Court Watch, Part II.

 

Jefferson County Courthouse, Port Arthur Texas.

August 5, 2025

Texas Governor Abbot has ordered the arrest of absentee Democratic Texas legislators.

cont:

The House Oversight Committee subpoenaed Bill and Hillary Clinton to testify on matters Epstein.

Here's the thing, however.  Nobody really knows what they'll have to say, but one of the questions is going to be "who all did you see at . . . "

I suspect as many Republicans as Democrats are hoping he doesn't answer that.

August 11, 2025

It seems clear that the Trump administration is going to make some sort of a move on the homeless population of Washington, D.C.

There's also a move to take back Federal control of the enclave.

As anyone here can tell, I'm not a fan of the Trump administration, but I'll at least acknowledge that American cities have a huge homeless problem and it detracts from American society overall.  Something needs to be done about it. Something humane, but something.

Also, frankly, D.C. should have gave been given home rule.  It hasn't been a well run city in many instances.  It's a Federal enclave for a reason.

A case involving a county clerk may go to the S.Ct, and if it does, it would allow the court to review the Obergefell decision if it wishes to.

It doesn't have to take the case, and if it did, it wouldn't have to revisit Obergefell.  Obergefell was clearly wrongly decided, so it'll be interesting to see what the Court does.

Cont:

DECLARING A CRIME EMERGENCY IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

Executive Orders

August 11, 2025

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 740 of the District of Columbia Self-Government and Governmental Reorganization Act (Public Law 93-198), as amended (section 740 of the Home Rule Act), and section 301 of title 3, United States Code, it is hereby ordered:

Section 1.  Crime is out of control in the District of Columbia.  Washington, District of Columbia, is our Nation’s capital and home to the central institutions of American governance.  Yet rising violence in the capital now urgently endangers public servants, citizens, and tourists, disrupts safe and secure transportation and the proper functioning of the Federal Government, and forces the diversion of critical public resources toward emergency response and security measures.  The city government’s failure to maintain public order and safety has had a dire impact on the Federal Government’s ability to operate efficiently to address the Nation’s broader interests without fear of our workers being subjected to rampant violence.

The increase in violent crime in the heart of our Republic has consequences beyond the individual tragedies that have dominated media coverage.  Such lawlessness also poses intolerable risks to the vital Federal functions that take place in the District of Columbia.  Violence and crime hamper the recruitment and retention of essential Federal employees, undermine critical functions of Government and thus the well-being of the entire Nation, and erode confidence in the strength of the United States.  These conditions are disgraceful anywhere, but particularly in the capital of our Nation and the seat of the Federal Government.  Citizens, tourists, and Federal workers deserve peace and security, not fear and violence.  The smooth functioning of executive departments and agencies, courts, diplomatic missions, and the Federal Government demands an effective law-enforcement mechanism capable of halting the precipitous rise in violent crime, not one that permits Government workers to be violently attacked by mobs or fatally shot close to the Federal buildings where they work.

The magnitude of the violent crime crisis places the District of Columbia among the most violent jurisdictions in the United States.  In 2024, the District of Columbia averaged one of the highest robbery and murder rates of large cities nationwide.  Indeed, the District of Columbia now has a higher violent crime, murder, and robbery rate than all 50 States, recording a homicide rate in 2024 of 27.54 per 100,000 residents.  It also experienced the Nation’s highest vehicle theft rate with 842.4 thefts per 100,000 residents — over three times the national average of 250.2 thefts per 100,000 residents.  The District of Columbia is, by some measures, among the top 20 percent of the most dangerous cities in the world.

As President, I have a solemn duty to take care that our laws are faithfully executed, and a sacred responsibility to protect the safety and security of United States citizens who live in and visit our Nation’s capital, including Federal workers who live or commute into the District of Columbia.  These conditions cannot persist.  We will make the District of Columbia one of the safest cities in the world, not the most dangerous.

