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[Strongpoint]

Yeah can we please not pull the "criticizing a country's government automatically transfers to their citizens and now you hate that country" card?

It doesn't transfer automatically but if you criticize a government for doing something that citizens overwhelmingly support you can't just go "I have nothing against that country, I merely dislike the government! Look! There is even a marginal group in the country that agrees with me!"

Nope, at this point, you are criticizing a country.

[hector13]

Criticizing a country for their decisions is not the same as criticizing a country for their religion or race…

[lemon10]

Let's keep the toxic Israel discussions in the Israel thread please.

[Strongpoint]

Criticizing a country for their decisions is not the same as criticizing a country for their religion or race…

Yes. But you shouldn't be surprised that some people won't believe you are rational and conclude that your criticism is caused by your whateverphobia, especially if they think that you don't use the same standards for all groups.

[EuchreJack]

Let's keep the toxic Israel discussions in the Israel thread please.

Yes, my apologies for bring it into here. It was a coin flip, and I chose wrong.

[hector13]

Criticizing a country for their decisions is not the same as criticizing a country for their religion or race…

Yes. But you shouldn't be surprised that some people won't believe you are rational and conclude that your criticism is caused by your whateverphobia, especially if they think that you don't use the same standards for all groups.

If that person thinks you’re criticizing Israel for their Jewishness when you’re actually criticizing them for the actions they take, that person is irrational.

If they require a comment about a different group doing a bad thing somewhere else in the world as some sort of “give a penny take a penny” credit toward being able to criticize Israel, that’s even more irrational.

[feelotraveller]

Let's keep the toxic Israel discussions in the Israel thread please.

I thought Israel was one of the states of America.  Wonder where the hell I could have got that impression.

[scriver]

nor can a European be born in the US.

Maybe that was the 'problem' Boris Johnson tried to solve?

(Ok, so he wasn't a technical European until about a decade after he became a technical American...)

I mean… I have a child, both American and European, assuming we still consider Britain European.

why wouldn't we?

[Bumber]

DeSantis is probably going to be Trump's Vice-President pick.

12th Amendment makes this unlikely. One of them would have to change their state of residence (like Dick Cheney did) to get Florida's electors. Trump's probably not going back to NY just for DeSantis.

Willis only developed a relationship with Wade AFTER she had already hired him

Well, that's certainly a claim.

More at issue is that she's paying him $100/hr more than the other prosecutors who have actual experience with federal crimes, and it seems he took her on vacations with that money.

Bonus: Foreshadowing from April 2020

[EuchreJack]

DeSantis is probably going to be Trump's Vice-President pick.

12th Amendment makes this unlikely. One of them would have to change their state of residence (like Dick Cheney did) to get Florida's electors. Trump's probably not going back to NY just for DeSantis.

Good point

[anewaname]

Willis only developed a relationship with Wade AFTER she had already hired him

Well, that's certainly a claim.

More at issue is that she's paying him $100/hr more than the other prosecutors who have actual experience with federal crimes, and it seems he took her on vacations with that money.

Bonus: Foreshadowing from April 2020

Fanis Willis filed her response on Friday. Here is a link to a PBS article that gave a direct link to her response pdf.

This is part of what Willis posted about Wade regarding experience (he's been at this for 25 years and he is highly regarded in his region by the judiciary and by lawyers):

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

To take this position, Special Prosecutor Wade resigned from three judicial
appointments and largely stepped away from his private practice for long stretches.
There is simply no honest argument that Special Prosecutor Wade unduly benefitted
financially from his appointment.

Regarding his pay rate, Willis included this in her court filing (main point in bold):

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Finally, neither the use of outside counsel nor the maximum hourly rate of
compensation of $250 is at all out of the norm for prosecuting agencies in Georgia. The
Office of the Attorney General regularly publishes data on its use of hundreds of Special
Assistant Attorneys General, reflecting similar hourly rates for at least a dozen such
special prosecutors, with some rates as high as $1000 per hour. See Office of the
Attorney General, Outside Counsel Fee Information.
https://law.georgia.gov/resources/outside-counsel-fee-information (last checked
Feb. 1, 2024).
13
context of Wade’s role during that time leading the District Attorney’s investigation into
Defendants’ complex criminal racketeering scheme designed to interfere with the 2020
election in Georgia. Comparisons to the invoiced work of other special prosecutors
tasked with dramatically less time-consuming work and much more circumscribed roles
are staggeringly off-mark. Special Prosecutor Wade made much more money than the
other special prosecutors only because Wade did much more work.

This is what Wade posted about himself in his affidavit (same pdf):

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

19. In the Spring of 2021, District Attorney Willis asked me and two other attorneys to
assist her in looking for a competent, trustworthy attorney to manage and lead the
investigation of possible attempts to interfere with the administration of the 2020
election. District Attorney Willis was able to offer no more than $250 per hour, with
a capped number of hours monthly. That hourly rate was significantly less than the
market rate for experienced lawyers in the Atlanta metro area, and less than the
billing rate for first-year associates at many large law firms. My previous rate when
working for a governmental entity was $550 per hour. The District Attorney’s Office
was offering less than half of the rate a governmental agency had previously paid
me.

Willis's response to the "he paid for her vacation" stuff:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

There are no joint or shared finances or financial accounts;
• There is not now and has never been any shared household;
• There is no financial dependency or merging of daily expenses;
• Financial responsibility for personal travel taken is divided roughly evenly
between the two, with neither being primarily responsible for expenses of the
other, and all expenses paid for with individual personal funds. Ex. A (Wade
Affidavit); and
• Both are professionals with substantial income; neither is financially reliant on the
other.

Wade's response to the "he paid for her vacation" stuff:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

34. The District Attorney and I are both financially independent professionals; expenses
for personal travel were roughly divided equally between us. At times I have made
and purchased travel for District Attorney Willis and myself from my personal funds.
At other times District Attorney Willis has made and purchased travel for she and I
from her personal funds. Examples of District Attorney Willis purchasing plane
tickets for she and I with her personal funds for our personal travel are attached.

There are also many receipts that people will claw through. Having one person buy both tickets is normal when you want adjacent seats.

[MorleyDev]

I mean, different people being paid different amounts for what is on paper the same job isn't unusual. Jobs where the workers are viewed as disposable need to unionize to ensure good equal pay across the board, jobs where workers are viewed as hard to replace tend towards individually negotiated pay offers that can vary by a decent amount. It's one of the reasons discussions of pay amongst people of ostensibly equal positions are 'gently discouraged' amongst the latter.

(Pay being best understood as a measure of how hard a person is perceived as to replace, not how hard one works).

[IncompetentFortressMaker]

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled against Trump having presidential immunity to prosecution for the events of Jan. 6.
He could appeal to the Supreme Court by Feb. 12, and probably will.

[hector13]

His goal is to delay, and he has 90 days to appeal. I think he won’t do that until May, and he has already sent out a fundraising email on the back of this ruling too.

[anewaname]

The pdf.


EDIT: that The Hill article says:

And as the former president appeals his immunity claims, the district court proceedings have been on hold. The delay has already derailed the original March 4 trial date and is continuing to inch the timing closer to the 2024 election.

If Trump wants to keep his trial proceedings from moving ahead, however, Tuesday’s ruling effectively forces him to appeal to the Supreme Court by Feb. 12.

So, it looks like he only has 6 days to file the appeal, but I don't know why.