Outside the Beltway

Huh, imagine that. Via AL.com: US Army sees safety, trust, not ‘wokeness,’ as top recruiting obstacle. But maybe they are just saying that to be woke?
The debates of our times (via the AP): New Hampshire students protest urinal ban in gender debate
This is from a week or so ago, but it dovetails nicely with the recent proof that FNC knew good and well that the election fraud claims were false. Via WaPo: Trump campaign paid researchers to prove 2020 fraud but kept findings secret.
I have been holding onto this for a while as well, as I thought I would write a post on what appears to be a general amount of laxness at the highest levels of the federal government when it comes to sensitive documents, but instead, here it is without further comment via CNN: Exclusive: Supreme Court justices used personal emails for work and ‘burn bags’ were left open in hallways, sources say.
An interesting read from Dan Nexon at Duck of Minerva: IS REACTIONARY POPULISM A FORM OF FASCISM? DOES IT MATTER?
A worthwhile column from Jamelle Bouie: The Relentless Attack on Trans People Is an Attack on All of Us.

The denial of dignity to one segment of the political community, then, threatens the dignity of all. This was true for Douglass and his time — it inspired his support for women’s suffrage and his opposition to the Chinese Exclusion Act — and it is true for us and ours as well. To deny equal respect and dignity to any part of the citizenry is to place the entire country on the road to tiered citizenship and limited rights, to liberty for some and hierarchy for the rest.

Indeed.

Tab Clearing

citizenship, debates, election fraud, Fascism, New Hampshire, US Army

7 responses to “Monday Morning Tabs”

daryl and his brother darryl

February 20, 2023 at 9:53 am

Trump campaign paid researchers to prove 2020 fraud but kept findings secret.

IANAL but seems like this would speak directly to mens rea…repeatedly given as the biggest stumbling block in prosecuting Trump for Jan 6th.

“…but it dovetails nicely with the recent proof that FNC knew good and well that the election fraud claims were false.”

Dominion has asked the court for a summary judgment in this case, and I’ve been reading a lot of legal opinion over the weekend that it is possible that it may be granted. The weight of the evidence is such that it is hard to argue against. I will offer the caveat that some of the opinions I’ve read come from people who have made offering hope to Dems where they may not be any part of their retirement plan; e.g. Lawrence Tribe.
Again, IANAL, but it’s hard to read all the emails and texts offered into evidence and see how Fox fights this?

1
daryl and his brother darryl

February 20, 2023 at 10:25 am

@daryl and his brother darryl:
Now I see that Kevin McCarthy has given Tucker Carlson access to video from the Jan 6th Insurrection.
Odd seeing that we now know Carlson, and others at Fox, lied repeatedly about the election being stolen and likely helped inflame the emotionally disadvantaged folks who stormed the capital in Trump’s Bloody Coup Attempt.
At the bare minimum it is now beyond argument that Carlson and his colleagues are unreliable narrators.
If McCarthy isn’t hammered with questions about this then it is another failure by the Fourth Estate.
https://www.axios.com/2023/02/20/kevin-mccarthy-tucker-carlson-jan-6-riot-footage
Kathy

February 20, 2023 at 10:56 am

@daryl and his brother darryl:

They could try a necessity defense

From the link: Occasionally, a person faces a situation that requires doing something illegal in order to prevent serious harm.

The Fox people noticed the very grave harm that their company’s stock was dropping. Surely propping it back up justifies anything.

1
daryl and his brother darryl

February 20, 2023 at 11:20 am

@Kathy:
Are you being facetious? It’s hard to read…
Anyway, I’m not sure how that works in defense of defamation?

“My stock price was down, so I intentionally lied with the intent of damaging your stock price, instead.”

Doesn’t seem like the lesser of two evils.
Kathy

February 20, 2023 at 12:36 pm

@daryl and his brother darryl:

Are you being facetious?

I hope so.

These days, you never know. Propping up the stock of a right wing propaganda organ, might seem as the far lesser evil than destroying the value of a company that aids democratic processes like free and fair elections. It might even be seen as a patriotic duty.
gVOR08

February 20, 2023 at 4:14 pm

@Kathy: It is of a piece with the common notion of maximizing shareholder value. I expect the big names at FOX, the Hannitys, Carlsons, and so on have stock option deals. So they’re incentivized to focus on short term share prices.
Kathy

February 20, 2023 at 8:26 pm

@gVOR08:

We’re already at a point where layoffs are accepted as a means of propping up stock valuation, even if the layoffs wind up hurting the income of the company in question.

The Fox thing is another instance where stock valuation gets divorced from reality.

I don’t like how the math is shaping up.