Sec. 2.  Services of the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia.  I determine that special conditions of an emergency nature exist that require the use of the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia (Metropolitan Police force) for Federal purposes, including maintaining law and order in the Nation’s seat of Government; protecting Federal buildings, national monuments, and other Federal property; and ensuring conditions necessary for the orderly functioning of the Federal Government.  Effective immediately, the Mayor of the District of Columbia (Mayor) shall provide the services of the Metropolitan Police force for Federal purposes for the maximum period permitted under section 740 of the Home Rule Act.

Sec. 3.  Operational Control of the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia.  (a)  The authority of the President conferred by section 740(a) of the Home Rule Act to direct the Mayor with respect to the current special conditions of an emergency nature is delegated to the Attorney General. 

(b)  In accordance with section 740(a) of the Home Rule Act, the Mayor shall provide such services of the Metropolitan Police force as the Attorney General may deem necessary and appropriate.

Sec. 4.  Monitoring and Recommendations.  (a)  The Attorney General shall monitor and regularly consult with any senior official the Attorney General deems appropriate on the special conditions of an emergency nature that exist in the District of Columbia that require the use of the Metropolitan Police force for Federal purposes.

(b)  The Attorney General shall regularly update me on the status of the special conditions of an emergency nature that exist in the District of Columbia that require the use of the Metropolitan Police force for Federal purposes.

(c)  The Attorney General shall inform me of any circumstances that, in the Attorney General’s opinion, might indicate the need for further action by the President or that the action in this order is no longer necessary.

Sec. 5.  Severability.  If any provision of this order, or the application of any provision to any individual or circumstance, is held to be invalid, the remainder of this order and the application of its other provisions to any other individuals or circumstances shall not be affected thereby.

Sec. 6.  General Provisions.  (a)  Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:

(i)   the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or the head thereof; or

(ii)  the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.

(b)  This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.

(c)  This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.

(d)  The costs for publication of this order shall be borne by the Department of Justice.

                             DONALD J. TRUMP

THE WHITE HOUSE,

    August 11, 2025.

There is no emergency.

Trump's use of executive orders is completely out of control.

Cont:

Attorney who backed Trump on Jan. 6 now urging Supreme Court to hear corner-crossing case: John Eastman says high court should hear matter “because it affects so much private property.”

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Court Watch

Labels: Abortion, Court Watch, Democracy, Immigration, law, Monday at the bar, religion, Sex, The 2021 Insurrection, The Law, The Post Insurrection, The Second Trump Administration, Trailing Posts, Trailing thread, transgenderism, Wyoming

Tuesday, August 10, 1915. Storms

As if border raids weren't enough of a problem for Texas, the 1915 Galveston hurricane became just that on this day, being observed north of Barbados.

The Battle of Lone Pine concluded at Gallipoli with the Australians taking 2,277 men killed or wounded, with Ottoman estimates were estimated between 5,000 and 6,000. The Ottoman's prevailed, but at a heavy price.

The Ottomans overwhelmed British defenses at Chunuk Bair.

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Monday, August 9, 1915. Hard fighting at Gallipoli.

Labels: 1910s, 1915, Armenian Genocide, Battle of Chunuk Bair, Battle of Lone Pine, British Army, Gallipoli, German Kriegsmarine, Landing at Suvla Bay, Mexican Border War, Newspapers, Ottoman Army, Ottoman Empire, press, Royal Navy

The 2025 Legislative Sessions of other states.

 

August 4, 2025

Texas Governor Abbott is threatening to remove Democrats who don't show up to vote on redistricting.

The Republican controlled legislature is being widely accused of gerrymandering in an attempt to retain control of the House of Representatives, where Mike Johnson sent Congressmen home early so they wouldn't be able to vote to open up the Epstein files.  The Democrats are making it impossible for the redistricting to be passed by being absent.

Seems strange to threaten to remove people when one's own party sends people home to avoid voting.

Last edition:

The 2024 Legislative Sessions of other states.

