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Bill Otis Quotes… An Illogical Old Coot, In Defense Of… Israel. Or Something.

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So, now (likely because Mr. Otis has few original, sensible thoughts about Gaza) we hear that Bill Otis is parroting an anonymous “friend”.

Sadly, despite Bill having once been a lawyer, he here offers the worst sort of illogic imaginable: the kind that looks to make excuses for… killing babies.

The particular illogic offered by Bill is what is known as a classic “false premise”.

That false premise is that Israel MUST prosecute a vast, bloody war in Gaza, one that regards all Palestinians as fair game for extermination.

He suggests (as John did, stupidly, last night) that WW II’s object lesson commands us — in 2023 to commit atrocities… to do the wrong thing, and claim the ends will / do justify the atrocious means.

They never will.

So what Bill suggests… Is. A. False. Dilemma.

And even if we decide to look the other way as IDF forces shoot up hospitals in Gaza (as I argued last night), all we do is add to the ranks of new Hamas sympathizers.

I am no Hamas sympathizer. But “adult thinking”, Bill… involves making principled decisions in situations where no one is 100% (nor even 70%) in the right. In complex 2,300 year old neighbor to neighbor battles of attrition.

So spare me the BS. Winning “hearts and minds” — that was our downfall in Vietnam. And we lost the moral high ground by going into Laos and Cambodia after saying we would not.

Israel tonight is likely… losing the moral high ground.

The only outcome Bill’s childish eye for eye thinking yields… to a certainty, is a region populated entirely by… blinded men.

That’s how this ends.

Damn. So short-sighted.

When You Try To Intimidate Felony Witnesses — You Get Lumped With… Murderous Terrorists: Deal Wid’ It, Tangerine!

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So Tangerine is trying to turn his DC felony trial into what he imagines will be… a reality show / campaign rally. He has been claiming it is unfair (to his chances to become the occupant of 1600 Penn again) not to televise it.

Except that Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber — and every terrorist after him, in their respective federal trials — was not given a platform on TV for their manifestos. Nope, neither were Scooter Libby or Roger Stone given such a TV platform (even before pardons). So, he will lose on this. [In any event, being televised would be far worse for his chances of being elected — than he imagines. He’s an idiot — but I digress.]

The DoJ is 100% right that prosecution witnesses will be targeted, if forced to appear on TV — by his unhinged followers. That alone ends the discussion (he all but targeted them, in the NY state frauds trial two weeks ago — so he’s proven that is his goal). Here’s Mr. Smith, with that bit of excellent argument — with the genius twist dropped in at the end(!):

…As this Court has made clear, it intends that [Tangerine] “will be treated exactly, with no more or less deference, than any other defendant would be treated.” United States v. Trump, No. 23-cr-257, ECF No. 38 at 33. Just like any other criminal defendant, the defendant may elect to proceed to trial and to put on a defense….

[Tangerine] peppers his response with various references to “fairness,” but what he actually seeks is to defy a uniform and longstanding broadcast prohibition that was crafted precisely with fair and orderly trial proceedings in mind. He desires instead to create a carnival atmosphere from which he hopes to profit by distracting, like many fraud defendants try to do, from the charges against him. This scenario is not hypothetical. As the Court has already observed in proceedings in the defendant’s criminal trial, the defendant and his counsel will, if permitted, design their in-court statements instead to wage a public relations campaign….

[But now,] the defendant [Tangerine wishes to pretend]… that high-profile federal criminal trials have [not] long proceeded in accordance with the broadcast prohibition under the rules — and that they have garnered significant and detailed media coverage of courtroom proceedings nonetheless. See United States v. Tsarnaev, 595 U.S. 302, 313 (2022); United States v. Moussaoui, 205 F.R.D. 183, 184 (E.D. Va. 2002); United States v. McVeigh, 931 F. Supp. 753 (D. Colo. 1996). This has remained true in the context of trials related to the January 6, 2021 attack on the United States Capitol, including on seditious conspiracy charges. See, e.g., United States v. Rhodes, 610 F. Supp. 3d 29 (D.D.C. 2022); United States v. Nordean, 579 F. Supp. 3d 28 (D.D.C. 2021). The comprehensive, often minute-by-minute, public reporting on courtroom hearings in this case provides further evidence that the defendant’s desired “sunlight” need not come from eschewing the rules….

