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In Jail Without a Lawyer: How a Texas Town Fails Poor Defendants

nytimes.com

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Re: In Jail Without a Lawyer: How a Texas Town Fails Poor Defendants

#141

Post by tpm »

SauciestGNU wrote: post #69
kubb wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this where the whole Europe bashing on social media comes from? US needing to believe that a better society, rule of law, social services isn’t real in Europe and impossible in general?

Not only that, but it explains the disdain for Europe in the current American government. European society proves that Americans could have true freedom and quality of life if it weren't for corporations and oligarchs effectively owning our government. Fascists hate a counterexample.

Corporations and oligarchs effectively own European governments too. Just possibly a bit less than in the US.

Re: In Jail Without a Lawyer: How a Texas Town Fails Poor Defendants

#142

Post by folbec »

stult wrote: post #82
sorcerer-mar wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the most inconvenient thing is actually that it’s both (largely) accidental and systematic. If you go looking for the source of “evil” breaking these systems, you’ll surely find a few bad folks purposely fucking it up, but removing them is almost certainly not going to fix anything. The vast majority of these systems’ behavior (good or bad) is effectively not driven by individuals whatsoever.

There's a long running historiographical debate about the relative influence individuals have over the ultimate course of historical events compared to systemic factors For many years, it was popular (particularly in revisionist circles) almost entirely to deny individual agency and to rely instead exclusively on systemic arguments which highlighted the power of geography, ecology, culture, technology, and other comp…

the technical term in "contingent" :

https://acoup.blog/2021/10/15/fireside-friday-october-15-202...

"(The fancy way of putting the influence of all of those factors, both the big structural ones and the little, subject-to-chance ones, is to say ‘history is contingent’ – that is, the outcomes are not inevitable but are subject to many forces large and small, many of which the lack of evidence render historically invisible.)"

Re: In Jail Without a Lawyer: How a Texas Town Fails Poor Defendants

#144

Post by monkey_monkey »

mixologist wrote: post #134
yieldcrv wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

correct, but Americans as a whole aren't envious of what other countries are doing. There is very little consensus to suggest envy - as the supposition above had suggested was the root of European bashing. There is more consensus on accessing these things - healthcare and higher education - via wealth, or programs within the state of residence. Some individual states/cities do offer free higher education, and free he…

That perspective, as anything US based, is very US centric and wrong. EU supported US war on terror, or whatever you call last 25 years of US invasions, with our own troops and what did we get out of that? Immigration crisis. We basically had to spend huge amounts of money on handling immigrants because of all the wars US (our so called ally) started. Also, EU banks invested a lot of money in US scam financial instit…

Exactly this. I don't remember European, Canadian and Australian governments trying to extort the US after 9/11 when those countries spent billions fighting alongside the US in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Re: In Jail Without a Lawyer: How a Texas Town Fails Poor Defendants

#145

Post by Vilian »

yieldcrv wrote: post #135
jajko wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure we can solve problems. In fact, the only problem - underfunded military. We already started across most Europe, to the tune of half a trillion of additional spending just now. Most of that money will come back to our economies, so expect EURO value to rise. Since russia has 0 motivation to stop its war and its goals are pretty clear, this will also increase in near future. It won't be immediate since we foolishl…

> We already started across most Europe, to the tune of half a trillion of additional spending just now. I’m aware, this is the best inception I’ve ever seen because Europeans are acting like its their own idea because they're scared of the US / Russia now and not that the people in the current US administration have been demanding Europe to do this for 8 years straight. less talking, and just scare people into actio…

Of course they would be demanding that, they wanted Europe to buy Usa guns

Re: In Jail Without a Lawyer: How a Texas Town Fails Poor Defendants

#146

Post by robertlagrant »

jajko wrote: post #119
yieldcrv wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

no, not really, this is a separate issue. yes, American exceptionalism relies on a comparing itself to the worst countries in the world and ignoring that developed nations exist and work out decently. but there really is a skepticism about some Europe nations, can they - and the bloc - sustain its 21st century advances and social safety nets while adequately paying for its own defense? inquiring minds would like to k…

These are separate issues. Healthcare aint cheap anywhere for the state, but its perfectly fundable for any but the most poor and broken countries in the world, to a very decent level. But US is broken in another way - everything is for-profit, no real oversight, and unrestricted capitalism full throttle. Then you get what you got. There are 2 absolutely basic pillars of modern free society worth living in - 1) how i…

> unrestricted capitalism full throttle

This definitely isn't true. American healthcare has vast amounts of public funding of it. It's the mixture of private companies working within a Byzantine regulatory framework (or multiple frameworks) that's causing the issues.

Re: In Jail Without a Lawyer: How a Texas Town Fails Poor Defendants

#147

Post by robertlagrant »

Vilian wrote: post #145
yieldcrv wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We already started across most Europe, to the tune of half a trillion of additional spending just now. I’m aware, this is the best inception I’ve ever seen because Europeans are acting like its their own idea because they're scared of the US / Russia now and not that the people in the current US administration have been demanding Europe to do this for 8 years straight. less talking, and just scare people into actio…

Of course they would be demanding that, they wanted Europe to buy Usa guns

I think they just want to stop feeling as though they have to fund all that defence out of their taxes and then be made fun of by the people they're defending that they don't spend enough taxes on US social safety nets.

Re: In Jail Without a Lawyer: How a Texas Town Fails Poor Defendants

#148

Post by Vilian »

milesrout wrote: post #32
jMyles wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Slavery has existed for all of human history, and is sadly the natural state of things. It was stamped out by the British empire, a colonising power, because of the relentless campaigning of Christian moralists. Imprisonment is indeed a newer development. In the past they chopped off your hand and let fate deal with you, or they just executed you. Nobody was going to feed some peasant who couldn't even work. Imprison…

It was stamped because of the industrial revolution, slaves can't buy goods, not moralism

Re: In Jail Without a Lawyer: How a Texas Town Fails Poor Defendants

#149

Post by fuckbrownpeople »

sersi wrote: post #113
nadermx wrote: post #4

"Two men were released after The Times asked about them, half a year after their sentences had been completed." Horrific. This egregious human rights violation is something you'd think you read about in a developing nation, not a developed nation.

I think at this point the general consensus of most Europeans is that the US has more in common with a developing nation than with a developed nation when it comes to equality in the eye of justice, equal access to health care, support for the downtrodden and freedoms...

[dead]

Re: In Jail Without a Lawyer: How a Texas Town Fails Poor Defendants

#150

Post by Vilian »

db48x wrote: post #125
DistractionRect wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's amazing how understated some parts are. Like they just casually mention > Like most Texas county judges, he does not have a law degree. I'm sorry, what? Anyone off the street can be a judge? That one line begs soo many questions, and at least some outrage, which is simply glossed over. Doing my own research, I guess I see why it's glossed over, because apparently this isn't uncommon - a quick search says that on…

Remember that a degree is only a credential, and people without the credential can still be good at their job. What you need to be a judge is knowledge, not a credential.

It's because this type that anti-intelectualism that make USA justice system seems like a circus, and the best clown, the one that convince the public win
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