Tuesday, March 26, 2024

TWIT: Trumplaw


"Get your Bible now!"

Critics of the US justice systems think that there are actually two systems of justice, one for the rich and one for the rest of us. Case in point: The first division of the New York Applelate Court reduced the celebrity defendant's supersedeas bond in the civil fraud case from $464 million to $175 million and gave him ten more days to raise the money! The one page order did not explain why the intermediate appellate court granted such an astounding break to defendant Trump. Granted, there is a criminal case against him in the same department, but that is his doing not the people of the state of New York. US Person expects the judgement debtor to convince a surety to put up the lower amount given that Boss Trumpilini has already told the court he could afford $100 million. Posting bond effectively stays execution on the judgement until at least September when the intermediate appeals court begins a new session and can decide his appeal. The court-ordered monitorship of his company remains in effect.  Meanwhile™ he received a $5 billion windfall when his Trump Media company went public this week.  Shares are now selling at $58, and his Bible at $60.  In effect, his assault on American democracy is being funded by the herrenvolk.  One informed estimate is that he spends $90,000 a day on legal bills, none of which comes out of his pocket.

Why quibble over distinctions without a difference, when the similarities are so striking? Americans have long harbored fascistic tendencies. It is historic fact that Nazi race laws were modeled on southern American anti-miscegenation laws. Hitler called racist industrialist Henry Ford his "inspiration".  Hero Charles Lindbergh admired the Nazi rise to power in Germany and accepted a medal from Hitler. He became spokesperson for the defeatist "America First" political action committee. You want to call him "proto-fascist"?  Fine, with US Person. that is enough for him to join a united front against a narcissitic dilettante who cannot make up his mind about contemporary issues, and consistently echos Nazi rhetoric. If given another chance at power he will become a more consistent and accomplished fascist, perhaps with lessons from Europe's Viktor Orban.

On the side of equal justice under law, Justice Juan Merchan has rejected any more attempts at delay in the criminal fraud case and scheduled the trial to begin on April 15th, and imposed a limited gag order on Der Leader. Trump's attorneys tried to implicate the prosecution in the delay of providing discovery material to the defense at a hearing on the 25th. Justice Merchan was having none of that, and forcefully admonished the defense for making accusations of prosecutorial misconduct without any support. So a jury verdict in the case could come sometime this summer, in the middle of the presidential election. History is be made being made as the first US President goes to trial for crimes committed while in office!
credit: M. Lukovich, Atlanta Journal-Constituiton



Friday, March 22, 2024

New Beetle Discovered in Australia

While camping on the Gold Coast of Australia, researcher James Tweed found a beetle that he described as looking like bird pooh on a leaf. He looked more closely to see a centimeter long beetle covered in long white hairs. He collected the unusual insect and asked beetle enthusiasts on-line if they had ever seen one before. After receiving no information, he next consulted the Australian National Insect Collection. Again, nothing was found in the extensive collection resembling the beetle he found in Queensland. Mr Tweed, a PhD candidate at the University of Queensland, told interviewers that, "I worked with a couple of colleagues from the national insect collection, who literally wrote the book on these groups of beetles...they examined tens of thousands of specimens in museums all over Australia and the world, and they've never found it before." 

AUNIS eventually declared the bug a new insect so different it was put into a sepearate family of long-horned beetles, and named Excastra albopilosa Scientists are not sure, but they think the fuzzyness is a mimic of an insect being killed by a fungus, which repells possible predators. One thing for sure Mr. Tweed has a ready-made thesis subject describing for science his new beetle.

Thursday, March 21, 2024

TWIT: Mashugenah


The latest from Trump lackeys, Eileen Cannon, has earned her the name. In a bizarre twist of usual procedure she has asked Special Counsel and the defenant Trump to brief two proposed jury instructions, both of which mistate the current law applicable to Espionage Act prosecutions. A trial date has not even been set in the case! At the urging of Trump amicus loonies, she has proposed jury instructions that would guarantee an acquittal of the insurrectionist. How the prosecution is supposed to "engage" her peculiar order is unclear. By conflating the Presidential Records Act with the requirements of the criminal law, she attempts to create a non-existent defense to the illegal retention of national defense secrets. She thinks, at the urging of Trump's mob, that the PRA allows a president to categorize personal records which he may retain when leaving office that is conclusive as matter of fact, and without first declassifying all classified information that may be contained within personal records.   In other words, magical declassification by boxing.  In the other proposed instruction, she allows the jury to make these category determinations.

