gunnarthor

I think you and I see this differently. As I see it, we have two generalized options 1) Run on policies 2) Run against Trump Either option also requires the candidate to confront the electoral college and winning states that Clinton lost. #2 is the winning strategy and Biden gets it. He's running against Trump now in the rust belt where we need to get voters back. Bernie has been running longer and is spending his time in Iowa, NH and SC - 11 rallies in those three states since the new year as opposed to one in PA, none in MI, one in WI. If the candidates are going to ignore those states again, we'll lose.

He certainly has the talent to be in the discussion but so do others. I expect he'll be #1 on a few lists by the end of the year though. But Mize threw a no-hitter tonight in AA.

Man, Biden gets it. "While his rivals are chasing the Democratic nomination, Biden plans to pursue a mission focused on Donald Trump. ... Biden offered an economic message tailored for western Pennsylvania, where he praised organized labor. ... Biden’s decision to base his campaign in Philadelphia — and kick it off with a rally at the other end of the state in Pittsburgh — underscore his connection to Pennsylvania, a key industrial swing state Trump unexpectedly captured in 2016." https://www.politico.com/story/2019/04/29/joe-biden-2020-announcement-1292429

That was the summer I started reading comics so it holds a special place in my heart. I ended up with most, but not all, of the annuals.

That's my take. But it's hard to do the fantasy elements justice as well. Might have been a creative decision as Levi implies. But Bran's three-eyed crow thing is clearly supposed to be important in the book. Didn't really have a payoff last night. It'll help show that Jon Snow is the rightful king, of course.

OK, wait, stay with me here - Atlantis Attacks!

I really like Rortvedt. I was kicking around putting him #10 in the TT voting and now I'm sure he is.

Maybe but I'm pretty sure his ending will be against the Others and not over King's Landing. Maybe Arya kills the Nights King but I'd be amazed if killing the Night King kills everything else like it did last night. (In the book, the Nights King comes after the Others have already been around, he might not even show up in the book). My guess is that there will be a huge battle near the heart of winter and one in the Astral plane (for lack of a better description) that Bran will be the major player in. If one of Dany's dragons dies/gets stolen, I think it'll be Euron who does it, not the Others. And I don't think Cercei makes it out of the next book.She won't be the last villain standing.

I've enjoyed the X-men movies (not the stand alone Wolverine movies except Logan). I'd keep them separate from the MCU but drag the FF into it. That's a natural fit. They have enough characters to tell many stories and they'll have to. With Disney+, they'll need new content for their streaming platforms so I expect several Marvel based shows will air there only.

I imagine the book is going to be considerable different.

Arya, the Prince that was promised. I loved it.

Vlad had 1261 milb PA before getting called up. Interestingly (and surprising) Joe Mauer had fewer milb PA before getting called up. As did Byron Buxton.

Loved the film. It was clear that Captain American and Iron Man were the stars and they held it together. Our whole theater erupted when Cap threw Mjolnir. Read somewhere that Cap was the soul of the MCU while RDJ's Iron Man was its head. Seems accurate for this film. Interestingly, while the battle scenes were amazing, I think the best parts of the movie weren't the battles. I really liked Renner's Hawkeye in this one. The opening where he lost his family, Cap at the support group,Tony with his family and Nebula/Gamora conversations were all really well done scenes. Also thought the Black Widow/Cap scenes were good. Not sure what her future holds, my understanding is that she has her own movie coming out so does that mean she'll come back or is it going to be some 80s based spy drama? I didn't really like Thor's treatment in the movie although I understand why. At the end of Infinity War he was going to toe-to-toe with Thanos who had the Infinity Gauntlet.They had to do something to make Thor a wreck for that fight. And it was great that a big part of that fight was Cap, Iron Man and Thor. But I really liked Thor's character at the end of Thor: Ragnarok and they moved away from that. By the way, Captain Marvel's entry into the final battle was awesome. I really like her character ("Hi, Peter Parker"). The battle had a lot of great parts - Scarlet Witch got to kick ass! - and Iron Man's sacrifice made sense. The only thing I didn't like was Cap's end. Seeing him and Peggy felt right - their children will be gorgeous! - but didn't make sense for the character. And if they were going to give us that scene, I wish we could have actually seen it. I know fandom has basically fallen in love with those two having to be together but the logic even within the movie didn't really make sense. But good for Cap being with the one he loves.

Well, Bill Weld is running. He could damage Trump in NH early. Think it would be impossible for him to knock Trump off though.

Klobuchar is certainly a confusing candidate. On paper, she's a pretty strong option. But I know a lot of people in MN that can't stand her and some pretty impressive lawyers I know joke about the one time she went to court (implying she wasn't much of a lawyer, letting all the legal duties go to others). Yet she wins statewide votes by landslide margins and is popular with the type of voters the Dems need to win back. I'll vote Democratic party no matter what in 2020 though.