Labels: 1860s, 1864, 2020s, 2024, 2024 Legislative Sessions of other states, Abortion, Arizona, Climate Change, Florida, Food, Politics, transgenderism, US Mexico Border Crisis, Utah

Sunday, July 11, 1915. Garza enters Mexico City. Revolutionary ambush in Brownsville.

Constitutionalist Gen. Pablo Gonzáles Garza entered Mexico City

Sheriff's Deputy Constable Pablo Falcon and Deputy Sheriff  Encarnacion Cuellar were shot and killed when they were ambushed by six men at a dance hall three miles from Brownsville, Texas. They are asserted to be the first victims of the Plan of San Diego, with it being ironic in that they were both Hispanic.  Other causes for the ambush have been theorized.

The Germans scuttled the cruiser SMS Königsberg in the Rufiji River, German East Africa following the vessel being heavily damaged in action against the Royal Navy.

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Saturday, July 10, 1915. Writing the Mexican governments about Huerta.

Labels: 1910s, 1915, Art, Battle of Manzikert, Constitutionalist Army, Conventionists, Imperial Russian Army, Mexican Revolution, Mexico, Ottoman Army, Victoriano Huerta, World War One

Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist, 94th edition. Portents? The problem of Evil.

 

Halley's comet depicted on the Bayeux Tapestry, showing how big of event it was and how it was viewed, particularly after the events of 1066.

In ancient times, some things were seen as portents  A warning of things to come.  Sometimes, of course, that was appreciated retrospectively.

A terrible flood has resulted in loss of life in Texas, most tragically at Camp Mystic, a Christian girls’ summer camp near the Guadalupe River in the Texas Hill Country.

It'll seem odd noting it, but this is right after the codification of Trump's agenda in the Big Ugly Bill, which took an axe to solar and wind electricity support.

In Wyoming it's been popular to criticize those project.  It likely has been in Texas too, and everywhere in the US in which petroleum has been a major economic factor.  In those areas, the climate change is a fib line of reasoning has been popular, mostly based on the thesis that what's good for my wallet can't be bad for anything.

The weather recently has been weird.

Some will likely point out that flooding in Texas isn't a new thing.  Indeed, the great Stevie Ray Vaughan put out an lp called Texas Flood which featured the great blues number It's Flooding Down In Texas.

 

All of which is quite true.

And none of which demonstrates that the weather has been normal.  It hasn't been.

I read once, years ago, a comment by a Catholic monk pertaining to the problem of evil, "why does God allow bad things to happen?"  I've seen various explanations over the years, but he related he had actually asked that question, directed as a petition (prayer) to God.  He received an answer, that being "Why do you?"

Indeed, why do we?

Here's one we can avoid, and even reverse.  It's our duty to do so.

One thing I'd also note.  The Big Ugly takes money from things like NOAA and from weather prediction.  One of the thing that's being complained of in Texas is the lack of weather warnings before the terrible storm.

We're going to see a lot more of that.

So again, why do we?

Last edition:

Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist, 93d Edition. Porn industry retstricted, Supreme Court weigh in as Wyoming requires age verification on adult sites, Dudes in the lady room, and on women's teams, Trump helping where no law or help was needed.

Labels: 2020s, 2025, 2025 Wyoming Legislative Post Mortem, 2025 Wyoming Legislative Session, children, flap de jour, law, Populism, pornography, Teenagers, The Second Trump Administration, Wyoming, Zeitgeist

Saturday, June 20, 1925. La battaglia del grano.

Benito Mussolini launched "The Battle for Grain" ("La battaglia del grano"), aimed at increasing Italy's wheat production to the point of becoming completely self-sufficient.

FWIW, today Italy uses a lot of Ukrainian wheat.

Audie Murphy was born into a sharecropping family in Hunt County, Texas.  He'd grow up under difficult conditions, learning to hunt in order to help feed his large family, and leaving school to pick cotton in fifth grade.

