Wizard Master posted:

How do you guys feel about the guilty verdict announced today with regards to Derek Chauvin's murder charges?

Wizard Master posted:

How do you guys feel about the guilty verdict announced today with regards to Derek Chauvin's murder charges?

Youth Decay posted:

If we merge West Virginia and Virginia would Super Virginia be a blue or red state

Wizard Master posted:

How do you guys feel about the guilty verdict announced today with regards to Derek Chauvin's murder charges?

Dapper_Swindler posted:

good. i also like that outside of pelosi and the vikings owner and couple twitter dipshits, most of the victory resposnes have been, this is good but we need to do more and pass actual poo poo and etc.

the_steve posted:

It's very good, but now I'm hoping they don't find some way to low-ball the actual sentence.

Kalit posted:

What'd Zygi and/or Mark Wilf say? I just saw the response on the Vikings twitter and that seems like a standard response for what I'd expect from a sports thing:
https://twitter.com/Vikings/status/1384624836132147201

Dapper_Swindler posted:

the owner heard floyds brother say "i can breath" and tried to make it a thing as a good thing.

Dapper_Swindler posted:

the owner heard floyds brother say "i can breath" and tried to make it a thing as a good thing.

VideoGameVet posted:

Kalit posted:

Do you have a source for this? I saw this with the Raiders owner, but not with the Vikings owners. I'm just confused because I haven't heard about it and can't find anything about it when I search for it.

Pobrecito posted:

So, going back to DC statehood - what happens with the 23rd amendment if DC becomes a state? 23rd Amendment grants the District of Columbia 3 electoral votes and the Constitution created the District of Columbia, which is the seat of the federal government. Presumably if DC statehood happens there will still be a District of Columbia that exists in some form as the official capital that is separate from the new state. Does the President and his family then get to decide 3 electoral votes? I would think you would need a new amendment to repeal the 23rd.

quote:

“Under H.R. 51,” the memo reads, “the few residents who live in the reduced District—including the President and their family—would have outsized influence in presidential elections.” Such an outcome “may be bad policy,” it goes on, “but not unconstitutional.” And while it just takes a Congressional vote and a Presidential signature to create a state, getting rid of those three electoral votes would require changing the Constitution. That’s a much tougher task, especially if one political party is in the mood to make trouble.

A number of scholars presented with the problem have essentially been left scratching their heads. “It’s a puzzle,” acknowledged Mary Cheh, Councilwoman for DC’s Ward 3, and a professor of constitutional law at George Washington Law School. “It’s something we have to address.”

Sanguinia posted:

I think we've reached multiple Kamphs at this point.

...Kamphen? I don't know German.

Sanguinia posted:

Can they just rezone the District of Columbia so nobody legally lives there and thus its 3 electoral votes are moot?

Pobrecito posted:

So, going back to DC statehood - what happens with the 23rd amendment if DC becomes a state? 23rd Amendment grants the District of Columbia 3 electoral votes and the Constitution created the District of Columbia, which is the seat of the federal government. Presumably if DC statehood happens there will still be a District of Columbia that exists in some form as the official capital that is separate from the new state. Does the President and his family then get to decide 3 electoral votes? I would think you would need a new amendment to repeal the 23rd.

Sanguinia posted:

I think we've reached multiple Kamphs at this point.

...Kamphen? I don't know German.

Dapper_Swindler posted:

i meant the raiders. sorry. i am dumb and don't know sports.

Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:

The federal district would have to include the White House and the President and their family legally live at the White House.

The states would want to repeal the 23rd if D.C. became a state, so it probably isn't a huge issue. The main problem is getting D.C. to become a state in the first place.

Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:

The federal district would have to include the White House and the President and their family legally live at the White House.

The states would want to repeal the 23rd if D.C. became a state, so it probably isn't a huge issue. The main problem is getting D.C. to become a state in the first place.

