08 Monday Oct 2018
Posted in Legal/Political Columns
Tags
568 pages of it. Here’s your reward for waking up this fine Monday:
In a nutshell, it says, “blah, blah, need more money, blah.”
Seriously, of interest (to someone) may be the “notes” from page 294:
Thanks, Q.
If that’s too much reading, then, here:
Thank you, Legs Network.
Carry on.
14 Thursday Jun 2018
Posted in Legal/Political Columns
Tags
04 Sunday Mar 2018
Posted in Legal/Political Columns
A trio of political stories to rouse the Sunday faithful:
“Normally the federal government takes the lead and the state authorities follow in these sorts of things,” he said. Now, “you have essentially an almost guerrilla movement by local authorities to try and undo federal law enforcement efforts.”
Asked whether it would be possible for charges to be brought against the mayor, Litman said he thought it was not likely.
“That would be extraordinary,” he said.
[Mayor] Schaaf and her supporters say she did the right thing.
“My statement on Saturday was meant to give all residents time to learn their rights and know their legal options,” Schaaf said Tuesday in a statement. “It was my intention that one mother, or one father, would use the information to help keep their family together.
“I do not regret sharing this information. It is Oakland’s legal right to be a sanctuary city and we have not broken any laws. We believe our community is safer when families stay together,” she stated.
She may regret the decisions when she’s indicted for violating 8 U.S.C. § 1324. If so, then I’d expect to see associated conspiracy, obstruction, and public corruption charges too. Or maybe not. It would be, as Professor Litman says, “extraordinary.” But it is technically possible.
Also possible is Trump pulling ICE out of California and leaving the State to enjoy the company of the illegals, 81% of whom appear to be convicted criminals. Also possible, if unlikely, would be the declaration that all of these people are engaged in enemy activities against the United States and dealt with, militarily, as enemy combatants. There’s actually more precedent for the latter possibility.
Speaking of enemy combatants:
President Trump will face an obstruction of justice charge from special counsel Robert Mueller, former Attorney General Eric Holder predicted.
“You technically have an obstruction of justice case that already exists,” Holder, who served under then-President Obama, said on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher.” “I’ve known Bob Mueller for 20, 30 years; my guess is he’s just trying to make the case as good as he possibly can. So, I think that we have to be patient in that regard.”
Trump’s critics have speculated about an obstruction charge ever since he fired FBI Director James Comey in the midst of an investigation into potential ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. The president said he was frustrated that Russia-related allegations had become “an excuse for having lost an election,” and he was also apparently annoyed that Comey refused to say publicly that Trump himself was not under investigation, although Comey had made such comments in private.
“I have absolute right to do what I want to do with the Justice Department,” Trump told the New York Times in December 2017.
Selling, and then giving, illegal arms to known terrorists, actions which led to the murder of at least one American citizen, would seem to also qualify for E.C. treatment. On the fantasy front, an absolute defense against obstruction exists in the President’s absolute authority to terminate any executive official, at any time, for any reason or for no reason. That’s settled precedent, as is black-siting American citizens engaged in hostilities against America – that or just droning them away.
All of this is rancorous, depressing, and more than a little ridiculous and speculative. So … here’s a happy balance piece:
“It’s quite possible that the Bush political dynasty, at least for this generation, could end in the spring of 2018 because if George P Bush fails to win the GOP nomination for land commissioner it’s tough to see him coming back from that any time soon,” said Mark Jones, a political scientist at Rice University. The dynasty began with Prescott Bush – George P’s great-grandfather – becoming senator for Connecticut in 1952.
Though Democratic turnout for early voting has soared this year compared with last time, no Democrat has won a statewide race in Texas since 1994, making the primaries all-important.
The last stand of Bush’s political career could be the Alamo. His predecessor and main rival, Jerry Patterson – a history buff who used to carry guns in his cowboy boots and cultivated a relationship with the pop star and leading Alamo artefact collector, Phil Collins –has made Bush’s supposed failure as a steward of the historical battlefield site into a key campaign issue. Bush has also drawn criticism for the slow pace of disaster recovery efforts following Hurricane Harvey.
