My wife is a (seasonal) arborist, when I saw the news yesterday I decided not to show it to her because she already struggles with how people treat trees and this would just leave her angry.
Even I, a layperson, saw the job that was done and thought to myself “holy shot they mutilated those trees”.
Judge clarifies: Yes, Trump was found to have raped E. Jean Carroll
Aaron Blake4 - 5 minutes
After Donald Trump was found liable for sexually abusing and defaming E. Jean Carroll, his legal team and his defenders lodged a frequent talking point.
Despite Carroll’s claims that Trump had raped her, they noted, the jury stopped short of saying he committed that particular offense. Instead, jurors opted for a second option: sexual abuse.
“This was a rape claim, this was a rape case all along, and the jury rejected that — made other findings,” his lawyer, Joe Tacopina, said outside the courthouse.
A judge has now clarified that this is basically a legal distinction without a real-world difference. He says that what the jury found Trump did was in fact rape, as commonly understood.
The filing from Judge Lewis A. Kaplan came as Trump’s attorneys have sought a new trial and have argued that the jury’s $5 million verdict against Trump in the civil suit was excessive. The reason, they argue, is that sexual abuse could be as limited as the “groping” of a victim’s breasts.
“The finding that Ms. Carroll failed to prove that she was ‘raped’ within the meaning of the New York Penal Law does not mean that she failed to prove that Mr. Trump ‘raped’ her as many people commonly understand the word ‘rape,’ ” Kaplan wrote.
He added: “Indeed, as the evidence at trial recounted below makes clear, the jury found that Mr. Trump in fact did exactly that.”
Kaplan said New York’s legal definition of “rape” is “far narrower” than the word is understood in “common modern parlance.”
The former requires forcible, unconsented-to penetration with one’s penis. But he said that the conduct the jury effectively found Trump liable for — forced digital penetration — meets a more common definition of rape. He cited definitions offered by the American Psychological Association and the Justice Department, which in 2012 expanded its definition of rape to include penetration “with any body part or object.”
Kaplan also flatly rejected the Trump team’s suggestion that the conduct Trump was found liable for might have been as limited as groping of the breasts.
The reason? Trump was not accused of that, so the only alleged offense that would have qualified as “sexual abuse” was forced digital penetration. Beyond that, Trump was accused of putting his mouth on Carroll’s mouth and pulling down her tights, which Kaplan noted were not treated as alleged sexual abuse at trial.
“The jury’s finding of sexual abuse therefore necessarily implies that it found that Mr. Trump forcibly penetrated her vagina,” Kaplan wrote, calling it the “only remaining conclusion.”
Kaplan also noted that the verdict form did not ask the jury to decide exactly what conduct Trump had committed, and that neither prosecutors nor Trump’s lawyers had requested it to do so.
“Mr. Trump’s attempt to minimize the sexual abuse finding as perhaps resting on nothing more than groping of Ms. Carroll’s breasts through her clothing is frivolous,” Kaplan wrote.
He added that the jury clearly found that Trump had “ ‘raped’ her in the sense of that term broader than the New York Penal Law definition.”
The motion was a part of Trump’s efforts to appeal the verdict against him. That’s an effort that will apparently continue as he faces a separate defamation lawsuit from Carroll, dealing with claims Trump made about her allegations while he was still president.
But for now, Trump’s effort to push back has led to a rather remarkable clarification that severely undercuts his main talking point.
The article says there’s been no police activity since decriminalization in Oakland, but there was a big bust a few years ago. They raided a grow operation and took all their money and equipment, rendering it useless. I think they didn’t make any charges or arrests? so still better than jail time!
California still criminalizes the sale of mushroom spores, making growing your own more difficult. It’s been interesting and convenient to be able to buy a menu of shroom products from organizations and churches around town. I hope it gets more popular and less expensive.
I’m left to wonder the extent to which lawmakers understand how fungi work. One MSS can yield mass production given sufficient other supplies without intending to cross the line into mass production.
They probably don’t understand a whole lot, my head cannon has them at the meeting saying “adults may grow one to three mushrooms per person per household” lmfao
This sucks. A similar thing seems to be happening in California because of the wildfires. I heard someone on a podcast recently say that it’s like “the market” is responding to climate change before governments do. Which sucks, because it’s haphazard and profit driven, so the least responsible and least protected people will likely be hit the hardest.
(Edit: don’t see how this has anything to do with desantis or his policies? Am i missing something?)
Yeah I think it is just people hating on floridians because bad politics man bad and so the people there supposedly deserve any bad thing that happens?
So… when will there be PowerPoints and training that will now be required as a result of this incident? Now DoD employees will have to sit through yet another hour-long presentation about how to not make spelling mistakes lol.
Then it becomes a competition not in who can provide the best service to customers, but in who is able to look the best to the boss. If that means being fast and efficient, and not minding if you step on customers’ toes, then the customer experience will falter. If that means talking about other employees’ mistakes behind their back, then the workplace culture can become acidic.
Most jobs work that way. A job has a set pay, and you can get fired or promoted. Tipping is unusual: A janitor doesnt get paid a different amount each paycheck because of how clean others feel it is this week. Cashiers who help you find things in the store don’t make more that day.
Base pay has to be the same. You get merit based raised after that. How will they know who’s better and who’s worse at first? They won’t that’s why base pay is equal for everyone.
Some employees have so much experience or other skills that they can immediately ask for a higher base pay but it’s not the average experience.
It’s probably wishful thinking, but I could see this possibly curbing some of the entitlement people can get when using a tip-based service. And that makes for a better work environment.
Tipping is ingrained in our culture so much that people will still feel obligated to. The best way to stop it is to take the tip line off the receipt entirely.
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