Claims And Issues

Claims and Issues -- Author's Note: Commercial Advertising Not Authorized and Not Linked.

 

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RESPECT LIFE SUNDAY

Throughout the Catholic Church, today is honored as Respect Life Sunday.

          In your zeal to respect the life of the unborn fetus, my fellow Catholics, Respect The Life of Women!

          You can respect both the life of a person and the life of a fetus, you know.  Personally, and as a person myself, in cases of conflict I lean in the direction of respecting the life of a person.

GO FORWARD!

(Photo by Ted S. Warren, Associated Press)

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2024 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

A TIME FOR SILENCE, AND A TIME TO SPEAK.

JUDGE CHUTKAN UNSEALS THE EVIDENCE.

 

"There is ... a time to every purpose ... a time to keep silence, and a time to speak.”--Ecclesiastes 3:1, 7.

 

Judge's Gavel.  (Thomson Reuters West)

The time it took to unseal the evidence in the Election Interference Criminal Case in Judge Chutkans' Court for now, before the case returns to Justices Roberts, Alito, Thomas, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett:

September 27:  Special Counsel Jack Smith files two versions of the government's brief reciting the evidence by chapter and verse, if you will, that is more than enough to prove the defendant's unofficial conduct, as Justice Roberts and company said they wanted or there could be no criminal conviction.  One version is redacted meaning partially blacked out; the other version is not redacted.  The government asks leave to partially unseal the evidence by filing the redacted version on the public docket.  The government calls its redacted version of the evidence a Motion for Immunity Determinations.

October 1:  Defendant files opposition brief and asks that more of the evidence be kept from the public.

October 1:  In the Vice Presidential debate tonight, Candidate JD Vance says that in January, 2021 there was no obstruction, and no violence;  the evidence, he said, shows that there was a peaceful transition of power.  "Remember, he said that on January 6th, the protesters ought to protest peacefully. And on January 20th, what happened? Joe Biden became the President. Donald Trump left the White House."  With that, he opened the door:  What really did happen? 

October 2:  Judge Chutkan enters an order making the evidence public by ordering the Clerk of the Court to file "on the public docket" the redacted version of the government's brief.  It became Doc. 252, filed Oct. 2, 2024, and it is 165 pages long.  Download USA v. Trump Government's Motion for Immunity Determinations [Redacted] Doc. 252 filed Oct. 2 2024 (D.D.C. Criminal No. 23-cr-257 (TSC)).

The Judge's Opinion and Order of October 2, 2024 is 8 pages, at United States of America v. Trump, Document 251, filed Oct. 2, 2024 (D.D.C. Criminal Action No. 23-357 (TSC)).  Download USA v. Trump Opinion And Order Doc. 251 filed Oct. 2 2024 (D.D.C. Criminal Action No. 23-257 (TSC)).

Be careful what you say and what you do.  Above all, try not to be too clever by half.  There is a time to every purpose under the heaven, including a time to keep quiet, and a time to unseal the evidence.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2024 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.  Interested in many things including Claims and Issues?  Check out my Substack newsletter. 

FLORIDIANS PAY TO INTERFERE WITH OWN CITIZENS' INITIATIVE, GENDER PRONOUNS.

Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, in Atlanta. (Official photo, Eleventh Circuit website)

PAYING VIRGINIA LAWYERS $676,000 AND GROWING, TO INTERFERE WITH TEACHERS’ GENDER PRONOUNS IN FLORIDA.

The State enacted a law that a teacher in Florida could not teach Algebra unless she submitted to the State’s selection of personal pronouns for her to use on the job. Or else. Or else she would lose her job.

Instead, she sued in a U.S. District Court. The Court agreed with her that the First Amendment prohibits the State from restricting her speech in this way. There might be a way to handle this, but it was not this way. Not so long as there is a First Amendment and judges to enforce it by stopping the government from conducting itself this way. The District Judge entered a preliminary injunction against the State.

As Katie Woods put it in her Brief: “Florida legislators are entitled to their views on whether Ms. Wood’s use of titles and pronouns is ‘false.’ But they may not compel her to share that message.” Katie Wood v. Fla. Dep’t Ed., Appellee’s Brief, Doc. No. 35, p. 45, filed 07.24.24 (11th Cir. Case No. 24-11239).

The defendants were all State officials and agencies. They did not like the First Amendment telling them what to do. They appealed. Their appeal is now pending: Katie Wood v. Fla. Dep’t Ed. (11th Cir. Case No. 24-11239).

The story is told pretty well in Katie Wood’s Appellee’s Brief, which is Document No. 35, filed July 24, 2024 in the Eleventh Circuit Court File. The only web address given by the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals for the Brief is this search box. 

Nothing I can find in the Court File, and certainly nothing in Katie Wood’s Brief, even mentions that the State hired Virginia lawyers to defend the Florida officials and agencies in Florida. So far, they have charged $676,000 and there is no indication at all that they are not going to charge any more as the case proceeds. The bills are being paid by the people of Florida. Among many, many media reports of these facts, see for example this report by Dara Kam of News Service of Florida published online with a slightly different headline from the printed version, on Thursday, September 26, 2024 in the Orlando Sentinel.

