Patterico's Pontifications

3/12/2019

Newsom Plans to Suspend Death Penalty in California

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 8:02 pm



He has a pen and a phone.

Gov. Gavin Newsom is suspending the death penalty in California, calling it discriminatory and immoral and granting reprieves to the 737 condemned inmates on the nation’s largest Death Row.

“I do not believe that a civilized society can claim to be a leader in the world as long as its government continues to sanction the premeditated and discriminatory execution of its people,” Newsom said in a statement accompanying an executive order, to be issued Wednesday, declaring a moratorium on capital punishment in the state. “The death penalty is inconsistent with our bedrock values and strikes at the very heart of what it means to be a Californian.”

He plans to order an immediate shutdown of the death chamber at San Quentin State Prison, where the last execution was carried out in 2006. Newsom is also withdrawing California’s recently revised procedures for executions by lethal injection, ending — at least for now — the struggle by prison officials for more than a decade to devise procedures that would pass muster in federal court by minimizing the risk of a botched and painful execution.

I don’t know whether he can do this legally, but he’s going to try.

Add it to the parade of laws that are allowing murderers to walk out the door and other weakening of public safety.

[Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.]

Salem Buys PJ Media

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:54 pm



News:

It’s part of Salem’s earnings report:

On March 1, 2019, the company entered into an agreement to acquire the pjmedia.com website for $0.1 million in cash. The purchase is expected to close during the first quarter of 2019.

So there you have it.

[Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.]

Two High Profile Democrats And Their Response To Trump

Filed under: General — Dana @ 2:15 pm



[guest post by Dana]

I can’t say it’s not amusing to watch the Democrats publicly struggle to stay unified (or at least present a unified front). Cheap thrills, I suppose. Beholden to neither party, the novelty of the Democrats imploding a bit and dragging themselves through the mud these days is a good distraction from the Republicans’ proposed whopper of a budget, in which the president laughably warned that the federal government” must protect future generations from Washington’s habitual deficit spending.” …

Anyway, this is an interesting look at the divide within today’s Democratic party: the view of President Trump held by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and that of Rep. Ilhan Omar. The circumstances prompting their opinions are certainly different – one was interviewed in a planned upon date and time by a mainstream media outlet, the other was “interviewed” on the run in a hallway by a Fox news reporter (that the representative is obviously trying hard to blow off). Yet it is still revealing about both individuals and how they view the president.

From Pelosi, in an interview with The Washington Post:

How would you describe your relationship with the president?

Is there a relationship? [Laughs.] How would I describe my relationship to the president? My relationship toward him is respectful, respectful of the office that he holds. Straightforward, just tell him what I think. And I always say you’re not going to hear me saying anything publicly that I’m not saying here in the office. Hopeful that at some point we can find common ground that he’ll stick to. So, yeah, respectful, honest and hopeful.

Do you feel that he has done anything that has been good for America?

He’s been a great organizer for Democrats, a great fundraiser for Democrats and a great mobilizer at the grass-roots level for Democrats. [Laughs.] And I think that’s good for America.

There have been increasing calls, including from some of your members, for impeachment of the president.

I’m not for impeachment. This is news. I’m going to give you some news right now because I haven’t said this to any press person before. But since you asked, and I’ve been thinking about this: Impeachment is so divisive to the country that unless there’s something so compelling and overwhelming and bipartisan, I don’t think we should go down that path, because it divides the country. And he’s just not worth it.

And from Omar:

The Minnesota Democrat said in an interview with Fox News in a congressional hallway that her criticisms of Mr. Obama last week for the “caging of kids” along the U.S.-Mexico border and the “droning of countries around the world” don’t mean he is like Mr. Trump.

“Absolutely not, that is silly to even think and equate the two,” she said, going on to explain how the two men differ.

“One is human. The other is really not,” she said.

Omar (along with Rep. Tlaib) were the first two congresspersons to sign a pledge to impeach President Trump).

I appreciate more Omar’s blunt in-your-face-take-no-prisoners easy to read hate than that of the much more polished hate couched in Pelosi’s carefully crafted responses. At least with Omar, you’re never going to guess where she stands on anything Trump, whereas with Pelosi, because she’s sublimely practiced at the art of deception and finessing that which might be seen as problematic, one needs to pay close attention to what she says. Maybe it’s just an old-school Democrat versus a progressive Democratic socialist, or experienced, savvy player versus that of an impulsive, impatient player who still hasn’t learned to watch her words and weigh them out carefully before uttering them aloud.

(Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.)

–Dana


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