Showing posts with label Trailing Posts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Trailing Posts. Show all posts

Saturday, April 26, 2025

Court Watch

Chaos was the law of nature; Order was the dream of man. 

Henry Adams.

A glimpse into what's going on in the law, and the Court's.


April 21, 2025

1.  The U.S. Supreme Court had issued a temporary stay on deportations of Venezuelans to El Salvador under the Enemy Aliens Act, as it well should have.  There isn't a war going on.

The pause is so that it can take the question in chief.

On the same basic topic, a Federal judge has issued a finding of probable cause of criminal contempt for the administration's refusal to adhere to his order regarding such deportations.

2.  Wyoming Tribe's Law Firm One Of The Few Fighting Trump's Big-Law Orders

Trump's ongoing assault on the law includes assaulting law firms that have displeased him. Quite a few have caved in, but this one didn't.

3.  A federal judge ordered that Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk be transferred from a detention center in Louisiana to Vermont no later than at the start of next month.

4.  The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments on the Trump administration's plans to end birthright citizenship next month.  Trump, in one of his many stupid statement moments, said that this should be an easy win as birthright citizenship was tied to slavery, which is really ignorant.

5.  Wyoming Supreme Court mulls constitutionality of state’s abortion bans: Much like the case, Wednesday’s hearing largely focused on whether a section of the state’s constitution that protects individuals’ rights to make their own health care decisions prevents the state from banning abortion.

A frustrating thing for conservatives who would like to find a more middle of the road set of people to vote for, now that the Wyoming Republican Party is in a civil war between real conservatives and populists, is that the Democratic Party nationally and locally just can't wash it hands of blood.  

It puts voters in a horrible position.  Insane gerontocracy v. seas of blood.

Former Wyoming Supreme Court Justice Keith Kautz created some controversy when he joined some legislators in a prayer session associated with the oral arguments, stating as a prayer:

I especially pray for the justices on the Wyoming Supreme Court.  May they know that the true beginning of wisdom is to acknowledge you. Give each of them wisdom and courage in deciding the case coming next week. Let them see how much you love each human and the world you created.

I don't see a problem with that, but apparently some people did.  Justice Kautz noted that he asked, upon retiring, not to be assigned to any cases dealing with abortion because of his religion based opposition to it.  He apparently is a member of a Baptist group called "Converge". 

6.  A group of Wyoming lawyers wrote an open letter about recent legal developments.  It was directed at Wyoming's Congressional representation.

Condemn attacks on judiciary, Wyoming lawyers and judges urge delegation

The letter was met with a "pound sand" response from that representation which went on to say that Federal courts had too much jurisdiction, which they are seeking to limit.

That's wrong, and that's a mistake.

William Roper: “So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law!”

Sir Thomas More: “Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?”

William Roper: “Yes, I'd cut down every law in England to do that!”

Sir Thomas More: “Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned 'round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man's laws, not God's! And if you cut them down, and you're just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!”

Robert Bolt, A Man for All Seasons: A Play in Two Acts

April 24, 2025

Trump has issued an order which takes on accrediting bodies, including the ABA.

REFORMING ACCREDITATION TO STRENGTHEN HIGHER EDUCATION

Executive Orders

April 23, 2025

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered:

Section 1.  Purpose.  A group of higher education accreditors are the gatekeepers that decide which colleges and universities American students can spend the more than $100 billion in Federal student loans and Pell Grants dispersed each year.  The accreditors’ job is to determine which institutions provide a quality education — and therefore merit accreditation.  Unfortunately, accreditors have not only failed in this responsibility to students, families, and American taxpayers, but they have also abused their enormous authority.

Accreditors routinely approve institutions that are low-quality by the most important measures.  The national six-year undergraduate graduation rate was an alarming 64 percent in 2020.  Further, many accredited institutions offer undergraduate and graduate programs with a negative return on investment — almost 25 percent of bachelor’s degrees and more than 40 percent of master’s degrees — which may leave students financially worse off and in enormous debt by charging them exorbitant sums for a degree with very modest earnings potential.

Notwithstanding this slide in graduation rates and graduates’ performance in the labor market, the spike in debt obligations in relation to expected earnings, and repayment rates on student loans, accreditors have remained improperly focused on compelling adoption of discriminatory ideology, rather than on student outcomes.  Some accreditors make the adoption of unlawfully discriminatory practices a formal standard of accreditation, and therefore a condition of accessing Federal aid, through “diversity, equity, and inclusion” or “DEI”-based standards of accreditation that require institutions to “share results on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the context of their mission by considering . . . demographics . . . and resource allocation.” Accreditors have also abused their governance standards to intrude on State and local authority.

The American Bar Association’s Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar (Council), which is the sole federally recognized accreditor for Juris Doctor programs, has required law schools to “demonstrate by concrete action a commitment to diversity and inclusion” including by “commit[ting] to having a student body [and faculty] that is diverse with respect to gender, race, and ethnicity.”  As the Attorney General has concluded and informed the Council, the discriminatory requirement blatantly violates the Supreme Court’s decision in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College, 600 U.S. 181 (2023).  Though the Council subsequently suspended its enforcement while it considers proposed revisions, this standard and similar unlawful mandates must be permanently eradicated.

The Liaison Committee on Medical Education, which is the only federally recognized body that accredits Doctor of Medicine degree programs, requires that an institution “engage[] in ongoing, systematic, and focused recruitment and retention activities, to achieve mission-appropriate diversity outcomes among its students.”  The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, which is the sole accreditor for both allopathic and osteopathic medical residency and fellowship programs, similarly “expect[s]” institutions to focus on implementing “policies and procedures related to recruitment and retention of individuals underrepresented in medicine,” including “racial and ethnic minority individuals.”  The standards for training tomorrow’s doctors should focus solely on providing the highest quality care, and certainly not on requiring unlawful discrimination.