I cannot see why the State of Florida hired Virginia lawyers here. Florida has an Attorney General already and the lawyers there are ready to defend the State in all cases. I used to work there; there were many good lawyers in that office then, and there are some good lawyers in that office now.

I know many good lawyers in Florida who could represent the State in addition to the A.G.’s office. If I know many, so do lawyers in the A.G.’s office. Yet the State decided to give this business to foreigners. Don’t ask me why.

PETITION TO STOP INTERFERENCE WITH A CITIZENS’ INITIATIVE IN FLORIDA.

Amendment 4 will be added to the November ballot in Florida because many Florida voters signed petitions to add it. In April, the Supreme Court of Florida approved Amendment 4 being placed on the ballot accordingly. It will become part of the Florida Constitution if over 60% of the voters approve it.

Amendment 4 would put limits on government interference with abortion. That is the source of the government’s interference with Amendment 4, according to a Time-Sensitive Petition for relief which was filed electronically in the Supreme Court on September 10, 2024. The proceedings are online on the Florida Supreme Court website.

A lone lawyer in Lake Worth, Florida filed the petition to stop government interference with Amendment 4 on the ballot. For example, the petition recites some things that have already happened and that no-one disputes about the government’s conduct, including that it established a website which declares that “Amendment 4 Threatens Women’s Safety,” with the caps and the boldface input by the State.

Unmentioned in the Petition but clearly seen on the government website today, there is also this message from the State about what to think about Amendment 4:

DON’T LET THE FEARMONGERS LIE TO YOU.

Boldface and underlining by the State in original.

In the “Time-Sensitive Petition,” Mr. Richards asks the Florida Supreme Court to require the official in charge of the quoted website, and the Governor and the Attorney General to stop the interference and to obey the law.

This is a commendable effort, but I think that the current Florida Supreme Court will make short shrift of it. There may be a good legal basis for the Petition, but this Court is not likely to rule that Ron DeSantis must do or stop doing something.

Richards also invoked the Court’s “all writs jurisdiction,” but as he himself wrote, this is not a basis in itself to exercise any jurisdiction which the Court does not already have otherwise. As a lawyer, if you’re going to allege a claim you might as well allege all claims which you can ethically allege, because as a lawyer, you never know what will appeal to the judges who will decide the case. In this case, that probably will not figure in the outcome. I would expect this Court to rule in the near future.

Until then, and perhaps longer, we will probably have to live in the State of Ron DeSantis and Ashley Moody.

 

Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, Official Portrait on her office’s website.

By the way, as mentioned above Attorney General Moody is a defendant in the Supreme Court proceeding. So far, she has not engaged outside counsel but is letting her own office handle the entire defense. At least those lawyers are already on the State payroll, although the people of Florida will still have to pay for them. In any case, the fact that AG Moody might be sued (and remember that she is not sued in the gender pronouns case) is apparently not a reason that Floridians have been stuck with the ever-growing $676,000 bill from Virginia lawyers in the gender pronouns case. Still looking for an explanation for that.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2024 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved. 

Interested in many things including Claims and Issues?  Check out my Substack newsletter. 

WHAT HAPPENS IN RENO, STAYS IN RENO.

Rupert Murdoch came to the United States as an alien with a fortune.  And a will.

          Unlike most aliens who enter the United States, much is unknown about him.  We know a lot about aliens at the Southern Border, for example.  But I do not recall reading any stories about their wills, if it comes to that.  If they had a will.

          In his own will, which he apparently filed in the Probate Court in Reno, Nevada, Mr. Murdoch provided so far as we can tell that (most of) his children would participate equally in the running of his businesses upon his death.  Those businesses include Fox.

          Mr. Murdoch has now filed another lawsuit in the Nevada Courts.  He is now asking a Nevada judge for an order that he can change his will.  Murdoch has changed his mind and wants his will, apparently, to reflect his change of mind.  He wants one of his children only, to have control of Fox.

          The Nevada Courts have kept Mr. Murdoch’s lawsuit under wraps.  That’s why I have written that “so far as we can tell” Murdoch’s will as he originally wrote it provides for (most of) his children to run his businesses equally upon his death, and that “apparently” he has now changed his mind and wants to change his will so that only one of his children will run Fox when he, Rupert Murdoch, dies.

          In an Emergency Petition asking the Nevada Supreme Court to stop Mr. Murdoch’s lawsuit until it can be opened up to the public, the New York Times, Cable News Network (CNN), the Associated Press, National Public Radio, Reuters and ABC, among others, have described the Murdoch lawsuit so that the Supreme Court of Nevada can understand why the petitioners are asking that Mr. Murdoch’s secret lawsuit in a public court be made more available to the public who are funding it with their taxes.

          The facts that follow are taken from the Petition pending in the Nevada Supreme Court.  To begin with, the lawyer signing the Petition wrote that the docket of Murdoch’s lawsuit is sealed.   The docket is the list of all the parties, their lawyers, and their physical and EMail addresses and telephone numbers.  Every case has a docket, obviously.

