Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Take your GOP plan out of the witness protection program.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

The words do not have to be perfect.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

I conferred with the team and they all agree – still not tired of winning!

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Let there be snark.

We’ll be taking my thoughts and prayers to the ballot box.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Friday Night Miscreants Open Thread: From the FAFO Files

Friday Night Miscreants Open Thread: From the FAFO Files

by | 91 Comments

This post is in: , , ,

Seems like my first impression was correct:

======

Sleep it off, Ronny:


Unpaywalled version:

U.S. Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Amarillo, threatened to beat up a state trooper and take down the Carson County sheriff in the next election after deputies detained the congressmen at a rodeo outside of Amarillo in July, according to a sheriff’s incident report released Friday night.

The report said that Jackson screamed profanities at deputies who were trying to clear the area for emergency medical workers to attend to a teenager who was having a seizure. Deputies asked the former White House physician to step back four times before they put Jackson in handcuffs, according to their reports.

After the congressman was released, he demanded Carson County Sheriff Tam Terry call him and investigate the incident. During that call, Terry, a Republican, said that Jackson warned him that he would “bury me in the next election.”

The events described in the report starkly contrasted with the congressman’s public statement just days after the July 29 incident. A spokesperson for Jackson said at the time that he was detained amid a “very loud and chaotic environment” and was released as soon as law enforcement realized he was trying to help. Notably the statement said Jackson was sitting “in the stands during the entire rodeo, in full view of the assembled crowd, and was not drinking.”

But according to an account from Chief Deputy JC Blackburn, the GOP congressman was seen drinking backstage of the rodeo event. A Jackson aide disputed that in a statement Friday…

The sheriff’s report, released to The Texas Tribune in response to a public information request, includes several accounts from deputies detailing what happened at the White Deer rodeo. After a teenager collapsed at the event, onlookers began to gather around her and EMS asked Department of Public Safety Trooper Young to clear the crowd, which included Jackson who said he was helping assist the patient. The report did not include the first name of many law enforcement officials present at the scene.

Young ordered Jackson to step back and moved him back. According to Deputy Alexander, Jackson pointed to Young and said, “I’m going to beat that mother fuckers’ ass!” …

Due to Jackson’s extremely agitated state, in which he continued to yell profanities, deputies brought him to the ground and placed the congressman in handcuffs, according to the report. Officers then escorted Jackson out of the rodeo grounds and removed the handcuffs, while he continued to scream profanities at Trooper Young. After the congressman was released, his wife, Jane Jackson, approached the deputies and demanded their information before their group got into a Black SUV and left the scene…

Law enforcement officials have not yet released footage of the incident, but Terry’s report said that he has reviewed tapes and agreed that the deputies actions were justified.

Jackson was first elected in 2020 to represent the 13th Congressional District, a deeply conservative district in the Panhandle. He is one of Trump’s staunchest allies in Congress and a vocal booster of his 2024 comeback campaign.

He served as White House physician for both Barack Obama and Donald Trump before becoming a congressman. In 2018, he was nominated by Trump to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs. But Jackson withdrew from consideration amid allegations of professional misconduct, including drinking on the job and overprescribing medication…

Yes, this will probably make him *more* popular with his voters. I’m just glad President Obama never needed his services for anything more serious than a head cold.

======

Another misunderstood genius goes one step too far:

Turns out peddling your ex-girlfriend’s diary to the gutter press, because the beyotch turned on you, is classified as ‘witness tampering’ by a justice system that doesn’t understand Effective Altruism. SAD!

The Very Online Right Wing can’t decide whether this is a bad thing — because Deep State attempting to muzzle innocent billionaire who probably cracked Hunter Biden’s laptop — or a good thing —
sending a Demoncrat (((donor))) to be murdered in his jail cell. I’m sure they’ll have the talking points straightened out in time for the Sunday talk shows, of course.

Reader Interactions

91Comments

  3. 3.

    Ramalama

    Hate to see what constitutes ‘rock bottom’ for Ronny Jackson. The man has a ton of power and is a raging alcoholic. Great combo.

  4. 4.

    eclare

    @piratedan:

    Germantown is a suburb of Memphis, where I live, and I was very glad to see that.  He is a real dick and voted accordingly in the state senate.

  6. 6.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Those nice young men in their white coats need to escort Jackson to the funny farm.

  7. 7.

    NotMax

    Texas two-step.