American students and taxpayers deserve better, and my Administration will reform our dysfunctional accreditation system so that colleges and universities focus on delivering high-quality academic programs at a reasonable price.  Federal recognition will not be provided to accreditors engaging in unlawful discrimination in violation of Federal law.

Sec. 2.  Holding Accreditors Accountable for Unlawful Actions.  (a)  The Secretary of Education shall, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, hold accountable, including through denial, monitoring, suspension, or termination of accreditation recognition, accreditors who fail to meet the applicable recognition criteria or otherwise violate Federal law, including by requiring institutions seeking accreditation to engage in unlawful discrimination in accreditation-related activity under the guise of “diversity, equity, and inclusion” initiatives.

(b)  The Attorney General and the Secretary of Education shall, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, investigate and take appropriate action to terminate unlawful discrimination by American law schools that is advanced by the Council, including unlawful “diversity, equity, and inclusion” requirements under the guise of accreditation standards.  The Secretary of Education shall also assess whether to suspend or terminate the Council’s status as an accrediting agency under Federal law.

(c)  The Attorney General and the Secretary of Education, in consultation with the Secretary of Health and Human Services, shall investigate and take appropriate action to terminate unlawful discrimination by American medical schools or graduate medical education entities that is advanced by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education or the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education or other accreditors of graduate medical education, including unlawful “diversity, equity, and inclusion” requirements under the guise of accreditation standards.  The Secretary of Education shall also assess whether to suspend or terminate the Committee’s or the Accreditation Council’s status as an accrediting agency under Federal law or take other appropriate action to ensure lawful conduct by medical schools, graduate medical education programs, and other entities that receive Federal funding for medical education.

Sec. 3.  New Principles of Student-Oriented Accreditation.  (a)  To realign accreditation with high-quality, valuable education for students, the Secretary of Education shall, consistent with applicable law, take appropriate steps to ensure that:

(i)    accreditation requires higher education institutions to provide high-quality, high-value academic programs free from unlawful discrimination or other violations of Federal law;

(ii)   barriers are reduced that limit institutions from adopting practices that advance credential and degree completion and spur new models of education;

(iii)  accreditation requires that institutions support and appropriately prioritize intellectual diversity amongst faculty in order to advance academic freedom, intellectual inquiry, and student learning;

(iv)   accreditors are not using their role under Federal law to encourage or force institution to violate State laws, unless such State laws violate the Constitution or Federal law; and

(v)    accreditors are prohibited from engaging in practices that result in credential inflation that burdens students with additional unnecessary costs.

(b)  To advance the policies and objectives in subsection (a) of this section, the Secretary of Education shall:

(i)    resume recognizing new accreditors to increase competition and accountability in promoting high-quality, high-value academic programs focused on student outcomes;

(ii)   mandate that accreditors require member institutions to use data on program-level student outcomes to improve such outcomes, without reference to race, ethnicity, or sex;

(iii)  promptly provide to accreditors any noncompliance findings relating to member institutions issued after an investigation conducted by the Office of Civil Rights under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. 2000d et seq.) or Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972 (20 U.S.C. 1681 et seq.);

(iv)   launch an experimental site, pursuant to section 487A(b) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1094a(b)), to accelerate innovation and improve accountability by establishing new flexible and streamlined quality assurance pathways for higher education institutions that provide high-quality, high-value academic programs;

(v)    increase the consistency, efficiency, and effectiveness of the accreditor recognition review process, including through the use of technology;

(vi)   streamline the process for higher education institutions to change accreditors to ensure institutions are not forced to comply with standards that are antithetical to institutional values and mission; and

(vii)  update the Accreditation Handbook to ensure that the accreditor recognition and reauthorization process is transparent, efficient, and not unduly burdensome.

Sec. 4.  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.

                              DONALD J. TRUMP

THE WHITE HOUSE,

April 26, 2025

The Trump administration really took a step towards Nazism with the arrest of Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan for supposedly interfering with immigration laws.

Wyoming’s crossover voting ban and closed primary elections are being challenged in a newly filed civil action.

This should be really interesting.

Virginia Giuffre, who accused Prince Andrew and Jeffrey Epstein of sexual abuse, has died by suicide at age 41.  Prince Andrew's fall is directly tied to her, and there's no doubt that they met when she was just 17 years old, although he denied any improper conduct with her.

She was a married woman with three children, and had relocated to Australia. Apparently she and her husband had recently separated, and she had recently been in an automobile accident.

The topic of releasing the Epstein files has come up, but so far the Trump administration has failed to release them.  Trump, of course, knew Epstein.

Sunday, December 29, 2024

Wars and Rumors of War, 2024. Part 9. Closing out 2024.

You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.

Matthew, Chapter 24.

A bad time of the year to start a new edition, but the old one was just too long.

December 29, 2024

Russo Ukrainian War

Putin has apologized for the downing of a civilian airliner.

Syrian Civil War

Lebanon has arrested Syrian Army officers taking refuge in the country and suspended the operation of the Syrian embassy there.

British born Asma Fawaz al-Assad (أسماء فواز الأسد), wife of the fallen dictator, is rumored to be battling leukemia.

December 31, 2024

Russo Ukrainian War

Russia rejected the peace plan of Putin fan boy Donald Trump, who promised during his recent campaign for the presidency to end the war between Russia and Ukraine as soon as he was elected.