          Except Murdoch’s.

          The parties are not identified by name.  All the parties are called “Doe” and they all have numbers instead of names. No-one knows how many “Does” there are.  This is not the way that cases are usually run.  At least in my experience in America.  I have not seen this before.

          The petitioners’ lawyer was able to get a few pleadings from some of the parties, so she searched out the lawyers she thought she could identify, their mailing addresses and their EMail addresses using “Google search to determine them to the best of my ability.  I have asked the [Nevada] district court for a service list but have not been provided with one.”  This too is unusual.  In the extreme.

          Pleadings filed with the Court in a lawsuit are required by every jurisdiction in America to be shared with the lawyers who represent anyone else that is a party in the litigation.  Every lawsuit has a service list for that reason.  In the Murdoch secret case, the service list if any was not available.  It still isn’t available.

            It is worth remarking here that the list of lawyers who were sent the Emergency Petition to honor the presumption of public access to public Courts includes some of the most prestigious law firms from across the country:  Cravath, Swaine & Moore of Manhattan; Sheppard Mullin of Los Angeles; Greenberg Traurig of Las Vegas, among others including lawyers in Reno and in Washington, D.C.

            So, the lawyer served all the lawyers she could find by sharing a copy of this Emergency Petition in an unusual step that is not required of mere mortals:  She served it by EMail to all of the EMail addresses she could find that looked like they were the EMail addresses of every single lawyer in the Murdoch matter:  By my count, this came to a total of some 4 Dozen lawyers or, to use her count, 44 lawyers.

          She also sent the Emergency Petition to the Nevada judge and the Nevada Probate Commissioner in the trial court that sealed the Murdoch lawsuit, so that they too have been given copies.

          Parenthetically, no-one is going to be able to say that the Emergency Petition was hidden.  It is not hidden from you, either.  Here is a link so that you can read it for yourself.   (I converted the Emergency Petition from a pdf to a word.docx, so there may be some glitches or "hieroglyphics" in it.  Sorry about that.)  Download New York Times Co. v. Second Jud. Dist. Emergency Petition Doc. No. 24-34562 filed Sept. 19 2024 (Nev. Docket 89347)

          Even the sealing orders have been sealed.

          It is not the legal burden of the petitioners who are asking for access to establish the right of the public to access a lawsuit.  It was the burden of Murdoch to prove why his lawsuit is sealed.

          If the public does not know what was sealed, and if the public does not know why things were sealed, then the public has no way to know what evidence or reasons Murdoch gave the Nevada Court to seal his lawsuit.

          This has happened in the United States in 2024.  And it is still happening.  In a 4-3 ruling on September 20, 2024, the day after the Emergency Petition was filed, a majority of the Nevada Supreme Court refused to stop the secrecy while they considered the Emergency Petition.  That means of course that the secrecy continued, even as Mr. Murdoch’s secret lawsuit is coming or already came to an end.

          It looks like we may have to wait for Fox to report the “fair and balanced” results of the Murdoch matter in Reno.

          Or if Mr. Murdoch and the Courts in Nevada have their way, we may never know.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2024 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

P.S. to Great Old Broads For Wilderness & National Old Growth Amendments

The place to leave electronic Comments (or as the Forest Service apparently calls them, Letters) is here, and if there is no link then you can copy this and put it in your browser:  https://cara.fs2c.usda.gov/Public//CommentInput?Project=65356.

The Forest Service will also accept Comments by U.S. Mail, as outlined in its Tips for Commenting on the Old Growth Amendment, DEIS, on the Forest Service website.  Download HowToSubmitComments-OldGrowthAmendmentDEIS

Once again, please remember that the deadline is tomorrow, Friday, September 20, 2024 at the end of the day!

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2024 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.  Interested in many things including Claims and Issues?  Check out my Substack newsletter. 

 

GREAT OLD BROADS FOR WILDERNESS & NATIONAL OLD GROWTH AMENDMENTS

“Old growth” is a condition, not a tree.  The Forest Service is proposing amendments to the National Old Growth plan in its draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS). 

The Great Old Broads For Wilderness (an outstanding, well-informed organization) recommends that you consider pinpoint Comments to the amendments proposed by the Forest Service in its DEIS.  After downloading the 192 pages of these proposals, I can understand why.

For convenience, I have scanned the two pages containing Standards 2b and 2c which the Great Old Broads For Wilderness group recommends we focus on.  In particular, “incidental” needs definition in proposed new Standard 2b, which would otherwise allow undefined “incidental” cutting or removal of trees in old-growth forest.

 Likewise, proposed new exception iv in new Standard 2c would allow “incidental tree-cutting or removal … for de minimis use for local community purposes.”  On this proposal, the group recommends deleting the “de minimis” exception entirely.  (It too is undefined, but unlike “incidental,” “de minimis” is seen as inherently incapable of definition, it is so broadly stated.)

The group also recommends restoring a Standard that is no longer in the Forest Service plan, called the “non-degradation Standard.”