    The buoy border, a project of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, is part of Operation Lone Star, the state’s broader crackdown on unauthorized migration. This operation has been a multibillion-dollar failure with no apparent impact on illegal crossings. State troops and National Guardsmen stationed at the border reportedly have little to do, and suicide is rising in their ranks at an alarming rate. In July, a whistleblower reported that Guardsmen were instructed to line the river with razor wire and push migrants who got caught in it, including children and pregnant women, back into the water. Abbott added the buoys—which use serrated metal plates to pierce the flesh of anyone who tries to pass them—as a direct affront to the Biden administration, which has jurisdiction over the river. The Department of Justice promptly sued, citing the Rivers and Harbors Appropriation Act of 1899, which prohibits “the building” of any “structure” or “obstruction” in a “navigable river” without permission from the federal government.

    Abbott’s lawyers, aided by a group of mostly Texan GOP congressmen, filed their response on Wednesday, and it is, to put it mildly, not the work of serious people. Their defense rests on two basic arguments, one amusingly asinine, the other deeply disturbing. First, Texas Republicans argue that the portion of the Rio Grande is not a “navigable river” and that, even if it were, the buoys don’t interfere with navigation; either way, they say, the structure does not fall under the Rivers and Harbors Appropriation Act. Unfortunately for Texas, the U.S. Coast Guard has explicitly found that this entire stretch of the Rio Grande is navigable, as has the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. This fact is supported by the reality that law enforcement vessels can and do navigate this portion of the river. Moreover, a federal study found that the buoys do interfere with navigation, contrary to Texas’ baseless assertion. But that’s actually irrelevant, because the law prohibits all unapproved “structures” in the Rio Grande, regardless of whether they interfere with navigation.

    Faced with these facts, the congressmen defending the buoys pivot to the Bible. In their brief, they take issue with the Justice Department’s claim that the river is still legally “navigable,” noting that at certain points it becomes unnavigable because of changing depths, currents, dams, or other factors. The DOJ’s “theory” that a river is still “navigable” even when some parts become unnavigable, they declare, “would lead to absurd” outcomes because “most of Texas was once covered by seas.” But don’t just trust the geological record; also consider “the Book of Genesis,” which, taken “literally,” says “the entire world was once navigable by boats large enough to carry significant amounts of livestock.” For support, the brief cites Genesis 7:17–20, which tells the story of Noah’s Ark. Checkmate, libs. Source

  8. 8.

    eclare

    In retrospect, I guess it’s no surprise that the WH under Ronny turned into a festering cesspool of covid.

  13. 13.

    Leto

    Here’s some more fun Texass two-step:

    A prison guard says she was forced to stay at her post during labor pains. Texas is fighting compensation for her stillbirth.

    The seven-months-pregnant officer reported contraction-like pains at work, but said she wasn’t allowed to leave for hours. The anti-abortion state is fighting her lawsuit, in part by saying her fetus didn’t clearly have rights.

    On a warm November night, Salia Issa had just begun her shift as an Abilene prison officer when she felt the intense pain of what she believed was a contraction.

    Seven months pregnant, Issa said she quickly alerted her supervisors. She told them she needed to go to the hospital but knew prison policy wouldn’t allow her to leave her post until someone could replace her.

    No one came for hours.

    Issa kept calling for relief, but her supervisor repeatedly refused her, even telling her she was lying, according to a federal lawsuit filed against the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and prison officials.

    “You just want to go home,” the supervisor allegedly told her.

    Eventually, two and a half hours after the pain started, the expectant mother said she was allowed to leave the Middleton Unit. As quickly as the pain would allow her, Issa drove to a nearby hospital, where doctors rushed her into emergency surgery after being unable to find a fetal heartbeat. The baby was delivered stillborn.

    If Issa had gotten to the hospital sooner, medical personnel told her, the baby would have survived, the lawsuit claims.

  14. 14.

    Dangerman

    Decent Guy until shooting at an FBI or Secret Service agent. Then, Dead Guy. Decent corpse I suppose.

  16. 16.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @piratedan:

    This happened because she thought she was the law, same with the cops, instead of their enforcing the law. Unfortunately there are too many out there like her and her goon squad. They are only looking out for a local businesswoman’s interests.

    Besides that, who really needs a free press when you control everything?

