This may be a very good sign for justice (if that word still applies).
Federal prosecutors in New York overseeing the case against millionaire Jeffrey Epstein are preparing to hand over highly-sensitive investigative material to the financier’s defense attorneys after a federal judge on Friday granted the government’s request to place a protective order on the documents.
Prosecutors sought the order because, they said in court filings, they intends to produce documents and materials that could … “affect the privacy and confidentiality of individuals…[and that] would impede, if prematurely disclosed, the Government’s ongoing investigation of uncharged individuals.”
A Brady Motion has been filed by now, I’m sure. The fact that the DOJ was ready, at this early stage, to deliver evidence to the accused means they are ready to fight. In cases where they lack substantial evidence, or where there is ample exculpatory evidence, they either sandbag near or at trial, or they outright hide the goods.
The fact of the protective nature of the disclosure is self-explanatory. “Investigation of uncharged individuals.” Let’s hope they’re ready for those cases too.
Another federal judge halts Trump’s beautiful, beautiful, very impressive plan to stem the tide of invasion.
A California federal judge issued a ruling blocking President Trump from using $2.5 billion in military funds to build a wall along the southern border.
The ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Haywood Gilliam, who is an appointee of former President Barack Obama, ruled to permanently block the $2.5 billion after issuing a temporary injunction in May to stop the administration’s use of the funds. The ruling stymies several construction projects in California, Arizona, and New Mexico.
There’s a simple workaround for this problem that does not involve a physical wall nor locking Gilliam in a cage, both of which are still defensible. But, hell, we’re just not into solutions anymore. Hey, look! Here comes more “tasty ethnic food,” now!
Groups of hundreds of Africans, Haitians and others from Central and South America continue to trudge across the U.S.- Mexico border in record numbers, despite promises from Mexico to help stop the massive migration.
Footage from the Del Rio Sector of the border in Texas shows scores are making their way in mini-caravans, with many arriving well-dressed in designer clothes, toting luggage and backpacks with their children in tow.
Well-dressed, designer ethnic food! The best kind.
Friends, I really, really tire of this shit. As many of you know, I’m moving deeper into fiction, with which I apparently do a good, popular job and which I also enjoy tremendously. Moving into the second half of 2019, that’s where my focus will be directed. I’ll still do “reality” columns for TPC (maybe elsewhere) and I’ll still link short bits, with commentary, here. But the focus is going to be on issues and stories I directly control, and which both generate better profits and serve to better express theory and polemical messages, if any. Unlike the situation at the border, it’s going to be great. You’re invited.
This week, the gang at TPC is on vacation – a summer tradition and well earned. However, National Affairs never stop, relent, nor sleep. Ergo, this week the C.F. Floyd National Affairs Column slums here at my little old blog. Welcome! Getting right down to it,
Last week, on “Juneteenth” – a holy day among the tribes of the central Congo, I believe – a very special committee hearing convened in Mordor. Specifically, the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution (yeah, one wonders if they have another subcommittee on powdered wigs or dinosaurs…) held forth on H.R. 40 (2019), the brainchild (if that’s even possible) of Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-La-La land).
This is the first Bill addressed in Congress proposing formal … well, let’s let Mrs. Jackson Lee’s work speak for itself:
A BILL
To address the fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality, and inhumanity of slavery in the United States and the 13 American colonies between 1619 and 1865 and to establish a commission to study and consider a national apology and proposal for reparations for the institution of slavery, its subsequent de jure and de facto racial and economic discrimination against African-Americans, and the impact of these forces on living African-Americans, to make recommendations to the Congress on appropriate remedies, and for other purposes.
…
This Act may be cited as the “Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African-Americans Act”.
Knowing that it does not get any better than the above, feel free to waste time reading THE WHOLE BILL.
Before we discuss the … merits… of H.R. 40 … okay, there are no merits, but uh, let’s have a little history anyway. I’ll spin it in a way to support the reparations racket (which I do in fact support). Did you know that,
Black Africans used to build spaceship pyramids? They did before they were enslaved in America in 1619. All true.
Black Africans are (were) the “real” Egyptians, real Hebrews, real Muslims, and even the real Black Africans.
There was no slavery in Africa, prior to the arrival of those wicked men from “Roots.” Africans, Arabs, and other Semitic peoples had absolutely nothing to do with slavery. Just whites. Time to pay!
The very first registered slave-owner in America was certainly NOT a black man… No.
No whites were ever held in slavery in America or anywhere else. Do not let the damned Irish and Slavs try to deceive you.
Blacks in America are almost all slaves today and have been since 1619 (maybe since 619!).
Blacks in America are almost entirely treated as chattel property, without autonomy or the right to own property, vote, or hold office. (This makes Sheila Jackson Lee’s existence as an elected official all the more remarkable).
No Civil War, Presidential Proclamation, law, or Constitutional Amendment was ever even considered to ameliorate this terrible injustice.
