Showing posts with label 2020 Civil Unrest. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2020 Civil Unrest. Show all posts

Saturday, November 20, 2021

Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist Part XXIII. Trial, what trial? Looking for a fight. Free Peng Shuai. Leisure, rights and politics.

Eh?

There's a widespread assumption that lawyers follow criminal trials because they're lawyers.

That's incorrect.

For the second time in recent months, I've been asked by somebody what I thought of 1) the accusations against Kyle Rittenhouse and the 2) trial of Kyle Rittenhouse.

This presume that I'm following anything in regard to Kyle Rittenhouse. 

I know a little more about his situation than I did a couple of days ago, but only as I started to pay a little more attention after it was brought to my attention for the third time.  

The first time I was in a trial myself and was called by a client.  "What do you think about the accusations against Rittenhouse?".

I had no idea what this referred to, even though I was dimly aware that some teenager carrying a M4 style carbine had killed somebody in a disturbance somewhere.  More recently, the same person asked what I thought of about was coming out at the trial.

"I've been so busy, I haven't been following it".

That was true, but only partially so.  I wasn't following it, and I am very busy, but I don't usually follow criminal trials anyhow.

Finally, I was in a deposition when the verdict came in. The deponent actually had his phone set to rig a bell when the news came in, he was following it so closely.  He actually asked if we could take a break to read about it.

No break.

In the next break, none of the lawyers discussed it. One spoke about his upcoming holiday where he was going to a Ferrari race car driving school. That did sound pretty interesting.

This brings up a couple of things.

Living by the sword

Marines in Hue.  If you want to live like this constantly, there are places that you can do it for real, rather than pretending that it's about to happen here.

I knew a former University of Wyoming football player who didn't follow football at all.  He was always caught flat-footed when somebody asked his opinion on football matters.  He'd played football and presumably liked it, but he just didn't follow it after his college athletic career concluded   

I get that.

If you work every day in the law, you have a lawyers prospective, but given that, you likely know that there's a lot nobody knows about anything being tried and, moreover, the Press isn't very good at reporting trials anyhow.  

And frankly, most criminal trials are exclusively local news stories, not worth reporting on as big national news. This one is a slight exception, but it's getting a lot more press than it deserves and people are drawling conclusions which likely aren't merited.

One big conclusion is that lawyers are a lot less interested in the "big news" trials than other people seem to be.

There's probably a reason for that.

So what I now know is this.

Ritterhouse was 17 years old and went to a protest carrying a M4 type carbine.  The protest was racially charged and arose from an earlier Kenosha police shooting of an African American man.  Ritterhouse, while only 17, had an association with the current right-wing populist militia type groups.  He spent part of the night marching around, much like the armed men in downtown Casper during a similar event last summer.

While there, he encountered a Joseph Rosenbaum. Rosenbaum had been belligerent all night and at some point chased Ritterhouse.  Somebody fired a shot in the air, and Rosenbaum lunged at Ritterhouse and tried to disarm him. Ritterhouse shot  and killed him. He then fled on foot and was pursued and physically attacked.  The last assailant pointed a pistol at him but was only wounded when Ritterhouse fired first.

With that set of facts, there is no crime to commit Ritterhouse of.  He acted in self-defense.

Which doesn't really excuse him, or indeed some of the crowd.

Some things to consider.

Ritterhouse is part of the delusional set that exists in our country that feels that they need to walk around like they live in Hue in 1968. They don't, and it's dumb.  It should stop.  Now he seems genuinely remorseful, but he'll live with killing two other humans for the rest of his life, and it'll be ages before he escapes what occurred.  Frankly, he probably ought to change his name and disappear for a long while.  Lt. Calley overcame his crimes, so Ritterhouse will this too, but it'll be a long time.

He shouldn't have been there.

Next, while this event was supposedly over the killing of a black man by the police, all those involved in these shootings were white.  White right-wing militia kid Ritterhouse and three white protestors. 

 Joseph Rosenbaum was being belligerent and was just out of the hospital after trying to commit suicide.  He was a convicted child molester.

He should have been in the hospital.

His family showed up to protest the results, complete with a sister with a nose ring.  I'm not going much further on this, but Ritterhouse was not only a mess, but at least a partially icky violent mess.  That he got shot isn't all that surprising.