Bottom line: her order is schmegeggge. Pundits, including US Person, are urging the Special Counsel to take this matter and her other errors up with the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals and ask for her removal from the case. Her bias in favor of her benefactor is too glaring to ignore and perhaps exceeded only by her inexperience. Just prior to this bizarre order, she authorized the public release of the identities of witnesses against her boss, contrary to practice in Espionage Act prosecutions. At the beginning of the case she appointed a special master to examine the records in issue, which the Eleventh said exceeded her judicial discretion. A third strike would give the appellate court grounds to remove her and reassign the case under 28 USC §2106. Even if the case is reassigned on appeal, it is unlikely to go to trial before the election and Cannon's job will be done.  If elected, the Boss would owe her big time; Clarence, keep that seat warm!

In New York, DA Alvin Bragg says most of the newly discovered documents from the SDNY are immaterial or duplicative to his prosecution of Don 'Legit' for business records fraud.  He told Judge Merchan this week that the trial should go forward in April.  Bragg, in his filing, denied that his office had committed any discovery violations and had made a good faith, diligent effort to obtain the documents from the SDNY.
credit: M . Lukovich, Atlanta Journal-Constitution


Wednesday, March 20, 2024

Re-wilding the Southern White Rhino

A century ago there were just 100 southern white rhinos Ceratotherium simum simum living in the African wild. Now there are an estimated 18,000 because of intensive conservation efforts. This achievement is one of the great conservation success stories of our time. Now, a group of 2,000 rhinos in a private collection are planned to be returned to protected habitat over ten years. African Parks, an NGO that manages reserves in 12 African countries, is preparing to translocate these rhinos from their farm in northwest South Africa to their former ranges in southern Africa. African Parks manages 20,000 hectares of protected land.  About 98% of white rhinos live in four countries, South Africa, Namibia, Kenya, and Zimbabwe. They form groups of females and their calves guarded by a dominant male.

Moving these 2-3 ton herbivores is a logistically complicated and expensive task. Transporting a single rhino across borders can cost more than $50,000. But the expense is worth it. White rhino play an important ecological role, often seen as a sentinel species that indicates the health of a landscape. These rhino will replace ones lost to poaching for magical medicine and recover populations where there are none. They are the only species of five that are not endangered. A Protecting rhinos allow other species to flourish. The director of Berlin's Natural History museum says the planned relocations shows the "omnipotence of man"--we can choose to live in a healthy, biodiverse world or a self-made hell. The Sixth Great Extinction has even reached "60 Minutes":

Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Competing for Space In Sri Lanka

As climate conditions worsen, land suitable for agriculture shrinks as does habitat for wildlife.  In Sri Lanka the competition between humans and wild elephants for living space is intensifying.  Last year reports The Guardian, 176 people died in elephant encounters on the island while 470 elephants were killed.  That is double the number of elephant deaths in 2010.  These figures make Sri Lanka the worst country in the world for elephant-human conflict.

In 1997 the island was 30% covered by trees or nearly 20,000 sq. km.  By 2022 it lost 2100 sq. km of cover.  As global warming progresses,  rivers are drying up and rainfall becomes erratic making existing agricultural land less productive.  More habitat is cleared, often illegally,  forcing elephants to cross human settlements to obtain food and water.  Elephants increasingly resort to raiding fields and storehouses to survive as natural resources dwindle.   Residents resort to increasely cruel methods to defend their homesteads from raiders.  A man in the village of Hambatota on the south-east coast killed four elephants in one night by connecting his home electricity main to a fence.  He was let off by authorities with a small fine.  Other recent incidents include shooting, poisoning, and so-called "jaw bombs"--explosives hidden in bait that go off in an elephant's mouth. [photo credit: TheIslandOnline.lk]

Wild elephants play an economic role in Sri Lanka as star attractions of the tourist trade; the country needs foreign exchange. Conservationists want the elephants protected from humans. Humans want protection from raiding elephants. There are ways to coexist, but it will take sincere efforts on the part of Sri Lankans to learn these methods and use them effectively to control their wild neighbors. The country's first elephant research center was opened last year in Anuradhapura with the help of a tourist hotel. The center will study elephant behaviors and habits to help avoid conflicts. Community fences powered by batteries not electric mains are one solution to keeping elephants at bay. Enforcing laws protecting elephant habitats and providing corridors for traditional elephant walks are also effective deterrants to conflict. What is needed most of all is human toleration and respect in a dire situtation the elephants did not create.

Thursday, March 14, 2024

TWIT: The Outlaw Trump

credit: J. Heller, Duluth News Tribune
Latest:  Judge Merchan in the Manhattan business records fraud case postponed the trial set for the 25th until at least mid-April.  He is asking both parties to explain the delay in receiving and reviewing new records. He will hold a hearing on March 25th to determine how much delay is justified.

