It's all about marrying up Reality TV, evangelical huckstering, WWE, and international politics, in order to fill his pockets.
Jan 26, 2024
Today's Brian
It takes him a while to get there, but Cohen nails the core concept of what Trump is doing - it's The Show.
Today's Barbarism
But when it's known that a double digit percentage of people who have been convicted of a capital crime - and condemned to die for it - are later proved innocent, then I've got a big fucking problem with what amounts to state-sponsored murder. (Death Penalty Info Ctr)
So, OK - if you've got the guy dead-to-rights, punch his ticket. But that whole death thing is pretty permanent. We need to be quite a bit more sure than we have been.
That 'being sure' thing becomes a bigger sticking point as we develop newer and better ways to snuff people that help us rationalize our primitive urge to kill in retribution.
Kenneth Eugene Smith became the first prisoner known to be executed using a controversial method known as nitrogen hypoxia
ATMORE, Ala. — Alabama carried out the world’s first known execution by nitrogen hypoxia Thursday. The unprecedented method was administered to Kenneth Eugene Smith, a prisoner on death row for his role in a contract killing more than three decades ago.
Smith’s execution was preceded by months of legal battles over whether it was constitutional to use nitrogen hypoxia in capital punishment, as the method was not known to have ever been used before in a prison setting. Alabama prison officials kept many of the details about how they would carry out the new method a secret from the public.
Smith, 58, was pronounced dead at 8:25 p.m. at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore.
Media witnesses arrived to the death chamber and saw Smith strapped to a gurney and fitted with a mask that covered his entire face.
“Tonight, Alabama caused humanity to take a step backward,” Smith said in a lengthy final statement transcribed by media witnesses. “I’m leaving with love, peace and light. Thank you for supporting me. Love all of you.”
Using sign language, Smith said, “I love you,” directing the sign toward the window of the viewing room where his family sat.
Smith appeared conscious for at least two minutes while the gas flowed to his mask, according to media witnesses. He shook and writhed for at least two minutes on the gurney, and this was followed by two minutes of deep breaths and then a period of time during which media witnesses were unable to determine if he was breathing.
The curtain closed at 8:15 p.m., 10 minutes before the state pronounced him dead.
Speaking to reporters after the execution, Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner John Q. Hamm called Smith’s shaking and writhing “involuntary” and said a 45-minute delay in the execution was due to “a hiccup on the EKG line” that was preventing a good reading.
Alabama officials had previously tried and failed to execute Smith by lethal injection in 2022. States that still use the death penalty have struggled to obtain lethal injection drugs, with lawmakers and prison officials adopting alternative methods as backup options. Alabama, Mississippi and Oklahoma have approved nitrogen hypoxia, while other states have brought back the long-disused firing squad.
Despite the historic nature of Smith’s execution, only five independent witnesses from the news media, including the Associated Press, were able to observe the process. Smith’s family, as well as the family of his victim, Elizabeth Sennett, attended Thursday’s execution.
Medical professionals and human rights advocates had argued for months that Alabama’s efforts to use an untested execution method on Smith amounted to human experimentation, claims Smith’s lawyers took all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Late Thursday, the nation’s top court rejected Smith’s final request for intervention. The court’s three liberal justices — Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson — noted their dissent in the court’s order, which did not explain the majority’s reasoning. Sotomayor called Alabama’s method “untested” and said “the world is watching.”
“Having failed to kill Smith on its first attempt, Alabama has selected him as its ‘guinea pig’ to test a method of execution never attempted before,” she wrote.
Kagan, joined by Jackson, wrote separately to say that she would have put the execution on hold to give Smith and his lawyers more information about the state’s new protocol to allow him to fully challenge the execution method.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall (R) had defended the state’s protocol, previously calling nitrogen hypoxia “the most painless and humane method of execution known to man.” The state argued that the district court heard from at least a hundred experts and was not convinced the method was likely to lead to an unacceptable level of pain before death.
Former Alabama governor Don Siegelman (D) had also called on Gov. Kay Ivey (R) to stop Smith’s execution. Siegelman was among those who noted that Smith would not have faced execution if he were tried under modern standards.
“So here we are in Alabama about to execute Kenneth Eugene Smith, who was sentenced to death — not by a jury, as required by the U.S. Constitution — but by a judge, a practice banned in Alabama,” Siegelman said in a statement.
A jury voted 11-1 in favor of life in prison at Smith’s second trial before a judge overrode its verdict and sentenced Smith to death. The practice, known as judicial override, has since been eliminated in all 50 states; Alabama was the last state to do so, in 2017.
Philip Nitschke, a leading figure in the controversial right-to-die movement, told The Washington Post that while nitrogen hypoxia is an effective method for willing euthanasia patients, Alabama’s execution protocol dramatically differs from legal assisted-suicide methods in Europe in both technique and spirit.
