@msbellows@c.im avatar

msbellows

@msbellows@c.im

Twitter diaspora. Agamemnon sucks: we do the fighting, he gets the girls. (Oregonian. Mediator/lawyer/writer; bylines in The Guardian, Alternet, HuffPost/OffTheBus, more.)

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

br00t4c, to random
@br00t4c@mastodon.social avatar

Tabloid Exec Lifts Curtain on 'Catch and Kill' Scheme to Boost Trump in 2016

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/david-pecker-trump-hush-money-national-enquirer-catch-kill-1235009098/

msbellows,
@msbellows@c.im avatar

@br00t4c "Pecker testified in court that he personally spoke on the phone with Trump, and suggested purchasing the story to get it off the market. 'I said we should take this story off the market, and [Trump] said "let me think about it,' and he said Michael Cohen will call you in a couple of days,' Pecker testified." [And then Cohen said to do it.]

TheJen, to random
@TheJen@beige.party avatar

Sorry to be crass, but maybe this will kill him. Maybe the stress of it will be too much and he just keels the fuck over.

msbellows,
@msbellows@c.im avatar

@TheJen Please Jesus no. Please don't let TFG die before the low-info voters are told that, yeah, a jury has found him guilty of real crimes. And not before we get to see him wearing orange, with a prison haircut, and a FOIA request obtains the prison intake form showing his actual weight.

Pagan_Animist, (edited ) to random
@Pagan_Animist@beekeeping.ninja avatar

Holy chicken.

Very thinly gold plated, I am imagining.

I was perusing a local farm to table site and came across “spent” laying hens for sale. Average 4 lb package.
Eight dollars and ninety two cents a pound.
“Spent” laying hens were called “stewing chicken” at home and seriously, they should have only been used for stock.
I disliked chicken and biscuits for years because I’d only had it made with stewing hens.

Grandpa would be laughing all of the way to the bank.

msbellows,
@msbellows@c.im avatar

@Pagan_Animist $8 PER LB.???

RickiTarr, to random
@RickiTarr@beige.party avatar

It insane to me how often women are not given pain management for gynecological procedures, because many many years ago a male doctor who's never had a vagina, cervix, or uterus decided that there weren't enough nerve endings up there to hurt significantly. I think it's time to put this fallacy to bed. It most definitely does hurt, and people who have literally no experience with female equipment don't get to decide this for me. Trust me docs, you don't want to taste your own medicine on this.

msbellows,
@msbellows@c.im avatar

@RickiTarr Just because your penis isn't long enough to have ever reached the nerve endings at the top of the vagina doesn't mean those nerve endings don't exist, doc.

joshuaphilll, to random
@joshuaphilll@spore.social avatar

I'm a Jew who's been afraid at Palestine protests.

Then, I learned more. I learned that I didn't know what people were chanting. I learned there was a lot to unlearn.

Then I decided I don't want my identity used to shield a genocidal apartheid state.

https://www.jphilll.com/p/being-afraid-does-not-mean-youre

msbellows,
@msbellows@c.im avatar

@joshuaphilll "Being afraid does not mean you're under attack."

Man, that's powerful.

GottaLaff, to legal
@GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

1/…🧵

Via Klasfeld:

Expected first:

The judge may issue his Sandoval rulings, determining what prior bad acts prosecutors can confront Trump with if he testifies.

A key question: "What's fair game?"

msbellows,
@msbellows@c.im avatar

@GottaLaff NFL: I wonder whether Cohen ever filed an amended tax return saying those payments weren't income and asking for a refund of overpaid income tax. :-)

msbellows,
@msbellows@c.im avatar

@GottaLaff If I were Trump's lawyer, I'd consider a very different strategy: CONCEDING the falsified records (a misdemeanor that probably wouldn't result in jail time), but arguing that the intent wasn't to affect the election (which Trump didn't actually expect to win anyway), but to protect his public reputation for business purposes (because at that point his money came not from real estate developing, but from licensing his valuable name to others).