Blacks in America, if they are allowed schooling, are schooled in segregated institutions.
No-one named Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, Jesse Jackson, or Maynard Jackson ever lived.
There were no civil rights movement and attendant laws in the middle of the 20th Century.
Except for the extremely odd case of Sheila Jackson Lee (and a few very other strange cases), there are no Black elected officials in America.
Out of … a whole lot of white guys … no Black American has ever served as President. Ever. Certainly not as recently as three years ago.
And – I’ll just throw this in for fantasy measure – there are no other races or ethnic divisions in America. It’s just oppressive whites and oppressed blacks. We also have no demographic, societal, educational, economic, political, or other troubles to worry about.
So, one can plainly see that reparations for something no-one alive today ever had anything to do with, is the right thing to do. That’s not just the accelerationist in me talking. Okay, honestly it is…
Whatever you do, please pay no heed to right-wing, white supremacist, Nazi extremists like Coleman Hughes, who testified at the hearing on behalf of the Ku Klux Klan:
He and his “justice for the dead at the price of justice for the living” crap are just pure hate. Instead, all those of you still working and singing on the Political Plantation, listen to the great wisdom of the Chairman, Mas’ (((Cohen))). “Chill!” like the man ordered. Don’t be “presumptive,” as he condescended. Know your place and your rank on the totem pole. If scraps come your way, then be grateful.
Looking beyond certain failure in the current Senate or on Trump’s desk, the fact the hearing was held and taken with any degree of seriousness, tells you something about AmericaThe United States This Place Between Mexico and Canada. If this passes, and some form of it may in time, then it will be just another heap of dirt in the grave of civilization on these shores. Bluntly, anyone who supports this scheme, at face value and for the “reasons” listed in the Bill, proves himself not necessarily African, but most certainly not American. Take the loot and then go home?
Note: Other big doin’s around the Nation include Bernie Sanders’s surprisingly good idea to cancel ALL student loan debt. We have “strong” sanctions on Iran (again, still). And, we have no Southern border whatsoever. This, that, maybe more, maybe something else, when TPC resumes on Sunday, the 30th. I may participate in the looming SUPER POST! Stay tuned. Please remember to tip your server as you exit perrinlovett[dot]me…
I’m not going to suggest the President’s vow to deport “millions” of illegals amounts only to hollow words. Not just yet. But, I suggest that no-one in the establishment really takes him at his hollow word. Anyone seen any response, hysterical or otherwise, from the loyal opposition? No. They’re just not taking this seriously. But, various criminal elements are. They’re planning resistance if necessary.
“This [set of hollow words] is inhumane and un-American,” said Joshua Hoyt, executive director of the National Partnership for New Americans, a coalition of immigrant-rights groups. “A massive crackdown will cause harm to communities throughout this nation…. We plan to help immigrants resist this massive abuse of power by preparing rapid- response teams and legal assistance on the ground.”
Aside from what I inserted between the [ ], all of the above quote is either lies or criminal threat. “Inhumane.” Lie; the implications of the hollow words are to be expected under any guise of rule of law. “Un-American.” Lie; the hollow plan is PRO-American, understanding “American” as a distinct moniker. “Will cause harm.” Lie; only benefits away AMERICANS from making America somewhat American again. “Help immigrants resist.” Publically bragging about a conspiracy to commit felonies.
I’m guessing all guilty parties get away with it. I hear the rubes were chatting the old, hollow slogans at the giant WWE, circus tent rally the other night. New Amerika, indeed.
A U.S. jury could not reach a verdict Tuesday against a border activist charged with conspiracy to transport and harbor migrants in a trial that humanitarian aid groups said would have wide implications on their work.
Defense attorneys argued that Scott Daniel Warren, a 36-year-old college geography instructor, was simply being kind by providing two migrants with water, food and lodging when he was arrested in early 2018. He faced up to 20 years in prison.
But prosecutors maintained the men were not in distress and Warren conspired to transport and harbor them at a property used for providing aid to migrants in an Arizona town near the U.S.-Mexico border.
Why was a college teacher prosecuted, on very weak charges, while mayors, councilmen, and administrators walk free?
It may be that I’ve recovered from my fit of tobacco shop over-righteousness. Rumor has it that a hatchet has been buried and I’m back where I belong. The bad elements, if any, can usually be avoided; it’s all a matter of timing. And, as with smoke, so it is with politics.
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The timing was just off in Florida. Governor Ron DeSantis, his cabinet, and his entire elephantine party in Tallahassee are about what one would expect of any band of Republicans these days. Not even with the unanimous assistance of the (equally what one would expect) Florida Democratic party could they get right a simple matter of temporal patience.
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The Sunshine State has another new and very special law. House Bill 741 (2019) took instantaneous effect upon DeSantis’s signing. It revises and expands certain language concerning Florida Statute § 1000.05, et seq., regarding Florida’s K-20 government education scheme. (Nevermind, the lumping together of all levels of “education,” from kindergarten to graduate school…).
