Society

RESI IPSA HITS 36,000,000

We just hit another milestone last night with over 36,000,000 views. With roughly 60,000 followers on Twitter, we continue to gradually expand our base of followers with the addition of new voices.  We have tried to maintain this blog as a place for civil but passionate discourse on legal and policy issues  of our time (and perhaps a few wacky stories).

We often use these milestones to look at the current profile of the blog and its supporters around the world.  As always, I want to offer special thanks to Darren Smith who continues help up with periodic technical problems and our many regular commentators and readers.  We try to keep this blog as an open forum with as little interference or monitoring of the comments as possible.  Given our free speech orientation, we try not to delete comments and, for that reason, we are deeply appreciative of how most people avoid personal or offensive comments in debating these issues.  Obviously, our open forum allows trolls and others to spew comments that are at times offensive and obnoxious but we continue to believe that civil and balanced comments will prevail.  Thank you for voluntarily assuming restraint over the tenor and content of your comments.

So here is our current profile:

In the last 90 days, our ten biggest international sources for readers (after the United States) have been:

Canada

United Kingdom

Australia

Germany

Mexico

Hong Kong

Netherlands

India

New Zealand

Isreal

Welcome to all of our new readers from those countries.

The top ten posted in terms of readership in the last 90 days:

1.  Court Orders Arizona Deputy to Jail After He Refuses to Apologize for Swiping Attorney’s Notes in Court

2.  Why Trump Will Win The Wall Fight

3.  NAACP Declares Portland Earthquake Warnings To Be Racist

4.  Poll: Sixty-Eight Percent of Americans Would Not Be Willing To Pay $10 a Month To Combat Climate 

5.  Mueller’s Roadkill Trophy: A Hunt For Collusion Bags A Circus Clown

6.  Goose Meets Gander: Pelosi Refuses To Turn Over Tax Records

7. Harvard Students Demand Dean Step Down Due To His Representations of Harvey Weinstein

8.  Yes, Trump Has The Authority To Declare A National Emergency On The Southern

9.  New York Times Issues Retraction In Bombshell Collusion Story

10. The Stone Indictment: Mueller Continues To Build A Case Of Non-Collusion

The most frequent commentators were:

Anon

This is absurd

Allan

Mr. Kurtz

Tom Nash

Karen S.

P. Hill

Thank you to all of our regular commentators. We remain an extraordinarily broad and diverse body of commenters from different parts of the world and different political and social backgrounds. Thanks again.

Thanks again to those who try to keep our discussions passionate but civil. We obviously have relapses into personal attacks, particularly during these heated political times. We hope that this forum can remain a pluralistic and open forum for mature people to engage in mature discussions. Such discussions have never been more important.

Thanks again everyone and congratulations on the latest milestone. Now on to 37,000,000!

28 thoughts on “RESI IPSA HITS 36,000,000”

  2. https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/apr/05/supporters-gather-after-reports-julian-assange-may-be-ousted-from-embassy
    This is off-topic, but I was thinking about all of the “Assange eviction” stories when Kim.com was brought up a few days ago.
    It seems that Assange is always “on the verge of” getting booted from the Ecuadorian Embassy, and it never happens.
    And that the fraudster Kim.com has been “on the verge of” being extradicted to the U.S. after losing his “final” appeal.
    If anyone has seen any credible recent reporting on either one of these stories, please post a link of some recent, reliable news.
    So far, I have about as much confidence in reports about being “on the verge of” The Second Coming” as I do in the eviction and extradiction “news”.

  3. Wow! A whoppin’ 25 comments by a little more than a dozen people!

  4. Thank you to Professor Turley and Darran for helping provide us with a true free speech forum. Well done!

  5. Thanks again everyone and congratulations on the latest milestone.

    Thank you for providing a censorship free platform on the intertubes where people may espouse ideas/opinions that can be weighed/measured in a public forum that spans the globe.