Last edition:

Thursday, June 18, 1925. Death of Robert La Follette.

Labels: 1920s, 1925, Death, German Weimar Republic, Germany, It was because of World War One, law, Monarchy, Personalities, Socialism, Wisconsin

Thursday, March 24, 1825. State Colonization Law of March 24, 1825.

The Mexican legislature passed the State Colonization Law of March 24, 1825, allowing immigrants to take up agricultural lands in Texas for a nominal fee, provided that they took oath promising to abide by the federal and state constitutions, to worshiped according to the Catholic faith, and to display sound moral principles and good conduct. 

Immigrants arrived, but they were largely Protestant (Southern) Americans, violated Mexican slavery laws, and demonstrated very little loyalty to Mexico.

Perhaps they should be deported.

There are a lot of lessons in this story.

Last edition:

Saturday, March 19, 1825. Fort Vancouver opens.

Labels: 1820s, 1825, Hudson's Bay Company, The Frontier West, Washington

Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist. 76th Edition. Keeping them in the sky, with measles, and down on the metaphorical farm.

KEEP CALM AND FLY ON Experts say despite recent incidents, commercial flights are safe

No, Trump isn't responsible for this, but it is oddly synchronicitous that at the same time the Trump regime is attacking the government, aircraft keep crashing.

Again, it isn't his fault.  

But if Biden was President, you can be sure that Trump would blame him.

Update:

And a scary near miss incident today.

Measles outbreak surfaces in Texas Infection can lead to serious complications including pneumonia and blindness

Almost everyone was unvaccinated.

Gee, what a surprise.

Elsewhere, there's a claim, and its pretty unverified, that a FBI whistleblower has revealed that the Epstein files are being purged at the FBI.  MAGAs immediately leaped to the conclusion that this must be because they hold all sorts of dirty secrets about the Democrats and now the Q files will at last be revealed.

Funny, if that's happening, and I have no reason to believe it is, my assumption would be that after Patel taking over the FBI, if that's happening, it wouldn't be files about the Democrats they were seeking to hide. . . 

Trump, of course, was a frequent flyer on the Lolita Express and that brings up something that occured to me today while reading what the WFC is up to.  As noted in another thread, they've passed the "keep 'em ignorant bill" in the legislature, as they fear that the requirement to report to school districts with curriculum might reveal that some people's home school program is limited to a children's edition of the King James Bible.  This seems set to pass, and some must be lamenting that the WFC wasn't as strong in 2023, when the legislature had the temerity to outlaw child marriages.  Gosh, now that we're in the golden age we could have kept the children uneducated and pregnant, or at least the girl ones.

Who voted against outlawing child brides.  Here's who:  Dockstader, Baldwin, Kinsky, Hicks, Steinmetz, Biteman, Salazar, Ide, French, Kolb, Hutchings, McKeown, Allemand, Allred, Angelos, Banks, Bear, Davis, Haroldson, Heiner, Hornok, Jennings, Knapp, Locke, Neiman, Ottman, Pendergraft, Penn, Rodriguez-Williams, Singh, Slagle, Smith, Strock, Styvar, Tarver, Ward, Winter.

Some usual WFC suspects there.

Cont

Funny how quickly things develop.  Now both Democrats and Republicans are lobbying Pam Bondi to release the Epstein files, which she had stated were "on her desk".

And yet, they haven't been.

She had said she was waiting on a directive from King Donny, a buddy of the late procuror. 

Come on Pam. Release the info.

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Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist. 75th Edition. Dim Wit.

Labels: Canada, Donald Trump, Errare humanum est, Europe, Hockey, Politics, Populism, Sic transit Gloria Mundi, Sports, The Second Trump Administration, Zeitgeist

Satuday, January 17, 1925. Ma Ferguson in the Governor's office.

Miriam "Ma" Ferguson became the first female governor of Texas and the second, after Nellie Tayloe Ross, in the United States.

