Joe Money, Joe Problems: the November 2021 U.S. Politics Thread

yeah apparently this is just something the judge does, it's not a big deal, but I do get why this is so frustrating given that Rittenhouse has been treated less like a defendant on trial for murder and more like a kid on a field trip to see how the criminal justice process works up close

IMO the real upsetting thing is that both the video of him expressing a desire to shoot shoplifters AND the video of him repeatedly punching a woman in the face a week prior were both deemed inadmissible. I feel like if you're the prosecution you're trying to make the argument that Rittenhouse's intention was less to "help the community" and more to police unruly protestors. Both these videos seem to make the case that Rittenhouse is a hothead with his own ideas of who deserves to live and who deserves to die. And yet you can't use either so it's all a big game of "what was he thinking when he went to patrol the streets with an AR-15". Can't help but think that if someone murdered a Proud Boy and was on video saying "I wish I could murder a Proud Boy" that evidence would actually be deemed very relevant

Just kidding, we all know the guy would be wasted by police before even getting a trial

kinda wonder what the long deliberation means in this case. typically that's good for the defense but in the Chauvin trial they deliberated for 2 days and found him guilty of everything. of course disinfo merchants like Charlie Kirk and Jack Posobiec are all over Twitter amplifying the obvious lie that certain jurors are afraid for their lives because they want to exonerate him but think they'll wind up murdered by Antifa or whatever. weird that Twitter won't take action against stuff like that

yeah i think the intent to shoot shoplifters is pretty relevant and more worthy of being mad about. the punching a woman thing i don't see how it could be admitted but they could like, prosecute him for that? i didn't see anything about it at all though.

From the New Yorker article:

This view was buttressed when another kind of video surfaced. Weeks before the shootings, Rittenhouse had been hanging out with other teen-agers on the Kenosha waterfront when an argument erupted involving the younger of his two sisters, McKenzie. Reese Granville, a rapper who happened to be cruising past with a friend, filmed the altercation with his phone. (In the video, Granville and his friend could be heard debating what would happen if the police arrived: “It’s all white people, boy. We Black—we goin’ to jail.”) When a girl started to fight with McKenzie, Rittenhouse punched her, repeatedly, from behind. Bystanders broke it up by turning on Rittenhouse: “Don’t put your hands on a female!”

I have no clue if that sort of thing is usually admissible during a murder trial but since the difference between a manslaughter conviction and a 7-figure career as an "Antifa expert" on FOX seems to be the question of "who was the aggressor" I would think a video of Kyle inserting himself into another altercation and deciding to repeatedly punch a woman might be relevant

Defense tells judge their reading of the law indicates the jury should be able to watch it once, in public, and that's it.

— Stacy St. Clair (@StacyStClair) November 17, 2021

Prosecution says jury should be able to play the videos as many times as they want. Allowing for stopping, pausing, rewinding, etc.

— Stacy St. Clair (@StacyStClair) November 17, 2021

hmmm. seems like this video may be bad for Rittenhouse

Trying to understand why a jury wants a piece of evidence is nearly impossible.

Meanwhile, in other news, good god Kevin McCarthy is a complete and utter piece of shit.

yeah total scumbag

The parade of GOPukes trying to somehow explain, minimize, whatabout, or otherwise excuse Paul Gosar's stupid anime would be hilarious if it weren't so pathetic. My kid knows what would happen if he created and posted a video about killing a classmate. Congratulations, Gosar, you're not smarter than an eighth grader.

yea feel like any other profession besides US Congressman you'd be fired for something like that on the spot

literally on the floor of Congress explaining what anime is

how did America get to this point

"I lived in Japan! I speak Japanese!"

Hahaha, Chip Roy. Let's make this about the tyrannny of vaccine mandates.

cheer up Paul, I'm sure your immediate family will be there to comfort you.

Oh Louie Gohmert, never change.

#Rittenhouse judge says he could rule on a mistrial motion after a verdict or if the jurors ask to see the disputed drome video. https://t.co/ILthxUjm5t

— Michael Tarm (@mtarm) November 17, 2021

#Rittenhouse judge tells prosecutors: "There is a day of reckoning with respect to these things." https://t.co/dOgUp7ntXm

— Michael Tarm (@mtarm) November 17, 2021

The judge is going to let the jury see the drone video and says if it proves unreliable "it's going to be ugly" for the prosecution.

Prosecution wants them to see it on a 4K tv for best viewing. Defense is objecting, says the picture is distorted by playing an hd video on the tv

— Stacy St. Clair (@StacyStClair) November 17, 2021

ok I'm really trying to believe this is all standard trial shit but how do you justify this unless you're actively rooting for the defendant

things being "standard" and justified are different is what i've been trying to say though

pretty sure you can't declare a mistrial after a verdict though

Is it common for judges to fret at length about the authenticity of zooming in on a cell phone video?

