Category: Uncategorized

And… Bibi’s Attempt To End Israeli Judiciary’s Role: Independent Review… Has Failed. More International Good News, To Open 2024.

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More encouraging news, here, to open 2024 — autocratic dictatorship, in Israel, by removing most powers of the judiciary branch to review laws and executive orders for congruence with the structure of the government, and for reasonableness… has ended in failure.

Israel’s Supreme Court has ruled, 8-7, that a fundamental right — akin to ours, first firmly articulated in Marbury v. Madison, exists in Israel, as well.

It cannot be abridged, by a mere pen-stroke — even by Bibi.

Here is the latest, from the AP International desk:

…Israel’s Supreme Court on Monday struck down a key component of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s contentious judicial overhaul, a decision that threatens to reopen the fissures in Israeli society that preceded the country’s ongoing war against Hamas.

Those divisions were largely put aside while the country focuses on the war in Gaza, which was triggered by a bloody cross-border attack by Hamas. Monday’s court decision could reignite those tensions, which sparked months of mass protests against the government and had rattled the cohesion of the powerful military.

There was no immediate reaction from Netanyahu….

This is the way “the arc of history… bends inexorably… toward justice, freedom and progress.” Onward, smiling!

नमस्ते

“Disinformation” Here Taking The Meaning “Things I Don’t Like”.

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Scott Johnson apparently thinks the longer something is, the more weight it ought to be accorded.

And so, he’s put a very loooooong piece of drivel (hard right complaints about truths), on his best of ‘23 list. [His own personally dour predictions for the GOP in ‘24 likely are accurate though — in fairness.]

Y A W N.

Me?

I sense he, and the Powerliners and Ringsiders… know they are well past their respective expiration dates.

They feel, viscerally, their own irrelevance.

The old tricks leave… this new young world… underwhelmed.

Get used to it boys.

No one cares what you think, any longer.

Out, into the new world of 2024!

Because, John — We Are… A Nation… Of Immigrants.

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John asks a profoundly dumb question tonight, and frames it dishonestly: the honest answer — for Hinderaker’s benefit — is… “the left”… complies with US treaties and federal laws.

His dishonest framing:

“…Why are Democrats so eager to admit millions of illegal aliens?…”

And the deeper answer is… we won’t survive, and thrive, as a world leader… without immigrants. They are the source of more than 2/3rds of the good ideas in the last 80 years, minimum: the techno- and medical revolutions we now enjoy.

The small silver lining in John’s otherwise silly bleating is that he dismisses Trump’s latest social media ravings… as just that: loony ravings.

[This is the guy who ended his Xmas greeting with “burn in hell!” just five days ago. Yikes.]

Out.

Good News! In 2024, Denmark Will Have… A New, Liberal And Environmentally-Aware… King.

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She abdicated on live television, after 52 years, did the now former Queen — his mother.

For over a thousand years, Denmark has been… a monarchy, at least formally (though for over a century, most of the real power has been in a parliamentary representative democracy / republican form of government). Even so, this is the big drama of the new year in the EU — with a generational “changing of the guard”, now in Denmark. Here’s a bit, of the latest:

…A rebellious teen turned “woke” family man, Denmark’s future king Crown Prince Frederik is the embodiment of the country’s relaxed, liberal monarchy.

Passionate about the environment, he has discreetly imposed himself in the shadow of his hugely popular mother, Queen Margrethe II, championing Denmark and its drive to find solutions to the climate crisis.

“When the time comes, I will guide the ship,” he said in a speech celebrating his chain-smoking mother’s half century on the throne in 2022.

His time at college included a stint at Harvard in the United States, where he was enrolled under the pseudonym Frederik Henriksen….

Now you know (and in some small ways, his youth echoes mine) — the times, they are… a ‘changin’… be excellent to all you meet, in 2024!

नमस्ते

If Hinderaker Thinks Hamas Is A Bunch Of “Animals”….

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Tonight — again likely several highballs in — John (properly, I think) laments the atrocities committed on 10/7, against Jews — by Hamas. Fine. I agree. Deplorable.

But then — based on absolutely… nothing — he tumbles off-topic to claim that all “liberals” are immoral and that they (we) supports said atrocities. What?!

And THEN he suggests we ought to look to Tangerine, for more “morally-grounded” bearings, on most matters.

What in the fresh hell?!

Trump is the last person on Earth I’d look to, for moral leadership — and I suspect more than 70 per cent of voting Americans feel that way, too.

Cheers, chucklehead.

Out.