From the USA Today article I posted - "Officers have beaten members of the public, planted evidence and used their badges to harass women. They have lied, stolen, dealt drugs, driven drunk and abused their spouses. Despite their role as public servants, the men and women who swear an oath to keep communities safe can generally avoid public scrutiny for their misdeeds. The records of their misconduct are filed away, rarely seen by anyone outside their departments. Police unions and their political allies have worked to put special protections in place ensuring some records are shielded from public view, or even destroyed." The number of officers USA Today found was 85,000. That's despite many departments hiding and destroying records of misconduct. For one example, I know the lawyers in this case highlighted by the video below. Had they not filed a lawsuit, nothing would have happened. As it was, the Department refused to discipline any of the officers involved in this matter. Public education of police misconduct is obviously needed and efforts by USA Today and others to cover such incidents is welcome news. I will say that the article is making it's way around several of my legal listserves with great acclaim. Warning, the video below contains strong language and an unprovoked attack on a motorist.

I thought it was pretty good although I probably liked individual movies in the MCU better. Didn't like one part at the end which seemed out of character but they really did a great job considering all those movies.

You seem pretty emotionally attached to the issue. Obviously, how much attention to any issue is an eye of the beholder thing. Perhaps you should ignore it, seems like you don't think police misconduct is something that will affect you. I work in the legal profession and police misconduct - testilying, racial profiling, excessive force, lack of proper training on most issues - are significant problems. People tend to ignore them b/c we want to trust the police and the people harmed by these actions are usually (but not always) people that the larger community can tolerate being the victim of that behavior. But real changes to how our communities are policed won't change without such behavior being questioned. As to your question, "We need to unmask cops and report cops guilty of misconduct to the public?" Yes, we do. That's a no-brainer. If Officer Doe lies on the stand to try and convict someone that should follow him around the rest of his life. If Officer Smith sexually harasses a 15 year old girl in the back of his squad car and sends her sexually inappropriate photos, that should not be kept from the public.

My guess is that the Klobuchar doesn't have a real avenue to win in the field (although she'll clearly bet big on Iowa) but she'd be a great VP for Biden or Sanders. (I think Warren would have to pick a man to be her VP). So I expect that she'll go hard after Harris and Beto early in the primary season to advertise her attack dog bonafides, sort of how Christie took out Rubio for Trump. If she's lackluster in the primaries and just hangs around, she'd be an uninspiring VP pick.

Kepler's blast looked like a classic Thome blast. wow. Loved the Cruz signing. He'll be the AL's all-star at DH this year.

As an example, one of the big problems we have in our system is punishment that is different by a person's race. We have judges and/or prosecutors who absolutely refuse to let any person of color into the drug courts but let white defendants in all the time. No remedy for that. We've had judges that have ordered Native American men to not drink as a condition of release even when they weren't arrested for alcohol related offenses. A prosecutor in a southern MN county told a social worker he wasn't going to charge a man for domestic assault because the woman was from Mexico and he didn't want her to get a visa out of it. (Advocacy and publicity are potential remedies, of course, but not legal ones).

Judicial immunity. Pretty much from everything. Judges have assaulted witnesses and ordered bailiffs to beat up lawyers. I'm reaching pretty far back into my law school days - it doesn't come up much - but basically, a judge can't be sued/charged for anything that is arguably in their job description and control of the court room (how people enter and exit) is surely one of them, although that would probably be the key question here. There are exceptions, like a judge can't take a bribe or such but outside that, it's tough. The reason for the immunity is pretty straight forward. If you don't have it, everybody who is in court will sue their judge if they get a decision they don't like. Prosecutors have a near absolute immunity as well. That said, the ACLU-PA is actually suing a judge for nearly the opposite reason - she wouldn't let a person leave until ICE came. https://www.aclupa.org/files/1315/5482/7430/Parker_-_2019.04.08_-_ECF_20_-_Am_Compl.pdf

The judge and police misconduct probably each deserve their own threads. The issue with ICE in state court houses is complex. State judges have no authority over federal officers doing federal duties so they cannot refuse entry to ICE officers into the court house (although they have arguably a bit more control over the courtroom itself, but that's not really important). Courthouses, schools, places of worship have long been considered safe locations where federal immigration agents would usually not go. There was even an internal memo on that from the Bush administration. Naturally, the current administration pushed enforcement to 11 so we're seeing people being picked up in court, at elementary schools when they drop off their kids and at church. Obviously, the Bush administration had strong reasons to protect those locations from arrests and for courts, you want to see the legal system play out. The current administration has changed that which has had horrific side affects, including arresting domestic violence victims and creating atmospheres where witnesses of such crimes do not testify. Prosecutors and judges have spoken out against ICE being active in their court houses. This is happening in Minnesota as well and the professionalism of ICE has been questioned. As to the Judge who let a individual leave from a back door, I suspect the charges will be dropped or thrown out. Judges have absolute immunity and this will probably qualify. It's probably more a political stunt.

Don't think Greedy Williams falls to 50.

Now that we got our offensive lineman, I'm rooting for a DT, someone like Dre'mont Jones or Trysten Hill. Maybe Wren.