Advised that the first feature picture helps with social madness promos, I include this cutesy snapshot which I believe shows DeSantis and Ashley Moody enjoying lunch. Pic by Perrin.
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Legislation like this is gaining in popularity with the States, being in the mold of this year’s federal H.R. 183. Florida’s new ordinance is designed to silence certain speech. It might best be summed up as The FL Anti-Anti-Semitism Act (in “Education”). Or, it could be summed up as The Unconstitutional, Ordinarily Illegal, Sellout of State Sovereignty Act (in “Education”).
Sex work would be broadly legalized in New York state under a first-of-its-kind bill introduced by state legislators on Monday.
A group of lawmakers first called for legislation in February, but on Monday they finally came forward with a 13-page bill that would bring dramatic changes to the sex trade in the state.
The bill, written with advocacy group DecrimNY, would make it legal to both buy and sell sex under certain circumstances and modifies laws around facilities that are used as places of prostitution.
“For us, this is a bodily autonomy issue — our bodies, our choice — but more than that, it’s an economic issue. And it’s personal,” Jessica Raven, one of Decrim NY’s organizers, wrote in a Daily News op-ed Monday.
Two of the bill’s sponsors, state senators Jessica Ramos and Julia Salazar, have said that 9 out of 10 people arrested in sex-work-related massage parlor raids are immigrants, with most being undocumented Asians.
So, they did the same thing in Germany a while ago. And, over there, certain women discovered a downside to all the freedom. Able-bodied women, on public assistance, were told that prostitution was a career choice and that if they did not try it their benefits would be terminated. It makes perverse sense: many of the women are sexually active, as evidenced by their growing broods. Ergo, they should make money turning their hobby into a business and save the doll a few bucks. Rock. Hard place.
One assumes, this being NY, that any affected immigrants will keep safely feeding at the trough and that any completely unexpected children resulting from the profits can be safely terminated (at any time).
Escape from New York, more of a motto than a movie.
Literally. This is what happens when the rule of law leaves a failed nation. As your rights are trampled, as you are filmed, poked, prodded, x-rayed, and interrogated, invaders from afar breeze through in admitted (further) violation of the law.
The federal agency tasked with overseeing security at transportation hubs has been violating its own policy by allowing migrants who have been released from federal custody onto flights despite not having required documents, according to several Department of Homeland Security officials.
For the past six months, the Transportation Security Administration has allowed migrants released from the custody of other Homeland Security agencies to board flights to other parts of the country despite the passengers lacking any of the 15 documents it states are the only acceptable forms of identification.
Since early December, the agency has avoided temporarily changing federal policy and also not introduced a permanent solution to address this new phenomenon, despite no indication border apprehensions and mass releases are slowing down any time soon.
This is the permanent solution. The new normal in an abnormal age. Y’all need to vote harder or something.
We can only hope so. Following Netflix, the Mouse isn’t too happy about kids living in the Peach State.
Bob Iger said it would be “very difficult” for Disney to keep filming in Georgia if the state enacts a new abortion law.
In an interview with Reuters, the CEO of the Walt Disney Co. said he had doubts the company would continue production in Georgia if the controversial ban on abortion in the state comes into effect, primarily as the company’s employees would be against it.
“I think many people who work for us will not want to work there, and we will have to heed their wishes in that regard. Right now we are watching it very carefully,” Iger told Reuters.
The exec added that if the law does come into effect, he didn’t “see how it’s practical for us to continue to shoot there.”
Disney’s prospective withdrawal from production in Georgia would be a huge blow to the state. Recently, Disney’s Marvel Studios filmed portions of both Black Panther and Avengers: Endgame in Georgia.
Again, I fail to see a downside to this. People should be boycotting the Rat on their own. What would Walt say? We know Vox Day’s thoughts:
All Iger’s stupid threat makes me think is that abortion opponents should go after Florida next. Let’s see if Disney is converged enough to shut down Disney World.
The only company to respond to Variety’s inquiries was Netflix. “We have many women working on productions in Georgia, whose rights, along with millions of others, will be severely restricted by this law,” Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s chief content officer, said in an exclusive statement. “It’s why we will work with the ACLU and others to fight it in court. Given the legislation has not yet been implemented, we’ll continue to film there, while also supporting partners and artists who choose not to. Should it ever come into effect, we’d rethink our entire investment in Georgia.” CBS referred Variety to comments made by its entertainment president Kelly Kahl, who said at the network’s recent upfront presentation that he would monitor the bill’s progress toward becoming law.
Governor Kemp, don’t wait. Strike them first. Halt the tax breaks. Then, make it a felony for any entertainment production or distribution company, that engages in or supports child molestation, to operate (filming, streaming, existing in, etc.) in Georgia. Netflix would be banned. (Yes, they are probably subject to existing law; the DOJ will surely turn a blind eye, Georgia need not).
