Random stuff, because we’ve all been consumed with overarching themes this week:
Douglass Mackey, the man “on trial for memes,” was sentenced to seven months in prison Wednesday for his efforts to trick Hillary Clinton voters into staying home on Election Day in 2016. @NikaSchoonover https://t.co/0u8YsjmGdG
— Courthouse News (@CourthouseNews) October 18, 2023
Could not happen to a more deserving ratf*cker:
… Mackey was convicted on a single count of conspiring with others to interfere in the 2016 presidential election after he shared from his far-right Twitter account phony advertisements that encouraged Clinton supporters to vote via text message.
“Avoid the line. Vote from home,” one meme says. “Text ‘Hillary’ to 59925.”
U.S. District Judge Ann M. Donnelly handed down the sentence, calling the conspiracy “nothing short of an assault on our democracy.”
Mackey was also a member of private direct-message groups on X, formerly Twitter, where he discussed and agreed with others on how to disseminate messages “intended variously to provoke, mislead, and, in some cases, deceive voters in the 2016 presidential election,” prosecutors said in a sentencing memo…
In these plans, the group specifically agreed on a plan to distribute a series of images intended to look like official announcements from the Hillary Clinton campaign advising supporters they could cast a valid vote by including a particular hashtag on a social media post or sending an SMS text message to a number provided on the images.
Prosecutors also said Clinton’s campaign, after observing the fraudulent advertisements spread online, warned the company that owned the provided text code about the scheme.
“As a result, the company put in place an automatic response that would be sent to anyone attempting to cast a vote by text, advising the texter that the code was not in fact associated with the Clinton campaign,” prosecutors said…
He also received public support from powerful conservative figures including U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene and Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who called his prosecution a political move and First Amendment threat.
Mackey will also serve two years of supervised probation once he’s released from prison.
May this serve as a warning, as the 2024 campaign ramps up.
======
Good news for our judicial system:
The Senate just unanimously agreed to fill committee slots vacated by Dianne Feinstein. Perhaps most significant: @LaphonzaB fills the empty Judiciary Committee slot and Democrats regain their majority on a key panel. Biden’s judicial nominees can now move without GOP support. https://t.co/LP7iCHupDX
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) October 18, 2023
Not that I’m complaining, this is what they should do. But lets not forget a lot of why Feinstein got wheeled around like she did was because they threatened not to replace her.
— Fleet (now on BlueSky) (@fleetadmiralj) October 18, 2023
BREAKING: The American soldier who fled to North Korea has been detained by the U.S. military and charged with desertion and possessing images of child sex abuse. https://t.co/6i8hMZb1Ic
— The Associated Press (@AP) October 20, 2023
======
Innocent until proven guilty, of course, but the CSAM charge makes it easier to understand why deserting to North Korea might’ve seemed like a good idea in a bad moment:
An Army private who fled to North Korea before being returned home to the United States last month has been detained by the U.S. military, two officials said Thursday night, and is facing charges including desertion and possessing sexual images of a child.
The eight counts against Pvt. Travis King are detailed in a charging document seen by The Associated Press. The officials who confirmed King’s confinement spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the charges have not been publicly announced.
King’s mother, Claudine Gates, said in a statement that she loved her son “unconditionally” and was “extremely concerned about his mental health.”…
Desertion is a very serious charge and can result in imprisonment for as much as three years. King is also accused of kicking and punching other officers last year, unlawfully possessing alcohol, making a false statement and possessing a video of a child engaged in sexual activity. That allegation dates to July 10, the same day he was released from a South Korean prison where he had served nearly two months on assault charges.
One week later, King, 23, ran across the heavily fortified border from South Korea and became the first American detained in North Korea in nearly five years. He was set to be sent to Fort Bliss, Texas, where he could have faced potential additional disciplinary actions and discharge…
The charging document does not provide significant detail on any of the allegations, though it does accuse King of knowingly possessing a video of a child engaging in sexual conduct last July 10 and says that he solicited a user of Snapchat, a social media platform, to produce images of underage sexual activity.
Sean Timmons, an attorney who specializes in military law at the Tully Rinckey law firm and who reviewed the charging document, said all the transactions that occurred on Snapchat were not secure or private and were accessible by the government.
“He probably reasonably believed his illegal conduct would have no evidentiary trail, but Snapchat actually saves everything,” Timmons said.
War for Ukraine Day 605: Another Day, Another Russian War Crime – This Time in Kherson & Kharkiv
HumboldtBlue
An ugly story is developing in Detroit.
eclare
@HumboldtBlue:
Saw that. Tragic.
