TWIT: Judge In His Pocket

Update: The Justice Department has asked for an expedited appeal of Judge Cannon's decision to appoint a master after she again sided with Il Douche ruling that Trump does not have to admit the accuracy of the FBI document inventory, DOJ said allowing an expedited appeal of the special master appointment would serve judicial efficiency and vindicate the "strong public interest" in a speedy resolution of the criminal case and obviate the time required to review each of the 11,000 documents.  It asks for briefs to be filed by the second week of November.

credit: RJ Matson
BC Idonwanna sez: he's no Putin!

The handy specially biased judge sitting in West Palm Beach sided with her master again in the government documents case. Federal District Court Judge Aileen Cannon, on the bench for less than two years, overruled the senior federal judge appointed by her to review the 11,000 documents at issue. Judge Dearie has 36 years of experience including tenure on the secret FISA court that overseas intelligence operations. He ordered Trumps' minions to certify the accuracy of the FBI's inventory of the seized documents.  Der Leader has been publicly claiming that the FBI planted documents illegally stored at his Mar-a-Lago resort.  Knowing that the claim is more of their client's bombast, his lawyers objected to Dearie ordering them to certify the inventory.  Cannon, who does not lack audacity in demonstrating where her loyalties lie, said Trump does not have to admit to the accuracy of the inventory at this point in the proceedings.  It is only a minor victory, but may be a correct one since Trump could resort to the bogus defense at trial.  Admitting the inventory's accuracy now would foreclose that defense, and perhaps provide grounds for appeal.

Prisons are full of people who claim the government framed them. More significant is that Cannon allowed Individual One's defense team to delay proceedings further. She pushed the due date for the special master to complete his review into December.  Harvard Law Professor Laurence Tribe called Judge Cannon's court a "sideshow" now that the Eleventh Circuit rule in favor of the Justice Department continuing its criminal investigation. A conservative commentator called her, "an embarrassment to the federal judiciary". Judge Dearie is Trump's choice, but apparently he got more than he asked.

Harpy Eagle Returns to Costa Rica

It is always amazing when a bird sighting makes media headlines.  Like when the mandarin duck decided to make a Central Park pond his stomping grounds. A media sensation occurred in Costa Rica when.a harpy eagle (Harpia harpyja), one of the world's largest eagles was sighted and photographed in the Osa pennisula of northern Costa Rica. Decades of conservation and rewilding have made the return of the greatest rainforest hunter possible. A harpy had not been spotted there in almost two decades, and was thought to be locally extirpated. Forests that covered 75% of the land in the 1940s disappeared in an onlaught of development, agriculture and mining that reduced the coverage to only 20% But Ticos--Costa Ricans call themselves this nickname--worked hard to reverse the trend, and by the 1980s forest coverage had increased by 150%.

The protected region of the Osa, starting with Corcovado National Park in 1975, has transformed into a "mini-Amazon basin" that attracts ecotourists from all over the world offering locals more economic opportunity and influx of money. Once poaching was put under control, the wildlife began to recover too. Collared pecary, ocelot and tapir--once confined to within the park's protective boundaries have begun to expand their range. Although jaguar and white lipped peccary numbers have not increased dramatically, at least they are not declining. One species that did not make it is the giant anteater. The last known giant anteater was recorded around 2005. It is probably that the sighting of the eagle was fortunate. It was probably a stray from the Indio Maiz Biological Reserve in Nicaragua, a 3000km² reserve near the border. [photo credit: A. Loria]

Wildlife advocates say it may be time to re-introduce species that have disappeared from Costa Rica such as the anteater to restore the balance of Nature lost during the period of exploitation of natural resources. Reintroduction of major species has many beneficial effects on a degraded ecosystem. The reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone NP in the mid-90's demonstrated these effects. Ticos have demonstrated a strong committment to protecting Nature and their fellow forest dwellers. Inhabitants living on the borders of Corcovado National Park have taken to protecting white-lipped pecaries--jaguar's favorite prey--instead of hunting them to extinction. Re-wilding has been identified as a key tool in meeting 2030 global biodiversity targets. Argentina is leading the trend towards re-wilding. Whole communities of animals once decimated are being returned to its national parks. Costa Rica has already begun protecting its wildlife. Its sixty beaches are now patrolled to prevent the poach of sea turtle eggs. Efforts to protect sea turtles that nest on these beaches have likely contributed to a world-wide increase in the population of many sea turtle species. The similar effort is being made to increase scarlet macaw numbers with captive breeding and rehabilation facilities.

