Gromnir

quick addition on the "jurisdiction" angle for the birthright citizenship issue https://www.ussc.gov/research/quick-facts/federally-sentenced-non-us-citizens point is the fed has tried, convicted and imprisoned undocumented immigrants for many years. is current tens of thousands o' undocumented immigrants in US prisons. if the US has no jurisdiction over such people, akin to arjen rudd, then all o' those folks shoulda' been deported as 'posed to incarcerated. maybe you thinks all the undocumented in US prisons should be deported, but the point is that US courts has for years been acting as if they got jurisdiction and is not as if those imprisoned never thought to challenge jurisdiction. the question has been asked and answered more than once and as such there isn't any real jurisdiction question... unless scotus decides there is a question. scotus is not bound by precedent or tradition. roe were overturned and we got dobbs. plessey were overturned and we got brown. be careful when expressing outrage over the Court overturning precedent. the thing is, unlike plessey or korematsu, we ain't had decades o' legal, academic and public outrage fueling a push to overturn precedent. at least with dobbs there were a widespread recognition even by supporters of a fundamental right to abortion that the original roe plurality were based on a kinda fuzzy legal basis. with birthright citizenship, the plain meaning o' the text o' the fourteenth amendment is supported by strong case law and fed practice as well as, until recent, a widespread public assumption that birthright citizenship were valid. but again, am gonna admit the Presidential immunity case kinda shook us. that a bunch of self-described textualists could conjure up Presidential immunity w/o even recognizing or responding to the potential dangers o' a chief executive free o' the threat o' criminal prosecution for any and all official acts, made it clear to us that the Court conservatives had abandoned core legal principles. is only tangential related (for now,) but am gonna concede we didn't foresee cecot. even if the Court went complete spineless and accepted the trump administration arguments for deporting tren de aragua members sans any due process finding that those deported is in fact members o' tren de aragua, then am not sure how we get indefinite incarceration in an el salvadoran hell hole as = deportation. trump argument seems to be that the President has the authority to remove undocumented immigrants, seditionists, insurrectionists and terrorists beyond US borders... and once those persons is in fact beyond US international waters/borders, then the Courts no longer have any jurisdiction in the matter, so cecot is okie dokie. keep in mind that w/o due process, trump could decide that literal everybody fits in one o' the aforementioned categories. the legal basis for sending people to cecot has nothing to do with a person's actual status as a gang member but is rather a recognition that once beyond the jurisdiction o' the Court's habeas power, the President has the sole authority under the Constitution to decide fates. the legal argument is that as long as Trump acts faster than the Courts, any person he successful removes beyond US borders/air space could be sent to cecot... and when we say "successful removes," am making a physical/geographical observation as 'posed to a legal one. is one o' the aforementioned right v. legal situations. HA! Good Fun!

Supreme Court blocks, for now, new deportations under 18th century wartime law "Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented." via the washington post, The American Civil Liberties Union said several migrants at an immigration detention center in North Texas had received written notices of removal over the past several days, and a second group of unknown number was told to get ready for travel Friday. Copies of those notices, filed in court, were written only in English and said the recipient had been “determined to be an Alien Enemy” and would be deported. Aside from stating that the recipient can “make a phone call,” the notices do not inform those who receive them when they will be deported, that they are entitled to contest their removal or outline the means for doing so, the ACLU said. “There’s no box to check to say I want to contest,” ACLU lawyer Lee Gelernt said during a hastily convened Friday evening hearing in federal court in Washington. “There’s nothing that says there is a right to contest, much less the time frame.” ... A spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security declined to respond to a request for comment on the ACLU’s claims in its filings. “We are not going to reveal the details of counter terrorism operations, but we are complying with the Supreme Court’s ruling,” Tricia McLaughlin said in an email statement. (emphasis added by Gromnir) am also outraged (but unsurprised) by trump's harvard shenanigans, but we got limited vitriol to go around particular as am getting ready to receive easter guests. given trump's monumental economy blunders, the administration's renewed targeting o' immigration and the intellectual elites is, we s'pose, fresh meat to keep the base sated. the lack o' noteworthy new trump sponsored dei and and/or trans outrages this past week is perhaps the only genuine wrinkle in what we expected. HA! Good Fun!