That’s a very deft touch — pointing out that even murderous terrorists don’t get to use their federal trials as a TV broadcast manifesto platform (for all the obvious reasons). Nope. “This is a felony trial, son.”

And of course, the Special Counsel rightly points out that Tangerine here ALSO wants to try to intimidate witnesses against him, in this felony matter, by making their pictures broadcast — and thus well-known to his unhinged acolytes (like Abigail Jo Shry). In sum, he’s… a completely raving — barking mad — lunatic, of a mobster / sociopath. Out.

नमस्ते

[U: Fixed, 11:45 AM EDT] Minor PSA: Manhattan’s USDC Electronic Court Access & Filing Window Is… 404 This Morning… OOPS!

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UPDATED — speedy service now restored as of 11:45 AM EST. End, update.

It is not clear if it is just a network congestion issue (or a possibly more malign denial of service/access attack)… but one cannot connect remotely — since about 7 AM local, until now, here at 11:30 AM EST.

We will update when remote service is restored.

That’s all we know at the moment, as the courts have no presser out about it.

So we assume they are busy working to fix it — in one of the most busy federal courthouses in the nation.

नमस्ते

As I Expected (With Aid Of A GOP Appointed West Texas Federal Judge), Texas Will Try To Keep A Temporary Halt On Destroying The Land Razor Wire Barrier In Place…

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I hate to say so, but it sure looks like the ancillary goal of all this, from Chief USDC Judge Moses, in West Texas, is to slow walk any removal of the land based razor wire barriers Gov. Abbott put in place last year — those barriers that are injuring federal agents, and hampering safe processing of asylum seekers near Eagle Pass, Texas. We expect (as we reported last week) some explicit confirmation of this theory later today, when the State of Texas moves to delay document production into mid December.

Yesterday afternoon in a USDC, WDTX filing, though, we saw the “we intend” warning — that a delay would be sought, thus:

…The Defendants intend to apprise the Court tomorrow of their capabilities to comply with the Court’s order for production of documents and plan to move to modify the scope of the order….

The prior order was pretty breathtakingly broad — and likely seeks materials exempt from being revealed in this litigation, as governmental “deliberative documents” — and likely on both sides.

This, in turn, sets up a potential side show piece of litigation — and gets Texas some additional delay, on the removal of the barriers. All of that is, unless… unless the Chief at right acts forcefully, very shortly, to enforce long-settled US federal law… on whose job border control really is (hint: it is NOT the State of Texas — it is the federal agencies). Now you know. Onward.

नमस्ते

John And Paul: Please Report On / Acknowledge This… Reality!

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Each of Hinderaker and Mirengoff have banged the drum incessantly — claiming the WaPo is posting pro-Hamas mis-information. And each claims the Jewish community is unified and resolute in not being concerned that a lack of cease fire — or even electric power restoration in Gaza hospitals… is causing the deaths of wholly innocent newborns.

Let’s see if either of them will EVER tell the complicated truth — as this afternoon, the Chicago Metra station was shut down by well-organized and large Jewish groups calling for an immediate cease fire in Gaza. [They had barricaded themselves at the doors of the Israeli consulate offices, in Chicago. Obviously, this was to suggest a chilling of relations / hospitality between the people of that nation, and Jews here in Chicago.]

Not quite the narrative these boys are pushing, eh?!

Nope. Not at all… time to ‘fess up, and admit there are wide divergences in the Jewish community about Israel’s prosecution of the current war.

Past time, even — guys. Guys?!

On Gaza, All Of Hinderaker’s Views Suffer From Myopia…

~ condor ~ 1 Comment

Tonight, he thinks the playbook for Israel should be the one the US used against Japan at the end of WWII. That a crushing of the will of Hamas — regardless of human cost — is the only answer.

This is the worst sort of flawed analogy.

Japan and the US were not even remotely close neighbors, at war, and in open hostilities, for nearly 2,300 years. At some level (but again, an imperfect analogy), these hostilities are more like tribal battles in Africa, or the Soviets attempt to take Afganistan.

The Soviets tried for 25 years, with massive military might — and staggering casualties… but didn’t close it out. The Afghani people just retreated into desert caves — to wait the Soviets out. It worked.

Why?

Because the people of Afghanistan have essentially been at war for 2,000 years — it is deeply ingrained, as a way of life. Essentially forever.