I wrote above that the entirety of the amendments proposed by the Forest Service is 192 pages.  You can access that document if you wish, from the Forest Service website which I found by searching online.  Or you can take the benefit of my long, loong search this morning for the relevant Standards 2b and 2c, which I found in pages 52-53 of the document, numbered as pages 30-31.  I scanned them and you can access them here:  Download Stds2b&2c.  Unfortunately, when they were scanned they showed up sideways, but you can rotate the pdf.

The Great Old Broads For Wilderness petition which we can all sign if we wish to change the Forest Service planned amendments, is at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdald-J83SkryJWJ0IhJM0EhoKtsNInWmCe5ALRAMKEC3EnDQ/viewform.

Good Commenting, and Good Petitioning!  Comments officially close at tomorrow’s end, September 20, 2024!  (If you’re like me, you’re a procrastinator too.  No time left to procrastinate here!)

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2024 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.  Interested in many things including Claims and Issues?  Check out my Substack newsletter. 

NEXT TIME.

It will happen again.

Four people were shot to death in a school in Georgia.  Two are reportedly students; two are reportedly teachers.  None of them returned home.

          Other people were injured because they were also shot in the school in Georgia.  They are in the hospital.  They are not in school today.

          Next time a person with a rifle and ammunition may murder people from a hotel window in Las Vegas, Nevada.

          Next time a person with an assault rifle and ammunition may murder scores of children and their teachers in an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.

          Or in Newtown, Massachusetts.

          Next time, a person with an automatic rifle and ammunition may murder lots of people at the Mall of the Americas.

          Or at a mall near you.

          Or in a movie theater.

          Or in your church or in your synagogue.

          But no-one should pretend to be surprised when it happens again.  It will happen again.

          Something else may not happen, though.  It may be that nothing will be done to stop it from happening the next time, nothing by those who alone have the power to stop it.

          There may be marches and protests after the next time.  Perhaps even after this time.  The marches and protests may even draw the attention of a nation, as they did in the wake of the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

          There may be overwhelming support among the people for something to be done, for the next time not to happen next time or ever.  There is overwhelming popular support for that now.

          But it is not enough.  We know that it is not enough because it keeps happening.

          I have no doubt that Almighty God hears the prayers of the people.  But God works through people and the people have not yet stopped this.

          It will happen again.

          Unless.

          Unless justice rolls down the mountainside like a mighty river, to borrow an image from the Prophet Amos.  Unless the people refuse any longer to accept their representatives’ excuses or, heaven forbid, the emptiness of ‘thoughts and prayers.’

          Unless the people demand that gun dealers and manufacturers stop selling their automatic rifles and ammunition to children, or to psychopaths, or to cartels in this country or in foreign places.

          Unless the Second Amendment is respected as something more than a shroud for the bodies of infants mutilated by gunfire.

          Unless these shadows are altered, it will happen again.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2024 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.  Check out my Substack newsletter.

POLIO RETURNS. THERE WILL BE MORE BABIES WITH PARTS OF THEIR BODIES PARALYZED BY POLIO. UNLESS ...

What the world needs now is a person with a vaccine, not a person with a gun.

          Twenty-five years of vaccinations were as successful in Gaza as they have been in the United States.  Vaccination rates were previously at 99%.  There were no reported cases of polio in Gaza.  Until now.  See Julian Borger, Baby in Gaza Partly Paralysed From Polio in Territory's First Case For 25 Years, The Guardian (online Aug. 23, 2024).

          A young boy has reportedly been partially paralyzed by polio.  The World Health Organization (WHO), which is telling the world about the spread of polio, is gearing up to vaccinate children even though they and the children run the risk of being shot to death.

          Obstacles to physical transportation of polio vaccine from the rest of the world to the Middle East do not seem to be a problem.  Polio vaccine is being flown into Israel and the Israeli Defense Forces command says that Israel will provide refrigerated trucks as the vaccine makes its way to Gaza.

          Once in Gaza, it will be up to WHO and the United Nations to deliver the vaccines at the risk of their lives.

          "It is not enough to bring the vaccines into Gaza and protect the cold chain.  To have an impact, the vaccines must end up in the mouths of every child under the age of 10," says the head of the UN relief agency involved in this effort.

          Transportation and technical problems have been solved, it seems.  Now it's time to solve the problem of letting people deliver vaccine to the children, without being shot.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2024 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

"FREEDOM INCLUDES, but it DOES NOT INCLUDE ..."

"Freedom includes the right to judge; it does not include taking people's fundamental rights away because they choose to live differently from you in ways that do not affect you at all."

--@AdamSerwer

GO FORWARD

THE ASSAULT ON GAZA IS MAKING POLIO POSSIBLE.

The World Health Organization has found the polio virus in sewage samples in Gaza.
     WHO is concerned that children who have not received shots against polio, or any vaccination at all, are at grave risk of polio. If those children are at risk of polio, we are all at risk -- like many viruses, polio spreads fast. ♿

 

(Photo via the BBC)

THE FACTS RETURN TO REPORTING. "EAR BLOODIED IN THE ASSAULT."