The second shooting victim, Anthony Huber, had served two prison stints, one for domestic abuse and one for trying to choke his brother.  

The third guy, the one who was wounded, pointed his handgun at Ritterhouse "accidentally", but also had a criminal history.  He had a concealed firearms permit which, oddly enough, expired that day.

You can draw lessons from this, and the survivors should.  Almost none of them will be the ones that are bandied about by anyone.

And once again, African Americans, who do have a story to tell here, have had their thunder stolen by a bunch of youthful whites ended up playing out on the stage when this really ought to have been focused on something else.

Let the stupid comments begin

Notwithstanding the fact that most people don't understand how the legal system actually works, there will be floods of really bad punditry and for that matter just regular public comment as a result of the verdict. Some will demand that Ritterhouse be hauled in front of a Federal Court as they perceive that justice wasn't done, others will want to give him the Congressional Medal of Honor for being in the wrong place, at the wrong time, and with insufficient maturity not to appreciate that he wasn't Sgt. York.

Already I've seen a comment on a list serve that's usually dedicated to lost cats and such things.

Uff.

Free Peng Shuai


I skipped all the concern over Brittany Spears when it was rolling around.

I hope that Peng Shuai gets at least as much attention.

I don't follow women's professional tennis, which is no surprise as the only professional sport I really follow is baseball, and this year I couldn't even get into it.  At any rate, I take it that she is a well known, and Chinese, tennis star.

She recently accused Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli of forcing sex upon her.

It's actually more complicated, and frankly icky, than that.  It started off, apparently, as an off and on extramarital affair and concluded with an assault, she alleges, with guard posted outside of her door.

And she's now disappeared.

The Chinese are really resisting opening up on this, which demonstrates what a thugocracy it is. Sooner or later it'll fall, but right now it has a chokehold on the Chinese people and is looking to expand its brutal grip over Taiwan.

We only put up with this due to money.

The Chinese Communists are bad for everything.  They're bad for the Chinese, and they're bad for the environment.  It ought to stop.

The US is demanding to know what's up with her whereabouts.  The Chinese, who are used to simply offing the difficult, seem surprised and more than caught a little off guard.

The proletariat

The Peng episode brings up something that will play itself out in the coming years, and probably more rapidly than we might suspect.

Most of the Chinese are still very poor, but as they build a middle class, that middle class is not going to cooperate with being out of power.  There is already a Me Too Movement in China, and it's pretty clear the authoritarian government doesn't know what to do about it.  

This is no surprise as it doesn't know what to do with the democracy movement either.

The infusion of money into people's hands eventually transforms them into a class that wants some sort of power.  It doesn't always work perfectly at first, as Russia provides ample evidence of.  And on the flipside, rich capitalist countries can undermine themselves by failing to heed Jefferson's warnings about wide scale funding of the public feeding trough, which I suspect may relate to more in this post than people are willing to admit.

Chanteuse

Apparently Taylor Swift and Adele have new releases out.

M'eh.

Friday, May 21, 2021

May 21, 1921. Funeral of Chief Justice Edward Douglass White.


United States Supreme Court Justice Edward Douglass White's funeral was held on this day in 1921.

He was from Louisiana and had died two days earlier.  He was a surprise nomination to the Supreme Court by Grover Cleveland who had twice attempted to nominate New Yorkers before him.  

White was Jesuit educated and therefore not surprisingly a Catholic.  He's served in the Confederate forces during the Civil War, but in a capacity that's now hopelessly vague.  He was taken prisoner near the end of the war.  Due to his Confederate service, a statute in Washington D.C. was the subject of protests in August, 2020, even though very little is actually known about his wartime service.

Wonder Bread went on the market on this day in 1941.  Personally, I've never been really keen on it, but its an undoubted commercial success.

Tuesday, January 12, 2021

2020 General Election Part IV


January 6, 2021

In a sorry scene not witnessed in this country since 1860, and not discouraged by the sitting President, a crowed opposing the lawful transition of the Presidency occupied Federal ground.

