23 Comments

Josh: "First episode of 2013"

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No one caught that during editing? My faith is shaken 😏

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Oops, I guess “no one” did…. 🙃

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I liked it, because... It *really is* more "2013" than "2023" in my head, too. My faith is affirmed.

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It's good to know my window-bricks will be accepted in the spirit in which they are thrown! People always seem inclined to interpret them as threats for some reason.

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Unrelated to this episode, specifically, but related to your coverage of Alex Jones's travails with civil litigation, and Ken's expertise as a criminal defense lawyer, is it bad when you criminal defense attorney has his law license suspended during jury selection at your trial?

#NormPattis

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I suspect you had this episode put together before this news hit, but now it seems Santos has been a fugitive from check fraud and theft warrants in Brazil since 2004. Brazilian authorities had long since given up on finding him, but now they know where he is.

Brazil to reopen probe of George Santos in 2008 checkbook fraud case

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/01/03/george-santos-brazil-check-fraud/

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Santos will not want to leave behind $174k...actual pay check compared to "air money" he was making before being elected.

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Watching the Roller Derby at the House Rep... since there is no house... any actions they take such as removing magnetometers, moving, and using government equipment... would seem to carry some sort of liability or at least embarrassm... for get the latter.

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So... it's not related to this podcast, and it's not really *serious* trouble... but if I'm remembering correctly it might be something in your interests.

but have you read any of the stuff about Wizard's of the coast publishing a new OGL (Open gaming license) 1.1 and explicityl deauthorizing the previous one?

https://www.geeknative.com/149573/ogl-architect/

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Nothing like an idiot monopolist to ruin multiple good things in one go.

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Another great Job. Ken, since you aren't on Twitter and you aren't posting as much, I'm not wasting so much time on social media. Well, I am wasting it in other ways!

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You have spoken many times about defendants who continue to talk about their crimes in public after they have been charged, but I have never read of such a statement being introdced at trial. When has it happened?

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Off topic, but does anyone else miss the swear jar? I know it make more work fur the editors, but it always made me laugh.

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I am a new subscriber - just wondering when I can expect the next episode. Is there a set schedule for releasing them?

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We release at least 40 episodes per year, so we come out most weeks. We are not coming out this week -- we expect to tape on Tuesday or Wednesday and release an episode on Wednesday or Thursday next week.

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Thanks!!

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I'm a little curious why smart people (actual members of Congress who elected without completely fabricating their prior credentials!) keep thinking that conspiracy/RICO is the path of least resistance when there is nothing in the public record to suggest the existence of any second person who entered into any agreement with Santos to defraud anyone. Is the theory that whoever gave Santos the money he loaned to his campaign must have known and intended that Santos would lie to voters and the government about his finances and background?

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These sorts of charges, "conspiracy to defraud the United States", "RICO conspiracy", etc, are absolutely ridiculous in terms of getting them to stick in an actual court of law, but they're great if you want to imply the existence of some vast iceburg that we can't see "yet". After all, how is anyone supposed to prove that Santos *didn't* "defraud the United States" (or conspire to do so) by lying to everyone in his district? As mentioned in the episode, it's sort of disputed what that even means, and it sounds like a reasonable description of his known acts, so it'll play on the news and in social media even though getting there in a legal sense is at best wildly impractical.

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I have to assume that the fraud is what he told the FEC, not what he told the Republican County Committee. No one knows what he told the voters, since his supposed $200,000 campaign contribution all went for fictional yachts and parties.

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Listening a second time to this podcast I caught something I hadn't noticed. The "yacht middleman" story is remarkably aligned with the messaging of romance scammers.

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Off-topic: I am following Ken on Mastodon and post.news/popehat, and I noticed the latter no longer works -- it adds an interstitial message, and using the "feed" button on the top doesn't work. I'm writing here in case anyone has tips on how to see Ken's post.news page.

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Ah, whatever happened, it's fixed itself. All is well! Yay.

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