  18. 18.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @Leto:

    Republicans only love “the unborn” because a clump of cells can’t reject their love, it’s virtue-signaling of the highest order that makes their opposition look like baby killers and because it’s free and doesn’t cost them a fucking penny. Once that child is born (or stillborn, for that matter), it ceases to matter to them. They want nothing to do with that child and to in no way assist it.

    Hell, post birth abortion is legal in most of these states. Just give the toddler a pistol and let it take itself out. I’m sure the law will say that there will be no charges as the family has suffered enough. That is as long as they are conservative and white.

  21. 21.

    oldster

    @Odie Hugh Manatee:

    “Republicans only love “the unborn” because a clump of cells can’t reject their love…”

    Well said.

    That Jackson thing — on the one hand, he’s a notorious drunk and an asshole. On the other hand, Texas State Troopers are not to be trusted. The same allegations — “he was unruly so we told him to comply and then threw him on the ground and handcuffed him” — are SOP for bad cops the world over.

    In time, I hope the body-cam tapes will emerge. It will show which was the bigger asshole this time.

  22. 22.

    JWR

    @piratedan:

    The search warrant, signed by Marion County District Court Magistrate Judge Laura Viar, appears to violate federal law that provides protections against searching and seizing materials from journalists.

    Wow! How in the wide, wide world of sports is this not immediate grounds for the feds to come down hard on all of these Gestapo goons, to include the boneheaded judge? I poked around a bit and saw that she was appointed by other judges, but didn’t go any further than that. (Had to eat, doncha know?) But geez! Is she really this incompetent, or just plain evil? 8-Ball says yes!

  26. 26.

    JWR

    Well, it ain’t quite Gestapo-like tactics, and there’s no judge forcing them to do it, and good for local NBC news for getting a statement from one of the board members who didn’t go along with this BS, (nothing from the no vote people on CBS), but why does this story remind me of Afghanistan, or an increasingly repressive, regressive Iran? Tis a mystery.

    3:05 minute NBC video report on the Murrieta school Nazis.

    KTLA story:

    Murrieta school district approves policy to inform parents if their child identifies as transgender

    …“The stakes are really, really high,” school board member Nicolas Pardue said during the meeting. “We have young kids who are flirting with these different ideations about what their gender is at a very young age because right now the state of California, for whatever reason, is intent on allowing minors to alter who they are physically … and I think parents are very, very concerned about that.”

    Pardue went on to say that “at the very least they (parents) get a heads up. ‘Hey, this is happening to your fourth-grader, fifth-grader, sixth-grader. You might want to know about this.’”

    Board member Nancy Young spoke out against the proposal.

    “It’s not like these kids are not telling their parents that they’re LGBTQ, they are. If they don’t, they have a very good reason,” Young said. “I had another male student about five or six years ago who was openly gay. His parents told him to kill himself, and he had an older brother who did kill himself for exactly the same reason. So, these laws are there for a reason.”

    Young said that most kids do talk to their parents but warned that “there are those very few where it’s not safe.”

  35. 35.

    JWR

    Curses! <shaking fist!> Foiled again!!1

    Acyn
    @Acyn 5h
    Comer claims they were right at that point where they “traced it” to President Biden but Garland foiled their plans by appointing a special counsel
    Aug 12, 2023 · 12:26 AM UTC

  37. 37.

    Geminid

    @oldster: I think the cops involved with Rep. Jackson were Carson County Deputies. Sheriff Tam Terry’s report describes Young, the officer who warned Jackson to stay back while the EMTs worked on the stricken girl, as a public safety officer but I think the term was used generically and Young was one of Sheriff Terry’s deputies.

    Sheriff Terry’s report, as reported by the Dallas Morning News, is pretty interesting. He says that after Jackson’s handcuffs were removed, a deputy had to restrain Jackson in order to keep him from attacking officer Young. It sounds like the Chief Deputy then walked Jackson to his car.

    When Jackson called Sheriff Terry and and demanded that he discipline the officers involved, Terry rebuffed him. So Jackson said he would crush the Sheriff politically.”[Jackson] ended the conversation with the statement, ‘Game on’ ” the Sheriff wrote.

    Jackson’s 13th CD seat was held by Rep. Mac Thornberry from 1994 to 2020, when he retired. Sheriff Terry endorsed Jackson’s main opponent in the 2020 primary. Jackson came in second but won the runoff on the strength of Trump’s endorsement.