Wyoming's Cynthia Lummis was part of the group that helped set this matter in motion, through her support of a doomed effort lead by Ted Cruz of Texas to oppose the acceptance of the vote.  Wyoming's Liz Cheney opposed it.  After some doubt about his position, Vice President Pence did not act out against it.  Senator Barrasso did not join in it.  

The Governor issued the following statement.

  Statement from Governor Gordon on Today's Events in Washington DC

CHEYENNE, Wyo. – Governor Mark Gordon has issued the following statement on today's events in Washington DC. 

The United States of America is resilient. It has weathered many storms because of our form of government and our remarkable Constitution. The violence that we are witnessing in the U.S. Capitol dishonors our legacy and denigrates the “Shining City on the Hill” Ronald Reagan spoke of. Interfering with the peaceful transfer of power is an affront to the very Constitution that has made our country what it is. I believe America will not – cannot – stand for this assault on our democracy. I am heartbroken.

I encourage the entire country to follow the example that we have demonstrated here in Wyoming, a proper and peaceful expression of dissent – the cornerstone of free speech.

January 7, 2021

Last night the nation endured the shameful spectacle of in an insurrection in Washington D.C., as noted in our companion blog.

2021 An insurrection aimed at retaining President Trump in office, and encouraged by his rhetoric, took place in Washington D.C.


The insurrection followed a Trump speech encouraging his supporters with the concept that in spite of losing the election, that somehow political machinations would keep him in office, and that soon he'd "walk down" a Washington D. C. street of their choice.  This followed weeks of delusional legal efforts and outright lies based on the claimed thesis that he somehow lost the election.  

The effort created open fissures in an already divided Republican Party.  At the same time as the riot was forming the House and Senate were receiving the electoral vote, a matter that's usually a routine formality.  In this instance, however, a group of eleven Republican Senators joined with over 100 Republican Congressmen to attempt to challenge the electoral vote in several states.  Newly elected Wyoming Congressman Cynthia Lummis was part of this group, which undertook this action knowing it would fail and therefore did this to serve political goals.  Wyoming Congressman Liz Cheney had strongly opposed the action.

Before the process on Arizona, the first state to be challenged, could be finished, the assault commenced.   Legislative work had to cease for hours until Capitol Police regained the ground.  Four people died as a result of the events.  When the combined houses resumed their work the objectors in part withdrew their objections, including Senator Lummis, although Arizona was still objected to by the group of Senators, with some withdrawing their objections during the vote.

Not since 1860 has such an open rebellion taken place against the legal transfer of power in the United States and, for the first time in the nation's history a sitting President has openly acted against the democratic transfer of power. Also, not since 1860 have members of Congress openly conspired against  the democratic transfer of power.  

Leading up to the event, what was occurring was strongly condemned by Congressman Liz Cheney.  The doomed and falsely based parliamentary move was supported and participated in by Senator Cynthia Lummis, who only backed away from it after the insurrection occurred.  She condemned the insurrection after it occurred and abandoned her fellow travelers, almost all of whom likewise abandoned the effort as to Arizona, but was still one of eight Senators who opposed certification of Pennsylvania's result.  Sen. Barrasso condemned what occurred after it occurred, but was silent leading up to it.

Also leading up to the riots Washington D. C. asked for assistance from the Virginia National Guard.  Nothing occurred until Vice President Pence and the Joint Chiefs of Staff went around the President, an illegal move but one that was necessary, to go to D.C.'s aid.  Following the riots its known that members of the cabinet met to discussion invoking the 25th Amendment to remove the President, but no action was taken as of the time of posting this.

Four people died, three of medical conditions arising during the insurrection and one being killed by police and 52 were arrested as a result of the insurrection.  

A newly elected state legislator from West Virginia was spotted in the mob.  Calls have been made for that person's resignation.

A gathering in Cheyenne that occurred during the day featured some Wyoming legislators who praised Lummis prior to the insurrection and demanded that Senator Barrasso and Congressman Cheney appear at the legislature to explain themselves.

Rumors were widely circulating of mass resignations in the Administration following the event, but as of last night only four minor figures had resigned.

