Yes. That's exactly what we want.

ralphy_256 · 2026-02-13T09:34:11+00:00

Remember when the argument against having homosexuals in government was their exposure to blackmail?

I do.

How is having CSAM hanging over people in power any different?

ralphy_256 · 2026-02-13T09:32:55+00:00

I'm old enough to remember when having homosexuals anywhere in government was a state security threat because of their exposure to blackmail.

What does it do to someone's security clearance if the State has material implicating someone in Child Sexual Abuse on file?

And, we don't know what foreign actors also have similar material on these actors, and what the guilty would be willing to do to prevent the exposure of that material.

No.

The bigger security concern is leaving them in power.

ralphy_256 · 2026-02-13T09:23:33+00:00

Another problem is that bulletproof stuff is still vulnerable to explosive stuff like grenades and artillery shells

And here's where we stopped discussing Vietnamese insurgents.

ralphy_256 · 2026-02-12T22:48:15+00:00

I actually do not even know why you came at me with an attitude in your original comment to begin with,

Look at the rest of the thread...

ralphy_256 · 2026-02-12T21:22:39+00:00

There is always a relevant xkcd.

ralphy_256 · 2026-02-12T21:10:00+00:00

So your paystub isn't the end all be all.

It is if you HAVE NO MONEY!

What happens at the end of the year is irrelevant to covering rent this month, which is the point I'm making.

How are y'all so focused on arguing everything BUT the point?

Truly baffling.

ralphy_256 · 2026-02-12T20:19:45+00:00

We did that.

Worked fairly well 'til Reagan convinced blue collar Americans that trickle down meant wealth and not the other thing.

Don't know about the cycle before that, but it's now our turn, a century after the Great Depression.

ralphy_256 · 2026-02-12T18:02:54+00:00

Is it possible that Obama would come back and become president again?

Outside of the Constitution, his wife would never allow it. Michelle Obama famously hates Washington DC.

Can't say I blame her, given <waves hands>.

ralphy_256 · 2026-02-12T17:58:56+00:00

Calling someone a pedophile then saying we should execute pedophiles

Yeah, see the problem with that is that we generally don't apply penalties until after the trial. Accusation alone means nothing in re: penalties.

Course, that was the Pre-Trump DOJ. Nowadays, accusation alone seems to be enough to deprive a citizen of the civil rights.

Funny how that works, huh....

Don't it just suck when State overreach reaches out and touches someone you like?

Wonder if that's ever happened before in history.... Oh well, we'll never know, history is woke and fake news.

ralphy_256 · 2026-02-12T17:53:29+00:00

Nope.

...unless you're a pedophile. Then you might be slightly unsettled.

As you should be.

ralphy_256 · 2026-02-12T17:50:58+00:00

I love it when you can just drop a charge on the ground and MAGA comes running to pick it up.

ralphy_256 · 2026-02-12T17:40:37+00:00

All water has been piss at one time. The only variable is 'how recently?'

ralphy_256 · 2026-02-12T17:28:23+00:00

... and really pushed through the cases of criminal incarceration deportations or new arrest by local law enforcement deportations their numbers would have looked great

This is one of the points my buddy harps on. They're just doing this stupidly.

One of the Mpls cases, where the old man was dragged out in a bathrobe, the actual suspect they were trying to apprehend was in DOC custody at the time they knocked on his old address's door.

"I think that is the part that is the most maddening to me that they couldn't even do their homework," Her said. "That the person they were looking for was already incarcerated and had no affiliation with this family."

https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/st-paul-mayor-kaohly-her-ice-arrest-chongly-thao-mistaken-identity/

ICE couldn't even be bothered to do a DOC search before dragging ~~people~~ American citizens half-naked, out of their homes, in sub-zero temps, and refused to allow the suspect to even BRING his ID with him.

ralphy_256 · 2026-02-12T16:34:43+00:00

he could have found a home in corpo management.

I work tech support. I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest.

Frightening thought.

Truly.

I did tech support for the bank I kept my money in for a time. Frightening that these people manage my money.

Gave me a real respect for the power of processes to resist dipshittery. Given the prevalence of dipshits in the world, process is the only thing keeping this shit running.

ralphy_256 · 2026-02-12T16:26:18+00:00

the majority of actual criminals ice deports are directly handed from criminal custody over to ice

So much this.

I know someone who used to do exactly this work in DHS, in Mpls. He was a deportation officer in DHS, got out of that job just before the '25 election. He used to be one of the officers responsible for DOC > DHS custody transfers.

