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TwiceHorn

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Posts posted by TwiceHorn

  1. The other bummer about federal court is that they have limited voir dire, most often conducted by the judge, so if you're going to try to spin some bullshit about how "everyone did it" or "no one is ever guilty," or "I like drugs," you will have little opportunity to voice such an opinion, and will have to do it, most likely, directly to a federal district judge and answer his or her questions about it.

    • Like 1
  2. 9 hours ago, Lobwedgephil said:

    They use US Marshalls if you don't show up? That seems extreme. 

    The Marshals are the bailiffs/sheriffs of the federal world.  The state and county courts would do this too, but they call so many jurors every week that it's impossible to send a sheriff out to bring you in if you don't show up for a summons.  Every now and then, though, the district or county court will bring someone in.

  3. 43 minutes ago, hookemATL said:

    How exactly does one become an FBI agent?  IIRC he hasn’t been retired all that long. I assume there is some formal criminal justice education, but after that did he have to do any time in PDs or he is able to just start the FBI training academy?

    There is no specific qualification for thr FBI, other than a degree.  They do have a fondness for accountants and lawyers.  And they take dipshits straight out of college frequently, but you are not eligible to be a Special Agent gman until you have acquired the experience.

    You can be reasonably assured that he didn't smoke a lot of pot, or survived a polygraph on that issue.

  4. Again, I have no issue with actual promotion of awareness of sex trafficking.  It's horrendous, and, as noted, a sort of historically neglected problem.

    However, in any alleged "sex trafficking" bust where they arrest the hookers, it loses all credibility as anything other than a hooker/john case.  The hookers are supposed to be the victims.  Also, LEO working to stop actual sex trafficking aren't going to want to screw with 200 warrants for misdemeanor solicitation.  It was either never about human trafficking, or they gave up and settled for low-hanging fruit.

    And publicizing an issue is fine, politicizing a crime is rarely, if ever, fine.  Legislators are barely competent in criminal justice, and when they start using it to pander for votes, it never, ever works out well.  "Prioritizing" a crime, so that cops employ their usual tactics to bust people at a higher rate, and falsely or disingenuously calling it a victory for the prioritized crime is also bad idea jeans.

    • Like 4
  5. 2 minutes ago, Pam Cummings said:

    It is not.

     

    Drugs are drugs. Prostitutes are people.

     

    Think about this for two seconds. If prositution is legalized, there will be a lot more dudes wanting the service than there are ladies to provide that service. Sure, some women would be ready and willing to be hookers, but most women would not. Therefore, human trafficking would happen to satiate the demand.

     

    Again, these are real people. Not inanimate objects. This is not comparable to drugs for that reason.

     

    Source, btw:

    https://orgs.law.harvard.edu/lids/2014/06/12/does-legalized-prostitution-increase-human-trafficking/

    Reasonable point as far as it goes.  I get skeptical when a crime gets politicized as it seems human trafficking has become or is becoming.

  6. On 2/22/2019 at 2:14 PM, tucker said:

    But they wouldn't have collected almost any tax dollars from Amazon which was the issue. Additionally, the terms allowed AMZN to change the agreement at will anytime. It was a bad deal. Cities like NYC do not need to give incentives to companies. Foxconn is the perfect example of what happens when politicians provide tax give aways to companies.  

    I'm not sure Foxconn is a good example of anything, except perhaps an absolutely rapacious, amoral company with a decidedly Asian approach to business and contracts.  Making any kind of deal with Foxconn is almost assured to end badly if it requires Foxconn to adhere to terms of an agreement.

  7. 4 hours ago, 'stache said:

    Again, the headlines and articles seem clear to me that he was charged solely for solicitation, not trafficking. The further story is that he was caught as part of a trafficking investigation. All relevant, factual statements. I do agree that prostitution should be legal to help prevent trafficking and providing that women who do this work are truly doing it of their own free will and being paid fairly. But that's a different point to be made.

    No, you're right, that is a valid point.  I just fear that all this "publicity" may lead to some bad policy decisions in the name of a war on trafficking.  Trafficking is not a good thing, and should be eradicated, but fumbling around with the low-hanging fruit seems to be kind of what we do until we get around to declaring war on it.

    Murder, robbery, and rape are bad too, and more common, yet we feel no need to declare wars on those offenses.  "Tough on crime" is bad enough.

  8. 14 minutes ago, Nolacycling said:

    I'll buy you a beer if you run into him. 

    These lying, cheating hustlers have been in prison probably working as consultants and confidants and are already millionaires again. They won't be out of a job long, because when it comes to making $, anything goes. 

    They may find a lucrative career post-prison, but they pretty assuredly did not operate businesses from inside.  Only mobsters get away with that (requires buying off guards and wardens) and it's overstated.

    I'm going to wish anyone released from prison congratulations and well-wishes.  In most cases, the odds are stacked against them, and in any event they survived a pretty fucked up system, for better or worse.

  9. 1 hour ago, deadshank said:

    Regular jury or grand jury?  Through 2021 sounds like grand jury duty  

    I did 18 months on the federal grand jury in the southern discrick of Texas.    Walked in and they said “your in, mate.”   Not a lot of hoopla.  

