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Paul Mirengoff Hasn’t Written On Powerline For Six Days Now. Q.: Did He Decide To Bow Out, Given Steve H.’s Incivility?

~ condor ~ 1 Comment

Well… I really don’t have a horse in this “race” — as it is… a race, to the bottom.

But I will say, Paul Mirengoff is fractionally less deranged than the rest of the Powerline bloggers / authors. But only fractionally. And only… occasionally. He occasionally tells the truth about Tangerine. And in the last five months, has more than occasionally told the truth about COVID.

So it is that he has provoked the pique-ish rage of Steve. And my hope was that Steve would be asked to leave. Politely, of course — but shown the door — with his hat and coat.

Near as I can tell, though — as I will never read the comments there… it would seem that Paul has decided he’s had enough of the abuse from the looney Trumpians. Steve included.

After all, the site’s traffic is now about one-twentieth of what it was when Bush / Cheney were in office, and about one tenth of what it was when Tangerine was at 1600 Penn.

So, there really is very little, other than vanity / egotistical bragging rights — to fight over.

The ad revenue likely doesn’t even remotely cover the cost of running the site, so each of them have likely been donating articles, and perhaps writing checks — to keep it on the air… for over a year now.

And Paul may have just decided… Steve can have his junior high seat at the boys’ white supremacist fan club, permanently.

We shall see — but in truth… I do not really care. Each of them is old enough, heavy enough / in poor enough health (and at least two have had COVID-19 at least once, and at least one of them is recovering from a bout with cancer, now)… so that soon enough… the whole bunch will fall silent, to nursing homes / memory care facilities… or the undertaker.

It is like watching a train-wreck in slow slow s l o w… motion.

Out, grinning.

Remembering John Glenn’s Pioneering Mercury 7 Ride…

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I am a day or two late with the Sixtieth Anniversary, proper. . . but intervening malfeasance by a tangerine-hued guy, formerly a resident at 1600 Penn., put off this post, over the weekend. The present is indeed more urgent, than the past. Smile.

But the past, and JFK’s appearance in it, in particular, serves to remind us all, as to why it is so important to preserve ordered liberty — and not quietly succumb to lawless rule by would be cheap penny-ante despots.

In any event, we as Americans, should be proud of the game of “catch-up” President Kennedy started, and we completed — pulling out a come from behind win… to reach the moon first… and secure a half century of undisputed leadership in space exploration. Now, including… Mars. Here’s a bit from the NASA commemoration page, as of this morning:

…In February 1962, the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union was in full swing. Both nations had developed spacecraft to send humans into space and selected a group of pilots to fly those spacecraft. The Soviets leaped ahead by placing the first man, Yuri A. Gagarin, in space on April 12, 1961, on a one-orbit flight around the Earth aboard his Vostok spaceship. The United States responded with two suborbital piloted Mercury missions, launched atop Redstone rockets. The Soviets next kept a cosmonaut in space for a full day.

On Feb. 20, 1962, astronaut John H. Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth during the three-orbit Mercury-Atlas 6 mission, aboard the spacecraft he named Friendship 7….

Onward, smiling — ever smiling. We are immensely proud of Commander Glenn, Kathryn Johnson, Jim Lovell, Mae Jemison and all the others (“hidden figures“, or not so) who made NASA the jaw-slacking success it is.

नमस्ते

In Which Hinderaker Dons “Full-On KKK” Robes Tonight…

~ condor ~ 1 Comment

Hinderaker just makes sh!t up, on the regular.

Tonight, he claims that “essentially all serious assaults on Asian Americans” are perpetrated by urban “derelict” blacks. That’s his phrasing of it.

In contrast, the actual crime stats from 2021 refute that soundly. Most notably — John ignores the Atlanta spa worker killings (racially motivated) in their entirety:

…Yang said concern peaked around March, after eight people, six of them Asian women, were killed by a young white male (who identifies as “Christian”) in shootings at Atlanta-area spas….

Of course he does — as he ignores that the largest number of hate crimes in America still target Blacks, overwhelmingly. And overwhelmingly, the perps are… whyte. 90 percent of last two years’ hate crimes against African Americans were aggravated assaults, and 88 percent of those attacks were perpetrated by… whites.

The clearest recent rising trend, is in Anti-Asian bias crime increases (about which John was lying tonight), and it turns out that ~60 percent of those aggravated assaults were committed by whites, while under 10 percent were committed by Blacks.

Shut it, you “dime store klanner” (John Hinderaker).

