The Conservative Cave

senseandsensibility (25,622 posts)

I see that James Talarico is doing something that Kamala did not

During his interview with Lawrence last night, he defined his opponent with surgical precision. Incorporated in every answer was the term "the most corrupt politician in America" about Paxton. He also referred almost as often to Paxton enriching himself and doing nothing to lower prices. He was a master at pivoting to those two things no matter what the subject and still answering the question.

Ironically, this may be one good thing that comes out of the 2024 "autopsy" which found that Dems did not define their opponent. The simple fact is that you can have all the great ideas in the world (and Dems do) but first you need to "dirty up" your opponent. That way, voters will listen more critically to their lies and name-calling

Kamala did a great job and I am not trying to second guess her. She was in an impossible position in many ways and she did a great job with what she was handed. But if we can learn something from that race, let's do do. Defining your opponent AND presenting a positive vision for the future is unbelievably difficult. But from what I saw from Talarico last night, he understands that and is going to do it!

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100221263711

Brian O’Hara as resigned as chief of the Minneapolis Police Department in disgrace. Katie Blackwell, formerly assistant chief of operations, is now the acting chief. I was seving as a member of the board of Alpha News at the time that Blackwell sued Alpha News and Liz Collin as a result of her brief appearance in the film The Fall of Minneapolis (produced by Liz Collin).

Based on her appearance in the film and in the related book by Liz, Blackwell brought an ill-advised defamation lawsuit against Liz and Alpha News. I called the lawsuit Blackwell’s folly.

Jenna Gloeb now takes a look back in the current Alpha News story “14 officers signed sworn declarations saying new Minneapolis chief committed perjury during Chauvin trial.” Alpha News asked the Minnesota POST Board — whose members are appointed by Gov. Tim Walz — why it hasn’t taken any action against Blackwell, but received no response.
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Blackwell testified for the state in the prosecution of Derek Chauvin for murder in the case arising from George Floyd’s death. Liz’s book and film impugn the accuracy of Blackwell’s testimony at the Chauvin murder trial. In her testimony Blackwell asserted that the knee-on-neck restraint Chauvin used on Floyd was not trained by the department. The documentary is accessible for free at the link above. The testimony in issue appears in the video at 1:00:03-1:00:32.

Minneapolis attorney Chris Madel represented the defendants Blackwell has sued. We asserted every applicable defense including truth and the First Amendment. Sources and references for the film are here. Chris also introduced the declarations of 34 Minneapolis police offers specifically refuting Blackwell’s testimony regarding the knee-on-neck restraint.

Judge Wahl granted defendants’ motion to dismiss the case. I have embedded his scrupulous 58-page order below. It was a good day for independent journalism in Minnesota and a bad day for the Minneapolis Police Department. At the end of the day, as they say, Blackwell agreed to resolve her exploding cigar of a lawsuit by paying attorneys’ fees of $75,000.

When I saw that E. Jean Carroll, the woman who accused Donald Trump of raping her, was being investigated, I didn't think much of it.

Sure, she pretty clearly lied, and the entire case was a total setup. Democrats love to believe the worst of Republicans and jump on any real or fantastical accusations of bad behavior by Republicans, so perhaps many of them believed her ridiculous story that was based on—I kid you not—copying the plot of an episode of Law and Order: SVU. But then again, Democrats swallowed the accusations against Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh...

But any objective person who looked into the case could tell it was a setup.
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Still, I assumed that the investigation was based on a stretch, until I read that the woman who admitted that she thought that rape is "sexy" committed provable perjury.
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I didn't know that, partly because the case was so transparently a political hit job, and I didn't bother spending much time investigating the case or Carroll. While I knew the case was a hoax, I suspected that it would have much less political impact than the Democrats supposed.

Quote

The investigation is focused on whether Carroll committed perjury in testimony tied to her two civil lawsuits against the president – one alleging he sexually abused Carroll in a New York department store in the mid-1990s, and a second for defaming her when in 2019 he repeatedly denied the assault, said she wasn’t his type and claimed she made it up to boost sales of a book.

Prosecutors’ theory hinges on a 2022 deposition statement by Carroll, 82, that she received no outside funding for her lawsuit, though it was later revealed that billionaire Reid Hoffman had paid some legal fees and expenses.

Looks like we will see how this redistricting works for them.