Praise be to God Almighty! Now, after G.P.B. loses, maybe there’s some way to justify deporting the whole Bush Clan back to wherever the hell they came from. Or anywhere else. Germany! I think the Reich still owe Prescott’s descendant’s a little favor for the Union Banking gold deals, no?
This may be all for the weekend. Tomorrow starts a new week. Maybe with some cigars or music or something.
Old Politics.
06 Monday Nov 2017
Posted in Legal/Political Columns, News and Notes
Tags
banksters, Big Club, business, corruption, economy, government, lies, Paradise Papers, taxes
This must be just like bankin’ in paradise
And I don’t send the taxes home.
-My apologies to David Lee Roth…
The second largest data leak in history, the Paradise Papers, shows how the truly wealthy avoid paying taxes.
The world’s biggest businesses, heads of state and global figures in politics, entertainment and sport who have sheltered their wealth in secretive tax havens are being revealed this week in a major new investigation into Britain’s offshore empires.
The details come from a leak of 13.4m files that expose the global environments in which tax abuses can thrive – and the complex and seemingly artificial ways the wealthiest corporations can legally protect their wealth.
The material, which has come from two offshore service providers and the company registries of 19 tax havens, was obtained by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and shared by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists with partners including the Guardian, the BBC and the New York Times.
The project has been called the Paradise Papers. It reveals:
Millions of pounds from the Queen’s private estate has been invested in a Cayman Islands fund – and some of her money went to a retailer accused of exploiting poor families and vulnerable people.
Extensive offshore dealings by Donald Trump’s cabinet members, advisers and donors, including substantial payments from a firm co-owned by Vladimir Putin’s son-in-law to the shipping group of the US commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross.
How Twitter and Facebook received hundreds of millions of dollars in investments that can be traced back to Russian state financial institutions.
The tax-avoiding Cayman Islands trust managed by the Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau’s chief moneyman.
A previously unknown $450m offshore trust that has sheltered the wealth of Lord Ashcroft.
It’s how Apple hides $252 Billion!!!! from the tax man.
They reveal how Apple sidestepped a 2013 crackdown on its controversial Irish tax practices by actively shopping around for a tax haven.
It then moved the firm holding most of its untaxed offshore cash, now $252bn, to the Channel Island of Jersey.
Apple said the new structure had not lowered its taxes.
It said it remained the world’s largest taxpayer, paying about $35bn (£26bn) in corporation tax over the past three years, that it had followed the law and its changes “did not reduce our tax payments in any country”.
One assumes that these elites and giant organizations earned the money, most of it. It’s theirs. Wanting to keep as much as possible is understandable: 1) it’s theirs, and 2) they can use the money to grow the economy. Otherwise, if taxed, the money gets spent on subsidies to ag. companies, bombing brown people, and compensating bankers for the most important kind of nothing.
The hypocrisy (and shock) comes in when one realizes these are usually the same types that rig the system for their own benefit, leaving the rest of us to pay the bills. And our paying isn’t enough. They lecture us. Regulate us. Rule us.
Carlin, Carlin, Carlin, Carlin: “It’s a Big Club. And You ain’t in it! You and I are not in the Big Club.”
I foresee this changing little, if anything. Heck, forget I brought it up. And God help whoever brought this to light. The last such intrepid reporter was car-bombed.
A less Christie-fied Jersey. BBC/Getty.
28 Thursday Sep 2017
Posted in News and Notes
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Yesterday we learned from the Justice Department [SIC] – and NO ONE could have contemplated this – that there is corruption in college athletics. I, myself, am disillusioned beyond words. Luckily, Gary North has several of them. His economic analysis makes more sense than anything else I’ve heard – certainly from the fake news and ESJW ESPN.