  6. Professor Turley:

    In an environment where nearly all are screaming wild exaggerations and demanding that we accept them as revealed truth, you and a few others (Alan Dershowitz is another), seem to be honest brokers of what is going on and what the relevant law is on point. Thank you. I do feel a bit cheated however in that voices like yours were rare when I was soldiering my way through the law school experience.

  7. “Obviously, our open forum allows trolls and others to spew comments that are at times offensive and obnoxious ”

    Peter Hill, Fishwings, Natacha, Diane (Anonymous / Anon/ Late4dinner), YNOT, et al….all trolls

    Peter Hill has a documented past on these forums of lying and that makes him an obnoxious, uncivil, spewing troll since he is paid to troll by David “bat sheet crazy” Brock (Correct The Record leftwing troll farm)

    e.g.

    https://jonathanturley.org/2019/03/29/smollett-and-the-scourge-of-celebrity-justice/#comments

    Good Anon says: March 30, 2019 at 6:45 PM
    Peter Shill: “As I noted yesterday, they could be in the country illegally.”

    They are American citizens you dumb ass.
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6852889/Questions-mount-Nigerian-bodybuilders-Jussie-Smollet-case.html

    You are a pathetic troll. For all the crying you, Diane, Natacha, et al do about some politicians lying, you lie effortlessly, and like Bill and Hillary, smile about it

    Reply
    P. Hill says: March 30, 2019 at 9:54 PM
    Estovir, F off and die. If you can’t use your name, nothing you post means anything.

  8. I agree with Johnny Carson — and it’s unfortunate that comedians (and entertainers, actors, musicians) think that insulting half the country, as the Democrat mouthpieces they have all become, is funny or entertaining. It’s not. But the Turley blog is both. 🙂 So, kudos to Turley for providing this platform…

    1. T Bob,
      I remember Carson expressing those opinions several times…..occasionally on his Tonight Show.
      Jay Leno had a similar view and was one of the last of the prominent “old school” talk show hosts who didn’t pretend that they were brilliant political analysts and advocates.
      The last talk show I found to be worth watch was Craig Ferguson’s Late Late Show; not a big fan of most “game shows”, so I was sorry to see him leave his program.
      Ferguson actually prefers his role as game show host in some respects, so I think he’s happy with the transition.

      1. There are a few who ‘get it’ and are still funny…like Jerry Seinfeld and Jimmy Fallon. But people like Jimmy Kimmel and Steven Colbert are just awful and unwatchable. I don’t have a televsion, but I see clips of them on the internet and they come across as smug, arrogant, insulting…and not funny…at all…imo.

      3. Johnny Carson’s audience was vastly bigger than any late night talk show today. In fact, Carson had no serious competition his first 20 years. Even Dick Cavett never came close to Carson’s ratings.

        Because his audience was so huge, Carson could focus on being a mainstream funny guy to the public at large. ..And he ‘was’..!

        But late night talk shows today are competing for an increasingly smaller audience as viewers have an increasingly wider choice of entertainment options. No late night host today can devote themselves to being just a mainstream funny guy.

        Jimmy Fallon tried to replicate Carson’s mainstream, nonpolitical formula. But Fallon lost significant viewership to Stephen Colbert who proved that political humor does indeed sell. Jimmy Kimmel has also carved out a loyal following with overtly political humor. But none of these three shows comes close to the audience size Carson enjoyed at his peak.

  9. Congrats to Turley on the milestone. If he actually read and participated in the comments, he might be less positive about the civility. His summary might have been written by William Barr.

    1. Enigma,
      At one point, years ago, JT would occasionally respond to a comment. That was when the number of comments in a thread might be 2 dozen, as opposed to c.200 now.
      These threads were (then) pretty much troll-scum free and the Lunatic Fringe and blatant propagantists were not active in “the old days”.
      Given changing circumstances and other “things on his plate”, it’s not realistic to expect JT to spent time participating in these threads or reading c. 1,000 comments a week.

      1. In the years I’ve been here, I’ve never seen him. It certainly would be unrealistic to keep up with every thread and conversation. Not so much to check in from time to time. If my name was associated with the thing, I’d keep up with the goings on.

