from the who-really-needs-independent-experts-anyway? dept.
Common Dreams reports
The Trump administration's anti-science bent has reached the Department of Justice (DOJ), with Attorney General Jeff Sessions saying [April 10] that the department is ending the National Commission on Forensic Science.
The 30-member panel was described by ThinkProgress as "a group of scientists, judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and other experts tasked by the Obama administration in 2013 with raising standards for the use of forensic evidence in criminal proceedings".
In its place, a senior forensic advisor will be appointed "to interface with forensic science stakeholders and advise department leadership", Sessions' statement said.
[...] "The reliance of law enforcement on questionable science and the overstatement of the reliability of that science has been a leading cause of the wrongful conviction of innocent people", said National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) president Barry Pollack on Monday. "The reason the National Commission on Forensic Science has been so important is that it includes leading independent scientists, allowing an unbiased expert evaluation of which techniques are scientifically valid and which are not. NACDL is terribly disappointed that even while acknowledging the crucial role played by the National Commission on Forensic Science, the Attorney General has chosen to disband it."
Additional Coverage:
Previous: Forensic Hair Matches: More Junk Science from the FBI
Related Stories
The Washington Post has a story about flawed FBI science, and its effects on hundreds of cases prior to the year 2000.
The FBI has admitted that virtually all of their elite examiners have given tainted testimony overstating forensic hair matches.
The Justice Department and FBI have formally acknowledged that nearly every examiner in an elite FBI forensic unit gave flawed testimony in almost all trials in which they offered evidence against criminal defendants over more than a two-decade period before 2000.
Of 28 examiners with the FBI Laboratory's microscopic hair comparison unit, 26 overstated forensic matches in ways that favored prosecutors in more than 95 percent of the 268 trials reviewed so far, according to the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) and the Innocence Project, which are assisting the government with the country's largest post-conviction review of questioned forensic evidence.
Hair match wasn't the ONLY evidence in these cases. But in many cases it may have been the only evidence that placed defendants at the scene. However, 32 of these cases were death penalty cases, and 14 of those defendants have been executed.
All of these cases are now going to be reviewed.
This is the second major use of junk science the FBI has been forced to admit. There was the whole Bullet Lead Analysis used for decades to claim that the lead in bullets used in a crime matched batches of bullets the defendant had access to.
Peter Neufeld, co-founder of the Innocence Project, commended the FBI and department for the collaboration but said, "The FBI's three-decade use of microscopic hair analysis to incriminate defendants was a complete disaster."
We had two Soylentils submit stories about Attorney General Jeff Sessions:
Trump fires Attorney General Jeff Sessions
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46132348
"US Attorney General Jeff Sessions has been fired by President Donald Trump.
[...] Mr Trump said Mr Sessions will be temporarily replaced by his chief of staff, Matthew Whitaker, who has criticised the Russia inquiry.
[...] In a resignation letter, Mr Sessions - a former Alabama senator who was an early supporter of Mr Trump - made clear the decision to go was not his own.
[...] The president cannot directly fire the special counsel, whose investigation Mr Trump has repeatedly decried as a witch hunt. But Mr Sessions' replacement will have the power to fire Mr Mueller or end the inquiry.
[...] Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said he looks forward to 'working with President Trump to find a confirmable, worthy successor so that we can start a new chapter at the Department of Justice'.
Mr Graham, of South Carolina, had said last year there would be 'holy hell to pay' if Mr Sessions was ever fired."
[...] House of Representatives Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said: "It is impossible to read Attorney General Sessions' firing as anything other than another blatant attempt by President Trump to undermine & end Special Counsel Mueller's investigation."
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Walzmyn on Sunday April 16 2017, @12:56AM (31 children)
"Trump Administration's War on Science Reaches DoJ"
Seriously? Most folks here might agree, hell *I* might agree once I look into it. But that's a bit leading ain't it?