chances are most have not read the recent Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III opinion. opinion were released late thursday after noon, so it came after our recent reply @Pidesco regarding Constitutional crisis. https://time.com/7278774/judge-harvie-wilkinson-opinion-read-full-text-trump-abrego-garcia/ ... we were gonna highlight important passages, but virtual the entire opinion is quotable. furthermore, the Judge is clear not so much talking to the executive branch as he is addressing the US public and history. Wilkinson calls out not just what is illegal 'bout the executive branch position, but he identifies that a terrible wrong is being done... and he points out that if the government position were embraced, it would mean that trump could disappear american citizens w/o due process and nobody would be able to stop him. 'course, with the Presidential immunity case, an appellate Judge identified the infamous seal team six scenario the only punishment for a President doing a seal team 6 is through impeachment and conviction. given that the scotus majority, beyond reason, did not find such a nightmare scenario compelling, am at a loss predicting whether they would similar be ok with trump disappearing american citizens to el salvador or elsewhere and then shrugging off requests for the return o' those citizens. the 9-0 opinion requiring the executive branch to facilitate garcia's return suggests a kinda due process red line, but if forced to make an explicit condemnation o' the chief executive when it appears trump will ignore a Court ruling with which he disagrees, am uncertain o' the outcome. as bad as is our ambivalence regarding the Court's moral compass, am certain too large a percentage o' americans would be indifferent to any trump excess. ...

the Court already has answered the jurisdiction question when it found that the executive not only failed to afford due process to those it "deported" to el salvador but that it must facilitate the return o' mr. garcia so that he might be provided a legal sufficient hearing to assess his deportation viability. Court were 9-0 on the aforementioned question(s.) w/o jurisdiction, the Court coulda/woulda declared the issues moot. w/o jurisdiction, you got a detective murtagh conundrum. regardless, if even undocumented immigrants now languishing in cecot were subject to the jurisdiction o' the fed, it would take a preposterous exercise in mental gymnastics to then find that children o' such aliens born in the US are not subject to jurisdiction. on its face, there really is no issue in play. 1) plain language interpretation hurts trump efforts. "all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside." other than during the ugly nativist late 19th and early 20th century period, the above language has consistent been read by academics, lawyers and regular people to include birthright citizenship. even during the nativist years, there were Court cases which clarified the matter, which brings us to... 2) US v wong kim ark https://www.facebook.com/AmericanExperiencePBS/videos/wong-kim-ark-the-chinese-exclusion-act-american-experience-pbs/28276366908645263/ is a few other such cases and they is all consistent. 3) THIS Court has already functional answered the question again, the 9-0 holding in the garcia matter complete undermines the notion there is a jurisdiction question. as a bonus, reading the Trump government argument serious means Gromnir loses citizenship. doj cites case law dealing with native americans to support their applicability o' nul jurisdiction for illegal immigrants. as such, many native americans o' treaty recognized tribes would effective be stripped o' US citizenship if the Court embraces the trump doj position. there is no case here... but there were no real case for Presidential immunity neither. no case law supporting. no Constitutional text. no historical understanding. HA! Good Fun! ps in the spirit o' full disclosure, there is one possible grey area which nevertheless doesn't apply to the vast majority o' children o' undocumented immigrants-- the children o' an invading occupation force would not be given US birthright citizenship. so, even if the Court were to accept the trump position that tren de aragua is an invading force not subject to the jurisdiction o' the US, and that the children o' tren de aragua don't get birthright citizenship (a position already seeming undermined by the recent 9-0 scotus decision,) the vast majority o' the individuals born to undocumented immigrants in the US would not be subject to the occupation force exception to citizenship.

clarification, 'cause we got a few folks who reflexive blm whenever protests is mentioned. am suspecting in the coming months we will be told how george bush used the insurrection act in 1992 to send troops to help end riots in los angeles. a key point to recollect is that the governor o' california in 1992 requested assistance o' fed troops. converse, during the summer 2020 riots, no state governor or legislature asked for fed assistance. trump did not use the insurrection act in 2020 to kidnap people off o' the streets o' portland and whisk 'em away to be temporary "imprisoned" and interrogated w/o assistance o' counsel offered. william barr, arguable evil but most certain not dumb, found a loophole and because citizens detained were never charged with anything, they could not bring civil rights claims against the fed government. the thing is, 'cause trump didn't use the insurrection act, he could not mobilize the military, and we don't have a national police force capable o' mass arrests. in 2020, the fed had to use disguised ice agents to do the white panel van operation. project 2025 and trump has both threatened to use the insurrection act regardless o' state desires. so not the same. have tried to explain this previous... ordinarily it is up to the states to decide whether to request fed troop assistance. is extreme few recent examples o' the fed not responding to state requests and sending in troops and the only post ww 2 examples we can think o' off hand is when Presidents sent troops to the south to protect school kids post brown v. board o' education, or when they ordered military to protect protesters from state governments related to mlk assassination, the aforementioned brown v. board and the civil rights act legislation. send troops into, just as rando examples, california, illinois, oregon or washington, to quell violence w/o state approval woulda' been viewed as unthinkable even by J. Rhenquist and the Court in 1992. today? am thinking trump gots a near guaranteed two votes no matter how outrageous the argument put forward by the government. am concerned any kinda violence by protesters is gonna be used as an excuse to do more illegal and impossible. in the summer o' 2020 we had more than a few folks on these boards buying into a conjured narrative o' chaos and violence supplied by fox news to legitimize white panel vans in portland and other nonsense. trump wanted to shoot lafayette square protesters in 2020. what do you think happens when something similar happens with trump 2.0? btw, a handful o' republicans in Congress voting with democrats could stop most o' this insanity, but so far the only thing moving the needle on trump's public opinion is his efforts to tank the world economy and the resulting damage done to the 401ks o' many o' his voters. so wrong. is freaking the 1920s-1930s all over again. HA! Good Fun!