    The last Democratic Presidential candidate to carry the Amarillo-centered district was Jimmy Carter in 1976, and now its rare for a Democratic Congressional candidate to hit 30%.

    Carson County, Sheriff Terry’s bailiwick, has a population of 5800, down from 7800 in 1960. That’s about 6 people per square mile! Tam Terry is up for reelection next year, so we’ll see if Jackson tries to follow through on his threat. The smart move would be to turn the page on this discreditable event, but….

  39. 39.

    JWR

    Oh Lindsey! You lying sack of shit.

    Acyn
    @Acyn 9h
    Bolling: You spent a lot of time with Joe Biden. Did you find him as corrupt as he is now?

    Graham: To be honest with you. He was a friend. I traveled the world with him. All this stuff blows me away.. This is a side I didn’t know much about
    Aug 12, 2023 · 12:48 AM UTC

    “Did you find him as corrupt as he is now?” Jeebus! Nope, no loaded question there! I only hope that someday these people are going to be forced to go through the Akashic Record, (or whatever it’s called), and see this for what it is; service to the Cult of TFG, and a yearning for the advent of a Fourth Reich in America. So VOTE, dammit, like your country really is on the line!

  40. 40.

    Tony Jay

    I just woke up to catch the last two penalties. Bloody hell, I thought the French would semi-cruise through that one. Well done, Aussies!

  42. 42.

    Tony Jay

    England v Colombia just kicked off. This looks like it’s going to be a matter of can the Colombians press England into making mistakes and leaving themselves open to a swarming break before England make their possession and aggression count?

    I think England might have too much for them here. Colombians going down faster than J6 traitors.

  45. 45.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @NotMax:

    Rio Grande is not a “navigable river” …. the U.S. Coast Guard has explicitly found that this entire stretch of the Rio Grande is navigable, as has the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

    Any stream in which a canoe, kayak, or raft can float up or down is a navigable riverway. However, if any farmer with a shotgun confronts you and wants to know what you are doing on his “land,” one is well advised to apologize and promise to exit his “land” post-haste.

  47. 47.

    Tony Jay

    The Colombian front two are super dangerous. Caicedo on the left is fast, skilful and daring, while on the right Ramirez is a fucking unit who seems more than willing to take on the entire England back-line over and over again.

    Good game, this. Very open.

  50. 50.

    Tony Jay

    Bloody hell! Lovely lofted chip from the right hand side of the area by Colombia’s Santos goes over the English keeper and it’s 1-0.

    Fantastic goal.

  52. 52.

    Tony Jay

    Also, too, nice to see the Aussie TV coverage continuing the grand old tradition of scanning the crowds for, ahem, ‘fuller figured fans’ and giving them long, lingering shots.

  53. 53.

    Kay

    The “analysis” that Glenn Greenwald fans and paid subscribers get:

    Glenn Greenwald
    @ggreenwald
    Congrats to Sam Bankman-Fried — the Dem Party’s second-largest donor (behind George Soros) — on having his campaign finance fraud charges dropped by the Biden DOJ.
    Their hilarious claim is that they just couldn’t proceed because the big, powerful Bahamas wouldn’t let them.

    vs

    Actual events a week later:

    A judge ordered Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the now-defunct FTX crypto trading firm, to be jailed until his upcoming criminal trial after prosecutors accused him of witness tampering.
    At a Friday hearing, Judge Lewis Kaplan revoked Bankman-Fried’s bail, saying that he attempted to tamper with witnesses on at least two occasions.
    The Department of Justice had alleged that Bankman-Fried (a previous Semafor investor) leaked documents to the New York Times in an attempt to discredit Caroline Ellison, his ex-girlfriend and the co-CEO of his hedge fund, who plans to testify against him in the upcoming trial. The documents constituted Ellison’s diary entries.
    Federal prosecutors have cited several incidents where Bankman-Fried violated his bail conditions in their efforts to convince US District Judge Lewis Kaplan that he should be in jail leading up to his criminal trial slated for October.

    I can’t decide if he’s worse when playing a lawyer or playing a journalist.

  54. 54.

    Slightly_peeved

    @Tony Jay:

    I’m in the same Timezone and I’m exhausted after watching that penalty shootout.

    The Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, was on the field giving the coach a hug after the match. Fingers crossed for a public holiday if we win the whole thing.

  55. 55.

    Tony Jay

    1-1!