One would assume the administration is trying to make a balance between budgets, new scientific methods and the level necessary to be accurate in investigations. To just throw out "anti-science" like they're purposefully trying to push us back to the stone age is uncalled for. (even if it's the end result)
(Score: 5, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday April 16 2017, @01:00AM (10 children)
That's to be expected from a gewg_ submission.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 16 2017, @03:20AM (8 children)
And yet its still 100% accurate.
Reality's well known liberal bias giving you sour grapes again?
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 16 2017, @03:35AM (5 children)
It literally isn't 100% accurate because it is impossible to wage war on a concept.
(Score: 3, Touché) by mhajicek on Sunday April 16 2017, @03:43AM (4 children)
You mean like drugs or terrorism?
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 16 2017, @05:26AM (3 children)
Drugs are tangible and terrorism is an activity. Islam or communism are concepts.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 16 2017, @05:53AM (2 children)
Small-minded literalism and dictionary pedantry are also concepts, both of which deserve to be made war on.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 16 2017, @07:23AM (1 child)
"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 16 2017, @09:22AM
JFC. Will you two get a room already?!
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday April 16 2017, @10:22AM
Newp. Fair's fair. He gets his clickbait titles and I get mine.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 16 2017, @04:21PM
>Reality's well known liberal bias giving you sour grapes again?
According to a totally impartial fact check by a company owned by a newspaper who endorses Democrats for every single election in their 100 year history, this statement is true!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by aristarchus on Sunday April 16 2017, @07:54PM
to be expected from a gewg_ submission.
And this is to be expected from a TMB reaction to a gewg_ submission. (Cain't wait 'til we have video on SoylentNews, we could actually see the reaction, and Ethanol . . . . OK, no videos on SoylentNews.)
(Score: 5, Insightful) by http on Sunday April 16 2017, @02:14AM (12 children)
No, it's not leading. "Anti-science" is absolutely called for. I lived through Canada's war on science led by the Harper adminstration, and Trump's team is following the exact same playbook in those fields where science matters.
Stone age? Like shit. Think feudalism.
I browse at -1 when I have mod points. It's unsettling.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 16 2017, @02:39AM (11 children)
That's a matter for capitalism, not coercion.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 16 2017, @02:49AM (9 children)
Well, capitalism has been doing a piss-fucking-poor job of it.
All the technology that made america great has its roots in government scientific research.
But since Reagan there has been a long steady decline in government funded research and as a result we've been coasting on the capital of the previous generations. The rate of ground breaking discoveries has petered out to nil, replaced with minor incremental improvements of existing tech (the stuff with its origins in government research). That's because the kind of long-term research that produces previously unimagined scientific discoveries can't be represented on a balance sheet. You can put a dollar number on goals, but you can't put a dollar number on vision. But its vision that produces discoveries.
And that's before we even mention how science informs government decision making. If the only science available is whatever corporate thought would be advantageous for themselves then government decision making will only serve corporate goals.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday April 16 2017, @04:42AM (7 children)
All the technology that made america great has its roots in government scientific research.
So what? Everything has similar roots (or is that cooties?) in any institutions that kick around for longer than a few centuries. So private enterprise and religion are similarly endowed. Even relatively minor things like tin mining or prostitution does. Money gets around and everything is tainted in the above extremely worthless way by how it was spread around in the past.
Why should we care about the mythical taint of public funding any more than we care about the mythical taint of funding that originally came from prostitution?
But since Reagan there has been a long steady decline in government funded research
We can always look at real data than just make up bullshit. For example, US R&D as a percentage of US GDP hasn't changed significantly since 1983. And the US economy has grown significantly since then.
That's because the kind of long-term research that produces previously unimagined scientific discoveries can't be represented on a balance sheet.
And that's the kind of straw man that doesn't have a place in grown up debate about science. I think such arguments are used instead to defend the paying of some of our best and brightest, as well as a large bunch of bulbs that don't shine all that bright, to be useless. It's the abandonment not just of accountability and reason, but of the very tools of science itself.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday April 16 2017, @04:43AM
We can always look at real data
Sorry, here's the link [aaas.org].