Cameron
That soldier sounds like a very disturbed young man.
eclare
Great news on Judiciary! Thanks AL!
Another Scott
In other, other news, Aaron makes a handy key for us for next week.
By those metrics (alone), Emmer and Scott would seem to be the least insane ones. Any one of them is going to be horrible outside those metrics, probably.
Cheers,
Scott.
HumboldtBlue
Betty thought she had found the stupidest column ever written, but Betty forgot about Jonathan Turley who will not be outdone in being an absolute lying, dishonest, shitty human being and hack.
Other MJS
At first, it seemed like a harsh sentence for what was superficially a prank, but if you’re gonna voter-suppress the stupid demographic, Trump is toast, so they’d do well not to complain.
Another Scott
@Other MJS: I don’t think it was even superficially a prank. (I don’t think you think it was, either.)
Voter suppression is a direct attack on our democracy. Literally. We tolerated it for too long, and we need to stamp it out in all its forms.
It’s not a prank. It’s stealing the vote of citizens. People fought and died for the vote, and we cannot let monsters take it away without severe consequences to serve as a deterrent.
Without consequences they’ll keep doing it and being ever more blatant about it…
Cheers,
Scott.
Ken
Teaching cursive and algebra, catfood and hairballs, tuna salad recipes, whereabouts of Baud, whether embedded tweet videos work, cranberry relish, Thomas Jefferson’s height, John Boehner’s cannabis company, use of “hung” versus “hanged”, problems with iOS and the front page, board games, Taylor Swift, whereabouts of Baud’s pants…
I’ve probably missed one or two.
Anne Laurie
It was no more a ‘prank’ than the GRU’s various disinformation campaigns. Mackey led a group of dedicated Trumpists who worked together for months to ‘befriend’ low-info voters, many of them African-American, so that they could be tricked into *not* voting. And they were gleeful about it — read the rest of the linked article, which includes many repulsive ‘jokes’ about people of color, women, and anyone not a rich Republican.
I really, really hope that seeing Mackey sent off to jail, along with the legal tribulations of all those higher-ranking Trumpkins, will put a damper on some of the most egregious rat-fornicating over the next year-plus. That’s important!
delphinium
@Another Scott: Well said. Voter suppression in all of its forms needs to be taken seriously.
Jeffro
Great news for our democracy on that fake vote-by-text guy being sentenced!
I’ve spent the past couple of days bopping in and out of democracy-related panel sessions and speakers and the best two were a media panel moderated by Judy “I got my start in the McKinley Administration* ” Woodruff and a 1-on-1 with Jeffrey Goldberg and Adam Kinzinger. Kinzinger pulled NO punches.
*she really said this herself, at the start of the session! LOL
Will add more about what everyone had to say soon…good, insightful stuff, though.
Media panel (ruthlessly cribbing from Jay Rosen): “We should be telling voters the stakes, not the odds”
Kinzinger: “People follow signals from their leaders. And when Kevin bleeping McCarthy posed with trump post-J6 down at Mar-a-Lago, that sent a signal to everyone who was on the fence: we’re still with this guy.”
West of the Rockies
Hopefully, Mackey loses his right to vote.
eclare
@Ken:
Hahaha…don’t forget pled vs pleaded
eclare
@Another Scott:
Very handy, thank you!
WaterGirl
@Jeffro: check your email?
MattF
@HumboldtBlue: Kevin Drum explains it. Joe loaned his brother $200K. Then, six weeks later, brother paid it back. Um, wow.
Dopey-o
Screenshot the excerpt, underlined her name, and sent a note to Rep. Greene:
”So you’re OK if someone does this to your voters, right? …… (asking for a friend.)”
Mousebumples
Reminder – postcards and music coming soon to a thread near you! It’s raining here so can hopefully make it once I get the little Mice to bed….
raven
Private King’s ass in in a sling.
HumboldtBlue
Utilities Have Been Lying to us About Gas Stoves Since the 1970s. They took a page out of Big Tobacco’s playbook, a new investigation confirms.
Nukular Biskits
Evenin’, y’all.
How’s it going?
HinTN
@raven: You got that right!
Narya
@Ken: lots of comments about pot in the morning thread
HinTN
@HumboldtBlue: I guess the good news is that I rarely use the burner(s) on high (and I have a leaky house). Otherwise, gotta run a 60A circuit to the range location. What about gas dryers?
HumboldtBlue
@Nukular Biskits:
Well, we don’t have any biscuits, so what happened?
Nukular Biskits
@HumboldtBlue:
With the cooler weather coming, I need to grease up the ol’ biskit pan.