Jack Smith Today, To DC Cir. Ct. of Appeals: Tangerine Is Just Dead… WRONG. He IS NO KING.

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With argument set for January 9, almost exactly three years after his insurrection, he should be nervous. These are felony indictments.

Jail is very plausibly in the offing here (forget about remaining on Maine’s or Colorado’s ballots — and focus on avoiding the orange jumpsuit). But he won’t. And if the GOP decides against nominating him… he will run as a third party candidate, and destroy the down ballots for the GOP as well. Sheesh. Here’s just a bit of the Special Counsel’s cogent 82 page argument on the law, just filed here on Saturday:

…No historical materials support the defendant’s broad immunity claim, and the post-Presidency pardon that President Nixon accepted reflects the consensus view that a former President is subject to prosecution after leaving office.

Nor can Presidential immunity be derived by analogy to the Speech or Debate Clause, U.S. Const. art. I, § 6, cl. 1; that textually explicit provision is defined and limited by its unique history.

More apt is the immunity for judges and prosecutors, who are immune from civil liability for official conduct, but not from federal prosecution….

That President Nixon was named as an unindicted coconspirator in a plot to defraud the United States and obstruct justice, Nixon, 418 U.S. at 687, entirely refutes the defendant’s efforts (Br.27-28, 41) to distinguish that case as involving private conduct. See United States v. Haldeman, 559 F.2d 31, 121-22 (D.C. Cir. 1976) (en banc) (per curiam) (explaining that the offense conduct included efforts “to get the CIA to interfere with the Watergate investigation being conducted by the FBI” and “to obtain information concerning the investigation from the FBI and the Department of Justice”) (internal quotation marks omitted). And President Nixon’s acceptance of the pardon represents a “confession of guilt.” Burdick v. United States, 236 U.S. 79, 90-91 (1915)….

Now you know. Tangerine is… lil’ more than a marmalade covered piece of burnt toast, now.

नमस्ते

Mirengoff Is Clear: He Thinks Mr. Biden Has Engineered A Remarkable Economic Recovery For All — From The Tangerine Excesses, For The Ultra-Wealthy…

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Shhhh… it’s a secret, but… I think Paul genuinely believes America will be a better place in a second Biden term, than in a second Tangerine one.

And he says so, here at the end of 2023 — in trying to explain why so many Americans are wary about the economy:

…The unemployment rate remains remarkably low. The GDP numbers aren’t bad. The stock market (in which 61 percent of adult Americans are invested) is booming. Inflation is high, but down considerably from its peak in mid-2022. Wage growth caught up with the inflation rate about a year ago and now exceeds it.

So why is America so down on the economy?

According to Betsey Stephenson, one-half of the couple in the Post’s story, voter frustrations are an understandable response to a very real phenomenon — the difficulty families have faced for more than a half-century in improving their material conditions, exacerbated by the more recent shock of inflation and, to an extent, partisan politics.

Stephenson’s view, as the Post characterizes it, is that wages have been largely stagnant in the U.S. since the 1970s, while inequality has skyrocketed. After the pandemic-induced downturn in 2020, America’s economic rebound gave people a sense of optimism. However, the most severe inflation in four decades largely washed away the gains….

[Another economist] points out that, whatever they may be telling pollsters, Americans aren’t acting like they are unhappy with their economic circumstances. For Wolfers, signs of optimism include business owners making substantial investments; consumers spending at a rapid clip; and workers leaving their jobs in droves, reflecting confidence that they can find new ones….

[Paul himself concludes, thus:] Stated differently, I believe the economy is now performing well enough, other things being equal, to re-elect [even] an average U.S. president….

I agree. See ya’, boys.

A Minor Matter: Trump’s Lawyers, Defending Him In Manhattan Against His Filching Of Eddy Grant’s Music… Have Withdrawn.

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In the Southern District of New York (Manhattan) federal courts, Trump is being sued for taking “Electric Avenue” as written and performed by Eddy Grant (and, as filched by Trump in 2020, being used in) defaming Mr. Biden with it in a 2020 campaign ad.

It is undisputed that Trump and his campaign sought no permission, paid no royalty and flat out framed the song in a false light — one that damages its marketability.
This is so, because Mr. Grant wrote the song and recorded it in the 1980s, as a protest against British police brutality — against people of color in a Brixton, UK protest there back in the day.

Trump’s stealing of it is thus not in any serious dispute.

Here at year end 2023, after settlement talks (to pay Mr. Grant) have apparently broken down, and Tangerine’s lawyers see they aren’t going to be paid anything more for the case… they are resigning, and Trump is hiring new counsel.

Charming.

Out.