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nbmishoid

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Posts posted by nbmishoid

  1. In today’s NYT, two stories front page.   One is about 40,000 or so asylum seekers who are at or have passed thru into Canada, from the US.  And plenty of quotes that sound familiar to the “keep them in Mexico” constituency.  These are tiny numbers, but the fear juice ratchets up anyway.

    Second story concerns Tunisia.  In response to a severe economic downturn the president made a speech blaming all troubles on the sub -Saharan immigrants, from northern Nigeria, Chad, Mali,  etc.   He said they were part of a project to turn the country “African”.  And the next day people are fired from their job, booted from their homes etc.

    I have for a while supported Fukuyama’s formula that a democracy needed to have immigration policy reflecting societies’ desires, or it is not a democracy.  And so back to the US, we have a stable number of undocumented immigrants at about 10 mm, since the peak at 12 mm in 2008.   Same result thru Obama, Trump, and now Biden.  Less than 3%.  I mean, it is simply obvious that this is not anything like “too much”,  if we are talking morally and purely economically.

    As a liberal the project ought to be reduce cruelty.  There us no way the current immigration limitations meet this requirement.  Why is my comfort, keeping at 100%, more important than the plight of these asylum seekers?  And what about the children, here?  They are fat and happy, if not suicidal, and being rendered cognitively injured by our attack on education.  Nah, more immigrants has got shit to so with “the children” (ours).   So it is just down to our comfort, and the level of fear and hatred in much of society.

    So, yes, Francis, democratic leaders need to act democratically.  But how about morally, as well.  Another White Hat conundrum?  Does fear and hate get to wear a White Hat?

    Ok, who here is morally for more asylum granting, and well regulated increased immigration.  (If well regulated, we ought to admit 400 million)

     

    • Drool 1
  2. 19 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

    What result is sickening?  That Sidney Powell isn't disbarred yet?  That more lawyers aren't routinely disbarred?  That Trump hasn't been judicially hanged outside the local Esso station?

    Or the myriad other injustices out there in the criminal justice system and elsewhere?  We're getting somewhat afield here, but people are making uniformed and hysterical declarations that "'the fix is in" because Sidney Powell won a no-evidence summary judgment in a disbarment case under somewhat unusual circumstances apparently provoked by some sloppiness on the part of lawyers for the Bar.

    It aint over yet.  This is a pimple on the ass of American jurisprudence.

    Firstly, thanks to you, Gator, and Brisket for the time you took on my very, overly simplified questions.  I think it was you who said we can expect no different from the legal profession than the public at large.  That hits me as glaringly true, given the tremendous size of the population.  Decades ago I read we were graduating in the US 300,000 lawdogs per year, compared to 300 PhD physicists.   Even correcting for education, lawyers surely remain a valid sample of the population at large, wrt politics, morals, perfidy, etc.  And from this such questions I have asked fall into the black hole of reality.  If I read you right.

    I have to say from my experience o&g professionals, my former homies, are less representative ( a much smaller sample) and definitely rightward leaning.

    As for sickening, I would refer you to any modern work of history of the US.  It is the patterns therein that suggest the fix is in, not the Powell pimple.  
     

    As for the White Hat (and who is wearing it, who is perceiving it argument) , I’m reminded of Rorty and pragmatism.  Yes, at the limit, we can never prove the righteousness of our view, this does not denude us of moral obligations.  Even for pragmatism, this ultimately breaks down to being against cruelty.  This  can help with the white hat question.
    Not so much in the courtroom, I get it.   If the law and the courts can’t help us reduce cruelty, and given that Christianity in the US apparently cannot, how do we proceed?

    Cheers

    • Hook 'Em 1
  3. Gator

    You present expertly correct view here.  
     

    But I don’t over rate fairness.  A four year old knows what fairness is ( or used to know) to an actionable degree.   Many folks find the term interchangeable with justice.  But none us can completely delimit these terms for everyone else.

    So I’ll used another word.  The results are sickening, broadly inhumane, not what society wants.  Seriously. So, Gator, what do you and Twice recommend to improve things.  

     

  4. 42 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

    Yeah, there's still too much belief among the "laiety" that law is a black box where you provide certain inputs and get a certain output.

    It certainly strives to be that way in some cases and that's desirable.  Most of those cases don't really need the courts anyway.

    You wouldn't want a black box much or even most of the time, because a black box is just a series of logic gates and AI demonstrates the inadequacy of black boxes for problems of any real complexity or nuance.

    What this lay dog is saying is the results show systematic bias, whatever the intention.  Yes, humans cause most of this, and other fields are not great analogues.  But the results show bias, full stop.  I am interested, Twice, in what you, an expert, would change.  Society’s desires about legal result fairness should matter.