Been a while since I last made some. And I don’t consider those abominations that come in a can to be biskits. Someone once told me that canned biskits were invented by Yankees to demoralize us Southerners … 🤣
Speaking of biskits, where’s Tamara? I seldom comment on her posts but I love the recipes she shares.
WaterGirl
@HumboldtBlue: Yikes.
HumboldtBlue
@Nukular Biskits:
Crime against humanity. I made some killer cornbread yesterday that paired perfectly with my hocks and greens. Just don’t ask me what I did to the mac and cheese.
Nukular Biskits
@HumboldtBlue:
If there’s anything I love more than homemade biscuits right out of the oven, it’s homemade cornbread, peas, butterbeans (or, as some folks call them, “green limas”), turnip greens and a fresh-cut onion.
West of the Rockies
@Nukular Biskits:
I do like a good drop biscuit with butter…
Nukular Biskits
@West of the Rockies:
Were you part of the conversation a few weeks ago where I mentioned I had stumbled across a restaurant in Jacksonville, FL, called “The Vicious Biscuit”?
In addition to all kinds of biscuit combos, they had all kinds of butters, including (IIRC) a jalepeno/maple syrup butter.
Ken
Oh, right, dude, how’d I forget that… And now all this cornbread talk, I’ve really got the munchies…
Mai Naem mobile
So this guy does this in 2015 and he’s going to start doing time 8 years later. Kind of surprised he didn’t take a plea before TFG left town so that he could get pardoned.
Jay
https://theins.ru/en/politics/266039
Anne Laurie
“Oh, like anybody’s gonna care about a little ‘prank’… “
IMO, it works out for the best; it’s harder to cast as the new Biden administration seeking vengeance, and — as I said above — I’m hoping it will be a deterrent to newbie miscreants in the current election cycle.
Mai Naem mobile
@Anne Laurie: i think Fani Willis and Jack Smith are going to be delivering the deterrence goals to newbie miscreants, especially to lawyers.
Jeffro
@WaterGirl: done! =)
George
The law firm noted in the citation above is less than reliable, based on personal experience.
Dopey-o
if’n yer biscuits are still viscous, leave ‘em in the oven a little.
JAFD
@Ken:Will admit my culpability for some of the board games discussion. But seem to have overskipped the tuna salad symposium. If anyone would point me to the location thereof, would be most grateful. (I make boring tuna salad – mayo, mustard and relish – and am looking for ideas.)
NotMax
Déjà vu, man.
piratedan
Gotta say that the behavior of the GOP regarding their threats and actions during the last few weeks of Feinstein’s life and I’m sitting here wondering if perhaps maybe she would have liked to go home, retire, have a party celebrating her service, have some time with family in the time she had left and those petty fuckers took that from her and her family. She was their colleague and they treated her like everything else, with contempt and as a tool for their own agenda
What a bunch of fucking pricks.
NotMax
@JAFD
Without going overboard with additives (as SiubhanDuinne does will occasionally add water chestnuts), try just mayo, a squirt of wasabi paste, a little black pepper, a littler bit of paprika and optionally the tiniest drop of lemon juice.
eclare
@JAFD:
I make mine like you do, except no mustard. Hopefully more creative chefs will weigh in.
NotMax
@NotMax
Would add that most, if not all, off the shelf wasabi paste is nor wasabi at all but horseradish with some coloring. It’s convenient though, as its comes in a squeezable tube. Ground white horseradish from a jar is a one-to-one substitute.
eclare
@NotMax:
Yeah I have a jar of the powdered stuff.
NotMax
#46
nor = =not.
Stupid old eyes.
Betty Cracker
What the heck is going on with the comment timestamps?
bjacques
@Another Scott: Rudy Giuliani would be minimizing this as a “process crime”, like he did those obstruction of justice charges from awhile back. But, as you imply, as with voter suppression, it’s a direct attack on the institutions without which democracy and the rule of law could no longer function, so the feds should bring the hammer down.
By the way, I’m sure this open thread originally appeared *before* Adam’s Ukraine update. What’s up with that?
TS
@Betty Cracker:
This was posted earlier – so presumably moved till later because of other posts
NotMax
@bjacques
Would that be Rudy “Discovery? Never watch it.” Giuliani?
HumboldtBlue
Phils won.
NotMax
@Betty Cracker
Time is a rigged concept.
:)
TS
@HumboldtBlue:
Adam’s post is still there for me (before this one)
Look at his comment #16
https://balloon-juice.com/2023/10/21/war-for-ukraine-day-605-another-day-another-russian-war-crime-this-time-in-kherson-kharkiv/#comment-8997263
NotMax
@HumboldtBlue
Still haven’t forgiven Philadelphia for Frank Rizzo.