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a cartel. It exists in order to hold down payments to star athletes who are in a position to generate revenues for specific universities. University administrators want to have athletic programs. Major universities in the collegiate sports world, Rogge said, get huge amounts of money from ticket sales. They also get big donations from rich alumni who love collegiate sports. What he said 40 years ago of course applies today, except the amounts of money are so much greater because of televised sports.
Administrators in these sports-focused universities do not want to pay their most valuable athletes a market wage for the privilege of generating money from their performances. So, they collude. This is price fixing, pure and simple.
Unlike almost every other industry, the government allows the NCAA to establish rules forbidding market-based payments to star athletes. The athletes are allowed to receive scholarships, despite the fact that they are not scholars, but that is supposed to be the limit of payments to the athletes.
…
There is a fundamental rule of economics: unless they are defended by the government, cartels always break down. They can be sustained only by government intervention. The government protects the cartels from members of the cartel who break the rules of the cartel in order to increase market share and thereby increase net income. The government makes cartel-busting a crime. In the case of the movie and also in the case of the latest scandals, net income is really what it is all about.
What we are seeing is the intervention of governments around the country to defend the NCAA’s cartel. If it were not for government intervention to keep coaches from paying full ticket for the valuable services of the best players, major universities would be forced to pay millions of dollars to these players, just as professional sports teams have to pay their players. A free market would prevail.
So, yet again, the very same government that creates the real problems rushes in to punish and prosecute non-issues and side solutions. Neat.
College athletics in America originally started for the most part as student run clubs. Faculty advisers were sought out at some point. Then, as the popularity grew, the schools saw the $$$$$ potential. So they created the racket we now call the National Collegiate Athletic Association. It is a cartel. A racket. It is theft from young, talented athletes for the billion-dollar benefit of the schools, coaches, networks, assorted hangers-on, stadium contractors, and of course, the NCAA.
Auburn University, one of the schools in the DOJ’s case, touted record athletic revenue of $124 Million in 2015. Most of this – a huge percentage – was generated by the football and (men’s) basketball programs alone.
The combined rosters of those two sports total around 115 young men. They gave the university $124 Million.
In return they received “scholarships.” Many were injured. Some very few might have actually learned something. Oh yeah, they get “experience” and “team building” and other buzzword BS. They could get all that on a regular job – along with a pay check.
Let’s just assume the “scholarships” cover everything and that the “scholars” are all from outside Alabama. By that measure and my rough count, the school spent a total of $5,520,000 on labor (assuming full rides at $48,000 per year [out of state estimate]). (And this is likely on the high side). That’s 4% of the total revenues. That’s pitiful.
Paying each “scholar” only $50,000 for the work they perform would raise the expense to about 8%. I’m sure they could live with that, passing the increase on to fans and TV advertisers.
As is, the players get $0 – ZERO – nothing. Only a small handful will ever make money in the NBA or the NFL. The rest are used and discarded in something like a plantation system. (Where are those SJWs???)
Break it up! Independent Institute.
All of this theft of talent and time (and general mockery of academia) is protected by your government. And, if you’re a “die-hard” fan, you’re fostering the problem.
The sports will never return to student organized club activities just for fun. Nor are they likely to go free market, as North suggests, anytime soon. You, your cartel, and its government like the way things are right now.
Take a knee on that.
*Oops, seems I found a few words of my own anyway. Calculator too…
25 Sunday Jun 2017
Posted in Legal/Political Columns
I would say Roberts is tied with Pat Buchanan for first place as America’s pre-eminent political/societal opinion writer. Years of genuine public service, education, and superior intelligence have left him in a unique position from which to observe the goings on of the declining USA. More importantly, he calls it like he sees it, like it is.
