Thursday’s Forum

FILED UNDER: Open Forum
James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is a Professor of Security Studies. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.

Comments

  1. OzarkHillbilly says:

    Welcome to the not at all free state of Floriduh: DeSantis signs bills banning Chinese citizens from buying land in Florida

  2. Bob@Youngstown says:

    Trump was at his belligerent best at the NH town hall last night. Among other things, he would pardon most of the Jan 6 rioters, and probably sign a national abortion ban.

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  3. Charley in Cleveland says:

    Regarding CNN’s decision to air a town hall with a delusional, likely mentally ill former president – Chris Licht is determined to run CNN into the ground. He was far better suited for his last gig – producing Stephen Colbert’s Late Show. His infatuation with Kaitlin Collins is baffling.

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  4. Michael Reynolds says:

    CNN assembled a mob on behalf of a sexual predator with the purpose of ridiculing a rape victim.

    CNN boss Chris Licht should resign immediately. Or he could hang himself. That might work, too.

    David Zaslav is yet another Master of the Universe who turns out to be a bit of an idiot. His first Big Idea is to unite HBO and Discovery, degrading both in one fell swoop. Let’s put a Dollar Store in Beverly Hills and a Gucci store on Skid Row! Brilliant! And now, let’s burn CNN to the ground!

    Had CNN devoted an hour of airtime to having its anchors mud-wrestle pigs it would have been an improvement.

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  5. CSK says:

    @Bob@Youngstown:

    I forgot, probably deliberately, that it was on and got immersed in a book. I did see some clips this morning. He grossly insulted E. Jean Carroll, insisted he’d won the 2020 election, and claimed he’d settle the Ukraine-Russia war in 24 hours.

    The audience of yahoos loved it.

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  6. Jen says:

    I didn’t watch but oof SUCH a bad look for New Hampshire. /barf emoji/

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  7. Scott says:

    @OzarkHillbilly: Doesn’t seem anything a competent lawyer and shell companies can’t get around.

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  8. Scott says:

    Done get CNN and haven’t read about the town hall yet. I’ll await my descent into despair.

  9. CSK says:

    @Jen:

    I was thinking: “What on earth did New Hampshire ever do to deserve this?”

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  10. CSK says:
  11. Scott says:

    @Scott: OK, I did a quick roundup of the CNN town hall. It was the usual Trump BS and, as usual, CNN got conned. The only thing that I hope for is that Republican candidates (and non candidates) decide they should really go after Trump with real knives (or assault rifles). You see a little of that from Christie, Sununu, and Hutchison. Will DeSantis, Haley, Pence peek out of their bunkers and do the same. I’m not hopeful.

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  12. OzarkHillbilly says:

    @Scott: There are very few things competent lawyers and shell companies can’t get around. Unfortunately they cost money which is why schmucks like me are out of luck.

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  13. daryl and his brother darryl says:

    Here’s Ron Johnson espousing the well-known legal standard of “Innocent until Inferred Guilty.”
    https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1656388394887397383

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  14. Mikey says:

    @daryl and his brother darryl: He said that because the GOP put out a 65 page report on the Bidens and all it did was show what a complete nothingburger it is, so now they have to blather on about inference because they have no evidence.

    Pretty much what one should expect from the party of King Bullshit.

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  15. daryl and his brother darryl says:

    @Mikey:
    @daryl and his brother darryl:
    Their entire game is to get their accusations into the press so that their smear is legitimized and amplified.
    It’s not unlike Trump’s attempt to get Ukraine to say they were investigating Biden. They didn’t have to actually investigate, only SAY they were investigating, to give the smear legitimacy.
    The problem is that eventually the press will take up the story…like thye did with “but her emails” and “Benghazi!!!”

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  16. grumpy realist says:

    If the U.S. goes under, it’s going to be because of the actions of people like Chris Licht indulging a circus of trolls and yahoos propping up the political campaign of an Alzheimer’s-ridden narcissist. Licht doesn’t care how much damage he does to the body politic–he only cares about eyeballs on the screen.

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  17. just nutha says:

    @CSK: No body forced New Hampshire or its citizens to participate in this. It’s a self-inflicted wound.

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  18. Kathy says:

    I just finished reading “Pilot Error” by Sylvia Wrigley. It’s about air accidents where at least one pilot is a major factor in the incident.