    On the stroke of half time England get the ball in the box where the Colombian keeper spills it and in the scramble Hemp prods home.

    The crowd don’t like it, but they can shove it up their shiny red arses.

  57. 57.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Tony Jay: ​ It’s possible as long as Jesus is OK with it.

    On the slightly more serious side, a couple years ago a landowner shot a floater on the Meramec for shitting on his “land.” The floater actually did his bizness** on a gravel bar which is a legally designated part of the navigable waterway.

    Surprisingly (to me anyway) the landowner got charged with murder.

    *(just down the road from me)
    ** (I doubt he buried it)

  58. 58.

    Tony Jay

    @Slightly_peeved:

    I’m going to have to catch the game in replay, sounds like a banger.

    And of course, the winner of England v Colombia gets to compete for the title of Most Hated Team In The Final. 🤣

  59. 59.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    It was Popehat. Satby linked to it.

    Who knew legal stuff was so complicated?!? Not Glenn Greenwald. “Clearly, the Biden DOJ…”

    If it went to hearing yesterday the motion to revoke bail had already been filed when Glenn Greenwald told the marks who pay for his content that the “Biden DOJ” was protecting SBF.

  61. 61.

    Tony Jay

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Jesus would be fine with it, after all, “I bring not peace, but a sword AR-15 with sniper scope and extended magazine”.

    If I’m in a boat in a river with all that water rushing by, why seek out land to shit on? That’s God’s own bidet right there! I’d shoot the fucker on general principle.

  62. 62.

    Jeffro

    do we know if the trooper and the sheriff were ‘woke’, though?

    it would be irresponsible not to spec…etc etc etc

  63. 63.

    Another Scott

    @Baud: Yup, Popehat.  Turns out there’s an actual treaty about charges in an extradition and the US is following it.  GG should (and probably does) know that, but doesn’t care about letting it get in the way of his screed.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  65. 65.

    Kay

    I don’t  understand why “effective altruism” even counted as a distinct idea or theory. It’s…tithing except you give 10% to a (secular) charity rather than a church. These people are weidly naive, like they have never encountered ordinary things so don’t recognize them as ordinary and believe they’re groundbreaking genuis.

  66. 66.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Tony Jay: It is very uncouth for a floater to shit in a river. Only the locals get to do that by piping their effluent directly into the river.

  67. 67.

    Tony Jay

    2-1 England!

    Another Colombian error in the box, England react quicker and boom, back of the net!

  69. 69.

    steppy

    This has been a magnificent match. I have really liked Colombia and they have played about as well as they can today. But when they make a mistake, England have been there to take advantage (the 2nd goal).

  70. 70.

    Tony Jay

    Colombia definitely shaded the first half, pinning the English midfield down and getting into dangerous positions. They were unlucky to go in at half time level.

    Second half England stepped up their game and have dominated for long periods, with the Colombian front two isolated and their attempts restricted to long range shots.

    Colombia are trying to get their midfield up in support of the front two now, but that leaves space behind for England to threaten. This isn’t over yet.

  71. 71.

    steppy

    @Tony Jay: It hasn’t stopped Colombia from exploiting some poor shape to get some dangerous chances. They just go flat at finishing time.

  73. 73.

    Bart

    a deputy had to restrain Jackson in order to keep him from attacking officer Young.

    This is “saving someone from their own worst instincts.”  The deputy should have let him go.  Assaulting a police officer who is performing official duties with witnesses and cameras present would have earned the assailant some jail time, at the least.  Ronnie wouldn’t have actually laid hands on the man, though, would he?  Probably just get in his face and bluster some more.

  74. 74.

    Barney

    @Tony Jay: Looking likely for an “Ashes” semi-final – after the men’s cricket teams drew 2 tests all this summer, and the women’s 8 points all.

  75. 75.

    Tony Jay

    @steppy:

    Yup. All it takes is one chance, which Colombia are quite capable of making, and this could go to extra time. Caicedo, Ramirez and Santos have been excellent, proper ballers.

  77. 77.

    Shalimar

    @Geminid: Ronny Jackson became a Trump worshipper because he recognized the “never back down, never admit a mistake” personality as his own preferred method of dealing with the world.  No way in hell he does the smart thing here.

  79. 79.