An economist extraordinaire, the legal system is one of his pet subjects. Particularly, he focuses on the criminal “justice” industry and in especial, on the inherent unfairness and injustice of American criminal law. He did so again recently: a masterful column:
The fact of the matter is that only 3% of felony cases go to trial, and in these cases prosecutors are able to bribe and to pay witnesses for false testimony against the accused and to withhold exculpatory evidence that would clear the defendant of the charges. In other words, conviction regardless of the evidence is almost always obtained.
In the other 97% of the cases, the defendant’s attorney negotiates with the prosecutor a fictitious charge to which the accused will plead guilty in exchange for dropping the more serious charge for which the accused was arrested. The attorney knows that to defend against even a false charge is unlikely to be successful and that the accused will draw a longer sentence from going to trial than from agreeing to a lesser charge in a plea bargain. Both prosecutor and judge are grateful, because it saves both from days, even weeks, of court time, thus keeping the judge’s case load lighter and permitting the prosecutor many more convictions with which to embellish his record. A week of plea bargains can produce many times the convictions of a week in court dealing with one case. The fewer cases the judge has to study and to apply his understanding of the law, the better for the judge.
As only 3% of cases go to trial, the police evidence is seldom tested. The police know this. One result is that it is much easier for the police to pickup someone who had committed a similar crime in the past and charge him, than to go to the trouble of solving the crime by investigating it. Indeed, the police are so out of touch with neighborhoods, compared to bygone days when police walked their beats and knew the population, and crimes appear so random, that many crimes simply can’t be investigated. Much easier to pick up someone with a record and charge them. This practice explains the high recidivism rates. Once convicted, they will convict you again. It is how crimes are “solved.”
Don Siegelman was probably the best governor Alabama ever had. He had to be good in order to be elected as a Democrat in a Republican state. The fact that President Obama, who had the support of 113 state attorneys general in behalf of Siegelman, did not lift a finger to have the Justice Department look into Siegelman’s frameup or use his pen to sign a pardon demonstrates that an ordinary citizen has no chance whatsoever. When a prominent governor can be framed, the fate of a single mom or a black man is sealed when they are arrested.
In the “American criminal justice system” justice is totally absent. There is no such thing as justice in America.
The nail, hit squarely and hard on the head.
There exists in this country, among the semi-literate masses, a lay juridical theory best summarized as: “The police wouldn’t arrest an innocent man.” They would. They do. They usually – 97% might be a little light – get away with it. Innocent people go to prison or pay fines for nothing. The masses celebrate their self-righteous ignorance and watch sports on TV. Case closed.
The great shame of the system, if the corruption and evil don’t count for it, is that this fabricated approach destroys the legitimacy of actual prosecution of real criminals. How can a system that railroads 97% of the participants as victims possibly be counted on to properly handle the other 3% of certain scofflaws? It can’t. If anything, the same laws are seemingly set up to allow the really guilty and the really harmful to go free. Some of them help make these debased laws. A rigged system of double standards.
Funny Junk. And not very funny…
Part of the problem is selective prosecution, persecution based on controlling behaviors (otherwise harmful to no one). American “justice” is a matter of towing the line, luck, access, connections, and money. For those accused of minor crimes, and to a lesser degree felonies, there is a narrow window for beating or buying justice. This requires a level of skill or luck far beyond that of the ordinary citizen. I’ve seen it in action in: Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and the Federal system. It’s real and it’s universal. It represents failure of jurisprudence and of civilization.
Based on my professional observations, I can vouch for Roberts’s assertions 100%. He investigates these matters nationwide with an honest, critical, and unbiased eye. I’ve corresponded with him on the problems as have numerous attorneys, victims (defendants), reporters, legislators, etc.
The next time you hear about someone accused of committing some crime, any crime, consider these questions:
1) did the person break any written law?;
2) did the person intend to break a law?;
3) did the person really do some act in contradiction of the law(s); and,
4) was there any actual problem or harm associated with the actions that amounted to the alleged law breaking?
The answer (to one or all) is very likely “no.”