am embarrassed we never made use o' the following 'til recent. https://www.kanopy.com/en/saclibrary/ get limited but generous use with our library card. am understanding most public libraries have similar features free for locals but for a small fee you may access nyc public library and others. via the service linked, we just watched the man with the golden arm, but there is a whole lotta newer titles available. probable watching dragonslayer (1981) next as it is one o' our top two-to-five fantasy movies. HA! Good Fun!

evidence old dogs may learn new tricks. am having spent many cumulative hours cleaning steel baking sheets after cooking. chicken fat is mild annoying, but sugars is especial tough to remove and am having used bar keeper's friend enough to eliminate our fingerprints when am too lazy to wear gloves in an effort to get rid o' carbon scoring. maintained as shiny as lancelot's armour from excalibur. we do have a few o' grandma's baking sheets, which look like cast iron pans with all the built up residue on 'em, but we rare used 'em 'cause they are complete flat and have no rims... save two smallish round sheets which were almost non functional for everyday uses. ... 'bout a year ago we tested grandma's compared to our shiny sheets. grandma wins for all but cookies or similar. the cast-iron black pans work far better for roasting protein and vegetables and they is virtual non-stick... almost, but not quite. roasted veggies come out particular fantastic on the blackened pans. have spent the past year effective seasoning most o' our baking sheets and metal cooking pans. HA! Good Fun!

this part is exactly right. doesn't much matter whether were delay or ignore when THE POINT were +3.5 years (at the time) o' illegal and impossible hadn't discouraged folks from claiming lack o' power to do ________ would be a limit on trump. is double amusing 'cause you went looking for a Gromnir first amendment post in support o' lexx's erroneous position when you were one o' the many folks we direct responded to insofar as the matter in question. could it happen here? was the system a prophylactic to trump authoritarian actions? our response to you specific in the summer o' 2020, as well as many similar posts, makes pretty freaking clear we were in no way suggesting that, "this can never happen here, it's all blown out of proportions!" (aside: the exclamation point should be a dead give away as is extreme rare we use such.) again, the fact you would search for a nonresponsive post in support o' lexx, and then offer him a gromspeak translation lifeline is funny particular as is now obvious we specific discussed the matter with you. how many people would read the quoted portion we shared-- "+3.5 years and people still aren't paying attention. the list o' things trump can't do that he has done or tried to do grows almost daily. started with the muslim ban and most recent we got him trying to alter how census is counted. "if senate refuses to stop trump, he may do just 'bout anything. if trump wants a delay o' election, he can get what he wants by refusing to let fed apparatus take and count votes. sure, there Court will overturn, but there will be a delay as Court does what it does in its own glacial manner, and even then, trump may simple ignore the Court and at such a juncture the only remedy is senate conviction after a house impeachment, and we have been down that road. "lack o' presidential authority is meaningless if senate won't stop him. "HA! Good Fun! "ps trump is current refusing to enforce the recent daca decision. why on earth is this not front page news? the Constitutional crisis stuff people were wailing 'bout during impeachment is happening as we speak. is just another story on page 8. " --and would see it mesh with, "it's all blown out of proportions!" to then feign bafflement after you dug up the actual relevant post is... predictable. freaking devil's carousel. HA! Good Fun!