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 16 2017, @04:51AM (5 children)
We can always look at real data than just make up bullshit.
Well, that's a good idea. So why is your very next sentence nothing more than made up bullshit?
For example, US R&D as a percentage of US GDP hasn't changed significantly since 1983. And the US economy has grown significantly since then.
The fact is, R&D has gone up but the rate of growth has been flat to trending downwards. [marginalrevolution.com] And that's because the R&D is focused on incrementalism that is intended to directly benefit the bottom line in the next quarter rather than investigating big ideas with no obvious immediate return.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday April 16 2017, @05:00AM (4 children)
The fact is, R&D has gone up but the rate of growth has been flat to trending downwards [marginalrevolution.com].
The great irony is that public funding of science and risk mitigation for businesses is probably the primary cause of that declining effectiveness. I'll note that I replied to my post with a link that showed the near constant funding of R&D at the federal level (which let us note is a significant increase in inflation-adjusted dollars). If research isn't as effective, it's not because it's funded less at the federal level.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 16 2017, @05:50AM (1 child)
The great irony is that public funding of science and risk mitigation for businesses is probably the primary cause of that declining effectiveness.
Again with the making up of bullshit.
I'll note that I replied to my post with a link that showed the near constant funding of R&D at the federal level (which let us note is a significant increase in inflation-adjusted dollars).
And all of the increased spending went to computer science and math. [aaas.org] Nearly all of it to ASCI, the program to replace nuke testing in real life with super-computer simulations in order to maintain our stockpile. It was signed into law in 1995, which you can see in the chart is exactly when spending took off. The only other discipline to receive significant spending increases was "engineering" which no one with any understanding of the topic would confuse with basic research.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday April 16 2017, @06:37AM
Again with the making up of bullshit.
I notice a remarkable lack of support for your assertions, whatever they may be, from the link you provided. Perhaps less projection and more looking at the very evidence you provided?
And all of the increased spending went to computer science and math.
Which is why we see medical R&D way above any of that. It has almost the same color as the math/CS curve. For someone with at least a little knowledge of US research, one would have known that there was something wrong with the interpretation when math/CS (a notoriously low cost field of study) appeared to be the highest curve.
Nearly all of it to ASCI, the program to replace nuke testing in real life with super-computer simulations in order to maintain our stockpile.
An elaborate explanation for a curve that didn't exist? Classic confirmation bias. You might want to think about what just happened here.
No matter how we choose to look at it, public funding in the US and elsewhere continues to grow while the effectiveness of that research continues to decline and private-side investment in basic research continues to dwindle. It's real convenient to claim that the problem is not enough funding, mental failwaves from the naysayers somehow holding us back, or some short term profit motive straw man. But there's no reason to expect this approach of just throwing money around to generate better science even over the course of many centuries. I'd say already that we have ample evidence that it isn't working including the earlier research on the declining effectiveness of research papers in various fields.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 16 2017, @07:57PM (1 child)
that showed the near constant funding of R&D at the federal level (which let us note is a significant increase in inflation-adjusted dollars)
How can we trust the "facts" of someone who gets "inflation" backwards?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday April 16 2017, @10:41PM
How can we trust the "facts" of someone who gets "inflation" backwards?
I suppose you could think instead. Let us note here that the graph of federal spending was in dollars per GDP fraction and near constant for the last three decades. GDP for the US grows considerably faster than inflation, hence, from that graph dollar amount adjusted for inflation grows faster than inflation as well.
I'll note this is the second time a graph in this thread has been significantly misinterpreted by an AC.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 16 2017, @05:28PM
CRISPR, RNA interference, cancer immunotherapy, gene therapy, induced pluripotent stem cells, HCV cure, massive advances in DNA sequencing ...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 16 2017, @04:07AM
I don't see how the ownership of the means of production by a moneyed, non-worker class (and not by the workers who do the producing) has anything to do with this.