Then consider that:
The subject law(s), if any, is likely invalid;
The law(s) has been misapplied;
There was no discernible victim;
There is no evidence whatsoever;
The prosecution’s case is probably constructed entirely of lies;
There is no equal application of the law(s);
There is no due process in the procedures of adjudication;
There will be no trial;
There will be no review by a jury of peers;
No defenses, however complete, will be accepted; and
Most people do not give a damn about any of this.
This is the American “justice” system. There is no justice in it at all.
Now consider that someday (if you haven’t already) you may be on the receiving end of this rank evil.
How’s your team doing?
24 Wednesday May 2017
Posted in Legal/Political Columns
Tags
corruption, England, immigration, invasion, ISIS, Libya, Manchester Bombing 2017, Pan Am 103, terrorism, War
Where to start? Where to start? How about Williamsburg, VA? I was in a shop in that fine town on December 21, 1988, when news broke of the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. (Scotland is in the UK). Those of you who were alive 29 years ago – Lord, time flies – may recall the event. A 747 destroyed and 259 people killed; terrible.
A Libyan gentleman, name of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, was indicted by U.S. and Scottish authorities. After many years of hiding in Libya (his home), he was extradited to the Netherlands to stand trial on the Scottish charges. He was convicted and imprisoned in Scotland.
In 2009, following a bout with cancer, he was “compassionately” released back to Libya, where he received a hero’s welcome. Murder 259 people and you get compassion and you’re a hero – what a world…
My point with all of that is that the UK has a long, twisted relationship with Libya.
In 2011, you may also recall, England lent a heavy hand during the Libyan Civil War. In 2011 or 2012 the UK and its bankster criminal class looted the sovereign wealth of the Libyan people, some $200 Billion or so. There was more interference and looting than one could shake a blog at but that was the big-ticket item. The money is still safely held “for the Libyans” … in London.
This, by the way, was the incident that set off the legal wrangling with the Goldman Sachs. That’s the same bank Hilary worked for and from which Trump hires for damned near every position in his administration. It’s spelled: c-o-r-r-u-p-t.
Anyway, the British bankers stole a mint. The American bankers won a paltry judgement. Col. Gaddafi was deposed and shot dead in the street. Thousands more were killed, maimed, or left homeless and destitute. Libya is ruined. And terrorists now run amok in the formerly half-way decent Arab country. Many of them travel back and forth between Tripoli and England. They have done that for decades, actually.
And now I get to it…
One lovely little family of Libya terrorists settled in Manchester (England, not New Hampshire). Momma and Pappa Jihad had some boys. One of the sons detonated a nail bomb at the Ariana Grande concert the other night. Salman Abedi was a son of a bitch. And his father and brothers and probably the rest of his family and most of his friends were evil bastards too.
Worse than evil: Satanic evil, all the worse for being blindly tolerated. The Sun.
Pappa Jihad Abedi, just today, was arrested back in Libya on terrorism charges. He has links to ISIS and Al Qaeda. Imagine that.
Manchester bomber Salman Abedi apparently wasn’t the only member of his family to harbor extremist views, as Libyan officials arrested the suicide bomber’s father and two brothers and uncovered what investigators called a plot for a new attack.
In this Wednesday, May 24, 2017 photo, Hashim Ramadan Abedi appears inside the Tripoli-based Special Deterrent anti-terrorism force unit after his arrest on Tuesday for alleged links to the Islamic State extremist group. Abedi is the brother of Salman Abedi, who has been identified as the man behind the bombing that killed 22 people and wounded scores at an Ariana Grande concert Monday night in Manchester. The Special Deterrent Force says that Hashim confessed both he and his brother were a part of the Islamic State group and that Hashim had been aware of the details of the attack. (Ahmed Bin Salman, Special Deterrent Force via AP)Expand / Collapse
Hashim Abedi, who was born in 1997, was arrested in Tripoli on Wednesday evening by the Libyan counter-terrorism force Rada on suspicion of links to the Islamic State, and was planning a new attack on the Libyan capital, a government spokesman told Reuters on Wednesday.
