@dynamitemoth They have the best of intentions, but it’s within a very flawed system. The reason that plea deals are used so much is prosectorial discretion: they’ll threaten to charge with more serious counts adding up to an incredible amount of years. It then only makes sense not to risk a trial. It’s also hard to believe that 97% of all cases involve a guilty defendent; that would require nigh infallible police and prosecutors. Also, here’s an explanation of how a federal guilty plea works and the absurdity it can become. Prosecutors are also loathe 1 to provide evidence of innocence. There’s a ton of pressure of prosecutors to win cases, so they’ll even block the release of clearly innocent people. Expert witnesses and forensic experts are often relied on again and again even without evidence that the science has any basis in fact. There are a ton of incentives for detectives to quickly close cases, so they often settle on the first or second suspect. Police are taught to be overly defensive and often escalate situations. Once a department gets a SWAT team, they find reasons to use it. Military supplies and civil forfeiture create perverse incentives to play…
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I often put on this act of a fearless fighter when talking about the mistreatment of my people, but tonight I had a direct one-on-one conversation with someone who actively denies the humanity of Palestinians (one of the apparent majority) that resulted in me crying non-stop for thirty minutes straight. It had me wishing I wasn’t Palestinian because I wished I were part of a group that received some sort of empathy from fellow humans. The truth is that being Palestinian is one of the hardest things I will ever go through and that no matter how much hope I am given from peers and emerging humanitarian organizations (particularly American-Jewish ones), I will constantly live with the fear that our narrative will conclude the way the Native American one has now- with genocide of the majority of our people, theft of ALL of our land, and the complete dehumanization of our people in order to do it quickly. We’re on our way there and I don’t know how much more I can ask for help and allyship. If you somehow don’t condemn the current treatment of Palestinians, delete me from your friends list because we are not friends. My friends…
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I’m a huge fan of Pinboard.in for online bookmarking. Maciej is an awesome developer, has a strong business model1 (so he has no reason to sell your data), and delivered an open API. You can link your account to Twitter2, Instapaper, and Pocket; and also set your account to be completely private.3 There’s even the fun story of the Great Delicious Exodus of 2010. It also provides an easy way to start link blogging on Micro.blog via its RSS Feeds. If you want to send everything (I don’t recommend this) and have a public account, it’s as easy as adding https://feeds.pinboard.in/rss/u:username/">https://feeds.pinboard.in/rss/u:username/</a> 4 to your feeds in the same manner as WordPress. I’d recommend choosing a tag, like to_blog,5 and creating a feed just for that: https://feeds.pinboard.in/rss/t:to_blog">https://feeds.pinboard.in/rss/t:to_blog</a>. If you want to have more options, you can use up to three tags: http://feeds.pinboard.in/rss/u:username/t:tag1/t:tag2/t:tag3/">http://feeds.pinboard.in/rss/u:username/t:tag1/t:tag2/t:tag3/</a>. Warning: I do not recommend using private feeds. @smokey let me know that future Micro.blog features may reveal them. If you’ve set up your account to be private, creating the feed is slightly more complicated. You have to add your authentication token6 to the address: https://feeds.pinboard.in/rss/secret:xxxx/u:username">https://feeds.pinboard.in/rss/secret:xxxx/u:username</a>. I would definitely use https here and if someone…
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A conversation about traveling to the United States came up today on Micro.blog and @EddieHinkle wrote: [@dgold][4] How rude and ignorant! Do you think we Americans are happy or excited about any of that? Is this how you would react to someone living under a dictatorship? There is literally nothing Americans can do until November 2020. Most of us didn’t choose this (according to majority of votes), and based on the legal system of our country there is nothing that we as citizens can do until the next election. Claiming that there is nothing US citizens can do until 2020 is profoundly defeatist and Eddie’s words prompted me to reply with things we can do.1 Upon reflection, I think it wise to share measures we can take. I would love if people would brainstorm with me too! Donate to and volunteer for progressive Democratic 2 candidates in the fall elections. Both at the national, state, and local level. State elections can be particularly important, as Republican control has enabled extreme gerrymandering and harsh restrictions on voting rights. Not to mention the attacks on reproductive, LGBT (especially Trans), medical, etc rights. Share your pronouns and learn others’. Join [Black Live Matters][5]…
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So the EU is considering regulations on lamps’ power usage.1 If they don’t exempt entertainment lighting2, this is going to be a disaster. All existing equipment (from tungsten to LED to arc) will become obsolete. Touring shows to or from the EU will require major reworking. And there are significant hurdles for manufacturers to even create lights that will both illuminate the stage and satisfy the regulations. So much for the West End. Oh, and stage lighting uses less energy that keeping the water hot. And dishwashers, refrigerators, washing machines and washer-dryers, computers, televisions. All close relatives of a Source 4. ↩ As they already have for video projection. ↩
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Firefox is seriously tempting me away from Safari. I don’t use Facebook much, but having it quarantined when I do is an awesome idea. +1 for @mozilla!
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Shame, @cafegrumpy, Shame! Just look at this macchiato from Grand Central.
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What the fuck @NYTimes? I only wish I could cancel my subscription a second time. Why in the hell is your executive editor sharing the stage with a man who’s proud of his virulent racism?
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Over at Macdrifter, Gabe just posted about his failures. While I don’t know him personally, many of them read more as overly harsh self-criticism than failings. » I spend too much on coffee This is possible, but coffee is not that expensive and I’d conjecture that Gabe likes coffee. Is it really a failure to spend money on something that brings you pleasure? » I don’t dress well Compared to what? Is he comfortable in the clothing he wears? My initial reaction is Gabe is projecting the world’s judgment onto himself, especially as this implies the way he dresses every day is a problem. » I don’t work hard enough Gabe does note that some items are conflicting, but this one especially stands out. If he is going to criticize himself for not spending enough time with his kids, doing things for his wife, volunteering enough, etc; it feels unrealistic to expect himself to work more as well. He certainly blogs a lot. I guess he could be a lazy sloth that contributes nothing to the world, but, given his writing, I truly doubt that. » I’m not happy enough each day Red Alert! Red Alert! I’ve done a ton…
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.@manton already mentioned this, but great response by Apple to the current brouhaha around iPhone battery throttling. If you have a 6 or 6S, it definitely makes sense to replace the battery once the price drops to $29. I certainly will.
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