what you actual said were... "I assume he knows he has no power over that. Well, or at least someone showed him, maybe via cartoon." our response, which were not new but already oft repeated... "+3.5 years and people still aren't paying attention. the list o' things trump can't do that he has done or tried to do grows almost daily. started with the muslim ban and most recent we got him trying to alter how census is counted. "if senate refuses to stop trump, he may do just 'bout anything. if trump wants a delay o' election, he can get what he wants by refusing to let fed apparatus take and count votes. sure, there Court will overturn, but there will be a delay as Court does what it does in its own glacial manner, and even then, trump may simple ignore the Court and at such a juncture the only remedy is senate conviction after a house impeachment, and we have been down that road. "lack o' presidential authority is meaningless if senate won't stop him. "HA! Good Fun! "ps trump is current refusing to enforce the recent daca decision. why on earth is this not front page news? the Constitutional crisis stuff people were wailing 'bout during impeachment is happening as we speak. is just another story on page 8. " maybe were digging, but is a post which is in direct opposition o' lexx's original claims... and yet you instead found an irrelevant first amendment post. heck, a couple posts later we even predicted the exact legal mechanism trump would use to challenge the election and we did so in the summer o' 2020. again, we said over and over that illegal and impossible were not barriers to trump. duh. being obtuse at this point. and our point is lexx glomp'd onto your possible excuse as to why he mighta' misunderstood us following your attempt to dredge up an irrelevant first amendment related post to explain lexx's claims about us suggesting it can't happen here. "I think that's it anyway, given the atrocious SNR with his posts sometimes." his desperation and your predictable clowning. shared fox hole o' those who has felt wronged. HA! Good Fun!

our response is gonna be unsatisfactory. There is a Constitutional crisis if scotus says there is a Constitutional crisis. in the garcia case, the issue o' most immediate concern, the Court did their effectuate v. facilitate silliness and so there is just enough ambiguity that the executive may implausible but perhaps legal realistic claim confusion. https://www.stevevladeck.com/p/143-the-state-of-play-in-the-abrego highly recommended read. not too long. if you still have questions after reading, ask us and we will explain sans most o' the legal stuff. by the way, more than a couple dems makes it tough to take 'em serious if trump does explicit ignore the courts and they then complain. rules for thee but not for me. concerning to us personal, and no doubt confusing given our recent posts, is the fact all o' the legal debate ignores the more important questions o' right v. wrong. yeah, we must not ignore due process to get bad guys such as tren de aragua/ms-13 members... or trump, but debates over legal ignores far more important and fundamental questions o' right v. wrong. so much o' what trump is doing (has already done) should be seen as wrong/immoral/unthinkable by all those salt-of-the-earth christian americans who vote for trump regardless o' whether a court decides he can legal do. by constant debating the legalities, people are able to ignore the more important and fundamental questions o' right and wrong. worse, at some point people replace "right" with "legal" and the two is most assured not synonymous. slavery were legal for a long time. until more recent, it were legal impossible to sexual assault your wife. purchasing and displaying foam fingers at sporting events is legal, but we all know it is wrong. call out the wrong is a moral duty even if not a legal one. yeah, too many ignore due process when it suits 'em but even more sit quiet or only complain via text or post when they nevertheless witness wrongs being done. as we noted already, obama used the espionage act and other means to target fox reporters and tea party members. such were wrong then even when it were legal. you think trump is gonna show same "restraint" as the obama administration? a couple years past we noted how even after the Court ruled that use o' testimony induced by torture o' non citizens not on US soil were legal admissible if obtained pre trial, the biden administration vowed it would not do such a thing, declaring such acts repugnant. 'course is nothing stopping trump from ignoring biden's conscience. right. v legal. read the 2025 project and as each week passes, the trump administration checks off a new item from the authoritarian to-do list... and we ain't even three months in as o' today. we did think that the alien enemies act would be invoked and used sooner by trump, but he will get around to targeting individual american citizens before he finishes up with law firms and universities. so, we are most certainly already in a crisis situation, but until the Court says we got a Constitutional crisis, we don't, 'cause they were purposeful obtuse/vague. HA! Good Fun! ps speaking o' what trump may do to US citizens on US soil, before he ships 'em off to cecot, am suspecting the administration is purposeful trying to provoke summer 2020 kinda protests. have already mentioned the espionage act as a way to target reporters and likely lawyers, but the insurrection act is also a possibility. bush used the insurrection act in 1992 to send troops to la to quell riots. project 2025 anticipates the use o' the insurrection act and such should be chilling given the way they have bent and twisted the alien enemies act. also recall that when teslas were set on fire, trump claimed such were terrorist acts. as we has warned numerous times, identify a person or organization as a terrorist is a way to diminish due process rights, which is why we always balk at legal using domestic terrorist language. if somebody burns a tesla or poops in pelosi's desk, get 'em for vandalism or whatever is appropriate, but tack on terrorist label just to reduce due process strikes us as dangerous. tween insurrection act, patriot act and espionage act, trump is gonna have legal tools to disappear people or use the military to suppress 'em.