The father of the bomber was arrested in Tripoli on Wednesday, a Libyan security spokesman told The Associated Press. The father, Ramadan Abedi, had said another brother of the bomber, Ismail, was arrested Tuesday.
What’s more, two U.S. defense officials confirmed to Fox News that Salman Abedi spent three weeks in Libya prior to the Manchester bombing, returning to England just days before the Ariana Grande concert Monday, when he launched his attack at the concert venue.
Salman’s mother, Samia Tabbal, is believed to have returned to Libya, while the Facebook profile for his sister, Jomana, suggests that she still lives in Manchester. The mother was described in an article by The Guardian as a “very nice woman” who taught a friend’s daughter to read the Quran.
Lovely. Momma Jihad tutored from verse 3:151 (“Soon shall We cast terror into the hearts of the Unbelievers…”) while the menfolk read up on proper TATP concoctions. ISIS promotes literacy; I love it.
My theory is a little loose but it seems like cause and effect here. Pick up a serpent and hold it next to your breast. Don’t be surprised when it bites you.
Today the people of Manchester mourn. Some have jumped to the defense … of the terrorists. If you don’t like terrorism, then you’re a “hater” and a Nazi. Sieg Heil. Others plan a candlelight vigil for the deceased, a show of solidarity (to include solidarity with the other [many] terrorists in their midst). ISIS, for their part, vowed to try to get a truck rental scheduled for the same day and time. This stuff almost writes itself.
The terror alert is at code red or code black or whatever correlates with “critical” and “imminent”. Soldiers, thousands of them, are armed and on the streets. Their first mission is to safeguard the Queen, Theresa May, and Parliament. Any platoons left available are helping the police in a frantic effort to not offend the “just-like-us” terrorist Muslims while at the same time attempting to retain some semblance of first world order.
Just another day in the multi-culti paradise. The Telegraph.
If the Brits want my advice – and, aside from Jon, Clive, and three others, it seems they do not – they would do two things.
First, stop picking up asps and vipers! Leave these damned crazy people alone. Leave them alone in Libya, Syria, Iraq, Sudan, Somalia, Pakistan, or wherever they are. They obviously enjoy a little turmoil. So let them have it. Leave them alone.
Second, get their remnants out of the UK! Use those soldiers to round them up. Interrupt the Quranic chemistry lessons if you have to. Those who vacation at ISIS bomb factories should simply be barred from ever returning. Throw them all out!
Otherwise, prepare for more bombings, more car and truck attacks, more stabbings, and more blood in Mr. Powell’s river.
In a Western country not the UK? Then just apply this same general scenario and solutions to your nation. Do so quickly.
And it was so odd. It was a gift shop and I was looking at those little metal model jet liners, including a 747, when I heard the news about the real one in Scotland. I think it snowed a little that day.
14 Monday Nov 2016
Posted in Legal/Political Columns
Tags
Atlanta, cigars, corruption, Courts, due process, equal protection, Federalist Society, First Amendment, freedom, law, politics, Second Amendment
Still less than a week out from the general election I’m seeing a lot of ideological banter on social media. There’s a lot of comparing and contrasting. Much is in the form of memes though some is serious. For example, a left-leaning friend (a real, old friend) posted the following on Facebook:
“I wish Republicans had the same unwavering, unconditional support for the First Amendment that they do for the Second.”
I “liked” the post. I like the sentiment. I will not get into partisan politics as both sides and parties have a lot of catching up to do with liberty on those two and many other fronts. My wish is that everyone would get behind all of the freedoms set forth in the Bill of Rights, 100% and all the time. That would be half of making the Constitution worthwhile (again?). (The other half would be narrowly restricting the government to just those parameters delineated). Already I lose people, I know.