Nitschke said the right-to-die movement long ago moved away from using masks such as the one in Alabama, instead favoring methods such as hoods, specially designed bags and pods. Another key difference, he stressed, is that people are calm and cooperative in their assisted suicide, while a prisoner is anxiously awaiting an execution against his will.
In previous court filings, Smith’s attorneys said there was a real risk that Smith would vomit and choke to death during his execution. Marshall, Alabama’s attorney general, said that was unlikely, noting that Smith would have taken his last meal more than eight hours before the execution. Should Smith vomit, the state said, officials would remove and clean the mask and clear Smith’s airway before continuing.
The state last attempted to execute Smith in November 2022. Prison staffers failed to find a vein to set Smith’s IV line, which, coupled with last-minute appeals, made it untenable to complete the lethal injection before Smith’s execution warrant expired at midnight. Smith’s was the third botched lethal injection in a row, prompting Ivey to temporarily pause executions for review.
The Alabama Department of Corrections rejected calls for a third-party review and conducted a review of its execution process internally. A public report was not released following Alabama’s four-month review; Hamm instead sent a two-page letter to Ivey in February 2023 noting four changes to the procedures, including obtaining new equipment and hiring more medical staffers.
In two key changes to Alabama’s execution procedure, the Alabama Supreme Court in 2023 extended the typical 24-hour timeline for execution warrants to let the governor set the timeline and eliminated the process of automatically reviewing death penalty cases for “plain errors” during the trial phase.
Smith was convicted in Sennett’s 1988 death in Colbert County, Ala. Sennett was found beaten and stabbed in her home, which was staged to look like a robbery. Investigators later found that Sennett’s husband, the Rev. Charles Sennett, had hired a hit man to kill her so he could collect on her life insurance policy to cover his debts.
John Forrest Parker and Smith were paid $1,000 each by a middleman on Sennett’s behalf to carry out the murder. Charles Sennett killed himself when police learned of his role in the plot, while Billy Gray Williams, the middleman, was sentenced to life in prison. Parker was executed in 2010.
ATMORE, Ala. — Alabama carried out the world’s first known execution by nitrogen hypoxia Thursday. The unprecedented method was administered to Kenneth Eugene Smith, a prisoner on death row for his role in a contract killing more than three decades ago.
Smith’s execution was preceded by months of legal battles over whether it was constitutional to use nitrogen hypoxia in capital punishment, as the method was not known to have ever been used before in a prison setting. Alabama prison officials kept many of the details about how they would carry out the new method a secret from the public.
Smith, 58, was pronounced dead at 8:25 p.m. at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore.
Media witnesses arrived to the death chamber and saw Smith strapped to a gurney and fitted with a mask that covered his entire face.
“Tonight, Alabama caused humanity to take a step backward,” Smith said in a lengthy final statement transcribed by media witnesses. “I’m leaving with love, peace and light. Thank you for supporting me. Love all of you.”
Using sign language, Smith said, “I love you,” directing the sign toward the window of the viewing room where his family sat.
Smith appeared conscious for at least two minutes while the gas flowed to his mask, according to media witnesses. He shook and writhed for at least two minutes on the gurney, and this was followed by two minutes of deep breaths and then a period of time during which media witnesses were unable to determine if he was breathing.
The curtain closed at 8:15 p.m., 10 minutes before the state pronounced him dead.
Speaking to reporters after the execution, Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner John Q. Hamm called Smith’s shaking and writhing “involuntary” and said a 45-minute delay in the execution was due to “a hiccup on the EKG line” that was preventing a good reading.
Alabama officials had previously tried and failed to execute Smith by lethal injection in 2022. States that still use the death penalty have struggled to obtain lethal injection drugs, with lawmakers and prison officials adopting alternative methods as backup options. Alabama, Mississippi and Oklahoma have approved nitrogen hypoxia, while other states have brought back the long-disused firing squad.
Despite the historic nature of Smith’s execution, only five independent witnesses from the news media, including the Associated Press, were able to observe the process. Smith’s family, as well as the family of his victim, Elizabeth Sennett, attended Thursday’s execution.
Medical professionals and human rights advocates had argued for months that Alabama’s efforts to use an untested execution method on Smith amounted to human experimentation, claims Smith’s lawyers took all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Late Thursday, the nation’s top court rejected Smith’s final request for intervention. The court’s three liberal justices — Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson — noted their dissent in the court’s order, which did not explain the majority’s reasoning. Sotomayor called Alabama’s method “untested” and said “the world is watching.”
“Having failed to kill Smith on its first attempt, Alabama has selected him as its ‘guinea pig’ to test a method of execution never attempted before,” she wrote.