Out.

At Law, This Is Known As A Materially-False Statement (About Financial Condition), Intended To Cause Third Parties To Contract, To Their Detriment…

~ condor ~ 1 Comment

…as such, it is actionable, under most states’- and federal- laws.

Actionable, if a lender, or an investor or limited partner or customer, supplier or construction firm… working with or for any Tangerine-affiliated world-wide project is made to expend more funds or incur more losses than would have obtained, had the challenged statements actually been… true.

It is convenient that he has set the statements out — in writing, for the world to see, effectively on national television (gab.com), in an advertisement on his own personal verified account, no less — at a time when it is certain that various lenders (at least) are considering calling his loans (in default) — for lack of audited financials. For ten years.

If, in fact, he is “loaded with cash” and “has very low debt” he will weather this storm. [But his lenders paint a very different picture.] If those statements are NOT true, in turn — and he causes others to forego better, more stable opportunities, or expend extra cash (due to collection delays, or interest charges made by/to others)… those people can and should sue his now shaky “empire”. And him personally. He is personally making the above highlighted claims. Not the Tangerine web of companies — in a non-recourse fashion.

This is the sort of fraud that goes well-beyond simple puffery. His accountants last week withdrew his audited financials for the last ten years. That is a fact. A materially negative fact. So he here offers what he regards as a materially positive assertion — of purported fact, to counter the withdrawal.

So, this at above right is intended to stop the bleeding. But IF he is lying about these material financial matters — his lenders are certainly being damaged by these lies.

Stay tuned. Much more to come.

Out — grinning…. ever, grinning.

We Have Been Covering The Thompson v. Trump Case In DC… And It Is Now Clear… He Won’t Escape Liability Easily For 01.06.2021.

~ condor ~ 2 Comments

On a “new-hole’s” snowy Friday night in DC, the able USDC Judge Amit Mehta has handed down a 112 page opinion, mostly denying the various actors’ (and inciters’) attempts to dismiss this civil action against Proud Boys, Oath Keepers and yes — Donald J. Trump.

You should read it all, but I will post a bit, below to let the facts speak for themselves — and refrain (for the moment) from editorializing on the broader narrative here unfolding. Other than to say, it — along with the National Archives’ DoJ referral… will not likely end well, for Tangerine.

…Five people would die, dozens of police officers suffered physical and emotional injuries and abuse, and considerable damage was done to the Capitol building. But, in the end, after law enforcement succeeded in clearing rioters from the building, Congress convened again that evening and certified the next President and Vice President of the United States. The first ever presidential transfer of power marred by violence was over….

On election night, the President claimed victory before all the votes were counted. He tweeted that “they are trying to STEAL the Election. We will never let them do it.” Blassingame Compl. ¶ 17. He also would say in a primetime television address the next day, “If you count the legal votes, I easily win. If you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us.” Swalwell Compl. ¶ 33….

[Tangerine cannot] identify any authority that would support his assertion that merely exhorting non–Executive Branch officials to act in a certain way is a responsibility within the scope of the Take Care Clause. Scholars have emphasized that the Take Care Clause is written in the passive voice (“take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed”). They have interpreted that construction to mean that the Framers envisioned not that the President personally would implement the laws but that their actual execution would be carried out by others subject to the President’s direction and supervision….

[…T]he President’s January 6 Rally Speech can reasonably be viewed as a call for collective action. The President’s regular use of the word “we” is notable. To name just a few examples: “We will not take it anymore”; “We will ‘stop the steal’”; “We will never give up”; “We will never concede”; “We will not take it anymore”; “All Mike Pence has to do is send it back to the states to recertify, and we become president”; “[W]e’re going to have to fight much harder”; “We can’t let that happen”; “We’re going to walk down ….”; “We fight like hell”; “We’re going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue.” “We” used repeatedly is this context implies that the President and rally-goers would be acting together towards a common goal. That is the essence of a civil conspiracy….

Indeed. And Tangerine is one who has NOT been ruled out, as responsible. Far from over — but… a very good start. Onward, grinning into the night….

Justice will come. It… will.

नमस्ते

In Which Tangerine, On Gab.com, No Less — Tonight Confesses In Writing… Charming.

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I will just let the raving lunatic… rave. See at right.

Replete with broken grammar, incomplete thoughts, dangling participles and all the crazy libel of HRC, tonight’s installment has him admitting a fraud case for fringe benefits, and grandkids’ tuition (a case charged against his accountant, primarily, for accepting but not declaring as income, various Trump benefits).