    Tony Jay

    @Barney:

    That’s definitely going to play a role in an Australia v England semi. Deep down the Aussies know that they only kept the Ashes because the weather came to their rescue in that 4th Test (even I know that, and I’d rather fellate a sloth than watch cricket) so they’re going to be a bit thin-skinned when it comes to a sort-of rematch.

    And there we have it. England win 2-1 and face Oz in the semi final.

  80. 80.

    Shalimar

    @Kay: I’m pretty sure there is no group calling itself the Democratic party or any subgroup thereof where 93-year-old George Soros has been the largest donor in any cycle in the last decade.  Same for Sam Bankman-Fried being 2nd largest.  But it’s not enough to say “large contributor to Democrats”.   They have to be 1st and 2nd because fuck it, the rubes who read Glenn Greenwald don’t know he’s lying anyway.

  82. 82.

    Mike in NC

    They called MAGA Ronny Jackson the “candyman” because he was a quack who handed out drugs to anybody who asked for them. How he got to keep his medical license should be investigated.

  83. 83.

    artem1s

    @Kay:

    I don’t  understand why “effective altruism” even counted as a distinct idea or theory.

    it’s assholes trying to get attention. they take something completely ordinary and ‘re-brand’ it so they can call themselves influencers. it’s a community chest con.  United Way, American Cancer Society, the Jewish Community Federation, etc. have been around for decades. the concept is to pool funds from small donors and channel them to small organizations that don’t have huge fundraising staffs. unfortunately these professional fundraising organizations tend to lose sight of the message and can do real harm to the causes they are supposed to be supporting. Komen is a great example – the CEO decided to turn the Komen pink brand into her own personal vehicle for taking down Planned Parenthood. In the case of SBF they skipped the part where they lose sight of their mission and jumped straight to cramming the donors’ money into their own pockets. Shorter version they found a demographic that had disposable income, was disillusioned with boomers way of giving (stinking corporate shill neolibs), and SBF figured out the right buzz words that would get them to send their money to cool rich people to manage instead of sending directly it to those dirty poor people who will just waste it on shrimp and steak and refrigerators and AC.

  84. 84.

    matt

    they must have changed the Teddy bears they’re making and giving to kids – I’ve never seen one wearing a ghillie suit and carrying a sniper rifle.

  87. 87.

    mvr

    @eclare: One of the pleasures of Twitter has been seeing Jackson’s former colleagues express their disdain for him.  Especially Peter Souza the Whitehouse photographer for Reagan and Obama.

  88. 88.

    mvr

    @Kay: I think there is a lot to criticize with EI, but I think it actually comes from a serious place in the first instance. Peter Singer who is an influential utilitarian philosopher is somewhat important in motivating the view. And he himself spends a good bit more than 10% of his pretty large income on what he takes to be effective causes.

    Among the lots to criticize with EA is what I think is the failure of most EA folks to think about political change as a way of being effective. Another is that many people who go for it have become convinced that the best way to be effective is make lots of money and then give a lot away to causes that have been deemed effective.  And frankly, making lots of money often involves making lots of money and this has corrosive effects on someone who may start out idealistic but eventually gets sucked into the rich guy make lots of dough ethos.

    And then there is long-termism which discounts uncertainty way too much and overvalues numbers, among other things.

    That said, I know Peter Singer a little bit and while I disagree with him about a lot, he’s actually a pretty kind person in the flesh and consistently considerate of the people I saw him deal with.

  90. 90.

    Ken

    @Juju: At least Clouseau successfully caught some crooks. He even ended the schemes of the madman Dreyfus to destroy the world. Admittedly he was the one who drove Dreyfus mad…

  91. 91.

    tokyokie

    Although I’m merely a newly minted RN, I know what to do when somebody is having a seizure: For the most part, nothing. Turn the patient on his or her side to lessen the chance of aspirating vomitus, clear the area of objects that could injure the patient, and time the length of the seizure. My guess is that the EMTs were doing exactly that, and whatever Jackson was doing was not contributing to the patient’s safety, and inasmuch as he was causing a ruckus and reducing sensory overload in the immediate postictal state is also recommended, he was acting contrary to patient’s health. But I’m also sure that Jackson wasn’t hanging around to help change the teen’s undergarments, as patients tend to become incontinent of bowel and bladder during seizures. Anti-seizure medications can be administered after the seizure ends, but during the seizure, all doctors and nurses can do is wait it out and keep the patient from harm as it’s occurring.

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