An element of the plan was eventual NATO membership for Ukraine.  It was to be delayed for twenty years.  Russia also rejected the deployment of foreign peacekeepers in Ukraine.

Rejection aside, a person could easily question to what degree Trump himself came up with any of this.  The peacekeeper deployment was a good idea, as was NATO membership, although a twenty year delay was an awful idea.

And, so we close out 2024.

Last edition:

Wars and Rumors of War, 2024. Part 8. Wider wars.

Monday, March 4, 2024

The Post Insurrection. Part VIII. The tangled web edition.

Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive.

Sir Walter Scott, Marmion.


January 3, 2024.

Donald Trump's is appealing the ruling of the Secretary of State that Trump cannot stand for election under the 14th Amendment.

January 4, 2024

Trump is now appealing the ruling of the Colorado Supreme Court that he cannot be on Colorado's ballot as he's an insurrectionist. The state's GOP had already filed an appeal.

More properly, this is a petition. The U.S. Supreme Court does not have to take the matter up.

January 6, 2024

The current docket at the Supreme Court on the Trump v. Colorado case:

Jan 03 2024Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due February 5, 2024)
PetitionCertificate of Word CountProof of Service
Jan 03 2024Brief amici curiae of Senator Steve Daines & National Republican Senatorial Committee filed. VIDED.
Main DocumentProof of ServiceCertificate of Word Count
Jan 04 2024Letter from counsel for respondent Colorado Republican State Central Committee filed.
Main Document
Jan 04 2024Brief in response to the petition for a writ of certiorari of respondent Norma Anderson, et al. filed.
Main DocumentOtherCertificate of Word CountProof of Service
Jan 05 2024Petition GRANTED. The case is set for oral argument on Thursday, February 8, 2024. Petitioner’s brief on the merits, and any amicus curiae briefs in support or in support of neither party, are to be filed on or before Thursday, January 18, 2024. Respondents’ briefs on the merits, and any amicus curiae briefs in support, are to be filed on or before Wednesday, January 31, 2024. The reply brief, if any, is to be filed on or before 5 p.m., Monday, February 5 2024.
Jan 05 2024Amicus brief of Republican National Committee and National Republican Congressional Committee submitted.
Main DocumentCertificate of Word CountProof of Service
Jan 05 2024Amicus brief of States of Indiana, West Virginia, 25 Other States, and the Arizona Legislature submitted.
Main DocumentCertificate of Word CountProof of Service

January 9, 2024

An actual exchange in a Federal Appellate Court where Trump's claims for immunity were heard today.

Judge:  "I asked you a yes or no question. Could a president who ordered S.E.A.L. Team 6 to assassinate a political rival (and is) not impeached, would he be subject to criminal prosecution?"

Trump attorney says "qualified yes -- if he is impeached and convicted first."

The entire qualified immunity argument is legally infirm in the first place and needs to go.  This will probably help make it go.  Apparently, the judges weren't impressed with Trump's lawyer's arguments at all.

January 19, 2024

A court in Oregon determined Trump can remain on the ballot there.

Trump's lawyers filed their briefs in the Supreme Court case on the 14th Amendment yesterday.

January 27, 2024

E. Jean Carroll was awarded $83.3M in her defamation case against Donald Trump.

This will be appealed and it's likely that it'll actually not be paid in that amount.

February 6, 2024

No immunity.


Of course, who really thought there was?

Unfortunately, the delay in issuing the opinion has resulted in the postponement of the trial originally scheduled for March.

Cont:

Matt Gaetz and Elise Stephanik have co-sponsored a resolution that Donald Trump did not engage in insurrection or rebellion against the United States on January 6, something that clear is an attempt to address the 14th Amendment in that insurrection may be excused under it.

Having said that, a resolution that it didn't occur will not excuse it, and this will not get through the Senate.

February 8, 2024

Based on today's oral arguments, it appears likely that the Supreme Court is not going to disqualify Donald Trump under the 14th Amendment.

February 13, 2024

Defendant Trump is seeking a delay in his election interference trial, hoping to push it past the election, when he'll next hope that he can avoid it while President.

February 16, 2024

Nor really related to the other post insurrection legal woes that Donald Trump faces, his trial related to Stormy Daniel's hush money is set to commence on March 25.

In a more decent era, his payment to Daniels for sex would have ended his political career, but we obviously no longer live in a decent era.

In Georgia, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis testified regarding her relationship with the prosecutor assigned in the Georgia RICO action.

In another matter which is tangentially related to Trump's legal woes, House Republican effort to impeach Biden, which are monumentally improper, took a blow when Alexander Smirnov, an FBI informant was charged with fabricating a bribery scheme involving President Biden, his son Hunter and a Ukrainian company, which is what the attempt to impeach him is based on, other than on a desire for revenge.

Cont:

Trump has been found liable in New York in the civil fraud trial in the amount of $364,000,000 and is barred from doing business in New York for three years.

February 23, 2024

Trump's daughter-in-law who is campaigning for appointment to the RNC declared that Republican voters would likely welcome using RNC funds to support his legal battles.

I'd strongly question if this was legal, and frankly it likely opens the RNC up, in my view, to a Rico charge.

February 29, 2024

A Court in Illinois has ruled that Trump is banned from the Illinois ballot under the 14th Amendment, but stayed her decision until Friday in order to give him time to appeal.

The United States Supreme Court will take up Trump's immunity appeal, which will further delay his January 6 trial.  