RoboChrist 9000 posted:

What I'm curious about, not that I think it should really be a factor either way because the core issues are much more important, is what the economic effects of DC or PR becoming a state would be WRT flags and suchlike. I mean think of how many goddamn flags there are flying at civic institutions in this country, plus all the stupid flag decals we have on poo poo like subway trains (presumably in case you forget what country you are in) and stuff. Also all the privately own and displayed flags at homes and businesses, or businesses that make reference to 'fifty state [whatever]' in their names or talk about the number of states in pre-recorded or written stuff.

Also speaking of the flag; who in government decides the new one? Like say DC gets its statehood: is it congress, Biden, or a constitutional congress or what that decides upon the new flag?

RoboChrist 9000 posted:

Also speaking of the flag; who in government decides the new one? Like say DC gets its statehood: is it congress, Biden, or a constitutional congress or what that decides upon the new flag?

Wizard Master posted:

How do you guys feel about the guilty verdict announced today with regards to Derek Chauvin's murder charges?

Sanguinia posted:

I think we've reached multiple Kamphs at this point.

...Kamphen? I don't know German.

Sedisp posted:

A Kampfwagen

Nonsense posted:

There better be charges for the pig.

https://twitter.com/rmayemsinger/status/1384655522859679745?s=20

They didn't even tell her to drop the knife, they just opened fire on her instantly.

His Divine Shadow posted:

Can't help but think this was revenge for the floyd sentence.

Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:

Yep. The hope is that if it passes, then there will be enough support to repeal the 23rd.

mobby_6kl posted:

They must have precogs working at the PD there

evilweasel posted:

pass a new law to give them to the winner of the overall popular vote

Wizard Master posted:

How do you guys feel about the guilty verdict announced today with regards to Derek Chauvin's murder charges?

Civilized Fishbot posted:

We should be working on our state and city flags, which are generally terrible.

quote:

The chief federal watchdog for the Secret Service blocked investigations proposed by career staff last year to scrutinize the agency’s handling of the George Floyd protests in Lafayette Square and the spread of the coronavirus in its ranks, according to documents and people with knowledge of his decisions.

Both matters involved decisions by then-President Donald Trump that may have affected actions by the agency.

Joseph Cuffari, the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general, rejected his staff’s recommendation to investigate what role the Secret Service played in the forcible clearing of protesters from Lafayette Square on June 1, according to internal documents and two people familiar with his decision, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the discussions.

After the sudden charge by police on the largely peaceful protesters, the Secret Service was able to move Trump to a church at the edge of the park, where the White House staged a photo opportunity for the president.

Cuffari also sought to limit — and then the office ultimately shelved — a probe into whether the Secret Service flouted federal protocols put in place to detect and reduce the spread of the coronavirus within its workforce, according to the records.

Hundreds of Secret Service officers were either infected with the coronavirus or had to quarantine after potential exposure last year as Trump continued to travel and hold campaign events during the pandemic.

quote:

Erica Paulson, a spokeswoman for the inspector general, said in a statement that Cuffari prioritizes investigations based on a limited budget and greenlights those that target the highest risks and are likely to have the greatest impact.

“Our office does not have the resources to approve every oversight proposal,” she said. “We have less than 400 auditors and inspectors to cover the entire Department of Homeland Security, an agency with almost half a million employees and contractors. Like all IGs, we have to make tough strategic decisions about how to best use our resources for greatest impact across the Department.”

Paulson continued: “In both of these cases, we determined that resources would have a higher impact elsewhere.”

Staffers inside the inspector general’s office privately complained that Cuffari — a Trump nominee confirmed in 2019 who previously worked for two GOP governors in Arizona, Jan Brewer and Doug Ducey — at times appeared skittish about investigations that could potentially criticize the president’s policies or actions, according to the people with knowledge of discussions.

quote:

The revelation that he declined to approve the two proposed Secret Service investigations could fuel criticism that Cuffari provided weak oversight of the second-largest federal agency at a time when Trump frequently used the Department of Homeland Security to implement some of his most polarizing policies. The House Committee on Homeland Security, whose chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) has raised alarm about what he considers Cuffari’s failure to conduct thorough investigations, has scheduled an oversight hearing Wednesday on the inspector general’s oversight.