Next you’ll tell me that this trial hinges on the difficulty of opening a PDF

all kinds of insane bullshit happens and no one should expect anything from this! i'm sorry! stop watchingggggggg

The judge is obviously a tech ignoramus, so when the defense makes a bunch of objections about video evidence he has zero clues about how valid their assertions are. The first time they did it, he demanded that the prosecution produce some expert testimony on short notice to refute their claims. It's all just the defense counsel throwing a baseless cloud of doubt onto the video and getting favorable rulings because the judge literally has no idea what they're talking about.

it seems like what happened is the defense had the highest quality version of the video, and the prosecution through some technical ignorance presented a compressed one, so the defense held onto that as some kinda ace in the hole as grounds to get the case dismissed because I guess nobody understands how video compression works

I think it's the opposite: The prosecution has a high resolution video, but when they shared it with the defense before the trial by email it was compressed. So the defense is arguing that they didn't receive the real video.

well yeah but they're saying it because I think they have the uncompressed version. at least that's my understanding. I'm probably wrong as usual though

either way right wing media circles seem to be all over this "prosecution doctored the video" idea which I guess implies there's something bad for Kyle in there

i don't know if accurate but i saw that they had *asked* for it to be emailed, which, stupid if true

back in my day, any video you had had to be put into a Vee Cee Arr or played through a camcorder plugged into the television. yew didn't get no definition, not a one

in other news Paul Gosar is the first Congressman in history to get censured for posting anime, so there's that

your mission, if you choose to accept it: send the full quality original HD video without any compression in an email, keeping it under 25MB

"Sorry, my hotmail is almost full, can you get it to me in under 10MB?"

in other news Paul Gosar is the first Congressman in history to get censured for posting anime, so there's that

― frogbs, Wednesday, November 17, 2021 3:59 PM (eighteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

the first of many

"Sorry, my hotmail is almost full, can you get it to me in under 10MB?"

― a superficial sheeb of intelligence (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Wednesday, November 17, 2021 2:13 PM (thirty-five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

You're assuming he doesn't still use AOL.

Yeah, definitely giving him too much credit there.

Juno

“Fuck this guy” doesn’t quite say it

https://www.newsweek.com/minutes-after-being-censured-rep-gosar-retweets-offending-aoc-video-1650542?amp=1

these guys love the phrase "kabuki theater"

I have never seen someone on trial for murder unhandcuffed standing directly behind a judge #Rittenhouse pic.twitter.com/K8j9GPKIQJ

— Natasha ⚯͛ (@ndelriego) November 15, 2021

Whatever I’d have to say about that is unprintable.

what is he looking at?

https://i.imgur.com/qmc2Ipr.jpg

dark lol

but also one wishes there were a way to bottle and redistribute this attitude - giving the defendant the benefit of the doubt, permitting the defendant to be seen as a human deserving of mercy and consideration - and apply it to cases where the defendant is actually innocent and/or deserves it

like if any one of the millions of unjustly incarcerated people of color had gotten a trial with, like, one tenth this much slack from the court? that would be a good start

Local news coming for Lauren Boebert:

#HeyNext Commentary: We should admit we hold Republican Congresswoman @LaurenBoebert to a different standard than every other elected official in Colorado. pic.twitter.com/jxX4xna0Ar

— Kyle Clark (@KyleClark) November 18, 2021

denver is not local to boebert's district

Kyle Rittenhouse, who could face a lifelong prison sentence if he’s found guilty of homicide after fatally shooting two people during last summer’s protests, might have a job offer from a Republican in Congress if he’s acquitted.

Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida said his office may ask Rittenhouse, 18, to consider working on Capitol Hill.

“Kyle Rittenhouse would probably make a pretty good congressional intern,” Gaetz said during a Wednesday night appearance on Newsmax. “We may reach out to him and see if he’d be interested in helping the country in additional ways.”

it's trolling, of course, but if he walks, i'm sure rittenhouse will fail massively upward. the judge, as well, probably is destined for some paid tv appearances and maybe a book deal

J.D. Vance, who’s running for Senate in Ohio, called Rittenhouse’s trial a “farce” this week. Last year, Florida state Rep. Anthony Sabatini tweeted that Rittenhouse should run for Congress, prompting some to call for the lawmaker’s resignation. And former president Donald Trump weighed in on the case soon after the shooting, saying Rittenhouse “probably would have been killed” had he not fired his weapon.

...Stinchfield, the Newsmax host, told Gaetz he might face competition in trying to hire Rittenhouse.

“I want him here at Newsmax,” the host said. “Maybe he can be a Stinchfield intern, too. He’ll have all kinds of job offers.”

Rittenhouse at absolute minimum is gonna get paraded out at GOP rallies and conventions for years

Lauren Boebert

Banana fana boebert

the kid is obviously a scumbag but he doesn't deserve to be sex trafficked by Matt Gaetz

sex traffic
isn't it Gaetz
luring right wing dollies
to a life of dates