At this point, I think it highly unlikely that the January 6 trial will be heard this year, which means that it likely won't be heard until 2028, which is s true injustice.

March 4, 2024

And now the Supreme Court has ruled. Trump stays on the ballot, insurrection notwithstanding.

The basis is that Congress hasn't enacted a law to enforce the 14th Amendment and the Court finds it not be a self enacting statute




Secretary of State Gray chimed in:

Secretary Gray Applauds Supreme Court Decision Keeping Trump on Ballot in 2024

     CHEYENNE, WY – On March 4, 2024, the Supreme Court of the United States issued a unanimous decision reversing the Colorado Supreme Court’s December ruling to remove Donald Trump from the ballot in 2024. Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray previously filed an Amicus Curiae brief with the Supreme Court of the United States, arguing that the Supreme Court should reverse the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision to bar Donald Trump from the ballot under Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment. Secretary Gray’s brief argued that Trump did not engage in an insurrection or rebellion, nor give aid or comfort to the enemies of the United States.

     “I am extremely pleased with the Supreme Court’s decision reversing the Colorado Supreme Court’s repugnant ruling,” Secretary Gray said in a statement. “As Wyoming’s chief election officer, I filed an Amicus brief in January asking the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse Colorado’s outrageously wrong and unprecedented decision. For this, I have been repeatedly attacked by the radical left-wing media, and even members of the Legislature, for my efforts to ensure that Trump will be on the ballot. Today’s unanimous decision keeping Trump on the ballot marks vindication for the truth and for liberty. As Secretary of State, I will continue to fight to ensure the People of Wyoming can choose who to elect for themselves.”

Last Prior Edition:

The Post Insurrection. Part VII. The Insurrectionist.


Related Threads:




Thursday, December 7, 2023

Lame. Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist, 52nd Edition.

That being the responses of university heads from Harvard, M.I.T. and the University of Pennsylvania to easy questions, or really even a question, from Representative Elise Stefanik, Republican of New York, somebody who, when she appears here, normally appears here for selling her soul for Donald Trump.

Here, Stefanik, who asked the presidents of the three major universities  if calling for the genocide of Jews violated the code of conduct at their schools.  All three couldn't do it without massive qualification, which basically amounted to saying that calling for mass murder is okay, as long as you don't actually attempt it.

Liz Magill of Penn State had a particularly difficult time. As the New York Times has summarized it:

Much of the criticism landed heavily on Ms. Magill because of an extended back-and-forth with Representative Stefanik.

Ms. Stefanik said that in campus protests, students had chanted support for intifada, an Arabic word that means uprising and that many Jews hear as a call for violence against them.

Ms. Stefanik asked Ms. Magill, “Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate Penn’s rules or code of conduct, yes or no?”

Ms. Magill replied, “If the speech turns into conduct, it can be harassment.”

Ms. Stefanik pressed the issue: “I am asking, specifically: Calling for the genocide of Jews, does that constitute bullying or harassment?”

Ms. Magill, a lawyer who joined Penn last year with a pledge to promote campus free speech, replied, “If it is directed and severe, pervasive, it is harassment.”

Ms. Stefanik responded: “So the answer is yes.”

Ms. Magill said, “It is a context-dependent decision, congresswoman.”

Ms. Stefanik exclaimed: “That’s your testimony today? Calling for the genocide of Jews is depending upon the context?”

Let's be clear, it's only "context-dependent" if you have allowed your status as a lawyer to completely rot your brain, but then, a lot of lawyers have done just that.  The easy answer to this is this:

Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate Penn’s rules or code of conduct, yes or no?”

Well if it doesn't, it sure ought to, there's no room for that sort of thing whatsoever and anyone calling for genocide of anyone ought to be expelled from higher education and run out of town on a rail.

It's just this sort of left wing muddy mindedness that has led us to the situation where a lot of Americans now feel it'd be better to appoint a Caudillo than elect a President. If the nation's academic, and mostly left wing, elite can't figure out that murdering Jews is bad, there's an existential problem in the American intellectual left.   This is exactly the sort of thing that makes some people think that Mike Johnson declaring himself to be a latter-day Moses might not be so bad.

Last Prior Edition:

Why specific movements on the left always end up being disregarded. Sense and Solidarity. Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist, 51st edition.

Wednesday, October 25, 2023

The 118th Congress.

With as many entries as this was getting that were off-topic, it clearly deserved its own trailing thread.

The 118th Congress.  A fairly sad state of affairs.

The Circus Maximus today.

September 14, 2023.

Ring Master, Kevin McCarthy, is expected to endorse an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.

Soon we'll have a government shutdown as well.

Let's be clear, Congress is no longer functioning.  I don't mean there are problems, it's dysfunctional.  

The country cannot continue this way. Those taking "stands on principal" are wrecking the county.

These actions are merely red meat for the dogs.  They cannot pass, which means those proposing them are either lying to the public, or lying to themselves. 

Lying is a sin, and in Catholic theology lying about serious matters is a serious sin.

September 29, 2023

California Senator Dianne Feinstein has died at 90 years of age, having served beyond that period of time during which a simple appreciate of nature and statistics should have led her to step down.  Her replacement will now have to be chosen by the Governor of California.

While Feinstein will be widely lauded, there are those who have a less charitable view of her, including myself.  Whatever a person's overall views are, however, she served in the Senate passed the point at which she should have yielded to a younger person and now choosing her replacement, and now it will come at a highly politically charged point in our recent political history.

October 1, 2023.

Crisis postponed. 

The following crisis that is:

Subsidiarity Economics. The Shutdown edition.