Jay
@TS:
I think Adam was trying to say that he’s out of the comment section for the night and going to bed, not that he was quitting Balloon Juice.
Betty Cracker
@Jay: Maybe, but he sounded pretty fed up to me. Adam does the Ukraine updates every damn day, for free, and it’s possible that a self-righteous twatwaffle parachuting into the thread to complain about the language used in third-party commentary was the final straw for him.
It is wearing getting nitpicked like that, and it can make you question why you even bother. I’m pretty good at ignoring similar brickbats, but then I’ve raised a teenager, so I’m familiar with the experience of being misunderstood and judged by sanctimonious numpties. Not everyone has the patience!
piratedan
@HumboldtBlue: congrats to your guys, DBacks made some very costly errors to go with your excellent pitching and hitting
sab
@Betty Cracker: That twatwaffle’s thing is to jump into a thread and accuse other commenters (or the Frontpager) of bigotry when none was intended. It works well at disrupting threads.
Also found a way around the pie filter by coming back in with same nym but lower case: Twatwaffle replaced by twatwaffle.
prostratedragon
I like diced red onion in addtion to the mayo/mustard/relish base. Sometimes a boiled egg; a little basil or thyme; some diced* sweet red pepper or celery occasionally. Can’t figure out where black pepper would fit into the taste palette here, but a hint of wasabi is a thought …
* “Diced” emphasized because do not like huge chunks of things in my tuna salad.
TS
@Betty Cracker:
Sounded to me like he was gone from BJ which is a big loss if that is what he meant.
I’m on a committee for a relatively small group of people – and the stirrers who do NO WORK have had me leaving twice. One of the great guys on the team has talked me down, but they are definitely on their last chance. It is wearing & life is too short.
satby
@Betty Cracker: huh. Wouldn’t surprise me.
prostratedragon
Fell asleep in front of my tv and awoke to this penetrating examination of the nature of totalitarianism.
(The search on youtube also brought up a clip of Señor Wences from the Ed Sullivan Show.)
satby
Killers of the Flower Moon is out, telling a story I wasn’t aware of. But the story didn’t end at the movie’s end, and Greg Palast has written quite the eye-opener about what’s happened since.
eclare
@satby:
The book is very, very good, IIRC I read it because Dorothy A. Winsor recommended it.
I’m not going to the movie though because I have read that it is pretty violent, and I just don’t have the stomach for that anymore. For some reason reading about violence does not have the same visceral effect.
Thanks for the article!
What a shocker, the Kochs have been involved since then.
Central Planning
@JAFD: My daughter says ginger is the magic ingredient for any mayo-based sauce. I’m not a mayo fan so I believe her.
Betty Cracker
@satby: I saw something in Vanity Fair yesterday linking Food Network’s Ree Drummond, aka, Pioneer Woman, to the historical events dramatized in the movie, which I’d never heard of either. The article suggests her husband’s family was involved in sketchy land grabs. ETA: Generations ago — nothing recent!
lowtechcyclist
@Betty Cracker:
He doesn’t have to do the Ukraine updates every damn day. It’s been nearly a year since things changed enough on a daily basis to have a need for daily updates. Doing them daily is a burden he’s laid on himself. He could go to three days a week with additional posts when something major happens. Nobody would be the worse off for it, and he’d probably be a lot less stressed.
I’ve suggested that in his threads a few times, but since I don’t spend much time there (I get my Ukraine updates mostly from Josh Marshall’s Ukraine list), I have no idea if he’s noticed.
eclare
@Central Planning:
I bet a sesame seed oil, ginger, and soy sauce vinaigrette would make a good tuna salad, maybe with celery or water chestnuts for crunch. Or do like I do and eat tuna salad on crackers.
Ooh, maybe red cabbage for crunch!
Yes, I’m hungry.
Betty Cracker
@lowtechcyclist: I don’t know if Adam perceives it as a burden or not, and I don’t know what the right frequency for updates is. My point is he’s providing free content, and maybe he’s fed up with the sniping. As you’ve likely noticed, people generally have a wide latitude to snipe around here, but that doesn’t mean there are no consequences to that arrangement. Someone who’s providing free content may decide, eh, fuck it — it’s not worth it anymore.
Shalimar
@Betty Cracker: He should have removed commenter Trucmat. There is a massive amount of information on X-Twitter about Shaun King and almost all of black twitter disowns him over his scams. Adam shouldn’t have to justify anything he copies to illustrate his points. But I do get being tired of the constant sniping
Edit: also, in regards to the timestamps, I think AL wanted to privide an open thread after the Ukraine update and she didn’t have anything ready so she moved this from early evening to after midnight.