But the confession of it is also a crime — as to Tangerine. There is zero chance he did not know what his Mazar’s audit partner was doing to increase the accountant’s effective cash take-home pay, all while both of them avoided paying income tax on this additional form of salary (Trump for failing to withhold, and the accountant for not declaring it in the first instance).

So it is, that Mazars has now flipped — to avoid jail — and is walking the NY AG through the ten years of fraud in Trump’s audited financial statements.

That in turn will allow the banks to default him on all his loans (no accurate financials)… and suddenly, he needs Putin’s oligarch lenders to save his such-as-it-is financial empire / house of cards.

Or the Saudis, through Jared.

Either way, IF he runs in 2024, federal law requires that he disclose all these amounts and names — of all these “new” (likely frenemy foreign power connected) lenders, to whom he will owe… a sickening brand of fealty, above and over his nation’s interests.

UPDATED: Where We Are, On The Silly Trump Appointed USDC Judge Tipton…

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I won’t go very deeply into this, as we’ve laid it out repeatedly here before — just search “Tipton” in the search box.

But… to the extent anything remains undecided (and still subject to Tipton’s trial court’s jurisdiction) on the Biden Administration’s September 2021 memo setting out how best to allocate scarce and discretionary resources at the southern border… it will all proceed as holdings of law, almost exclusively. That is so, because the parties have been ordered to stipulate by agreement to almost all the relevant facts. [And in this way, the Supremes will rule only on legal — not factual — questions, when/if they do address the merits.]

Here is the 43 page US Attorney General’s set of stipulated facts, and statements of uncontroverted federal laws and regulations and pronouncements.

As you may readily see, there is essentially no case or controversy left at Judge Tipton’s level. Appeals are pending in the Supremes, and the Fifth Circuit.

But on young Tipton presses, purporting to prepare for holding some sort of a mini-trial early in March… on who knows what(?!), really.

So — we note here that the entire proceeding is mired in so much political speechifying in his, and the Fifth Circuit’s chambers… that the boots on the ground are simply doing what they’ve always done — using discretion. A discretion Tangerine claimed to revoke, but never provided the funding to allow BoP or ICE to prosecute every minor violation that those agencies observed.

So — it is back to the more compassionate, no family splitting rules down there now.

That in spite of all of young Tipton’s silly rhetoric from the bench. He has neither the jurisdictional power, nor the resources to change federal funding in the way Texas, Missouri and Louisiana now ask.

What a tempest, in a tiny Texas tea pot. Knock yourself out Bruce Drew Tipton. I’ll just watch and grin, as you repeatedly now be-clown the Texas federal court system.

Out.

My Reaction? “Don’t Let The Gate Hit You, In Your (Very Considerable) Arse, On The Way Out, Steve.”

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So — I was going to simply ignore it. Truly, I was.

But Steve H. just made it the most junior high-est public silliness… I’ve likely ever seen.

And, underneath it all (the crux of Steve’s temper tantrum), is the idea that only Paul M. (and very infrequently, at that) speaks truth to power, on vaccines.

Oh — and he occasionally tells a truth or two about Tangerine.

So I will mention it — and highlight Steve’s prickly immaturity (an entitled, white, middle aged man — who has been writing and podcasting, with these other middle aged entitled white men, for nearly a quarter-century)… and now, won’t speak to one of them. Charming. That’s one huge ass ego, right there:

“…Note to Paul: Please don’t comment on this post, and add “WITH COMMENT FROM PAUL” in the headline. You’ll just fuck it up worse than it already is. In fact I think it better if you don’t comment at all, anywhere. Don’t email me either. I won’t open it….”

I might note that this all points pretty clearly to the fact that Steve is pro-free expression, except when it might embarrass him, or his friends. [It seems the readership is weighing in now, over there — with about five times as many comments, on his screech — as appear on an average post — now above 1,250 comments. Charming.]

Whatever. I hope half of Powerline’s readership leaves, with him. Though I sincerely doubt it will. I’ve long ago disabled my FB connection, the only way to read comments on Powerline, so I have no idea — but the idea that Steve is throwing away the only real friends he actually has online, because someone said something about… his friend, also online… is precious.

And delicious — as he long ago pissed me off — with his ill-informed, dishonest and clueless take on one of my favorite law professors (and long ago friend, long deceased — so he could not answer Steve’s libel of him). Steve said directly that that professor was a life-long defender of Nixon. In an obit. / “tribute” to him, and defense of Tangerine — saying the latter should never have been impeached, even once.