    Did they give you an option to decline service?  Moreso than a petit jury, it behooves them not to have reluctant grand jurors.

  10. Awareness programs are one thing.  Painting solicitation defendants as traffickers is another; as is publicly glorifying john/hooker busts as trafficking busts.  And without wading into that debate, justifying sex worker prohibitions on a connection to human trafficking is yet another.

    It's really drug war 2: poontang boogaloo.

    • Like 2
  11. UBI only really makes sense if it displaces other assistance programs.  And, yes, I think it does matter if it gets misspent.  We are trying to alleviate poverty and its ill effects with all of this stuff.  If it's ineffectual at that, then it's a loser.

  12. On 2/23/2019 at 5:09 PM, Brisketexan said:


    You should be aware that if you’re getting a cheap rub and tug, especially from a non-native born person....it’s almost certainly via human trafficking. No, not 100% of them...but the vast majority. Seriously. If you are shopping for an Asian rub and tug, it is very, very likely that you’ll get it from a victim of human trafficking.
    As to the facts and evidence in this specific case, of course we will have to wait and see. But the scenario described is textbook human trafficking.

    In some abstract sense, yes, but the fact remains that the johns, unless proven to have some culpability beyond soliciting, are not actively participating in the trafficking of humans.  These same type of "demand-side" arguments were/are used to make drug possessors into criminals and to increase the penalties, among other uses.

    I don't care for these "crime and economics" arguments, because, like "law and economics" in other fields, they are seductive, but don't ultimately hold up.  They may have some purpose in the sociological analysis of crime, but I don't think they have any real place in the criminal justice system end of things.

    The US has inserted "anti-trafficking" provisions into a number of international treaties, and good for us, I guess.  But that has made "human trafficking" or "sex trafficking" a "priority" of the FBI and, being the glory hounds that they are, they are going to trumpet any arrest with the remotest connection to human trafficking as a big one.  Until I see the international heads of such rings going down, I remain skeptical.

    • Like 1
  13. 5 hours ago, NotActuallyALonghorn said:

    Anybody ever buy boots/shoes in León, Gaunajuato? We're going to the inlaws place nearby in about a week and a half, and I need to convince the womenfolk it is worth a trip there so I can pick up some boots and maybe some exotic leather for other projects.

    No, but the Messkins are very good with boots and leather generally.  I probably wouldn't hesitate to buy boots that I could get my hands on.  However, it has been rumored that lots of Mexican leather is tanned old-school, with piss and brains and can stink to high heaven when wet.

  14. 16 minutes ago, XYZ said:

    There’s no more draft. I don’t understand this declaration.

    50 USC 3082

    Quote

    §3802. Registration

    (a) Except as otherwise provided in this chapter it shall be the duty of every male citizen of the United States, and every other male person residing in the United States, who, on the day or days fixed for the first or any subsequent registration, is between the ages of eighteen and twenty-six, to present himself for and submit to registration at such time or times and place or places, and in such manner, as shall be determined by proclamation of the President and by rules and regulations prescribed hereunder. The provisions of this section shall not be applicable to any alien lawfully admitted to the United States as a nonimmigrant under section 1101(a)(15) of title 8, for so long as he continues to maintain a lawful nonimmigrant status in the United States.

    (b) Regulations prescribed pursuant to subsection (a) may require that persons presenting themselves for and submitting to registration under this section provide, as part of such registration, such identifying information (including date of birth, address, and social security account number) as such regulations may prescribe.

    As usual, the reporting is inaccurate.  There is no draft, but there is a draft registration that applies only to males.

  15. 12 minutes ago, Baboontyme said:

    I still do not understand this concept at all. Can't grasp it. 

    What's the hangup?  You understand that an ink jet print head is controlled by a computer in two dimensions (x and y) to spew out ink on a page to form letters and images.

    In 3-D printers, or some of them, the print head just spews out molten plastic and adds a z dimension to make parts.  In others, the print head is a laser or light beam that is controlled by a computer to either expose and harden photosensitive liquids, or melt a small amount of granulated plastic.

    Like the letters on a page, the part is built up line-by-line, or more accurately layer-by-layer.

  16. Here's a pretty decent review/rec https://www.tomsguide.com/us/best-3d-printers,review-2236.html

    Originally, you had to take 3-view drawings in Autocad or something else and run them through a CAM program set up to interface with the printer.  Thankfully, that seems to be n/a now and I imagine the lower cost "fun" ones eliminate much similarity to drafting at that stage, think SketchUp, not ProE.  Then you have the envelope of the machine, and finally the material.  Even the cheap/fun ones have pretty good resolution, and you can build decent sized parts/things.  Then there's the material.  The older-style stereolithography is pretty much always going to permit a broader range of materials, and are always going to be more expensve, but the low-cost filament machines are decent for things that aren't stressed.

    I suspect you can get away with a cheaper one for the kiddos, then if you/they want to geek out on it and make useful stuff move on up.

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