Betty Cracker
@Shalimar: I don’t know about that because removing comments and/or commentators for being annoying opens a large can of worms. We don’t have formal rules that I’m aware of to govern this sort of thing, so it’s handled at the poster’s discretion.
Maybe that’s a problem in its own right. It can be corrosive to a community when rules are arbitrary, but I don’t think it’s a big problem here in general.
I tend to be permissive — I’ve been writing here for more than a decade and have only trashed a handful of comments. Basically doxxing and racist, sexist, homophobic, etc., slurs aren’t allowed in my threads, but being an irritating crank, boor, sanctimonious scold, etc., is tolerated.
Jackie
I HOPE Adam only meant he’s out for the night. I read his Ukraine updates faithfully every night or in the morning if he posts late (for me.) I stopped reading the comments long ago due to the bickering that often happens.
I value his posts and input tremendously.
lowtechcyclist
@Betty Cracker:
True, but the larger context is that he clearly feels stressed anyway, between feeling obligated for whatever reason to provide these daily updates, and the burdens that his job and whatever else he’s got going on place on him.
I don’t really know what’s going on in his threads because I skip right past them most days, so I don’t know about the sniping. Sometimes I read his posts, usually I don’t, and I rarely venture into comments. But he has choices between trying to post exhaustive updates daily, and saying ‘fuck it’ and not posting at all anymore. That’s something he has control of. I just feel like I’m watching a dynamic I’ve seen a number of times before, and even been in it once or twice.
Tony Jay
@Betty Cracker:
And may I say on
mytheir behalf, such tolerance is greatly appreciated.WereBear
I am loving all tentacles of our own Kraken finally released, in the form of justice.
prostratedragon
@Central Planning: That could work. I like ginger but find it lacks a little something (except in my go-to drink of ginger ale/ beer). Rather than use too much ginger, I’ve found that a touch of mustard gives it body. Homemade mayo usually has a touch already.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Cripes. I missed overnight drama. Adam is incredibly valuable to this site.
Geminid
@lowtechcyclist: I don’t think I have seen Adam Silverman ever complain about writing his Ukraine updates. He has expressed doubts about his professional work and whether he “was making a difference,” which I think is more important to him than the paycheck.
I also skip the Ukraine posts sometimes. There is a lot of tension and darkness in them, which is not the fault of Adam and most of the commenters. But I catch most of them and I think they are very valuable. One virtue is their consistency, which adds value in and of itself. So I don’t think cutting back on their number would be a good outcome.
That’s out of my hands anyway. I hope Dr. Silverman keeps doing this good work, but I think he has to do what is right for himself first, and what is good for us after that.
WaterGirl
@Betty Cracker: @Shalimar:
Balloon Juice Comment Policy, which lives in the footer on Balloon Juice.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Ken: Dang, I must have been really preoccupied this week. I recognize maybe 2-3 of those topics.
RSA
From the Mackey article:
I’m thinking that if some act is determined to be a crime, then whether the perpetrator is still doing it is totally irrelevant.
wjca
What a spoil sport! You mean, if I robbed a bunch of banks last year, but I haven’t robbed any this year, I’m still supposed to be at risk??? How is that fair?
/s
WaterGirl
@Betty Cracker: I still had the tab open in my browser. This is the original date/time stamp for the post.
by Anne Laurie| 28 Comments
So, happily, we are not crazy!
Geminid
@Dorothy A. Winsor: As you say, Adam Silverma’s work is very valuable to this site. It would be sad if a commenter’s objection over a trivial side issue ended his Ukrain updates.
This incident was an example of a sometimes amazing phenomenom I see on this site: the vast quantities of free editorial advice made available to- or inflicted upon- the posters and other commenters.
If only there was a way to profitably employ all this editorial talent! We commenters could be receiving monthly rebates to add to our Soros money.
frosty
@JAFD: Not as boring as mine – tuna and mayo, period. Probably because of
my mom who apparently believed spices (and gsrlic) were if the Devil. I should probably experiment.
sab
@Geminid: The Ukraine posts also have lot of regular commenters who are knowledgable. People with military experience who understand weapons, logistics and training. People who understand Slavic languages. People who know about foreign affairs and the other countries interacting with Russia or Ukraine.
And Silverman has been extraordinarily generous with his time in giving thoughtful answers to commenter questions, if not the same night then often within a day or two.
Omnes Omnibus
I think that this might be a time where we should remember that any Jewish (of whom we have quite a few) or Palestinian (of whom we do not have many, it seems) commenters or Front Pagers might be a little tense.