More:  Judge McAfee in Georgia ruled that Fani Willis can stay on the case, but chose to chastise her for an appearance of impropriety by dating her employee, Special Prosecutor Nathan Wade.  Wade must resign for Willis to continue the prosecution to cure the impropriety.  Judge McAfee previously struck down 3 counts against Trumpilini on grounds of specificity under Georgia law, had scathing remarks for DA Willis' testimony calling it "unprofessional manner". US Person urges Ms. Willis to bite the bullet and continue prosecuting Don Legit for his attempted coup for the good of the order.

Update:  The score in favor of the rogue former president is now 4-0.  Team Trumpillini has incredibly succeeded in delaying all four criminal cases against him.  The situation is simply grotesque.  Now voters will almost certainly be denied the benefit of at least one criminal conviction before voting.  

In the Mar-a-Lago espionage case,  Aileen. Cannon, handmaiden to the demigogue, took an entire day of hearing to decide what should have been done in a written order without a hearing.  She decided, for now, that the Espionage Act is not too vague to support a constitutional prosecution.   She dismissed the motion without prejudice, indicating that the defense can bring it up at a later date. perhaps at jury selection.  Since 1917 thousands of prosecutions have occurred and been upheld on appeal for violation of the Act.  Other than dismissing the motion, everything she did was favorable to the defense. More pending motions remain undecided by her. To top it off, Don Legit was at the hearing  to remind everyone that her judicial future hangs on how she handles this case. So far she is leaning over backwards for Trump without giving the prosecution grounds for an immediate appeal to the Eleventh Circuit.  This case is another example of politics outweighing due process of law.

DA Alan Bragg has asked for a one month delay to allow examination of new evidence obtained from the Department of Justice. His case is currently the only one scheduled for trial beginning this month.  Most of the 31,000 documents are irrelevant, but some of the witness statements may be relevant.  Left unexplained is why the Justice Department took so long to turn over the information requested by the Manhattan DA a year ago.  The defense waited until January to subpoena the information.  Is this an another turf war?

{11/04/24}Perhaps the most popular since Jesse James rode the Missouri borders. The MAGA Supremes has cut Don 'Legit' enough legal slack to tie up his criminal prosecutions.  Predictably, he raised his bogus absolute immunity argument in the NY criminal fraud case to ask for a delay going to trial until the Supreme Court rules on his absolute immunity claim.  Two problems with this argument: one, the  NY criminal indictment's gravamen is his conduct before he became the forty-fifth President; and two, he waived the immunity argument in a previous appeal in the same case.  Federal judge Hellerstein of the Southern District of New York found in response to Trump's federal removal petition that immunity does not apply because he expressly waived his theory of absolute presidential immunity and that his criminal acts are not "official business" [see below]. Trump later withdrew his appeal of Hellerstein's decision.  Thus, the principle of collateral estoppel applies. 

Trump also raised evidentiary complaints related to "official acts".  Like any evidentiary objection these can be ruled on by the trial judge before the trial is scheduled to begin on March 24th.  Trump's specious circus show must be ended now for the sake of democracy and the rule of law.   But since he has a reliable five vote majority on the Supreme Court in his pocket, he may seek an emergency stay if a ruling goes against him.  


In Florida, Employee Five of the indictment, aka Brian Butler, has gone public with his participation in Don Legit's obstruction of federal authorities seeking to recover classified documents. Butler helped Walt Nauta load banker boxes (10-15) full of government documents, including classified material, onto Trump's private plane bound for his Bedminster club.  Don Legit and his lawyers at that time were negotiating with DOJ for return of the material at Mar-a-Lago.  The two-decade employee faced repeated requests to obtain an attorney paid for by Trumpworld, but he said he is willing to testify at trial, if that ever occurs.   The Mar-a-Lago Papers case is a pathetic expose of the weaknesses of our judicial system.  Politics has overtaken due process because the defendant happens to be a prominent national politician. He may not be Mussolini, but it is not from want of posing:


Maine Votes to Join Interstate Compact

The problem is the Electoral College.  It is biased in favor of small states and is anti-democratic.  It may have served once to counteract an illiterate, uniformed electorate (debatable).  But times have changed, as they often say.  Getting rid of the anachronism by constiutional amendment is highly unlikely, but another path is being pursued that has great chance of success.  The National Popular Vote Compact could allow states willing to elect the president and vice president by popular vote to pledge their Electoral College votes to whoever wins the popular vote in the state.

States with 205 electoral votes have already signed the Compact. [see map]. Maine has recently voted to pledge its 4 electoral votes to the Compact.  Maine's Democratic governor is expected to sign the bill once it gets out of the legislature where another vote is necessary to pass it. The Compact does not go into effect until a majority of the 270 Electoral College votes are committed.  The goal is getting closer; a big state like Michigan or Pennsylvania voting to join would be enough to put the agreement into effect. Admittedly the Compact is a work around, but given the current political gridlock it would work.  Thank you, founders!