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Daniel Penny, a 26-year-old Marine Corps veteran, was found not guilty Monday of criminally negligent homicide by a jury in the 2023 death of Jordan Neely. While millions of people were invested in the outcome of Penny’s trial, the primary driver of public interest was only partially about the jury’s eventual verdict.Verdicts in the court of law are influenced by facts, evidence, and legal arguments. Unlike legal proceedings, however, the court of public opinion is driven by narratives that often elevate people from individuals to political symbols who represent something far more important in the cultural zeitgeist. I reached a verdict I didn’t expect after reading the conservative commentary surrounding this case.It is possible to act nobly and bravely and still be held liable by the legal system. Daniel Penny is the conservative right’s George Floyd. This comparison is not about personal biography. The two men couldn’t be farther apart in that regard. They do, however, share a great deal as symbols of injustice and racial persecution to their most passionate defenders. To the left, Floyd was the living embodiment of the historical oppression black men have faced in America at the hands of racist police. They saw his death as a modern-day lynching, a dynamic that cast Officer Derek Chauvin as the callous, indifferent hangman.Progressives weren’t interested in any discussion about the impact of drugs on Floyd’s health or how his behavior influenced the response from law enforcement. George Floyd represented everything they believed about the racism baked into the criminal justice system. To them, his life and death embodied the struggles of an oppressed minority. Daniel Penny has been hailed as a hero by conservatives for stepping in to keep Jordan Neely from harming passengers on their train. To them, Penny is the embodiment of the current persecution of white males in American society. While commentary about anti-white bias is typically confined to stories about human resources managers rejecting white applicants and racial preference schemes at selective universities, many of Penny’s supporters see him as a victim of the systemic racism being practiced today by overzealous progressive prosecutors. To them, his arrest and prosecution by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg embodied the plight of an oppressed majority.While it is tempting to view both men through color-coded lenses, the narratives constructed around them have been built with the tools of politics and race — in that order. Blue and black on one side. Red and white on the other. Politics lights the fire. Race fans the flames. The tribal nature of American society also makes both sides resistant to anything that challenges the preferred narrative. The idea that there could never be a “white George Floyd” was blown up once people learned about the death of Tony Timpa. Likewise, the people quickest to invoke race as the driving force in Penny’s arrest likely don’t know self-defense claims didn’t keep Jordan Williams — a black man — from being arrested and charged with manslaughter after the fatal stabbing of Devictor Ouedraogo on a New York City subway train in June 2023. Williams had charges against him dropped after witnesses claimed Ouedraogo physically assaulted passengers, including Williams' girlfriend. No one should be surprised by either side’s blind spots. Politics and race influence not only media attention but also the intensity of reaction to stories.Some progressives tried to paint Penny as a white supremacist vigilante even though no evidence suggested racial animus motivated his actions. But the narrative that emerged on the right that Penny was only charged because of systemic racism against white men is evidence that conservatives are just as susceptible to confirmation bias as their liberal counterparts. Addressing the depths of the human condition is never easy, especially in a city of over 8 million people. New York City subways serve as informal homeless camps and mental health facilities for far too many people. Many of the trains reek of human waste. I’m sure many New Yorkers of every color appreciate men like Daniel Penny willing to defend other people from danger. That doesn’t change the fact that part of the government’s job is to determine the circumstances under which one person can take the life of another. Murder is a different charge with different penalties from homicide. Self-defense protects people who take a life because their own is in danger. The notion that you can choke a loud, belligerent person — even one who’s mentally ill — from behind and not face any legal consequence is influenced far more by politics than a careful reading of the law.I don’t view Daniel Penny as a hero. Neither do I see him as a villain. I look at Penny as a man who believed he was acting with good intentions in trying to defend a train full of people from a mentally ill man. But it is possible to act nobly and bravely and still be held liable by the legal system. The left blames “anti-black racism” when black men die at the hands of a white person. The right blames “anti-white racism” when white men face trial during fatal interracial encounters. Both sides resist anything that challenges their narratives because being an aggrieved victim today comes with social, cultural, and political benefits.The biggest loser in this cultural tug-of-war is the American people. Police misconduct, political prosecutions, homelessness, and mental illness are all serious matters that deserve rational, objective policy responses. Unfortunately, political tribalism continues to make it difficult to address any of these problems on a bipartisan basis.