full o' it. again, we said opposite o' your claim over and over. and if you were so unsure o' our meaning as you now suggest, then why have you made the same claim numerous times? 'cause you thought we were gone? if you call somebody out, multi times, you should be a bit more certain, yes? *chuckle* regardless, is so many times we chastised gd and others, post january 6 in particular, that your confusion rings hollow... save for fact you wanted it to be true? our frequent defense o' rule o' law coupled with your dislike o' Gromnir in addition to your own horrendous understanding o' due process led you to imagine us saying something straight outta a mirror universe episode? many is the times we condemned boardies as they sought to diminish the events o' january 6, 'cause democracy held and trump were gone, yes? and even if january 6 had been successful, said many, trump woulda' eventual lost in the courts. the system worked, were the claim. foolishness. we lamented, ad nauseum, that it were literal a handful o' people who had managed to save american democracy in late 2020 and early 2021 'cause were hardly a sure thing such heroics happen again. in fact, we lamented that history showed second coup attempts were tending to be more successful. and again is Gromnir who has said, many times to the consternation of folks hereabouts, that democracy is not what saves american liberty. democracy is as often as not the threat to liberty. we sure as hell never suggested it could never happen here. for gawd's sake, we has recommended the following book more than once... though we once again note it ain't a great written novel even if it is worth reading. mr. lewis predicted an american trump kinda figure back in 1935. so, you latch onto a malc excuse for dear life and 'course he thinks that is funny. again, malc were one o' the folks so demonstrably and obvious wrong 'bout trump in the summer o' 2020 and we chastised him specific. figures you two would glomp onto each other for comfort. oh, and before we disappear once again, am gonna note the folks am most disappointed with in 2025 is libs. 'bout same number o' republicans voted for trump in 2024 as 2020. the problem is fewer democrats voted for harris as they did biden. is as much libs fault that trump 2.0 were realized. in late 2024 we no longer expected anything good from the republican party, so is only dems who could surprise and disappoint. harris lost in part 'cause far too many libs were angry about biden/harris failures on palestine, environmental promises, or the price o' eggs to vote for harris? couldn't get off their collective arses to vote against trump? didn't freaking learn anything from 2016, eh? is only in an opposite world or the star trek mirror universe you could possible read Gromnir's annoying repetitive warnings 'bout the current and future threat o' trump authoritarianism and somehow get the opposite. guess is lucky this ain't mirror universe otherwise we know what would be the outcome for lexx and malc. HA! Good Fun! ps aside-- as an alternative to it can't happen here, we do recommend the following book: the playbook : a story of theater, democracy, and the making of a culture war. a play based on sinclair lewis' book figures prominent in the work by james shapiro. the playbook is a well researched history book, is relative new, and is a moderate ez read. shows that much o' what is happening today ain't all that new.

so, you aren't gonna admit you were talking out your piehole in regards to claims we dismissed the threat trump posed? typical. again, is Gromnir who pointed out time and time again that trump did illegal and s'posed impossible many times during his first term, but people kept pretending as if the next improbable were too unlikely to consider. we warned 'bout the second term precise 'cause the law failed to stop all but the worst o' trump efforts in term one. am still baffled by the the trump derangement syndrome folks, pretending as if trump is normal. even so we got no excuse for lexx clowning. makes stuff up and when confronted with mistakes via multiple posts where Gromnir said opposite o' what you claimed, you deflect. aside, trump were never gonna be tried for inciting the insurrection for reasons we has stated ad nauseum... first amendment stuff. his january 6 case, which looked extreme strong before the immunity ruling and were not dead after the ruling, were not 'bout incitement. the january 6 case were hinging on the scheme to use fraudulent slates of electors to force the individual state legislatures to decide the Presidential election. legal stuff. btw, we have had folks run for President from prison and such were perfect legal. the fact trump were able to become President in spite o' convictions and incitement is not only legal, but it is freaking democratic. The People voted for trump. maybe you didn't listen when we said the first half dozen times or so, but informed y'all that sentencing for felonies and even prison would would not necessarily prevent trump 2.0. somehow you heard opposite? *chuckle* The People voted against Socrates btw; is an education fail that so many forget such, eh. the athenians had a pure democracy, so were no need for a separate court system or a divided legislature as well as an executive. for the athenians, every trial were a popularity contest. and am fine with throwing guilty republicans and democrats in prison, but if you ignore the law, then next thing you know, it is ok to send people to a dystopian prison in el salvador without due process for no other reason than that the current administration says the folks disappeared deserved it. they deserved it or they are bad, is not enough. eventually, somebody in power might decide lexx or Gromnir is bad. we spent a career representing people we disliked who had views we abhorred-- kkk, cultists, gang members, progressives. *shudder* the only speech, religious beliefs and associations which need protection is those which offend the majority. example: mlk never achieved even 50% popularity with the american public during his lifetime, and he were also disappeared (briefly) by the government. most americans once considered the naacp were to be a threat. lexx and Gromnir shouldn't be the ones deciding who deserves the protection o' the law. definite not lexx. as an aside, there is current too many legal issues o' Constitutional import for us to cliff's notes 'em all... and we have been a bit busy. maybe take a stab at Gromsplaining one or two cases before we personal get gulaged. HA! Good Fun!