The Osa Pennisula, with its 80% tree cover, community support, and a eco-tourism economy is a good place to begin a re-wilding program in earnest. White-lipped pecaries from Corcovado could be resettled in Pedras Blancas to incerase their resiliance and provide more food for jaguars. Even a few giant anteaters could be relocated to Costa Rica's "mini-Amazon". Then the formidable harpys might take up permanent residence.

Hurricane Ian Headed Towards Tampa Bay

Climate scientist warned US that global warming would intensify storms rapidly. In just 22 hours Hurricane Ian  the storm has strengthened 67%. It is expected to make landfall as a Category Four hurrican that will slam Florida's Gulf Coast. Carribean waters are about 1.8 degress warmer than normal, providing "rocket fuel for the storm', said one researcher. So far, the hurricane season has been mild, but that is about to change as Ian pushed a disastrous storm surge towards low lying Gulf Coast of Florida. 

From 2017 to 2021 there have been a staggering thirty rapidly intensifying storms as calculated from National Hurricane Center data by Associated Press. The Center defines "rapidly intensifying" as storms that gain as least thirty-five mph in wind speed in less than twenty-four hours. Shallow waters tend to be warmer than deep waters, so as a storm approaches a coastline like Florida's the expectation is that a storm will intensify. Category Four have sustained winds of 136-155 mph. More powerful hurricanes also contain more moisture resulting in torrential rains, a potent one, two punch. Most trees and power poles will be downed. Well built homes may only loose their roofs. Water and electric utilities will be out for a least several days. 

Right now Ian is battering Cuba, knocking out power to the entire island nation.  Cuba evacuated city thousand people from Pinar del Rio province where the hurricane made landfall with 125 mph winds. NASA even moved its expensive moon rocket from the launch pad to its hanger in anticipation of the hurricane's arrival on shore.

Wolves Under the Gun Again in Oregon

Oregon's Department of Fish and Wildlife has approved a kill permit for a livestock owner in Umatilla County.  The target is the Horseshoe Pack, which consists of three adults and five yearlings.  Obviously the adults are finding it difficult to feed their growing family and have attacked cattle grazing on an allotment.  One of the wolves wears a GPS collar, is it should be relatively easy for the cattlemen to find and kill two of the pack.  The agency does not know if any pups are members of the pack. The owner has until October 7th to eliminate the offending wolves.  Up to four wolves may be killed according to the agency's authorization in order to stop alleged predation by the Horseshoe pack [photo credit: Oregon Wild]

Under the state's wolf management plan, a kill permit can be issued when "chronic depredation" occurs.  This means two confirmed incidents within nine months, a rather strict standard that wildlife advocates opposed.  The qualifying incidents occurred on August 16th and September 2nd. No attraction, such as carcasses or bone piles, can be present on the property involved.  Interestingly only wolves of the possible predators of cattle--bear, cougar, or coyote--are treated this way by the state agency.  

According to the agency, the subsidized livestock owner--or "producer" in the agency's lexicon--made repeated attempts to haze the pack away from livestock, including camping in the area for more than forty nights. How the agency made this determination is not revealed.   Guard dogs have not been utilized. The agency considers the non-lethal efforts made to deter the canines sufficient to warrant a kill permit, also a requirement of the plan. Another Oregon pack may be eliminated before this is over.

TWIT: Catching Up to Trump

The man who has spent his adult life grifting from others, a sociopathic liar of consummate ability who exploited fawning sycophants more than willing to enable him had his worst week ever at the hands of a very reluctant justice system.  He was hit with a civil fraud suit against him, his progeny, and his company by the Attorney General of New York, who said in reality the Trump book, "The Art of the Deal" is the actually art of the steal.  He inflated his assets to fraudulently obtain needed loans and evade taxes, and he did this for decades.  The DOJ issued forty subpoenas to loyalists demanding documentary evidence and seized the cell phone of two former White House officials.  And in Florida, the sycophant federal judge, Aileen Cannon was pummeled with surprising alacrity by the Eleven Circuit Court of Appeals.