  5. 17 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

    I didn't say the results were not inequitable.  I admit that they are.  Our system is premised on two roughly evenly matched adversaries going toe to toe in a quest for victory, truth, or justice.  Any deviation from "two roughly evenly matched adversaries" is a bias away from the system as intended.  Most often that deviation is due to economic power, secondarily, it is due to individual/institutional prejudices.

    There are, however, examples of the economically disadvantaged and the "other"-disadvantaged prevailing in our system, because they are nonetheless roughly evenly matched with their adversaries through the NAACP, the ACLU, contingent-fee representation, etc. etc. etc.  The system is thus working as intended, even if they don't prevail.

    I don't count bad laws necessarily as part of the judicial system.  They are part of the SYSTEM writ large, but because they don't originate within the judiciary, it's another part of the SYSTEM.

    I freely acknowledge that the legislative end is captured by and mostly does the bidding of special economic interests.  That's another discussion.

    Well said.  But, again with the intentions.  If the car I design and build doesn’t work in the real world, then my intentions are irrelevant.  When physicists and engineers look at systems, there is no care in looking at intentions.   Sure, they are sometimes latent in the system, but it is how the system really works that matters.

    Many people here seem to just say the system does not work well enough.  Does discussion of intentions get us anywhere?  It can help find the bug but just keeping the bug because of intentions looks like not caring, shrouded by sophistication.  

    • Hook 'Em 2
  6. 11 years ago, when considering retirement, we looked hard at Austin and Houston.  We had lived in Houston the prior four years and grew to enjoy it, but for retirement it wasn’t, uh, a beautiful solution.   Austin was too damn expensive for any premium property.   Long story short, Seattle was cheaper than Austin.  I can highly recommend western WA, for you poor folks trapped there in Texas.  It is run by normal, responsible people, and looks to be doing that for some time in the future.  That wasn’t among the selection criteria 11 years ago.  Now it would be at the top.

    • Hook 'Em 5
  7. In each case we have systems, that deliver some objectionable results.  We look to the “owners” of these institutions for redress, improvement, what have you.  In these limited cases of professional behavior the institutional owners are the professional members themselves.  
    There are indeed details differing among/between cases.  The root question isn’t about these details. 
    It concerns why, oh why, oh why the fuck don’t these member bodies do a better job?  

    • Hook 'Em 2
  8. On 2/28/2023 at 12:55 PM, Willfully Horn said:

    What a heretical megalomaniac.

     

    in other news, now there’s an attempt to exclude the vaccinated from donating blood. What could go wrong?.

     

    A bill to ban donors who have received the COVID-19 vaccination from giving blood will “decimate” blood supply in Montana and leave patients at risk of even death, said opponents of House Bill 645”

    https://dailymontanan.com/2023/02/27/bill-banning-vaccinated-blood-donations-would-decimate-blood-supply-opponents-say/

    How is this not attempted legislative stochastic murder?

    • Like 1
  9. 4 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

    What I mean is, and it is somewhat subtle, for a person of means and not subjected to external biases (meaning those like race not unique to the justice system), the system operates "as intended."  You can call that bias if you want.  I would call it unbiased in those circumstances, because "as intended" pretty much speaks for itself.

    There are some instances where the poor and sometimes even the dark are able to obtain top-flight, top-dollar counsel, such as contingent-fee injury litigation, where the system operates as intended, or, largely unbiased, even when countered by deep=pocket defendants.  

    You are correct that addict lawyers often get the hammer, but usually when that addiction leads to misappropriation of client funds, which is the bar discipline kiss of death.  I actually represented an addict lawyer that got control of herself before committing any such malfeasance and was able to save her law license and change the law of compulsory discipline upon commission of a crime.  And, I'd say the bar, through TLAP, is increasingly sensitive to addiction and mental health issues and getting impaired lawyers help before they commit the kiss of death.  But, like all addict-related endeavors, the consequences get to sit where they lie.

    Incompetence, at least "bursts" of it, which we pretty much all have from time to time, is not an ethical matter strictly speaking, so is addressed by the tort system.   The chronically incompetent I think usually get hung up on neglect, because they seem to go hand in hand.

    I'm not sure about "abusers."  I personally know of an off-and-on client that got disbarred for porking a client, that's abusive.  And you see that from time to time.

    Not sure why you're conflating medical discipline with attorney discipline.  I think the bar is far more active in disciplining its members than the TMA.  Although the bar could surely use some improvement.

    And, I'll repeat, I think disbarring or otherwise disciplining Powell would have been fairly difficult, because Americans have the basic right to file shitty lawsuits, subject to sanctions. Lawyers get sanctioned all the time without getting disbarred or even disciplined.  And unless it can be proven that the allegations of the lawsuit were knowingly false, not just subject to proof and not negligently or recklessly false, discipline or disbarment is going to be tough.

