Oct 142022
 

Glenn Kirschner – DOJ files compelling brief with Supreme Court in Trump stolen classified documents case

Meidas Touch – MAGA Candidate for Arizona Governor VACUUMS TINY RED RUG for Trump at Rally

The Lincoln Project – Flaunting Their Racism

MSNBC – The Trumpiest Time In American History Before Trump’

It Took Years To Get This Feral Dog Inside A House

Beau – Let’s talk about Haiti and the world’s EMT…. (Could State do this? Wasn’t the Peace Corps under State?

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Oct 082022
 

Yesterday, I decided not to use a story about The Onion as a short take, but instead to direct y’all to it here. Readers Digest versin, a man posted a parody Facebook page on his own page, mocking his local police department, and got arrested and locked up. The Onion filed an amicus brief on his behalf. Here’s the story, and here’s the actual brief.

Cartoon – 08 1008Cartoon.jpg

Short Takes –

Brennan Center for Justice – Voting Laws Roundup: October 2022
Quote – Voters in some states are facing new barriers as they cast ballots in the midterms. Other new state laws are increasing the risk of election interference this fall and in future elections…. Between January 1, 2022, and September 12, 2022, state lawmakers have enacted the following voting laws: At least seven states enacted 10 laws that make voting more difficult — of these, 5 laws in five states are in place for the midterms…. At least seven states have enacted 12 election interference laws, of which 11 are in place for the midterms…. At least 12 states have enacted 19 laws that expand access to the vote.
Click through for full details – they break it all down, with receipts. No changes in my state – but that’s not true for everyone here.

Grid – The Supreme Court is hearing a lawsuit over Section 230, the law the internet loves to hate
Quote – The Supreme Court said Monday that it will hear a case this term examining the scope of tech companies’ immunity under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. The law, passed in 1996, has for decades protected internet companies from lawsuits related to content users share on their platforms. If the court breaks with the long-running legal interpretation of Section 230, it could fundamentally change how the internet — and particularly social media sites — functions.
Click through for story.  No one is happy now with how the internet – and particularly social media on the internet – work now, and I suspect no one is going to be happy with the way it will work when this case is over – no matter how it’s decided.  Because there just isn’t a simple, easy solution.

Food For Thought

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Oct 052022
 

Yesterday, at roughly 1:41 a.m. her time, Heather Cox Richardson sent out her daily email for Monday, and when I got up I read it. She touched on a wide variety of topics, of which possibily the most unnerving was Moore v. Harper and the “independent state legislature” doctrine. If this case is wrongly decided, we can kiss democracy goodbye- that’s assuming we can ever get close enough to it to kiss it. I know I’m sarting to sound like the proverbial broken record, but I admit I am afraid.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Crooks & Liars – Offshore Tax Havens Move On Shore
Quote – Research published Wednesday details how a handful of U.S. states that are “subservient to the trust industry” are helping oligarchs and money launderers from around the globe evade taxes and hide their wealth within the nation’s borders…. “The concept of the ‘offshore’ tax haven has very much washed ashore,” says the report, which exposes how 13 U.S. states “shield the fortunes of the world’s richest people.”
Click through for details, including which states. I knew that a fw states’ laws were more favorable to credit card companies, which is why ao many are incorporated in South Dakota and Delaware, but I didn’t know about this. I’m surprised, actually – not at the states’ greed, but at the blind faith of the billionaires. Should a Republican win the Presidency in 2024, it will all be confiscated.

The Warning – Media corruption at the “paper of record”
Quote – His name is Donald John Trump from Queens. He has a “psychiatrist.” Her name is Maggie Haberman. She is the lead Trump reporter for The New York Times, and has become, like him, a singular totem of corruption. The corruption of the American media has fueled the extremist movement that threatens the republic as the journalistic ethic forged by Ed Murrow, Fred Friendly, Dorothy Thompson, Walter Cronkite and a generation of truth seekers gave way to a generation of information profiteers. The money that flows from anger, division, confusion and insanity can be counted in the tens of billions of dollars. That is the business of much of the American media. It is certainly Maggie Haberman’s business.
Click through for story. There will be a pop-up to subscribe – just click on “Let me read it first.” He certainly nails Maggie.

Food For Thought

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Oct 042022
 

Yesterday, Joyce Vance posted “The Week Ahead” in her Substack column, “Civil Discourse,” and it is packed. Joyce is to lawyers what Heather Cox Richardson is to historians – you may have seen her as a consultant on mainstream media. She doesn’t post every day, and when she does, she sometimes digresses into silky chickens (which she raises) and knitting; I love both, so that’s fine with me, but I wouldn’t wish it on y’all. This column, however, is jampacked with five sections, each on something current and earthshaking. It’s too much for a short take, but if you have a little time (not necessarily all at once, since it is sectioned) I highly recommeend it.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

The New Yorker – The Supreme Court’s Big New Term
Quote – If Roberts is still confused, he could, for guidance, look to comments that Justices Sonia Sotomayor and, especially, Elena Kagan have made since the Dobbs ruling. In late September, at Salve Regina University, in Rhode Island, Kagan noted that people are right to worry about “the whole legal system being kind of up for grabs” after a change to the composition of the Court, with decisions that seem driven by ideology and divorced from legal principles. “It just doesn’t look like law when, you know, the new judges appointed by a new President come in and just start tossing out the old stuff,” she said.
Click through for, among other things, examples of cases which are coming up this term and which, even the ones that seem simple, could be incredibly destructive.