President Trump's Twitter account was blackouted by Twitter temporarily after he issued a statement that expressed sympathy to the insurrectionist.  Given that, an announcement following the acceptance of the electoral vote was issued by an aid, as follows:


Dan Scavino
🇺🇸
🦅
@DanScavino
Statement by President Donald J. Trump on the Electoral Certification: “Even though I totally disagree with the outcome of the election, and the facts bear me out, nevertheless there will be an orderly transition on January 20th. I have always said we would continue our...
6.5K
34.7K
Dan Scavino
🇺🇸
🦅
@DanScavino
...fight to ensure that only legal votes were counted. While this represents the end of the greatest first term in presidential history, it’s only the beginning of our fight to Make America Great Again!”
3.4K
33.3K










This lead to press reports in the morning that he would provide for an "orderly transfer of power" but it continued to preserve the lies that he had actually won the election.  It also made the absurd claim, irrespective of what a person previously though of Trump one way or another, of it being "the greatest first term in presidential history" as Trump will now forever be defined by his last three months in office.

The Washington Post urged Congress to impeach the President for sedition and it wasn't the only one.  Prior to the insurrection, a large business organization urged the cabinet to consider removing him under the 25th Amendment.

For the second time in the nation's history foreign powers are questioning the American position in the world and its stability as a democratic country.

Regarding that, President Trump's actions almost certainly resulted in the loss of Georgia's Senatorial seats, which were both won by Democrats.  This means that the Senate will now be controlled by the Democrats.  After the November election it was widely felt that the Republican's would retain both seats, or at least one, and thereby retain the the Senate.  Now that's over and the country will have an undivided Democratic government which will be part of Trump's legacy.  Ironically, the Republicans had done extremely well down ballot until Trump's post election actions destroyed their control of the Senate.

Cont:

A trickle of resignations from the Trump Administration that started yesterday started yesterday has become a steady stream as the day has gone on.

An earlier, but recent, resignee, William Barr, called Trump's reaction to the storming of the capitol a "betrayal to his office and his supporters" and further accused the President of being complicit in events through his actions.  Barr was up until recently one of Trump's strongest supporters.

January 8, 2021

The fallout from the January 6 insurrection continued to increase yesterday, January 7.

A capitol policeman died of injuries received during the insurrection.

Betsy Devos, Secretary of Education, and Margaret Chou, Secretary of Transportation and wife of Mitch McConnell resigned from the cabinet.  DeVos called the riots "unconscionable".   Chou has also condemned it.  Vice President Pence is reportedly angry with the President.  

Some news outlets have reported that the Vice President and his family were potentially set up during the rioting by the lack of security combined with the President's incitements.  His family was present and had to take shelter with him.  Insurrectionists chanted "where's Pence?" while in the capitol.

Numerous individuals, including business figures and one Republican Senator, and many Democrats, called on President Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove President Trump from power.  Democratic figures in Congress stated that if he failed to do so, they would act to impeach the President if no action was taken by today.

Cynthia Lummis claimed in a statement that her reason for being one of eight Senators to oppose Pennsylvania's certification was to draw attention to certain things in the state's vote but not to overturn it.  The concerns she noted were instructions to clerks to be careful in checking ballots so that voters with signature errors could be contacted if their ballots had deficiencies in order that they could be corrected, something that occurred in other states as well due to the large number of mail in ballots due to COVID 19.  Lummis expressed concerns over the procedures legality under Pennsylvania law, something that was vehemently objected to by Senator Bob Casey of Pennsylvania who defended his state's election.

Wyoming actually used a similar procedure to some extent during the election by way of a simple directive from the Secretary of State which would mean that if Pennsylvania's votes were illegally counted that the entire Wyoming vote might also be by implication.

The Wyoming GOP, whose leader was at the Washington D. C. protests, issued a statement that maintained that the public should "wait for the facts" and urged the press to report the matter truthfully, something which pretty much ignores  the reality of what occurred.  It's head stated that he'd only observed a peaceful crowd before retiring mid afternoon prior to the insurrection occurring.

Conservative columnist Cal Thomas joined George F. Will in condemning President Trump.