September 28, 2023


Kevin McCarthy, prisoner of GOP populists, will not take up the Senate bill to fund the government, making a shutdown impossible to avoid.

The House of Representatives is, quite frankly, dysfunctional.

And given this, we will close out this edition of Subsidiarity Economics, even though its barely gone, and start one focused on that theme.

Kevin McCarthy should hang his head in shame.

What all will close, assuming that the House doesn't get its act together today, isn't clear. Some things will, but "vital" things apparently will not.  Some Federal employees will be asked to work without pay, which is interesting, as working without pay is involuntary servitude, and was banned by a post Civil War constitutional amendment.

Congress, oddly, will get paid. 

The mail will continue to be delivered, as the U.S. Post Office funds itself.

Arizona and Utah have voted to spend state funds to keep their National Parks open.  Senator John Barrasso asked the Secretary of the Interior to use park entry fees to do the same.

Fat Bear Week is off due to the dysfunctional House of Representatives having been taken hostage by populists.

Government contracts and modifications to contracts will not be issued.

Medicaid will continue to be paid. Medicare will continue on.

The FHA will have limited staff and loans it processes will be delayed.

The SBA will shut down.

The ATF might not process background checks, which may lead to a complete halt on the sale of firearms by licensed firearm's dealers.

The latter is the thing that Wyomingites are likely to complain about right away.  People in industries supported by tourism are likely to notice the closure of the parks rapidly.

All of this, of course, is because this will be a managed shut down, which is really a limited shutdown or a slow-down.  If things continue for some time, and this time they might, a real shutdown may creep in, which Wyomingites, in spite of apparently disdaining the Federal Government, would really feel.  A closure of the airports, for example, could be expected at some point, And a cessation of petroleum production on Federal lands due to a lack of Federal oversight.  Perhaps a cessation of grazing on the Federal domain for the same reason.  And a lack of highway funds.

None of that will happen rapidly, of course.  Or maybe at all.

September 30, 2023.

We’re likely to avert a shutdown, but the clown show continues

Let the grousing now being.

Not from Reich, with whom I obviously have a love/hate relationship, but from the MAGA far right out in the hinterlands, who will be outraged, outraged I tell you, and they'll tell you on their way from the television to the refirgerator for a Coors Lite (can't touch that Bud, of course) who would, they'll say, have enjoyed the shutdown. . .right up until they didn't, and then somehow, it would have been the Democrats fault.Congress passed a 45-day stopgap spending bill yesterday.  In doing so, Speaker McCarthy noted:

We’re going to be adults in the room. And we’re going to keep government open.
Well now he has 45 days to see if he can do that.

The bill omitted funding for Ukraine.  President Biden noted that in his address regarding the stopgap bill.
Tonight, bipartisan majorities in the House and Senate voted to keep the government open, preventing an unnecessary crisis that would have inflicted needless pain on millions of hardworking Americans. This bill ensures that active-duty troops will continue to get paid, travelers will be spared airport delays, millions of women and children will continue to have access to vital nutrition assistance, and so much more. This is good news for the American people.
 
But I want to be clear: we should never have been in this position in the first place. Just a few months ago, Speaker McCarthy and I reached a budget agreement to avoid precisely this type of manufactured crisis. For weeks, extreme House Republicans tried to walk away from that deal by demanding drastic cuts that would have been devastating for millions of Americans. They failed.
 
While the Speaker and the overwhelming majority of Congress have been steadfast in their support for Ukraine, there is no new funding in this agreement to continue that support. We cannot under any circumstances allow American support for Ukraine to be interrupted. I fully expect the Speaker will keep his commitment to the people of Ukraine and secure passage of the support needed to help Ukraine at this critical moment.

McCarthy had to rely on Democrats to pass the bill, and will now surely face an effort aimed at his removal by his hard right. 

October 2, 2023

Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz, who was instrumental in defeating a Republican bill to keep the budget rolling that included many of the things populist are demanding, is going to try to remove McCarthy as Speaker of the House.

cont:

Gaetz filed a motion to vacate, which would replace McCarthy as Speaker of the House.

To survive, McCarthy now needs the cooperation of Democrats, maybe.

Meanwhile, there is a long brewing effort to remove Gaetz from Congress due to ethics concerns.

October 3, 2023

California Gov. Gavin Newsom selected Laphonza Butler, a Democratic strategist and adviser to Kamala Harris’ 2020 presidential campaign, to fill the late Dianne Feinstein's U.S. Senate seat.

I know nothing about Butler, and she may be supremely qualified, but its hard not to assume there's a fair amount of box checking going on in the selection, something that Democratic politicians are particularly likely to do. Butler is black, fulfilling a Newsom promise, and she's gay, making her the first black openly gay U.S. Senator. Should that matter?  No, but its statistically improbable while also fulfilling promises to one major Democratic demographic and also satisfying, maybe, the desires of another.

cont:

As the Democrats would not step in, a debate is now going on to remove Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House, even though the GOP has nobody lined up to replace him. 

cont:

And now the vote is in and McCarthy has been removed, although it's not impossible he may be put back in the position.

Assuming that does not occur, McCarthy deserves his fate by trying to give too much to too many on the Republican right, a task that ultimately proved to be unworkable.  He's a figure in Donald Trump's revival, and therefore deserves the disrespect given to him by Democrats in this recent drama.  Who replaces him, however, is an open question.  Things could go from bad to worse.

In any event, the U.S. House of Representatives now looks about as bad as it ever has.

cont:

Only 8 Republicans voted to remove McCarthy.  The rest were Democrats. So, ironically, the hard right populists had to depend on the votes of the Democrats to remove him.

cont:

McCarthy has indicated he won't run for Speaker again.