It sounds like you are might be talking about "competition" (which is a totally different concept and is not exclusive to a Capitalist-only system).
There is a Lady Bird Johnson quote that you may have thought applies:
...except that this appears to be censorship, not dialog.
...then again, you might be thinking of the very warped Libertarian concept that gov't must always show a direct monetary profit from its activities.
Perhaps you could explain WTF you mean.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 5, Informative) by Whoever on Sunday April 16 2017, @02:21AM (6 children)
One would be wrong. This commission was investigating the use of bad science and outright pseudo-science to obtain convictions.
Stopping this commission will mean more innocent people will be convicted. This action has nothing to do with budgets and everything to do with promoting convictions at any cost, even if that means convicting the innocent.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 16 2017, @04:27AM (4 children)
Well, if you accuse someone, they're guilty, right? If they weren't guilty, they wouldn't be accused.
Except if you accuse Trump of something, with him on tape bragging about it. Then you're fake news.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 16 2017, @04:54AM (1 child)
Except if you accuse Trump of something, with him on tape bragging about it. Then you're fake news.
Trump himself has said the facts are true, but its still fake news. [thehill.com]
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Tuesday April 18 2017, @09:43PM
Kind of like when "news" report on Kardashian. It's true that her skirt is short but it's also irrelevant and a distraction.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Sunday April 16 2017, @05:24AM (1 child)
China is already leading the future obviously.
(Score: 2) by arulatas on Tuesday April 18 2017, @05:10PM
Make America Great In China (MAGIC)
----- 10 turns around
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday April 16 2017, @09:00AM
The people who have the most to lose from this are Blacks and Mexicans.
To them I say, " stop breaking the law, assholes! "
(Score: 4, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 16 2017, @01:21AM (9 children)
They don't get arrested unless they're guilty. So if the evidence is lacking, we need to give our justice system a little help to make sure those criminals (especially the darkies) aren't out on the street.
Hell, they might even vote Democrat! Better they're convicted felons and can't vote. Because they're guilty, or they wouldn't be arrested, now would they?
'murikkka! Fuck yeah!
#MAGA 2020
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 16 2017, @03:17AM (8 children)
Wow. Just wow.
I write a ridiculous (and objectively wrong) troll post with explicit racist overtones and it gets modded insightful? Twice?
WTF is wrong with you people?
(Score: 3, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 16 2017, @04:11AM (3 children)
They mistook your stupid troll for biting satire? I guess Poe's Law cuts both ways...
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Sunday April 16 2017, @05:48AM
More likely it was one of our resident racists mod-gasming all over the post. We have some people here who would be more at home in the early 18th century...
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 16 2017, @10:53AM
I have to say I almost up-modded it because I read it as having to be ironic. It works superbly well as biting ironic satire. Taken literally, it's just idiotic. If a troll knows they're being idiotic and doesn't believe what they're writing, then doesn't that qualify as a form of satire?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 16 2017, @10:56AM
Would +1 Funny be more appropriate for biting satire then? Not all satire is funny though and I don't think this one is.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 16 2017, @05:57AM
So, you are a true-believing MAGAT but you used it double-ironically to mock people who use it ironically?
And you are complaining that people took it as ironic and didn't get your double irony?
You played yourself son.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Chrontius on Sunday April 16 2017, @07:15AM (2 children)
I, for one, took this as satire until I read the grandson, then read your post, and realized that you weren't trying to be funny.
Much like the best puns being unintentional, so to was your brilliant satire.
Doesn't make it any less brilliant or satirical, though.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 16 2017, @07:26PM (1 child)
I, for one, took this as satire until I read the grandson, then read your post, and realized that you weren't trying to be funny.
Much like the best puns being unintentional, so to was your brilliant satire.
Doesn't make it any less brilliant or satirical, though.
Original AC here. Thank you for heaping compliments (albeit left-handed ones -- I hate that phrase as I'm left-handed, but the wisdom of our ancestors is in the simile; and my unhallowed hands -- left or right -- shall not disturb it, or the country's done for).