My buddy isn’t likely to get his wish anytime soon. I will likely never see mine come to fruition. I can handle it, being that I am after all a rebel to all ideology. But there is always hope. I am a staunch supporter of the First and Second Amendments (and all else recognizing rights of the free people). I don’t have a story to go with the proposition of the First and the Second together though. I do, however, have one directly related to the Second Amendment and application of Due Process and Equal Protection.
Journey back with me now …
The year was 2008. It was May, I think. Let’s say May of 2008. Yes. The Atlanta Chapter of the Federalist Society announced a lunch and learn seminar centered on the landmark 2A case, District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570 (2008)(the Supreme Court held the 2A protected individual rights to bear arms).
The case was, then, before the High Court, having just come out of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. The case, there, was known as Heller v. D.C. Litigants “hop the ‘V'” when they change courts to keep things interesting. The D.C. Circuit came to the same conclusion as the Supreme Court did later though, in my opinion, better, stronger, and less “qualified”. Judge Lawrence Silberman wrote the majority opinion.
Where was I? The Fed-Soc! This was the final Society function I attended (at least so far). And I only went because of the subject matter and the keynote speaker. Said speaker was none other than Judge Silberman.
I always hated legal seminars, even the ones about guns. I think Silberman said many nice and smart things. He’s a nice and smart man. The problem is that in those settings a haze descends over me. It’s all I can do to eat the lunch (not cheap in that case).
After the lunch there was a mix and mingle session. I remember looking out the windows. We were in the conference/gala room of some major law firm, on about the 50th floor of a mid-town high-rise. The view that day for terrific.
At some point I found myself in a small group with Silberman, a U.S. Attorney, some political hacks and a few bigwig attorneys. I thanked and praised the Judge for his work. There was a lot of nodding, smiles and those quips that only come from anti-government type conservatives who happen to make their living from the government. Then, as always happens, the Perrin came out. I said something like:
“I love my guns and I don’t support any gun controls at all, reasonable or not. But, whatcha gonna do? It’s the District of Corruption.”
Only Silberman (now a little nervous) broke the gawking silence, “Did you just say the District of Corruption?” I answered, “Yes. I did.”
I didn’t like even Antonin Scalia’s qualifications on the Second Amendment. And I wasn’t going to give any of my own about my statement. I excused myself so they could talk about me. I had other business downtown anyway.
About a mile south and a world away I had an appointment with the Southern Center For Human Rights. Whereas the Fed-Soc is arch-conservative and all that, the Southern Center is arch-liberal and all that. The scenery changes, I don’t. I was on a mission that day to fight for multiple rights. The venues were unimportant.
My business with the Center was this: various backwards Georgia counties allow(ed) for private probation companies to operate cases in State Courts. A very few did a good and reasonable job. The majority were as corrupt as the District. What one would expect from Georgia.
I had a lot of experience with two of those probation systems – one good, one bad. And I knew that the Center was investigating the bad one under cover. We had spoken on the phone but I wanted an in person meeting. It had nothing to do with the attractiveness of the young woman leading the investigation though that certainly did not hurt. (And I can’t remember her name…).
Our concerns were mutual. In addition to posing several Constitutional questions on the operation of government, these systems discriminated horribly against poor people. If you or I got a speeding ticket (well, if you did), you just paid the fine and went on your merry way. Poor folks facing the same predicament also faced a world of hurt. You might have paid $200 and moved on. They ended up paying $1,000+ over the course of one or more years. The abuses were too numerous to list. It was bad, bad enough to make me ride MARTA to fight it.
We talked for a good hour. No crazy Perrinisms, I just told her everything I knew and offered my help. She, they had a vague plan. Over the next few years, with a ton of help from private defense attorneys and many lawsuits and some legislation, the plan worked out. Kind of. Georgia still has a backwards system, greatly resembling the previous one, but it is now conducted under official guise. Progress, I suppose.