In an article published today in the New York Times, four reporters took the byline while one of them wrote this:

Mr. Trump’s ear was bloodied in the assault and a rally attendee was fatally wounded. Two other attendees were injured. A Secret Service sniper shot and killed the gunman, later identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pa.

The person who wrote that sentence did good work of reporting the facts.  That "Mr. Trump's ear was bloodied in the assault" is exactly what we have seen ourselves; whether he was 'shot by a bullet' is not a known fact now, if ever.  His ear was "bloodied in the assault," and we can see that fact.  Thanks to the reporter who wrote that fact.

          At the end of this blog article, I will try to post ways in which you can contact each of these reporters and ask who among the four of them wrote that, if you would like to know who did a good job reporting the facts in that piece.

          In the meantime, there are some good questions that, speaking about the questions that members of congress asked the head of the Secret Service yesterday, should be asked but were not asked of her:

Did any of those Secret Service agents send or receive any of the text messages that the Secret Service deleted from January 5 through January 6, 2021, the Attack on the Capitol?

Which agents were on his detail during the period of time that he occupied the Oval Office, from the morning of January 20, 2017 through the morning of January 20, 2021?

          Just the facts, ma'am.  We have other questions and we hope that the media with its resources will ask them.

Here is a link to the article published in today's New York Times, which may be behind a paywall:  https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/22/us/politics/kimberly-cheatle-secret-service-hearing.html.

And here are the EMail Addresses for the four reporters on this piece:   [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected].

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2024 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

"IS THERE A DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE?"

This is a good question.  It was asked so often at public meetings that it became a joke starting in Vaudeville days.  It's not a joke any more.

          There was at least one doctor in the house, at the rally that Saturday.  Reporting identifies him by name, a surgeon taking pictures with his cellphone.  Apparently the former president was taken away before the doctor could see him.

          When Gabby Gifford and President Reagan were shot, they were both taken to the hospital.  So was the former president on Saturday, according to reporting.  But the reports are confusing and incomplete.  One report has it that he was "taken to a local hospital from the rally site."  His spokesperson says that he was "being checked out at a local medical facility."  What an odd way to describe a hospital, by the way, "medical facility."

          All of these statements are incomplete because they do not tell us the name of the hospital where he was taken.  Seems like we should know.  When President Reagan was shot, he had been put into the presidential limousine where a Secret Service agent ordered the limo driver to proceed to the hospital.  We know the name of the hospital, of course.  It's not a state secret or a secret of any kind, and it should not be a secret. 

It's published right on the website of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library:  George Washington Hospital.

          So a good question is a simple one:     What is the name of the hospital where he was taken?

           Here's another:  Who treated him, whether at the hospital or at the rally?  Seems like we should know.  The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library has a long list of everyone who was around when the President was shot, including the names and workplaces of the doctors who treated him.

          As a rally, this was of course a gathering.  It was in Butler, Pennsylvania.  A permit is required to hold a public gathering.  The permit would require the presence and show the identity of Paramedics on scene.  The permit here would have been issued either by Butler Township or by Butler County.  Pull the permit and see what it tells you.

          Then there is the question that so far as I know has been raised by only one person, Ruth Ben-Ghiat.  She wondered about it in the course of taking a look at authoritarian playbooks including attempted assassinations, so she did not dwell on it but she is the only one I know who asked the question.   Why did the same Secret Service agents who had surrounded him, protecting him with their bodies as shields from any bullets that might still be fired, allow him to stop and stand  not once but twice on the way to the SUV, and the second time "expose his face, arm, and hand to the cameras and crowd, and deliver the fist pump and 'fight, fight, fight' message that created an iconic image."  Or as she herself framed it, "Why the Secret Service allowed him to do these things, in violation of any conceivable security protocols for such moments, is another story."

          Now would be a good time to get the answer:   Why did the Secret Service violate any conceivable security protocols for such moments?

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2024 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

UNITY WITHOUT FREEDOM IS NOT UNITY. IT IS SERVITUDE.

As some Democrats tear their party apart after finally realizing that the President who announced for re-election months ago is an old guy, but who said nothing at the time or at any time until now, the MAGAts are meeting in Milwaukee.

          They have adopted a platform which took out the words reflecting that they want to prohibit abortion.  That would not be a good sell, apparently, so they adopted a new platform instead.  The new platform is sly instead of blunt.

          It is anything but unifying, so far as that goes.

          Their new platform leaves it to each State to decide if a human embryo is a human person.  There does not appear to be any limitation.  As far as the new platform language goes, any State is free to rule what the Convention delegates have been saying, which is that every embryo is a person regardless of whether the embryo ever becomes a baby or is born or, well, anything other than just an embryo which is enough to be a person according to this.

          Their new platform would slyly make every embryo a  "person" protected by the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.  Never mind that every Court that has ever ruled on this question has ruled that it is not so.  Never mind that every time they try to introduce this as legislation in the U.S. Congress, it either gets voted down or it goes nowhere.

          Now they have a platform.  And a person to appoint new judges and new Members of Congress, they think.

          This is not unity.  This is a sleazy backdoor, back-alley mugging that pretends to be American, but only pretends.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2024 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

THEY DIDN'T CHANT FOR UNITY. THEY CHANTED "FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT."