    There are some funny stories, like a drunk pilot who couldn’t even pronounce his call sign, and many tragic ones. The last is a bit drawn out and very sad. It’s taken largely from what the pilot wrote about the 8 days prior to the crash (at least he survived physically unharmed). about midway through it, I was thinking “just get to the crash and end it.”

    The object of air accident investigations is to prevent further accidents in the future. It gets to that point by learning how and why accidents occur. Sometimes, though, there are no lessons to be learned, because they’ve been learned before.

    For instance: don’t take off under hazardous conditions, no matter how badly you want to get home.

    And in the case of the long, sad story: don’t pay for a major purchase until after you’ve seen the item(s) you’re getting and had a chance to inspect it.

    This poor guy sunk $180,000 in an amphibious plane that was in terrible condition, had several issues, and probably wasn’t even airworthy. But he’d paid for it before he even flew out to see it. To be fair, the seller had presented a different picture (meaning he defrauded the buyer) of the plane and its condition. He should have demanded his money back.

  19. CSK says:

    @just nutha:

    Sigh. It was a joke, okay?

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  20. just nutha says:

    @CSK: My mistake. 🙁 You’d just be surprised at how many times I’ve heard people say that about the impact of a Trump visit. (Heck, I’ve heard people ask what did TRUMP do to make liberals so enraged at him. As if he’s a good person or something. [head exploding emoji])

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  21. CSK says:

    @just nutha:

    No hard feelings. 🙂

  22. Gustopher says:

    @just nutha: CNN cherry picked the crowd to be Republican and Republican leaning independents. It’s not New Hampshire’s fault, every state is going to have at least a few.

    (Where were the Nazis? Seems irresponsible to cherry pick Republicans and Trump supporters and leave out such an important section of the base. Was there no guy with Lightning bolts tattooed on his face eager to ask Trump how he plans to keep Jews from replacing the White race?)

  23. dazedandconfused says:

    @Kathy:

    Mistakes are gonna happen. A remarkable defense which would eventually be enshrined in our own NASA ASRS report form, to be found in most professional pilots chart bag. A report it first and honestly? Here’s your get out of legal trouble free card.

    This practice goes a long way towards combating the problem. In attacking the problem of pilot error, the last thing you want is for pilots to feel compelled to keep quiet in order to save themselves.

    The Asoh Defense.

  24. Kathy says:

    @dazedandconfused:

    Absolutely. That’s also why accident investigations aren’t punitive.

  25. dazedandconfused says:

    @Kathy:

    It would be fundamentally wrong to have an investigation into the facts undertaken by a prosecutor, a person in our legal system charged with zealously taking a side anyway.

  26. Mikey says:

    Seemed obvious from the video and the witness statements that Neely wasn’t an actual threat to anyone, so this is not surprising.

    Daniel Penny to be charged with second-degree manslaughter in Jordan Neely’s death

    New York City prosecutors plan to charge the man who was filmed putting Jordan Neely, 30, into a fatal chokehold with second-degree manslaughter, after Neely’s death was ruled a homicide by New York’s chief medical examiner.

    Video of the May 1 fatal chokehold sparked outrage from public officials and protests demanding that Daniel Penny, 24, who was questioned by authorities and released shortly after the incident, be charged in Neely’s death. The city’s medical examiner ruled the incident a homicide on May 3.

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  27. Kathy says:

    @dazedandconfused:

    Coincidentally, remember the moron who crashed a plane on purpose to get views on youtube?

    He’s pled guilty to obstructing a federal investigation.

    I don’t know what he was charged with initially, but clearly lying about the location of the wreckage, and then carting it away to dispose of it, goes well beyond the norms of accident investigation.

    Before that, I’d argue there’s no accident investigation if the crash wasn’t an accident.

  28. Michael Reynolds says:

    @Mikey:
    And let that be a lesson to White people that they can’t just murder a Black man. . . if there’s video.

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  29. dazedandconfused says:

    @Kathy:

    The NTSB conducted one on Jacob nevertheless. Gave it to their most senior investigator, Elliot Simpson, too. Probably because the most senior person in most anything has the power to waive the board’s strict SOP rules, which as you suggest, would’ve been a waste of time to fully follow in this case.

    On the topic of face-palm worthy Stupid Human Tricks with aircraft: Redbull plane-swap.

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