Wine Caves? We are going on about wine caves?

After Notre Dame, France increases fire safety

Michael Avenatti's disbarment proceeding started today...

Why Are Right-Wing Conspiracies so Obsessed With Pedophilia? (Mother Jones)

I'm not convinced this is an exclusive preoccupation of just the "right wing". The McMartin mania drew from across the spectrum, as did the "Franklin Scandal" and more recent manifestations of this phenomenon...


https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/07/why-are-right-wing-conspiracies-so-obsessed-with-pedophilia/

The story is the same, from the day-care panics to QAnon: It’s not really about the kids. It’s about fears of a changing social order.

Interesting Government Motion in US v. Parnas (this is a good one)

Parnas poses a significant risk of flight for several reasons, the chief among which are his
considerable ties abroad and access to seemingly limitless sources of foreign funding. Parnas has
extensive and significant international ties, particularly in Ukraine, the country of his birth. Over
the past two years, Parnas traveled repeatedly to Ukraine, and met with numerous Ukrainian
government officials, including officials at the very highest level of government. More broadly,
Parnas has traveled abroad more than twenty times over the past four years, including on a nearly
monthly basis in 2019. Parnas took circuitous travel routes that obscured his final destination,
such as by departing the U.S. for one country, but returning from a different country on a different
airline. Parnas traveled internationally by private jet as recently as this year; bank account records
from Account-1 show that Parnas spent more than $70,000 on private air travel in September 2019
alone. It also bears noting that Parnas could easily flee the country from the Southern District of
Florida, where Parnas resides: the District is home to at least five international airports, numerous
private airports, and international marine terminals. It would not be difficult for Parnas to leave
the United States and live abroad: he also speaks fluent Russian, appears to own no property within
the United States aside from two vehicles, and his wife and children could flee with him.

In addition, Parnas’s close ties abroad include connections to Russian and Ukrainian
nationals of nearly limitless means, including Foreign National-1 and a Ukrainian oligarch living
in Vienna who is currently fighting extradition to this country. Parnas has proven adept at gaining
access to foreign funding: in the last three years, Parnas received in excess of $1.5 million from
Ukrainian and Russian sources. In sum, given Parnas’s significant, high-level connections to
powerful and wealthy Ukrainians and at least one Russian national, he could quickly and easily
flee the United States for Ukraine or another foreign country, and recoup the security posted to his
bond. It is difficult to overstate the extreme flight risk that Parnas poses.

Bizarre filing by Jesus in Trump v. Vance Supreme Court case (the NY state tax subpoena case)

The case in which the State of NY in the person of Cyrus Vance Jr. has subpoenaed the accounting firm Mazar's for Trumps tax records is rolling along, with the current docket looking like this:

Nov 14 2019 Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due December 18, 2019)

Nov 21 2019 Brief of respondents Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., in his official capacity as district attorney of the County of New York,et al. in opposition filed.

Nov 21 2019 Waiver of right of respondent Mazars USA LLP to respond filed.

Nov 22 2019 Brief amicus curiae of United States filed.

Nov 25 2019 Reply of petitioner Donald Trump filed.

Nov 25 2019 Brief amicus curiae of Christian Family Coalition (CFC) Florida, Inc. filed.

Nov 26 2019 DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 12/13/2019.


So the petition for cert. (i.e. the argument about whether or not the Supreme Court should take up the case) will be considered on Friday. The related case involving Congress' request for the same materials is lagging slightly behind this one, so it's not clear whether they will combine the two. That would gain some efficiency, but since the Vance case involves a state investigation instead of a Congressional investigation, some of the issues are different.

The really weird thing, looking at this docket, is the amicus brief filed by the Christian Family Coalition (CFC) Florida, Inc..

Who knew that whether or not a state prosecutor should get his hands on a president's tax filings pursuant to a state criminal investigation was a topic that Jesus was particularly concerned about. Of course, who knew that Jesus had much to say on the subject of families in the first place, other than encouraging people to leave their families in order to follow him.