As to my friend’s views… that was an outright lie; Steve quoted one article. Out of context, and out of time — the professor had decades of subsequent writings, in which he expressed his mistake, and his new take on the matters of Nixon’s end in office. But Steve wanted red meat, for clicks — so he went for it.

If he really is gone, I’m glad for that. But again — it may all be for… clicks, since Powerline’s readership is generally… dying off (especially since its full throat-ed defense of the indefensible, in an insurrectionist-, and formerly 45th- POTUS — one Tangerine moron).

Out, grinning.

We Should All Do More, To Teach About — And Celebrate — The Miracle Workers Of The Mid-20th Century Vaccines Effort, Globally…

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And… this morning, Google has done its part on that score. This is Dr. Michiaki Takahashi, who likely saved several million childrens’ lives, over the last 70 or so years… by making chickenpox an anomaly, rather than a yearly scourge. I wish today’s anti-vax crowd understood more… actual bio-science.

But I guess that is a life-long goal for all of us: to help the next generation appreciate how human bio-science works — and life progresses. In any event, here’s the press on it all:

…Search engine giant Google honoured virologist Dr. Michiaki Takahashi, who developed the first vaccine against chickenpox, on his 95th birth anniversary on Thursday with a special doodle.

Illustrated by Tokyo-based guest artist Tatsuro Kiuchi, the colourful doodle shows how the Japanese researcher’s vaccine helped save children’s lives and reduced the number of chickenpox cases around the world….

The Kiuchi doodle is at the upper right corner of my graphic, and I am grinning widely this morning — wondering if I’ll need my snow shovel again, later this afternoon… all good, though (if I can prevent the deck furniture from blowing way down the lane, out beyond and past the church). Heh.

नमस्ते

USDC Judge Radkoff Explains How Sequestration May Be Ineffective In A Ubiquitous Smart Phone Age: But Palin’s Loss Will Stand, On Appeal.

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I did wonder, about the rather unconventional approach of offering a bench ruling on ultimate liability, even while the jury was still deliberating, in such a high-profile, widely- and apparently, instantly- covered… case.

It seems at least some of the jurors did see a screen push notification, of the able USDC Judge’s Manhattan decision, entered in open court, while in a nearby room they were still deliberating, or after they headed home on Monday. And of course, a jury verdict in favor of the NYT was returned on Tuesday. Here is the latest, this morning, then — from the courtroom:

…ORDER:

It is the Court’s uniform practice after a verdict has been rendered in a jury trial to have the Court’s law clerk inquire of the jury as to whether there were any problems understanding the Court’s instructions of law, so that improvements can be made in future cases. Late yesterday, in the course of such an inquiry in this case — in which the jury confirmed that they had fully understood the instructions and had no suggestions regarding jury instructions for future cases — several jurors volunteered to the law clerk that, prior to the rendering of the jury verdict in this case, they had learned of the fact of this Court’s Rule 50 determination on Monday to dismiss the case on legal grounds.

These jurors reported that although they had been assiduously adhering to the Court’s instruction to avoid media coverage of the trial, they had involuntarily received “push notifications” on their smartphones that contained the bottom-line of the ruling.

The jurors repeatedly assured the Court’s law clerk that these notifications had not affected them in any way or played any role whatever in their deliberations. The Court also notes that when it proposed to the parties, during oral argument on Monday morning, to render its Rule 50 decision later that day but to permit the jury to continue deliberating so that the Court of Appeals would have the benefit of both the Court’s legal determination and the jury’s verdict, no party objected to this plan.

Nor did any party object when the Court reconvened later that day, outside the presence of the jury, and the Court indicated that it was prepared to issue a Rule 50 decision at that time. Indeed, no party objected to this procedure at any time whatever. Nevertheless, in an excess of caution, the Court hereby brings the foregoing facts to the parties’ attention.

If any party feels there is any relief they seek based on the above, counsel should promptly initiate a joint phone conference with the Court to discuss whether any further proceedings are appropriate. SO ORDERED. (Signed by Judge Jed S. Rakoff on 2/16/2022) (kv)….

As they say… this story is… developing. Check here for updates, but Sarah Palin will never win on these facts. She may appeal, but even a new trial will come out the same way. She mustered no evidence on which the federal and state law as it now stands could ever offer her a recovery. So… onward.

नमस्ते