Without the "election fraud" hook, what's the underlying crime that makes this a felony? Tax fraud wasn't the purpose of this arrangement, and it actually increased the taxes paid.

Conceding major parts of the opponent's case can be a POWERFUL tool in front of juries, because it buys lots of credibility, de-fangs the other side's strongest arguments, throws the other lawyers off their stride, may keep many of their witnesses off the stand, and focuses the jury on the weakest parts of the prosecution's case. When I was still trying cases, I did it a lot. It worked so well, it felt like a superpower.

msbellows,
@msbellows@c.im avatar

@GottaLaff Missed that; thanks! Which ones?

msbellows, to random
@msbellows@c.im avatar

You, a cold-hearted unforgiving jerk: "Ha ha Trump has terrible, stinky flatulence when he's asleep, even in the courtroom!"

Me, a more compassionate and kind-hearted soul: "Oh God I feel awful for his future cellmate."

ai6yr, to random

Anyone need a shrink wrapped, original MS-DOS floppies with COA?! 🤔

msbellows,
@msbellows@c.im avatar

@tiamat271 @ai6yr I'm tempted. Life was so much better then.

GottaLaff, to random
@GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

🤔 Not sure I quite get this. But it’s.. interesting.

'Cowardly judge:' Dismissed #TrumpTrial juror number 4 shares his story.

But this cracked me up:

“But when Cabreras walked into court Thursday, he said he "didn't even notice" #Trump.” https://apple.news/AG05mvsKYRCe7f3u4WgDy-Q

msbellows,
@msbellows@c.im avatar

@GottaLaff I was concerned about this guy when he first was seated, and now it's pretty clear prosecutors dodged a bullet. Thank God. The last thing we need is an anti-prosecution wildcard.

msbellows,
@msbellows@c.im avatar

@GottaLaff Also, did you see he now claims to be a "political consultant"?

CultureDesk, (edited ) to VideoGames
@CultureDesk@flipboard.social avatar

Video games, LeBron James, tattoos, and copyright law, in one story? The internet is really spoiling us today. @polygon reports on a long-drawn-out case in which tattoo artist Jimmy Hayden is suing Take-Two Interactive Software, makers of the NBA 2K video games, over the use of tattoos he made for LeBron James that were reproduced in games from 2016 to 2020. Hayden's attorney argues that Take-Two "painstakingly copied" the designs. Take-Two's team says that James' tattoos are a very small part of NBA 2K, and that James has licensed his own likeness to Take-Two, so a ruling in favor of Hayden would mean James would have to ask Hayden for permission to license his own being. Here are all the details, plus background on other cases in which tattoo artists have sued video game companies. What do you think?

https://flip.it/1.JDIf

For more stories like this, follow @polygon's Gaming Magazine, @gaming.

msbellows,
@msbellows@c.im avatar

@CultureDesk @polygon @polygon @gaming The tattoos are on LeBron so he owns them, UNLESS he has a different agreement with the tattoo artist.

rberger, to random
@rberger@hachyderm.io avatar

“Conflict is a reliable way to know whether or not you're a leftist. As Steven Brust says, the way to distinguish a leftist is to ask "What's more important, human rights, or property rights?" If you answer "Property rights are human right," you're not a leftist. Leftists don't necessarily oppose all property rights - they just think they're less important than human rights.”

“#Capitalists Hate #Capitalism”

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/18/in-extremis-veritas/

msbellows,
@msbellows@c.im avatar

@rberger @pluralistic And I disagree with this. When police destroy homeless people's tents, they're violating their human rights.

msbellows,
@msbellows@c.im avatar

@pluralistic @rberger Isn't that just a "no true Scotsman" qualification, though?

msbellows,
@msbellows@c.im avatar

@pluralistic @rberger I still disagree, though, simply because there's doesn't appear to be an invite bright line. Does taking someone's yacht violate a "human right"? I'm inclined to say no. Is taking away a scared child's familiar teddy bear? Yes.