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Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge The Steam Deck OLED, the best version of Valve’s gaming handheld with additional battery life, a slight increase to performance, and an eye-popping screen, can now be purchased refurbished for $110 less than it costs brand-new. Valve has just begun selling certified refurbished Steam Deck OLED models starting at $439 in the US, UK, Canada, and EU. That buys you the 512GB model with a glossy screen, while the 1TB anti-glare model can be had for $519 — less than the $549 you’d pay to get even the 512GB model brand-new. (The 1TB model normally costs $649.) Like my colleague Jay Peters just told me in Verge Slack, “$439 is a steal for the OLED.” Valve doesn’t currently have stock of refurbished LCD models, though they can be as cheap as $279. Happy Tuesday! We've officially added Steam Deck OLED to our Valve Certified Refurbished program today, and refurbished Steam Deck OLED units are now available for sale in the US, Canada, UK, and EU. Learn more here: store.steampowered.com/sale/steamde...— Steam Deck (@steamdeck.com) 2024-12-10T23:01:42.824Z Like Valve’s refurbished versions of the original LCD model, which has a slightly smaller and slower screen, Valve says it gives each unit “an extensive examination involving over 100 tests at one of Valve’s facilities,” including a battery health check, and Valve says they’ll “meet or even exceed the performance standards” of brand-new units. They each come with a carrying case, refurbished power supply, and one-year warranty — but they may have “minor cosmetic blemishes.” Valve introduced the Steam Deck OLED in November 2023, and a year later, it’s still one of the very best ways to play PC games on the go. No other handheld has surpassed its ease of use, though the Asus ROG Ally X did finally meet or beat it in battery life while offering better performance. While lots of other Windows handhelds are on the way, and maybe even some other intriguing hardware from Valve, the company’s been pretty clear it won’t release a new Steam Deck soon — not till newer chips let it offer a big leap in performance without sacrificing battery life.

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge WP Engine just won a preliminary injunction against WordPress parent company Automattic. On Tuesday, a California District Court judge ordered Automattic to stop blocking WP Engine’s access to WordPress.org resources and interfering with its plugins. The preliminary injunction comes after WP Engine, a third-party WordPress hosting service, filed a lawsuit that accused Automattic and its CEO, Matt Mullenweg, of “multiple forms of immediate irreparable harm.” It later asked the court to stop Mullenweg from restricting WP Engine’s access to WordPress.org. Mullenweg waged a public campaign against WP Engine in September, accusing the service of misusing the WordPress trademark and not contributing enough to the WordPress community. After blocking WP Engine from WordPress.org’s servers, Automattic took control of WP Engine’s ACF Plugin. Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín found merit in WP Engine’s claims that Automattic’s actions harmed business relationships, saying Mullenweg’s “conduct is designed to induce breach or disruption.” As for Automattic’s argument that blamed WP Engine for relying on WordPress.org to power its business, Judge Martínez-Olguín didn’t find it very compelling. “While Defendants characterize WPEngine’s harm as self-imposed because it built its business around a website ‘that it had no contractual right to use...’ Defendants’ role in helping that harm materialize through their recent targeted actions toward WPEngine, and no other competitor, cannot be ignored,” the ruling states. The Verge reached out to Automattic and WP Engine with a request for comment but didn’t immediately hear back. The ruling found the WP Engine showed it will suffer irreparable harm without injunctive relief, while also impacting members of the WordPress community. Under the preliminary injunction, Automattic will have to take down the list of companies it displayed on a site it created to track outgoing WP Engine customers, as well as remove the checkbox that asks WordPress users to verify they’re not affiliated with WP Engine when logging in.

In May, Spotify announced it would be killing off Car Thing, its first-ever hardware product. As of December 9th, the Car Things have been officially discontinued and are no longer operational. If you own a Car Thing, you can't use it ever again (officially). The good news is that you can get a full refund for your purchase, but you'll need to act fast. According to Spotify's support site, you need to contact customer service by January 14, 2025 to get a refund for your Car Thing. First, visit this page on Spotify's website and click "Start messaging" to start a conversation with one of Spotify's customer service bots. Type in "Car Thing refund" and send the message. At this point, the bot will remind you that Car Thing has been discontinued and ask if you want to check to see if you're eligible for a refund. Click the "Yes" button. Up next, you will need to send a picture of your order details or proof of payment using the file widget on the bottom left corner of the chat box. I never actually ordered a Car Thing, but if you did, I hope you kept some form of receipt from your purchase. Per Reddit (via The Verge), here's what the Car Thing says if you try to use it now: Car Thing is discontinued and no longer operational. Thank you for being on this journey with us, safe travels. For more information, visit carthing.com. Contact customer service by no later than January 14th, 2025 to discuss your refund options. Hopefully, if Spotify attempts another hardware product, it comes with a long-term plan. Don't Miss: Opera and Spotify partner to bring seamless music streaming to your browser The post This is your last chance to get a refund for Spotify’s Car Thing appeared first on BGR. Today's Top Deals Today’s deals: $20 Waterproof Bluetooth speaker, $999 M3 MacBook Air, Duracell batteries, Cosori air fryer, more Cyber Week deals: $329 Apple Watch S10, $50 off Microsoft Office 2024, $374 PS5 Slim, Vitamix blenders, more Cyber Week deals: $180 iPhone SE 3, $199 Bose QC headphones, $29 Roku Stick 4K, $279 Google Nest WiFi Pro, more Fire TV Sticks start at $15 with these unreal Cyber Monday deals

Democrats on Capitol Hill are demanding Dr. Mehmet Oz provide answers regarding his past support for "Medicare privatization," or doing away with traditional Medicare and enrolling all seniors into Medicare Advantage plans.