On Saturday before the Convention started on Monday, he was on a stage and was shot.  Surrounded by agents, he rose up in front of an American flag and reportedly said, "Fight!"  A day after he was shot, he insisted on "unity."

          On Monday the first night of their Convention, they understandably recited the Pledge of Allegiance.  This was ordinary, it seemed.  But they were led in their Pledge by a person who attacked the Capitol on January 6.  Four people died as a consequence of that attack.

          On the first night, the delegates chanted "fight, fight, fight."

          On the first night, the delegates did not chant "unity, unity, unity."

          We need more than words.  Especially when the words seem to be nothing more than a cover.  As the saying goes, walk the walk, don't just talk the talk.

          Stop trying to be the only ones allowed to speak violence.

          Start trying to join everyone else in America condemning violence and speaking acceptance.

          The whole world is watching.  We are all waiting to see if your "unity" is fake news again.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2024 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

IT'S NOT RUBIO! IT'S NOT AILEEN CANNON! IT'S J.D. VANCE!

Tonight is not just some isolated incident.

          The central premise of the MAGA campaign is projection, that the President of the United States is an authoritarian fascist who must be impeached, that the Speaker of the House from the opposing party must be attacked and if she is not home then her husband must be attacked, that migrants are bugs who must be stomped on, and all the rest.  That rhetoric has led directly to political violence too many times to count.

          Time to dial it back and speak like a man, J.D.

          Time to act like a human being again.  You can do it.

          Disagree with everyone else, J.D., all you want, but don't disagree with this:  As Lincoln said, there can never be an appeal from the ballot to the bullet.

          So tone it down, J.D.  We all do our part, however small.  Now do yours.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2024 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

WHAT THE COUNTRY NEEDS NOW ....

What the nation needs at this time is the answer of Faith:  Stay calm and believe.

          What the country is likely to get this week is anything but.  Anticipate four nights of angry cries for "Bloody Murder."

          Violence is much more likely to be on display just as it was during the American Apocalypse between January 20, 2017 and January 19, 2021.

          We can count on that. 

          Even as we count on ourselves and, far more than that, count on God (whether or not we call God Muslim, Jewish, Christian, or Whatever).  "Nobody's gonna break my Faith."

GO FORWARD!

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'"SO IT'S ON TO CHICAGO, AND LET'S WIN THERE!"

Senator Robert F. Kennedy said that on June 5, 1968.  Right after he said that, he left the stage in a hotel in Los Angeles and walked through the kitchen.  He was murdered there.

          President Joe Biden is not Senator Robert F. Kennedy.  Judging by the frenzy surrounding Joe Biden's candidacy for re-election, that is his great sin in the eyes of many people, that he is not Senator Robert F. Kennedy.

          Full disclosure:  I am not now and never have been a big fan of Joe Biden as a candidate.  He is not my first choice to run for President.

          But he is an adequate candidate.  And he is a very good President.

          If as appears likely he stays in the race, consider the likely results.

          If he wins and dies in office, Vice President Kamala Harris would replace him automatically.  She is capable and we as a country can certainly make it  through four years with her as President.

          Or President Biden might win and become incapacitated while he is in office over the next four years.  That is why we have a 25th Amendment, and if he were removed because of incapacitation at any point during that time, once again Kamala Harris would become President Harris.

          Or President Biden might win and become too sick to serve for some of the next four years.  Everyone even his current critics concedes that Joe Biden loves this country, so if the 25th Amendment was not invoked then we can expect that he would step aside and once again, we would have President Harris.  (This scenario keeps repeating because that is why the Constitution requires a Vice President, someone to step into the office when the President no longer can.)

          If the other guy wins the Presidential election in 2024 (although if he won the popular vote this would be the first time in his career that he won the popular vote for anything), then the game is over.

          Likely, it will be over for many years if not forever.

          Given the likely outcomes of Joe Biden remaining in the 2024 Presidential election, my choice is Joe Biden.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2024 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

RETRIBUTION? IMMUNE, IMMUNE, IMMUNE.

Why does the media write and read more stories about one person than another?  Maybe they are afraid of him.  I do not know.  Maybe they do not want the hassle, which comes to the same thing in the end.  I do not know.

          The CURIOUS GEORGE stories featured their own man with no name.  They called him The Man In The White Hat.  In this age of algorithms and searches, I too will play it safe and call this person The Man In The Red Tie.  (The difference between me and the corporate media is that I am an individual, not a huge corporation, of course.  It is an ancient and honorable tradition to write more or less anonymously whenever a relatively powerless  person takes on the powerful.)

          Taking a leaf from U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor writing in the immunity case, here is my list of a few, just a few, of the things that Red Tie and his gang do that do not get near the same treatment as, say, the President:

• Libel, slander, defame?
• Beat, kill cops and FBI?
• Retribution?   Immune, immune, immune.

The end.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2024 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

ON THE FOURTH OF JULY, 2024.

           When dawn broke on June 18, 1940 it was two weeks after the end of Dunkirk.  Two weeks after the British Army retreated from France to Britain.  Two weeks after the German Army had gone from victory to victory in France, two weeks during which the German Army continued its conquest of Britain's one major ally, France.