The three judge panel that consisted of two Trump appointed judges, issued a scathing rebuke of Judge Cannon on Wednesday for her obvious attempt to give her leader more relief than he was entitled.  The panel concluded she abused her discretion by appointing a special master to examine government secrets to which he has no possessory interest or "need to know" their contents, which is the golden standard in the classification system.  The helpfully gave Judge Cannon a nutshell lesson in classification law starting with WWI.  All that aside, the appeal judges clearly pointed out that the issue of classification or declassification is a "red herring" since that status is irrelevant to the potential criminal charges being investigate nor change the contents of the documents that contain national security secrets.  The panel directed that the DOJ need not allow the Special Master to see the highly classified documents to protect them from disclosure, His review is now restricted to the larger tranche of non-classified documents, which the Department has already filtered for evidentiary privilege.  For his part the Judge Dearie has asked Trump's lawyers to tell him which documents are allegedly planted by the FBI.  The jig is clearly up in Brooklyn.

In granting the government's request for a stay of Cannon's biased decision, the judges also ruled that DOJ can use the lawfully seized documents in their criminal probe, and in assessing the damage done to the nation's security because the papers belong to the American people and not the would be dictator, Donald J. Trumpillini.  Declassifimundus is only in your mind, Donald.

credit: de Adder, Washington Post

COTW: Proxy War

Update:  President Putin announced a partial mobilization on Wednesday, calling up reservists for the first time since WWII.  He also said he would not bluff with the use of nuclear weapons on the battlefield.  A sham referendum on Russian annexation of captured territory was also called this week, a move that was used in Crimea to legitimize its conquest.  International leaders discounted the legitimacy of such  referendums on Friday in Luhansk, Kherson and partly Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions during a war.

This chart from Statista tells why Putin thinks his Ukraine war is a proxy fight with the United States:

Ukraine is rolling back the territorial gains made by Russia earlier in the war. His conventional forces have been surprisingly inept while fighting a much smaller but motivated adversary. (Sound familiar?) Advanced conventional weaponry from the western alliance is making a difference on the battlefield. Whether Putin will resort to full mobilization or tactical nuclear weapons is an open question.  It is clear he is not ready to talk. But using a tactical nuclear weapon comes with frightening consequences. NATO is armed to the teeth with low yield devices.  Both France and Britain are estimated to have 500 such weapons available in addition to the formidable stockpile of the US.  Escalation after the first use would be difficult to control, and perhaps lead to an apocalyptic strategic exchange.  Use of chemical weapons, according to some experts is much more likely.

Minions on the Bench

credit: L. Alcaraz

Judge Aileen Cannon has deservedly earned the sobriquet, "partisan hack" for her bonkers second order giving Il Douche another victory in his fight agains criminal indicment for mishandling classified government papers and obstruction of justice. Ms Cannon blatantly declared that the former guy was due more deference than would be accorded an ordinary thief because he is a former President. Apparently the Columbian native has not learned the concept of "equal justice under law". Someone should tell her that sentiment is chiseled above the US Supreme Court's entrance. Equally incredible his her statement that she does not believe DOJ's representation that some of the records seized are, indeed, classified. She wrote this despite a now infamous photograph of the documents bearing classification markings spread out on Trump's office floor. The final insult to reason implicit in her latest ruling is the idea that Individual One has a possessory interest in papers that belong to the state, which would allow him to demand their return. NOT!

Cannon retreated somewhat from her previous stay order denying the government any use of the documents in question. But in the latest order, she maintained they could not be shown to the grand jury investigating Individual One's theft of the documents from the White House. That restriction is enough to stymie any indictment of Individual One, pending Judge Raymond Dearie's in camera review to be accomplished by the end of November.  She ordered that Trumpillini's lawyers be allowed to see the documents, none of whom have the necessary security clearances. Chalk another one up for Trumpillini.