A little liberal progress. On the conservative front it was much the same. The Supreme Court gave us Heller and MacDonald and other courts gave yet more 2A friendliness. There’s still much to be done on all fronts. And I gave you this story, heartening testimony that one may support opposite ends of the freedom spectrum even in the same day in May in Hotlanta.
Now, I give you the following zany side stories! The price you pay for reading this far.
I spent the night (before or after I cannot remember – maybe both) at a hotel in Buckhead. Not wanting to drive downtown I took a MARTA train. I bought my token with a $20. The stupid machine spit out my token and 17 or 18 Sacagawea Dollars as change. Thus, as I eased around traffic, I clanged about with 4 pounds of scrap-metal in my pockets.
Upon leaving the Southern Center I encountered a beggar. Downtown Atlanta almost has as many beggars as D.C. has rats. I had walked past more than a few that day alone. This lady was different. She was well dressed. She seemed sweet and professional. And she seemed like she really needed a helping hand. She only asked me if I could help her with anything. No song and dance. No ridiculous story. No fake Rolex. I said, “Darling, you’re in luck!”
She was more than gracious to receive Sacagawea and the whole tribe. I was happy being able to walk upright again.
One good deed deserved another so I treated myself to a cigar. (You had to know cigars were coming). It was at the nice shop on Sidney Marcus that I don’t think is in business anymore. It was just down the street from my hotel.
Corona Cigars. I’m a Corona Club VIP! How ’bout you?
At the time I was reviewing Cigars for the now-defunct Vegas Room. As an assignment I bought a Davidoff Winston Churchill. Later that evening I removed with my smoke and a beer to the hotel pool area. Immediately upon lighting up my chair broke. This, aggravating my Sacagawea injury, killed the experience and ended my review attempt. I took my beer back to the room with a curse and a limp.
The moral to all of this is: reach across the aisle sometime and help the “other side”. Freedom is freedom is freedom. Also, if you can help a poor person, do so – it might benefit you immediately. And, finally, when you go to do your review smoking, pick a good chair…
07 Monday Nov 2016
Posted in Legal/Political Columns
Tags
corruption, crime, evil, Janet Reno, justice, tyranny, Waco
A sub-chapter of one of the most sordid, lawless, murderous eras in American history ended today with the death of former Attorney General Janet Reno. Many younger people may not have ever heard of her before. Others might remember her from a stupid SNL skit. The reality is anything but funny.
I suppose it is wrong being tempted to gloat in someone else’s demise. So I won’t. I sincerely hope this woman found peace and redemption at the end. She certainly did not know those things in life. She never shirked gloating over misery nor inflicting it.
She gave us this:
NPR.
And this:
ABC.
So very concerned about children. After these raids, near deadly and very deadly, she is best known for refusing to cooperate with Congress (to obey the law) and her dealing with child abuse and child support cases in Florida.
While State Attorney in Miami she made headlines with her tyrannical prosecution of support cases. That brand of heavy-handed, one-sided injustice lives on in a system bereft of any process or fairness for the majority of men caught in it. Her abuse cases were equally ignoble. Those prosecutions essentially dispensed with the rule of law. The result was: innocent people convicted for crimes they did not commit; wrongful convictions overturned amid multiple scandals, and; real cases weakened and real victims hurt by utterly ineffective “justice”.
Quiet the legacy. It ended today. Not that that brings closure to many of her victims. May they rest in peace, those that went on before.
04 Friday Nov 2016
Posted in Legal/Political Columns
Tags
Those 17 intelligence agencies Hillary lied about suspecting Russian hacking have just notified the Russians that the Counter Coup (against Hillary) is now underway. This is a signal to the international community of the effort to save what stability is left in the Old Republic. Please read this AND WATCH THE VIDEO.
Anonymous / YouTube.
The story was also my inaugural comment on Gab:
PL / Gab.
I speculated to some friends today that Weiner was already in protective custody (sec treatment…); seems Huma is too. Also, today, law enforcement sources told me it is just a matter of time and of timing now.
This might be a very interesting weekend.