          June 18, 1940 was two days after the French capitulated to the Germans.

          On June 18, 1940 Britain and its Commonwealth stood to fight what would become World War Two alone.

          It was a very dark time.  But rather than curse the darkness, the people and their leader lit a candle of hope that ignited the whole world.  In a war that truly ranged across the world, the enemies of light were no longer victorious when it ended.  But there would have been no victory if the people and their leader had surrendered to the darkness.  There would have been no victory without the kind of conduct that showed up on June 18, 1940 and every day thereafter until the fight was won.

          On June 18, 1940 the Prime Minister delivered a speech to the House of Commons in London.  The Prime Minister was Winston Churchill.  The speech would become forever known as the "finest hour" speech.  Part of it is reprinted here with a pair of paragraphs added to separate some of the text:

Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilisation.  Upon it depends our own British life, and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire.  The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us.  Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war.  If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be freed and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands.

          But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science.

          Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, "This was their finest hour."

          When dawn breaks on this Fourth of July, it will be three days since six people voted to make crimes not be crimes any longer, so long as the crimes were "official."  But, they said, the president was the one who could not be charged with an official crime.  They had not yet said that the president's band could not be charged.  Perhaps they knew then,  that there may be a president who would pardon the criminals the president ordered to commit official crimes.  Whatever, they said that the president's official crimes are not crimes and that the president cannot be convicted of any official crimes.

          July 4, 2024 will be nearly three and a-half years to the day after the attempted coup on January 6, 2021.  Then the sitting president ordered a crowd to storm the Capitol and stop the counting of electoral votes, knowing that he would lose the count and knowing that the crowd was armed.

          On this Fourth of July, as on every day since then, there are more of us than there are of them.  There will always be more of us than there are of them.  They have not won a single nationwide election in the last three and a-half years.  They know that they cannot be victorious without our consent.

          We will not consent.  We will not agree.  We will not capitulate. 

          It is appropriate, I think, to remember the words of the leader of Britain.  He turned the darkness of seeming defeat into his people's finest hour.  His speech seems like a good fit for a Fourth of July speech today.

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!

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GRATEFUL, DIANNE.

I am grateful for work.

          I am grateful for working at relationships.  If we do not work at our relationships, they will die.  (I am sad when things generally just do not work out, not simply relationships.)

          I am grateful for researching.  It keeps my brain active.

          I am grateful for reading.  My eyesight has never been good, but it is getting harder to see.  I am grateful that I can read.

          I am grateful for being able to print from my cellphone.  Our networked printers are going through a network glitch right now, but I can still print everything I need to print (so far) from my cellphone and I am grateful for that.

          I am grateful for rain.  It waters our lawn, our garden, and our flowers.  Rain even waters our hanging baskets, which are not reached by our sprinklers unless they are taken down and put on the ground.

          But most of all, I am grateful for you.

 

GO FORWARD

Inspired by a Tom T. Hall song, "I love ...."  Please read the disclaimer.  ©2024 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

MEMO TO THE HONORABLE TANYA CHUTKAN.

Six lawyers on the U.S. Supreme Court have given immunity to "official" crimes of a president but not to "unofficial" ones.

          They did not try to say why crimes committed in an official capacity are not crimes.  They won't even say what "official" crimes or "unofficial" crimes there may be.  Rather, they have left it to Trial Judge Tanya Chutkan to do that if she follows their guidelines.

          This is not the first time they have tried to tell a woman what to do.

          Well, the woman in this case is a Trial Judge.  I am a lawyer who has from time to time appeared in court in trials, which differentiates me, I believe, from most or all of the six lawyers who voted to have Judge Chutkan do their dirty work and decide what after all is "immunized" and "what's not."

          Judge, every single thing charged in the indictment is "unofficial" and not immunized.  Leading a gang to overturn the government is never an "official" act.

          So like the jury in the New York case that read out 34 guilty verdicts, one after the other, so read out each alleged crime here, whatever the number of crimes that are alleged in the Grand Jury's indictment.  Read them out one by one.  Read out each and every crime alleged in the indictment and rule that the Special Prosecutor can prosecute it here.  Let a jury decide.

          When your ruling is appealed yet again in what seems to be an endless number of appeals, let the Six on the Supreme Court do some work here after all.  They will go to work on your ruling whatever you may rule.  So give them something to work on, Judge, if it comes to that.

          Do not call BS here, even if it's telling it like it is.  Instead, call truth.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2024 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

BUZZ EVERY LIE! GONG THE CANDIDATES!

Game shows on TV sound a buzzer when a contestant gives a wrong answer.

          Presidential debates in the 21st Century are game shows at heart.  They should sound a buzzer every time a candidate lies.  ANNNNH!  Like that. 

          Then at least one candidate would be heard for what he is.  If used right, a buzzer would sound practically every sentence the guy speaks.

          The other candidate would probably continue as before as far as the media is concerned, but we can all agree that we would hear the "Gonged" candidate for who he truly is, regardless of what the media says or what else it does about him or about the other guy.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2024 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

"BUT HIS DEBATE PERFORMANCE IN JUNE ...."