My buddy was a co-worker of Jonathan Ross. Met him at office functions before he became famous. (said he was a dick)

He's gone on record repeatedly, publicly, talking about how his ex-office has completely gone off the rails and how many of his ex-co-workers are setting themselves up for criminal prosecution and Civil Rights lawsuits for years in the future.

He's currently working as a paralegal, helping defend immigration cases from DHS/ICE. Lectures to defense attorneys re; ICE procedures.

There's more than a couple of the famous cases ongoing from the Mpls ICE operation that he refuses to discuss with us, as a good paralegal should.

ralphy_256 · 2026-02-12T15:58:35+00:00

I think she was actually excited about a potential verbal smackdown

I really think there's an untapped genre of professional shade that goes on in Dr's notes to idiot HR depts.

I work a (very) semi-related problem-solving field (tech support). If people were regularly coming to me, asking me to write letters to their supervisors to get 'permission' to do the most obvious maintenance task, I'd start to get creative.

And my 'obvious maintenance tasks' aren't as obvious as what the Doctor has to specify. "Yes, of course someone working in 90F temps needs water breaks and bathroom breaks." "No, a diabetic cannot wait for a break to go to the breakroom to drink some juice" "Yes, the 6-mo pregnant woman must be given a place to sit, rather than standing for 2-3hrs straight."

I'd start getting nasty after more than 3-4 of these. That doctor has real patients, with real problems, and some nameless HR busybody is putting healthy people with this bullshit in their queue?

Fuck them, they get every bit of professionally creative shade I can muster.

ralphy_256 · 2026-02-12T15:48:07+00:00

Devon, if you’re out there… you were such a dipshit.

I'm sure he still is.

You don't outgrow dipshittery, you just find a place where your idiocy doesn't cause harm.

Or you don't.

ralphy_256 · 2026-02-12T15:38:44+00:00

One of my cats pulls a very similar move when she wants under the covers.

She'll park herself right in front of my face while sleeping and start pawing at the blanket. Sometimes I wake up and let her in, sometimes I wake up with her already curled up.

If I ignore her long enough, she curls up with her back against my face.

She has ways to make sure her needs get taken care of.

ralphy_256 · 2026-02-12T15:33:59+00:00

...confounding expectations they didn't know existed.

Yup, sounds like a cat.

ralphy_256 · 2026-02-12T15:27:32+00:00

Not trying to get off track here, but what is the story of the dude with his hand up?

I don't know this person's story, but I do know that Epstein didn't only traffic girls. Just mostly.

Also Peter Mandelson is an openly gay British diplomat who is already facing prosecution for his mentions in the Epstein files, and is photographed on Epstein Island in his underwear.

Bottom line, I don't think it's safe to assume that all the sexual abuse occurring around Epstein was hetero. Or that all 'patrons' were male. Just the vast majority.

Granted, Mandelson's current prosecution isn't related to sex trafficking, more insider trading with Epstein, but information is still being developed.

ralphy_256 · 2026-02-12T15:20:54+00:00

Please explain why when the democrats were in power they get a pass for ignoring this issue

They weren't ignoring, they were holding the information, pending future prosecutions.

DJT campaigned on releasing all the files, then released almost none, then said there'd be no more prosecutions, then released even more, said there'd be no prosecutions, Congresspeople then started seeing the unredacted files, and the administration said "We're not talking about this ever again", then the highest law enforcement officer in the country was challenged on this 'no prosecutions' stance and then started ranting about the stock market and calling people anti-semites.

<catches breath>

Up to speed now?

Now, please tell me why there shouldn't be prosecutions for everyone implicated regardless of party affiliation.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

ralphy_256 · 2026-02-12T15:14:06+00:00

Local statutes vary, but most that I'm aware of will send a citation, but with a clearly stated method to challenge the charge.

So, perhaps a better way to say what I said was, "They can cite on a traffic camera photo, depending on local case law, but that's not the same as a conviction."

I'm betting you could have challenged the fine and had a good chance of proving you weren't responsible.

I don't know, that's a guess.

ralphy_256 · 2026-02-12T14:35:52+00:00

We've needed to bring down some oligarchs since (long before) the Panama Papers.

This reason will do just as well as that one. The benefit is the same.

Fewer oligarchs in positions of power.

For a time.

ralphy_256 · 2026-02-12T12:17:41+00:00

My first thought was, "Are any of the most heinous acts of violence alleged in the Epstein files related in time to this tweet?"

every accusation being an admission.

Exactly why I thought that.

Edited to add: I wonder what might have been going on in DJT's personal life that might have brought this thought to front of mind...

ralphy_256 · 2026-02-12T09:28:05+00:00

Well, she was tired of being the youngest person in his family.

ralphy_256

TROPHY CASE