I was mostly channeling Jeff Sessions and every other racist scumbag in my original troll.
I suppose that those who modded me up considered it to be satire. Then again, it could be, as Azuma suggested [soylentnews.org], racist jerks "mod-gasming" all over it.
My response was because I was a surprised at the "insightful" mods, as I expected "troll", "funny" or "flamebait".
I sincerely hope you're right. Although that's not going to make much difference as the federal government doubles down on bad science.
Perhaps Poe's law took the night off, but I'm not entirely convinced.
(Score: 1) by Chrontius on Monday April 17 2017, @08:36AM
Honestly? The performance was comparable to a Stephen Colbert satire. Spot on, but just a little over the top and just smarmy enough to be really funny.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 16 2017, @02:15AM (3 children)
Is this it?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 16 2017, @02:20AM (2 children)
'xcept 'Murika was never Athens.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 16 2017, @03:13AM
True, our influence was global, there's was just regional.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 16 2017, @08:01PM
That's Athens, Georgia, USA.
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 16 2017, @02:16AM (8 children)
that this was an Obama Administration initiative. Jeff "I hate niggers" Sessions will do everything in his power to roll back anything that emerged in the last 8 years, even if it is something he would normally be politically in favor of. He hates niggers that much.
He has that Byron de la Beckwith "I didn't kill Medgar Evers, but he's sho dead and he ain't coming back." shit-eating, evil, racist grin down to a tee.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 16 2017, @02:40AM (7 children)
Recently there has been talk of Bannon getting the boot from the whitehouse.
But as long as sessions is AG, all the racist shit that Bannon was selling will continue.
Taking on Bannon during the campaign was part of the deal Trump made with the Mercers for their campaign donations [newyorker.com] (and use of Cambridge Analytica's big data operation). Installing Jess Fessions as AG was the other requirement.
(Score: 1, Troll) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday April 16 2017, @09:04AM (6 children)
Here we go again with the "everybody who disagrees with me is racist" drivel. Can some terrorist group or government false-flag agent please fucking nuke San Francisco, L.A., and New York City already?!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 16 2017, @01:19PM (4 children)
So you hope someone nukes two entire cities because some people call you names? Hmmm...
(Score: 0, Troll) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday April 16 2017, @01:24PM (3 children)
Three entire cities, and yes, it would do the rest of the world some good if they were nuked.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 16 2017, @10:46PM (2 children)
I'm all for it, so long as you're the next target and wiped out shortly thereafter. Yes, sometimes the ends DO justify the means.
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Ethanol-fueled on Monday April 17 2017, @01:02AM (1 child)
Fuck off, Kike.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday April 17 2017, @03:21AM
In ze old country ve haff zayink for leetle peesfucks like joo: "KHRAI SUM MOAR!"
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 16 2017, @08:08PM
Here we go again with the "everybody who disagrees with me is racist" drivel.
And here goes Eth with the "everybody who calls me a racist just disagrees with me!" drool, again. No, Eth, we don't think you're a racist because we disagree with you, but we think that because you are in fact a racist. Everyone knows that, all rational people agree. People disagree with you because you are wrong. Some of us even realize that you are providing cover for the more everyday racism on this site, of the "I am not a racist, but" and "Jeff Sessions in no longer a racist, he just wants to stop crime and make us safe, and if that means lowering the level of reliability of forensic evidence so that we can put more hippies and minorities and commies in the hoosegaw, so be it" varieties.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 16 2017, @02:43AM (9 children)
I'm not sure why this is even news anymore. We all knew that this would happen from that first late November night, the 8th of November to be exact. 4 years of chiseling away at Truth is hopefully just a bump on the road to something better. I sigh when I see these types of headlines. It sucks to live through such bleak times, when everything seems to go so wrong, but I guess that's why we have term limits! Hopefully we don't make such a stupid mistake next time. I can't wait for 2020. With any luck we can undo some of this horrific damage done by a single idiot and his idiot cronies.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 16 2017, @03:26AM (8 children)
Not only does it suck to live through these times but it's not certain that the U.S. will adequately recover its standing in 2020. To sit back and watch is to be complicit in all of this.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 16 2017, @04:31AM (7 children)
First, its very important to recognize that all funding for gov't operations originates in the House of Representatives.