And so his fate was sealed by Donald Trump, whom he kissed up to post Insurrection.  He deserves his fate, and his place in history will not be a comfortable one.

It'll be interesting to see if his district in Bakersfield reelects him.

And it will be interesting to see if the Republicans retain the House next fall.

October 4, 2023, cont:

Jim Jordan is running for Speaker of the House.

As is Steve Scalise.

October 7, 2023

A vague draft Trump movement exists, although it appears that Trump himself has chosen not to support it.  He's supporting Jim Jordan.  Of course, he had supported McCarthy.

Liz Cheney gave a speech decrying the nomination of Jordan yesterday in Missoula.

October 8, 2023

Forty-five Republicans have signed a letter labeling the removal of McCarthy as "shameful".

October 12, 2023

Steve Scalise received the nomination of the GOP yesterday and has dropped out of contention today, showing just what a mess the GOP is.

October 13, 2023

Now Jim Jordan has been nominated, although as of yet, he does not have the votes to secure the position.

October 18, 2023

Cynthia Lummis' support for the SAFER banking bill is causing some in Wyoming o think she's a closet supporter of legalizing marijuana, which shows just how odd the times really are.

There's no way she's a supporter of legalizing marijuana.

Banking for marijuana entities, in those states where there are no prohibitions, is very difficult as it still remains against Federal law, even if the Federal government doesn't enforce the law. As a result, it's heavily a cash only business in which the Sinaloa Cartel has stepped into to launder the money.  Given that, buyers of buds who think they're just supporting some innocent business, its health concern aside, are most likely financing organized crime.  Hence the link.


As an aside, Sinaloa has ordered its fentanyl producers to stop making it under penalty of death in order to avoid increasing U.S. law enforcement.

cont:

Jim Jordan lost his second vote for speaker, with one more Congressman opposing him than previously.

October 19, 2023

Republicans in Congress, waking up like a dedicated drunk in a strange hotel room in a strange city, has looked at Jim Jordan and said "eh. . . how did we get here?".

Jordan, jilted by his date, has now pulled out of the Speaker race, and the republic is the better for it.

It looks like Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry is going to retain that role, until they just give the job to him.

cont:  

Well, as the GOP has rejected the interim plan in favor of fully demonstrating its complete and total dysfunction, Jim Jordan sadly remains on the agenda and there will be a third vote on his canidacy to lead a body which he previously sought to undermine by supporting sedition.

If only ol' Jeff Davis had lived to see these days. . . ugh.

October 20, 2023

And Jordan, having lost a third vote, is back out.

The Freedom Caucus is taking a pounding in this drama and may very well lose some of its power as a result.

October 24, 2023

Tom Emmer of Minnesota, who voted to certify the election and who Trump has let it be known opposes, has the Republican nomination for Speaker.

This is interesting.  I don't know much about Emmer, but this would appear to be a drift back towards reality.

Trump has already posted against him, setting this up for a test of his power over Congressional Republicans.

cont:  

And Trump wins.  Emmer must have decided he could not get to 217 votes so he pulled his name out of consideration.

This is now beyond dysfunctional, it's absurd.  An out of office former President who is highly likely to end up in prison is able to control enough of the House to keep anyone from being chosen who doesn't bend to his will.

October 25, 2023

Continuing a Trump win, now is Mike Johnson of Louisiana, a lawyer by trade whose understanding of the constitution, his purported speciality, didn't prevent him from supporting sedition.

Sadly related threads:

Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist. 47th Edition. Circus Maximus

Friday, July 7, 2023

What are you listening to?



Quite awhile pack I posted one of our "trailing threads" on the topic of what you are reading, titling it that, i.e. What Are You Reading?

It occurred to me the other day that I should post another one about what you may be listening to, and by that I mean in the form of podcasts and other audio data.  This occurred to me as I just completed listening to an excellent BBC podcast series called The Hurricane Tapes, which I highly recommend.

In posting this, I have to note that it seems to me that podcasts fall into two basic types, one of which are continual, and therefore like magazines.  I.e., you don't expect them to end.  And others that are a distinct series, like a mini series.  The Hurricane Tapes, for example, are more like the latter.  I'll note what's what in my list, as well as why listen to them.  If you listen to some, let us know what they are.

One thing that may be noted is that this list will seem rather long, and it is.  But I don't listen to every episode of most of these podcasts.  And they enormously in length.  I also tend to listen to them in certain settings, which is normally when I'm doing something else, such as driving, mowing the law, etc.  One thing I never couple with listening to podcasts with, however, is walking or riding a bicycle  I don't like to be distracted doing either and think it sad when I see somebody walking with earphones pasted to their head.

I'll also note that these are the podcasts that have sort of passed the test of time.  I try out other podcasts and discard them if I don't like them.

So here's what we're currently listening to.  Well, sort of.

ABA Journal Podcast

This is a podcast I download, but I frequently don't listen to.  I should be better about it.

It's a serialized podcast on legal topics from the ABA. Some are quite interesting, others not so much, but that's typical of podcasts.

Type:  Serial

Catholic Answers

Catholic Answers is a weekday radio show committed to podcast which I've fairly frequently mentioned on this blog.  I don't listen to every episode but rather to certain guests and hosts.  The topics are extremely wide ranging and often highly intellectual.  They are, of course, from a Catholic prospective, but the show deals with an incredible range of topics and issues.  Usually they are presented in an question and answer format with calls from the radio audience, or even the electronic audience.  The diversity and depth of the show is perhaps demonstrated by the large number of non Catholic callers and the occasional non Catholic guest.