malc and lexx is, as usual, full o' it... first, the link by malc is a Gromnir defense o' US First Amendment. trump keeps losing first amendment cases and he is needing use backdoor efforts to kill radio america and npr-- staffing and budget cuts. purposeful avoiding the viewpoint or content discrimination which triggers easy first amendment claims. our first amendment observations comparing US and euro free speech differences is hardly representing a claim that trump shenanigans is impossible. receipts (particular relevant as malc were one o' the jokers claiming trump had to know he couldn't contest the election results.) *snort* this next one is from january 5, 2021 and ... time and again we warned trump were doing illegal and that the only way to stop him were Congress, Courts and voters. Congress refused to convict even after january 6 and voters chose to bring the convicted felon back to office after scotus decided to give trump immunity. the Courts? Courts has been hit and miss. we warned time and again. contrary to lexx revisionist history, we fully embraced our cassandra role. however, we will observe that we did says it would be a mistake to break law just to "get" trump. used the 'bove more than once. get trump w/o due process is same excuse trump is using to send venezuelans to a dystopian hellhole in el salvador. immigrant gang members don't deserve due process, right? his supporters don't care if trump is doing illegal 'cause he is going after the bad guys. is also why we found navalny's murder repugnant in spite o' fact we disliked the russian. they are bad guys and don't deserve the protection o' the law. they is commies, ms-13, tren de aragua, japanese during ww2. they is navalny. they is trans athletes. they is ________. oh, and democracy ain't gonna save you from tyranny. democracy got you jim crow laws passed legal. over the years, democracy got you any number o' horrific US eugenics and nativist laws . democracy got you trump reelected. the terrible tragedy is not so much that trump were a threat to democracy but rather he represents one o' the great flaws o' democracy. the First Amendment, and much o' the Constitution, is enumerating the LIMITS on US democracy. due process, right to trial, prohibitions on unreasonable searches and seizures, etc. is all limits on democracy. democracy is better than the alternatives, but the law is one o' our few remaining defenses against a democratic elected President coupled with a democratic elected but complicit Congress. is not a perfect defense 'cause trump keeps doing illegal and Congress won't stop him, but so far it is the only thing that prevents this administration from sending folks such as chris krebs, jeffery goldberg or Gromnir to CECOT w/o due process. getting the bad guys the wrong way is worse than letting 'em go free. for chrissakes, trump 2.0 should make that painful clear. btw, obama used the espionage act to go after numerous whistleblowers and reporters he didn't like. we complained. we thought obama's use o' the espionage act were dystopian. just 'cause it were fox reporters being jailed didn't make obama administration actions ok. to make it clear, am not suggesting an equivalency 'tween trump and obama, but am recognizing that norms were undermined before trump in 2017... much like filibuster confirmation rules. HA! Good Fun! ps first time we visit the board in months and lexx is yet again trying to rewrite history. figures.

"J" before the name is kinda a reflexive shorthand for folks in our previous line o' work. Justice. is fundamental different from judge. for years we mentioned we didn't hold j. thomas in particular high regard as a Justice, but we did believe him to be an admirable judge. while we wouldn't have included j. thomas on a list o' top 50 SCOTUS Justice greats, we nevertheless respected thomas' efforts since becoming a member of The Court. weren't until extreme recent we stopped affording thomas the cap J. HA! Good Fun! ps we never had much respect for alito, but... ain't an ideology thing neither as we had J. alito and J. Sotomayor fighting hard for our Worst Justice award.