CNN – This 100% solar community endured Hurricane Ian with no loss of power and minimal damage
Quote – Babcock Ranch calls itself “America’s first solar-powered town.”… The streets in this meticulously planned neighborhood were designed to flood so houses don’t. Native landscaping along roads helps control storm water. Power and internet lines are buried to avoid wind damage. This is all in addition to being built to Florida’s robust building codes. Some residents, like Grande, installed more solar panels on their roofs and added battery systems as an extra layer of protection from power outages. Many drive electric vehicles, taking full advantage of solar energy in the Sunshine State.
Click through for story – One would think this would be convincing evidenve. Except that Republicans don’t believe in spending money to save money. They only believe in spending money to make the rich righer.

Food For Thought

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Oct 032022
 

Yesterday, it was kind of quiet. I finished getting my meds together for the next two weeks (I had had to use one of my spares the previous night – but I replaced it in the filling process, and anyway, that’s why I keep spares.) I got an email from Virgil’s facility asking for a new application to visit, and the tone was almost apologetic. I did vaguely know that the public facilities kept their own, but all those years he was in private facilities, they were kept at the DOC headquarters, and therefore transferred, and I got spoiled. I emailed it to her by return, along with my request to visit the 9th.. She won’t see it until today, but that’s fine.

Also, I heard from Mitch.  He used my name in the greeting, so I don’t know whether he sent it to others, and therefore will quote it in full:

We were in Pa. since the 23rd of Sept.,  did not decide to extend our time in Pa., but the airline and Tampa airport did, wisely closing on Thursday.  We could not get a flight back from Trenton, at all so flew out of Philly, this morning, after 2 nice days staying with friends, and have been home since something like 3:00 PM, here.  All is well, here, but we do not know what is going on with a cousin
of Susan’s, who lives in Venice Beach.
Our area didn’t get much impact, though, interestingly, the water in Hillsboro Bay got sucked
out for a while, the other day.

Cartoon – 03 Rob Roy

Short Takes –

It’s Not Just Ginni Thomas But Roberts’ And Coney Barrett’s Spouses, Too
Quote – Jane Roberts’ clients include lawyers or law firms sometimes with active Supreme Court practices, at least some of which were more likely to work with her because of her status as the chief justice’s spouse…. Justice Amy Coney Barrett redacted the clients and even the name of her husband’s law firm in her disclosure, even though he is featured prominently on the firm’s website.
Click through for story. Figuring that C&L would have at least glanced at other spouse, I didn’t, but I did look up Neil Gorsuch’s mother, being old enough to remember when she was decimating the EPA under Reagan. She’s dead now, but I noted that she was Catholic, so I looked up his religion. He is Protestant now, but was raised Catholic. His doctoral supervisor when he was at Oxford was a priest.

Oregon Capital Chronicle – Under federal $1 billion agreement, Oregon will expand Medicaid coverage
Quote – Under a new agreement, the federal government will give Oregon $1.1 billion to guarantee continued free health care coverage to tens of thousands of young children in households with low incomes and offer wider coverage to low-income young adults, especially those with special needs. The agreement, announced Wednesday in a conference call with Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services officials and Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, also includes expanding Medicaid coverage to include housing and food support.
Click through for more details. This actually brought me to tears – because TomCat would have been so proud! Oregon leads the way!

Food For Thought

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Oct 022022
 

Glenn Kirschner – Judge Cannon continues catering to Trump, shoots down Judge Dearie’s request for info from Trump

Don Winslow Films – #GinniThomasIsAboveTheLaw (I think Don is too cynical about Liz Cheney. If we don’t see any of her testimony, I suspect it will be because she is lying in all of it. I see no point in the nation seeing her claim the election was rigged and/or stolen.)

The Lincoln Project – Tucker Calls Putin

Ring of Fire – MyPillow CEO Texted Trump’s Chief Of Staff To ‘Get The Voting Machines’

Vote Vets – Freedom – AZ Sen

Beau – Let’s talk about a Cuban referendum and party and policy….

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Sep 152022
 

Glenn Kirschner – Trump’s lawyers file brief w/Judge Cannon that includes declassification “sleight of hand”

Meidas Touch – BREAKING: Trump SPOTTED holding SECRETIVE MEETING on Golf Course [on 9/12] After Landing in DC

The Lincoln Project – Right Stuff

Ring of Fire – Trump Doesn’t Want To Pay For Special Master He Demanded

MSNBC – Chief Justice Confused By Questioning SCOTUS’s Legitimacy After Roe Decision

Beau – Let’s talk about security, Trump, and a talking point….

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Sep 142022
 

Glenn Kirschner – DOJ subpoenas Trump henchman Stephen Miller. Is he a target of the grand jury investigation?

Meidas Touch – Every States’ TOP JUDGE warns Supreme Court about DESTRUCTION of Democracy in new filing

The Lincoln Project – Rematch

Farron Balanced – Intelligence Officials Warn Mar A Lago Could Be Crawling With Foreign Spies (another to file under NSSWWYFC)

Armageddon Update | Words Mean Stuff

Beau – Let’s talk about the GOP plan for student debt….

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