down and get you to stop caring and tune out. That's how they win. Never forget how abnormal any of this shit is.
Agreed, and very true. Between the state shenanigans, the SC, and the Republican Party, it’s a war of attrition, and a slow death by a thousand cuts…:)
It's gonna take a lot of caring enough to not tune out. That's the challenge before those of us in the pro-democracy movement. I worry we are so isolated behind our screens that we will falter.
Again, I ask the Bulwark: Please give us a way to set up local, pro-democracy, in-person Bulwark pods (I am so sick of Zoom) we can opt in to so we can support each other in caring enough to defeat this minority, authoritarian illness taking hold in our country that is fuled by social media and cable news.