DOJ said it would appeal her decision to the Eleventh Circuit when she appointed a "special master"., unless she modified her stay order to allow the government access to the classified material.  Given the lack of quality in her decision making, a successful appeal should be a no-brainer.  But it will take time, and that is what the minions are playing for because they know the DOJ has a long standing policy against prosecuting political figures before an election.

credit: R. Bolling

Boardman Coal Burner Demolished

Boardman power plant in Eastern Oregon supplied 40% of Oregon's electricity at one time, now it is nothing but dust in the wind. A contractor demolished the building and 656 foot tall stack with some well placed explosives on Thursday. PGE, the plant owner agreed to shutdown the power plant in 2010 to settle a suit brought by the Sierra Club. It went off-line in 2020.  It was the last coal-fired generation facility in Oregon. Only one other remains in the Northwest at Centralia, Washington.The owner of that facility agreed to shut it down by 2025.  It is the beginning of an end. [photo credit: OPB]

Boardman consumed five and half tons of coal every minute of its operation at full capacity, creating 2 million tons of greenhouse gases every year. Its closure ended the haze and air pollution cause by mercury and sulphur emissions in the surround area and the scenic Columbia Gorge.  PGE replaced Boardman's 585 kilowatt capacity with a mix of alternatives including nature gas. Its natural gas facility sits across the road from where Boardman churned out the kilowatts, rain or shine. Critics of clean energy say alternatives like wind and solar cannot supply base loads as reliably as dirty coal-fired facilities. Boardman used a low-sulphur fuel brought in by rail from Wyoming's Powder River basin, the largest coal field in the USA. Still, the burning produced tons of pollution that sullied the atmosphere.

The plant's 125 permanent jobs were coveted for their high pay and benefits, and Morrow County benefited from the taxes PGE paid as its largest taxpayer.  But the area has mitigated the plant closure's economic impact by diversifying its economy with alternative energy projects and Amazon.com data centers.  Oregon has demonstrated an aggressive push towards carbon neutral energy. It passed legislation to end coal-fired generation off the grid by 2030, and reach zero emissions for all electrical utilities by 2040.  Over the next year, eight coal fired plants will shut down that produce enough energy to run 3.8 million homes. PGE expects the Boardman plant to be fully decommissioned and cleaned up by the spring of 2023.

Last Reactor at Zaporishzhia

The last reactor of six at Zaporizhzhia has been taken offline as Ukraine's blitz flows around it, and the Russians respond with more shelling.  A village across the river from the plant was shelled six times last night.  Eventually one of these projectiles will go astray and hit one of the containment buildings.  So Ukraine operators prudently began putting the last reactor #6 into cold shut-down mode.  That status is least likely to produce a catastrophic release of radiation should the building suffer a direct hit.

Energoatom, the plant operator, restored electric power to the plant on Saturday to allow the shut down to take place.  Ironically, the huge generation station requires a grid connection to operate its reactor cooling system.  It operated in stand alone mode for several days using its emergency diesel generators.  That is not the safest option since the station only has ten days of fuel reserves.  Zaporizhzhia is one of the ten biggest nuclear generation facilities in the world, and the biggest in Europe.  International energy experts have appealed to Russia to declare a demilitarized zone around the plant, which it has so far refused to do.  The military situation around the plant may get worse as Ukraine stretches its highly successful counter-offensive to its maximum logistical extent. [photo credit: AP]

IAEA said that it would take thirty hours to achieve a cold shut-down, but the reactors will still need power to operate safety systems.  French President Macron urged Putin in a phone call to withdraw troops and weapons from the facility on Sunday.

Manchin's Sweet Deal Under Scrutiny

The Lone Socialist, Bernie Sanders spoke out in the Senate against "Dirty Joe Manchin's deal for the Mountain Valley Pipeline project in return for his vote on the remains of Biden's "Build Back Better" policy agenda.  Bernie told the Senate that Manchin worked in concert with the American Petroleum Institute, the industry lobby group, to draft a fast permitting process that would aid his pet project in West Virginia.  The bill would restrict access to courts and place arbitrary time limits on public comment periods and environmental reviews. API's proposed legislation would also allow the designation of certain energy projects of "strategic national importance" allowing additional federal support and expedited environmental reviews that would weaken environmental protection laws such as the Clean Water Act.