    Proving that someone lied to the level of court proof can be really tough.  To use an unfortunate example, we all knew Bill Clinton was lying about porking Monica Lewinsky, but it took Starr years to prove it and millions of dollars.  It's even more difficult in the contest of a lawsuit, where the basic allegations of any lawsuit may prove to be untrue, but the lawyer and client have the right to try to prove them.

     

    Twice

    I’m one who confesses that your posts about what one should really expect have been educational.  Also frustrating as many have indicated.

    But the post above bothered me a bit.  This whole notion of what is intended is abstract, but the difference in legal results between the rich and poor is not.  It is this difference that matters, it’s absolute value, not the relative sub distances from some imaginary centroid in the legal hyperspace.  Such a thing cannot be identified.

    So let’s focus on the difference in these cases when we ask ourselves what is right and what is wrong.

    • Hook 'Em 2
  10. 650

    Thx for the color ID, and for looking up the serial.  Too easy for me to have done.   
     

    The Seattle guys are Mike and Mike’s Guitar Bar.  You really need to ogle their inventory via their website.

  11. 650

    Could not tell you, I’m not informed enough.  Looks much browner than the regular cherry ish sunbursts.   The tobacco ones I’ve seen were this slightly variegated light brown.

    , solid not sunburst.

    You have 5 of these, right?

  12. Nice humor.  Three fiddy a bit off.   2 screws plus the three pickup screws on the neck pickup.  Gibson style.

    Pics coming

  13. I was previously on these sites as NBMisha.  A bad back injury set me back a couple of years and I couldn’t now remember my credentials, thus a different, even goofier name.  You guys get my inaugural post.

    ‘I goofed around for most of my life just playing around on guitar, for short periods every 5 years or so.  After 2 years of being unable to play, I have now started over.  One of the tasks is to rationalize the guitar inventory as I focus on one our two.  I am new to the selling game.  I live on Bainbridge Is WA, and am talking to a Seattle shop about consignment.  Of course I could mail things anywhere in the US, according to testimony on this board.  I just thought I ought to expose you all to these.

    1.  1994 Les Paul Std, sunburst.  This has maybe 6 hours playing time.  When buying a piano for my then 1st grader I got talked into getting this.  I was completely unready, had no teacher (then in Sumatra), so back in the case it went.  30 years later, it needs to get into the right hands.   I can’t imagine there is a more mint 94 LP. Internet shows strong pricing for early 90’s.  I’d be looking to get 75% of “retail” plus shipping.  This is what the local guys are offering.

    2,.  1975 Martin D28-12.  This is two owner, the first being my original teacher in Bakersfield, and I was so amazed I bought it in 1978.  Played it a couple years then life, marriage, etc put the kibosh on guitar for a few decades.  The pick guard has been replaced.  Martin case, etc.  Same terms as above.

     

    if there is any interest I can post pictures and we can conjecture around numbers.  If no interest, no problem.  
     

    Glad to be back among you folks.  Appreciate any advice you have on this.   
     

     

  14. I was previously on these sites as NBMisha.  A bad back injury set me back a couple of years and I couldn’t now remember my credentials, thus a different, even goofier name.  You guys get my inaugural post.

    ‘I goofed around for most of my life just playing around on guitar, for short periods every 5 years or so.  After 2 years of being unable to play, I have now started over.  One of the tasks is to rationalize the guitar inventory as I focus on one our two.  I am new to the selling game.  I live on Bainbridge Is WA, and am talking to a Seattle shop about consignment.  Of course I could mail things anywhere in the US, according to testimony on this board.  I just thought I ought to expose you all to these.

    1.  1994 Les Paul Std, sunburst.  This has maybe 6 hours playing time.  When buying a piano for my then 1st grader I got talked into getting this.  I was completely unready, had no teacher (then in Sumatra), so back in the case it went.  30 years later, it needs to get into the right hands.   I can’t imagine there is a more mint 94 LP. Internet shows strong pricing for early 90’s.  I’d be looking to get 75% of “retail” plus shipping.  This is what the local guys are offering.

    2,.  1975 Martin D28-12.  This is two owner, the first being my original teacher in Bakersfield, and I was so amazed I bought it in 1978.  Played it a couple years then life, marriage, etc put the kibosh on guitar for a few decades.  The pick guard has been replaced.  Martin case, etc.  Same terms as above.

     

    if there is any interest I can post pictures and we can conjecture around numbers.  If no interest, no problem.  
     

    Glad to be back among you folks.  Appreciate any advice you have on this.   
     

     

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