https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/457/731 clinton were ordered to sit for a deposition in a criminal matter and then took a perjury charge 'cause he lied during that interview with the criminal prosecutor. a bunch o' lawyers for trump during his second impeachment argued he shouldn't be convicted by the senate 'cause the proper venue for the insurrection charges were criminal court. oh, and for f's sake, nixon was pardoned by President Ford. ford pardoned nixon even though there were no impeachment and senate conviction. the feds were bringing criminal charges against watergate coconspirators, had indicted nixon's co-conspirators and were about to indict the former President, so Ford pardoned... and absolutely nobody in 74 thought Ford's controversial pardon was pointless 'cause nixon were immune from prosecution. Ford ended any chance o' being elected in the next election by pardoning nixon, so am certain he woulda' been overjoyed to hear a pardon were unnecessary. a fed district court has already ruled against trump. an appeals court ruled 3-0 against trump. tribe is unquestioned the most quoted Constitutional scholar in the US. luttig is arguable the most respected living textualist (conservative.) this immunity argument is... stoopid. the Court taking the case is not so suspicious 'cause obvious there is much public confusion and a Court determination might convince a few folks who consume nothing but breitbart and fox news that Presidential immunity (save for in the civil context or while aa President is in office,) is utter unamerican and is so unconstitutional it should be decided almost immediate 9-0... save for fact J. Alito and j. thomas has both gone to a very dark and improbable place following the death o' J. Scalia. am having great difficulty explaining aa few recent alito and thomas opinions. J. Roberts, on the other hand... am suspecting he is doing everything possible not to hear this case. took 49 days to go from a district court opinion to SCOTUS hearing in the similar nixon situation. over 140 days for this Court to hear trump's immunity claims? SCOTUS granting cert is not shocking, but the delay from december to now is... curious. Presidential immunity would not have been a controversial issue... previous to trump. can offer more cites, but is just so stoopid. HA! Good Fun! ps keyboard's "a" is no longer trustworthy.

Florida surgeon general defies science amid measles outbreak Instead of following what he acknowledged was the “normal” recommendation that parents keep unvaccinated children home for up to 21 days — the incubation period for measles — Ladapo said the state health department “is deferring to parents or guardians to make decisions about school attendance.” ... Because measles virus particles can linger in the air and on surfaces for up to two hours after an infected person leaves the area, up to 90 percent of people without immunity will contract measles if exposed. People who have been infected or received the full two doses of the MMR vaccine are 98 percent protected and very unlikely to contract the disease. That is why public health officials typically advocate for vaccination amid outbreaks. ... A drop below 95 percent vaccination coverage for measles can compromise herd immunity and allow a virus to spread more quickly. Florida’s state vaccination coverage is 90.6 percent, but statewide vaccination coverage does not identify pockets where there may be lower coverage.

Tax records reveal the lucrative world of covid misinformation Children’s Health Defense, an anti-vaccine group founded by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., received $23.5 million in contributions, grants and other revenue in 2022 alone — eight times what it collected the year before the pandemic began — allowing it to expand its state-based lobbying operations to cover half the country. Another influential anti-vaccine group, Informed Consent Action Network, nearly quadrupled its revenue during that time to about $13.4 million in 2022, giving it the resources to finance lawsuits seeking to roll back vaccine requirements as Americans’ faith in vaccines drops. edit(for paywall material we keep the copy/paste minimal, but the following provides necessary context): As the groups’ coffers grew, so did the salaries of some top executives. Children’s Health Defense paid Kennedy, then chairman and chief legal counsel and now an independent candidate for president, more than $510,000 in 2022, double his 2019 salary, tax records show. Informed Consent Action Network paid Executive Director Del Bigtree $284,000 in 2022, a 22 percent increase from 2019. Bigtree now works as communications director for Kennedy’s presidential campaign. Some of the individuals behind the family foundations or trusts that fund the four groups also contributed the legal maximum in personal donations to Kennedy’s presidential bid, according to OpenSecrets, which tracks political donations. not unrelated Six cases of measles confirmed in outbreak at a Florida elementary school Florida surgeon general doesn't urge vaccinations amid measles outbreak for those unaware, measles ain't a childhood disease deserving a shrug and a reflexive qq response. measles is one o' the most readily communicable disease and there is a relative high rate o' hospitalization which accompanies infections. conspiracy theories have real human costs and people getting rich off o' the human cost makes it all the more contemptable. HA! Good Fun!