The bill is a mish-mash of the industry's obsession with 'cutting red tape' implying that protecting the environment and citizen health is merely an expensive exercise in bureaucracy. Sanders told his colleagues that 59 Democratic Representatives have signed on in opposition to Manchin's legislation.  It would increase carbon emissions equivalent to 37 coal plants every year! The United States leadership on battling climate change would be severely compromised if the bill were to pass, said Rep Raul Grijalva of Arizona. Tell Joe Biden he does not owe 'Dirty' Joe Manchin anything besides a signature pen from his signing of the so-called Inflation Reduction Act.

New York Declares State of Emergency Over Poliomyelitis

It was declared eradicated in the Western World, but the virus is making a comeback in New York state.
Earlier this month health officials announced polio virus had been detected in New York City's wastewater.  In July, authorities began investigating the spread after a case of vaccine-derived poliomyelitis type 2 was found in the stool of a young adult in Rockland County.  Now, the state has declared an emergency after the virus was detected by the CDC in wastewater samples from Long Island, signaling the growing community spread of the virus that can cause paralysis.  The sample was genetically linked to the case of paralytic polio in Rockland County, the first in the US in a decade.  Poliomyelitis has also been detected in Orange and Sullivan Counties, as well as New York City. [photo courtesy: CDC]

Before the development of effective vaccines, polio was the scourge of young people, periodically erupting in communities across the nation.  The March of Dimes was started to raise funds for vaccine development. Health experts warn that for every detected case, hundreds more may be infected. The governor's emergency order expands the availability of vaccination providers and allows physicians to issue standing vaccination orders.  Governor Hochul's decree will expire on October 9th.

TWIT: Federalist Judge Gets One-Upped by DOJ

Herr Trumpillini had to go an hour away from his resort hotel to get a federal judge sympathetic to his federal records case. His forum shopping paid off at first because extreme federalist judge Aileen Cannon sitting in West Palm Beach agreed with his lawyers that a special master should be appointed to examine the documents that might be privileged.  But her written opinion has been highly criticized by legal pundits because it exposed her willingness to give her appointer relief not granted to anyone else in the same circumstances, and it exposed her ignorance of federal national security law.

The DOJ has already extracted about 500 pages out of 11,000 that could be subject to attorney-client privilege (a former president has only a very limited executive privilege*). It has no real objection to a special master looking at those and the other non-classified documents the FBI found at Mar-a-Lago.  It does strenuously object to turning over 100 pages of highly classified documents that are clearly marked so.  This trove includes, according to the WaPo, information about another country's nuclear capabilities.  Federal attorneys' objections are on very solid grounds: one, these records do not belong to Trump but to the government; two, turning them over to a third party would further compromise the nation's security; and, three there are no attorney communications in these secret records to protect.

Ms, Cannon, in her zeal to further her career in Trumpworld, granted the former guy more relief than he requested.  She enjoined use of the classified material by the DOJ in its criminal investigation. She blithely opined that the national security assessment of the damage done by the unprotected documents could go forward.  What she failed to understand is that the FBI is an integral part of both the criminal investigation into the mishandling of classified material and a national security damage assessment. Both processes have stopped as a result of her order.  Wisely, the government notified Judge Cannon in a filing, that if she does not lift the stay as it applies to the classified material, it will appeal her illogical opinion to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals despite the fact six judges on that court are Trump appointees. In response, Judge Cannon promptly asked Trump's lawyers what their position is on exempting the classified material from her stay order,  They have until Monday to reply. Undoubtably they will argue declassifimundus has occurred, which would be fine with US Person because he has read 18 USC 1001. It is unlikely that DOJ and Trump's lawyers will agree on an appropriate special master, but that is okay with Trump because the entire charade is simply a ruse to run the clock into the 2024 election cycle.

