America, weāre number one. sigh 
This is just awful. Unjust and awful, really.
No healthcare and no right to die.
Bring back the ārightā to suffer, oh we never got rid of it.
āā¦and the greatest of these is love.ā
The funny thing about this country is that weād actually be better off if we did adhere to ārealā Christian values, instead of the doctrine of fear and hate thatās been promoted in its place.
And I say that as someone who 1) is not Christian and 2) absolutely respects our Founding Fathersā wisdom in creating the First Amendment.
Hereās hoping for a jury acquittal. 
The guilty party is most likely societyās complicity with this corrupt state of national affairs in ever allowing the advent of for-profit healthcare, and every demagogueās attack on mercy and euthanasia, ever.
Yeah, whatās that one song by Woody Guthrie, that Wilco/Billy Bragg did? Christ for President?
Yup! They put together an album called Mermaid Avenue of previously unrecorded Woody Guthrie songs.
Hereās a live version:
This breaks my damn heart.
Well done, murrica!
Not gonna happen - no prosecutor will dare take this to trial knowing the sympathy this would generate with the jury. Likely outcome is heāll plea to voluntary manslaughter and spend the minimum 4 year prison sentence (minimum because he used a firearm) due to his age and mitigating circumstances.
Still sucks cause even 4 years is likely a death sentence for the husband.
The defendant canāt be forced to take a plea. He can force a trail if he wants to - and IIRC the defendant has most of the power for this - with the right to a speedy trial - he can request to skip 90% of the pre-trial crap and go right to jury selection within just a week or two of arrest.
The reason it takes longer is usually due to defense motions - which the court gives deference to. The prosecution is expected to be ready to trial when they present charges and so isnāt given the latitude.
This is true - assuming this gentleman wishes to speed up the process and force a trial - in which case it would probably result in 1st degree murder charges. This would most likely invoke mandatory psych evaluation and competency hearings though as who in their right mind would deliberately want to face the death penalty and no judge would allow it without making sure heās mentally able to assist in his own defense.
The recent example Iām comparing this to is the Planned Parenthood shooter last year in Colo Springs. The guy basically confessed from the beginning and is determined to force a trial in order to become a martyr for the anti-abortion movement. The judge is doing everything he can to slow down the process and keep his political motivations under wrap.
IANAL but the US criminal court system moves slow (most of the time) for pretty darn good reasons - at least in high profile cases like this.
Is America āindustrializedā, though? Isnāt it more āpost-industrialā? I get it, āindustrializedā as a synonym for āfirst world, developedā, but itās a bit of an archaic turn of phrase because these days the first world leaves industry itself to its poorer cousins.
This country needs to sort its shit out.
If healthcare is a right, then we need to provide easy and cheap access to healthcare yesterday.
If healthcare is not a right, we need to stop accepting people in emergency rooms without the ability to pay, today.
This isnāt complicated. most other developed nations have figured this out.
Whatās scary is that there are a fair number of people who think the answer is number 2.
Theyāll change their tune in a fucking hurry when we go old-school Dickens and start throwing their grannies out onto the street when their savings run out.
At least I hope so.
I think some subset will, but there are others who are really hardcore about this anti-state stuff. Theyāll go down with the ship before they see the state ensure care for all citizens equally.
More or less yes. We actually still make a lot of stuff, just that robots do a fuckton of things that people used to do and getting more and more that way all the time.