the "narrative" problems being described ain't real issues in star wars. honest, this is like the naruto run. star wars uses magic-- is not science. magic and imagination can fix almost any narrative issue you believe exist because o' ftl or light sabres or the force. such a recognition doesn't address all the other last jedi blunders related to character development and the plethora o' pointless plot threads. last jedi tried to rewrite star wars...much as chris avelone did with kotor 2 btw. swtor did to kotor2 what episode ix did to last jedi. let's assume once a vessel reaches ftl, it becomes immaterial insofar as real space... would kinda need be. 'course the star wars cartoons include a device which allows ftl ships to be pulled out o' the immaterium/warp/null space/etc as it were. why does such work? magic. wanna star wars sufficient answer? space ships appear to need leave orbit to ftl, so the death star problem is easily circumvented. state as if it were a fact that the ftl weaponization works only in the very short acceleration phase before a vessel true enters warp, or whatever is the nonsense term in star wars. however, because o' death star mass, you got a relativistic problem which would lead to the "accelerating" vessel disincorporating if it attempted to ftl close enough to do any damage to a death star. return o' the jedi mentioned capital ships couldn't get close to the death star w/o being obliterated. smaller ships would obvious *snort* suffer relativistic disincorporation if they attempted such a move. claim our explanation, made up off the cuff btw, is not sound science ignores fact it is at least as science sound as the whole ridiculous magic ftl o' star wars. naruto run. last jedi has problems. am not seeing weaponized ftl destroying canon as one 'o' em. @xzar_monty we did read against the day. 'pon reflection as the result o' you query, am convinced our appreciation o' against the day were only possible because we were reading as part o' a class. in all honesty, it is a terribly frustrating book which recycles pynchon themes and characters from other works. oh, and our talking heads reference in this post could work equal well for pynchon plot... most roads seeming lead to nowhere. nevertheless, 'cause o' the craftsmanship o' the author's prose, use o' humor, dialogue and unique imagery, coupled with the fact so much is happening in the novel beyond just the ted kaczynski technology boogeyman, a handful o' grad students hanging out in the university pub or a discussion group could spend many hours trying to glean new insights from against the day. ... am pretty sure an older Gromnir would roll his eyes at pynchon's repetitive and self-indulgent claptrap. HA! Good Fun! ps, since am kinda mentioning physics, am recalling we didn't post the 2023 edition o' the berkeley oppenheimer lecture. dunno how interesting it will be save for a few... content is maybe not as paradigm shifting as were the previous share with lenny susskind, but am admitting we only had vague awareness o' how sound waves travelling through stars could measure mass, distance and age. am kinda out-of-date on this-- we thought six-month parallax measurements were kinda the only method for distance.

thought the same thing when we first saw the galadriel temptation scene from lord of the rings. after thor: ragnarok and pinocchio, am accepting ms. blanchett takes herself less serious than does most o' her fans. ms. blanchett does the vo for spazzatura. HA! Good Fun!

the room were specific mentioned in the ed wood discussion we referenced in our previous post. in the pantheon o' so bad it's entertaining, the room is skyfather rank. people know the room. neil breen? in our experience, not so much... and am ok with that. HA! Good Fun!

in the past ten years, other than this board, we have heard neil breen mentioned in conversation exactly once; were a weird tangent from a comment about burton's ed wood. three o' the five people at the table didn't even get the neil breen reference. regardless, we suffer the same guilt from watching breen be breen as we do when we rubberneck when passing an accident on the highway. am self honest enough to admit am only looking to see the bloodshed... metaphorical in the case o' breen. the guy is a walking, talking, breathing cry for help, but in response we chortle and guffaw... or at least roll our eyes. watching breen only for the voyeuristic car crash quality makes us feel bad 'bout our self... if only a little. HA! Good Fun!

funny(ish), a couple days ago we also made short ribs--english, not flanken. we were dry aging a half dozen glorious hunks o' meat in the fridge. the thing is, we had a guest who saw the meat in our chill box and asked if we were gonna make the same short ribs meal we made for her on a previous visit. took us a half second to recollect which recipe she meant. dr. pepper braised short ribs. don't get us wrong, while am less a fan o' meat in sweat sauce, we enjoy the dr. pepper braised short ribs... but these were sooper fantastic short ribs dry aging for extra meat intensity which would kinda go unnoticed with a dr. pepper braise. we made the dr. pepper braised short ribs anyways, 'cause am having difficulty saying no to a guest about something relative trivial. ... got halfway through making the short ribs and it sudden occurred to us we didn't need use all six short ribs for the dr. pepper braise. coulda' used just one or two and made in our smallish dutch oven. we literal had never made less than four short ribs for the braise, so it just didn't occur to us to y'know, reduce the recipe amounts since we were cooking for only two people. idiot. HA! Good Fun!

camaraderie is busted. as we noted in a previous post, you always got credit for being next to at least one ally, and according to patch notes it seems the talent holder was counting themselves as an ally. now? am not sure how to explain the numbers post patch, but we sure ain't getting the described bonuses. edit: *eye roll* the error for camaraderie looks rather straightforward-- 'stead o' adding +1 for self as was the case pre patch, now the camaraderie math is shorting you by one. four adjacent allies counts as three. one adjacent ally counts as zero. HA! Good Fun!

Alabama Court Says IVF Embryos Are “Extrauterine Children” — And People Under The Law not paywall link at huffpost

late 80s Gromnir wished we had a suit that looked that good. HA! Good Fun!