Its time to say the glaringly obvious: the grifter-in-chief and Russian intelligence asset illegally stashed the classified material at Mar-a-Lago because it has monetary value on the market of international espionage. This dangerously unprecedented situation shows just how much the federal judiciary has been corrupted by Trump's MAGAitis

*In Nixon v. GSA the Court wrote," the appellant [a former President] may legitimately assert the Presidential privilege, of course, only as to those materials whose contents fall within the scope of the privilege recognized in United States v. Nixon, supra. In that case the Court held that the privilege is limited to communications 'in performance of (a President's) responsibilities,' 418 U.S., at 711, 94 S.Ct., at 3109, 'of his office,' id., at 713, and made 'in the process of shaping policies and making decisions,' id., at 708, 94 S.Ct., at 3107. " The Court adopted the language of the Solicitor General at that time, quoting, 'This Court held in United States v. Nixon . . . that the privilege is necessary to provide the confidentiality required for the President's conduct of office. Unless he can give his advisers some assurance of confidentiality, a President could not expect to receive the full and frank submissions of facts and opinions upon which effective discharge of his duties depends. The confidentiality necessary to this exchange cannot be measured by the few months or years between the submission of the information and the end of the President's tenure; the privilege is not for the benefit of the President as an individual, but for the benefit of the Republic. Therefore the privilege survives the individual President's tenure.'  Nether Ford nor Carter endorsed executive privilege over the documents Nixon was seeking to withhold from the National Archives. Similarly President Biden has expressed an unwillingness to exert his executive privilege over the documents seized at Mar-a-Lago..  Seized classified materials clearly do not fall within the 'Presidential Privilege' described by the Supreme Court in Nixon v GSA and United States v., Nixon.

Amplfy Energy Pleads Guilty

The Houston based oil company plead guilty to misdemeanor charges in a plea deal with the federal government in which it agrees to pay a $7 million fine and nearly $6 million in clean-up costs, after its pipeline ruptured off the Orange County, CA coastline last year. {04.10.2021}  The spill of 25,000 gallons of oil shut down beaches, including famed surf site, Huntington Beach, and closed the fishing industry for more than a month. Pollution threatened a coastal wetland and oiled seabirds. [photo credit: AP]

The company claims its pipeline was ruptured by two ships dragging their anchors after a January 2021 storm, but was not notified until after the damage occurred. It agreed to install a new leak detection system and train employees to respond to leak alarms. Federal prosecutors said the company failed to respond to eight leak alarms over a 13 hour period. Conservationists argued the pipeline should be shutdown.

COTW: Why Is It Chump Change?

You may have read US Person referring to Bidens modest educational loan forgiveness of $20,000 as "chump change".  Coal baron "Dirty Joe Manchin called it "excessive".   The only thing excessive is Joe's reliance on his rich oil industry supporters.  Here is the chart:

The chart from Pew Research shows that Uber-rich are taking an increasing share of US income. From 1970 to 2018, the median middle-class income increased from $58,100 to $86,600, a gain of 49%.This was considerably less than the 64% increase for upper-income households. The richest of the rich have had their wealth increase the most, clocking a 3.2% growth rate annually from 1981 to 1990, while the lowest quintile of earners saw their incomes fall by 0.1 annually. Wealth in this country is clearly being redistributed to the already wealthy:

So if this wealthy country can afford to spend $92 billion on going back to the moon, and $54 billion in aid to Ukraine, it can afford to forgive more than a mere $20,000 in education loans.  After all, what is wrong with an educated proletariat? 

South Africa Bans Seismic Oil Exploration

A huge victory for environmentalists and animal rights activists occurred in South Africa on Thursday.  A judge in Makhanda banned oil exploration off the Indian coastline using high amplitude sound waves setting aside a 2014 decision granting exploration rights. Shell Oil did not immediately announce that it would appeal the verdict, saying only that it respects the court's decision and its roll "in a just energy transition".  A environmental action group that filed suit against Shell said the decision once again vindicates "civil society and traditional communities".  The giant international petroleum firm was set to begin seismic surveys over 2300 sq. miles of ocean off South Africa's Wild Coast that is habitat for numerous species of marine life including marine mammals that use bio sonar to forage and find other members of their group.  Environmentalists argued that extremely loud shock waves every ten seconds 24/7 for five months would disrupt normal animal behavior and potentially kill some species.  Despite the danger to wildlife, the South African energy ministry supported the exploration project, criticizing those who opposed the project as thwarting the country's economic development. 

'Toontyme: Tough Monkey

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