“Cuffari pulled his punches on exactly the type of sensitive reviews his office was created to perform,” said Nick Schwellenbach, senior investigator at the Project On Government Oversight. “It doesn’t look like he’s an independent watchdog.”

Last summer, staff investigators in the inspector general’s office believed they had strong arguments for taking a close look at the Secret Service’s handling of both the Lafayette Square clearing and the agency’s coronavirus protocols.

Both issues had spurred intense criticism — the first for violating Americans’ right to protest and the second for potentially endangering workers’ lives and public health.

According to internal documents, Cuffari’s investigators submitted a draft plan on June 10 to investigate whether the Secret Service violated its use-of-force policies in the June 1 clearing of Lafayette Square, an abrupt move by law enforcement about 30 minutes before Trump marched through the park for a photo op. The staff noted that hundreds of protesters had been shot at with rubber bullets and sprayed with chemical irritants; 60 people had been injured.

quote:

But at a June 18 meeting to discuss possible new investigations, Cuffari said the office would not probe the Secret Service’s handling of the protests or clearing of the square, according to the two people familiar with the discussion. Instead, the inspector general suggested that Secret Service Director Jim Murray could look into the episode, they said.

Staff investigators were taken aback. Given that the Secret Service is the primary agency responsible for ensuring the president’s security for any movement he makes in public, the Secret Service’s agents and supervisors would have been directly involved in planning his walk across Lafayette Square.

quote:

At the time, routine internal reports on the numbers of new positive coronavirus cases among DHS employees showed the number of infections among Secret Service employees had risen quickly. On Aug. 10, a special review team submitted a proposal to investigate what steps the Secret Service was taking to prevent the spread of the coronavirus among its workers.

In an Aug. 13 meeting to consider proposed investigations, Cuffari questioned the level of risk involved that the office would be scrutinizing, according to the people familiar with the discussion.

Investigators told Cuffari that if Secret Service agents and officers were spreading the coronavirus, more of them could get sick and possibly die. It would also increase the risk of exposure for the people the Secret Service protected, including the president.

Cuffari told the team they should narrow the probe, and suggested only examining how the spread of the coronavirus affected the Secret Service’s investigative work rather than its protection assignments.

But coronavirus infections in the Secret Service were falling the hardest on agents and officers working protective roles, who were required to travel around the country to secure public rallies for Trump’s campaign.

Many Secret Service agents who worked near the president opted not to wear masks in the early days of the virus’s arrival in the United States. Some members of the president’s detail urged other agents not to wear masks when they helped secure sites for presidential trips, saying the president didn’t like to see them.

In the end, the investigation was shelved, according to records and the people familiar with the decision.

quote:

In March of last year, Thompson, the chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, said he was deeply troubled by many failures and factual flaws in an investigation by Cuffari’s office of the death of an 8-year-old boy in U.S. custody after Customs and Border Patrol agents detained him and his father at the border.

Thompson said the report inaccurately stated the cause of the child’s death, left out key details about the detention facility’s delay in treating the child and failed to examine whether the policies at the facility were followed or sufficient to prevent such a tragedy.

Thompson said “the many critical shortcomings in the work of the OIG raise significant concerns about the thoroughness of the office’s reviews as well as the willingness of the office to conduct in-depth examinations of sensitive topics.”

The Post reported last year that the number of investigations conducted under Cuffari’s watch had plummeted, noting that lawmakers from both parties were concerned. At the time, Cuffari’s office was on pace to conduct 40 investigations and audits by the end of the fiscal year that ended in September 2020, the fewest in nearly two decades. That would have represented one-fourth the productivity of the office in the final year of Barack Obama’s presidency.

Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:

What do you mean?