So too — a smallish portion of the Palestinians — at least, those who now identify with Hamas.

John — wake up. This cannot be won — even with a nuke. There is no lasting peace solution that doesn’t involve a two state paradigm.

And all the while, newly born babies and innocent elderly… are dying in the hospital in Gaza — the central one, to which the IDF has intentionally cut power. While perhaps a handful of those in the hospital are Hamas aligned… the only thing the Israeli tactic of scorching civilian babies ensures… is that Palestinians “on the fence” will increasingly align with Hamas.

Indeed one of the central lessons taught by our loss in Vietnam… was that local on the ground “hearts and minds” matter… and matter immensely, in war.

In that respect, while Israel has put out video tonight, of IDF capturing Hamas’ parliament building — it is, minute by minute, losing “the independent hearts and minds” of those who’ve lived there — for going on 2,500 years — right next to the 1948-created state of Israel.

This is undoubtedly an awful situation, but even Hinderaker now admits… much of what we’ve done since 1948 has led to this moment.

So do grow up, John. It is a deeply complicated situation. Spare us the cliches. Out.

[U] The One Who’ll Be… Most Crimped, By This? Justice Thomas, Of Course!

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The Supremes just adopted a fairly watered down iteration of the model version federal judicial code of conduct.

Y A W N.

In prior ages, this would have been superfluous. But in this age… we’ve seen… Thomas, Alito and even Kavanaugh (the latter never having explained who exactly paid off his prior ~$260,000 in unsecured debts — he personally did not).

But it is Clarence Thomas whose lifestyle will be most crimped by the prohibition on perks without disclosures [at new Canon 4.D.(3)], now.

Long overdue — particularly for a guy driving a very high end mobile home, whenever he goes on vacation in the US — one financed by a billionaire with cases then pending before the highest court.

Damn. And a guy whose wife organized the transport buses for the 01.06.21 rioters.

Updated: While the lower courts’ codes set out explicit processes for enforcement in the case of alleged violations of the code — this one does not. That is in part due to the notion that this is the highest court. And generally speaking, even though I disagree with most of his views, I do trust this Chief Justice will discipline future repeat violators, like Clarence Thomas.

But some future Chief? Not so sure, about that. Thus, I called it “watered down”. But as a lawyer and citizen, I now know I have standing to bring any future violation by Thomas directly to the federal judicial ethics commission, since the Supremes have adopted that code, as applicable — should this, or a future Chief… fail to act.

Out.

[Additional Tangents] With Predictions Of Volcanic Eruptions In Iceland This Week — “Katla”: A Highly Rec’d Netflix Eight Part Series…

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First, the solid science: according to many respected seismologists, the volcanoes of Iceland are highly likely to erupt in the coming weeks, and maybe even before Thanksgiving weekend, here. So do watch the skies. Now the… sci fi:

All of this put me in mind of an excellent local Icelandic sci-fi thriller (featuring an in-country pop star ably acting the lead, no less)… one I binge watched during the COVID lockdowns. The idea of supernatural volcanic ash… is explored. Here’s a bit:

…The catastrophic eruption of subglacial volcano Katla turns a nearby community’s world upside down as mysteries begin to emerge from the ice….

One year later, the peace and tranquility in the small, isolated island town of Vik begins to unravel. As people evacuate the area, it seems the volcano has thawed elements frozen into a local glacier — from paleolithic times… with consequences no one could ever foresee….

Starring:Guðrún Eyfjörð, Íris Tanja Flygenring, Aliette Opheim

Creators:Baltasar Kormákur….

Do give it a go — if you want your mind… bent. It is slow starting, but by Episode 3… I was completely hooked. Do enjoy… grinning.

नमस्ते

Dartmouth: 1969 — My Understanding Is…

~ condor ~ 1 Comment

John Hinderaker helped take over the President’s Office, the administration buildings, and the ROTC offices — in order to seek an end to the Vietnam War (among other matters).

My understanding is that when the lawless takeover of campus offices and property was over, he not only remained enrolled, but still had honors status, fraternity privileges — and finished with top of class honors.

So his whining about MIT policies… seems more than a little… ironic.

[My understanding is that while Mr. Mirengoff also was involved, and arrested, he was cleared to graduate with honors, also from Dartmouth.] Additionally, my understanding is that only violence led to arrests, that year.

So… ironic, indeed.

That’s all. Out.