Type:  Serial

Catholic Answers Focus

Catholic Answers Focus is an offshoot of Catholic Answers with specific guests and a single topic.  It does not have the question and answer format.

As with Catholic Answers, I pick and choose on this one, probably listening to less than half of the topics.

Type:  Serial

Catholic Stuff You Should Know

One of the greatest podcast on the net, Catholic Stuff You Should Know is a podcast done by a collection of young priest. The topics are nearly always good and have an incredible range.  The strong, and sometimes quirky, personalities of the hosts really come through.

Like certain hosts on Catholic Answers, this podcast tends to have a really strong impact on its listeners, not all of whom are Catholic.

Type:  Serial

English Catholic History Association Podcast

This is an oddly English podcast featuring lectures delivered to the English Catholic History Association.  It's very typically English.  I listen to only a fraction of these which are always delivered on a slice of English Catholic history.

Type: Slow serial.

BBC History Extra Podcast

Perhaps the best history podcast on the net, the BBC History Extra Podcast is the podcast offshoot of the history magazine put out by the BBC.  It's simply excellent and features topics of a very wide nature.  I listen to most to the episodes.

Type:  Serial

Jimmy Akin's Mysterious World

Jimmy Akin is a polymath host of Catholic Answers and this podcast done by a different entity is on all kinds of mysterious topics.  I don't listen to all of them, but do to most of them.

I like Akin in general and this is a good podcast.  It says a lot that I listen to them because a podcast of this type isn't something I'd typically listen to.

Type: Serial

Mass Backwards

Mass Backwards is a collection of radio broadcasts by the late Gene Shepard. They very from inspired to awful.  A lot more are awful than inspired, but the good ones are great.

Shepard was a writer as well as a radio personality (and later a television personality) and is best remembered today for the script of A Christmas Story.  Some of the radio broadcast featured the same characters, of which he is one, but they often have a much darker theme.  His broadcasts on his time in the Army are absolute classics.

I don't know how to really characterize these as there's a limited, if large, number of Shepard radio tapes in existence.  These were released in a podcast form by a New York public radio station that often seems to be ignoring copyright laws, or maybe not.  Ironically, in at least one Shepard broadcast he makes fun, very briefly, of the same radio station.

Type:  Series.

Meet the Press

Meet the Press is the classic weekly television news program on politics.  They commit it to podcast form that very day, which is how I hear it.

Type:  Serial

Pritzer Military History Podcast

The Pritzer Military History Podcast is an excellent military history themed show put on by the Pritzer Museum of Military History in Chicago.  Many well known and excellent authors are featured in the show which focuses mostly, but not exclusively, on military history books.  As noted, it isn't always on a recent book, and some of the direct interviews on other topics I skip.

The show features questions from the audience and after you listen to it for awhile you get to where you recognize quite a few of the voices, so the audience must contain a high percentage of regular attendees.

Type: Serial

Right to Roam

This Wyoming based podcast is on outdoors topics.

I really wish this podcast was better than it is.  I have it on my phone but I'm often disappointed with it.

Type: Serial

ScotusCast

This is a podcast synopsis of United States Supreme Court opinions by eminent legal scholars.  It's excellent. All the episodes are brief and concentrate on recent Supreme Court arguments and decisions.  Our local bar will accept it as self study CLE, and for good reason.

Type: Serial

The History of England

This is a private podcast on what it says its on, the history of England dating back to antiquity.

I used to listen to The English History podcast by Jamie Jeffers and this podcast replaced it.  Jeffers podcast was at one time excellent but after he lost his job as a lawyer and became a full time podcaster the quality of the podcast declined and its pace became intolerably slow.  As that occurred,  he began to engage in rather broad speculation to where the answer to many things was "we just don't know".   The "battle cattle" hypothesis was flat out ignorant and after he went into the "we just don't know" routine on female Viking warriors (didn't exist) it was too much.

This podcast replaced that one.

Type:  Serial

History of English

This is an excellent history of the English language.  It's extremely well done.

Type:  Serial.

The Hurricane Tapes

I mentioned this one in our introduction.  It's a BBC podcast by two English sports journalist and is absolutely excellent.

This follows the two trials and ultimate release of Ruben Hurricane Carter and John Artis for the 1966 murder of three patrons in a bar in Patterson, New Jersey.  The events are famous as it came to be widely believed that Carter and Artis were wrongfully convicted and they did ultimately obtain release.  The sports journalist dig in and discover all sorts of new information that they set out in a thirteen part series.

I don't usually enjoy murder or crime mysteries, but I saw the film The Hurricane recently, which apparently other people are aware of but I'm was not.  In the film Carter is portrayed by Denzel Washington. That lead me to look up Carter, which lead me to The Hurricane Tapes, which was only done recently.  It's a great series.

Type:  Series.

This is That

Like Mass Backwards, this series is complete.

This is That was a brilliant Canadian Broadcasting Corporation comedy production in the form of a fake radio news journal.  It was always presented as being straight new and is absolutely hilarious.  The show featured a telephone number for caller feed back and always drew a large number of callers who had heard a broadcast and believed they were true, to additionally hilarious results.

The show concluded last year, which isn't surprising as it must have been the case by that time that too many people were in on the joke to make it work.  It's a classic.

Type:  Series.

This Week

This Week is the other weekend television news show that I listen to in the form of a podcast.