Be that as it may, far be it from me to argue with Jesus if he wants to have his representatives here on earth file a brief in this case which, in all its holy glory, is linked here:

https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/19/19-635/123628/20191125173123759_19-635%20Amicus%20Brief%20Christian%20Family%20Coalition.pdf

The first bit of humor is in the section where they state their interest in the case:

Amicus is a non-profit corporation registered in Florida since 2003 as a human rights and social justice advocacy organization representing over 500,000 fair-minded voters in the Sunshine State. Amicus actively seeks to protect human rights and social justice in litigation and political forums. These values also are among the President’s responsibilities as Chief Executive and Commander-in-Chief under Article II of the Constitution. Amicus has an interest in this petition because the subpoena which is directed to the President and his business holdings is a wide-ranging fishing expedition which will seriously impair the Presidential function and office

Respondent’s wide-ranging and blunderbuss criminal subpoena for virtually all the President’s private financial records and income-tax returns for the past 8 years poses a plausible risk of serious distraction from the President’s performance of his official duties and responsibilities. The likely distraction and diversion from the duties of Office are palpable and real. Article II of the Constitution commands that the subpoena be quashed.

The official duties and responsibilities of the President are daunting. Under Article II of the Constitution, the President is Commander-in-Chief of the nation’s armed forces, is responsible for their conduct everywhere in the world, is Chief Executive of the United States government, the nation’s representative to the rest of the world, the person responsible for choosing all major department heads and federal judges (subject to Senate approval), and the single person ultimately responsible for the functioning of the entire Executive Branch of Government.

The President has the nuclear-launch codes by his side 24/7, must be ready and focused at a moment’s notice to address any crisis at any time anywhere in the world and beyond, is on-call at 3:00 AM no less than 9-5, and requires a live-in office in the White House to discharge his official duties around the clock and around the world.

Looking for entertainment in Oakland today?

This sounds like a fun-filled event.

You can go to a non-descript intersection in Oakland and play with sidewalk chalk.

https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2019/11/28/18828455.php

Basta Chalking Event for Chelsea and Julian @ Weekly 4pm Friday Tabling

Date Friday November 29
Time 4:00 PM - 5:30 PM
Event Type Party/Street Party
Organizer/Author orion edmonson
Location Details
Fruitvale and MacArthur oakland 94602

60,000 evacuated in Texas in chemical plant explosion

The Supreme Court procedural ruling in one of the Trump tax cases - What you should know

On November 14, 2019, the US DC Court of Appeals affirmed the district court decision that Trump's tax returns must be turned over to the House Ways and Means Committee. As is obvious in a case like this, the appellate court had stayed the district court decision while they considered the case. To do otherwise - i.e. to require the release of the documents while the court decided whether to compel release of the documents - would make no sense (unless one is a determined idiot).

Under Rule 13 of Supreme Court procedure, Trump would normally have 90 days to file a writ of certiori, which is a fancy name for "an argument as to why the Supreme Court should hear the case". It is not the case brief or argument, but simply a petition that states reasons why it should be taken up.

https://www.supremecourt.gov/ctrules/2019RulesoftheCourt.pdf


Rule13. Review on Certiorari : Time for Petitioning

1. Unless otherwise provided by law, a petition for a writ of certiorari to review a judgment in any case, civil or criminal, entered by a state court of last resort or a United States court of appeals (including the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces) is timely when it is fled with the Clerk of this Court within 90 days after entry of the judgment. A petition for a writ of certiorari seeking review of a judgment of a lower state court that is subject to discre-tionary review by the state court of last resort is timely when it is fled with the Clerk within 90 days after entry of the order denying discretionary review.

------------

So, under the normal rule, that petition would not be due until February 12, 2020 - 90 days from November 14, 2019.

Normally, in a direct conflict between two Constitutional actors - in this instance Congress and the President - a controversy will merit review by the Supreme Court. They don't have to do so, and we actually won't know until the Supreme Court considers the writ of certiori. And, again, since the case revolves around whether to compel disclosure of certain documents, it is a no-brainer that the Court would stay the decision until they see at least a writ of certiori.

What this means is that under the normal rules, Trump would not even have to file the writ of certiori until well into next year.

HOWEVER, what the Supreme Court did yesterday, as is in their power to do, was to accelerate the schedule for this case.

Instead of allowing Trump until February to file the writ, the Court has required Trump to file it next week, on December 5, 2019.

That's a good thing. The Court has put this case on an extremely fast track, and is not going to drag this thing out.

I can't for the life of me figure out why that pisses off a contingent at DU who seem single-mindedly focused on attacking the way the US court system works. What might be motivating that kind of thing is left to your imagination.

Two things to consider in the various subpoena cases