Kagan, joined by Jackson, wrote separately to say that she would have put the execution on hold to give Smith and his lawyers more information about the state’s new protocol to allow him to fully challenge the execution method.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall (R) had defended the state’s protocol, previously calling nitrogen hypoxia “the most painless and humane method of execution known to man.” The state argued that the district court heard from at least a hundred experts and was not convinced the method was likely to lead to an unacceptable level of pain before death.
Former Alabama governor Don Siegelman (D) had also called on Gov. Kay Ivey (R) to stop Smith’s execution. Siegelman was among those who noted that Smith would not have faced execution if he were tried under modern standards.
“So here we are in Alabama about to execute Kenneth Eugene Smith, who was sentenced to death — not by a jury, as required by the U.S. Constitution — but by a judge, a practice banned in Alabama,” Siegelman said in a statement.
A jury voted 11-1 in favor of life in prison at Smith’s second trial before a judge overrode its verdict and sentenced Smith to death. The practice, known as judicial override, has since been eliminated in all 50 states; Alabama was the last state to do so, in 2017.
Philip Nitschke, a leading figure in the controversial right-to-die movement, told The Washington Post that while nitrogen hypoxia is an effective method for willing euthanasia patients, Alabama’s execution protocol dramatically differs from legal assisted-suicide methods in Europe in both technique and spirit.
Nitschke said the right-to-die movement long ago moved away from using masks such as the one in Alabama, instead favoring methods such as hoods, specially designed bags and pods. Another key difference, he stressed, is that people are calm and cooperative in their assisted suicide, while a prisoner is anxiously awaiting an execution against his will.
In previous court filings, Smith’s attorneys said there was a real risk that Smith would vomit and choke to death during his execution. Marshall, Alabama’s attorney general, said that was unlikely, noting that Smith would have taken his last meal more than eight hours before the execution. Should Smith vomit, the state said, officials would remove and clean the mask and clear Smith’s airway before continuing.
The state last attempted to execute Smith in November 2022. Prison staffers failed to find a vein to set Smith’s IV line, which, coupled with last-minute appeals, made it untenable to complete the lethal injection before Smith’s execution warrant expired at midnight. Smith’s was the third botched lethal injection in a row, prompting Ivey to temporarily pause executions for review.
The Alabama Department of Corrections rejected calls for a third-party review and conducted a review of its execution process internally. A public report was not released following Alabama’s four-month review; Hamm instead sent a two-page letter to Ivey in February 2023 noting four changes to the procedures, including obtaining new equipment and hiring more medical staffers.
In two key changes to Alabama’s execution procedure, the Alabama Supreme Court in 2023 extended the typical 24-hour timeline for execution warrants to let the governor set the timeline and eliminated the process of automatically reviewing death penalty cases for “plain errors” during the trial phase.
Smith was convicted in Sennett’s 1988 death in Colbert County, Ala. Sennett was found beaten and stabbed in her home, which was staged to look like a robbery. Investigators later found that Sennett’s husband, the Rev. Charles Sennett, had hired a hit man to kill her so he could collect on her life insurance policy to cover his debts.
John Forrest Parker and Smith were paid $1,000 each by a middleman on Sennett’s behalf to carry out the murder. Charles Sennett killed himself when police learned of his role in the plot, while Billy Gray Williams, the middleman, was sentenced to life in prison. Parker was executed in 2010.
On Guns And Politics
One of the mainstays of Daddy State politics is playing the Opposites Game - a slight variation on 'Every accusation is a confession'.
Just a thought.
It's very useful to make sure your audience is distracted and fooled so they don't see the impossible contradiction inherent in the propaganda.
Case in point: Guns.
"We need our guns in case it becomes necessary to fight an oppressive government!"
What if the oppressive government is actually made up of the people who are telling you to fight? What if they're co-opting you into fighting on behalf of the oppressive government they intend to install once you've killed enough of your neighbors to impose their will on all of us?
Just a thought.
Jan 25, 2024
Ballistic Podiatry
Trump has been a spoiled pre-schooler his whole friggin' life.
The impulse to lash out is reflexive.
And it's just possible some people have finally caught on, and are starting to play him with it.
Sir, you are running in an election. Why the hell are you threatening your own party’s donors?
Donald Trump’s plan to threaten Nikki Haley’s financial backers immediately backfired on him on Wednesday, as several prominent people in the MAGA camp proceeded to donate to the GOP front-runner’s primary opponent, launching a spontaneous fundraising drive for the South Carolina governor.
“When I ran for office and won, I noticed that the losing candidate’s ‘donors’ would immediately come to me, and want to ‘help out.’ This is standard in politics, but no longer with me,” Trump posted during a late-night social media tantrum.
“Anybody that makes a ‘contribution’ to Birdbrain, from this moment forth, will be permanently barred from the MAGA camp,” he added, derogatorily referring to Haley, whom he put in his own presidential Cabinet as ambassador to the U.N.