This Week was originally This Week With David Brinkley, which was better.  Both This Week and Meet the Press have suffered over the years by being hosted by lessors than originally, but they are still good. The panel on Meet the Press is frankly better than This Week's, and has been ever since George F. Will ceased being on the panel. It's still worth listing too however.

Type:  Serial.

_________________________________________________________________________________

July 17, 2019

This excellent podcast, fwiw, was mentioned recently in an article in the electronic ABA weekly listserve:

The Hurricane Tapes

I mentioned this one in our introduction.  It's a BBC podcast by two English sports journalist and is absolutely excellent.

This follows the two trials and ultimate release of Ruben Hurricane Carter and John Artis for the 1966 murder of three patrons in a bar in Patterson, New Jersey.  The events are famous as it came to be widely believed that Carter and Artis were wrongfully convicted and they did ultimately obtain release.  The sports journalist dig in and discover all sorts of new information that they set out in a thirteen part series.

I don't usually enjoy murder or crime mysteries, but I saw the film The Hurricane recently, which apparently other people are aware of but I'm was not.  In the film Carter is portrayed by Denzel Washington. That lead me to look up Carter, which lead me to The Hurricane Tapes, which was only done recently.  It's a great series.

Type:  Series.

On a completely different topic, I just heard listed to a long podcast episode in Farm To Taber taking a, well I guess revisionist, view of European and American family farms and their history that was quite interesting.  I'd like to disagree with it, but frankly much of it is really insightful.

A major theme of the podcaster, an ag professor in that episode Grappling With Our Ghosts:  The American Farm Legacy, was that a of of American family farming was done badly, with bad technology, deficient compared to the rests of the world, and that it still is.  For somebody with agrarian sympathies, that's a sad thought.

The episode is too varied in topic to really summarize here, so people who are interested should download it and listen to it themselves.

Type:  Serial

_________________________________________________________________________________

November 24, 2019

I've already mentioned the Pritzer podcasts above, but a recent episode is well worth listening to for students of World War Two.

Stephen Bourque: Beyond the Beach: The Allied War Against France | Pritzker Military Museum & Library | Chicago

I'm probably an exception to the rule, as I was aware of a lot of the data presented in this podcast in a very loose way. But the facts and figures presented are, quite frankly, horrifying and deal wit a topic that the Western Allies rarely do, the vast damage inflicted on France during World War Two by the Allies prior to June 6, 1944.

Indeed, to expand out more, and as an example, I suppose, of how our Seventh Law of History, the degree to which the Western Allies became comfortable with inflicting civilian causalities from the air during the war is something that we generally don't address much.  Americans are somewhat comfortable in addressing casualties inflicted by the British, but not the USAAC.  It's a topic that we really need to examine.

Another interesting Pritzer one I just heard was  Michael Neiberg: The Treaty of Versailles | Pritzker Military Museum & Library | Chicago

Very interesting on the background to the Versailles Treaty.

Has anyone here read the book?

________________________________________________________________________________

December 6, 2019

I added NPR Politics, a daily podcast of about 15 minutes in length, as I like politics and I wasn't able to keep up with the impeachment hearings, etc., like most folks.

It's a good short podcast and, contrary to the way people sometimes assert about NPR, it's pretty balanced and insightful.  NPR usually is.

___________________________________________________________________________________

October 1, 2020

I haven't been keeping up with this thread which I realized when I went to update it.

Since I last updated this I listened to the excellent podcast The Clearing which details the story of the hunt for a serial killer and his daughters realization that her father was not only one, and her effort to bring him to justice, but also that he was responsible for some deaths close to the family.

Normally I don't like crime stories, but this podcast is an exception.  It's excellent.

Likewise, another one in this category that I listed to just recently is season 1 of the CBC's Somebody Out There Knows Something, which is on a decades old disappearance.  I haven't listened to any of the other seasons and I likely won't, but season 1 was compelling.

The podcast that caused me to come in and update this is one I'm listening to now, that being Bunga Bunga, a series on long serving and highly creepy Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.  Irreverent and witty, it's a stunning history of how Italy's politics descended into the muck under a prime minister who was engaged in numerous icky activities while in and out of office.  This one is also highly recommended, but as a warning, the language can be crude and Berlusconi's activities, which are detailed in the series, are not suitable for a non mature audience.

__________________________________________________________________________________

February 23, 2022

Wow, been a long time since I updated this one.

The Pritzer podcast has sadly ended, a victim seemingly of COVID 19.  The series started interviews, with bad audio quality, at that time, and then just ended.  As it originally was principally made up of recordings of its talks at the library, I thought it would resume, but it never did.

And I've quit listening to Mass Backwards, I like Gene Shepherd, but I seemed to have listed to the ones I wanted to listen to.  

The same is true of Right To Roam. It just never picked up and I gave up on it.  I added the very good Hunt Gather Talk podcast, however, featuring the interviews of Hank Shaw, who 

I added Face The Nation to the political pods.  It's actually better than its two weekend competitors, although I oddly still prefer This Week.  I also added NPR's State of Ukraine, on the ongoing Russo Ukrainian War.  It's quite good.

I added Wyoming My 307, which is by a Wyoming podcaster, more or less, but not quite, a history podcast.

A recent add is the excellent Fighting On Film, a British podcast that takes a look, in a really unique fashion, at war movies.

And, what causes me to update this, I just started the eight part series The Coldest Case In Laramie. We'll see how I like it.  It's about an unsolved murder in Laramie during the early 1980s, by a New York Times reporter and author who lived there in her early teens, which has left her with a whiney view of the town.

July 7, 2023

I recently added Dead and Gone In Wyoming, an excellent series on crimes and missing person's in Wyoming.