(Image of Watching 2016 Presidential Debate, Wikipedia)

When Hillary Clinton lost the presidential election in 2016, the media concentrated on her EMails.  "But her EMails," we read and heard, over and over again.  As if the EMails mattered greatly to anyone, especially considering how the presidential election turned out in 2016.  But some of us could see it coming when our own press was publishing stories about Hillary's EMails rather than what the election was about.

(American Prospect Magazine, June 28, 2024)

Now we are in the presidential election of 2024.  I keep hearing that the media have learned their lesson, that they will not be distracted again like they were in 2016.

To say again, now we are in the presidential election of 2024.  I have heard over and over again since President Biden's bad debate on Thursday night, June 27th, "But his performance ...."

It says something about the media that they just learned last week that Biden is an old guy.

It also puts the lie to the mantra that the media has learned its lesson after their own disastrous performance in 2016.

It's a new month and the election is still in November.  Between now and then, at least, let's ignore all the people who get it wrong about things that matter:  the election, the danger, the life.

As usual, Rebecca Solnit said it well:

Much has been said about the age of the candidates, but maybe it's the corporate media whose senility is most dangerous to us.

Amen to that.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2024 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

EQUALITY CAN BE A BALANCING.

This does not mean that to give relief to others you ought to make things difficult for yourselves; it is a question of balancing what happens to be your surplus now against their present need, and one day they may have something to spare that will supply your own need.  That is how we strike a balance:  as Scripture says [Exodus 16:18]:  The person who gathered much had none too much, the person who gathered little did not go short.

          --2 Corinthians 8:13-15.

GO FORWARD

TAKE THAT COGNITIVE TEST, AMERICA.

President Joe Biden's Opponent says that someone named Ronnie Johnson demands that President Biden take the same cognitive test that Ronnie gave him.

          President Biden should respond only during the debate.  When it comes up, as it surely will, the President should say:

          I'm the only thing that's standing between you and the White House.

          Take that cognitive test, America.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2024 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

WATER ON A HOT DAY, ANY DAY.

I had always thought of workers as vendors.  In my eyes, the people who came to my house to do work got paid for their trouble.  I know.  I was the one that paid them.

          My wife, Dianne, looked at things differently.  She offered the workers water even when it was not a hot day.  Their work might make them thirsty.  That was enough.  It did not have to be a hot day on top of that.

          Now we are living through a time of High Heat.  Every day in Florida it seems is hotter than the last.  That's probably not strictly so, but in my mind, it's close to the truth.

          Even before the High Heat came, I was offering water to workers too.  I do not expect anything in return.  The workers appreciate it, even the ones who have brought water with them in the truck or in the car, and that's most of them.  I feel good just from the offer, myself.  That is enough.

GO FORWARD

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WHERE THERE IS NO VISION, THE PEOPLE PERISH.

 

Where there is no vision, the people perish.

--Proverbs 29:18.

 

GO FORWARD

SLAPP THEM SILLY! FELLOW TRAVELERS, WELCOME TO THE 2024 ELECTION.

A center at Stanford University for the study of misinformation and disinformation – let's just call it all propaganda so that we actually know what

(Image by Gridview-imagefull, FDACS)  we are talking about – has had to shut down because of the legal fees it has incurred.

 

          Stanford has issued a statement that the center will continue, but the center will not investigate propaganda any longer.

          Legal fees have been an instrument of propaganda for some time now.  The idea at work is that propaganda enthusiasts file lawsuits against their targets and force the targets to incur attorney's fees, whether the lawsuits have merit or not.  They usually don't have merit, according to the American Bar Association (may be behind a paywall)  which examined these Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation or SLAPP lawsuits.

          31 States and the District of Columbia reportedly have passed legislation, called Anti-SLAPP laws, which are designed to counter these lawsuits.  State Courts do not seem to encounter any problems applying Anti-SLAPP laws, but Federal Judges argue whether or not they should apply the laws in Federal Court; some judges do, some don't.  That stands to reason, what with so many people appointed to the Federal bench during the American Apocalypse between January 20, 2017 and January 19, 2021.

          SLAPP lawsuits, Federal judges refusing to enforce State Anti-SLAPP laws, and fees charged by lawyers are turned into weapons of destruction.  Not even Vladimir Putin and the KGB could have planned that better.

          Hmmm.  There's a thought worth thinking about.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2024 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

THEY WANT TO DEFUND THINGS. DEFUND THE SUPREME COURT?

They are always talking about defund this, defund that, whatever it is they don't like today.

          What if we take a leaf from their playbook, and defund the Supreme Court?

          That should slow the Gang of 6 down a little in their hard work of overturning our freedoms.

          It will unfortunately affect the Trio of Truth as well as the Gang of 6, but we have no choice.  I don't think we can selectively defund the Gang of 6, but I'm certainly open to the idea.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2024 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

SO YOU THINK THAT HE WILL WIN THE POPULAR VOTE?

It would be the first time ever.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2024 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.