She got the crazy eye.

You mean, commiserate?

The dumbest part about this ruling is it treats every bribe as unrelated to every other bribe. The majority ignored the basic trait of every human with a prefrontal cortex, that we judge future planning by past experience.

So even ignoring the “first bribe is free” effect of the decision, what will happen in effect is that legislators and politicians will pass laws they think will gain bribes, be paid by interests that benefit after the fact, and after that without a single word, have an understanding that such back-dated bribes can continue indefinitely. Regular, consistent bribery is legal and easy, under this ruling.

When did The Verge start paywalling? Ugh.

Hopefully at least farts outside the CEO’s office every time they walk by.

That’s a pretty funny idea for a political cartoon - swing states in a trench coat trying to get into the democracy theater.

“It’s absolutely true that when you look at an individual campaign, it’s just as likely as not that it hasn’t had a huge amount of influence, which is why Russia just does it again and again, or in a different form, or targeting a different group,” the Digital Forensic Research Lab’s Carvin said. “It’s almost like producing cheaply manufactured goods and just getting it out there in the world, hoping that maybe one particular gadget ends up becoming the popular toy of the season, even if the others completely fail.”

Many researchers who study disinformation warn against seeing the hand of Russia as an all-powerful puppeteer, especially since so much of what its mouthpieces amplify is homegrown.

I think we’re severely underestimating the damage and impact of Russian influence, just as we’ve spent decades underestimating the damage and impact of Fox News propaganda.

Amplifying something “home grown” rather than creating a narrative whole-cloth doesn’t make it any less impactful. On a scale of 1-100, turning a fringe party from a volume level of 0.1 to 10 makes it seem like it is still low impact, but in fact it’s 100 times as impactful. It’s the difference between a fringe idea remaining fringe and it being accepted as a variation on “normal.”

That’s why thirty years ago, white supremacy was a fringe group that would be toxic to anyone even touched by it. Now, thanks to normalization by Trump and Fox News - and yes, Russia - there are open white supremacists (though they only occasionally say the quiet part loud) in Congress.

Russia is normalizing fringe right-wing, populist and totalitarian policies. I think they are not only having an impact, they are winning in recent elections. Yes, proving it is difficult, and that’s why no news source is ready to claim Russia caused it. But they are injecting poison into the veins of the world. You might say it’s “trace” amounts, but given a long enough timescale, it is going to be fatal.

I’m sorry, “before you blame this on republicans”? Republicans vote for Horrible Policy, pass it, but we should blame it on democrats for not …calling for a recorded vote? Yeesh.

Democrats didn’t have the votes. You don’t like this result, vote out republicans.

He has not been criminally charged, but Texas’ statute of limitations does not cover sexual offenses committed against a child.

Sounds like the pressure now should be on the local district attorneys that are failing to charge him for molesting a child.

What a strange and unexpected twist that Trump is taking a position that benefits Russia and undermines Western strategic interests. Huh. So unlike him.

It’s humorous (in a hopeless, resigned, utterly defeated nihilistic sort of way) how transparent the fascism has gotten. “Trump’s advisor recommends jack-booted thugs use legal pretext to punish political opponents without due process.”

At least give me some subtext to decode, don’t slap me in the face with it like a wet slice of bologna.

If he gets a huge fine, he will not pay.

Correction, *his supporters will pay.

So the prosecution of Trump is a political move, meant to create negative attention on Trump. And the prosecution of Hunter Biden is a political move, meant to draw attention away from Trump.

Ok.

As roasts go, that’s kindergarten level ribbing.

I still can’t tell what’s more pathetic - that this was enough motivation to destroy America’s democracy, or that voters were so gullible that it worked.

Yeah, she was always a rank opportunist. This isn’t her changing, this is her revealing who she’s always been.

I think I agree with the columnist.

I’ll never know though. I tried to read this on my phone with root level AdAway installed, and the window that the article appeared in was 30% of the page, the rest ads. I would close them trying to read the article, and more would appear every time I scrolled. I closed the British Airways ad at the bottom 5 times and it reappeared within 5 seconds each time.

I got to the part where the author makes a joke about how many ads SFGate has, at least.

Yeah, ok, well only babies drink energy drinks that small.

Yeah, this was the moment for me too. There’s just no plausible explanation for this that doesn’t involve at least willful negligence and lack of empathy.

It’s hard for me to choose the more likely theory:

(1) That these judges are so deluded that they think this is reasonable; or (2) That these judges are making the argument that it’s possible to get an abortion in bad faith because that means justifies the end of keeping a law on the books that prevents effectively all abortions.

“I suggest you concede” was meant empathetically. I’ve been wrong before and will be wrong again. I also see internet debates devolve into digging positional trenches to not be wrong. Again, I’ve done that before too.

Here, I thought you appeared to be falling into that pattern and I was trying to coax you to do the bigger thing, which is admit something difficult but true. Admitting being wrong is a different show of strength - it elevates you and reduces bad feelings all around.