Ted Cruz, who was complicit in the events that lead to the insurrection, has been facing calls for his resignation.  Yesterday he found himself on the downside of a blistering Twitter spat with AOC in which he came across looking like a hypocrite.   A sample of that is here:


Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
@AOC
Oh - you’re accusing me of lying? Isn’t this you? Your campaign sent out this fundraising message as people were sieging the Capitol. You claimed to be “leading the fight to reject electors.” Clashes started around 1:20pm. This message was sent after the Capitol was breached.
Image
Quote Tweet
Ted Cruz
@tedcruz
·
1/2 @AOC You are a liar. Leading a debate in the Senate on ensuring election integrity is doing our jobs, and it’s in no way responsible for the despicable terrorists who attacked the Capitol yesterday. And sorry, I ain’t going anywhere. When you and your socialist buddies... twitter.com/aoc/status/134…
Show this thread
4:22 PM · Jan 7, 2021Twitter for iPhone
56.3K
Retweets
8.9K
Quote Tweets
402.4K
Likes
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
@AOC
Replying to
@AOC
Your complete refusal to acknowledge any of the above harm, wrongdoing, or even misjudgement; & your lack of any self-reflection in how these acts contributed to yesterday’s chaos is alarming. It is unbecoming of any elected official and makes you unfit for the office you occupy.
1.8K
272K
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
@AOC
Resign.





































Cruz started spinning his self declared "fight to reject key electors from key states" prior to Tuesday when it became increasingly clear that the effort was not being well received.  Those following him generally started taking the same verbal quest that they were not actually challenging the results, just assuring that the process would be respected.  Cruz, who barely won over Beto O'Roarke during his last Senatorial race is likely now in real career trouble as his chances of being elected as President, which were never strong, have likely evaporated and his chances of beating a Democrat in the next Senatorial race are diminished.

Chances are high that none of this will have any long-term impact directly on Cynthia Lummis, who is somewhat laying low right now, but the present fact is that the Trumpist wing of the party she endorsed for political reasons is now reeling. This is not presently evident in the state, where it had been insurgent, but it soon will be as the national party sorts out what occurred here.  Chances of revenge against the eight by the Democratic Party, which will soon be making committee assignments, and the establishment GOP, which opposed what Cruz backed, are really high.

Cont:  

Several European law enforcement or defense intelligence personnel interviewed anonymously by a Business Insider correspondent reported that they have determined that the insurrection was a failed administration coup attempt that had the support of some in Federal law enforcement agencies.

January 9, 2021

While there has been a good deal of talk, and still is, of invoking the 25th Amendment to remove President Trump, apparently Vice President Pence opposes the move which means it will not occur, or at least its not likely to occur soon.

In terms of soon, Democrats in the House intend to introduce a Bill of Impeachment next week.  At this point there are only eleven days left in the Trump Presidency which is almost an impossibly short amount of time for such an effort, but it is none the less their intent to make President Trump the only President of the United States to be impeached twice.

Whether the Senate will convene a trial is presently unknown, and if it does, whether it will vote to remove the President for "high crimes and misdemeanors" is also unknown and right now unknowable.  A growing number of Republicans have condemned Trump the past few days with a couple of Senators demanding he resign, which he shows no signs of doing.

A Capitol policeman who was injured during the insurrection last week died.

It's been revealed that during the period of time during which Senators had been evacuated from the floor due to the insurrection President Trump and Rudy Giuliani called Senator Tommy Tuberville to try to persuade him in the electoral vote opposition effort to make additional objections.

Trump, who has finally conceded defeat, announced he will not be attending the inauguration.  President Elect Biden announced that this was a good decision on Trump's part.

President Trump has been permanently banned from Facebook and Twitter.

President Biden, in speaking to reporters, cited Joseph Goebbels and the "big lie" when speaking of Senator Josh Hawley and Senator Ted Cruz.  Hawley tried to seize on the moment to little effect.  Biden's actual argument is that Hawley and Cruz deserve to go down into defeat in their next election, but Hawley claimed that they'd been called "Nazis".   The protest was to little effect as the criticism of both men is now so strong any defense of that type tends to be viewed as self indicting.  

Hawley's lost a book deal since the insurrection and a mega donor who contributed heavily to his campaign in 2016 expressed regrets for doing so. Former Senator John Danforth called his prior support of Hawley "the worst mistake of my life".  Hawley is up for reelection in 2022.  Ted Cruz, who faced stout opposition from Beto O'Roarke the last time he ran, had hoped to run for President in 2024 and is likewise seeing his chances of success in that race or in a Senatorial reelection result evaporate.