But then several of Trump’s former staffers chimed in on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, apparently hard-withdrawing their MAGA cards in favor of sending some money to the ambassador.
“Done,” posted Trump’s former deputy press secretary, Sarah Matthews.
Haley caught on quickly, posting a link to her donation page.
That set the stage for other voters to gleefully join in the fundraising fray.
Others noted that the mob boss–style threat seemed particularly on edge for a candidate who just won the New Hampshire primary by double digits, and questioned the legitimacy of the financial threat from a man facing several pricy upcoming criminal trials and a potential $370 million fine for committing bank fraud to expand his real estate empire.
Despite the local drive’s overnight popularity, it will hardly replace some of Haley’s biggest backers—like venture capitalist Reid Hoffman—who began pausing donations to the campaign after Haley’s lackluster results on Tuesday.
Today's Daddy State
It's dressed up in normal-sounding language (most of it), but he's telling us exactly how he intends to go about dismantling democratic self-government - ie: checks and balances.
Putin has got to be doing cartwheels hearing this…..pic.twitter.com/xJ79Tr8mUm
— Mark 🍁 (@Markfry809) January 25, 2024
Today's Beau
The fuckery:
The chair of the Arizona Republican Party announced he will resign Wednesday after leaked audio appeared to show him attempting to pay Senate candidate Kari Lake not to run for office in 2024.
Jeff DeWit said that the audio was “selectively edited.” He explained, however, that he chose to resign because he was threatened by members of Lake’s team that more tapes would be released if he did not step down. Lake’s campaign has denied the allegation.
Lake publicly demanded DeWit resign over the audio Tuesday, calling him “corrupt” and “compromised.”
The audio recording was first reported by The Daily Mail.
“There are very powerful people who want to keep you out,” DeWit reportedly told the Senate hopeful in the recording, saying only that these figures were from the “east.”
“Just say, is there a number at which,” DeWit begins, before being cut off.
“I can be bought? That’s what it’s about,” Lake retorted.
DeWit allegedly responded, “You can take a pause for a couple of years … You can go right back to what you’re doing.”
Lake — who ran an unsuccessful bid for Arizona governor in 2022 — said she would not accept a billion dollars to leave the Senate race.
On Wednesday, DeWit said the call was not a form of bribe, but rather a conversation about hiring Lake at his personal company. He said she was already an employee when the recording was made early last year.
“Contrary to accusations of bribery, my discussions were transparent and intended to offer perspective, not coercion,” the outgoing GOP chair wrote in a statement. “Our relationship was based on friendship, and the conversation that is now being scrutinized was open, unguarded exchange between friends in the living room of her house.”
“I genuinely believed I was offering a helpful perspective to someone I considered a friend,” he added.
He continued, saying Lake has been “on a mission to destroy” him since the conversation, and condemned her “disturbing tendency” to record interactions without the other party’s consent.
“This is obviously a concern given how much interaction she has with high profile people including President Trump,” DeWit argued. “I question how effective a United States Senator can be when they can not be trusted to engage in private and confidential conversations.”
He also alleged that the conversation was a “set up,” adding that Lake “orchestrated this entire situation to have control over the state party.”
“This morning, I was determined to fight for my position,” he continued. “However, a few hours ago, I received an ultimatum from Lake’s team: resign today or face the release of a new, more damaging recording.”
“I am truly unsure of its contents, but considering our numerous past open conversations as friends, I have decided not to take the risk,” he added.
In response to DeWit’s resignation and allegations of threats, Lake’s campaign said the “tape speaks for itself.”
“No one from the Kari Lake campaign threatened or blackmailed DeWit. It is unfortunate that Dewit hasn’t recognized how unethical his behavior was and still hasn’t apologized to Arizona Republicans,” senior advisors Caroline Wren and Garrett Ventry said in a statement.
“DeWit’s false claims are just par for the course,” they continued. “The Arizona GOP must be relieved to have his resignation. Now we can focus on getting ethical leadership and win big in 2024.”
DeWit served as the state party chair since January 2023, after working as the chief operating officer for Trump’s 2016 and 2020 White House bids.
Lake, a former news anchor, has faced pushback against her Senate bid. She has been a leading booster of former President Trump’s unsubstantiated claims of election fraud in the 2020 election, and fought her own legal battle after the gubernatorial loss in 2022.
She said Tuesday that she didn’t have anyone in mind to replace DeWit.
“I haven’t given it a lot of thought. What I want to do is make sure we get the corrupt people out,” she said.
It’s not the first time Lake has been accused of recording others without consent. Last year, she recorded an impromptu airport lounge conversation with Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) — the presumptive Democratic nominee for the Senate seat — confronting him over policy issues.
Lake, DeWit and the Arizona GOP have not responded to a previous request for comment on the recording.
Jan 24, 2024
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