The Italian Chamber of Deputies repealed the "plural voting" provision in the electoral bill passed the previous day.

That didn't last long.

It was Saturday.

The Literary Digest had a two page Seiberling tire advertisement.

Obviously, certain symbols hadn't acquired their current meaning.

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Friday, January 16, 1925. Leadbelly released from prison and some Italians got to vote a lot.

Labels: 1920s, 1925, 1930s, 1933, 1940s, 1946, Crime, Disease, Folk Music, Hudie Ledbetter, Italy, Louisiana, Music, Texas, The Blues

Friday, January 16, 1925. Leadbelly released from prison and some Italians got to vote a lot.

Huddie Ledbetter, aka "Lead Belly", was granted a full pardon by Texas Governor Pat Morris Neff  Neff for having served the minimum seven years of his prison sentence for the 1918 killing of Will Stafford, a relative of his, in a fight over a woman.

It was a least his second period of incarceration, with  his first being in 1915 for carrying a handgun, something that would not be a crime now.  

While in prison for homicide, he'd be stubbled in the neck by another inmate, resulting in a permanent scar.

The pardon came about due to Ledbetter writing the Governor and seeking the same, and the Governor visiting him more than once in prison.

Ledbetter would return to prison in 1930 for attempted homicide and 1939 for assault.

Perhaps not a pacific man, he was the greatest American folk musician and one of the greatest blue musicians of all time.  He was personally responsible for the survival of the twelve string guitar.  He was principally a bluesman, but the blues had not quite stabilized into its form at the time, and not all of his music fits the genera.  Indeed, this so much the case that at least one of his songs that is typically preformed as a blue piece, The Midnight Special, was not performed quite that way by Leadbelly.  He became known to the general public due to John Lomax's recordings of him in 1933, at which time he was again in prison.

Leadbelly was born in Louisiana in 1888 or 1889, and died of Lou Gehrigs disease in 1946 at age 61 or 62.  He took to music early and learned to paly the mandolin, accordion, guitar, harmonica, Jew’s harp, piano, and organ, with his principal instructor's being his uncles, Bob and Terrell Ledbetter.

His songs are widely preformed to this day, and once were part of the American music canon taught to school children.  Interestingly enough, he's associated with the first recorded use of the word "woke", in a spoken item after a song in which he stated; "So I advise everybody, be a little careful when they go along through there—best stay woke, keep their eyes open."

Italy passed a bill giving double votes to academians, professors, those with diplomas, knights, military officers, those with any military decorations, officeholders, certain business personnel, all those paying a direct tax of 100 lira or more, and fathers of at least five children, triple votes to members of the royal family, members of high nobility, cardinals, highly decorated war veterans, high officeholders, or anyone who met three conditions for double votes. 

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Thursday, January 15, 1925. Trotsky gets canned, Ross addresses the legislature.

Labels: 1920s, 1925, 1925 Wyoming Legislative Session, Communism, James Dean Effect, Joseph Stalin, Leon Trotsky, Nellie Tayloe Ross, Politics, USSR, Wyoming

Monday, September 28, 1874. The Battle of Palo Duro Canyon.

Outnumbered roops under Ranald Mackenzie attacked Cheyenne, Kiowa and Comanche at Palo Duro Canyon bringing about a legendary and significant Army victory in the Red River War and essentially bringing it to a close.

Casualties on both sides were overall light, but the loss of horses and supplies was devastating to the Native side.

Mackenzie is forgotten in the popular memory, although he certainly is not amongst students of the post Civil War Indian Wars.  He was an extremely effective but died a bad death at age 48, which may be part of the reason that he's forgotten.

Last edition:

Friday, September 25, 1874. The Act of September 1874.

Labels: 1820s, 1824, 1870s, 1874, Benito Juárez, Catholic, Christianity, Cristero War, law, Manuel Ávila Camacho, Mexican Revolution, Mexico, Porfirio Díaz, religion, Revolution of Ayutla, Second Mexican Empire