Next, there will be a "midterm" election in 2018.
The term of a congressman is 2 years, so every seat in the House will be up for grabs then.
Get involved in the Primary Election and in the General Election and especially in the campaign of the candidate you like.
Be the change.
Without funding, the Executive Branch has a limited ability to implement its radical agenda.
...and just for fun I'll mention that Trump's executive orders keep getting shot down by courts.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 5, Insightful) by julian on Sunday April 16 2017, @05:00AM (6 children)
I'm worried because gerrymandering and voter suppression tactics work. They are effective if used well. They're also utterly immoral and reprehensible. Both parties are not equal in their willingness to employ these tactics to win. The vast majority of this activity is perpetrated by Republicans.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 16 2017, @06:57AM
Both parties are not equal in their willingness to employ these tactics
Everything that you said is true.
In addition, GOPers tend to take midterms more seriously than other folks.
That complacency has to be reversed.
...which is why it's critical that EVERY Progressive be aware of who the good guys are that are running and that EVERY Progressive is registered and that they ALL vote.
It's important that folks discover this stuff via phone, door-to-door volunteers, or on the sidewalk of the local shopping place and that they are told that their participation is absolutely necessary.
Some folks have difficulty getting to the polls.
That's another way to make a difference.
Find a way to get involved.
Every little bit counts.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0, Troll) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday April 16 2017, @09:54AM (3 children)
Yeah, speaking of voter suppression, what about all those nonviolent Trump supporters who are getting gang-jumped and beaten and sliced-up by leftist thugs?
What I assume you're bitching about is requiring citizenship and ID to vote. Well, no shit. The reason why Trump's deportations are scaring the shit of the left is because he's putting a stop to their scheme of destroying our culture and safety by importing hordes of new and uncivilized Democratic welfare-voters.
Abiding by the rule of law? Huh, imagine that!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 16 2017, @11:08AM
Now tell us the one about The Three Bears.
If the event to which you are referring is anything like the one in Huntington Beach late last month, the "journalists" got it completely wrong on the 1st try.
What happened in OC was that Trump-fan skinheads jumped some reporters/photographers who were there trying to do their jobs.
The aggressors were wearing Neo-Nazi insignia and had brought knives and brass knuckles.
An organizer of the Trump event got squirted with pepper spray by accident when she was standing in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Someone trying to defend himself from multiple attackers had his aim jostled.
The story without the alt-truth:
OC Weekly Journalists Say Trump Supporters Attacked Them at Huntington Beach Rally [truthdig.com]
.
requiring citizenship and ID to vote
There's a story in the queue right now about how in Kansas their resident dumbass has been looking for 2 years, wasting how much money is anybody's guess.
He has found a grand total of 8 people, with irregularities.
Most appear to be understandable screwups.
Kansas Secretary of State Finally Convicts an Immigrant of a Voting Irregularity [soylentnews.org]
If julian wasn't referring to outright fraud by state voting officials, I'll link to that.
This guy is an investigative reporter who has been tracking voter purging for years.
Greg Palast [google.com]
He has also made a movie about the fraud: "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy"
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by julian on Sunday April 16 2017, @06:20PM (1 child)
What a lovely pastiche of right-wing fever dream hallucinations; a pathetic litany of tired, content-free, non-arguments. Get some new material before you take your act on the road again.
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Ethanol-fueled on Monday April 17 2017, @01:06AM
Suck my dick, you goddamn nigger.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 16 2017, @04:23PM
That explains why Republicans do better at elections where gerrymandering doesn't exist, such as state governors.
What was that about reality having a Liberal agenda?