GhostOnTheHalfShell, (edited ) to Economics
@GhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.ai avatar

@economics@a.gup.pe

Clipped from an interview that took place 1+ years ago, 170% private debt v GDP in US is a huge vulnerability. Per his work regarding debt’s role in financial instability, we’re in a crazy place, as the safe limit is 30% . Wages suffer from the debt overhang in the wake of a crisis as companies pay down debt.

mainstream economics is blind to all this, yet their theory guides US policy. It has to go.

🧵

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/pjPykhdM3ro

msbellows,
@msbellows@c.im avatar

@GhostOnTheHalfShell @economics@a.gup.pe Thanks for sharing and summarizing this. (Also, friendly copyedit: "faze.")

GottaLaff, to legal
@GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

REMINDER: I can’t always reply/answer questions. Use NFL (Not For Laffy)

🧵Starts HERE 1/…

#TrumpTrial #Trump #legal

Pagliery:

Trump is sitting at the defense table, with Todd Blanche at his right and Emil Bove at his left, plus Susan Necheles at the far left.

Blanche is explaining something, waving his right hand around while Trump nods in approval.

Dozens called for jury duty are downstairs and going through metal detectors.

The judge just sat down. We begin.

msbellows,
@msbellows@c.im avatar

@GottaLaff It's Manhattan. The jury pool is disproportionately lawyers, financiers, or the workers that serve them – and workers can't afford to take six weeks off.

skinnylatte, to animals
@skinnylatte@hachyderm.io avatar

At the vet again :/ very old dogs, very frequent vet visits

msbellows,
@msbellows@c.im avatar

@skinnylatte Some vets will come to your home to administer euthanasia. We were grateful that it's due when we lost our last dog; it was more pleasant for him.

futurebird, (edited ) to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

This ant cartoon by falseknees over on tumblr really captures what I think it's like to be an ant.

Everyone is busy. No one really knows what they are doing.

https://www.tumblr.com/falseknees/747594384451813376?source=share

msbellows,
@msbellows@c.im avatar

@futurebird Do you think individual ants have any sense of self? I've kind been curious about where "self" and "multicellular organism" intersect with ants, bees, etc.

msbellows,
@msbellows@c.im avatar

@futurebird blink

Cool!

silentbeauties, to Cinema
@silentbeauties@toot.community avatar

Moving Picture World, USA, March 2nd 1912

A Mexican Courtship (USA,1912)

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0357900/

msbellows,
@msbellows@c.im avatar

@silentbeauties Are you using AI to write the alt.txt?

msbellows,
@msbellows@c.im avatar

@silentbeauties Sorry – I didn't mean to slight you. The Dorothea Lange account does, and it's awkward sometimes, and your reference to "Mexican folk clothes" sounded like how that account's AI would describe classic Spanish bullfighting costumes.

I love your account, btw. Hope I didn't inadvertantly insult you!

mastodonmigration, to random
@mastodonmigration@mastodon.online avatar

Might be wrong here, but seems like this may be a bigger deal than a clerical error as is being widely reported:

Rejected and ‘returned for correction’: Docs for Trump’s $175M bond get bounced >>> https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/rejected-and-returned-for-correction-docs-for-trumps-175m-bond-get-bounced/

It may be that the bond company didn't report their financials because they have insufficient collateral to secure a bond of this magnitude. In which case the bond is no good, Trump doesn't have a bond, and he is out of time.

Let's see how this gets resolved...

msbellows,
@msbellows@c.im avatar

@LGsMom @mastodonmigration @GottaLaff

GrimmReality, to random
@GrimmReality@beige.party avatar

Subscribe to my new app Shut Up 911 and I will

  • come to any bar you're in

  • use one of my patented shut-ups to tell some yammery jagoff of your choice to shut up

  • not care if I get punched because I have certain issues

  • probably have a few beers after telling the person to shut up so I will need a ride home

msbellows,
@msbellows@c.im avatar

@GrimmReality Brother 100/100 no notes.

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