So, Trump did get something positive done as President? He should use that in his talking points for his 2024 campaign! Maybe Trump can come out for the first debate with an acoustic guitar and sing "Wait In The Truck" or something.
Jury has gone to deliberation in James Crumbley trial. I wouldn't be entirely shocked if they came back with a not guilty. The defense attorney seemed more prepared, more likable and more effective. We shall see if she convinced the 12 if the case was built on hindsight.
James Crumbley was found guilty. I didn't get to watch as much as I did of the mother's trial. I didn't watch as much prosecution witness testimony, since it was almost certainly the same as I'd already seen, I watched cross of those witnesses. His attorney was so much more effective. I dare say that if his trial occurred first, he had a chance of being found not guilty. I know I said prosecution seemed more confident in their case during opening statement, but I thought that what I watched after kinda fell flat and defense adapted well with what they learned from Jennifer's trial. He was well defended, made Jennifer's defense attorney look very mediocre in hindsight. So If you're ever on trial in Michigan, hire Mariell Lehman or someone like her, stay away from Shannon Smith.
How does that relate? Were they able to say in the trial as a strike against him "we've already convicted his wife of the same thing"? Wouldn't the judge have stricken that? I thought the jury for him had to be unbiased? I probably watch too much TV.
The jurors knew, pretty sure it was a question during selection. It'd be darn near impossible to find twelve jurors from the area that didn't know in the smart phone age. They tried for a change of venue, it was denied. I don't think it was stricken. The attorneys have to agree on a selection of twelve jurors plus alternates that "SAY" they will be unbiased. And hopefully all of the jurors go into it with that in mind. I tried to watch it, as much as I want parents to lock up guns, with an open mind, and I say James' defense had me wondering. I think there definitely could have been a chance.
High-profile trials really are do-or-die scenarios for law firms. They can come with monumentally corrupt fuck-ups like it did with Bubba the Love Sponge, or it can show you the gap that separates the skilled (Johnny Depp’s layers) from the unskilled (Amber Heard’s lawyers). one thing is for sure from watching any of these trials: TV and Hollywood gets actual court so fucking wrong that it’s hilarious. Can you imagine a lawyer just sauntering up and leaning into the jury’s private space while trashing a witness? Every defence attourney would have a dozen contempt charges against them.
Interesting... a local company here in Ontario is running a news feed site. https://ground.news/ They are doing some interesting stuff. I snagged a free year's subscription and am on day 2 of using it, and it's quite enlightening. They report on the news, and also report on the bias and factuality of the story. It shows you how left/central/right leaning a story is, how factual it is, etc. It also tells you if the story you're reading is being reported on in the left or right biased sources, so you can actively seek out your "blindspot" news sources. Reports I've read say that it's a legit attempt do be unbiased and they use a bunch of 3rd party ranking tools for each story, and I have to say it's really interesting to see that extra depth in the daily propaganda being thrown around by everyone.
How it works: https://ground.news/rating-system It also shows you who owns the news source. They have mobile apps and a browser extension. Again, it seems pretty fucking cool so far. I feel like I'm a much more edumacated media consumer now.
For those of you who didn't click on the link, this is what the home page feed and a detailed story page look like.
What is turning out to be REALLY interesting is the stuff that is NOT being reported on one side or the other. It really helps to explain why there is such a divide between the left and right... when you focus on the echo chamber of a news source that makes you feel good and aligns with your political identity, it's a totally different set of news. I think we all know that it happens at some level, but seeing some actual numbers attached to it is very eye opening.
And the browser extension recognizes a news story and provides the rating while on the page of the source story. Looks like this.
I'd heard about it before, stumbled upon a free subscription thanks to a linkedin contact, and then saw Grady talk about it again on Practical Engineering, so started digging into it.
The DOJ has launched an anti-trust lawsuit against Apple. Good. Fuck 'em. https://www.cnn.com/business/live-news/doj-apple-antitrust-lawsuit-03-21-24/index.html
I feel like the DOJ could launch an anti-trust lawsuit against a different company every day and they'd still be underdoing it. We've been slacking on enforcing anti-trust for so long.
Kate Middleton just dropped that she has cancer (unspecified) and has started chemo which explains why she's been MIA and posting photoshopped family pics. I feel that she should be able to deal with it in private whereas the wifey thinks that they should've addressed it earlier when rumors first came out.
Unless the tumor is in line for the crown, behind the next 4 Cobb salad shits she has to take, I do not care. Even then, I'd need to see at least one of the salads. Die or whatever.