Sage_the_Lawyer

I was about to ask you what the first thing was.

Then my stomach rumbled.

They probably didn't have you as a prosecutor there, unfortunately.

I'm a public defender. Was about to talk about how even though I'm as leftist as they come and find this guy reprehensible, that I'd have had no problems arguing what he argued in court.... But I missed that it was charged as "attempted." That's an excellent point. I agree that he almost certainly attempted to commit voter fraud.

That said, I can still see how the jury could find a not guilty though, even if, were I on it, I would have said guilty. Attempted crimes still have a mens rea (usually, and I'll note here that I'm not barred in PA so this is all a best guess, consult a local attorney to know anything for sure). So the state would still have to prove his intent beyond a reasonable doubt.

I'm guessing the jury said they couldn't prove the intent beyond a reasonable doubt. Your argument convinced me, but, I can see how a jury might go the other way, for sure. Especially since juries are always unpredictable. I've won cases I should've lost and lost cases I should've won, you just never know what's gonna happen in the jury room.

If you're at a table with 11 people and a Nazi, you're at a table with twelve Nazis.

Most people aren't the extremes, sure. But if they refuse to denounce the extremists, they create space for the extremists viewpoints to survive and gain traction and acceptance on a broader scale.

So, no, even though I know most of my family would be against outright killing me, I also know they support and vote for people who are in favor of killing me. So no, I do not feel safe around them. How do I know if any of them hold extremist viewpoints before it's too late? If they don't denounce it, they're every bit as culpable.

This was clever. You deserve more credit than a couple upvotes, so have a comment too!

You just made an enemy for life!

Fucking what?

It is well documented that the more educated someone is, the more likely they are to vote for left-wing politics. https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2016/04/26/a-wider-ideological-gap-between-more-and-less-educated-adults/

Thus the right's war on education. They want uneducated masses to inundate with propaganda, not critical thinkers.

Also I think your definition of "nerd" is absurdly narrow. Dictionary says it's someone who is either highly enthusiastic about a particular topic or someone who is boringly studious. That's like, virtually everyone with a college degree. People tend to major in things they're enthusiastic about. Or, if they're just after the "best" diploma, they're probably in the "boringly studious" category.

You can be a nerd about anything, and I'd actually wager most people are a nerd about at least one thing. It's not limited to the categories you arbitrarily selected to make your point (without any actual evidence presented, I might add).

You're not wrong, but you do still have to swear an oath to uphold the constitution. Also, the bar exam doesn't test your ethics, or even your ability to practice law. It tests your ability to memorize a ton of shit you'll never use in your actual practice. Maybe it was useful once upon a time before every lawyer practiced in a specialized subset of law, but mostly it was made to stop people of color practicing law. (https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/opinion/commentary/story/2020-12-07/abolishing-the-bar-exam-bias)

It really needs to be reformed, though I would actually be in favor of abolishing it and having the third year of law school be reformed into an apprenticeship model where you learn directly from an experienced attorney. Or a specialized bar exam that tests for the area of law you want to practice. Something needs to change about it.

I'm getting off topic. Yes this guy is a fraudster and so is everyone who advised him to sign, but it has nothing to do with whether anyone took the bar exam.

Source: am lawyer in Wisconsin (who actually took the bar exam)

https://www.americanprogressaction.org/article/8-ways-the-biden-administration-has-fought-for-working-people-by-strengthening-unions/

So all of the good that Biden has already done for unions means nothing to you unless he does one specific thing for one union? Biden has been amazing for unions, I really don't see why this is your line in the sand.

Meanwhile in Wisconsin I have to pay an extra $100/yr for registration because I drive a hybrid.

Why?

Because, I shit you not, driving a hybrid apparently costs the state too much money, because we have to fuel up less, and so they get less tax.

What the fuck.

I'm a big gamer, and was a massive HP fan. I did not buy the game, or even consider it, specifically because of JKR's bullshit.

I may be in the minority, but I guarantee I'm not the only one in this boat. So now you've talked to someone who cares, if you count this as talking.

And just to say a little more, no I didn't crusade against the game, nor do I villainize people who bought it and enjoyed it. I do think it's possible to enjoy art without liking the artist. Hell, my favorite book series of all time is the Ender's Game series, and Orson Scott Card is probably just as bad as JKR, though maybe not quite as famous/public about it.

But I can't bring myself to buy it. I'm trans, and her rhetoric, and how public it is, has been specifically harmful to me, directly. But that's just me. I won't tell other people how to live their lives or enjoy their free time, so long as they're not actively hurting others. And no, I don't consider buying a game where one person who is profiting from it might spend a sliver of that profit on anti-trans BS to be actively harming others, especially when she already has enough money to do whatever the hell she wants anyways.

This doesn't make a dent, and ethical consumption under capitalism is impossible anyways. I just hope that some portion of people who bought the game heard about the protests and maybe donated a fraction of what they paid for the game to some pro-LGBTQ groups. I have to believe there's at least a handful of people like that. I do believe that people are mostly good, and want to do good.

Yeesh, I wrote a lot more than I planned to here. I'll stop now lol.

Not sure how uncommon you're looking for, but I think I already did this.

I chose Sage.

According to some quick googling (read: not sure how accurate this is), Sage wasn't in the top 500 names for my birth year, but my given name was top 100.

Though both names I've used have been trending towards more common for most of my life. Looks like my original name is now a top 35 most common, but Sage is still outside the top 100 for females and outside top 300 for males.(Really wish there was more data for the popularity of nonbinary names. I think Sage is probably one of the more popular enby names, so maybe it's not all that uncommon, depending on how you define it.)