January 10, 2021

Efforts at controlling the fallout from last weeks' insurrection continue on, as efforts to address it also do.

Numerous arrests of the insurrectionist have now taken place and its highly obvious that a series of prosecutions will follow.  A West Virginia legislator who participated has resigned his post.  Some policemen from Seattle on are on leave pending an investigation of their role.

Over the past 24 hours those associated with or supporting the administration have come around to the position of condemning the insurrection in ways that are not wholly comfortable for those making them.  Kellyanne Conway, who was a spokesman for the Administration for much of the past four years, came out with this condemnation.

Kellyanne Conway
@KellyannePolls
"Only later did it become clear that lawmakers feared for their lives; that some of the attackers were hunting for congressional leaders; that there could have been a massacre." Don't avert your eyes & don't excuse this. The more we see & learn, the worse it is.
Not surprisingly, the reaction to her post wasn't sympathetic.

Wyoming's Cynthia Lummis gave a long interview to the Tribune and claimed that it was never her intent to overthrow Pennsylvania's results, which she voted to toss out, but rather to "shine a light" on what she maintained were election irregularities in Pennsylvania which Pennsylvania's Senator argued didn't exist.  She also maintained that this was the only thing that could be done as fixing election problems is a state's task, not the Federal governments.

This argument was one that started being developed by Ted Cruz and his companions some days prior to the elector vote taking place as it became increasingly obvious that public hostility was developing towards it.  None the less, Cruz was caught by AoC in a tweet that directly indicated that the effort was, in his view, one to prevent the votes from being counted with that tweet taking place during the voting process.  Cruz's political fortunes have appeared to tank in the past few days and Joe Hawley's have more or less ended.  Lummis is unlikely to have this problem, but it's notable that a number of letters to the editor today uniformly condemned her.

At this point it appears very unlikely that the 25th Amendment will be invoked and Mitch McConnell has indicated that an impeachment will only reach the Senate, if passed by the House, the day prior to the inauguration.  An NPR analysis took the position that a trial of impeachment can still occur after the inauguration, but that would be awkward, if correct, in the extreme.  So its very doubtful at this point that the full process will occur.

Having said that, new reports maintain that Vice President Pence hasn't ruled out the 25th Amendment but is concerned that if it is invoked Present Trump may take some erratic action.  Indeed, these sources report that he's essentially keeping the amendment in his back pocked in case the President becomes increasingly erratic.

There are now fears that second insurrection effort could take place on January 19 or 20.  No doubt plans are being made to counter that.  

January 11, 2021

Actor and former Governor of California released a long video condemning President Trump's pre insurrection actions and comparing what occurred to the rise of Nazism.

The House of Representatives will take up a Bill of Impeachment today.

Vice President Pence will attend Joe Biden's inauguration.

January 12, 2021

A bill of impeachment was introduced in the House of Representatives yesterday charging President Trump with "incitement of insurrection".  It will be voted on tomorrow.

This is regarded as quick action in Congress, with the Senate perhaps taking the probable passed bill for a trial on Tuesday, but its hardly quick in real terms and there are real questions if this does anything at all.  It now seems widely accepted in some circles that a trial of impeachment can occur after a person has left office, but frankly, this is highly questionable legally and in my view cannot actually occur.

The House is also going to vote on a bill calling for Vice President Pence to remove President Trump through the 25th Amendment.

A bill so censure Alabama Congressman Mo Brooks has been introduced.  The bill pertains to a speech he gave prior to the insurrection in which he suggested people might need to give their lives to defend the election, when of course there was nothing wrong with the election.

Bills are being considered to sanction the 147 members of the House who voted to question the electoral results.  One freshman Republican has indicated that she will consider voting for them noting that four years of Republican progress have been wiped out overnight.  The Congressman, Nancy Mace, flipped a House seat for the Republicans in the November election.

President Trump declared a state of emergency in Washington D.C. ahead of next week's inauguration in order to provide resources for the anticipated potential violence that may occur at the event.

Related Threads:

The 2020 General Election


2020 General Election, Part II


2020 General Election, Part III