        1. Enigma,
          Go back far enough through the archives and you should be able to find instances where JT, as well as guest columnists, participated in some of the threads.
          That was practical for them to do so in that “era” of when the threads were much smaller, and lacked the trolling and propaganda platforms that work long shifts.

          1. Tom Nash – I certainly believed you. I think he isn’t in touch with just how full of trolls his site has become. If you search hard enough to find his policy about reporting incidents. It’s to send him an Email, one he inconveniently doesn’t provide. Some here were able to provide the address and I’ve had the opportunity to interact with Mr. Turley a few times. He is at least consistent in his belief in the First Amendment because as far as I could tell he actually did nothing. I’m not talking about average trollish behavior (Allan) but vitriolous personal attacks which continue. The First Amendment doesn’t absolve him of exerting some control. If it were you’re brand, you’d provide some management.

            1. Enigma – it is my understanding that Professor Turley wants this blog to be an open forum, and that he supports free speech, the good, the bad, and the ugly. That is why comments are not moderated, and the only automatic restrictions in place with Word Press are no profanity or more than 2 links.

              I actually took his comments about civility, and acknowledgment of when we go astray, as a reminder to please try to be polite while we argue.

              1. Karen – Free speech is not absolute. Like yelling “fire” in a crowded theater, providing a forum for every type of speech is like giving it a petri dish where it can grow.

  10. 36,000,000 IS HEALTHY START

    BUT POTENTIAL MUCH GREATER

    If I could edit these comment threads, 50,000,000 views is very doable in the not distant future.

    Under my guidance this blog could be a money maker. I could sell ads for cars, fashion lines and liquors. Sponsors who will pay for naming rights! Like “The Lexus Legal Blog”. Or “The Cutty Sark Legal Blog”.

    Professor Turley would still be the featured columnist. But special essays by Peter Hill would beef up numbers. I envision a younger viewership of hip Millennials. Cool kids who comment from New York and L.A. Contemporary voices with a stake in the future.

    Our current regulars, these stodgy old Republicans, would still be free to comment. But their replies would be limited to little sidebar panels. Said panels could be captioned with, “What The Trumpers Say”. Or “Letters From The Boonies”. But current regulars won’t be allowed to troll the Millennials.

    More than anything I would downplay windbags and nerds. We know who they are! Certain geezers whose comments are so consistently dull our eyes naturally glide over. Boring farts who keep posting the same old talking points. If we could limit their input to just occasional blurbs, this blog could really soar.

    So I would urge Professor Turley to give me a shot. This blog could be the most happening thing in law.

    1. HHHNN EDITOR-IN-CHIEF EYES OPPORTUNITIES TO EXPAND PROPAGANDA EMPIRE.
      RUMORS OF HOSTILE TAKEOVER ARE CIRCULATING.

      1. Do not believe Mr. Hill’s claim that JT “would still be the featured columnist”; the majority of columns would soon be authored by Mr. Hill himself, and his staff of reporters led by L4B and Natacha/Anonymous😲.
        And the occasional guest columns that JT or Darren might be allowed to publish would be heavily censored🤫.

        1. Tom, there would be some changes. But we’d keep Professor Turley around as kind of a mascot-like figure.

  11. With all the people posting here I’m surprised that Professor Turleys blog doesn’t get more public exposure. I believe more and more new people will show up here. This is what free speech is all about.

  12. I try to be civil. Sometimes I am a bit critical of humans like Hillary or the Trumpster. Forgive me folks if I use a mean word even if it is in Pig Latin (like itchBay). I enjoy the comments here and the diverse views. I have decided to be more tolerant of Trump and gal hugger Biden. Criticism of both of them in the major media is out of control. Maybe if the next election is between Biden as the Democrat and Trump the Republican there will be less criticism of their so called sexual actions. Let bygones be bygones and vote on the basis of how we want the country governed. This blog is a great place to learn things and to discuss topics.

  13. Professor! Congratulations! You should be so proud of your creation.
    Continued fun & fellowship to you and Darren, and all who gather here for all the talk that’s fit to blog.
    Talk on…….

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